Topic: Games you've recently beat

The bulk of the game is exploration and puzzle solving, and the only combat in the game is when you face the bosses. There is also no in-game map so you have to use a spirit mask to highlight areas of interest.

Traversal feels quite unique as you shoot these talismans which are everywhere to boost your speed and keep your stamina up. You also have a pet Eagle which can carry you and glide you to places, and you can make it stronger by collecting crystals so that it can carry you higher and further.

EDIT: And yes you can absolutely play if for a short while and it feels like you are progressing, even if you only manage a few puzzles it all adds to the overall progression.

Probably sounds a bit rubbish me explaining it, but I have found it a nice change from killing everything every 5 minutes.

Hitman Go. Gameplay is completely different to regular Hitman games, but it was a fun little puzzle game. I liked how it's good at teaching the player how to play without any words of explanation. For instance, whenever a new mechanic is introduced, it be in a level that heavily showcases that feature or lets the player play around with it.

@JohnnyShoulder Missed this yesterday. Thanks, sounds like a nice game to play, I enjoy games with puzzles as well as shooting all the aliens. I'll pick it up when it has a decent sale!

@NedStarksGhost @LtSarge As it is a mid-budget title, at full price it is only £30. But I did get in sale at £20 for the disk version.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

I know these kind of games aren't for everybody, but I highly enjoyed it. It's been years since I played the first one, so I'm not 100% certain, but I think I might have liked this even better than the first one.

It was a nice change of pace from all the mainstream games. It also made me start to really look forward to Life is Strange: True Colors.

@KilloWertz I started the first one a few years back but ditched it before even getting into episode 2. Was only thinking the other day that I should give it another go.

I beat Mafia 2 there. It’s a lot worse than the remake of the first one but it’s alright I guess. Very immature in comparison but the story’s a bit more political in the dealings with other families. The ties to the first game are cool too. I dunno, it’s an OK game.

@nessisonett Did you know that you kill the main character from the first game , in the second game , in a cutscene ?

Thought that was really cool . I enjoyed Mafia 2 a lot , but it hasn't aged well unfortunately , so i can't put it over GTA4 .

@nomither6 Yeah, the same scene’s at the end of the remake of the first game, just with a lot better graphics 😂

@colonelkilgore I hope you enjoy it whenever you give it another chance. Like I said in my other post, I understand these kind of games aren't for everybody though.

@RogerRoger I need to go back and play the original again someday. Maybe when the remastered release for it and Before the Storm comes out next year. I say that because I want to make sure I remember correctly as I have a feeling one reason I liked Before the Storm better is because I liked Chloe in this better than Max in the original. She was a pretty good character in Before the Storm, even without Ashley Burch doing the voice for her (not counting her return for the Bonus Episode "Farewell").

@RogerRoger @KilloWertz yeah I got a few of these narrative games in the backlog… I have to be in the right mood for them I think. I’ll save it to play after something particularly stressful 👍

@nessisonett Did you get a craving for ham and cheese sarnies from playing it? 😂

@KilloWertz I also liked Before the Storm a little better than the first game. I think it had a little more polish. It reminds me that I really need to play LiS2. Have it sitting in the backlog.

@Th3solution I haven't played it yet either. The fact that it has no connection to the original kept me from rushing to play it. Not saying it has to obviously, but I guess it didn't help that I didn't play Before the Storm up until recently. Someday I'll play it, as I like that kind of game of course.

@RogerRoger I definitely have you in mind for when I do play it because I distinctly remember your review when you played it and I know you had a reasonable amount of praise for the characters and the story.

Lately I’ve slowed down even more than my usual snail’s pace at completing games so it might be a while before I get to it. I need @colonelkilgore to draw me up a schedule to keep me on track

@KilloWertz I played the demo, The Adventures of Captain Spirit (or some name like that) and came away feeling ‘meh’. But people have told me the actual game isn’t at all as dull as that was.

@Th3solution under construction 😉

Just finished The Division 2, not gonna lie... it definitely grew on me but is still something I consider incredibly repetitive. I'm gonna try for the Platinum but it seems like a lot of work left tbh... gotta complete 3 or 4 stronghold invasions, play the whole thing through again on hard and then some multiplayer... we'll see how it goes 😅.

@colonelkilgore I really like what happens with all the end game stuff. But by then I was a beginning to burn out and only managed a few evenings of playtime before putting it to bed. I looked after it though and made sure I gave it a cup of of hot chocolate and read a bedtime story.

@JohnnyShoulder wow, you are a sensitive one Johnny, treating your ex’s with so much respect 😉.

I’m gonna find it tough to juggle my gam3 next week as I’ve got the week off to play through The Last of Us 2… but I don’t want to take too much leave from The Division 2 as the end game stuff sounds a step up in difficulty, so I’m feeling I need to tackle it while my skills are sharp.

And I'm finally, completely done with Control: Ultimate Edition on the PS5.

After some initial apprehension, I really ended up enjoying this game. The story unravels at a nice pace and although the whole goings on of the Bureau do remain somewhat baffling, the background story also reveals itself well. The main story ticks along at a nice pace and the side missions are varied and interesting enough.

Jesse herself is a bit wooden at times (and does a lot of inner monologues) but I still liked her as a lead and her slightly cold personality felt quite different to your normal protagonist. Most of the supporting cast were cool too, even if it did seem that they outsourced animations for Emily Pope's mouth to the team who did FF7R. Darling is great though and the use of FMV for his scenes worked well and I especially enjoyed his rather different one towards the end...

The combat is quite limited initially which made me worry for the rest of the game but you unlock enough varying abilities and weapons to keep it interesting.

I saw lots of complaints of the map on here and I didn't think it was that bad in the end. It does struggle with figuring out what floor something was on but that didn't happen too often and it was nowhere near as bad as the mess of Jedi: Fallen Order.

The DLC was fine. Foundation felt a bit of a drag after finally finishing the main game but was interesting enough to stick with. AWE tied in to Alan Wake in a clever way (and now I'll finally be able to play that game too!).

Technically it ran really well as I think that was an issue on PS4. Performance ran smoothly at 60fps throughout. I tried graphics mode at times and found it too choppy going back from 60fps and the ray tracing wasn't enough to tempt me to try it more.

So definitely one to pick up in yet another sale if you still haven't played it.