What games did you complete? 2018 Edition

[Jamie John]

Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4)

 

After coming close to leaving this about half way in, I muddled through in the end and saw it to the credits. It was all right.

 

On the one hand I think it suffers from many of the maladies of modern triple A games: tagged on RPG elements, unecessary ultraviolence, box-ticking collectibles, micro-transactions, squishy cover shooting, an over-reliance on QTEs, and a horribly clichéd storyline with crap voice acting (improved immeasurably by setting the dialogue to Russian, which is a bit more authentic, at least). It even has a bloody zombie mode. By far its biggest flaw, however, is the amount the game relentlessly spoonfeeds you, from the opening tutorial level (where you would, admittedly, expect it a little) all the way up to the end (where you wouldn't). Everytime you come up against any kind of obstacle a tutorial box pops up telling you exactly what to do. All of the challenge tombs, so called, are more or less spoiled by Lara telling you what to do if you happen to spend longer than 30 seconds inside them without finding the answer. Every single climbable ledge is highlighted with yellow or white paint, and just in case that wasn't obvious enough, the camera constantly drags your attention towards the next objective marker every time you turn a corner. It's like the developers just don't trust the player to think for themselves, or they're scared that if they have to hesitate even for a few minutes they'll put the game down and go and do something else. The result is that you play most of the game on autopilot and rarely have to engage your brain. This is why people find games like Dark Souls so refreshing.

 

On the other hand, it looks nice, some of the set pieces, although unoriginal, are vaguely interesting, and the whole thing is so polished that you get lulled into going along with it anyway, despite recognising its flaws. Mainly, I just wanted to get my money's worth after buying it digitally and knowing I wouldn't be able to trade it in if I abandoned it after a few hours, which I probably would have done had I bought the hard copy.

 

Not-as-good-as-Uncharted/10.

[BadgerFarmer]

12 hours ago, MegaTrousers said:

26/05/18 Rive: Platformer/twin stick/shmup hybrid. Very polished, everything looks and feels good, there's a fair amount of variety, and loads of great set pieces. Chatty protagonist would be OK - even occasionally funny, if he didn't talk quite so much - and if constant death didn't mean hearing the same lines over and over and over. The real problem is the difficulty. Given the extra modes and nods to speed-running, I assume that for more skilful gamers its very do-able, and I imagine very rewarding, but for my mediocre abilities the difficulty curve is more like a cliff face with overhangs. I was only able to get through thanks to infinite lives and plenty of checkpoints.

 

My last completion before this was ruiner, which is also tough, but in it, I would often clear sections with high ranks, feeling like a gore crazed Neo and gaining the confidence to master the harder fights. In rive, I rarely managed more than scraping through. Also, too many enemy types just charge straight at you kamikaze style. Overall, I think enjoyment of rive is directly proportional to the player's skill level. It had its moments, but its just too tough for me to get much out of it.

I think you're being generous if anything. For me it was just poorly designed. A lot of sudden deaths, some awful checkpointing (on one boss it had saved when I was in mid air over some lava), explosions that obscure your view, getting hit sending you flying across the screen etc. I also couldn't get on with having jump mapped to the left triggers, and not being allowed to change it. Didn't help either that I though the humour was lame - especially when it references other classic games that I'd rather have been playing instead.

[MegaTrousers]

There are definitely deaths that come at you faster than I could ever react to without foreknowledge, but checkpoints are pretty frequent. I also had an instance of it saving while I was being damaged, so that can suck. Being knocked around by enemies feels harsh, but given how many are based on contact damage, it usually helps more than it hinders by giving you some space, There are a couple of parts where it makes things flat-out unfair though - the rising lava section, and the boss area with the grinder under the water and the lasers at the surface stand out.

Agreed the humour doesn't really land, but I enjoyed the game references. 

Controls should always be remappable, but curious where you'd put jump? If the player can't jump, manoeuvre and aim at once the game loses its best feature.

[BadgerFarmer]

28 minutes ago, MegaTrousers said:

Controls should always be remappable, but curious where you'd put jump? If the player can't jump, manoeuvre and aim at once the game loses its best feature.

I can't remember all the controls exactly now, but think I wanted it on the right bumper, with fire on the right trigger. I really struggled to do jumps with the left trigger or bumper while moving with the left stick.

[MegaTrousers]

Fair enough. I possibly am being a bit generous with it. It mixes game-play styles in a way that I find especially interesting, but is rarely seen - probably because its so hard to do well.

[Camel]

Spoiler

 

Puyo Puyo Tetris - Vita.  Completed story mode or whatever it's called.  I completed the PS3 version a while back and this time I convinced myself I'll go back and get three stars on each level, but having just finished it, I think some of the levels are just going to be too difficult.  I might revisit some of them.  Still a brilliant game.  Some great ideas implemented in mashing the two games together.

 

Puyo Puyo Tetris - PS4.  Yeah.  'Completed' story mode again.  However, I must have not been paying attention when I finished this on PS3 and Vita as going back into story mode after the credits opens up three new worlds.  So I'll probably go back and do those plus I'm going for three stars on everything this time.

 

King of Dragons - Arcade (via PSP (via PSTV)). Capcom side-scroller with not much finesse in its gameplay really. Jump/attack/smart bomb; no run, no other attack system other than smashing the attack button.  This is still pretty enjoyable, especially when some of the bigger bosses show up for the first time.  Sadly it drags on a bit (14 levels!) and the bosses are repeated too many times.  On the plus side, this is a beautifully presented game; the bigger dragons are especially impressive and the music by none other than Yoko Shimomura of Street Fighter II fame.  I completed this by credit-feeding it so no glory in doing so really but there it is.

 

Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Vita. Finished the stupid story mode.  Stupid because it's hours of reams of text with the occasional level to play.  They even give you a button so you can whizz through all the text more quickly.  But it's still hours of tedium.

 

^ + all trophies

 

Soul Calibur II HD Online - Xbox 360

'Completed' weapon master, which is the single player story mode.  'Completed' because while I've seen the end credits, doing so has unlocked some extra chapters which I'll probably go on to complete.  Some interesting levels in the single player experience, but aside from a few (only wall combos damage the opponent; only air combos damage the opponent; perform a guard impact against the enemy), none of them really teach you much about playing the game.  Still satisfying to play however, because Soul Calibur just has a great feel to its combat.  

