Topic: Games you've recently beat

@FuriousMachine I agree, especially on the annoyance of poor checkpointing in combat encounters. Especially if there’s long cutscenes involved or long sections to get back to the encounter(s). Having 3 FromSoft games under my belt (and currently playing my fourth) as well as finishing Returnal (before the added save options and difficulty nerfing updates) has trained me to be less frustrated by the drag of having to repeat sections if I die before being victorious and reaching a save point. Still… it make it no less aggravating when those things happen. In the From games it’s all part of the intentional gameplay loop, and the game almost provokes and mocks the player with the idea of “You will die a lot and in the most unfair feeling ways possible.” Having just started Dark Souls 2, the introduction has this old hag giving you a little exposition as you start and she all but says that to you as she cackles away, clearly enjoying the thoughts of you pending misery.

But that’s all part of the core design of Soulslikes and people know what they’re getting into. At least now they do, with the notoriety of the genre. I hear there’s less long treks back to the encounter where you die in Elden Ring so less ‘lost progress’ and more it’s therefore more approachable.

But yeah, despite my better tolerance of the ‘long trek to a place, including unskippable cutscenes, followed by a quick cheap death’, I think it ruins some games when the design isn’t conducive to repeat play. Recently for me, I really appreciated the fact that Insomniac had very forgiving mid-boss checkpoints in Spider-Man 2, where even if you die during phase 3 of a long boss battle that you respawn just at the start of that phase, and with full health. In FF16 also, it was quite forgiving that the game even refilled your health items as well so you got to start right back where you left off with a full stock. For a narrative driven adventure I prefer that approach where you don’t get bogged down for hours trying to get past one point in the game. It keeps better flow to the story aspects.

And that’s where Control probably dropped the ball, because although its closer to Dark Souls in the cryptic narrative category than to the cinematic storytelling of Spider-Man or Witcher 3, it’s not a game that you want to repeat an encounter a dozen times in order to make progress. Theres enough of a push toward an end goal plot-wise that you could easily lose interest if you get stuck.

Part of my tolerance to The Foundation was also that I played both it and AWE as just usual side quests within my playthrough and didn’t even know they were DLC. 😅 They way they are integrated into the Ultimate edition on PS5, it’s not even clear that they’re add-on content because you can just select them in the normal flow of a game that has a lot of just random obscure and mysterious quest lines.

But speaking to something else you mentioned (sorry for my long sermon here 😅), combat encounters in confined spaces do drive me mad. But perhaps I ought to vent on that in the pet peeve thread. 😛

Just finished the main story of Fallout 4. I decided to finish the story with the Minutemen. I really liked the game! I will be honest, I liked it a little more than Fallout 3. Just a little! Both are amazing games!

Off to Far Harbor And I will start New Vegas as well.

@Th3solution I'll just briefly touch on Control here and then move over to the pet peeves thread for the rest.
I agree with your assessment on tightly story driven narrative vs a looser overarching narrative and that Control fits somewhere in-between, though closer to the latter than the former and that, even so, it's not a game that lends itself to the "try many times to refine your tactics" style encounter. Though, in its defence, these types of encounters were few and far between, so my overall enjoyment with it wasn't really impacted.

Spider Man 2. Amazing game, definitely worth the PlayStation. Played it on amazing. Venom was an epic final boss. My favorite parts were the MJ stealth parts, since they were so different compared to the rest of the game. The open world New York was crazy, and the story was surprisingly good, with dark elements. Anyways, I had such a good time with this game. Oh and as a fan of the comics, Silk at the end got me excited

@OctolingKing13 Nice! If you can finish SM2 on amazing then you’ll probably do okay on a Soulslike game. Some of those encounters are actually really tough towards the end and require some skill! Still Lies of P next?

@Th3solution thanks! i was actually surprised how easy venom was. i will probably get lies of p next when i get enough money for it, since it looks really fun. but if a sale for another game i want pops up i might have to wait:)

Inscryption, Shantae & The Seven Sirens & The Coma 2: Viscious Sisters.

Inscryption was good. Very good. I loved the card mechanics Especially how it evolves over the 3 acts..

I'm a bit torn on the Meta narrative myself on whether it elevates the package or hinders the card game itself.

Shantae was a good little Metroidvania. Nothing special sadly... There was a bit of backtracking that annoyed me towards the start. Level design was a bit meh. Did make me chuckle a fun times though!

The Coma 2 I'd kinda bought on a whim last year (For like £3 too) and only got around to finally playing it the past week.

... I quite enjoyed it actually.

