Topic: Games you've recently beat

@KratosMD No not played Primal. It came out a bit too soon from me finishing 4 and as much i enjoyed the game i was done with the series. I do wanna play Far Cry 5 at some point though.

God of War, which was rather excellent. Some particularly standout elements for me are the level design and story - particularly the ending bits. Lots of big exciting set pieces in boss fights too. It struck me that so many story driven games now seem to forgo engaging "game-ish" level design, but Santa Monica Studio struck a nice balance. A few niggles, but on the whole they didn't detract from the experience.

Finished off a couple of games today.

First, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (season 3). What can I say? For some reason I really enjoy the Telltale games, despite their recycled gameplay formula, somewhat misleading illusion of choice, and poor technical performance. I just like the stories and they never seem to drag on too long and they give you ethical dilemmas that make you think. This installment of TWD was very good and I would say I enjoyed it as a whole, probably on par with season 2, but not as impactful as season 1.
The story started off strong and peaked at episode 2, then faltered a little, imo. The ending was fine, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t really excited now for Season 4. The way it ended leaves just enough closure to the immediate plot points, but also a very easy segue into the next season. I really want to see what happens next!
The highlight was the characters. Javier was a fitting protagonist, with a sorted past yet lovable and relatable. I really liked him. Clementine is just great. Clem (Telltale’s version of Ellie ... or is Ellie Naughty Dog’s version of Clem?) is maturing and growing into her role as the ruthless survivor with a tender heart. Although she is not the main focus of this season, she was a welcome addition when she was involved. Other characters were just okay.
Graphically, the game is pretty good, with that traditional Telltale art. The characters look better than I remember before, show emotion well, although they still move a bit stiff. I like the graphical presentation personally, but it does get inconsistent, with weird quirky times when people turn their heads strangely or look low for a moment.
My main gripe is that this was my absolute worst experience on any Telltale game (and I’ve played about 5 or 6) from a performance standpoint. The game froze on me a total of 3 times, requiring full exit from the game and restart. A whole section of episode 3 has black glitchy bars running across it blocking several scenes for about 15-20 minutes. As far as I’m concerned, these issues shouldn’t be in a game a year and a half old. I can forgive little things, but when the whole game doesn’t even work at times, that’s beyond my capacity to look past.

I also completed Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Now this is a true “walking sim” in every sense of the word. I’ve played other walking sims and there is usually at least a little puzzle solving involved, perhaps some light “go and fetch this” mechanics to help uncover the story, but EGttR has virtually nothing but walking and observing. There are items and rare prompts to interact with to listen to or watch story points, but the extent of input you provide is literally only press the X button a few times and motion events where you tilt the controller a bit. Lots and lots of walking. And no sprint button. So lots and lots of slow walking.
But I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it quite a lot. I understand the reason for the game design because the message it tells is so introspective and philosophical. I think this game has probably the deepest premise of any game I’ve played. The journey and the end had me scratching my head and trying to make sense of life and my place in the universe. I will probably be thinking about the game for a long while. And so in that, I think the game succeeds.
And the game is beautiful. It performs solidly, never much of a stutter, and you really feel like your walking through rural England. I think I’ll go back in for another playthrough for the platinum actually. It’s a good chill out game with the great visuals and beautiful music. If you like pondering life and the deeper parts of existence, I highly recommend it, if you can tolerate simulated walking.

God of War. I just want more after finishing it. Particularly in the story department. So much good lore around the whole thing, such a perfect fit to help build the mythology and make us care about it.

Recently finished Child of Light. Really neat little game! Between the wonderful art direction, the unique writing (everyone in this game speaks in verse - more specifically, iambic pentameter), the really solid Grandia-esque battle system, and the surprisingly emotional story it tells, I was very satisfied with the experience. If I had one criticism, it'd be that I think the ending felt a bit... rushed? The final act felt like it should have had a bit more of a build-up.

I'm really shocked that the studio behind it, Ubisoft Montreal, which is responsible for games like Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Assassin's Creed managed to produce such a unique RPG.

@KratosMD Glad to see you liked DMC4. I finished it a couple months ago, but for whatever reason I didn't bring it up here.

I'm not sure if I agree that it's better than 3, but it has been a while since I played DMC3. Gameplay wise it was definitely a step up. Once you got used to Nero's sword revving and Devil Bringer, playing as him is quite a treat, and laying the smackdown with his arm never got old. I liked how Dante got all his styles at once here, giving more options during combat. And the SE having Vergil, Lady and Trish as playable characters is a nice bonus (I especially like the upgrades to Vergil).

Platinum’d God Of War weeks ago then began searching for my next adventure. Tried ESO, Lords Of The Fallen, Darksiders I and II, and even Everybody’s Golf. Recently settled in Skyrim though. I’ve been trying to get into this game for years now and I’m finally enjoying it.

@KratosMD Quick question but did you ever notice how bad the sound balance was with DMC4, most of the time i can barley hear anything anyone is saying when i play it, i had to turn the SFX and Music down to the minimum setting and turn my TV way up just to hear it

and it's not just the PS3 version that does it but the PS4 version too

Both on Switch.

