Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Th3solution pretty sure RE5 remake is a lock now given some information that came out with RE4 remake. As long as they keep the co-op element I’d love for them to do 5. In its original form it is only worth playing that way, though. It’s really exceptional fun 2 player.

I have no real affinity for 0 or CV, but CV could be fun.

@RogerRoger Yeah, if the remasters offer an updated control scheme then I might give them a shot! I love experiencing older titles as long as they still hold up today.

Just finished Alan Wake 2 - what a game!

Now, after 2 years that I have the disc will start Horizon Forbidden West

Me back to write something that is probably too long for this thread, but not detailed enough for the review thread.

After bouncing off of the base version of the game for the best part of six years, I finally finished Persona 5 thanks to the Royal version. Just in time for Persona 3 Reload, which has now shot up to the top of my hype list (although I have had P4 Golden loaded on my PC for literally years, so maybe it is now time to finally play it).

Anyway, Persona 5 is one of a few games for me where if I was just to give you a contextless list of pros and cons, the cons section would probably be longer, but the pros section is just weighted higher, overall.

P5 is just vibes and mood, man. Can't explain it any other way. Loved the virtual tourism aspect and loved spending time with these characters. Sure, the writing is absolutely all over the place, with a poorly structured and paced story, that barely makes any sense. But when it comes to writing character moments that hit the feels, they just nailed it every time. Well maybe they could have laid off the sexism and weird underage dynamics a bit too.

I also loved the combat, too. It feels like traditional turn based games are vanishing before my eyes, so I lap up any game that delivers in that regard as I love a turn based RPG. But I dunno, there is still something special about the way Persona 5 does it on top of that. It is one of the few RPGs I have played where I am actually excited to grind, rather than dreading it (not that grinding is often necessary in Royal, really. But it was deffo way more necessary in the significantly more gruelling base version, which is part of the reason why I bounced off of that game so many times).

But yeah, battles in P5, man. The pace, the animations, all the little details. Battles were very repetitive in terms of the Xs and Os, but every battle just felt like a complete joy. Well except Haru's Dad (and his whole dungeon, to be honest). But the reward is Haru, who is one of the best characters in the whole game so...

So yeah, dunno if in the rawest sense I'd agree with all the 10 out of 10s and that, but on the vibe scale it is deffo up there towards the top, for sure.

@Pizzamorg The style, art, and music of the Persona game is unmatched, and P5 is the pinnacle of that. I agree with your assessment overall. For me, the games are really too long, and drag in the middle, but the characters are a lot of fun to engage with.

Yeah so much of Persona 5 in the end is kind of just filler. Like it doesn't feel like it in the moment, but looking back you realise there are entire gameplay sections, characters and story arcs in here which are in the end basically completely irrelevant.

It's like they made three Palaces with real intent and realised that the story doesn't land as well with the Phantom Thieves only doing that much, so they threw in a bunch of extra Palaces to pad out the resume but didn't properly blend them into the wider story.

There's also just a lot of filler in general in the game. One of my biggest frustrations with the game was how it kept hammering me with warnings about making good choices, maximising my time etc. but in reality you almost never get to really make any choices of your own, the majority of the time the game will add in artificial blockers, so you can really only make the choice it wants you to make. Linearity isn't a problem to me, until you start gas lighting me and pretending I had a say in matters I never actually did.

@Pizzamorg The way each palace is centered around a cardinal sin is an interesting concept, but it does mean there’s times when it seems they must have forced some ideas. If they trimmed the story and content down to the best 4 or 5 palaces/storylines, then it couldn’t have fit into the whole concept there. It’s a problem when games start with an external narrative frame and then they have to adjust their story to fit the idea.

I only played the base game, not Royal. Seeing that Royal adds a whole other character and extra semester did not appeal to me, although I hear the add-on content is very good. But I spent excess of 100 hours just to finish the base game and so I never felt like I wanted another 20 hours.

