Last Game You Finished And Your Thoughts V3.0

What was it that you didn't like about it? Was it the puzzles, the combat, or a combination of things?

The puzzles, I found the gameplay outside of combat boring but I'm glad I bought it like the Mercy Skin to help a good course.

I'll freely admit that there were numerous moments where I was frustrated at various puzzles. I found some of the patterns a little too obtuse and I don't know how I managed to get out of the maze.

I watched the 25 minute video about the making of the game which I thought said some interesting things about how the puzzles were designed. I learned that people with psychosis often see patterns everywhere, which is why all the rune puzzles are there. There's an argument to be made that it's kind of good that its difficult and annoying for you or I to find them or understand them as that gives the player a representation of psychosis and their difference from it as it pertains to Senua.

But yeah that's totally not for everyone and its one reason why I wouldn't recommend the game to loads of people. But I definitely agree that it's great to see a developer tackle these issues and its good that you can see aspects of the game that are good even though you didn't like playing it. I felt that way sometimes too.

Yeah, it's certainly one of those games I could still see me recommended to someone, even did it the other day with Bloodborne and the guy at work loved it.



Now I come to a game that falls into the same sort of category as Hellblade or Bloodborne as I loved it but I can totally see people not liking it and unlike the recent God of War I wouldn't recommend Detroit to everyone.

Detroit much like the rest of David Cages other 4 games (which Detroit is the best) it's basically a movie of a pick your own adventure book meaning it lacks in the gameplay department, you're playing Detroit for the story.

I found the story engaging all the way to end in my 12 or so hour playthrough, I don't see me going back however as I've said before with these sort of games I fell it's MY STORY and replaying to make other choices tarnishes that experience.

I'm still yet to play any of David Cage's games. I like the idea of them in theory, but I'm unsure that I'd get along with them in practice. They look like they straddle that grey area between film and game, which is fine in and of itself. I just feel like I'd probably end up agreeing with critics like Jim Sterling, that the pacing of this one is all off. As in, doing a mundane task once to set the scene is fine, but doing it X amount of times becomes tedious to the point of turning me off from off from the very point that such a repetitive task was meant to enforce.

I critiqued some creative writing pieces at Uni the other day, one of which kept repeating lines and questions ad nauseum because "that's how panic works" [it isn't. At least for me, a panic attack might mean I verbally keep repeating the same sentence, but in my mind a million scenarios play out simultaneously in a way that is impossible to articulate in the immediacy of anxiety, but I certainly wouldn't try and convey that by repeating the ending of almost every sentence]. All the author's work ended up doing was to completely undermine any sense of panic through the complete lack of pacing. From what I've heard, some the Detroit early-game is like that and I'm not sure I'd feel great about it because I'd view that as a poor bit of design if it indeed plays like that, and when the game is trying to be quite filmic any narrative problems are more problematic for me.

I'm sure it has some interesting themes and stuff, and it's great that it takes a very different approach to gaming than most of the market. I really enjoyed Until Dawn and I definitely think this kind of stuff can work. I just don't think I'll play a Cage game until I see one on the cheap because of the conflicting things I've heard from people about his work.

I watched Sterling's video and his not wrong but not right either as literary only the first chapters of 2 of the 3 characters are which are the ones at the start of the game showing one as a maid and the other a carer before they start feeling.

Personally didn't those chapters tedious but I have played all 5 of David Cage's games that I guess I'm used to it but I'd say it's part of the nuance of them.

I would also think that the PS4 version of Heavy Rain is cheap and might even be on PSNOW.

Played and beat Pneuma: Breath of Life in about an hour on Tuesday, it's something I've always seemed to have had on Xbox One but I've got no idea where it came from but was recommended by a mate who I'm game sharing with and it has an easy 700g.

That I thought I'd give it a go and basically it's simple story puzzle game which is narrated, think a not as good Stanley Parable.

I miss Zero as this has seemingly become only me posting things with the odd Muss or Cappa. Anyway, I beat VA-11 HALL-A 1am this morning on the VITA in bed as I was playing whilst watching some E3 prediction podcasts and I thought I would be done and I wasn't even over a 3hrs of playing as I was on the last two days, I decided to play it in bed till I was done and I got the bad ending as I think I spent too much money right after I paid my electric bill.

Valhalla is a good game but did seem too long for a visual novel with very little interactions part from mixing drinks. I would recommend the game to a Muss for instance but not many other people even when it does come to Switch.

No, I’ve not finished all fifty-three games on the SEGA Mega Drive Classics compilation on PS4, but I’ve given a handful of the games a good shellacking.

Sonic The Hedgehog will never not be worth playing through. Does anybody need me to say anything else about it? 9/10.

Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is massively underappreciated and hugely overlooked. Though it’s much shorter and easier than the other games in the series, I think it stands up to The Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III, which are usually heralded as being the best of the lot. Actually, it might even be better than those. 8/10

Bio-Hazard Battle held the distinction of being the only game on this collection that I’d never played before. I knew nothing about it, totally in the dark, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a 2D horizontal shooter when I loaded it up for the first time. However, it’s a very average one, with unappealing enemy design, a sludgy, bass-heavy soundtrack and power-ups that don't explain themselves. I don’t think it would have received much critical acclaim in 1992, and nowadays it’s just a bit old. So very, very 4/10.

I didn’t take notice of Bonanza Bros. when the Mega Drive was in it’s prime. You probably didn’t either, as it looks a bit arse, and it doesn’t seem to be held in the same esteem as any of the other SEGA-published Mega Drive games. Nobody seems to mention it, ever. Even on this compilation, it flies under the radar a bit, with no trophies, challenges or online leaderboards available for it. Anyway, it’s a very straightforward Cops & Robbers-style game that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. Half an hour with it, and you’re done. It’s solid entertainment for that time though, working well on a collection like this. Definitely worth a butchers, 7/10.

Space Harrier II suffers in the same way as Altered Beast and Super Thunder Blade do; it’s a very early arcade conversion that’s crammed onto hardware that wasn’t ready to handle it. Although, to be fair, at least Space Harrier II is fundamentally quite good, unlike those two. This just isn’t the best way to play the game though, with it’s unsightly soundtrack and naked levels. A fair attempt by 1988 standards however, and still not a bad game, 6/10.

You used to always see Virtua Fighter 2 selling for practically nothing in Woolworths, Electronics Boutique and Beatties when the Mega Drive was bowing out. I left it on the shelf then, and I should have left it on the (virtual) shelf now, as it’s completely rubbish. It’s such a limited and unexciting game, and a senseless port of an already-overrated Saturn game that’s knackered by the modest hardware. Looks, sounds and plays terrible, but it’s still better than Eternal Champions, 2/10.

Sonic 3D: Flickie’s Island doesn’t deserve the criticism that it often receives from hack “games journalists”. It’s nowhere near being the worst Sonic the Hedgehog game – in fact, I’d put it squarely into the ‘good’ category. Fair enough, the controls are a bit slippery, and it’s a bit lacking in speed and challenge. But it’s still fully playable, it’s quite imaginative at points, and the soundtrack is absolutely brilliant. There’s lots to enjoy, 7/10.

As for the collection as a whole, I think Game Asylum's review sums it up quite well. There's eleven RPGs FFS, 7/10.

Eternal Champions is a belter.

masofdas wrote:

I miss Zero as this has seemingly become only me posting things with the odd Muss or Cappa.

Save a couple of games into a draft post and post them all later in one go? I should probably try and finish some more games, but I'd need to get past the first hour of them first...

I do like talking right away especially with the last two PS4 games as they're fresh in people's minds like Muss bringing up Jim Sterling in relation to Detroit.

Why keep consistently posting games you have beat though if more folk aren't replying? Surely it's about creating intresting discussion.

I know for me its either a case of not beating many games or just not posting about a game I did finish because I feel I've not got much to say about it even if I did like or dislike it. Then there's me preferring to talk about a game in its own thread if it happens to have one.

Maybe if it's a lower-profile game that isn't realistically going to attract much conversation anyway, and it's going to be a double post, you could edit it into the previous one if you need to post it? Especially for a Vita visual novel.

Anyway, you've got a couple of answers for the next time it bothers you: I'm sure whatever option you go for will be the right one for you.

The thing is Jas what game will and which game won't bring interesting conversation, we've talked smaller games in the past such as Firewatch and that had a decent amount of chat then I've posted about the biggest game of the year God of War with zero chat around it.

I personally like talking about in here once beaten not it's thread.

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Hmm see Balla much like Firewatch take Valhalla, yeah I played don VITA but it's on PC and like I said I would recommend to Muss and I know he's not here but would Zero on Switch and yourself might see it the week it comes out and go I remember Mas sort of liking that.

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I've posted every game I've beaten since the forum started in this thread and how I knew I finished over 40 games last year, it just happens to be that I remember especially if you go back to when I finished Persona 5, Zero would post on here a lot and ake the SNES Mini he reviewed games individually where Cappa with the Mega Drive Collection as a whole package. That there was a lot of content on this thread besides my own and I'm the sort of person to beat about 10 games right off and then go play Witcher 3 (which I plan to do) and not post anything for like a month and then suddenly beat a load of games right off.

Like


Which is a really good sort of high 7 or low 8 and I remember Matthew Castle talking about it on TRP along with Infamous as in they're sort of the exclusive which good and you'd want to play but wouldn't buy a console for.

