Topic: Games you've recently beat

@JohnnyShoulder Might be one of the reasons why I don't drink anymore. 😂

Speaking of Spider-Man, and to @KAIRU ‘s point of the combat being a bit dull at first — how are people feeling about playing as both Peter and Miles in the upcoming sequel?

I’m worried that it will get confusing switching back and forth, depending on how deep each of their unique skill sets are. I suspect I’ll gravitate to one of them and prefer their powers over the other.

I bring this up because I’m playing Jedi Survivor (yes I’m still playing it, don’t judge 😅) and I’ve essentially stayed with the same two stances for the majority of the game because they fit my playstyle and I can’t be bothered to perfect the combos and timing of one of the other stances. So I’ve stayed with Crossguard and Double-Bladed which has served me well for offense, defense, quick-strike, and also tactical approach.

Are action games getting too complicated for their own good? I appreciate the variety, but I’m left feeling like I haven’t explored half of the combat options and I wonder if Spider-Man 2 will also have me either A) just skirting the surface level of each character’s skills, or B) learning one character well and just staying with them for all the most challenging enemies and using the other character only when required by the story.

@Th3solution I honestly don't think there will be a problem. If you've played both Spider-Man and Miles Morales, their combat should be second nature. Also, while he does have some different moves than Peter of course, he's not that extremely different to play. Unless I'm remembering things horribly wrong since it's been since early 2021 since I played Miles Morales besides loading it up again to get a couple of trophies.

I also don't think it's bad to have options. Obviously some people will use one character more than others, but you could always play the game a second time if you want to experience more of it from a different "perspective".

@KilloWertz I recall actually enjoying Miles’s powers more. He’s got more stealth options, so I guess I could see how each of them could be better for certain scenarios, and so maybe they will complement one another rather than compete for gamers’ time. Especially with the new OP-appearing venom powers. It looks like Peter’s the heavy-hitter and Miles is the tactician.

Perhaps I’ve been trained by the Soulsborne games to not experiment too much with lots of options. My personal approach lately has been to find something that works, max it out, and therefore make the game easier for myself. So I stick with a few select weapons and skills for the duration, and just try to be as proficient as possible with them.

But yeah, the broad range of combat options do make for better replayability. Too bad I rarely replay games. 😅

@Th3solution I stay away from Soulsborne games, but if I did play them, I'd probably do the same thing. Any way to prevent myself from throwing my controller is fine by me.

Honestly, I don't replay games a ton either. Certain third party titles I played on Xbox are an exception if I want to have them on "record" on PlayStation so to speak or they didn't click as planned the first time around. Also since the release of Horizon Forbidden West was such a big deal for me, I did replay Horizon Zero Dawn. Final Fantasy VII Remake and eventually Cyberpunk 2077 are others, so I guess in the end if I really love a game there's a chance I'll replay it again.

@KilloWertz Yes, that’s me too. If there’s a remaster/remake or a huge sequel, then I’ll consider a replay. I need to get back to my Uncharted replay because I want to experience the Legacy of Thieves remakes. Also, Mass Effect Legendary Ed. Gotta get back to my continuation of that too.

The rumored Horizon Zero Dawn Remake might be one of the first party 2024 releases, speaking of. It’s probably release alongside the Netflix show, just like TLoU Part I did with the HBO show.

After fifty something hours and seemingly most of September I'm watching the credits roll on Days Gone. Well that was a journey well spent. I think I'll be a bit sad to leave this world behind.

Take the stealth and crafting bits from The Last of Us, the slow motion focus mode headshots from Red Dead Redemption and the open-world map clearing activities and random encounters from, well from any number of open world games and wrap it all up in a narrative that falls somewhere between The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy and you get Days Gone. Despite being derivative enough that I can see all of these inspirations in it I feel it did what it set out to achieve well and I enjoyed the game, it's story, setting and characters.

Despite spending upwards of 50 hours on it it never felt like a grind and ran fantastically on PS5, even when the hordes were descending upon me. Still got a couple of trophies to tick off so not quite finished yet. If anyone was, like me, undecided on whether it was worth a punt I would certainly recommend it as worthwhile.

Uncharted 4 really is incredible. I first played it straight after I got my PS4 but playing it now on the PS5 after playing through the other games was a totally different experience. One of the most emotionally mature games out there, honestly puts The Last of Us to shame. It’s incredibly meta as well, the way the game ruminates on the franchise and what it stands for, Nathan’s line about how he feels empty after every treasure hunt, only to throw himself into another one really speaks to the nature of game development. You complete the game and then want another, fundamentally following the same structure. At some point we have to just let go and say yep, that’s the last adventure. Although I’m very excited to play the Lost Legacy as other people can have those adventures, just not Nathan!

I rolled the credits on Inscryption a couple of nights ago.

