Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Th3solution No need to apologise for length, it's an interesting topic and I enjoyed reading your take on it
For me, the biggest problem with "modern" game development is kind of related, and was touched on in a comment thread elsewhere, and that was the combination of long cycles and increasingly long games. Due to a health scare a couple of years back (I'm fine, btw) combined with the sudden loss of a dear friend, I got a reminder that my time on this earth is finite and I would prefer to sample as much variety in my gaming as possible in that time. I also want to be able to see the stories I start through to the end, as much as possible (which is why I rarely start watching series on Netflix these days).

As such, I would rather prefer shorter games with compelling stories rather than massive 100+ hour games. As evidenced by my recent Yakuza 3 Remastered playthrough, I don't mind spending 70+ hours on a game as long as it keeps me engaged, but I got a little bit disappointed when I heard that Final Fantasy XIV was a good 70 hours and still had things locked behind new game+. It won't stop me from playing (and, hopefully, enjoying) it, but it's a guarantee that I won't get to experience everything in the game. There is simply no way I will bother playing through a 70 hour game twice, life's too short for that

I recently finished Miles Morales and platinumed it. For me, the game had the perfect length, though I've seen some criticize it for being too short. I enjoyed the story, which didn't overstay its welcome, the collectibles and extra activities was not overdone to the point where I became bored with it and there was enough "new" stuff in NG+ for me to be willing to go through the story again for platinum.

The popularity of Live Service "eternal" games baffles me sometimes, but then I remember that, while I now have more disposable income than time, when I was younger I had more time than disposable income. I think this is true for many, if not most, people, and thus it makes sense that tha young'uns want a single game to stretch as far as humanly possible. Still, for me, I lose interest after a while and want to move on to something new.

Going back to long dev cycles, I find I don't mind too much as I have absolutely no chance of "catching up" with all the new releases without sacrificing games I've already bought. I've just now started Ghost of Tsushima (which I've owned since it came out, but I decided to wait until I had a proper 4K screen to play it on) and I only just finished Horizon Zero Dawn last year, so it will still be a while before I need a new game in those series. I finished God of War and Last of Us three years ago, so enough time has passed that I'm ready for Ragnraok and Last of Us 2, but there will be plenty of games for me to play before I start itching for further sequels there.

And, as you said, there are more devs putting out higher quality games these days, so we're quite spoilt for choice. My only worry in regards to long dev cycles is that I'll die of old age before I'll get to play a new (and, hopefully, good) Mass Effect game

Finally, I've yet to play a single Final Fantasy game in my life, but that will change soon. I've bought VII Remake, but I'm considering starting with Crisis Core, or even the newly released Final Fantasy I pixel remake. We'll see. I'll definitely be playing XVI (enjoyed the demo) and I have XV via Plus, I think, so for FF and me, Square Enix may take their time developing the next one

@FuriousMachine I have mine stored away as well. I may never use it again, but given how much a problem the console was at the time, I wasn't going to get rid of a working one.

Sounds like a plan though as I suppose you wouldn't get it out of storage just for one game. I would assume Enslaved would be one of the many backwards compatible games from the 360, but I'm guessing you don't have an Xbox hooked up anymore.

@KilloWertz That's correct, only console currently hooked up is the PS5 I also have an OK PC for gaming that's getting a bit on in years, but still serves me well enough. The PS5 is where most of my gaming is, though.

@FuriousMachine So much of what you said is extremely relatable! And that includes the Netflix comparison. If there’s one thing I gleaned from the last three years it’s that there is indeed no guarantee of tomorrow. That sounds morbid and I don’t intend to be nihilistic, but it’s become abundantly clear that life and society are terribly fragile. We’re one illness, political collapse, economic crisis, or environmental cataclysm away from our entire way of life becoming a footnote. Whether personal, local, or global, I’ve seen so many things turn on a dime lately.

So I largely share your sentiment. So far this year I’ve played a couple long games and have FF16 on the docket. I also was a tad disappointed at the reported length, because I’m shackled with several other lengthy games on my schedule. I have a nostalgic history with the FF series starting with FF7, so I’m not going to skip such a highly rated new mainline entry, but I wouldn’t mind these games being a little shorter. But since I’m still mopping up Jedi Survivor, I am now resigned to the fact that I’ll be a little behind the FF16 release crowd.

They had a recent discussion about the subject on Sacred Symbols and all three hosts said their ‘sweet spot’ for game length was about 15-20 hours. Admittedly they highlighted a lot of dependent qualifiers to optimal game length, such as genre and narrative depth, but it was good to hear you and I aren’t alone in the desire for more focused, shorter games.

It’s why I gave up on Yakuza. I started with Zero and really enjoyed my first 20 hours but as the fact crystallized that I was hundreds and hundreds of hours and six more games away from the actual completion of the story, I tapped out in the middle of the game.

Fortunately you’ll find Final Fantasy games to be more digestible. A few entries like FF7 Remake notwithstanding, the games are isolated experiences. I also want to play FF1-6 since I missed them the first go-around, but it will have to wait.

