What games did you complete? 2020 Edition

[RubberJohnny]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

 

This is basically what you'd get if you gave Skyrim modders $35 million to make a medieval total conversion, which is to say I fucking love it and it's taken every waking hour of mine for months. When it came out 2 years ago, it kind of got average reviews based on poor performance (turn off the post processing) and a bit of jank, and didn't seem to do well, or get a cult following, which is a shame because it's every bit the in depth freeform RPG people who bounced off Fallout 4 wanted. I spent my dozens of hours exploring, poaching in the lords forests, breaking into and burgling every house I came across, stealing horses, talking my way out of trouble (or getting thrown in jail) and learning alchemy, and maybe a bit of questing too.

 

Unlike Bethesda, combat is not the focus here - largely due to it being so lethal, you can't heal in combat, and injuries can take days to recover from, and therefore the devs can't throw encounters at you as filler - the world map isn't littered with bandits every six feet, and the quests are open-ended and can be solved in a variety of ways rather than just being dungeon crawls. The main quest is also seriously substantial, and while there aren't guilds as such, there are side quest chains that can be found out in the world, that will develop as the main quest progresses.

 

Your main character Henry is probably the most relatable protagonist in gaming, a bit gormless so people can exposit about medieval society to him, but you could find him in any pub in England, he's just a regular bloke. You get a chance to see a day in his life before his life gets upended, going to work, drinking with his mates, chatting with his girlfriend - and this actually has the effect of making you identify and emphasise with him far more than the usual generic badass. And his story is well told, the games unfortunately overlong linear opening (3 hours!) knocks Henry down to his lowest point, having lost everything, and then the rest of the game is him slowly clawing his way back up, rising from homeless peasant to knight through all sorts of situations and scrapes within an interesting political and historic period. For its modest budget it's quite impressive - sure, the characters might be a bit dead-eyed and stiffly animated, undercutting some of the drama, but there is a lot of admirable ambition here.

 

That said, this isn't going to be something for everyone, there is some jank (including the wonkiest horse in gaming), combat can be tough and the game is somewhat of a slow burn. You need to sleep and eat regularly, skill progress relies on practice and training, quicksaves are limited by items, the first time you open a book you are told you are illiterate and need to learn to read, I once crossed the world map to reach a buried stash only to be told I didn't have a spade in my inventory - it's the kind of game that doesn't hold your hand. But I think the people reading this who are up for that sort of thing will know who they are, and I think they'll find this a uniquely deep and rewarding RPG.

 

 

It's also free on Epic Games Store from February 13th (that's tomorrow!), so if this write up piques your curiosity, give it a try.

[gossi the dog]

1 hour ago, Mawdlin said:

Detroit: Become Human

 

Only started this because it was free on PSplus. I have mixed feelings. A lot of the writing is actually very good, especially towards the end 

  Reveal hidden contents

when the androids are de-skinned/dehumanised and put into death camps it becomes particularly chilling and thought-provoking.

However, it did take me six months on and off to complete it, largely because I struggle with heavy narrative-based games. I thought the end of chapter flow-charts were fantastic and I did feel my choices made a difference. It's easily the best David Cage game I've played, but that's not saying much. I gave up on Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit.

 

I think I'll give it a few years before I try Beyond: Two Souls. If ever. Out of interest, how does this compare to Detroit?

 

Beyond Two Souls is absolute rubbish, with the exception of one Native American part that’s really good.

 

Detroit is far better.

[jraff]

Control (21/1/2020)
- In terms of gameplay it's fairly uninspired but feels great. The setting and world building is excellent, story is decent and there are some good performances in there. Main issue I have with it is that the parts where you're actually playing it don't really do much that's new or interesting - in stark contrast to the parts where you aren't. 7

Demon's Tilt (5/2/2020)
- It's pinball so you can't complete it as such, but I'm whacking it on here as I got into wizard mode which is as close as you can get (& hit 18th on the Steam leaderboards). I love arcade pinball games so this is right up my street. There's only one table but it's very intricately designed and fun to play, I love all of the aesthetics - the music is excellent and has been stuck in my head for weeks. Downsides are: outside of the actual game itself the presentation is a bit janky (menus awkward to navigate, doesn't save my selected resolution so I have to set it every time I launch the game, on the leaderboards you can view more detailed info including duration of the game which seems to be a random number that changes every time you view it etc). Would have been nice if a few of these things were sorted before it came out of early access. I'd also love some kind of meta progression to the game, but I don't think any arcade pinball game since Pokemon Pinball has done that and if they added another table it'd be 9, as it is - 8

[Unofficial Who]

13 hours ago, gossi the dog said:

 

Beyond Two Souls is absolute rubbish, with the exception of one Native American part that’s really good.

 

Detroit is far better.

 

Weirdly enough I was coming in to post much the same thing. Although despite being the best part the Native American chapter is kind of problematic. But it was a great break from the awfulness of the rest of the story.

 

Mind you if you don't mind the game getting ultra-dark you can probably have a lot of fun taking all the bad decisions and becoming the modern version of Carrie.

 

Also Beyond Two Souls is worth a play if you're a fan of Stranger Things.  There's some interesting parallels.

[PaB]

14 hours ago, Mawdlin said:

Detroit: Become Human

 

Only started this because it was free on PSplus. I have mixed feelings. A lot of the writing is actually very good, especially towards the end 

  Hide contents

when the androids are de-skinned/dehumanised and put into death camps it becomes particularly chilling and thought-provoking.

However, it did take me six months on and off to complete it, largely because I struggle with heavy narrative-based games. I thought the end of chapter flow-charts were fantastic and I did feel my choices made a difference. It's easily the best David Cage game I've played, but that's not saying much. I gave up on Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit.

 

I think I'll give it a few years before I try Beyond: Two Souls. If ever. Out of interest, how does this compare to Detroit?

Its not as good as Detroit, but it's very good. (if you like this sort of thing)

[DarkCrisis]

1. Resident Evil 7(XB1) 8/10

2. Batman Arkham Asylum(XB1) 7.5/10

3. Halo: CE Anniversary(XB1) 5/10

4. Life is Strange(XB1) 8/10

5. Luigi Mansion 3(Switch) 8/10

6. New Super Lucky’s Tale(Switch) 7/10

7. Catherine: Full Body(PS4) 8.5/10

 

8. Untitled Goose Game(Switch) - Might get some down votes for this but I really wasn't keen on this, the art style and the humour definitely were the highlights for me but I felt like I just wanted it to be over once the novelty has worn off, its not a bad game by any means and for what it is I can understand the appeal but I don't really get the hype surrounding the game. Glad I played it to say I have but I wont look back over my 2-3hrs with the game with to much fondness. 6/10   

[SozzlyJoe]

16 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

 

This is basically what you'd get if you gave Skyrim modders $35 million to make a medieval total conversion, which is to say I fucking love it and it's taken every waking hour of mine for months.

 

16 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

It's also free on Epic Games Store from February 13th (that's tomorrow!), so if this write up piques your curiosity, give it a try.

 

I love this post. The super positive write up, then boom at the end, you swing in like Oprah with there's one free for everyone in the audience!

