Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Animal Well - 7 or 8/10 Great, playable, moreish and moody. But I think I expected more of all the touted secrets (maybe something more formally surprising a la Fez, or some macro understandings that is more emergent a la Outer Wilds which I think is a strange but frequent comparison?!) and everything was fairly straightforward and the puzzles satisfying but never that a-ha?!

And the lack of music flattens the experience a little (perhaps intendedly), making it feel more continuous and open and free-form in structure but maybe also a little pace-less.

Also maybe my expectations were the main problem. It's a little bit Cocoon in that it's consistently engaging and clearly good, but never I Love This and I never went No Way! playing it which all the comparisons made me expect.

(it's better than Cocoon though)

Braid Anniversary - 9/10 probably. Still beautiful and concise and very playable (just the feel of jumping around rewinding and experimenting is kinetic fun in a way that enlivens the sometimes brain-bending puzzle logic-ing required)

Fairly easy though this time round, but I have played lots of games in the interim (and have played this one before so maybe the neuronal puzzle-solutions are still engrooved up there somewhere)

Also enjoyed flipping between old and new, and the commentary feature

Harold Halibut

Possibly the most boring game I have ever played. And the story wasn’t that good. And the characters were mostly annoying.

Good graphics though, and a few good songs in the soundtrack.

4

deathofcows wrote:Animal Well - 7 or 8/10 Great, playable, moreish and moody. But I think I expected more of all the touted secrets (maybe something more formally surprising a la Fez, or some macro understandings that is more emergent a la Outer Wilds which I think is a strange but frequent comparison?!) and everything was fairly straightforward and the puzzles satisfying but never that a-ha?!

And the lack of music flattens the experience a little (perhaps intendedly), making it feel more continuous and open and free-form in structure but maybe also a little pace-less.

Also maybe my expectations were the main problem. It's a little bit Cocoon in that it's consistently engaging and clearly good, but never I Love This and I never went No Way! playing it which all the comparisons made me expect.

(it's better than Cocoon though)

Braid Anniversary - 9/10 probably. Still beautiful and concise and very playable (just the feel of jumping around rewinding and experimenting is kinetic fun in a way that enlivens the sometimes brain-bending puzzle logic-ing required)

Fairly easy though this time round, but I have played lots of games in the interim (and have played this one before so maybe the neuronal puzzle-solutions are still engrooved up there somewhere)

Also enjoyed flipping between old and new, and the commentary feature

I have similar feelings with Animal Well. I'm still playing it but I definitely haven't had that "aha!" moment that everyone else seems to have had and I don't think it's coming.

I went back and got all the eggs (four with a guide) and also got more... Stuff...

But still didn't quite get that epiphany euphoria when your brain sees a thing from a new mental angle etc

But glad for those it's worked on more, and still found it a good, absorbing time

deathofcows wrote:Animal Well - 7 or 8/10 Great, playable, moreish and moody. But I think I expected more of all the touted secrets (maybe something more formally surprising a la Fez, or some macro understandings that is more emergent a la Outer Wilds which I think is a strange but frequent comparison?!) and everything was fairly straightforward and the puzzles satisfying but never that a-ha?!

I got tired of wandering around for hours searching in vain and spoiled a few of the last eggs for myself, then decided I was done with it and basically spoiled all of it for myself by watching people stream it. So... I can tell you that there's a lot to this game's puzzles, probably way more than you think. It's not just eggs, and it's not just secret bunnies either.
Did you get all 12 items?
How many teleport songs did you discover?
Did you find the key to the office?

All that may not address your specific issues with the game's puzzles, but they're at the very least not straightforward.

P.s. I missed my bus while typing this out. :fp:

OldSoulCyborg wrote:
deathofcows wrote:Animal Well - 7 or 8/10 Great, playable, moreish and moody. But I think I expected more of all the touted secrets (maybe something more formally surprising a la Fez, or some macro understandings that is more emergent a la Outer Wilds which I think is a strange but frequent comparison?!) and everything was fairly straightforward and the puzzles satisfying but never that a-ha?!

Did you get all 12 items?
How many teleport songs did you discover?
Did you find the key to the office?

All that may not address your specific issues with the game's puzzles, but they're at the very least not straightforward.

P.s. I missed my bus while typing this out.

Yes
2
No, but I think I may have looked into it I can't remember

Sorry you missed your bus!

Yes I'm sure there's much more and much more obtuse-ness to be had. But I guess I just wanted more a-Ha! Solution Was There All Along!-ness. Or, now I see the world differently based on learning and not based on new items! Or something.

Then again I did have lots of fun with it and was very absorbed so likely just an expectation/anticipation thing.

I think I just expected at the end of the game that it turns out you can then play in the (suspiciously angularly patterned often) backgrounds or something similarly subversive, instead of post-post-game obtuse-ness. But very likely a me thing!

Maybe after a break I'll go back andget some bunnies and revive my (overall quite sustained) enthusiasm or something.

Puzzle-wise though nothing in the core-and-egg endings made me feel as pleasedly genius as Braid, say, and that's like a quarter of the length. But I suppose it's a different flavour of puzzle and game altogether!

I should note: everyone should try Animal Well if interested!

