Games Completed 2022

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Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Terminator Resistance(platinum) - PS5.
(Jan) Call of Duty: Cold War - Series X.
(Jan) Dishonored 2 - PS5.
(Jan) Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Series X.
(May) State of Decay 2 - Series X.
(June) Chorus - Series X.
(June) Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5.
(June) TMNT: Shredders Revenge - Series X.
(July) TMCC: Halo Reach - Series X.
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markfm007
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by markfm007 »

Jan 7th - Little Nightmares 2
Jan 15th - Final Fantasy IX
Feb 3rd - Deathloop
April 29th - Last of Us Remastered
June 1st - Marvel's Spider-Man
June 30th - Elden Ring

After a long and winding road, I finished the main campaign. I still have Malenia to fight, and I’m currently collecting things I need for trophies, taking on a few optional bosses, and planning an NG+ run. I still have a few areas untouched, and plenty more to see and do. I’ve loved every minute of it, exploring this game, discovering its world and sharing its secrets and challenges has been one of my favourite gaming experiences. One day I’ll do a full review/breakdown thing of all my thoughts on it, but for now I’ll just leave it at that.
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Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Terminator Resistance(platinum) - PS5.
(Jan) Call of Duty: Cold War - Series X.
(Jan) Dishonored 2 - PS5.
(Jan) Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Series X.
(May) State of Decay 2 - Series X.
(June) Chorus - Series X.
(June) Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5.
(June) TMNT: Shredders Revenge - Series X.
(July) TMCC: Halo Reach - Series X.
(July) The Dark Pictures: Little Hope - PS5.
(July) Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - Series X.
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
03/01 - Halo 3: ODST (Master Chief Collection)
06/01 - Halo 3 (Master Chief Collection)
09/01 - Hotshot Racing
25/01 - Halo 4 (Master Chief Collection)
29/01 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03/02 - Heavenly Sword
05/02 - Need for Speed: Carbon (Battle Royale)
09/02 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
20/02 - ICO
24/02 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD
25/02 - Halo 5: Guardians
05/03 - Asura's Wrath
09/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Normal mode)
30/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Hard mode)
30/03 - Forza Motorsport 3 (100%)
01/04 - Muramasa: The Demon Blade
11/04 - Forza Horizon 2 (100%)
17/04 - The Darkness
20/04 - The Darkness II
25/04 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
29/04 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
29/04 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
06/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
07/05 - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
10/05 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
18/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Very Hard)
21/05 - Umurangi Generation Special Edition
27/05 - GRID Autosport
29/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Revengeance)
02/06 - Lost in Random
03/06 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
12/06 - Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix
13/06 - God Hand
25/06 - Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
28/06 - Gungrave
30/06 - Zone of the Enders HD
01/07 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
06/07 - Gungrave: Overdose

Unfortunately this one ended up being a rather disappointing follow up to the first game, although in a counter-intuitive way. On paper it sounds like a big improvement, making a lot of changes that seem obviously good, and fleshing things out a lot. In practice though, it doesn’t come together at all.

Gameplay mechanics are expanded significantly, and the controls are less clunky and more responsive too. There’s something of a melee system here now, which aside from letting you attack things right up close, also allows you to do things like deflecting rockets. As such there is a wider range of enemy types too, that require more varied methods to deal with. There’s also more variety in the moment-to-moment mission objectives. It’s not much, but sometimes it will add a bit of a twist on things more than just blasting your way through a stage like the first game had.

