yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Stoph, that’s just about the dreamiest list of games I’ve seen.  I’ve done a lot of them on there and you’re gonna have a wonderful time.  Last days of June and Blackwood Crossing are standouts for me.

That’s great to know, cheers. I might space Last Days and Blackwood out, especially after just playing Edith Finch. Have also set myself a limit of purchasing no more than 3 games this year. Adds a certain stick or twist element to the year’s gaming. Don’t want to waste a choice on this year’s Brink, so will have to be a bit cautious.

Currently playing Wolfenstein II and it’s rather spiffing, what what.

Finished

1. Hidden Agenda (PS4) - 3 hours [6]
A Telltale like adventure game that you play in a group each using your phone as a controller with a sort of traitor mechanic. I quite enjoyed this, in the game you play as several characters investigating a serial killer. The phone app works well and has lots of extra information about the case, people, locations and is updated as you discover new things. The only problem control wise was QTE’s and searching for clues where you have to push a cursor around the screen, this could be a little fiddly and difficulty to control.
What drew me to this was the traitor like mechanic, one person is given a hidden agenda to get over the next scene. They can they to persuade the group over the next few conversation options but it mainly comes down to one choice at the end of the scene which just before the game makes you vote on who you think has the hidden agenda. There are also take over cards which can be played so you can make any decision and multiple cards can be played on any choice as you wrestle for control with the other players. This works ok but I would love to see something make more of this I’ve had a lot of fun playing board games where you have hidden objectives or aligences like Battlestar Galactica or Dead of Winter and I want to see video games trying to emulate this. 
Definitely worth getting if you’ve got 3-5 friends you can get over for an evening with a few drinks and you can pick it up for about £7-8.

2. Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle (PS4) - 4 hours [4]
So I played this for the nostalgia and the 4 player local co-op.The game looks great going for a comic style and is very bright and colourful. It hits the nostalgia beats well as this is based off the original season of power rangers, uses short voice lines from the show when characters are speaking and re-recorded music from the show. This is great at the start but quickly starts to go down hill. This voice lines is uses are short (why would you not use all Rita’s lines) and get repeated a lot also it feels like they stopped bothering later on as other characters are introduced. Combat is shallow and has the annoying not quite on the same level as the enemy so attack just miss that you can get in these type of games. This is annoying as it also doesn’t give much feedback if your hitting your target or not so if someone else is also attacking you can be hitting air and not notice. There’s also a progression system unlocking combos, abilities and making each ranger more powerful. The pacing on this is awful where at first you get one or two things and towards the end it feels like it's throwing stuff at you because it ran out of levels for you to unlock this over. 
I wouldn’t get this unless your a power rangers fan and even then get it in a sale.

3. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (PS4 PSVR) - 15 hours [8]
This is a lot of fun and can be a nice way to show off VR with a group of people even though its not strictly a VR game as it can be played on PC without VR. The person wearing the VR headset has a bomb they need to diffuse by solving puzzles, cutting wires and inputting codes. Everyone else works as the support team telling your bomb disposal how to defuse the bomb. The support team have a manual explaining what to do and can see this on the tv screen and it can be found on the website and printed out.
So you’re frantically trying to understand what someone is telling you what they can see an sort through information for what is relevant then explain in a simple, concise manner. Once you start to learn each module it gets easier but you still need to work together to solve the modules and the information in the manual is purposefully in a nonsensical order meaning your always frantically searching for the solution.
Some puzzles can be irritating (fuck you Morse code) but on the whole this is a lot of fun and give a real sense of accomplishment when you complete some of the more difficult bombs.

4. Gears of War: Judgement (X360) - 10 hours [7]
Developed mainly by People Can Fly this was the first Gears game not by Epic and the last while they still had the rights to the franchise. Moment to moment gameplay it plays like the previous games and doesn’t really do anything new. The structure of the game is quite different to the previous games being centered around short missions\encounters with a scoring system and the ability to add a modifier which give a nice extra challenge. 
The story is quite lacking and forgettable. You’re introduced to two new characters as part of your team, along with Baird and Cole from the main series. The new characters don’t get much development which is disappointing since they could of given a different insite to The COG and it politics.
As with every other Gears game I’ve played I did this in Co-Op with Dante, I’ve never enjoyed these games solo but the Co-Op as always was a lot of fun. Definitely a game worth playing if you like the series but you won't miss much if you skip over this one.

