Haha looking forward to that... Good timesAlex79uk wrote: ↑January 30th, 2021, 7:41 pmAh you'll never forget that. My first time was Bioshock when that came out for 360. I distinctly remember the first time he started trying to grab the controller from my hands too.Jon Cheetham wrote: ↑January 30th, 2021, 4:25 pm(Also played the whole thing with my daughter either asleep on my chest or in her baby carrier the entire time, which is a nice little gaming first in itself).
Games Completed 2021
- Jon Cheetham
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Re: Games Completed 2021
Re: Games Completed 2021
My sister plonked my (at the time about four months old) niece on my lap while I was playing "Red Dead Redemption 2" right as I got to the part where
- Spoiler: show
- Jobobonobo
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Re: Games Completed 2021
January 30: Celeste
Reached the summit today so it is technically finished but still not fully done with this. Going to try and conquer the B sides which are kicking my arse at the moment but I am slowly making progress. Really nice start to the year with this one, hard as nails but fair.
Reached the summit today so it is technically finished but still not fully done with this. Going to try and conquer the B sides which are kicking my arse at the moment but I am slowly making progress. Really nice start to the year with this one, hard as nails but fair.
- Jon Cheetham
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Re: Games Completed 2021
love itMiririn wrote: ↑January 30th, 2021, 9:42 pm My sister plonked my (at the time about four months old) niece on my lap while I was playing "Red Dead Redemption 2" right as I got to the part where. She then snapped a photo of me with red eyes and nose, trying very hard to hold back tears, while niece looked completely nonplussed by the whole thing/looked like she was considering whether she could put the controller in her mouth.
- Spoiler: show
- stvnorman
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Re: Games Completed 2021
9 January: Resident Evil 4 (GameCube)
12 January: Power Drift (ZX Spectrum)
15 January: Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4)
16 January’s: Castlevania - Rondo of Blood (PC-Engine Mini)
17 January: Wonderful Dizzy (ZX Spectrum)
23 January: V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
30 January: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS4)
Resident Evil 4 was the last game I hadn’t played in the series and turned out to be not only my favourite Resident Evil, but an outrageous imposter into my very, very longstanding top three games of all time! It’s predecessor-successor turned out to be pretty cool too. Boss rush aside, the last of the classic Castlevanias I hadn’t beaten looked, sounded and played great, as did a brand new Dizzy - what a stunner!
12 January: Power Drift (ZX Spectrum)
15 January: Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4)
16 January’s: Castlevania - Rondo of Blood (PC-Engine Mini)
17 January: Wonderful Dizzy (ZX Spectrum)
23 January: V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
30 January: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS4)
Resident Evil 4 was the last game I hadn’t played in the series and turned out to be not only my favourite Resident Evil, but an outrageous imposter into my very, very longstanding top three games of all time! It’s predecessor-successor turned out to be pretty cool too. Boss rush aside, the last of the classic Castlevanias I hadn’t beaten looked, sounded and played great, as did a brand new Dizzy - what a stunner!
- Gadget8Bit
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Re: Games Completed 2021
31st Jan - Hitman 2016 (Professional) - Xbox
I finished this back when it came out on Casual. This week I’ve been going back through it trying to get Silent Assassin on Professional difficulty on each level. I finished Hokkaido last night but *just* missed out on SA due to a meddling guard who walked in on me minding my own business with an unconscious helicopter pilot. Despite the flying wrench that knocked him out, the “Unconscious Witness” tag ruined my SA for the night.
Either way, I beat the level with my best ever score and that’s Hitman 2016 completed on Professional. (Though I will be getting SA on that level before I start Hitman 2)
I finished this back when it came out on Casual. This week I’ve been going back through it trying to get Silent Assassin on Professional difficulty on each level. I finished Hokkaido last night but *just* missed out on SA due to a meddling guard who walked in on me minding my own business with an unconscious helicopter pilot. Despite the flying wrench that knocked him out, the “Unconscious Witness” tag ruined my SA for the night.
Either way, I beat the level with my best ever score and that’s Hitman 2016 completed on Professional. (Though I will be getting SA on that level before I start Hitman 2)
Re: Games Completed 2021
5. What Remains of Edith Finch
I'm on quite a role this year, 5 games finished already, they have mostly been shorter games which are nice palette cleansers whilst I work through the behemoth that is Yakuza Like a Dragon.
Anyway, Edith Finch was on Game Pass and has always been highly praised. I really liked it, it told a really good but sad story. I have to say that the ending didn't leave me totally satisfied but glad I played it.
I'm on quite a role this year, 5 games finished already, they have mostly been shorter games which are nice palette cleansers whilst I work through the behemoth that is Yakuza Like a Dragon.
Anyway, Edith Finch was on Game Pass and has always been highly praised. I really liked it, it told a really good but sad story. I have to say that the ending didn't leave me totally satisfied but glad I played it.
