Games Completed 2018

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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Combine Hunter »

Combine Hunter wrote: February 10th, 2018, 2:09 pm 10/02 - Final Fantasy II (PS Vita)
04/30 - Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)

Thoughts on the pod!
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seansthomas
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by seansthomas »

February 4th - DOOM (Switch)
February 7th - Oxenfree (Switch)
February 17th - Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
February 25th - The Fall Part 2: Unbound (Switch)
February 28th - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)

March 4th - Subsurface Circular (Switch)

Really interesting text based narrative from the developer behind Thomas was alone. You play a robot detective on a service train interrogating fellow tek passengers about a disappearance.

Looks incredibly stylish, really well written, very clever finale and a couple of lateral puzzles I enjoyed. Less than £5 and you'll see the end in a couple of hours. Would heartily recommend it.
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Hunter30
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Hunter30 »

January - Jade Empire: Special Edition (PC)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Jill playthrough (PC)
February - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)
February - Super Metroid (SNES Classic Mini)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Chris playthrough (PC)

March - The Walking Dead: Michonne (PC)
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass

Very charming and unique game with a couple of frustrations that stops it from being a perfect experience, but still very cool overall. The mechanics of snaking and slithering around is really fun and interesting. Nothing else quite like it, and makes you think about what you're doing in a way very different to other games. It's pretty slow paced, and has a laid back feel to it, but it can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially in the later worlds, and it's very satisfying to pull off a deceptively tough challenge too.

Artistically it's very nice as well. Lots of colour, with very lush environments, with an adorable main character too. There's never been a cuter snake! Your little humming bird friend is cute as well, but they don't play as much of a prominent role. The soundtrack is also pretty nice. Very Rare-esque, which you would expect with it being composed by David Wise.

There were a couple of problems though, which started to raise their heads in the later parts of the game. I've heard that this game has a bad difficulty curve, and there comes a point where things just suddenly get unfair and obtuse. I didn't find that to be the case in general. There was one level earlier on which had bad checkpointing, but that proved to be a one-off. There are problems that gradually appear later on though, which come from issues with the camera. Or rather, how the camera interacts with the level design. It's not terrible by itself, but on tougher sections it can be a massive pain to get it in a position where it feels like you can see what you're doing properly. Several times I felt like I fell off something I was climbing because I couldn't judge distance right, or there was something getting in the way. This ends up getting compounded when they throw some of the more complicated moving platforms at you. It's hard enough keeping the camera pointed in a useful position as it is, but when you're on something that keeps spinning around away from view, things get pretty frustrating.

Otherwise though, a cool game with a neat idea and a lot of personality. Worth checking out to see what it's trying to do, but sticking it out to the end can sour the experience somewhat.
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AndrewBrown
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by AndrewBrown »

AndrewBrown wrote: February 28th, 2018, 9:32 am 02/01: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES Classic]
04/01: Oxenfree [Switch]
13/01: Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition [Switch]
14/01: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [Switch]
15/01: Super Mario World [SNES Classic]
20/01: BioShock Infinite [360]
23/01: The Fall [PSN]
26/01: Celeste [Switch]
31/01: Super One More Jump [Switch]
05/02: Night in the Woods [Switch]
08/02: Dandara [Switch]
14/02: Dragon Quest Builders [Switch]
20/02: Bayonetta [Switch]
21/02: Puzzle Puppers [Switch]
23/02: Fe [Switch]
24/02: Old Man's Journey [Switch]
26/02: Portal Knights [Switch]
28/02: Bayonetta 2 [Switch]
07/03: Subsurface Circular [Switch]

It's easy to mock videogames for giving the player "choices." Presenting the player with a supposedly-agonizing choice where lives hang in the balance and neither choice is the "correct" one has practically become a cliche, worthy of eye rolls, hot takes, and think pieces as to the morality espoused by one choice or the other (assuming both choices don't ultimately represent nihilism, as they often do—hi, BioShock Infinite!). Subsurface Circular subverts this videogame trope in the most beautiful and intricate way. The "final choice" is the most affecting I've had since Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season One; the most agonizing in any videogame I've played, ever.

Subsurface Circular takes place entirely on a subway system which is used by an underclass of robots in the future who have taken on many of the jobs formerly taken by Humans. Not just basic labor—these have been taken too—but also jobs in psychiatry, childcare, and even the clergy. The player assumes the role of a detective robot who is prompted by a fabrication robot to investigate a series of missing robot cases. In a brisk two hours that blinks by without realization, the player learns about this society and the robots who live in it... and are forced to make a choice. Just one, single choice, based entirely on what they've learned about this society and the way it functions.

