For the purposes of this thread a game is complete when you say it is. It’s not about point scoring or one upmanship, this is just a place to record what you’ve beaten and when, and to chat about that.

For me I tend to log them when I hit the end credits, unless there’s significant post credit progress to be made (I saw the credits roll three times on MGS5 before I decided I was finally at the end of that...)

I don’t tend to include things like the story modes of fighting games unless they’re quite long (which is why Soul Calibur 6 isn’t on my list as complete yet, I’ve cleared the Soul chronicle stuff but still have a lot of the RPG mode Libra of Soul to complete)

Others don’t put games on here till they’ve 100% cleared the game or its achievement lists.

Basically, it’s your list, so your rules.

>"My Life, My Rules" by Combichrist starts pumping the speakers.

System Rift DLC for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

In a post-Prey world ( ), this seemed a solid but rote standalone. It's set in a small corner of Prague with a couple of sidequests to check out, followed by one large and complex level where you need to rob a bank/data centre. You're given 9 Praxis points to kit out your Jensen, and putting most of them into Hacking made it pretty straightforward. I had an inventory full of grenades and weapons at the end that I never used.

Jensen was a little less po-faced than usual, which was nice, and there was some decent interaction with a character from Human Revolution which made them both seem a little more human. There was one of those 'you're trapped in the mainframe' virtual bits at the end, which was nice environmentally and a bit annoying to play, but decent, if unspectacular, overall.

Tacoma

Enjoyed it way more than Gone Home. I liked the setting and how the story was delivered. I felt the story was a little rushed at the end.

Spoiler: show

You discover how they were set up to die to then being rescued a lot quicker than I thought

I would have liked that fleshed out a bit longer. Got it in the sale for £4 would recommend

Finished another round of A Link to the Past. This might be the third time I've actually played it to the end, but I've started it many times over the years. Still one of the best games, I adore it. And to add, I'm loving my SNES Mini!

Persona 3 Fes

It took me 108 hours over 4 months but I finally beat Persona 3

I have the PS2 version but I decided to skip the 40 hour post game campaign (The Answer) and read a plot synopsis as a lot of people consider it an unfair grind, and after 108 hours I don't feel like adding another 40 onto that

That said, I really loved this game and have fallen into a mild post credits depression now a game that was an almost daily part of my life for a third of a year is no more

I think I prefer the game to P4G, though only just. The characters are great and the game world has such depth. The combat is fun, though it can be frustrating at times.

I didn't find not having direct control over the ally AI to be an issue at all. 99% of the time they opted to act in a way I approved of

P3 and P4 are the only MegaTen games I've played, and while P5 is on my "to play list" I'd like to try a few of the mainline games too at some point

Simonsloth wrote: ↑January 8th, 2019, 11:00 pm

OneCreditBen wrote: ↑January 8th, 2019, 10:51 pm January 8th - Ninja Gaiden NES.
Very far from One Credit.
Laying down the foundations for a new clear.
I really enjoyed it.
Tough, but doable.
Very doable...

Haha. If anyone can do it you can Ben!

You’re literally like Neo when it comes to these games. I watch your videos and I am convinced you have superpowers and that time moves slower for you as some of your feats seem improbable or impossible.

It just takes time my friend.
Tea and time.
I love the way this game plays, it's so compulsive.
I honestly think I can do this, but first I'm not quite done with rescuing Princess Prin Prin...

oni-link wrote: ↑January 9th, 2019, 10:27 pm Persona 3 Fes

It took me 108 hours over 4 months but I finally beat Persona 3

I have the PS2 version but I decided to skip the 40 hour post game campaign (The Answer) and read a plot synopsis as a lot of people consider it an unfair grind, and after 108 hours I don't feel like adding another 40 onto that

That said, I really loved this game and have fallen into a mild post credits depression now a game that was an almost daily part of my life for a third of a year is no more

I think I prefer the game to P4G, though only just. The characters are great and the game world has such depth. The combat is fun, though it can be frustrating at times.

I didn't find not having direct control over the ally AI to be an issue at all. 99% of the time they opted to act in a way I approved of

P3 and P4 are the only MegaTen games I've played, and while P5 is on my "to play list" I'd like to try a few of the mainline games too at some point

P3:FES definitely had the strongest ending, and left the biggest impression on me too, even compared to the sequels, which I have a lot of love for.

Welcome to the Persona 3 post-game club!

A Criminal Past DLC for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

I definitely lean towards the more casual side of stealth games, so this was a bit above my pay grade. Jensen goes undercover in a prison, so he is stripped of his augs and has to spend a considerable amount of time sneaking past lots of guard patrols, cameras, bots etc in a confined space, and it just wasn't fun for me. I also didn't pick up on the cue that would give him back access to his augs for a good long while, so it was very painful. In the end I was so fed up with it that I rushed through the part of the game where it actually opened up, and didn't explore off the beaten track.

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Interesting atmosphere, some unique designs.

I had real problems with the visual design of the levels though - in the sense that the entire game is literally all one beigey/yellow colour. It made it easy to get lost sometimes when you were trying to find something.

My other gripe - a lot of fetch quests. Chapter 3 is literally a giant fetch quest. It made the game kind of a slog in some parts to play.

Not a bad game, but could have used some tweaks to vary up the game a bit in places.

Wasn't keen on the ending either.

Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express

Thought this was a good, charming pinball based metroidvania. Not quite as good as I've been hearing on podcasts for my tastes but the fact I finished a game based on pinball and took something away to help me understand what makes pinball fun is a bonus for me.

