Topic: Games you've recently beat

I recently beat Days gone in PS5 with 80hrs and platinum and I must say is one of my favorite games in the last 3 years and despite all the glitches and bugs I had a blast. I REALLY hope they make Days Gone 2 after all.

@colonelkilgore For sure. Let me know how you get along with it.

Just finished Dante's Inferno and it was honestly shorter than I expected. It only took me 6 hours to get through it. Overall, I thought the game was okay. The mechanics of the game are basically that of the classic God of War games and it feels just as good to hack and slash like in GoW. The major problem though is the atrocious level design and being able to die in one hit by most environmental stuff. I had to reduce the difficulty level to the lowest throughout most of my playthrough and I'm glad that I did because I started to at least enjoy the game somewhat because of that.

The story was genuinely forgettable and not really that interesting. The whole goal is to basically save your wife who was killed because of your actions. You murdered innocent people, not to mention slept with other women and so the whole story just felt so stupid. Why go through all this effort just for one person who you betrayed and didn't even want you back? It was definitely not even close to the scale of the GoW stories. On top of that, the boss fights were just underwhelming. GoW is known for having massive and powerful bosses, but here you're just fighting ones that are barely larger than you. Not to mention there was very little enemy variety and a lot of mini-boss fights were constantly reused.

The game started out good enough but after a few hours, it all went downhill. I'm just glad the game was only 6 hours long because I don't know how much I could've taken with it. It didn't help that the last area was basically a bunch of random challenges like protect innocents for X amount of time or kill enemies while in the air. It felt so out of place and some challenges were just frustrating.

I can't even believe the developer was planning on making a sequel to the game considering it ends with the words "To be continued..". If there's one game that doesn't need a sequel, it's this one lol. Anyway, I'm glad that I've played it now at least but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to people.

@LtSarge sounds like a bit of a trudge for you mate. I actually have it pencilled in to play next year, once I’ve finished off the old God of War games. I do find it difficult to summon up the motivation to play them too mind you. Once I’ve finished them and Dante’s Inferno I also plan on playing the original Devil May Cry trilogy at some point… hopefully they won’t be quite the drag to actually get started on though.

@Jimmer-jammer yeah I’ve slowly been making my way through them for the last 18 months mate. Played (& plat’d) God of War, God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War: Ghost of Sparta & God of War 2… and I have God of War: Ascention and God of War 3 left to play. I do end up quite enjoying them once I’ve started them but I find myself making any excuse not to start one for some reason (I was scheduled to start Ascension in October and I still haven’t started it).

@colonelkilgore Yeah I don't know, I feel like I was always in a mood to play the God of War games compared to Dante's Inferno. I had to practically force myself to play Dante these past few days because I was completely unmotivated. But the thing is, I've been wanting to play a God of War clone for quite some time now ever since I finished up the GoW series years ago. It was really cool to find out that this game existed because I don't mind clones as long as they're done well. This one had great combat, but yeah the level design left much to be desired.

With regards to the original DMC trilogy, the first two games are not that great either in all honesty. The third game is loved by the fan base and I found it to be pretty good. It's definitely the best game out of the trilogy. After all, that's when the series started to establish the identity that it's known for today.

@Jimmer-jammer Exactly, the second half felt really underwhelming compared to the first half. It's like they ran out of ideas halfway through production and just threw together a bunch of things quickly. The fact that the game is only 6 hours long while a typical GoW game is around 10 hours just speaks for itself. They tried to cash in on GoW's popularity but ultimately fell short due to lack of ideas, resources and honestly, a vision. So yeah I agree, there was so much more they could've done with that game.

Just finished Forza Horizon 5 story mode and got into the Hall of Fame. Absolutely phenomenal game! I played through it from beginning to end, which took about 15 hours, on Xbox Cloud Gaming and it was such a smooth experience.

Anyway, this is definitely one of the best Forza Horizon games that I've played. I loved the way they did story mode this time around by having expeditions where you could actually explore the environments instead of just drive by them in races. I wish there would've been more of these though because as you get deeper into the story, a lot of the events are just regular races.

I do have to say though that the cars felt easier to handle this time around and I don't know if it were just me. Like I had a much easier time pulling off drifts compared to past Forza Horizon games. It definitely feels like the developer has improved upon the mechanics and that's great!

Another thing that I really liked about this game is the sheer variety of biomes. There are deserts, volcanic areas, woods, jungles, urban areas, plains and so on. Being able to drive through all of them was really nice, this definitely felt like the most varied Forza Horizon in terms of environments.

The overall progression was great, but one gripe I had with it was the cars. Throughout my 15 hours with the game, I never felt like changing the two cars I primarily used: one for off-road racing and one for regular racing. I feel like there should've been a better focus on making the player receive constantly better cars over time, but maybe that's not what people want? I can totally understand most people wanting to just have the best cars right from the get-go, but considering how there are over 500 different cars in the game, it felt kinda wasteful to only use two throughout the entire campaign.

All in all though, this was such a fun experience and I'm going to keep playing it and do more races until I feel like I'm done with it. It's such a good game and easily one of the best titles I've played this year.

Also finished all the puzzles in Picross S3 on Switch after 56 hours of playtime. Been playing it for probably a year now so it feels great to finally be done with it. I think this is my favourite one thus far since it was the first game to introduce Colour Picross, which is such an amazing addition to the series. I tend to go through the puzzles quite fast but in this mode I'll actually take my time because it's much more in-depth now that you have to take into consideration both numbers and colours. It's definitely become my favourite mode, that's for sure.

