Games Completed 2023

[Angry_Kurt]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - Yakuza 3 (Xbox)
FEB - Goldeneye 007 (N64 on Switch)
FEB - Starfox (SNES on Switch)
FEB - Mafia 2: Remastered (Xbox)
FEB - As Dusk Falls (Xbox)
MAR - Grand Theft Auto 3: Definitive Edition (Switch)
MAR - The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA on Switch)
MAR - Pentiment (Xbox)
APR - Resident Evil 4 (Switch)
APR - Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox)
MAY - Dishonored 2 (Xbox)
JUN - Shock Troopers (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - Dizzy The Adventurer (NES on Evercade)
JUN - World Of Goo (Android)
JUN - The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Switch)
JUN - Mega Man 2 (NES on Evercade)
JUN - The Room (Android)
JUN - Portal 2 (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Paranormal (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Earth Defense (Switch)

JUL - F1 2021: Braking Point (Xbox)

I've not really played an F1 game since the first one on the PS1 which blew me away at the time with it's 'TV broadcast quality' visuals (and prompted me to buy a PlayStation) but Kurt is always talking about the F1 games and I heard there was a story mode so thought I'd give this a try.

The story is the exact same story that features in every sports game: rookie + bad guy x rivalry = victory. It's so bland and formulaic that it might as well not be there, but it's a good job it is otherwise I wouldn't have played the game. It served as an inoffensive enough wrapper for what was a pretty decent racing game. I enjoyed playing it. The story continues in F1 2023 so I'll be interested to try that one when it comes to Gamepass, and I imagine it'll look nicer too since this game was for Xbox One but the new one is specifically for this gen. Overall, fun racing game but not one I'd play for hours and hours like I would Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport. I just find F1, by it's very nature, to be quite repetitive and with not much variety since all the cars are basically the same. But with a focused story mode to get 8 or 9 hours of play out of them - perfect.

Glad you enjoyed it, the story in 23 I think you will enjoy more. Did you play the story mode in grid legends from last year? Also on game pass right now.

Afraid to tell you though that 23 is also on last gen, although they have made some slight graphical improvements anyway since 21. 23 also has a mode called F1 world which is like a CarPG with you unlocking new parts to upgrade your car and boosters to increase stats temporarily on certain tracks or after a pit stop as examples.

[Alex79]

Ah ok, I thought I'd seen the X/S logo on 2023 but couldn't have done! I did play the Grid Legends story yeah, enjoyed it.

[Scrustle]

Spoiler: show

03/01 - The Last Campfire
05/01 - Splatoon 3
17/01 - Wolfenstein (2009)
22/01 - Fragments of Euclid
02/02 - Postmouse
08/02 - Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Kung Lao)
26/02 - F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
06/03 - Omensight: The Definitive Edition
09/03 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
21/03 - Forza Horizon 2 (first finale)
25/03 - Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
31/03 - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (World Tour)
01/04 - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
16/04 - Knights Contract
20/04 - Strider (2014)
12/05 - The Sword of Etheria
22/05 - Lost Planet 3
26/05 - Disco Elysium
12/06 - Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition
14/06 - [PROTOTYPE]
18/06 - Zeno Clash II
29/06 - The Wonderful One: After School Hero
07/07 - Dante's Inferno

12/07 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Shivering Isles

I've been slowly chipping away at this in the background to other things. When I started my most recent character last year, this expansion was one of the things I wanted to do most, since I don't think I've actually played this since it first came out. I have to say, coming back to it is a little underwhelming.

I suppose I still enjoyed it simply on the basis of it being Oblivion. I like being in this world and exploring it, and this expansion does give a change of scenery to the main game. But certain things about it fell a bit flat upon revisiting it. Quests and writing are really hit and miss, at best. You'd think the idea of a whole RPG campaign set in a realm of madness would be a perfect place to find a bunch of imaginative and unusual quests, but a lot of them here don't really live up to that. Not that there's nothing interesting here, there are a few, but there are quite a lot that feel like they don't go anywhere. They will have some quirky premise, but then the task it gives you is pretty uninteresting, and there is little to no payoff. Although I have to give credit to the quest where you stop a siege of a castle that is being eternally repeated by the ghosts of both sides. A unique idea that actually requires you to do a bit of thinking outside the box, and has you learning of the failures of the characters that lead them to be cursed to this fate.

