Recently completed video games

[eRonin]

I beat the campaign for Legacy of the Void last night, including the epilogue missions. While the missions were enjoyable to play, and hard difficulty posed a good challenge (unlike Heart of the Swarm, which I played on Brutal since hard on that was quite easy to me), the final end to the story was ... strange. It took such a weird turn that it no longer felt like I was still playing the same game, or if took place in the same in-game universe. To be fair...it kinda didn't, but I won't say much more in case spoilers. I think the ending to the main Protoss campaign was good, if a little neat, but the epilogue had a very different flavour. Also, it serves as an epilogue to the entire StarCraft 2 trilogy, not just for Legacy of the Void, so be prepared for what that means, gameplay-wise, for those who are still making their way through the campaign. I'd suggest you don't immediately play the epilogue after the main campaign, both because the gameplay is quite different, and because story-wise, it does take place in a rather different setting, both of which can be quite jarring. Anyway, I went into this game mostly for the mission design so I'm not toooo fussed about the story ending, and mostly just found out bizzare/amusing. I've seen quite a few people upset about it though!

[Dewar]

I finished...erm...Divine Divinity? Had fond memories of playing the demo as a kid, mucking about in Aleroth, killing pet pigs, pinching ganja from someone's garden and generally being a nuisance. The full game goes all serious about halfway through and has some massive dungeons to click through, and it ultimately tried my patience. Not bad, honestly, but too bloody long.

 

I played that fairly recently. I was surprised at how easy it was to spec yourself into a useless character. Like even less forgiving and more broken than other games of the time. Still looking forward to playing the sequel someday.

[Trip Hazard]

That didn't happen to me, but likely only because I was playing on easy and looked at a guide as to which skills were decent.

It did occur to me that you could fuck up your build pretty dramatically, though, and of course, I can't get no respec, no respec at all

[Henroid]

So, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Gonna go ahead and elevate it into the top five video games I've played in my life. And I've played plenty across many platforms so that's saying a lot.

 

I mean, I dunno. It was fun, and the challenge level was increasing at what felt like an appropriate rate. It does everything I would want from a game right as far as conveniences for the player but not hand-holding goes. It's just good. It definitely lends to the whole thing of, if you play this game, the previous ones will feel super inferior. This game was miles ahead of Risky's Revenge in level structure, difficulty, and item hunting. So play that one first. And if you can, play the first Shantae game for GBC before that (though I haven't played it myself).

[Griddlelol]

Oh yeah! I wholeheartedly agree. Awesome little game.

[Zeusthecat]

Binding of Isaac. I've only beaten Mom once at this point but at 30 hours played, I think that is good enough to call this game completed. I really enjoyed playing this and seeing myself get better and better as time went on. I was close to calling it quits a little earlier on but ended up pushing through and discovering a number of things I was doing wrong that were ending my runs early. Once I figured out how best to spend my money and when/when not to use my keys and bombs it became pretty easy to consistently get to mom. After about three failed attempts I finally beat her, and even managed to do so with only taking 1 1/2 hearts of damage through the whole fight. I'm keeping this one, along with FTL, installed on my computer and I hope to come back to it and delve in some more with other characters. For now though I'm moving on.

[Bjorn]

I know I made this recommendation before, but I enjoy repeating myself .  If I were you, I'd wait for Rebirth to go on a good, cheap sale and pick it up rather than continuing to hammer away at the original.  The remake (and it's expansion) are better in every way, at least in part because they control better and the balance has been adjusted.  But the difficulty can be really pushed with optional challenges and unlocks.  It actually has a tracking system to know which characters has beat which bosses, so it's super easy to know what items you haven't unlocked yet.  It's got more characters, and more interesting characters who give you a fairly different experience starting a run.  It's also got way more interesting interactions, synergies and weirdo effects when combining items.  The odds of being able to see all the items is much higher as well, since there are some items that really mix up the likelihood of pulling different things.  I think in the original there were still an item or two I had never seen because of the drop rarity of them.

[Zeusthecat]

So Rebirth is the remake and Afterbirth is the expansion to that remake right? I've gotten a little lost on which version is which.

