Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Th3solution @FuriousMachine Control was definitely one of my favorite games from last gen. I only play a handful of games multiple times, but that was one of them. I haven't played the PS5 version yet, but I do plan to, so that would be three times.

I do second what @Thrillho said. The map is pretty bad, figuring out where things are being way more difficult than they needed to be. It's not so bad that it ruins the game by any means, and it's not like The Witcher 2 where it's so bad I couldn't even finish the game. The greatness of the rest of the game far outweighs that issue.

@Th3solution @5KilloWertz Oh Cool to know that so many of you guys have had a good time with Control. I guess I will try to play it sometime next year hopefully. Are a bit busy with other games atm hehe.

@oliverp Ah, I see. I had done all side activities and such before starting NG+, so at that point I only had a few left (the ones that required NG+) and speeding through the story, so it went by fairly quickly. Nice plat to get, though

I loved Alan Wake back on the X360 in my green days, but didn't finish it until earlier this year with the remastered. Naturally looking forward to AW2, which is already in my library, so I really want to get through Control and the DLC to get the full story. Will let you know what I think when I'm done with it

@Thrillho @Th3solution @KilloWertz I hope I'll like it too; lots of people raving about it and I do enjoy me some Remedy gaming Will hopefully get some time to play more this weekend and get properly into it.

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. It's essentially a Yakuza/Like a Dragon spin-off, but set in the FotNS universe and with FotNS characters. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, and the main hero Kenshiro knows a deadly martial art which can cause people to explode by striking their pressure points.

The game has most of the hallmarks of Yakuza, including the combat system, side content, substories, and even the user interface. There's quite a bit of the usual content, such as a cabaret club and a twist on the batting cages mini-game, plus some old Sega arcade games such as my beloved Out Run. There's also a rhythm mini-game, though I didn't think much of the song selection. It's even got Kiryu's voice actor playing a similar role for the main character Kenshiro, and Majima's voice actor is here with the voice for a psychotic opponent obsessed with the main character.

The major difference between this and Yakuza is that there is a desert wasteland that you can drive around outside of the main city. There's some races and other side activities to do there, along with finding vehicle upgrades to improve performance. The driving controls can be a bit clunky, but the driving can be a nice change of pace.

I completed the main storyline, and did all of the sub-stories, including the post-game optional superboss battle with Amon. Even when not picking fights with Yakuza, he's as strong as always. I had to drop the difficulty down to easy to have any chance against that opponent. I'm not going to worry about 100% completion or the Platinum trophy though, as they're too grindy to go for.

I'd argue that the main story here isn't as gripping as the Yakuza storyline, and the gameplay feels a bit more clunky here. But as a fan of both Fist of the North Star and Yakuza, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this.

Resident Evil Village. It was fun as long as it lasted (which was not for very long).
I would say that it was a cool mix of horror and action. Maybe not the best but one of the better Resident Evil games that I have played. Very worth checking out I would say. It feels nice to have finally beaten the game as it is a game that have been in my backlog for quite some time.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (again)

Still have massive issues with the Kingdom Heartification of it all but there are large parts of the game which are brilliant. Midgar was never my favourite and they do bloat it beyond all recognition (every dungeon in the game is about half an hour too long) but the bits where the action stops are the best single player Final Fantasy has been since what, XII? Maybe even X? The whole stretch of chapters with Aerith are probably the most consistently good part of the game, minus the crane puzzles. The soundtrack’s amazing too, even if I do wish they’d gone for more synths than orchestra for some specific tracks. Some of the original tracks are great too, the one that plays while you’re with Aerith after escaping her house is as good as anything from the main soundtrack.

Was it the game I hoped it would be all those years ago? Probably not. Do I think the game would be just as good if the narrative changes were completely glossed over like the Resi remakes instead of it being some sort of weird sequel? Yes. Rebirth has the potential to be either much better or completely balls it up, there really are only two ways this can go. It’ll probably be a while before I get round to it though.

@nessisonett It could have gone either way for me, as having not played any of the Kingdom Hearts games I didn't know what to make of the Nomura stink that came with it. I almost hated the direction the game took, but ended up loving it by the end lol. Probably the hardest part was coming to terms with not getting a straight up remake, but eventually preferred not exactly knowing what to expect next.