Another big thing that stood out to me was how the aesthetic appeal of the islands themselves is kind of lacking. Obviously this game has aged quite a bit, so it's rough in places, but I think it can still manage to make some really nice looking scenes as you explore around the overworld of the base game. It's great at creating a mood to immerse yourself in as you aimlessly wander. That's still pretty much the primary draw of the experience to me. So the idea of taking that and doing it with this much more surreal setting sounds great. But for some reason it just didn't work, and I can't quite put my finger on why. The graphics just don't seem to come off as a convincing world, and it looks somewhat ugly at times. I have heard this expansion has a graphical glitch with the LoDs on this 360 version, but specifically the surrounding area of New Sheoth city. You can definitely see that very easily if you go there, but it makes me wonder if the same thing is happening around the whole overworld to a lesser degree.

There's also one major plot point that never sat right with me even back in the day, so I wanted to see how it felt on a revisit.

Spoiler: show

The idea of your character ending up becoming Sheogorath themselves always felt really contrived to me, and it still does. It's the logical conclusion to this style of writing Elder Scrolls has always done where it makes you the leader of every single faction that you reach the end of the quest line for. It always stretched the suspension of disbelief, but taking it to the extreme of having you become an already existing Daedric Prince is taking it too far, and brings up a bunch of awkward questions about lore and how any of this is even supposed to work. It seems like Bethesda themselves sort of agreed, as they've just conveniently ignored this plot point afterwards. Not retconning it as far as I can tell, but just carrying on as if Sheogorath is the same entity he always was, and not referencing that he was the protagonist of this game. I kept an eye out to see if this expansion truly does unambiguously make you in to Sheogorath, or if perhaps you could interpret it in another way. They do give a little bit of wiggle room that maybe you could argue that it's not 100% certain that your character is actually a Daedric Prince now, or that it was only temporary, but by far the largest impression they want to portray is that you simply are. Any ambiguity comes from nitpicking a few word choices here and there, and not from the writing intentionally trying to not give you a definitive answer.

[Jobobonobo]

Spoiler: show

Jan 8: Densetsu no Stafy
Jan 10: Parodius 2: Fantastic Journey
Jan 26: Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy
Jan 28: Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius
Feb 19: Metroid Zero Mission
Feb 21: Kirby’s Dreamland
Mar 6: Yakuza 5
Mar 25: Luigi’s Mansion 2
Mar 30: Kirby’s Dreamland 2
Apr 13: New Super Mario Bros
May 1: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Jun 17: Super Bomberman
Jun 24: Mother 3

Jul 12: DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s Quest

This Japan only sequel to the cryptic and frustrating Milon’s secret castle was a really solid platformer. Nice and pleasant difficulty wise for the most part but with some devious parts later on so it does not become too much of a cake walk. Levels are nice and short but packed with decent platforming challenges. It is a treat for the eyes and the soundtrack is a real eclectic mix of bubbly, atmospheric and plain experimental. Milon himself is quite a cute little fella to control and his skillset becomes greater as the game goes on. Some really creative level themes are present here too with cakes and toy castles alongside your standard forest, ice and fire worlds.

The only two real issues I have with the game is that sometimes it does not explain certain mechanics. For example, an exit in one of the earlier levels in World 1 was blocked and I had no clue how to proceed. Turns out if you hold your attack button, you will erupt with multiple bubbles breaking the barrier. Maybe I should have tried it myself but that seriously never occurred to me. You can also create ladders later on to scale walls but what the game does not tell you is that even if there is an overhang above you, the ladder will still work. Once I figured out how to progress, all was well but I did feel a bit stupid. Also when you die, you lose all your suits which are like your health. Standard stuff I suppose but this can be fairly brutal when you are up against bosses which can really test your reflexes in the latter half of the game. Thank god for save states, eh?