A very small South Korean dev team from what I understand but the art style was neat, there was some pretty nice music in the soundtrack (And a very left curve vocal track in the credits that took me by surprise) and it being a 2D horror game was certainly an interesting choice.

Wasn't too spooky either, a nice way to dip my toes into the horror genre as it's been a long while.

@HallowMoonshadow I’m glad you ended up liking Inscryption. I wrote quite a lot about it over on the Game Club thread, but I enjoyed it as well. The meta was pretty cool I felt, but the card game portions were surprisingly addictive and satisfying. So I’ve opened up my mind to card games and am now playing Midnight Suns (alongside DS2, of course)

I was SO annoyed during the finale @Th3solution Magnificus' whole section was a Yu-Gi-Oh spoof with the duel discs and summoning the wizards and so I was bloody into it. There was even a Exodia ripoff you could find out about in the rules for the sigils... Only for it to be over in less then 5 minutes 😭

As for the meta narrative. I guess it was more just the whole Ooh! The Old Data is the devil! Or something. I dunno that part of the story was just really dumb in my opinion .

It's nice that it made you appreciate card games though!

@HallowMoonshadow I had no frame of reference really, so the final battle was just organized chaos for me. 😅 I do agree that it seemed to be over quickly.

Did you end up playing any of the Kaycee’s Mod that unlocks when you beat the game? Apparently it’s a much more intense dedicated card game add-on. I had my satisfaction by the end so didn’t try that it, but might go back later

I did @Th3solution!

Though I didn't realise at first you could play it without putting any of the modifiers on so I'm at level... 4 difficulty I think now and I don't think you can go back and play a lower level run?

It can be quite challenging now even without doing things like making the trapper ridiculously expensive and so on.

So after choosing a decent place to master-save, I finished two of the four Fallout: New Vegas endings today (Caesars Legion & Mr House) and while the game is absolutely awesome, far and away the best in the series since Bethesda bought up the IP (I haven’t played the first two - pre-Bethesda) I’m feeling pretty done with it right now.

I do intend to finish off the platinum… and had every intention of getting at least one more ending done today but need a break. Did consider playing something else for the remainder of my day off but didn’t fancy anything other than a quiet sit-down… must be getting old 😅

@colonelkilgore Excellent work mate. Have you taken a fairly direct route in your completion then, as it seems you've tidied it away in a few sessions?

@Bundersvessel I haven’t mate, just put a load of hours in (in a condensed period of time… which is probably why I’m feeling a bit burned out tbh). Wanted to to get all the missables and side stuff sorted during the playthroughs up until the the point of no return, then the endings (which are all bloody long on their own 😅).

I have one more ending left, then I’ll do all the gambling stuff… and then the hardcore playthrough.

@colonelkilgore ah fair enough buddy, a valiant effort, the burn out is real going hard on Helldivers and now Fallout 😂 haha I tend to hit a stress point after so many hours with these types of games and a break does you good. Got anything nice planned as a counterbalance?

@Bundersvessel not really mate tbh… though I do think the missus and I could do with a holiday. We haven’t had one for years as we’ve prioritised climbing the housing market. Touch wood though that we’re in a pretty good place in that regard rn, so I think we’ll book something for next year.

As for this year… just more PS3 backlog 😅. It’ll be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, The Saboteur and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West once the Helldivers and New Vegas plats are secured.

@colonelkilgore Enjoy Enslaved whenever you finally get to it. I played it for the first time last year and loved it. Yes, it's a mess of a game from a technical perspective, but it's good enough otherwise to still be a good game through the mess.

@KilloWertz yeah I’m looking forward to it mate. In all honesty I’ve thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the ps3 games I’ve played this year… most of which have been technical messes tbh 🤣

@KilloWertz
@colonelkilgore
I too enjoyed Enslaved back in the day but didn't manage to platinum it, sometimes platforming games get the better of me. I think Andy Serkis did mo cap for it or something like that, it is one of those games that deserves a remaster imo. Can't remember much of the story but I remember the characters being really well done/acted.

As for The Saboteur that too is a very good game with a unique aesthetic. I enjoy most of Pandemic games. Again one that could do with a remaster.
Fairly chill game if you are getting stressed with Fallout.

@colonelkilgore Your PS3 backlog is a nice little reminder of why that system remains my favourite of Sony's numerous systems. A lot of fun for you coming up!

Edit. The more I think about it, they're actually all legitimate bangers. Particularly Enslaved has me reminiscing about Heavenly Sword, an excellent game from early in the lifecycle. I can just about recall that mountain of vivid red hair twirling around on the battlefield. Eat your heart out Eve of Stellar Blade. 😅