@Werehog Absolutely and there's always the danger of overstaying its welcome, as well. Sure, I was left wanting more when Yotei's credits rolled, but I had spent over 100 hours on it and was feeling ready for something new. Maybe it would only take 5-10 more hours for that bittersweet feeling of reaching the end to turn into "thank godzilla that is over".
I became fan of SP back on the PS3 with their Infamous games, which I really loved. Would not mind a remake of those or, even better, a new entry... but maybe from a different studio, as I think I would prefer SP to either work on something brand new (which I believe they are) or a new "Ghost" game with a brand new story. Either way, whatever it is, it is probably a long way away still.
To start the year I have beaten Castlevania Lords of Shadow + both DLCs on the Steam Deck
I have stopped using my Xbox One X because it does not take screenshots normally anymore. When I press the screenshot button 5 times it takes 1 or 2 screenshots. And I read that this is the current situation with Series S/X as well. Pathetic. And let's not forget that it does not even have a dedicated screenshot button. When I play games I LOVE to take a screenshot journey that varies between games but there are around 500 to 2500 screenshots per game so that is important to me! Why are the Xbox consoles such absolute messy trash? Rant over, I promise!
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/random-doom-fan-has-a-novel-way-to-display-a-destroyed-switch-cartridge
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/07/random-fan-transforms-their-nintendo-64-into-a-starcraft-battlefield
My Sculptures
Maybe it would only take 5-10 more hours for that bittersweet feeling of reaching the end to turn into "thank godzilla that is over".
That margin of error can get even shorter sometimes, depending on the game! On several occasions, all it's taken is one over-long final boss for me to start thinking, "Oh, just get on with it!"
I played inFAMOUS: Second Son and First Light for the first time last year, and really enjoyed them for what they were. I'm with you, I don't think SP should necessarily return to that franchise, but some loving remasters wouldn't go amiss... in fact, I'd say that they're long overdue. Very much looking forward to seeing what their brand new idea is gonna be!
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
Just saw the credits roll on my first play through of Silent Hill 2 and, as mentioned elsewhere, I'm overall pretty impressed and glad I got the chance to play it. Had saved right before the final two boss fights so all I had to do this Saturday morning was make a cup of tea and finish off the Pyramid head twins and final boss. Died 3-4 times to the Pyramids and once in the last boss so not too bad. And screen says 17hrs 19mins and 901 times checking the map so around 50 times per hour!! Oh and 12 deaths throughout, I'd have guessed more.
Enjoyed making James jump into scary pits and reach around into gross looking holes despite his seeming reservations. Didn't get the trophies for finding all the photos or memories despite my best intentions to search everything.
@Tjuz
Got the Leave ending but since I hadn't checked any requirements I don't know how good or bad that is relatively. It was a bit bleak though. (Also finished with 5 syringes and 13 health drinks btw).
Looking forward to going for a NG+, chainsaw only speedrun next but may turn the combat down to easy to do do.
@Werehog Oh yeah, there are plenty of boss fights out there that manage to tear at my patience. Funnily enough, if I know I have the option to lower the difficulty to get through them, I am more likely to persevere and finally beat them on my set difficulty. Saito was one such boss, that final part of the encounter was beginning to frustrate me when I finally managed to wear him down and beat him.
I find boss fights with multiple stages and an unknown number of replenished health bars generally annoying, but they are everywhere these days, so I power through. There were a couple in Spider-Man 2 that really tested my patience by overstaying their welcome.
GoY was generally good in that regard, though. Sure, there were stages to some of the boss fights, but they never felt interminable (though one or two tip-toed right up to the edge for me).
Beat Never Alone (and the "Fox Tales" add-on) yesterday and got all the trophies (no platinum for that game). It was a charming side-scrolling platformer/puzzler developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat (Alaskan Natives) and based on their folklore. Very charming and plays a bit like "Limbo" and the like. Occasionally frustrating as the level of precision required didn't match the visual cues at times, but overall a nice, relaxing experience that required some thinking but never taxed the old noggin' too much.
Digging into my backlog, I have now pulled out Death Stranding and just finished the prologue before heading to bed last night. Look forward to getting further stuck in through the weekend
And Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate HD is done 100% First time completing the HD version. I was sad that they removed the Mario & Luigi reference but at least it is exclusive to the 3DS version
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/random-doom-fan-has-a-novel-way-to-display-a-destroyed-switch-cartridge
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/07/random-fan-transforms-their-nintendo-64-into-a-starcraft-battlefield
My Sculptures
Anyone played "and Roger"? It's out for Switch and PC.
The game is about a woman finding a strange man sitting in her home, and from there on out the story becomes extremely personal. I won't spoil what it's about, the game never really tells you straight up, but during the game you'll work it out.
The game is not difficult at all. It's a collection of minigames, whose mechanics are a big part of the story, and help you understand its theme. Definitely one of those stories that wouldn't hit as hard, if it was a film.