Just "finished" Forza Motorsport (2023) on Series X after 33 hours of playtime. I did the four main tours in career mode and seeing as how those are the only ones you get achievements for, I figured I've finished the mode. The other available tours get added and replaced over time as this is a live-service game, so I'm not going to bother with them.

So what did I think about the game? Well, to sum it up, it was a good but very disappointing entry in this series. We waited five years for a half-baked overly realistic game? Not worth it in the slightest. The fact that you're forced to play through the same track twice (practice and race) because otherwise you won't get enough credits to purchase the required car for the next tour is just BS. I don't care if that's how it's supposed to be, the previous games weren't like this and I liked that setup much better. Not to mention that there is a severe lack of tracks. In terms of actual content, there's so little here because the idea is to release new content over time. Which begs the question, what the hell were the developers doing during those five years?

It's a good but very disappointing game.

@LtStarge Oh its nice to read a wrap up of a racing game as it feels like you dont read to much of those these days. Thanks for sharing.

Just finished Heavenly Bodies… went straight in on the Newtonian physics difficulty as a playthrough on that was a requirement. Was different… and tough 😥, quite an ingenious gameplay design that will test your gaming skills in ways that your average video-game does not fair play.

@oliverp Thanks for reading! I love racing games, especially the Forza series. I've played all mainline games, except for Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Horizon 4. So you'll most likely hear me talk more about it in the future!

‘Completed’ a season of NBA 2K2 on the Dreamcast which is one of the best sports games I’ve ever played. The Dreamcast was ludicrously ahead of its time, the graphics are probably better than even PS2 sports games. Went the Lakers because they’re clearly overpowered and yeah, kinda steamrolled the competition up until the playoffs which were really hard. Shaq being 100 rated, the only time in the series, definitely helped. Man I love the Dreamcast. Visual Concepts deserve way more credit than they get.

@nessisonett Love the Dreamcast. I never got to experience it in its heyday I opted for the PS instead. To be quite honest I was tired of getting burnt by Sega at that time, having previously bought the Saturn and how long they supported that thing. However I manged to pick up a Dreamcast along with a few games a fee years ago and OMG I made a big mistake back in the 90s, lol. I still have it to this day but I need to get some cords or something so I can hook it up to my modern TV. Definitely an awesome console.

@Tasuki Yeah, my first console was the GameCube and I get totally similar vibes from the Dreamcast, which I also picked up only a few years back. The fact it wasn’t really taken seriously in the graphical arms race despite being a bit of a powerhouse maybe says something about Sega’s reputation at that time but I just love the vibe you get from the games, there was a hell of a lot of creative devs working on it.

@nessisonett I think alot of people were just annoyed by Sega at that point especially after the mess with the Saturn and the 32X before that. If someone else released the Dreamcast as it was I am pretty sure that it would have done better but with the Sega name it was doomed from the start.

@Tasuki The 32X mostly just confuses me. The price alone is extortionate for what actually released for it. No wonder Sega lost their sheen.

@Tasuki As somebody who bought both the 32X and the Saturn (with the latter being me rushing to Electronics Boutique after school when they shadow released it), after they killed the Saturn so quickly, I had no interest in buying another one of their consoles. I'm sure the Dreamcast was as good as some people said it was, but I was done with Sega at that point.

If they had released the Dreamcast instead of the Saturn, who knows how things would have ended up. They had already dug their own grave by the actual release though.

Just finished DOOM 3 on PS4 after 13 hours of playtime. I really liked the game, for the first 8 hours. Then it went on for too long with nothing new or different that kept your interest up. Just the same enemies, same weapons and the same damn level design over and over again. Even the jump-scares stopped being effective for me. It's the perfect example of a game where more isn't always better.

Putting aside its length, the game itself was sublime. Tons of scares, fun gameplay and the story was fairly interesting, albeit a bit unnecessary given the vast amount of characters and lore. If you can prepare yourself for a bit of a long-winded experience, then as a horror fan, you're going to love this game.

Yakuza 5, i feel refreshed after the hard timing y3 and y4 give me, weak games, almost quit the franchise. Then y5 came by and is so good, i want to play more yakuza again.

@KilloWertz Right that is where I was and why I didn't care about the Dreamcast when it first came out. It wasn't until a few years ago that I bought one.