Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Bob_Salat Thanks, man!, and Congrats on your own recent success with Halo 2.

Started and finished Killer Frequency last night, a fun little slasher inspired puzzler where you're a radio station DJ in a small town on the night a serial killer is stalking the citizens. Due to reasons, you also have to fill in as a 911 operator, so people in danger are calling in and you need to instruct them so that they may survive their encounter with the killer.
None of the scenarios are all that difficult, provided you do your due diligence and properly search the radio station for the pertinent information you need when prompted to do so. The voice acting is quite excellent and it is quite funny at times. It is supposedly set in 1987, yet callers are calling in from all over, including the middle of a corn maze, so a certain suspension of disbelief is required.
A fun little game that can be completed in one or two sittings (took me around six hours).

@FuriousMachine I'm glad you enjoyed it! I actually tried playing it myself back in October, but I found it hard to stay invested. The calls are fun and like you said there's some good humour in it, but everything just felt so slow. It didn't really feel like I was doing much of anything and that choices presented were usually pretty obvious as to which was the right one. Does it go any special places as it goes on or is it pretty consistent in terms of gameplay/pacing from the start? I imagine the killer might show up at your location at some point, so I'm wondering if that's a big moment that maybe switches things up a bit.

I was finally able to roll the credits on Midnight Suns a few days ago after 80 hours or so of gameplay. That was a long game! Though I also didn't play super optimally in terms of time management since I got into a specific gameplay loop I kind of forced myself to stay in. I've mentioned my thoughts before and they're pretty much unchanged, but I do think it got a bit too long in the end. I did also play all the DLC's, so maybe the pacing would've felt a bit less sloggish towards the end if I didn't have all that content mixed in. Overall, I still had a fun time and would recommend the game to anyone interested however. And while I do love the idea of the Abbey within the gameplay loop, I do think the writing ultimately let it down a bit. I don't think it was bad writing per se like many people seemingly think, but in the end I feel like I didn't really create a meaningful bond to any of the characters. I definitely liked some more than others, but I'd be hard-pressed to name a favourite or say I loved any of them. That said, I don't have a huge attachment to any particular Marvel character either, so that might have added to it as well. Certainly didn't manage to convert me into a proper fan of any of them however! In terms of the Marvel games we've gotten in recent years, I definitely think Guardians of the Galaxy was still miles ahead in quality, though definitely worse in the gameplay aspect compared to this.

@Tjuz Your points re.: Killer Frequency are absolutely spot on, and the brevity of the game was what saved it for me. When the credits rolled, I'd had my fill and was satisfied with what I got. You do touch on a small gripe I didn't go into due to slight spoiler territory, but with a SPOILER tag and a SPOILER warning (for those reading in a email update) I'll elaborate: My biggest gripe is that the game never really puts you in any sort of danger. It leads you to think it will, but when the game gets its biggest opportunity to do so and you come through the sequence without ever running into anything dangerous, you quickly realise that it probably never will either, and thus the atmosphere is broken for the rest of the game

@Tjuz I actually thought the writing in the Abbey was the best thing about Midnight Suns! It captures the spirit of the comics in a way that adaptations generally can’t, as the comics often show heroes during downtime and the shows/movies are non-stop minus a couple exceptions.

I seem to have beaten Demon’s Souls. Wow, that last boss. I get it from a lore point of view but also wow, what a letdown. The game in general never really got going, the balancing of each area means once you get on a bit of a roll level wise then you just steamroll the game. What an odd experience, it’s like a tech demo for Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne in separate ways. Definitely more King’s Field than the following games, especially with how irritating traps and the like can be in the areas. The only boss I died to was the Maneaters and I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly good player. Very much a one and done sort of deal, I don’t see me ever returning to that game.

Dead Island 2 is my latest completed. Finished earlier today. Next up is the Haus dlc followed by new game plus. Playing DI2 has me itching for an other replay of Dying Light 1.

How good and fun is DI2? Compared to the first Dead Island and RipTide it is better in some ways but not in other ways. The graphics and game engine used is better than those older games, including the PS4 versions. It looks and plays well on my PS4 Pro, however on my previous gen console the loadtimes are annoyingly long and I wish it would be 60fps instead of 30fps. The 30fps is a smooth 30fps.

@NoCode23 I've recently done the exact same thing with Dead Island 2. I'm taking a bit of a break from it before going back to the DLC.

My only real fault with the game is that it can feel a bit repetitive in places. Playing on PS5 I did not experience the loading issues you had, and seem to be getting a solid 60fps as far as I can remember.

@FuriousMachine Ah, disappoting it never really does anything with that promise and kind of ruins the atmosphere in the process. Maybe I'll give it another shot at some point, but I'm not optimistic. I'm not one to pick up a game again after I've let it sit for a while unplayed, haha. I'll let you know how I feel if I do, though!

@nessisonett Oh yeah, overall I quite enjoyed the writing and thought it was fun. It just never really went anywhere beyond fun for me personally, and it made it hard to really connect to the characters on a more personal level. I do think sometimes dialogues were a bit too drawn out and could've benefited from some cutting it down however. Especially as you start slowly nearing the end of the game, every conversation — no matter how deep — being a minimum of like two minutes still can get tiresome, haha. I do also think the ending was very well done and meaningful. Exploring the Abbey was definitely worth it to experience that emotional payoff.

