Games Completed 2019

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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

Oh yeah
Spoiler: show
The hand!

I’ve blotted that part out, it was all a bit silly. But then I thought the hybrids were fantastic, tying in to life finding a (misguided) way. They inspired a mounting horror and pathos in me, so horses for courses, I guess.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by dezm0nd »

Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 - Leon 1st run

Worth the wait and the game has more to play!
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Jobobonobo »

Spoiler: show
Jan 13: Marvel Spiderman
Jan 26: Gravity Rush Remastered

Charming little title with some admittedly tricky controls. Mission where I had to put out fires all over city and battleship were insanely stressful and the fire extinguishers/water containers were so fragile that if they were dropped or not thrown just right you have to scour the area for another one while the fire gets worse. Thankfully it was a side mission but still, ugh.

However, the moment where you are just messing around the city collecting gems is quite chill and is where this game really shines. The visual detail where areas far away in the distance turn into line drawings the further away you are from them is a neat little trick. The music is a real joy and really gives the world life. Definitely interested to try out the sequel now.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Magical_Isopod »

dezm0nd wrote: January 26th, 2019, 5:52 pm Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 - Leon 1st run

Worth the wait and the game has more to play!
Lucky duck - I've had a grand total of maybe 3 or 4 hours between work shifts to dedicate to RE2. Won't be able to do anymore than 2 hours per day til Monday morning.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Resident Evil 2 Remake

Leon A done

Amazing ready to jump into Claire B

Clock was 7 hours 50 mins and 47 saves
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dezm0nd
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by dezm0nd »

Yeah i got lucky with the game arriving on Thursday and i put about 7 hours in to finish Leons campaign by Saturday. I've already begun Claires story and its crazy just how quick it can be done once you know what to do and not be terrified by the situations.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by kintaris »

Couldn't sleep last night so I ended up playing Wandersong from start to finish. Really charming musical platformer (not really rhythm based, just note-activated interactions). It has a heartwarming central relationship and some interesting if twee observations on heroism and using violence to solve problems. If you enjoyed Night in the Woods, Hue and Thomas Was Alone I feel like this falls nicely somewhere in the middle.

One broken trophy, but it's getting a patch :)
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

The Council (PS4)

This was excellent. It's an episodic game split over five chapters, but it's unlike any other episodic game out there. Instead of zombies or troubled teens, it deals with the period in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution and covers the Great Powers, court intrigue, the rise and fall of nations, politics, Enlightenment philosophy, the occult and so on. If that sounds a bit dry, it's really not, and there are many preposterous, grotesque, bizarre and unbelievable video game happenings mixed in too.

You play a young Frenchman who attends a gathering of the European great and good on a remote English island. You have been summoned by the master of ceremonies, as your mother, who had been attending as head of the French Golden Order (some kind of occult investigatory outfit), has disappeared, and you need to represent her interests while at the same time tracking her down.

The game is based around manipulating people in Telltale-like conversations, and influencing your fellow guests into taking your side in a mighty clash of philosophies, and you do this by putting points into character skills like politics, manipulation, psychology, linguistics etc. So if you have linguistics, you can understand your fellow guests' private remarks to each other if they seek to exclude you by speaking Latin or German. Allied to that, each guest has weaknesses you can discover, and if you are skilled in Logic, for example, and your opponent is vulnerable to it, then you can exploit that vulnerability in order to sway them to your cause. Of course, if you don't have the skills equal to your opponent, you might have to suck it up and fight another day.

The sheer amount of decisions and conflicts that are tracked in the game is very impressive, and there were no visible contradictions over five episodes, so kudos to the designers. The game gives you a lot of freedom to play how you want - for example at the start of the game, you can choose to play very cagily, and give nothing away until you find out the lie of the land (there's a skill called 'Diversion' you can use to deflect) and there is scope for playing with a varying degree of ruthlessness. There were a few points in the late game where I felt a little bit railroaded, as I guess the game was giving me a second chance to consider my big decisions, by making me spend time with the opposite view. There were also a few places where you have to swallow your disbelief, but overall it's a very accomplished piece of work.

Another slight niggle was that the hero's dialogue was more Millennial than fin de siecle - "Oh man...", etc, but I guess this is just the way it is these days, for the sake of accessibility I assume.

Wonderful game. It's a pity it was episodic, because the final part came out in December and any buzz around it at launch has all but died away. All I see are disadvantages with the episodic model, and if they could afford to release the entire thing up front, they might be better served by doing so.