He was totally right, just a shame no one bought it and MS don't really have these sort of games at the moment on Xbox but maybe I'm part of the problem as it's taken me 4 years to actually play it.

masofdas wrote:

Hmm see Balla much like Firewatch take Valhalla, yeah I played don VITA but it's on PC and like I said I would recommend to Muss and I know he's not here but would Zero on Switch and yourself might see it the week it comes out and go I remember Mas sort of liking that.

I can't and won't speak for anyone else (although Zero's not here, so you shouldn't use him as reasoning), but the sheer volume of your finished game posts make me less likely to read them, less likely for me to remember them when they come out on another machine, and less likely for me to use them as recommendations.  So definitely don't use me for reasoning either.  

If you want to recommend things or influence us, I reckon that a couple of well-thought pieces on the games you really liked (or, for entertainment, really disliked) are the way to go! And if they're mainly for your own purposes, you shouldn't double-post. (You shouldn't really double-post anyway, natch...)

I'll take it on board but I don't why I should change how I've used the forum for the past what 4 or 5 years due to someone leaving and that wasn't the case we wouldn't even be having this chat.

I use this thread as a valuable resource, and folks' reviews have definitely influenced my decision to buy or pass up a game. I wouldn't change things much. I'd chat more too, but I've never heard of Pneuma, Hellblade, Detroit, Vallhalla or anything like that.

As the community changes, it makes sense that the messages we send to that community change!  Although clearly different folk use this thread in different ways. Anyway I'll move off the topic now, I think it's probably gone on from me trying to help with the original lament and I've gone a bit too far up myself.

Balladeer wrote:

I've gone a bit too far up myself.

Not like you, mate.

Such insolence! (adjusts monocle)

I will admit that, up until recently, I tended to post every time I finished something . Then I got to Super Mario Odyssey, and I realised I was just going to write what anyone else did. Likewise SteamWorld Dig 2 - it was good, a bit silly, you probably all know what.
Oh - actually


I finished Maniac Mansion, as it was embedded within the remastered (and original) Day of the Tentacle. Having installed that Amstrad Emulator recently, and seen what came out in 1987, this seems absolutely bloody amazing. It essentially got point and click games up and running, and the more successful ones haven't really deviated from the formula. It's not that primitive compared with DoTT, and a lot of it holds up. However, it does have the problem a lot of 80s computer games had - the "you don't know you've messed up, but you have, so you should really start again". But I did - several times - until I could ace the thing in an hour.
DoTT remastered was a triumph, but the later games - Full Throttle, Grim Fandango - didn't seem so impressive when upped to HD. This is probably the one game that needs a re-imagining (although Thimbleweed Park really does do a lot of that) and would turn out the better for it. Or an official Maniac Mansion 3 please.

I only played enough of that game to unlock the trophy in Day of the Tentacle so I could get the plat . I don't think it's one that I'm interested in getting my teeth into but even just following a guide in order to get the trophy gave a nice little insight into how clever some of the things going on in that game are.

I've finished a PSN subsciber game for the first time in ages:



I found it to be quite clunky and at times a little frustrating. The games opening cutscene is about 10 minutes of info-dumping from the previous game which almost put me to sleep right off the bat. Things get a lot better once the game gets into the swing of things, and as you'd expect Deus Ex game, there are a myriad of ways to go about things.

I remember finding the previous game super-interesting in terms of how it played and its narrative. This time around, I don't know, maybe my tastes have changed, but it didn't quite hit the mark and I'm not entirely sure why. For some reason I didn't particularly care about much of what was going on. Still good and worth playing if you nabbed it while it was free.
7/10

Can't add much to those lads part from Broken Age and Grim Fandango are coming to Switch.



I said after hearing the Octo Expansion would to be out this week and putting this on top of my Switch backlog and overall gaming backlog, that I would beat it rather quickly and after all this time I actually started the Single Player.

After beating the single player I wouldn't say this is a great 3rd person shooter but a great 3D platformer as it plays more like one of those but with a shooting mechanic much like FLUDD in Sunshine and its top notch at that.

If we were to redo the Top 10 Switch vote this now would be much higher on my list and likely can only get better with the Octo Expansion.

The thing I've noticed is you play as Inklings but they're Squids, so shouldn't they be Squidlings seeing Octopuses are called Octolings.

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Quick edit as I finished Shape of the World a few days ago but it was a game I got a review code for and only just now put it up on Gintendo, you can find it here http://www.gintendo.co.uk/reviews/2018/6/15/shape-of-the-world and the game is on Switch, PS4, Xbox and PC.

If you want the quick version think first person Journey and wouldn't see Andy or Smurf being keen on it but could see Drunka playing it one afternoon and just relaxing and soaking the game in.

Well played on the editing, Mas. Can't comment on either game, other than thinking that Andy should definitely play the latter one. For giggles.