52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

[AvianAviator]

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19. Divination

Another short visual novel. You're a fortune teller/soothsayer in a cyberpunk world, where the AI in charge of running the city has committed suicide and caused an uproar among the community. Your clients have all been effected by this massive shift in one way or another; from the private investigator looking into a cult formed off the basis of the AI killing itself, to a robot wondering if it's life will ever be worthwhile. (As you can see, heavy suicide themes permeate the whole novel.)

Great presentation, excellent art, interesting premise. Would like to see something a little longer or more fleshed out. It's free on Steam.

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20. Higurashi Chapter 3: Tatarigoroshi

This chapter of Higurashi focuses on Satoko, the bratty half pint of the gang. Like the rest of the chapters, they start idyllic and twee (and maybe a little overbearing - this setup is important but can feel like filler) before delving into something much darker. The horror comes in two waves; first the more grounded and depressing reality of child abuse and the uselessness of the systems meant to protect said children. The second is the telltale mysterious and surreal goings-on in Hinamizawa:
why is someone who should be dead still walking around? How can someone be in two places at once? And can pure hatred and spite be enough to take a life?


As always, it's excellent, and the most stomach churning parts came from the real-world atrocities. Character and scenario writing is top notch, you really feel the frustrated helplessness of the friend group. And Satoko's behavior was frighteningly realistic and heart wrenching for her situation. It always takes me forever to get through the happy go lucky parts of these Higurashi chapters, but the second halves are so compelling that I finish them in an afternoon. Excited for Chapter 4!

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21. Mutazione

A self described "mutant soap opera," Mutazione is a narrative, meditative game about a small town on a distant island, the drama among it's inhabitants, and the life born from the ashes of disaster.

You're basically an outsider to this island, but your mother was raised here and your grandfather still lives there. You thought you were visiting him to be with him as he does, but he's got bigger plans for your ultimate role in the community.

Gameplay consists of walking around and talking to the island's inhabitants, learning their inner lives and daily schedules, their jobs and their fears, their wishes and their secrets. They're the best part of the game, but you have to walk all around town to get to them and there's no fast travel. (The town isn't that big, but it can get a little annoying.) The second aspect of gameplay is attuning to the rhythm of the island's unique ecosystem and cultivating gardens through music. You have to do this a few times, both to get plant-related items to the locals and to restore the harmony of the island. The plot threads of the island harmony tie in well with the dissonance of the community, and the climactic resolution works in tandem with it. It's a lovely game but you have to be a little patient with it - the same way you have to be patient with gardens, and with people.

 

[Rhaknar]

Game 13 - Bayonetta
Platform - Switch
Time: 11 hours
Rating: 4.5/5

Another replay, this time to be ready for Bayo 3, and it's still as crazy and awesome as ever. Well, maybe not AS awesome, I actually have some nitpicks with it this time around that never really bothered me before, like the weird random still-image cutscenes, or the fact that the game is very... brown and gold (much like a lot of the 360/ps3 era games). The last few levels also are a bit frustrating, but then it goes back to being awesome with some truly ridiculous last couple of bosses / sequences. I'll save the 5/5 for the sequel which I liked more, but it's still a classic tho (well, as long as you can overlook the ridiculous sexualization, but I'm not going to go there here).

Main Post

 

[Ganepark32]

Haven't updated since the end of January.. Kind of just forgot to do it best do so so I'll just tag the months completions for February, March and where I'm at up to now in April. Gone from 20 completions at the end of January to 47 as of now, so now in the home stretches of getting to the 52 completion mark.

Spoiler: February Games Completed

21. Deliver Us Mars (PS5) - 6/10 - Feb. 6th
22. Super Mario Land 2: The Golden Coins (NS) - 7/10 - Feb. 9th
23. Somerville (XSS) - 5/10 - Feb. 12th
24. Powerwash Simulator (PS5) - 8/10 - Feb. 12th
25. Seasons: A Letter to the Future (PS5) - 7/10 - Feb. 19th
26. Rez Infinite (PS5) - 10/10 - Feb. 22nd
27. Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition (XSS) - 6/10 - Feb. 22nd
28. Macbat 64 (NS) - 6/10 - Feb. 22nd
29. Vampire Survivors (XSS) - 8/10 - Feb. 25th

Highlights of February: Replaying Rez Infinite on PS5. It's still one of my favourite all time games and it looks even better. Shame that the Dualsense integration isn't as good as I'd hoped.

Spoiler: March Games Completed

30. Haiku, The Robot (NS) - Mar. 8th
31. Destiny 2: Lightfall Campaign (PS5) - Mar. 11th
32. The Spirit and the Mouse (NS) - Mar. 12th
33. The Forest Cathedral (XSS) - Mar. 16th
34. Demon Turf: Neon Splash (NS) - Mar. 23rd
35. Storyteller (NS) - Mar. 24th
36. Tchia (PS5) - Mar. 26th

Highlights for March: The Spirit and the Mouse was a lovely little cosy game that I'd love to see more of with how they ended things. Surprised it ran as well as it did as a small 3D indie title on Switch but yeah, great little experience. Storyteller was a similarly great experience, even if it was a little on the short side. Tchia was great, gave me the same kind of experience I loved about Never Alone, learning about a new culture and their way of life. Loved the traversal mechanics and loved exploring the islands, just feel it got a little away from the devs with that final stretch in terms of the gameplay as fine platforming wasn't something the game excelled at so could have done without it in those final stretches.

April Completions so far:
37. Citizen Sleeper (PS5) - Apr. 3rd
My favourite game of 2022 got its Playstation release in March and despite having completed it on Series S thanks to Gamepass, I thought I'd do the decent thing and purchase the game because it's fantastic, even more so now that all the free DLC is there. Even though this was second time around, I still loved the game. The soundtrack is something I come back tot time and again (I'm listening to it as I write this. Matsutake is a great track) and I love the visual style of it but really, it's a game where I can feel myself as the character; where I feel like the choices I'm making are those of myself. I talked in my GOTY post about how it's one of the few games that let me feel like the character and that I would always be left thinking about what the Sleeper would be doing when I wasn't playing. That remains true even now, as the cycles pass on the Eye and my Sleeper is there just living, eeking out an existance in the hope of one day finding his real body. Love the game and its one that I can see myself coming back to probably once a year to replay, much like Disco Elysium. Wholeheartedly recommend the game as it's just fantastic.

38. Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure Expansion (XSS) - Apr. 6th
I was excited for this as I wasn't a massive fan of the Hot Wheels expansion and while it's still a fun play, I came away from it a little disappointed. Maybe I went into it with the wrong mindset (I shouldn't have expected a complete handling model change for the rally events) but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did. It all started to blend in to itself, with races and events feeling like copies of one another regardless of the teams you joined. I know they weren't but it felt that way. It certainly left me feeling like I'd had my fill of the expansion and FH5 by the time I finished the final event, something which wasn't the case with FH2, FH3 and FH4.

39. DREDGE (PS5) - Apr. 7th
Controversially, I wasn't as high on this as everyone else seems to be. The fishing aspect of the game is pitch perfect and plays really well, even with the "press X when the cursor is over the green area" mini-games. Playing Tetris to fit all of your catch in was a nice touch also. But the rest of it, the Lovecraftian "Horror" stuff didn't really do much for me. The monsters in some cases simply proved frustrating to deal with as did the handling of the ship in some of the more confined areas of the world. I enjoyed part of the game, the fishing side, but the rest didn't grab me as I has done others. Kind of feel like I've missed out of something because of how everyone else seems to be loving it. Feels like I've only played part of the game that everyone else has. A shame but still, they nailed the fishing aspect for me and I'd happily have just taken a game of that without the rest of what was here.

40. Pineapple on Pizza (PC) - Apr. 9th
Downloaded and played out of curiosity and well, yeah. Very short experience that didn't really leave much of an impression. Not much to say really.

41. Birth (PC) - Apr. 10th
Picked this up as I saw the review in EDGE magazine and it instantly piqued my interest. Love the visual style of it, the macabre visuals of characters with unskinned skulls for heads, dead animals and what not. As weird as it was to look at, I found it really interesting and the dev did a good job to make it absorbing. The game itself is a point and click puzzle game with some light physics based puzzles, none of which are overly taxing to figure out but they each provide just enough of a head scratch to keep you going. You play a character who is trying to create her own partner and so completion of puzzles in shops and apartments on your street will win you organs or bones to piece your partner together. As I say, the puzzles are nicely done with plenty of variety throughout, many of which lead into one another in their respective locations. I thought it was just a brilliantly executed title from top to bottom. It's currently on sale as part of Steam's Puzzle Fest sale and I'd very much recommend a play through if you're interested.

View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1889040/Birth/

42. Terra Nil (Android) - Apr. 10th
Played this thanks to Netflix and while I know some had issues running this on their phones, I had no such problems. It's a nice relaxing experience that's a bit on the short side (though it sounds as though there will be more content added). I did feel it was a bit overly complex for what it was setting out to achieve with the 3 stages of reforming the environments (Why do I need to create greenery only to have to burn it and then do another process?) and it's something that definitely would've played better with a mouse rather than the touch screen. Still, an interesting title that is doing good work in the real world with the tree planting initiative they devs are running.

43. Time Loader (PS5) - Apr. 16th
Another short indie game I'd had on my wishlist for sometime. Finally had enough points from my PS Stars usage to get a £5 voucher which I put towards getting this. It's a 2D physics puzzlers where you control a modded RC car with a claw which is sent back in time to change a person's timeline and change their future life. You roll from room to room in your house in the past, changing little things to affect the future which ultimately leads to disaster and having to go back once again to return the timeline to its original state. It's over in about 3 hours and doesn't over stay its welcome. It was decent enough but I didn't find the overall story and gameplay to be hugely captivating

44. Landlord of the Woods (PC) - Apr. 16th
The first game by the devs of Birth that I talked about above. This is a short 1 hour point and click puzzle experience which shares some of the same physics based puzzles as the aforementioned title. It also maintains the same visual style, perhaps a little less polished here but still distinctive. It's a simple experience where you're tasked with going through the woods and visiting each of the tenants in a certain area to collect their rent. Your notebook has pictures of the objects you'll need to collect to move on and while some can be found by investigating the areas, you'll need to complete some simple puzzles to gather the others. While it is simpler in its mechanics than it's sequel of sorts, there's still enough there to make it engaging. There's also a twist ending which comes out of nowhere but feels suitably macabre as well. It's only about a dollar so for those interested, it's a cosy (in a weird way) little experience and worth a go at that price. And it's also on sale too so grab it, no excuse not to grab this and Birth.

View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1564090/Landlord_of_the_Woods/

45. Riverbond (NS) - Apr. 17th
Had previously played this on Xbox when it was part of Gamepass and enjoyed it then as a simple voxel hack and slash game. Saw that it was on sale for cheap on Switch so grabbed it and plowed through it. Not as enjoyable the second time through, with it just feeling very basic and not really engaging. There's also a haze over the whole thing on Switch and it doesn't run great in some areas, especially when the screen fills up with loads of enemies. One maybe that I should have left to memory then.

46. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) - Apr. 18th
I'd been close to purchasing this multiple times but never pulled the trigger after the trial didn't exactly set me alight. Had hoped it would eventually come to the Extra/Premium PS+ tiers but thankfully, it turned up as one of the PS+ Essentials titles. So I sat down and played through it over the course of a couple of days and I thought it was fine. Nothing great. Visually, it's beautiful. Bright and colourful with some fantastic texture work but gameplay wise, it felt quite slow. They really could have done with speeding up Sackboy as he ran very slowly. Everything felt weighty and not necessarily in a good way as it felt bogged down where a lighter touch in how Sackboy controlled was very much needed. The level design was fine with some interesting gimmicks, though levels incorporating the trains or slides were some of my least favourites because of the controls. Loved the music stages, reminded me somewhat of those from Rayman Legends (though that game incorporated them better). I was just a little let down overall. A decent game but held back by a few issues.

47. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (PS5) - Apr. 24th
Was very much looking forward to stepping back into Aloy's shoes and being in the world of Horizon once again and thankfully this expansion, while short story wise, lived up to my expectations. The game continues to be one of the most gorgeous looking games out there and Guerrilla really did flex with the new cloud systems and some general tidying of things. It's genuinely jaw droppingly beautiful in many places. Likewise, some of the set pieces are just phenomenal. That final set piece as one involving a storm cloud are stunning. Truly a next gen experience there. It took a little to get reacquainted with the controls but I was quickly ripping robots apart, especially with some new weapons which meant even Slaughterspines and Thunderjaws stood no chance. Liked the new robots, though wish they didn't jump about as much. Story was decent, gave us more insight into the Quen and into some of the Zenith. Really liked Seyka as a character though I will admit that every time her name was said, my head went back to Megadrive/Genesis era Sonic and said SEGA! The relationship between her and Aloy is handled well and I actually thought the choice you can make at the end made sense for some of their interactions. It certainly left me wanting more but I know that the eventual third game is still a ways of and as much as it was great to see and hear Lance Reddick one last time, it made me sad that it'll be for the last time as I suspect that Sylens will disappear apart from logs or messages to Aloy in the third games. But yeah, a visual spectacle and just a great experience. Can't wait for more.

Road to 52 (5 Remaining):
The Wreck
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Road 96: Mile 0
Redfall

Main Post

 

[stn]

8. The Last of Us Part 2 (PS4) - I prefer the first one but it was still good. Solid story, gameplay more of the same. [9/10]

 

[shadowman16]

59. Elevator Action Returns (PS5) - One of those that's been on my play list for ages now, and I finally sat down and put several hours into it. No surprise I loved it, its a great retro action game with some incredibly solid mechanics. 2/3 characters seemed somewhat... not so good compared to the default guy (who has amazing grenades) but that's really my only complaint with the game. Its tough yet fair, no silly bosses to ruin my day, rather just tight platforming with fair enemies, a few waves of enemies as a challenge (hence the need for grenades) and some great music to go with the stages. Its basically better than the original in every way (to the point the first stage is like a modern remake of Elevator Action). Absolutely recommended, one of Taito's best.

60. Thunder Cross (PS4) - Another Konami Arcade Archives purchase, and this one basically goes the complete opposite of Ajax for me... its a horizontal scrolling shoot em up, and you respawn when you die (instant upgrade over the fade to black Ajax does...)
Power Ups are your standard options, speed and various weapons, I like the double sided laser, its incredibly useful in many levels, especially the last one. Its bizzarely fair as well... like, it has its tough moments but I never feel overwhelmed and unable to progress. There's enough power ups that even dying doesnt slow you down much, on one credit I can get fairly far into the game on normal difficulty (pretty much to the end of stage 7), on easy difficulty I can clear the game, even the final stage that doesnt allow you to continue.

Special shout out to stage 4? (or was it 5?) which is just one continuous fight against one big space ship (sorta like R Type). Its got an amazing music track and its just a blast to replay that stage over and over. This one really surprised me, in an age where games usually had much steeper difficulty curves, this one feels "just right" for me, definitely recommend.

Next up:

Tchia (addicted to it, so damn good. Trying to plat it. Roughly 50% through story)
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (still on chapter 1 lol)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[djinn]

Main Post

7. FFXIV: Heavensward
I split playing this over about 2 years give or take. I remember enjoying the first half of this pretty well, then I stopped when anxiety started wrecking my life. That was maybe 2021 when I stopped and we cut to April this year and I've finally finished the expansion.

Firstly I love the settings and characters. Estinien is a massive edgelord and Ysale is great. Alphinaud really becomes fantastic in this. He gets to act his age and grow quite a lot too. Speaking of edgelords, I picked up the Dark Knight role in this expansion and I'm really enjoying it.

The dungeons were all fairly enjoyable and I've found I've really eased into the role of tank with far less anxiety this time around.

I didn't like some story beats towards the end but this was otherwise very enjoyable, moreso than ARR. See you in another 2 years, FFXIV.

 

[Celestial Descend]

21. Mass Effect | ARPG | PC | ★★★★☆ | 4-29
Fantastic introduction to a new world and lays the groundwork for an epic journey. The magnitude of choices and consequences is very impressive, and helps create a very immersive experience. Writing is great, and Sheperd is not afraid to throw a some zingers once in a while. I do wish he doesn't run like he smoke five packs a day though. Side quests are not memorable, and teammates, aside from a few story moments, don't get to shine and fully become their own character (I heard that got improved in the seuqel). Having been a JRPG fan growing up, I missed some excellent western RPGs, mostly because the first few I tried were old and hard to adjust to. Now I feel like I unlocked an entire treasure trove.

22. Umurangi Generation | AVG | PC | ★★★☆☆ | 5-11
I couldn't play the game for more than thirty minutes due to severe headache it induced. Near the end of the game, I finally realized I was supposed to repeatedly smash the jump button to jump higher. As you can imagine, my experience with the game was quite miserable. But there's something evocative about preserving the last generation of human on film. I've seen people say how angry this game is, but that's not the impression I got. Sure the graffiti paints a picture of confusion and desperation. But that's not what we are filming. Ours is the last stage of grief. Under the bleeding sky, people seem to be taking the looming doom quite well, either due to numbness or dignity, or maybe the facts that our friends are with us.

23. Chained Echoes | RPG | PC | ★★★★☆ | 5-12
Too many indie JRPG go for the shorter route while conveniently styling themselves as "Chrono Trigger inspired". This one says "fuck it, I'm going the full nine yards." It's the complete classic 16 bit JRPG package, with proper side quests and post game content and everything. The story is a hodgepodge of JRPG, manga and anime influence cramped into something engaging to the end, with certain events feeling a bit too familiar. Funny enough, another standout indie game from Germany in 2022: Signalis, gives the exact same impression story wise. Gameplay design is an absolute standout. With no random encounter and trash mob, the enemy variety is astounding, and each encounter is a puzzle to be solved. Just when I thought there's nothing more to be done about turn-based JRPG combat, this game came alone and proved me wrong. Writing and translation can be iffy at times, which some might say is a long standing feature of JRPG. I'm sure the writer has good intentions, but illogical world building such as "constant war makes the continent fall behind in technology" only serves to muddle the message.

 

[Bosh]

MAIN THREAD

Quick Update

• Ristar - Pretty unique game. The first half is a lot stronger than the back half
• Octopath Traveler II - Absolutely loved this from start to finish.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - A great remake that stands alongside the original instead of replaces it. The remake is more grounded and less action focus.
• Doom II - Has higher highs and lower lows than first Doom game. Some of the levels are overly long and complex for gameplay.
• Metroid Prime Remastered - Transition from 2D to 3D mostly works and is a fun game start to finish. The clunky and slow movement let down the exploration and combat.

