Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Keith_Zissou the Snake Eater list is quicker and more achievable. I would say that it's trickier than most trophy journeys and guides give it credit though. There is a lot to juggle in terms of outfits, camo, plants and animals... but also those bloody Kerotans, they almost tipped me over the edge.

Still, it's a list where planning and preparation will help (ie note down missable trophies and when you'll get to the point of no return etc.). Very doable then though.

... and yeah, something about the term la-li-lu-le-lo just intrigued me.

@colonelkilgore
With that much planning, commitment and effort it's almost like they should be paying you to do so!

@Sorteddan I know right. I’m one of the few human’s that take great satisfaction from being pro-active in regards to planning and preparation though… in pretty much all aspects of my life. Chaos stresses me out.

Just finished Hydrophobia: Prophecy on PS3. Overall, it wasn't that good. The first thing I have to address is that this game basically doesn't have a beginning or an end. It just throws you in the deep end without explaining the story, the characters or having any build-up at all. Then it just ends after the final boss, you don't get any explanation of what happens to the world or the characters afterwards. I don't even remember the protagonist's name for crying out loud, lol. It definitely feels like the developers made this game solely for the gameplay and rushed to put together a story to make the game coherent.

Now, what is there is pretty cool. The gameplay is like a mix of Uncharted platforming and shooting as well as Watch Dogs "hacking" before Watch Dogs was even a thing. But the thing is that just like with Uncharted, the gameplay gets repetitive really fast. The "panic" moments where you have to quickly swim away from water flowing in or having to swim underwater for a long time were exhilarating though, as well as the supernatural power that you gain at the end. But like I said, it doesn't feel like a complete game but a prototype that you show a publisher before the title goes into development.

Playing this game has been a strong reminder to me of how I used to buy games ten years ago. I'd just buy anything that was cheap without looking up if it's any good. I've stopped doing that ever since and if I had had this mentality back then, I definitely would've avoided buying this game. Just because it's cheap doesn't mean that it's good. I'm just glad to have crossed this off my PS3 backlog since it's been sitting there for almost a decade now.

@Keith_Zissou it's the ones when youre in the sidecar of a motorcycle that are particularly tricky. The combination of PS3 era sniper-controls mixed with travelling at high-speed (speed and direction of which you have no control over) makes them very tough to see, let alone hit.

Still, if I could do it anyone can... I wish you a smoother kerotan hunt than I had 😅

Which Naruto game is this exactly @RogerRoger? Sounds like a bit of an rpg or something?

I finished Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst the other day myself. Well not finished completely but I saw the end credits at least. Unsure if I'll go through the rest just yet as that final battle against the tailed beasts was a bit obnoxious for me 😅

I also went through deltarune's second chapter again and did certain "weird" things

I really look forward to the full release of this. I'm still in the mindset as I was before with the first chapter in that I enjoyed it and it's premise much more interesting then I did Undertale.

@Iver A time traveling Lara Croft 🤔
It could work.

Oh really @RogerRoger? The Uzumaki chronicles sounds quite interesting actually... Might have to look up a youtube video on those 😄

And don't worry about it Rog! It... Wasn't too bad. Kinda. I didn't do great

No I didn't do the Sasuke mission... Didn't actually know there was one aside from there being two blank areas on the ninja timeline after the finale and thinking there was something to unlock

Lost Words: Beyond the Page and Bright Memory on my Series X. Yes, I'm giving my PS5 a little break. Blasphemy, I know. Anyways, Lost Words is a very simple game gameplay wise, but it's a fairly touching story as long as you don't mind absolutely no action in your game. It's essentially a platformer.

Bright Memory was nothing special, but once I got a handle of the combat, it actually was ok. Graphics were pretty bad for a new gen game, but it seems like Bright Memory: Infinite will be an actual true new gen game.

I just finished Night in the Woods on Switch after about 7-8 hours of playtime I believe and it was honestly quite good. It's definitely a slow burn in the beginning but after a couple of hours, the story becomes really engrossing. I think my only issue is that the ending doesn't really wrap things up that well, which I guess is why you need to play through it multiple times. But honestly, I don't feel like playing through it again due to how slow it was in the beginning. Not to mention that I didn't like the writing that much. It just feels too casual sometimes, like not much effort has been put into making the dialogues compelling to read. Also, the protagonist felt very out of character sometimes. For example, when she's talking with people in town, she behaves normally. But when she's out with her friend Bea, she becomes a complete a**hole for some reason. On top of this, the dialogue options during these sections are one-sided, like I don't get to choose to either act nice or mean. It just felt so out of character, like the writers forced this side of her solely for plot convenience. But besides these parts, the story was really good and I ended up really liking the four main characters.

@LtSarge God to hear another person who enjoyed it! (@ralphdibny and I posted about it in the chit chat thread I think).

