Topic: Games you've recently beat

Still Wakes the Deep - I had been waiting for this one for quite some time and I wasn't disappointed. Excellent visuals, voice acting, sound design and story, which had me crying on occasion. Took me a little over 6 hours which I think is probably perfect for this type of experience. Game of the year so far for me.

@LtSarge have to agree with you on the pacing of enemy encounters; it worked superbly. I was almost never at ease for the entire runtime. I know there are plenty of naysayers but I suggest you check out ...Rapture regardless, I adored it and completed it twice including the platinum. It's a game oozing with quiet atmosphere and rewards careful exploration.

@AgentCooper wow that’s a big statement, glad you enjoyed it so much. Wasn’t really on my radar until I heard it was from the guys who made Everybody’s gone to the Rapture. So that caused to to blip and now hearing it is your GotY so far has only amplified that. I’m gonna have to watch some reviews

@LtSarge
Nice, shame about the crashing.
I seem to remember reading that Far Cry 5 was unstable on ps5 but it recently got patched to 60fps so I'm hopeful they fixed the other issues.
Far Cry 5 is a good fun game, the vehicles (especially the planes) and companions are a highlight.

@LtSarge Farcry 5 is my favourite in the series, enjoy.

@LtSarge I also had a few problems with crashes on PS5 with Primal with no obvious cause and I went for the platinum so it’s possibly just luck!

@colonelkilgore I’m a sucker for immersive, atmospheric games and with even more actual gameplay than …Rapture it was the perfect experience. For clarity I haven’t played any of the big hitters this year beyond HD II. I hope you enjoy it regardless if you take the plunge (ahem) 👍

@AgentCooper Congrats on beating the game! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it, more so than I did even. And yeah, the pacing was absolutely sublime. You could tell this was a game made by developers who really thought things through while designing the game.

I've put Rapture on my watchlist now so if I see it go on sale, I'll get it and give it a shot!

@CaptD Ah interesting, I didn't know that they patched the game on PS5. Yeah, hopefully there won't be any major issues playing it there.

@colonelkilgore That's cool to hear, definitely looking forward to playing it now! Out of curiosity, have you played all the numbered entries in the series?

@nessisonett Man it must've been rough going for the Platinum with all the crashes. Major kudos to you for sticking with it!

@LtSarge I’ve played 3, 4, 5, 6, New Dawn and a bit of 2 back in the day. The vast majority of people seem to go with 3 as their favourite but having played them all, I reckon that’s probably down to it being where Ubisoft discovered the formula which all subsequent games have adhered to.

For my 5 was so good due to the map, the vehicle variety and most importantly aircraft variety. Planes and helicopters made a big difference for me. It felt like a first-person GTA but with more tactical combat.

@colonelkilgore Ah I see, FC5 does sound very promising based on your description. I've also heard great things about FC6. Can't wait to play both of them down the line.

So I just finished Silent Hill: The Short Message on PS5, which took me about 2 hours. For a free game, it was pretty good. I really liked the setting and the story. I've always felt that more attention should be given to young people's mental health as it's really tough going through school these days. So many expectations are placed on you and it's really stressful. I know that all too well so I could really relate to the protagonist.

The "actual" horror gameplay of this game was monster chases and at first, they were okay but later on they became very annoying. It just became a bunch of trial and error in terms of where you needed to go because when the monster catches up to you, you have to start over from the beginning. The last chase was the worst though, as not only did you have to run away from the monster, you had to collect five items while doing so and it was so annoying as all the areas looked similar. I definitely feel like the developers could've made these sections better. Maybe giving the protagonist a couple of hits before going down instead of having to start over each time you got caught.

Regardless of this, I did enjoy my time with this game and for a free title, I do think it's worth checking out.

On a side note, this was actually the first Silent Hill game that I've finished lol. I'm a bit tempted to start up the first Silent Hill now before the remake of the second game comes out later this year. I just love psychological horror games.

@LtSarge I’d highly recommend playing the original Silent Hill 2 before the remake comes out. Bloober are notorious for a reason and the original is widely considered one of the best games of all time. The first one’s amazing too.

@nessisonett I have Silent Hill 2 on PS3 but you told me years ago that it's better that I don't play it at all due to its many issues. I don't have any other way to play SH2.

I actually like Bloober's games. Layers of Fear was great, The Observer and Blair Witch were okay, and The Medium was great. I think the hate for Bloober is unwarranted. The games aren't bad, they're just different. If you don't like horror walking sims, then those games aren't for you. But I enjoy them and there's no doubt in my mind that Silent Hill 2 remake will turn out great.

@Kidfried Nice one! I also beat the game a while ago and I thought it was phenomenal. The level of creativity in this game was just incredible. I truly hope Nintendo will make a new Paper Mario game that will be similar to the first two games.

Out of curiosity, do you have an interest in other Mario RPGs? It seems like there's been a resurgence of those lately, what with the remake of Super Mario RPG, a remaster of TTYD and now the upcoming Mario & Luigi: Brothership game coming out. I'm super excited to play a new M&L game as I love that series. It's a great time to be a Mario RPG fan now.

