Games Completed 2019

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
Locked
User avatar
DomsBeard
Member
Posts: 3689
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 5:03 pm
Location: Doms Chin

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Control

I've been trying to think of Metaphor for Control and all I can think of is this:

You will be going to dinner for a lovely meal with great service however the dessert will be awful and leave a bad taste in the mouth. You cant skip it though.

The last hour of the game is amazing then incredibly infuriating followed by a final bit that seems like a training level.

It reminded me of the Dharma stuff from Lost crossed with X Files with Max Payne.

Tell you one thing it will be a bloody great C&R Episode :lol:
User avatar
stvnorman
Member
Posts: 911
Joined: March 19th, 2013, 8:09 pm
Location: Keysoe, Bedfordshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by stvnorman »

Spoiler: show
1 Jan: Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4)
12 Jan: LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4)
27 Jan: Raging Justice (Switch)
7 Feb: Mega Man 4 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
7 Mar: Trials Fusion (PS4)
15 Mar: Cursed Castilla EX (Switch)
22 Mar: The Witness (PS4)
27 Mar: Call of Duty - Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)
19 Apr: Resident Evil Remastered (PS4)
20 Apr: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES on Switch)
25 Apr: Moonlighter (Switch)
26 Apr: Sega Ages Out Run (Switch)
6 May: Mega Man 5 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
7 May: What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)
10 May: Mortal Kombat X (PS4)
23 May: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS4)
24 May: Kid Dracula - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
8 June: Cuphead (Switch)
10 June: Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
14 June: Pilotwings (SNES on 3DS)
16 June: Final Fantasy 7 (Switch)
17 June: Castlevania - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
26 June: Kid Icarus (NES on Switch)
26 June: Mega Man 6 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
27 June: Balloon Kid (Game Boy on 3DS)
29 June: Resident Evil 2 Remake (PS4)
4 July: Shovel Knight (Switch)
6 July: The Castlevania Adventure - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
8 July: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
9 July: Night Trap - 25th Anniversary Edition (Switch)
11 July: Operation C - Contra Anniversary Collection (Switch)
23 July: Mighty Bomb Jack (NES on Switch)
3 August: Super Castlevania IV - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
6 August: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
7 August: Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (Japanese version) - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
9 August: Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (English version) - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
11 August: Castlevania Bloodlines - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
14 August: Bruce Lee - Return of the Legend (Game Boy Advance)
21 August: Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! (Switch)
27 August: Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)
4 September: Castlevania - Symphony of the Night (PS4)
10 September: Sega Ages Virtua Racing (Switch)
21 September: Super Mario World (SNES on Switch)
27 September: Assemble With Care (Apple Arcade on iPad)

Only a handful of games completed in September, but three of them big time sinks that I’m very happy to have got through for different reasons, especially the 96 exit completion of Super Mario World! They’ve all three made big dents into my favourite game ever list too!

A lot of work in progress still happening on Link’s Awakening DX and Super Metroid, which should both make my October list, as well as quite a bit of time put into Detroit, which now certainly won’t! Mighty impressed with Apple Arcade too, and the first of those games I’ve completed is the fourth entry here; definitely more to come from there this month too.
User avatar
Chopper
Member
Posts: 1405
Joined: April 16th, 2013, 6:35 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

Leaving Lyndow (PC)

Cheers to Scrustle and his writeup on the previous page for bringing this to my attention. Slight but enjoyable and a good way to reward the developer if you picked up Eastshade in a sale. :)
User avatar
Chopper
Member
Posts: 1405
Joined: April 16th, 2013, 6:35 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

KSubzero1000 wrote: September 30th, 2019, 8:52 pm As an aside, and this isn't me picking a fight with anybody in particular, but I can't help but be disappointed at how little interest and excitement there appears to be for the Uchikoshi games in comparison to other branching narrative experiences like the Quantic Dream games for example. Do the AAA production values and aggressive marketing with Hollywood superstars make such a big difference?
Definitely the only salient differences there. ;)

