Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Me again?

Arcade Paradise (Switch)

Really enjoyed this. Some really good games within it and a brilliant soundtrack. Decent little story with the VA being done by Doug Cockle (Witcher 3).

A bit buggy and required 5 or 6 restarts over the 20 hours, but they always happened at the beginning of a new day, which is immediately after an auto save, so no progress lost.

Seems like one that's bound to come to Game Pass, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes a combination of retro games and light business management. Never felt too grindy to get the money for the next cab either.

8 (a solid 8).

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Beacon Pines

This was not in my radar at all until is saw some talk of it here. Basically it’s a very well written, well narrated 5 hour visual novel, but without the dirty feel you are always left with after your typical visual novel.

Well worth a play around Halloween. Never feels quite as innovative as it seems to promise, but I really enjoyed the presentation.

7

I'd overlooked that one too. I'll take the recommendation, cheers.

rinks wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Beacon Pines

This was not in my radar at all until is saw some talk of it here. Basically it’s a very well written, well narrated 5 hour visual novel, but without the dirty feel you are always left with after your typical visual novel.

Well worth a play around Halloween. Never feels quite as innovative as it seems to promise, but I really enjoyed the presentation.

7

I'd overlooked that one too. I'll take the recommendation, cheers.

No probs - hope you enjoy!

Horizon Forbidden West - 7/10

While I loved the first game and the excellent DLC this one just felt like a chore. The gigantic map was peppered with too much that even exploration lovers like myself couldn’t just enjoy travelling around without bumping into sometime.
So much dialogue! Buggy glitchy and the platforming can be poor at times.
While there were some side quests and parts of the main story I enjoyed, also i loved the tall necks making a smaller return, Im just not excited for a third game.

I only have one really positive enduring memory from the 20+ hours I put into it before dropping it. It came from a side quest and resulted in gliding off a really high peak (at night) at the end of the questline. That was really excellent. The atmosphere, composition etc was absolutely top tier. Just about all the rest of it just felt messy and bloated when compared to the first game.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I only have one really positive enduring memory from the 20+ hours I put into it before dropping it. It came from a side quest and resulted in gliding off a really high peak (at night) at the end of the questline. That was really excellent. The atmosphere, composition etc was absolutely top tier. Just about all the rest of it just felt messy and bloated when compared to the first game.

It does have its moments, later when you unlock a flying one is better but it’s still slooooooow.

Game looks fantastic there is no doubt but im having way more fun with xenoblade 3 which goes to show graphics isn’t everything.

Stray - 8 out of 10 cats

Definitely the most convincing cat in a post apocalyptic future sim I think I've ever played. It was a fun linear experience, controlling the cat and being a nuisance was genuinely good fun. Story was nice and short, so didn't outstay its welcome, but I thought it was disappointing that so much of the worldbuilding and exposition about what happened in the world was hidden behind memories that were hidden behind exploration, as I definitely missed a lot of them.

The "combat" that was in there felt redundant, reinforced by the weapon you get being taken off you after one chapter, and there's an achievement in there for not using it at all. The stealth sections later on felt mechanically better, but were also very frustrating due to the window of tolerance for being spotted and pursued seems to get shorter as the game goes on.

Fun little experience that looks great, and was good fun to play around in, but felt like it could have done more to push the world its set in. There's not much appeal to replay the whole thing just to get the remaining memories back though.

Knoyleo wrote:Stray - 8 out of 10 cats

I like what you did there

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception - 6/10

I must have bumped this down to Easy less than half way through but going back to it after a while to finish off the last third and the combat still got on my nerves way too much. Felt like they had run out of ideas for the last few chapters, really rushing the ending, and it never really managed to hit the heights of the second game.

Hoping that Uncharted 4 is a bit more special.

Final Fantasy X - 6/10

A good battle system attached to a story and bunch of characters that just didn't grab me again. I feel the same about it as I did back in the PS2 days. FFIX was way better.

Just finished Gears 5.

I thought it was rather good and not overly padded out with filler.
I thought the story was ok and the set-up for the next game was done well.

It does make me think that the helicopter industry must be raking it in with the number of them that get shot down and the demolision of entire cities that musyt have taken centuries to build must get tiresome but overall a good game.