5. Monster Hunter World (PS4) - x hours [8]

6. Yakuza 0 (PS4) - x hours [9]

7. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) - x hours [8]

8. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch) - x hours [9]

9. Doom (2016) (PS4) - x hours [9]

10. Gang Beasts (PS4) - 4 hours [7]

11. Hitman (2016) (PS4) - x hours [8]

12. Ratchet & Clank (2016) (PS4) - x hours [8]

13. Shadow of the Colossus (2018) (PS4) - x hours [8]

14. Inside (PS4) - x hours [7]

15. A Way Out (PS4) - x hours [8]

16. God of War (2018) (PS4) - x hours [10]

17. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XBONE) - x hours [7]

18. Florence (Mobile) - 1 hour [7]

19. Destiny 2 Curse of Osiris (PS4) - x hours [6]

20. Batman The Enemy Within (PS4) - 10 hours [8]

21. Golf Story (Switch) - 10 hours [4]

22. Enter the Gungeon (Switch) - 15 hours [7]

23. Sea of Thieves (XBONE) - 15 hours [6]

24. Stardew Valley (Switch) - 25 hours [8]

25. Destiny 2 Warmind (PS4) - x hours [7]

26. Darkest Dungeon (Switch) - x hours [7]

27. Spider-man (PS4) - x hours [9]

28. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (PS4) - 2 hours [8]

29. Dead Cells (Switch) - x hours [8]

In Progress

Destiny 2 Forsaken (PS4)
Assassins Creed Origins (PS4)
Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice (PS4)
Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts (PS4)

Oooh, Hotline Miami @Stopharage.  That might be a [10] too.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Oooh, Hotline Miami @Stopharage.  That might be a [10] too.

1. (7/10) (Switch) I Am Setsuna
2. (8/10) (Switch) Sonic Mania
3. (6/10) (PC) Ittle Dew
4. (10/10) (PS4) MLB The Show 2016 (Career Mode)
5. (8/10) (3DS) Picross E
6. (5/10) (XB1) Battlefield 1 (Story Mode)
7. (8/10) (3DS) Legend Of Zelda: Links Awakening DX
8. (4/10) (3DS) Contact
9. (8/10) (PS3) Yakuza 4
10. (8/10) (3DS) Bravely Default
11. (6/10) (PS3) Ni No Kuni: Wraith Of The White Witch
12. (5/10) (PS3) Lollipop Chainsaw
13: (9/10) (PC) Doom '16
14: (8/10) (PSX) Ridge Racer Type 4
15: (5/10) (PS4) MLB The Show '18 (Career Mode)
16: (2/10) (PC) Universal Papercips
17: (5/10) (PC) 10,000,000
18: (5.1/10) (PC) You Must Build A Boat
19: (9/10) (Switch) Bayonetta
20: (4/10) (IPAD) Spider
21: (10/10) (PS4) God Of War
22: (9/10) (Switch) Bayonetta 2
23: (8/10) (PS3) Yakuza 5
24: (8/10) (PS3) Catherine
25: (8/10) (PC) Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
26: (8/10) (PS4) Yakuza 6
27: (9/10) (3DS) Bravely Second
28: (10/10) (Switch) Hollow Knight
29: (6/10) (Xbox 360) Dragon Age Origins Ultimate
30: (7/10) (Xbox 360) Dragon Age 2
31: (5/10) (IPAD) Smashtastic Cricket
32: (5/10) (Switch) Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill In Slaps n Beans
33: (7/10) (PS4) Rez Infinite
34: (7/10) (Xbox 360) Sine Mora
35: (8/10) (Switch) Captain Toad
36: (9/10) (PC) Life is Strange: Before The Storm
37: (5/10) (PC) Princess Remedy In A Heap of Trouble
38: (8/10) (Switch) Octopath Traveler
39: (9/10) (PS4) The Spider-Man
40: (9/10) (PC) Life is Strange
41: (9/10) (XB1) - Forza Horizon 4
42: (8/10) (PS4) - Dragon Quest 11
43: (3/10) (XB1) - FFXV - A King's Tale
44: (8/10) (Switch) - Picross S2
45: (9/10) (PC) - Gunstar Heroes
46: (8/10) (Switch) - Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu!
47: (9/10) (PC) - Streets of Rage 2
48: (It looks like a 9/10) (PC) Nex Machina
49: (10/10) (Switch) - Dark Souls
50: (3/10) (PC) - DLC Quest
51: (9/10) (Switch) - Smash Bros
52: (3/10) (PC) - Conquests for Camelot

