Games Completed 2019
Re: Games Completed 2019
I'm not sure why SoR 3 is never as fondly remembered as 2 (and it really, really isn't). They're both brilliant. I played about half of 3 on PS4 the other day and it's still a lot of fun. I don't know, maybe it wasn't different enough, or it had lack of variety etc, but being able to control a boxing kangaroo is pretty awesome!
Re: Games Completed 2019
There was an awful lot ripped out of SoR3 for the PAL release, and also the US release from what I remember.Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 2nd, 2019, 5:09 pm I'm not sure why SoR 3 is never as fondly remembered as 2 (and it really, really isn't). They're both brilliant. I played about half of 3 on PS4 the other day and it's still a lot of fun. I don't know, maybe it wasn't different enough, or it had lack of variety etc, but being able to control a boxing kangaroo is pretty awesome!
Mainly surrounding the storyline, structure, characters and drive which unfortunately left it feeling undermined, hollow and non-sensicle to many players.
It plays solidly mind and the soundtrack while being pretty damn cool, didn’t quite land with everyone for being a bit - out there.
I think the combination of these factors means that there’s less of a unanimous appreciation for 3 as there are the others.
It’s a damn shame as the JP version of 3 is really, really cool. I think.
- OneCreditBen
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Re: Games Completed 2019
I should really try and beat Streets of Rage 3 seriously.
I've never properly put any kind of time into it.
The SOR Podcast remains one of my favourites from the archives.
I've never properly put any kind of time into it.
The SOR Podcast remains one of my favourites from the archives.
- James
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Re: Games Completed 2019
Another year begins!
1st Jan - Virginia (Xbox One)
Played through this game three times, pretty much back-to-back(-to-back). Still mulling it over, and I think I will be for some time to come.
1st Jan - Virginia (Xbox One)
Played through this game three times, pretty much back-to-back(-to-back). Still mulling it over, and I think I will be for some time to come.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
It’s absolutely phenomenal. I go play and play it frequently as well as listen to the peerless soundtrack.
Re: Games Completed 2019
Did we ever play anything from Virginia on Sound of Play? Fairly sure I asked for ‘Flash forward’ at some point, but can’t remember if it ever made it in
- James
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Re: Games Completed 2019
I wasn't sure either, but we have! Two Virginia tracks have appeared on Sound Of Play so far. Roadhouse on episode 103 (requested by ThirdMan) and Flash Forward on episode 131.
Jacob was a guest on episode 131, and Flash Forward was one of his picks. It's likely you had requested it by then, but guests don't know what tracks have been requested, only which have been played previously.
That doesn't mean we can't have more Virginia tracks, of course, and I think some others have been requested.
Jacob was a guest on episode 131, and Flash Forward was one of his picks. It's likely you had requested it by then, but guests don't know what tracks have been requested, only which have been played previously.
That doesn't mean we can't have more Virginia tracks, of course, and I think some others have been requested.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
Tale of Tales retrospective:
Had an afternoon laid up in bed where I was after something not too taxing. I thought I would finally play through the collection and listen to the podcast.
A mixed bag really. I do like my fair share of artistic games or art but sometimes the gameplay and “art” were at odds with each other in this collection.
I think The Path probably has the best balance of gameplay and art whereas fatale (or at least the second part) was quite tedious in terms of its gameplay which I found detracted a lot from the experience. The graveyard is a vignette rather than a game which I recently came across at the Victoria and Albert museum which is the perfect place for it.
Bientôt l’été unfortunately doesn’t work well as it is essentially a multiplayer game and no-one is playing which is understandable many years later. I think this would work well in a museum on opposite sides of an exhibit for example. The concept reminds me of a black mirror episode.
The less said about luxuria superbia’s metaphors the better. I felt a bit creepy playing it!
Had an afternoon laid up in bed where I was after something not too taxing. I thought I would finally play through the collection and listen to the podcast.
A mixed bag really. I do like my fair share of artistic games or art but sometimes the gameplay and “art” were at odds with each other in this collection.
I think The Path probably has the best balance of gameplay and art whereas fatale (or at least the second part) was quite tedious in terms of its gameplay which I found detracted a lot from the experience. The graveyard is a vignette rather than a game which I recently came across at the Victoria and Albert museum which is the perfect place for it.
Bientôt l’été unfortunately doesn’t work well as it is essentially a multiplayer game and no-one is playing which is understandable many years later. I think this would work well in a museum on opposite sides of an exhibit for example. The concept reminds me of a black mirror episode.
The less said about luxuria superbia’s metaphors the better. I felt a bit creepy playing it!
Re: Games Completed 2019
Every Tale of Tales game in one afternoon? Can someone go and check on Simon please, the sickness has moved into a new, deadly phase.
I finished Subnautica!
What a great trip. I feel like I should gloss over the four major flaws with the game, as the rest of it is so good. The gathering/progression mechanic feels great, and the things you make are pitched perfectly to reward the player in a way that is not 'growing more powerful' - indeed the player never really gets any more powerful in the course of the game - but instead provide more protection and allow a natural progression based on increased crush depth. It really is quite elegantly done.
