• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

No new games in 2020, unfinished backlog only

Status
Not open for further replies.

LegionX

Member
If it's a narrative driven game, I would say catch up on the narrative before diving into the 7th.

I just completed the first one... Bad Dream : Butcher.... 10-15 minutes of very random point and click action.... I don't think from the first one that there is going to be any specific narrative... but if they are all this quick I may as well just do them and consider it as completing one single game I think
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Currently bouncing between FF Theatrhythm Curtain Call and Sushi Strikers (3DS versions). Curtain Call has such a wealth of content that it can feel like a chore, so I am trying not to burn myself out on it. I have four 1-star characters and I'm about to loop them into 2-stars, then I will pick a new party of 4 and work them up. I don't even enjoy FF games all that much but I have gained a fresh appreciation for the exceptional soundtracks in this series. So many good themes that I haven't heard before until now.

Sushi Strikers is an excellent puzzle game with a lot of Nintendo charm and tailoring to make it feel like a complete product. The music is great, the characters are pretty charming (considering the plot) and the gameplay continues to unfold new layers of complexity. The core gameplay is very simple (just tapping, sliding and holding your stylus to pick up plates) but it's still quite difficult. I view the difficulty as a good thing. Puzzle games are usually too easy. I must concede to Yoshi Yoshi and confess that the 3DS one is best, after playing both the Switch and 3DS version for several hours.

Interestingly, both of these games are by indiezero, the same company that handled the Retro Game Challenge titles on DS.
 
Last edited:

Phase

Member
3 more down.

10. Rayman Legends - Great platformer, though the momentum based movement makes the game seem sloppy sometimes. They decided to make this a GaaS game so there's lots of content for it. So many levels.
11. Serious Sam 2 - Got it on sale for $2 and it was pretty fun to play an older shooter I had never played before. It's a decently fun wave shooter but the enemy spawn system can be frustrating and the flat arenas are boring (especially the last level). They could have done a lot more with it.
12. Gravity Rush Remastered - Loved the gravity mechanic and had a blast flying around. Music is wonderful. Combat is the only downside as it just isn't that good. But definitely looking forward to Gravity Rush 2 now.

Next on the list is another shooter, Painkiler: Black Edition. Also, since PS gave away the Uncharted collection this month and I've never played them I'm gonna start the series.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Finished Horizon Chase Turbo main campaign - not going to bother with the tournaments or other side bits - it's a bloody good modern interpretation of Outrun but there's a lot of it. I had fun, not bad for an accidental Humble Choice purchase.

Going back to Alpha Protocol now and it's fucking awesome.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Both Vice City and San Andreas complete.

I think I prefer Vice City. It felt like a real kingpin simulator, establishing control of the entire city. Taking out all who oppose you, buying up properties. By the end of the game you know the map like the back of your hand.

San Andreas on the other hand was almost like a JRPG. Very adventure like, going from story arc to story arc. Huge sprawling area. Towns. Sidequests. The works.

Both great in their own ways. So glad to have played them for the first time.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Cat-Tripping Hero -- No New Games in 2020

O5kkEvc.gif

Your pesky backlog is completely powerless against your discipline (and your salmon)

I don't know about games, but JoJo has been in my "I should watch this" queue for a while now and I've taken the plunge. I watched this episode the other night, got a good chuckle. I loved how he followed that up with immediately saying to himself "that was kinda mean".
 

ExpandKong

Banned
Unforeseen complication! My 3DS is no longer working. The blue power light comes on but the screens stay dead and black. I’ve tried a couple fixes I found online but nothing’s worked so far. I’ve got another 3ds around here somewhere but transferring stuff like saves and the like is kind of a bother, as y’all know, especially with one system broken I guess...

There’s a few other things I can try but I might just move onto another game for now. I liked Layton’s Mystery Journey okay but it wasn’t really grabbing me. I’d gotten to the movie theater case and just met some of what I’m assuming are the titular millionaires, so maybe it was gonna pick up soon, but eh.

I liked the characters and setting and art and all that, but like I said before I'd gotten pretty burned out on puzzlespuzzlespuzzles after Unwound Future, to the point where I didn't play any of the prequel trilogy. I'll resume it when I get around to fixing my 3DS, but for now I'll get on to...