Just beaten Vertigo 2 on PSVR2. Wow what a great game and all by one developer so the credits were really short.
A decent length game at about 8 hours plus loads of replayability as there NG+ and you can play as an additional three characters each with their own unique abilities. Loads of modifiers as well but they disable trophies.
Awesome trophy list as well which requires several playthroughs although annoyingly it seems to need a delete of your save so you start afresh so some planning is advised.

I had one crash (on startup) but no bugs and a few frame dips but that didn't bother me although your mileage might vary.

Just finished Kirby: Planet Robobot on 3DS after roughly 9 hours of playtime. Awesome game! Really enjoyed using the mech throughout the levels. The balance between just playing as Kirby and using the mech was just about right. Also, the final boss was so cool! This game has become my second favourite title in the series after Adventure Wii.

Just finished Saints Row: Gat out of Hell on PS5 after roughly 5 hours of playtime. This was a fantastic expansion to Saints Row IV! I do have to say that I'm glad I waited years to play this after SRIV as the DLC is basically more of the same as the base game. Which isn't bad at all. In fact, I'm inclined to say that the DLC is better than the actual game because of its short length. The thing is that both titles go all out in terms of giving you stuff like super powers and flying that makes things like driving completely pointless. So what these titles basically offer is a pure playground for the player. As a result, you just want to get all the cool stuff as quickly as possible. This works great in Gat out of Hell as you'll have all the cool stuff within 5 hours. With the base game however, it'll take you twice that long if my memory serves me. Also, the lack of story missions works great in the DLC. I just wanted to upgrade my powers and unlock as much stuff as possible without being interrupted by a story.

All in all, this title was just so much fun to play. I mean, how can it not be when you can unlock an armchair that you move around in while firing turrets and missiles with infinite ammo. I feel like we don't see open world games like this anymore, which is really unfortunate.

I recently finished the Perfect Dark remaster and it’s prequel Zero on my Xbox last week. I was convinced to play the games after they showed footage of the reboot that, hopefully, turns out good…

The first Perfect Dark was so fun, and I had heard of a lot of people saying it was a classic. I actually tried playing it back in December but found the first level to be confusing and uninteresting at first. Loved the gunplay and different gun types. The game uses gadgetry in its gameplay, which is something I have never seen a game do since the other first-person shooter games I have played are more fast-paced and don’t require you to stop and do tasks, so this was very new to me. The characters weren’t deep, but I love how the plotline goes from a futuristic spy thriller where you have to expose a rival company to killing the leader of an extraterrestrial race of shapeshifting aliens with help from a alien you saved from being dissected at a lab. However, the level layouts get confusing from how big they get over time, and the objectives are sometimes not specified or described well enough; the final level was the worst, as it absolutely dropped the ball with its layout and design. The gun aiming was somewhat off, so I couldn’t get accurate aiming and my gun would sometimes go off-center when I was shooting at an enemy.

Zero was still pretty good with its gameplay, which I’d say was an improvement over the previous entry. It introduces new mechanics like dodge and rolling and taking cover at walls and similar areas, which proved helpful later on in the game since it racked up in difficulty. The game does a better job at specifying missions and gives mission briefing before every level to instruct the player on what to do instead of having the player figure out themselves, which absolutely helped. Zero is really hated by people since it is significantly different than the first with its tonal and aesthetic change and how more significantly unserious it was, but it came off as more hilarious to me rather than disappointing. The character designs are sometimes ridiculous and unfitting for the game they are in, the voice acting is exaggerated and full of characters making snappy comments and one-liners, and the way characters look and move in cutscenes is goofy. The campiness of Zero made my experience with it memorable since I actually started to laugh at a few parts that I found extremely cheesy.

They were just super fun games, and I would say I had a great time with both of them.

@Pastellioli zero is one of those that’s a lot easier to appreciate when removed from the context of its release. Which feels like ancient history now.

@Yousef- Yes, because I do think people were expecting a sequel to the original Perfect Dark with the same tone and aesthetic, so a bunch of people seeing the game get a prequel instead and having Joanna look and act different than she did in the previous entry probably made them a bit surprised and maybe disappointed, plus if I recall, it was being developed for the GameCube beforehand too and not much was known about the game at that time.

There was actually a two part sequel that I believe the director of Conker was attached to, but it got cancelled, so there is not an actual continuation of the story told in the original unfortunately, though I read online and someone said that several ideas and concepts for the sequels seemed to be repurposed for the upcoming reboot. I wasn’t really upset with the changes in Zero, also because I knew that the game was going to be like that and the changes were actually hilarious. If you don’t think much about the game’s release and reception, you do start to not mind the new direction the prequel went in.

@Jimmer-jammer @Elodin Just beat Rise of the Ronin after about 23hrs. Elated but exhausted. It has some really tough boss fights but seemed to be more skill-based than strategy-based overall, in opposition to the Souls games in that respect. Soji, the final Blade Twin fight and the duo boss fight where one boss made use of a flamethrower were my favourite bosses, as well as one boss that deserves an honorable mention, an Englishman who had the ability to fly through the air, impressive boss I thought . I am interested in more of the same but also felt like some supernatural element was missing ,so I think Nioh 2 would be the perfect game to play next! .

Also the death of Ryoma, in my playthrough, was an emotional moment for me, grew really attached to him, my favourite character in the game ,for sure