Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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kazanova_Frankenstein
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by kazanova_Frankenstein » Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:25 am

Gears of War Ultimate Edition (X1).

I remember really enjoying this when it came out on the 360. Playing this remake some 12 years or so later has proved that it still holds up. It does not feel like a massive overhaul, and I will be interested to see how the 2nd and 3rd episodes hold up on the Xbox 1 X with the 4k patch.
There are definitely some niggles - I found myself snapping to scenery at the wrong angle on several occasions, and the checkpoint information can be frustrating. And Raam is as much of a bastard as I remember first time round, but it was a really enjoyable 8 hour jaunt.

7

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Jamo3103
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Jamo3103 » Sat Feb 23, 2019 5:57 pm

Mario Tennis Aces - 7/10

Played through all the tournaments, along with a bit of online when I first got it and then left it to one side (apart from the occasional bit of local multiplayer). Decide to pick it up and go through the adventure mode as I've been having a bit of slump in terms of completing games and this seemed like a fun, relatively short game to play through.

For the most part it's a lot of fun, they've mixed up regular matches with a variety of different challenges and boss fights. Most of these are pretty good fun but there is some frustration involved as some of them can have pretty tight time limits and it's easy to reach a point where you may as well retry from the start because it's impossible to do within the remaining time limit. This isn't helped by the game deducting time quite liberally for minor errors, some of which have no bearing on tennis skill (for example dodging obstacles in a boss fight) - this could have been easily rectified by having it add extra time after you successfully complete a section of a boss battle/challenge. On the whole it's an interesting sidetrack and certainly it's nice to see more depth after the completely shallow and empty Ultra Smash on Wii U, however it isn't a patch on the RPG modes from the GBC and GBA games. It's a relatively short experience, I think I probably clocked in at around 3-4 hours and did every section of it.

As for the rest of the game, tournament mode is pretty limited and easy. Outside of that there's not a lot of content apart from online play. It's nice that they keep adding new characters for content but it would have added replay value to the tournament mode if these had needed to be unlocked rather than just being handed to you. I played through the N64 version of Mario Tennis in tournament mode with every character to unlock everything, including the harder difficulty. There's absolutely zero incentive that I can see to play through tournament mode more than once.

The tennis gameplay is smooth and fun but I didn't love any of the new gimmicks, zone shots and power moves + the racket breaking can make it easy to lose points at certain stages. It takes away from the pure tennis gameplay, it can be turned off but is still forced on you in adventure mode so you are as well off getting used to it. There isn't a certain amount of skill/timing involved in blocking power shots but apart from that it really adds nothing.

Overall I enjoyed it more than Mario Tennis Open on 3DS or Mario Ultra Smash on Wii U but for the most part I'd still say the Gamecube/N64 games are still better in many areas.



Kirby Star Allies - 7/10

I started playing this last November but it got lost amidst Smash Bros, Pokemon and Red Dead 2. Overall it's a lot of fun, packed full of charm and with lovely graphics. Some really clever elements of level design, particularly having to combine the abilities of different star allies to get extras and progress through the level. The main body of the game, the story mode is relatively short and quite easy - I only died a handful of times and that was due to me not paying attention, ended the game with around 90 lives in the bank. There are a good amount of extra modes which offer more challenge but largely seem to revisit content from the main game and I can't see me giving any of them huge amounts of attention as I've had my fill for the time being.

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Jazzem
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Jazzem » Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:44 pm

Sega Ages: Phantasy Star

This is basically the golden standard for retro rereleases, the quality of life improvements (in particular automap and fast forward) are sublime and help highlight the original's qualities + downplay its flaws.

So appreciative that it's finally helped me get round to this series, it's been a big bucketlist one as a Sega nut. Even if you remove PS1 from its historical significance, it's still an immensely enjoyable and breezey RPG to play in this form :) Lovely soundtrack too, both in 'PSG' and the originally Japan only FM Synth

The original translation is sadly pretty clunky but it's at least less obtuse than the likes of Castlevania 2, plus it has amusing quirks (I've gone into the final dungeon with stacks of burgers, the highest restorative item...). The ideal would be being able to inject the improved fan translation, but regardless this is far and away the definitive version of the game

9/10

jawafour
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by jawafour » Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:54 pm

Jazzem wrote:Sega Ages: Phantasy Star

This is basically the golden standard for retro rereleases...

Ooh, I was always on the brink of getting this for my Master System; but back in the day I decided not to and in my retro collecting phase the price became rather too steep. I've watched a vid or two about this remake and, as you say, it does seem to have been put together with great care. It gained a good reception in original form and it's nice to see that the modern take stands up well.

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Jazzem
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Jazzem » Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:22 pm

jawafour wrote:
Jazzem wrote:Sega Ages: Phantasy Star

This is basically the golden standard for retro rereleases...