*checks random number generator*

...finishing up Devil May Cry 5 on my XBox.
 

Phase

Member
#13 Finished Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Was a little disappointed in this game. Thought it was rather weak, but my brother tells me 2 and 3 are better.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
I got the touryst , Jotun and Sundered added to my backlog. I got a belated birthday gift of an eshop voucher.
Technically I didn’t buy these with my money lol.
My backlog grows bigger.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Unforeseen complication! My 3DS is no longer working. The blue power light comes on but the screens stay dead and black. I’ve tried a couple fixes I found online but nothing’s worked so far. I’ve got another 3ds around here somewhere but transferring stuff like saves and the like is kind of a bother, as y’all know, especially with one system broken I guess...

There’s a few other things I can try but I might just move onto another game for now. I liked Layton’s Mystery Journey okay but it wasn’t really grabbing me. I’d gotten to the movie theater case and just met some of what I’m assuming are the titular millionaires, so maybe it was gonna pick up soon, but eh.

I liked the characters and setting and art and all that, but like I said before I'd gotten pretty burned out on puzzlespuzzlespuzzles after Unwound Future, to the point where I didn't play any of the prequel trilogy. I'll resume it when I get around to fixing my 3DS, but for now I'll get on to...

*checks random number generator*

...finishing up Devil May Cry 5 on my XBox.

Hmm I bought my wife a 3ds years ago and she never plays it these days. I wonder if I should enlarge my backlog still further.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I've only finished two games so far this year, but they've both been games from my backlog. I've also started The Witcher 3 and am really liking it so far. I'm also more than half way done with Star Ocean: First Departure R now.

The only games I've bought so far this year have been my 10 selections from the Humble Choice classic plan I have. $1.20 per game seems like a pretty good deal that I probably won't be giving up any time soon but unless something on offer there really grabs me, I likely won't be playing any of those games this year.
 
Instead of chipping away at my backlog I have been playing Modern Warfare non-stop. I'm not usually into online games but it has its hooks in me. It kinda counts because I am also working on beating the Campaign in realism mode but most of my time is spent getting smoked relentlessly online. :messenger_loudly_crying:

jshackles jshackles I finished The Witcher 3 in 2018 when I did this before. It was a great experience but it took a few starts before it clicked and then I was hooked. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
 
Last edited:

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
After the superb Sands of Time, I have moved onto Timesplitters 2. The manual aiming is shit. I guess devs for games not named Halo were still figuring out console FPS controls. Everything else is straight up 5/5. What a great game so far.

I did end up dropping Gran Turismo 3. You have to be in the mood for that type of game, which easily demands 40+ hours. Im more of an arcade racer guy. Wipeout, Motorstorm, Kart racers, ya know. The 1st GT is still arcadey enough for me to love tho, even in its "simulation mode".
 
I was going to try and go almost 4 months without buying a game. DOOM Eternal is something I'm going to pre-order or buy day one. There was no stopping that. Unfortunately, I saw Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. It was VR. I thought "Oh. It's gonna be crap."

I looked at a few hours of people playing it, and it's getting pretty high praise to outright love from people playing it. And so I caved. :lollipop_pensive:
 
After the superb Sands of Time, I have moved onto Timesplitters 2. The manual aiming is shit. I guess devs for games not named Halo were still figuring out console FPS controls. Everything else is straight up 5/5. What a great game so far.

I did end up dropping Gran Turismo 3. You have to be in the mood for that type of game, which easily demands 40+ hours. Im more of an arcade racer guy. Wipeout, Motorstorm, Kart racers, ya know. The 1st GT is still arcadey enough for me to love tho, even in its "simulation mode".

I miss Timesplitters so much. You're in a great place in your backlog it seems!
 

Nester99

Member
Finished Dark Souls 2 on the weekend

Now working on Yakuza 0

my first Yakuza game. It’s pretty great so far, 5 chapters in. It’s so much fun to find gems already in your collection!
 
Last edited:
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Finished Dark Souls 2 on the weekend

Now working on Yakuza 0

my first Yakuza game. It’s pretty great so far, 5 chapters in. It’s so much fun to find gems already in your collection!
Yakuza is awesome - it's such a playful game that really understands that games are there to be fun. You're gonna have a blast.
 