 

When I'm ready to get back into this I'll just ping you and get whatever version you recommend the most.

[Trip Hazard]

I'm pretty cool on Isaac as a game, but Bjorn has the right of it when he says to just play Rebirth. It's better in every single way.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, Rebirth is a remake in which most of the actual work was done by the company Nicalis with Edmund providing design and guidance on the rebuild, and Afterbirth is the expansion for it that just came out around Halloween (again, with Nicalis doing the heavy lifting and Edmund giving guidance).  Edmund, by his own admission, isn't exactly an expert programmer.  The original BoI was built in Flash because it's what he knew, and he ended up seriously pushing up against the limits of what Flash can do with it (which is why a whole bunch of items had to be cut and why some interactions between items got cut, because they'd cause crashes or errors).  Rebirth is built in a new engine, which is one of the reasons it can do things the original can't and why a remake of such a recent game was worth doing. 

 

Afterbirth also added a new final boss, new challenges and a new mode, all of which really help extend the game if you find yourself wanting to dig deep into it. 

[Valorian Endymion]

Record of Agarest Wars - 128 hours.... talk about something that appear that it will never end... anyway, despite much like the tv tropes say, know for other reasons, it´s a rather large game with 34 characters split in 5 generations, which does have it own share of highlights but kind feel too large (you almost can see then running out of ideas), lots and lots of systems that often can be confusing (I mostly like never used many of the esoteric arts, because I missed a book early on), the fact that the characters keep talking about armies, strategy ect.. but you never really see any of this. The most strange thing to say is that the dlc actually helps a lot since reduce grind (I never did do any) and many boss battle where reduced to let your SP grown enough (by simple let you character take hits and even be killed) so you can unleash the extra skills (and hope to kill them in one blow, because much like you, bosses and other enemy also gain sp from damage and losing companions, so if you didn´t do enought damage to kill them you mostly like be killed in the next turn by their extra skill).

 

By the way, Agarest War Zero not only let you use save data from Agaresy Wars, but does have a "digest" version of the first game (with fixed choices and only key battles).

[BadHat]

So, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Gonna go ahead and elevate it into the top five video games I've played in my life. And I've played plenty across many platforms so that's saying a lot.

 

I mean, I dunno. It was fun, and the challenge level was increasing at what felt like an appropriate rate. It does everything I would want from a game right as far as conveniences for the player but not hand-holding goes. It's just good. It definitely lends to the whole thing of, if you play this game, the previous ones will feel super inferior. This game was miles ahead of Risky's Revenge in level structure, difficulty, and item hunting. So play that one first. And if you can, play the first Shantae game for GBC before that (though I haven't played it myself).

 

I took your advice and played Risky's Revenge! Actually, I was craving a 'vania game when I read this and had completely forgotten RR was in my Steam backlog already.

 

Completed over a few days, about 5 and a half hours total (which seems about an hour longer than the steam reviews I read - I dicked around and looked for secrets a bunch, also got lost a few times). It was really enjoyable, despite some frustrations with the controls and some questionable level design (backtracking through the dungeon with the eye switches, man). Honestly, I think I enjoyed it largely because it was so compact. I tend to enjoy metroidvanias at the outset, but get worn out on them when they get to be a certain length. If the map is too large and the secrets too many, I find it far too taxing to keep track of everything - and I have to keep track of everything because that's just how I play. On the other hand, Shantae's map was fairly easy to keep tabs on (even if the map screen was kind of terrible), and I found most of the backtracking pretty leisurely. It helped that there were only a handful of powers to pass the game's obstacles, too.

 

(Side note: this game has so many boobs. http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/388795947223741563/5B26DD0450A2CC3167CAC71B1FEC4D2FE9AA5407/ )

 

Here's hoping Pirate's Curse goes on sale tomorrow.~

[dartmonkey]

I picked up The Last of Us Left Behind for £4 and finished it in a couple of hours. There is so much STUFF in that game, so much heavy detail but as nice as the story was it's still just not fun enough to do the stealth shooting bit. Technically it's extremely impressive. But I'd have been disappointed if I'd bought a PS3 just to play it (which was the general concensus when it was released, I think).