I've only played the one visual novel, so I'm a bit hesitant to answer any more fully than making that snippy remark, and god knows I'm on thin ice defending Quantic Dream, but I'd hazard a guess that the Quantic Dream tropes are slightly more accessible/more familiar than the Japanese visual novel tropes for a lot of westerners. That's a complete guess, but it would match my limited experience. I know there are others on here that enjoy both, so maybe we could get another opinion or two.
User avatar
duskvstweak
Member
Posts: 1123
Joined: August 23rd, 2017, 6:40 pm
Location: North Carolina
Contact:

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by duskvstweak »

I finished the Messenger. I liked it, for the most part. I was more of a fan of it when it was a Ninja Gaiden-style game and just running through the levels. But, then it went metroidvania and the backtracking was not so great. And, for some weird reason, the music never clicked with me.
I don't know why the game didn't do it for me, I usually love this stuff. Maybe following Dead Cells with this one wasn't such a smart idea on my part.
User avatar
KSubzero1000
Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: August 26th, 2015, 9:56 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Chopper wrote: October 1st, 2019, 4:12 pm I'd hazard a guess that the Quantic Dream tropes are slightly more accessible/more familiar than the Japanese visual novel tropes for a lot of westerners.
You're probably right.

It's just disappointing to see one small studio put so much effort into their modestly-budgeted games and barely make enough revenue to not go under, while a big one throws all the money in the world at their projects, overpowers the market with their massive marketing campaigns, receives an implicit endorsement by one of the major companies in the industry and everybody rushes out to buy their stuff as soon as it launches without hesitation. And I'm not even talking about the perceived quality differences of their respective projects here, just in terms of the amount of attention and consumer mindshare.

I can't help but think that production values play a bigger role than we're willing to admit.


I had a look over on Metacritic. AI: The Somnium Files received a grand total of 21 critic reviews, 22 user reviews and 77 user ratings (on PC, PS4 & Switch combined). Meanwhile Detroit: Become Human has 104 critic reviews, 750 user reviews and 3111 user ratings. Even though the consensuses themselves are in a similar ballpark.

:(


Again, I don't intend to pick a fight with anybody over this. I'm just lamenting the fact that our medium has become so bloated with such an over-abundance of games competing for our collective attention spans that the little guys always seem to get drowned out by the big ones. We have more than enough games at our disposal to keep us occupied for several lifetimes even though our individual amount of free time remains the same (or in many cases, has actually diminished), which in turns influences consumer behavior (for the worse, in my opinion). The balance is completely out of whack. One of the year's most touching narratives came out just two weeks ago and nobody seems to care.
User avatar
Flabyo
Member
Posts: 3576
Joined: August 8th, 2013, 8:46 am
Location: Guildford

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Flabyo »

When it comes to being backed directly by a console manufacturer then yes, production values are the main concern. They want to use it to sell the console.

If you work on a first party game you always know in your head that this is what they actually want from you. The game being great is obviously a bonus too, but they’re not interested in niche, well, anything.
User avatar
ColinAlonso
Member
Posts: 585
Joined: September 6th, 2016, 9:13 pm
Location: Dublin

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)
Jan 27 - Puzzle Bobble (Switch) (Difficulty Level 4 - One credit)
Feb 3 - Metal Slug 3 (PS4 - PS2 anthology version on Easy)
Feb 8 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Vs Computer mode - Normal)
Feb 12 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Puzzle mode - One credit)
Feb 20 - Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (3DS - DS cart)
Feb 21 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) (World of Light)
Mar 3 - Ristar (JP version) (PC)
Mar 22 - Wargroove (Switch)
Mar 31 - River City Ransom (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 2 - Donkey Kong '94 (3DS - VC)
Apr 20 - Super Dodge Ball (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 28 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
May 2 - Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 2 - Aladdin SNES (PC emulation)
May 6 - Aladdin Mega Drive (PC emulation)
Jun 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Majima Saga (PS4)
Jun 17 - Tetris Effect (PS4) (Normal) (Jul 6 - Expert)
Jun 23 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)
Jun 24 - A Bird Story (PC)
Jun 29 - Crypt of the Necrodancer (Switch)(Cadence) (Jun 30 - Melody)
Jun 30 - Motorsport Manager 3 (Android)
Jul 3 - Finding Paradise (PC)
Jul 13 - Sorcery! (Android)
Jul 16 - DJ Hero (PS3)
Jul 18 - Mega Man 3 (3DS)
Aug 13 - Spider-Man (PS4)
Sep 6 - DJ Hero 2 (PS3)
Sep 8 - Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch)
Sep 21 - Suikoden (PSVita - PS1 classic)

I've already completed Suikoden 2 and this never reaches those heights, but it does have a decent plot for JRPGs for the time and lays a lot of the design groundwork for the second game. I recruited all 108 Stars of Destiny and found that quite fun. I used a list of the missable ones (7 or 8) and only used an actual guide near the end to pick up the last 8 or so.

