Games Completed 2025

[Rhaegyr]

I finished both Baldur's Gate 3 and Blue Prince on the weekend.

Both incredible games for very different reasons!

[Jobobonobo]

Spoiler: show

Jan 2: Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
Jan 20: E.V.O.: Search for Eden
Jan 22: Super Smash TV
Jan 26: Demon Turf
Feb 11: Mother (Earthbound Beginnings)
Mar 15: Metroid: Samus Returns
Apr 1: Okamiden
Apr 9: Warioland 4
Apr 16: Umurangi Generation
May 16: Super Princess Peach

May 26: Nano Assault EX

I have not played a shmup in a good while and this one looked intriguing. You are a tiny ship trying to stop a deadly virus, so you are traversing cells and blasting what are essentially viruses. You have full 3D control to move your ship all over the cell similar to Mario running on planetoids on Super Mario Galaxy. You have to recover three strands of DNA in a normal level and then eliminate all the enemies; other levels are boss battles and the last level of each world (or cell cluster in this case) is a on-rails shooter type of affair with you travelling inside a synapse defeating hordes of enemies and then fighting a boss at the end. Like all shmups it has its challenging parts, but this was not too difficult really and as you collect gems throughout your playthrough you get extra lives which are permanently added to your life counter. So, you start with three lives and you could end the game with seven lives as your base. This along with access to more powerful weapons that recharge every time you die really helps balance out some of the more intense bullet hell sections.

Even though it is quite unconventional in some aspects if you are a newcomer to shmups, I would say Nano Assault EX is a nice enough introduction to the genre which has its stressful moments but is not too harsh when the player fails. Highly recommended to anyone who wants a short but fun experience.

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Atlas Fallen - PS5.
(Jan) Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops - Series X.
(Jan) A Plague Tale: Requiem - Series X.
(Feb) Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle - PS5.
(Feb) Scarlet Nexus - Series X.
(Mar) Age of Empires IV: AE - Series X.
(May) Lords of the Fallen - Series X.
(May) South of Midnight - Series X.

[markfm007]

Spoiler: show

January 18th - Silent Hill 2 (2001)
January 26th - Silent Hill 2 (2024)
April 29th - Metaphor: Refantazio

June 5th - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Mixed feelings on this one. Start with the positive, it’s a nicely paced adventure that’s always intriguing. The turn based combat is good fun and really nicely animated. I enjoyed playing with each character but settled on a Lune-Verso-Maelle primary team. Each character feels unique and each move is very satisfying to pull off. Enemies are full of character, just generally very memorable, and the animation is top drawer.

What I liked less was watching it all trying to figure out when I was supposed to tap a button. Basically, I didn’t like parrying. It wasn’t too hard or anything, just not satisfying, sometimes quite annoying. So many enemies are from the 'hooold it… hoooold it…. now!’ design school, that would make an Elden Ring boss blush. Hi Fi Rush has a parry fight I found far more enjoyable than this due to it’s rhythm and readability. I would’ve preferred if the parrying had been like the attack button presses - a bonus at the end that you either hit or don’t. It’s a shame as I loved tinkering with my build, and finally lifting the damage cap allowed me to one shot my way to victory, even against the final bosses. But I don’t really want to fight through any more of the side quests because of the parrying.

Narratively I thought the story was well told and always intriguing. I had a vague idea of where it was going, but still found it very satisfying. I loved the humour of the game, and the campfire moments where you can learn more about the characters. I really wish these had been integrated into the story, because they feel so oddly paced, and without them most of the characters fall a bit flat. Despite enjoying the story I never felt that emotionally connected to it. It was all just a bit too abstract for me, full of grand ideas and declarative phrases over the meat and potatoes of relationship and world building.

That ultimately left me feeling a bit disconnected from the world too. Some of that is by design of course. It’s a frequently very beautiful and interesting place to look at, but just as often one that feels empty and full of thrown together rubble and uneven rocks for your character to get stuck on. There’s also a lack of polish in the movement, the level design, triggering battles etc. It’s not the end of the world but it makes the moment to moment gameplay outside of combat not much fun. Overall I can see why people love this game, but I felt satisfied to leave it where I did.

[ratsoalbion]

Thoughtful and interesting critique, thanks for taking the time.

Haven't played it yet, keen to, but some of those wrinkles sound like things that could bug me too.

[markfm007]

Thanks for reading! I'm interested to see how people respond to it as time goes on.

[TheEmailer]

Spoiler: show

January 18th - Silent Hill 2 (2001)
January 26th - Silent Hill 2 (2024)
April 29th - Metaphor: Refantazio

June 5th - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Mixed feelings on this one. Start with the positive, it’s a nicely paced adventure that’s always intriguing. The turn based combat is good fun and really nicely animated. I enjoyed playing with each character but settled on a Lune-Verso-Maelle primary team. Each character feels unique and each move is very satisfying to pull off. Enemies are full of character, just generally very memorable, and the animation is top drawer.

