Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Moot_Geeza

Haha

stonechalice

I forgot I had that game!!! I can't really keep up with all this - I've got about seven switch games on the go, a mountain of unplayed Gamepass games and Last of us 2 and I reckon I'm getting about 2 hours a week where I actually feel like playing games. The world seems fucked to me. Properly fatigued.

hylian_elf

11. The Last of Us Part II (PS4) - 26/6 - 36hrs
A rollercoaster ride of a game, which perhaps goes on for too long (or at least some of the middle feels padded). With ups and downs, twists and turns. Just like the first game then, but on balance, I do prefer the original.

Whilst the gameplay is vastly improved, with combat, weapons, stealth, puzzles, traversal, area design and the encounter layouts all being better this time round, my personal preference is the first mainly for its central plot and the characterisation.

That’s not to say they’re bad in the sequel. Don’t want to say much for fear of spoiling the game for those who haven’t played/finished it, but I had mixed feelings about some of the narrative direction. And then there are the ways in which certain themes and/subject matters are handled. That being said, the delivery is powerful. Never before has a game made me feel the way I did with this - but again, that could be partially attributed to the narrative strength of the first game and the bond with Joel and Ellie that that created for me.

I suppose a word or two should be said about how good the game looks both technically and aesthetically. It really is beautiful and I often found myself stopping to just look around (and taking screenshots).

There are some issues, equally there is some really strong and unparalleled storytelling and delivery from the peerless acting for a video game. But I’ll leave that for the inevitable spoiler thread. For now, this is a [10] with a point docked for some bloat and thematic issues (for me). There’s also a point about player agency that I won’t go into here.
[9]

mistercrayon

Just finished “what becomes of Edith Finch”.

I was not expecting the game I got (partly because I had “everybody has gone to the rapture” in my brain).

Is this game good? I think so although I like all of the little gameplay bits and bobs how affecting they are I kind of have cooled on it since I finished playing. My reaction when putting down the controller was “woah” but afterwards I think i found the narrative - a at least critical macguffin of the arching narrative - somewhat calculated in order to get the vignettes in to the point I wasn’t sure I liked it.

Having said that I much liked how in every case there was a surface level darkness but underlying that was this idea about what it means to be okay with life itself and that connective tissue of theme is very good imo.

Eric

I have really fond memories of it and think I would like to revisit it again as lots of elements of it are not fresh in the memory anymore. Must be an age thing now I have hit the forties.

Eric

Control
PS4
I had high expectations for this coming off Quantum Break and think I've come away a bit disappointed to be honest.

I loved Quantum Break and think overall I preferred the variety and more coherent (I did say more) plot that QB offered. I think the graphics might be better too but I may have to revisit that.

Controls mechanics and skill set are implemented well and you do feel really empowered, but felt that the personal mod skill tree and weapon upgrade was overly complex and a bit of a faff.

Level (other than one particular highlight) and enemy design felt incredibly derivitive too, I was dying to get outside but get that the plot doesn't really allow for that. Last two levels in particular suffer from poor checkpointing and frustrating platforming elements which can lead to insta-deaths which feel unfair.

Feel I'm being a bit a bit harsh as it does do a lot well but felt like I was ploughing on for the sake of it rather than enjoying the ride.
[6]

stonechalice

I couldn't stand Control. I'm surprised at the reception it got. Just getting around the building was hateful - constantly backtracking and trying to make sense of the terrible map. Story was pap, with woeful enemy design and pointless upgrade mechanics and collectibles, massive load times after each bullshit death. Not to mention the broken state of it on consoles. Unforgivably bad performance. That was enough for me to bin it.

Eric

I think that's fair Chalice. I forgot about the map, absolute junk.

JonB

A lot of the best content is in the side quests. Not much help if you don't like it anyway I suppose, but I got most out of it after I'd finished the main story and dug into all the incidental and optional stuff around it. There are some great battles in these too.

Syph79

I didn’t mind the map when you got to the point you could fast travel from those ground symbols. It was a bit convoluted otherwise.

I preferred it to QB, but still hold that game in high regard. It was pretty much my one brief highlight on the Xbox One.

Eric

JonB wrote:

A lot of the best content is in the side quests. Not much help if you don't like it anyway I suppose, but I got most out of it after I'd finished the main story and dug into all the incidental and optional stuff around it. There are some great battles in these too.

That's a real shame. If it's anything like the Ashtray Maze that's what I would have hoped the whole game to be like and I'm a bit gutted I missed out.

