Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Inside - 7/10

+ Looks nice
+ Bleak and dark atmosphere and tone works well
+ Intriguing 'plot'

- Some frustrations with the controls - having everything mapped to two buttons isn't always ideal
- Bit of a crap ending

Fairly decent this. Entertaining enough, a couple of mildly difficult puzzles, but otherwise all fairly straightforward. No idea how it got so many 9/10 ratings from various websites and magazines. It's decent, but no where close to being anything remarkable.

Bugsnax

Enjoyable little game. Finished before it dragged. Great writing and voice acting. Surprisingly poor performance.

7

Elden Ring - Stupendous. I think what I loved most was the variety offered in the settings. As great a game as Bloodborne is, its zones, going by my fuzzy memory of it, were variations on grim. Here you have grim, but you also have heavenly gold (last seen brilliantly shining away in Ghost of Tsushima), fantasy azure and interstellar majesty. A genuine feast for the eyes. I loved just about ever millisecond I spent gawping at it like a tourist. I am utterly disappointed I've seen the vast majority the game had to offer (in terms of areas and quests), but I'm still hungry for more Lands Between, and so I've done what I (think) I have never in previous Souls games: started NG+.

The only gripe which is fresh in the memory is that of the the three endings I've seen, only one felt satisfying.

[GOAT]

Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)

I completed the main game over the weekend. It's really good, but there is far too much of it, and it's just too easy (even on the most difficult setting) to justify all the exploring of the unlocks (you really don't need all those charms and a massive health bar). I spent 43 hours on it and there was still loads of rinse and repeat activities to do.

That being said, its graphically excellent with no load times (which seemed more incredible here than any other game of it's type that I have played), really good use of haptics and a decent story.

I don't think I can face the Iki Island expansion right now, but will return to it at some point, where hopefully the pause in playing it, together with the new additions to the DLC I have read about, will make it feel fresh again.

8

Sonic Mania - 5/10

+ Looks nice
+ A few moments within some levels that are enjoyable
+ A couple of creative boss fights

- Most of the levels aren't fun to play at all
- Levels drag on for far too long
- Too many boss fights
- Boss fights drag on for far too long
- Rubbish music
- Too many 'instant death' moments
- Too many re-used levels and ideas
- Rubbish enemy design, especially the boss characters

I really didn't enjoy this very much. The best levels are the re-hashes of the old ones, and even those are worse than the originals. The stages are so long that they become tedious, just going around in circles, looping back on yourself, getting caught up in little sequences that loop, or finding yourself in really frustrating and boring sections that you have to re-do over and over until you figure out where to go. I don't think there was any level where I thought "yeah I want to play that again" - levels mostly felt like an exercise in frustration that I just wanted to get over and done with as quickly as possible.

The re-hashing of levels, re-hashing of enemies, and re-hashing of ideas really just makes this feel like a mod, and it really feels like it could've done with some trimming, refinement, and bits being scrapped. Why does every act need a boss? Why do the bosses/boss characters look like something out of Balan Wonderworld? Why do the boss fights go on for so long? Who thought of the purple orb section in Metallic Madness and decided that repeating it endless times through the level was a good idea? Why do some levels go on for nearly 10 minutes?

The new drop dash move or whatever it's called adds nothing and I don't think I used it once in earnest. The levels are forgettable, the music's forgettable (Metallic Madness Act 1's music is absolutely terrible) and any good moments are almost always ideas taken from previous games. I love the orignal two games, and although the formula's mostly the same here, it's just worse, and hampered by a lot of the issues above. On so many occasions I was flying through the level, only to suddenly be killed because I ended a long sequence of loops and jumps by ending up in between two platforms and getting squashed, or getting caught under a crusher, or hurtling towards some spikes with no time to react, all through no fault of my own. This isn't an issue in Sonic 1 or 2, and only adds to the frustration here. Bonus and Special stages aren't great and so I avoided these were possible, and the whole game eventually became a slog, which - given it took me 3.5 hours to complete - is saying something. I don't think I'll be returning to this - one playthrough was enough and it's been uninstalled.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)

...It's really good, but there is far too much of it, and it's just too easy..

I *really* want to try this out and those three aspects make it even more appealing to me :-). I am keeping my eyes open for when it gets a bigger drop in price. I've read that it has a superb photo mode, too!

Lotus wrote:Sonic Mania - 5/10

...I really didn't enjoy this very much... I don't think I'll be returning to this - one playthrough was enough and it's been uninstalled.

Oof! It certainly sounds like you didn't get on with it, Lotus. It's a shame as I'd heard pretty much only positive things about it. It just goes to show that games are - as with films and music - always reliant upon personal taste and likes/dislikes. Hopefully Sonic Forever will get the blue blur back into your good books!

