Almost entirely randoms with no voice chat. Not made a lot of difference!Truk_Kurt wrote: ↑April 17th, 2024, 9:04 amSo I just picked up Helldivers 2 yesterday, has most of your play time been with friends or randoms? I'm hoping it can be just as fun with randoms but ideally I would like to play with friends but I think they have all mostly moved onto other games now. I should stick a message in the Helldivers 2 channel in here.seansthomas wrote: ↑April 16th, 2024, 7:23 pm So I'm not sure I'll ever complete Helldivers 2, but I'm having a lot of fun with it and am at a point where I think I can firmly say 'its pretty great'. It's got that vibe of Splatoon and Rocket league where you can just drop in and have fun, and in some way add some value to the team. Which might sound, 'so what?' but I tend to bounce off a lot of multiplayer games because I find I'm a hindrance to the team and cannon fodder Vs being of some use. Like when I went back to Halo Infinite, and was just target practise.
Helldivers 2 is so smartly structured. You have what you need when you start the game and level up at just the right rate as the challenge increases. Missions are varied and things can escalate out of nowhere. When your squad gets separated and you're in a situation frantically trying to do mass crowd control whilst surviving... man it's good.
And it feels so invested to Titanfall 2, my favourite ever online multiplayer game. From the drop ships, aesthetic, level system, audio, music... it hits so well.
I can seeyself playing it on and off for a while yet.
Games Completed 2024
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seansthomas
- Member
- Posts: 858
- Joined: March 31st, 2015, 8:10 am
Re: Games Completed 2024
Re: Games Completed 2024
The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls (Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru)
I finally got around to beating DK94 earlier in the year and so have continued my quest of playing through classic Game Boy games I've not yet played by jumping into Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru, or to use it's translated name "The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls"
This game often gets mentioned as a footnote when discussing Link's Awakening, as that game features a cameo from one of the characters from The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls. I think both games also use the same engine (or shared development tools anyway). Both games feature a top down overworld along with several 2D platformer sections, with gameplay consisting of combat and puzzles for the player to solve.
The main thing that had put me off from playing this until now was how the game deals with combat. When you bump into an enemy you both disappear inside a cloud of dust while the game takes health off both the player and the opponent at regular intervals. There is no input from the player, so it's often easy to tell if you'll win or if you'll lose. On paper, this doesn't seem engaging, however in practice this is more of a progress check to ensure you have done and found everything you need to do before beating a boss and moving onto the next section of the game.
The reason this game is held is such high esteem is the story, the world design and just how charming the game is. It's also very funny and often breaks conventions in fun ways. It's world is small but dense, and while it's not a difficult game (nor a long one, it took me just under 7 hours to beat) you're always sent off to do something new with each new objective.
You're also able to transform into a frog and a snake, with each having their own pros and cons (the snake can fit in small gaps, but can't jump. The frog can jump higher and swim, but can't fight anything but bugs)
Overall this stands right up there in my view with the very best games on the Game Boy, highly recommended.
I finally got around to beating DK94 earlier in the year and so have continued my quest of playing through classic Game Boy games I've not yet played by jumping into Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru, or to use it's translated name "The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls"
This game often gets mentioned as a footnote when discussing Link's Awakening, as that game features a cameo from one of the characters from The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls. I think both games also use the same engine (or shared development tools anyway). Both games feature a top down overworld along with several 2D platformer sections, with gameplay consisting of combat and puzzles for the player to solve.
The main thing that had put me off from playing this until now was how the game deals with combat. When you bump into an enemy you both disappear inside a cloud of dust while the game takes health off both the player and the opponent at regular intervals. There is no input from the player, so it's often easy to tell if you'll win or if you'll lose. On paper, this doesn't seem engaging, however in practice this is more of a progress check to ensure you have done and found everything you need to do before beating a boss and moving onto the next section of the game.
The reason this game is held is such high esteem is the story, the world design and just how charming the game is. It's also very funny and often breaks conventions in fun ways. It's world is small but dense, and while it's not a difficult game (nor a long one, it took me just under 7 hours to beat) you're always sent off to do something new with each new objective.
You're also able to transform into a frog and a snake, with each having their own pros and cons (the snake can fit in small gaps, but can't jump. The frog can jump higher and swim, but can't fight anything but bugs)
Overall this stands right up there in my view with the very best games on the Game Boy, highly recommended.
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Jobobonobo
- Member
- Posts: 582
- Joined: July 27th, 2016, 4:30 pm
Re: Games Completed 2024
- Spoiler: show
I only played the PS1 original as a demo back in the day but liked it well enough that I was glad to give this remake a go. Nice and breezy game with a nice amount of doodads to collect in each stage that I pretty much got everything in no time at all. Some stages can have tricky jumping sections with some platforms being pretty hard to judge where to land as the shadow was not that well defined meaning I made a fair few blunders in some stages. This is rectified with the incredibly huge amount of lives the game gives you as I never saw a game over screen once. I know it is a remake of an older game but if they are going to be that generous with the lives then I don’t see the point of having a lives system at all. The slot machine at the end of each level is a big source of extra lives which I can imagine was far more useful in the original game. Bosses were also a big highlight with how diverse they were with racing and shoot em up sections included within. So ended up liking this even more than I expected. Apparently it fixed a lot of the issues the original had so if you enjoyed the original then I definitely suggest picking this one up.
