Games Completed 2019

[James]

Spoiler: show

1st Jan - Virginia (Xbox One)
13th Jan - Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
27th Jan - Mortal Kombat (Vita)
3rd Feb - Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)
18th Feb - Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)
12th Mar - Dark Souls 3: Ashes Of Ariandel (Xbox One)
17th Mar - Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City (Xbox One)
6th May - Guildmaster Story (iOS)
15th May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4)
22nd May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4) (Platinum Trophy)
27th May - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Xbox One)
2nd Jun - Sekiro: SDT (Xbox One) (1000G)
6th Jun - Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR)
13th Jun - Furi (PS4)
18th Jun - Blood & Truth (PSVR)
21st Jun - Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)

25th Jun - Burly Men At Sea (PS4)
25th Jun - Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4)

Had myself a backlog-clearing day; 30 minutes spent with a bunch of different games to see which ones grab me and which I can scrub off the old backlog. Absolver, Badland, Beyond: Two Souls and inFAMOUS: Second Son didn't make the cut, sadly. Meanwhile, I might go back to 2064: Read Only Memories. Two games did grab me and were short enough that by the time I realised I'd played more than half an hour I'd completed them. Oops!

Thoroughly enjoyed both, for their weird, irreverent humour. And both have a bunch of different endings that I'm sure I'll go back to see at some point. Highly recommended, especially as they were both PlayStation Plus games.

[ColinAlonso]

Spoiler: show

Jan 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
Jan 20 - FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (Easy)
Jan 25 - Final Fantasy VIII (PSVita - PS1 Classic)
Jan 27 - Puzzle Bobble (Switch) (Difficulty Level 4 - One credit)
Feb 3 - Metal Slug 3 (PS4 - PS2 anthology version on Easy)
Feb 8 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Vs Computer mode - Normal)
Feb 12 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Puzzle mode - One credit)
Feb 20 - Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (3DS - DS cart)
Feb 21 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) (World of Light)
Mar 3 - Ristar (JP version) (PC)
Mar 22 - Wargroove (Switch)
Mar 31 - River City Ransom (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 2 - Donkey Kong '94 (3DS - VC)
Apr 20 - Super Dodge Ball (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 28 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
May 2 - Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 2 - Aladdin SNES (PC emulation)
May 6 - Aladdin Mega Drive (PC Emulator)
Jun 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Majima Saga (PS4)
Jun 17 - Tetris Effect (PS4) (Normal)

Jun 23 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)

Still an odd duck in the FF series.

A game that took me 80-90 hours to not finish on PS2 took less than 60 to do so on Switch. I've said it before but the speed up ability works so well with FFXII's gambit system and roaming enemies. Having said that, it outstayed its welcome. If I felt more of a need to mix up tactics and therefore not just settle for the same of similar gambits through large portions of the late game I may not have gotten bored of it.

Whereas other games in the series give focus to each of it's characters, FFXII focuses more on its main plot. It tries a similar political/fantasy mix as Final Fantasy Tactics but without the level of complexity (it had multiple parties with ambitions to rule) of that game it never stuck. This also results in a couple of party characters tagging along, Penelo in particular but even Vaan and Fran aren't too far off.

The soundtrack is fantastic if you enjoy Hitoshi Sakimoto's stuff. I do and while he composed for other games that I prefer, this is my favourite of his soundtracks.

The game looks great for its era, voice acting has improved alot in the five years from X, I really like the cutscenes, Balthier wins an award for best dressed male in a Final Fantasy and Cid is a prime cut of posh ham.

Jun 24 - A Bird Story (PC)

This took me about 75 minutes. Its a tale that happens within a boy's dream about befriending a bird with a broken wing. There's less interaction than To The Moon but I do still like to interact even in story heavy games like this. Its told without any text and as a stand alone piece it's not interesting, its plot is quite straight forward. But as a mini prequel to Finding Paradise it does leave questions like, is this a dream presentation of an actual interaction the boy had with a bird or is this a metaphor or similar for something else that happened in his life and, if so, what is it?