I wasn't a fan of the ending either as it felt a bit disjointed from the rest of the story. It's been a while since I played it so I don't remember the dialogue with Bea but she's played out as a kind of depressing figure but also an old friend of Mae. I followed the story down the Gregg path (mostly because Angus is a dude) but I thought it worked well and was quite realistic how Mae behaved so differently around different characters.

@Thrillho I decided to hang out with both Gregg and Bea instead of choosing one of them and two of the three times I hanged out with Bea, they've been a total disaster due to Mae always instigating something. For example, one time you visit Bea's house and cook food for her and her father. Then you go to Bea's room and all of a sudden, Mae is laying into Bea because Bea told her that she's doing all the work of their family business while her father just sits at home. At this point I just wanted Mae to stop talking about this because it is rude to dictate how Bea should live her life (not to mention that Bea was getting upset) but the dialogue options were both about escalating the situation. And I get it that the developer wanted to portray Mae as an arrogant person but her behaviour felt way too out of character, like you don't normally see that side of her at all and all of a sudden, it's there. Her outbursts just felt poorly woven into the storyline.

@Thrillho @LtSarge I followed down the Gregg path mostly too because he just made me laugh loads.

Never really interpreted Mae as arrogant though. Just an aimless, do what ever you want sort of person. Reminds me of myself 😂. When you have best friends, you argue. Especially when you are young and you think loads of stuff matters that actually doesn't and you are fuelled by your own insecurities. I've had those pointless, "I'm doing this, so why don't you?" conversations when I was that age. Arrogant? Maybe a bit. More just ignorant than anything else. Ignorance caused by inexperience.

@ralphdibny But that's what I'm saying though, she's not arrogant in the slightest in every other situation besides when she was with Bea during these two parts, lol. That's why I didn't like these sections because they made Mae behave very out of character. You missed out on seeing this because you only hanged out with Gregg.

And the thing is, they're not that young. Mae is 20 years old, at that point she should be a sensible adult. I would've given her a free pass if she were maybe 15 years old but not at 20. At that point you'd know better than to return to a town and hang out with people you haven't been with for a long time and then start judging their lives.

@LtSarge hahaha sensible adult at 20! I wish someone had told me that 😂. Drugs, promiscuity and loud music were the order of the day for me back then 😂. I wish I'd done more of it to be honest because there's none of that going on for me at age 31. Being an adult is so boring 😅

But yeah, people are complicated. I act differently around different people. Moreso when I was younger. The school reunions were great in the term breaks at uni for that very reason. Young people are passionate, tiringly so. Which can come across as arrogant but it's just what young people are like. I was like that back then, always thought I was right about everything. Then real adult life kicked seven shades of doodoo out of me and now I am just the same boring apathetic person that almost every other adult is. I could kid myself that it didn't happen to me and attempt to function normally in society but you can't kid a kidder as they say. Especially if that kidder is yourself. Just gotta be happy with my lot. As painful and as hard as that can be.

I beat Yakuza 4 and it's my favourite of the Yakuza games so far I think. I usually don't like it when you have to play as multiple characters in a game like this, but I think it worked well as a few small stories that combine into some kind of story Megazord at the end.

I also played Alan Wake and reviewed it and made lots of people sad.

@johncalmc Good to hear an honest review on AW. I can imagine it can't be easy saying how you feel, potentially knowing that a lot of people are going to be upset about it. I'm looking forward to playing Alan Wake just to form my own opinion but I'm amazed that people get so angry when yours doesn't align with their own.

@render My least favourite bit of a review is when it's submitted and I sit and I wonder to myself what the other reviews are going to be like. Alan Wake was fine because I knew some people were going to have a tantrum because it's got a cult following. But generally speaking, the bit leading up to an embargo can be a bit weird because you never know if you're going to be the outlier giving a game a 4 when everyone else is at a 9 or a 10 and now the comments section is a swamp of people calling you names because you dragged the Metacritic score down.

It's pretty strange. Like I don't think there's any review, ever, that has made me even slightly aggrieved.

@Iver I'm on Yakuza 5 now too. I'm still in the first bit as I've only played three hours or so but I'll be back on it soon. I suspect I'll like this one a lot too. To be honest I've liked them all so far. I was a bit sketchy on the opening of 3 but after a while I liked that too.

@johncalmc @RogerRoger I thought the review was great too, I mean that's what we all want isn't it - honest reviews? There is always outcry when publications like IGN put out a 10/10 review for a game because people think it's been influenced in some way so then why are people getting upset when the opposite happens?!

I think the best thing about your reviews are that you go into detail and really say what you think about the different aspects of the game. I'd almost rather have that than the overall review score as then you actually have to think about if those things would influence how you feel about the game and can make a more informed decision.