Games Completed 2020
- Angry_Kurt
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Re: Games Completed 2020
I should have mentioned that I've played Into the Breach as well but wasn't a fan due to the roguelike element, I've tried all the classic roguelikes like Binding of Issac and Spelunky and didn't enjoy any of them, so I think roguelikes just aren't for me.
The big appeal of Mario and Rabbids and Steamworld Heist for me was the lack of downtime between missions, which is what I just wanted to get to playing, so I'm not sure Fire Emblem would be suitable either, maybe if I ever see it cheap one day.
XCOM Chimera Squad is a good shout though, I also think I would like Gears Tactics.
The big appeal of Mario and Rabbids and Steamworld Heist for me was the lack of downtime between missions, which is what I just wanted to get to playing, so I'm not sure Fire Emblem would be suitable either, maybe if I ever see it cheap one day.
XCOM Chimera Squad is a good shout though, I also think I would like Gears Tactics.
Re: Games Completed 2020
Mario and Rabbids is fantastic.
The couch co-op missions are great fun as well and really challenging.
The couch co-op missions are great fun as well and really challenging.
Re: Games Completed 2020
Hmm, in all honesty it's not a genre traditionally well suited for that style of pick up and play. It's only in recent years really that we've seen more accessible entries like Rabbids and Steamworld.
If you still have a GBA/DS knocking around and have never played the Advance Wars series then that's an easy recommendation. Not exactly the same thing but scratches the same itch.
Oh and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on 3DS is excellent too and can be picked up for next to nothing.
If you still have a GBA/DS knocking around and have never played the Advance Wars series then that's an easy recommendation. Not exactly the same thing but scratches the same itch.
Oh and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on 3DS is excellent too and can be picked up for next to nothing.
- Jon Cheetham
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Re: Games Completed 2020
I've been looking for something else like Into the Breach, the straightforward mechanics and short fights are perfect for me as I'm not a big tactics gamer so far. But it's lovely, I've played it for 50 or 60 hours across Steam and Switch. Based on the dev talk on YouTube they did a lot of design by subtraction which is why it's so refined.
Anyway, sounds like Steamworld Heist is a good one to go with next time it's on sale, which seems to be half the time on the eshop!
Saw Brad Galloway's review of Spaceland for Gamecritics the other day and although I haven't played it yet, it really looks like it should scratch the Into the Breach itch for me as well.
Anyway, sounds like Steamworld Heist is a good one to go with next time it's on sale, which seems to be half the time on the eshop!
Saw Brad Galloway's review of Spaceland for Gamecritics the other day and although I haven't played it yet, it really looks like it should scratch the Into the Breach itch for me as well.
Re: Games Completed 2020
It's great isn't it? Bought it alongside my console at launch and it remains my favourite title on the system.
Re: Games Completed 2020
- Spoiler: show
Had a good time revisiting this one. The art is just jaw-dropping. Amazing aesthetics. Still some of the most impressive in any game. Even though this game does have a small cult following, I still think it deserves more attention than it gets. It's somewhat sad that it's kind of forgotten these days, stuck on its original release with no port or remaster, and generating so little discussion. But anyway, it's an amazing experience and a vivid trip through a world of colour and imagination. It really does a great job of selling this world of fallen angels, that feels like another reality just as much as another time, free from the constraints of recorded history. Where the places you explore defy explanation, like they're barely comprehensible by humans, as one would expect from the works of beings of divine origins. Even almost 10 years after coming out, it still manages to impress and surprise with just what it's able to present on screen. It's like the art team are just flexing as hard as they can with no restraint, and it's brilliant. One thing it made me think of as well, is when you see art done by concept artists which doesn't actually make it in to a game. Like maybe it's just done as a portfolio piece to show their skill, or maybe an early pre-production phase thing that is too wild and never makes it in to the final game. Sometimes it's a bit disappointing when you see that stuff, seeing what amazing things these artists came up with but you never get to play. El Shaddai is what happens when you actually make a game based on that art.