[gossi the dog]

10/02 - One Piece: World Seeker (Xbox One) - This is an open world take on One Piece, with very blue skies. I don't know One Piece, but by far the best thing about the game were the characters. You can't help but like them all. As for the game itself, the story's good, but the pacing is all over the place. Unfortunately there's a big focus on combat and the combat is bad - it's lacking in variety and is very sluggish. Overall I enjoyed it, the characters and the bright blue skies make it, but a better combat engine would not have gone amiss.

 

Previously:

 

01. 01/01 - Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS4)

02. 03/01 - Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS4)
03. 11/01 - Yakuza 3 (PS4)
04. 11/01 - Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (PS4)
05. 12/01 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan (PS4)
06. 21/01 - Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox One)
07. 24/01 - Storm Boy (Xbox One)

 

[Unofficial Who]

Feb

 

21/02 You've to to be Kitten Me! (PS4/Dreams) Simple game, you come home late from work. You have five kittens to find. It's the writing in this game that makes it charming. Also it has a kitten named Hercule Purrot.

 

17/02 Art Therapy (PS4/Dreams) You are an artist. A misunderstood one. You've just received a letter from the local gallery saying that your art sucks. You leave to take it up with them pausing only to bring...but that would spoil the surprise. Trust me, just play it. A very enjoyable three minutes. 

 

16/02 Art's Dream (PS4/Dreams) It's pretty much a demo for what you can achieve in creating in dreams but it's a long demo game (three hours maybe) with it's own achievements so I'm counting it. It's a pretty impressive showcase of what dreams can do switching between 3D platformer, point and click adventure and a retro style 2D shooter. Art himself comes across too ernest at times and too much of a dick in other places. And the plot seems a little hodge podge (in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the engine no doubt.) But it's great in a couple of spots, the art and sound direction is top notch throughout. At worst it's like an interactive episode of MTV's Liquid Television.

 

 

12/02 Juanito Arcade Mayhem (PC) Bought this on a whim in the steam sale and it's pretty much a cartoon version of Pang with all the levels being retro themed. Even on easy it was incredibly hard in some levels, I would have loved an auto-fire for those of us with aging hands. Even so it wasn't a bad way to spend two hours (on and off over a couple of weeks.)

 

08/02 Wolfenstein 2:the New Colossus (PC) (plus The Freedom Chronicles DLC) I just had to pick this up on sale post playing through The New Order and The Old Blood and I loved it. I did get stuck in some of the levels this time but really I was here just for the story and the world building and this did not disappoint. It's in terns tragic and shocking and satirical with some amazing set pieces it would be criminal to spoil. I even went back post game to assassinate some Nazi generals and play the DLC, neither of which is essential but worthwhile for those wanting a little more. I was won over by this and can't wait to play the third in the series.

 

The DLC is very pulp novel in feel and each focuses around what in the main game is enabled by gadgets. The Adventures of Gunslinger Joe cast you as a professional quarterback who can burst through some walls like the Kool Aid Man. The Diaries of Agent Silent Death is played as a stealth / James Bond style spy thriller and the last episode The Deeds of Captain Wilkins is pure GI Joe on stilts. It's a bit too expensive for what's on offer though.

 

03/02 The Outer Worlds (PS4) I generally love Obsidian rpg's but this one left me a little cold after a promising start. I loved the setting, it had a fantastic start and Pravarti is so lovely. I just didn't warm to the other characters at all. I think part of this might be because I preceded playing this by playing Death Stranding and Wolfenstein, both games that made you feel very much in the environment while in this I did feel a bit like a floating camera. Frustrations included a clunky inventory, some very samey quests (I completed two major quests in two different places using the same solution which was disappointing.) The loading times between areas are incredibly slow. And I almost never complain about loading times. I didn't get on with the combat as well as I do with VATS and spent most of the game getting my sidekicks to do the shooting for me. My biggest issue? It looks very pretty but very busy. There's so much on the screen that I'd never spot potential hazards until it was too late and would sometimes have trouble picking out enemies among the landscape. Also the big text patch did nothing to the text in the inventory which was where I needed it. I still enjoyed my time with it but it's not going to be the most memorable thing I played this year. Still my partner is doing a run through, maybe watching her playthrough will cause me to re-evaluate. In short good but not great. (Weirdly it reminded me a bit of how I imagined Liberation on the CD32 would look on a modern system.)

 

 

 

8. 27/01 Quest of Dungeons (PC) 
7. 21/01 Feather (PC)
6. 20/01 Paperbark (PC)
5. 09/01 The Cat and the Coup (PC) 
4. 09/01 1979 Revolution:Black Friday (PC) 
3. 08/01 Wolfenstein:the Old Blood (PC) 
2. 03/01 Wolfenstein:the New Order (PC) 
1. 01/01 Detroit:Become Human (PS4)

 

[HarryBizzle]

Well, check me out, finishing three games in a week. That's my yearly quota basically done.

 

So I finished Darksiders 3 after a few false starts with it. I posted some deeper thoughts here:

 

 

But if you're not a fan of the franchise, all you really need to know is that it's a lot better than people make out, it's probably not the one to start with, and it's currently on Game Pass and was given away on PS+, so you might already have it.

 

I'd say it's probably a 7/10, but I really like Darksiders, so that elevates it a bit for me.

[mrben09]

Universal paperclips. Now got most of the office playing it as well.

[Gabe]

15/02/2020 - Gris (PC)

 

I bought into the hype around this and, as a consequence, decided to give a genre I really dislike (platformers) a try - thanks, Game Pass!

 

Unsurprisingly, I didn't like it; neither find it fun nor relaxing. It sure did look pretty in places, though a lot of the time the aesthetic didn't do a lot for me. I am very much prepared to accept that is down to me rather than the game though (given the widespread acclaim it has received) so I'm not unhappy that I experienced it.

 

I will perhaps need to be a bit more considered about approaching such games in the future though, especially if it would incur a reasonable time investment, as forcing myself through a genre I have no interest in doesn't really seem like a sensible idea, no matter how well-received a title is. Again, that's on me rather than the game.

 

It's been a little break between some of the other bigger games I have on the go though so it's at least helped in that respect, even if the tale didn't personally resonate with me.

 

Previously completed:

Spoiler

21/01/2020 - Gears of War 5 (Xbox One X)

19/01/2020 - Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls (Xbox One X)

05/01/2020 - Night Call (PC)

02/01/2020 - Remember Me (PC)

 

[Talvalin]

1. Dark Souls (XB1 via BC)

I can't honestly believe that it's taken me over 8 years to finish it, but I finally managed to get a single character through the two and a bit playthroughs required to get all of the boss weapons and thus the rare weapon achievement that makes it such a pain in the fucking arse to get the Dark Soul achievement for getting all of the other achievements. I was lucky that I was able to  do some jolly cooperation to get sunlight medals back in 2018 when I started yet another character, and thus only had to grind a little bit to get my ten souvenirs of reprisal (because fuck those harpies otherwise). After getting stuck in various places (O&S on NG+ was a ball ache), things started moving faster over time, despite spending an inordinate amount of time trying to do the Bed of Chaos in NG+. Don't ask.