But the actual experience this all creates ends up being a mess that doesn’t flow very well, and can at times be pretty frustrating. The rocket enemies are just a pain, as they always carry a shield and so can’t be hit with normal shots. You can sometimes hit them with a dive shot, but it’s unreliable. The main intended method is deflecting their rockets, which requires you to halt your pace of whatever else you’re doing and focus just on that. This is often while there are a bunch of enemies surrounding you at the same time. If you get hit with a rocket you get thrown to the ground, with the camera jarringly snapping around at the same time. It’s a really disorientating pace-breaker, and it’s very easy to miss a rocket in the chaos, or get shot from behind. The game is also fond of throwing just way too many enemies at you at once. In those times it makes trying to evade hits basically impossible, and you can’t see what’s going on with all the visual noise on screen. These encounters will also often have multiple rocket enemies dotted around making things worse too. Generally encounter design gets worse as the game goes on, simply dumping more and more enemies on to you, exacerbating its issues. The lock-on is very unreliable, and has a habit of disengaging at random when you least need it. The boss design is also garbage. There’s one in particular about 2/3 of the way through the game that you can’t kill by directly hitting it, and you have to destroy some furnaces on the outside of the arena instead. So you’re forced to turn your back on this thing while it’s sending a barrage of attacks at you, and while there are explosive hazards whizzing around the arena, all while you have no room to dodge any of this anyway. It’s simply awful. The final boss also makes the absolutely baffling decision to run the game in extreme slow motion, making the fight intensely tedious and sluggish. The audio also peaks and makes an awful cacophony for the whole thing. It was so bad I went to look up videos of other people playing this to see if this was an emulator bug, but it seems like it does this on real hardware too. This was intentional design!

The story and presentation also seem like a step up at first glance, but later show themselves to be a lesser experience than the first. This game has more characters, with a more fleshed out plot, more dialogue, and a much longer runtime too. Although it is still pretty short. The dialogue is pretty bad though. The voice acting is of very low quality. This game is dubbed in English, while what very little dialogue the first game had was all Japanese. Here it comes off as very stilted and unnatural. It makes the tone of the game feel dull and amateurish, missing the dark and mysterious mood of the first. I don’t think it’s necessarily the actors’ fault though. There’s several big name voice actors in this thing, and they have had much better performances elsewhere. The audio quality of voices is compressed and peaky as well, making it hard to make out at times. Even though the characters having a lot more words this time around, they don’t have much more to say. Despite the plot having much more attention given to it, it is still threadbare, and doesn’t do anything remotely interesting. Yet there are a lot of drawn out dialogue scenes that consist of nothing but text boxes and character portraits. It drags down the pace of the game a lot, filling up time with unnecessary and poorly executed scenes. The pre-rendered CG cutscenes do make a return here too, but they are very few and far between. I don’t know if there’s actually fewer than in the first game, since they could just be spread out more through the longer runtime. They aren’t used well though, often failing to take the opportunity for striking visual moments as the first game did. They are also dragged down by the bad voice acting ruining the mood.

So in the end this game squanders its potential. In theory it sounds like an obvious evolution, taking things to the next logical step and making up for the shortcomings of its predecessor. But in practice it gets bogged down in its own nonsense and loses what made the first game compelling. Gone is the experience of a swift, simple arcade game with a stylish flair. Now it’s a clumsily constructed mess that somehow manages to feel like a slog despite its short length. The final results screen said I took 4 hours, but it felt more like double that time. After this I’m not feeling confident about the future game. But at least the anime still holds some promise.

I’ve really got to stop playing games I don’t enjoy. For some reason lately I’ve been felt compelled to finish stuff even when I’m not having a good time with it, out of some strange sense of obligation. From now on I’ll try to stop wasting time on stuff like this.

---

07/07 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

I’ve been pleasantly surprised going back to this one, and seeing how comparatively well it holds up. While I never thought it was amazing or anything, and still wouldn’t rate it particularly highly, playing it relatively close to the first game helps put in context what it actually manages to do fairly well.

