Topic: Games you've recently beat

@KratosMD Ahh, that old chestnut of ‘beating’ SoR4! It’s meant to be beaten multiple times on different difficulties with different characters so you should be able to get loads more hours out of it. It’s one of my favourite games this year and honestly so much fun in local multiplayer.

Finished GTA 3 there. It really is very good, although extremely difficult. I’m moving onto Vice City next, which I haven’t played so it’ll be cool seeing what gameplay improvements have been made. Curiously, I was playing on my laptop with my DS4 which was apparently also connected to the PS4. When I went to put the PS4 on afterwards, I had accidentally been playing both games at the same time with the same controller. It’s apparently 0-0 in the 6th inning in MLB The Show despite the fact the TV was off and I have no idea how they haven’t scored or how I managed to hit the ball twice.

@nessisonett That's amazing - imagine if you had managed to play through the game without knowing and get the plat on MLB the show! I didn't know that was possible, I thought you could only connect the DS4 to one device at a time though admittedly, I haven't tried.

@Rudy_Manchego It has to be the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me. I didn’t realise you could be connected to both either but I had put Control onto download and then connected it to my laptop wired without disconnecting it from the PS4. Absolutely mad.

@nessisonett Hmm maybe because it was wired. Weird though!

Yesterday I finished Spider-Man 2 on PS2. It got better as it went along and, as I adjusted to its outdated opinions on physics, I found swinging through the city an enjoyable way to pass the time.

There were a handful of mildly challenging moments, but nothing insurmountable... until the final boss fight against Doc Ock, which was hideously cheap. Not so much a difficulty spike as a difficulty Washington Monument; I swore at the digital Doc for forty minutes until I managed to glitch him into a shipping crate and, with only a few tiny pixels remaining in my health meter, pummel him into submission. Bit of a cheat? Sure, but I don't care. It got the job done, and now I never have to play it again.

I'm talking about the boss fight, not the game; I reckon I might return to the open map and complete some more of the random events, just to clear up a final post-credits challenge issued by Bruce Campbell (and wash the taste of that awful fight out of my mouth). That'll be a better note to end on, methinks.

***

And then today, I finished The Last Guardian. I won't write up a full review, because it'd be simply repeating what many others have already said; I agree verbatim with the prevailing majority of comments and other reviews calling this game, in one way or another, a flawed masterpiece.

Part of me wants to think that Ueda deliberately made the game's performance and control inputs abysmal, just to remind himself that he's human after all, because the bird-dog thing he created was, and is, practically divine. Trico's execution and story was perfect, right down to the fact that he'd occasionally rather sniff a lamp or have a snooze than follow my commands. I even warmed to the Boy, the nameless protagonist who is kept deliberately vague but who elevates himself above his people through his actions and attitude towards his new best friend. It was endearing, tragic, perplexing and fun, all at once.

Journalists and PR people often throw around the word "magical" when describing movies, television shows and games, and I almost always roll my eyes when they do; it's games like The Last Guardian which are responsible for the bold highlight back there. This experience will stick with me, and I'm properly gonna miss Trico... to the point where I may have to schedule a replay soon, just to see him again.

@RogerRoger It’s nice to see that Spider-Man 2 did entertain you, even with its old-time design decisions. Games have definitely moved on but I kinda miss the old tie-in games, there were a lot of crap ones but every once in a while, there was an absolute gem.

@nessisonett Yeah, I brought myself up on a gaming diet which was almost 90% licenced tie-ins. Some of the best parts of Spider-Man 2 avoided the source material's story and did its own thing (despite generally hating her character, Black Cat ended up being a worthwhile addition, much to my surprise) but having the framework of the movie to hang from helped, I think.

For the opening few years of the new millennium, licenced tie-ins were some of the biggest, most polished and, dare I say it, most fun games you could get. I reckon they're due a comeback.

@RogerRoger That Spongebob remaster is legitimately a good game, the open world collectathon of days gone by actually stands the rest of time. Some tie-ins were atrocious, specifically NES ones by LJN or Ocean but most of the early 00s ones were legitimately good. I’d recommend the Riddick games, I do love Pitch Black and the games are proper good fun, The Warriors by Rockstar and the King Kong game. I also had great fun with LOTR: Return of the King on GameCube, me and my brother used to fight over Legolas and I’d inevitably end up as Aragorn. I cannot fathom who would pick Gimli.

@nessisonett Mercifully, I don't like The Lord of the Rings, although I'd probably end up picking Gimli if nobody else wanted him, just so that he doesn't feel bad!

The EA Bond games were my favourites. Some proper gems in there, although moreso when they stopped adapting the movies themselves and just pumped out original adventures every Christmas. I also had tons of fun with The Mummy and Mission: Impossible on PSone.

