Topic: Games you've recently beat

@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!

@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.

@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.

@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...

@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.

@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.

@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.

Finished a game on my Nintendo Switch called Runner3. It's the latest entry in a series that began with Bit.Trip Runner in 2010, from developer Gaijin Games. You play as CommanderVideo (or the pink female counterpart, CommandGirlVideo), who is tasked with running through a variety of levels, collecting gold bars/gems and dodging obstacles. The game is an autorunner, so your interaction with the game is limited to sliding, kicking, jumping, ground-pounding, and, during vehicle segments moving the vehicle different directions.

The game takes place across three different worlds and 27 primary levels (with 30 or so hidden "retro" levels that you can unlock throughout the game, which play more like ordinary platformers), but, like Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, each level has different routes with different collectibles available on each, giving the player incentive to replay the levels. There are also a number of "impossible" levels in each world, which are brutal difficult challenge levels that require the player to beat them in one perfect run from the start. I put in the time to complete one of these levels, but I quickly lost interest in investing the requisite time and mental energy into mastering the rest of them.

The game has a metric ton of content it has locked behind hidden collectibles in each of the levels, including unlockable characters (the most notable of which is Shovel Knight), puppets for puppet show narration sequences, VHS tapes for unlocking the forementioned retro levels, and an assortment of other items. Unfortunately, the level design, music, and art style in this game in hideously generic (it looks like a mobile game, frankly), which eventually sapped my will to really fully complete this game. The Bit.Trip series of games are notable for being autorunners that time character movement with the music to create some akin to a rhythm game, but there is literally not a single track in this game that I can remember after not playing it for a day or two. The game has a quirky sense of humor to it (most notably personified by Charles Martinet's third-person narration throughout), but it feels like a property that is lacking in any real sense of identity otherwise.

I also didn't care for the 2.5D perspective of the gameplay, which can often make it difficult to judge when to time jumps or interact with obstacles. Especially when the game starts getting creative with the camera and it becomes difficult to judge where you're even running to.

Another thing (a nitpick, really) that annoyed me was how hard this game can make it to 100% levels. Each level features checkpoints throughout, and, when you die, you obviously restart at a checkpoint. But the game is bad about throwing the odd, easily missable gold or gem piece at you RIGHT before you hit a checkpoint, and without a means to kill yourself, so that you can re-attempt that section of the level. Invariably, this means having to replay the ENTIRE level because of one or two unfair item placement choices right before a checkpoint.

My biggest issue with the game is the flow of the gameplay itself. In Runner3, you die any time you screw up, which means you have to start from whatever the last checkpoint you unlocked was. This brutal, Contra-esque difficulty would be bad enough in an ordinary platformer, but in a game designed around harmonizing player input, level design, and music, you can imagine how irritating it gets when you have to keep restarting over and over and losing the flow of the beat. It doesn't help that, quite often, the player will have no time to react to obstacles until it's too late, making perfect level runs as much a matter of memorization as they are of skill or reaction time. This all adds up to making Runner3 feel like the auto-runner equivalent of those aggravating minecart levels in the original DKC.

There are boss encounters in this game, but they're short and involve the same auto-runner mechanics, which makes them feel less like trials for the player and more liked themed levels. The plot is entirely locked away behind optional puppet shows, so there's no real build-up to them or even a reason to have them outside of the vague sense the developers must have had that a platformer requires boss fights of some sort.

I only spent $3 for this, but even having gotten this on sale, I can't really say it was worth the money. I'm sure this series has its fans, but I don't get the appeal.

I finished up Star Wars Episode 1: Racer last night on PS4. Given it’s a fairly basic remaster of a 20 year old game I won’t do a full impressions but for what it is, I enjoyed it but heavily caveated that I have fond memories of this game on N64 with friends and I have just come off TLOU2 and wanted something fun.

It plays and performs well and the visuals are bright and smooth and still gives a feeling of being fast. That said, it is ultimately a very basic racer with very little complexity but that suits me because I am terrible at racing. If you get away quickly and don’t mess up you are guaranteed a win. It is also an easy platinum, just come first in all races and then google what upgrades you need. Almost all else will come with playing. Took me about 4 hours to do it all.

One for the nostalgic players out there. Otherwise... stick to something more modern!

@RogerRoger All I'll say is this: it's like a six-hour game (although it took somewhat longer thanks to my insistence on beating certain ridiculously hard levels and tracking down certain collectibles) that took me months to motivate myself to play to completion. 70% of my time with it was spend across two or three days when I would play for hours at a time in order to make substantive progress, followed by weeks of avoidance.

I don't think it's bad, really. I think it does what it sets out to do. I just didn't enjoy it at all.

If you do ever want to try out the series, my understanding from fans is that Runner 2 is the best game in the series. If nothing else, it opts for a purely 2D perspective, which eliminates some of the irritation of not being able to accurately judge when you should jump/kick/slide/etc. some of the time.

@Ralizah Runner 2 is pretty good but the original Bit Trip games are hard to play now because they were WiiWare games, none of which have particularly aged well. Interesting that Runner3 isn’t any good though, it’s something I always meant to check out.

@nessisonett Having seen footage of Runner 2, I'm guessing you would probably enjoy Runner3 as well. They're very similar looking games, aside from the shift away from a purely 2D perspective. And it goes pretty low in sales.

Is your issue with the original Bit Trip games purely about presentation, or are they mechanically inferior?

@Ralizah It’s a combination of the two, they’re very simple games and I do think there’s less of a place now for those arcadey Atari-style games now than back when they launched. Bit.Trip Saga on 3DS is alright but definitely shows that just with a fresh lick of paint, the gameplay loops are mostly fun enough to stand up today.

Since I've last posted (it's been awhile), I've completed Tales of Berseria & Final Fantasy VII Remake (just today!) on PS4, as well as Waifu Uncovered (somewhat embarrassed to admit that one, lol) on Switch (though I'm closing in on the end of Shantae & the Seven Sirens on that front as well).

Will post in depth thoughts in the Impressions thread.

@RogerRoger Ha ha yeah. This was an easy platinum but also a good one that made you play everything in the game so kinda fun at the same time.

@KratosMD Wanted to play this for ages so glad you enjoyed it. I have it on gamepass but havent got round to installing it.

@KratosMD I put my thoughts on it in the review thread a while ago and I thought it was a clever idea which was reasonably well done but had some quite frustrating moments.