A clever, weird, but enjoyable deck builder that really messes with you and the genre. The story is intentionally a bit vague but cleverly done too. It’s the first game on a while that I won’t be getting the plat for though as the Kaycee mod trophies are way too time consuming.

For other people who have completed it, have you read about the Inscryption “ARG” (alternative reality game)? Some crazy things people went though to unlock a “secret ending”.

https://gamerant.com/inscryption-hidden-ending

@Thrillho Glad you enjoyed it also! It totally subverted my expectations on quite a few occasions, so was pleasantly surprised by it.

I've admittedly not looked into any of the secret endings.

@JohnnyShoulder It’s not the secret ending itself (it’s quite underwhelming) but how on earth anyone thought of such bizarre and obtuse puzzles, let alone then solve it.

@Thrillho Ah OK, I'll have a read of that then!

Lies of P.

Really great game, despite the late game difficulty spike in a few of the enemies and bosses. It’s a really solid game and does a lot of things really well. The Fable Arts on a lot of the weapons are extremely satisfying when you land them and the story has a few twists and revelations along the way that I didn’t see coming.

Of course there are resemblances to Bloodborne and even Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but it’s a unique take on the genre and I’d put it right up there as one of the best soulslikes out there.

So I haven't beat Chrono Cross (I haven't properly started it yet) but I did play through Radical Dreamers: Le Trésor Interdit which is the visual novel made in 1996 for the SNES's Japan only Satellaview add on.

So it being part of the Chrono Cross remaster is the first time it's officially been released overseas.

... I... Really enjoyed it.

It's only about 1~2 hours long depending on if you know what you're doing (and there are alternate endings/scenarios that unlock after you beat it for the first time).

It has some random battles and a hidden hp stat for Serge but otherwise it's fairly straightforward with some links to Chrono Trigger, using early versions of some of the cast of Chrono Cross.

It was a fun time with some great atmosphere and I'll happily play it again to see the other endings.

Which is funny because I actually bought it for the opposite reason in that I don't actually think Chrono Trigger is all that and because fans say Cross is so different to Trigger is why I was willing to give it a shot!

Honestly I enjoyed my two hours with Radical Dreamers more then I enjoyed the 15 or so I spent with Trigger (I played Trig for the first time about 10~12 years ago? It's... fine. I never finished it).

... And it's also pretty funny in that I didn't even play more then ten minutes of Sea Of Star's demo either before getting bored... And I never knew it was inspired by Trigger (Or at least I never consciously made the connection!)

Ha! Indeed we apparently do and that's what makes this hobby fun and unique @Kidfried!

I'll try to remember to give you a tag when I properly start playing Chrono Cross to give some actual impressions of it.

At 21 hours with my party at lvl 50 exactly I finally beat Okage: Shadow King

It's rather flawed with an average battle system and a some weird pacing issues but it has OODLES of charm and personality.

I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the art style and it was a grand ol' time.

It's been a hot minute since I've finished a game because I've been mostly playing Tokyo Xanadu the past month. But now I've finally finished Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain on PS4 after 13 hours of playtime. It was my first EDF game and it was a blast! I started playing it on Normal but quickly realised that this is one of those mindless games where I just want to put on a podcast and shoot some stuff, so I lowered it to Easy. Definitely enjoyed it more this way. It felt a bit too long since the later missions didn't feel any different from the previous ones (same maps, same enemies and so on). But it ended on a high note and I enjoyed my time with this game overall.

Although it's definitely one of those games that I'd only play once a year, just like the LEGO games, because they can get quite repetitive.

Just finished Assassin's Creed: Mirage on PS5 after 27 hours of playtime. My experience of it was for the most part positive, but towards the end it got a little bit sour. Some missions exhibited difficulty spikes and some were incredibly repetitive. I just wanted to get to the end at that point.

Moreover, I was trying to clean up any leftover trophies as I was going for the Platinum. Unfortunately, the game has some missable trophies, which really sucks. The trophy list is otherwise rather straightforward. But after looking up the one trophy I missed, I decided to abandon the Platinum as I would need to start a new playthrough and play for several hours before getting to a point where I could get this trophy. Considering I just want to be done with the game, I genuinely can't be bothered playing it anymore, especially not for a trinket.

The ending was a bit confusing and not satisfying in all honesty.

It's nice to play an AC game that's traditional but as I've said in other places, it just felt like more of the same. The missions became so same-y towards the end. At least the game is short and you could probably finish it in 15 hours or so if you just focus on the story.

All in all, this was a good entry in the series but I'm probably going to forget about it in a couple of months. It's just another AC game that we've already experienced a dozen times over.

I think I have unlocked All songs from Dance Dance Revolution X PS2 USA several minutes ago.
It was pretty tough the last mission to unlock the Boss songs.