Topic: Games you've recently beat

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Overall, I thought Enslaved was a very good game despite it being a technical mess on the PS3. The story, the characters, and even the gameplay all come together nicely to be one of the better gaming experiences I've had recently. Maybe they could have done even a bit more with it during the Epilogue, but overall I thought Monkey and Trip's overall relationship arc was pretty well done and great.

It is unfortunate that the framerate is awful for whatever reason, and even the graphics are rough as a whole. I'm not really sure why as I never really read up on the history of the game, although I do recall there not being the greatest track record with Unreal Engine on the PS3. As I've already said in a previous comment about Enslaved, it would be great if this game would ever get remade so the game could get the technical presentation it deserves, although I know it will never happen.

@KilloWertz Good to see that you enjoyed Enslaved. Since I played it during the PS3 generation I don’t recall having issue with the technical performance, but I’m sure I’ve acclimated to current standards and would have a similar reaction as you if I went back. It is one of those strange games that is somewhat of a cult classic but just never really caught widespread attention from the greater public. Similar to Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword in that regard, although HS was more successful and well-known.

Have you played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice? Although I really liked both HS and E:OttW, I think it’s Ninja Theory’s best game. Beyond Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, and all the other Xbox games, Hellblade 2 is the game that might push me to the limits of getting an Xbox.

@KilloWertz I second the motion for an Enslaved remake (or even a remaster, if they can get the original code to play nice)! I played it on X360 back when and remember liking it a lot, but for some reason I never got around to finishing it, so I would love another crack at it.

@Th3solution Got Hellblade in my backlog (and library) and have only just tried the first few minutes, but I really liked what I saw. This is how I try to get through my backlog these days: focusing on one game at a time until I've completed it (or feel that I'm otherwise done with it), and not starting up a gajillion games simultaneously (which might be why I never finished Enslaved way back when). Still buying new games, though, and I typically try them out to get a feel for the experience. Helps picking the next game to play based on what I'm in a mood for and doesn't really disrupt the game I'm currently playing.

@FuriousMachine Of course the first rule of Hellblade is to play with either good headphones or at least a high quality sound system. The headphones really help the immersion though.

And the game isn’t too long, and can probably be done in under 10 hours. The platinum isn’t too bad either. The real treat of the game is the audio design and the character development and messaging. The combat and gameplay is one of the weaker aspects, but still not bad. There are better action-combat games but no other game quite hits the mental health component like Hellblade. It’s a game I still think about even a few years later.

@Th3solution Yeah, unfortunately not playing anywhere near as many games back then as I should have can be a big negative at times. There are several games I doubt I'd be able to enjoy that well now that I would have probably loved back then since I wouldn't have known any better. That's just how games were back then. As for the performance of Enslaved, I suppose there were more games back then that didn't run smoothly and got left alone, unlike today where a developer is more likely to try to fix it. Obviously that's not always the case either, but I'm not sure how I would have reacted back then to the framerate. It's still highly enjoyable today even with the issues though.

Yes, I played Hellblade back on the Xbox One X. I enjoyed it, but I do wish I had a pair of headphones like I do now for my PS5. I would almost get it cheap to experience it again on the PS5, but given that Hellblade 2 is an Xbox exclusive, I'll probably just wait for that instead since I also have a Series X (that I rarely use). Hellblade 2 is definitely my most anticipated Xbox exclusive though, not counting Elder Scrolls 6 and Gears 6 since who knows when they'll ever come out.

Speaking of Heavenly Sword, that was one of my favorite PS3 games actually. I'm not going to compare the two as I played HS over 13 years ago, but I remember that being one of my favorite early experiences with the system after getting the PS3 in the middle of the generation. I'm not sure if I'd want to go back to it someday though or not since some of the non-Devil May Cry like combat sequences (I remember shooting something and having to guide it along) might not hold up today. Well, that and the fact that I will always have a backlog of unplayed games.

@FuriousMachine I would wonder why you never finished it, but I also have plenty of games I never finished from that console generation. Unlike some games that have an insanely difficult section or two of a game where you basically bang your head up against the wall and eventually bust through, Enslaved wasn't too bad in that regard.