January - Tomb Raider: Underworld (PS3)

That might be it for a while as I've made a deal with myself to abstain from games (and television, and films, and showering) until I've finished the novel I'm writing, hopefully by March. This vow may well end up going the way of most other well-intentioned New Year's resolutions though. Watch this space.

First completion of the year!

JAN - Super Mario Land (Nintendo Gameboy)

I know what you're thinking, and you're right, Super Mario Land is kind of an odd game to to playing for the first time in 2019, but I enjoyed the Gameboy special episode so much I felt inspired to go back and look at some of the games for a console I never owned, and hardly ever really got to play on.

I noticed Donkey Kong in the Volume 8 preview, so knew I wanted to play through that, but I realised I don't think I ever played Super Mario Land either, and once I found out it was so short I thought I may as well get it done.

I don't have a Gameboy, or a Switch or 3DS, so I resorted to emulation on my PSP. I always prefer original hardware, but this was the next best thing - at least it's handheld!

So was the game worth it? Well that's a difficult one, seeing as it's so short and inoffensive, it's difficult to say it was a waste of time, but was it good? Not really. I'm sure it won people over back in the day, but playing this for the first time now, not particularly enjoyable.

The jump physics seem a bit off, and the game doesn't play by Mario rules (exploding Koopa shells!?) but there were moments that had me smiling. All in all, glad I played it, but not one I'll ever return to. Looking forward to the sequel though, which I know is an improvement in every conceivable way.

The Gardens Between

A very average and forgettable game. Couple of the puzzles were smart but I would not recommend. Genuinely baffled by the hype around it. There isnt really a pay off at the end either to make sense of it all. Glad I got it "free" via Game Pass as I would have probably bought it after the high praise elsewhere.

Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Jan 10 - Yoku's Island Express
Jan 13 - Evil Within 2

Finished Evil Within 2 for the show later on in the year. If you're short on cash and want a horror game which i found to be highly enjoyable with a few rough patches then this and the first game are for you.

Full thoughts on the upcoming issues in what I assume is October.

Jan 13: Marvel Spiderman

Finished main game along with all the DLC. Really enjoyed this. Spiderman always felt like it had great potential for a videogame based on the character's movement and agility which this game nails to a T. Just swinging through New York alone is a joy and improving your gadgets, suits and abilities is done at such a pace that things are always interesting. Combat was wonderfully fun and the sheer amount of ways you can take on enemies led to some fun experimenting. A well timed trip web never failed to make me smile. Story itself was a fun enough romp with a nice but not overwhelming variety of villains and the diversity of things you do is decent such as stealth missions as Mary Jane, photography, spying on crooks, removing bombs, hacking, etc. QTEs were also not as frequent as I feared, a lot of the great tricks you are pulling yourself which is satisfying as all hell. Easily overtakes the Arkham series as the best superhero game I have ever played. From the few games of theirs I have played Insomniac has not let me down yet.

Jan 2 - War for the Overworld (PC)

There seem to be two types of indie games based on nostalgia. There are ones like Shovel Knight that use the old games as a jumping off point for their own ideas and improvements to the games of yore. Then you have others that look at old games and do little more than copy it. War for the Overworld is firmly in the second category. The room names you can build are different, the spells you can use are different, but the game plays identically. Dig out areas of the map to build your rooms to attract creatures to use to conquer your foe. There are no improvements on the formula. You have next to no control over your creatures in combat, just dump them on the enemy and let them kill each other, toss in your spells and hope you win. The possession spell is still there but that is about it. If there is something else to it, I don't see how.

Not helping is it feels like they forgot to turn on the AI in the campaign. They almost never attack. There is even a map where it is a 1v3, I attacked one of them and lost horribly at the same time another dug into my own base. Neither of them sent their creatures to attack me. In fact, all three never bothered to attack me. They defended my attack but did nothing else. This held true on every single map except on a couple of them where they are directly scripted to attack you at certain points.

To boil it down, the game copies Dungeon Keeper, doesn't improve on anything, and manages to make things worse. This did not make for a good first game of the year.

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

For the pod this year.

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City after buying the remasters from the Xbox store for £12 In a sale just before Christmas

n an attempt to capture my gaming habits for the year I am going to try and keep the list up to date, and provide some slightly pointless waffle to go along with it.

Jan:

Moss - PSVR
Bound - PS4

The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360 (Back Compat)

I appreciate this may appear to be an odd thing to start but this has been on my intrigue list for a little while. Came out to middling reviews at the time it has been a title that has always made me wonder how it plays and what it was like.

From the start you can tell that LucasArts had grand plans for it. There was some money behind it, the story makes a good first impression and the idea of using the force to elctrify, push, throw about while bashing people with lightsabers instantly gives you that sense of empowerment. You think this could be great, this could be a bit special.

Annoyingly the problem with being a god is that you can kick everyones arse with little care in the world. normal enamies become too easy and the larger foes have a very set strategy that descends into rinse and repeat sessions. The most disappointing thing is how the battle mechanics never identified what makes a good, third person action title. The dodge and movement are key, you have to feel in total control at all times and able to use visual and audio cues to outfox your opponent. Bayonetta, DMC, Dark Souls and others provide a satisfying way to get out of trouble as well as cause it. TFU simply relies on you being a tank and fails to provide a solid brawler.

Which is annoying because when you are being a god it can feel good at points, especially when you are combining lightsaber attacks with force powers and causing a complete smorgasboard of destruction. Lightsaber combo into throwing item into enamies followed up by a huge surge of electricity is just fun, and power fantasies are not always terrible things. It just gets a bit too....samey.

As a aside, that star destroyer section that everyone said was hideously designed and horribly explained? They were spot on.