Bluesky

Baten Kaitos (Switch)

It was decent. Relied on the 3x speed option to get me through it near the end as I eager to get it over with by then.

The highlight of the game was the combat system. Was very satisfying creating big combos from tactically putting numbered cards together. Outside of that, it felt like a fairly by-the-numbers JRPG. The 2D pre-rendered backgrounds were nice but it did put me in mind of PS1 final fantasy graphics but with a higher res and more polys. Not bad but not particularly spectacular or ambitious like other Monolith Soft games from this era. Despite that this remaster performs kind of poorly - stutters, inconsistent frame rate. Didn't really bother me but it was strange. The load times were good at least.

Haven't decided yet if I'll play Baten Kaitos Origins, which is part of the collection on Switch. I am kind of intrigued by it having a different writer and the focus on 3 party members instead of 6. I liked the characters in the first game but I didn't love them - I would have liked more development for some of them or character-arcs that made more sense, and maybe the prequel will do that better with fewer characters.

Hades - you know what, I've played this to death, had a few months off due to a broken switch, started it again on the switch im borrowing off of a mate, and now im hooked all over again.
It's almost perfect at what it does. I'm tempted to give it a 10 you know.

Ape Out - 6/10; basic premise of an Ape escaping different locales with an abstract art style [reminded me of Hotline Miami]. Not worth full price [pick it up in a sale] but very enjoyable while it lasts.

Curls wrote:Hades - you know what, I've played this to death, had a few months off due to a broken switch, started it again on the switch im borrowing off of a mate, and now im hooked all over again.
It's almost perfect at what it does. I'm tempted to give it a 10 you know.

Are you still playing Hades :lol:

Give it a 10, you have to at this point.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising (PC)

I quite enjoyed this, it took me months to finish due to limited gaming time but it is very much the standard Ubisoft formula which means you can tackle a lot of it in small chunks.

The gameplay is fine, the world looks lovely, it's quite funny in places, however the antagonist just isn't interesting. Before the game starts Typhon turns up, trashes the place, morphs the gods into weak versions of themselves etc and scatters monsters around the place, and for the vast majority of the game doesn't do anything to actively try to stop you, it feels like you've just been left to tidy up. Each area has a boss who spawns if you do too much stuff in it, sure, but after you fight them once you know where their lair is so you go fight them there and then they're gone forever.

The final chunk is a fairly impressive mountain climb section with some actual emotional development from the narrators (Zeus and Prometheus) and occasionally it plays on the whole idea that the game is being told as a story, but certainly not often enough. The end has a semi-interesting twist that reframes everything that happened before but certainly nothing like Far Cry 4 which does it a lot better.

Now onto the eastern realms dlc which is like a potted version of the main game but with Chinese mythology, doing that now as if I don't I will never come back to do it ever.

Curls wrote:Hades - you know what, I've played this to death, had a few months off due to a broken switch, started it again on the switch im borrowing off of a mate, and now im hooked all over again.
It's almost perfect at what it does. I'm tempted to give it a 10 you know.

Did you do the epilogue prophecy named 'Family Reunion'?

Drumstick wrote:
Curls wrote:Hades - you know what, I've played this to death, had a few months off due to a broken switch, started it again on the switch im borrowing off of a mate, and now im hooked all over again.
It's almost perfect at what it does. I'm tempted to give it a 10 you know.

Did you do the epilogue prophecy named 'Family Reunion'?

I got past the bit where all the gods came to Hades' house for a get together if that's the reunion..

On my new run I'm only on about Skull+2 where as I think I was around skull +12 on the original, however this time ive been able to beat Hades much much earlier so I'm only on about playthrough 30 and have cleared it 10-15 times already. I am getting a new telly tomorrow for my flat so may have Hades as my handheld game and try out Zelda on the telly

It's just perfect for playing in the bath.

Ok I'll give it a 10.

Although, I still cannot get over how gooseberry fool the shield is compared to all other weapons. Hate using it.

Axiom Verge 2

I preferred this to the first game. Felt like there was more emphasis on exploration and all of the upgrades were fun and interesting. Areas were more distinctive and the soundtrack was great. A very good Metroidvania.

The Gardens Between - Switch

I think I'm very late to this one, but did enjoy it and some of the time rewind mechanics were really clever.

It might be due to the fact that I played in a few sessions over a long period of time, but it felt a little bit like it didn't get going, and then it was over. I'm not sure what else could have been done with it though.

So, good, but not wonderful - 7/10

"properly" finished Pikmin 4 last night (as in I saw the second ending).

Thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt padded out more than it needed to be, but you were not obliged to 100% of each area, so not a very fair criticism.

I still don't think it is a top tier Nintendo IP, but then neither does the rest of the world it would seem.

8

Venba - it's too short and the cooking is all a bit basic but the writing is delightful. Worth an hour or so of anyone's time. 7/10

System Shock (remake)

Absolutely fantastic. Loved the atmosphere and the art style. The lack of objective markers was a breath of fresh air, even if I did get stuck at one point.

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) - 10/10
I gave BotW a 10 and Totk improved upon it, so this wasn't getting anything less! Really got into the side questing and exploring the 2nd time round and the finale was superb. Loved it :wub:

Though, I could have done with less depths to explore!

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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