- ThirdDrawing
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Re: Games Completed 2021
3. Gris
Quite a stunning game visually, with a beautiful soundtrack.
The ending was a bit abrupt and I didn't see it coming, but it was definitely worth a playthrough, just to experience it.
Quite a stunning game visually, with a beautiful soundtrack.
The ending was a bit abrupt and I didn't see it coming, but it was definitely worth a playthrough, just to experience it.
Re: Games Completed 2021
Which was your favorite section from a gameplay point of view? I found the swing and the bath sections both to be really satisfying with regard to game mechanics.Truk_Kurt wrote: ↑January 31st, 2021, 12:48 pm 5. What Remains of Edith Finch
I'm on quite a role this year, 5 games finished already, they have mostly been shorter games which are nice palette cleansers whilst I work through the behemoth that is Yakuza Like a Dragon.
Anyway, Edith Finch was on Game Pass and has always been highly praised. I really liked it, it told a really good but sad story. I have to say that the ending didn't leave me totally satisfied but glad I played it.
Re: Games Completed 2021
I actually didn't like the bath section, found it a bit frustrating. My favourite section was the bit in the salmon factory.
- ColinAlonso
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Re: Games Completed 2021
I only played the fist Trails in the Sky years ago (quit halfway through, it was going way to slowly for me). But Ys 8 is a very different game, much more focused on the action RPG gameplay. The NPCs were a nice touch but I doubt they get anywhere as detailed as the Trails series (from reputation anyway). If you're into JRPGs though I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.Shy Monkeys wrote: ↑January 28th, 2021, 4:04 pmI really need to play the Ys series, I'm very interested in it after going through all of the (available in English) Trails/Kiseki games, and hearing that it also has really good NPCs has me more interested.
- Shy Monkeys
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Re: Games Completed 2021
Yeah, pretty common for people to be put off by the slow pacing of Sky FC, it definitely gets better at that. But yeah, might check out Ys 8 when I have the time.ColinAlonso wrote: ↑February 1st, 2021, 8:17 pmI only played the fist Trails in the Sky years ago (quit halfway through, it was going way to slowly for me). But Ys 8 is a very different game, much more focused on the action RPG gameplay. The NPCs were a nice touch but I doubt they get anywhere as detailed as the Trails series (from reputation anyway). If you're into JRPGs though I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.Shy Monkeys wrote: ↑January 28th, 2021, 4:04 pmI really need to play the Ys series, I'm very interested in it after going through all of the (available in English) Trails/Kiseki games, and hearing that it also has really good NPCs has me more interested.
Re: Games Completed 2021
4. Spiritfarer (Nintendo Switch)
Not the sort of game I would normally choose because it looked a bit potentially twee and pretentious. But I was surprised Zero Punctuation gave it such a glowing (...by his standards) review, and a friend recommended it to me, and the main character has the same name as my cat and that's as good a reason to play as any, so I decided to give it a go. And boy am I glad I took a punt on it, because it's a really lovely game. It's the second game I've played this year that took ancient mythology (this time Greek!) and used it as an inspiration for a game about accepting death and saying goodbye.
The animation is fluid and the scenery is beautiful, and the dialogue is very funny and often moving. It's the beautiful Joe Hisaishi-esque music that really stood out, though. The pieces that played during the jellyfish capture minigame and the comets were gorgeous.
Gameplay is satisfying - I liked all the busywork and most of the minigames (...some were frustrating). Not sure why the uncomplicated and repetitive tasks of working on my loom or playing guitar to my crops gave me so much pleasure, but they did.
It's a strange game because in a lot of ways it is childish and cute (the humour and the character designs, for example). But the spirits on your boat can be quite complex, sometimes intensely sad characters who often have very adult problems or issues. They've more often than not experienced quite a lot of trauma in their lives that they'll chat to you about (...I didn't think I'd ever play a game where I had a chat with a lecherous, hedonistic lion about his unresolved trauma from seeing his friend die in a war, but here we are). It's this weird combination of playful, childish sensibilities with darker themes that makes the game feel unique. It's not saccharine, either. Some of the conversations I had with spirits I was shepherding to the afterlife were quite bleak. Those final conversations, incidentally, were very well-done and often extremely moving (i.e. I cried. Several times). And there's enough variety in the characters and conversations to stop it becoming repetitive.
While I did appreciate the huge amount of content, I did find the game a bit long. My Switch said I played for over thirty-five hours. But then again, I think me finding it long is probably because I'm working from home and it's lockdown. If it wasn't 2021, this is the type of game I'd play for two hours a day on my daily commute over a number of weeks rather than obsessively throwing myself into it and finishing it in a few days. It's a contemplative, unhurried game, and it's probably best played slowly.