I'm having an unbelievable gaming January - I've played two legitimately great games (Obra Dinn, Slay the Spire), two GOTY contender-standard games (Subnautica, The Council), and then the 'lesser' games include Yoku's Island Express - I have a feeling the rest of the year will be downhill all the way.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Simonsloth »

I’m very interested now. Might add this to my wishlist.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by dezm0nd »

Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express
Jan 13 - Evil Within 2
Jan 14 - Pilotwings
Jan 21 - Edith Finch
Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 (Leon A)
Jan 27 - Resident Evil 2 (Claire A)
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by ColinAlonso »

Spoiler: show
Jan 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
Jan 20 - FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (Easy)
Jan 25 - Final Fantasy VIII (PSVita - PS1 Classic)

Glad to finally finish this one nearly 20 years after I first played it.

Let's start with the good. I've always loved the backgrounds in PS1 era FF games and 8 is no exception. Whether its the frankly grand design of Balamb Garden, the city lights of Deling City or pastoral Winhill I always like looking at the details of each place. Character models look janky now but I remember being astounded at the time. FMVs also improved from FF7. I really like their integration into scenes where the game switches from FMV to in-engine gameplay quite fluidly.

There are a number of good set piece events in the game. The early battle at Dollet shows the games graphics off early on Later sequences like those at the end of disc 1 and 2 are exciting. I also enjoyed the (somewhat silly) infiltration mission and the Laguna sections.

While I prefer the soundtracks of 7 and 9, I can appreciate that Uematsu is being more experimental here with lots of tracks that are intentionally electronic and synthy rather than the more common orchestral style (that does make a number of appearances though).

The card game is fun. The translation seems good (especially after 7).

Unfortunately FF8 has plenty of weaker points. The plot takes a nosedive somewhere in the second disc and never really recovered. Revelations about the final antagonist left me uninterested. Seriously, what is the villain's actual motive here? I feel like I missed that part.

The supporting cast of characters are not as interesting as the previous two games (I suspect this is because many of them have similar young mercenary backgrounds). I didn't hate them but there wasn't enough to them.

While I can recognise Squall's character arc more now than what i saw of it when I was in my early teens, I'm still not that invested in that or him. (I still think that Cloud in sequels/spinoffs/cameos reminds me more of Squall in FF8 than Cloud in FF7. Basically he has the full loner act going on where he pushes people away and says little.)

The junction system is a curious beast and I'm actually happy I took a more active role in junctioning magic. It may have added lots more time to my completion but I understood it better than just hitting auto and hoping that worked. Unfortunately the system puts me off actually using all the varied magic in the game. My three most commonly used battle commands were Attack, Draw and Card, so I think its good that junctioning was a bit of a one-off for the series.

To summarise, Final Fantasy VIII is a well presented game that has plenty of issues. I'm glad I played it and it was never a slog, but I have no desire to go back to it or recommend it to others, especially when VII and IX are on the same system.

Well, I've completed my quest to finish Final Fantasies I to X (7,9 and 10 were completed back in the day). Really happy to have done that and thanks to the Cane and Rinse crew for giving me the push to do something I often said I would.

This post is already long enough so I'll put something really self-indulgent in a spoiler.
Spoiler: show
That's right, I'm ranking them! (in personal preference, not absolute quality of course :D )

VII - My first FF and the reason I've played the rest.
IX - A comfortable pair of slippers of a game. Maybe a bit twee and cutesy looking for some but all part of its charm for me.
V - The job system rocks.
VI - Probably came to it too late but it's clear the debt that VII owes this game.
X - Haven't played it since the PS2 days. It's linear but the story is solid and combat is fun enough.
VIII - Heading into the weaker games now but this shares enough with the other PS1 games to not fall down too far.
III - Usurped by V. Would be better with a 2D sprite remake like IV on PSP.
IV - Important storytelling step for the series but shows its age.
I - Barebones start for the series. Very dated now.
II - The true stinker of the series. I had to force my way through the end. Its not even the sometimes maligned leveling system (I didn't mind it that much), it's the poor dungeon design coupled with high encounter rates and those empty rooms :x. Age isn't even enough of an excuse for it.
Jan 27 - Puzzle Bobble (Switch) (Difficulty Level 4 - One credit)
I played quite a bit of Bust-A-Move 2 back in the PS1 days, so I bought this when it came out on Switch before Christmas. I completed it with credit feeding back then but it didn't feel right putting it here until I did it in one credit.

Time to put the difficulty up. :)
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Simonsloth »

dezm0nd wrote: January 27th, 2019, 8:33 pm Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express
Jan 13 - Evil Within 2
Jan 14 - Pilotwings
Jan 21 - Edith Finch
Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 (Leon A)
Jan 27 - Resident Evil 2 (Claire A)
Resident evil twice? Surely that’s cheating :D
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Michiel K
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Michiel K »

28-01 DOOM 2016 (PC)

My heart is still racing.

Sometimes it's intimidating to go back to a game in which you're at a very late stage and know you will be confronted with one balls-to-the-wall battle of the most challenging sort after another, as soon as you fire up your save file, while you're completely out of your groove... especially one I've been playing in short bursts already, because it's so friggin' intense and has me constantly on the move and physically weaving left and right, while glued to my screen with mouse and keyboard under the palms of my hand.