8.5/10 the only downside is I still find the controls clunky but that's down to my lack of coordination than a problem with the game.

Portal 2.

It's still really great, really funny, and the last boss fight is still really fiddly and frustrating.

Game makes you feel like a genius and gives you just the right amount of freedom to make it feel like you are figuring everything out yourself, without letting you get hopelessly lost of frustrated.

9.5 (because I plan on playing the online co-op at some point and adjusting the score accordingly).

Mario Story / Paper Mario 64 9/10

Played through in Japanese on Switch and honestly while I haven't 100%'d it and I would like to go back it is one of the most charming games I've ever played. The writing was wonderful with so many little references to various previous entries in the series and the way all the characters interacted was amazing. I absolutely adored the credits as well and the bit at the very end was a sight to behold. Loved every second. Only not really a 10 because sometimes I felt it could be a little frustrating. Locking me to just 30BP when I wanted more to actually make use of all the cool badges kinda sucked.

I've only ever played up until about 1/3rd of the way through on the English version (desert temple) before quitting on emulator before so I was very happy to be able to play it through fully.

Paper Mario 64 is an excellent game. One of the few that has aged really well on that system.

Spider-Man (PS5) - 8/10

Really enjoyed this, picked it up after completing the Miles Morales game. I don't think it's as good as Miles Morales, the controls felt a bit less refined and Spidey didn't feel as powerful. I also hated the stealth missions featuring Miles and MJ, they were the worst and really pulled me out of the fun. Overall though, great game!

Squinty wrote:Final Fantasy X - 6/10

A good battle system attached to a story and bunch of characters that just didn't grab me again. I feel the same about it as I did back in the PS2 days. FFIX was way better.

I loved this game, for me it was the last truly great FF game.

It was certainly linear, but the story drew me in, the characters were likeable, the battle system was quality, and that soundtrack was one of the finest ever produced for a video game.

Splatoon 3 Campaign - 8/10.

I'm a SplatooN00b so once I got to grips with the gyro and the movement the fun and novelty of the gameplay carried me a lot more than it might others. The levels are short and fun and varied, but the the gamefeel and gameplay machinery is all so fun that you wish they'd done more with it at times. The satisfaction of the overworld clean-up and general rummaging hints at more that could have been, and the last island in particular uses some Splatoon apparatus in a way that's such a step up in cool-ness you wish they'd been a bit bolder, earlier.

Also I got the 100% bug so was doing all three level variants before moving on from each stage, which became a bit of a duty-chore and probably made the last 3rd of the game more tiring than it should have been. But I suppose it's also a testament to the gamefeel that I fancied it in the first place.

Still, 8/10 - fun stuff.

The Forgotten City 9/10

Posted this in the game password thread but will repeat here :

Okay so The Forgotten City is a bit special eh?

Timeloop that works as you'd expect. Conversation choices that make sense based on what you've with realistic reactions from people that make sense.

And a sense of mystery and intrigue which unfolds amazingly.

If you want to know if I thought the payoff and reveals were worth the time investment: yes, they really were.

My only regret is that my own decision on how to attack the game meant I got the Canon ending first, which really took the teeth out of some of the other reveals, such as Sentilla being kept in the cistern. I was told in the ending of the Canon ending that thag was happening. Really strawberry floating wish I'd gone to the cistern before the temple,as the revelations around that are AMAZING, but it was a bit ruined by the Canon ending.

Anywho, loved it. Excellent excellent stuff.

---

Obviously there's some jank left over from it being a Skyrim mod but the writing and story is some of the best available in videogames right now.

Scorn

This starts sooooo badly. Just wandering around aimlessly with no clue of what to do. A little while in there is a point where things start to click, there's a puzzle here and there which feel quite satisfying, and you feel like the game is on the up. Then the 'combat' comes along and takes a great big gooseberry fool on you.

The strawberry floating obtuseness of the game too, finally realised that you could a) sprint and b) heal yourself in the last chapter of the game. strawberry float off you pretentious arseholes.

3/10

Conan on XBOX 360 via Series S. This was a pretty decent if fairly shameless God of War clone and was pretty enjoyable until the final boss who soured the experience somewhat. It would have been 7 but I’m giving this 6 out of 10.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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