Mechanically it's not bad, but nothing special. The combat is very simple, and limited in a lot of ways. Only three weapons, each with a modest move set, and a small number of enemies, who mostly also just use those same weapons. The game feel is okay but could be better. It's good enough to do the job and have a good sense of impact, but the dodge and block often feel insufficient. The rock-paper-scissors relationship between weapons adds a little something to it though, and it gives you something to think about during fights, deciding what order to tackle enemies in to steal their weapons. Keeps you changing things up. So it's okay, enough to hold interest and keep you going through the game, but it's mostly connecting tissue to what you're really here for, which is the more holistic experience of the game in general. It's an aesthetic experience, not really a mechanically technical one.
Also, I thought it might be worth mentioning the bug issues I had, and how I managed to get around it. In case it's useful to anyone, or even myself if I go back to this game again and this reoccurs. I ran in to a problem on this 360 version where almost any time I hit anything with a weapon (enemies or breakable objects) the game would freeze for a second, or even more. It even sometimes froze long enough to go to a black screen with a loading icon for a few seconds. Made the game just unplayable. The way I found to stop this happening was to disconnect from the internet, and then reconnect again. That is disconnected from Wifi specifically, not just Xbox Live or signing out of my profile. No idea why this works, but it does. I think it might have something to do with tracking achievements though, or something that has the game communicating over the internet when you hit stuff. Since even with this work-around, I got still this short freeze when I unlocked and achievement for killing enough enemies with a certain weapon.
- Mr Ixolite
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Re: Games Completed 2020
May 6th: Ori and the Blind Forest definitive edition, Switch
This was a curious experience. I expected to get a pretty, nonlinear metroidvania with a minimalist story, but the game turned out to be something slightly else. I sadly can’t say I adore it as much as the general consensus, due to a slew of small and big gripes -and not just the two times it glitched out on me. For one thing, while movement and platforming was fluid and fun, attacking enemies felt clumsy and imprecise, and the scaling of their damage output seemed annoyingly steep. Maybe I needed to have found more powerups or expanded my skill tree, but it felt weird dying to two shots from some scrub enemy despite having quadrupled my health, just because said enemy was now green.
Speaking of, while the overall art direction is quite lovely, I feel like the game drops the ball when it comes to enemies; theres a few frogs, some birds, spiders and a whole lot of amorphous blobs. The pickups as well are quite indistinct; Yahtzee Croshaw wasn’t kidding when he said the game had an overall over-reliance on blobs, and sometimes I found it hard to see what was a pickup, what was a powerup, and which enemy projectiles could/could not be bashed off of. This could be a result of the games zoomed-out perspective and me playing it handheld, but in general I just didn’t feel that this beautiful world had that much interesting stuff in it.
The games story also irked me a bit; I never felt the goal of reigniting the elements was that well established, and its kind of hard to feel the element of flame needs reigniting when you’re tiptoing around a smoldering volcano. But my main problem was with the way the story was told. I would’ve much preferred the game to have been completely without narration, as I would often be taken out of the moment due to Seins blunt exposition, or the Spirit trees needless recaps of on-screen events. Yes, I know what Kuros motivation is, I saw the flashback, no need to tell me.
ALL THAT SAID I still liked the game a lot, because the moment to moment platforming is great. At its best Ori feels like you’re dancing through the air, with the bash skill truly taking the game up another level. For a “metroidvania” I actually did very little backtracking and exploring, instead barreling towards the next linear progression of platforming challenges. Between this and other contemporary Metroidvanias such as Hollow Knight, I’m glad they’re taking cues from more traditional platformers and making the actual traversal involved and challenging. I’d definitely be interested in the sequel if it ever finds its way switchside.