But in the grand scheme of things these are really small blemishes on an otherwise wonderful title. I genuinely think this is among the best platformers on the SNES and if you want something intermediate between Kirby and Mario in difficulty then I heartily recommend this. DoReMi Fantasy also confirms a strongly held view I have which is that pretty much every SNES followup to a series that began on the NES is superior. I honestly struggle to think of a SNES followup that is lesser than the NES original.

[ratsoalbion]

I'm not one of them, but I think some Castlevania fans might feel differently. And even some Mario Bros. fans.

Generally I concur with you, however.

[Jobobonobo]

Castlevania is a series that I have admittedly zero experience with but I do plan to start up Super Castlevania IV just to try out at least one of them. As for Mario, I really like SMB 3 but I do feel SMW really expands on what that game did and is such an accumulation of everything that made the series good up to that point. Admittedly I really am biased for the 16 bit era. I never grew up on the NES and I just find it hard to go back to them.

[Tolkientaters]

I finished FF16 and wished I liked the story as much as everyone else did, but it just didn't connect, especially the characters. I liked Gav, Cid, and Dion but everyone else felt pretty one note even though most of the voice acting was good.

I liked the idea of the story, but the inclusion of an overused trope made it a lot less interesting. The side quests are mostly bland fetch quests.

The combat is flashy fun without much challenge which I didn't really mind. It does sometimes go all out with an absurd spectacle that you don't see as much anymore. I didn't mind a change to the main gameplay loop, though I do understand people's frustration.

The end fights mostly turn into Dragon Ball Z which isn't a bad thing if the story isn't doing much for you anyway. The final fight definitely sacrifices visual clarity for spectacle which wasn't much of an issue because it's a pretty easy fight.

Spoiler: show

The story could be so much more interesting if you took out Ultima, just destroying magic as a stand in for a currupt status quo would've been much more interesting. He just adds a man vs fate angle that wasn't done that well. I also didn't love GOW Ragnarok, but it did a better version of that story with more memorable characters.

Fighting Ultima prime's phase 1 in a cutscene with occasional QTEs sucked, doing that in gameplay where you had control would've been more impactful. The absurd spectacle of his actual fight almost made up for it, though I wish his penultimate design was more interesting than Ifrit with 4 wings.

[Alex79]

Castlevania is a series that I have admittedly zero experience with but I do plan to start up Super Castlevania IV just to try out at least one of them. As for Mario, I really like SMB 3 but I do feel SMW really expands on what that game did and is such an accumulation of everything that made the series good up to that point. Admittedly I really am biased for the 16 bit era. I never grew up on the NES and I just find it hard to go back to them.

I played Castlevania 1, 3 and 4 for the first time last year and really enjoyed them. Definitely still worth a look. And then there's the games from Symphony Of The Night onwards which are mostly excellent (particularly the GBA games).

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Death's Door - Series X.
(Jan) Warhammer: Chaosbane SE - Series X.
(Feb) Evil West - Series X.
(Mar) God of War Ragnarok - PS5.
(Mar) Dead Space(2023) - Series X.
(Apr) Ben 10: Power Trip - Series X.
(Apr) Resident Evil 4(2023) - Series X.
(May) Ghostwire Tokyo - Series X.
(May) Ravenlok - Series X.
(May) Turrican - PS4.
(May) Spec Ops: The Line - Series X.
(July) Shadow Warrior 3 - Series X.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - Yakuza 3 (Xbox)
FEB - Goldeneye 007 (N64 on Switch)
FEB - Starfox (SNES on Switch)
FEB - Mafia 2: Remastered (Xbox)
FEB - As Dusk Falls (Xbox)
MAR - Grand Theft Auto 3: Definitive Edition (Switch)
MAR - The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA on Switch)
MAR - Pentiment (Xbox)
APR - Resident Evil 4 (Switch)
APR - Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox)
MAY - Dishonored 2 (Xbox)
JUN - Shock Troopers (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - Dizzy The Adventurer (NES on Evercade)
JUN - World Of Goo (Android)
JUN - The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Switch)
JUN - Mega Man 2 (NES on Evercade)
JUN - The Room (Android)
JUN - Portal 2 (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Paranormal (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Earth Defense (Switch)
JUL - F1 2021: Braking Point (Xbox)

JUL - Divinity Original Sin 2 (Switch)

Well this was a pretty incredible game. A real epic adventure with brilliant writing, characters, quests. I really liked the turn based combat, which I think is unusual for a western CRPG (based on the few I've played before) but it felt more X-Com than Baldurs Gate in that respect.