And so it begins...

1. Little Inferno Switch
This is, at its hearth*, just a game about burning things. But it’s also a game about consumerism, and how it consumes us. It’s not exactly subtle in its message, which is why the overlong cutscene at the end of the game is a little too much. Indeed, it feels odd to say that a game clocked at about five and a half hours seems stretched but this is. There are, in the end, a hundred and forty different items to burn. For 100% completion you have to buy and destroy each one three times. Getting you there, there are a total of 99 recognised two- and three-item combos; burn certain items together for a boost. The thing is, when so many of the combos are just weak puns, as opposed to interesting combinations of burning effects, finding out which items are intended can be a chore rather than a joy; by half way through, I was using a guide. I would have liked more, different burning effects, too. Too many items caused cold, rain, snow, or and explosion so sudden the fire was put out. That’s not fun. I would also have liked to see more challenges (eg keep a fire burning for x seconds using only items made of y material, or burn x number of items while keeping the fire above/below a certain intensity). The only challenge was in finding the combos.

Having said all that, I’m glad I played it. The music is exceptional, finding your own interesting combinations of burning effects is diverting, and the humour is dark, unnerving, and at times just bat-shit mental.

*See what I did there?!

One down, 51 to go.

I thought it was grate.

Not trying to finish loads, but I'll keep a track of what I've played and want to play this year.

Completed:

Steamworld Heist [7]
Jan 4-Jan 12: 14 hours
Finished on 'experienced' difficulty (the middle one, I think) and got all the stars (finishing missions with all treasure and no casualties). It's a solid turn-based strategy game with the side-on perspective changing things up a little. But it lacks the depth or knife-edge situations that the best in the genre provide. I didn't even need to repeat that many levels to get the top rankings. And while the range of enemies is decent the procedurally generated settings are limited and repetitive.

Invisible Inc. [10]
Jan 14-Jan 20: 16 hours
Played a couple of games with the DLC on. First one didn't go so well, second one ended in success. Great to come back to this now and again. Never really have enough of it and it's close to being my favourite turn-based strategy game.

Persona 4 Golden [8]
Jan 14-Feb 12: 75 hours
Just finished my NG+ game on this. Aim was to max out all social links, which was actually pretty easy in the end. I also found myself finishing the Persona compendium and doing some other bits I'd missed before. It probably goes on a bit too long when you don't have so much to do, but I enjoyed it overall. Only thing is, I wasn't thinking about trophies before but now it's done the only one left is for reading all the books. There's no way I'm playing it again so it's going to stay annoyingly incomplete.

Gravity Rush 2 [6]
Feb 1-Feb 8: 21 hours
Mixed feelings about this, but disappointment is the main one. On one hand i still think the basic mechanics of gravity shifting are fantastic. Flying, floating, chucking stuff about, mid-air combat - it all feels and looks just right. The new styles are also good fun and add variety. Even the struggling camera doesn't take too much shine off it. So all they really need to do is create a game that challenges your ability to use those moves, but instead they pad it out with all sorts of other nonsense or create battles that aren't really suited to the play style. Sections where you run around town looking for someone or badly made stealth bits just don't belong. The environments are also often too busy, creating too many places to get stuck or objects that get in the way. Most boss battles become confusing and frustrating. There's some good stuff there too but just not enough between the boring and annoying parts. Spent a good while on some of the challenge missions after finishing the game, which really should be what it's all about. Shame they're just a side show.

