Topic: Games you've recently beat

Tonight I beat the Lost Bear on PSVR, and I'll post my impressions in the appropriate thread sometime soon.

I've also finished up Trials of Mana (PS4), Vader Immortal (PSVR), Super Mario 64 (Switch), & Super Mario Sunshine (Switch) in recent memory, with my thoughts posted in the Impressions thread over the past few weeks.

@Arugula Yeah that’s unpopular and for good reason mwahahaha. I dunno, I loved it despite the clear pacing issues!

I just beat Trails of Cold Steel III for the third time and I'm just so hyped for the fourth game in the series. However, I'm on PC and seeing it being released in 2021 has left me really sad but still very excited.

@Arugula I waaaay preferred it to RE2 Remake. Mind you I was never that fussed on RE 4 either.

@RogerRoger @Kidfried I just felt the act IV just kept on going and having blown through the game so quickly I needed a break afterwards. So when act V was so short I felt a little letdown although that final moment with the music is beautifully done. I can’t imagine what I must have been like for people to have waited two years between act IV and V!

I liked the fact that you had to embrace the journey rather than the destination and as long as you get on board with accepting that it’s the experience rather than a tidy story then I think people will get it. But I understand why people can’t buy into that.

I do think the cast got a little bloated by act IV as well but also liked the fact it wasn’t the story of any one character in the end.

I can’t imagine how it must have been to follow the game as it was released but I wonder if that added to the mystery of it all.

That soundtrack though!

Just watched my mum finish Mafia: Definitive Edition. That last chapter was absolutely brilliant and really capped an amazing game. It’s cool that since it’s a remake, there’s a major tie to the second game in the final cutscene which sets it up. I think my mum will finish off Uncharted 1 and play 2 before moving onto the next Mafia though!

Ha I love hearing about these posts every now and again about your mom beating a game @nessisonett. Good on her!

Is the second mafia remaster still a bit of a broken mess like I recall it being when it was reviewed or have they actually polished that up somewhat?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I think there was a patch a couple of weeks ago so I really don’t know if it’s been fixed yet! Guess we’ll find out when we boot it up but most of the glitches in the first game were funny rather than frustrating. The incredible cutscene quality more than made up for it.

Well I hope it's fixed up enough for the pair of ya then @nessisonett!

Haven't played any of the Mafia games myself but the first one in particular does sound rather tempting! Would be a nice change of pace for me

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy One great thing about the Mafia remake is that it’s linear. It’s easy to burn out on open world games but it’s just a solid story with a great setting, stunning graphics and relatively decent gameplay.

I have finished Hannah Montana PS3 2 weeks ago. 😀
It was very short game, about 3 - 4 hours.
But i took several months to finish the game.
I realized Hannah Montana and Miley were same Miley Cyrus with different wigs.
Also, following the storyline during gameplay, i thought it was ironic to see Miley have to pretend to be Hannah by wearing blonde wig (kinda made her looks like drag queen) and did role changes during having family dinner and dating with her boyfriend at the same time.

@Anti-Matter Yeah, I’m about the right age for Hannah Montana. I’m just going to say that the fact that she is actually Miley Cyrus is the entire crux of the show!

@Arugula What are these brackets that you are voting in? 😅

Just finished Death Stranding, what an incredible game, quite an emotional roller coaster at the end there. And that Chvrches soundtrack at the end of the credits, wow, brilliant. So glad I decided to play this game.

@LieutenantFatman Glad you enjoyed it. Really is one of the best this generation, I think. It’s too bad it didn’t sell better. I think they said the game made a profit but it didn’t set the sales charts on fire unfortunately.
I can’t wait to see what Kojima has up his sleeve next.

@Th3solution
Yes, I'm curious as to why it didn't do better, maybe because it's such a unique game, and it's difficult to know if you're likely to enjoy it until you jump in.
Yes, it will be exciting to see what Kojima comes up with next, not heard anything for a while.