 

So naturally, after spending so long on DS1, I immediately start playing DS3 which I gave up on about two years ago after failing to kill the Nameless King and then getting stuck in the first DLC. I noped out of there, went straight to the Ringed City DLC (which I hadn't played before) and picked up a tonne of titanite chunks from the first few enemies before getting obliterated by a winged enemy that looked suspiciously like the Moonlight Butterfly except more humanoid. Anyway, back to the grind I guess.  

[Jamie John]

3 hours ago, Talvalin said:

1. Dark Souls (XB1 via BC)

I can't honestly believe that it's taken me over 8 years to finish it, but I finally managed to get a single character through the two and a bit playthroughs required to get all of the boss weapons and thus the rare weapon achievement that makes it such a pain in the fucking arse to get the Dark Soul achievement for getting all of the other achievements. I was lucky that I was able to  do some jolly cooperation to get sunlight medals back in 2018 when I started yet another character, and thus only had to grind a little bit to get my ten souvenirs of reprisal (because fuck those harpies otherwise). After getting stuck in various places (O&S on NG+ was a ball ache), things started moving faster over time, despite spending an inordinate amount of time trying to do the Bed of Chaos in NG+. Don't ask.

 

So naturally, after spending so long on DS1, I immediately start playing DS3 which I gave up on about two years ago after failing to kill the Nameless King and then getting stuck in the first DLC. I noped out of there, went straight to the Ringed City DLC (which I hadn't played before) and picked up a tonne of titanite chunks from the first few enemies before getting obliterated by a winged enemy that looked suspiciously like the Moonlight Butterfly except more humanoid. Anyway, back to the grind I guess.  

 

The Ringed City DLC is fantastic. I finished it for the first time last year. Stick with it! The main game is brilliant as well, of course.

[Gabe]

17/02/2020 - Universal Paperclips (PC)

 

And another! I played this only because I saw @mrben09 mentioned it and then saw it didn't take too long to beat. I'd actually bounced off it once before because I thought it was much longer; I also thought it was more of a clicker than it is. Armed now with those misconceptions corrected, I went for it. I should've been working, but never mind.

 

It's a bit weird, but ok. Wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you really love the idea.

 

Previously completed:

Spoiler

15/02/2020 - Gris (PC)

21/01/2020 - Gears of War 5 (Xbox One X)

19/01/2020 - Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls (Xbox One X)

05/01/2020 - Night Call (PC)

02/01/2020 - Remember Me (PC)

 

[Quest]

16/03 - A Short Hike (PC) - 

16/03 - Art Sqool (PC) - Vaporwave Passpartout: The Starving Artist. Nowt special but a light distraction for an hour.

15/03 - Gears of War 4 (XB1X) - It's more Gears. I does nothing to evolve the series but it does avoid the complete overkill of throwing seven million monsters at you that plagued Gears 3, and is probably the best straightforward campaign since the first game.

20/02 - Guardian Heroes (360)

20/02 - NiGHTS into Dreams (360)

18/02 - Snake Pass (XB1X) - I'd been turned off this around the time of release by people suggesting it was an exercise in frustration, but as it's about to leave Game Pass I thought I'd give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did. For one, it's a lovely looking thing in those vivid Viva Pinata colours, but in the slithering and coiling of Noodle it does that rare thing of feeling like nothing else. They nailed it to the extent that I'm not all that disappointed it doesn't look like getting a sequel. Sumo done good (again).

14/02 - Blazing Chrome (XB1X) - This is so faithful to the Contra of old that it's difficult to find fault with it and not feel I'm being unfair in some way. It's just that while it's great fun, immaculately presented and knows exactly what it needs to be, it lacks a certain spark of innovation that gave the OG titles their edge. There were few moments of genuine surprise, unfortunately.

 

Previous:

Spoiler

16/03 - A Short Hike (PC) - 

16/03 - Art Sqool (PC) - Vaporwave Passpartout: The Starving Artist. Nowt special but a light distraction for an hour.

15/03 - Gears of War 4 (XB1X) - It's more Gears. I does nothing to evolve the series but it does avoid the complete overkill of throwing seven million monsters at you that plagued Gears 3, and is probably the best straightforward campaign since the first game.

20/02 - Guardian Heroes (360)

20/02 - NiGHTS into Dreams (360)

18/02 - Snake Pass (XB1X) - I'd been turned off this around the time of release by people suggesting it was an exercise in frustration, but as it's about to leave Game Pass I thought I'd give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did. For one, it's a lovely looking thing in those vivid Viva Pinata colours, but in the slithering and coiling of Noodle it does that rare thing of feeling like nothing else. They nailed it to the extent that I'm not all that disappointed it doesn't look like getting a sequel. Sumo done good (again).

14/02 - Blazing Chrome (XB1X) - This is so faithful to the Contra of old that it's difficult to find fault with it and not feel I'm being unfair in some way. It's just that while it's great fun, immaculately presented and knows exactly what it needs to be, it lacks a certain spark of innovation that gave the OG titles their edge. There were few moments of genuine surprise, unfortunately.

12/02 - Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch) - One of the best Switch games of the last year, and almost certainly one of the best Western-developed games Nintendo have ever published. NLG have absolutely mastered the character of Luigi, and this is the strongest game in the series by some margin. I think there's room for improvement in terms of collectibles, and finding better use for all that money you hoover up, but this is vindication for Nintendo's continued support of these guys. 

11/02 - Demon's Tilt (XB1X) - The old Naxat Soft games are pretty much the only pinball games I've ever got into, so I was somewhat sceptical about this having the same allure, but I think they've nailed it by dialing up the occult intensity to ridiculous levels. It's aesthetically pitch-perfect, really, but more importantly plays a mean, addictive game of pinball. I'm still shit at it, mind.

11/02 - Metro Exodus (XB1X) - Much as the characters in the game struggle with life outside the metro, as do the developers in many ways. This strikes an odd balance of scripted sequences, mid-sized open-worlds and wide-linear-corridors to various degrees of success, but the atmosphere and attention to detail remains. 4A really need to work on their voice-work, though, or just make better accessibility options available for those who want to keep the original Russian dialogue. 

07/02 - Ori and the Blind Forest (XB1X) - Really enjoyed this. It wasn't as difficult as I'd been lead to believe, and was lighter on the Metroidvania side than I'd imagined, but I'm all for different takes on the genre. Appreciated the brisk pacing, as I pretty much ran through this in about two sittings. Bring on the sequel.

10/02 - Sea of Thieves (XB1X) - A combo of network issues and time means I'm putting this aside, and I suppose the GaaS things are never finished anyway, but I enjoyed my time with this, sailing the highseas with random Australians. Found everything on the ocean captivating and full of adventure, but everything on land very tedious and pedestrian. 

07/02 - Ori and the Blind Forest (XB1X) - Really enjoyed this. It wasn't as difficult as I'd been lead to believe, and was lighter on the Metroidvania side than I'd imagined, but I'm all for different takes on the genre. Appreciated the brisk pacing, as I pretty much ran through this in about two sittings. Bring on the sequel.