SpiceRacz

Member
Here's what I finished in January. Most of these games were shorter and finished in one sitting. I'm gonna move on to some lengthier SNES games in February, starting with Terranigma.

• Batman NES
• Dead Cells
• Earthbound Zero
• DKC
• Run Saber
• Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse
• Sparkster
• Sky Blazer
• Hook
• The Ninja Warriors
• Gunforce - this game fucking sucks.
 
Last edited:

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Tonight I am picking up a PS4 Pro. I think it'll make this year's challenge easier, since I'm now incentivized to replay any/all of my favorite PS4 titles since I bought the system in 2015.

Gonna finally dig into Sekro and Death Stranding, two of my most-anticipated games from last year that I shelved for the sake of the 2019 challenge. Based on this list I wanna at least try out -- if not replay -- all these other games from my collection to see how they look with the hardware boost.

Abzu, Dishonored 2, DOOM, Last Guardian, MGS5, MHW, Nex Machina, Nier Automata, Prey, Ratchet & Clank, Super Stardust, Titanfall 2, The Witness.

Any suggestions from the thread for which of those games really show off the system's power? All listed games I own and already played (if not beaten) at some point in the past.
 

Phase

Member
Tonight I am picking up a PS4 Pro. I think it'll make this year's challenge easier, since I'm now incentivized to replay any/all of my favorite PS4 titles since I bought the system in 2015.

Gonna finally dig into Sekro and Death Stranding, two of my most-anticipated games from last year that I shelved for the sake of the 2019 challenge. Based on this list I wanna at least try out -- if not replay -- all these other games from my collection to see how they look with the hardware boost.

Abzu, Dishonored 2, DOOM, Last Guardian, MGS5, MHW, Nex Machina, Nier Automata, Prey, Ratchet & Clank, Super Stardust, Titanfall 2, The Witness.

Any suggestions from the thread for which of those games really show off the system's power? All listed games I own and already played (if not beaten) at some point in the past.
Not sure about the power, but that's a great list. I recently finished Ratchet & Clank it while I don't think it pushes the PS4 that much it does look beautiful. Doom should look great. I've only played that on PC though.
 

ExpandKong

Banned
Yooooo back at it again at krispy kreme just beat Devil May Cry 5

It's been a rough week, one kid is at the children's hospital and my wife and I are tag teaming in and out each night to make sure he has someone there and also the other kid is sick and also the goddamn dog is sick and also the two of us are getting sick too. But guess what? When you're a parent you can't allow yourself to get sick until the kids are better, it's a biological fact. So long story short, I got drunk at home and took some adult cough syrup and beat Devil May Cry 5.

Here are spoilers.

Good game. I like that Vergil's sort of back I guess. but I don't like how the end was basically Nero going "OK BOOMERS" and telling Dante and Vergil to chill the fuck out. Oh well. Still better than Devil May Cry 2. And 4. Fucking fight me.

Next up is.....*random numero generatio gooooo*

Fire Emblem Three Houses (pick a route you haven't done)

This is both fortuitous and also rad because I've already done Golden Deer route and I have a save file halfway through Black Eagles route so off I go to fucking ship Femleth x Dorothea don't interrupt my lesbian canon please

Hmm I bought my wife a 3ds years ago and she never plays it these days. I wonder if I should enlarge my backlog still further.

3DS is a great system with some great games. Kid Icarus Uprising is a must play, at the very least. Honestly the 3DS is one of my most favorite systems ever, you could do a lot worse as far as adding shit to your backlog.

Also UPDATE my 3DS is working again so once I finsih Black Eagles route I'll get back to Katrielle Layton and the Rich Assholes
 

Phase

Member
Two more down. Haven't had as much time to play lately.

#14 Quake - Really enjoyed it. Levels are fun and short, and there's lots of them. Movement is fast which I love. Had never played the first one so I'm glad I got to play through it.
#15 Quake II - Played it back in the day and my feelings then hold true today. It feels bland, and I don't like the level design. I found myself backtracking and multiple times I was confused as to where to go after wiping the levels of enemies. Was just a tad frustrating.
 