What I liked less was watching it all trying to figure out when I was supposed to tap a button. Basically, I didn’t like parrying. It wasn’t too hard or anything, just not satisfying, sometimes quite annoying. So many enemies are from the 'hooold it… hoooold it…. now!’ design school, that would make an Elden Ring boss blush. Hi Fi Rush has a parry fight I found far more enjoyable than this due to it’s rhythm and readability. I would’ve preferred if the parrying had been like the attack button presses - a bonus at the end that you either hit or don’t. It’s a shame as I loved tinkering with my build, and finally lifting the damage cap allowed me to one shot my way to victory, even against the final bosses. But I don’t really want to fight through any more of the side quests because of the parrying.

Narratively I thought the story was well told and always intriguing. I had a vague idea of where it was going, but still found it very satisfying. I loved the humour of the game, and the campfire moments where you can learn more about the characters. I really wish these had been integrated into the story, because they feel so oddly paced, and without them most of the characters fall a bit flat. Despite enjoying the story I never felt that emotionally connected to it. It was all just a bit too abstract for me, full of grand ideas and declarative phrases over the meat and potatoes of relationship and world building.

That ultimately left me feeling a bit disconnected from the world too. Some of that is by design of course. It’s a frequently very beautiful and interesting place to look at, but just as often one that feels empty and full of thrown together rubble and uneven rocks for your character to get stuck on. There’s also a lack of polish in the movement, the level design, triggering battles etc. It’s not the end of the world but it makes the moment to moment gameplay outside of combat not much fun. Overall I can see why people love this game, but I felt satisfied to leave it where I did.

I've just finished it and I'm more positive than you.

Mainly the parrying clicked for me, which I'm not usually a fan of. I did however, drop the game down to easy early on, which really helped me learn the rhythms in a less publishing way.
Once I'd got that I loved the challenge of optional bosses and create mildly broken builds

I did also connect emotionally with the characters. Their situation is so desperate, they commit to the expedition as a way to gain some agency. Even as things become apparent, they cling to moving forward.
And I liked the slow drip feed of back story, mysterious characters > lore/backstory dump

[Truk_Kurt]

Spoiler: show

January 18th - Silent Hill 2 (2001)
January 26th - Silent Hill 2 (2024)
April 29th - Metaphor: Refantazio

June 5th - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Mixed feelings on this one. Start with the positive, it’s a nicely paced adventure that’s always intriguing. The turn based combat is good fun and really nicely animated. I enjoyed playing with each character but settled on a Lune-Verso-Maelle primary team. Each character feels unique and each move is very satisfying to pull off. Enemies are full of character, just generally very memorable, and the animation is top drawer.

What I liked less was watching it all trying to figure out when I was supposed to tap a button. Basically, I didn’t like parrying. It wasn’t too hard or anything, just not satisfying, sometimes quite annoying. So many enemies are from the 'hooold it… hoooold it…. now!’ design school, that would make an Elden Ring boss blush. Hi Fi Rush has a parry fight I found far more enjoyable than this due to it’s rhythm and readability. I would’ve preferred if the parrying had been like the attack button presses - a bonus at the end that you either hit or don’t. It’s a shame as I loved tinkering with my build, and finally lifting the damage cap allowed me to one shot my way to victory, even against the final bosses. But I don’t really want to fight through any more of the side quests because of the parrying.

Narratively I thought the story was well told and always intriguing. I had a vague idea of where it was going, but still found it very satisfying. I loved the humour of the game, and the campfire moments where you can learn more about the characters. I really wish these had been integrated into the story, because they feel so oddly paced, and without them most of the characters fall a bit flat. Despite enjoying the story I never felt that emotionally connected to it. It was all just a bit too abstract for me, full of grand ideas and declarative phrases over the meat and potatoes of relationship and world building.

That ultimately left me feeling a bit disconnected from the world too. Some of that is by design of course. It’s a frequently very beautiful and interesting place to look at, but just as often one that feels empty and full of thrown together rubble and uneven rocks for your character to get stuck on. There’s also a lack of polish in the movement, the level design, triggering battles etc. It’s not the end of the world but it makes the moment to moment gameplay outside of combat not much fun. Overall I can see why people love this game, but I felt satisfied to leave it where I did.

I've just finished it and I'm more positive than you.

Mainly the parrying clicked for me, which I'm not usually a fan of. I did however, drop the game down to easy early on, which really helped me learn the rhythms in a less publishing way.
Once I'd got that I loved the challenge of optional bosses and create mildly broken builds

I did also connect emotionally with the characters. Their situation is so desperate, they commit to the expedition as a way to gain some agency. Even as things become apparent, they cling to moving forward.
And I liked the slow drip feed of back story, mysterious characters > lore/backstory dump

I'm still in act 1 but have already come across some tough bosses, and feel like I might need to lower the difficulty at some point though I would rather not as I don't want it to become so easy that there is no challenge at all. Would you say even on easy it presents a nice challenge? Did you still find yourself dying in some fights?

[markfm007]

Glad you liked it Emailer! I dropped it to easy for a little and it helped me practice. It gives you a more generous timing and less damage taken. I'd also recommend lowering the music volume to 50%, you can hear enemy attacks easier.

