Games Completed 2021

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Megadirt
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Megadirt »

Like a crazy person, I decided last year to play through all the games on C&R in order, though I got slightly side tracked by Demon's Souls and Cyberpunk (which I have yet to really play)

Dark Souls was my first game I finished this year even though C&R wise that was technically jumping ahead, I'd finally after 10 years of trying got the 'souls' bug. I have all but finished the sequel. It was exactly as good as everyone said, though the graphics in my memory look like sandwich spread in a sink full of chicken stock. Apart from that it is absolutely worth it's constant praise.

Darksiders the game that people mistake for dark souls much more often than I would expect, I assume these people insist on thinking in abbreviations. It was a pretty solid game that was almost like a cover album of the best games of the era, I would never play it again, and would never go out of my way to suggest someone plays it, but it was fun.

I also got right up to the final boss in Eternal Darkness on the GameCube but decided that I didn't give a shit anymore and with nearly 450 issues to go, I've allowed myself the freedom to abandon games at a moments notice, same thing happened with Max Payne which is no where near as good as I remember.
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Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Call of the Sea - Series X.
(Jan) Remember Me - PS3.
(Jan) Ghostbusters Remastered - Series X
(Feb) Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4 Pro.
(Feb) Batman: Arkham Knight - PS4 Pro.
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Feirsteax
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Feirsteax »

Completed Cyber Shadow this morning.

That was amazing fun. This is a retro game that get boss fights right. They are such a challenge but you always manage to master them and find their weakness eventually. Makes beating them so satisfying.

Music and visuals are absolutely top notch as well. Gameplay was tough but rewarding. Loved it.

Here's my stats for the fun of it :P

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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Alex79 »

Alex79uk wrote: January 1st, 2021, 1:25 pmJAN - 80 Days (Android)
JAN - What Remains Of Edith Finch (PS4)
JAN - Judgment (PS4)
JAN - Donut County (Android)
FEB - Gorogoa (Android)

Not sure why but I fancied going through this again. It's still good. Some really nice, satisfying mechanics, although it's not perfect. There are a couple of sections that are very frustrating and seem to have no logic to them, it's just a case of tapping and sliding everything until you chance upon the correct sequence they want you to do. Overall though it's so stylish a smart, still an enjoyable game.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Alex79uk wrote: February 6th, 2021, 10:00 am
Alex79uk wrote: January 1st, 2021, 1:25 pmJAN - 80 Days (Android)
JAN - What Remains Of Edith Finch (PS4)
JAN - Judgment (PS4)
JAN - Donut County (Android)
FEB - Gorogoa (Android)

Not sure why but I fancied going through this again. It's still good. Some really nice, satisfying mechanics, although it's not perfect. There are a couple of sections that are very frustrating and seem to have no logic to them, it's just a case of tapping and sliding everything until you chance upon the correct sequence they want you to do. Overall though it's so stylish a smart, still an enjoyable game.
Was playing this on Switch recently and gave up with it last week, I just couldn't get my head around the puzzles which is weird as I'm normally ok with puzzle games.
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2021

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Truk_Kurt wrote: February 6th, 2021, 10:18 am Was playing this on Switch recently and gave up with it last week, I just couldn't get my head around the puzzles which is weird as I'm normally ok with puzzle games.
Yeah it's a funny one, they're barely puzzles in a way, it's very much 'what were we thinking' and you have to just move stuff in the order they want you to. There are a couple of nice puzzles with cogs and stairs etc, and I guess it sits OK in the puzzle genre, but I can appreciate why anyone wouldn't like it, it is very frustrating and tedious when you get stuck on something for more than a minute or two.
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by duskvstweak »

Feirsteax wrote: February 6th, 2021, 9:52 am Completed Cyber Shadow this morning.

That was amazing fun. This is a retro game that get boss fights right. They are such a challenge but you always manage to master them and find their weakness eventually. Makes beating them so satisfying.

Music and visuals are absolutely top notch as well. Gameplay was tough but rewarding. Loved it.

