Games Completed 2020

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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Magical_Isopod »

#2 Hidden Agenda:

Pretty good game. Def would have been more fun multiplayer, but for some reason, it doesn't have any online component whatsoever. And unlike something like Jackbox, you can't even play multiplayer while streaming, which is stupid. But I still enjoyed it for what it was - very competent interactive fiction CYOA thing. Definitely a hit at parties. 2 games out of 52 down, let's keep rolling.

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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Chopper »

Clippa wrote:Monolith
Sir, this is [strikethrough]a McDonalds[/strikethrough] the Completed Games thread.


@Isopod. I enjoyed Hidden Agenda when I played it (single player) too. I would have liked to see how the multiplayer panned out, especially as the person with the hidden agenda trying to influence the others. That might have added a fair bit to the game. I believe that feeds into a mechanic where players vote between choices on who should be the ‘leader’, ie the most trustworthy person, who then makes a big choice on behalf of the group later, so all that sounds pretty intriguing, room for shenanigans etc.

Semi-related, there’s an FMV game in the psn sale at the moment for cheap called Erica. Looking forward to giving that a go soon.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Simonsloth »

To be honest as someone who played hidden agenda multiplayer I can atttest that it is a good idea but a bit rubbish.

I actually only played it solo recently and found it much better
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Chopper »

clippa wrote: January 5th, 2020, 1:03 pm The cool kidz spit at me when I talk about pc games in the shmups thread :(

Here, you like pc games. You can use a mouse and press buttons on a keyboard at the same time without burning your house down, why don't you give it a try? It's really cool.
I know, they are heathens. I always check out the games you are on about but our gaming interests don't really intersect as I don't like the fast and frantic stuff. For example I'd love to play Noita, if I had any spatial awareness or reactions whatsoever, but unfortunately I don't.

What did you think of black bird by the way? I saw it made your list as your favourite shmup of the year, but by default since it was the only one you played. Did you just like the presentation more than the gameplay? They not really for you?
I loved it, but I generally just played one run-through per day for a long time and played with the intention of accumulating lives so I could survive the mini bullet hell thing right at the end. I enjoyed it a lot but decided not to bother with True mode, as it would probably be a bridge too far for me. So yeah, the presentation, I guess.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Magical_Isopod »

#3 Rocket Knight Adventures:

This game is great, but a frustrating play. Without the Retron 5's cheat features (infinite lives in particular), this game is legit just not playable. I do not miss the arbitrary difficulty of these older games. That being said, if you have infinite lives and lean on the checkpoints, it's still very hard and very playable. In the second half of the game though, there's a lot of bullshit. Everything has to be memorized, and several sections basically require flawless timing. Lots of one-hit kills too. As such, it's crazy to me that they expected people to beat this thing with a finite number of 1-Ups.

All the gripes aside though, I did love this one. It's got a phenomenal soundtrack, and really great setpiece moments. The bosses are really cleverly designed too - but I like I said, they rely entirely on memorization. Play this one, but play it with cheats.

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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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clippa wrote: January 5th, 2020, 4:24 pm Did you manage to get through that bit at the end on normal? Right pain in the arse when they're chucking all the cows and stuff at you, you really need your bird powered up there or that bit can last for aaaaages.
Yeah, it transcends the genre, definitely. Such a unique, gorgeous little thing.
Yes, was delighted to finish it! Steam has my playtime at 8 hours, though that was just dipping in for a run a day for a long time - I didn't even notice there was a practice mode till late on. Eventually I decided it was getting a bit embarrassing and practiced just the last level a few times and once I was able to deal with that a little better, I ran through it. Really enjoyed my time with it.
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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Simonsloth wrote: January 5th, 2020, 12:34 pm To be honest as someone who played hidden agenda multiplayer I can atttest that it is a good idea but a bit rubbish.

I actually only played it solo recently and found it much better
Sorry, overlooked this post yesterday! That's a pity, to hear that. Would be interesting to see a breakdown of numbers who played it solo and multiplayer. I haven't been keeping up with the news but I think the idea of group play (there was this, the planet of the apes one, and another, I think) has come and gone rather quickly for Sony?

Hmm, there were a few games on Playlink as it was called. Maybe too early to dismiss it yet.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by plqc »

06/01 - Luigi's Mansion 3

I borrowed it from a friend and played it during the holidays. I feel like that was a perfect time to play that game. It's a game that feels cozy; it's rarely very difficult, everything is cute and round. Luigi is especially likeable. He made me go ''awwww'' quite a few times.

I do think the praise it received was a bit exaggerated, though.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very fun game with a high level of polish.

But the story is paper-thin. The game can get a bit repetitive; it doesn't introduce new ideas often. I was super excited when it introduced the Super-Poltergust late in the game, but it ended up being used just that one time.

Luigi's Mansion 3 also likes to pad the run-time with a bit of backtracking, which can be annoying.

I also feel the Poltergust can be a tad bit difficult to control from time to time. It's not game breaking or anything, but it's difficult to control something over 360 degrees with a joystick when in 3rd person.