Shadow of the Colossus [9]
Feb 14-Feb 19: 16 hours
I always wanted to play this, and finally got the chance with the remake. What was amazing, regardless of the visual detail and any modern streamlining, was how fresh the core game still felt. The first thing that impresses is its commitment to the setting - a cursed land long abandoned by human inhabitants. The brave move for a game is to leave the huge open plains, deserts and caverns empty, save for a smattering of wildlife and ancient ruins. It's an incredibly evocative piece of world building that centres on your isolation and the singular commitment of the character's mission. But of course, the colossi are the main attraction, and the battles you face increasingly deliver in scale and drama. The pattern of carefully sizing up the features of your opponent and its surroundings to figure out a weakness seems surprisingly original, even though it only expands on established boss battle concepts, and having to earn that opening grants catharsis when finally delivering the fatal blow. Certainly, some of the puzzle elements aren't as well communicated as others, being overly contrived or obscure, but the majority of solutions emerge as rewards for patient observation. There's also a lot of nuance in the simple set of player inputs, with the grab function especially doing a lot of work. Climbing towards a foe's weak point becomes an epic struggle, as each colossus desperately fights to delay the inevitable. And then, when it comes, that catharsis is tinged with melancholy, as the rush of battle dissipates and the reality of your 'achievement' becomes clear. It's the moment that most perfectly encapsulates the game's tragic central theme - the concurrent selfless nobility and selfish violence of your quest.

Sine Mora Ex [7]
Feb 21-Feb 23: 10 hours
This was nearly something I could've really liked. I've always preferred a horizontally scrolling shooter to a vertical one, and it looks great, has some nice ideas and loads of impressive boss battles. It's also not too difficult, which is a rarity nowadays. I played through it a number of times, in normal story mode, then challenging, then challenging in arcade mode. But I didn't get as far as doing a 1CC, even though it was attainable, because there are so many minor irritations. The main sprite is too big, it's not always clear where the foreground scenery is, having to recollect power ups after getting hit just doesn't really make sense, and there are a few places where it's possible to get a sudden game over based on small margins of error. In the end, it's just not worth trying to get good as the systems aren't reliable enough. But I got a solid 10 hours out of it so I'm still reasonably happy.

Monster Hunter: World [9]
24 Feb-25 Mar: 120 hours
My first Monster Hunter experience and it delivered pretty much exactly what I'd hoped for. For all the details in its wild environments, and the breadth of customisation and crafting at your disposal, it really boils down to a single, infinitely repeated gameplay loop - hunt a monster, collect materials from it, upgrade a weapon, hunt another, tougher monster. There are side quests and expeditions, the distractions of foraging, cultivating resources or directing gatherers to find you more stuff, but these are all minor housekeeping tasks to support the main cycle. The repetition can take its toll, especially in the early game. But then the hours fly by as you farm the materials to realise the latest weapons and armour on your wishlist, and each of the hunts you do in that time is genuinely exciting. The reason it hooks you, aside from tapping into your consumerist drives, is that the monsters themselves put on such a good show. They're big and impressive, plausible yet unusual, and they lumber, roar, bite and slash with real presence. Once the game hits its stride, each new creature is sufficiently different from the last to demand your full attention, careful selection of equipment and bespoke strategies. The hunts follow a regular pattern of chases and confrontations, but the vast array of weapon styles, items, traps and environmental features available means there's always a new way to make them unfold. And that's without factoring in the scope for online teamwork, which adds its own inevitable layer of depth and unpredictability.

XCom 2: War of the Chosen [8]
Apr 1-Apr 18: 40 hours
Very much in two minds about this. On one hand it builds on an already top tier turn-based strategy game with a whole load of new features and content, which pretty much means it's about as good as the genre gets. There are major new enemy types, including 'the chosen' themselves which sort of function as bosses that intervene at various points, plus 'the lost' - zombies, basically - which can change how battles are going when they turn up, and a few other regular unit types. Then you've got three new troop classes which are all well thought out, new equipment, mission types, covert ops, a version of the buddy system from Fire Emblem, and so on and so on. it's pretty much everything you could stuff into this sort of game and it's all well-balanced.