 

[shadowman16]

So, I own loads of Spidey games... like, almost every single one aside a few misc handheld games. So why not play all the console, handheld (and that one arcade game) through right? ... RIGHT?

61. Spider-Man (GB) - Yes, the first LJN game (they suck) but this game is developed by Rare (they rock). So... it falls somewhere in the middle. Granted, I have plenty of nostalgia for the game so it biases my opinion, but I still enjoy it. Big sprites and you can tell who each character is, toe tapping music, and pretty straight forward gameplay mechanics, I find it fairly easy since Ive played it for decades now, but I still enjoy a run or two through it every other year. Is it a good Spidey game? Eh, probably not, but is it the worst? Not even close! Looking at my list, I have more GB games coming up (the really shit ones), as well as the first Sinister 6 game (oh dear...) and Spidey Vs the Kingpin (king indeed, these games aged like fine wine). I look forward to getting to... well, some of them!

Bonus (not counted) - Spidey for the Atari 2600... not one that has an ending I believe? So Im just mentioning it because it is the first console Spidey game after all. Its a simple game, but I do appreciate the humble beginnings. The idea of the game is to accurate use your webs to climb a big building to catch the Green Goblin... and then repeat. Over and over. Addictive but pretty shallow.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Tchia (addicted to it, so damn good. Trying to plat it. Roughly 50% through story)
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (still on chapter 1 lol)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[KtotheRoc]

31: Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster. End: 4/24/2023.

I have played Final Fantasy I a few times over the years. And I think this was a great version of the game. The QoL improvements cut down on grinding but can make the game too easy.

32: Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. End: 4/29/2023.

A prequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And I found it so worth it. Comes with several QoL improvements from the base game

I'm looking forward to where the series goes from here.

 

[Neil98]

1. Assassin's Creed XSX
2. Hogwarts Legacy PS5
3. The Last of Us Part 2 PS5

 

[Illusionary]

April's been relatively slow month for me, with only three games beaten - but my Halo marathon is complete and I'm halfway through for the year.

Main post here.

25. Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox Series X) | 8 April 2023 | 7/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty with 100% of intel collected. As the first true Xbox One game in the franchise, Halo 5 is a solid enough first-person shooter with suitably large scope to many of its levels and enhanced graphical polish, alongside the same impactful gunplay that's now well-developed. Clearly the campaign design is increasingly built around the potential for co-op gameplay, taking place with entirely squad-based encounters; it's nice to see, though, that a 'revive' ability now works (in both directions) with AI allies, though the apparent increased in survivability felt like it was somewhat offset by less damage resistance overall.

Sadly, the story underlying the game's events doesn't feel overly memorable; while it's still focused on Master Chief (and Cortana), with over half of the playtime spent controlling another Spartan, new to the franchise, it's hard to get as invested in events - and I can see why Halo 5 gets a fair bit of fan 'hate' as a result. From the perspective of someone without much sense of investment in the series, this wasn't too much of a detriment to my experience with Halo 5 and I still enjoyed my time with the game on the whole.

26. Supraland Six Inches Under (PC - Steam) | 11 April 2023 | 9/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked, 100% in-game completion. Six Inches Under is an excellent development on the compelling Supraland formula, deserving of the "Supraland 1.5" nickname that it's earned in some quarters. An unashamedly gamified combination of Metroid's exploration and upgrades, Portal's puzzle focus and intuitive 3D platforming (in first-person, which is an achievement in itself!), Six Inches Under moves its setting underground (...mostly, but let's avoid getting spoilery!) and becomes somewhat more linear, with a series of themed areas that, while still inherently interconnected, mostly function as self-contained for at least the initial critical path.

With some wonderfully creative and satisfying-to-use new upgrades, puzzle-solving is right at the game's heart, now with enhanced verticality which nicely mixes up the gameplay, enhancing all three of it its primary aspects. Of course, it's almost impossible for a puzzle game to tune the puzzle difficulty perfectly for every player so there were a few moments of frustration, but in the worst case there are plenty of guides out there to help, and with a sense of fun and humour running through the whole game, the enduring feeling can't help but come back to one of pure enjoyment.

27. Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X) | 24 April 2023 | 9/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty, 100% in-game completion. Open-world gameplay is a great fit for the Halo franchise, where the most enjoyable scenarios are typically those taking place in a large-scale battlefield - and Halo Infinite pulls off the transition with aplomb. With a plot that inevitably sees the Master Chief battling seemingly impossible odds, in the face of a wholesale defeat of the UNSC forces, a new AI taking the place of Cortana (and that is possible to do well) ensures that there's a sense of personality behind the missions and objectives, even if the overall plot doesn't really develop all that interestingly

Of course, the gameplay is core to any good FPS and here Halo Infinite succeeds impressively, with a wide range of interesting weapons from which everyone will find their favourites, and tactical setpiece encounters throughout. The Far Cry style side content that comes with an open world setting didn't feel as meaningful as it might - so chasing 100% does get a bit repetitive - but if you see it instead as a supplement to the core campaign it does its job decently, lending an essential sense of life to the world. I look forward to more in this style in future!

 

[chrominance]

April's tally:

7. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key (PS5, 2023) - 59:02 - April 15
8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch, 2019) - 82:28 + 4:32 in 2019 (NG+ Blue Lions) - April 27

Had fun with both, though they also started to wear out their welcomes near the end. Ryza 3 is a pretty good way to wrap up the series, though I feel that it also recalls some of the more awkward aspects of Ryza 1, specifically its tendency to string together a lot of cutscenes and fast travel actions without any actual gameplay to break things up. It's also way too easy to break the game with alchemy; as someone who really enjoys becoming super OP and destroying everything in my path, Ryza 3 peaks about 15-20 hours too soon in the alchemy department, rendering the remaining playtime challenge-free. There are no optional post-game bosses or anything like that either.

Three Houses was a breath of fresh air after the borderline embarrassing story of Engage. Playing through my second route, it wasn't too difficult to get back into the swing of things, and I appreciated having what turned out to be a very different view of events in the game versus Crimson Flower in playthrough #1. The main issue is that the monastery --> skirmishes --> chapter battle cycle gets old pretty quickly, especially with the NG+ benefits that allow you to play more skirmishes and perform more monastery actions due to your increased professor level. The story structure of the game basically requires you to play it over again for each route--even the first half of the game has elements unique to whatever class you chose--so there's no convenient way to fast forward through a bunch of this either. Which probably means it might be a long time before I do routes #3 and #4, assuming I do them at all. I might finally have to break down and watch synopses on YouTube of the other routes so I can finally get to Three Hopes.

