Topic: Games you've recently beat

@KratosMD @nessisonett I've (and others) always said that Uncharted do story and characters better, Tomb Raider (since the reboot) do combat and gameplay better.

After playing all 3 Tomb Raider games, I thought they were all very good. The first one had my favourite story as I thought it was a more personal one for Lara than the other two. The combat was better in the second game but the overall game seemed to be a bit of a retread of the first game. I thought Lara was a bit dull in bith games. The third one the combat I thought was more clunky than the other two, but stealth felt much better. This was the most intresting Lara was as a character across the three games.

Also you can play as Lara from the first game, but it looked really weird and dated. Not as weird and dated as the very first Tomb Raider games, but still off putting enough for me to change after a short period.

Beat Portal 1 for the first time in a couple of hours. It’s a really good puzzler and the Source engine still surprisingly holds up. I played 2 on PS3 years ago but might boot it up again.

Just finished Code Vein yesterday, and was so impressed by the deep variations of builds you can create and the presentation of the narrative. I originally played the demo a few months back, and knew I had to get back to this game someday, and I am so happy I did.

@Natenosaints72 I have a renewed interest to check out Code Vein after I saw how well it’s sold. I played the demo, but it seemed a little too confusing to me with all the depth of builds and combat. Of course a demo can sometimes have that issue where you don’t get the full tutorial experience and I’ve had games where the demo wasn’t good but the game was. So, would you say the gameplay and learning the depth of the combat and character builds is well paced in the game? Is it frustrating to learn at the beginning or do they ease you into all the mechanics? It seemed a little too much too quick in the demo.

After Baldurs Gate I decided to tackle another gem that I'd not been able to finish, although I did play this one much more recently.

And 6 years and 1 day to the date I first bought it, I finally managed to complete Bravely Default a few minutes before midnight last night! (55 hours over about 3 weeks). I got right near the end back in 2014 but I hadn't focused on building up my characters jobs and hit a brick wall on the 4th to last boss.

I thoroughly enjoyed my second play through. The notorious second half of the game (which basically makes you run through an abbreviated version of the first half FIVE TIMES) is really quite poor, but I love the rest of the game enough to let it slide. Since I knew what was coming, I did all of my grinding at the start of this second half and blitzed through the remainder of the game in a few hours once my team were at max levels and I had my jobs set up how I wanted them, with the battles turned off so I just had to deal with the bosses, which I destroyed. The final boss nearly had me though, to be fair, and it really came down to my final megalixir.

I know I enjoyed it because I'm pumped up to dive straight into a new run of Bravely Second tonight, another game I didn't get all the way through at launch either. I really hope it doesn't pull the same trick that the first game does at the mid-way point, although I've heard rumours it might...

Finally beat 428: Shibuya Scramble. I’ve been at it on and off for months and it’s probably the best VN I’ve ever played, right up there with Steins;Gate and Virtue’s Last Reward. The ending is unbelievably satisfying, tying together all those loose ends and side characters across the whole game. You can even unlock special stories that expand on the really small characters, that appeared in a scene or two. I’d recommend it to anybody who loves VN or even if you don’t, it’s a fantastic introduction.

I finally beat Castlevania Circle of the Moon today. That is legitimately one of the hardest games I’ve ever played, it makes Dark Souls and the like seem a trifle. The final boss was utterly brutal, with an attack that could finish me off in one hit but I prevailed! Onto Harmony of Dissonance now, which doesn’t actually feel as tight gameplay wise despite being the newer game.

< I have Beaten/Finished Control >

Since my last post I've completed:

• the Last Guardian (PS4)
• LEGO Jurassic World (PS4)
• New Super Lucky's Tale (Switch)
• Tetris Effect (PSVR)

I've posted full thoughts on three of them in the Impressions thread, while I'm still mulling over my feelings on The Last Guardian since I just finished it this morning.

@Arugula I'm glad someone did lol.

@RR529 TLG is still one of my favourite games on the system. I cannot wait for Ueda's next game. I hope it's coming soon-ish.

@Kidfried, @Octane, there's a lot it does right (hauntingly beautiful world, engaging puzzle platforming gameplay that constantly adds new elements as it goes along, and is simply engrossing in a way that the hours can fly by without you noticing), however in my experience the performance is very rough on base PS4, with the framerate absolutely tanking in certain spots, which mars an otherwise great & unique game.