Persona 4 Golden also dragged for me in the middle. I don’t remember Persona 3 being as long-winded though.

I was just thinking along those lines, that the real problem with Persona 5 is the wider narrative. The need to tell the rise, fall and rise again of the Phantom Thieves entirely in real time, along with the bigger interconnected story around that. That it actually hurts more than it helps, when it comes to the moment to moment story.

If each palace was its own mostly disconnected separate mini arc, I think that might have overall worked better, like you were just watching a couple of seasons of your favourite anime or whatever.

Just finished FF7 remake for the first time and wow I’m so impressed! I knew I was sleeping on this game but didn’t realize how hard. I started this journey last week and normally I hop between games but I couldn’t stop playing or thinking about playing this one. I didn’t switch up my game time at all between different games while playing this which is saying a lot for my ADHD brain. Now I’m hyped to jump into the DLC tonight and eventually the sequel! Think I’m going to play through 16 first and some of my backlog. I’ll wait for a sale on Rebirth before picking it up as I normally do.

Just finished Paper Mario (64) on Switch after 26 hours of playtime. What a fantastic game! I'm really proud of myself for finishing this one as I've been wanting to play through it for so long but never gotten around to it. It also didn't help that I wasn't able to progress through it as a kid. The game is actually not that challenging, I just got lost during one of the chapters lol.

Anyway, this is easily the best Paper Mario I've played in terms of gameplay. It's just so much fun to play a Paper Mario game with RPG mechanics. There's so much depth from how to approach a battle to customisation. In terms of story though, it's fairly simplistic with Bowser kidnapping the princess once again. It's actually the events and characters in each chapter that truly shine. From exploring a haunted mansion to solving a murder mystery (yes, Nintendo actually wrote a part about a character being murdered in a Nintendo game!), each chapter was just so memorable. Not to mention the amount of unique characters in this game! If there was one aspect of this that I wish had been more developed, it's the partners and their interactions with each other. But maybe that was improved in TTYD.

But yeah, the story wasn't this game's strongest suit. Out of all the Paper Mario games I've played now (64, Super and Sticker Star), my favourite story is Super Paper Mario's. Absolutely brilliant plot with well-written characters.

In short, I really enjoyed this game and I'm so glad that I've finally played it. Can't wait to play TTYD down the line!

@avividan Congrats for beating Alan Wake 2. Its a game that is on my radar and I would probably want to play it soon if I had not a few other games in my backlog atm. That being said I hope to maybe play it later this year (or next year).

@Jimmer-jammer I’ve loved the growing support this game has gotten from the community… it really does sound like the closest a games has been to that From Soft magic. Glad it hit the right notes for you buddy… so excited to get to it… eventually 😅

@Bentleyma I played the demo and felt like it was very underwhelming as well

@Bentleyma that’s good. You win some, you lose some.

Just finished my first playthrough of X-men Origins: Wolverine and thoroughly enjoyed it fair play. The final boss fight against Wade… I refuse to call him… well, whatever was a bit of a **** take but eventually worked out a strat. Let’s hope the Insomniac take on the license is similarly effective for the 9th gen.

@colonelkilgore you brought me back with this one. I remember really enjoying this game when it originally released.

@Doctor_BK still holds up too, sign of a good game.

@conelkilgore Cool Iam like always impressed when I read that folks are able to beat a game in a day or two (something which Iam like never able to do). Was graphics nice in the game btw or did the game feel graphically outdated?

Just finished DiRT 2 on Xbox 360 after roughly 20 hours of playtime. It's become one of my favourite racing games of all time. Such a fun experience, there were so many different race types and tracks. Granted, the amount of events in relation to the amount of tracks was a bit too high and it definitely became a bit long-winded towards the end. But overall, the game was a blast to play and the presentation was excellent, especially for a 2009 game! It's too bad you can't play it on current systems, but that's why I'm glad I still have my 360 available. Definitely worth playing if you find a copy.

@oliverp Thanks, DLC is on the way.