Ys VIII - A little rough around the edges, but a great time and probably my favorite release of 2018 so far. I really liked building your little village of castaways, and I enjoyed that, at least until near the end, the story was more intimate than your typical globe trotting RPG, focusing on the mysteries of the island you're stranded on.

Assault Gunners HD Edition - Despite the mostly horrendous reviews the game's gotten (a lot of 3's & 4's), I decided to nab it since Switch is pretty starved for mech games at the moment. Overall I'd say it's pretty average, but not deserving of the bottom of the barrel reviews it's been getting. Sure, it looks like an uprezzed PS2 game, is pretty short, and repetitive, but it's a fun enough time if you like the genre. It's certainly not broken or buggy by any means. Plus, It's brief missions fit well for pick up and play sessions on Switch.

@KratosMD So I remember we had the discussion several months ago when you were planning to play the series, but I’ve forgotten... you’re not trying to play them in the order the story occurs? I thought you were trying to go chronological. Ground Zeros comes right after Peace Walker and then The Phantom Pain right after that and you are in for a real, real treat with TPP if you liked Peace Walker. The resource and personnel management gets even better.
MGS 4 is excellent in its own right, but different gameplay-wise. It’s probably the strongest story of all the games, but that’s of course that’s all very subjective.

@KratosMD Oh yeah, that’s perfectly fine to play them in any order. Certainly I played them way out of chronological order and it didn’t affect the enjoyment. There is not really spoilers for earlier games, and if there is, they are minor and the over-arching story is really hard to follow in the MG series anyways. You’re gonna love 4 and 5 regardless I feel. And actually I never played Rising: Revengence. I played the demo and didn’t really feel compelled to as it doesn’t really feel like a Metal Gear game per se.

Just depending on how long it takes to get to Ground Zeros, you may need a refresher to remind yourself of the Peace Walker plot and conclusion as the two games are as closely tied together as any in the series are, occurring only one year apart and picking up essentially directly after Peace Walker’s events. It had been a couple years between the two games when I (and nearly everyone else on the planet) finally got to play GZ and it took a little refresher to get back on track with the goings on in the MG world in 1974.

Edit: ...and actually, as I think about it, I seem to recall that GZ gives you a little summary of events at the beginning to get you up to speed since many people didn’t even play Peace Walker anyways.

@KratosMD Hope you enjoy MGS4. It's a Metal Gear for Metal Gear fans and wraps the series up nicely.

Also, I can't believe it's been a full decade since it's release. June 12, 2008. I remember waiting for that day and my hype was off the charts. Good times.

@DerMeister @KratosMD Yeah, I rarely replay games especially heavily story driven games, mostly because of a large backlog. Also once you see the story unfold then it’s less exciting the second time. However MGS4 is one that I played twice. The second time just to get the trophies that were added on

Finally finished Golf Story on the Switch last night. Ended up putting something like 20 hours into the game doing everything and every interaction. Great little RPG/Golfing game and recommend.

@Kidfried Still not touched Far Harbour despite getting the season pass before the price went up. How does it run? The frame rate in the main game became quite dreadful for me towards the end and I'm not sure why. :-/

@Rudy_Manchego Sounds like a nice little game. I think I'll have to check it out!

@mookysam It's fun with a weird sense of humour. Very chill game!

@KratosMD After playing the first game all those years back, I was never really fussed on the sequels that I played. I remember playing a bit of DMC and enjoying it, so will probably pick it up at some point after your positive feedback. Cheers!

How do you feel about the new game that is coming out?

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) - As mentioned before, I don't have much experience with Castlevania proper, but I enjoyed my time with this. It had a really cool atmosphere, and although it could get quite tough, it never felt unfair (I especially liked the bosses).

Did both a Normal/Casual run & a Normal/Veteran run.

Today I finally finished God of War II. I'm currently torn between thinking that it's better than the first game, or about the same.

Combat hasn't really changed aside from different moves. It's still really fun, and a bit less reliant on mashing QTEs, which I'm definitely grateful for. Kratos also gets a hammer and spear for new weapons, but I didn't make use of them much, since Kratos' swords just get the job done better. I do like the new magic powers, with Typhon's Bow being a good distance weapon, with Chronos' Rage and Atlas Quake being great for wearing down crowds. Boss battles are good, with the final battle with Zeus being better than Ares in my opinion (probably because I didn't blow my shoulder out this time). A few encounters near the end started to drag on, though. The puzzles, while I took longer than I'd like for some, they're well designed

Story, is a story. Kratos is really mad at Zeus stabbing him. It works.

The graphics are good for PS2 standards as well. I played the version on PS3, so the cutscenes can look low res, but overall a good looking game.

That's about it. I'll work on Chains of Olympus next.

Haven't beaten (or played) anything deeply for a while. I'm hoping to get the all clear for my eye this afternoon - then back to the trophy hunt for Jamestown+ and Raiden V and dig deep in The Bannaer Saga.