Topic: Games you've recently beat

@nessisonett I sometimes wonder what the hell I actually played on my PS2 seeing as I never played (or had even heard of) God of War, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank

@Thrillho I've never played Sly Cooper before either and my first Ratchet & Clank was the PS4 game. I've played one or two of the older God of War games, but I never really liked them that much.

@JohnnyShoulder I first played GoW with the PS3 remakes. The PS2 is weird for me though as I seem to have a bit of a memory black hole for games I played on that system but certainly had plenty of them.

@Thrillho Haha, other than Ratchet Gladiator (total black sheep), I’d not played those series either! PS2 was the Tony Hawk and PES machine, along with games like ICO, Persona 3, Kingdom Hearts and stuff. To be fair, we played a lot of crap on it, remember playing loads of hours of the Pirates of the Caribbean game which was honestly alright. I’d only gotten the PS2 in about 2007 though so we already had the Wii which was backwards compatible in the front room and the PS2 was in our room. Didn’t really have the same memories with that console as much as I did with Nintendo games!

@nessisonett The GTA, MGS, and SOCOM games are the main ones I remember from that era.

And not forgetting this cult bit of kit!

@Thrillho I remember seeing so many EyeToys in Game at the time and thinking it was the future!

I was later before I played MGS for the first time, probably the PS3 collection. GTA as well, first one I played was San Andreas on the Mac lol.

@Thrillho yeah same. Apart from the first few games I played, I mostly have a complete blank on ps2. 😕

Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero Ultimate Edition

Good stuff. My first of the series and I quite enjoyed it. Half of the transformations sadly seem a bit useless though. I like how they made the different costumes into challenge runs. The mighty switch force/police outfit was particularly fun.

Stardew Valley

Not technically beaten but... I got past the first year and put it down.

I played it for 35 hours? Which is honestly 35 more then I expected to play it as I've never really got farming sims or even "chill" games before really.

Life is Strange 2

I liked it, although I would definitely put it last amongst the 4 Life is Strange games. I wouldn't say there was much I would consider bad about it outside of the Daniel character. I know he was really young, but still, he was really annoying at times. Even in the same scene, he'd want to hang out with Sean, then want to hang out with Finn and ignore Sean, and then get mad at Sean for spending even a little time with Cassidy. That and the fact that no matter what, like clockwork, he'd go nuts with his power at the end of several episodes. He happens to get shot at the end of Episode 3, and for whatever reason goes berserk on everybody. I also didn't really feel there was that much to the Sean character, making it much harder to connect to the main character like you could in all the other games.

Speaking of the end of Episode 3, I hated the fact that no matter what you chose earlier in the episode, you were stuck with that ending to the episode. I know a decent amount of times your choices meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, but still, I wasn't very happy when I went through the episode twice and still woke up in the hospital both times.

I ended up going with the Blood Brothers ending @RogerRoger. I would have considered the one where Sean goes to jail (Redemption), but 15 years was way too long for something he didn't do, so I had to choose the only one I thought was even remotely decent out of all the endings.

The Order: 1866

Loved this one. One of my favorite games I've played this year so far. Graphics were great for an 8 year old game, especially the facial animations. I also loved the story outside of the ending to an extent, which seemed a bit rushed and leaving it open for a sequel rather than just having him go back with the rebels. I will give Ready at Dawn credit for having you actually "pull the trigger" when killing Lucan though rather than just watching Galahad do it like in most games. It gave that moment more impact.

@KilloWertz 2 for 2, it sounds like. Both games that I really enjoyed too.

I can see what you mean with the LiS criticisms, except I actually didn’t mind Daniel, or Sean for that matter. I agree there’s discrepancies between some of their actions, especially when your choices are trying to go one direction but the game has things on rails the other direction. Still, I grew fond of the brothers and felt they had a really believable bond.

@Th3solution I dunno, maybe annoying kids in games is a pet peeve of mine since I didn't like God of War as much as almost everybody else because of Atreus. Their bond was decent enough, but some of the things they had Daniel do hurt that character for me. Sean wasn't bad. It might sound silly to some, but I just think they could have given him a bit more depth. Maybe I'm wrong, or just not explaining it properly, but it's not like I hated the game or anything either. I just never felt I connected to it quite as much as any of the other three, especially True Colors, which I thought was by far the best written one of the bunch.