Re: Games Completed 2024
- Spoiler: show
Second Persona game down and I really enjoyed this one too, although a little less than 5. I loved the dorm setting and how you live with the team, seeing them every day and doing all sorts of little interactions and things together. It makes the team feel very tight knit, both through the story and as friends who live together. The story itself feels a bit uneven to me, taking a long time to pick up steam, leaving key elements introduced a bit late to be as impactful as they could be. It does come together nicely towards the end though, and is made all the stronger by how well they’ve crafted the party and their bonds. This is matched with a typically great soundtrack, which has an infectious hip-hop, upbeat sound, but does switch to some beautiful, more sad music when things start to get real.
The turn based battling is still very enjoyable to me, although Tartarus is a bit of a sticking point. It almost feels like a group project that the team clock into after hours to whittle away. They banter, grow in their abilities, and there are some cool little features added to Tartarus as you progress. I really enjoy that feeling of your squad being a team in and out of battle. It’s just not memorable at all. Very little of note happens for the most part, you just keep battling and going up. The same can be said for most of the boss battles before a certain point. They’re just bosses, not much to say really. The later bosses are a big improvement, it just takes a long time to get there.
Re: Games Completed 2024
Sin and Punishment
First thing I wanna say is this game looks beautiful on a CRT. It's got to be one of the best looking N64 games too, and it actually manages to maintain a pretty solid framerate
The controls are weird though. I only managed to get the grips with control type 3, which uses the classic controller shoulder buttons to move left and right, with the stick left for aiming.
So this is a rail shooter where your character is always moving forward, so one part of the game is moving your character left and right to dodge projectiles, get behind cover, or move to platforms so you don't fall, all while jumping over stuff that comes into your path, while the second part is using the control stick to aim and shoot the ever loving shit out of thousands of enemies.
It does at times feel like you're playing two games at once, it's not always easy to dodge roll, side step and jump over stuff all while aiming at a bosses weak points, but it does get easier the more you stick with it. I'm sure the game would map to a modern controller in a much more intuitive way anyway.
You can also hit projects back, which causes them to fly down where your sights are aiming, and this is essential to beating some boss encounters.
It's a really short game, it took me under 2 hours to clear one run, and that's with multiple deaths and retries, but each stage is unique and there are a ton of fun bosses to fight. A few of the levels are really visual spectaculars as well. The story is almost impossible to parse from playing the game, I got to the end and watched the final scene still utterly baffled at what was going on. I know people don't play these games for the story, but it's worth pointing out anyway. That said, I loved the style and direction of the cut scenes, they all look fantastic.
First thing I wanna say is this game looks beautiful on a CRT. It's got to be one of the best looking N64 games too, and it actually manages to maintain a pretty solid framerate
The controls are weird though. I only managed to get the grips with control type 3, which uses the classic controller shoulder buttons to move left and right, with the stick left for aiming.
So this is a rail shooter where your character is always moving forward, so one part of the game is moving your character left and right to dodge projectiles, get behind cover, or move to platforms so you don't fall, all while jumping over stuff that comes into your path, while the second part is using the control stick to aim and shoot the ever loving shit out of thousands of enemies.
It does at times feel like you're playing two games at once, it's not always easy to dodge roll, side step and jump over stuff all while aiming at a bosses weak points, but it does get easier the more you stick with it. I'm sure the game would map to a modern controller in a much more intuitive way anyway.
You can also hit projects back, which causes them to fly down where your sights are aiming, and this is essential to beating some boss encounters.
It's a really short game, it took me under 2 hours to clear one run, and that's with multiple deaths and retries, but each stage is unique and there are a ton of fun bosses to fight. A few of the levels are really visual spectaculars as well. The story is almost impossible to parse from playing the game, I got to the end and watched the final scene still utterly baffled at what was going on. I know people don't play these games for the story, but it's worth pointing out anyway. That said, I loved the style and direction of the cut scenes, they all look fantastic.
Re: Games Completed 2024
APR - Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)Alex79 wrote: ↑January 2nd, 2024, 12:11 pmJAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)
APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)
Er, yeah, bit of a funny one, this. I'd played around 30 hours of it previously and then started it again a couple of weeks ago and just finished it now. The game itself is pretty fun, it's basically just combat for the entire game with very little in the way of real story. There is barely an overall story tying everything together at all really.
Thing is, I've managed to avoid spoilers for years, but have heard loads of tales, most notably from Jo Skrebels and Sean from TCGS say that midway through the game something happens that changes the entire game. That the whole game goes insane and you can't believe what happens and, well, that's just untrue. I guess the moment they are referring to is...
- Spoiler: show
But, I suppose it's more about the journey, and that was fun. I'll give the second game a try at some point I expect.
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ratsoalbion
- Admin
- Posts: 7932
- Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
- Location: Brighton, England
- Contact:
Re: Games Completed 2024
It's not that bit that people talk about.