Combat mechanics are basically the same as the first game, but this time around they have been improved by quite a margin. It feels way more polished and like you can actually perform the actions you’re trying to pull off. While it’s still pretty shallow, it at least doesn’t feel like the whole thing is about to fall to pieces at any moment. The physics stuff is still there, but reigned in to a degree that makes the game far more playable. I suppose it’s a little bit of a downgrade when it comes to environmental destructibility, but I’ll take that if it means that I can actually control my character properly. Bosses are a step up from the last game too. There aren’t many of them, and one of the earlier ones is bad, but aside from that they are far better than what the first game offered. The upgrade tree has been simplified too, and at first that seems like a bad thing, but on reflection all it’s really doing is cutting the fluff. It streamlines a system that didn’t need to be as complicated as it was, and you don’t really lose anything. When it comes to the core systems, this game feels like a decent refinement that realises what the first game was going for. It still has a long way to go to being anything close to a high quality action game, but it's a big step up for this series.

When I first played this game it was with the PC version, but this time I opted for the Xbox 360 version, and that did make a difference for how playable it was too. That PC port is not good. Limited to 30fps, very buggy, and somehow manages to have screen tearing in pre-rendered cutscenes. Before I started this run I did boot that version up again to remind myself of it, and discovered that it had an issue of whenever you tried to juggle an enemy in the air, they would usually teleport down to the ground the instant after the launch. So a bunch of the more interesting combat abilities simply don’t work in that version. Not an issue on Xbox. While it still has some jank here and there, and some short frame dips in a couple of isolated spots, it functions much better than on PC. It doesn’t look noticeably worse either, still a very clean image.

The graphics and overall presentation still holds up really well too. The first game looks a bit rough looking back now, outside of some areas. On release I remember it looking decent, but still not top tier for when it came out, and time has not been kind to it. This sequel still looks pretty attractive though. Environment and character detail have taken a big step up, with much better material work and lighting too. Some of the levels have this really nice rain effect that makes it look like water is flowing over everything, and it looks great. Another early level is set in this golden city in the sky, which has some fantastic architecture and sunsets. The cutscenes look much better as well. Even though the story is pretty bad, the way it is presented is aesthetically pleasing at least. Character animation and cinematography are well done. There are also some big set piece moments where you’re flying through the air, falling down some immense height, and it really nails that too. It creates a good sense of speed and scale with them.

But it’s impossible to ignore this game’s big flaw. There’s hardly any of it. There’s basically only four levels, and that’s being generous and including the intro sequence. And even in that short runtime it reuses one of the very few environment styles it has. Both of the games in this short series had a troubled development, and this game got the worst of it. You can certainly feel the scars of a tough, rushed dev cycle here. As if they had no time to make anything like what they really wanted to, so just cobbled together what they could, and tried to get that in as good a shape as possible. In that context, I think they actually did an admirably good job. They managed to polish what little they had to a pretty decent degree, and made something that is a fun romp through some very pretty backdrops. It makes me sad thinking about what this game could have been though. If the devs had the time to simply create more of the level of quality that they did here, and were able to come up with a better story to string it all together, this game could have been something much more fondly remembered than it is.

Unlike with the first game, I’m not going to bother playing the Wii version of this entry. The whole reason I started revisiting these games was to see how specifically that PS2/Wii version of the first compared to the one I already knew, given how there are people out there who swear by it being the best game in the franchise. No one is making such claims about the paired down version of the sequel. And even if they were, I had such a bad time with that last one that I don’t want to even entertain the idea of possibly repeating that. It’s nice to end this on something of a high note anyway.
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seansthomas
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by seansthomas »

23rd Jan - God of War (PS4)
10th Feb - Forza Horizon 5 (Xbox Series S)
11th Feb - Starfox 64 (Nintendo Switch)
14th Feb - Sunset Overdrive (Xbox Series S)
16th Feb - Superliminal (Xbox Series S)
12th Jun - Elden Ring (Xbox Series S)

23rd June - TMNT: Shredder's Revenge (Xbox Series S)

Had a blast playing this through over a couple of nights online with a friend. Tried a few characters, enjoyed the music a lot and it was good to revisit those old comic book characters I loved as a kid.

Didn't find it had the heft or clout of SoRage4 in terms of the combat nor how the hits 'felt', but it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. I haven't felt compelled to replay it though since beating it, unlike SOR4 where I ploughed another 30+ hours in.