The game world is gorgeous and really well realised for the most part; the lighting in particular is spectacular. The vehicles you can craft are absolutely brilliant and a reward in themselves, and the animations (both personal and external) are fantastic. The story is pretty damn good, and definitely provides impetus to finish the game.
Finished it and got the platinum along the way (mostly a fait accompli in the course of normal gameplay apart from one achievement). Really impressed, would have been on the GOTY list last year for sure.
EDIT: PSA - If you're someone who has issues with framerate and pop-in (to the extent that these things ruin a game for you), you should probably steer clear.
I finished Subnautica!
What a great trip. I feel like I should gloss over the four major flaws with the game, as the rest of it is so good. The gathering/progression mechanic feels great, and the things you make are pitched perfectly to reward the player in a way that is not 'growing more powerful' - indeed the player never really gets any more powerful in the course of the game - but instead provide more protection and allow a natural progression based on increased crush depth. It really is quite elegantly done.
The game world is gorgeous and really well realised for the most part; the lighting in particular is spectacular. The vehicles you can craft are absolutely brilliant and a reward in themselves, and the animations (both personal and external) are fantastic. The story is pretty damn good, and definitely provides impetus to finish the game.
Finished it and got the platinum along the way (mostly a fait accompli in the course of normal gameplay apart from one achievement). Really impressed, would have been on the GOTY list last year for sure.
EDIT: PSA - If you're someone who has issues with framerate and pop-in (to the extent that these things ruin a game for you), you should probably steer clear.
Re: Games Completed 2019
Cool man, sounds like you enjoyed it as much as I did.
And I only watched it .
And I only watched it .
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
Haha. It wasn’t the entire back catalogue and it was probably more than just an afternoon but still quite a mind bending experience.
Funnily enough I started playing Silent Hill 4:The Room which is pretty trippy too and was probably heightened because of it.
Aside from The Path the others are very short to experience/finish. I’m glad I finished them but after playing Sunset which is admittedly much more my thing I’m sad that it sold so poorly that they won’t make a follow up.
- AndrewBrown
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Re: Games Completed 2019
01/01: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES]
04/01: Quarantine Circular [Switch]
Spiritually similar to Mike Bithell's previous "Bithell Short," Subsurface Circular, Quarantine Circular is a similar dialog-driven text adventure. Quarantine Circular is thematically much more ambitious. When humanity is inflicted by a plague, entire cities are put into quarantine by the effort of an international military force. In one such quarantined city, they find an alien and bring it back to one of their ships. Using a universal translator AI, the ship's crew have to get to know the alien and discover why it was in the quarantined city.
In contrast to Subsurface, which kept the player locked into a single character with a single motivation, Quarantine hops the player between different characters who have different personalities, priorities, and biases. As the point of the game is essentially communication, this makes sense, but the system started to break down as I grew near the end and I was forced to make certain actions with which I fundamentally disagreed. I was at an impasse: Have a character take an action colored by my negative opinion of them (it is well-written enough that no action seems entirely out of character), or have this character behave in-character in a way which negatively impacts the end result I want to push the story towards. Worse, there are situations where characters can be "Blocked" from the conversation between a crewmember and the alien, but because of the player character-hopping, I as the player go into that blocked character with knowledge they should not have, which also colors my decisions.
Subsurface built up to a single, agonizing decision which I described last year as the most affecting I'd had since Telltale's Walking Dead Season 1. Quarantine's ultimate decision felt much less impactful; there seemed to be much less ambiguity between the "rightness" and "wrongness" of each decision. The alien is simply too well-written and sympathetic in a story where its alien-ness should have been emphasized if not trusting it was intended to be anything more than the "dumb ending." I still enjoyed Quarantine Circular, but as a morality-based text adventure I don't hold it in the same regard as Subsurface Circular. It's more ambitious from a writing standpoint, and it doesn't reach the same heights because of that very ambition.
04/01: Quarantine Circular [Switch]
Spiritually similar to Mike Bithell's previous "Bithell Short," Subsurface Circular, Quarantine Circular is a similar dialog-driven text adventure. Quarantine Circular is thematically much more ambitious. When humanity is inflicted by a plague, entire cities are put into quarantine by the effort of an international military force. In one such quarantined city, they find an alien and bring it back to one of their ships. Using a universal translator AI, the ship's crew have to get to know the alien and discover why it was in the quarantined city.
In contrast to Subsurface, which kept the player locked into a single character with a single motivation, Quarantine hops the player between different characters who have different personalities, priorities, and biases. As the point of the game is essentially communication, this makes sense, but the system started to break down as I grew near the end and I was forced to make certain actions with which I fundamentally disagreed. I was at an impasse: Have a character take an action colored by my negative opinion of them (it is well-written enough that no action seems entirely out of character), or have this character behave in-character in a way which negatively impacts the end result I want to push the story towards. Worse, there are situations where characters can be "Blocked" from the conversation between a crewmember and the alien, but because of the player character-hopping, I as the player go into that blocked character with knowledge they should not have, which also colors my decisions.