 

Sacred Citadel - Xbox 360 - picked this randomly from my digital pile of shame snd found it a surprisingly fun side scrolling scrapper with a decent combat system.  Looks nice too.

 

Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush - Wii-U - Actually, I completed this previously (well, the story mode), but I've been going back to it every now and then to get gold on each level, find all the treasure chests, collect all the books and then to complete all 48 challenges in challenge mode.

While story mode is pretty easy to complete, finishing all the above and then challenge mode was actually, well, challenging.  The survival challenges especially, and those that require beating each boss without taking any damage to unlock.  Anyway, all done now.

 

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd - PSP - Completed all 40-odd songs on 'normal', got to dick around on the end credits screen.  I found this difficult at first, but once used to the weird note patterns, this became much more playable but perhaps a little too basic due to there being only two note buttons on 'normal'.  I might play through again on 'hard' (which introduces notes on all four face buttons), but my couple of forays into that setting have indicated that somewhere between 'normal' and 'hard' would been the sweet spot; the main issue with 'hard' (for me) being that at times, entire sequences are a mix of all four buttons (combined occasionally with a d-pad movement) and combined with the swirly note patterns, it's just that little bit too hard to keep up.  I might persevere though.  Music is terrible throughout, but I do love a rhythm game, so I've enjoyed this quite a lot.

 

 

^^ previous

 

Quackshot - Mega Drive - Never actually got round to completing this before.  Back in the day I enjoyed playing this, but always felt it was far inferior to Castle of Illusion.  It's actually a really decent platformer apart from a few ropey bits and a leap of faith section which is never welcome in a platform game.  The budget Metroid-style hopping backwards and forwards between levels with new abilities is fairly well done too if not exactly ambitious in scale.

[Gabe]

27/05/2018 - Halycon 6: Lightspeed Edition (PC)

 

Part Xcom, part FTL, part management sim, H6 is an decent concept spun out way, way too long - and it's worth noting that this edition reduced the grind of the original release!

 

You manage an alien space station and find you and your crew the sole survivors of an alien attack and your job is to make space safe again whilst investigating this great unknown threat. It's split into 3 main areas - management of the space station, where you will research new tech, build rooms to provide various abilities, bonuses etc; space exploration, where you identify colonies and secure their resources whilst also finding other races; and the real meat of the game - combat (both land and space-based).

 

This takes the form of turn-based battles and the main mechanic is that each commander of a ship has various powers (gained via research and ship tech) and generally each power will either inflict or exploit a status effect. The idea, then, is to use each ship to set-up an effect that the one of the other ships can exploit - and with 8 different effects that can be applied, there's plenty of options. Making heavy use of this is necessary, too, as the normal damage range of weapons isn't all that.

 

It's all very functional, the graphics have a certain charm (mainly in dialogue scenes with other races), there are lots of different powers and the skill trees are varied for each commander and the researching and discovering new stuff is always fun.

 

The problem, though, is that this is a neat idea for an 8 hour game that is padded-out for far, far too long (on releasing this edition the devs say it streamlined it to be around 12 hours - but even that would feel too long). It took me much longer than that (I did restart after a fair few hours though) but it was a real chore to get through, with too many instances of the threat being tackled only to find there's another thing to do. This is exacerbated by the fact that the rhythm and routine of combat never changes from the first few battles to the last - except for when you get some enemies where the max damage you can cause in a turn is capped, so you'll pick any old attacks just to get through it.

 

And there is just so much combat to get through. To try and speed things up I turned-off the animations for my last couple of hours (wish I'd seen that option sooner) but it still dragged on.

 

Like I say, a much, much more tightly honed experience could probably be pulled from this (which would also mean you don't run out of new stuff hours before the end, too) - which is hardly a glowing endorsement of this v2 in the first place. I can only wonder what playing the first release was like because even though you get both versions, I have no intention of ever finding out!

 

Previously completed:

 

Spoiler

12/05/18 - Orwell (PC)

22/04/18 - Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation (PC)

20/04/18 - Saints Row IV (PC)

02/04/18 - The Flood (PC)

01/04/18 - Massive Chalice (PC)

28/03/18 - Blues and Bullets - episode 1 (PC)

20/03/18 - Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC)

16/02/18 - The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)

06/02/18 - Victor Vran (PC)

30/01/18 - Scream Collector (PC)

28/01/18 - Not Dying Today (PC)

25/01/18 - Titanfall 2 (PC)

21/01/18 - Earthlock: Festival of Magic (PC)

06/01/18 - Einar (PC)

 

[Soulstar]

 

January

1. Darksiders 2 (The Deathinitive Edition) (2012/2015) PS4 - 15/01/2018 (Normal Difficulty)

2. DLC Darksiders 2: Argul's Tomb - The Abyssal Forge - The Demon Lord Belial [DLC Expansion Missions] - 18/01/2018

3. Uncanny Valley - (2015/2017) PS4 - 24/01/2018 (100% Trophy Achievements)

4. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (2015/16) PS4 28/01/2018 (One of the True Endings with Takura Tsurugi)

February
 
5. The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (2015) PS3 - 16/02/2018
 
March

6. Grand Kingdom (2015/16) PS4 - 19/03/2018 (Main Campaign)

7. Mighty No. 9 (2016) PS4 - 28/03/2018 (Normal Playthrough)

 April

 8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016) PS4 16/04/2018 (Main Campaign - Normal Difficulty)

 9. Ratchet & Clank (2016) PS4 28/04/2018 (Normal Difficulty)
 

 

May

 

10. Super Metroid (1994) SNES (mini) 01/05/2018 (83% completion rate)

 

11. Super Contra III (1992) SNES (mini) 10/05/2018 (Easy & Normal)

 

12. Batman (Season 1) - Telltale Games (2016) PS4 - 17/05/2018

 

Got a couple of additions to include before the end of the month; the first one being the Telltale series "Batman" which is the second of it's type I've tried out since going through the two Walking dead games and this time feels even more focused on the story and quick time events than the latter did (if you can think that's possible). By this, I largely mean that walking around and picking things up in an inventory isn't really a thing anymore, although there's a new element to the gameplay which adds a detective "who-dunnit" procedure involving connecting evidence at  a scene together in order to piece together a previous major event which occurred in the past. As a story, Batman does get quite engrossing and reminded me a bit of Gotham to some extent with its mature nature and tendency toward voilence and darker atmosphere, but also feels quite refreshing as things are switched up a bit with characters being a little different such as Penguin being of the same age as Bruce Wayne and having grown up with him, where in Gotham he's older and bears no previous connection (at least from where I got up to anyway). Each episode took me about an hour and a half to finish and as it's mostly a rolling story (aside from a few bits you may wish to read in the codex and news) they all last around the same length. 