I will spend a long time asking myself if I made the right choice. And not like the ending of The Walking Dead: Season Two, where I also grappled with this problem but only because the two opposing characters Clementine is trapped between are both equally abhorrent. This is a good choice because there is no easy answer, but there is certainly an answer. But the way this choice is handled is most interesting, revealing that the choice is not so much about the ending the player may receive, but on what that choice says about the player who makes it.

Narrative games are my bread and butter. I can say, without hesitation, this is one of the best ones I've ever played. It's topical but not preachy; it's well-written, but not obviously the work of an "auteur;" and that final choice is incredible.

This game costs like five dollars US. If you're at all interested in narrative-style games, then play this game. Now.
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Dante Fireseed
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Dante Fireseed »

4th January - X-Com 2 (PC)
6th January - Last Day of June (PC)
22nd January - What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)
4th February - Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
10th February - Uncharted: Lost Legacy (PS4)
16th February - Rime (PS4)
3rd March - Watch_Dogs 2 (PC)
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duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by duskvstweak »

I just finished Ori and Blind Forest last night. I was sad to end my time in the game, even though I had collected most of the items. I learned I'm still real bad at platformers, but I love them anyway.
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass
08/03 - Deus Ex: The Fall

This one is a bit odd when it comes to "completing" it, since this is supposedly only the first episode of a series that never got more than one. So for the incomplete state that this game is in, I've finished it. It's not like we're getting any more in the future.

I've heard nothing but terrible things about this game, and if you go by the Steam reviews, it's the worst game ever made. But since I enjoyed both the other modern Deus Ex games, I've always been sort of curious about this miniature version. Keeping expectations in check, and in mind of the original mobile platform, I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. It makes a terrible first impression with an awful tutorial level, but after that things picked up quickly. It does a fairly good job of recreating the same kind of atmosphere and gameplay from Human Revolution. I was expecting it to be a completely linear and dull experience that only wore the skin of those other games with shoddy execution. But it actually attempts much more than that. It gives you a small hub area to explore, which is impressively detailed for a mobile game, and levels that provide lots of different paths and options to get to your objective. Even if it's generally limited in scope, and with a lower level of polish, most of the mechanics from HR are still here, with levels that make use of all of them. So even though the game obviously doesn't hold a candle to HR or MD, it still managed to scratch that Deus Ex itch for a couple of hours in a way that didn't require the big time investment that the other games do.

The game is buggy as hell though. Minor graphical and audio glitches are not uncommon, like the camera clipping in to the wall during a takedown animation, or the sound effect for punching in said animation playing three times over. I also came across a pretty severe problem a few times where I couldn't open the menu/inventory at all. Pressing the button simply did nothing. Luckily the game has a quick save button, so you can quickly reboot the game and solve that issue. That is of course unless that quicksave feature also stops working, which did happen to me once. That didn't end up being a huge issue though, as the game's levels are pretty small, making autosaves frequent. Didn't end up losing much progress in the end. And besides, I had a similar glitch in the MD DLC, which made that more or less unbeatable, so this wasn't as much of a big deal in comparison.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by DomsBeard »

Finally on the 8th of March I finished my first game this year! :lol:

Star Wars Battlefront 2 and the Resurrection DLC

So I played through and finished this in the past week or so. I went in with low expectations and to be honest I really enjoyed it. As I mentioned before it just reminds me of Star Wars novels that you used to see. You don't have to read them but if you fancy spending some time in the universe you can pick one up and read it through.

The story I think plays out well and is rounded off nicely in the DLC. I liked the main character Iden and another side character Shriv immensely. The story arc does suffer from going far too fast at certain points, people decide without hesitation to do what they do. It would have been better to be longer to introduce certain aspects more subtly.

Combat is alright, it isn't incredible but felt far more fun than Wolfenstein 2. Flying and vehicle sections are good also.

The weakest parts of the game for me were playing as the ''legacy'' cast. They do get better the further you go on but I would have preferred more of Iden and inferno squad at the beginning.

I only played one game online so cannot say much about micro transactions etc but it played fine enough.

Would recommend if you fancy spending some time in the universe.
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Beck
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Beck »

Spoiler: show
Jan - Tekken 7
Feb - Bloodborne
Feb - Fallout Shelter
Feb - Bioshock Remastered - This was my first playthrough. The game looks great and still plays very well. It's a shame they never resolved the audio balancing problems for the remaster, most of the character chat/audio diaries were completely inaudible due to the other sounds going around.
March - Monster Hunter World - Love it.
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Flabyo
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Flabyo »

Flabyo wrote: February 27th, 2018, 7:20 pm Trying to decide at what point I’m going to out Dynasty Warriors 9 on here. I’ve finished the storylines of a few characters, but not yet got past chapter 7 of the overall narrative.
I think I’ve figured this out now, what I will personally consider ‘complete’ for this one.