[seansthomas]

1st February - Dark Souls
8th February - The Gardens Between
9th February - Quarantine Circular
20th February - Night in the woods
26th March - Ape Out
16th June - Brothers

25th June - My Friend Pedro

Seen a handful of lukewarm reviews of this but I largely loved it.

You're a one man army ploughing through 2D levels shooting hoardes of enemies with an almighty arsenal, often upside down or in bullet time. The whole game is a stylish riff on The Matrix lobby gunfight.

Definitely felt a few levels too long but it introduced new mechanics throughout and some cool weapon variations right up to the end. Liked the humour and music too, which I thought I would as it's published by Devolver.

Can see speed runs of this being amazing and I've already started replaying a lot of the two handed Uzi levels...

Well worth a look.

[Chopper]

Jun 24 - A Bird Story (PC)

Are you moving on to Finding Paradise next? You should strike while the iron is hot!

(I have not played A Bird Story but enjoyed FP a lot, and there are some callbacks for sure).

[ColinAlonso]

Yeah, starting it tonight. I bought both games back in the Winter Steam sale to play back to back.

[James]

Spoiler: show

1st Jan - Virginia (Xbox One)
13th Jan - Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
27th Jan - Mortal Kombat (Vita)
3rd Feb - Mortal Kombat X (Xbox One)
18th Feb - Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)
12th Mar - Dark Souls 3: Ashes Of Ariandel (Xbox One)
17th Mar - Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City (Xbox One)
6th May - Guildmaster Story (iOS)
15th May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4)
22nd May - Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4) (Platinum Trophy)
27th May - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Xbox One)
2nd Jun - Sekiro: SDT (Xbox One) (1000G)
6th Jun - Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR)
13th Jun - Furi (PS4)
18th Jun - Blood & Truth (PSVR)
21st Jun - Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)
25th Jun - Burly Men At Sea (PS4)
25th Jun - Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4)

26th Jun - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)

Continuing my backlog bash, I started this yesterday and was compelled enough with the story to see it through all 5 episodes. This was the first of Telltale’s games I’ve played through since The Walking Dead: Season 1.

I certainly saw some of the frailties that others have mentioned with regard to Telltale’s engine and their style of gameplay/structure. I’ve written up my thoughts more-fully over on the ‘All Things Telltale’ thread.

Overall, I’m glad I played through Batman, but I can’t say that it has compelled me to play the second season. I have a couple of other Telltale series from Gold/Plus, so I’m sure I’ll get to those at some point, but I’m not in any rush.

[Chopper]

As far as I can tell, I've completed all the scripted mission content in Objects in Space (PC), the low-fi, submarine-in-space simulator. I've also repaid all my loans and have upgraded my ship to an acceptable level, so I am calling it done.

It's really a game about learning how to play the game, as a lot of simulators are, and in that context it was excellent. I think I restarted it three times, with some of those restarts coming after five or six hours play. There were a few bugs as regards missions, but overall the experience was good, if frustrating at times. Once you figured out how to play and how to maintain your ship, the game elicited feelings very similar to the zen-state associated with Euro Truck Simulator and its like.

The developers have been very quiet since launch, with the forums and support pages going dark, which is a pity as I'm very interested in what they'd do next.

Very enjoyable.

[Combine Hunter]

Spoiler: show

15/02 - Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
17/02 - Final Fantasy VIII (PS Vita)
18/02 - FAR: Lone Sails (PC)
14/04 - Final Fantasy IX (PS Vita)
28/04 - Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (PC)
09/05 - Devil May Cry 5 (PC)
11/05 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC)
26/05 - Observation (PC)
04/06 - Katana Zero (Switch)

29/06 - Dino Crisis (PS3)

Thoughts on the pod.

[Chopper]

RUMU (PC)

an intimate, narrative-driven adventure that follows the path into sentience of a robot vacuum cleaner.

