Topic: Games you've recently beat

Just finished Ratchet: Gladiator HD on PS3. The gameplay is really fun, as you'd expect from this franchise. Problem is though that the missions become very monotonous during the second half as the objectives stay the same. Even though the game is only 7-8 hours long, it honestly goes on for too long.

I'm just glad that I finished it. I've had it in my backlog for almost 10 years and it was one of the few remaining games in this series that I still hadn't played yet.

@LtSarge I had that game on PS2 and absolutely loved it at the time. It was also the only Ratchet and Clank game I played until the PS4 remake/reimagining thing 😂

Beat Cold Steel 3 and… quite enjoyed it in all? Yep, the same incredible lows are still there with bloody McBurn and some truly dreadful harassment written off as jokey joke jokes. It’s probably Stockholm syndrome or I’ve been desensitised to the crap stuff and can focus on the actual good parts. But then a lot of the issues of the first two games are actually kinda better. Rean is somewhat interesting in this game, although it does feel like he would be a better character if he was moved into a more supporting role and Juna became the main protagonist. Plus, bizarrely, pointless Gaius has a storyline!!! I mean sure, it’s teased for ages before actually talking about it just before the final dungeon but he has something to do! In many ways, it’s Cold Steel 1 but better paced, with each chapter following the same structure but much more in depth.

In terms of the new cast, the smaller size means they all get a chance to shine and actually interact with each other. That was one of the main issues with the first set of kids, they only interacted with Rean and barely talked to each other. This game has actual interactions between characters which might seem like a tiny ask but is a big step for Cold Steel. The old cast do get their time in the spotlight but the focus is mostly on the new lot which I think was a good idea. The returning cast members from the previous arcs were probably the highlight though, they kinda stand out amongst the less interesting Cold Steel extended cast. Just wish they would completely stop with the Agate x Tita crap though, that’s literally kiddy fiddling and at least Agate looks visibly traumatised whenever it’s brought up.

The final chapter was insane. Like I’m convinced that they’ll completely balls it up in the 4th game but regardless, that was a great ending. Probably doing heavy lifting with my positive feelings towards the game but yeah, maybe this is the one good game in the subseries.

@HallowMoonshadow No problem - thanks for the detailed reply! And wow, I really enjoyed that DMC1 review! How did I miss that back in 2021? I must have been in a stupor from the world unraveling from COVID or something. But it does sound like a decent game, for an old PS2 game.

And it completely understand the, how did you say… “the allure of things unknown tempting me away”. I love that and I’m going to shamelessly steal that phrase. Regardless, I suspect you’ll get back around to Legend of Dragoon at some point. Maybe before I get around to Divinity Original Sin 2.

It actually gives me a mini panic attack to see how my time seems to continue to shrink while my backlog grows. 😅 Perhaps I’m finally starting to act like an adult.

Nah.

@HallowMoonshadow Hahaha, honestly I’d say get out while you can, it’s probably not as good as I’m saying and it might just be sheer madness on my front 😂

Just finished the main story on Saints Row 4 and it was a surprisingly good time. I had a major problem with it at release as it wasn’t what I was expecting (just another GTA clone) but going back to it nearly a decade on with the knowledge of what it was… was a minor revelation.

Basically it’s Volitions version of the open-world superhero game… and it’s a more than decent stab at that. Epic final mission that really played to my nostalgia-feels too. A massive riff on the end of 1986’s Transformers: the Movie that had me beaming like a cat from Cheshire 😁.

@Kidfried Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! Are you planning a Hard mode run though? I found the combat to be even more enjoyable when you had to utilise every character fully and use magic so sparingly.

So if you hurry I guess you maybe would have time to play the game before FFXVI. Or maybe you want wait a little bit more and play the game during the winter or something.

@RogerRoger it’s funny you should mention that Rog as I’ve always thought that Just Cause 3 plays a lot like an open-world superhero game… what with the flying about and such.

So I would hold Just Cause 3 above Saints Row 4 (I’m yet to play Just Cause 4) but I did enjoy the latter and the world traversal is great fun albeit not as fun as the wing suit and grappling hook combo. As far as the two series’ goes, again I’d have to go Just Cause as 2 and 3 are two of my favourite games ever (well top 30 or so). I do like the Saints Row games but with the exception of Saints Row 4 and Saints Row: Gat out of Hell they were all just poor man’s GTA-clones tbh.

@Kidfried Well good luck..

Just finished Kena: Bridge of Spirits and it really is a joy. Managed to finish the thing on Normal, which is no mean feat I reckon… I’d rank a good chunk of those boss fights well above your average souls boss in terms of difficulty. Also, big shout out to @CaptD and @BearsEatBeets for the info about glitching the Master difficulty trophy. Would I have been able to do it for reals? Maybe… but I can tell from the small section of NG+ I played through on Master that it would’ve been incredibly punishing.

I'm a big believer in using the full review scale. Even if it means I've given low scores to a few games I really loved.

@colonelkilgore I would have had no chance without the glitch. I put the game down to easy about halfway through and still died a couple of times on the final boss I think. A lot to admire with the game to be sure, interested to see what they come up with next.

Just finished GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony on Xbox 360. It took me over ten years but I finally did it! I played through GTA IV and The Lost and Damned back in 2012 but I never played through TBoGT. It was a weird feeling to be back in the GTA IV world again after such a long time. It was really nostalgic for me.

