Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Eric

The Last of Us Part II

Very enjoyable. Graphically incredible and not as iterative as I thought it would be.

In game mechanics are an absolute joy which meant that I really looked forward to each confrontation, most of which, were cleverly concieved with intelligent environmental design that surprisingly manages to negate telegraphing with obvious areas of cover.

Story tries to hard to shock and I don't really get why it caused so much contoversy but that may be as I didn't find myself caring for the characters tbh. It's still a C+ narrative in my mind but the scripting is sharp and the acting and incidental facial animations are unparalleled in gaming terms.

Only real negative in my mind was that it was probably a third too long.

Up there with Forza Horizon 2 as game of the generation though.

[9]

Eric

Alan Wake

It's been in my pile of shame for too long so thought I'd rectify that with a full play through yesterday.

It still stands up. Graphically it's s looking a bit tired and the third person animations are a bit wooden especially coming straight from the last of us but the story is much more coherent than all of Remedys other work, the setting is great and the torch mechanics work really nicely.

Obviously by its nature it's all a bit dark, which makes you pine for a bit of daylight but all in all it was an enjoyable romp and would welcome a remake. Easily a 9 at launch but still a solid

[8]

Moot_Geeza

A candy coloured clown they call the sandman...

Eric

Formula Retro Racing

Ok I've talked about this game extensively on here but this is a £10 ode to Virtua Racing on Xbox and PC. Finally moped up all the achievements and over the course of playing it have set about 6 global top ten TT times (3rd globally on Monaco). No doubt most of this is down to the small user base for sure but it's made me feel better about my aging gaming prowess!

It's a bit buggy, the final course Mountain stage you can't possibly make the final checkpoint on the advanced skill settings, competitors crash into you agressively and when youre reset on track after a crash your steering circle turns into something resembling a rigid axeled HGV.

Yet despite all this the racing feels really really sharp and enjoyable, the slipstreaming is full risk reward and the manual gears whilst tricky to get your head around add a wonderful level of depth if you want to go there.

This has primed me up nicely for Hotshot Racing and will be one of my games of the year.

[8]

Eric

Moot_Geeza wrote:

A candy coloured clown they call the sandman...

Forgot to mention those little segues, really nice touch and nice to see they kept them up in Control.

Moot_Geeza

Kentucky Route Zero. Wonderful stuff. It takes a lot for me to fully endorse a game that doesn't require jumping over holes or shooting things but this was exceptionally good in places. It's not really a point 'n click adventure, more of a visual text adventure with no scope for getting stuck with a pocketful of doodads and thingamys. A very fine thing and the loudest voice in an Are Games Art debate for yonks.

AndCallMeCharlie

You sell it we’ll moot, fucking hate point and click games but will give it a look.

yourfavouriteuncle

AndCallMeCharlie wrote:

You sell it we’ll moot, fucking hate point and click games but will give it a look.

It's a LOT of reading. There are very few typical puzzles - in fact after the very first scene there are no 'take x to y to make z happen' type things. It's an incredible experience with some really disruptive and clever stuff going on - really clever - and the writing is wonderful. It's pretty sombre in tone, though i actually found the whole thing really uplifting - just because it exists and there's some really smart creative people done their absolute best with this.

Moot_Geeza

The soundtrack is near enough guaranteed to give your neck hairs a lob on too.

acemuzzy

I never quite got caught by KRZ when I tried it, but I think I was still in the first chapter, so I probably should give it some more love. Can't remember wtf was happening in it though, so maybe I'll need to restart... think i was lost looking for something on the map!

Facewon

Really don't get to post in here often:

Well, that's remnant end credits rolling. 16 hrs.

Nice. Final boss didn't end up being that bad. Some good points, some bad.

Great game overall. Will defo try dlc and ng+.

acemuzzy

Tell Me Why (BoneX)

Dontnod walking sim type affair, a la LIS. Some interesting stuff going on, and it didn't outstay its welcome, but not exactly setting the world alight in terms of gameplay or anything. But it probably did some stuff that I've not seen in a game plot wise, so that's kinda good? Let's go with [7].

hylian_elf

13. Telling Lies (Switch) - 22/9 - 4hrs
I love piecing a story together, bit by bit. This had a good story and interesting characters, but I didn’t enjoy the task of going through the files as much this time round. I liked Her Story better.
[7]

Verecocha

36.Crysis Remastered - 10 Hours - 5/10 - Xbox One X

What a technically borked release. Right from the off problems everywhere. Poor framerate whatever you do, mixed options present mixed problems, bad enough on a PC but on a console it’s just a joke. This will very probably be the last of my money Crytek will get unfortunately as I don’t know how they dared release it.

Aside from that, when you can get it just about running, there’s a good game buried in there but to be honest it shows it’s age in so very many ways and without the incredible looks wow factor it’s just a half decent game.