Overall you are right though. 2 for 2, with obviously The Order: 1866 being the most positive one for me.

@KilloWertz What did you think of A Plague Tale: Innocence, and specifically of Hugo ?

@Th3solution Aside from the enormous difficulty spike in the final chapter (the cart and the final boss) almost completely ruining the game for me, I liked it. I would have loved it otherwise, but those two parts were so frustrating they did real damage to the game. Probably didn't help that they were basically at the end of the game. That's also why I've never played Requiem, as I'm afraid Asobo was dumb enough to design the game that way again (hopefully I'll be surprised someday and they didn't).

As for Hugo, I didn't mind him too much. They managed to reign him in enough most of the time that I thought he was ok. Maybe he would have stood out more if the final chapter of gameplay wasn't so bad, but Asobo feeling the need to make the end of a game insanely difficult for no reason completely overshadowed any issues I would have had with Hugo. If I remember correctly, he does end up running off and that is how you get the stealth portion with him, so that was pretty stupid story wise. Again though, I still thought he was ok in comparison to Atreus and even Daniel if I'm remembering correctly. Lots of games and game characters since I played it via the PS5 version.

@KilloWertz I guess that final chapter was kind of difficult; I remember dying several times with the cart sequence and also the final boss. But it didn’t ruin the game for me. Perhaps having a little experience with Souls games made it less annoying. It’s not like you had to spend 30 minutes trekking back from a save point through multiple enemies to hopefully recapture your XP every time you died. 😅

But as far as irritating companions, Hugo is the one who sticks out to me. He was a little too whiney and his voice acting was grating. Although as far as annoying companion characters go, nobody holds a candle to Ashley in RE4. Also, as much as I liked the game, Trico in The Last Guardian has to get an honorary mention too. Thankfully she’s adorable and has a great storyline so that makes up for her difficult gameplay quirks.

@Th3solution You do have a point there about not having to retread anything other than just trying the same thing over and over again. I refuse to play Souls games because I know I won't enjoy them and I play games for entertainment, so that probably didn't help why it came close to ruining the whole game for me.

That's fair, but for whatever reason Hugo didn't bother me as much. Maybe experiencing Atreus beforehand set the bar so low that I can stomach annoying child characters most of the time now. Also, I didn't mind Ashley at all, but I'm guessing they improved her in the remake since I had never played the original RE4. I never played The Last Guardian since I didn't like Shadow of the Colossus.

@Th3solution

@KilloWertz

😜

But seriously, although Shadow of the Colossus is one of my all-time favorites, if not the all-time fave, I realize it’s not for everyone. Depending what you disliked about it, The Last Guardian plays differently. If it’s the setting, art style, and subtle melancholy of the world then you won’t like TLG. But if your main issue was the battling large puzzle-like bosses with large spacious empty travel and no lesser enemies in between, then you might like TLG better.

Personally I liked SotC better, but I know some people who disliked SotC who really liked TLG. Especially if you’re an animal person.

@Th3solution Lol, I don't remember all the specifics, mainly because it was several years ago and I didn't play the game that long before dropping it. I'm guessing the main issue you mentioned was probably about right though, as I think I recall fighting the first boss you encounter and being totally lost, so I dropped it. It sucks having 1 trophy unlocked and the game just sitting there on my trophy list, but it is what it is. Maybe I'll watch some gameplay videos on YouTube and see if it would interest me more. I do have The Last Guardian in my library from it being a PS Plus game a long while back.

Just finished Gris on PS5. I think it took me around 3 hours and it was honestly the perfect length. Fun, artistic game that constantly does something that you won't expect. The artstyle was absolutely gorgeous, like a water painting come to life.

I also have to say that this is the first time I've ever considered buying gaming headphones just to listen to the soundtrack and the sound effects of this game. They actually felt a bit like ASMR and it probably would've sounded even better with headphones.

This game actually feels right at home on PS5. Having to press down on R2 as it's locked is still a cool feature of the DualSense. Hearing noises through the controller also makes the game more immersive.

Anyway, fantastic experience and the perfect palate cleanser for September considering all the new releases.