Syph79 wrote:

I didn’t mind the map when you got to the point you could fast travel from those ground symbols. It was a bit convoluted otherwise.

The fast travel was a huge help otherwise I don't think I would have stuck at it. I'd be interested going back to QB now to see what it's like in retrospect.

tin_robot

I really liked Control, but agree the main pleasures were in the side quests (and the minutiae of the various files that you discover).

Interestingly the DLC takes you sort of outside - a giant cave system under the house - but it doesn't offer anything particularly new besides that. (Though the next one looks to make explicit all the nods to Alan Wake that are in the main game - which would be exciting if I'd actually played AW.)

Anyway, I actually game in here to say I've finished Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

I had a slightly weird relationship with it. The first 5 hours or so were spent with me wondering what the Hell was going on in battles and cursing the voice actors. Then something clicked and I started to really enjoy wondering through the planes, battling any monsters foolish enough to stumble into my path.

And then the game kept going. And the environments became less exciting. By that stage I think I kept going purely because I'd spent so much time on it already, and because I wanted to see precisely how OTT the story would get.

It's a shame - I suspect if it had stopped just after a certain thing happens, or if the areas in the latter half had matched the first, I think I might have come away adoring it. As it is, by the end it had become something of a chore,and I found myself switching to Casual for the last boss purely because I couldn't face any more of it.

(That said, I did dabble a bit with Future Connected, and yes, it seems different enough that I might be inclined to spend some more time with it once I've had a palette cleanser...)

regmcfly

Right that's Xenoblade chronicles absolutely fucked in every way. I've done as many side quests as my brain can muster and restored colony 6.

I completely forgot how absolutely extreme the ending goes. It's fucked up. It's the same as most JRPGs in that you

Spoiler:

SLEdge

Finished Tokyo Mirage Sessions Encore. It was a lot of fun - silly, linear, and most importantly: not much level grinding required (only really felt forced to do it once). I liked the battle system a lot, and having not finished it the first time round (Wii U), it didn't feel like a chore playing through it again.

regmcfly

It's a great Rpg. Did you play on switch? And therefore use the place to level up to 99 like a pro?

SLEdge

regmcfly wrote:

It's a great Rpg. Did you play on switch? And therefore use the place to level up to 99 like a pro?

I hardly explored that, to be honest, having finished around Lv.64. I've not a huge completionist, although I would like to get more of the in-game trophies at some point. Sadly my games Pile of Shame dictates that I shouldn't spend *too* much time on one game these days.

EvilRedEye

Snatcher for Mega CD - decided to start this to get some use out of my Mega SD yesterday but got hooked and completed it just now. Really enjoyed it - you can tell it was made by a pre-MGS Kojima and it has a similar attention to detail. Makes good use of the Mega CD to create a 'cinematic' experience without doing anything to date it like using bad-quality FMV - so has a very charming 16-bit feel. Great little game.

Eric

Wow nice, worth quite a bit now. I've been eyeing up a nice copied version and think you've sold it to me.

hylian_elf

No, I think ERE still has it.

Cos

Pikuniku - the story anyway, still some other bits do which I might go back to. Overall a wonderful, charming game though. Loved the style and character movement in particular, and it instantly put a smile on my face any time I turned it on.

acemuzzy

I'm midway through.

My feelings are a bit different.

But I know you like easy games, so

Cos

I'll just side step that tired attempt at 'bantz'

The low difficulty level probably was a factor. I just enjoyed bouncing around, exploring and finding hidden nooks. I didn't feel like it needed any more of a challenge though admit I might have continued playing if there was more of a difficulty curve.

LivDiv

Bioshock Infinite

Glad I finally got round to playing this. It ends better than it starts.
Columbia is a great setting and the tear mechanics can be fun but both are inferior to Rapture and the Little Sister mechanics. Nowhere near as scary either.

It's a solid 7.

regmcfly

And that's it.

Mario Odyssey has had the full hundo treatment. Everything done in every kingdom, 999 moons, put it in the bin.

What do you get?

Well, once you get all the moons and coins in the kingdom you get

Spoiler:

And on 999 moons?

Spoiler:

Game still an all timer. 10/10 baby

g.man

There are actually 1000 moons...

FranticPea

No, last one is a space station.

g.man

hylian_elf

There are only about 200 moons. The rest are fake fillers to bloat the game.

Bob

hylian_elf wrote:

There are only about 200 moons. The rest are fake fillers to bloat the game.

And not one fucking zombie or private lobby?

regmcfly

g.man wrote:

There are actually 1000 moons...

The final moon is the friends you made along the way

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