@Th3solution I don't have any decent headphones, but I got a pretty good brand new 5.1 surround setup, so that will probably do quite nicely

@KilloWertz Back then I often let my attention wander to other games and, as a result, some games simply went unfinished for that reason. If that was the case with Enslaved, I really can't remember, but I can't remember getting bored with it or hitting a wall or feeling that progress was slow, so that is the best explanation, I guess.

@FuriousMachine Damn younger years. Sometimes I do wish I gamed the same back then as I do now. There's plenty of games from back in the PS1 and PS2 eras that I never finished either, and while I do think a decent portion of them was because I got stuck and there were not YouTube videos then, I likely bounced around a bit too. I never finished games like the original Resident Evil or any of the Metal Gear Solid games before 4 as a result.

Copies for Enslaved haven't ballooned like some old games have, so if you ever do revisit it and don't still have a copy, it should be easy enough to get. I paid only $23 for a brand new copy for PS3. Granted that was the cheapest copy on eBay, it shouldn't be too bad.

@KilloWertz @FuriousMachine and @anyone else passing by…
I actually was better about finishing games back in the retro generations. I finished mediocre games like Prince of Persia 2008 reboot, Remember Me , 3D Dot Game Heroes, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale — all games which I enjoyed plenty but if existed in today’s environment would likely have never even been booted up, much less completed (and platinum’d in the case of PS All-Stars). Heck, I remember spending tons of time with The Bouncer and Bust-A-Groove and all those Guitar Hero games. There just wasn’t a whole lot of options at the time so we played garbage games sometimes.

Toward the end of PS3 generation is when I started leaving games unfinished. Even good games like The Puppeteer and Dishonored. There became too many distractions, not the least of which was a new console generation, which pulled me away. So now I find history repeating itself as some of the good PS4 games I’ve started or had in the backlog are harder and harder to go back to as the newest shiny PS5 game drops. Not to mention that with PS+, my library of options has grown many-fold over what I had back on PS2 and PS3. Some of that has to do with my own personal situation being an adult now and having more discretionary cash to spend on the hobby, but it’s also a matter of sheer volume available.

And while I’m pontificating…. Something else I’ve been thinking about lately that relates —

I’m of two minds about the evolution of game development to the point a AAA game takes 5+ years to make — on one hand it’s depressing that we’ll get just one or two games per generation from a developer because of that. Like, putting aside the remakes, it’s possible we’ll not get a Naughty Dog game for this Gen until 4 years into the generation! That’s nuts. Compare that with 2007-2011 when we got Uncharted 1, 2, and 3 all within that 4 year stretch. And then The Last of Us a mere 2 years later in 2013. It’s pretty depressing when you think about it. 5-7 year development cycles are just so, so long when life goes by so fast. One of these days I’m going to outgrow gaming (Hopefully its when I’m a decrepit man on my deathbed, but eventually it will come 😅) and I hope to see the end of The Last of Us series before I do.

On the other hand, with the boom of video gaming we have a lot more developers from all over the world making content and with the aggregate cumulative library of options including retro games, I have more games than I can find time to play, even if I played 14 hours a day for years on end. So in a way I’m glad that we don’t have a new entry into a series every one to two years like happened before. It would overload me.

Final Fantasy is a good example — There’s been something of a mini explosion of the franchise currently and we have FF7 Remake, Crisis Core, FF16, FF Pixel Remaster Collection, and FF7 Rebirth all within a couple years and it’s teetering on too much. I simply can’t get to them all.

In a contrasted era, when FF7, 8, 9, and 10 all each came out about 1 year apart, getting 4 mainline FF games in 4 years was fine for the time, but now a similar release scheduled of the franchise feels almost exorbitant.

Well, I’ve gone on a long sermon there, and I apologize. Curious to hear other people’s thoughts. Did you used to compete games more easily on prior generations or are you better about it now?

