LivDiv wrote:

I loved 1-3.
By the time I got around to 4 I felt like I was done with the series.
I played on through for a fair old bit until a glitch meant I had to start a chapter over. Without the forward momentum I never went back to it.
It's not a bad game by any stretch, it is actually quite good. Just felt a bit last gen.

I never played 4, or 5. J did a lot of stuff that felt appropriate for a game following up a pretty consistent sequel: lots of remixing approaches and ideas to levels, no need for consistency, lots of modifiers they could drop in and out, plenty of getting pushed into playing outside your comfort zone. Sort of like a Best Of or Collected Hits album.

Also didn’t like the scoring system with judgement made it feel too gamey/arcadey for me, it would have been good to have it as an option instead of mandatory.

Early Access. Tempy plays all games before rest of us and we are always playing catch up.

Judgment is the right track for gow, turned it into a time attack /score game. Fully enjoyable

regmcfly wrote:

4 was turgid in comparison

I enjoyed all the GoWs so far, but I would agree with that. GoW4 is to GoW as Resi 5 is to Resi. It's not as shit as people say, but not great either. I'm looking forward to GoW5, hopefully that's not the GoW equivalent of Resi 6.

It's a great sequel.. adds some nice variety and little touches over the original.

14. Life is Strange: Before the Storm (XB1)
Didn’t like it as much as Roujin, but it’s one hell of an emotional ride. And great OST. That title and menu music is amazing. Plucks away at my heart. Probably will buy the OST. By some British indie band called Daughter.

Overall I like it better than LiS. Doesn’t lose focus on what it’s trying to achieve or the story it’s telling. Just a tad slow that’s all but needed to flesh out the characters.

[8]

Halo: CE Anniversary, solo, legendary, for the umpteenth time, but my first run in a while, and the first, I believe, through the entire anniversary version of the game (I bought it at release, but don’t think I ever played through it).

The anniversary update is a triumph, it looks glorious, with some sections causing me to have to stop and just enjoy the artistry put into the textures that have been slapped on top of the architecture which itself remains unparalleled in its scale and design (special mention here to The Library which looks incredible). I also love the focus of CE in particular. The fact that it all happens on this weird alien world with occasional detours onto a couple of ships gives it a sense of coherence that I’m not sure that later Halos could ever live up to. Similarly from a narrative perspective, it’s all so self-contained with mystery, wonder and threat instead of later games’ embrace of alien politics, backstories and convoluted, galaxy-hopping stories.

I was also going through and collecting achievements which isn’t something I normally do, but the achievements in the MCC have been nicely thought out and offer some additional challenges. Many involve completing levels under certain conditions (no jumping, no taking health damage, no switching weapons on Two Betrayals, kill every elite on Keyes etc) whereas many of the others are awarded for seeing Easter eggs or reaching skulls or terminals in tricky locations so they seemed worthwhile this time around.

But the thing that really stuck with me throughout this is just how well put together the basic game is. I’ve banged on about the holy trinity of guns, grenades and melee in here before, not to mention the recharging shields for you and the elites and the risk/reward that engenders, but one other thing became clear here was that at one point or another in the game, every weapon available to me was the best tool for the job at hand and was the weapon I sought out. The last two or three levels saw me mostly going ham with a shotgun, perhaps using a pistol alongside it to push back elites until I was close enough to drop them with my shotty, or with a needler to sneakily thin out numbers, or a rocket launcher to explode those vents.

Plus, I always love revisiting those great battles. Storming the beach on the Silent Cartographer, the Scorpion rampage on Assault on the Control Room, the entire Final Run section of Two Betrayals. Being given some tools plus a huge open area of enemies that need dealing with is great fun, and something which you saw less of in the later games, to their detriment.

Unquestionably the GOAT for me despite the daftness of


Onto Halo 2.

There's world of light mode in smasho done. That thing keeps on going huh. Thankfully I've got to get in practice for people this Friday coming round.

I did indeed but only 95.60% so back in for me

Don't think so except for unlocking git gud. Just hit the hundo so now time for

Mine were and

Oh also I found tough at the end of the game

Aye Bowser's smash X2 allowed me knock out several of the most difficult fights

Generous for that campaign. MP is as good as it gets for halo outside heyday. And dedicated servers are epic.