 

I enjoyed seeing the tension build up around Batman and particularly liked the episode where he ends up in Arkam and felt that you get to see a bunch of interesting but recognisable characters which all have their own unique look and feel for this particular series. The quicktime events are obviously there to keep you connected to the action, but it often felt like too much, or rather by failing something it would lead to death and instant replaying of the same scene rather than a change of course in the story which would actually be interesting to do. 

 

There's not too much I need to say, and I did enjoy it but it wasn't quite as good as TWD, mainly because that was my first time going into this sort of thing, and that game really had me emotionally involved like very few games have done. I didn't need to buy it as it was one of the PS+ titles, but good to have returned back to another TT game as it'd been a while. While I'm not desperate to grab season 2, I will want to check that out at some point. 

 

Verdict 7.5/10

 

13. King Oddball (2014) PS4 - 10Tons 28/05/2018 (Main Game Stages)

 

Today I finished off all the main stages of the Angry Birds-a-like style physics game that features a very simple set of rules, which involves launching a number of rocks from the constantly swinging tongue of the king oddball himself in order to take down tanks, helicopters and other enemies of the like. It's the third game I've now played by 10Tons Ltd, and while they are usually quite budget titles, their games have kept me quite addicted, previously getting extremely hooked on Azkend 2 and putingt a fair bit of time into Neon Chrome (the predecessor to Jydge).

 

King Oddball is one of those games that combines skill with luck, and while many levels are feasible to use skill, about 10% of them really do slow you down until you inevitably manage to make that random move which just so happens to destroy everything unexpectedly. I've done a total of about 177 levels so far and there are other challenges in there, such as the grenade stages (complete), the diamond stages and the single rock stages. I spent about 30 or 40 mins today on one of those which felt seemingly impossible, but somehow managed it. There are some little features whereby they try and get you to promote the game by messaging other people on your contact list in order get some kind of secret or extra advantage, but I didn't really use these much as you just don't want to be pestering other people all the time. 

 

Overall though it's definitely a simple yet addictive flavour of a game and took me less than 5 hours to beat spread across a couple of weeks where I'd just dip in and out of it to take on a few more levels each time. Definitely one of those games that would be better suited to a portable device, but then I don't own a Vita and don't play games on my iPhone either. 

 

Verdict 7/10

[MegaTrousers]

27/05/18 Subnautica: Astonishing game. Starts as a very beautiful first person survival game set on an ocean planet, but while a lapse in attention can always result in disaster, its more of an open world adventure and construction game, with a defined end goal and steps along the way. It even has a fascinating story that you can investigate or largely ignore as you please. 

 

What I enjoyed most was the ongoing sense of starting in a scary, unknown place, and gradually gaining mastery of it. What in the beginning was a terrifying cave soon became little more than the back garden. Beyond that is an empty abyss - except, its not, its a grassy plain full of life and useful resources. This loop from trepidation to comfort and back goes on for ages, with areas gated off by the equipment needed to explore them and the resources needed to build that equipment. 

 

Building is a big concern, you make tools, habitats, vehicles, gardens... The options for modular bass building go far beyond what's necessary, but its nice to feel like the planets greatest architect and builder. Also of note, is that its mostly non-violent, and where it does crop up, it feels disruptive and fraught rather than a power fantasy.

 

On the downside - once you've had a look at the wildlife, the natural biomes don't have much to distinguish them, or  to actually do, other than mine resources, but very few items are unique to one place. There's a performance issue where the longer a game goes on and the more you do, the worse performance gets, especially around bases. Toward the end, I spent as little time as possible at my main bass as it was near unplayable. I chose to take death seriously because I felt it made the game better, but really its a triviality with very little cost.

 

I spent 99 hours reaching the end (way, way longer than average), of which about 97 were spent in VR. This is a serious killer app for vr - but only if you're already so into it that you can put up with a half-assed, totally unfinished implementation, and performance drops that demand industrial strength VR legs to avoid vomiting. If ever there was a game crying out for touch controls, its this. I'm not a fan of exclusives, but Oculus should have thrown money at this by the hat-full. Drowning in VR is suitably awful.

 

Survival games don't appeal me in general, but anyone not terrified of the ocean should give this a try.
 

Previous:

04/01/18 - Life is Strange: amazing but heartbreaking if it clicks. Dawson's Creek meets quantum leap if it doesn't. 
14/01/18 - Titanfall 2: Crysis vs Mechwarrior vs Mirror's Edge- mighty good fun.
16/01/18 - Headlander: 70's style futurism action platformer (without any jumping). Good, but somehow less than the sum of its parts.
22/01/18 - Dreamfall Chapters: One for the fans only - you should be a fan. 
24/01/18 - Lucky's Tale: Cancelled N64 game gets late VR release.