11th July - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox Series S)

So on the one hand this is generic as hell. The gameplay loop mechanic of Souls, the rollercoaster ride parts of Uncharted, the platforming of Tomb Raider... and it's patchy, looking stunning / ropey in equal measure and with audio often not syncing with the cut scenes. And it had a map that made Metroid Primes look intuitive.

BUT I enjoyed it...? Actually, I REALLY enjoyed it!

It's probably the most like a Jedi I've felt in a videogame, wielding a lightsaber, flinging Stormtroopers off ledges, stopping falling masonry using the force... This was helped hugely when I cranked down the difficulty to Story. Not because I was finding it too tough really, more that it just felt better being really overpowered than dying to Speeder Bike driver guards.

I also found the story, like Battlefront 2, explored a moment in Star Wars that interests me more than the films or shows have. It ties in nicely with the Obi-Wan series I just watched and took me to some locations that TV shows don't have the budgets to.

Scaling rusty AT-ATs covered in swamp weed, exploring crashed Star Destroyers, venturing into ancient Jedi tombs, etc. I thought it did a really good job of fleshing out the universe a bit.

Does it add loads of new lore or depth? Not really. But has anything, since Empire? At least the characters here are pretty interesting.

And would it be such a good game without the design of the Star Wars world or sound effects? No, not at all.

But as an enjoyable way to spend 18 or so hours pretending to be a Jedi, it ticked a lot of boxes for me. Intrigued to see where a second game goes.
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Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Terminator Resistance(platinum) - PS5.
(Jan) Call of Duty: Cold War - Series X.
(Jan) Dishonored 2 - PS5.
(Jan) Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Series X.
(May) State of Decay 2 - Series X.
(June) Chorus - Series X.
(June) Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5.
(June) TMNT: Shredders Revenge - Series X.
(July) TMCC: Halo Reach - Series X.
(July) The Dark Pictures: Little Hope - PS5.
(July) Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - Series X.
(July) Far Cry 6 - Series X.
(July) Road 96 - Series X.
(July) Trek to Yomi - Series X.
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Alex79 »

Alex79 wrote: February 16th, 2022, 7:37 pmJAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
JAN - Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox)
JAN - Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Switch)
JAN - Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (Xbox)
JAN - Forza Horizon 5 (Xbox)
JAN - Halo Infinite (Xbox)
JAN - Hitman (Xbox)
FEB - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS)
FEB - Max Payne 2 (Xbox)
FEB - The Walking Dead: 400 Days (Xbox)
FEB - Hyper Sentinel (Switch)
FEB - It Takes Two (Xbox)
FEB - Overboard! (Android)
APR - Hollow Knight (Switch)
APR - Sagebrush (Switch)
APR - Saints Row IV (Switch)
APR - Sonic The Hedgehog (Genesis on Switch)
APR - Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox)
APR - WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch)
MAY - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade on Xbox)
MAY - Super Mario 3D World (Switch)
MAY - You Must Build A Boat (Android)
MAY - Untitled Goose Game (Switch)
JUN - The Secret Of Monkey Island (PC-CD on Android)
JUN - Street Fighter (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (Switch)
JUN - Super Street Fighter II (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Switch)
JUN - Disco Elysium (Switch)
JUL - Portal (Switch)
JUL - Poinpy (Android)

JUL - Dishonored: Definitive Edition (Xbox)


Thoughts forever lost in the ether!