Looking forward, May is going to be a weird month because I probably won't be playing many video games for most of it. Hilariously, I've scheduled a big trip right before Tears of the Kingdom comes out, so I'll miss out on the big May game for a while. We'll see what I manage to get through but my current expectation is to come back here in June with basically nothing to show for the month challenge-wise.

 

[Tambini]

#16 Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition - Xbox - 40 hours - 7.5
Overall had a good time playing this, I liked the tactical gameplay of the combat and exploring the various maps. It's very wordy and exposition dumpy,
which can be a little intimidating or even boring if you're not in the mood for it.
The main story is fairly interesting but it takes a lot of time to get to get good stuff. Really the most interesting stuff is right at the end.

#17 Persona 3: FES - PS2 - 65 hours - 7.0
This took a while to get through, but not because I didn't like it. It's just rather long and the "gameplay loop" is really quite repetitive
The main dungeon Tartarus is..not great, this is where emulator speed up came in clutch. I played with the party control mod.
There's some cringe anime stuff that had me eye rolling a bit, some outdated things here and there. like having to romance every girl just to further
the social link, no reason there couldn't be platonic social links with them too.
Kinda run out of things to do later in the game so end up just winding down the calender, this is where you start to feel the length of the game. Great soundtrack.

#18 Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy - Xbox - 12 hours - 7.5
Pretty neat Zelda clone, really strong art direction, it looks great even today. There is a strong stench of cut content, last few hours feel very rushed.
I liked the puzzles, not so much the combat.

#19 Pizza Tower - PC - 6 hours - 8.5
This feels really great to play, levels have a really good flow to them. Perfectly realised art style and animation. It constantly introduces new mechanics, there's lot of creativity in the level design. And the music is really great.

#20 Diablo II Ressurected - Xbox - 40 hours - 7.5
Despite some gripes I have, diablo 2 is really addictive. Killing and looting is fun, who knew? My biggest gripe is probably the bosses,
they are extremely difficult for most builds and the accepted tactic is to just wittle them down by teleporting in and out to restock potions.
The game is a little harsh in general when it comes to builds, you can easily fuck yourself over without prior research, veterans might like it but for new players, it can be offputting. Wouldn't have minded some rebalancing for the remaster. Still, fun and addictive, even if I did have to restart because my first character sucked

 

[shadowman16]

62. Spider-Man 2 (Gameboy) - So... the best two things I can say about this game is: It has some good ideas, and the controls are mainly on point. The game itself styles itself as a Metroidvania game where you play as Spidey, and you basically have to go to the right place, get the right item, sometimes fight a boss, then move onto the next point. Its a fairly short game, so in short order you'll end up: Webbing up Hobgoblin's glider causing him to crash, finding items to use the glider to fly over a electric fence (you couldnt just web swing Spidey? Or jump? It aint that high!), grab a security card and get a cure for Dr. Connors, using said cure to fight the Lizard who then gives you entry to fight Graviton (you all remember Graviton right... RIGHT?) and then go on a rollercoaster rider while Carnage basically just watches (seriously, he's so useless in this game its comical) and then finally reach Mysterio's flying blimp.
Its a good idea but finicky platforming in a couple of spots lets it down.
The main issues are: its way too short, you can be done in about 20-30 minutes, its not even that big so its not like you'll get lost, its really linear too, with most areas very small. Bosses aside Mysterio just involve cornering them and hitting them over and over, with Mysterio you gotta attack the real one before he hits you. Its really easy. The lack of web fluid in Mysterio's airship is a problem though, with it basically forcing you to backtrack to find more (it doesnt refill or respawn on death) which absolutely sucks. So basically... dont screw up.
Its all very mediocre, as you'd expect from LJN (they didnt have Rare to save their ass this time).
The sad thing is... the next GB game I have to play is even worse. The reason I mention this game has good controls? Its because the third game is almost unplayable with how bad the lag/responsiveness is... pity as the third game has a few good ideas, more on that next time.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Tchia (addicted to it, so damn good. Trying to plat it. Roughly 50% through story)
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (still on chapter 1 lol)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

[/QUOTE]

 

[Rhaknar]

Game 14 - Dorfromantik
Platform - Switch
Time: Ongoing
Rating: 4/5

Super chill and deceptively hard mix of puzzle game and city builder, Dorfromantik doesn't have much going for it, but what it does it executes perfectly. Use your tiles to make bigger and bigger landscapes and get the highest score you can, that's about it. But it's super fun and addictive, and nail the "just one more go" aspect perfectly.

Main Post

 

[Deleted member 32615]

Game 24: R4 Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1) (5 Hours) (April 26th, 2023)
Oh man, very rarely do games jump this quick into my favourite games of all time, but R4 absolutely has. The style, the racing, the tracks, the sound and somehow even the story are all top notch and I've been addicted to this ever since finishing the story modes a week ago. There is such a high level of polish in this, it manages to get the arcade-racing perfectly, it's speed is unbelievably satisfying and hopping into a race or a grand prix is so easy and fun to do. The tracks are all beautiful with great attention to detail, whether it's planes flying in the background or an inflatable Pac-Man, the tracks are all great and offer the variety an arcade racer needs. The soundtrack is also an all timer, absolutely my favourite soundtrack I've heard in a hot minute, Moving In Circles is such a brilliant song. Damn this is good, maybe top 10 favourite games ever good. I love this

Game 25: Cocoron (NES) (2 Hours) (May 2nd, 2023)
This one is such an awesome surprise. Another brilliant feeling NES platformer that has an interesting concept when it comes to level design and a character creator that works for a platformer and doesn't feel like an overblown gimmick. All levels are split into two parts, so when you select a level you'll play it's entrance, and once you pick the next level you'll play the exit stage of what you've just played. Since every stage can be put together, this means you can have any playthrough will be unique in comparison to the last. There are some wonderful levels too, in particular the games moon level with stars falling from the sky is brilliant and had me grinning ear to ear. The character creator is genuinely super fun and interesting and it took until my fifth time through it to find a build that stuck with me for the rest of the game. This game rocks, a top 10 NES game easily

With that I've already beaten my record of most games played in a year, 52 looking very do-able

Original Post

 

[Lord Fanny]

Finished out this month. Main post is here.