@LieutenantFatman This critical narrative that predominated around the game’s release saying it was a hiking sim game of fetch quests really undersold it, I feel. Yes, in a way it’s true that a large part of the gameplay is the sophisticated hiking and hauling simulation and strategizing; and the deliveries are akin to the dreaded “fetch quests” we gamers like to complain about, but in the context of the futuristic world with all the crazy variables, obstacles, and structures to build, not to mention the unique storyline and the innovative online interactive components - to simplify the game as a hiking sim is just like saying COD is a shooting sim. Not to mention Death Stranding is absolutely beautiful to look at and the music is fabulously integrated while you hike though the landscape. Quibblers also criticized the shooting, combat, and stealth as too simplistic and basic, but I found it satisfying enough. Sure it’s not Dark Souls or Horizon Zero Dawn, but the guns and grenades felt good to use and trying to avoid sneak past BTs was a very tense adrenaline rush.

Anyways, I just think a lot of gamers dismissed it based on the word-of-mouth criticisms above, most of which were probably from people who didn’t even play the game. Granted, the game is definitely not for everyone, because it is a slow and methodical style of gameplay. DOOM this is not. But for those who like something unique and different from the recycled versions of the classic open world action titles, it should be an enjoyable ride.

@Th3solution
Yes, new ideas can be hard to sell and are so easy to dismiss, personally it's my favourite game that I've played this year. And I've played Doom Eternal, FF7 and TLOU2, all amazing games.
As you say it's got a lot going for it, and has been constructed masterfully. I do hope a lot more people get to experience it.

I pulled an all nighter but that’s Black Flag finished. I have kinda mixed feelings about it, the overall game suffered from a lack of focus and it feels like they spun one too many plates. The pirate stuff was fun but just a wee bit light for my tastes, once you’ve boarded one ship then you’ve boarded them all. The naval combat also felt a bit strange after III, the strategy was kinda taken out of it but at least you had more control over your cannon fire. The main plot was a mess to be honest, events just happened from mission to mission. I understand that this was to facilitate the free roam aspects as players might spent hours messing about before moving on but it destroyed the pacing. That being said, the last few sequences were fantastic and the ending was rather touching. The assassin gameplay was actually better than I expected but the lack of verticality in the maps left you with far less versatility to approach your targets. The climbing is also incredibly downgraded from III, the amount of times I tried to climb a cliff face that looked like it had handholds only to fall flat on my face was nonsense. Perhaps it was the weirdly blurry graphics and eye-piercing lighting on occasion but it was another game that gave me a wee bit of a headache as well. Honestly, it was mostly fun and I enjoyed my time with it so it’s just a shame that the platinum is a non-starter due to the multiplayer trophies. Onto Rogue and Unity now, both of which I own on PC so don’t even have a platinum to go for!

@nessisonett It’s really interesting to see your impressions as you binge the AC series. I’m surprised you haven’t burned out on it yet. I am one of the few who liked AC3 more than AC: BF. I haven’t understood why BF is always held up as the pinnacle of the series. Actually I never finished the game because the whole pirate thing, ship battles, and storyline didn’t grab me. Looks like the story redeems itself at the end, so perhaps I’d feel differently if I pushed through to its conclusion.

So you’re now at the point where I jumped off the series, having not cared for BF and AC fatigue hitting in full force, I didn’t play Freedom Cry, Liberation, Rogue, Unity, or Syndicate, much less all the other off-shoots that sprouted on mobile and other avenues like the Chronicles series. It’s the point in the series where they started churning out and dropping so quickly that Ubisoft absolutely drown the series by oversaturation of the market. From 2014-2016 they released 8 AC titles. In 2014 alone, 3 games (Freedom Cry, Rogue, and Unity)!! Granted FC and Rogue are more of expansions I guess, but it was still just too much for the average gamer to keep up with.

But kudos for sticking with it and it seems you’re enjoying the series still. It’s a fascinating study of one of the most storied franchises in gaming. By the end of this you should have an honorary doctorate in Assassin’s Creed! 😄

The only one of the remaining games I did get back with is Origins which I finished a couple months ago and was really quite good.

I’ll be super curious how you feel on this next section since I’ve wondered if I need to go back and try Unity and Syndicate specifically (since they were non-naval based) Keep the updates coming!