Recently completed video games

[JonCole]

Killzone Mercenary   

 

Started this game on my Vita and was having a good time, but decided to switch to my new PS TV where I enjoyed it even more. It's a pretty barebones FPS campaign, but I enjoyed the feel of the weapons and I liked the B-movie plot. Killzone takes itself very seriously, so I appreciated a version of the game that was serious but self-aware. I imagine that it being on a handheld meant that the story didn't need to be the big-budget, super-huge scope thing that can ruin an otherwise good shooter.

[Tanukitsune]

Ranko's Longest Day     

 

What on Earth did I just play? At first it starts as a runner with some plot, you attack enemies to be able to attack what's chasing you and try to reach the end....at that's when it gets weird... WEIRDER, to be exact.

 

The cutscenes change artists and the plot and sometimes even the gameplay changes.  The enemies explode in several artistic ways and cause chain reactions, platforms to appear and other things that affect the gameplay.

 

You start as a girl with sniper violin and as the game progresses, she's seem the most normal character around, even she looks dumbfounded by what happens in the game.

 

The game is short and arcade-y and comes with some great animated shorts. Combined they are definitely worth getting... if you like anime at least.

[dartmonkey]

Shinobi 3 3D Classics on 3DS. Save stated my way through this. Really enjoyed the reek of Sega on this, even if I'm just a bit too rubbish at games to get the most out of it. The music is pumpin'.

Trip World (GB) on 3DS VC. I heard Jeremy Parish recommending it. It's an innocuous little Kirby-esque jaunt through some bouncy worlds. Cute but unremarkable. Some nice tunes.

Shovel Knight (3DS). Throughly enjoyed this. I never had Mega Man games as a kid so it was Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers that came flooding back for me. It pulls off a similar trick to the Zelda 3DS remakes where it looks and plays how you remember the originals did despite a load of modern refinements. Again, killer soundtrack. Can't wait for the update.

Need For Speed Most Wanted (Wii U). I can probably count on one hand the games with road cars I've played and liked...*counts - Most Wanted on GC, PGR4, Forza 2...does Sega Rally count? I'd heard this was great and had missed the various Burnouts which really inform it. And it's really great! The Wii U version is the pick too - you can turn off the traffic and change from day to night at the touch of the screen (lighting looks very cool as the sun/moon races overhead in seconds), plus swap cars and browse the map, offscreen play, etc. All cars feel meaty and satisfying, the sense of progression is nice and I really want to go back and smash all the remaining billboards. Reminds me a bit of Arkham Asylum where I went back in to get all the doohickeys because it was fun, not because of some terrible OCD.

Bayonetta 2. Basically, what everyone else has said. Went through on baby mode and enjoyed every last second. Want to do the first game now and then maybe return to this for the 2nd and 3rd climaxes. And the Arwing.

While playing these last two (along with Mario Kart and 3D World) the Wii U has really clicked for me. I used the offscreen play multiple times, and really settled in to the controller. I've got Red Dead Redemption waiting to be played on my PS3 but going back to a flimsy screenless Sixaxis is going to feel strange now.

[Griddlelol]

I had a pretty good weekend, and beat:

 

Metroid Prime.  Really, really great game. I loved every minute with it, even the collection part. It's a shame it didn't go on for longer, as I think I clocked in at about 20 hours, with a 68% completion (which I was pretty happy with considering it was the first time I ever played it). 

 

The only complaint I have, is that holding the Wiimote in my right hand (as a leftie) and aiming, really hurt my wrist after a while. I'm having to take a break, and not move onto Echoes because of the pain. 

 

I have similar feelings to Prime as I do to Super. They both excel at making you feel smart, helpless, powerful and lost at different times. The exploration is fantastic, and the combat is surprisingly good. I do prefer Prime, just because, as I said in the Super thread, it's a lot easier for me to get immersed in a 3d environment, and that made the experience fantastic. I don't know if I just missed it, or if it's not there, but in Prime, I didn't manage to find any special moves like in Super (e.g. wall jumping, the boost thing and the health=ammo thing). It doesn't detract from the game not having them, but I went in expecting them. 