Not quite what I was expecting, as there are some annoying puzzle elements. Very well presented, but not something I really enjoyed.

[MajorGamer]

Spoiler: show

Jan 2 - War for the Overworld (PC)
Jan 13 - Pyre (PC)
Jan 16 - Heroes of Hammerwatch (PC)
Jan 17 - Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Jan 20 - ReThink | Evolved (PC)
Jan 20 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
Jan 22 - Ruzar - The Life Stone (PC)
Jan 27 - After Death (PC)
Feb 6 - Vikings - Wolves of Midgard (PC)
Feb 21 - Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins (PC)

Feb 27 - Book of Demons (PC)
Mar 4 - Vaporum (PC)
Mar 5 - Frost (Switch)
Mar 9 - DarkMaus (PC)
Mar 10 - Octopath Traveler (Switch)
Mar 31 - Final Fantasy X (PC)
Apr 5 - Treasure Adventure World (PC)
Apr 15 - Greedy Guns (PC)
Apr 23 - ChromaGun (PC)
Apr 27 - The Quest (PC)

May 1 - Skautfold: Usurper (PC)
May 7 - Alwa's Awakening (PC)
May 9 - OneShot (PC)
May 13 - Darkest Dungeon: Ancestral Edition (Switch)
May 27 - Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (PC)
May 29 - Styx: Shards of Darkness (PC)
Jun 5 - The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians (PC)
Jun 5 - Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom (Switch)
Jun 11 - Yoku's Island Express (Switch)
Jun 17 - LISA (PC)

Jun 18 - Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (PC)

Another first person dungeon crawler and for anyone reading these, me saying it doesn't hold a candle to the Legend of Grimrock games is getting to be a broken record. This one isn't bad like some of the others, just incredibly boring. Moving away from enemies hurts you so you can't move in combat. Just need to sit there and take what they do and kill them. There is no strategy beyond doing your attacks as soon as they come off cooldown and maximize your healing. Secrets are very easy to spot as having a rogue in your party gives a message when you are next to one. Puzzles are non-existent. The only really bad thing is that if even a single character dies, its time to reload. The only way to revive them is with the revive spell, which you only get late in the game. So you'll need to carry dead people a long way (then they are horrendously under leveled) or just save scum.

Jun 24 - Halcyon 6 (PC)

A weird mix between XCOM's base building and almost Darkest Dungeon combat. The base building isn't anything as deep as there are no bonuses for adjacent rooms. The combat isn't as deep either as there are no positions, just attack whatever. You need officers to command the ships. Each officer has their own type (tactical, science, engineering) and gets their own talent tree with some RNG with which skills they have, making it a bit difficult to get exactly what you want. You can send out multiple fleets at once (hurray!) but ships take a load of resources to build to the point you can really only have one fully up to date fleet so they are going to be stuck doing all the fighting. The combat itself relies on causing debuffs that let other attacks exploit them to deal additional damage. Exploiting the debuff also removes the debuff instantly so there is some strategy if you want the extra damage or do a different attack to leave the debuff there. My problem is there are way too many debuffs to juggle. There is also ground combat but it plays out the same and doesn't add much.

I only played on the equivalent of normal difficult and found things a bit easy to the point of being bored. My Tier 1 fleet could take on Tier 2 ships with little problem and after that I was able to keep up with what they sent out. Despite that, I'm glad I didn't raise the difficulty higher because the final boss is a monstrosity. Not only is it the only thing in the game that destroyed one of my ships, it wiped out my fleet. Twice. Talk about a difficulty spike. I enjoyed the game enough and could certainly it it being someone else's jam.

[Chopper]

Jun 24 - Halcyon 6 (PC)
...

I enjoyed the game enough and could certainly it it being someone else's jam.

Certainly has piqued my curiosity. How long did you spend with the game, do you reckon?

I have finished two free Steam games:

How to Cope with Boredom and Loneliness

A very odd, very British, crude-humoured mini game which I can't decide if I like or not. Probably like. It took 24 minutes to complete, and then another ten to get the 'good ending'.