(But I enjoyed them both).
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
03/01 - Halo 3: ODST (Master Chief Collection)
06/01 - Halo 3 (Master Chief Collection)
09/01 - Hotshot Racing
25/01 - Halo 4 (Master Chief Collection)
29/01 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03/02 - Heavenly Sword
05/02 - Need for Speed: Carbon (Battle Royale)
09/02 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
20/02 - ICO
24/02 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD
25/02 - Halo 5: Guardians
05/03 - Asura's Wrath
09/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Normal mode)
30/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Hard mode)
30/03 - Forza Motorsport 3 (100%)
01/04 - Muramasa: The Demon Blade
11/04 - Forza Horizon 2 (100%)
17/04 - The Darkness
20/04 - The Darkness II
25/04 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
29/04 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
29/04 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
06/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
07/05 - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
10/05 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
18/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Very Hard)
21/05 - Umurangi Generation Special Edition
27/05 - GRID Autosport
29/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Revengeance)
02/06 - Lost in Random
03/06 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
12/06 - Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix
13/06 - God Hand
25/06 - Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
28/06 - Gungrave
30/06 - Zone of the Enders HD
01/07 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
06/07 - Gungrave: Overdose
07/07 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
15/07 - Bunjingai: The Forsaken City
23/07 - Leaving Lyndow

Just catching up after the forum rollback.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Jobobonobo »

Spoiler: show
Jan 23: Yakuza 3
Feb 12: Wonderful 101 Remastered
Mar 25: Freedom Planet
May 22: Psychonauts 2
July 24: Yakuza 4

Will say more on the episode coming up. Enjoyed this a lot more than 3 and it was good playing as characters other than Kiryu. Still saddened by the minimal Nani in this game, 5 and 6 really better deliver on the Nani before we are done with Kiryu. Out of all the Yakuza games I have played so far, this falls directly into the center. No the best, but a massive improvement on the weaker entries.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Man oh man, I've fallen behind on chronicling my completed games. I swear I've never been busier in my life.

#9 - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness - Nintendo DS (2007)

Really enjoyed this one. In terms of story, it's probably the best the Pokemon series has to offer. I honestly find it downright bizarre that this game came out 15 years ago, and the mainline Pokemon series is still doing the same old boring "10 year old becomes League Champion" thing. Like there's obviously so, so much you could do with this IP.

In terms of gameplay... Meh. I enjoyed it well enough to complete it, but it frequently relied far too heavily on random chance. If you enter a Monster House room - completely random - your run is basically over. Around halfway into the game, the game just decides that your recruited 3rd and 4th party members are no longer going to be used, so any level progression you made with those characters is moot.

Overall, it's a fantastic story stuck in a game with mechanics that felt unpolished and out of date, even in 2007. I don't know if future games improved upon the formula, but I've also heard the quality of the stories falls off a cliff. Very odd.

This one's definitely one of those, "I'm glad I played it, I like it enough to keep it, but I don't think it cracks the Top 100" games.

&iso2022
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Magical_Isopod »

#10 - Xenoblade: Future Connected - Nintendo Switch (2019)

I went into this one being told it connected the stories of XC1 and XC2. I had that expectation going in, so I avoided details and spoilers.

It is not that.

Future Connected is a largely unnecessary epilogue chapter to a very good game. If you are expecting any meaningful plot development, you will be disappointed. If you want to see a major late-gate sidequest (one that is very, very easy to miss) from the main game resolved, you will likely be satisfied.

The new Nopon companions that fill out your party, Kino and Nene, are absolutely wonderful, and I hope to see them again in the series, if that's even possible in the lore. Your time spent with them is much too brief, and their character arcs seem to be gated behind side content that I did not come across.

And that's kinda the thing with Future Connected. Unless you commit to diving into the side content, you're not getting much of a meaningful experience here. I spent about 8 hours on this game, probably about half of which was fetch-questing, and I just came out feeling like, "That's it?" It's a very satisfying resolution for Melia and her rebuilt family, but something I kind of assumed inevitable upon the conclusion of the main game.

The gameplay is kinda hard to return to after Xenoblade 2 as well, because like... XC2 was just a lot more fun to play.

The central threat and Big Bad do kinda open up some lore possibilities for the series going forward, but nothing so explicit that I was on the edge of my seat - and frankly, nothing that XC2 didn't already heavily hint at.

Meh meh. Guess I'll just have to look eagerly toward XC3 coming out next week.

