Topic: Games you've recently beat

Finished Resident Evil 7 over the weekend.
Pros:
Really creepy, tense atmosphere with some brilliant sound design, this game needs to be played with a decent set of headphones.
A welcome return to the slower pace of the earlier games, with some tense combat.
Brilliantly gruesome in places.
The Baker fam are brilliant and quite relentless in their pursuit of you.
Cons:
Unfortunately the Molden are not and are really boring to fight.
The last couple of boss fights were a bit extreme and felt at odds with the rest of the game.
Puzzles are bit on the simplistic side.
Melee combat can feel a bit floaty at times

Overall I really enjoyed the game and reccomended it to anyone who is a fan of horror.

God of War.
This was my first GoW game and I have mixed feelings about it: few characters, few locations, few enemies... Feel like devs couldn't decide what kind of game they wanted to do and I doubt I'll play it again to search for its soul...

Finished Batman Arkham Knight on new game plus last night. It's been a long time since I played it but I went back to mop up the last few Riddler Trophies and got sucked back in. Great game and the best of the Arkham series in my opinion.

Ratchet and Clank... halfway through challenge mode now with the RYNO...

Had this down as a platformer over the years for some reason, but its a very good amalgam of different genres... Most fun i've had in a game for ages...

Finished 11-11 Memories Retold. Got an ending which I think was one of the good ones, at least both protagonists survived. I was tempted to immediately start a second playthrough just try out some new choices, the story took me completely by sursprise towards the end, with some very clever writing. However, my backlog is just too big right now so it will have to wait.

I really liked the game, the story and characterizations were fantastic. It was also more of a game than I first expected. I imagined it would be a narrative game in style of Virginia, Gone to Rapture and so on, but that is not the case, there is actual gameplay here: stealth, platforming, puzzles, ... and of-course, plenty of choices to make.

The visual style deserves a special mention. There were a few times when I thought it looked a bit "muddy", like in the early trench sections, but for the most part it looked nice, often very beautiful.

One complaint though, is that I didn't feel the ending matched the choices I made that well, as if the choices made didn't really matter that much in the end, and that I got a more generic ending rather than a more personal and unique one. I went with the "nice" choices, being good and all that, but I did not get an ending that reflected this, getting a much darker ending than I expected.

On the whole though, an interesting, unique and highly memorable game.

@Ralizah Thanks for that excellent write-up about Cuphead - a game that I heard so much collective rumblings about but literally had no idea what it was. It is universally praised by critics and fans alike, but I always find real world impressions from a Push Square regular to be the most informative. And I appreciate how well you always seem to articulate your ideas and bring an objective and logical approach sprinkled with your subjective review. I think this is an example of a useful report which is a combination of how the fun-factor of a game is, but also why it is or isn’t enjoyable. A real relay of what makes the game tick. So thanks again, and even though I doubt I’ll play Cuphead any time soon, you make me want to go out and buy an Xbox or get a gaming PC just for the experience.

@Th3solution Thanks! I always appreciate when people take the time to actually read the walls of text I slap up on the forums. <3

Anyway, I doubt you'd need a real gaming PC to run it. The recommended specs are pretty low, all things considered. Even my aging gaming PC is way overkill in terms of what the game likely needs to run well. I'm just thankful it was on Steam instead of the Windows 10 store, as I have no plans on upgrading from Win 8.1 until either a better operating system releases or the thing breaks in some non-trivial way and literally all I can get is a Win10 PC.

@Ralizah You can speed up Psycho Pass with a button press but only during passages of story you have already seen. I think you press and hold a trigger button or triangle - I can't actually remember.

I love psycho pass and played it for 40-50 hours and it's my favourite visual novel by far, as something about the setting and writing style really connects with me. Your mini review was spot on though points of conflux should be more easily identifiable.

Tonight I finished 2 games.

Astrobot - Platinum. Best game I have played since the Mass Effect trilogy. So good. It won't be for everyone but I like taking games at a gingerly pace so for me it's perfection. I can't imagine how any game can top it in the foreseeable.

Tetris Effect - Journey Mode. I read over a couple of reviews that journey modes last few levels are difficult. I found it pretty easy when I was zoned in with VR tonight. I ran through the last 6 stages and only mucked up once which was completely my fault, going for a multi zone clear when I got overconfident. I'm decent at Tetris and can totally see how I can get better using VR. I've even started watching classic Tetris tournaments which is strangely compelling.

@Kidfried I watched Tetris Master 3 master mode clear. The skillz are ridiculous. During the credits screen the blocks disappear and the player was still racking up lines. Crazy.

@themcnoisy Only passages where there are no changes whatsoever to any of the dialogue at any point, and because the game loves to change one word or so depending on a choice you made, you'll end up re-reading 95% of the dialogue without the ability to skip.

Have you seen the anime series it's based on?

I've heard the higher refresh rate in the PSVR headset might help with playing Tetris. Also, it's going to be more immersive, which probably helps gameplay as well.
I can only imagine. Just playing in a dark room with headphone plugged in was like being transported to another world. VR must be truly spectacular for that game.

@Ralizah @themcnoisy Ya know I still never made it past the final level of Tetris Effect Journey mode. I would try it for about 30-60 minutes at a shot every day or two and couldn’t get close enough. I think it’s what, 100 lines I think, and it hits hyperdrive speed at 60, so 40 lines at that speed has been too much for me, even when I keep a clear board up to that speed point. I definitely was getting better from the practice, but couldn’t get past like 82-85 lines or so. I finally was too frustrated so I haven’t tried for several weeks. Maybe later. Brilliant game though.

@Ralizah @Th3solution I've watched the first season of Psycho pass.