This was a curious experience. I expected to get a pretty, nonlinear metroidvania with a minimalist story, but the game turned out to be something slightly else. I sadly can’t say I adore it as much as the general consensus, due to a slew of small and big gripes -and not just the two times it glitched out on me. For one thing, while movement and platforming was fluid and fun, attacking enemies felt clumsy and imprecise, and the scaling of their damage output seemed annoyingly steep. Maybe I needed to have found more powerups or expanded my skill tree, but it felt weird dying to two shots from some scrub enemy despite having quadrupled my health, just because said enemy was now green.
Speaking of, while the overall art direction is quite lovely, I feel like the game drops the ball when it comes to enemies; theres a few frogs, some birds, spiders and a whole lot of amorphous blobs. The pickups as well are quite indistinct; Yahtzee Croshaw wasn’t kidding when he said the game had an overall over-reliance on blobs, and sometimes I found it hard to see what was a pickup, what was a powerup, and which enemy projectiles could/could not be bashed off of. This could be a result of the games zoomed-out perspective and me playing it handheld, but in general I just didn’t feel that this beautiful world had that much interesting stuff in it.
The games story also irked me a bit; I never felt the goal of reigniting the elements was that well established, and its kind of hard to feel the element of flame needs reigniting when you’re tiptoing around a smoldering volcano. But my main problem was with the way the story was told. I would’ve much preferred the game to have been completely without narration, as I would often be taken out of the moment due to Seins blunt exposition, or the Spirit trees needless recaps of on-screen events. Yes, I know what Kuros motivation is, I saw the flashback, no need to tell me.
ALL THAT SAID I still liked the game a lot, because the moment to moment platforming is great. At its best Ori feels like you’re dancing through the air, with the bash skill truly taking the game up another level. For a “metroidvania” I actually did very little backtracking and exploring, instead barreling towards the next linear progression of platforming challenges. Between this and other contemporary Metroidvanias such as Hollow Knight, I’m glad they’re taking cues from more traditional platformers and making the actual traversal involved and challenging. I’d definitely be interested in the sequel if it ever finds its way switchside.
- Mr Ixolite
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Re: Games Completed 2020
Mid May: Mega Man X4, switch Mega Man/ Zero playthroughs
This is the first time I’ve played this in ages ever since playing it on PC, and I think it still holds up; The score is great, animations pop, and the levels are fine if a bit anemic in collectibles compared to its predecessor, but I guess the dual campaigns are supposed to compensate for that. A lot of things stood out to me this time;
For one thing, it never dawned on my young self how atrocious the localization truly was, but…wow, its bad. Beyond the notorious voice acting, much of the plot just straight up doesn’t make sense. Its also jarring just how much of a nothing X’s story is compared to Zeros, who gets all the juiciest dramatic beats. Its clear where Inafunes attention was.
Also, while the game does peg Zero as the “advanced” option, I’d forgotten just how brutal his campaign could be. Some bosses are complete roadblocks if you target them first (Storm Owl is a nightmare), whereas one specific skill is so useful that it completely overhauls the game, in a way similar to getting the charge dash in X1. If I ever play this again, I gotta remember starting with Split Mushroom, that’s for sure.
On the other hand, the game is more accommodating by allowing you to restart from mid-stage checkpoints, and giving you health pickups before a boss, which is nice and feels like the game respects your time. I could swear the game also gave me more lives as X. It’s a shame then that the final levels are such letdowns; The bosses are fine, but the actual stages are extremely short and unmemorable. But other than that, it’s a game worth fighting FOOOOR
This is the first time I’ve played this in ages ever since playing it on PC, and I think it still holds up; The score is great, animations pop, and the levels are fine if a bit anemic in collectibles compared to its predecessor, but I guess the dual campaigns are supposed to compensate for that. A lot of things stood out to me this time;
For one thing, it never dawned on my young self how atrocious the localization truly was, but…wow, its bad. Beyond the notorious voice acting, much of the plot just straight up doesn’t make sense. Its also jarring just how much of a nothing X’s story is compared to Zeros, who gets all the juiciest dramatic beats. Its clear where Inafunes attention was.