 

01/02/18 - Shadow of Mordor: Lord of the Batmans - be an actual boss, but with more sword-fights and less admin.
10/02/18 - Robo Recall: Possibly a class A substance.
12/02/18 - Wilson's Heart: Star in an awesome old horror b-movie. Feel even more annoyed than the cantankerous old man you play as.
13/02/18 - Arkham VR: Uncharacteristically nonviolent Batman sim. Good but very short.
19/02/18 - Transistor: Nice soundtrack, and good battle system, but otherwise irritating. 
25/02/12 - Grow Home: Drunk Jack and the bean-stalk.
28/02/12 - The Stick of Truth: South Park / 10 

 

02/03/18 - Doki Doki Literature Club: Messed up visual novel. Play Pony Island first.
03/03/18 - Lego Marvel Superheroes: Preview what younger relatives will turn out like should they develop serious drug addictions.
23/03/18 - The Witcher: Clunky, but interestingly offbeat western rpg gameplay expertly fused to an excellent story.
24/03/18 - I Expect You To Die: Comedy spy themed trial and error vr escape rooms. Better than Johnny English, not quite Jason Borne.
25/03/18 - Double Dragon Neon: Battle license fee dodging, off-brand skeletor and his army in quality side scrolling brawler.
28/03/18 - The Darkness 2: Use the phrase "visceral combat" appropriately and without fear of chastisement.

 

06/04/18 - Rise of the Tomb Raider: The high points of actual tomb raiding shine brightly through a haze of enjoyable but unnecessary combat, crafting, upgrading and icon collecting.
15/04/18 - Poi: Mario 64 tribute act. Good for a night out, but wouldn't pay for full price tickets.
29/04/18 - Thunder Wolves: Fun arcade helicopter combat with obnoxious "mercenaries are SO COOL!" presentation.

 

12/05/18 - Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis: Old point and clicker. Couple of interesting features but no classic.
13/05/18 - Rez Infinite: State of Art
20/05/18 - Ruiner: Grim and grisly twin stick shooter with a strong aesthetic and top combat. "Dark and mature" in the way only a videogame aimed at teenagers can be.
26/05/18 - RIVE: Twin stick shooter / shmup / platformer hybrid. Feels good, but too tough, and maybe not always fair.

[matt0]

Scott Pilgrim (360):

 

I like Scott Pilgrim. I like Paul Robertson, the character designer / animator on this game. I like River City Ransom which this game lovingly pays homage to. I like scrolling beat-em-ups. I liked Scott Pilgrim The Game for the first 4 levels but the game haemorrhaged so much good will by the time I finished it...

 

Then all the shit bits from scrolling beat-em-ups make an appearance, like rolling balls flying across the screen, environmental hazards and clunky jumping sections over pits. And there's a sudden difficulty spike you need to level up to get over, only once you've done that the boss fights and action set pieces suddenly become challenge free acts of attrition. Also there's a redundant lives / continues system which constantly gets in your way and is made even worse by the fact that levels frequently glitch out and refuse to scroll onwards, meaning you have to quit and restart minus any lives you might have lost.

 

The basic combat never stops being fun and the early boss fights were tense and usually beaten on my last sliver of health. There's loads of playful set pieces and throw away background details and a very cool take on the fighting-on-public-transport section that always crops up in these games. And despite the drop in quality in the second half the final section of the last level is a decent finale... But overall It's just too scrappy and rough around the edges.

 

Also, the end credits are surreal, they last about 15 minutes. So many people worked on this game, I don't know how it was supposed to make any money. It's sad that this got de-listed though.

 

 

2018 so far:

 

  Hide contents

 

January:

 

Vanquish (360)

 

February:

 

Ghost Recon Shadow War (3DS)

 

March:

 

Super Metroid (SNES Mini)

Split Second (360)

 

April:

 

Zelda: Breath of The Wild (Wii U)

Metro Last Light (360)

 

May:

 

Shovel Knight (Wii U)

 

 

2017 list:

 

  Hide contents

 

Steam World Heist

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Kane and Lynch 2

Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 

Fire Emblem Echoes

Fire Emblem Awakenings

Forza Horizon

Metroid: Samus Returns

Nights Into Dreams

 

[Unofficial Who]

Jun

 

13/06 Assassin's Creed 2 (PS4) Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Some of the eyes are just weird. I assume it's an issue with upscaling the models to a higher res. Otherwise it's still the game that made me fall in love with Assassin's Creed even if it feels a lot smaller than it did previously. It has the old hard climbing method where you have to plan and look for handholds. Time passed really quickly while revisiting this one.

 

02/06 Aye Fair Lady (PC) A short game about a robot singing competition. Set in Yorkshire. It's free. It's silly. It's glorious. https://gamejolt.com/games/ayefairlady/338771

 

Previously

 

 

May

27/05 Loci Omnes Caelesistis Kyries (PC)

26/05 Il Filo Conduttore (PC)

25/05 Beyond:Two Souls (PS4)

21/05 Magic Sword (360)

06/05 Midnight Scenes:The Highway (PC)

06/05 The Librarian (PC)

Apr

30/04 Shadowhand (PC)
29/04 Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4)
25/04 Final Fight (360/Arcade)
22/04 Gorf (Vic 20)
08/04 Star Raiders (Atari 8 Bit)
02/04 Assassin's Creed:Origins (PS4)
Mar
30/03 Tutankham (2600)
20/03 Rime (PS4)
18/03 Caligo (PC)
11/03 Ratchet and Clank (PS4)
11/03 Samorost 2 (PC/Browser)
11/03 Samorost (Browser)
03/03 Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast and Furious (360)
Feb
24/02 Metal Gear (MSX/360)
18/02 Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4)
01/02 Batman:The Telltale Series (PS4)
Jan
29/01 Final Fantasy 15:Episode Prompto and Ignis (PS4)
27/01 Ghost 1.0 (PC)
13/01 Yorkshire Gubbins:Episode 1 (PC)
11/01 Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
06/01 Universal Paperclips (Browser)
03/01 What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)

Abandoned
28/01 Zolg (PC)
 

 

 

[PyramidFace]

June 2018

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch - 2018)

By 'completed' I mean 'beat the world 6 boss'. There's no way I'm going back in to collect everything. It was...ok. The curiously charmless visuals and occasionally infuriating difficulty being my main complaints. Oh, and the baffling decision to put roll and ground pound on the same button. A competent enough game then, but one that's far from essential - although I know a lot of people really love it.

 

Previously...