I'll be taking a break from the series for now but I'm definitely interested in buying the Picross Sega Edition that they released a while ago as my next Picross title to play. I'm much more interested in Picross games that have actual themes instead of just generic pictures, so I'm very much looking forward to playing it in the future!

Finished Return of the Obra Dinn and absolutely loved it. It’s just one big puzzle that feels incredibly satisfying to unpick. Similar to The Witness in that regard.

@LtSarge This is the biggest problem I have with the Forza Horizon games. You're given Lamborghinis and Aston Martins within the first 90 minutes, and then you never have to worry about buying new cars for specific events or anything like that ever again.

This is why I much prefer the Gran Turismo approach. Make those supercars dream purchases 20 or so hours down the line. I want to drive a crap Toyota for the first few hours.

@LiamCroft I agree, but I do think it's an issue with Forza Horizon in particular since it's definitely not like that in Forza Motorsport. I played through Motorsport 5 a couple of months ago and I had to constantly buy new cars. Maybe the developer wants to make the experience more casual for the Horizon series, but it just feels like a waste.

@Keith_Zissou If you’re into puzzles that you basically solve yourself and a plot that pieces itself together in your mind then it’s truly fantastic. Just don’t expect any handholding!

@LtSarge That has to be what they're going for. At least I would think so, but maybe a happy medium in Forza Horizon 6? Even in Forza Horizon 4, which I still play off and on since I was very late to the party, getting cars is basically pointless. I prefer them to clothing items, but they're still a waste.

@KilloWertz @LtSarge @LiamCroft Very much agree that the real draw for me over the years to Gran Turismo was the gradual feeling of progression. Perhaps it’s the rpg lover in me but I enjoy the solo ‘campaign’ where I build my garage and ‘level up’. There is an important balance that it needs to have where the player gradually improves skills but also gradually gets access to better quality of cars. Not unlike an rpg.

Not having an Xbox, I can’t speak to the Forza series, but it sounds like they have both options — the solo progression rpg-like time sink, and the grab-and-go-drive-the-Ferrari-on-day-1 casual approach.

Here’s hoping GT7 eschews this online only racer approach and brings us a deep sim racer where I can drive and level up a second hand Honda Civic for a couple hours before I start investing into my dream garage.

I finished this game yesterday.

Yes, i played Barbie games.
Girly girly games.

@Th3solution Forza Horizon has RPG elements as well; each time you level up, you get to spin a wheel and get a random item such as a car, money or a clothing item. But the rewards are pointless because you already have good cars, money is spent on buying cars (which you don't need to do), buying clothing items (which are meh) or buying houses which serve as fast travel points. In other words, you don't really need money in this game.

Forza Motorsport has had RPG elements since at least Motorsport 3 on Xbox 360. You level up, get more money to buy more cars so that you can participate in higher level cups and so on. You can even level up your car manufacturer rank depending on how often you use a car from that manufacturer and for each level you get a higher discount when buying cars from them. It's a great progression system, but yeah Forza Horizon is definitely more for the casual audience.

@Anti-Matter Is it not a bit reductive to describe such games as girly? Should we not be at a point where you can play whatever the hell kinda game you want without segregating based on gender?

@LtSarge In a way it’s like a Souls game or an action adventure game where you have bosses to get past and you feel so satisfied when you fine tune your skills and upgrade your equipment to the point that you can finally beat that boss, and then go on to open the next area of the map where you start preparing for the next boss. It’s really similar with the driving sims — you get better and at get to know your brake distances, understeer and oversteer, drafting, etc. all the while accruing money (= XP) to use on modifications and cars (= weapons, equipment, and skills) and take on the next course (= dungeon) to win the next cup (= boss). 😄

Forza sounds like a very well done series and it would be a good reason to own Xbox. I like that mechanic of gaining loyalty points with a certain manufacturer

That's the credits rolled for Spider-man Miles Morales. Really enjoyed this one, probably a shade more than 2018 Spider-man. Miles Morales due to its shorter length felt like it respected my time a bit more, with less bloat as there were less side activities.

The combat is also superior with less gadgets to use and instead the focus is with using your Venom powers, and as they aren't used by bring up a radial menu it feels less fiddly to use. Traversal was as amazing in the 2018 game.

Story wise is about the same with high production values, and a good (relatively unknown) voice cast. Just like in the 2018 game, I found it a little predictable in places but there were also a couple of surprises along the way.

Soundtrack and score was good, with a mix of hip hop, latino beats and orchestral, which I thought they transitioned very well. The former two I'm not really the biggest fan of, but I thought it suited the characters and setting to a tee.

Graphically I was impressed with spectacular lighting and shadows due to ray tracing. With the enemy powers being very neon-y (and purple), this was really allowed to shine. The end boss fight was in particular a real showcase.

Which leads one to my one real gripe, the lack of bosses. I think there 5 boss fights in the game, with 2 of those with the same enemy and another one a VR training thingy. None of the are bad though, but nothing on the scale of the Electro/Vulture or Scorpin/Rhino from the 2018 game.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the game and am excited to see what they do with the full sequel, from the teaser trailer we saw earlier in the year. Still got a few bit to clear up after the story, and may even start a new game+ playthrough. Which is something I very rarely do.

@JohnnyShoulder If you’re going to NG+ for the trophy, it’s amazing how short the main story is but the side content blends in to the overall story really well and doesn’t feel tacked on that much at all.

It’s also nice for the NG+ trophy not to be locked behind the hardest difficulty too.

Great game though and it’ll be fun to see how the incorporate both Spideys into the next game!