Last edited:

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I played through the first couple of planets in Ratchet & Clank (PS4 remake) over the weekend. My memory of the original PS2 release is fuzzy but they have clearly shuffled some things around, improved some features, and added in some more content (notably, making jabs at itself). Not a very challenging game but I enjoy it.

Also playing Sekiro. I'm making my way through this castletown. Just killed my first ogre and got killed by some aggressive swordsmen in the next section. I am dying often enough but it still somehow seems... easier? Maybe it is because stealth is far more viable, or maybe it is because the "big" enemies stay dead instead of reviving every round. In either case, I'm loving it and I've barely unlocked anything.

Also trying to complete my Bravely Default playthrough. I'm headed to the third crystal.
 
Alright, I've been bouncing around a bit trying to find a game to settle into. It looks like AC Odyssey is the winner! I bought it last year and never got too far. I loved Origins and it sounds like this expands on the new direction so I'm excited. I'll let you guys know how it goes! My guess is it will take me a few weeks at least to get through it.

This thread is really great for reminding me of games on my backlog that I haven't thought about for a while. I never finished Ratchet and Clank on ps4. I'll add that to the list too.
 
Last edited:

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Alright, I've been bouncing around a bit trying to find a game to settle into. It looks like AC Odyssey is the winner! I bought it last year and never got too far. I loved Origins and it sounds like this expands on the new direction so I'm excited. I'll let you guys know how it goes! My guess is it will take me a few weeks at least to get through it.

This thread is really great for reminding me of games on my backlog that I haven't thought about for a while. I never finished Ratchet and Clank on ps4. I'll add that to the list too.
I loved Odyssey, best AC game yet and I played through all of them within the past few years. It definitely takes the systems in Origins and makes them much, much better. I've probably put 200 hours on my character just doing absolutely everything (and still haven't).

Enjoy!
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
I miss Timesplitters so much. You're in a great place in your backlog it seems!

Update: Timesplitters 2 was excellent. Easily the best FPS I've played on PS2. I grew up with a PS1 so I never played Goldeneye or Perfect Dark but apparently lots of devs from those games worked on Timesplitters. Well I totally get it now. The multiple objectives, the music, the level design, the multiplayer. All good shit.

I beat it on Normal and then scored at least a bronze on all the Arcade mode levels. As someone who loved the vr missions in MGS1/MGS2, these goofy extra levels were right down my alley.

I am onto Bioshock 1 now. As a System Shock 2 fan, I think I was overly harsh on how Bioshock streamlined its elements. The fact is its a pretty damn good interpretation for consoles. I don't need an inventory screen to eat chips, just put them in the environment and the player can eat them directly. Makes sense.

HOWEVER, I will say the character-building is a little too barebones. In Bioshock you pick power A or B. In System Shock you create character 1, 2, or 3 with various permutations, and within those can upgrade various classes of weapons and powers. If Prey 2017 and New Vegas did this as console games, so could have Bioshock. But its still a kickass game.
 

Domisto

Member
Still playing. Had some busy weeks, real life in the way, yadda yadda.

I'm getting into Avernum a bit more now, still killing rats, but quests are stacking up.

I beat Environmental Station Alpha. Final boss took forever to get the hang of. My controller is taking a real beating. Says I've got 92% and took 20+ hours. BUT I know there's a load more content to this. Important stuff and upgrades not collected and locations I haven't uncovered. There's other endings than the one I got, so I'll be chipping away at this for even longer. Really didn't think this game was so big when I got it, but it's pretty great.
 
My mains are Assetto Corsa and Civ V so this is doable. Apart from them I'm intermittently playing through Witcher 1 but it's a bit of a slog, I'm about 3/4 of the way through and I'm off work this week so I might be able to finish it soon. Other games I'm going to try and complete this year :

Witcher 2
Witcher 3
Dying Light
Alien Isolation
Metro:Last Light
Her Story
Black Mesa

And a bunch of indie games I got from bundles I completely forgot about until I looked at my library
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I've completed 6 games so far, and so far they've all been things from my backlog. So far, so good.