May 2018: Doom (Switch - 2017)

April 2018: Golf Story (Switch - 2017)

February 2018: Celeste (Switch - 2018)

January 2018: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch - 2017)

[Marlew]

Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition - Legend Mode (Switch)

 

Long time no completions, after a flurry of activity for a good few months burning up the backlog. This is partly because I settled back into some old favourites, ARMS, Splatoon 2, MK8D, games which keep on giving and with which I can sometimes have a brilliant session and feel that they're the best game on the system. It's also because I've been putting a bit more practice into some shmup favourites, trying to improve my scores and approach with DaiOuJou, Mushihimesama and Danmaku Unlimited 3. It's also partly because there was a lull in releases which particularly interested me, and I was becoming hopeful that Hyrule Warriors would be a worthwhile stopgap until Dark Souls and E3. It was with that spirit of mild optimism that I ordered it day one.

 

Very quickly, it became all I played. There's such a satisfying flow to its largely weightless combat that I could and did play it for hours at a time, bashing buttons, sure, but also constantly assessing and reassessing the battlefield, deciding to take on or abandon side missions all while dealing with the swarming mobs with a variety of combos and finishers and specials and items and dodge cancelling from one group to the next, watching the numbers tick. Past a certain point, I started skipping the cut scenes, I just wanted the ebb and flow of battle, and the instant gratification of turning the tide in my favour. I started to fall out my usually good sleep routine, I'd play it til 1am and wake at 5 for another hour before work. It was unsustainable and thank fuck Dark Souls Remastered came out to drag me away from it. I quickly finished off Legend Mode over the weekend and now I will keep it in rotation as I gradually chip away at the colossal Adventure Mode. Like Splatoon and ARMS and Mario Kart, this game will last me several years, I'm sure, and it'll be fun every single time. Another Nintendo classic. 

[Jolly]

May

 

Kirby Star Allies

A loveable, enjoyable adventure that can only accurately be described as 'romp', the chaos that engulfs the screen with a full complement of players ensures that whilst everyone will be having fun, you're probably not entirely sure why. However, as a recovering Nintendo fanboy, with a wife with only a passing interest in games and two children ages five and seven this was ridiculously perfect for my particular household situation and is a game that we all played through and finished together. Now, isn't that lovely? 8/10

 

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Completely horrific but absolutely enthralling journey through madness that makes Silent Hill 2 look like Animal Crossing. Crunching, hefty, grueling combat and some astonishing sound that demands to be experienced through headphones make for one of the best surprises I've had in a long while. Would have been challenging the upper echelons of my 2017 top ten had I played it on release. Just fucking brilliant. 9/10

 

DOOM VFR

Semi-successful translation of the fantastic 2016 reboot which only really falls short due to a lack of conviction and confidence to fully commit to the combat rather than splice it up with VR tech demo bollocks. A shame, because the fights are tense, adrenaline-pumping affairs even if something about the whole experience can feel a little wonky. Good fun though, and definitely recommended to fans of its spiritual father. 7/10

 

RiME

I'm not a massive fan of ICO and the like so I'm not quite sure what made me decided to a have a run at this, but I'm pleased I did. Gentle puzzling, mystery and a nice variation of environments make for a perfectly enjoyable few hours (and, thankfully, this is one of those rare game that knows not to overstay it's welcome). My only slight regret is that I played through it with my 5 year old, a pretty appalling decision in retrospect; I expect some of you will know what I'm talking about! 8/10

 

Street Fighter Alpha

First game I decided to concentrate on in the anniversary collection having never had the pleasure before. I'm pretty terrible at fighting games and I'm not one to be able to pick up on the subtleties but this seems to be a game that favours the brave and that's the kind of thing I like. Been enjoying Alpha 3 online a lot too (even if my win/loss ratio must be something stupid like 1:20 by now). Caught my attention enough that I'll spend some more time working my way through the series before moving on to SFIII.8/10

 

Previously

Super Mario Odyssey (10/10)

Splatoon 2 (5/10 single player, 9/10 multiplayer)

Matterfall (8/10)

Celeste (7/10)

Blazing Star (9/10)

Fire Emblem Warriors (6/10)

Ruiner (4/10)

Assassin's Creed Syndicate (8/10) 

Zero Gunner 2- (9/10)

Minit (6/10)

Vostok Inc (6/10)

Floor Kids (7/10)

[Not Thread Owner]

Here's mine so far:

 

Completed 2018

 

Splatoon 2
(Switch 01/01/2018)

Stardew Valley
(Switch 01/01/2018)

Blaster Master Zero
(Switch 06/01/2018)

Passpartout: The Starving Artist
(Mac 07/01/2018)

What Remains of Edith Finch
(PS4 07/01/2018)

Undertale
(Vita 11/01/2018)

Fire Emblem Warriors
(Switch 14/01/2018)

Golf Story
(Switch 29/01/2018)

Wolfenstein: The New Order
(PS4 03/02/2018)

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
(PS4 09/02/2018)

The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game
(Switch 12/02/2018)

Grand Theft Auto V
(PS4 24/02/2018)

Super Bomberman R
(Switch 28/02/2018)

SNK Gals’ Fighters
(NGPC 04/03/2018)

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Bonus Episode: Farewell
(PS4 06/03/2018)

North
(Switch 11/03/2018)

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China
(PS4 14/03/2018)

Vostok Inc
(Switch 18/03/2018)

Axiom Verge
(Switch 28/03/2018)

Subsurface Circular
(Switch 31/03/2018)

Thimbleweed Park
(Switch 02/04/2018)

Slime-San
(Switch 04/04/2018)

Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
(NES 08/04/2018)

Gynoug
(MD 08/04/2018)

The Librarian
(Mac 08/04/2018)

Mappy-Land
(NES 15/04/2018)

Metal Slug 1st Mission
(NGPC 15/04/2018)

Metal Slug 2nd Mission
(NGPC 15/04/2018)

Picross S
(Switch 20/04/2018)

Rogue Aces
(Switch 21/04/2018)

Pulseman
(MD 13/05/2018)

Mega-lo-Mania
(MD 13/05/2018)

Wonder Boy in Monster Land
(MS 13/05/2018)

SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium
(NGPC 13/05/2018)

Yakuza 5
(PS3 16/05/2018)

Fairune
(Switch 18/05/2018)

Fairune 2
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Fairune Origin
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Fairune Blast
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Detective Pikachu
(3DS 25/05/2018)