If anyone actually cares...
Spoiler: show
The structure of this one is a little weird. The overall Three Kingdoms storyline has been divided into 13 chapters. Each chapter is centred around one of the large set piece events of the overall story.

But because not every character is even alive for every chapter (the story covers two generations, and it’s a war story so many characters have quite short lives) you don’t just pick one and play all thirteen chapters in a row.

Instead the game shows you for each chapter which characters stories start in that chapter. You pick one, and play through until you reach what the game writers have decided is a good end point for that character.

The complication is that your character choice affects which events and battles in each chapter you actually get to see, cause if your character wasn’t there the game doesn’t have it as part of your story.

One thing the game does do is add to an enclyopedia a description of each major battle and event as you see it, so...

Tl;dr - I’ll consider this game complete when I’ve filled that encyclopaedia of events,
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by ratsoalbion »

06 Jan: Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PAL PS1 on PS3)
09 Feb: Final Fantasy II (GBA)
16 Feb: Resident Evil 2 (NTSC PS1 on PS3)
26 Feb: Yoshi's Woolly World (WU)
09 Mar: BioShock Infinite (PC)
Thoughts on the podcast.
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by ColinAlonso »

Spoiler: show
Jan 7 - Bleed (PC)
Jan 19 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Feb 11 - Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Feb 28 - Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (PC)
Mar 8- Final Fantasy III (PSVita - PSP version)

Pleasantly surprised by this one. I finished the first two through a sense of duty but I was happy to play all of 3. How much of that is down to things added for the remake, I don't know. The job system is lovely. I will probably write something in the podcast thread.

One last thing for anyone playing it, DO NOT DIE ON THE FINAL BOSS, its painful how far you have to go back. Thankfully I beat it on the second attempt.
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Flabyo
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Flabyo »

Anyone who is actually experiencing the Final Fantasies for the first time as part of playing along with the podcast, hugely envious of you as you’re about to step into the three SNES games...
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by ColinAlonso »

Well, my plan is to play the games between 1 and 10 that I haven't finished previously ahead of the podcasts.

What that actually means is that I played the NES games for the first time and will play the SNES games and 8, all of which I had gotten far in before. So from now I actually know what I'm getting into. :)

Considering how I'll play FF5 though, my previous copy was the PS1 version with its awful translation and that's the version on PSN.
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass
08/03 - Deus Ex: The Fall
10/03 - Bayonetta 2 (Hard)
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Combine Hunter »

Spoiler: show
10/02 - Final Fantasy II (PS Vita)
04/30 - Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)
10/03 - Celeste (Switch)

Fantastic. One of the platforming greats.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Samdowned »

Finally returned and played through Dark Souls last month.

Any further comment on my experience would be a familiar tale already retold a thousand times. Which given the game seems a perfect epitaph.

Not sure if I will jump in for the imminent Switch edition, but I'm getting that amiibo day one.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Combine Hunter »

Spoiler: show
10/02 - Final Fantasy II (PS Vita)
04/30 - Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)
10/03 - Celeste (Switch)
10/03 - Monster Hunter World (PS4)

Today was the day I finish things apparently. Not really done with this one though, huh.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Jobobonobo »

Spoiler: show
20/01: Horizon Zero Dawn Frozen Wilds
02/03: Yoshi's Wooly World
10/03: Nier Automata
The longer I spent with this game the better it got. When I got the first ending I was surprised at how quickly I had got at the final boss and was quite disappointed at its abrupt ending but I kept on going and I have to say this is one of my favourite games I have ever played. Platinum absolutely nailed it with the combat, movement and flawless transition from one genre to another with a 3D action title becoming a 2D platformer becoming a schmup with twin stick shooting segments in between! The visuals are maybe not the best but the story and the way it is told shows the incredible potential of narratives within games. Alongside all this is one of the most spectacular soundtracks I have heard in years, easily cracked my top 10 game OSTs and no wonder it is such a favourite on Sound of Play.

And yet while I had a lot of fun with the game, Nier Automata is also one of the most depressing experiences I have ever come across in gaming. I do not mean this in a pejorative way either, its narrative and world building combine to tell you a story about war, self consciousness and the meaning of existence. The longer you play the game the more hopeless everything seems and in order to fix all this the game requires you to do something which involves great sacrifice and was honestly one of the most beautiful endings to a game I ever came across. Not since Undertale have I seen such a inventive breaking of the fourth wall.

Apologies about all the hyperbole but yeah, absolutely adored this and would recommend to anyone who enjoys fast paced gameplay and good story telling. Last year really was a fantastic year for games, wasn't it?
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