Yeah, mania for me was awesome, real return to form.

That was exactly how I felt playing Sonic Mania too. I don't understand how that game reviewed as well as it did.

EDIT - Lotus, not Pedz

jawa_ wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)

...It's really good, but there is far too much of it, and it's just too easy..

I *really* want to try this out and those three aspects make it even more appealing to me . I am keeping my eyes open for when it gets a bigger drop in price. I've read that it has a superb photo mode, too!

The photo mode is indeed incredible yes. I think it’s the PS5 version coming to the new ps++++ set up isn’t it? That being said, it’s such a long game it might be cheaper to just buy it than to be subbed up for several months at the full price.

more heat than light wrote:That was exactly how I felt playing Sonic Mania too. I don't understand how that game reviewed as well as it did.

EDIT - Lotus, not Pedz

I didn't finish it. I agree.

Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition (Series X)

A really fun, well paced game, with some very modern design sensibilities (very little back tracking, being able to have a selected car delivered to you) and almost no "down time".

Enjoyed the plot (predictable as it was), and all the voice work was top tier. Combat (both melee and fun) was way ahead of the GTA series, but I think the driving was not quite as polished. Good soundtrack, though clearly less money was thrown at licencing. Great Karaoke game.

A very easy game, so a lot of the upgrade paths and fight techniques were a bit pointless, but that did not annoy me as much here as it has with many other games.

I would like to give it a 9, but i'm going to have to mark it down an extra 0.5 because there were certain sections of the street route you had to do again and again that were annoying to navigate, and though you could get taxis to fast travel they were rarely around when you needed them. Oh, and that "identify the dealer" CCTV mini game was dull because it was ALWAYS the same character model you were looking for - not the actual activity they were carrying out.

A really good game for fans of GTA, Yakuza and the Arkham games.

8.5

Umurangi Generation

A very unique, stylish and thought-provoking piece.

Excellent music and lo fi styling. My only criticism is that it is obviously very much about the hobby of photography (as well as carrying a huge political message), but to unlock some of the more artistic, journalistic camera functions (aperture control, shutter speed adjustment), you seemingly have to achieve the time restricted bonus challenges. These challenges don't seem to be semi complete when returning to a level either, so they seem to be very difficult / anxiety inducing to achieve. This put me off doing them, which, in turn, locked me out from using some of the camera functionality I really wanted to use.

An excellent piece of work by the developer though, and i'm sure it will really resonate with people a bit younger / angrier than me. And with Taf. The additional DLC is also well worth doing and adds a good couple of hours more.

I played on Series X where it ran perfectly, but I did play the last 30 minutes or so on One X and it ran like dogshit, so I don't know how the Switch port runs (though I never saw any criticism of the performance there).

7

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Umurangi Generation

How long did you play it for?

Just under 6hrs.

MGS3 finished. There is a reason why this is my favourite of the series. Utterly brilliant from the start to the credits where starsailor see us out!

10/10

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I don't think I can face the Iki Island expansion right now, but will return to it at some point, where hopefully the pause in playing it, together with the new additions to the DLC I have read about, will make it feel fresh again.

I felt the exact same when I finished it; I think I should be ready towards the end of the year!

Had being planning (for a while!) to start Last of Us 2 next, but might be tempted to go with Sleeping Dogs instead. How long did it take you to get through it?

dmin wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I don't think I can face the Iki Island expansion right now, but will return to it at some point, where hopefully the pause in playing it, together with the new additions to the DLC I have read about, will make it feel fresh again.

I felt the exact same when I finished it; I think I should be ready towards the end of the year!

Had being planning (for a while!) to start Last of Us 2 next, but might be tempted to go with Sleeping Dogs instead. How long did it take you to get through it?

Sleeping Dogs took about 15 hours. But it flew by.

I actually finished Iki Island earlier today! I actually preferred it to the base game. Much more compact and far less daunting. Left me with a really positive impression. I will probably dip back in to the base game from time to time to mop up some stuff.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Sleeping Dogs took about 15 hours. But it flew by.

I actually finished Iki Island earlier today! I actually preferred it to the base game. Much more compact and far less daunting. Left me with a really positive impression. I will probably dip back in to the base game from time to time to mop up some stuff.

Excellent, just the right length for me now - nothing too epic!

Ah, good stuff! I was worried it was going to be more of the same. Must keep an eye out for when it's discounted again.

I finished it the other day and mine was about double that.

Buffalo wrote:I finished it the other day and mine was about double that.

Wow, really? I must have missed a lot of side stuff.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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