But overall, it's a very cute-sy and fun game and I definitely recommend it.
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ironedflemming
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by ironedflemming »

#1 - Batman; Arkham Origins

Started playing over christmas as I fancied playing something with an xmas theme. Enjoyed my playthrough but I can see why this is (mostly) regarded as the weakest entry in the Arkham series.

The whole way through i felt like the game was fine but lacking that extra special polish and surprises that Rocksteady have provided in their Arkham games, the game feels like a really good tribute band that nails all the sounds and look of the original group but lacks that extra special something.

I still enjoyed my time with it though and would recommend to those who have played through the other Arkham games, I played on PSnow which worked fine - it's not a long game so you sign up for the 7 day trial and hammer through the story at least.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
03/01 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
08/01 - Need for Speed: Carbon

Couldn't help myself but jump on to this one as well. Unfortunately this one was a little disappointing, although still okay. I guess I should have known, since it's pretty similar to my original experience with the game, but I was starting to get excited about revisiting it this time. But it's definitely unambiguously where the series started to take a dip, even if the heights it was falling from were so high, this one still ends up being not bad overall.

While it has a lot of interesting new ideas, they did again come across as being very hit-and-miss with how well they worked. One big change is that cars are now separated in to three different classes, and have three different tiers to them. Different classes change how cars feel to drive, and tiers is just how good they are. But despite their different characteristics, no class feels particularly great. All classes have a much more sluggish turning radius than in MW, with muscle cars being the worst with no grip, but tuners being the closest to how the previous game felt, making them more or less acceptable to drive. The lower tiers all feel really slow too, and as a result pretty boring to drive. Only once you get up in to the third tier do they start getting fast enough to actually feel "fast" and more exciting to drive. I suppose the wider turning circle could be meant to emphasise your racing line more, but that doesn't really feel fair when you've got unpredictable traffic to weave in between, not to mention all the stuff you have to deal with in police chases.

Police chases themselves here don't get a big change in how they work, but instead are made redundant because of how the career mode treats them. You have no reason or incentive to engage with them at all, and even if you want to just for the fun of it, there is no option to start a chase on command. So when you do come across a chase, it's usually because one started halfway through a race, and it just makes you feel like the game is wasting your time when the race finishes and you have to lose them, instead of letting you get to the next objective. Not to mention how the police can get in the way in the race itself too. There also seems to be some small quirks with how they work that I'm not even sure is actually a thing with the game, or just me. But it feels like the rules of when the police can see you are off, and don't feel fair or believable. The interactive elements around the map that work as part of the chase mechanics somehow don't feel to be placed as well either. There never seems to be one around when you really need one.

Another big new thing is the crew member mechanics. In this game you lead a crew of racers, and they join you in races and have certain abilities depending on what one you pick. An interesting idea to make races somewhat cooperative, and let you play a bit more tactically. But in practice, they're kind of useless. Your crew member's abilities all require them to be in front of you to work, but of course it's still a race, so you still need to win. If your crew member crosses the line before you the win still counts, but there isn't really any point in that if you come 2nd as well. They might as well not be there, and you can't really trust them to come 1st if there are opponents between you and them. And a lot of the time, they will get in your way and brake in front of you for no reason as well.

There were a couple of cool things though. Like the Autosculpt feature. The game in general brings back quite a lot of customisation options that MW lacked, and some new ones too. But Autosculpt is pretty neat aside from that. The idea is that for specific car body parts, you can tweak the shape of various bits on it, to a pretty fine degree. So like if you want the vents on that bumper to be bigger, you can choose exactly how big you want them to be, or how tall or wide a spoiler is, etc. It's pretty cool, but sadly somewhat limited. There aren't a huge number of body kits you can do it with, and you can't do it to the full, wide kits, which are usually the best looking ones anyway. So they end up not getting used much. The wheels however are pretty cool. There's a reasonable variety of them, and you can do some surprising things with some of them, to genuinely make something unique, rather than just changing the size and shape of something.

Some of the new race modes are pretty cool too. The canyon races are a real highlight. The tracks themselves are good on their own. tight and technical, that frequently have some nice vistas to show you over the mountainside. But the canyon battle mode that takes place on them is very well done. It's the most fleshed out and comprehensive gamification of touge race rules I've seen in a game. They take the form of one-on-one races split in to two rounds. The first round, you follow the opponent down the track, where you build up a points total based on how close you stick behind them. On the second round you do the same, but with you in the lead, and you lose points from that previous total based on how close your opponent is to you. If you have any points left by the end of the second round, you win. Or if you manage to overtake them in the first, or manage to pull away far enough in the second. It's extremely tense, puts the pressure on, especially when during this mode you can also crash through the barriers and fall off the mountain on certain corners. The soundtrack is also pretty good during these races, as it cuts things down to just a simple but relentless war drum beat.