That’s the first playthrough of Alice: Madness Returns done and although it’s not really my kinda game (just not a massive platformer) it was good (damn good if you’re into 3d platformers). A great take on the Alice lore and characters, dark as all-hell but still funny in places, inventive and an all-round good time. Well worth my time.

Well that’s the main story of Yakuza Kiwami 2 finished… and considering I spent all morning and early afternoon trying to win 1000 poker chips for Haruka, I’m quite surprised by how quickly it was done. Pretty awesome ending too fair play.

Obviously there is a load of content left for the 100% completion list and I’m still enjoying it which is a good sign but that’s stage 1 of the platinum complete.

Just finished The Great Ace Attorney Adventures on Switch after roughly 30 hours of playtime. It took me quite some time to get through this game as I first started playing it back in May if I remember correctly. I got through the first three cases around that time, then I had to focus on my move and I put the game on hold. After I moved, I just couldn't get back into it. Every time I tried to play through case 4, I'd get sleepy and had to put it down. I don't know if it's my fault or if the game was that boring during the investigation parts. I do think it was a bit of both.

Typically, during the investigation parts, you'd listen to some funny dialogue while investigating in order to keep you engaged. But I didn't find these parts entertaining at all, at least not in the last two cases. The cast wasn't as interesting as the ones from the mainline games either. The trials were the highlight and as soon as they began, I became engaged in the story again.

The final case was really interesting and satisfying to figure out. The cases in general were pretty varied in all honesty. One of them didn't even have a trial, which I found interesting. In other words, the amount of variety was high. Also, even though I didn't find the cast that compelling, I did start to like them more towards the end of the game. Maybe I'll feel differently about them once I start up the second game. But that won't be for quite some time, and I might even forget about them until then.

If you had asked me about my opinion of this game months ago, then I probably would've said that it's the weakest Ace Attorney game in the series. But having finished it now, I quite liked it overall. I'm not sure where I'd rank it, maybe somewhere in my top 5. I'm glad that I at least finished it.

Just finished the Majima Saga - a nice little prequel piece thats sets up the events of Yakuza Kiwami 2 really well. Now back to that Completion list 😅

edit. and I probably don’t need to say this as 99% of people on here are Yakuza-stans but for the uninitiated… man Kiryu and Majima are ****ing great characters!

We are near the end of the year, and I wanted to share the games I have beaten from start to finish this year.

I ordered the game per console. Some are present in both Switch and PS5 because I have beaten them on both platforms

Most games I have replayed for the N'th time but there are some that were never beaten before by me

Switch:

• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
• Castlevania Circle of the Moon
• Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
• Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
• Darksiders III
• Darksiders Warmastered Edition
• Hollow Knight (First time!)
• The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim

Nintendo 64

• Resident Evil 2 (First time!)

Xbox One

• Fallout New Vegas (First time!)
• Half-Life 2

Playstation 5

• Bioshock
• Castlevania Circle of the Moon
• Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
• DARK SOULS REMASTERED
• ELDEN RING
• Fallout 4 (First time!)
• RESIDENT EVIL 2
• RESIDENT EVIL 7
• RESIDENT EVIL 3
• Resident Evil 8 Village

@Zuljaras Judging by the few "first times" in your post, I gather you really enjoy to replay games! I can't fault you necessarily, since a lot of these are good stuff. I just played the Resident Evil 2 Remake myself this year and had a blast. I wanted to ask you however — if it's not too imposing — what makes you want to replay a game? Personally, I hate repetition in any media, which includes both backtracking in video games but also experiencing something I've experienced before. I'm just genuinely curious what you get out of it to go back to these games time after time.

I beat a little horror gem called Among Ashes. If you like PS1 survival horror games, then I recommend giving it a go. It's £11.99 on the PlayStation Store. Just buy it and go in blind.

@Tjuz it all depends on the game. I love games with backtracking and exploration.

For me it is something like eating your favorite meal again

And I forgot the 2 new VR experiences I had this year!

PC:

• Half-Life 2 VR
• Half-Life Alyx

Fallout 3

I had never finished it back in the day, so I made it a priority to get to it and play it all over again at some point after the show came out.

Despite the PS3 version obviously being worse than the 360 version, I had no major technical issues throughout. Obviously the framerate was rarely consistent, but I didn't have a single crash or anything of the sort. Didn't hurt that I managed to finish the game with my game save file at under 6 MB. I know the magic number for technical issues galore was 10.

I was planning on doing some of the DLC, but at least for me The Pitt turned out to be a scavenger hunt to find where to start it, so I gave up. I may go back someday and play a couple of the DLCs, but I'm good for now after finishing the main story.

@KilloWertz I seem to remember it being a bit of a slog getting to The Pitt, and the route being guarded by a few snipers. That was a few years ago mind, so I maybe getting it mixed up with another part of the game.

@JohnnyShoulder You remembered correctly. There's several snipers up on towers along one way I went. It ended badly and I gave up. Like I said, maybe I'll give a couple of the DLC I was going to try another chance down the road, but I'm good for now.

@PeaceSalad Thanks. My previous attempt was when the game came out and I only managed to get into the initial town of Megaton, got lost, and gave up. Granted that was over a decade ago, I obviously had less patience, and that was before YouTube for whenever I would get stuck.

So, this playthrough was obviously much more positive. It was good. Far from perfect, but good. A bit annoying how easily my health would go down no matter what armor I was wearing, obviously the gunplay outside of VAT sucks, and the ending isn't very good, but I still enjoyed playing it in the end. I'm glad I corrected another mistake with an unfinished game from that generation.