The game is very short. That's not an issue at all, by the way. You might even consider it an upside, that a story with this much depth can be told in just a few hours.
I want to say more about what the game is about, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.
Small disclaimer: the dev is a devout Christian, which he wears on his sleeve, but shouldn't really be a problem for anyone, unless you consider yourself anti-christianity. (I'm an atheist myself.)
Just finished Gears of War: Reloaded on Insane in co-op. I grew to quite enjoy it fairplay… took a whole solo playthrough on Hardcore and around another half in co-op to get there but it was good fun. We still have a monumental grind left in all the multiplayer modes but today feels like a pretty big stage in our plat-journey has been squared away.
My fingers are firmly crossed that the rest of the Gears games get ported. 🤞
@Werehog Thanks! Although, let’s be real, the true challenge is to make a photo from Ghost of Yotei look bad. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with the mode on this one.
As for the ending, I can’t say it’s bad, just that I found it disappointing. Tsushima built up to a major choice at it’s end and it felt like a real missed opportunity not to allow players the same narrative agency for Atsu’s revenge story. I think a scenario in which we have to choose between Atsu saving Oyuki or Jubei would have had more of an impact than Jubei essentially just swooping in to save the day, which is exactly what I expected to happen since the moment we met him. That said, the ending we got is good, but I think it would have worked better for me had Jubei died earlier, and we got to explore the relationship with Kiku more thoroughly. She’s a mirror for Atsu, and it could have culminated in a real nice moment if we had to choose whether or not we kill Saito, perhaps in Kiku’s presence…
Either way, of all the things to not ape from the first, the ‘big choice’ felt like the strangest, and thematically muddied the ending. Not sure if you felt similarly or not @FuriousMachine but it’s a big reason why I do ultimately prefer Jin’s story as well but it’s all just nitpicking considering the level of quality we’re dealing with here!
“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” -C.S. Lewis
I rolled credits on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Not sure if anyone's here played it or been interested at all, but it's a smaller Capcom release they put out back in 2024. It seemed like a bit of a passion project from them with it being such a mish-mash of genres rather than something very commercial. If anything, I feel like it was destined to be a commercial failure, which it somewhat seems like it was as they haven't really reported on sales numbers for the game. It's a combination of tower defense, strategy, hack-and-slash with a bite-sized serving of town-building on the side. Don't get too excited by that last one if that tickles your fancy, since it's entirely limited to just a few button presses here and there to get small rewards after a few in-game days. Most of them are cosmetic too, with only a few builds per town being rewards you can actually use in game-play. It's probably the most throw-away part of the game unfortunately, and I hesitate to say that it had basically no reason for being there at all. It feels like it was artificially increasing my playtime more than anything, even if from a narrative perspective I understand what purpose the mechanic had.
As for a narrative though, there's not much to talk about. There's zero dialogue throughout the whole game, which is less a gimmick and more just an accurate explanation of how this game was never meant to be narrative-first. There's some cutscenes (that, admittedly, look stunning) that get the main goal across, but it's all very surface level and nothing much to think about. I'm sure if you really dove into all the collectibles and cosmetics the game has to offer there would be more lore to uncover, but I didn't find myself scrounging through any of that as the main gameplay hook was enough to pull me forward. As a bit of a narrative-first gamer, would I have enjoyed a more extensive story? Sure. Do I think it was at all necessary? No. It was perfectly fine the way it is in a game that focuses its efforts on the gameplay.
That said, I have mixed feelings on the gameplay. I do think the general loop works well and is satisfying to pull off. The difficulty is well-balanced. The levels are varied enough. The hack-and-slashing is all satisfying as it is, even if not particularly in-depth. The tower defense/strategic portion of it serves its purpose just fine as well. I think where my main issue lies, which is still not necessarily an indictment on the game as much as it's a missed opportunity, is that by having this mish-mash of generes in its core loop, it never really delves deep into any of them. It's a jack of all trades, master of none situation here. Everything works well together and makes the gameplay fun, albeit repetitive by the end, but it never turns into something to write home about really. I think with the repetition and despite the effort in varying its level design, the game did overstay its welcome a little bit. I ended up finishing with about 16 hours on the timer, but I think the game could've done with cutting some of the fat and maybe having a few less levels. As I said before, the whole base-building should've either been taken out or much improved. I also found the last main level before the final boss to be disappointing as it was simply a boss rush of all the bosses who came before. You just went through all of them for a second time in succession. I suppose it was supposed to make you feel how much stronger you got compared to when you first beat them at the time, but I found it leaning more into the unnecessary repetition once again.