05/02 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (XB1X) - Selfish, murderous psychopath Lara Croft kills a few hundred civilians in the opening act through her own ignorance, sulks when her friend tells her off and then spends the rest of the game thieving from villagers and patronising actual researchers and archaeologists, having learned nothing.

These are rotten, miserable games that assume the people of these lands are too simple to discover and appreciate the wonders surrounding them without Lara there to explain everything. I honestly wanted the villain to win, which I'm sure some more generous folk might interpret as a deliberate move on the part of the writers, but I'm not buying it. 

I suppose the tombs are fine, though.

03/02 - The Outer Worlds (XB1X) - I went into this wanting to play as a mostly pacifist, sarcastic space arsehole. That the game accommodated this throughout the  play-through is massively to its credit. Visually it's wildly inconsistent (some of the interiors look fantastic - outside, less so) and there's not much to be gained from exploration, but the flexibility of so many of the quests drew me in, after Fallout 4 proved to be such a huge disappointment.

29/01 - A Plague Tale (XB1X) - Essentially The Last of Us with rats, as you stealthily escort someone through a bleak environment occasional engage in some brutal stoning. Even shares some of the same story beats. It's well executed, though. The soundtrack is of particular note, with it's scraping, scratching strings and rough percussion, and it's one of the prettiest games I can recall playing. The rudimentary combat doesn't really support the greater emphasis on combat in the final hour or so, and it became a little frustrating there, but it's amazing to me that this comes from the studio behind  a bunch of licensed games and Fuel (which I fucking loathed).

24/01 - Sunset Overdrive (XB1X) - Enjoyed this about as much as Spider-Man, which surprised me. The humour is, well, a bit zaaaaany, which usually puts me off, but it has its heart in the right place and the core grindin', bouncin' and shootin' is really satisfying. Some tasty boss-battles in there, too.

24/01 - Lonely Mountains - Downhill (XB1X) - A nice little game, this. They got the feeling of slinging the bike around corners just right, and avoided the temptation to fill the later levels with novelty shite as a way to add variety. It's a neatly pure experience.

19/01 - Afterparty (XB1X) - A disappointment after Oxenfree. The same neat little dialogue system is there, and the voice acting is great, but the central characters are unappealing, the game itself is riddled with bugs and there's some rough stuttering between areas. Mostly it just lacked the compelling mystery of Oxenfree, though, and I was bored long before the end.

14/01 - Untitled Goose Game (XB1X) - It's slight, but my daughter laughed like a loon throughout the whole thing, so it's a winner in my book.

 

 

Ongoing:

Persona 5 (PS4), Forza Horizon 4 (XB1X), FIFA 20 (PS4) Panzer Dragoon Orta (XB)

[dreamylittledream]

Ooh two completions so far for February

 

3. Halo: Reach (Master Chief Collection) PC

 

So the journey is over, I have finally completed all the main line (i.e the FPS ones) Halo games.  Dare I say it, it ended with a little bit of a whimper rather than a bang.

 

So I was late to the party with the Halo series.  I did have CE on the original Xbox, but I (whisper it) wasn't really that keen.  I got as far as driving the Warthog , found it near impossible and gave up.  As far as Halo 2 goes, for some reason I never played the campaign, although I did spend many hilarious hours playing couch VS with @Gordzilla

 

And I may have bought Halo 3, Reach and indeed 4; but I never actually managed to play them.  You know just because.  And I developed a distinctive 'obviously' correct opinion that the Halo games were well a bit meh really.   Despite never really actually y'know playing them

 

So when I got a Xbone I bought the MCC collection - mainly because it was like £6 and I had a shiny new console.  But I was actually keen to give the games another go, because well all that noise about Halo.

 

And well I was wrong 18 years ago or whatever it was.  Halo is a fabulous game.

 

Anyway I have gradually made my way through the series from CE onwards and played the entire series available of the MCC (and 5 too, although the less said about 5 is probably the better).

 

I've had half an eye on playing Reach (for which I still have a 360 disc on my gameshelf) through BCC - but once the game was confirmed for the MCC collection and y'know remastered and all that jazz I decided to wait.  And as these days I have an all singing all dancing gaming laptop the PC version beckoned.

 

Not sure on balance whether that was the correct option.

 

So yeah Reach.  Its well okay.  But turns out a little anaemic.   Some this may well be down to the gimped sound; its still not fixed as far as I can tell and everything sounds well a bit tinny.  And I know the soundtrack for this is much admired; but I badly missed the actual Halo theme - it nearly appears on a couple of occasions and well its kind of frustrating.

 

Which ultimately fits with the way the game presents.  Its all a bit clinical and well lacking something. As you may be aware Reach is a tragic war movie prequel as presented through a video game, or basically Rogue One the videogame.  I may have played all of the preceding and succeeding games but I still failed to care much about Noble squadron.  I knew they were all going to die and it had very little impact when they did.  Your character, Mr proto Master chief is an ambivalent cipher (oh and look Cortana chooses him and he was second only to the Chief in various war games) but he fails to develop any personality of his own.

 

And its a pretty short campaign, definetly shorter than the numbered titles; and whilst I've heard comment that it has some of the best set pieces in the series, I wasn't quite feeling it.  I mean yes it has the Halo dynamic, it doesn't feel divorced from its predecessors like say 5 does.  But there were far more memorable moments in well, Halo 4 for example.  It feels like Halo, I was enjoying myself but I never had that feeling of wow what I am I playing like I got from say Halo 3.

 

So yeah DLD Halo rankings: Halo 3 > Halo 4 (its really good no really it is) > ODST > CE > Reach > Halo 2 > Halo 5 / 10

 

3. Shadow Warrior 2 (PC)

 

And now for something completely brainless and explosive.

 

I loved SW1, whilst I played it later, turns out it was the original prototype for the Doom reboot.  Nineties FPS game design meets 2010s graphics.

 

This wasn't as good.  Mixing Shadow Warriors vibe with the looter shooter genre ends up being slightly more miss than hit.  By having procedurally generated levels some of the fun of exploring the maps of the first game was lost.  The game also badly misses the lovely anime seriousness of the originals plot and cut scenes ; this time it goes straight for silly cock jokes with little or no messing about.  Hoji is much missed.

 

But it does have guns, lots of guns.  And the swords are still phenomenal.  Some reasonable improvements with the controls makes the special moves a lot more intuitive to pull off too.

 

It never even tries to rise above, go here, kill some demons, go over here and kill some more as far as level design goes, but it still manages to be entertaining as you blast and slash from A to B.

 

And my word it does look very pretty in places.

 

Meh I had fun but the first game was better / 10

 

 

Spoiler

January

 

1. Darksiders Genesis (PC)

 

So mystery of the week.  Why is no one talking about this game (seriously the thread has about a dozen posts (two of them by me before I even bought it).  I guess that's because no one is playing it.  And why is no one playing it?  Well fcuk'd if I know because its absolutely fantastic.

