Topic: Games you've recently beat

@FuriousMachine Shadow of the Tomb Raider is probably my favorite of the reboot trilogy. I’ve yet to get Indiana Jones. As a fan of the IP (and archaeology / exploration of ancient civilization) I need to get to it eventually.

@Th3solution Sweet, that's great to hear, makes me look forward to it even more I've enjoyed the two first games in the "Survivor" trilogy, so not quite sure why the third one has been languishing in a dark corner of my library for so long. Too much else to play, I guess, and with games being so long these days, a handful of games can easily take up a year of my time. It will have to wait a bit longer, though, as will Indy (which needs a decent sale before I'll pull the trigger).

@FuriousMachine Yeah, it’s been quite a while since I’ve played them. I believe I played each entry during the launch window. I still have the little flashlight (I think I see people across the pond calling them a ‘torch’?) that I got as part of a preorder bonus for the physical copy of SotTR, if that is any indication of how long it’s been. We don’t see cool little freebies like that anymore.

Per my memory, Shadow was a return to more of the exploration root of the series. Rise of the TR got heavier into the action and combat and although it was fun in its own way, I appreciated Shadow’s focus again on the tomb raiding. Also the themes are more in line with what I love about these games — the whole ancient Mayan apocalypse and jungle backdrop, as opposed to Rise’s Eastern European snowy setting.

I’ve thought about doing a replay of the TR Survivor trilogy, especially replaying the first game, which my only experience was playing it back on PS3 ten years ago. I don’t think the definitive edition on PS4 added much, but it’s still something that gnaws at me. Of course what I’d really prefer is a new TR game. I guess that’s something we’re going to have a wait a while for, at the very least. The unloading of the IP a couple years ago into the black hole of the Embracer Group’s cache doesn’t bode well for anything being done with it.

@Th3solution Flashlight, torch... in Norway we call it a "lommelykt", the literal translation of which would be "pocketlantern". Pretty cool name for it, now that I think about it.

I also prefer the jungle setting, so that's more good news for me that Shadow returns to it. Also, yay for more tomb exploration while raiding!

A new game in the series would be nice and I'm sure it will arrive at one point; it's pretty huge IP after all. Question is how long it will languish in limbo before anyone picks up the torch (or flashlight/pocketlantern)

@FuriousMachine Ah yes — I like that term, “pocketlantern.” It probably makes the most sense.

I couldn’t help but look it up because I’m a weirdo and curious about etymology. So apparently the device was invented by a British inventor while he was living in America in 1899. The term flashlight was first actually used by a Russian immigrant in the U.S. who coined the term flashlight, due to the early batteries having poor current that didn’t maintain evenly so the lights would flicker or flash and also have to be turned off and on a lot to conserve power. But back in the UK they called it an electric torch because of its obvious usage to replace the convention fire-lit wooden torch, and unfortunately over time they just dropped the “electric” part in the name and so now in the UK you have to wonder which torch a person is talking about, electric or fire. Of course the context makes it quite obvious in most circumstances, but in gaming we certainly have plenty of times we use both kinds of torches! 😄. In Tomb Raider you’ll see fire wooden torches and electric ones.

Anyway, yeah — hoping for more TR sooner rather than later. 😅

@FuriousMachine
@Th3solution
Having played all of the TR trilogy my favourite is Rise, mainly because of all the challenge tombs which made it feel more like a traditional tomb raider to me.
I even liked the extra card based challenges although I did have to resort to a guide in order to get a few of the golds.

Also fascinating stuff about the flashlight/pocket lanterns.

@Th3solution That's so interesting! I, too, find etymology immensely interesting, especially how the meeting of different cultures influence each other's languages (like, for example, some Scottish accents pronounce a few English words in almost the exact pronunciation of the Norwegian word: "House"/"Hus", "Cow (coo)"/"Ku", "Highland"/"Høyland" are among many words that, in a regular English accent sound very little alike, but with many Scots sounding almost Norwegian. Without knowing for certain, I assume this down to the many years of interaction between the Vikings and the northern parts of Scotland. Now, this is a massive digression, but I can't help myself when I meet a fellow word sleuth (and, as the old joke goes, "People Who Can't Tell Entomology from Etymology Bug Me in Ways I Can't Put Into Words", so always fun to meet someone who can )

@CaptD I also liked the challenge tombs, even though I'm not a huge fan of the "play a level, get a score, repeat to improve your score" type gameplay. Most of the time I lose my patience with gameplay forcing me to repeat something I've already done, but occasionally you will get the kind of challenges that doesn't rely solely on the speed with which you finish it, but requires approaching things differently for better results, and that can be quite enjoyable. I don't remember if the challenges in Rise were of the "OK, do it again, but faster" types or not, but I do remember having fun with them, so either I just played them once and was satisfied with whatever result I got or they had good enough incentives for me to do them again.

@Th3solution Thought I'd respond over here to keep our chat "on-topic". Thanks man! Completing Sekiro was definitely a more challenging and thus significantly more rewarding experience than beating any of the Souls games, even with the allegedly "easier" ending that I went for, in the end. But thanks any way and I wish you all the best with it when you get around to it, after Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring.

So my extra subscription is running out in a month or and I'm therefore attempting to clear any games that I've downloaded and forgotten about.
As part of this drive I recently finished Cursed to Golf (PS5) a quirky, retro pixel style roguelike golf thingy.