Also, while the game does peg Zero as the “advanced” option, I’d forgotten just how brutal his campaign could be. Some bosses are complete roadblocks if you target them first (Storm Owl is a nightmare), whereas one specific skill is so useful that it completely overhauls the game, in a way similar to getting the charge dash in X1. If I ever play this again, I gotta remember starting with Split Mushroom, that’s for sure.
On the other hand, the game is more accommodating by allowing you to restart from mid-stage checkpoints, and giving you health pickups before a boss, which is nice and feels like the game respects your time. I could swear the game also gave me more lives as X. It’s a shame then that the final levels are such letdowns; The bosses are fine, but the actual stages are extremely short and unmemorable. But other than that, it’s a game worth fighting FOOOOR
- mikeleddy83
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Re: Games Completed 2020
- Spoiler: show
- duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2020
I just finished the PS2 Punisher game from 2004. It gets a ton right, but it has some rough spots near the end. The armored enemies are pure BS and the boss fights weren't great. But, it nails being a Punisher game on the PS2. I really don't know why I never bought it new.
- seansthomas
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Re: Games Completed 2020
13th Jan - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
24th Jan - The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone
28th Jan - Far Lone Sails
10th Feb - Super Mario World
21st Feb - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
7th Mar - The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
18th Apr - Batman - The Telltale Series
9th May - Animal Crossing
9th May - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure DLC
29th May - Luigi's Mansion 3
Have been playing this on and off with the kids since Halloween and finally beat the final bosses today.
All in all, I enjoyed my first Luigi's Mansion experience a lot. It truly is a stunning game. All the awards it received for animation were utterly justified. It looks like a DreamWorks film and the variety of tiny touches and character animations are tremendous.
I also loved the inventiveness of the game's design. Having themed levels meant I was always really excited to see what scenario was waiting once we got to the next floor.
Gameplay wise, I wasn't quite so smitten though. Never hated it or found it horrible, but it's just a bit clunky. It took me several hours to adjust to the aiming, they seemed a bit unintuitive and I plain couldn't get them to do what I wanted on some boss fights.
And oh the boss fights. I honestly can't decide what I think of these; some of them were the best encounters I've had with an end of level guardian in many a year, some seemed plain unfair or requiring a guide to beat? Found them all inventive and different though, so I applaud the developers for that, but there were a couple that seemed to NEED a second player to beat or required about 5 Golden Bones to plod through.
I started the game too by hoovering up (excuse the pun) every last secret, gem, bit of cash etc and finding the secrets charming. But by the 10 floor I couldn't be bothered and I never wanted to see that dam cat again.
So I'm a bit conflicted. Not always fun to actually play or control. But it's gorgeous, inventive, original and genuinely funny. My kids were in tears laughing at various points. And for that alone it deserves huge praise and love.
24th Jan - The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone
28th Jan - Far Lone Sails
10th Feb - Super Mario World
21st Feb - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
7th Mar - The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
18th Apr - Batman - The Telltale Series
9th May - Animal Crossing
9th May - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure DLC
29th May - Luigi's Mansion 3
Have been playing this on and off with the kids since Halloween and finally beat the final bosses today.
All in all, I enjoyed my first Luigi's Mansion experience a lot. It truly is a stunning game. All the awards it received for animation were utterly justified. It looks like a DreamWorks film and the variety of tiny touches and character animations are tremendous.
I also loved the inventiveness of the game's design. Having themed levels meant I was always really excited to see what scenario was waiting once we got to the next floor.
Gameplay wise, I wasn't quite so smitten though. Never hated it or found it horrible, but it's just a bit clunky. It took me several hours to adjust to the aiming, they seemed a bit unintuitive and I plain couldn't get them to do what I wanted on some boss fights.
And oh the boss fights. I honestly can't decide what I think of these; some of them were the best encounters I've had with an end of level guardian in many a year, some seemed plain unfair or requiring a guide to beat? Found them all inventive and different though, so I applaud the developers for that, but there were a couple that seemed to NEED a second player to beat or required about 5 Golden Bones to plod through.