[seansthomas]

Jan 12th - Resident Evil 2 (PS5)
Mar 5th - Nier Automata (PS5)
Mar 14th - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
Apr 23rd - Blue Prince (PS5)
Apr 29th - Dishonored 2 (PS5)

Jun 13th - Death Stranding: Directors cut (PS5)

God, where do I start...

So I liked Death Stranding a lot. In fact, sometimes I adored it. But it wouldn't be hyperbole to say that it's also annoyed and bored me at times more than just about any game in living memory.

There's a lot to unpack.

At the heart of the game is a brilliantly simple idea. Humanity is in hiding and separated into tiny pockets across a broken continent after a cataclysmic event. Your job is to reconnect humanity through delivering messages, items and rebuilding pathways on foot.

That's it. It's so beautiful a premise. So amazing to feel humanity coming back to life as you play.

The problem is that it's almost entirely possible to miss this joy because of how much other bullshit this game throws on top of that.

But let's start with some good.

Firstly, the world this takes place in is glorious. Both the landscapes themselves - the real star of the show - and also the sci-fi doomsday universe Kojima has conjured up. Haunting BTs, skeletal soldiers, warzone flashbacks, beaches of dead whales, babies that alert you to danger. It's all bonkers and utterly brilliant. There is atmosphere dripping off of everything, which is heightened even more when the terrific soundtrack kicks in. It's arguably Kojima's 2001: A space odyssey. Fair play to him, he's long earned the right to explore something this vast.

However the story, cut scene exposition, celebrity cameos and the general standard of writing of it all? Utter garbage. Very little was interesting or made sense, despite all the rationalisation and exposition. The writing needed more mystery than validation in my eyes. I had maybe one 'aha' moment in the game, in the final chapter. But mostly everything else was tenuous, confusing, cheesy, boring or obvious; it's tonally all over the shop.

The core mechanics of the game for traversal are great. Ladders, ropes, exoskeletons, carriers, blood bags, boots, gloves... I really loved all this stuff and working out what I'd take, though as the game went on I realised it was pretty rare I'd need a lot of it.

And the PCC device that lets you build shelters, roads, bridges, recharge stations and - my personal favourite - ziplines, which I created huge networks of across vast mountain ranges, is genius. I love the way your creations merge with other players. Seeing a recharge station on the horizon as your power skeleton is about to die is a great gaming moment, and well worth a 'like' to say thanks to the builder.

So you've got all this great stuff to make the world a joy to spend time in. I know! Why not try to ruin it?

You could make hand combat very dull. Throw in a ton of dull weaponry, that uses your blood if you use it and kills you too. Have stealth sequences where you stand still a lot. Have bosses that just spawn sometimes and are so dull to fight, it's best to just run away. You could give us vehicles that either are so crap they get impaled on slight rubble or so overpowered they ruin the joy of travelling on foot.

When you get too invested in driving, trying to speed the game up or get distracted by combat, Death Stranding loses its appeal. And becomes a bad 3rd person shooter.

It also has issues with pacing. It's a miracle I made it the great middle part of the game.

The first 15 hours felt like cut scenes or tutorials. When I did get to do something, it initially involved falling over or struggling with holding down a button whilst pressing down on the d-pad to bring up a sub menu that I needed to use the right stick to flick between pages on.

I dreaded entering a save station as it takes about 5 mins every time you go there to skip through all the little animations and transitions. I loathed the map thats so overloaded with icons that it's impossible at times to know where to go. The UI is so small, I now need glasses.

And just as I fell in love with the game towards the end, traversed the entire map on foot, builtvs network to get around and finally found my groove... the game shits the bed at the end.

The last 10 hours are bad. I had to skip some of the lengthy cut scenes and occasionally found myself answering some work emails out of boredom. There are several poor bosses in quick successions. Various revelations about characters I'm supposed to care deeply about; characters called Die-Hardman and Heartman?! There's a credits sequence you wander about in for a month.

The only thing that is good is one final, giant walk. A walk I adored.

And that's the dilemma of Death Stranding in a nutshell. A majestic, original, new type of game that just asks you to disconnect from the noise and reconnect with some of the simpler things in life. But one that equally piles so much needless or game damaging bullshit on top of this, that at times the gem at the heart of this game almost gets lost.

I'll never disagree with anyone who hates this game as - for large chunks of it - I was in danger of doing so too.

But thankfully the part of Death Stranding that is good is properly good, and will stay with me for many years. And I can't praise such a unique, weird project getting made with this level of love. Gaming needs more of this.

(Also enjoyed the Cane & Rinse episode on this a lot. Caught up with it over recent days and it was a great discussion)

[Alex79]

I absolutely loved Death Stranding but can't argue with your criticisms. I am something of a Kojima apologist though, and still loved the aspects you didn't like. The zip-lines through the mountains was brilliant. Whenever anyone starts this game and asks for help I offer one tip - build a mountain network of zip-lines through the snow as soon as you possibly can.