Sep 26 - Puyo Puyo 2 (Switch - SNES Online)

Story mode... I think? It's the Japanese ROM as it was not localised. There was a tower and I played through 20 battles against characters. Its still Puyo so I had a good idea of what I was doing. I assume Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was based on the first game as there are a few improvements here from that, the most notable being that if the opponent has sent dark Puyos to your side of the screen by completing combos you can stop them falling by making combos of your own.

Interestingly not all characters in the tower have to be beaten. You can choose the characters you fight on each level until you have enough points to move up a level of the tower. Helpful, since some of the characters felt like large difficulty spikes.
User avatar
Chopper
Member
Posts: 1405
Joined: April 16th, 2013, 6:35 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Chopper »

KSubzero1000 wrote: October 1st, 2019, 4:54 pm It's just disappointing to see one small studio put so much effort into their modestly-budgeted games and barely make enough revenue to not go under, while a big one throws all the money in the world at their projects, overpowers the market with their massive marketing campaigns, receives an implicit endorsement by one of the major companies in the industry and everybody rushes out to buy their stuff as soon as it launches without hesitation. And I'm not even talking about the perceived quality differences of their respective projects here, just in terms of the amount of attention and consumer mindshare.
Ah, I misunderstood your original point then, sorry about that.

Yes, it’s frustrating when something with a lot of value gets largely ignored - and imagine all the good stuff we never even hear about. I myself have largely abandoned review and news websites and now rely on blogs and forums and, something I thought I’d never say, Steam reviews. :shock: And my tastes aren’t even that indie in comparison to some (I had my eyes opened when Chris O’Regan’s podcast moved to C&R as I hadn’t even heard of most of the games/developers he was covering).

So the realities of marketing etc; what can you do but maybe beat the drum for a particular game on your forum of choice?
User avatar
Beck
Member
Posts: 653
Joined: September 4th, 2012, 3:50 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Beck »

Spoiler: show
January
God of War (2018)
Yoku's Island Express - Switch
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
February
A Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
Tetris 99
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
March
Resident Evil 2 - Lean side A
May
Divinity Original Sin 2
Zelda - Breath of the Wild
Uncharted 4
June
Batman Arkham Asylum
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Dante's Inferno - PS3
Ni No Kuni 2 - PS4

WoW Classic - I know it's not technically a completion, can you complete an MMO? but I got all I needed from it.

Dead Cells - XBO - This game completely captured me that I put 20 hours into it over 1 weekend :shock:

Slay the Spire - XBO - To begin with, I thought this game was deliberately too difficult which made me consider quitting but I'm so glad I didn't. There is something strangely compelling about having to play and adapt to the hand you are dealt that has made this game one of my games of the year.
User avatar
Simonsloth
Member
Posts: 1639
Joined: November 22nd, 2017, 7:17 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Simonsloth »

Spoiler: show
January:
Tale of Tales Collection
Virginia
Gravity Rush 2
Nier Automata

Feb:
Wolfenstein 2
Prey (2006)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Aladdin SNES
Aladdin Mega Drive
Donkey Kong

March:
Donkey King Country
Pilotwings
Dino crisis
Pony Island
Ape Escape
Donkey Kong country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Monkey Island 2

April:
DK 94
Inside (PS4)
Pony island
Shovel Knight plague of shadows
Dk64
Banjo Kazooie