Just so good though, and it ran great on Switch. There are too many tales to tell here, but I really felt like I played my story. Seems like there would be tonnes of replay value at some point too, going through with a totally different party with all their own side quests etc. If anyone else has finished this game and wondered what I did at the end... I chose not to do the thing you spend the entire game working towards.

I love it when games make you feel like you've been on a real adventure, and this did exactly that. 120 hours with no grinding or backtracking or padding. A real epic.

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Death's Door - Series X.
(Jan) Warhammer: Chaosbane SE - Series X.
(Feb) Evil West - Series X.
(Mar) God of War Ragnarok - PS5.
(Mar) Dead Space(2023) - Series X.
(Apr) Ben 10: Power Trip - Series X.
(Apr) Resident Evil 4(2023) - Series X.
(May) Ghostwire Tokyo - Series X.
(May) Ravenlok - Series X.
(May) Turrican - PS4.
(May) Spec Ops: The Line - Series X.
(July) Shadow Warrior 3 - Series X.
(July) Planet of Lana - Series X.

[Jobobonobo]

I played Castlevania 1, 3 and 4 for the first time last year and really enjoyed them. Definitely still worth a look. And then there's the games from Symphony Of The Night onwards which are mostly excellent (particularly the GBA games).

I am looking forward to trying out 4 alright but I have been watching speedruns of the NES games and oh God, the knock back when you hit an enemy is something that I just know would drive me to despair. A lot of the 16-bit era cut back on a lot of nonsense like this and is one fo the reasons why I am less than enthusiastic to try out NES stuff. Definitely am open to trying some of the more Metroidvania type titles though.

[Jobobonobo]

Spoiler: show

Jan 8: Densetsu no Stafy
Jan 10: Parodius 2: Fantastic Journey
Jan 26: Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy
Jan 28: Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius
Feb 19: Metroid Zero Mission
Feb 21: Kirby’s Dreamland
Mar 6: Yakuza 5
Mar 25: Luigi’s Mansion 2
Mar 30: Kirby’s Dreamland 2
Apr 13: New Super Mario Bros
May 1: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Jun 17: Super Bomberman
Jun 24: Mother 3
Jul 12: DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s Quest

Jul 16: Angry Birds Trilogy

Took me a while to get through this as this is surprisingly dense. Three whole titles (original, Seasons and Rio) as well as a load of unlockable content makes for a pretty beefy package. I found this to be the perfect game to mess around in while listening to podcasts and some of the levels could be real devious with how you have to complete them. A pig that was giving me trouble for ages I would finally hit only for me to miss pigs that would normally be no problem for me. Was very satisfying when I finally mastered stages like this. Only one stage was so hard that I was given the Eagle out of pity but one out of hundreds of stages is not too shabby. That stage was in Seasons which was to me the toughest of the three games. A disproportionate amount of stages that gave me trouble were in that one. Overall a nice pleasant way to keep yourself busy while listening to a podcast. Also you can appreciate it more as a compelling fun time when it is stripped of the monetisation practices present in the free version. Definitely recommend if you are looking for something nice and quick you can dip in and out of.

[Scrustle]

Spoiler: show

03/01 - The Last Campfire
05/01 - Splatoon 3
17/01 - Wolfenstein (2009)
22/01 - Fragments of Euclid
02/02 - Postmouse
08/02 - Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Kung Lao)
26/02 - F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
06/03 - Omensight: The Definitive Edition
09/03 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
21/03 - Forza Horizon 2 (first finale)
25/03 - Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
31/03 - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (World Tour)
01/04 - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
16/04 - Knights Contract
20/04 - Strider (2014)
12/05 - The Sword of Etheria
22/05 - Lost Planet 3
26/05 - Disco Elysium
12/06 - Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition
14/06 - [PROTOTYPE]
18/06 - Zeno Clash II
29/06 - The Wonderful One: After School Hero
07/07 - Dante's Inferno
12/07 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Shivering Isles

19/07 - Van Helsing

This is another one of these movie licensed action games that are supposedly better than you would assume, according to word of mouth from some people out there anyway. For some of these that has turned out to be true, others not so much. This one is somewhere in the middle. Not awful, but far from a hidden gem that I would suggest anyone go out of their way to try.