@RR529 Yeah, the controls are wonky, but that's to expect from Ueda

The frame rates definitely dipped a lot, but ultimately, I felt that the positives outweighed the negatives. Apparently the AI and physics were so complicated that it wouldn't even be playable on PS3. So maybe they've waited for PS5, ideally. I don't know. I'm glad I played it though.

I finished off Kentucky Route Zero earlier today and what a tremendous experience that game was. It'll take me a little time to put something more together to say about it in the other thread but it's fair to say that there is no other game like it.

Just finished Resi 1 HD REmake. It was nice but painfully slow. Now playing resi zero, let's see if it is more fast paced.

So after a little over 200 hours of playing I've finally finished AC Odyssey and all it's DLC. That is to say I've done everything to get the Platinum and have the trophy count at 100% for the lot. However there are still quite a few missions still in my quest-log and question marks still dotted around. But unusually for me I'm going to leave it like that and move on to something else.

I very much enjoyed the game but certainly feel it could be much better. It's great if people truly love the game and want to endlessly keep going around and doing every last thing on the map but for me I've had my fill of bandit camps and forts after the first 20/30 odd. I don't need another 100 or so just in order to push my level up.

While I have enjoyed this and Origins I feel that the actual idea of being an historical assassin has been replaced with a warrior with magical weapons. I think it might have been preferable to have these 2 games as a different franchise altogether and have rested the AC line for a few years instead. Ubisoft basically just wanted the brand recognition and put in just enough elements (animus/Isu) to make it related.

I might add more of my thoughts another time but I've realised I've been up for 24 hours now and struggling to keep my thoughts cohesive.

@BearsEatBeets I felt the same way over Orgins and I just suddenly hit the wall after one too many camps. Think is was on the 88% mark for the trophies in the base game, which is 7 trophies from getting all of em. Brilliant game which I really enjoyed, I just had to stop playing otherwise I probably would have ended up hating the game.

@KratosMD I don't think you could say the franchise has always had magical weapons just because of the apple of eden. Until Origins all the weapons that you used in minute to minute gameplay were historically accurate to the period or things that could have practically existed with some clever invention (hidden blade/wrist gun). It all probably ties into the fact that the overarching story involving the first civilisation and playing as ancestors in the animus are probably my least favourite parts of the franchise.

I'm of the opposite view with the historical settings. During the original 'Desmond' games I didn't mind the future bits but I always preferred when the game just got back to the past. With the following games after I was pleased that they scaled back the animus/abstergo parts. For me I would have liked for them to drop these parts of the game altogether and change the formula a different way.

AC could be a game purely played as a character in an historical setting with a more personal story and more fitting gameplay for an 'assassin'. I miss the actual art of discovering a target and trying to get to them and escape without being caught. Not having a five minute battle with someone you have stabbed through the neck because they are 'high-level' and can't be killed that way.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed fighting the Egyptian gods in Origins and Cyclops in Odyssey, they are fun games but they not really assassins. I'm up for more games like this but think they could have dropped the AC part and just go all in on the fantasy rpg. Again I think that would give them more freedom with the story telling which is one of the weakest parts of most Ubisoft games. I've played all the main AC games except Rogue and they were all good games but never truly great. They're fun while you are playing them but mostly forgettable and rarely do I feel the desire to replay them.

It will be interesting where they go with the next AC game. I'm excited for it either way and bound to get it. It could potentially be my first next gen game much like Black Flag was for my PS4. I just hope I don't have to kill 100 goats and pick up 100 rocks every time I level up if I want to keep using my current gear.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah sometimes less is more. If you want the Plat you're going to have to 'complete' every question mark on the map so pace yourself. It was the last thing I did.

@KratosMD Cant wait for it to drop on Ps4!
Looks just like my type of game. Would u give any suggestions before I play it?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @kyleforrester87 Ah yes, the notorious second half of Bravely Default. Almost made me give up the game.

I think it was worth sticking around for the extremely cool final boss fight, but I do hope the developer never does something like that again. Also, the sequel needs better difficulty balancing and dungeon design.

Maybe in Bravely Default 2!