But. Even when you add all that up it doesn't feel like a £35 expansion. Once you get passed the first few hours, when it introduces all the new elements, you're mostly playing the same game as before. i was really expecting more narrative strands away from the base game but there's none of that. in the end, the lost don't really feature very often and don't develop into a more interesting adversary during the game. Even the Chosen aren't that big a deal really. i only paid £22, but i'm still not sure it was worth it when you consider the overall difference. And then there's the other problem. i may have got more out of the new features by playing the game on a higher difficulty, but (on a regular PS4) there are so many bugs, glitches and performance issues that actually interfere with play it would be an incredibly frustrating experience. Playing it in the infamous 'ironman' mode would be completely out of the question. it's not only that a crash could wipe your entire progress, but also that sometimes enemies disappear so you can't shoot them, or you move a character to one place and the game decides to put it somewhere else. These things can be crucial differences between success and failure. And besides all that the framerate is terrible. Somehow it runs worse than the now-patched base game, even though it doesn't seem to be doing anything different most of the time. My intention was to up the difficulty and do another run, but there's no way i'll try before a major patch.

So, this is still arguably the best turn-based strategy game around. But then it isn't because it doesn't run properly and hasn't been fixed in months and because the publishers got a bit greedy again with the pricing (not including the first lot of DLC in the console release was already rather stingy).

I Am Setsuna [5]
Apr 25-May 5: 16 hours
This wasn't great. A reasonable story and combat, but uninspired design overall. Seems as though it didn't have enough time, money, imagination or care put into it. Fortunately it didn't drag on too long. The half price I paid for it is what it should've been from the start.

Rayman Legends [8]
May 1-May 12
20 hours
Very impressed overall. Lots of smart ideas, loads of content, and real understanding of 2D platform games. Plus a nice mix of silly fun and challenging bits. And great music too. Some ideas were overused - too many forced scrolling levels and placement of secrets especially - and the controls can work against you in certain situations (wall running - urgh), but the good easily outweighs the bad.

Celeste [10]
May 12-May 21
22 hours
An exceptional piece of 2D platform game design that brilliantly marries the tribulations of its player with the emotions of its character. In mechancial terms, it supplies a simple control scheme that enables supreme precision and then tests it to the limit in a vast array of situations. In design terms, it frequently throws up smart ideas, some familiar, some really quite original, all incoporating mild puzzle elements that have you coaxing insane solutions out of the various environmental features and that narrow yet flexible moveset. The combination of skill and creativity required to advance, and especially to collect the optional strawberries dotted around each stage, is expertly balanced, and while it's often mercilessly exacting you're never asked to do too much in one go. And when you've got a central character who's main trait is self-doubt, leading her to this self-imposed mission to climb Celeste mountain, these continuous, arduous tests become oddly meaningful. As Madeline is frustrated by her own weakness and fear, we are frustrated by our timidity and insufficient skill in the face of the game's tougher layouts. But her tenacity also spurs us into perserverence, and we invariably prove our doubts wrong, as the seemingly impossible turns out to be possible after all. Through the game, we learn with Madeline to believe in ourselves, and by the final ascent jump, grab and dash through the air with effortless precision, spurred on by our successes up to that point. The achievement of finishing Celeste is not attached to some world-saving narrative, but presented to us as it really is - a challenge we accept just to prove something to ourselves - and feels all the more valuable for it.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon [7]
May 24-June 3
7 hours
An 8-bit Castlevania game in all but name, with some added modern polish and clever use of a multi-character system. The NES style presentation is nicely done, and very evocative of the era, despite its overall smoothness and extra graphical flourishes. The gameplay is mostly familiar Vania stuff, with branching levels and some feisty bosses, while switching between characters adds a strategic element. It's also very clearly geared towards multiple playthroughs, with different play styles emerging depending on how you approach it. I did three different runs in the end, and each time you see how the levels have been intentionally structured to cater for all these styles at once. Even so, I'd had enough of the same stages and bosses by the third go, and didn't really see the incentive to go through all the permutations. As clever as it is, it remains quite basic in the moment to moment gameplay.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection [7]
May 31-Jun 10
12 hours
So much Street Fighter and they're all still such brilliantly designed games. Didn't take long to be back in the flow of SF2 and understand the greatness of SF3. The added online multiplayer should have made it an incredible package. Sadly, it didn't work very well, with at least half the matches I played being plagued by lag and barely even functioning, with no options for matchmaking. Plus I'm really not able to play it that well anymore, and the PS4 d-pad wasn't quite good enough. I finished over half the games in arcade mode and played 50 or so online matches before giving in.