 

Okay I will admit a modicum of bias here.  I adore the Darksiders series.  Its the mix beautiful mid 90s Imagine comics style art with the po faced but at times hilarious story beats and the way it the series realises that basically any genre is improved if you mix a bit of Zelda in there.  Here comes a history lesson:

 

Darksiders I - basically God of War meets Zelda, during and after the apocalypse.  Run around dungeons, hit things with a comically over powered sword, get items and solve clever but never terribly tricky environmental puzzles.  All with a chunky gorgeous art style.  And Vulgrum - everyone loves Vulgrum. 

 

Darksiders II - basically the above with a more mobile lead, and lashes of Prince of Persia style platforming,  an open world to join the dungeons and a dash of Diablo style loot.  Its undoubtedly one of my favourite games of the last decade, even though its oh so terribly clear how the budget gradually ran dry as the game moves towards its conclusion (massive impressive first open world area with loads of side dungeons, much more linear second map, by the third we're down to a single path).  It has its weaknesses (the plot never really goes anywhere, Death is as far less interesting character than War, its obsessed with 3 McGuffins being the key to move forwards and as a prequel it fails miserably to deliver on the best ending to a game ever (No, not alone...)).  But its great really.

 

Darksiders III - as above, but with about a 10th of the budget and no horses, less platforming, a rather shoe horned in Dark Souls vibe  but a quite nicely executed Metroidvania level design.  Its the weakest of the trilogy for sure but I still love it.

 

So yeah the Darksiders series has had a bit of a rough ride.  The first game managed to be something of a sleeper hit for THQ, surprising everyone who expected another God of War/DMC/Dante's Inferno knock off with basically the best non Nintendo version of a 3D Zelda.  It sold far better than expected.

 

Slightly desperate at this point, THQ basically threw all their money at the sequel hoping for a mega hit (they even bought all the advertising space on Time Square on release).  This was never likely for a niche title like Darksiders.  The sequel did good business despite everything but it wasn't enough.  THQ went bust.  Tragically no one saved Virgil Games but Nordic bought the IP.

 

Virgil dissolved and about half the company drifted off to form Gunfire Games whilst the other half became Airship Syndicate who made the also rather wonderful Battle Chasers.

 

A couple of HD remasters and the now THQ Nordic (because when you've bough most if the IP of a defunct company why not also take their name?) released Darksiders III from the Virgil off shoot Gunfire.  Teeny tiny budget was evident and it is comfortably the weakest of the trilogy, but it was still more Darksiders and therefore great by default.  Suggesting that AA games do have a future, despite modest sales it turns a healthy profit.

 

Which leads us to back to Darksiders Genesis.  As noted earlier half of Virgil (or so) ended up as Gunfire, but the other half of the senior team founded Airship Syndicate.  And made the really rather great SRPG Battle Chasers (basically a modern Vandal Hearts if you've not played it).

 

So we have half the creative team who made Darksiders, they are making games for THQ Nordic, they have a overhead isoometricc engine, they have the lead artist from Darksiders.  Why not make a Darksiders Diablo game?  You could even introduce the 4th horseman we've barely met (Strife)?

 

I'll admit I was a wee bit sceptical when this was announced at E3.  Darksiders has always been about genre mix, but I was far from convinced that Diablo dungeon crawling was a good fit.

 

I was wrong.

 

Mainly because this is not a Diablo style dungeon crawler.  Its a Darksiders game.  A proper Darksiders game.  More of a Darksiders game than the threequel in fact. It basically plays like a mix of 1 and 2 from an isometric perspective.  Or a 2D Zelda game with more hitting things and platforming.

 

Its bloody brilliant.  The combat feels great - War is just as he was from the original and despite the change of perspective the combat feels just as visceral  Strife meanwhile adds a dash of twin stick shooter to the proceedings.  The campaign is 16 levels long and meaty.  There are a shit load of secrets to find in the maps.  You get to ride you're horse(s).  The puzzles are never really full on Zelda head scratchers but keep you on your toes.  There's a surprisingly complex levelling system with the creature cores which has loads of potential for messing about with builds..  Oh and an arena mode for pure combat chaos.  And War is back and is still the best horseman by a mile.  And Vulgrim.  And Samael too.

 

If you even got a smidgeon of enjoyment out of the three preceding games you owe yourself to get this.  Its about £17 from CDkeys right now on PC.  Its out on console (would be great on the Switch) in February.  If you never played them the first 2 are free from Epic Games store until tomorrow evening so off you go.

 

Its my game of (last) year - hey I played most of it over Xmas - by a country mile.  After 33 hours and managing to get almost all the items from the maps and clocking all of the arena levels aside from the endless final one I saw the credits last night. Loved it.

 

Of course its not perfect.  Its another prequel (really, a 3rd one, after that ending?).  War rather overshadows Strife despite this being the latter's debut.  The plot doesn't really go anywhere (as its a prequel) and the MacGuffins are all present and correct.  But its just so much damned fun.

 

Phenomenal / 10

 

2. Jedi: Fallen Order  (PC)

 

So onto game number two and a game I have waited a very long time to play.  Its no secret that I am a big Star Wars fan and its also no secret that I love the Uncharted games.  So I have long waited for a Star Wars X Uncharted game where I could live out my Jedi role playing fantasies.  No really I have...

 

And it has been a long old wait full of disappointment.  Fist there was Star Wars 13:13 which looked amazing but was cancelled along with Lucasfilm games.  Then Visceral, the developer behind another favourite series of mine were entrusted to deliver a single player Star Wars game with design by Uncharted creator Amy Hennig.  Very exciting - no wait that's cancelled too.

 

So when Fallen Order was first teased from Respawn (another favoured studio of mine) my expectations were tempered - its never coming out is it?  And there hasn't ever been a decent single player Star Wars game has there?

 

Well actually that last point is patently untrue - leaving aside KOTR 1 and 2, we had Dark Forces and the Jedi Knight series, the Rogue Squadron games, Super Star Wars, Star Wars Arcade, the original wire frame Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, The Force Unleashed and its sequel (well loved them).  Me personally I even enjoyed Star Wars: Bounty Hunter but I'll admit that last one was probably was just me.

 

But it would be fair to say that since EA has had the licence there hasn't been a good single player Star Wars game.  And my dream of a Uncharted style 3rd person Jedi platform adventure looked lost to the wilds of time.

 

But no Jedi:Fallen Order is pretty much exactly the game I was looking for and is about a million times better than anyone could have expected.

 

There is no huge amount of reinventing the wheel here.  Respawn basically took what they were good at, constructing a well designed and written campaign with lots of wall running (c/f Titanfall 2); added a hugely authentic Star Wars aesthetic (say whatever else you want about this game, it looks like Star Wars) and dropped in everyone's personal Jedi  power play fantasy and et voila; you have one of the most entertaining titles of the last 12 months.

 

This is to all intent and purposes Star Wars X Uncharted; if you had any doubts then the opening level that has you scaling a massive tower before plunging you into a train chase where you end up dangling precariously from destroyed sections of the vehicle should leave you in no doubt.  It goes further however and mixes in lots of other games DNA into the gloriously tasty gaming soup.  There's more than a touch of the rebooted Tomb Raiders in the well um, Tomb sequences, complete with environmental puzzles, we get a whole dollop of Metroidvania with unlocking abilities allowing you to access previously inaccessible parts of the map.  The attempt to work in some Dark Souls both in the combat and the meditating (camp fire) mechanic is perhaps the most ill fitting addition (narratively it makes no sense whatsoever) but the combat is fast, fluid and once you are fully powered up dazzlingly entertaining.