SteamWorld Dig 2
(3DS 27/05/2018)

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
(Switch 03/06/2018)

[gossi the dog]

3 minutes ago, deKay said:

Here's mine so far:

 

Completed 2018

 

Splatoon 2
(Switch 01/01/2018)

Stardew Valley
(Switch 01/01/2018)

Blaster Master Zero
(Switch 06/01/2018)

Passpartout: The Starving Artist
(Mac 07/01/2018)

What Remains of Edith Finch
(PS4 07/01/2018)

Undertale
(Vita 11/01/2018)

Fire Emblem Warriors
(Switch 14/01/2018)

Golf Story
(Switch 29/01/2018)

Wolfenstein: The New Order
(PS4 03/02/2018)

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
(PS4 09/02/2018)

The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game
(Switch 12/02/2018)

Grand Theft Auto V
(PS4 24/02/2018)

Super Bomberman R
(Switch 28/02/2018)

SNK Gals’ Fighters
(NGPC 04/03/2018)

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Bonus Episode: Farewell
(PS4 06/03/2018)

North
(Switch 11/03/2018)

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China
(PS4 14/03/2018)

Vostok Inc
(Switch 18/03/2018)

Axiom Verge
(Switch 28/03/2018)

Subsurface Circular
(Switch 31/03/2018)

Thimbleweed Park
(Switch 02/04/2018)

Slime-San
(Switch 04/04/2018)

Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
(NES 08/04/2018)

Gynoug
(MD 08/04/2018)

The Librarian
(Mac 08/04/2018)

Mappy-Land
(NES 15/04/2018)

Metal Slug 1st Mission
(NGPC 15/04/2018)

Metal Slug 2nd Mission
(NGPC 15/04/2018)

Picross S
(Switch 20/04/2018)

Rogue Aces
(Switch 21/04/2018)

Pulseman
(MD 13/05/2018)

Mega-lo-Mania
(MD 13/05/2018)

Wonder Boy in Monster Land
(MS 13/05/2018)

SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium
(NGPC 13/05/2018)

Yakuza 5
(PS3 16/05/2018)

Fairune
(Switch 18/05/2018)

Fairune 2
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Fairune Origin
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Fairune Blast
(Switch 20/05/2018)

Detective Pikachu
(3DS 25/05/2018)

SteamWorld Dig 2
(3DS 27/05/2018)

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
(Switch 03/06/2018)

 

Can you add a sentence or two with your thoughts for each game? Lists by themselves are a bit well boring.

[Not Thread Owner]

If it let me paste what I'd pasted each one links to a blog post. They're all linked from here: https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary/completed/completed-2018/

[MegaTrousers]

31/05/18 Kathy Rain: More point and click adventuring. This is a tough one to talk about without spoiling. Hopefully the nit-picking nature of the complaint help suggest how good it is overall because I really liked it. Lots of entertaining puzzles that are very well integrated with the plot. Out of all the puzzles there were only three  I thought dropped the ball a bit:
In a multi-part riddle, the solution to one part is less logical than several of the available interpretations.
One near the end is pretty much copied entirely from fate of atlantis (but is a god puzzle if you haven't seen it).
One requires you to mistreat someone in a way that leaves a bad taste - and doesn't quite fit with your character...

The game features a homeless man, who is portrayed as a joke in a way that no other character is. The protagonist is never suggested to be a saint, but tazing a mentally ill person out of convenience felt shitty.

Visually it goes for low-res old school pixel art, but aside from a few pretty backgrounds where you don't need detail, the style doesn't serve the gameplay or characterization well. The script and performances are excellent and the plot is really good too. There's little that's really unique, but the game's tone is finely balanced so you're never sure which way its going to go until the end. My only real complaint is the end leans heavily on personal revelations and psychological resolutions that aren't really earned. Its great that the exposition happens through and around the puzzles, but its a compact game, and there just isn't enough time to subtly develop the stuff that the ending relies on for drama. The big reveal about Kathy's past isn't so much foreshadowed, as signposted in neon, and her parental issues only appear to affect her when specifically mentioned.

 

Previous:

04/01/18 - Life is Strange: amazing but heartbreaking if it clicks. Dawson's Creek meets quantum leap if it doesn't. 
14/01/18 - Titanfall 2: Crysis vs Mechwarrior vs Mirror's Edge- mighty good fun.
16/01/18 - Headlander: 70's style futurism action platformer (without any jumping). Good, but somehow less than the sum of its parts.
22/01/18 - Dreamfall Chapters: One for the fans only - you should be a fan. 
24/01/18 - Lucky's Tale: Cancelled N64 game gets late VR release.

 

01/02/18 - Shadow of Mordor: Lord of the Batmans - be an actual boss, but with more sword-fights and less admin.
10/02/18 - Robo Recall: Possibly a class A substance.
12/02/18 - Wilson's Heart: Star in an awesome old horror b-movie. Feel even more annoyed than the cantankerous old man you play as.
13/02/18 - Arkham VR: Uncharacteristically nonviolent Batman sim. Good but very short.
19/02/18 - Transistor: Nice soundtrack, and good battle system, but otherwise irritating. 
25/02/12 - Grow Home: Drunk Jack and the bean-stalk.
28/02/12 - The Stick of Truth: South Park / 10 

 

02/03/18 - Doki Doki Literature Club: Messed up visual novel. Play Pony Island first.
03/03/18 - Lego Marvel Superheroes: Preview what younger relatives will turn out like should they develop serious drug addictions.
23/03/18 - The Witcher: Clunky, but interestingly offbeat western rpg gameplay expertly fused to an excellent story.
24/03/18 - I Expect You To Die: Comedy spy themed trial and error vr escape rooms. Better than Johnny English, not quite Jason Borne.
25/03/18 - Double Dragon Neon: Battle license fee dodging, off-brand skeletor and his army in quality side scrolling brawler.
28/03/18 - The Darkness 2: Use the phrase "visceral combat" appropriately and without fear of chastisement.