Here's my stats for the fun of it :P

Image
You died 200 times less than me!
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2021

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Alex79uk wrote: January 1st, 2021, 1:25 pmJAN - 80 Days (Android)
JAN - What Remains Of Edith Finch (PS4)
JAN - Judgment (PS4)
JAN - Donut County (Android)
FEB - Gorogoa (Android)
FEB - Horace (Switch)

Fantastic game that I, along with many others it seems, picked up for under a quid before Christmas. Well I definitely got my moneys worth. It's a highly enjoyable platformer that seems to have a reputation of being one of those 'hard' platformers, along with Celeste and Super Meat Boy. I don't think the difficulty is anywhere near those games, but there were certainly some challenging sections. A few genuine laugh out loud moments and charming characters. My only criticism is that I honestly felt it was slightly too long. It really started to drag for me in the middle, and I became a little fed up with it, but actually it mixes things up again and becomes more interesting towards the final third of the game and redeems itself. I took around 15 hours, and I think 10 might have been perfect. Overall though, really good example of the genre.
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Miririn
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Miririn »

5. The Last of Us Part II (Grounded Difficulty)

I played on New Game+. It was my fifth playthrough (I'm a great one for re-playing/re-watching/re-reading things. It's a bad habit). I finally feel like I've played this game out for a while, unless sometime soon I put on a good podcast/audiobook and do a quick Easy Mode permadeath run-through skipping cutscenes and using an online guide to hoover up collectibles I missed and try to get my (first ever) Platinum. I don't care about Platinums and things like that but it seems pretty straightforward for this game, doesn't require online trophies (my internet is terrible), and I'm so close anyway... so why not.

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, except for the odd section (Hillcrest, Rat King, first Seraphite village) where I needed to check some online playthroughs for ideas. And there was definitely a difficulty spike midway through Abby's section. But it was never frustrating to the point of not being fun, and felt pretty manageable. I think it's easier than TLOU1 on Grounded, which I gave up on around the Capitol Hill area (although I wasn't doing NG+, so maybe that's why). I found Crushing Mode of "Uncharted 4" harder than TLOU2 on Grounded, which I really wasn't expecting. Checkpoints in TLOU2 on Grounded were extremely generous which encouraged experimentation and taking risks (in UC4 you would lose a good twenty minutes being sent back sometimes, so I would play extremely conservatively and spend a lot of time forcing Nathan Drake to cling to the side of cliffs waiting for an opening). There were a lot more supplies than I anticipated. Knowing the game back-to-front also helped - it made it a lot easier to work out when I could use weapons and have a bit of fun vs when I really needed to stealth as much as I could.

Definitely cemented that this game has moved up to probably being my favourite game I've ever played. There's almost nothing I would change. I love the characters, story, atmosphere, gameplay, sound design (especially the sound design - it's brilliant), music, graphics, character designs (Abby's character design is great and the whining about it is so stupid I could maybe rant for a week)... love it. Although I realised the other day my PS4 area is starting to morph into a creepy shrine (Ellie Nendoroid, Abby and Ellie prints next to each other so they can squabble, art book, key art print, TLOU2 external storage drive)... so I really need to stop.
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Re: Games Completed 2021

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Impressive work!
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Miririn
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Re: Games Completed 2021

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ratsoalbion wrote: February 9th, 2021, 11:07 am Impressive work!
Haha compared to people who can play stuff like "Dark Souls" or "Bloodborne" it was nothing! (...I bought "Bloodborne" but I am... too afraid to try it and realise how terrible I am :oops: )
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by ratsoalbion »

I dunno, I think in a lot of ways Bloodborne is easier because you can 'grind' it.
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by duskvstweak »

Spoiler: show
Fallout: New Vegas
Halo 3: ODST
Halo 4
Cyber Shadow
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps, was a complete joy to play. Great handling, satisfyingly aerial with triple jumps, dashes and launches. I found it less frustrating than the first game, now flooding tree-induced rage this time around. Really, the way it's able to feel cinematic and keep the gameplay moving is fantastic... that boss and chase sequence music is amazing. I loved it and both games are just classics and worth playing, especially if you have Gamepass.
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Simonsloth »

Megadirt wrote: February 5th, 2021, 8:18 pm Like a crazy person, I decided last year to play through all the games on C&R in order, though I got slightly side tracked by Demon's Souls and Cyberpunk (which I have yet to really play)
I've been sort of doing this as well but also hopping between the podcast list from the current year too. Nice to have a bit of structure but gets expensive when you get to things like Chibi Robo.
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Simonsloth »