 

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.   So in my effort to play every Metroidvanaia that remotely interests me, I picked this up because Tegan said it was great in the 3DS thread. Fuck! It's great. The art, while a little weird, is super well done and got me a lot of miiverse posts (ok that's out the way). The game play and how the game demands you learn to use your items in synergistic ways was amazing. Like, that's the best part of it, having multiple useful items, that when you use them together are far more than the sum of their parts. It makes going back to old areas really fun and interesting. Not only do you traverse them super fast, but you find secrets.

There was a collection part like Prime in Shantae, and it was both easier and more difficult. There are only minor clues which made me think it was going to be frustrating, but once you got new items, most of the collectibles were something that you found naturally (except one which there was a clue for, but I never picked up on it).

I ended with a 93% completion rate, and played around 10 hours. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and I highly recommend it. I played almost exclusively on my WiiU tablet for off-screen, while my partner was watching TV. 

 

Now, for Xenoblade...this is gonna take a while before I post here again.

 

Killzone Mercenary  

 

Surprisingly, I kinda liked Mercenary. It's a pretty good shooter, and with the "Botzone" update (which is I think £2) the multiplayer is quite fun. 

[Sno]

Now, for Xenoblade...this is gonna take a while before I post here again.

 

That is a looong game, and one that ended up with probably a fairly permanent place on my short list of favorite RPGs.

 

I'd advise just using a faq to keep apprised of the enormous selection of side-quests, not necessarily so you can be a completist, but primarily so you can track down the ones that unlock extra skill trees for your party members. The way the game frames all of its sidequests with this fairly dynamic relationship web is pretty cool and easy to be ensnared by, but the quests themselves are often tedious and time consuming, as is actually just tracking down the relevant NPC's, which all have broadly wandering daily routines. (The game also helpfully identifies quests that can expire through progress, but it does not tell you when. It could be in ten minutes, or it could be twenty hours further into the game.)

[Griddlelol]

I'd advise just using a faq to keep apprised of the enormous selection of side-quests, not necessarily so you can be a completist, but primarily so you can track down the ones that unlock extra skill trees for your party members. 

 

Any FAQ you can recommend? There's so much content I'm already feeling a little lost, and I've only been playing for 2 hours. I'm not going to go for 100%, just try and get as much enjoyment out of the main story as possible, but I don't want to miss everything for the sake of it. 

 

I've actually been sticking with off-screen play for Xenoblade so far, it looks way nicer on the tablet than on my TV.

[Sno]

It looks like there's a fairly comprehensive set of guides over at gamefaqs, including some topic-specific ones. However, these guides - topic-specific ones included - will unavoidably spoil some surprises in the story. The first portion of the game doesn't have anything especially important going on, so maybe hold off on the guides untill you feel like you have a better grasp of whether or not you care.

 

Edit: I did a bit of further searching, and it doesn't sound like any of the side quests with important character rewards ever really expire, so you can probably get around to that stuff whenever you feel like it.

[Griddlelol]

Ok, cool. I've noticed the heart-to-heart sequences are dependent on different things, but no indications as to what those things are.

 

I know I'm going to like Xenoblade - I deleted an 8 hour save file and restarted because I forgot what happened (not played since July). It's a really fun game, and the world is a pretty unique idea. 

I'm not a big baby when it comes to spoilers, I'm much more interested in how things happen, rather than what happens. So I'll glance through them and see if there's anything important I could miss.

[Trip Hazard]

Did you kill that big, nasty worm in the cave yet? Pretty sure it's an optional fight, but after it trounced me a couple of times I just couldn't let it go. I love Xenoblade, it's so great.

[tegan]

Protip: Learn how to use Melia. She's the hardest character to master and the only one that the AI doesn't do a particularly good job with, and you basically need to be able to use her for a late-game boss that's only vulnerable to Ether attacks. I got stuck there and decided that it was too late to either learn the character or grind for XP, and ended up stopping because of it.

[dartmonkey]

I had a pretty good weekend, and beat:

 

Metroid Prime.  Really, really great game. I loved every minute with it, even the collection part. It's a shame it didn't go on for longer, as I think I clocked in at about 20 hours, with a 68% completion (which I was pretty happy with considering it was the first time I ever played it). 

 

The only complaint I have, is that holding the Wiimote in my right hand (as a leftie) and aiming, really hurt my wrist after a while. I'm having to take a break, and not move onto Echoes because of the pain.