March was a pretty slow month, but a lot of that is because of one long game and replaying RE4R.

April (17/52)
15. Storyteller - Switch - 2 hours
16. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores - PS5 - 6 hours
17. Persona 3 Portable - Xbox Series X - 47 hours, 28 minutes

Click to shrink...

Going too slow at this point to probably finish, but might be able to squeeze it out with some shorter games later in the year.

May (21/52)
18. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Xbox Series X - 16 hours, 17 minutes
19. Ravenlok - Xbox Series X - 3 hours, 41 minutes
20. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) - Xbox Series X - 8 hours, 51 minutes
21. Alone in the Dark Prologue - PS5 - 8 minutes

 

[stn]

9. Berserk: Band of the Hawk (PS4) - average gameplay but I love Berserk. I'll do the platinum at some point. [6.5/10]

NEXT: Final Fantasy XV (PS4), Resident Evil 4 (XSX), Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5)

 

[L Thammy]

Alright, enough horsing around. It's past due for me to get back to this.

22. Rohga: Armor Force / Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

I think I beat this before, but I didn't have it noted, so I went ahead and did it now. It's specifically the PlayStation port via the I actually did two runs, one on the PlayStation setting and one on the Arcade setting. Mainly I did two runs because I didn't actually know the difference between the two settings.

Essentially, this is mecha run and gun game. The big gimmick is that you can customize your machine, selecting either a pre-made set or a picking from individual options for the smartbomb-esque weapon, melee attack, and leg parts. You can select again after a game over. As an additional quirk, when you run out of health, you don't get a game over right away, but instead eject out of your machine and continue to fight on with a jetpack. If you get three powerups you recover your machine, but if you get hit once before you can do it you die.

Honestly, the more I play this game, the more negative I am towards it. I do want to like it; it was definitely trying to capture an authentic style. The customization gimmick is neat, and the story is about a mission in Australasia, which gives it sort of a neatly contained scope. But it's all held back by the Data East arcade approach where it's just supposed to wow you at a look and there isn't much thought put into making the gameplay attractive. The action feels very indistinct and unreadable, so it's difficult to appreciate fairly minute differences in ability between customizations.

I'm saying this as if this game is trying to impress on spectacle, but I also kind of feel like there isn't a great amount of that too. The sprites are all really well done and it does have big bosses any everything, but again, it's all kind of indistinct. The environment does change while you go through the stage, but there's nothing really that catches the eye in them. Similarly, the bosses are all just big vehicles of some kind and don't really invoke any particular images. There's nothing in there that can stick in my memory and allow me to say that, hey, in this game, this cool thing happened.

PlayStation mode adds voiceovers which feels good, but it does lead to sort of a weird contrast because it doesn't remove the voice samples that were already used. You've got these serious and stoic Japanese voiceovers from the military characters and then the overly excited English voice clips telling you that you're recharged your special weapon. It also replaces the soundtrack with one using real instruments, but it isn't an arrangement of the arcade soundtrack. I don't think the new soundtrack is terrible or that the arcade soundtrack is great, but the arcade soundtrack did have a banger for the first stage, and so the new soundtrack is worse off by not having it.

 

[shadowman16]

63. Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider Slayers (GB) - A game so utterlly fucking terrible that I had to emulate it just to finish it. Because the controls are so borderline unresponsive that many levels seem almost impossible to clear unless you have patience of a saint.
So what is this POS? The third GB Spidey game makes things even worse, it starts out with you stopping muggers by waiting for them to spawn, then hitting them once. Its around this point you realise the controls suck.
The second stage is just a quick fight against the "Alien" Spider-Slayer (remember that cool unused toy from the animated toy line in the 90s?) - basically this game is based on the 90s Spider Slayers comic run, which is actually pretty cool.
The third stage is where everything falls apart - you need to climb up a building using jumps and web swings, and its so fucking bad, controls lag, buttons dont work, web swinging sucks, and that's assuming your not being attacked. While it is possible, it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I originally put the game down for decades at this point. Smart move past me.
So the rest of the game is like this - any level that requires vertical platforming is just an utter catastrophe - escaping the building that's blowing up in stage 2 is almost impossible, as is one of the levels inside the Tinkerer's lair...
Boss fights are just you basically outlasting the enemies (they are braindead) with exception to the final boss - Smythe in all his cybernetic glory. He you just keep some distance from, but he's still not exactly that hard.

Ive played almost every Spidey game there is. And heck Ive played thousands of games. I dont think its unfair to say that, aside from games that are literally impossible to finish (due to being unfinished, glitches etc.), this is the single worst game Ive ever played. Its just abysmal in every (spider) sense. Well, at least it actually cant get worse from here lol.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Tchia (addicted to it, so damn good. Trying to plat it. Roughly 50% through story)
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (still on chapter 1 lol)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[shadowman16]

64. Tchia (PS5) - What a delight this game was. Great setting, wonderful aesthetic and audio (seriously, I cant imagine this isnt my soundtrack of the year, Im not even a fan of this type of music but I adored every moment of it). Game also has incredibly fun mechanics - jumping from item to item to animal etc. was such a blast, I managed to traverse the map really quick thanks to shooting rocks into the air, and then hopping into them, then shooting it while in midair again (and repeat), plus lots of birds, fish and other wildlife to explore.
The story is mainly nice (though bizarrely leaving open a plot thread in the ending...) and the combat is easily the least interesting part of the game (which makes the larger camps to clear rather boring after a while). Aside from that, the exploration and other mini games is great fun, felt appropriate (I assume) to the setting and again, aside the combat the 100% was a blast to experience. Definitely THE indie game of the year for me right now. Play it!

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[His Majesty]

6. Hi-Fi Rush - 9/10

It took me some time to really get into Hi-Fi Rush. The amount of combo's to learn can get overwhelming and the platforming does not leave the best impression. And there is a lot of it. But the game just exudes charm and makes up for it with great combat, fun characters and a really amazing finale. Some more boss fights in the middle would have definitely made for a better paced game though. Great game overall and even one I might return to later on.