 

06/04/18 - Rise of the Tomb Raider: The high points of actual tomb raiding shine brightly through a haze of enjoyable but unnecessary combat, crafting, upgrading and icon collecting.
15/04/18 - Poi: Mario 64 tribute act. Good for a night out, but wouldn't pay for full price tickets.
29/04/18 - Thunder Wolves: Fun arcade helicopter combat with obnoxious "mercenaries are SO COOL!" presentation.

 

12/05/18 - Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis: Old point and clicker. Couple of interesting features but no classic.
13/05/18 - Rez Infinite: State of Art
20/05/18 - Ruiner: Grim and grisly twin stick shooter with a strong aesthetic and top combat. "Dark and mature" in the way only a videogame aimed at teenagers can be.
26/05/18 - RIVE: Twin stick shooter / shmup / platformer hybrid. Feels good, but too tough, and maybe not always fair.
27/05/18 - Subnautica: #Just look at the world around you /Right here on the ocean floor /Such wonderful things surround you /What more is you lookin' for?

[RubberJohnny]

Quote

 

Layers of Fear

Shadow of Mordor

Pillars of Eternity

RE7 and Not a Hero

Titanfall 2
Valley

AC: Syndicate
The Division

 

 

Pokemon Moon - I really enjoyed this, I think it's got the best world out of any of them and a cast of surprisingly fun characters, and I like a bunch of the new Pokes. It's the first 3DS one I played and their changes have generally been to shave the edges off - you don't need to level creatures individually, trainers have fewer creatures so you're not having to traipse back to inns to heal on every route, etc. Going back to the older way is hard, which I think is a sign that these are good quality of life improvements, but I feel the series probably needs to take some bigger steps at this point - with every NPC giving you some item or evolution stone it's struggling under 20 years of accumulated cruft and could do with that BotW style reboot.

 

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - I'd never played this series, so went back to fill a few gaps in my gaming history. It's fun, it's clearly of that cross-gen PS2/360 era where games were doing modern development things like standardised interactions, 80:20 rule asset reuse, and had a taste of the wider audience and were taking more radical attempts towards accessibility, like with King Kong. That said, I must be getting old because I was surprisingly crap at it - the section at the end where they take away your time dagger so you have to do everything perfectly, which I'm guessing was meant to show you how your skills had developed through the game, just showed how much I'd relied on the sand powers because I was stuck there for fucking ages.

[Vorgot]

Danganronpa Another Episode : Ultra Despair Girls

This is very different from the first 2 games, and has a clunky start, but once it really got going, about Chapter 3, it becomes very Danganronpa and I loved it from that point out. What I really like about these games is how self aware they are but then how they will tackle stuff head on. It's easy to dismiss them as fluff pieces that are all about schoolgirls with short skirts on running around and that massively misses the point. There is one section in Chapter 3 that almost wearily tells you that here is a titillating section to keep you happy, get it over with and we can move on, but 10 seconds later it reveals the back story of one of the characters and it truly is horrific, really unpleasant, and pulls no punches. The lead up to the chapter 3 boss battle makes for really uncomfortable watching, and shows the willingness to tackle something that more 'serious' games wouldn't touch.

 

Saying all that, it would be difficult to recommend this to someone who hasn't played the first 2 Danganronpa games. But there is tons of rewarding stuff in there if you have. When the Danganronpa theme finally kicks in near the end it brought a huge grin to my face, and the game managed to make me actually like Toko as a character after not being able to abide her in the first game. Really looking forward to playing V3 now as I've played the first 3 games and watched the animation that finishes off those stories, just need it to drop in price! 

 

Previously :

 

Danganronpa 2

Doki Doki Literature Club

Picross e2

Persona 5

What Remains of Edith Finch?

Dear Esther

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture

Inside

Virtues Last Reward

[SuperBrother]

On 14/01/2018 at 07:51, SuperBrother said:

OK, I’ll join in this year.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Jan 13 - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch). Yes it has issues but IMO a must play for JRPG or open world RPG fans. I put in over 120 hours and will probably go back to m a few months to rinse the DLC content. Now for something lighter and shorter!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Jan 14 - Inside (PS4). Possibly the fastest update I will do in this thread. Done in one sitting today. I went in totally blind so no idea what was going on or what happens, still sitting here thinking it over now. Another great game, and one which could be considered in the “video games as art” debate. I would recommend to all without reservation.

want to say more but don’t want to spoil anything.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Feb - Monster Hunter World (PS4). A very strong early runner for GOTY and easily the best game I’ve played from the series. Yet another 100 hour plus game for this list.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

March - Horizon Zero Dawn & DLC. Utterly rinsed this, just one trophy to get the platinum. For a new IP from a historically mediocre dev (IMO) this blew me away. Were it not for Nier Automata and Persona 5 I would say it’s the best game from last year.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

March - Uncharted the Lost Legacy. A great short game, classic uncharted action set pieces, glorious visuals on PS4 Pro. Well worth a quick spin.

 

May - Yakuza 6 (PS4). Being a huge fan of the series I loved every minute. Hopefully we see more instalments over here.

 

June - Assassins Creed Oranges (PS4). Easily the best post-Ezio creed game. I found it more akin to an Egypt based Witcher 3 so right up my street. Some lovely Pro enhanced eye candy as well.

[Soulstar]

Assassin’s Creed Oranges, don’t think I aware of that one 

[SeanR]

Beyond: two souls

 

everything you've heard is true. It's an ok story, with limited interactivity.

[Unofficial Who]

4 hours ago, SeanR said:

Beyond: two souls

 

everything you've heard is true. It's an ok story, with limited interactivity.

 

I thought it was really good. However just like a lot of Telltale games if you go back and play various bits you can see the all the smoke and mirrors and how little choice you actually have.

[SuperBrother]

18 hours ago, Soulstar said:

Assassin’s Creed Oranges, don’t think I aware of that one 

 

 

[Gabe]

09/06/2018 - Oxenfree (PC)

 

I didn't know anything about this other than a reference here or there to it being a bit of a walking simulator in a point-and-click style but, thanks to Origin Access it's another game I gave a try that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

 

I played this over 2 short sessions - it's about 3 hours or so if you aren't too fussed about the collectables (and I wasn't) and to start with I thought it was really good - charming art style, interesting premise and I was looking forward to understanding the mystery of the island.

