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Recently completed video games

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Persona 4 Golden (kinda)

 

I've had this game and been playing it for like three years at this point. I am not a fan of the fusing personas or the dungeon crawling aspect, between those and getting stuck a few times I took MASSIVE breaks in between play sessions. Eventually I started again and put the difficulty to very easy (no shame) so I could just focus on the story and have fun.

 

I really like the game. You really get the feeling of friendship playing the game. Its kinda annoying that you can't all the social links and stuff in one playthrough because you have to manage your time. But I guess people get so into it they do second or third playthroughs.

 

So the kinda is because I got one of the bad endings where

the game just kinda ends. I've seen the anime so I know the "truth"

 

I loaded my last save up and will start the "true ending" section later tonight! I am so happy I finally finished the game (not 100%) before Persona 5. Not that you need to play any of the other Persona games but I felt after 5 comes out I will never go back and finish 4.

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Shinobido2: Revenge of Zen is an incredibly broken and incredibly fun BAD stealth game, most of the bosses simply rolled towards a chasm and killed themselves and if not they fall off a roof and forget about you...

 

Since beating the game unlocked the option to play as a bloody NINJA BEAR, i'm tempted to play at least one time more!

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On 2016-12-13 at 0:13 PM, Henke said:

 

Oh my god it's out on iPad? I need to get that. Played through it twice on PS4 already but I could go for thirds.

 

Recently finished:

Inside - I loved Limbo. Played through it something like 7-8 times, on 4 different systems. Inside is a worthy followup. Love how it tells it's story entirely through the environment, and it has some great gameplay moments that are unexpected and unexpectedly intuitive. And the ending where you turn into a Katamari Cronenberg is one of this year's most WTF moments.

 

Watch Dogs 2 - Welp, this was great. Great gameplay. Most likable characters in a Ubisoft game since Beyond Good & Evil. The car-hacking is my favourite superpower in a game in a long while.

 

Video evidence of what a cool hacker guy I am:

 

That graffiti didn't last long

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It's on the other side of the billboard. ¬_¬

 

Of course, I dunno if it actually stays on there after you leave the area and come back.

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The Silent Age :tup:

Originally an adventure game for mobile devices, they also released it for the PC. It's quite a simple adventure game, where you have to mess around with your inventory a bit. It's a nice short game which could be finished in one sitting. You don't really have to do any pixel hunting, or combining items in your inventory. So it's just sit back, and enjoy the story.

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So with the Switch due out in a few months, I've been trying to use my winter break to go back and finish all of the WiiU games that I started but did not finish over its lifespan. This week, I beat:

 

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse :tup::):chaste:

- Pretty fun! I feel like the reception it got was way harsher than it deserved. Some of the levels had pretty cool gimmicks and aside from a series of frustrating boss fights I really enjoyed it as a mellow way to pass my time.

 

Yoshi's Wooly World :tup::tup::lol:

- This may be one of the secret best WiiU games. So good, except that their checkpointing leaves a lot to be desired. I only wish that they didn't save all of their best stuff for the last 8 levels. A level of velcro conveyor belts that has a name that is a reference to "Touch Fuzzy; Get Dizzy"? Hell yes.

 

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze :tup::tmeh::devil::frusty:

- Fun, but Jesus Christ does it get tough. I think that Retro took all of those accolades it got for the Donkey Kong Country Returns (which I did love) and ran a little too hard with them. I'm no platforming scrub, but I'm not even going to attempt the secret world here. Finishing the last (non-boss fight) level in the regular mode took me almost an hour and about 30 lives. I could probably have done it faster if I'd given up on getting the KONG letters, but still. God damn. It felt like this game was designed with exactly one perfect run through each level in mind, and unlike other platformers, if you screw up a perfect run it doesn't just effect your score. In DKC:TF, it just fucking kills you instantly. Glad I played it, but also glad it's done.

 

Splatoon :tup::tup::gaming:

- The single player levels, anyway. Last summer I left off with 5 of them unfinished. Today I went back and mopped them up. That was really fun, and the boss was rad! Totally worth playing through the single player if you have this game and haven't done so. Really fun and inventive levels.