Sonic 3’s like really really good. Can’t think of a single dud zone in the whole game. The way that Knuckles quite literally bolts onto the game is a bit odd though, it’s like you beat the final boss then it chucks you into another first level immediately.

@RogerRoger Sonic and Knuckles doesn’t really feel like it flows as well to be honest, the levels really do feel like cut content. Interesting that Mushroom Hill and Flying Battery are the first two zones, they feel more like a 1st and second last zone.

@KilloWertz I still have my X360 in storage, waiting for the glorious day when I can move back to a bigger apartment and get my Rock Band ION drum kit back on its feet again. I might fish out the old Enslaved copy then.

@Th3solution No need to apologise for length, it's an interesting topic and I enjoyed reading your take on it
For me, the biggest problem with "modern" game development is kind of related, and was touched on in a comment thread elsewhere, and that was the combination of long cycles and increasingly long games. Due to a health scare a couple of years back (I'm fine, btw) combined with the sudden loss of a dear friend, I got a reminder that my time on this earth is finite and I would prefer to sample as much variety in my gaming as possible in that time. I also want to be able to see the stories I start through to the end, as much as possible (which is why I rarely start watching series on Netflix these days).

As such, I would rather prefer shorter games with compelling stories rather than massive 100+ hour games. As evidenced by my recent Yakuza 3 Remastered playthrough, I don't mind spending 70+ hours on a game as long as it keeps me engaged, but I got a little bit disappointed when I heard that Final Fantasy XIV was a good 70 hours and still had things locked behind new game+. It won't stop me from playing (and, hopefully, enjoying) it, but it's a guarantee that I won't get to experience everything in the game. There is simply no way I will bother playing through a 70 hour game twice, life's too short for that

I recently finished Miles Morales and platinumed it. For me, the game had the perfect length, though I've seen some criticize it for being too short. I enjoyed the story, which didn't overstay its welcome, the collectibles and extra activities was not overdone to the point where I became bored with it and there was enough "new" stuff in NG+ for me to be willing to go through the story again for platinum.

The popularity of Live Service "eternal" games baffles me sometimes, but then I remember that, while I now have more disposable income than time, when I was younger I had more time than disposable income. I think this is true for many, if not most, people, and thus it makes sense that tha young'uns want a single game to stretch as far as humanly possible. Still, for me, I lose interest after a while and want to move on to something new.

Going back to long dev cycles, I find I don't mind too much as I have absolutely no chance of "catching up" with all the new releases without sacrificing games I've already bought. I've just now started Ghost of Tsushima (which I've owned since it came out, but I decided to wait until I had a proper 4K screen to play it on) and I only just finished Horizon Zero Dawn last year, so it will still be a while before I need a new game in those series. I finished God of War and Last of Us three years ago, so enough time has passed that I'm ready for Ragnraok and Last of Us 2, but there will be plenty of games for me to play before I start itching for further sequels there.

And, as you said, there are more devs putting out higher quality games these days, so we're quite spoilt for choice. My only worry in regards to long dev cycles is that I'll die of old age before I'll get to play a new (and, hopefully, good) Mass Effect game

Finally, I've yet to play a single Final Fantasy game in my life, but that will change soon. I've bought VII Remake, but I'm considering starting with Crisis Core, or even the newly released Final Fantasy I pixel remake. We'll see. I'll definitely be playing XVI (enjoyed the demo) and I have XV via Plus, I think, so for FF and me, Square Enix may take their time developing the next one

@FuriousMachine I have mine stored away as well. I may never use it again, but given how much a problem the console was at the time, I wasn't going to get rid of a working one.

Sounds like a plan though as I suppose you wouldn't get it out of storage just for one game. I would assume Enslaved would be one of the many backwards compatible games from the 360, but I'm guessing you don't have an Xbox hooked up anymore.

@KilloWertz That's correct, only console currently hooked up is the PS5 I also have an OK PC for gaming that's getting a bit on in years, but still serves me well enough. The PS5 is where most of my gaming is, though.