It took me roughly a dozen hours to get through the game and I did a lot of side content as well. It's definitely a meaty expansion. Not to mention that it's overall a much better experience than GTA IV. It doesn't take itself as seriously as GTA IV, which is how GTA should be. The missions are crazier, e.g. stealing a tank from the police and blowing everything up. The gameplay is more varied as they've added parachuting, which makes for fun side content as well as awesome story missions. Some of the new weapons are also really good, such as a shotgun that shoots explosive shells. The DLC is just overall much, much better and more fun than the actual game. It's crazy to me that Rockstar thought: "Well, we can't make GTA IV too fun, but we'll certainly make the DLC a lot of fun". It's just so weird that they decided to make GTA IV like that.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my time with this DLC and it feels great to be done with something that I've wanted to play for over a decade.

@LtSarge Glad you enjoyed it. GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony is great, easily my favourite part of the GTA IV era. As you say, it's got a much better variety for its missions, and the feel and tone of it is way more vibrant.

I need someone to tell me if I've completed Lawnmower Simulator or not and whether it's ok to just "let go" 😂

I played the bulk of it before Xmas last year and now it's leaving game pass. I played the career mode until like the second to last prestige level, I have the best property and basically playing it became very boring with little to unlock and little more progress to be made

There is a challenge mode which I've unlocked all the missions for but I've only done a couple of the missions. I don't think it's really my bag as it wasn't as satisfying as the career mode.

Have I completed this game?! Can I add it to my list of completed games? I feel like it's contentious and ive put so much time into it that I am gutted to not add it but I've not technically completed it in my opinion so I'd feel bad about adding it.

I don't think I can add it to the list. I think it's a write off. It was a really good game but it was the last game I played before I decided to put my life through the wringer at Xmas and ended up having a few months break from gaming. I don't think I have it in me to grind through it to the very end.

@ralphdibny I struggle so much with when to let go of a game that I’ve left stagnant for a while. In my mind I say I’m going to go back and complete it, but I never do. Although occasionally I have the self-awareness to say, “I’m done with this.”

Regarding your situation, I’m here to tell you “Let it go!” 😄 as you seem to have experienced the majority of the game and it grew stale for you. There’s no reason to go back. There’s no surprise twist ending, no deep philosophical lesson at the closing cut scene, no endorphin rush for besting a huge boss at the end…. It’s over, for all intents and purposes. You’re done. Check it off your list.

(Does that help? 😛)

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@CthulhuFhtagn Interesting. That’s the first lukewarm / mediocre reception for Hades I’ve seen. I actually have it in my backlog and I always forget about it. I think I have Curse of the Dead Gods too, I think it was a PS+ game iirc.

@Th3solution thank you sol, I will give it up 🙂😂😅

I don't think I can put it on my list, criteria for my list is either beat campaign/career/main game or beat 100% and annoyingly while this game is essentially beat, 100% is required to beat the career mode and that last 5% or so is too much of a grind. I think if I'd have done the challenge mode, I'd be happy to say it's beat but I didn't

It's even a pain for me to give up a game early on. I got to Mission 4 on Ninja Gaiden Sigma the other day (was planning to play the whole trilogy) before deciding I was done. It was just too hard for me and I ended up dreading even turning the Xbox on to play it to the extent that I ended up hating it. I decided that life's too short!

@ralphdibny Yeah, the latest victims for me in the last year have been Resident Evil 4 (the old version not the remake) and Immortals Fenyx Rising. I didn’t finish either one before I got side-tracked and for some reason every time I tried to compel myself to boot either of them up, I had no excitement to play it. In the case of RE4 I was finding it too hard and in the case of Immortals I was just forgetting the controls and ran into some frustration because of too large a time lapse between sessions. They are two more (of a list of many) games that I regret not “finishing” but I’m having a blast with the games I’ve played in their stead and I suppose that’s the point, in the end — to have fun and enjoy what you’re playing. I’m trying not to feel guilty or like a failure for leaving some of these games partially done.

The other time where I’m “done with a game but have a sense of not really being done” is when I complete it through to the end and have a blast with it but am a few trophies shy from the platinum. If it’s just a few hours of additional commitment I’ll satiate my obsessive-compulsive mind and indulge in grinding the platinum out, but most of the time lately I’m leaving it and just checking the game off as ‘complete’. Rather than doing a second run I’m moving on to another game. It’s really satisfying to have a game you love be 100% complete with a platinum trophy cherry on top, but free-time doesn’t grow on trees anymore so that level of completion for me is getting more rare.

@Th3solution 99.9% of gamers will forever have unfinished games that they never go back to for one reason or another. It's just a fact of gaming. I know I do, and while I do plan on going back to at least a few of them someday, I know it may or may not ever happen.

I'm surprised the controls were an issue in your return to Immortals Fenyx Rising. I find it to be a very easy game to play in that regard, especially in comparison to some other games like the two latest Zelda games that have convoluted controls in comparison. It is what it is though, and I will finish the game for you as that is the game I'm currently playing. There's no chance of me hitting the 100% mark as I rarely ever go out of my way to do that in a game, and there's borderline too much in the game for me to want to do everything. Also, games that are puzzle focused like this one or Breath of the Wild aren't ones I usually play, so leaving some of the side puzzles untouched won't be a big deal for me. I am enjoying the game though.