May:
Banjo Tooie
Furi
Observer
Shovel Knight Specter of Torment

June:
Super Meat Boy
Evil Within

July:
Prey 2017
Evil within 2
Ground Zeroes
Pilotwings 64

August:
DJ Hero
Castlevania: SOTN
Kirbys Epic Yarn
SMB 3

September:
Batman Arkham Origins
DJ Hero 2
BK: Nuts and Bolts

Finished the game and managed to satisfy rare replay’s requirements for the ten stamps. I left a few of the challenges and was one Jiggie short so I may try it one more time. Need to mull over how I feel about it.
User avatar
Scrustle
Member
Posts: 2426
Joined: November 18th, 2012, 6:02 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Scrustle »

Beck wrote: October 2nd, 2019, 12:58 pm
Dante's Inferno - PS3
Ni No Kuni 2 - PS4
Any thoughts on these two?
User avatar
Michiel K
Moderator
Posts: 1295
Joined: October 13th, 2015, 9:37 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Michiel K »

27-9 - Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)

Beat the final boss half an hour after my stream of the game ended.

I like this one quite a bit (except for THAT ONE level), but you'll hear more about it on the upcoming CaR podcast.
User avatar
seansthomas
Member
Posts: 856
Joined: March 31st, 2015, 8:10 am

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by seansthomas »

1st February - Dark Souls
8th February - The Gardens Between
9th February - Quarantine Circular
20th February - Night in the woods
26th March - Ape Out
16th June - Brothers
25th June - My Friend Pedro
7th July - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
23rd July - Streets of Rage 2
27th August - DOOM (1993)

2nd October - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

I never played this on Gameboy (as I didn't ever own one!) so it's been a welcome adventure.

Found it very different from other Zelda games tonally and great to see so many Nintendo world's referenced and mashed together.

Always find it harder to navigate 2D worlds for some reason so had to resort to a guide a few times but I found it far more forgiving, intuitive and logical than A Link to the Past, the only other 2D Zelda I've played.

Not quite convinced it should have been a £50 release despite the love it's obviously had put into it and I can't see it troubling my top 3 Zelda experiences, but I'm very glad I played it and I now see why it has a spe oak place in people's hearts.
User avatar
Indiana747
Member
Posts: 1009
Joined: September 3rd, 2012, 5:17 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Starlink :Battle for Atlas - PS4.
(Jan) Far Cry 5 - PS4.
(Jan) Resident Evil 2(2019) - PS4.
(Jan) Shadow of the Tomb Raider - XB1X.
(Feb) Metro Exodus - XB1X.
(Mar) Marvel's Spiderman - PS4.
(Apr) The Division 2 - XB1X.
(Apr) Dead Rising 3 - XB1X.
(Apr) World War Z - XB1X.
(Apr) Earthfall: Invasion - XB1X.
(May) RYSE: Son of Rome - XB1X.
(May) Tacoma - XB1X.
(May) Abzu - XB1X.
(May) Mortal Kombat X - XB1X.
(May) The Walking Dead:A New Frontier - XB1X.
(May) The Gardens Between - XB1X.
(June) Crackdown 3: Campaign -XB1X.
(June) Days Gone(platinum) - PS4.
(Aug) Wolfenstein: Youngblood - XB1X.
(Aug) Detroit: Become Human - PS4.
(Aug) Devil May Cry 5 - XB1X.
(Sept) Gears 5 - XB1X.
(Oct) Rage 2 - XB1X.
User avatar
Beck
Member
Posts: 653
Joined: September 4th, 2012, 3:50 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Beck »

Scrustle wrote: October 2nd, 2019, 6:51 pm Any thoughts on these two?
I played them for my podcast ;)

Dante's Inferno - An okay game that probably hasn't aged well but there is something really cool about the theme. If you are going to play it, I wouldn't worry about the difficulty because enemies just have more health than use different skill set.

Ni No Kuni 2 - This one caused some controversy amongst us. I went in with low expectations and really enjoyed it. It looks and sounds great and is relatively short for a JRPG. The combat is fun and varied and there is a good range of mechanics to keep you interested. However, it isn't difficult. The story is very linear and thin and the mechanics, whilst optional, aren't fleshed out enough for a standard JRPG (which is maybe a positive?). I'd recommend it but some of the others who are bigger JRPG fans on the podcast really didn't gel with it.
User avatar
Beck
Member
Posts: 653
Joined: September 4th, 2012, 3:50 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Beck »

clippa wrote: October 2nd, 2019, 8:57 pm I've been the same with noita, played it for something silly like 16 hours or something in the first couple of days! I wasn't feeling well so I had an excuse, but still, that's a bit much.