We'll see how well I do come April when Final Fantasy VII launches. There's also Animal Crossing coming out and my entire family is going to be playing it. Trials of Mana is also calling my name. Gotta finish as many backlog games as possible to make up the difference, I suppose!
 
I loved Odyssey, best AC game yet and I played through all of them within the past few years. It definitely takes the systems in Origins and makes them much, much better. I've probably put 200 hours on my character just doing absolutely everything (and still haven't).

Enjoy!

I hacked away at this over the weekend. I'm playing on normal and am up to about level 16 or so. I am really digging it but one of my difficulties is just the sheer volume of content they throw at you. I am finding a rhythm a bit though.

I love the bounty system. More than once I have been fighting a merc only to have another 1-2 more show up. These fights can get to the point where I am kiting as many as 10 enemies around slowly chipping away at their health. The only times I die are when I am simply overpowered by numbers aside from a couple of times I have stumbled across really high level baddies.

I just killed my daddy, the wolf (or is he?!) and I am looking for Elpinor now. This game still has my favorite horse controls. I wish RDR 2 had implemented a similar system.

I am super intimidated by the size of this world too. I was trying to sail around and unlock the map a bit and it is absolutely gigantic! I can imagine it will easily take over 200 hours just to explore everything there is.
 

ExpandKong

Banned
Still plugging away at Fire Emblem, but it gave me a laugh. I chose to side with Edelgard rather than the church and now I'm at the temporary base camp getting sorted before we attack the monastery, which if I remember correctly is the last mission before the time skip. I'm walking around talking to everyone and it's all tense and dire and the one dude Ferdinand is conflicted. Talking about "My father was stripped of his title and placed under house arrest, I believe in what Edelgard is doing but for him to be disrespected like this, and what's she going to decide to do with me in the future?" And I'm over here "Yeah man, that's pretty messed up, listen is this your used bottle of perfume or what?"
 

Kenpachii

Member
Completed tomb raider 2013 for the first time.

1) wobbling camera effect killed my brain so bad
2) game is incredible short and the gore in it is way over done. Almost felt like playing some kind of horror game.
3) combat is kinda good but to simplistic
4) DLC is laughable bad
5) Story made no sense at all, acting was also pretty bad.
6) performed nice tho, ultra settings average of 180 fps. ( ranged from 140 > 400 at times )
7) survivalist mechanic is just bad.
8) bugs here and there that resulted in issue's but doable.

Total time 10 hours

Completed Rise of the tomb raider.

1) graphically better
2) dx12 is a buggy mess, cant even complete last boss fight with it and dx11 performance is total shit ~80 fps at times.
3) acting way better
4) Story again made no sense
5) good performance 120-170 fps at ultra
6) super super short, completed in 7 hours
7) way to easy.
8) again the survival mechanic was bad
9) didn't like the ending part of the game
10) DLC laughable bad
-) witch dlc honestly 15 minutes content with 10 minute fetch quest, i would qualify it as a side quest of witcher 3 not even remotely worth money
-) lara house, dissapointing on content, even the original lara manor was bigger and more fleshed out decades ago. The puzzle solution for the 3 numbers was also solvable in 30 minutes easily. Practically no content should have been a free update.

In short completed the entire game with dlc in 7 hours. How people spend 60+ bucks on this shit is beyond me what a joke.

Shadow of the tomb raider:

1) graphically again better ( shadowing is bad tho )
2) ultra settings about ~120 fps performs still good
3) puzzles again simplistic
4) feels more of the same of the older games but better fleshed out

Still working my way through it,.

all with all i can't believe people pay 60 bucks for these games, its that i got them on a discount a while ago for super cheap like 20 bucks everything. But god the content is abysmal.
 

Domisto

Member
I've hit a wall with Environmental Station Alpha. There's a dungeon of instakill spikes you have air dash through forever and frankly I'm not at one enough with the super dash to pull it off. After attempt 50 and no where near enough progress I declared it not fun anymore, sigh. Shame, because up until then the difficultly was really good for me, I'd put more effort into some of the bosses. Just didn't like that sector. And having looked at the boss after it, I'd have been screwed there too.

The devs advice to other poor souls, and he gave instructions, was to edit the save game file to give as much HP as you like. lol.