And now, it's finally done. I completed "Very DOOM" on Hurt Me Plenty and it was a battle hard fought. Often, I would make it through by the skin of my teeth, but the most memorable moments are those of pure badassery, such as tonight, where I double jumped, turned in mid air and fired the last explosive shell of my shotgun in the face of a pursuing Baron of Hell and quickly swiveled around when landing, pulling out the minigun on some "who else wants some?", only to be met with silence and the 'checkpoint reached' prompt.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by ThirdDrawing »

I finished a lovely little game called State of Mind.

It's a kind of point and click adventure game. No combat. Some light puzzles. An interesting cyberpunk story and an amazing soundtrack.

The very definition of a good "B tier" game.

Worth a try if you like point and click, adventure and/or cyberpunk games.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by MajorGamer »

Jan 2 - War for the Overworld (PC)
Jan 13 - Pyre (PC)
Jan 16 - Heroes of Hammerwatch (PC)
Jan 17 - Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Jan 20 - ReThink | Evolved (PC)

Jan 20 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)

When asked what content should be put into the next Smash Bros, the answer was apparently "yes". The last one I played was Brawl and it is very nice to see tripping gone and Final Smashes are more in line. It isn't a case of some struggling to get a single KO while others could get multiple. On the same person. There are still some outliers (Palutena's is pretty bad, Zelda's is absurd) but so much better than before.

The World of Light is a glorified Event mode, going through matches based on whatever spirit it represents. It is nice to see how far they went to capture each one in a fight (Dr. Wily? Eight metal Mega Man followed by Dr. Mario), though admittedly some are skin deep (Goomba? Just tiny Donkey Kong).

I'd probably get more mileage out of this game if it was 20 years ago and able to play it every day during lunch break with friends for four-player mayhem. That is what made Melee great to me but I can see this one be great in the same way for others.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by dezm0nd »

Simonsloth wrote: January 27th, 2019, 11:08 pm
dezm0nd wrote: January 27th, 2019, 8:33 pm Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express
Jan 13 - Evil Within 2
Jan 14 - Pilotwings
Jan 21 - Edith Finch
Jan 26 - Resident Evil 2 (Leon A)
Jan 27 - Resident Evil 2 (Claire A)
Resident evil twice? Surely that’s cheating :D
Heh, i feel its warranted given the changes in the campaigns! Got two more to go!
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

Simonsloth wrote: January 27th, 2019, 7:14 pm I’m very interested now. Might add this to my wishlist.
As usual with games of this type, you have to roll with the punches here and there - it's not perfect by any means. Definitely worth checking out though.

I forgot to mention there are several fairly meaty puzzles in the course of the game, which I can't really comment on, as there seemed to be permanent consequences for getting them wrong. I didn't want to risk that and as I'm not so hot at puzzles anyway, I just looked these up for the most part (and blundered massively in the one I attempted which did me over due to a lovely bit of cleverness that I didn't account for). But that's an extra wrinkle for those who like that sort of thing.

Looking up some past reviews, there are quite a few things mainstream reviewers found offputting - from the art style on down, so it's a game where any number of things could potentially put you off, therefore I'm loath to recommend it outright. Steam reviews were Overwhelmingly Positive until recently when the overall status went down to Very Positive.
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delb2k
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by delb2k »

Jan:

Moss - PSVR
Bound - PS4
The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360 (Back Compat)

Yakuza Kiwami - PS4

While Zero was a huge and sprawling adventure Kiwami betrays its origins with a smaller scope and more focused plotline. It absolutely benefits from the last games story, and the relationships built from that end up emphasising the plot beats a lot better. There is less to do in this game, and the feeling is of something a lot more focused. But this is to be expected being a remake of a game where a lot of the extras that the series is now famous for had not even been concieved of by that stage.

the items that have been added for this remake do not always work, and in particular the majima anywhere aspect starts to come across as an annoyance rather than a well thought out idea. Effectively it starts to get to the point where it feels like padding.

People have mentioned that this is one that can be skipped, and I can see why. It is really there if you want to know the Kiryu story but if it was skipped there would not be too much missed in terms of the actual game itself.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Simonsloth »

Spoiler: show
January:
Tale of Tales Collection
Virginia
Gravity Rush 2
27th Jan:

Nier Automata Endings A-X, Z

Not sure if I’m going to try and get ending Y as it’ll probably take me another 5 hours or so but I’ve done everything else so it’s tempting. Also I’m looking at the platinum trophy and it’s within reach.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by ThirdDrawing »

delb2k wrote: January 28th, 2019, 9:55 am Jan:

Moss - PSVR
How did you enjoy Moss? I've been teetering towards getting PSVR but I'm not totally sure yet. Moss is one of the games that has me almost convinced.
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