 

Its not perfect of course; the games momentum is a little jerky moving from the on rails but striking intro level to the rather ponderous first planet but it soon gets a grip on the pace.  The absence of fast travel is inexplicable and hurts the pre end game where you want to mop up missed secrets.  The unlocking of force powers too is a bit slow, granting you only force slow for the first few hours of the game was an odd move - surely would have been best to lead with push.  Technically it generally looks fabulous (admittedly I am playing no doubt post a couple of patches and with a decent PC) but the odd sinking into the environment on occasions on Dathomir feels out of place and which idiot forgot to have BD1 move off your shoulder when you are swimming but still kept the animation of the chests  suggesting he had jumped in?).

 

But all of this is relative nitpicking.  The game is a long, well designed campaign full of fun set pieces, snappy combat and free running platforming.  Its surprisingly well written and acted, probably telling a better story than well the last two Star Wars films for one.  And the Star Wars fan service is second to none.  Despite warning of a Dark Souls vibe, on the moderate difficulty level  the game is never more than slightly challenging (the bosses all have blatant tells and weaknesses and the hardest moments tend to come when you are mobbed or forget your force powers).  I had an absolute blast.

 

May the force be with you / 10

 

 

[Talvalin]

10 hours ago, dreamylittledream said:

And well I was wrong 18 years ago or whatever it was. Halo is a fabulous game.

Excellent, excellent!

 

10 hours ago, dreamylittledream said:

So yeah DLD Halo rankings: Halo 3 > Halo 4 (its really good no really it is) > ODST > CE > Reach > Halo 2 > Halo 5 / 10

(I agree that Halo 4 is nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be, but to rate it above CE is heresy!)

[Gabe]

20/02/2020 - Ruzar: The Life Stone (PC)

 

I shouldn't like this. It's a grid-based real-time dungeon crawler and it's very, very basic. The graphics are - being very polite - crude (it looks awful), there are only about 8 or so enemies, the locations lack diversity or graphical flair, the skill tree is awful (and a melee fighter is the only really viable build) and perhaps most bizarre of all, it's built to be replayed (it has 'number of playthroughs' staring at you every time you load or save a game). It also has some obtuse/frustrating puzzles, no real loot to look forward too and I *think* there's a reason to go adventuring in there somewhere.

 

And yet, there's something mildly charming about it. There's no depth - combat really is strike, move a tile away then back to strike again once your cooldown has finished - but even so, there's the little satisfaction of going up another level (notwithstanding my comment about the skill tree). It does perform that cardinal sin of RPGs though, in that you never feel any more powerful when you level up, with barely measurable differences from start to finish. Still, movement is fluid, each dungeon level is compact enough that you can make progress in each play session and it doesn't really outstay its welcome. I mean, objectively it is rubbish, but yet subjectively I didn't hate my time with it and that, considering some of the trash I play, is a win.

 

20/02/2020: Alder's Blood: Prologue (PC)

 

I don't even know why I'm counting this, it takes about 10 minutes tops to run through both bland, ugly missions and it really is only a teaser for the full game - but it is on Steam as a separate entity and, well, I like to feel like I finish things, so I'm counting it!

 

Anyway, this is a poor stealth strategy-RPG set in some kind of devastated world where monsters roam free (I could be making that up, I didn't actually read anything). There's little to tell; in the first mission you kill something and then run to an exit, in the second you don't kill anything and just sneak around the map. Which, as I mentioned, is ugly. And that is literally all there is to it.

 

I don't really get it; as a teaser it's a terrible attempt at enticement (I now have no interest in the full game), partly because you control a completely different character presumably - hopefully? - with different skills and abilities and other bells and whistles and it doesn't give any hook to make you want to get the full game. From neither a gameplay nor storytelling experience does it appeal (the little "narrative" that there is is abrupt, has no flow and is dull.) But that's enough; heck, I've now spent more time writing about it than I did playing it!

 

Just avoid.

 

Previously completed:

Spoiler

17/02/2020 - Universal Paperclips (PC)

15/02/2020 - Gris (PC)

21/01/2020 - Gears of War 5 (Xbox One X)

19/01/2020 - Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls (Xbox One X)

05/01/2020 - Night Call (PC)

02/01/2020 - Remember Me (PC)

 

[FiveFootNinja]

On 09/02/2020 at 01:20, FiveFootNinja said:

1. Jedi: Fallen Order (XB1) - 10/10

2. Untitled Goose Game (XB1) - 8/10

3. Gorogoa (iPad) - 9/10

4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (XB1) - 8/10

5. Abzû (PS4) - 6/10

6. Braid (XB1/360) - 10/10

 

7. A Plague Tale: Innocence (XB1) - Wonderful atmosphere, environments, characters, voice acting and score. Really like the setting and story, although some plot points didn't fully click for me later on. Great characters though and I got the feels in places. Gameplay wise mostly I enjoyed it (barring some awkward boss fight mechanics). Not sure I'll go back but very glad I played it. - 8/10

 

 

Weighing up either Outer Wilds, The Witcher 3 DLCs, Vampyr or Quantum Break next I think (although the pile is high and shameful so that may change)

[centurion]

Gravity Rush ?/?

 

... really not sure how to classify this game, but anyone that enjoyed the demo at all will probably download the full game and go on to complete it, regardless of anything I might say. Well the maps are quite good, and the thing I like to do post-completion is a game called Buffy The Bench Slayer, in which I patrol from district to disctrict and kick the shit out of suspect looking wooden seats that didn't listen to the ass-kicking I gave them last time. "FIRE BAD TREE PRETTY" - Buffy

 

Proteus

 

 

>>> 9/10

 

Some kind of odd cross between a classic Odeon movie such as Jurassic Park 2 and a psychological rat-maze experiment. Loses a point for being £1 too expensive for a cinema ticket and basically says 'thou shalt not enter my house without a fee of ice cream 99 with a flake, and extra rasberry sauce'. Fuck you Eric Cartman, nobody has rasberry sauce with a flake. ARGH. Okay, so subtle details in this experience are highly intertexual include: Taz Mania 'blah blah blah yackety smackety', Columbine shooting Doom level, weird house from Lost, energy fence from Lost, the Sun being slightly distorted like End of Evangelion Rei destruction, and also the Moon has a hole punched into it slightly, which is Scott Pilgrim character Todd IIRC. Oh and btw the cleaning lady... she dusts...

 

 

 

[Bangaio]

I hardly ever complete games.  I think the last I competed was modern warfare on the 360 and sometimes I think I enjoy the idea of playing games more than the actual playing but this week I completed Uncharted 4!  Go me.  8/10 fun but some bits I just thought just play me a video of someone jumping around and save me the hassle.  The parts I enjoyed the most were just the wondering around seeing new things that looked awesome.  End of game boss = 1/10 total shite.  Had fun overall though.  Roll on the next game!