I'll admit, after all the hype I was slightly underwhelmed by The Thing That Happens, but I definitely noticed it.
I'd say two-thirds through.
I'll admit, after all the hype I was slightly underwhelmed by The Thing That Happens, but I definitely noticed it.
I'd say two-thirds through.
Re: Games Completed 2024
Ok, I'll admit it, I didn't even notice what the 'thing' was then!!ratsoalbion wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2024, 2:43 pm It's not that bit that people talk about.
I'll admit, after all the hype I was slightly underwhelmed by The Thing That Happens, but I definitely noticed it.
I'd say two-thirds through.
It's not the...
- Spoiler: show
Re: Games Completed 2024
APR - Bioshock (Switch)Alex79 wrote: ↑January 2nd, 2024, 12:11 pmJAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)
APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)
APR - Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)
I first finished this back on Xbox 360 when it came out, and never really loved it. I thought it was okay at best. The shooting wasn't great, I honestly didn't think much of the story, despite one of the most well known twists in gaming, and the only thing I was really impressed with was the level design. I felt the game was bloated and really dipped in the middle section with a lot of endless backtracking and fetch quests.
So I thought I'd give it another go and bought the remastered collection on Switch a while back. I was keen to see if my thoughts on the game had changed in the 10+ years since originally finishing it.
And..? No. Still feel exactly the same. Really not a game I love at all. I just think it's quite boring. But, the remasters do have a really nice feature - the museum. An interactive area featuring concept art and abandoned ideas. It works really nicely and you really feel as though you're looking at a museum exhibit, really nicely done.
I'll probably still play Bioshock 2 since I always thought that was the better game in terms of actual gameplay. And then I'll probably play Infinite again too, which like the first game I was decidedly luke-warm on when I first finished it.
Re: Games Completed 2024
I also think 2 has the better gameplay, but the first is still my favourite. How you feel about 1 is how I feel about Infinite.
Re: Games Completed 2024
Oh by the way, off topic, but are you still in Birmingham? I thought of you this morning as I was at court in Birmingham and then killed a couple of hours looking round shops and stuff, and it occurred to me on the way back to the car I should have given you a shout to see if you were anywhere near!
Re: Games Completed 2024
- Spoiler: show
I got to playing this again because it was recently the 10th anniversary of Lords of Shadow 2, and so that got my mind on these games again that I haven’t been thinking about much in a while. I didn’t feel like going through that particular game again though, so I went with this one instead. It may be my least favourite of the trilogy, but it’s also my least played and the one that requires the least investment, so it seemed like a good idea.
I enjoyed going back to this one. It might not have the same level of production quality of the other games, but it still has a decent atmosphere to it mostly thanks to the soundtrack. It has some nice visuals in context of the original hardware limitations too. I also played this on NG+ for the first time, so I was able to breeze through it pretty quickly without having to worry about finding all the secrets and unlocking all the upgrades. The combat still stands up as being pretty decent. Even though this game lacks the focus mechanic of the others, it still has a similar pace to it that fits in a nice comfortable spot for me.
Re: Games Completed 2024
I still am yeah, but I'm actually moving back up to Derbyshire next week.Alex79 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2024, 8:49 pmOh by the way, off topic, but are you still in Birmingham? I thought of you this morning as I was at court in Birmingham and then killed a couple of hours looking round shops and stuff, and it occurred to me on the way back to the car I should have given you a shout to see if you were anywhere near!
Re: Games Completed 2024
Astro's Playroom (PS5)
Despite owning a PS5 for nearly 2 years now, I have only just got around to playing this game packed in the console. I had always heard how great it was and how it was still the best example of utilising the features of the PS5 controller. I'm glad I finally got around to it as it really was a delight to play. The stuff it does with the controller really is wonderful and definitely the best use of it I've experienced. Even ignoring that, it's a good 3D platformer in its own right. Furthermore there is all the nostalgia you get from unlocking various bits and pieces of random tech from PlayStations history and then saying the other Astrobots performing scenes from classic PlayStation games. The only thing I can criticise about it was that there was some very frustrating motion control bits with a rocket ship and the monkey climbing was also very annoying. But overall it was a great time and I hope Team Asobi get chance to make a fully fledged game in the future. 8/10
Despite owning a PS5 for nearly 2 years now, I have only just got around to playing this game packed in the console. I had always heard how great it was and how it was still the best example of utilising the features of the PS5 controller. I'm glad I finally got around to it as it really was a delight to play. The stuff it does with the controller really is wonderful and definitely the best use of it I've experienced. Even ignoring that, it's a good 3D platformer in its own right. Furthermore there is all the nostalgia you get from unlocking various bits and pieces of random tech from PlayStations history and then saying the other Astrobots performing scenes from classic PlayStation games. The only thing I can criticise about it was that there was some very frustrating motion control bits with a rocket ship and the monkey climbing was also very annoying. But overall it was a great time and I hope Team Asobi get chance to make a fully fledged game in the future. 8/10
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Indiana747
- Member
- Posts: 1015
- Joined: September 3rd, 2012, 5:17 pm
Re: Games Completed 2024
(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.
(Apr) Little Nightmares II - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.
(Apr) Little Nightmares II - Series X.