Ooh, I was always on the brink of getting this for my Master System; but back in the day I decided not to and in my retro collecting phase the price became rather too steep. I've watched a vid or two about this remake and, as you say, it does seem to have been put together with great care. It gained a good reception in original form and it's nice to see that the modern take stands up well.


It's highly recommended sir! Especially at the current sale price :) So nice that the game has not only been made available accessibly and cheaply on a modern platform, but also that it's been modernised so effectively. Really can't emphasise enough how much of an improvement the quality of life embellishments make

Of course I imagine going sans automap and instead with mountains of graph paper + patience is rewarding in its own way too! Just...something I'd have to severely prepare myself for mentally before attempting :p

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Cumberdanes
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Cumberdanes » Mon Feb 25, 2019 3:29 pm

A Way Out on XBONE, I played through this with a mate last night and rather enjoyed it until the very end when it suddenly became a very mediocre cover shooter. 6/10

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by OrangeRKN » Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:10 pm

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:A Way Out on XBONE, I played through this with a mate last night and rather enjoyed it until the very end when it suddenly became a very mediocre cover shooter. 6/10


What did you think about the very very end? When you had to fight each other? Because I thought that was genuinely fantastic.

Also yes it's janky and mediocre cover shooter mechanics but it's novel and hardly outstays its welcome, plus it has some neat co-op flanking opportunities. I loved it, especially shooting the guy out the window. It's a great way of escalating the gameplay along with the narrative for the finale.

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Cumberdanes
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Cumberdanes » Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:31 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:A Way Out on XBONE, I played through this with a mate last night and rather enjoyed it until the very end when it suddenly became a very mediocre cover shooter. 6/10


What did you think about the very very end? When you had to fight each other? Because I thought that was genuinely fantastic.

Also yes it's janky and mediocre cover shooter mechanics but it's novel and hardly outstays its welcome, plus it has some neat co-op flanking opportunities. I loved it, especially shooting the guy out the window. It's a great way of escalating the gameplay along with the narrative for the finale.


I thought the very end was pretty clever but didn’t like how it boiled down to button bashing. The guy I was playing with was winning all the way through but I won overall as I could mash the x button that little bit quicker, it kind of made the rest of that section a little pointless

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by OrangeRKN » Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:01 am

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:I thought the very end was pretty clever but didn’t like how it boiled down to button bashing. The guy I was playing with was winning all the way through but I won overall as I could mash the x button that little bit quicker, it kind of made the rest of that section a little pointless


The effectiveness of hitting the button is affected by how well you've done up to that point I believe, so if one player has a lot more health than the other they won't have to hit the button anywhere near as quick in order to win. So yes you can turn it around at the end, but the worse you've been doing the harder it is.

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Cumberdanes
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Cumberdanes » Tue Feb 26, 2019 11:02 am

OrangeRKN wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:I thought the very end was pretty clever but didn’t like how it boiled down to button bashing. The guy I was playing with was winning all the way through but I won overall as I could mash the x button that little bit quicker, it kind of made the rest of that section a little pointless


The effectiveness of hitting the button is affected by how well you've done up to that point I believe, so if one player has a lot more health than the other they won't have to hit the button anywhere near as quick in order to win. So yes you can turn it around at the end, but the worse you've been doing the harder it is.


Guess I'm just really good at button bashing then!

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Seven
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Seven » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:59 pm

Sigi A Fart for Melusina

Rather light-hearted easy platformer game, very short though. I don't mind at £3 though, had fun.

6

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Seven
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Seven » Wed Feb 27, 2019 9:56 am

Planet of the Eyes

Short but fun platformer/puzzler, and quite easy. The graphics are great and I dig the robot character -- well worth a play

7

Metro 2033 Redux

I've played the original on PC so this would be my second time going through the game. I really like how Redux combined bunch of smaller levels into one level, and it runs very very smooth on my Xbox One.

It's also perfect mix of horror and action, and it's fun to try to tackle each section differently -- it is linear, but in sense you have more than few ways to do each section. Especially helps that some of the areas are fun enough to play around in. Honestly its aged very well.

8

Metro Last Light Redux - Main Champagin

Got good ending, on one hand I like new locations, the story and well, more Metro.

On other hand though it doesn't beat 2033 for me - it focuses on action too much especially at start (you spent good while fighting humans) and I never felt I was at risk of low supplies despite playing on same mode as Metro 2033. Like yeah its good game but after Metro 2033.... I don't know, maybe bit disappointed. Still, I'm glad I've played it - and I loved bonding with Dark One Can't wait to play Exodus now

7

Metro Last Light DLCs:

Anna - 6
Just a simple level that I don't feel has any point in it, basically doing a level in other person's PoV and hardly adds much to the story. It plays well so hey.