I started the game too by hoovering up (excuse the pun) every last secret, gem, bit of cash etc and finding the secrets charming. But by the 10 floor I couldn't be bothered and I never wanted to see that dam cat again.
So I'm a bit conflicted. Not always fun to actually play or control. But it's gorgeous, inventive, original and genuinely funny. My kids were in tears laughing at various points. And for that alone it deserves huge praise and love.
- Angry_Kurt
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- Joined: May 1st, 2020, 2:53 pm
Re: Games Completed 2020
I have this in my list to play on Switch, although I'd like to know how important music and sound is in the game? It's just that I mostly play my Switch whilst half watching something on TV, but if this is a game that requires to be played on the TV with the sound on, then I will delay playing it until I've finished Red Dead 2.seansthomas wrote: ↑May 29th, 2020, 1:09 pm 13th Jan - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
24th Jan - The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone
28th Jan - Far Lone Sails
10th Feb - Super Mario World
21st Feb - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
7th Mar - The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
18th Apr - Batman - The Telltale Series
9th May - Animal Crossing
9th May - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure DLC
29th May - Luigi's Mansion 3
Have been playing this on and off with the kids since Halloween and finally beat the final bosses today.
All in all, I enjoyed my first Luigi's Mansion experience a lot. It truly is a stunning game. All the awards it received for animation were utterly justified. It looks like a DreamWorks film and the variety of tiny touches and character animations are tremendous.
I also loved the inventiveness of the game's design. Having themed levels meant I was always really excited to see what scenario was waiting once we got to the next floor.
Gameplay wise, I wasn't quite so smitten though. Never hated it or found it horrible, but it's just a bit clunky. It took me several hours to adjust to the aiming, they seemed a bit unintuitive and I plain couldn't get them to do what I wanted on some boss fights.
And oh the boss fights. I honestly can't decide what I think of these; some of them were the best encounters I've had with an end of level guardian in many a year, some seemed plain unfair or requiring a guide to beat? Found them all inventive and different though, so I applaud the developers for that, but there were a couple that seemed to NEED a second player to beat or required about 5 Golden Bones to plod through.
I started the game too by hoovering up (excuse the pun) every last secret, gem, bit of cash etc and finding the secrets charming. But by the 10 floor I couldn't be bothered and I never wanted to see that dam cat again.
So I'm a bit conflicted. Not always fun to actually play or control. But it's gorgeous, inventive, original and genuinely funny. My kids were in tears laughing at various points. And for that alone it deserves huge praise and love.
- seansthomas
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- Joined: March 31st, 2015, 8:10 am
Re: Games Completed 2020
Bit biased because Nintendo do such good music for all their games, I always feel the experience is heightened with it on!Angry_Kurt wrote: ↑May 29th, 2020, 2:48 pmI have this in my list to play on Switch, although I'd like to know how important music and sound is in the game? It's just that I mostly play my Switch whilst half watching something on TV, but if this is a game that requires to be played on the TV with the sound on, then I will delay playing it until I've finished Red Dead 2.seansthomas wrote: ↑May 29th, 2020, 1:09 pm 13th Jan - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
24th Jan - The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone
28th Jan - Far Lone Sails
10th Feb - Super Mario World
21st Feb - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
7th Mar - The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
18th Apr - Batman - The Telltale Series
9th May - Animal Crossing
9th May - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure DLC
29th May - Luigi's Mansion 3
Have been playing this on and off with the kids since Halloween and finally beat the final bosses today.
All in all, I enjoyed my first Luigi's Mansion experience a lot. It truly is a stunning game. All the awards it received for animation were utterly justified. It looks like a DreamWorks film and the variety of tiny touches and character animations are tremendous.
I also loved the inventiveness of the game's design. Having themed levels meant I was always really excited to see what scenario was waiting once we got to the next floor.