7. Ghostwire Tokyo - 5/10

As much as I enjoyed Hi-Fi Rush, the other recently released Tango game left me less enthusiastic. A beautifully realized city aside, Ghostwire Tokyo hasn't got much going for it. It clearly draws inspiration from many Japanese legends and folklores but fails to craft a captivating narrative around any of them, be it in the main quest or side stories. While initially I had fun with the combat system, it wasn't enough to carry the game. The boss fights are also a bit lacklustre. A real shame because Tango proved with the first two Evil Within games that they are capable of much more.

Spoiler: All completions!

1. Remember Me (PC) | 1st Jan - 10 hrs | 7
2. Signalis (PC) | 8th Jan - 10 hrs | 8
3. Dead Space (PC) | 3rd Feb - 15 hrs | 8
4. Horizon Forbidden West (PS5) | 20th Feb - 60 hrs | 5
5. Atomic Heart (PC) | 8th Mar - 25 hrs | 8
6. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) | 29th Apr - 15 hrs | 9
7. Ghostwire Tokyo (PS5) | 3th May - 25 hrs | 5

 

[shadowman16]

Im really enjoying my time playing through all the Spidey games, even if my ranting about some of them suggests the opposite! Ive been making great pace clearing most of the 8bit games so far, and with the 16bit ones fast approaching, I look forward to the jump in quality... though Maximum Carnage is gonna be a nightmare to replay successfully! (I only ever completed it once, and that took a heck of a lot of effort!)

65. Spider-Man Revenge of the Sinister 6 (Master System) - More like revenge of bad controls and mediocre gameplay... this one manages to avoid the dubious title of "worst game in the series" thanks to Invasion of the Spider Slayers being borderline unplayable without emulating it. The controls still suck (they are way too stiff), Spidey's hit box is way too big, enemies hit boxes way too small, levels are basically insanely straight forward, it literally feels like the devs gave up after the third level (Mysterio) as the last three levels are so woefully basic that its about 45 seconds of running to the right, attacking about half of dozen enemies (not exaggerating)
Bosses suck as well. Its basically two trains of thought - the "flying enemy who gets into range for a short amount of time," or the "disappear and then reappear" fights. The only one that sorta bucks the trend is the final boss - Doc Ock - whose so hilariously easy you'd be forgiven for thinking he's the first boss and not the last one... You dont really do anything "Spidey" like either. You basically never crawl on anything outside of the first stage a couple of times, and you never actually need to web swing ever. A complete waste of a license.

66. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Master System) - Another pretty straight forward/short game, but good news the controls and collision detection are top notch here and it makes ALL the difference. The game handles wonderfully with you web swinging through levels, platforming, climbing etc. just like a spider can... Music is solid, graphics are fine for the system, and the game runs pretty snappy. My only real issues are: game is way too short - again after a couple of levels, the last couple feel super short, but with way more dangerous enemies to compensate, and Electro's stage can be real punishing for a first timer (basically until you "figure" the route out, you'll be heading back to your home to heal a lot!
But the good news is as least each level feels like it belongs in the Spidey universe, much better than all previous games. Boss fights are actually pretty good, with each having easy to read patterns and fast paced action (not like Sinister 6) so while the entire thing is over way too quick, it just makes me wanna replay it over and over, rather than switch it off never to return to it. A solid outing for the Webhead on the Master System, and while its aged for sure, it still holds a place in my collection.
Up next is both the Mega Drive and Mega CD versions of Kingpin - all three consoles got similar yet very distinct/different versions, and these next two have always been two of my absolute favourites! Here's hoping that time has treated them well!

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Moss Book 2 (almost done with the game)
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[shadowman16]

67. Moss Book II (PSVR2) - I adored the first book of Moss, and yeah this isnt so much "more of the same" as "Moss' perfect form". Sure the gameplay is similar but it fleshes everything out so much - its longer (finishes the story), it has way more powers which leads to way better puzzles and just better everything. Bosses are the weakest part, cant say I cared for them, but they are a tiny part of the otherwise excellent game. Its a real looker as well - looks amazing in VR and Quill's animations are just adorable.

68. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Mega Drive) - Absolutely as excellent as I remember it. Controls are solid, levels are well designed and not as short as the MS ones, boss fights are more varied - with the likes of Electro forcing you to watch where you stand (he electrocutes certain platforms) while Venom forces you to keep moving due to his high damage attacks and excellent agility, Sandman... still is not the least bit threatening! And then you have the difficulty feels just about spot on, with you being able to continue or heal when needed, picture taking restores web fluid (as well as pick ups in stages), with difficulty creeping up in the last couple of stages where you navigate cramped caves with mechs and lasers, and a boss gauntlet against several bosses at once (again, watch out for Venom). Kingpin has a hilariously small hit box considering your hitting his rather large head! And of course dont forget to web up Mary Jane's chains so she isnt melted!

Basically its still my favourite Spidey game out there, its pretty much perfect. I do appreciate how it takes the basic ideas of the MS version and fleshes them out a ton - Doc Ock's warehouse has far more going on, with airducts to crawl through, the forklift mid boss is not quite as big of a pushover, there's more verticality in the stage (most stages actually) so you use all the crawling, swinging etc. moves as well as your trusted melee attacks and web shooters.

Now onto the Mega CD version, which is one of the few games that has the Sinister 6 show up and not have the game suck!

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Death's Door
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[L Thammy]

23. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

For some reason, I thought there was a story mode, but I guess there isn't. I just beat arcade mode with Ren & Stimpy, although I'd like to try it with another character or two.

I had previously been tepid on Rivals of Aether because it couldn't escape the trapping of the competitive Smash community and has little identity of its own, but this game is probably even worse in that regard, since it has less originality without the same competence in execution. Rivals' movesets were fine, obviously taking some nods from particular Smash stuff, but the characters still managed to have widely varied game plans which I intuitively get a sense of. I understand why those characters are good additions to the roster. With Nickelodeon, after beating the game, I still have no idea what the difference is between one character or another or how I'm supposed to play the characters.

Then you have stuff like the character animations feeling really stilted, the lack of content, the pre-match dialogue being made out of generic sentences and being improperly punctuated at some places. The game just has this horribly amateurish feel to it. I remember there was a whole big deal about the game not having voices at launch, but at least now that they're there I kind of wish they weren't. They just make me aware that there's no real dialogue, and the sound bytes during battle quickly grate on me.

