Topic: Games you've recently beat

Both on Switch.

Ys VIII - A little rough around the edges, but a great time and probably my favorite release of 2018 so far. I really liked building your little village of castaways, and I enjoyed that, at least until near the end, the story was more intimate than your typical globe trotting RPG, focusing on the mysteries of the island you're stranded on.

Assault Gunners HD Edition - Despite the mostly horrendous reviews the game's gotten (a lot of 3's & 4's), I decided to nab it since Switch is pretty starved for mech games at the moment. Overall I'd say it's pretty average, but not deserving of the bottom of the barrel reviews it's been getting. Sure, it looks like an uprezzed PS2 game, is pretty short, and repetitive, but it's a fun enough time if you like the genre. It's certainly not broken or buggy by any means. Plus, It's brief missions fit well for pick up and play sessions on Switch.

@KratosMD So I remember we had the discussion several months ago when you were planning to play the series, but I’ve forgotten... you’re not trying to play them in the order the story occurs? I thought you were trying to go chronological. Ground Zeros comes right after Peace Walker and then The Phantom Pain right after that and you are in for a real, real treat with TPP if you liked Peace Walker. The resource and personnel management gets even better.
MGS 4 is excellent in its own right, but different gameplay-wise. It’s probably the strongest story of all the games, but that’s of course that’s all very subjective.

@KratosMD Oh yeah, that’s perfectly fine to play them in any order. Certainly I played them way out of chronological order and it didn’t affect the enjoyment. There is not really spoilers for earlier games, and if there is, they are minor and the over-arching story is really hard to follow in the MG series anyways. You’re gonna love 4 and 5 regardless I feel. And actually I never played Rising: Revengence. I played the demo and didn’t really feel compelled to as it doesn’t really feel like a Metal Gear game per se.

Just depending on how long it takes to get to Ground Zeros, you may need a refresher to remind yourself of the Peace Walker plot and conclusion as the two games are as closely tied together as any in the series are, occurring only one year apart and picking up essentially directly after Peace Walker’s events. It had been a couple years between the two games when I (and nearly everyone else on the planet) finally got to play GZ and it took a little refresher to get back on track with the goings on in the MG world in 1974.

Edit: ...and actually, as I think about it, I seem to recall that GZ gives you a little summary of events at the beginning to get you up to speed since many people didn’t even play Peace Walker anyways.

@KratosMD Hope you enjoy MGS4. It's a Metal Gear for Metal Gear fans and wraps the series up nicely.

Also, I can't believe it's been a full decade since it's release. June 12, 2008. I remember waiting for that day and my hype was off the charts. Good times.

@DerMeister @KratosMD Yeah, I rarely replay games especially heavily story driven games, mostly because of a large backlog. Also once you see the story unfold then it’s less exciting the second time. However MGS4 is one that I played twice. The second time just to get the trophies that were added on

Beat Fallout 4 Far Harbor. It's a DLC but I spend about 20 hours exploring every nook and cranny of its world. So it counts as a game to me.

Typical Bethesda stuff: great world building and setting up of the story, but a mainly unsatisfying plot in the end, coupled with a lot of bad bugs.

Finally finished Golf Story on the Switch last night. Ended up putting something like 20 hours into the game doing everything and every interaction. Great little RPG/Golfing game and recommend.

@Kidfried Still not touched Far Harbour despite getting the season pass before the price went up. How does it run? The frame rate in the main game became quite dreadful for me towards the end and I'm not sure why. :-/

@Rudy_Manchego Sounds like a nice little game. I think I'll have to check it out!

@mookysam It's fun with a weird sense of humour. Very chill game!

@mookysam It's Bethesda. Don't expect anything technically impressive, but I found it to run better than the base game. Might be due to the smaller environment. If you're in the mood for some good old Fallout, it's more of the same. However, the DLC is pretty much a miniature version of the main campaign, from start to finish.

So I'm not recommending it myself, but my partner enjoyed it a lot, though! (And I love shooting things with VATS)

@KratosMD From what I remember of this game, playing shirtless probably only adds to the immersion.

I still wanted to name a game I "beat", I'm talking about Captain Spirit. Push Square gave it a 6/10, but I'm feeling more of an... 8/10, maybe even higher?

The animations, writing and even gameplay all easily one up Life is Strange, so I think that's very promising. I also liked how the dad character wasn't only good or only bad, but rather somewhere in between. I think that's a big step forward from any character we saw in the first.

Also, opening up the game world a bit more than the last one was really satisfying. Some background stuff you really had to look for, and even then the pieces of story you collected still left some room for interpretation.

I enjoyed this game a lot, but most of all... the Sufjan soundtrack was just so perfect. The theme of the song fit the story well, and also some details of the song found another great meaning within this game.

Anyway, I just wanted to say, uh... I cannot recommend this enough.

@KratosMD After playing the first game all those years back, I was never really fussed on the sequels that I played. I remember playing a bit of DMC and enjoying it, so will probably pick it up at some point after your positive feedback. Cheers!

How do you feel about the new game that is coming out?

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) - As mentioned before, I don't have much experience with Castlevania proper, but I enjoyed my time with this. It had a really cool atmosphere, and although it could get quite tough, it never felt unfair (I especially liked the bosses).

Did both a Normal/Casual run & a Normal/Veteran run.

Today I finally finished God of War II. I'm currently torn between thinking that it's better than the first game, or about the same.

Combat hasn't really changed aside from different moves. It's still really fun, and a bit less reliant on mashing QTEs, which I'm definitely grateful for. Kratos also gets a hammer and spear for new weapons, but I didn't make use of them much, since Kratos' swords just get the job done better. I do like the new magic powers, with Typhon's Bow being a good distance weapon, with Chronos' Rage and Atlas Quake being great for wearing down crowds. Boss battles are good, with the final battle with Zeus being better than Ares in my opinion (probably because I didn't blow my shoulder out this time). A few encounters near the end started to drag on, though. The puzzles, while I took longer than I'd like for some, they're well designed

Story, is a story. Kratos is really mad at Zeus stabbing him. It works.

The graphics are good for PS2 standards as well. I played the version on PS3, so the cutscenes can look low res, but overall a good looking game.

That's about it. I'll work on Chains of Olympus next.

Haven't beaten (or played) anything deeply for a while. I'm hoping to get the all clear for my eye this afternoon - then back to the trophy hunt for Jamestown+ and Raiden V and dig deep in The Bannaer Saga.

@Kidfried Finally got round to playing Virginia! I remember you recommending it ages ago. It was a nice experience to whittle away a few hours. Very strange in places and the constant cuts to new scenes were a little jarring at first, but on the whole I enjoyed it. I'll give it a replay later in the week.

@DerMeister God of War 2 is mega awesome. It was so impressive when it was originally released. I love the scale of everything and how the island is so intricately designed. Some excellent set pieces and boss battles too! I actually can't decide if it's still the best in the series.

Beat Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch) last weekend. It was quite the unique and charming experience (the Odyssey inspired levels were really cool, too).

Didn't get the news I was hoping for yesterday, so no shmup goodness for me just yet

Probably just get on with The Banner Saga.

@KratosMD can I ask? How many games have u beat in the last six months? Ur a friggin machine!

@KratosMD Christ on a bike!