All in all, I had a mostly fun time with the game, but I am glad it's over and I can check it off of my backlog. It's a game that feels like it's reaching for the stars in its ambition with the fused genres, but lands somewhere squarely halfway of its goal. If you're into tower-defense and hack-and-slash, by all means, do give it a look. Your mileage may vary, as neither have been genres I'm historically all that into. I mostly got interested because of the pedigree that comes with modern Capcom and after how much I enjoyed the hack-and-slash in Hades. Not a bad game by any means. I don't think it's going to convert anyone into being a fan of either genre if they aren't already however, and there's probably plenty of better examples of each genre out there.
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@sorteddan Without spoiling any other endings, ''Leave'' is essentially considered the best ending. In that sense, you'll have seen the best possible fate for James within the game. If you like him at all and don't wish worse for him that is, since I personally find him a total jackass. I had a different ending for my one and only playthrough. I won't say the name to avoid spoilers, as it similarly already implies what kind of result it is. After seeing all the possible endings, I do think the one I got is the one that fits best narratively. It seems like a largely agreed-upon sentiment as well. It's probably the one you'll go for next as it's the other ''main'' ending. There's technically three of them, but the other one is so hard to get by accident that you even have trouble reaching it while trying (allegedly).
Happy that the game seems to still have landed well for you by the end of it though! Enjoy your chainsaw run. My friend told me it was a blast to run around the town just chainsawing everything that moves! He similarly put it down to easy for the second playthrough, but he sadly was unable to reach the speedrun trophy in time. Third time's the charm there hopefully. May you have better luck!
@Herculean This! Was very late to the party! I started DS a few years ago but gave up after about three hours. I gritted my teeth and went back earlier this year and it all clicked. I ended up an obsessive road builder after the credits rolled and then played DS2 straight after and did the platinum. A brilliant pair of games, especially DS2. Since then I've been playing Ghost of Yotei, which is a really nice piece of work, but feels so generic by comparison. So if there's anyone left who likes Kojima but gave up on DS before it really got going, never say never
@DefShepherd Haha, I also was an early quitter of DS. Only on the second playthrough I really understood what I was getting into and managed to reach the right state of mind!
@Tjuz
Oh thanks. I don't think you would be spoiling anything for me though... The first run should (almost) always be a blind run but after that anything fair game to me so I've already checked all the guides and have a fair idea of the endings and requirements.
Chainsaw speedrun is going pretty well, just done the first part of the labyrinth and just under 4 hours so far. It probably helps that I have a few pages of scribbled notebook codes and puzzle solutions so can bypass large sections. And for the locations where I cant remember which parts to explore ...well I've got the internet! And if I've done it right I should be able to pick off three endings on this run before I have to decide whether I'm done with it or gonna go back for 100% and the plat.
Remember reading reviews of the one you've just finished when it came out and it did look intriguing though I've never really gotten on with tower defence stuff so didn't really pay much attention to it. Your mixed reflections after completing it probably just cement the idea that it's not so much for me. Still, congrats for beating it and into the next thing.
I find boss fights with multiple stages and an unknown number of replenished health bars generally annoying, but they are everywhere these days, so I power through. There were a couple in Spider-Man 2 that really tested my patience by overstaying their welcome.
Well, I can guess at least one of the Spider-Man 2 boss battles you're referring to, as I think everybody was surprised by its third stage! Speaking as somebody who thoroughly adored the game and would never change a thing about it... yeah, actually, maybe I would. But just that, and only that!
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@Metonymy Appreciate you sharing your expanded thoughts on the Ghost of Yōtei finale. Whilst I personally reckon it was bolder to commit to a single ending, I do totally see where you're coming from and in the moment, I probably would have relished the opportunity to "weigh in" as before.
Of course, the danger for me would have been automatically saving Jubei simply because I'm a big fan of his English voice actor, and damn the consequences, but that's my own problem!
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
Finished my chainsaw speedrun of Silent Hill 2 this morning. Went for the Dog ending as it meant I could avoid final boss fights and total time was 4:57:31 (The trophy was for less than 10 hours so think I just about sneaked in!!).
Then some save game shenanigans meant I was able to get the UFO, Rebirth, Maria and In Water endings as well in a couple of hours more.
Which all means that the only trophies I haven't got are the collectables ones (memos, photos, and past glmipses) and so it's almost inevitable that I'm gonna have to do another run with a collectable guide/walkthrough open...
Last night I finally finished Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I absolutely loved it, and can't deny that its final case was very entertaining and well-crafted, but good grief did it drag on! That has got to be the longest single case in the series to date!
Also, I'm not normally a shipper but I swear, if Miles and Gumshoe don't get married by the end of all this, I ain't gonna be responsible for my actions.
@Ralizah I'm curious, did you manage to keep current with all of these remastered collections?
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
@Werehog Nah, back off, Edgeworth belongs to Wright. That's the canon otp 😎
The only Remastered collection I need to play is Investigations because of the second game, which was never officially translated until that collection. I own the originals of the other games, so I haven't bothered grabbing the new collections.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
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