My progress went something like this.
Attempt 1 - completed 2 holes.
Attempt 2 - completed 3 holes.
Attempt 3 - completed 4 holes, lost to the first boss.
Attempt 4 - completed 3 holes.
Attempt 5 - completed 18 holes, beat all bosses and saw the credits roll.

Now I didn't get all skilful or figure out the game and mechanics all of a sudden. I stumbled on a perk (pin) that absolutely trivialized the rest of the round for me. Essentially it just let me turn the ball into a rocket every shot and just flew past the obstacles and land it where I wanted to.

So I'm a bit conflicted, I didn't think I would be good or lucky enough to finish the game so was relieved that I did. On the other hand, it was quite a fun challenge to start with and that rocketball thing was just so OP it kind of took away the game. It probably shouldnt have let me have access to it until I'd failed for 20 hours or attempts or something.
Is quite a unique fun little game though if anyone's interested.

@Scribedby Yeah, I hope Yotei is going to blow it out of the waters. I am really curious for today's State of Play, because I wonder if they take chances with changing up the formula or if it's rather a cookie cutter sequel like Horizon 2 was.

Just rolled credits on "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" and it is easily my favourite of the series. While some of the driving sequences overstayed their welcome a tiny bit, the game overall was of perfect length. The cast and characters were stellar and I would love to team up with Chloe and Nadine again in the future, though it seems like ND has moved on from the series, which is a shame.

Next up I was originally going to tackle OG FF7, but I think I'll postpone it and focus on some smaller, shorter experiences as Ghost of Yotei is rapidly approaching. Would like to time it so that my gaming calendar is open when it drops. As such I've picked up (a) "Stray" from my backlog and will give it a go

@FuriousMachine Congratulations man, I loved that game as well, I agree that the length is perfect, and I'll never forget that line about "There isn't enough alcohol in the world" 😂 Idk if you remember that one? Sounds a bit odd taken out of context, but if the joke landed, well, then, that's great.

I'm interested in Ghost of Yotei, too, and have added the Digital Deluxe edition of the game to my list. As a fellow enthusiast of all things Japanese, let me ask you if you like/have played any other Samurai/Shinobi themed games, such as Sekiro or Nioh 2?

I recently beat Sekiro, am currently playing the Sekiro-like 'Nine Sols' and am soon to embark on a journey through The Lands of Shadow in the ELDEN RING DLC with a Sekiro 'Wolf' Build.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN hehehe, yeah, was when Chloe asked Nadine to expand on her past with Asav, wasn't it? Which reminds me, I'm no expert on accents, but I thought Laura Bailey delivered a really convincing South-African accent in these games. So much so that I had to check whether she was actually from South Africa or not.

I tried Nioh when I bought it on sale a while back, not realising it was a soulslike, which is a game style I really don't enjoy (I hate the "enemies respawn on rest" mechanic), so it took me only minutes to put it away. Never bothered with Nioh 2 or Sekiro for the same reason. That being said, there are games that employ mechanics that can counter my annoyance with it (generous checkpointing, free saving, anything that helps me avoid having to replay a huge chunk of encounters should I fail to kill a boss), but more often than not I lose patience with these types of games, so I typically avoid them.
I may revisit Nioh again at a later date, but it is low on my list.

@FuriousMachine I thought, given what you said, this might be more your cup of tea, it's definitely a game I'm very interested in, although obviously we don't know anything about whether enemies respawn after resting in the game or not at this point, but if they don't then you might enjoy it.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10013063

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Hmm, yeah... it will come down to the execution, I think. An unknown developer, it looks a little bit wonky (but it's still in dev, so I suppose that could change) and I'm a bit wary of the <whatever> Simulator <year> named games out there. Much shovelware in that space. Will keep an eye on it though, and if they release a demo I'll give it a whirl

Finished Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, recently.

The second of the two DLC bundles “The Secrets of the Spires” was a real challenge. But very satisfied to have reached the end.

Then, finished off half-dozen instances of one particular “open-world activity” (Ubisoft game), and up pops the Platinum trophy.

Thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, but now have no desire to go back to it, at least not for ages yet.

Death Stranding.

Such an interesting game. There are so many interesting concepts in this game. Some don't really hit, but those that do are insane. A very unique game, one I feel that really pushes the medium to new limits in a multitude of ways. Also, I just enjoyed delivering packages.

Mass Effect 2 plat popped and while I really enjoyed it, I did feel a little burn out by the end. Still, sets up the third game really well and The Illusive Man is a bloody great character. Obviously I have no idea how it all pans out and whether he’ll end up emerging from his shades of grey on the light side or the dark… but I love him, just my kind of character.

I beat Doom Eternal today.
I didn't really click with it, my least favourite Doom since 3. Too much platforming for me, dash dash jump grab on to wall climb then dash dash to another platform... Didn't feel like Doom to me.
Also just too much going on with the flamethrower, chainsaw, grenade/ice grenade, glory kills and constant running low on ammo so having too utilise all the weapons. Then attempting to use the weapons special perks and performing specific kills with different weapons to upgrade the perks... upgrade the suit, weapons, change runes, collect batteries to unlock more rooms in the base. Hold on, why do I even have a base anyway?? And swimming sections... Doom guy doesn't swim!
The whole thing just felt a bit overwhelming much of the time.
I eventually got too frustrated and turned the difficulty to low just so I could get to the end and be done with it.

A shame as it was one I had looked forward to but have to say it wasn't really for me.

@sorteddan Will you still play The Dark Ages? I've heard similar about Eternal which has out me off. I've never did finish Doom 2016 put would have no problem jumping straight to the Dark Ages.