Hitman GO [6]
Mar 27-Jun 13
4 hours
Bought cheap to play on travels. Did most of it then took ages to get round to finishing all the objectives off. Having played the Lara Go before it was all pretty familiar. The puzzles are functional without being inspired or especially clever, and there's probably a bit less variety overall than the other game. A pleasant enough distraction.

Life Is Strange [7]
Jun 13-Jul 7
12 hours
The biggest compliment I can give this game is that I actually finished it (even if it took me nearly a month), which is a first for me with this sort of dialogue trees and light puzzles style of game. The reason really is that the characterisation between the two leads is very strong, and the relationship between them convincing. That and the way the choices you make stack up over the course of the chapters, leading to some interesting moral dilemmas and unforeseen effects. It still struggles to inject worthwhile gameplay elements in at times, and some of the support cast and plot devices are overly cliched, but the overall result remains effective.

Dark Souls Remastered [10]
Jun 26-Sep 7
45 hours
Finished with two different character builds. It's Dark Souls. Remastered. The best game ever given some extra smoothness and glossiness. What's not to like? Utterly wonderful from start to finish. And FWIW I found the extra polish made a real difference. I found it easier to see things, and easier to time actions. Also playing through headphones gave a big boost to the sound, with loads of effects that were either new or I'd just not heard before, and the surround really helpful in keeping track of enemies.

God of War [7]
Jul 25-Aug 19
25 hours
Completed on Normal. I wasn't massively impressed with this. It looks great, has plenty of spectacle and is incredibly polished, but it didn't provide much in the way of interesting things to do.

The combat system is a good one, with tons of different options. It never really flowed for me though, with too much stuff packed onto the controller, and the camera angle and poor lock on system got annoying in challenging areas. It also chickened out of meaty boss battles, as the more visually spectacular they got the less control you had over them. Most of the upgrades, meanwhile, just seemed to be there for the sake of it, adding stat bonuses or percentage perks that made no real difference.

Exploration was better. There's a ton of stuff to find and it's all carefully linked together with puzzles and Metroid style gated areas. Even when you're simply collecting things or opening chests for those pointless upgrades, and even if most puzzles really only involve looking around for certain features to interact with, it's easy to get absorbed in long detours off the main track.

Storywise, I didn't really care for it. Trying to make Kratos anything more than a massive meat head didn't work for me, and even when the script was good the modern English and accents for other characters never stopped jarring. The use of the mythology and locations was well done though.

I've done a fair amount of optional stuff along the way, but have not intention of seeing it all. The combat isn't good enough and the fast travel isn't fast enough (the single shot thing it does is very neat, but hiding long loading screens behind enforced waits doesn't stop them being loading screens). There are a couple of things I'll look into (1 more dragon to find) and then I'm done. 

This is definitely an AAA game, with production values off the scale and huge care put into the design to make sure everything is streamlined and works just right. It just all felt a bit too predictable and mechanical to me. I'd accept a few more rough edges in exchange for a leaner feature set and more imaginative gameplay.

Dead Cells [8]
Aug 7-Aug 24
25 hours
Didn't actually finish this, but got to the final bit a number of times and have had enough of it. The combat and responsiveness of the controls is really spot on, allowing you to tear through levels and impart your own style depending on the set up you use. Multiple runs are worth it to try out new stuff and new combinations. It's a shame that the levels themselves are too repetitive to withstand long term play, and that the final boss provides such an odd difficulty spike that effectively locks off higher difficulty levels to all but the most committed.

