Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Jaz007 Will you be doing the dlc, Dark Arisen I think it is called? The difficulty does ramp up quite a bit I thought, and I gave up a couple of hours after starting it.

@JohnnyShoulder No, I just skipped it. I really liked the game, but didn’t want to start doing extra dungeons and stuff. I wanted to finish it so it didn’t lost among my unbeat games. Almost 40 hours was enough for me with it. I wasn’t in the mood for the extra difficulty either.

Prey.
40 hours of pure fun and I'll surely play it again sometime since I feel I used only half of the game mechanics.

Last week I beat Mass Effect 2, however, I've spent a lot of time trying to get my thoughts on it. This is the best I can manage.

The story immediately makes it clear that bad stuff is gonna happen, and the Commander has to Shepard some fresh meat for a dangerous mission. It gives a sense of urgency that I appreciate, and there's an interesting grey shade as well, since Shepard has to work with Cerberus (a not nice organization from the first game) in order to have the resources for the mission. Plenty of people tend to call you out on it, even though your crew don't seem to be terrible. Speaking of crew, hoo boy, Shepard has some real basket cases with him this time. Two squadmates from Mass Effect return, but we also have Cerberus operatives Miranda and Jacob, Assassin Thane, kinda shady doctor Mordin, Justicar Samara (think über powerful space cop), Krogan Grunt (Yes, that is his name), Convict Jack, and with DLC, Thief Kasumi and former gang leader Zaeed. Grey indeed.

Thing about the story, is that most of it is prepping and recruiting all these whackjobs for your suicide mission, while getting the occasional tidbit about the newest threat. It feels like there's less than Mass Effect 1, and it's...odd. To it's credit, the setup is great and I like the Loyalty Missions, kinda sidequests where you explore the character of your squadmates, and these are well done, giving some more layers to your team. This is what your doing away from all the prep work though, so it's strange as an overall story.

The gameplay is another dividing line for many. It feels more shooter than RPG here this time. Guns no longer have infinite ammo and heat chambers, or mods. The special ammo now count as powers, and inventory is limited to one gun of each type. Battles, due to this streamlining feel even easier than before, since I mostly relied on my guns and still got through fine. Again, it's strange. I enjoyed playing it, but the gameplay feels like it's lost fluff but lost challenge to get that playability.

And finally, graphics. They look better than before, but there's still an occasion where the framerate gets junky (mostly during cutscenes) and texture pop-in is still a thing. Though thankfully there's no Untextured Saren Face staring into your soul.

Again, I feel strange on this. I enjoyed the game, but I'm not sure if it lives up to the hype. Still good, maybe not GOAT.

@Kidfried I barely used any powers, aside from the occasional Overload or Warp from a teammate. I had the basic soldier build (which I did by accident in the first game, but kept here for consistency), so there wasn't too much aside from Adrenaline Rush and spraying with the machine gun. It feels like a step down to me, since you needed to be tactical before, at least until the end. And here's me shooting everything in Mass Effect 2.

I agree that the cast are the highlight. I think BioWare make their money on the strength of their writing, and this was when they had their A-game.

@KratosMD Funnily enough, I'm the opposite. I've already made two $100+ purchases this month, so I'm just clearing games out. I've also never played Dead Space. Not much of a horror guy I am.

@KratosMD Isn't the third one the least scary though?

Mass Effect 2 is bloody brilliant. I think I completed it three times (initial play, paragon with everyone surviving, and a renegade femshep game). The Shadow Broker DLC is excellent and Arrival links into ME3 brilliantly.

@Thrillho @RogerRoger The DLC was definitely some good story content. The Shadow Broker was fun to play through and Arrival was a good tie in to ME3. I actually started the 3rd game after I wrapped 2, but forgot about Arrival. After playing it and restarting my 3 save, it actually made the opening make more sense.

Fallout 4.

I tried getting through that game, just couldn't. A shame too, because it was really engaging at first.

Just finished Fatal Frame for the PS2. It was a great experience overall, although very reminiscent, in some respects, of Resident Evil. That's not a bad thing, though. Creeping around a haunted mansion solving puzzles and fighting baddies as you incrementally unlock different parts of the house is fundamentally appealing in an almost Metroidvanian way. It's not like this game doesn't have its own identity, though: the much more Japanese setting and especially the ghost photography make it feel fundamentally different from almost anything else I've ever played.

