Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yes true. I did like Toko Fukawa even before now, but the extra development did wonders.

I was also very fond of the villains in this game. Having children as the antagonists isn't a common thing to do, and each of them felt unique in their own right.

Half-Life: Opposing Force on PC. It's a standalone expansion of the original Half-Life, and was released in 1999. Opposing Force takes place during the events of Half-Life from the perspective of one of the marines sent to Black Mesa.

Overall, it's a fine game. I'm not too keen on first person survival shooter games against horrific creatures, but I still somewhat enjoyed this.

Resident Evil Village. Definitely in the top 3 of my favorite Resident Evil games. It borrowed all the right things from Resident Evil 4. Loved it 9.5/10

I take 0.5 from the score because I can't revisit the boss areas like the Castle, Beneviento House, Reservoir and the Factory.

Finally beat the original DOOM, a game I can check off my bucket list. Well, I haven’t attempted Thy Flesh Consumed yet but that’s a bonus thingy so don’t know if I’ll attempt that or move onto DOOM 2.

That's Miles Morales finished for me at around the 22hr mark.

Really good game that looks fantastic too (I even loved the MCU style credits!). It feels just as good as I remember the original being but the venom attacks give it something new. The story is well done and the relatively short length of it means that it doesn't feel like there's too much filler in there at all.

That final boss is a bit of a step up though! I think I might have died once in the game up to that point but then five or six times in that fight.

Will definitely go back for NG+ at some point as that will be a fairly quick affair to knock off the final trophies.

Finally finished erm, Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, and it is only my second game of the series that I've finished, after 7 Remake. Took me the best part of 150 hours and still a fair bit to do in regards to the Platinum. But as much as I've enjoyed it I think I have had enough of the game and to continue playing it would make the experience less enjoyable. Still overall, I thought it was a brilliant game.

I finally had a couple free hours and so I finished Control last night. I’d been hovering near the end and delaying the final stretch by running around mopping up side quests and Board Countermeasures. But I finally went through the final sequences and saw the credits both times.

The end game content is quite well done though and I usually don’t stick around a game after the ending, but this might be an exception. First off I have the DLC to do - both The Foundation and AWE. Secondly, I’m shy just a few more ability points for the last trophy so there will be a bit of grinding for that, but I figure I’m close. And lastly, I want to hang around and explore areas I couldn’t get to before due to mold etc, and as the bonafide Director talk to people and get the bonus dialogue from the NPCs.

So a few more hours yet until I lay the game to rest.

@Th3solution nice Sol, glad you got a lot out of it. I never bothered playing the dlc but I heard both are good additions... reckon I'll catch them when I eventually replay the PS5 version.

@JohnnyShoulder I've only played FFVIIR and FFXV (both of which I enjoyed) but a couple of friends of mine who are huge FF fans have suggested I should try FFXIIZA. Has it got action combat or turn based?

@colonelkilgore It's kind of a bit of both

@Voltan okay... colour me intrigued. As you may have noticed (as I mention it semi-frequently) I've just never been able to click with turn based action... maybe a half-way house like this could be the 'gateway-drug' I need.

@colonelkilgore You have Gambits, which are set of instructions to each party member. They then carry out these instructions automatically, so you are not carrying out the moves yourself on the screen, only setting up the Gambits.You only start off with the basic stuff, but you can buy more from certain shops. It is explained really well in game, although it wasn't until a few hours into the game that I unlocked the tutorial.

@colonelkilgore Are you familiar with the "Active Time Battle" system of the classic Final Fantasy games? It's basically turn based but the order of turns is determined by a bar that can be filled at a different rate depending on a character's stats, status etc. Once it's full, a character can perform an action.
XII still uses a similar system but you can also move characters on the battlefield between the actions.
It's a bit of a middle ground, I guess.

@JohnnyShoulder @Voltan I'm not familiar with either gambits or the 'active time battle' system... having read your explanations though I'm thinking I should probably just wait for FFXVI. The Last thing I need is to waste another 10-15 hours trying an RPG that doesn't have real-time action only to come to the same conclusion I'd arrived at with Persona 5 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Cheers for the info though guys.

@colonelkilgore It’s been years since I played FFXII and I only played the original, not the Zodiac Age edition, but it has a really unique battle system, as others have mentioned. It’s depends what you dislike about turn-based combat that will determine your opinion of FFXII’s system. One one hand, there is not much spur of the moment skill based combat, a la Souls games. However the gambit system rewards a tactical approach with good preparation and applying some logic before a battle. If you set up your gambit (the auto instructions and reactions that your party members follow) then the battles basically play themselves and you can breeze through most of them. If the aspects of turn-based battle that repel you is the lack of being the actual executor of the action, then you’ll probably hate the FFXII gambit system. For me, it was great and I really enjoyed the ability to invest time and strategy setting up my team and then just watch them lay waste to the enemy. 😄

@colonelkilgore Gambits are a way to control your party members indirectly. It's like a simple scripting language: IF Health < 30% THEN use a healing item, etc.
As you progress through the game you unlock new conditions for the gambits as well as the ability to set a larger number of them.

@colonelkilgore Additional thought...
For me the gambit system was a bit of ‘trimming the fat’, so to speak on the usual turn-based combat. So, for example, when your main character’s health drops below 30%, don’t you want your healer character to execute a healing spell? Well, of course. You’d probably do that 9 times out of 10 anyways. If the enemy is known to be weak against a certain element, wouldn’t you have your mage use that offensive spell? Sure. So you’re just pre-arranging to do all the things you’d normally do, and then only getting involved when you have a curve ball thrown at you, but the mundane decisions are all automatic with the gambits.

Edit: @Voltan beat me to it a little 😄

@Th3solution I am 'interested' as I enjoyed 7R and particularly 15 (I know right) so much... but I just have so many games scheduled that I know I'll enjoy, I guess there just isn't enough upside to taking another punt on something that lends its self to a style I struggle to click with.

I appreciate everyone's (yours, @Voltan & @JohnnyShoulder) though 🙏

I almost did @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy, or at the very least just continue to finish up the story. Even with quadruple speed and all the tecniks setup to gimp his damage and so on, it still took the best part of 2 hours! 😂

That was definitely the longest boss fight, the end of game boss was a breeze in comparison. Part way through the final stage I set loose my best summon on the final boss, and it one hit killed him!

I've finished Resident Evil 3 Remake. It was not as atmospheric as I imagined it. Resident Evil 2 Remake was better in all aspects. Still fun game.