&iso2022
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by SludgeWizard »

Finished Ghost of Tsushima and Crash Bandicoot 4 over the past few weeks.

Loved Ghost at first, then I liked it, then I was ready for it to end, then it ended.
The world was beautiful and the writing pretty solid, good combat, yada yada. I really think most of my issues with it can be boiled down to open world fatigue.
Not sure if I’ll go back to the DLC or not, has anybody played it?

Hadn’t heard much about Crash 4 but I thought it was a good-not-great platformer and HOLY HELL does it get tough. Died over 100 times in the last level alone, but luckily I was forged in the fires of Super Meat Boy.
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Alex79 »

Alex79 wrote: February 16th, 2022, 7:37 pmJAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
JAN - Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox)
JAN - Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Switch)
JAN - Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (Xbox)
JAN - Forza Horizon 5 (Xbox)
JAN - Halo Infinite (Xbox)
JAN - Hitman (Xbox)
FEB - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS)
FEB - Max Payne 2 (Xbox)
FEB - The Walking Dead: 400 Days (Xbox)
FEB - Hyper Sentinel (Switch)
FEB - It Takes Two (Xbox)
FEB - Overboard! (Android)
APR - Hollow Knight (Switch)
APR - Sagebrush (Switch)
APR - Saints Row IV (Switch)
APR - Sonic The Hedgehog (Genesis on Switch)
APR - Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox)
APR - WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch)
MAY - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade on Xbox)
MAY - Super Mario 3D World (Switch)
MAY - You Must Build A Boat (Android)
MAY - Untitled Goose Game (Switch)
JUN - The Secret Of Monkey Island (PC-CD on Android)
JUN - Street Fighter (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (Switch)
JUN - Super Street Fighter II (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha (Switch)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Switch)
JUN - Disco Elysium (Switch)
JUL - Portal (Switch)
JUL - Poinpy (Android)
JUL - Dishonored: Definitive Edition (Xbox)
JUL - Portal: Still Alive (Switch)

These are the 14 bonus maps which I'm guessing may have originally been DLC or just added later to the original release, but come bundled with modern versions of Portal. Boy, if you enjoy the main game you're going to love these! Significantly more challenging, but so much more satisfying for it. There's no story tying them together, and rather irritatingly you can't play them all in a row - you get kicked back to the title screen after each room and have to go back in to 'bonus maps' to load the next one, which is a bizarrely unpolished oversight, but these levels are brilliant. The later ones in particular, which are so multi-layered with puzzles were really clever and interesting. If anyone liked the game and hasn't played these maps you're really doing yourself out of a lot of fun here, go play them!
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by ratsoalbion »

Good advice, but just for the sake of clarity, I believe these 14 chambers have indeed been part of Portal since 2008's Still Alive re-release.
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Indiana747
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Terminator Resistance(platinum) - PS5.
(Jan) Call of Duty: Cold War - Series X.
(Jan) Dishonored 2 - PS5.
(Jan) Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Series X.
(May) State of Decay 2 - Series X.
(June) Chorus - Series X.
(June) Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5.
(June) TMNT: Shredders Revenge - Series X.
(July) TMCC: Halo Reach - Series X.
(July) The Dark Pictures: Little Hope - PS5.
(July) Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - Series X.
(July) Far Cry 6 - Series X.
(July) Road 96 - Series X.
(July) Trek to Yomi - Series X.
(July) Stray - PS5.
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markfm007
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by markfm007 »

Jan 7th - Little Nightmares 2
Jan 15th - Final Fantasy IX
Feb 3rd - Deathloop
April 29th - Last of Us Remastered
June 1st - Marvel's Spider-Man
June 30th - Elden Ring
July 15th - Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
July 30th - What Remains of Edith Finch

