Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

A Way Out. Played it online with a mate over 4 sessions. The last hour or so was wild....

If your are going to play it, do minimal reading up on it, preferably none. And make sure you and your co op partner play the same character for the entirety.

7

Jedi Fallen Order

Somehow EA even managed to make Darth Vader gooseberry fool.

Avoid!

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:A Way Out. Played it online with a mate over 4 sessions. The last hour or so was wild....

If your are going to play it, do minimal reading up on it, preferably none. And make sure you and your co op partner play the same character for the entirety.

7

I played that with my eldest daughter and she wasn’t happy with me at all. You can guess that I’m the undercover cop. And she cried when I killed her character. It was brilliant and cruel as we worked together for majority of the game only. I should have expected the ending as it’s a ciche but we both were blindsided by it.

She got over it and love replaying it. It will be our “game” forever.

I can only wish for more games like this. Any ideas?

Wedgie wrote:
kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:A Way Out. Played it online with a mate over 4 sessions. The last hour or so was wild....

If your are going to play it, do minimal reading up on it, preferably none. And make sure you and your co op partner play the same character for the entirety.

7

I played that with my eldest daughter and she wasn’t happy with me at all. You can guess that I’m the undercover cop. And she cried when I killed her character. It was brilliant and cruel as we worked together for majority of the game only. I should have expected the ending as it’s a ciche but we both were blindsided by it.

She got over it and love replaying it. It will be our “game” forever.

I can only wish for more games like this. Any ideas?

That’s interesting

I played as Leo and my mate was the undercover cop. I killed him. I actually felt pretty bad about it, and yeah, neither of us saw the twist coming, despite it being so obvious in hindsight

I can’t think of any games that do this to be honest. The fact it was such a unique presentation is what made it memorable and enjoyable despite some fairly un-involving gameplay and unspectacular technical aspects. I too would love to know of others. Maybe Man of Medan? Though that would require you to be playing online to benefit from the asymmetrical story option it offers. I have only played it single player so can’t comment with authority.

A Way Out

It's so damn good, especially for the ending. I haven't played any other game like it. It's different and primarily singleplayer (although co-op was added for the Switch release) but Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is also very good. Josef Fares' third game It Takes Two is set for release next year.

Zilnad wrote:Jedi Fallen Order

Somehow EA even managed to make Darth Vader gooseberry fool.

Avoid!

You what? It was one of the best scenes in the game. :fp:

Wedgie wrote:
Zilnad wrote:Jedi Fallen Order

Somehow EA even managed to make Darth Vader gooseberry fool.

Avoid!

You what? It was one of the best scenes in the game.

Yeah, that and the scene in Rogue One are the only times, that I've seen anyway, that show how powerful and terrifying Vader could be.

Yes let's post endgame spoilers unmarked in the thread. Fantastic.

I have edited the posts to include spoiler tags. (I don't usually moderate but I figured time was of the essence here before more people saw it!)

Please be careful everyone - even something you think is vague might annoy someone else that's really looking forward to going into the game blind.

Thanks Karl, and sorry anyone that had it ruined.

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (1X)

Certainly an interesting game, if not particulay competent mechanically or technically. The story is well written, but you will have a pretty good idea of where its going if you have read ANYTHING about this game previously (it really only leaves one possible option). That said, it is told in a novel way, and when it does all fall in to place at the end it does still prove to have a few twists.

The puzzles are decent, although they rarely feel like they are "clean" to complete, and i was often wondering if i had exploted a glitch to progress. I dont think that i had at any point though, and its just a feeling you get as a result of the stilited animations and general dealyed inputs.

Has all that creepiness and Twin Peaks vibes that SWERY does so well.

Decent, but a long way behind Deadly Premonition and D4

7

Gorogoa (iOS)

A very pretty 3 hour puzzle game. Solving the puzzles seemes to be 50% deduciton and 50% luck / blind experimentation.

I have no idea what the story was about. Proper iOS hipster nonsence i would wager. NOT ONE PIE FIGHT.

Good difficulty to it. I never felt the need to look anything up, but was stumped on numerous ocassions. It was usually because i had failed to notice i could remove another "overlay" from one of the tiles on the screen.

Worth the 79p it is on sale for now, but (to me) probably not worth a fiver or whatever it is at regular price.

6

Super Mario 64 - 8/10

+ Gameplay holds up well
+ Enjoyable early levels with fun challenges and good creativity
+ Good music
+ Charming world and characters

- Camera is strawberry floating horrendous
- Levels gradually get worse as the game progresses
- Some stars are exact copies of others just copied and pasted, while others can be completed in <30 seconds

It's still a great game, but this is the first time I've replayed this where I haven't bothered to get all 120 stars - I've just defeated Bowser and that's it (91 stars total). The level design gets lazier and worse as the game goes on, the camera seriously hampers the enjoyment of the game, and it all becomes too frustrating to be any fun as you near the end.

I'm with Cora on SM64, I do think they rushed the last few areas.

Close to the Sun 7/10
Rather short and enjoyable walking simulator, with a interesting setting and monsters. Some frustrating design choices and story kinda gets forgotten about nearer the end.