It’s heavily inspired by Devil May Cry, and curiously takes a lot from DMC1 specifically. It has the same control scheme, the same fixed camera angles, and the same weapon distribution of having far more guns than melee options. It even does the same thing in waiting until late in the game before it gives you the second of the only two close quarters options you have. It also has a semi-interconnected world, although it’s nowhere near as labyrinthine as Mallet Island.

On a base level the mechanics are pretty responsive and impacts feels good, although there isn’t much depth to it. Despite carrying over some attacks from DMC, it’s lacking quite a lot too. There are no pause combos, and melee options in general are very limited. It seems to want to be primarily focused on the guns, which is rather strange given the inspiration. But I guess it fits with the movie this is based on (maybe, I haven’t seen it), and since this came out before DMC3, they only had the first two games to draw from. The most complex your abilities get is that you can cancel out of the end-lag of some moves by dodge rolling. The DMC1 trick of spamming dodge to increase the fire rate of the grenade launcher works here. The environments are quite nice looking though. The graphical detail isn’t amazing, but it can at times be pretty atmospheric and it has an eye for framing shots quite nicely. Probably thanks to lifting stuff from the movie I imagine. The same can’t be said about the cutscene animation however, as characters move in a very stiff and clunky manner.

Enemy design is pretty poor unfortunately. Their movements are hard to parse, and they tend to have much more hyper-armour than you do. You can’t react to attack signals most of the time, and enemies can easily stun-lock you by trapping you in a corner. But usually the way to deal with anything that is giving you a tough time is to simply find whatever gun they have a weakness to, and stand back blasting them. Some enemies can be stun-locked themselves by spamming specific melee moves, but that’s the exception. Nothing really encourages variety or creativity in approach. Bosses suffer similar problems. Either they are a relentless barrage of overwhelming attacks that you just have to find the one thing that will let you scrape though, or they are just a pushover that you barely have to engage with. Sometimes both in the same encounter. The fixed cameras can also be a real pain in these fights too.

So despite having some decently well constructed components, this game never really comes together and it ends up being less than the sum of its parts. This does get some things right, and I’ve definitely played worse games that had similar aspirations, but it doesn’t do enough to lift it out of mediocrity.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - Yakuza 3 (Xbox)
FEB - Goldeneye 007 (N64 on Switch)
FEB - Starfox (SNES on Switch)
FEB - Mafia 2: Remastered (Xbox)
FEB - As Dusk Falls (Xbox)
MAR - Grand Theft Auto 3: Definitive Edition (Switch)
MAR - The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA on Switch)
MAR - Pentiment (Xbox)
APR - Resident Evil 4 (Switch)
APR - Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox)
MAY - Dishonored 2 (Xbox)
JUN - Shock Troopers (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - Dizzy The Adventurer (NES on Evercade)
JUN - World Of Goo (Android)
JUN - The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Switch)
JUN - Mega Man 2 (NES on Evercade)
JUN - The Room (Android)
JUN - Portal 2 (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Paranormal (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Earth Defense (Switch)
JUL - F1 2021: Braking Point (Xbox)
JUL - Divinity Original Sin 2 (Switch)

JUL - Borderlands: GOTY Edition (Switch)