I wanted to replay this after listening to the C&R episode, and through some lucky twist of fate Annapurna decided to release a next gen upgrade for the game. Perfect timing! I loved revisiting it, even knowing what was going to happen it didn't lose anything for me. Definitely a favourite of mine, and nice to see the game getting some attention again.
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Indiana747
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Joined: September 3rd, 2012, 5:17 pm

Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Indiana747 »

(Jan) Terminator Resistance(platinum) - PS5.
(Jan) Call of Duty: Cold War - Series X.
(Jan) Dishonored 2 - PS5.
(Jan) Aliens: Fireteam Elite - Series X.
(May) State of Decay 2 - Series X.
(June) Chorus - Series X.
(June) Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5.
(June) TMNT: Shredders Revenge - Series X.
(July) TMCC: Halo Reach - Series X.
(July) The Dark Pictures: Little Hope - PS5.
(July) Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - Series X.
(July) Far Cry 6 - Series X.
(July) Road 96 - Series X.
(July) Trek to Yomi - Series X.
(July) Stray - PS5.
(July) Toy Soldiers: Cold War - Xbox 360.
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Magical_Isopod
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Location: London, ON, Canada

Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Magical_Isopod »

#11 - Stray (2022, PS5)

Stray is... Fine. It's really nice to have a game where you play as an animal, and where the animal (mostly) acts as an animal. And if that's all you want from this game, it does that pretty well, even if it becomes quite clear early on that cat animation tech is nowhere near the level of human animation.

But it also feels like a lot of missed potential. It takes this "kitchen sink" approach to game design, where it seemingly changes genre every chapter. Sometimes it's an action game, sometimes it's a nonlinear adventure game, sometimes it's a stealth game... Sometimes it barrels ahead at a good pace, sometimes the momentum halts and it decides to be an open world game.

If Stray had picked one idea and polished it to a mirror sheen, I think it could have been great.

It doesn't even really delve too deep into its core concept. Within the first hour, you get a robot buddy, and instead of being an atmospheric game about a cat fallen into a strange world, it becomes a game about robots and their culture. And it kinda lost me at that point, honestly.

I really, really think this would have been a better game if it was about a cat, being a cat, trying to find a way out of a scary place. You can write so, so well with no dialogue. Games have done this for a good decade now. It could have been a calm, contemplative game where the cat is the focus, and he solves a secondary goal incidentally. But instead, it's more about the robot buddy, and the cat is merely the avatar.

I feel like the largest impediment here is the publisher. Annapurna tends to release games about the human condition. That's like their thing. And I ponder if this started life as a cool cat game, but the publisher said, "What if the robots talked and they were goofy hipster people that made Skyrim references?" Maybe I'm wrong - maybe the dev had this vision all along.

But it would have been better if it were just a cat game.

&iso2022
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Tolkientaters
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Tolkientaters »

Magical_Isopod wrote: August 1st, 2022, 2:56 pm #11 - Stray (2022, PS5)
It doesn't even really delve too deep into its core concept. Within the first hour, you get a robot buddy, and instead of being an atmospheric game about a cat fallen into a strange world, it becomes a game about robots and their culture. And it kinda lost me at that point, honestly.

I really, really think this would have been a better game if it was about a cat, being a cat, trying to find a way out of a scary place. You can write so, so well with no dialogue. Games have done this for a good decade now. It could have been a calm, contemplative game where the cat is the focus, and he solves a secondary goal incidentally. But instead, it's more about the robot buddy, and the cat is merely the avatar.


But it would have been better if it were just a cat game.

