Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Fight_Teza_Fight There is no issue, I had a hard drive failure with my PS4 years ago and I lost all my save files, including the one for MGSV. Didn't have PS+ at the time either so the save files weren't backed up. Nowadays I just play one game at a time in order to minimise my losses in case something similar happens again. It sucked losing that save file though, but I am planning on giving MGSV another go sometime in the near future. Really want to finish off this series as I've played pretty much all the mainline MGS titles except for Portable Ops.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Yeah, all the MGS games have some degree of fan-servicey content but the raining scene was pretty far out there. MGS4 has its fair share too, but it’s a little more subtle. I won’t spoil anything but the ‘waifu’ stuff is integrated in a way that it is more distinctly just part of the story and gameplay, rather than the rain scene which, I’m not sure what the point of that was 😂

@Th3solution FF7R Progress?

@TraCuz- I had become sidelined a little by Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, so progress on FF7R slowed down. But I’m still pecking away at it; in chapter 9 and still really liking it. I actually think I’m enjoying it more the further I go. I have tons of materia and I’m trying to level all of it up. I have Ifrit and Shiva as well as the Chocobo/moogle summon now at this point. I am disappointed at how limited the role of the summons are so far. So far they only seem to be usable during boss fights and some mini-bosses, which is different from what I remember in the original game.

The most pleasant surprise for me though is that Aerith has done a complete 180 for me. I am really, really fond of her in the Remake. On the contrary, in the original game I never understood why she was a fan favorite and found her kinda ‘blah’. But here with the voice acting her personality really shines. I’m really growing attached to her. Little things like When she holds up her hands to do a high-five with Cloud after solving a puzzle, or how she interacts with the children make her much more endearing. However she’s not the greatest during combat, given she’s much weaker and mostly seems to be useful as a magic user. She feels slower on the dodge mechanic and so I have a harder time moving around the battlefield with her vs the other characters. But props for her voice actress in really making her shine with personality.

I think the clock on my save says I’ve put in about 21 hours, so I guess I’m about halfway through. Looking forward to see how it all turns out because all I know is that the ending is controversial and seems like the story must have been changed a lot. Perhaps Aerith won’t die this time? 😄 Which given my affinity for her I’ll be happy if that’s the case. In the original game of felt no real sadness when she died, to be honest.

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On a related note — I started P5 Dancing in Starlight as a side game and the addictive rhythm game got its hooks into me. I’ve completed the story and have completed all the songs once on at least one difficulty level. I’m going to the platinum so I have some grinding to do now. I need to get enough combo points and perfect notes in order to open the last few social interactions.

I’m really liking the game and the ability to go back and spend a little time with the P5 crew. I played the P3 and P4 dance games a while ago and this one is no different. They are great fun in small doses, but I’m ready to move on once I get the platinum.

Finished Uncharted 3 this morning. I enjoyed it, but I'd still probably consider it my least favorite of the 5 PS3/PS4 games. The disappointment at the time was mostly likely due to the immense hype that Uncharted 2 created by being a fantastic sequel, so naturally I would have expected really big things from Uncharted 3.

On it's own, it's still a good game due to what makes the series one of the best modern series around, and that would be great characters you can't help but love and great writing. Those are also big things that help the first two games in the series remain beloved classics since some of the gameplay hasn't aged as good as some other games may have. Character movement was a bit slow and jumping is mediocre. Jumping was somewhat better in 3, but still shows issues on occasion when it won't just simply have the character turn to jump behind themselves/to the side when hanging on things like some other games like all 3 Tomb Raider games or modern Assassin's Creed do just fine. Or near the end of the game when the whole area was falling apart, I'd jump ahead and it would just flat out miss for no reason.

Still, I had an overall good time with it, and I did like it better this time around like I said earlier. I don't know if I agree with the 92 average I think it has, but at least I can confirm that it's not really a disappointment and was just at the mercy of coming right after one of the best games of it's kind.

Just finished Lego Marvel Super Heroes on PS4. It was a decent game and very chill to play on the side. The only problem I have is that there wasn't much variety. Even the last Lego game I played, which was Lego Batman 2, had more variety in terms of driving missions and so on. Here it felt like I was just doing the same things over and over and it honestly became very monotonous to play rather early on. I do hope that later Lego games remedy this because these games haven't managed to captivate me. For example, they could add car chases (I think Lego City Undercover has that), shooting segments (I believe Star Wars The Force Awakens has that) and so on. I just don't like that every level is structured exactly the same way in Marvel Super Heroes.

Either way, it's definitely going to be a long while before I play the next Lego game in my backlog.

@Jimmer-jammer I’ve honestly not heard a bad word about Psychonauts 2. Very much looking forward to playing it!

@Th3solution Wow that is not the game I expected to become your side piece xD, but I've heard the Persona rhythm games are good. Yeah you're right about summons but I think it was a design decision for Remake is to make those moments of player control/agency and make them feel like pre-made set pieces which are really cool, but I agree that I would like to use them more in smaller battles. There actually are summons that can be used in smaller battles, but their gated behind the Deluxe edition. The Ruby Carbuncle can be used in smaller battles as a support summon, it gives the whole party haste and defense. Its ultimate once it leaves is to heal everyone alive, and if I remember correctly maybe even revive. I think it would be beneficial if in the future games is they had two different distinctions of summons. Smaller battle summons and Boss battle summons that way they can satisfy all playstyles, what ya think?