@FuriousMachine So much of what you said is extremely relatable! And that includes the Netflix comparison. If there’s one thing I gleaned from the last three years it’s that there is indeed no guarantee of tomorrow. That sounds morbid and I don’t intend to be nihilistic, but it’s become abundantly clear that life and society are terribly fragile. We’re one illness, political collapse, economic crisis, or environmental cataclysm away from our entire way of life becoming a footnote. Whether personal, local, or global, I’ve seen so many things turn on a dime lately.

So I largely share your sentiment. So far this year I’ve played a couple long games and have FF16 on the docket. I also was a tad disappointed at the reported length, because I’m shackled with several other lengthy games on my schedule. I have a nostalgic history with the FF series starting with FF7, so I’m not going to skip such a highly rated new mainline entry, but I wouldn’t mind these games being a little shorter. But since I’m still mopping up Jedi Survivor, I am now resigned to the fact that I’ll be a little behind the FF16 release crowd.

They had a recent discussion about the subject on Sacred Symbols and all three hosts said their ‘sweet spot’ for game length was about 15-20 hours. Admittedly they highlighted a lot of dependent qualifiers to optimal game length, such as genre and narrative depth, but it was good to hear you and I aren’t alone in the desire for more focused, shorter games.

It’s why I gave up on Yakuza. I started with Zero and really enjoyed my first 20 hours but as the fact crystallized that I was hundreds and hundreds of hours and six more games away from the actual completion of the story, I tapped out in the middle of the game.

Fortunately you’ll find Final Fantasy games to be more digestible. A few entries like FF7 Remake notwithstanding, the games are isolated experiences. I also want to play FF1-6 since I missed them the first go-around, but it will have to wait.

And I’m totally with you on some of these entries — I haven’t yet played Forbidden West or Ragnarok, despite adoring their predecessors. Hopefully each will receive the opportunity to entertain me within the next year, but like you say, there’s not an urgency concern for the next entry in those series for quite some time, thanks to the aforementioned protracted development cycles.

And I’m excited to hear about how GoT goes for you, as well as TLoU2. I have completed both of those and both are really great, imo. I still enjoy discussing them months later. As far as playtime, both drag a little and are going to fall outside of that optimal window, especially TLoU2, but of course your mileage may vary. I was never tempted to jump ship on either game and each kept me riveted to see the conclusion, even with a little lull toward the latter half. TLoU2 has an especially debatable situation there, but I digress.

I didn’t realize I had so much to say about game completion and hopefully haven’t derailed the ‘games you’ve recently beat’ topic too much. I think it all applies though, in a broader sense. 😄

@Th3solution Yeah, we're off on a tangent here, but I think we're okay Still, considering I let myself get completely derailed in another thread just earlier today, we should probably be a bit careful. I enjoyed reading your take and found myself once again nodding in agreement.

Will absolutely give my thoughts on GoT when I'm done with it. Just barely dipped my toe into Chapter 1, but I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far.

Finished up the & Knuckles half of Sonic 3 and it was alright. Reminded me a bit of level packs you’d get with 90s PC games, that bolt on and just give you a shorter burst of similar gameplay. The final boss was a nightmare though, the fact you carry your rings in just the once is evil, if you die then you have to do the boss again with 0 rings.

@RogerRoger With everything I’ve read, I’m not entirely sure I want to attempt to scrounge up some money to play Game Gear games in 2023! I’ll probably play through as Knuckles for the different final boss and stuff and then possibly see about emulating Chaotix and 3D Blast on the Switch through RetroArch. Apparently there’s a 3D Blast Director’s Cut that the original TT Games dev created so that sounds like a good idea!

Finished Sonic 3 & Knuckles as Knuckles which is enough of a change to be worth it. The climbing means you see different parts of the same levels, which is clever design really. The different bosses were cool too.

So Iam very glad to hear about all the fun you guys have with the games you have been playing. Feels inspiring. I think its also feels like a good testament to how fun gaming can be! After completing about 85% of RDR2 during my initial playthrough I went on to playing and the beating Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on PS4 . I general feel like I have an absolute killer backlog with some very exciting games to tackle