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished Batman: Arkham Knight, including a New Game+ 100%.  Fun gameplay that expands on the previous games but an absolutely terrible story.  It's an iteration on City (which itself was an iteration on Asylum) but I liked the other two so I was fine with more of the same.  It's a shame the PC version is such a mess (I was able to run it pretty well but I'm also using some high end hardware).  I'd say wait for a GOTY edition if you're interested but haven't played it yet.

[Tanukitsune]

I have a few adventure games I played lately:

 

Mechanika: A short adventure about a seven year old girl who wants to take over the world, I really liked it but.. the game has a lot of sexual content that's kinda disturbing for such a young protagonist.... Like a woman of negotiable affection.... cooling off her goods.

 

DISTRAINT: It's a 2D game a bit like Silent Hill and Lone Survivor, but will not action, just advancing the story about someone who has to kick people of out their houses and is feeling guilty about it.

 

Lost Chronicles of Zerzura: I got this on the sale on a whim because it was super cheap and I had never heard of it, it's about an inventor in the Spanish Inquisition era who wants to build a flying machine without being burned to the stake and has a brother obsessed with Egypt, when the Inquisition does come, they take your brother instead, so you must rescue him and find out why they took him.

 

Mata Hari: I remember someone here hating and yeah, it's kinda bland, you spend all the game going from city to city talking to only a few people again and again. Frankly, if you take the dancing mini game out of this, you wouldn't even know this is a Mata Hari game.

 

Memento Mori: A story about an Interpol agent specially in art forgery and an ex-forgery sellers work together on the mystery behind a missing painting, it's a bit like Broken Sword, but not as good. I still like it a lot, despite it getting a bit silly near the end. 

[Zeusthecat]

New Super Mario Bros Wii. I've had this one for awhile and finally got around to beating it with my daughter. It was pretty damn fun and a little bit ugly. I know a lot of people aren't too fond of the NSMB games but I've honestly had a good bit of fun with each of them and they have never disappointed. I also really like sliding down hills on my penguin belly so this game gets extra points for that.

[Moosferatu]

I finished Technobabylon today.  It was another quality Wadjet production that I'd definitely recommend.  The puzzle design in particular was superbly executed and satisfying, apart from a few pixel hunts.

 

I'm in an adventure mood.  I recall that Danielle mentioned an AGS style adventure (earlier this summer?) that looked worth checking out, but I can't remember the name of it now (not Dropsy).  I seem to recall there being three characters... and maybe they discussed the music and voice acting on the podcast?  Does anyone have a clue?

[Dewar]

With my extra day off this weekend, I finished a ton of games.

 

Cook, Serve, Delicious: I've had this on my iPad forever. I found it too easy to play on a stable surface and too difficult to play on the bouncy bus. I had a long road trip on fairly flat roads and finally got the chance to get to 5 star rating. Unlike when I played before, I tried to vary up my dishes and go for VIP recommendations, but I never really found any of that compelling when I can rotate between the same 8 dishes that I know really well and get full-day perfect runs. I guess I'm just not into these sorts of games, because I've heard nothing but glowing recommendations and I found it resoundingly 

 

Fallout 4: In this case, finished means I completed one faction story, the main story, and am ready to put it aside for the moment until paid mods are available. While the game play was pretty awesome, I think I made some bad choices that ended up giving the story a flat tire.The thing that really struck me about Fallout this time around is that there's a ton of fighting, but not much talking. Fallout 3 felt empty in a way I enjoyed, so when you ran into someone there was a decent chance it was someone nice. Fallout 4 turns the content knob up to 11, but does it by adding more fights, not more people. I was exhausted by the end, and the charisma perks to talk people down never seemed to work for me. I'm also independently wealthy with ammo coming out my ears and tons of items stashed aside to sell should things ever get desperate (I never sold or used a single pre-war money for instance.) Next time I play through I'm going to go with hard difficulty, no weapon or armor mod perks, and as little building as possible. 

 

Just Cause 2: I finally got around to playing this after purchasing it for the multiplayer mod that I only ever played once. It was surprisingly brief, concise, and fun. The end missions were cool and interesting. Really, a lot of good things to say about everything but the story, which I just skipped through after listening to the faction leader monologues for the 4th time.