Khan - 6
Eh, it's better than Anna as it does add to the story -- but I felt if I were to pay for this DLC I won't be satisfied. Still as part of Redux it's okay

Pavel - 7
Much better over other two character levels, had fun trying not to get detected. Has sections that's too dark for my liking though.

Heavy Squad - 3
A level with very small play area... You play as Nazi guy... Killing bunch of enemies then horrible tank fight. Horrible, horrible, horrible DLC.

Kshatriya - 9
I didn't expect to love DLC after playing others, but this one is truly great DLC. One of my favourite levels from 2033 is main area in this, and you go out and scavage when making sure you don't die otherwise you have to start that day again, opening up shortcuts and playing smart to make sure you don't strawberry float up later on is fantastic. One point down due to pretty much be able to just get needed item and finish DLC that way, but as whole it brought new things to the game.

Developer - 7
It's just basically museum/challenges but to be honest I really like it, good to see this kind of content. Not much to say though other than could do with adding information when I examine models, and trivia info too

Sniper Team - 7

Game breaking gltich aside, I like this mission. Stealth is important and doesn't end rather fast so I can't really fault it. The sniper weapon is also nice to use, hopefully it's in Exodus.

Spider Lair - 8
Another DLC I really like, and focuses on horror side of the game more than action. Thought it was fun to go through, although once again I don't think it adds much to the story. But on its own, it's cool experience.

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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Gemini73 » Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:35 am

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

After a couple of attempts I came to thoroughly enjoy this title in the end. Have yet to venture into the Frozen Wilds, but have completed the main quest and quite a bit of the side quests.

9/10

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)

Not usually one for platformers, but this was a lot of fun if a little frustrating in places.

8/10

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kazanova_Frankenstein
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by kazanova_Frankenstein » Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:49 am

The Gardens Between (Xbox One X via Game Pass)

A brilliant, if short puzzle game, where the mechanics always felt like there was not going to be enough variables to present a challenge, and yet there always was. Really nice visual communication, and some wonderful moments which can only come from solving a puzzle that has you stumped for a period of time. Nearly every level has be stumped for a brief period of time at least, but at no point did i feel the need to look up a guide, which is perfect for me.

The only criticism is that i wish there was more of it. I guess it took me about 3-4 hours to complete (its one of those games that does not support the game club tab unfortunately, so cant find exact timings). Despite the game being essentially "free" to me, i still have to factor the length of it in to the score, as for me it does make the game less memorable as a result. But if you have Game Pass i consider it essential.

7

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kazanova_Frankenstein
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by kazanova_Frankenstein » Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:02 am

Head Lander (Xbox One via Game Pass)

Fun Metroidvania with some pretty fresh ideas. Many of the ideas stick (primarily detaching your head to control other robots, equipment etc within the room), but some of them seem to be surplus to requirements, and you can end up purchasing a lot of upgrades that you will never use. Combat is pretty fun and novel, but again, my strategy boiled down to a couple of moves and they proved sufficient (and efficient) for the rest of the game.

Enjoyed the setting (it often gave me Futurama vibes), and liked that i was never lost (arguably a requirement of a metroidvania, but not something i personally enjoy).

Clocked in at just under 5 hours, which felt like just the right length. I was kind of glad when the credits (and amusing outro song) rolled.

Worth giving a go if you like your 'vanias and fancy something a bit different, or if you are not typically a fan of them, and would rather try one with a bit more linearity and guidance.

6

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by OrangeRKN » Thu Feb 28, 2019 9:25 am

Gemini73 wrote:Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)

Not usually one for platformers, but this was a lot of fun if a little frustrating in places.

8/10


:wub: Going to play the sequels?

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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Gemini73 » Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:03 am

OrangeRKN wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)

Not usually one for platformers, but this was a lot of fun if a little frustrating in places.

8/10


:wub: Going to play the sequels?


I won't buy them, but I might download them and take a look sometime.

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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by jawafour » Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:28 pm

My nephew (who is 13) has advised me that he has completed Red Dead Redemption II and Resident Evil 5 in the past few weeks.

Dang it, he asked why I don't complete games :x ... :lol: .

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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by Jenuall » Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:40 pm

Gemini73 wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:
Gemini73 wrote:Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)

Not usually one for platformers, but this was a lot of fun if a little frustrating in places.

8/10


:wub: Going to play the sequels?


I won't buy them, but I might download them and take a look sometime.

I really need to go back to this series at some point

I adored Precursor Legacy back in the day, genuinely one of my all time favourite PS2 games, but couldn't get on with Jak II at all. The charm seemed to have been robbed from it and I didn't think the gunplay was a good introduction.

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OrangeRKN
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PostRe: Last Game You Finished and Your Rating
by OrangeRKN » Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:57 pm

It's still comedic with a strong identity, I think it has charm a-plenty.

It's like Sonic Underground vs Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

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