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I beat Soma the other day, with the help of a "the enemies don't hurt you" mod because otherwise it would be way too goddamn scary. I enjoyed it, mostly for the gorgeous graphics and the great performances by the various voice actors. The story itself was interesting and well-done, but I've thought about all these things before so it wasn't really new or exciting or anything like that, which was a bit of a let down, because I knew the general themes going in and I was hoping for a real deep dive into them, and however deep the dive was, it wasn't deeper than I'd already been, so whatever. Still, a pretty great game all around.

 

As I got to the end I couldn't stop thinking about whether it needed to be a horror game - since I played it without the monsters doing anything, I of course got to partially experience it like that, and I think that although I'm sure it works great as a horror game, it would also work really well as just a plain old Firewatch walking simulator. You'd want to change a few things about the story and the gameplay: instead of chasing you, the monsters could just be protecting stuff, and instead of being scary they could just be things you could zap with a tazer or whatever to make them stop annoying you. Or you could even remove them - they barely did anything interesting thematically. Instead of having everyone dead, a lot of the audio logs could just be people sitting around listlessly who you can talk to, and who are like "well you could go open that door or whatever to go to X, but why bother," and then you'd do it, etc. There could still be lots of dead people with audio logs around, so that you wouldn't have to change everything, and the listless people would mostly ignore you, so you'd barely have to record any more VO for your character. Obviously it would be more work to model and animate more humans, but aside from that I think it would've lent a much nicer, more somber, contemplative tone to the game. The horror element thematically really doesn't do anything for them, and I feel like the game's a scary run-away simulator simply because that's what this developer has done in the past.

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1 hour ago, TychoCelchuuu said:

As I got to the end I couldn't stop thinking about whether it needed to be a horror game - since I played it without the monsters doing anything, I of course got to partially experience it like that, and I think that although I'm sure it works great as a horror game, it would also work really well as just a plain old Firewatch walking simulator. 

 

I finished Soma a few months ago, and I tend to agree with you here. When I think back on the game, the moments that stick out to me the most are the story beats and interactions between the characters. The horror moments are a complete afterthought to me. I even went the opposite direction that you did, and intentionally played the game at night with the lights out, but I was always so interested in the story and character interactions that the monster sequences just felt like inconveniences to sidestep as quickly as possible. These monster sequences are mechanically identical to those in Amnesia, but for some reason the setting and horror elements of Amnesia captured my imagination and curiosity in such a way that I actually looked forward to the monster encounters, as they may reveal some new feature of the monster and the world it inhabits. For whatever reason, Soma's horror elements did not capture my imagination in that same way.

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Miffy, you're experience with DK: Tropical Freeze is basically the same as mine, I was also happy I played it, but also so done with it.

 

I beat Bugs VS. Tanks. yesterday, from Comcept, the former Capcom employees group? You play as miniaturized tanks fighting bugs to survive and it was pretty fun, except the levels where you travel on branches, where a bug can simply knock you off a branch if you're not careful. Also, the finale was a bit disappointing? 

 

EDIT: Oops, it's really a Level 5 game, but Keiji Inafune worked on it?

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Minecraft: Story Mode :tup:

It actually made be revisit the normal game. This game comes in two parts, sort of like two seasons. The first one is a continuous story of 4 episodes. After that are 4 episodes which are more stand-alone. The first part is more like the survival part of minecraft where second part is more creative (or maybe modded), even though you still have to survive. In the second part you visit four different locations which have constructions and contraptions not really possible in minecraft. The first part was more true to the standard game. 

It's packaged a bit weird though. If you buy the game you get 5 episodes, and the last 3 you must purchase separately. So you get sort of a teaser for the second part.

Anyway. The game is like any modern Telltale Game where you make choices, some which really affect the game and a lot which only affect the dialogue. There is one part I didn't like, at the end of episode 1 you make a choice on what the first chapter of episode 2 will be. It's a choice between going to place A or B. The only way to visit they other place is to replace whole episode 1.

They included some actual crafting in the game, but in most cases there is little choice in what you can make given your limited inventory. But it was nice anyway.

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Doom:

Doom is really great, and definitely my most mechanically satisfying game of 2016. I very much like the pacing, with bursts of frantic flow punctuated by slow moments exploring for secrets between fights. Thanks to the speed and fluidity of Doom's movement, combined with weapons that feel great and "glory kills" (melee executions that heal you), the action in each fight is non-stop & incredibly satisfying. If you enjoy shooters and are tired of the plethora of "stop-and-pop" tactical/cover shooters these days this game has your name all over it. Technically everything is rock-solid; great presentation and runs like a dream.

 

My only complaint is that the back 3rd felt a bit drawn out. I'd say you switch between (very minor spoilers)

 

 

earth and mars one too many times,

 

but aside from that I really loved it. Honestly my only complaint is that there's a *bit* too much of it, which is a great problem to have. You should play this game. 

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Ratchet & Clank (PS4) :tup:

It's very ratchet and clack. Note sure what else to say. I never played the original and this is supposed to be a remake. It feels pretty much like all the ratchet and clank games I played on the PS3. Unlike the bigger PS3 games this one didn't have one of those stupid arena segments, so that was nice.

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Small Radios Big Televisions :tmeh:

A short puzzle-like game. I can only describe this as some kind of experimental game made by somebody who wanted to mess around with shaders.

I have no idea what the story is about. At some point clinking around required turning valves in some direction, never figured out if there was any logic, but I managed to solve the puzzles anyway.

The ending was quite nice though.

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I've knocked out a few smaller games over the past few weeks.

 

Inside - Loved the aesthetic and atmosphere. The puzzles were never frustrating. Oh and the animation work is SO good. Really the entire game is polished as hell. The story (and more specifically the ending), while certainly memorable, was a little abstract for my taste.

ABZU - This game is basically Journey but underwater. It's gorgeous and chill and the final few areas had me saying "fuck yeah" and fist pumping, which I totally needed coming out of 2016.

Lara Croft GO - The puzzles were good and they mix things up well over the course of things. While the art style isn't as novel as Hitman GO, I still dug it.

Glittermitten Grove (Frog Fractions 2) - First I wanna say Glittermitten Grove, a fairy base building game, seems totally legit and I think I might actually go back and play it more. FF2 is pretty interesting. Structurally, it's an ascii style overworld that you puzzle around in to discover items and these bizarre one-off minigames that are twists on established genres or classics. I don't want to give the details away because discovering what they are is part of the fun. A few were forgettable, but several were really great and I only actively disliked one. The writing is good and everything is absurd in the right ways. My main complaint is that there were several times I had no clue what to do next and that got frustrating. Downtime like that really killed the pacing in what is essentially a comedy game so keeping things moving is especially critical.

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I just finished Wolfenstein: The New Order. It's no secret by now that the game has surprisingly good writing and characterisation. I find it really ironic that this game has (in my opinion) better dialogue and voice acting than any of their RPGs, or even Dishonored. I was also quite engaged by the story early on, but did feel that it lost a bit of steam after about the halfway point.

 

The shooting bits are alright if uninspired (pretty similar to Call of Duty etc.) but the stealth sections were surprisingly fun, probably because they are more or less optional. I really hated the armoured/robotic soldiers though, as they were generally a huge difficulty spike and I just found them really frustrating to deal with. Surprisingly I didn't hate the boss battles, although I still found them unnecessary.

 

Overall a pretty good game, but there's no real reason for me to ever return to it.

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Finally was able to wrap Xenoblade Chronicles. It almost did me in at the end when I was essentially forced to grind so that I wasn't missing attacks 75% of the time.

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Batman Arkham Knight

 

I have only played Arkham City before this game, and I pretty much did the exact same thing with both games. Finish the story, tool around with some side missions then stop. The reason I got this is because its had massive praise, its was super cheap, and I recently watched Batman v Superman and liked the Batman parts of that movie. So wanted to beat up some dudes as Batman.

 

The game looks great from graphically and art design, sounds great too. Beating up dudes is fun. I thought the whole Joker thing throughout the game was very well done too. I do have various issues with the game however.

 

The Batmobile is mixed - sometimes I feel like a total badass roaring around the city handbrake turning around corners. Others I am bumping into everything and crashing because of janky controls. For a game that has SO MUCH batmobile stuff that they'd get the controls down to perfection. I had to repeat certain areas or puzzles numerous times due to poor driving controls.