Nostalgia has added at least 3 points to the score.

Tempy

Feel justified in putting this in here at last.

Hades

Played this a bunch during its... 18 or so months in early access, but really hammered it over the last year, especially as it was coming up to release, and of course this last week as it's hit 1.0. It's been a super interesting ride, as they did their best to make a narrative that could sustain itself over the long period of playing through early access. They achieved this by having interesting progression systems, as well as having strong characters that had stories and relationships with other characters that unfolded as you spoke to them in between runs, as well as bought them sweet nectar and ambrosia.

The penultimate ending was a fun fake out after a gruelling boss battle, so it was always going to be interesting to see what they did for the final ending. Turns out they managed to make it really special in a narrative sense, and I don't want to spoil it. Keep chipping away at those runs and eventually you are rewarded with a more definitive ending which ties a lot of things up, and from what I can tell a decent reason to keep playing. It sort of nods and winks at its own ridiculous by that point, but still it has been really interesting to play a roguelike that tries to couch its conceit within a narrative of some sorts.

As for the rest of it? It's sublime. Superb combat, stunning visuals, incredible music, brilliant voice acting, excellent writing, a well thought out set of over-arching systems which make it feel like you're always making progress, and then an excellent reason to continue playing and pushing up the difficulty - something that a lot of roguelikes I feel lack too. The only slight detractor is that it can take a long time to get to the point where all of the gears and cogs lock into place and you start feeling like you're in control of your runs. It isn't the most chance heavy game, but the early game definitely feels a lot more punitive than the late game. It's sustained me for about 70 odd hours, and I don't think I'll stop playing until I've capped out the difficulty modifiers and fulfilled all the prophecies in the game. A truly stunnning product, probably 2020's game of the year without a shadow of a doubt.

[10]

AndCallMeCharlie

Fine words tempy, hades along with undermine have shown that there is still much more to come from rouge likes - exciting times

hylian_elf

Hades does have a lot of red in it.

acemuzzy

Carrion (BoneX)

Hmm. Some of it I really liked - slinking around eating people never really got old, vaguely interesting mix of abilities, nice audio and I guess the aesthetic worked. But the puzzles weren't really all that, the map kinda confusing, and enough shooty restart bits to take the gloss off. I guess a [7] - happy to have played it, no desire to go back.

MattyJ

Horizon Zero Dawn

Went back and polished this one off. I completed all of the side stuff, full map etc before the story which is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it meant I could play the story through in a big shot which meant I was more invested and it was more coherent.

On the other hand, game fatigue sets in after you've already spent 40 hours doing all the side stuff. Overall though I really enjoyed it and looking forward to the sequel.

Aaroncupboard

Remnant From the Ashes...

Been playing it in co op with a mate and had a really good time with it. The difficulty was a good challenge although it kind of got a little easier as it went (we defeated two of the last three bosses we faced in one attempt) and it scratched a bit of a Souls itch.

I really liked the combat, thought it was well put together and didn’t mind the random level generator part of it - it didn’t seem to affect the game like I feared it would.

Just a quick word on the story and world building though...awful. Just awful. Didn’t have a clue what was going on and some of the lore comments were the wankiest shit I’ve ever read!

acemuzzy

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (BoneX)

acemuzzy wrote:

I've just finished this. I thought it was pretty remarkable. Definitely one of the most memorable of the gen for me: narration / audio was amazing, looked stunning, plot was woven very cleverly, music great. Puzzles not quite all that, combat nothing beyond serviceable, but Senua herself was I think my favourite gaming character since Cornifer last hummed. Definitely a hint of "art" about this one...

I might even go as high as a [9].

acemuzzy

Very intrigued by the sequel now too. Feels unlikely that lightning will strike twice, but you never know... When's it out?

hunk

Reminds me, I need to finish Senua.
Got stuck in some puzzle and haven't returned to it yet.

tigersgogrrr

The puzzles are fucking awful. I didn't mind the combat - It was serviceable enough and did the job. The graphics were great and the audio is probably the best in any game I've played.

Moot_Geeza

Pretty much agree with Tiger there.

Moot_Geeza

Just finished Serial Cleaner. I don't know why I bother sometimes, I sort of get stuck in a rut of not wanting to give up on certain games. Too hard and too inconsistent to properly enjoy.

acemuzzy

I think I'm also agreeing with tiger and moot...

tigersgogrrr

What's wrong with agreeing with me?! I've got really fucking good opinions!

acemuzzy

Yeah your opinion to not move in Spring 1903 was fuckin genius m8

tigersgogrrr

I'm so upset you had so little trust in my great nation that you then invaded me and my country and completely stalled our progress that I haven't even been able to talk about it since you fucking Vile Italian Judas.

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