A Raven Monologue

6 minutes to complete. Lovely music and art. No idea what it was about.

[dezm0nd]

Dyad. .

I think?

[ColinAlonso]

Spoiler: show

Jan 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
Jan 20 - FTL: Faster Than Light (PC) (Easy)
Jan 25 - Final Fantasy VIII (PSVita - PS1 Classic)
Jan 27 - Puzzle Bobble (Switch) (Difficulty Level 4 - One credit)
Feb 3 - Metal Slug 3 (PS4 - PS2 anthology version on Easy)
Feb 8 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Vs Computer mode - Normal)
Feb 12 - Puzzle Bobble 2 (Switch)(Puzzle mode - One credit)
Feb 20 - Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (3DS - DS cart)
Feb 21 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) (World of Light)
Mar 3 - Ristar (JP version) (PC)
Mar 22 - Wargroove (Switch)
Mar 31 - River City Ransom (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 2 - Donkey Kong '94 (3DS - VC)
Apr 20 - Super Dodge Ball (Switch - NES rom)
Apr 28 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
May 2 - Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 2 - Aladdin SNES (PC emulation)
May 6 - Aladdin Mega Drive (PC Emulator)
Jun 16 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Majima Saga (PS4)
Jun 17 - Tetris Effect (PS4) (Normal)
Jun 23 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)
Jun 24 - A Bird Story (PC)

Jun 29 - Crypt of the Necrodancer (Switch)(Cadence) (Jun 30 - Melody)

Loved it. It gets to a point where moving to the rhythm becomes automatic. Then you're thinking about everything moving in turns (i.e. the beat). Apart from that it seems to do the roguelite things well (I'm not a regular with the genre). The variety in weapons, items/spells and equipment is good and all combines for a good top down dungeon crawler.

I particularly liked zone 3's presentation. Levels are split in half between ice and fire with the music shifting between electronic (ice) and rock (fire) versions of the tracks as you move.

Cadence is the regular character. Melody is forced to have a particular weapon, but its strong and its only major drawback is a lack of range. With experience of the zones and that weapon, it was much easier. That unlocked Aria but she's a 2-hit kill (I think) and missing the beat also damages her. So I've moved on to Nocturna. She's from the DLC and has a rather difficult boss sequence at the end of zone 5 (the DLC zone). If I finish that I'll tack her on to the end of this clear.

Jun 30 - Motorsport Manager 3 (Android)

I won the top championship so I consider this completed.

Picked it up for free on a sale (not sure how that works). Nice presentation. Unfortunately I only discovered there were hard difficulty options after a few championships and it didn't feel right jumping up then. A bigger problem for the game is that there never felt there was any risk of things going wrong. It really is a case of going through the motions of raising money to improve facilities to improve the car to perform better in races to win more prize money and earn more sponsorship money and further improve. The game doesn't interrupt that cycle with events/incidents that go against you. From the game I got the impression that a higher difficulty wouldn't help

In the end I played it when there was nothing else to do and when I only had my phone. I won't go back to it.

[stvnorman]

Spoiler: show

1 Jan: Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4)
12 Jan: LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4)
27 Jan: Raging Justice (Switch)
7 Feb: Mega Man 4 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
7 Mar: Trials Fusion (PS4)
15 Mar: Cursed Castilla EX (Switch)
22 Mar: The Witness (PS4)
27 Mar: Call of Duty - Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)
19 Apr: Resident Evil Remastered (PS4)
20 Apr: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES / Switch)
25 Apr: Moonlighter (Switch)
26 Apr: Sega Ages Out Run (Switch)
6 May: Mega Man 5 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
7 May: What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)
10 May: Mortal Kombat X (PS4)
23 May: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS4)
24 May: Kid Dracula - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)

8 June: Cuphead (Switch)
10 June: Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
14 June: Pilotwings (SNES on 3DS)
16 June: Final Fantasy 7 (Switch)
17 June: Castlevania - Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
26 June: Kid Icarus (NES / Switch)
26 June: Mega Man 6 - Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch)
27 June: Balloon Kid (Game Boy on 3DS)
29 June: Resident Evil 2 Remake (PS4)

Just realised June was two new but not new games book-ending a bunch of old classics. So glad to have finally played Final Fantasy 7 and Pilotwings, and got through the whole of the first Mega Man Legacy Collection. Resi 2 was fantastic too - second only to Baba is You as my game of the year so far.