@RogerRoger I’m so glad that The Last Guardian held up for you (at least to the extent that I thought it would). A magical game indeed, and one that all those who love animals should play.
I was a little worried about how you might handle the section at the end where the mean creatures all gang up on Trico and tear his tail. It’s kind of disturbing and hard to watch. Fortunately he survives... but then has to deal with the human villagers who turn on him. I was so sad at that part, but thankfully we see him safe and sound at the end. Even though it’s a happy ending, I wasn’t sure how that would sit with you.
So now what’s the next game in line? 😃

@RogerRoger Glad to hear that you warmed up to Spider-Man 2 in the end. I don't remember Doc Ock being too awful in it if you're used to dodging. If I recall correctly, you can dodge his tentacle attack, then conter-attack to get the tentacle stuck in webbing. Once they're all stuck, he's defenceless for a while.

Also, it's worth visiting the shop in the post-game. There might be a cool surprise that's now available to purchase...

@Th3solution Thanks, buddy! You're right, it was tough to watch, and play, that final sequence. I was okay with it (or at least, okay enough to continue with it) for two reasons. First, it was Trico's choice to step in and protect the Boy, so it wasn't "animal cruelty" as much as it was a character being heroic, and goodness only knows we've seen (and deliberately allowed) Lara, Snake, Aloy and Nate take a few hits in their time. Second, the only spoiler I looked up beforehand was whether or not Trico died at the end because, if he did, I might not have played the game at all; thankfully, a lot of gaming sites realised this would be a deal-breaker for many potential players, and so I found a couple new stories that simply said "he survives" without giving the details away. Even though he suffers a lot in the game, and it was tough every time, I knew he'd be okay and so was able to press on, particularly when it was up to me to rescue or heal him (and, as such, I got the trophy for removing all spears as quickly as possible).

Mind if I ask you where you got stuck? You mentioned in your review having to look up a walkthrough at a key point, and I'm wondering if it was the same moment I reached for Google. The part where I had to make Trico dive took me longer to figure out than I'd like to admit, particularly in the second room where his displacement wave was the only way to reach the necessary switch (thankfully, just as I was about to give up again, he jumped in of his own accord, saving me the defeat).

But yes, a very impressive seven-hour escort mission, all told.

I'm on standby for a busy couple weeks, otherwise I'd have gotten underway with inFAMOUS 2 or given serious thought to getting Ghost of Tsushima (which I hope you're enjoying by now?) but I don't want to start anything I potentially can't finish. I'll play random bits of old favourites until I know for sure.

@RogerRoger Oh boy... yeah THAT boss fight in Spiderman 2. I played it back at release on Gamecube and have completed it a couple of times and boy it still sticks in my memory of how horrible the environmnet is, how hard it is to avoid and see what is going on. Don't worry, you are not alone.

@crimsontadpoles That's the tactic, yes. My problem was that, throughout the rest of the game, dodging simply wasn't that important; the game was easy enough that I could just mash my way through the majority of fights. When you previously fought Doc Ock at the bank and on the train, his health was laughably easy to chip away (because he's just a regular guy in amongst those arms) but here, he was tougher and the indicators for countering were needlessly complex. They flashed yellow before red and, if you countered too early, you'd leave Spidey open to attack. The timing windows were just too narrow.

Maybe it was just me, and I was lacking the necessary skills I should've developed in previous fights. I just found everything before the finale very, very easy in comparison (which is a common trait in many a licenced game, because of their mass-market appeal).

Thanks for the tip! I'll go and see what's in there later (as again, unless the game told me to, I rarely bothered checking the shops and expanding Spidey's abilities).

@Rudy_Manchego Perfectly-timed reply, thank you! Glad it wasn't just me!

@RogerRoger Yes, the part I got stuck is that same one you reference. Glad I’m not the only one who couldn’t quite make it work. Thankfully I was able to get Trico to comply finally and then it was mostly smooth sailing after that, if I recall. So glad I stuck it out too, because the ending is really special and although I didn’t look up whether Trico ultimately survived, I did have a feeling he would. Ueda seemed to have too much respect and care put into the creature and the relationship to have it end in disaster.

And unfortunately I have a little craziness going on in my own life, but I should be diving into Ghost of Tsushima by next week. Hopefully I complete Bloodstained with the club later this week, but I’ve pretty much decided that I’m picking up GoT on release after seeing the 9/10 PS review. But yeah — indisputably the “Best photo mode on the PS4” is a common statement across all the reviews... no pressure, but just sayin’ 😜. Too bad the mode will be lost on me. But I think I’ll try my best and maybe post some shots as soon as I can next week.

I beat Blacksad. I really liked this game. Great plot. Will play again.

@Th3solution Yeah, whether it was an intentional design element or just a natural part of getting used to any given game's quirks, I definitely felt that the second half flowed much better, with far fewer pauses on Trico's part and far less confused hesitance on mine. It's like we really bonded!

Hope you're able to carve out some time for yourself soon. You do your screenshot skills an injustice; I'm sure you'll be able to capture some stunning Ghost of Tsushima moments!

And well done keeping pace with Bloodstained, particularly if you've been busy of late!

@RogerRoger Glad you enjoyed your time with TLG. It was one of the rare occasions which a video game made me emotional with the ending. You have nailed it on the the head there, I think the controls were deliberately cumbersome so that it did not feel like you were contolling a typical video game character. Do you think you will try any of Ueda's other games? I know Shadow of the Colossus was in PS+ some months ago.