Not quite got to the end yet, but I got to "the vault" today, my best run so far, not sure how near the end that is, but it felt like it might have been the last level.
Really fun, I love the combat, the enemies are ruthless and I love how everything can get very chaotic very quickly :lol:
It's a great feeling being drawn into a game like that. I've not heard of Noita but will add it to the list ... the ever-growing list :P
User avatar
Scrustle
Member
Posts: 2426
Joined: November 18th, 2012, 6:02 pm

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
25/01 - Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
31/01 - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
01/02 - SOMA (Safe Mode)
09/02 - Shadow Warrior
18/02 - Mulaka
26/02 - NieR: Automata - 3C3C1D119440927 DLC
02/03 - Race Driver: GRID
04/03 - Bladed Fury
10/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Devil Hunter)
13/03 - AER: Memories of Old
17/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Son of Sparda)
20/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Human)
05/04 - God of War III Remastered
12/04 - Devil May Cry 5 (Dante Must Die)
14/04 - Journey
15/04 - ABZU
22/04 - Journey
28/04 - Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition
30/04 - Dangerous Driving
02/05 - Final Fantasy XV - Episode Gladiolus/Episode Prompto/Episode Ignis
12/05 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition
21/05 - RiME
22/05 - Remember Me
20/06 - Bioshock
08/07 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2
11/07 - Bioshock 2
25/07 - Inside
05/08 - Bioshock Infinite
14/08 - Eastshade
23/08 - Judgment
11/09 - Astral Chain (Pt Standard)
13/09 - Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
15/09 - Assault Spy (Normal/Asaru)
19/09 - Prey (2006)
23/09 - Leaving Lyndow
24/09 - Assault Spy (Normal/Amelia)
04/10 - Need for Speed: Underground 2

Something that just started as a spontaneous moment of curiosity ended up as me playing through this whole game again. I was very impressed with how well this game has held up so many years later. Although I have poked around with this game a couple of times since it was new, this is the first time I've actually committed to playing more than the opening hours since back on the Gamecube/PS2. With how the series has floundered around since, failing to live up to the legacy of this game, I had considered the possibility that maybe this one wasn't as good a I remember. That perhaps it was just nostalgia making me hold it up as better than it was. But nope, it's still great. And it still puts many modern racing games to shame in some ways, even outside the NFS series.

Most crucially the feel of driving is really fantastic. Even though it's approachable and arcadey, it actually has a sense of subtlety to it that I suspect hides more going on under the surface than one might realise. Cars have a really nice progressive sense of grip to them, where you actually have to pay attention to controlling throttle and oversteer, and getting your racing line right is important. Engine braking is even a thing here too. There's a sense of nuance and communication between you and the car which feels really nice. It's still really satisfying to play, and is much more rewarding and involving than many other racing games today. If you could take this handling model out of this game and just drop it in to something that came out yesterday, it would still stand out as among the best the genre could offer.

The structure of the game is very straightforward and quite basic by modern standards, but it generally works to the game's strengths. The open world is large enough to feel like a sprawling city for you to explore, but still small enough that every part feels unique and you can build up an intimate knowledge of it. It feels a bit strange going back to a game that locks off parts of the world with barriers until you progress more, but you unlock the majority of the city relatively quickly, so it's no big deal in practice. The career structure generally feels like a long list of arbitrary races, but as you unlock more areas, tracks do tend to get more technical, so there is a difficulty curve of sorts. There's a nice progression to upgrades for your car too, with each step noticeably making the car feel different each time.