If you play it on a Switch, I would recommend closing and saving regularly because I had a regular crashing problem from about halfway through the game, and my friend had the same issue. The activities and dialogue in this game are charming but less so when you have to keep repeating them when your game crashes.
Not the sort of game I would normally choose because it looked a bit potentially twee and pretentious. But I was surprised Zero Punctuation gave it such a glowing (...by his standards) review, and a friend recommended it to me, and the main character has the same name as my cat and that's as good a reason to play as any, so I decided to give it a go. And boy am I glad I took a punt on it, because it's a really lovely game. It's the second game I've played this year that took ancient mythology (this time Greek!) and used it as an inspiration for a game about accepting death and saying goodbye.
The animation is fluid and the scenery is beautiful, and the dialogue is very funny and often moving. It's the beautiful Joe Hisaishi-esque music that really stood out, though. The pieces that played during the jellyfish capture minigame and the comets were gorgeous.
Gameplay is satisfying - I liked all the busywork and most of the minigames (...some were frustrating). Not sure why the uncomplicated and repetitive tasks of working on my loom or playing guitar to my crops gave me so much pleasure, but they did.
It's a strange game because in a lot of ways it is childish and cute (the humour and the character designs, for example). But the spirits on your boat can be quite complex, sometimes intensely sad characters who often have very adult problems or issues. They've more often than not experienced quite a lot of trauma in their lives that they'll chat to you about (...I didn't think I'd ever play a game where I had a chat with a lecherous, hedonistic lion about his unresolved trauma from seeing his friend die in a war, but here we are). It's this weird combination of playful, childish sensibilities with darker themes that makes the game feel unique. It's not saccharine, either. Some of the conversations I had with spirits I was shepherding to the afterlife were quite bleak. Those final conversations, incidentally, were very well-done and often extremely moving (i.e. I cried. Several times). And there's enough variety in the characters and conversations to stop it becoming repetitive.
While I did appreciate the huge amount of content, I did find the game a bit long. My Switch said I played for over thirty-five hours. But then again, I think me finding it long is probably because I'm working from home and it's lockdown. If it wasn't 2021, this is the type of game I'd play for two hours a day on my daily commute over a number of weeks rather than obsessively throwing myself into it and finishing it in a few days. It's a contemplative, unhurried game, and it's probably best played slowly.
If you play it on a Switch, I would recommend closing and saving regularly because I had a regular crashing problem from about halfway through the game, and my friend had the same issue. The activities and dialogue in this game are charming but less so when you have to keep repeating them when your game crashes.
- duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2021
I finished Cyber Shadow. Maybe it's just me and I don't have the patience anymore (or maybe not ever) but a bunch of the game felt chore-ish. I never really felt very powerful and I found it annoying that the game picked your items for each level, vs. you having any say. It always seemed to pick the least powerful item per stage and they were never that fun. The highlights are the boss fights, but I found the final boss fight to be hard to look at. Pink and yellow might be gross and artistic, but it makes for differentiating things a pain in the butt and I often ran into a spike I couldn't comprehend from the background...
Anyway, considering I beat it, I would say if you have more patience with this sort of thing, it will be more your jam.
But! I'm sick of double jumps being locked until halfway or more through the game! Ori 2 gives it to you right away! If your game has a double jump, I want it from the beginning! Stop stonewalling (sometimes literally) your double jump!
Anyway, considering I beat it, I would say if you have more patience with this sort of thing, it will be more your jam.
But! I'm sick of double jumps being locked until halfway or more through the game! Ori 2 gives it to you right away! If your game has a double jump, I want it from the beginning! Stop stonewalling (sometimes literally) your double jump!
- Magical_Isopod
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Re: Games Completed 2021
#3 - The Medium
So uh... This game. There's a lot here. I haven't been this genuinely mixed an opinion in a VERY long time.
The Good:
Everything visual with this game is... Amazing. The art direction is some of the best I've ever seen, and it's graphically quite impressive as a result. Backgrounds are super detailed, every room is meticulously designed and decorated. Both the real world and spirit world are darkly beautiful in their own way. The gameplay mechanics are really interesting too - its use of split-screen is clever without being gimmicky, the core gameplay is *mostly* good (we'll come back to this), there's a lot to love here. Also, the main antagonist has some amazing voicework, design and animation. It steals the show here. The sound design is great, the use of colour is downright artful... There's A LOT of creative energy here.
The Bad:
Right, so, great as the antagonist is, every interaction with it is frustrating. The game forces you to trial and error these sections, but the long load times to reset make it a frustrating experience that only serves to slow the game down and remove any tension. Additionally, aside from the main baddie, the voice acting is... Mostly not great. Occasionally, downright bad. And much of the dialogue from the main character is just irritating, especially when she's talking to herself. The story here is kinda ho-hum too. It's good, but it leans way too hard into predictable cliches.