 

The controls annoyed me, same with Arkham City. Too many buttons combinations that I never remember resulting in me messing up a few times in combat or looking like an idiot just trying to navigate the city.

 

Too much enter area and wail on bad guys. Wish there was more detective and being smart gameplay elements. 

 

THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO. I actually think this is a negative. It's overwhelming, and its mostly just the same stuff. Go here beat up dudes then wait for the next mission trigger. I didn't even bother starting half of them. Its just all feels like filter. I would prefer half the amount of side missions and have them be alot more focused and fun.

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Just completed No One Lives Forever.

 

It's been 17 years since I last played through it, oh how time flies. I absolutely loved revisiting this old classic. the game engine looks pretty rough these days, but the humour was still great and I enjoyed greatly adventuring as Cate Archer again. So strange, but I remembered the beginning levels from the first playthrough and the final scenes of the game before starting, but everything else I had forgotten so it felt almost like playing a brand new game. I was really surprised about many levels in the game, so much variety in scenery etc.

 

I was surprised to notice that the game is quite long, there's like around 50 levels in the game.

 

Next on the list is No One Lives Forever 2, a game that I have never played. What I can see is that history has not made that game look old, because the Lithtech game engine is way modern than in the first game.

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Finished The Last Guardian yesterday after playing through pretty much the second half of it in one sitting which is an unusual experience for me as I don't often get that long to sit on a game. I need some time to process it but my initial reaction is "eh, that game doesn't half seem to be getting away with some shit." If this was a debut release from an unknown I'd be hard pushed to see past the camera, control and performance issues which frequently impacted my enjoyment of it. I don't know. I'm glad it finally exists, it's beautiful in (a lot of) places and Trico is a truly exceptional creation at times but my overriding memory at this point is there was a lot of sighing throughout as I failed to make simple jumps for no good reason and the enemy encounters were beyond tedious.

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Finished Axiom Verge on a stream last night. Not sure I'd have finished without the stream, partly because one boss gave me a lot of trouble (that someone in chat helped with) but also because it runs out of steam 3/4 of the way through. If it was a little over half the length, it could've gone out with a solid big bang. But this way it lingered further than I really wanted, and the ending was anticlimactic too, where difficulty turned to frustration but then I found the final boss easy.

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Mu Cartographer: wow. reminiscent of Mirror Moon EP in that you're given a set of unlabeled knobs and dials that change what reminds me of a sonar readout. You're given points of data that are coupled with some text that tell a tiny story from 3 different characters' points of view. Narrative is much more a tone setting- discovering how to use the tools is really the game. Loved it.

 

 

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I beat Pokémon Moon and I gotta say, I haven't enjoyed Pokémon so much in ages.

 

Pokémon now can call for help, which can get annoying when you keep getting more and more Pokémon when you just want to catch one.

 

While many things about the plot can be seen a mile away, but someone I avoided a big spoiler that really got me off guard!

Nebby was Lunala?!?!

 

One thing that bothered me is that maybe Decidueye is OP? Since I got Greninja from the demo I almost never needed to use any of my other Pokémon. The new crystal thing makes me wish Pokémon could carry more than one item, but that's about it about the things that bothered me.

 

The rest of the game was amazing for me, the approach of the trials was very refreshing and which the ride system, it felt like a completely new Pokémon game.

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I feel weird for posting again, but htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, is as hard to complete as it is to pronounce.

 

You play as a girl with horn/branches coming out of head with nothing to guide her except two fireflies, one of light that tells the girl where to go and a shadow one that moves through shadows to activate things.

 

The game is challenging enough by it's self, but to see the true ending, you must find 13 memory saps, which give you small snippets of the girl history.

 

The "finale" is somewhat ridiculous in more ways than one, since it's some sort of shadow play mini-game where you either have to play "three card Monte" or guess the right shadow. I had to look up a guide since it gets too fast to follow, but all the suggested was to record it and play it slow, but it wasn't enough and I had to do it normally.

 

I wonder if Yomawari, from the same studio, will be equally brutal?

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