January 2021:

Get Even (PS4 on Ps5 via PS Now)

I've dipped in and out of the beginning of this game several times mainly out of curiosity given its absolutely phenomenal soundtrack and audio design but never committed to actually playing it properly.
This time I decided to play it in its entirety over a few evenings with my new PS5 headset and it was pretty fantastic. It reminds of games like Soma and Observer in that its trying to tell you a story first and foremost with gameplay very much secondary. In Get Even's case the gameplay is serviceable (and to some extent unnecessary) although how you engage in combat effects the story I feel there are other ways this could have been implemented.
The soundtrack and audio design in terms of quality are in a different class compared to the visuals and game mechanics elevating simple and potentially bland sequences into moments of intensity and emotion. I think with more time, financial backing and experience this team could potentially make something fantastic so I am curious to see how their next project turns out. They are working on Chernobylite a sci fi survival horror experience with non linear storytelling which is in early access with some decent user reviews so far (offset by the usual 0/10 nonsense of course).

The Last Story (Wii on Wii U)

Overall an enjoyable experience. I appreciated how linear and streamlined it was as I don't really have the time or patience for JRPG grinding anymore.

WarioWare Inc (GBA - on WiiU Virtual Console)

Nice and short distraction. Onto the GC version next.

Resident Evil 3 (Ps4 on Ps5)

Playing this made me realise how much of an achievement Resident Evil 2: Remake was particularly with regards to Mr X. The Nemesis seemed less ominous and more of an annoyance than the terror inducing Resi 2 counterpart. Technically it is far superior to the PsOne original and if you asked me which I would prefer to play again I would definitely say this one but it missed the mark with the most important aspect; The Nemesis which the original nailed. Still I only paid 13 pounds for a physical copy which is an absolute bargain for this game, IJust feel bad for anyone who paid 50 pounds for something so brief.

Celeste (Xbox Series S - Gamepass)

Not a fan of this to be honest. I appreciate the craft behind the individual parts but I didn't really get anything from the narrative and feel the challenge ramped up too quickly for my liking. I found the final few levels really tough and rather than the exhiliration of completing I felt pleased I didn't have to play it again. This isn't the game's fault, its mine.

Doom Eternal (Xbox Series S - Gamepass)

I didn't get the same enjoyment from this as its predecessor. It some ways it plays like bulletstorm where it is less about shooting the thing until it dies but more juggling abilities, timing cooldowns and hitting weak spots. I found myself without ammo for so much of the game despite chainsawing and hoovering up every piece available. I thought the levels were too long and many of the individual battles felt so similar it became repetitive. I personally would have preferred a game half the length so as to make the shooting feel fresh rather than becoming stale. Again I feel this is less about the game and more a reflection of my personal tastes.

Demons Souls (PS5)

Oh Demon's Souls, you beautiful wonderful thing. This is without doubt one of the best gameplay experiences I have ever had and cannot believe it has taken me this long to finally finish it. I picked up the Ps3 original in the USA before its EU release but was quickly scared off by the apparent difficulty and obscurity at the outset. I've tried several times to play it since after the server shutdown via a patreon supported server but could rarely find someone to assist me with two of the hardest bosses in the game so had to stop each time. This meant I knew the first few levels like the back of my hand when I started the Ps5 version and despite the relatively quiet online presence due to the PS5 shortages I found someone to help with one of the bosses and I made it through to the end quite quickly. It is so well crafted and unique. I am in love.
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Miririn
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Re: Games Completed 2021

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6. Return of the Obra Dinn (Nintendo Switch)