 

I've had Prime sitting waiting for a couple of years. Must get back to it - my first Metroid! I think I got an hour or two in but never returned. I developed a 'system' (patent pending ) for Galaxy involving a couple of cushions on my lap on which to rest my arm - it's crazy how quickly constant pointing can get tiring/painful.

 

I'm hoping the 3DS Xenoblade will be the equal of the Wii version so I can play it on the go. 60-100 hours is much easier to stomach on a portable. Dark Souls II is the only recent game to keep me in front of the TV for that length of time, but I can only really do one of those a year, max.

[Griddlelol]

Interesting, I got her last time, and that was about when I quit. I'd much rather play on a portable, but I can't really rationalise £200+ for a new 3DS when I barely use my current version. 

[GavinTheAlmighty]

OK, knocked off two: 

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (the bonus levels).  I had finished the regular levels and just got through the rest.  It's enjoyable, but I don't think I'm going to be rushing to get back to it anytime soon.  The inclusion of the Mummy-Me levels (think Cosmic Clones from Super Mario Galaxy or Mario 3D Land) ramps up the stress factor, which wasn't what I was looking for in that game.  The final Toad Brigade level took me quite a while to figure out because you're constantly getting chased by a Magikoopa, and when you're hauling three other Toads in tow, you're a much bigger target.  

 

Still, definitely worth the time and money.  It's a game that just keeps on giving.

 

Bioshock (the original).  I had a difficult time coming to terms with my feelings for Bioshock.  This was the first time I'd played the game, so I suppose you have to bear that in mind.  

 

I have some complaints, but I want to preface it with the fact that it's still a great game, and if someone tells me that it's the best game they've ever played, I won't begrudge them that.  I think part of the problem was that I played Infinite first, which reused a lot of the same mechanics and plot devices, except that I first saw them in Infinite, so they felt repeated in the original.

• The environments started to feel too "samey" after a while.  
• I had a difficult time keeping track of all the characters
• The soundtrack was good, but I didn't like that the music just sort of appeared out of nowhere.  It didn't seem to load up at any particularly significant moments; just walking through a doorway and Beyond The Sea or God Bless The Child starts playing.  Infinite solved this problem in an interesting fashion.
• The first time you hear a splicer sing "Jesus loves me" off-key, it's unnerving and unsettling.  The 100th time you hear it, it's just annoying.
• The Little Sisters felt too cartoonish.  The sequence where you're escorting one reused the same dialogue options over and over again.
• The hacking games for some machines were impossible due to the arrangement of the tiles.
• Atlas' voice acting was terrible.
• Remove Sander Cohen from the story and nothing changes.  His segment is relatively interesting but does nothing to advance the plot.
• I guess most importantly, the big twist just didn't feel all that interesting.  I'd been told for nearly eight years that this game had the greatest story and that the twist would blow your mind.  It was a big letdown.  I mean, it was interesting enough, and the way it played it was OK, but at the end of the game, I just sat there thinking "oh...that's it?".  
  The idea that "you aren't who you thought you were!" was interesting the first title I played (Infinite) but felt reused in the original (yes, I understand that that's backwards).

  .  It's good that they let you act upon the twist, rather than just cramming it down your throat at the end of the story, but still, I just didn't find it that impactful.  

[mikemariano]

If someone tells me that it's the best game they've ever played, I won't begrudge them that.

 

It's the worst game I've ever played!

[SuperBiasedMan]

It's the worst game I've ever played!

I wont begrudge you that!

[Twig]

I WILL!

[GavinTheAlmighty]

It's the worst game I've ever played!

 

BEGRUDGE'D!  THE LOT OF YOU!

[Dewar]

OK, knocked off two: 

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (the bonus levels).  I had finished the regular levels and just got through the rest.  It's enjoyable, but I don't think I'm going to be rushing to get back to it anytime soon.  The inclusion of the Mummy-Me levels (think Cosmic Clones from Super Mario Galaxy or Mario 3D Land) ramps up the stress factor, which wasn't what I was looking for in that game.  The final Toad Brigade level took me quite a while to figure out because you're constantly getting chased by a Magikoopa, and when you're hauling three other Toads in tow, you're a much bigger target.  

 

Still, definitely worth the time and money.  It's a game that just keeps on giving.