[dreamylittledream]

On 20/02/2020 at 10:06, Talvalin said:

Excellent, excellent!

 

(I agree that Halo 4 is nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be, but to rate it above CE is heresy!)

 

Its the timeframe issue.  I know CE is much beloved and I still thoroughly enjoyed it but it is dated and the fact that half the game is what you already played in reverse is somewhat weak.  If I'd properly committed to it at the time I'd probably feel differently but playing CE and Halo 4 now for the first time - well 4 is just better.

 

Bear in mind in amongst my heretical opinions I'd suggest that most of the Destiny campaigns (notably The Red War and The Taken King) are probably better than all of the Halos

[Mogster]

22/02/2020 - Frostpunk

 

Completed is a strong word as I've only played the first scenario (A New Home), but I think that will do me for now. City builders are normally pretty relaxing, but this is anything but. Bloody hell!

 

It's excellent though. It took me two attempts to make it through that first scenario. The first had me constantly scrambling to compensate for my poor attempts preparation, and I ended up desperately going full blown fascist in a futile attempt to hold things together. I somehow made it quite far in, but my leadership ended in a rather undignified fashion.

 

The second run went so much better though, to the point where it was almost leisurely for most of the game. No-one was going hungry, my resources were flowing in nicely and I was tending to the sick. I went down the faith route as it seemed nicer than the alternative, and managed to hold off going off into the deep end there. Basically it was all going swimmingly until the final stretch, when hope was finally falling to nothing and I was clinging on by a thread. If I had to hold out for a single day longer I think I would have failed again, but I didn't, so yay! Also the timelapse of my city at the end was awesome.

 

I'll be going back to try the other scenarios at some point for sure, but as I'll be leaving it for a while I think this counts as "completed" for now.

 

January

07/01/2020 - Control (Xbox One)

26/01/2020 - Final Fantasy X (Switch)

February

10/02/2020 - Disco Elysium

22/02/2020 - Frostpunk

[BadgerFarmer]

2. Journey to the Savage Planet
Already mentioned that I liked this a lot elsewhere. It's Metroid Prime with lots of colour and some easy laughs. The combat isn't the focus so it's mostly about getting out there and exploring, and it gets that aspect spot on. For me, it's pure comfort gaming, just looking for ways forward and hidden caves, figuring out how to traverse the environment and playing around with new tools. It's not hugely original but the open level design is very good, it looks lovely and it knows how to reward your efforts.

3. Skellboy
Played for review, which is the only reason I finished it. There's a decent enough action RPG at the heart of it, but it's too slight and roughly designed to offer much satisfaction. Swapping body parts is a nice idea, but it's not used in any really interesting ways. And pixel art in 3D visual style doesn't do it any favours. It's not just ugly, it makes for very imprecise movement and combat, leading to plenty of frustration. There's some solid level design in parts, and a nicely interlinked world, but a lot of it is messy and a bit... bare bones.

[glb]

January

 

Injustice 2 (story)

 

February

 

Don’t Die, Mr Robot
 

Untitled Goose Game
 

Enjoyed it to a point, but thinking the concept and memes are far funnier than the actual game. Don’t get me wrong. it’s a good game, and mischief-making as a goose is well-observed (although seagulls are the ultimate avian bastards), but once the credits roll its all pretty forgettable.

 

Titanfall 2 (campaign)

Absolutely nothing forgettable about Titanfall 2. Gave me Bullestorm vibes at times, but is also very much it’s own game. A blistering, frenetic, constantly inventive joy of a game. Please let there be a third entry... 

 

[Jamie John]

 4. Dishonored 2 (PS4)

 

 

I thought the first half of this, representing over ten hours of gameplay, was really good: the branching, intricately-designed levels combined with the tense stealth gameplay made for an immersive sandbox experience. Considering its 2016 release date, it's an impressively good-looking game in places, too, with the series' eye-catching and unique art style making for some striking locations.

 

As the hours wore on, however, I didn't feel that the game did enough to keep things fresh. You are encouraged to play on 'low chaos' mode in order to get the better ending to the story, which essentially means that, despite being given a dozen different means to dispatch your enemies in interestingly violent ways, you spend a lot of the game hiding under tables or on the tops of book cases instead, waiting for patrolling guards to turn their backs on you so that you can sneak up behind them and choke-hold them into unconsciousness, or maybe shoot them with a sleeping dart. You don't have to play the game in this way, of course, but I tended to find that, playing on hard, if you take a less stealthy approach you are mercilessly punished for doing so and often killed very quickly, one alerted guard instantly attracting the attention of several others, all of whom will appear at your location within seconds and gank you straight back to your previous quick-save.

 

Although each of the game's missions take place in distinctly different areas, this slow-paced gameplay becomes repetitive and really quite tedious as you get to the later missions. Tellingly, I spent about three hours each on the first six levels of the game, scouring every inch for all the different collectibles, but by that point I'd had my fill and, seeing as the game wasn't prepared to offer much in the way of variation, I was happy to race through the final three levels a lot more quickly.

 

Overall, a bit of a disappointment considering how much love it gets from some on here, how much I liked the first game, and how promising the first half was. I won't be going back for the final DLC.

 

7/10

 

Completed this year:

Spoiler

1. Death Stranding (PS4) - 8/10

2. Mark of the Ninja Remastered (Switch) - 7/10

3. Firewatch (PS4) - 7/10

 

[DarkCrisis]

1. Resident Evil 7(XB1) 8/10

2. Batman Arkham Asylum(XB1) 7.5/10

3. Halo: CE Anniversary(XB1) 5/10

4. Life is Strange(XB1) 8/10

5. Luigi Mansion 3(Switch) 8/10

6. New Super Lucky’s Tale(Switch) 7/10

7. Catherine: Full Body(PS4) 8.5/10

8. Untitled Goose Game(Switch) 6/10   

 

9. Sleeping Dogs(PS4) - I love this game so much so that even though I have platiumed the PS3 version of the game I wanted to play the game to completion again on PS4, it is as fun as I remember it and there has been a long enough time that I didn't remember much of the story, a GTA clone based in Hong Kong that takes around 20hrs to complete the story and 30hrs to complete everything in the game which I prefer to other open world games as it didn't feel like it out stayed its welcome. The only negatives were there are frame rate issues on a PS4 Pro and I noticed a lot more bugs in this version that I remember there being in the PS3 version. All in all I would highly recommend especially as it is only £3.99 on PSN at the moment. 9/10

[strawdonkey]

On 09/02/2020 at 08:37, strawdonkey said:

01: Shovel Knight

02: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

03: Racedierun

04: Super Mario Maker 2

05: Muv-Luv Extra

06. Untitled Goose Game

07. Glass Masquerade

08. Pokémon Sword

09. OneShot

 

I joked in previous years that quirky indie adventure games were entirely my shit, after rating Undertale and Pony Island as my GOTY for their respective years of release. Let us also talk briefly about the fact that Undertale is approaching its fifth anniversary of release. Also, consider mortality. Additionally, consider what Google thinks of you when you search for "Undertale Release Date", and it decides that the item you most want to purchase is this:

 

 

why

 

Anyway OneShot is bleak as fuck and equally as charming. Niko, who is Definitely Not A Cat, is the messiah. The sun has gone out. They must put a big lightbulb at the top of The Tower, which will be the new sun. The game knows you exist. Not Niko, but you - the player. In your quest to restore this doomed world you will meet the endlessly optimistic and pick over the last words of those who succumbed to the abyss, be patronised by a computer and fall in love with a world that is falling apart.