I played Borderlands, and some of the second game, years and years ago, and thought they were alright but never got massively in to them. I bought the collection on Switch a couple of years ago and just got round to finishing off the first game. I ended up having a good time with it. I spent ages doing side quests early game, but pushed to the finish over the last week when I picked it up again after a big break from playing it. It runs great on Switch and still looks like a really nice game. Couldn't tell you what the story was at all, but I don't suppose that's the point of these games. I know they're built around co-op, but I play most games on my own and it still works fine as a single player game. The shooting is good, the weapons are fun, I suppose the only negative is a lack of enemy variety. You don't really see anything different until the final stage where you get those things that look like the Halo 4 guardian type enemies. Overall though, yeah it's still decent. I'll probably wait a good while before playing the next one, but this was a good low effort game to play whilst watching TV, which sounds like something of a backhanded compliment, but it's perfect for what I want at the moment.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - Yakuza 3 (Xbox)
FEB - Goldeneye 007 (N64 on Switch)
FEB - Starfox (SNES on Switch)
FEB - Mafia 2: Remastered (Xbox)
FEB - As Dusk Falls (Xbox)
MAR - Grand Theft Auto 3: Definitive Edition (Switch)
MAR - The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA on Switch)
MAR - Pentiment (Xbox)
APR - Resident Evil 4 (Switch)
APR - Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox)
MAY - Dishonored 2 (Xbox)
JUN - Shock Troopers (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - Dizzy The Adventurer (NES on Evercade)
JUN - World Of Goo (Android)
JUN - The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Switch)
JUN - Mega Man 2 (NES on Evercade)
JUN - The Room (Android)
JUN - Portal 2 (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Paranormal (Switch)
JUN - Pinball FX3: Earth Defense (Switch)
JUL - F1 2021: Braking Point (Xbox)
JUL - Divinity Original Sin 2 (Switch)
JUL - Borderlands: GOTY Edition (Switch)

JUL - Holedown (Android)

Not sure why I played through this again, but it's a fun game. Give it a try if you've not.

[Scrustle]

Spoiler: show

03/01 - The Last Campfire
05/01 - Splatoon 3
17/01 - Wolfenstein (2009)
22/01 - Fragments of Euclid
02/02 - Postmouse
08/02 - Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Kung Lao)
26/02 - F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
06/03 - Omensight: The Definitive Edition
09/03 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
21/03 - Forza Horizon 2 (first finale)
25/03 - Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
31/03 - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (World Tour)
01/04 - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
16/04 - Knights Contract
20/04 - Strider (2014)
12/05 - The Sword of Etheria
22/05 - Lost Planet 3
26/05 - Disco Elysium
12/06 - Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition
14/06 - [PROTOTYPE]
18/06 - Zeno Clash II
29/06 - The Wonderful One: After School Hero
07/07 - Dante's Inferno
12/07 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Shivering Isles
19/07 - Van Helsing

27/07 - Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

I’ve wanted to try this one out for a long time, despite never being interested in it around its poorly received launch. But Jacob Geller did a video on it a while back that actually made it look interesting, and with me playing some other similarly edgy games lately I figured I might as well get around to this one too. Despite being something I would never normally choose to play, and its negative reputation even among those who may have been interested in it initially, I found it to be a pretty compelling experience. Not one that I could call enjoyable or even “good”, but one that definitely has something to it that I could vibe with.

The big thing that make this game interesting is how hard it commits to its aesthetic. One that happens to be pretty unique, full of a lot of creative touches. It has this really gritty style as if the whole thing is presented as an amateur fly on the wall documentary, or as a collection of clips found on some shady website filmed by a bystander with a low quality camera. The visuals have this dirty, glitchy feel to them, with loads of effects that emulate a sort of digital crust. Things like macro blocking, overexposed lights, blurriness and shaky framing, etc. In a way it’s sort of like a digital grindhouse. It also occasionally censors stuff out via pixelation, like when you get a headshot on someone. It makes the game feel almost illicit, like you’re seeing something you’re not supposed to see.

The sound design is a big part of this too, and it actually has more going on with it than I first thought. It’s deceptively good. In general the audio is balanced very loud. It’s intentionally peaky, with all the gunfire and shouting. It’s abrasive, and makes it feel like the poor quality microphone from whatever device is recording this can’t deal with it. At first I was just playing through my TV speakers and had to turn down the volume because of the overbearing noise, but then that made some of the quieter dialogue hard to hear, so I switched over to headphones, and then I realised there was a whole other subtler layer to this audio that I was missing before. The glitchy aesthetic applies in more subdued ways that add a lot to the sense of verisimilitude. Sometimes you’ll notice electrical interference, like that sound you used to hear when a nearby phone was receiving a text message. It’s got lots of little blips and whirs like that which you can’t hear unless you’re paying close attention. The ambient soundtrack incorporates that sort of thing in to its ominous soundscapes as well.