Subsurface built up to a single, agonizing decision which I described last year as the most affecting I'd had since Telltale's Walking Dead Season 1. Quarantine's ultimate decision felt much less impactful; there seemed to be much less ambiguity between the "rightness" and "wrongness" of each decision. The alien is simply too well-written and sympathetic in a story where its alien-ness should have been emphasized if not trusting it was intended to be anything more than the "dumb ending." I still enjoyed Quarantine Circular, but as a morality-based text adventure I don't hold it in the same regard as Subsurface Circular. It's more ambitious from a writing standpoint, and it doesn't reach the same heights because of that very ambition.
Re: Games Completed 2019
Haven't got much to report as yet as I haven't had much free time, but I've started looking into Rami Ismali's Meditations project, which puts up 1 new game per day from an indie developer. It's only available for those 24 hours. He has one lined up for every day in 2019.
I only remembered to try it out today. I played a curious Pico-8 title called The Way, which as far as I can tell is an extremely short sliding-block puzzle game. I thought it was a little too easy to complete (took me about 5 minutes), though I've just looked at the developer's Twitter feed and realised that I wasn't supposed to be able to move diagonally, which would have made things much, much harder. Bless him.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing what else the project has in store. Rami has promised a wide variety of genres, art styles and narrative themes. It'll certainly tide me over until Dreams happens.
I only remembered to try it out today. I played a curious Pico-8 title called The Way, which as far as I can tell is an extremely short sliding-block puzzle game. I thought it was a little too easy to complete (took me about 5 minutes), though I've just looked at the developer's Twitter feed and realised that I wasn't supposed to be able to move diagonally, which would have made things much, much harder. Bless him.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing what else the project has in store. Rami has promised a wide variety of genres, art styles and narrative themes. It'll certainly tide me over until Dreams happens.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
I did wonder if this would be on the list for the year when I saw you had played it that many times.
- Spoiler: show
Virginia
Still gives me goosebumps every time. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and discussion. I’m guessing Jacob, James and possibly Leon being on the show.
- ratsoalbion
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Re: Games Completed 2019
Not me sir, James will be hosting a panel of Jacob, Jon and Karl.
I bought the game in the Steam sale for 69p, but I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks.
I bought the game in the Steam sale for 69p, but I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks.
Re: Games Completed 2019
Jan 1 - Cat Quest
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Celeste is a very good platformer. It also gave me 1% insight into depression and for that, its priceless.
Jan 3 - Nex Machina (Arcade, experienced)
Jan 4 - Celeste
Celeste is a very good platformer. It also gave me 1% insight into depression and for that, its priceless.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
Just played Virginia again. I blame Kintaris as I signed up to truetrophies and realised I only had a few left. It still gets me every time.
I think I’m getting a bit sappy and sentimental as the years go by as I welled up today during Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory when Charlie finds a golden ticket! My son was confused and asked me if I was sad because the last golden ticket had been found and there wasn’t any left for me to find! It’s a recurring theme that video games are starting to bring on the waterworks. I’m becoming more emotional as the medium is trying to do the same I suspect.
I think I’m getting a bit sappy and sentimental as the years go by as I welled up today during Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory when Charlie finds a golden ticket! My son was confused and asked me if I was sad because the last golden ticket had been found and there wasn’t any left for me to find! It’s a recurring theme that video games are starting to bring on the waterworks. I’m becoming more emotional as the medium is trying to do the same I suspect.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2019
I’m looking out for hints for this year’s playlist. Celeste sounds like a good shout? Am I close?
Re: Games Completed 2019
5th Jan - Rise of the Tomb Raider (XBO)
Good fun stuff, but it adds almost nothing to the previous game, feeling more like an extended expansion than a new game in its own right. The crafting / upgrading feels like it’s going to be more interesting than before, but turns out not to be. And some of the set pieces (including the finale) and enemy designs are lifted almost direct from the previous game
It does have its moments of inspiration though, there’s a good set of puzzles in the final act that test how much you can remember about what everything does.
(And I’m not going to throw *too* many stones here, cause I’ve plenty of experience of working on sequels where we changed too much and people hated it, or changed not enough and people hated it... so... yeah. Sequels are hard).
Good fun stuff, but it adds almost nothing to the previous game, feeling more like an extended expansion than a new game in its own right. The crafting / upgrading feels like it’s going to be more interesting than before, but turns out not to be. And some of the set pieces (including the finale) and enemy designs are lifted almost direct from the previous game
It does have its moments of inspiration though, there’s a good set of puzzles in the final act that test how much you can remember about what everything does.
(And I’m not going to throw *too* many stones here, cause I’ve plenty of experience of working on sequels where we changed too much and people hated it, or changed not enough and people hated it... so... yeah. Sequels are hard).
- Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2019
(Jan) Starlink :Battle for Atlas - PS4.