Drifting also makes a comeback, and is far better than in the Underground games. It's the style of drift mode where it has a dedicated handling model just for it, and these usually end up pretty bad in most games. Here it's a bit awkward at first, but once you get used to it, it's pretty enjoyable. You have a decent amount of control over your car during a drift, and it requires a fine touch, even if the car is technically sliding by itself. It's pretty satisfying to get right. And you get some drift events taking place on the canyon tracks, which can be extremely fun when you manage to nail it just right.

Aesthetically the game is quite nice. It goes back to the nighttime, neon heavy look, and it's still fairly attractive as that. One little flourish I like is that in the menus you get these streaks of neon colours wisping around the scene, evoking the look of the city lights as you zoom past them, or perhaps the cars themselves, weaving through the streets. It has some nice ambient music in there too. That said, the soundtrack in general is pretty underwhelming. It has a licensed music, but you almost never hear it. Only during free roam, or one specific race type. Otherwise it's generic thriller/action movie background music. The licensed soundtrack genre changes depending on what class of car you're driving too, so even when you do get to hear it, most of it is locked off at any given time. The FMV scenes appear here too, and they're okay I suppose. Even though they go for the same hammy feel as MW, the antagonists themselves are far less interesting, in that "love to hate them" sort of way. There are at least a couple of scenes early on with some of your crew members which are genuinely funny though, with some good comedic delivery. There are also scenes of mocapped in-engine facial animations, like L.A Noire, which are a bit weird. Technically they're kind of rough these days, but still have a kind of uncanny realism to them. And, fun fact, this game also happens to be the first role in a game of the voice of Adam Jensen.

And of course there's the issue of how notoriously short this game is. I always knew it was, but even then I was shocked at how slight this game is compared to MW, despite trying so many new things. I beat it in only three sittings. Mostly it was pretty easy too, apart from a pretty stiff difficulty spike in the last handful of events. In the end I didn't go with the mods that make the game longer, but I kind of wish I did. I tried to get them working, but they didn't install right, so I just decided to not bother, and just used minimal mods instead. But I do wish there was more to this, and clearly they always intended there to be, given how the mods restore content already in the game files. And I think perhaps with a longer game time some of those underwhelming features might have had more chance to shine. Or perhaps the opposite would happen and it's better that the game is short. Either way, that's what this game is. Admirable in some respects with a couple of genuinely cool ideas, but overall a bit of a half-baked mess.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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Jan - Blasphemous
Jan - A Short Hike
Jan - Dear Esther
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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Scrustle going for a record on longest post about a game which goes vroom vroom ;)

Jan 9th - Plague of Shadows

Really liked it but sometimes the game really got me to curl my toes. Not really the games fault either just fascinating how similar experiences are massively different on so many levels.

Moved onto Strider... I mean Specter of Torment
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by See Mi Yah »

06/01 - Portal (Xbox One X)

My second play-through. It's as good as ever although I think I still prefer the more involved gameplay and narrative of the sequel. The star this time was the One X's little bit of spit and polish. I played it on a 1080p screen so I didn't get the full Enhanced experience but it's a much smoother presentation, almost entirely free of jaggies. A lovely game made even lovelier via sheer horsepower.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by dezm0nd »

Jan 10 - Spectre of Torment. Quite possibly my favourite out the lot so far. Incredible.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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dezm0nd wrote: January 10th, 2020, 7:46 pm Jan 10 - Spectre of Torment. Quite possibly my favourite out the lot so far. Incredible.
Wholeheartedly agree. You are clearly better than me as it took me a few weeks!
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by dezm0nd »

I've been on a right old platform game tip at the mo. Really enjoy the instant hit of gaming challenge, very easy to dip in and out with.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by Alex79 »

JAN - Titanfall 2 (PS4)

My first completion of the new year. I rarely play FPS but this was pretty fun. The movement in the game is great and it's so fast paced. I think I enjoyed being out of the Titan more than in it, but there were some great moments piloting BT, too. Some frustrating parts later in the game where they just spam you with enemy Titans, but all in all really good. Lots of little interesting gameplay mechanics as well kept things from getting repetitive. I might have a few games of multiplayer before uninstalling it.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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dezm0nd wrote: January 10th, 2020, 9:36 pm I've been on a right old platform game tip at the mo. Really enjoy the instant hit of gaming challenge, very easy to dip in and out with.
Let me talk to you about Super Mario Maker.....
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Re: Games Completed 2020

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Jan 10th - Spider-Man (PS4)

Really enjoyable game. Solid traversal mechanics, well delivered and acted plot, extremely polished.
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Re: Games Completed 2020

Post by dezm0nd »

Suits wrote: January 11th, 2020, 8:32 am
dezm0nd wrote: January 10th, 2020, 9:36 pm I've been on a right old platform game tip at the mo. Really enjoy the instant hit of gaming challenge, very easy to dip in and out with.
Let me talk to you about Super Mario Maker.....
wassat?

Jan 11th - Sonic CD

Well this was completely average based on my experience but I know there's a decent game in there, somewhere.
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