To actually play however, it’s not a very fun experience. It is flawed as a game, but in a way that the flaws actually contribute to the overall experience. The mechanics are clunky and basic. It’s very bare bones and somewhat janky. It’s a slow cover shooter with subpar weapon and enemy variety, and inaccurate aiming. It can be a slog at times, despite the game being very short, and shoot-outs are frequently overwhelming and disorientating. But that does fit very well with the feelings this game is trying to evoke. This isn’t meant to be a fun power fantasy. It’s a snapshot of the experiences of these two middle-aged violent criminal fuck-ups who have found themselves in a chaotic mess where everything is going wrong. The story can be looked at in a similar way. It’s a barely connected series of events where horrible things happen to horrible people, that flies by without taking time to dwell on much of anything. No one has time to in a situation like this after all, and this footage you’re seeing of these events are presented as-is, not edited in to a neat satisfying narrative. Sometimes it feels like there are scenes that are intentionally missing. It ends with a hard cut to credits without a played out conclusion too. As if the footage simply runs out there. It’s a pretty bold move that does a good job to punctuate the tone of the game.

I feel like I want to compare this game to Drakengard. That too is a game that is not particularly fun, but one that works so well precisely because of its less than enjoyable aspects. That’s definitely true of this game as well, but I don’t think I would rate it anywhere near as highly. Drakengard has a higher ambition with its narrative and the message it’s trying to convey. This game doesn’t really. It’s an impressive aesthetic experiment though. One that does perhaps have some sense of catharsis to it, but is ultimately rather nihilistic. It’s an achievement in using the flaws of digital technology (at least as it existed around the time this game came out) to create an unusual style and well fleshed out tone. One that is not going to appeal to a wide audience, but it does it with an admirable confidence.

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Death's Door - Series X.
(Jan) Warhammer: Chaosbane SE - Series X.
(Feb) Evil West - Series X.
(Mar) God of War Ragnarok - PS5.
(Mar) Dead Space(2023) - Series X.
(Apr) Ben 10: Power Trip - Series X.
(Apr) Resident Evil 4(2023) - Series X.
(May) Ghostwire Tokyo - Series X.
(May) Ravenlok - Series X.
(May) Turrican - PS4.
(May) Spec Ops: The Line - Series X.
(July) Shadow Warrior 3 - Series X.
(July) Planet of Lana - Series X.
(July) Horizon Forbidden West - PS5.

[Tolkientaters]

I just finished FF12 and really enjoyed it. It had a lot of elements in common with FF16, but often with a different focus. It had a similar open zone approach to world design with more variety and rewarding exploration. The villian basically had the same goal as Clive but he was a violent maniac and it started off with a focus on politics but mostly ended with the characters defying gods. It went all in with the RPG party building letting you automate the combat which really worked for me.

Vaan and Penelo still suck and basically had nothing to do in the game. Also almost every female character in this game wore an absurd outfit, Fran and a pirate girl especially.

[Indiana747]

(Jan) Death's Door - Series X.
(Jan) Warhammer: Chaosbane SE - Series X.
(Feb) Evil West - Series X.
(Mar) God of War Ragnarok - PS5.
(Mar) Dead Space(2023) - Series X.
(Apr) Ben 10: Power Trip - Series X.
(Apr) Resident Evil 4(2023) - Series X.
(May) Ghostwire Tokyo - Series X.
(May) Ravenlok - Series X.
(May) Turrican - PS4.
(May) Spec Ops: The Line - Series X.
(July) Shadow Warrior 3 - Series X.
(July) Planet of Lana - Series X.
(July) Horizon Forbidden West - PS5.
(July) Bramble: The Mountain King - Series X.