Ahh you just made it through my LEAST favorite part of the game, I actually hate it lol. That part with the mechanical hands SUCKED, one of the worst puzzles I've ever played through. Aerith's slower playstyle can definitely take some adjustments but her Arcane Ward is a powerhouse! Props to the entire VA cast, so much character is conveyed through their performances. You have the PS5 version right? Gonna give Intermission a run after main game?

@TraCuz- Yes, I’m playing the PS5 Intergrade version. It’s really nice. I feel some of the benefits from the current tech (visuals, load time) but wish it had better use of the DualSense. But I am planning to play the Yuffie DLC, as long as I don’t grow tired of the game before I finish. I’m leaving it for the end.

I've seen the end of deltarune chapter 2. I've also faced it's secret boss

I can't (and won't) say a whole lot about it because of spoilers seeing as it only just came out... But I really enjoyed chapter 2.

I'd recommend you replay chapter 1 going into the game if it's been a while before diving into chapter 2. And maaaaaaybe transferring your clear data from Ch.1 to Ch.2 might do some things? Who knows? 😉 (... I'm not 100% sure myself but some things you might not expect do carry over )

The new (& old) characters are great. The villain in particular I found to be an absolute hoot. Loved every second they were on screen. The writing of the humour for this chapter absolutely tickled too compared to ch.1 or Undertale where I smiled or very lightly chuckled at most.

The music's wonderful of course (No surprises there as Toby's a fantastic composer). I'd list some tracks but... uhh some of the titles are pretty spoilery (and on the ones that aren't the youtube comments are probs littered with them) so I guess I'll leave that for now

Not a whole lot else to say really (without major spoilers at least) but I had a blast playing through this. Might even play through it again and... explore every avenue it has.

It's still free of course (Further chapters you will have to buy) and for about 6-7 hours of content in total for both chapters? Well... Now's your chance!

That’s the second run of MGS2 down 😅

@RogerRoger @RubyCarbuncle

I haven’t played a Sonic game since Sonic 3 in the mid 90’s… but I did read that this recent port of Sonic Colours wasn’t great. I definitely remember reading that it was worse than the original Wii version.

@RogerRoger I was beginning to think you lied about looking forward to my thoughts on the game after replaying it.

If it wasn't an Uncharted game or was just the first one of the series, I would think even higher of the game. It's still a very solid 8/10 or so for me. It lacked that one action set piece or two that I thought was truly great like some of the others have had. Obviously none of them were bad in the game, but I wasn't left thinking "wow" or "holy crap" after going through it.

@RogerRoger I'm going to be honest, I've been watching playthroughs of Sonic Colours Ultimate and while the music is still fundamentally good, I'm disappointed by the remixes in this version. They all feel "weaker" than the original ones, like there's not much oomph in the Ultimate version. For example, this is how the second level of the game, Sweet Mountain, sounded like in the original Wii version:

And here is the remixed version:

It just feels way less intense now, which is disappointing to me as I loved the original soundtrack. But yeah, it's not like the music is completely different. You'll probably still enjoy it since you haven't played the original game and therefore don't have anything to compare it with.

Anyway, hope you'll enjoy playing this game! It's definitely one of my favourite Sonic games of all time.

I beat Yakuza 3 and I liked it. I was a bit bored at the start as it feels like a lot of busy work and wandering around talking to annoying children and not knowing where I was supposed to go. But then I liked it a lot more as it went on and by the end it was fantastic. So I don't know. It was about on par with Kiwami maybe? Not as good as Kiwami 2.

In addition to recently finishing Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight, as I mentioned in the trophy thread, I played and completed Dear Esther.

I booted up Dear Esther largely on a whim as I needed something passive and ‘chill’ to offset my other current gaming with FF7R. I have a few thoughts on DE and might formulate an actual review if I have time, but suffice it to say it was a good experience. A beautiful game with a really deep narrative. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting but as a fan of walking sims, I am glad to have experienced it after having heard much praise for it over the years. After recently having to twist my mind into all kinds of mental gymnastics to make sense of the Returnal storyline and message, Dear Esther produced a similar satisfying yet perplexing exercise to interpret what I’d just experienced.

@Th3solution Ahh, one of the few games set in my neck of the woods! Well, a bit further north but close enough. I do enjoy that game but mostly for the exploration of the beautiful scenery.

@nessisonett Oh yeah, I was reading some online theories about the meaning of the narrative and was fascinated at the detailed description of where the car crash occurred. They have it right down to the intersection, I believe. It’s all Greek to me all the names of the towns and roads, but I thought it was cool that it was a real location
Do you know, is the island an actual place or a fabrication?

@Th3solution The specific island I think is a fabrication but draws heavily from the St Kilda islands and maybe a few others. The location of the accident is heavily debated but I think I heard that it was thought to be just outside Bristol which is pretty far south in England.

@Keith_Zissou so I managed to get the stealth run done on my first playthrough (very easy difficulty). I just saved regularly and reloaded if I caused an alert.
Second playthrough was 'easy', third is 'normal', fourth will be (hopefully) plant only on 'hard' and fifth will (hopefully again) be plant only on 'extreme'.

By the end of all that I'll hopefully have all the dog tags or I may have to do an extra run or two. Then 10 snake-tales, 150 alternate missions and 350 VR missions (some of which are supposedly very tricky). It's gonna be one-helluva plat if I manage to get it!