Guacamelee! 2 [9]
Aug 21-Aug 30
15 hours
This was great. Went through and got 100% on all areas before finishing, including once again some vicious optional challenge bits. It basically repeats and builds on the previous game, with the same approach to platform/brawling/puzzling but taken up a notch with more imaginative level design. The dimension shifting, colour coding stuff can turn some parts into Ikaruga-like tests of concentration and skill. It's quite the mind fuck at times. It's also very low on padding for such a good sized game, with pretty much every screen offering a slightly different challenge.

The humour is more bad than good, but still retains a great sense of fun due to the visuals and music. The only real criticisms I have are minor - fighting sections getting too chaotic so you lose track of your character, and control/response that could just be that tiny bit slicker, given the complexity of the moveset.

As another platform game with clever ideas this year, it's not quite Celeste, but it's not far off.

Yoku's Island Express [5]
Aug 31-Sep 1
5 hours
Well that was a let down. Can't have played more than 5 hours and the credits have rolled. Only at 59% completion rate, but there's not a lot of incentive to carry on.

Travelling around the island is just so slow because of the way you move, with the fast travel option that unlocks being too limited. Early on especially, when a lot of stuff is gated off, you find yourself wandering into dead ends and then having a trek back. The map is confusing as well - so you think you're heading the right way only to find there's no path through there.

And then when you get to the pinball bits there's just not much to them. They never develop beyond basic hitting targets and picking up explosives before hitting targets. When you consider what can be done with pinball in game form (even something like Devil Crash, which is over 25 years old) it's not good enough. If there were some interesting mechanics that looked like they could be combined and developed further it would be worth continuing. But there aren't.

To be fair, most of it is perfectly pleasant. It's got a chilled vibe which makes it easy to pass a few hours on. It just never gets exciting or interesting in any way. Coming to it off the back of Guac 2 didn't help either.

Dragon Quest XI [7]
11 Sep-13 Oct
60 hours
Played to the credits. This really is an old school SNES JRPG brought up to date with sharp visuals and lots of user friendly gameplay features. It's actually too generous in some ways, to the point of overriding any meaningful challenge - I don't recall ever finishing a JRPG before without ever seeing a Game Over. Plus it certainly feels overly conservative in its structure and combat for the most part. 

But there's a sense of nostalgia and a certain comfort in knowing how things will work that comes with that too. And actually it does get more interesting as the game goes on, especially as you realise that the slow pace in establishing everything in the first half has been working to set up a much breezier second half with a number of good narrative pay offs. The characters are also a good bunch once you get to know them (although the hyper-camp Sylvando pushes things too far at times).

So perhaps not the classic I was hoping for, but it's a very well made game with tons of stuff to find (expecting a lot of post-credits stuff now) and that usual DQ style and charm.

Hollow Knight [8]
14 Oct-27 Oct
28 hours
Finished with 94% completion rate.

So, on one hand the Metroidvania structure of this is really very good. More Super Metroid than anything, with lack of hand-holding and direction leading to real sense of discovery when you explore. It's constantly rewarding you with shortcuts, new items, NPC encounters and so on. There is a little too much wandering repeatedly over the same ground as the game wears on (a proper fast travel anywhere would've helped towards the end of the game), but it's forgivable. 

On the other hand, I didn't think the actual platforming and combat elements were anything special. Getting around is pretty basic for the most part, except for some optional challenges, and most enemies become minor irritations once you've killed a few of each type. The bosses are also quite samey, with about half having very similar patterns and styles, and there were only a few where I enjoyed the challenge. The charm system is excellent though. Allows you to take different approaches to the big fights.

So I did like it quite a lot, and the Metroid stuff is as good as in anything else, but I don't see it as an absolute classic.

