Topic: Games you've recently beat

@colonelkilgore Hope they hold up still! I was blown away at the time but it’s been a while. I’d think about giving Blacklist a try but if what @CaptD is saying pans out, might just wait for the new one.

@CaptD I’d have definitely double-dipped if they had of ported it to PS4.

@Jimmer-jammer I’m sure they will feel a little bit janky but everyone seems to rave about Chaos Theory, so I definitely want to play it at some point… and I ain’t playing it until I’ve played the previous two, so the trilogy is now most definitely on my schedule.

Technically beat the Crash Bandicoot: Warped remake in one day, but as I'm going for 100% completion, I'm not done with it. Only managed to get through 57% of the content in one day. Which, admittedly, was enough to see me through the credits.

Time to go for all the gems and time trial relics!

Got the best ending in Crash Bandicoot: Warped by 100%ing the game, so I'm officially done with the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Apparently spent 30 hours playing it over the past week!

The Steam Deck just made these games so much more accessible for completionist purposes.

Trying to decide if I want to go back to the games I was playing previously, or just jump into something else entirely...

Beat Steamworld Dig 2. Not 100%, but I did the majority of optional content, and as I understand it, doing everything doesn't get you a different ending, so I didn't bother.

Not a perfect game (the final boss is poorly balanced, the ending is abrupt, and the plot is never developed to my satisfaction), but a solid Metroidvania nonetheless. The addictive loop of pushing down deeper to find more gems to upgrade yourself in order to collect even more valuable gems is as strong as ever, and there are some really cool abilities this go around. The game is gorgeous on the Deck OLED's screen, and looks incredibly smooth running at 90fps. The game will just run forever without a charge, too.

@Ralizah Excellent work on the Crash trilogy, sounds like it was worth it to push through the first game and find a lot of joy. I keep meaning to play them but they inevitably get pushed back down the backlog queue. I'm partially wary of ruining my nostalgia for these titles and that is enough to ramp up the anxiety. How are you getting on elsewhere in your backlog quest? Weren't you playing Bloodborne and Ghost of Tsushima?

@Bundersvessel Thanks!

I had a... bad time with Warped on the PS1 when I replayed the original years ago. It did, indeed, 'ruin my nostalgia.'

That said, I've had this and the Spyro trilogy in my backlog for many moons. Now that I'm playing more games on my Steam Deck, I decided 'what the hell' and installed the Crash Bandicoot trilogy.

Going into the remake trilogy, CB1 is just an evil and miserable game that I quit as soon as I hit the credits. While there are aspects of the entire trilogy I dislike (a close behind the shoulder viewpoint for a platformer? C'mon!), the second game really took all of the potential of the series and concentrated it into something fun and well-designed. Warped is closer in quality to the second game overall, but loads it up with way too many clunky vehicle/gimmick levels, and it lacks the fun plethora of secret level exits that were in CB2 (there's a few here, but they're not nearly as intuitive, so I had to look up how to unlock them).

The Spyro games absolutely smoke this trilogy, but there's definitely a lot of fun to be had with the second and third games.

Ah, I finished Bloodborne a few weeks ago (still dislike it, unfortunately; was hoping my good experiences with Elden Ring and Dark Souls Remastered would translate to me having more fun here, but nah), and was getting a bit bored with Ghost of Tsushima (so far, IMO, it combines the worst aspects of modern open world games AND the sort of narrative action games that Sony specializes in), so I decided to play some other stuff for a while.

Beat Dragon Warrior Monsters for the GBC, thinking it would be a quick one to do for this month’s RetroAchievements goal. It wasn’t a quick one but it was a fun one! Really quite difficult too so had to rely on well old guides from the glory days of GameFAQs.

@nessisonett Never beat it, but I loved DQM as a kid.

Honestly, my default assumption with old JRPGs is to expect rock-solid difficulty in general.

Out of interest, what IS your monthly RetroAchievements goal?

@Ralizah It’s a sort of board game thing they do every month, where you have spaces on a board corresponding to genres of game, or the category of protagonist, or this month is the theme or setting of the game. So Dragon Quest Monsters comes under ‘Save the Girl’ and the next one I’ve to do is an ‘Old West’ game. That’s a bit more niche and considering I’m atrocious at arcade beat-em-ups, I’ve ruled out Sunset Riders and I’m playing Lucky Luke on Game Boy Color which is a decent platformer. I think it’s all to encourage better categorisation on the site, users can submit genre requests for certain games in order to receive credit for the challenge, which makes it easier to find games on the site as it’s all one big database really. This month’s map is based on Dracula’s Castle though which is fun! My goal’s to get from Save The Girl to Mecha by beating a game in each room along the way, and then get to Dracula and beat any game. I have keys from previous boards I can use to get into the warp rooms too which is useful.

I also ended up beating Need for Speed Most Wanted 2005 today! Pretty good game, much more user-friendly than Underground 2 but it sacrifices the vibes. This game is the definition of piss filter. Pretty ugly but the cars handle decently. The pursuits are almost fun but border on the frustrating due to tiny mistakes or being unlucky causing you to fail. Decent though in general.