And I’m totally with you on some of these entries — I haven’t yet played Forbidden West or Ragnarok, despite adoring their predecessors. Hopefully each will receive the opportunity to entertain me within the next year, but like you say, there’s not an urgency concern for the next entry in those series for quite some time, thanks to the aforementioned protracted development cycles.

And I’m excited to hear about how GoT goes for you, as well as TLoU2. I have completed both of those and both are really great, imo. I still enjoy discussing them months later. As far as playtime, both drag a little and are going to fall outside of that optimal window, especially TLoU2, but of course your mileage may vary. I was never tempted to jump ship on either game and each kept me riveted to see the conclusion, even with a little lull toward the latter half. TLoU2 has an especially debatable situation there, but I digress.

I didn’t realize I had so much to say about game completion and hopefully haven’t derailed the ‘games you’ve recently beat’ topic too much. I think it all applies though, in a broader sense. 😄

@Th3solution Yeah, we're off on a tangent here, but I think we're okay Still, considering I let myself get completely derailed in another thread just earlier today, we should probably be a bit careful. I enjoyed reading your take and found myself once again nodding in agreement.

Will absolutely give my thoughts on GoT when I'm done with it. Just barely dipped my toe into Chapter 1, but I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far.

Finished up the & Knuckles half of Sonic 3 and it was alright. Reminded me a bit of level packs you’d get with 90s PC games, that bolt on and just give you a shorter burst of similar gameplay. The final boss was a nightmare though, the fact you carry your rings in just the once is evil, if you die then you have to do the boss again with 0 rings.

@RogerRoger With everything I’ve read, I’m not entirely sure I want to attempt to scrounge up some money to play Game Gear games in 2023! I’ll probably play through as Knuckles for the different final boss and stuff and then possibly see about emulating Chaotix and 3D Blast on the Switch through RetroArch. Apparently there’s a 3D Blast Director’s Cut that the original TT Games dev created so that sounds like a good idea!

Finished Sonic 3 & Knuckles as Knuckles which is enough of a change to be worth it. The climbing means you see different parts of the same levels, which is clever design really. The different bosses were cool too.

So Iam very glad to hear about all the fun you guys have with the games you have been playing. Feels inspiring. I think its also feels like a good testament to how fun gaming can be! After completing about 85% of RDR2 during my initial playthrough I went on to playing and the beating Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on PS4 . I general feel like I have an absolute killer backlog with some very exciting games to tackle

Call of Duty World at War. Genuinely very good, absolute carnage as it should be. Great vocal performances too. Needs a remaster in the same vein as Modern Warfare 1 and 2 though, a new engine would do it a world of good as the shooting’s a bit clunky and it’s a strange middle ground between the WW2 games and what the series would become.

@nessisonett One of my favourites and really interesting to focus on different parts of the war. An absolute brute of a game on veteran difficulty and the first ever platinum I got!

@Thrillho I played one level on Veteran. The grenade spam was bad even on an easier difficulty!

@nessisonett The two levels that still stick with me were the one using smoke grenades to push past the machine gun posts and then storming the Reichstag as enemies keep on spawning so you have to make a dash for it at some point.

@Thrillho The Reichstag steps were really hard, you basically just have to keep shooting and hope that your teammates can push through and reach you. The castle in Japan was similar, hold off the forces until you can call for an air strike. Accidentally got Kiefer Sutherland killed though, think there was a choice and I saved the other guy without thinking.

@nessisonett Oh cool that you also have picked up Call of Duty. I also in general think that Call of Duty is an underappreciated game franchise. With a few exceptions I feel like Call of Duty to a large degree has become a gaming franchise that many people have come to love to hate . I have read so many angry comments about the franchise on the internet over the years ...

Also I think that often the negative stories about the franchise are about both technical and social problems mostly related to the multiplayer part of the game. I guess and feel like multiplayer is what most people associate with Call of Duty with these days... This kind of makes me think that many people have kind of forgotten about and maybe not care about the single player experience and part of the game (which I think is kind of seldom discussed in a serious way these days). Is also would I say true to a degree about shooters in general. Which is sad because I think there room for much more discussions!

@oliverp I‘ve played them for years off and on but the PS3 games were around during a period of my life where I played a lot of local multiplayer with my brothers. The online never really appealed to me the same way, just can’t be bothered with the constant toxicity. FPS campaigns can be really great but I guess they’re a bit underrated in places. I replayed the first two Modern Warfares through their remasters a few months back and dug out the PS3 for the ones that haven’t made it to PS4.

Again, and again and ... again

@Zuljaras ahh nice, a little extra and impromptu round of guess the game:

#GuessTheGame #666

🎮 🟩 ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜

#Gamer
https://GuessThe.Game/

😉

COD Black Ops. Decent. Some really great FPS levels that actually felt like black ops missions interspersed with some fairly routine Vietnam War picture-by-numbers levels made up of cliches. The Vietnam missions were plain evil on Veteran too. I didn’t mind the Ipcress File/Manchurian Candidate stuff either, it kinda fits the 60s setting.

@nessisonett Just in time to play the sequel when it drops on PS Plus later this week!