[Simonsloth]

Spoiler: show

January:
Tale of Tales Collection
Virginia
Gravity Rush 2
Nier Automata

Feb:
Wolfenstein 2
Prey (2006)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Aladdin SNES
Aladdin Mega Drive
Donkey Kong

March:
Donkey King Country
Pilotwings
Dino crisis
Pony Island
Ape Escape
Donkey Kong country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Monkey Island 2

April:
DK 94
Inside (PS4)
Pony island
Shovel Knight plague of shadows
Dk64
Banjo Kazooie

May:
Banjo Tooie
Furi
Observer
Shovel Knight Specter of Torment

June:
Super Meat Boy
Evil Within

3rd July

Prey (2017)

Loved it. Took far longer than the How Long To Beat estimates for completion as I found myself exploring every nook and cranny a la Bioshock and messed around with the various outcomes. Didn’t end up installing any typhoon mods so will play it again at some point to mess around with those.

[MajorGamer]

Jun 24 - Halcyon 6 (PC)
...

I enjoyed the game enough and could certainly it it being someone else's jam.

Certainly has piqued my curiosity. How long did you spend with the game, do you reckon?

It took me about 15 hours to clear it on normal. This was for the Lightspeed version of the game that is supposedly faster than the Classic version. I have no idea what the exact differences are between them but you get both versions when buying it.

[Chopper]

Nice one, thanks Major.

I'm just going to wait till the next Humble is announced on July 5 and then will hoover up the rest of the games I want in the Steam Sale. I doubt any of them will headline the bundle but can't be too careful these days...

Prey (2017)

Loved it. Took far longer than the How Long To Beat estimates for completion as I found myself exploring every nook and cranny a la Bioshock and messed around with the various outcomes. Didn’t end up installing any typhoon mods so will play it again at some point to mess around with those.

Great stuff! Did you get the trophy for

Spoiler: show

Completing the game in the most empathetic manner possible

?

[Simonsloth]

Nice one, thanks Major.

I'm just going to wait till the next Humble is announced on July 5 and then will hoover up the rest of the games I want in the Steam Sale. I doubt any of them will headline the bundle but can't be too careful these days...

Prey (2017)

Loved it. Took far longer than the How Long To Beat estimates for completion as I found myself exploring every nook and cranny a la Bioshock and messed around with the various outcomes. Didn’t end up installing any typhoon mods so will play it again at some point to mess around with those.

Great stuff! Did you get the trophy for

Spoiler: show

Completing the game in the most empathetic manner possible

?

No I didn’t. Bit gutted about that as I thought I had done enough for it. Not sure where I went wrong on that front if I’m honest. I might never get it as next time I’m going to do the polar opposite.

P.S when mooncrash gets a price drop I’ll be getting it as it’s got bundled VR stuff also. I think my game clock said 58 hours and at the end I wanted more so will look forward to that when it gets a price cut.

[Chopper]

I didn't know Mooncrash had a VR element! I need to get right on that!!

*glances uneasily at 6-months-unused PSVR*

I don't think you'll regret buying Mooncrash when it's on sale. Really interesting stuff.

[Simonsloth]

I didn't know Mooncrash had a VR element! I need to get right on that!!

*glances uneasily at 6-months-unused PSVR*

I don't think you'll regret buying Mooncrash when it's on sale. Really interesting stuff.

Haha I’m the same. I just can’t get in the right mindset to want to hook it up.

It was added recently for free for mooncrash owners only