 

Bioshock (the original).  I had a difficult time coming to terms with my feelings for Bioshock.  This was the first time I'd played the game, so I suppose you have to bear that in mind.  

 

I have some complaints, but I want to preface it with the fact that it's still a great game, and if someone tells me that it's the best game they've ever played, I won't begrudge them that.  I think part of the problem was that I played Infinite first, which reused a lot of the same mechanics and plot devices, except that I first saw them in Infinite, so they felt repeated in the original.

• The environments started to feel too "samey" after a while.  
• I had a difficult time keeping track of all the characters
• The soundtrack was good, but I didn't like that the music just sort of appeared out of nowhere.  It didn't seem to load up at any particularly significant moments; just walking through a doorway and Beyond The Sea or God Bless The Child starts playing.  Infinite solved this problem in an interesting fashion.
• The first time you hear a splicer sing "Jesus loves me" off-key, it's unnerving and unsettling.  The 100th time you hear it, it's just annoying.
• The Little Sisters felt too cartoonish.  The sequence where you're escorting one reused the same dialogue options over and over again.
• The hacking games for some machines were impossible due to the arrangement of the tiles.
• Atlas' voice acting was terrible.
• Remove Sander Cohen from the story and nothing changes.  His segment is relatively interesting but does nothing to advance the plot.
• I guess most importantly, the big twist just didn't feel all that interesting.  I'd been told for nearly eight years that this game had the greatest story and that the twist would blow your mind.  It was a big letdown.  I mean, it was interesting enough, and the way it played it was OK, but at the end of the game, I just sat there thinking "oh...that's it?".  
  The idea that "you aren't who you thought you were!" was interesting the first title I played (Infinite) but felt reused in the original (yes, I understand that that's backwards).

  .  It's good that they let you act upon the twist, rather than just cramming it down your throat at the end of the story, but still, I just didn't find it that impactful.  

 

Twist stuff:

The twist was mind blowing for me because it contextualizes the "follow the instructions" stuff you get in every game in a really cool way. Sort of the same thing that Spec Ops: The Line does, but Bioshock is much more subtle about it. I guess I really like that meta commentary on game design.

[GavinTheAlmighty]

Twist stuff:

The twist was mind blowing for me because it contextualizes the "follow the instructions" stuff you get in every game in a really cool way. Sort of the same thing that Spec Ops: The Line does, but Bioshock is much more subtle about it. I guess I really like that meta commentary on game design.

I'd already had my mind blown by Spec Ops: The Line, so games that subvert that particular game mechanic/plot device aren't all that huge to me.  I suppose I had a similar experience with Deus Ex, except that you have more agency to act on the "twist" (Paul works for the NSF, you're ordered to kill Lebedev, and you have the choice to do so or not to do so).

 

I strongly suspect that I went into it with my expectations not appropriately managed.  I've had that issue with many older games wherein I've been told how amazing it is time and time again, only to find that it didn't blow my mind the way I wanted it to.  See also: Ocarina of Time.  Played for the first time in 2014, was a very good title, but I've already played a) the best Zelda (Link to the Past), b followed by end-parentheses (because it keeps giving me a sunglasses icon) a wonderful 3D Zelda (Skyward Sword - yes I'm aware that it derived a lot of inspiration from Ocarina), and c) a fabulous new Zelda game in 2014 (Link Between Worlds).  To be clear, OoT is a really, really good game, but I don't have any sort of nostalgic pull to it.

[Sno]

Twist stuff:

The twist was mind blowing for me because it contextualizes the "follow the instructions" stuff you get in every game in a really cool way. Sort of the same thing that Spec Ops: The Line does, but Bioshock is much more subtle about it. I guess I really like that meta commentary on game design.

To expand on this, BioShock's twist was so shocking because it was so directly commenting on the illusory freedom that players so willingly buy into. You can make your choices, sure, but you're ultimately doing it within a designed sandbox and are bound by the rules and walls of that sandbox. The twist has virtually nothing to do with the fact that you're not playing as the character you thought you were playing as, and everything to do with you feeling like you had agency when you really had almost none. BioShock kind of reframed the relationship the player has with the designer, and while such self-exploration of the medium has since become much more prevalent in the intervening years, Bioshock stands out to me as still such a dramatic and influential example of it.