Gameplay wise, I wasn't quite so smitten though. Never hated it or found it horrible, but it's just a bit clunky. It took me several hours to adjust to the aiming, they seemed a bit unintuitive and I plain couldn't get them to do what I wanted on some boss fights.
And oh the boss fights. I honestly can't decide what I think of these; some of them were the best encounters I've had with an end of level guardian in many a year, some seemed plain unfair or requiring a guide to beat? Found them all inventive and different though, so I applaud the developers for that, but there were a couple that seemed to NEED a second player to beat or required about 5 Golden Bones to plod through.
I started the game too by hoovering up (excuse the pun) every last secret, gem, bit of cash etc and finding the secrets charming. But by the 10 floor I couldn't be bothered and I never wanted to see that dam cat again.
So I'm a bit conflicted. Not always fun to actually play or control. But it's gorgeous, inventive, original and genuinely funny. My kids were in tears laughing at various points. And for that alone it deserves huge praise and love.
But there's no real dialogue so you could play it handheld without it.
Reckon you'd lose a lot of the atmosphere though.
- FaceIKnow
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Re: Games Completed 2020
Jan - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Feb - Capcom Beat ’Em Up Bundle
March - What Remains of Edith Finch
March - The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
March - The Mark of Kri
April - Resident Evil 3 Remake
April - Super Metroid
April - Doom 64
May - Super Mario RPG
Feb - Capcom Beat ’Em Up Bundle
March - What Remains of Edith Finch
March - The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
March - The Mark of Kri
April - Resident Evil 3 Remake
April - Super Metroid
April - Doom 64
May - Super Mario RPG
Re: Games Completed 2020
May 29th - Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath (PS4)
Probably a bit too expensive when bought as dlc rather than if you’re a new player buying the complete edition of the game, but still a really fun new set of chapters for the story.
The best part is that this gives Cary Tagawa a lot of screen time to reprise his glorious scene chewing take on Shang Tsung as seen in the 90s movie.
Also: With the addition of robocop I think netherrealm have managed to get every single dark horse comics crossover event into their games except for Judge Dredd now.
- ColinAlonso
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- Location: Dublin
Re: Games Completed 2020
- Spoiler: show
My feelings on this are similar to those on Monument Valley. Both games' puzzle mechanics are neat but I was past half way before I felt the actual puzzles were interesting. This wouldn't be an issue if it was offset by a stronger story, what's there is sweet but pretty minimal. The levels are quite pretty in an odd way.
May 28 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)
My first AC and I've reached the credits. That's not really an ending but seems like a good time to put it here. I only feel compelled to play it for about half an hour each day and therefore don't get involved in larger island-wide changes.
Also I can finally lay paving. I've wanted this ability for weeks.
- Jon Cheetham
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Re: Games Completed 2020
- Spoiler: show
I'm hooked on this story now... I already had the second game in my Steam library and can't wait to get to it.
The world is austere but full of life and detail, the tactical fights are fun, the dialogue is really good and the choices you need to make can be posers. Not to mention the fallout from your decisions can have major ramifications... the biggest consequences (read: gut-punches) I had to deal with came from what was happening between the battles.
Also, that hand-drawn art style. The game knows how good it is to look at and has plenty of lingering shots as you enjoy watching your caravan travel over sweeping hills... tempered by the inevitable drop in your clansmen's morale as you get further from the last rest stop. Or you can click through to a sumptuous world map that really demands to be included as a high quality foldout in an old school big box version of the game...
Re: Games Completed 2020
Jun 1st - Bastion (XBO)
Second time through for me, I finished it originally on the 360 years ago. Still such a great game.
Re: Games Completed 2020
I remember not really enjoying this first time I completed it on Vita, but I picked it up on Switch again the other week for a couple of quid to give another try. It's weird, I liked almost everything about it, the looks, the music, the narration, I can't remember what it was I didn't like...