From skimming the guides I've actually done a lot of the after game content because it's not all linear. Cracked the alien language. But the spike path is in the way of other endings and secrets. Been a great game anyways and I made 99% out of.. erm.. 203% .. the dev is a mad man. The after game stuff is definitely for the dedicated.
 

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles (On going)
  • Final Fantasy XII
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not)

Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
Currently playing :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020)
Almost 20 hours in and I love it. The characters are really awesome, the combat system is a lot of fun and I am really surprised how much depth it has. Also a lot of stragegic choice : you have to choice your formation, arts, skills, shared skills and of course equipment (with gems !). I spent a lot of time managing my party and it's a lot of fun.
Also love the world settings and the story so far. Also the music... I spend already quite some hours in this place, just for the music...

A complaint I have is the fact that their is TONS of "sidequest". Hopefully, for most you just have to kill monsters or collect ressources WITHOUT having to go back to the NPC to complete the quest.
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ
I was extremely hyped on release (I even made my first arcade controller (a custom hitbox) for it) and played it for few months. But as my gaming time is not the same as when I was teenage, spending hours in training mode for practice was not as good as I remembered...
Still I enjoyed watching pro players regularly and always had the idea to come back. And so I did yesterday.
I bought the Gogeta DLC and replace Goku Blue in my team (Trunks, A21 and now Gogeta). Spend most of the time in ranked... And it was really good ! I love how in fighting games, you can evolve quickly during matches. I love this feeling. Of course I lost more than I won but it was so good. I had a session of more than 1 hour with a much better player than me but it made me progress a LOT. I could even take some games to him ;)
I'll try to practice a bit and continue to play for a bit :)
 
Last edited:
Finished The Witcher 1. Fantastic game. Great story, great dialogue, I even liked the combat by the end. Running around from 1 area to the next for a side-quest was a real chore though. Pacing could have been alittle better, the game seemed to very top heavy when it came to bosses, but all in all a very good game. Every mention of the Wild Hunt was absolute hype, fans must have gone mental at The Witcher 3 reveal.

Booted up and played alittle bit of The Witcher 2. Fucking fantastic opening cinematic like Witcher 1, but the combat system is so different than 1 and the camera is a lot closer over the shoulder than 1, contemplating using my gamepad instead because theirs no way I can be pressing number keys each time i want to use a sign. I was going to play the game vanilla but might have to look at mods
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I'm working on Bravely Default, trying to break the game with some fun job combos. I heard the sequel has a built-in "push your luck" mechanic where you can rack up battles in a row to get EXP gains so I'm looking forward to abusing that someday when I eventually try it out.

Grinding isn't too bad in this one -- a little worse than Octopath -- but it can be annoying if you have a job combo in mind and you need to grind through 7 or 8 job levels to try it out. I'm in the process of getting everyone to lvl 9 in Red Mage for the "+ BP when afflicted by status" passive and my Black Mage to 14 for Group Cast, which should allow me to hit everyone with poison x3 then cure x1, granting everyone a big ol' pool of extra BP on turn #2.

Kinda surprised this game isn't mentioned more among Persona / SMT fans since the battle system and "brokenness" seems like a close analogue.

Finished The Witcher 1. Fantastic game. Great story, great dialogue, I even liked the combat by the end. Running around from 1 area to the next for a side-quest was a real chore though. Pacing could have been alittle better, the game seemed to very top heavy when it came to bosses, but all in all a very good game. Every mention of the Wild Hunt was absolute hype, fans must have gone mental at The Witcher 3 reveal.

Booted up and played alittle bit of The Witcher 2. Fucking fantastic opening cinematic like Witcher 1, but the combat system is so different than 1 and the camera is a lot closer over the shoulder than 1, contemplating using my gamepad instead because theirs no way I can be pressing number keys each time i want to use a sign. I was going to play the game vanilla but might have to look at mods
I played through W2 using a gamepad on PC because I felt as though it was better-suited for it. To be fair, I've never really liked third-person camera controls on PC, so maybe it's my personal pref. As far as mods go, there was/is an official (?) rebalance mod that tweaked things and improved the feel of the control significantly when I used it on my 2nd playthrough.