There's a decent variety of race types, with a range of quality to them. The standard circuit and sprint races are what they sound like, and are fun as the meat and potatoes of the game. The "URL" races on closed courses that are outside the city are among the best in the game as they really reward a proper racing line, and don't have any traffic or sneaky kerbs to mess you up. Street X races, that take place in tight courses made from car parks were pretty fun as they also reward similar skills, but are held back by AI racers having a tendency of crashing in to you in the early race and ruining things. I wasn't much a fan of the drag or drift modes though. Drag races require near perfect timing for changing gears, so you need to be looking very closely at your revs, while at the same time trying to dodge between lanes to avoid obstacles, with really sluggish and unresponsive turning. The drift mode doesn't feel very well thought out. They change the handling of the car in that mode, and all it does it basically makes it more slippy, but in not a satisfying way. It doesn't have a good sense of momentum.

The AI in general isn't great either. That problem of them crashing in to you at the beginning of races persists in most modes. It's just that it's more of a problem on the Street X tracks than on other courses. They also don't seem to be following the same physics rules as you either. They aren't good at taking a racing line, yet they manage to get around corners faster than they should be able to given the route they take. While the game doesn't feel unfair for the most part, it's not hard to see where the rubber banding is happening, and sometimes you'll need to restart a race a couple of times just to get away from opponents acting like idiots in the first few corners.

Graphically the game doesn't look too bad. It's still obviously a PS2 era game, with all the low poly environments and limited lighting effects you would expect from that, but the overall picture it manages to paint still works. The central city area in particular looks quite nice, with all the colourful neon lights in the dark, and some real effort going in to creating memorable spaces. When you go up to the more mountainous area, seeing the city below you from afar is also still kind of impressive. Although the illusion breaks down a bit if you scrutinize it too much. It's a backdrop that obviously was never meant to be seen in a 1920x1080 resolution. Unfortunately the later areas of the game are a bit drab. An industrial area that is mostly factories or dock warehouses, etc. Not interesting to look at or be around. The car models themselves aren't bad. Obviously they can't stand up to the likes of Forza these days, but they have fairly impressive detail for a PS2 game. The paintwork and lighting on them isn't great though. It's not that hard to notice they have per-vertex lighting, and it often seems to reflect either too brightly or too darkly. But speaking of the look of the cars, I have to give credit to how you actually can upgrade them tastefully. Since the game is aping the early Fast and Furious style look, one might think that it's stuck in that era, only giving you options to make your car look ugly, but that's not actually the case. While you still need to embrace that aesthetic to a certain degree, there's still a good amount of body parts and such which look cool, and not like you're slapping ugly gaudy bits on to your car that don't belong.

Playing on PC these days, there are a few technical hiccups however. In some tracks and parts of the world, the game stutters quite badly. I'm not exactly sure what it is. It behaves somewhat like a double-buffer v-sync issue, but it's not quite the same. It's worse than that. On a few rare occasions there's a lighting bug that makes the sky strobe rapidly too, usually at the same time as this frame stuttering too. Very unpleasant. Luckily those things only happened infrequently enough that it didn't ruin things though. The game also crashes quite a bit, usually when entering a race, but a couple of times it happened randomly mid-race too. Pretty annoying, but the game loads so fast these days that jumping back in only takes seconds. Although, honestly, I'm giving the game a lot of slack, for being old and out of date for modern systems. If a new game was breaking like this, I probably wouldn't let it slide anywhere near as much.

Yet again, ended up rambling much more than I meant to. But I think this game warrants it. It's one of my favourite games of all time, one that meant a lot to me growing up, and is still one of the highest points in the genre. Now, what next? Another old NFS game? Which one? Hmm...
User avatar
DomsBeard
Member
Posts: 3689
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 5:03 pm
Location: Doms Chin

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

One Night Stand

A shallow experience that I feel hasn't taught me anything outside of a cheap thrill for a hour or so.

Oh hang on.... :lol:

For £3.99 it killed an hour but it doesn't have anything interesting to say and the guy you are playing is an arse. I unlocked all the 12 endings (I had to Google a couple).

Recommend? No
User avatar
Alex79
Member
Posts: 8423
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 12:36 pm
Location: Walsall, UK.
Contact:

Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Alex79 »

stvnorman wrote: October 1st, 2019, 3:27 pm10 September: Sega Ages Virtua Racing (Switch)
What did you count as a completion, out of interest? I'm aiming to get first place in all three races on default settings. Tracks one and two are fine, but I can't even get to the fifth lap of the final track at the moment though!
Locked