Some aspects of the experience are stronger than others. The English voice work is incredibly bad, although, given the almost dreamlike tone of the game, the stilted line delivery almost kind of works here and can sometimes add to the creepiness. Some of the character models are pretty chunky looking (probably due to it being an early, mid-budget PS2 game), but the (pre-rendered?) backdrops are absolutely gorgeous (in a creepy, haunting sort of way) and go a long way toward making this look nicer than it has any right to. The combat is interesting, and involves building up charges on your camera by targeting ghosts for as long as possible before taking a picture. This does mean it can be easy to pick off a lot of enemies from afar, though, which doesn't seem to totally jive with other game mechanics, like the zero shot, where you wait until the ghost is actively rushing you to take a picture for more points and higher damage. You use points accumulated from battling ghosts to unlock functions on your camera. While I liked gradually powering up the Camera Obscura, I didn't necessarily care for the system that allowed you to use consumable resources to activate special powers, as those powers are very expensive to unlock and don't always work as well as advertised. Overall, though, the combat is fun, creative, and a great alternative to traditional survival horror combat mechanics.

One other annoyance was the behavior of some ghosts, who would often spend much of the battle teleporting behind me, which would often lead to annoying sequences where I'd have to aim, leave the camera mode after they teleport, run to the other end of the room, turn around, aim, only to have to repeat the process a few more times until they decide to actually stay on one side of the room and start attacking.

There's a LOT of good in this game. It's well-paced, giving you a lot of stuff to see and do over the course of eight hours or so. The atmosphere is fantastic, with the visuals and sound design (wailing ghosts and some incredibly creepy music) creating an oppressive and sometimes overwhelming aura of evil in the environment. Many of the ghost designs are great. And the story is simple but effective and pretty sad once you realized what caused this massive haunting to begin with.

The fixed camera angles and tank controls are pretty characteristic of survival horror games at the time. I personally love them, especially when the camera placement gets creepily creative (any sort of drastic viewpoint change in the camera always fills me with apprehension, as this sort of technique is often used to set up environmental scares).

One of the better survival horror games on the PS2. I'm excited to finally get into this series, especially considering this first game is considered by many fans to be the worst entry in the original PS2 trilogy. I can see why this series became such a cult favorite.

Yeah, it was because of the repetitive gameplay, and most of the missions not really having much story significance. It felt like a tightly strung narrative, and then they just send you around for 36 hours to do small time busywork, and the story ground to a halt. It wouldn't be so bad if there were things to do in the world, but there aren't.

I've been on the fence about getting the Yakuza games for years. I think it's always been a little off-putting that you can't drive.

@Kidfried

I like what I've played of Yakuza 0, but I'm not hugely "moved by it." It's alright. The story is pretty good, and the ridiculous machismo of the characters is entertaining, but the gameplay is a bit repetitive for my tastes (which is less of a problem for other beat em up games that are shorter and often emphasize a variety of interesting levels). The quality of the presentation itself is also somewhat uneven, like Bayonetta, transitioning between cutscenes and these odd visual novel-esque sequences with static images.

Hmm, yeah, that's why I'm on the fence. Just not sure I would enjoy something like that.

Although maybe I should try it just to know. Because if I don't like it, I certainly won't like Shenmue.

@AdamantiumClaws @RogerRoger
Yes, I would echo what these others have said about Yakuza. I’m only partly (maybe 30%) through Zero and so I’m not an expert, but it does feel different from any other open world beat ‘em up game that I’ve played. The map is fairly small, you can ride a Taxi if you want from one part to another, but it doesn’t take long to just run there. Despite being small, it’s packed with activities.
The protagonists are very lovable. Despite the “mafia” (in this case yakuza) backdrop, I have really identified with Kiryu and Majima. As you go around town helping people, doing side quests, and progressing the story, you can’t help but be smitten by each of their plights. I typically prefer to play as the “good guy” and be the altruistic or noble hero, rather than kill cops and beat up women, and I’ll just say, I really like playing as these guys.
The humor can be a little juvenile, so be forewarned, and it clearly has the Japanese quirkiness that some people may not appreciate. I agree that the length of the game is probably a bit too much, but I can say that about 80% of AAA games coming out recently. I think Kiwami is supposedly more streamlined. But the mini games could keep one going for a long long time if you really wanted to.
As a newbie to the series, just chiming in with my impressions. 😄

That actually sounds fun. I'll check it out when I have time and money

I recently beat Titanfall 2, such an underrated game

@Simon_Fitzgerald Loved Titanfall 2. Playing Black Ops 3 has made me realise even more what a great game that was.

@JohnnyShoulder @Simon_Fitzgerald I came so close to buying Titanfall 2 when it was $7 for the ultimate edition in the recent PSN sale. In the end I knew it was going to go straight to the backlog so I passed, but I hope I can see it for that price again. Or better yet, maybe PS Plus freebie!
I don’t like FPS typically and especially not multiplayer. So - considering the SP campaign only, what is best for a FPS casual who really likes story driven experiences —
Titanfall 2, Wolfenstein The New Order, or Metro Redux?