Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Jimmer-jammer Wow, that was quite the endorsement! Looking forward to it!

A Hat In Time

Completed all 5 Chapters in the base game & the two DLC chapters. I got all the time pieces and got the platinum trophy too.

I haven't done all the Death Wish levels yet and I still need to find more stickers in Nyakuza Metro but I'm good with giving it a rest for now.

A good game and fun platformer. I really enjoyed my time with it

So recently I finished Alan Wake remastered . I had a very good time with the game so I can very much recommend the game anyone who is looking for something interesting to play.

@oliverp Just going through this currently myself. Overall I’m really enjoying it despite the combat itself being a little on the bland side. Do you plan on playing the sequel in the near future?

@HallowMoonshadow A Hat in Time is good fun, glad you enjoyed it.

As for the Death Wish levels, a lot of them can get tedious, so it's not too bad to skip over them. I ended up using Peace and Tranquility mode for a lot of them.

Yeah you aren't half right with those death wish levels @crimsontadpoles!

I've done some legititmately but when it says to do the level with only 7 jumps or in a ridiculously short time limit I'm just turning Peace and Tranquility on no question.

Good job on beating Metal Gear by the way... It only goes up from there! Well except for maybe Snake's Revenge which is... Something!

@Jimmer-jammer Awesome it would be very cool to know more about your thoughts on game once you have finished it. Its cool though that you like it so far. Yeah well I guess you can have different opinions about the battles in the game I find most them tense (in a good way). I think I will wait just little bit to next year or something before playing the sequel. Have you btw come far in game or are you still in the beginning?

@oliverp I’m definitely finding it intense, just very one note. I believe I’m nearing the end of episode 3. Not sure where that puts me within the overarching narrative but I’ll be sure to tag you with my thoughts when I collect them!

Ratchet and Clank: Into The Nexus

Bad bad bad. Real bad. Only saving grace is that the Clank sections are the best they’ve been since the PS2. Just so awful in many other ways though, it runs about 25FPS which is criminal for a game this hectic, the camera has acceleration so good luck aiming either. It’s about 3 hours long but somehow still drags, a truly impressive feat. The weapons lack cohesion and you have to grind to even unlock most of them by the end of the game. The final boss is outright broken too, so many ways to cheaply die thanks to randomly being thrown off the tiny platform you have to strafe in. Just awful.

I recently finished Cat Quest. I was looking for light, easy game after I gave up on Blasphemous (😅) and this was purrrrrfect. I have 2 in my backlog too. I’ll play it when I need that kind of game again.
I will probably go back to Blasphemous at some stage. I’m now punishing myself with Dead Cells, but having a much better time

Next in the ‘How on earth haven’t you played that yet?!’ Series, I finished Bioshock for tge first time last night. Rather bloody good though I think I would have enjoyed the gameplay more 16 years ago but the story, atmosphere and environments had me hooked. I dropped the difficulty down after an hour or so as it was irritating me and was afraid I would drop the game. Definitely deserves its plaudits and may go back eventually and try that survivor vita chamber whatsit playthrough.

7 Adams out 10 👍

@AgentCooper Oh cool that you picked up and played Bioshock. Played it a little bit last year (never finshed it though).

@AgentCooper I remember playing the demo in the very early days of the PS3 and wasn't that impressed with it but eventually got round to the Bioshock collection years later and really enjoyed it. It must have been an incredible game for the time and the story still holds up today, even if the gameplay feels pretty stiff.

Are you planning on playing the rest of the series? The second game wasn't well received but I still enjoyed it. Infinite is an incredible game though and the DLC for that is a must play as well.

@Thrillho That’s ironic because I felt like the BioShock demo was one of the best demos I’ve ever played. It absolutely sold me on it and I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I got the game and played it. As I recall it was just the opening sequence is all, but I just love how mysteriously the game starts out.

I loved Bioshock Infinite also and have always wanted to go back and replay it and mop up the DLC. I tried to play Bioshock 2 last year but just fizzled out before I completed it. It was fine, but other things distracted me away from it. (I had to look at my trophy list just out of curiosity and it looks like it was Miles Morales and then Kena Bridge of Spirits that were the games I ended up playing after BS2 which held my interest better)

Anyways, really cool to see the old classic has stayed relevant, @AgentCooper , although there’s lots of gamers who’d call it sacrilege to give Bioshock anything less than a 10/10. I think 7/10 is fair given the aged status of its gameplay and visuals. For me the gameplay was never the part of it I was drawn to, rather the setting and atmosphere. If you do end up continuing with the series I’ll be curious to see how you get along with the others, because like I said above, Infinite is much better imho. Gameplay is a little more fun but the story is better and, for me, it has one of the best endings is all of gaming.

@oliverp @Thrillho It’s been sat in the backlog for a while so glad to have made a start on the series. Will get round to 2 some time next year I expect.

It’s definitely worth seeing though, Oliver. I really enjoyed exploring each area for audio logs and the environmental stuff was excellent, like splicer shadows flickering against walls and the like. The developers mentioned RE4 as an inspiration and you can definitely see that throughout.

Chants of Sennaar. Puzzle adventure game about deciphering languages. Played the majority of it over the weekend, it really hooked me in. I have some small reservations about it — some of the environment design is confusing, and there were a couple of times where I was left guessing what some of the words meant, rather than deducing properly. However, most of the puzzles and most of the ways it attempts to teach you its languages is really cleverly done, there's a nice sense of progression as you ascend the tower, and the presentation is really unique. I had a great time with it, overall — recommended!

@Th3solution I’ve never been one to flow with the current 😂 I’m glad I dropped the difficulty so i could really appreciate the best qualities of the game. I’ll keep you in the loop when I start the second one 👍

@AgentCooper Yeah, that’s a great gaming hack that I employ — decreasing the difficulty to avoid otherwise dropping the game entirely. In fact I think I did that with Bioshock 2 to maximize the chances that would finish it and I still ended up abandoning it. 😅

You’ve inspired me though — I was thinking about some of the all-time classics that I’ve never played and probably should go back and experience. Heck, even games that are not necessarily ‘classics’ but were well-received and yet I never got around to them. I think I have an idea for a new gaming goal for 2024 where I try to get back to some of these. I’ve been so caught up in the new release cycle this year (and granted, that was a goal this year for me to keep up-to-date and current with the new stuff) that I haven’t made headway with the older games. I’m thinking of maybe a system whereby I alternate newer games with older ones… 🤔. And for me, ‘older’ means ‘released more than 3 years ago’ 😅. So games in my backlog like AC Odyssey, Days Gone, Arkham Knight, Dark Souls 2&3, Witcher 3, among many others.

@Th3solution I’m happy to do it if it means I can potentially enjoy something worthwhile, and in this case it has planted the seed of replaying some day on survivor.

All the games you mention are bona fide all timers by all accounts so you’ll be hard pressed to find a dud whatever you choose to play. I’d love to have a year where I play more new releases but finances and parental responsibilities make it less viable for me at the moment.

@Jimmer-jammer So, turns out, Psychonauts is not a game for me. Love the writing and the characters and the brilliant art style, but platformers like these just frustrates me and I'm not having fun. Almost through Milla's world now and I'm not sure if I've got the energy to finish it (that race gave me so much aggro that I had to do something else for a while). I expect Psychonauts 2 is a similar type game, so I will probably give that a miss.

@AgentCooper Got Bioshock on my to-do list as well. Got quite far back in the Xbox 360 days and have the collection in my PS backlog, so I'll be giving it a go one of these days.