Jordan UK wrote:Assassin's Creed Odyssey (6)

Finally finished this. Started way back in July and it's the only thing I've been playing since then. Strange game in the sense that there are aspects that are ok: the story, for an AC game was alright and made a reasonable use of the Ancient Greek setting, the combat (while miles away from something like Batman Arkham Asylum) at least has the scope to be varied, Kassandra was quite charismatic (although the actor that played Alexis? Wtf).

The reason why I've come away pretty disappointed with it is that the size of the game makes no sense in the context of what's on offer. You could conceivably see all this game has to give (aside from some vaguely interesting quests involving mythical beasts in the run-up to the final quest) in 10 hours or so. Yet I finished this in just under 100 hours. Yes I spent a fair chunk of time unveiling the map before turning my hand to the main quests but I genuinely thought they'd be more of a pay off than what we got. This has some pretty good reviews but I feel like they must have been playing a different game. I've rarely played a game that has such a poor respect for the player's time. What's the point in filling a map with identikit camps, caves.and temples to fill a play space that serves no purpose at all?

Like many games this gen, the developers seem to be happy to have the players engaged, logging hours and appearing on friends' lists playing their product, by providing breadth but no depth. It felt like a game solely devised to keep you doing rather than being entertained which is a real shame as, if the fat was trimmed and it was more focussed, the game could have been a tiny bit better even if the game beneath all of the dross is only just an alright one. Unlike some of the games it's trying to ape, it rarely does things with any flare, care or individual expression. It is a game that is largely devoid of fun and creativity (aside from some of the things I've listed above).

I know I should have learned my lesson by now: I've enjoyed a few AC games but have been frustrated by them in equal parts. Some systems just don't seemed joined up at all; they are games created by committee and focus groups, and end up being woefully unrefined (e.g. horse traversal being slower than on foot in towns - why?).

Like I said, I've enjoyed a few AC games - including ones that aren't considered to be the better ones like ACIII and Unity. The ones I have enjoyed have been less bogged down in providing unnecessary bumph and milking time and / or money out of their player base than this one is. There's always an undeniable thrill in exploring their worlds for the first time but this thrill often gives way to frustrated boredom when you realise that the environments make for good screenshots and trailers but are pretty vapid play spaces to spend any extended time in. And is there anything more offensive than selling 'time saver' dlc to circumvent the unneccesary grind in these single player games?.Or hiding interesting armour behind paywalls despite the fact that the Gold editions can cost nearly £100 when first released?

Long story short: could have been a better game if it were only a fifth of the length.

Hopefully lessons will be learned for Valhalla.

Sums it up perfectly, I felt I had to finish it only because I had put in so many hours, but at times it felt more like a chore

Yes, Your Grace (series x)

Really enjoyable light resource management game with a really heartfelt 5 hour story. One of my favourite surprises of the year. If you have game pass and enjoyed Papers Please and Not Tonight, I urge you to check it out

8

Demons Souls

A stunning recreation that runs flawlessly, a truly special game to kick off next gen with a bang.

I did find it incredibly easy compared to the Dark Souls series, I only really struggled slightly with a handful of bosses, taking most of them first attempt but the environments were rather challenging to make up for it. Struggled with the lack of bonfires but once you know the route and enemy placement it can be quite a simple trek between archstones. Some of the levels are a bit "I don't want to ever go back there" in terms of design, I kind of wish there were some more levels like the first archstone, as most of the levels were dark and dank.

Feels shorter than the souls series, which is good because I jumped straight back into it with new game plus.

9

Days Gone

8/10

I ended up really, really enjoying that. It was like Mad Max, if you replaced the fisticuffs with guns and also threw in some big zombie hordes for good measure.

Overall it was a fairly unoriginal "cookie cutter" open world affair but the insane production values and excellent acting elevated it to a higher score. It looked and ran amazing on the PS5 as well.

I think I'm going to try and get the platinum before I leave it behind which, to me, is a good endorsement of quality.

Star Wars - Fallen Order 6/10

This game started so well and had my hooked in, but I ended up being frustrated by so many things. Frustrated by the combat. Frustrated by the dull narrative. Frustrated by the needlessly unforgiving platforming sections. Frustrated by the story ultimately being fairly pointless. Frustrated by the backtracking. Frustrated by the endless bugs and performance issue.

Ultimately though I think the game fails most in one key area: the moments where you feel like an all powerful jedi are too few and far between. The game never really throws off the shackles and lets you go for it. The force meter dries up way too quickly and takes all rhythm out of the combat. I get they didn't want to make it too easy, but it goes too far and zaps the enjoyment of using the force completely. And when you get hit in battle and Cal flounces to the floor and takes an age to get back up it just feels frustrating. There are moments, especially when you are fighting the bosses in lightsaber duels where things click into place and you get a glimpse of how exciting things could have been. And it also takes too long to give you the good stuff. Things like the double jump, that would have improved the enjoyment of the platforming sections no end come too late. I also don't think the Metroidvania was a good fit. I had no incentive to explore and the backtracking was slow and painful. The joy in the levels comes from first exploring them and re-visiting planets was not a good feeling (I never want to get to that red planet with the dead again). The final level was brilliant fun and had my grinning like a fool, but it also gives you a look at what the game could have been with more energy and a linear path. Hopefully they will learn a lot from these foundations for the inevitable sequel.

I've given it a 6 but truthfully it's a 5 in a Jedi robe.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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