Tetris Effect is completely different in VR. Especially with the effects going off, the praying level is insane. That said I don't prescribe to the GOTY train for it. Coming on the back of Astrobot it's too shimmery and the VR doesn't have any gameplay mechanics, although the play area can be bigger - like playing on the Gameboy with your face right up to it. And you definitely get more in the zone with no distractions.

Fishing Star World Tour - Well, about as finished with it as I'm going to be. I've completed the "World Tour" and completed all the missions in every world, but I still have 3 of the 8 "Legendary" rank fish left to catch (one per world). They're more of a post game challenge, but with so few left I can't help but feel "incomplete" leaving them uncaught. They're just SOOO hard. I have the best rods & reels in the game, but no combination I've tried works (My line either has enough power to reel them in but not enough strength to hold them whenever they fight back, or enough strength to keep them from immediately snapping the line but not enough power to reel them in, resulting in me losing a battle of attrition).

Anyhow, it's an otherwise fine game that's a good way to unwind. In fact, during the normal course of the game the motion controls are perfectly viable & actually quite fun.

2019 completion list (newly beat in bold)

Switch:

• Fishing Star World Tour

PS4:

• Dragon Quest XI
• Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

i recently (re)beat Halo CE on the Master Chief Collection (really getting back into Halo lately), although it was a major pain the backside to get working because apparently the physical release was broken and wont install off the disc and my internet was playing up when i installed it (something i have mentioned before but have since fixed) so it wouldn't fully connect to XBL so it wouldn't download the update, which isn't actually and update but is in fact the full game

still it's all working so i'm going on to Halo 2 Anniversary

really hoping that Halo Infinite releases this year

I beat Red Dead Redemption 2 over the weekend. I started failing some missions later in the game, an issue that wasn’t a problem early in the game. But the most I had to restart was 3 times I think for a couple of them.
My full impressions after completing it I put in the game specific thread, if you’re interested in a somewhat long-winded analysis.
The short version: it’s good, maybe even great, but not perfect.

@Th3solution i liked it, but its not as good as people make it out to be. But its a good game.

A while back, I completed Transistor. It's a game I wanted to get to for a long time, and it was enjoyable.

The plot itself isn't explained that well, if I'm being honest. The gist is that you're a famous singer in the city of Cloudbank named Red, who lost her voice and comes across a sword looking object called the Transistor, which is also sentient. Cloudbank is also under attack by robots called The Process, and Red ends up fighting them. Any finer details of the game's story and world is hidden within the game itself, but I'll get to that.

The game is a top-down RPG of sorts. It's got the Diablo camera angle, but you're not exactly hacking or slashing. Battles have you running about like one, using attacks in real time, but you can also use Turn, where you can plan out your moves and abilites and execute them in one shot. Red's abilites are tied to the Transistor's functions, being able to have 4 equipped for use in battle, and as you level up, you can get 8 upgrade slots for battle functions, and 4 passive slots. What makes this game fun in my eyes is experimenting with the various options. For example, one function has you make an explosive packet in battle. You can do that, or you can equip it as an upgrade to another function to increase it's blast radius, or have it as a passive where you periodically spawn packets as you move. The game even encourages this in a strange way: Functions are actually tied to a character in the game world, and by using a function in battle, you unlock more of their background file. It's something I find interesting, and a different way to shed background on the world. Also, if you hate yourself, there's limiters in the game as well, which handicap you. You also get these by leveling up, and by activating them, you learn more about the Process. You also get EXP bonuses.

The art style of the game is quite a treat. The futuristic city of Cloudbank is rendered very well, and you'll see gorgeous hand drawn illustrations pretty often. Soundwise, this game is also great. There's a few vocal tracks that are nice, with the rest of the electronic BGM being a treat for the ears.

Definitely something I recommend. It's a title that I enjoyed more than I was expecting. It's not too long either, meaning you won't have another albatross on your backlog.

@DerMeister Thanks for that! I’ve had Transistor on my PS4 hard drive for a while. I downloaded it when it was a PS Plus game many moons ago, but have yet to try it. It sounds like another good brief palate cleanser game.

I finished Virginia last night. What a strange game that was. I think I did myself a disservice by playing it over three short sessions separated over a few weeks. The game is so short (maybe like 2 hours or so) that I felt like spreading it out to get the most of it, but in reality it is probably intended to be done in one sitting because I have no idea what in the world the thing was about. When it’s revealed that your perspective has been changing the whole time and, in fact you’ve been observing the chain of events from different characters points of view, my mind was blown. At least I think that’s what was happening; I could be wrong about that. Since I played the first half of the game a couple weeks ago (and shoehorned a Red Dead marathon in between) I forgot the full context of what I had seen in the earlier chapters. Now that I know what I’m looking for, and that I may not be playing the same character the whole game, then I can maybe piece it together. Even then, I’m still wondering what the whole thing about the flying saucer is.... and the buffalo? Who’s this cult doing sacrifices? And the dead bird? Huh? Pretty sure there’s some symbolism stuck in there somewhere. I’m going to go back and do a second run later and play through in one sitting and see if the story makes more sense. Maybe it’s not supposed to make sense. [shrug]
It’s weird stuff. And that’s not a bad thing. I can appreciate a game or story with a cryptic esoteric message and I think the game has something profound to say. But I just don’t know what that is yet. 😅

Finished the story in Detroit Become Human. And it was a great story, finely told and probably one of the best I've experienced in a video game. Sure it is not without its faults, with a couple of telegraphed story beats and clunky dialogue options here and there. I was surprised on how dark the story was in places, the level in mansion and the junkyard being particularly highlights.

There is scope to replay the game, but in reality I will most likely not go back to it, unless I suddenly clear up all my games. But hey, you never know I might randomly feel like playing it again, but I doubt it.