Anyway, hope you enjoy W2! It is by far the best game in the series (IMO) and is worth replaying at least twice.
 

LegionX

Member
5. Bad Dream : Coma

Though technically you could say I completed 7 games... as I played the first 6 free games before this... but for as they were 15-30mins each I won't count them officially...

This took a bit over 4 hours to play through once, there are 3 official endings but I wasn't keen enough to get the other two. It's a 2D point and click style game, except there is no character on the screen you control, it's purely mouse control by finding items and then determining what to do with them. It has an interesting minimalistic art style that uses very little color.. It's horror themed but not really actually scary.... Was interesting playing the 6 smaller games and seeing the creator improve and add features as they went on. All up, it's interesting! anybody with any interest in the point and click style of game could find interest in it, as long as they aren't looking for solid dialog and plot at least!
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Still struggling to find time for games amid trying to get my fitness back on track, improve my brain with chess, get some game dev on the go and also fix some shortcomings I've identified in my software development skillset which are holding me back from earning more to support my family. Yeah I know it's all so fucking wanky but it's just kinda where I am in my life. Doing well by most objective measures but dissatisfied because of my own weakness of character and some of the hangovers from a rather unconventional route to not the top but failry high up having made me miss a few rungs on the ladder along with the experience that goes with them. I want solid foundations before moving on. Anyway, enough of the personal melodrama, on the gaming front I've found myself gravitating back towards Yakuza 0. I enjoyed Alpha Protocol but it didn't grab me in the same way some of my 2019 gaming did (the likes of Kingdom Come Deliverance, KOTOR 1/2, Disco Elysium). I've also been giving Street Fighter 5 a bit of my time, though unlike most hardcore gamers I didn't really play those games growing up (my fighting games of choice were the likes of Double Dragon, Streets of Rage on my mate's Mega Drive, etc) so I don't yet have a grasp of the million controls, frame data, etc. If anyone knows a good resource for a complete beginner that would be of interest to me.

So yeah long story short:
- Alpha Protocol - temporarily shelved - it's fun but perhaps one to return to when I have a little more time on my hands
- chess.com - playing a lot of chess and learning a lot as I go
- Yakuza 0 - Great fun little arcade fighter with Outrun and Space Harrier built in - what's not to like?
- Street Fighter 5 - Trying to wrap my head around its intricacies (I can beat most in Street Fighter 2 mode in arcade with Ryu for instance but can't beat E Honda or M Bison).
 

Domisto

Member
@hariseldon I can totally empathise with your struggles. I'm always trying to get more organised. Making the time for self improvement is hard work and an admirable goal. Good luck with it.

Gitting gud at chess is also hard work. I can only beat mouth breathing humans. Would rather take my chances on the fighters.

As for my gaming exploits.


[Backlog Progress is currently on Easy Mode]

I've been going through a bunch of small indie games. I generally like that sort of stuff and...

I've finally started going through my Epic freebies. A while ago I fired up Nuclear Throne. It was fun for an evening but I haven't felt like returning to it. Then tried GNOG which was okay but even though it's short I got bored and canned it. Some controls are a bit jank too. I was using mouse and controller at the same time. Then found something I liked and beat Minit. It has a smart gimmick (you die and respawn every minute) that turns a simple enough genre mixing little action adventure into a long series of speedruns. Not too hard but good and I liked exploring. Plus the style and design are my kind of thing. I swear there's another game that does something similar where the world is about to end and you keep retrying to save it. Can't remember it though.

On to games I paid for. Beat Pony Island which was a nice distraction. Gave me some chuckles. Glad I got it on sale at a deep discount though. Also played through The Blackwell Legacy - short and simple, quite fun, the clue system is novel, although pretty average game overall. And then played Blackwell Unbound, which I liked more. The writing felt better, cases and atmosphere got me more hooked, and some minor improvements in the design.

Been a good mix, some laid back gaming.
 

SpiceRacz

Member
Completed tomb raider 2013 for the first time.

