Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Resident Evil 7 - 8/10

Great game - felt fresh and new whilst still retaining the classic Resi vibe, and very, very polished.

At risk of sounding like a troll, I went back for another play through of The Last Guardian, in case I missed something that made it several people's GOTY. I figured, having played through it once and being more familiar with the mechanics, a second play through might streamline the game and result in a more enjoyable experience. But no, it's still woefully ass-fuckingly broken and I stick by my original score - 5/10.

Gone Home - PC

Like Life is Strange, this is a game I've heard a lot of polarised opinions about it without having experienced it myself; it is either the most emotive and tear-jerking example of gaming at the current best of interactive storytelling or its "muh SJW simulator/not a game." I got the code free from someone on here and thought I'd find out for myself.

Its certainly the best walking simulator, in that you have to actually interact with objects and examine them, do some light puzzle solving, find keys and so on, whereas in games like Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture you wander about and have story exposition dumped on you until the credits roll and in the case of the latter have not learned anything significant that wasn't present at the outset. My problem with these games is that they don't tell a story well enough compared to most books or TV series, and aren't "gamey" enough to be interesting in a moment-to-moment way. I didn't gush over the admittedly well-written plot but found it interesting enough to push through the couple of hours it took to see it through to the end. For me this falls equidistant between the two camps which praise the game or deride it for daring to include women/women who play games/women who like other women as some sort of brainwashing "liberal agenda", it was an interesting experience but not one I will probably ever repeat. At least the labyrinthine house has gotten some extra mileage as a CSGO map.

7/10

Ashita no Joe on SNES. This is a boxing game based on a manga series however it plays more like a typical fighting game albeit with pretty simple controls. It was alright although I'm not familiar with the source material. A little research suggests it actually had a pretty grim storyline which appears to be portrayed in the game to a degree.

Apparently there is a "real" ending to be found. Since the game just ended with credits for me I'm interested to see what this might be.

6/10

EDIT: Yeah, the real ending actually pretty grim especially for a game released in 1992.

Gran Turismo 6

Better than 5 all day, every day.

4/5

Next stop : The Darkness II

Resident Evil VII (PSVR) - 9/10

First game I've completed in quite a while, the only other RE game I really like is 4, the originals (and remakes) are too fiddly, the games after 4 just plain bad.

There was a point in the middle of the game where I was trying to make sure I picked up as much as possible and played the game without VR while backtracking through areas...it really is like a completely different game in VR. On a flat screen the whole world suddenly becomes less foreboding, less intimidating and far more ordinary. I can't emphasise enough how much better the game is in VR.

HSH28 wrote:Resident Evil VII (PSVR) - 9/10

First game I've completed in quite a while, the only other RE game I really like is 4, the originals (and remakes) are too fiddly, the games after 4 just plain bad.

There was a point in the middle of the game where I was trying to make sure I picked up as much as possible and played the game without VR while backtracking through areas...it really is like a completely different game in VR. On a flat screen the whole world suddenly becomes less foreboding, less intimidating and far more ordinary. I can't emphasise enough how much better the game is in VR.

I played the game through entirely in VR in one weekend - it was quite an experience. I do want to go through it again in 2D to see how it looks on my TV / on the Pro - but, I agree, it is a great experience in VR and really makes it much more intimidating, particularly in the Jack / Marguerite sections of the game.

The Last of Us & Left Behind (PS4 Pro) [9]

+ A take on the zombie outbreak scenario that somehow feels original and touching despite how hackneyed 'zombie apocalypse' stories have become.
+ Incredible atmospherics. There are some scenes in this I won't forget in a while... the journey through the collapsed sky scraper, the snow cabin / Winter sections of the game, the final scenes in Salt Lake.
+ Wonderful acting.
+ Very few games have gotten an emotional response from me - this is one of them. Such a wonderfully open-ended and sad end to the story
+ Love the music.
+ Brutal gameplay that still feels fresh. I remember watching gameplay captures of this when it was first announced and was dubious that the game would be this cinematic to play and yet it is. Every encounter is fluid and incredibly violent.

- In establishing the atmosphere, tension, characterisation and sense of place, the pacing in this game - as in other Naughty Dog games - can suffer as a result. With only the odd hour to play most evenings, sometimes a session can just involve exposition or moving from location to location. As wonderful as Naughty Dog are at story telling, some evenings I just want my games to be games.
- I bloody hope Ellie has learnt to swim in Part 2.

Dark Souls 3 (PS4)

Where to begin? I have very mixed feelings after completing this game as it constantly fluctuates between giving you highs and lows. I love the exploration side of this game but hate the "necessary" difficulty level. Why is it necessary? Because if you take it away, what you are left with is a fairly short game. Just think about each section - initially appearing quite vast but when you've completed it and think back, it was a fairly short trip between 'A' and 'B' but it only took you so long because of the difficulty level. This size of the game is just an illusion, but I see through you Dark Souls.

8

Inside on ps4. Simply wonderful. Amazing experience from start to finish. Games like this are the reason I game.

47.6 / 49

Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4) [6]

I've got quite mixed feelings about this one...when I played it on release, I liked it but never got round to completing it. I liked how it had rebooted - pretty successfully - an old fan favourite franchise. However, I picked it up again today and finished off the last few levels and I can't help but think, despite its production values, it feels very much of the PS2 era. It's all very predictable and can be quite attritional at times. Back when the PS4 was shiny and new, I could probably forgive the game's frustrations and would have been appeased by the eye-candy, but it just doesn't hold up as well today.

With the benefit of hindsight, the Doom remake is a far more successful reimagining of an old Id franchise and if Machine Games had taken the 'constantly moving, constantly going forward' approach that Id took with Doom 2016, then I'm sure I would have enjoyed this a little more. When it does cut loose (like in the Deathshead's compound missions) and it plays it old school Wolfenstein, it's pretty fun and I love the machine gun in this game - it's really punchy. More zip, more enemies, less sombre and fewer difficulty spikes would have made this a better game, in my opinion.

I may try 'The Old Blood' soon to see if, when the engine is used to create a more arcade-y experience, it's any better.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Redux version)

Like other "games" of this ilk, this is an interactive story more than a straight game, which is no bad thing as it allows a more relaxing experience.

Firstly, a special mention to the graphics. They are excellent. If you have played "Everybody's gone to the rapture" (which is a similar genre) and thought that was impressive, this will reset your expectations.

Disappointingly though (for me at least), objectives in the game are not clear and without the use of a guide, I would have missed a fair amount of the game and not even sure if completion would have been possible. For that reason I think a guide will be essential for most otherwise this is likely to be parked and never returned to. The game is also fairly short, although without a guide could take an eternity to complete.

If the price isn't right and you have not plans to use a guide (unless of course you have all of the time in the world), probably better to look elsewhere.

6

A Little Bit of... Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training Sudoku 7/10 The best part of Brain Training without the weird voice recognition.

Flipper 6/10 Cute puzzle game with some horrid controls. Nice vector graphics.

Flipper 2 Flush The Goldfish 6/10 Weird little one button action game which is completely different to the original Flipper, but its a fun experiment.

Photo Dojo 4/10 A novelty which is a bit of a pain to set up. Face Raiders does it better.

Doom (2016) - 9

Loved this, they nailed the feel of the originals while updating it for modern day. I love the fast paced nature and sense of momentum. If you don't keep pushing forward you'll lose spectacularly. Such a breath of fresh air compared to modern dreary FPS shooters with aim down sight and regenerating health.
Campaign began to get samey but I feel it didn't overly outstay it's welcome and the weapons were punchy and varied.

Haven't bothered with MP or tried out the level creation stuff yet but they are just a little bonus to the great single player

Gone Home and Octodad: Dadliest Catch - PC

I thought these games had enough similar elements, themes and approaches to mechanics driving narrative that I combined the two into a single chimeric review, coming soon to GRView!

The Darkness II

THAT. WAS. AWESOME

Now go & suck your own balls, you daft banana split :lol:

4/5

Psychonauts 8/10 A game packed with amazing ideas, though doesn't quite match Mario when it comes to platforming. Meat Circus for example.

Dead Rising 3 DLC (PC). 4 stories covering some of the characters you meet during the main game. About 10-15 hours of play and although you may feel a bit Dead Rising fatigued by the time you get onto this, it is a fairly good extension with some fun new weapon and vehicle combos (particularly a couple of the vehicles). It comes free with the PC version so definitely worth playing, although probably best to have a rest between it and the main game. 7

Played Batman: Telltale Game (PC)

It runs pretty badly. I had some slow down and my computer is pretty powerful.

The story is really good, although I'd like to see how much your choices can change the plot. The telltale games aren't really games as there is no challenge at all; it's more a interactive multi choose story book.

They've really altered the batman backstory for the game. Lots of the characters have had their backstories changed.

8/10 just for the plot really.

Frankenstein on Amiga. I had this for Atari ST as a kid but I got stuck about a third of the way in and seeing as how it was the early 90's you couldn't just Google the solution.

You play as Dr Frankenstein's assistant Igor and have to gather body parts and tools for your master. Back when I was a kid I just couldn't find the fifth item and so never finished the game.

Fast forward to the present day and a quick search on Google and a YouTube let's play have allowed me to finish this after all these years

Was it worth the wait... probably not. It's a fun if slightly repetitive platformer with decent controls but it's nothing special.

7/10

YouTube

lex-man wrote:Played Batman: Telltale Game (PC)

It runs pretty badly. I had some slow down and my computer is pretty powerful.

The story is really good, although I'd like to see how much your choices can change the plot. The telltale games aren't really games as there is no challenge at all; it's more a interactive multi choose story book.

They've really altered the batman backstory for the game. Lots of the characters have had their backstories changed.

8/10 just for the plot really.

This is what I really loved about it, enough to be somewhat (though not entirely forgiving) of its flaws like you mentioned. I was quite shocked how much creative licence they had, the take on Thomas Wayne was especially unexpected.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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