 

Halo: ODST: Over the last year I've been playing through all the Bungie Halo games with my wife. We finally rounded out the content available on the Master Chief Collection by finishing off ODST. The last few missions were as good as I remember, and the facial animation was even worse. Still it played very smoothly and I'd recommend it to anyone who's a Halo fan and hasn't played it.

 

Keep Talking and No One Explodes: For multiplayer games, I consider "finished" to be meaningfully experiencing all the content at least once. My Cousin and I got to the last needy module, so I'll call this one complete for now. That's not to say I won't keep bringing it out at parties. It's a hell of a game that only suffers because each player's relative experience is such a factor it makes it hard to play with new folks sometimes.

[Cordeos]

Fallout 4: In this case, finished means I completed one faction story, the main story, and am ready to put it aside for the moment until paid mods are available. While the game play was pretty awesome, I think I made some bad choices that ended up giving the story a flat tire.The thing that really struck me about Fallout this time around is that there's a ton of fighting, but not much talking. Fallout 3 felt empty in a way I enjoyed, so when you ran into someone there was a decent chance it was someone nice. Fallout 4 turns the content knob up to 11, but does it by adding more fights, not more people. I was exhausted by the end, and the charisma perks to talk people down never seemed to work for me. I'm also independently wealthy with ammo coming out my ears and tons of items stashed aside to sell should things ever get desperate (I never sold or used a single pre-war money for instance.) Next time I play through I'm going to go with hard difficulty, no weapon or armor mod perks, and as little building as possible. 

 

Just Cause 2: I finally got around to playing this after purchasing it for the multiplayer mod that I only ever played once. It was surprisingly brief, concise, and fun. The end missions were cool and interesting. Really, a lot of good things to say about everything but the story, which I just skipped through after listening to the faction leader monologues for the 4th time.

 

I wish Fallout 4 had more DayZ type encounters where you start assuming people are bad, but you aren't sure so maybe you talk to them, but maybe its an ambush and you should kill them all. Also being able to talk or intimidate your way out of more situations, like being able to team up with the brotherhood to fight super mutants even though you are their enemy.

 

Just Cause 2 is really just a sandbox to blow things up in, seems like they spent more time on the story in 3 but its still very minimal. 

[elmuerte]

I wish Fallout 4 had more DayZ type encounters where you start assuming people are bad, but you aren't sure so maybe you talk to them, but maybe its an ambush and you should kill them all. Also being able to talk or intimidate your way out of more situations, like being able to team up with the brotherhood to fight super mutants even though you are their enemy.

 

I had a few of those encounters. The best ones are the possible synth clone encounters.

Everything I see people I have to Q to see if it's raiders.

[Dewar]

How nice of them to label themselves that way

[Merus]

I also finished Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. I too thought there was an uncomfortably large amount of boobs, but then saw Paul Robertson and Joakim Sandberg in the credits so I guess I can't be surprised.

 

There was a lot more to it than I was expecting, and while it doesn't have the map design or ability diversity of other games in the genre, it managed to stave off predictability through fairly well-implemented gameplay shifts. I also appreciated that the game just took the kid gloves off towards the end.

[syntheticgerbil]

Paul Robertson yeah, but I don't find much of joakim Sandberg's work overly sexual or pandering, especially in his own games. I also doubt he contributes creatively to the design of most stuff (if not all) he works on Wayforward. He does sprite animations for almost every single one of their 2D games in multiple styles and has only ever been credited for animation, not character design.

[BadHat]

Mariel (I forget her last name) from Skullgirls also did art on Pirate's Curse, and she's no stranger to boobs.

 

I also finished this game and really really liked it. So much so that I'm doing a second playthrough (on pirate mode, how fun!) and trying to nail all the achievements. I only have three left: all dark magic, all hearts, and finishing the game without upgrading my health. That last one will be super fun I'm sure.

 

Edit: Just googled Joakim and remembered I still gotta play Noitu Love 2!

[syntheticgerbil]

Be sure to check out Iconoclasts when it comes out someday!