1) wobbling camera effect killed my brain so bad
2) game is incredible short and the gore in it is way over done. Almost felt like playing some kind of horror game.
3) combat is kinda good but to simplistic
4) DLC is laughable bad
5) Story made no sense at all, acting was also pretty bad.
6) performed nice tho, ultra settings average of 180 fps. ( ranged from 140 > 400 at times )
7) survivalist mechanic is just bad.
8) bugs here and there that resulted in issue's but doable.

Total time 10 hours

Completed Rise of the tomb raider.

1) graphically better
2) dx12 is a buggy mess, cant even complete last boss fight with it and dx11 performance is total shit ~80 fps at times.
3) acting way better
4) Story again made no sense
5) good performance 120-170 fps at ultra
6) super super short, completed in 7 hours
7) way to easy.
8) again the survival mechanic was bad
9) didn't like the ending part of the game
10) DLC laughable bad
-) witch dlc honestly 15 minutes content with 10 minute fetch quest, i would qualify it as a side quest of witcher 3 not even remotely worth money
-) lara house, dissapointing on content, even the original lara manor was bigger and more fleshed out decades ago. The puzzle solution for the 3 numbers was also solvable in 30 minutes easily. Practically no content should have been a free update.

In short completed the entire game with dlc in 7 hours. How people spend 60+ bucks on this shit is beyond me what a joke.

Shadow of the tomb raider:

1) graphically again better ( shadowing is bad tho )
2) ultra settings about ~120 fps performs still good
3) puzzles again simplistic
4) feels more of the same of the older games but better fleshed out

Still working my way through it,.

all with all i can't believe people pay 60 bucks for these games, its that i got them on a discount a while ago for super cheap like 20 bucks everything. But god the content is abysmal.


Tomb Raider 2013 is a pretty mediocre game. The story is dog shit and it felt like a chore to finish it. I personally didn't enjoy it at all.

Rise on the other hand is fantastic. I put over 30 hours into it collecting everything and 100%ing each area. It sounds like you spent pretty much no time actually exploring in the game and just ran through it.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
@hariseldon You're gettin into SF5? Nice! I've been playing it regularly since launch day. Very fun game and now you get to enjoy it after years of patches and content additions. I don't have any suggestions, just play around with different characters and try to crank up the difficulty until you lose matches against the CPU at least 50% of the time. Then, evaluate why you are losing and grow from there. If you have a human opponent I would recommend a lot of Vs mode, too.

Domisto Domisto Nuclear Throne is one of my favorite "roguelike twinstick" games, but it is definitely simpler and less-nuanced compared to a game like Enter the Gungeon. I think it's still worth unlocking some of the characters and trying to get a standard clear. You can kinda-sorta plan your runs based on your character choice + the powers you unlock upon level-up + Red Crate manipulation. Some combos are straight-up broken.

As for my own exploits, I am nearly done with Bravely Default. (midgame spoilers) I have crossed through the Heavenly Beam of Time-Traveling Light and am now re-defeating the bosses. Now I understand why people got irritated with the game. That said, it feels more like a lazy boss rush for the sake of giving players plenty of JP (999 JP per battle, plus a few thousand EXP). Somewhere during development, I think devs realized there wasn't enough storyline to fill out the growth curve, so they threw in this padding for those who wanted to max out jobs.

I don't mind. I like the battle system enough. I won't max out everything (will save that effort for the sequel)


My first blockbuster game of the year so far has been Sekiro. I am still getting my butt kicked by certain enemies but I am making gradual progress. The dragonrot mechanic is an interesting way of making the player feel guilty for dying too often. I also get the impression that I am playing through a time-looping world full of aborted copies of myself (but maybe I am reading too much into the fact that The Sculptor and the swordsman in the well are also one-armed...). The world is not quite as exotic as Souls and Bloodborne, but I am still enjoying the vistas and the spooky caverns.

I find it's a lot easier to maintain this "no new games" challenge when I salt my playtime with arcade-like games. Played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV (SNES) with my 3 yr old son and got to the pirate level before he we ran out of continues. He had a great time and it was nice to bond with him over a game that I played as a kid. Played through some Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN) and got a game over on the robo-train boss of Stage 2. I hope to beat this one and then try the sequel on the SNES, Sparkster. And as always, dat Daioujou 1cc looms like a scythe, always taunting me, always beckoning me closer.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom