Topic: Games you've recently beat

@JudgeDredd I appreciate the confidence 😅… out of interest is there any indication of the winds direction, or do you just have to ‘suck-it-and-see’?

@JudgeDredd appreciate the info (or should I say intel 😉) 👍

@JudgeDredd 🫡

@JudgeDredd Authentic difficulty is honestly the only way I’d play these games now. Just annoyed that my younger brother made a manual save on my file meaning I didn’t get the trophy in 4.

Had a good old go on one of my all time favourites yesterday, Furi. As great as ever, really enjoyed it, such a fun game with one of the best ever soundtracks. Tried out speed run mode for the first time as well and just about got both the trophies by the skin of my teeth, was a close call!

@RogerRoger

Ouch, that's a shame. Can't say I got very far in the later Tomb Raider games. Absolutely loved the first 2 though, truly incredible experiences. I guess them changing developers after the second game meant it lost its charm for me after that but I did get most of the way through TR3.

Really curious to see what the new owners of the ip will do with it. A proper remake of the original would be really exciting.

@colonelkilgore Looking forward to getting round to doing those trophies 👍. I first started playing Sniper 4 back in May 2019 and was a bit gutted that I didn’t get to clear all the trophies. I started an Authentic play through a few nights ago just to get back into it again and it’s once again reminded me why I love the game. Who wouldn’t love those slow mo close ups when you nail a great shot.

Let me know when you are good to do those online ones and I’ll make some time 😀

@JudgeDredd Great to hear that Sniper 5 also lives up to expectations. It’s on my list!

@RogerRoger
hahaha. ..Once again, just loving your descriptive prowess. How come the forth bit was so bad compared to the earlier parts?

Life is Strange: True Colors

As a fan of the series, I knew going in that I was going to enjoy it. After beating it yesterday, True Colors is probably my new favorite of the series. I have yet to play Life is Strange 2, but someday I will fix that so I can say I've played the whole series. I also don't consider that "canon", but I still do with this one since Steph was in Before the Storm, giving True Colors a link to the past Arcadia Bay duo of games.

Anyways, the game gets pretty dark quite a few times, but never overwhelmingly so. The darkest being obviously when Gabe dies at the end of Chapter 1 and then in Chapter 5 when Jed turns out to be a villain and tries to kill Alex, sending her into a time loop of her worst childhood moments. I will also give them credit as I didn't see the Jed twist coming until right before it was about to happen. There's also plenty of lighthearted moments as well, and the things you do with the side characters and some of your choices you make actually matter, as there's several different ways parts of the final chapter can do along with several different endings (some things similar, but still, at least several variations of scenes and such).

I would love a spin-off with Steph as the main character like they did with Before the Storm with Chloe, as Steph was easily my favorite character of this game. I haven't played her Wavelengths DLC yet, but it's not supposed to be anything substantial from what I remember reading, so a full-fledged story with her would likely be pretty fun given her spirited personality from Before the Storm and now True Colors.

@JudgeDredd Thanks. Ok, then that's what I get for not playing the game. Assuming, and you know what assuming does...

@RogerRoger That's a very good question, but Life is Strange is one of the IPs Square Enix kept in the sale, so I guess they still have plans for the series.

It seems to be doing well enough. Pulled this from Wikipedia...

"On 13 September 2021, Life is Strange: True Colors debuted at #6 on the UK games boxed sales chart based on physical editions alone, with 54% of sales coming from the PS5, 28% from the PS4, and 18% from the Xbox Series X/S.[57]

In The NPD Group September 2021 games report, Life is Strange: True Colors ranked at #10 for top selling games within the US, which is the "highest launch month dollar sales for any Life is Strange title to date."

I guess I was also wrong about Wavelengths (Steph's DLC). It has a 79 on Metacritic from 8 reviews. I may wait until it's cheaper to get ($12.99 for the Deluxe Edition add-on, which is essentially Wavelengths), but my expectations for it are a little higher now. Not expecting something beyond a couple of hours still, but I have a feeling I'll enjoy it given the character.

@RogerRoger You're welcome. You are right that there wasn't much of any hype for the game at any time, but I guess it didn't really need it.

I usually only play one game at a time now as when I tried to do two at a time, one started to take away from the other. If I did though, I doubt I'd want to play them both at the same time either.

True, it won't be. If I remember correctly, previous Life is Strange games went on sale often enough. The other option would be just buy it now and then wait and play it whenever you're ready to. Your call of course.

In the US, the physical copy is on sale now for $24.99, which is about $10 cheaper than what I paid for it. I'm guessing it's not on sale there too though. Oh well, as I'm glad I played it. It was a nice palette cleanser in between Cyberpunk 2077 and now Assassin's Creed Origins with the 60 FPS patch.

@KilloWertz @RogerRoger Yeah the LiS games have traditionally dropped in price fairly well. True Colors has actually held its value longer than any of the former games, I think. The current sale price is tempting but I have LiS 2 so I’ll start with that.

Does True Colors have things separated into episodes like the other games? I know it didn’t release episodically, but I don’t think LiS2 did either and they still have it so episodes 1-4 are on the disc and episode 5 is downloadable only through a code given in the box. A clever tactic to discourage the second hand market, for sure. Part of why I like buying physical where possible is because of the trade-in value, so I was hoping True Colors has the whole game on disc.

@Th3solution The story is told in 5 chapters like previous games, but yeah, the whole game is on the disc. There was a small patch as well, but that was to add a 60 FPS mode.

Just seen the credits roll on Celeste (PS4). Though there is another chapter so not really finished it all but I think I may be done with it nonetheless.
Been playing it on occaision for a few months now but hard for me to play for extended periods due to its difficulty level. I can honestly say it's probably one of the hardest games that I've completed in recent years, but that may be as I lack the dexterity and reflexes of some. Though I think it is supposed to be rock hard otherwise it wouldn't be much of a game. Definitely straddles the line between fun and frustration which I therefore label frustration type of gaming. Also I think the struggle is important as it makes the plot make more sense.
Total time around 9.5 hours, number of deaths around 2300!

And I'm totally using assist mode (cheat mode) when I go back for collectables and trophies, but think I'll leave that for a later time.

@RogerRoger Yeah, you'll be fine. I probably ended up paying more than I should have, as the $34 I paid for the physical copy is almost as much as what the Deluxe Edition is on sale for right now, but oh well. It's smaller than what the PSN store said it was (the game sizes are wrong a lot in the PS5 store), which is why I bought the disc version, but I'll be ok. I really liked it, which is what matters in the end.

Just finished Akiba’s Beat on PS4. Still have some stuff to do, but the main story is done and I got the best ending. I didn’t realise when I started it that I was about to play a 70+ hour JRPG! I’ve enjoyed it for the most part, although having to do the same dungeons over and over did get a bit repetitive.

@JudgeDredd
Really. Most of the reviews and feedback I've seen have seemed quite glowing.you sound less impressed. Did it just not click with you? We're there specific reasons or am I just misinterpreting your comment?
I do know the feeling though!

@JudgeDredd
Fair enough. Know what you mean though, sometimes a game can just seen like it's funelling you towards the next bit without much agency on your part and when it feels like that it just becomes a time sinking grind. You maybe right when you say it's a mentality thing because at other times I may have been fine with such things. Thanks for the reply though and good to hear some balanced feedback on it.

@Bentleyma I have Akiba's Beat in my backlog but haven't started it yet. The only reason I got it is because I heard it's reminiscent of Persona. Would you say it's like that series after having played through it now?