Pretty much gorged myself on this over yesterday evening and a lot of today like I was some kind of Roman emperor at a banquet. A really compulsive puzzle game that I really wanted to crack. When I tried it earlier in the year I clearly wasn't in the right headspace for it because I just felt stupid and tired. This time I just had a lot of fun, and I wasn't ashamed (although perhaps I should have been) of going online for clues sometimes (I'm not the brightest pixie in the forest, so God only knows how long some of the mysteries would have taken me otherwise). I've never been a spoilerphobe and I kind of like finding out solutions to puzzles from seeing how other people cracked them and saying "ohhhh I get it THAT'S where I was going wrong (even though I'm sure that some Lucas Pope fanatics will come chasing after me with brooms and pitchforks for not trying my best to figure out everything on my own). That said, I loved it whenever I did work things out on my own: the core gameplay loop where I was rewarded whenever I guessed three fates correctly released such a shot of joy in me. Most puzzle games leave me tired and frustrated, and when I eventually solve it I think "ugh finally", rather than feeling pleased, so it was great to have one that rewarded me with a gleeful puzzle-solving high (probably because I really liked the story and needed to solve the mysteries to unravel it, rather than just needing to solve a puzzle to get into another room or whatever).

Loved the sound design (although the music could be a bit overbearing - I liked the creaky ship and the voices more). Loved all the historical details. Went completely bananas over
Spoiler: show
the mermaid and monster designs! Those spider crab knights were amazing!
It really reminded me of the first stand-alone season of that show "The Terror", which I was a huge fan of. It felt like playing "The Terror: The Puzzle Game", and I loved that.

This year I've been tentatively trying out the sort of games I don't usually go for (this, "Spiritfarer", a bit of "Dishonored 2" etc) and I've been enjoying it
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Magical_Isopod »

#4 - Panzer Dragoon (2020)

What a weird release, this one... I'll start by saying that I really enjoyed Panzer Dragoon. It has its problems, to be sure, but it was a really enjoyable arcade shooter with some really imaginative choices in terms of theme and setting. I don't know what the lore of this game is, and the game doesn't really present you with much visual information to change that. Which is a shame, really - there seems to be some really interesting stuff going on in this world. It controls really nicely too. I know I'd heard complaints at launch about the game having technical problems, but short of some low-res textures typical of the Switch, I didn't experience any playing in Feb. 2021. The boss encounters were definitely the highlight here - huge abominations of flesh and/or machine that try to take you down in overly contrived ways that keep you on your toes.

But it's strange to me that this game was targeted to be remade at all. It's incredibly short - even with a few deaths, I don't think it took me more than 90 minutes. And the pacing is really weird too - like it was made for arcades. The vignettes between each chapter of combat are neat, but hurried, and give little information on the context of what's going on. I use a game like Einhander as a litmus - even without the high difficulty, it's a much longer game, and it's much clearer what your pilot's objective is and how they're progressing. But in Panzer Dragoon, there was a lot of, "What's happening? Where'd he come from? What's that thing do?" And stranger still, right when the game feels like it's hitting its stride with winding, urban levels and the reveal(?) of a bigger threat(?), it just... Ends.

I don't fault the small Polish team that made this remake, I think they did a great job, and I commend that they made the fairly bold choice to make a straight remake here. But see, the price is what gets me... Now, I paid $7.50 CDN for this game on the Switch eShop - I think that's a fair price. But the $50 price tag at launch? Holy yikes, there's not nearly enough game here to justify that. Like did they have to pay a bundle to license it? Even in 1996 or whenever this game originally came out, it wouldn't have been worth that asking price.

All in all, I enjoyed this one, and I'd love to see more games in this series, be they remakes or ports or new games, I'm interested in any. But it's a really hard sell at the asking price. Definitely pick it up when it's on sale though, you'll have a good hour or so just soaking in this weird world.

&iso2021
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by DomsBeard »

[b}Shadow Of The Tomb Raider PS4 Pro[/b]

I loaded up my save from 4 years ago about 25% through and played it through the last week after it dropped on PS+. The story is nonsense on the who however the gameplay and yes the TOMBS! are a joy. Would highly recommend it even if you haven't played the other two (personally I would play the first and wiki the 2nd).

It looks stunning on my PS4 Pro so would be intrigued to see it on PS5.

Should Lara return for another adventure I will be a day one purchaser.
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by ThirdDrawing »

6. Grandia 2.

Not as fun as the first, as it lacks the first's spirit of adventure. It's got a fairly interesting interesting story about man vs. religion and how to stand on your own. Soundtrack isn't nearly as good as the first game though.
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Rhaegyr
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Re: Games Completed 2021

Post by Rhaegyr »

I remember adoring the battle system on Grandia II - is it still a highlight?
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