The Conclusion
Overall though... I liked this one. I think there's enough original here to justify playing through at least once, and there's clearly a lot of love and good ideas behind it. I didn't like this one as much as Observer, but I liked it far, far more than Blair Witch and Layers of Fear, both of which were... Really quite crap if I'm being honest. I wanna see what this studio keeps putting out in future, but if they're going to continue to dive into Polish settings, we're gonna need Polish audio. All three of The Witcher games had it, and those had way more VO. Let's fix that guys.
&iso2021
So uh... This game. There's a lot here. I haven't been this genuinely mixed an opinion in a VERY long time.
The Good:
Everything visual with this game is... Amazing. The art direction is some of the best I've ever seen, and it's graphically quite impressive as a result. Backgrounds are super detailed, every room is meticulously designed and decorated. Both the real world and spirit world are darkly beautiful in their own way. The gameplay mechanics are really interesting too - its use of split-screen is clever without being gimmicky, the core gameplay is *mostly* good (we'll come back to this), there's a lot to love here. Also, the main antagonist has some amazing voicework, design and animation. It steals the show here. The sound design is great, the use of colour is downright artful... There's A LOT of creative energy here.
The Bad:
Right, so, great as the antagonist is, every interaction with it is frustrating. The game forces you to trial and error these sections, but the long load times to reset make it a frustrating experience that only serves to slow the game down and remove any tension. Additionally, aside from the main baddie, the voice acting is... Mostly not great. Occasionally, downright bad. And much of the dialogue from the main character is just irritating, especially when she's talking to herself. The story here is kinda ho-hum too. It's good, but it leans way too hard into predictable cliches.
- Spoiler: show
- Spoiler: show
The Conclusion
Overall though... I liked this one. I think there's enough original here to justify playing through at least once, and there's clearly a lot of love and good ideas behind it. I didn't like this one as much as Observer, but I liked it far, far more than Blair Witch and Layers of Fear, both of which were... Really quite crap if I'm being honest. I wanna see what this studio keeps putting out in future, but if they're going to continue to dive into Polish settings, we're gonna need Polish audio. All three of The Witcher games had it, and those had way more VO. Let's fix that guys.
&iso2021
- ThirdDrawing
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Re: Games Completed 2021
4 & 5 - on the same day no less!
Untitled Goose Game - Fun, but overhyped.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Beautiful visuals, beautiful music, some super dodgy jumping.
Untitled Goose Game - Fun, but overhyped.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Beautiful visuals, beautiful music, some super dodgy jumping.
Re: Games Completed 2021
Sorry but I simply can't allow an opportunity to champion Ys: The Oath In Felghana on the PSP pass by. Still the gold standard of 'that type of game' for me.ColinAlonso wrote: ↑February 1st, 2021, 8:17 pmI only played the fist Trails in the Sky years ago (quit halfway through, it was going way to slowly for me). But Ys 8 is a very different game, much more focused on the action RPG gameplay. The NPCs were a nice touch but I doubt they get anywhere as detailed as the Trails series (from reputation anyway). If you're into JRPGs though I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.Shy Monkeys wrote: ↑January 28th, 2021, 4:04 pmI really need to play the Ys series, I'm very interested in it after going through all of the (available in English) Trails/Kiseki games, and hearing that it also has really good NPCs has me more interested.
The Ys series is interesting, I genuinely wouldn't class them as JRPGs, I consider them more action adventures with RPG elements. They're often put in the same catagory as the likes of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest etc, and they're so different.
- Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2021
(Jan) Call of the Sea - Series X.
(Jan) Remember Me - PS3.
(Jan) Ghostbusters Remastered - Series X
(Feb) Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4 Pro.
(Jan) Remember Me - PS3.
(Jan) Ghostbusters Remastered - Series X
(Feb) Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4 Pro.
- RinseWashRepeat
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- Location: UK
Re: Games Completed 2021
Ah! I loved Remember Me! It wasn't that great in terms of gameplay, but I'll always remember the future Paris you end up running around. Such a striking game. I'd put it on par with Enslaved: Journey to the West in terms of great style with average gameplay.
Re: Games Completed 2021
Thanks to all you lot mentioning it recently, I downloaded and played through Donut County last night.
That was a very pleasant way to spend 2 hours. Charming wee standalone story, with a healthy dose of dark comedy and a very pleasing art style.
The gameplay too was interesting enough with regular twists on the simple swallow everything mechanic being introduced to keep it from getting stale.
Thank you for introducing me to something I would have never played otherwise!
That was a very pleasant way to spend 2 hours. Charming wee standalone story, with a healthy dose of dark comedy and a very pleasing art style.
The gameplay too was interesting enough with regular twists on the simple swallow everything mechanic being introduced to keep it from getting stale.
Thank you for introducing me to something I would have never played otherwise!