&iso2022
Completely agree with that point, honestly as soon as the robot showed up I just stopped playing because it lost a lot of what made it unique IMO. I wanted a game where the story was mostly told through backgrounds and environments.
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2022

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
03/01 - Halo 3: ODST (Master Chief Collection)
06/01 - Halo 3 (Master Chief Collection)
09/01 - Hotshot Racing
25/01 - Halo 4 (Master Chief Collection)
29/01 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03/02 - Heavenly Sword
05/02 - Need for Speed: Carbon (Battle Royale)
09/02 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
20/02 - ICO
24/02 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD
25/02 - Halo 5: Guardians
05/03 - Asura's Wrath
09/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Normal mode)
30/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Hard mode)
30/03 - Forza Motorsport 3 (100%)
01/04 - Muramasa: The Demon Blade
11/04 - Forza Horizon 2 (100%)
17/04 - The Darkness
20/04 - The Darkness II
25/04 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
29/04 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
29/04 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
06/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
07/05 - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
10/05 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
18/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Very Hard)
21/05 - Umurangi Generation Special Edition
27/05 - GRID Autosport
29/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Revengeance)
02/06 - Lost in Random
03/06 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
12/06 - Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix
13/06 - God Hand
25/06 - Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
28/06 - Gungrave
30/06 - Zone of the Enders HD
01/07 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
06/07 - Gungrave: Overdose
07/07 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
15/07 - Bunjingai: The Forsaken City
23/07 - Leaving Lyndow
01/08 - Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

Another old PS2 game that I've been aware of for a while, and been meaning to get around to. I have actually played this one before, but I didn't get far. One reason being I felt like I should play through at least one of the Onimusha games first given how similar this is. If the name of this sounds familiar, that might be because the sequel to this was the game from the infamous E3 2006 Sony show with the historically accurate giant enemy crab. The developer was also responsible for Folklore on the PS3, which I like a lot.

This game however is completely fine. Didn't really move the needle much in either direction. Totally adequate. Mechanically it's extremely shallow, with little more than the bare bones basics going on. One attempt it does make to go above that is the Kamui system, where you to activate a slo-mo mode that allows you to counter incoming attacks with a well timed flourish. It works by simply pressing the basic attack button when the prompt appears on screen though. It does feel pretty good to pull off a bunch in a row, or get a load of enemies at once, but it's hardly a complex or demanding mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. It brings the pace of combat to a halt when you use it too. But it's not particularly offensive in general. Like the game overall, nothing about it grates especially, but nothing excites either. It's simply alright. Does just enough to be entertaining enough on base level.

Aesthetically it's quite nice though. It has some really lush environments for a PS2 game. Lots of foliage and nice scene compositions afforded by the fixed camera angles. It has some more fantastical areas that are quite impressive too, and the feudal Japanese setting makes for some great designs as well.

The game is pretty short, with a very thin story to go along with it. I didn't really mind that so much though. It's definitely preferable to Onimusha 4 which outstayed its welcome by far too much. Even if this game doesn't have much going on, it at least doesn't feel like it's dragging itself out when it's run out of things to show.

---

01/08 Eastshade

I really love this game. It's such a great soothing experience. It truly feels like another world that you can step in to. It's got such a strong sense of place and an idyllic vibe that makes it feel like the perfect relaxing holiday. It's full of beautiful environments that almost always manage to look picturesque no matter where you roam around the world. It taps in to the sense of aimless wandering so well too, always drawing your eye towards the next thing, but never feeling rushed, encouraging a leisurely pace. The soundtrack perfectly compliments the atmosphere too. It has a serene mood that manages to have a really strong personality without feeling like it's dominating the experience. The game's also full of charming characters and amusing little quest lines that enhance the verisimilitude of the world, making it feel like this island has its own culture and issues going on, but it's always friendly and welcoming.

The game does have some rough edges though. It has a pretty slow start, before you gather enough equipment and resources to fully explore the world. That's something I tried to minimise this time around, knowing how it can make the opening few hours drag. But it seemed like there wasn't really much you can do to ease things. Not a big problem given how the game clearly wants you to take your time, but still. Also it does have quite a few technical hiccups. Bad performance, dodgy character models and animation, quite a lot of minor bugs. They're not hard to overlook though, as it gets things right where it really counts.

Still a fantastic time overall. I wish it got more recognition, because I think it's genuinely a pretty special experience. There isn't much else out there like it. It was fun playing this after Leaving Lyndow this time around too. It made all the references this game makes to that one much clearer.
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