 

Niko is an absolutely delightful character, the sound is a mixture of lovely minimal piano tunes and the sound of intense paranoia, the writing is brilliant and I can't go over many of the things that really made this feel so special to play because then it won't be special for you - and that would be a shame as if you can let yourself get swept up in it, the rewards are absolutely wonderful.

[Sprite Machine]

As I mentioned in the "backlog" thread, I reckon I've got a semi-reasonable chance of completing (or trying and abandoning) my current "To Play" pile, so long as I don't buy anything else this year. My backlog was significantly bolstered when I bought a SNES mini full of games I (mostly) hadn't played before, but I'm determined to get my money's worth out of the little box of joy, not to mention my Steam backlog and a handful of other downloads, past purchases and various odds and sods I've accumulated.

 

To set some structure to this task, I've decided I will systematically play through the 40-ish games I "own-but-haven't-played-yet" in chronological order -- that is order of release. The one caveat to this rule is that if the game is a remake of an older game, I'll play it in the order of the original release instead (this handily gives me a get-out clause if I happen to "accidentally" buy FFVII-Remake this year. )

 

This is of course a completely stupid idea but then stupid ideas are pretty popular at the moment, so what the hell. Maybe this thread will help me stick to my plan?

 

January:

 

AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) - PC - 2016 (1991)

This is a remake of Metroid 2, so it technically came out in 1991, you hear?   Okay, it didn't, it's practically brand new, rebuilt using assets from 'Zero Mission' and some new art. It's a lovely, sparkly new remake of the monochrome Gameboy game and I loved every second of it. Genuinely Nintendo-quality stuff, made by a bunch of amateurs. The expansion of the old levels, the introduction of new bosses, new areas and powers, the log entries, the music and atmosphere, and the overall 'feel' of the game are superb. Some will argue the change of style and tone are not true to the original bleak and lonely feel the Gameboy original had, but personally this didn't bother me. The original is still there for those who want it - but this remake brings the ugly stepchild of the series into line with the other 2D Metroids. I can't recommend it highly enough, not just as a surprisingly good example of what the fan community can do, but as a legitimately enjoyable Metroid game in its own right.

 

Ecco The Dolphin - Mega CD - 1992/3

I fancied playing this after watching Strafefox's mini-documentary on YouTube (link - check out the channel, loads of a great videos). I remember bits of Ecco The Dolphin on the Megadrive when I was younger and less patient with hard games. I didn't get very far with it, but I assumed being older and wiser, I'd appreciate it more.

Eh... sadly not so much. While the concept/premise of the game is excellent, as is its redbook audio soundtrack, Novotrade built some frustrating, badly designed gameplay around it. The potential for a classic was badly squandered. The last level in particular is an excercise in torture. Were I not playing through an emulator with the crutch of save states, I'd never have finished it. Seriously, don't bother. Just read a plot synopsis and imagine a far better game in your head.

 

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 3DS - 2012/14

Jumping ahead a bit, but this was one I still had from last year. (My handheld schedule and my home systems schedule are entirely independent.)

So, what did I make of this one? A rare and overpriced 3DS game that merges Capcom's Ace Attorney franchise with Level-5's Professor Layton. I didn't realise that it was actually the first 3DS version of both of these, it just took so long to come out in the west that the proper debut of both franchises beat them to market. So this was the first incarnation of Wright's courtroom finger pointing in 3D, and all of those expressions and moves and environments carried over to the new format really well. There are some issues with the use of stereoscopic 3D, the anime cutscenes in particular have badly composed layers, but the game as a whole is really nicely done. It's got all the courtroom drama of the Wright games with the town exploration and puzzles of the Layton games, and pretty much merges them into one another like two riffle-shuffled decks of cards. It's not the best of each but it's a nice combination, and the story is the usual far-fetched bobbins but I enjoyed seeing the characters interact. A fascinating project with a sufficient amount of emphatic pointing. No objections here.

 

February:

 

Mega Man X - SNES - 1993

My first Mega Man game and probably not the best one to start with. Getting used to not being able to shoot diagonally or duck was a toughie. So, this game is all about hard bosses, finding and exploiting weaknesses and using those weaknesses to determine in which order to fight the bosses. I love this as a structure! What I'm less keen on is the repetition. The levels themselves aren't actually that tough, so repeating them over and over to reach the boss at the end is a bit of a chore. But then it gets to the final boss(es) and it's the hardest thing I've ever played. Like, maybe I'm wrong but I cannot think of anything off the top of my head that I've played that's more difficult than the last boss of Mega Man X. Were it not for save states (thanks, SNES mini!), I would probably never have finished it. I must have reloaded that final fight a hundred times before I finally got the technique down. Not even exaggerating - a hundred times, easily. Figuring out what weapon does damage, figuring out the timing of the 'claws', when the lightning blasts come, how to avoid the energy pulses, how to best wall jump into position. All the while my thumb is getting blistered and sore. And if I didn't have save states, I'd be back at the start of the level doing the first two 'mini' bosses again and sitting through the dialogue, rather than instantly jumping back into the final fight. That's more punishing/tedious than games need to be, particularly when they rely so much on learning from failure as this one does.

I'm sort of glad to have finally played it, I think. I'm just not sure I actually enjoyed it that much.

 

Super Metroid - SNES - 1994

Yeah, so this one is still a classic. I only played it for the first time when it was released on the Wii, though I found the control pad a bit spongy. I decided to play in again on the ol' Mini. Coming off AM2R, 'Super' feels old-fashioned in places. Very floaty movement, less colourful graphics, the weapon-switching, the dedicated 'run' button, and some of the save point placement. But all that aside, it is an incredible game and still ranks up there with the best of its genre. A masterpiece, frankly. I still slightly prefer Zero Mission but each time I play Super it edges higher in my estimation, so y'know.

 

Donkey Kong Country - SNES - 1994

First played on the GBA and I thought it was alright. Reminded me of Crash Bandicoot, as in that series definitely took inspiration from DKC. Playing through it again on the SNES and, well, it's fine I guess, it just hasn't aged well. The pre-rendered look is rather dated, although it's technically clever. The general feel of movement is nice and solid and bouncy, but then it's got enemies with really annoying movement patterns, or an entire stupid mine cart level, or stupid barrel cannon levels, and a save system that sends you back when you run out of lives like it's still 1991. I reached the end of each level with relief, not a desire to replay them. The game seems intent on causing frustration and 'catching you out' rather than having a good time.

The final few levels are a bit of a slog. But the music is ace and some of the visual effects are astoundingly clever, particular the lighting in some levels. I can see why people were blown away by it in 1994.