@NeonPizza I agree, I found Village a overall more balanced experience than 7. I've not played the dlc for Village but did for 7, and thought it was quite good.

@Ralizah Ah fair enough. It sounds like the steam deck has been a success in regards to shaping an experience, it’s funny how that works. My memory is too vague and foggy at this point to remember how fond of Spyro I am, though I did enjoy the trilogy.

Congrats on finishing Bloodborne, just a shame it didn’t have the desired impact. I intend to return it one day though I do find the setting of these types of games a little oppressive at times and the prospect of spending tens of hours with it can seem a tad daunting.

Gutted about GoT, I’m really looking forward to it as I’m a big fan of old samurai movies. If and when you return to it I hope your experience improves.

My gaming plans have been obliterated recently due to properly getting into Vampire Survivors 😂 I can’t seem to bring myself to play anything else.

Samurai Western. Almost incredible. Apparently it’s a Way of the Samurai spin-off (never played the series) but it’s just a really tight PS2 action game split into old fashioned stages that range from easy to beyond frustratingly hard. At least you can level up, but it only saves if you complete the level so you end up replaying earlier stages. There’s tons of customisation with gear you can wear that you can resize, reposition etc over your body that increase your stats. Ended up with a gigantic hat and tiny little boots. The gameplay is seriously close to being great, it’s a bit like a spectacle fighter with a smaller moveset but every enemy has a gun whereas you have a sword, so you have to deflect bullets and dodge in close to kill anyone. The problem is stunlocks. It is so so easy to get hemmed in by 5 enemies who’ve staggered their shooting animations so that you get riddled with bullets. The bomb throwing enemies can wipe out your life bar in a few seconds if you get unlucky too. Bosses are largely annoying more than fun.

That being said, it’s a fun game. You fly through it but it encourages replays with a hard mode unlocked and extra stages etc. The range of weapons is decent too, although high stance weapons were the most fun. More than anything, it’s just nice to play a game that goes for one single theme and concept, and executes it mostly successfully. It’s a samurai slashing cowboys in half. The PS2 was amazing.

I recently beat Judgment and I really enjoyed it! The story is dark, intriguing, and satisfying. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story with a smaller open world. The gameplay is very fun and flashy. The writing and Japanese voice acting are awesome. The English voice actors have some great talent including the Peter Parker voice actor. Absolutely recommend this game.

The original Armored Core. Really brilliant… after I remapped the controls for two sticks. Seriously, those original controls are awful. Enjoyed it though, it starts pretty brutal but once you kit your mech out a bit better then it’s way more manageable. The giant pit you climb in the final mission is up there with the one from God Of War as one of my least favourite sections in gaming though. It’s Getting Over It irritation levels but not self-aware.

Just finished Binary Domain on Series X. Really fun 'Gears of War'-style shooter with a captivating and thought-provoking story about robots and AI. The gameplay can get a bit repetitive but that's why I played it in between my TLOU2 sessions for some variety. There were some great twists and the characters were for the most part likeable, even though they were cheesy at times. But all in all, great game!

Started and finished It Takes Two with a friend this week.. finally! I'd been begging anyone and everyone I know to play that with me for years, but no one ever seemed particularly interested until now. What a lovely game. Enough has been said about the game over the last few years, so there's probably not much I can add to the conversation other than to repeat it was a delightful time.

I do think it ran out of steam a bit towards the end. The later worlds were not quite as good as the starting ones and I wasn't all too happy about the ending. That concert was a great disappointment after all the build-up to it! I think the game as a whole could've used a few cuts here and there and the framing of the last few worlds narratively was a bit boring, but the creativity on display throughout always managed to keep it entertaining nonetheless.

Some really fun characters as well even if the main storyline was nothing special. I know it's been discussed plenty times, but the elephant scene was a piece of darkly comedic genius. My favourite world was probably the clock, even if just for the art design. The steampunk-y feel was so gorgeously done I couldn't help but stop and take in the sights. My least favourite was probably the snow world. It was one of the least visually interesting ones and the tasks there were not very fun.

All in all, a great experience I'm glad I was finally able to have and it deserves the love it received. I probably wouldn't rate it quite as highly as some, but it was a great game nonetheless and gave me everything I expected of it.

Just watched the credits roll on The Last of Use part II - Remastered and what a great game that was! It did drag out a bit, though, the last few chapters felt unnecessary and tacked on, even from a story point of view, but I'm not going to hold that against it. The need for New Game+ to secure the platinum makes me doubt that I'll bother to go for it, but I haven't uninstalled it yet, just in case I feel the pull

There are a gajillion options for what to tackle next from my backlog, but I think I'll try a shorter game. I think I may give The Sexy Brutale a go.

@FuriousMachine What a coincidence, I also finished it yesterday. I agree, it's a brilliant game. While I kinda agree that the last few chapters were too much since it felt like the game was just about to end after that "boss fight", I wouldn't have been satisfied if it ended there. So I'm glad it kept going because the actual ending was perfect for this type of story. It was really powerful stuff, I nearly shed some tears at the end. Absolutely brilliant game.