 

It didn't last, though.

 

Some of that is my fault; I felt the initial direction of the story was better than what we got:

Spoiler

I really liked the idea of the ghosts of the doomed sub contacting the gang through the radio. That's partly because I find number stations incredibly haunting and I got that vibe from the transmissions - but 'Is leave possible' stuff hinted at a way to get them free, instead of the possession angle we did,which descended to cliche. The whole time travel bit, which was caused by Alex because <reasons?> didn't really make any sense either and as such the ending felt too saccharine and unearned. 

 

But the script was also pretty clunky, the characters were stereotypical beyond belief (Ren was incredibly annoying in particular), the characters moved at a glacial pace (which killed any interest in subsequent playthroughs for the different endings) and the it had an annoying habit of forcing you to choose a response which would cut-off the person speaking (else you would stay silent). The ending, too, as noted in the spoiler was poor.

 

I'm glad I played it - because that first session was eerie and set at least let my head imagine a different story - but ultimately it was a slightly disappointing experience.

 

Previously completed:

 

Spoiler

27/05/18 - Halycon 6: Lightspeed Edition (PC)

12/05/18 - Orwell (PC)

22/04/18 - Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation (PC)

20/04/18 - Saints Row IV (PC)

02/04/18 - The Flood (PC)

01/04/18 - Massive Chalice (PC)

28/03/18 - Blues and Bullets - episode 1 (PC)

20/03/18 - Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC)

16/02/18 - The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)

06/02/18 - Victor Vran (PC)

30/01/18 - Scream Collector (PC)

28/01/18 - Not Dying Today (PC)

25/01/18 - Titanfall 2 (PC)

21/01/18 - Earthlock: Festival of Magic (PC)

06/01/18 - Einar (PC)

 

[Vorgot]

22 hours ago, SeanR said:

Beyond: two souls

 

everything you've heard is true. It's an ok story, with limited interactivity.

Just started this and it was not a good impression. In the whole section with the cards at the start, the guy in the white coat was transparent and flickering the whole time. Nasty glitch that ruined any atmosphere. Will stick with it though, hope it was just a one off

[Soulstar]

 

January

1. Darksiders 2 (The Deathinitive Edition) (2012/2015) PS4 - 15/01/2018 (Normal Difficulty)

2. DLC Darksiders 2: Argul's Tomb - The Abyssal Forge - The Demon Lord Belial [DLC Expansion Missions] - 18/01/2018

3. Uncanny Valley - (2015/2017) PS4 - 24/01/2018 (100% Trophy Achievements)

4. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (2015/16) PS4 28/01/2018 (One of the True Endings with Takura Tsurugi)

February
 
5. The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (2015) PS3 - 16/02/2018
 
March

6. Grand Kingdom (2015/16) PS4 - 19/03/2018 (Main Campaign)

7. Mighty No. 9 (2016) PS4 - 28/03/2018 (Normal Playthrough)

 April

 8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016) PS4 16/04/2018 (Main Campaign - Normal Difficulty)

 9. Ratchet & Clank (2016) PS4 28/04/2018 (Normal Difficulty)

 

May

 

10. Super Metroid (1994) SNES (mini) 01/05/2018 (83% completion rate)

 

11. Super Contra III (1992) SNES (mini) 10/05/2018 (Easy & Normal)

 

12. Batman (Season 1) - Telltale Games (2016) PS4 - 17/05/2018

 

13. King Oddball (2014) PS4 - 10Tons 28/05/2018 (Main Game Stages)

 
 

 

June

 

14. Grand Kingdom (2015/16) PS4 - 12/06/2018 (Landerth Campaign)

 

I had actually planned to stop playing this, however found myself occasionally going back in order to eek away at the next campaign in the game outside the main story. From what I read in the past, the original game came out in Japan and had only a single story, but the main PS4 release included DLC campaigns in one and the Landerth one is the first of 4 additional stories to play through. I'm not going to mention too much about the style of game as I'd covered that previously some pages back when doing the main game. 

While the main campaign offers 12 separate battles, the added on games feature 9 which can take up to an hour to do (each) sometimes, and this plays out just like the main game except it's a separate story involving one of the four neighbouring nations with its own off-shoot story. The main story wasn't particularly amazing, but this felt even worse and while it's not a bad game, it does get quite repetitive. The story here is about protecting a young naive future successor to the throne of Landerth (currently run by his sister the queen) and takes you on a simple journey battling against a cringe worthy gang who wield illusion spells and are adamant on taking him down and ruling the nation themselves. 

 

So far I've clocked up about 58 hours in total with everything and I think I must have spent 10 hours of that just chipping away at the Landerth DLC, but with this game time often gets wasted on various other battles you can get involved with such as the online wars which help you gain money to spend on rare items and building up your affinity with each nation amongst other things.

 

Verdict 5/10

[BadgerFarmer]

I played about 6 hours of that then made myself stop. It's the sort of thing that I could easily lose tens of hours to, getting caught in the cycle of upgrades and levelling up. But the core game was really very repetitive, and it would mostly have been a mindless trudge. Glad I dropped it when I did.

[Jamie John]

I finished Steamworld Heist (Switch) earlier today. I enjoyed it; the XCOM-lite gameplay was consistently satisfying and the level of challenge on the default difficulty was pretty much bang on. The only thing that frustrated me was the fact that you have to survive each mission with all your team intact in order to get a perfect star rating, meaning that one cock up or lucky shot from the enemy can completely undo your chances, leading you to have to start again. On the earlier missions it's not so bad, but by the final act each level frequently takes upwards of thirty minutes, so having to reset is especially galling. As such, I didn't bother getting all the stars in the final world, and I'm not particularly inclined to go back and attempt the post-credits content. I think having an 'Undo' or 'Rewind' feature that you could use once per mission would be a good addition.

 

Still, that being said, I've been playing this exclusively for the last three weeks and I've got twenty hours out of it, which ain't bad at all for a 2D indie game. Recommended if you enjoy the genre. Don't expect to be like the other Steamworld games, though; aesthetics aside, they're completely different games.