Tetris Effect [9]
1 Nov-20 Nov
18 hours
Finished Journey mode on Normal and played all the different Effects modes. I haven't played Tetris since the Gameboy version and never thought I'd get back into it again, but the audiovisual convergence in this made it instantly fascinating. And once that got me into the game I quickly remembered what a strong concept Tetris always was. It's so simple and precise, yet so flexible, and the tweaks that have been made over the years add more tactical possibilities. In the end, I was never going to get that good at it, and could have done with a bigger TV (or VR) to get the most out of the visual effects, but it was an amazing experience just to play in short bursts. The way you relax into a rhythm with its music and get in the zone with the colours vibrating around the main play area, and then the vocals of a track kick in as you drop a Tetris and a wave of emotion washes over you. There's nothing quite like it. 

Peggle 2 [8]
31 Oct-30 Nov
22 hours
Played through the campaign, did all the challenge levels (including DLC characters) and got the platinum. I do love a bit of Peggle, and while this hasn't got quite as much content as the original and I've played it before, it's a really nice relaxing game to get into again.

Gorogoa [8]
27 Nov-29 Nov
2 hours
Over too quickly, but it's a really unique experience and a solid puzzle game to boot. The surreal transitions between each scene should defy any attempt to apply logical thinking, but nearly always hang together. It's fascinating getting into its mind set and the way the pictures shift in meaning and content is very dream like.

Desert Child [6]
11 Dec
6 hours
Completed twice. Low budget indie game about racing hoverbikes. Nice visual style and soundtrack, but nnot enough depth or substance to the game.

Steamworld Dig 2 [8]
21 Dec-27 Dec
11 hours
Completed and got most of the secrets and artifacts along the way (then polished the last few off with a guide after). I enjoyed it. It's quite sedate for the most part and easy to get absorbed into, just tunnelling little paths through the mines, find a hidden cave, solve a puzzle for a power up, and on you go. There's nothing there I haven't seen before, but it's all well made and has a nice rhythm to it.


Ongoing:

Megadrive Classics
21 Dec-
8 hours
Finished Revenge of Shinobi, Shinobi 3, Streets of Rage 2. Played numerous others briefly.

Darkest Dungeon
30 Nov-
4 hours

Unplayed:

---

Given up:

Divinity: Original Sin
Jan 5-
3 hours
Started but didn't really get into it. Can appreciate the freedom it grants players, but it's too open and daunting for me.

Grand kingdom
Feb 7-
6 hours
Turn-based strategy war RPG with plenty of complexities. The actual fighting is repetitive.

Trackmania Turbo
Apr 12-
3 hours
Seemed like a decent time trial game at first. Unpredictable reactions with the track robs it of the precision required.

Trials Fusion
Jun 8-
4 hours
More Trials, which is still great in many ways. Track design is often visually over-complex and there's nothing new on offer.

Destiny 2
8 Sep-
2 hours
I actually quite liked this, but other games cam along and took its place. That Halo control method and shooting are as instinctive as ever, and the way multiplayer events are integrated into the world is impressive. It's a shame the world and character design is so generic - maybe that's why I didn't go back.

Iconoclasts
4 Dec-
3.5 hours
Really wanted to like this but it's too stop-start and not well designed enough. The plot is far too intrusive and when you finally get to decent sized area to work through, the puzzles and combat just aren't very good.

Wishlist:

Mega Man 11
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

Nope you need all moons

Can i carry some of my unfinished games in to this year from last year?

I still have loads on the go and most are huge games like witcher 3, persona 5, etc.

Im gonna do all the tell tale ones this year as well as iv never really finished any except life is strange, wich isnt by tell tale.

digi wrote:

Can i carry some of my unfinished games in to this year from last year? I still have loads on the go and most are huge games like witcher 3, persona 5, etc. Im gonna do all the tell tale ones this year as well as iv never really finished any except life is strange, wich isnt by tell tale.

Can I finish a game I started in 1992 and count that?

Yes.

FranticPea wrote:

What about '91?

Game No. 2 down. West of Loathing. Stickmen graphics, genuinely amusing throughout, rpg/rts-lite, western which involves punching clowns, ghostly cows, jellybean theft and much more. Unlike anything I've ever played before. A gentle romp. 8/10.

Closing in on my first completion, which will be a PlayStation Plus title that I first started in 2015.

In a massive Fuck You to this thread, I'm currently playing Tetris and Civ VI, both of which are essentially uncompletable.