jiggles wrote:OrangeRKN wrote:Celeste is a modern masterpiece and deserving of every award its in the running for. It's one of the best platformers I've ever played, and not only does it control perfectly with depth and nuance, its story and themes tie in so perfectly to the gameplay in a way that makes it genuine art. I'm not even being hyperbolic.
Well, I admit I only played the worst version (Switch), so me finding it a chore to interact with isn't really the game's fault.
I have it on Switch, and yes the stick is definitely not perfect compared to a proper d-pad, but it's still perfectly playable. There were times I messed up purely because of using the stick but they were few and far between.
jiggles wrote:OrangeRKN wrote:A Way Out is an incredibly endearing game and wonderfully unique. It's a genre-defying celebration of videogames that offers constant variety but is consistently entertaining, and the ending is one of my favourites in any game ever.
Mate, here's me not being hyperbolic: A Way Out is one of the
worst games I've ever finished. Its failure is absolute.
A Way Out never outstays its welcome because it's always giving you something new. It starts off slow but only gets better, notably on leaving the prison (which was all a little too much Shawshank) and every 5 minutes it switches gameplay genre while still broadly flowing neatly through its own plot. It plays indisputably janky but functionally, and in fact that lack of polish adds to the charm as it is not a serious game - it's a
fun game. I was constantly amused by all the stumbled upon mini-games and environmental interactions, my highlight probably being stopping to mess around on a wheelchar and play a round of connect four as
we were rushing through a hospital to see my wife and newborn. And talking of that hospital, that sequence of player switching with the camera transitioning through CCTV monitors and vents was fantastic (especially as a distinct break from the otherwise constant split-screen) and the beat-em-up corridor was perhaps the absolute peak as it moved to a 2D side-scrolling perspective that instantly worked as a throwback to the arcades of old.
I absolutely stand by the ending being one of the best I've ever played. The whole game played in two sittings, for several hours me and my girlfriend were sat side-by-side laughing and joking as our in-game characters did the same, both growing closer together. And then suddenly
we are forced to work against each other, reluctantly both in game and in real life. I genuinely felt bad as I shot at my girlfriend, who sat there next to me begging, actually begging, to be left alone. I didn't want to fight her, she didn't want to fight me, and that was perfectly reflected by the game. I genuinely felt bad. It's something only possible with the almost unique full dedication to co-op that the game delivers on and I've never played anything else quite like it.