 

As an addendum, i think that's why BioShock would never have worked as a movie. It's a story that sort of fundamentally leans on the experience of playing video games.

[Tanukitsune]

I just beat Bayonetta 1 & 2 and while playing Bayonetta 1 it hit me how much it was like Devil May Cry, the motorbikes, Jeanne as Virgil, it reached a point I wasn't sure if the game was DMC parody or love letter...

 

And getting to play with Bayonetta dressed as Princess Peach with Bowser's giant paws smash everything made it worth the replay, the only bad part of replaying it was having it fresh in my memory for Bayonetta 2.

 

Bayonetta 1 was like the later DMC games which knew they were crazy weird and became tongue in check... except Bayonetta was more "French Kiss in cheek" if that makes any sense, Bayonetta 2 was... like an older DMC, it either didn't know what made it so unique or simply didn't dare to go there.

 

It copies DMC instead of homaging it/parodying it. "Let's add collectible thingies for health upgrade and made them look nearly the same as DMC! Also, let's add those arenas where you fight to get them!", "Let's make the weapons even more like DMC!"

 

In other words everything is more like DMC or in some case just like Bayonetta 1, it's like they had no idea of what to do, the Afterburner stage felt like ti was there only because Bayonetta 1 had a Space Harrier level.

 

I'd describe the game as a good ice cream scoop, that only looks plain because the last one had so many toppings and sprinkles. It's great, but you miss the sprinkles. 

[GavinTheAlmighty]

I wish I could get into Bayonetta.  I understand that B2 is a wonderful, fabulous game that essentially fixed the flaws from the first one.  I tried the demo, and it just wasn't for me.  I'm glad that it exists, and it certainly is a beautiful title, but I just couldn't get into the gameplay.

 

I just capped off another playthrough of Link's Awakening on the 3DS.  What a wonderful little title that is.  I have a few minor complaints which are more related to technical limitations (the amount of item switching you need to do is annoying), but it really does capture the spirit well.  The story is really where it shines though - to my mind, it's the best story with the most plot-depth in the entire series.  

 

Here are a couple of good articles on why Link's Awakening is so different from the rest of the series:

http://ca.ign.com/blogs/danders16/2014/09/07/500 

http://venturebeat.com/community/2011/02/25/the-philosophy-of-zelda-existentialism-the-fourth-wall-and-links-awakening/

[GavinTheAlmighty]

To expand on this, BioShock's twist was so shocking because it was so directly commenting on the illusory freedom that players so willingly buy into. You can make your choices, sure, but you're ultimately doing it within a designed sandbox and are bound by the rules and walls of that sandbox. The twist has virtually nothing to do with the fact that you're not playing as the character you thought you were playing as, and everything to do with you feeling like you had agency when you really had almost none. BioShock kind of reframed the relationship the player has with the designer, and while such self-exploration of the medium has since become much more prevalent in the intervening years, Bioshock stands out to me as still such a dramatic and influential example of it.

 

As an addendum, i think that's why BioShock would never have worked as a movie. It's a story that sort of fundamentally leans on the experience of playing video games.

 

First off, apologies for the oversimplification of "you aren't who you think you are".  That wasn't just meant to represent that you are Ryan's son, but also that you are a Manchurian Candidate who is being controlled, rather than some random guy.  Perhaps because I played Spec Ops before this, the notion of commenting on player agency wasn't an enormous deal to me.  Pragmatically speaking, without Fontaine controlling you, Bioshock simply doesn't exist because the plane doesn't crash.  I guess I just accepted that as a necessary plot device.  The walls that Bioshock shattered for people in 2007 were the walls that Spec Ops: The Line shattered for me in 2013.  

 

I'll have to reconsider my opinions going forward!  

[Griddlelol]

I just beat Bayonetta 1 & 2 and while playing Bayonetta 1 it hit me how much it was like Devil May Cry, the motorbikes, Jeanne as Virgil, it reached a point I wasn't sure if the game was DMC parody or love letter...

Bayonetta 1 was like the later DMC games

It copies DMC instead of homaging it/parodying it. 

In other words everything is more like DMC 

 

Man, I need to play some DMC games.

[Tanukitsune]

You can probably still find copies of the DMC HD Collection if it's not available digitally. Although DMC 4 and the remake are the zaniest IMHO.