It might be that I"m being overly harsh on this one, but I can't in good conscience say that it's anywhere near as good as Rivals of Aether was, and I don't particularly even like Rivals of Aether.

24. Knights of the Round
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

I know I had played this one a bunch as a kid, but I didn't remember if I had ever beaten it, so I did so now. In retrospect, I'm almost certain that I did, although maybe I've never bothered to watch the ending? That felt unfamiliar to me.

Closer to the time this actually released, I did like it a lot, but I think it actually left me with a poor appreciation of the genre for a long time. This was part of a wave where Capcom, seeing Final Fight's success, tried to make games with essentially similar gameplay without too many major changes. But inevitably those failed to fully understand what was so good about Final Fight, and so are kind of pale as imitations.

Take a moment to actually compare the two. Final FIght has a number of different moves with different utilities, like throws that bowl over enemies or a jumping knee that allows you to ease yourself into a combo, which add up to allowing you to react to situations and control the crowd to make the approach safer. Haggar has an extremely setup where he's the only character who isn't good at keeping regular enemies in front of him down, but he can do damage to bosses which is proportional to their HP, ruining them with an ease that no other character can. In Knights of the Round, characters have no moves that allow moving enemies around, and while you have a faster and a strong character they just have slightly different damage rates and struggle against the same things. In Final Fight, you had different weapons you can pick up which made it easier to keep enemies down for a time, with different characters being specialized for different weapons such as Cody having an extremely fast stabbing attack. With King of Dragons, there are no weapon pickups, with the closest equivalent being a horse which operates similarly for everyone.

Beyond that, I just feel like the game isn't that learnable, with some things just destroying you until you put in another quarter. Arcade games can get away with that, but I think good beat em ups encourage you to play well, even if they're simple enough to allow the player to just mash buttons and have a good time that way. King of Dragons is even simpler in terms of what you can do, but it's much more fun to play through that game and learn how to weave through the enemies' attack patterns.

Looking at it again, I do think they were putting some efforts into the backgrounds and cutscenes to match Final Fight's lived-in feeling, probably the best attempt of Capcom's fighting games, but it's a very brown medieval fantasy universe so it's hard to appreciate.

 

[Nocturnowl]

edit: hmm apparently I posted an incomplete post here? I'd like to think I'd remember finishing a post!

I think I was saying that it's truly a special occasion when someone plays a WOAT or GOAT contender for themselves in this thread, take a bow Spider Man 3 GB
And that L Thammy's thoughts on Nick All Stars is exactly where I landed last year (oddly I didn't post it in this thread but thinking back I did beat an arcade run and try the whole roster so maybe I should've?), it's almost impressive how such a diverse set of characters all play so similarly, and not in a good way.

 

[Nocturnowl]

17. The Last Case of Benedict Fox ★★

Truly I wasn't sure if I'd be able to include this game in the thread, after the game softlocked me and I had to wait on a patch that fortunately did solve my issue, and hopefully others because lordy this game is full of the bugs and I wasn't the only one in the OT having to throw up their hands within the release weekend.

What's interesting though, is that despite being deep enough into the game to confirm that it unfortunately, wasn't all that good, I chose to return because I actually did want to finish it. See what stings about Benedict Fox is that on one level, it's one of the more refreshing metroidvania games I've played in some time.
It's very much a game of two halves that sorta mesh together, there's a point and click esque puzzle solving adventure in here entwined with an action game, while they're not fully divorced from each other, the bulk of the game takes place in the action orientated limbo areas.
This ends up being one of the bigger issues because the game is simply put, pretty damn jank, its combat is rough, unpolished and so on. Said limbo areas are a dreamscape of memories hodgepodged together, vast and sprawling, yet with little substance. While Benedict Fox has great style and a few striking rooms of abstract visuals to journey through, the actual world design just ain't there. Too big for its own good and simply put not all that interesting to traverse, it's not actively bad mind you, but there's very little in limbo that stands out, and even the specific set piece segments like a prolonged chase sequence, a mercifully brief forced stealth outing where your movement is intentionally gimped (whhhhy?) and a "get your gear back" time loop just tend to highlight the flaws of the game more than anything else.

Now the other half of the game (well, really the other third I guess) leans more into solving puzzles, picking up scraps of information both in and out of limbo to solve an ever increasing list of mysteries as you slowly come into contact with more and more NPCs as you sleuth around the fairly compact yet intriguing manor house.
A lot of tasks involve "the conundrum machine", which requires you to understand and decipher a numeric code system to open hidden paths, figure out clues for piano and chess puzzles etc. There's something inherently rewarding about grasping how to read the runes and such, since the game doesn't really tutorialise it.
Considering that the general platforming movement feels akin to a cinematic platformer style of days past, and you've got this focus on puzzles, I just kinda wish they leaned more into this and not the overpopulated "like 2D Dark Souls/Hollow Knight but..." approach that makes up the lionshare of gameplay, especially when it's handled as roughly as this.

And of course, the performance issues, oh deary me, this is the most busted game I've played in years. Bafflingly there's no autosave or mid game manual save, only a save and return to main menu option, which is not good when your game is prone to crashing back to the xbox dashboard, locking up in a loading screen, suddenly rendering you immobile and much much more.
The game's Performance mode does such a number on some of the game's visual assets that it really defeats the entire point of opting into performance, a skybox texture in the opening was a pixelly mess, most notably any instance of using the in game diary or conundrum machine came in like a half loaded image I couldn't read without parking myself right next to the tv.
Quality mode solves this if nothing else, and the game runs so slipshod that I didn't really notice any negative difference to the dropped frames and such so...yay?

As such, I really can't recommend this game and that is a shame, it was my most anticipated title from Microsoft's slate of gamepass reveals last year, the lovecraftian horror mystery theme allows for a fresh take in a crowded genre, the game absolutely has its own voice and approach, I respect it a lot for that.
But in the end you still have to actually play these games, and tone can only go so far, even when patched up to a decent level the game wouldn't be breaking past a 7 out of 10 barrier I feel, but damn if I wouldn't be game for an improved sequel, sure they say the last case of Benedict Fox but ooohhhhh who knows eh?

A quick bonus round of neat touches/ideas I like in this game yet unsaid, to offset the negativity
- Benedict himself is bound together with some sort of Eldritch creature known simply as the companion, who talks to you in a grisly growling voice, despite this they get along quite well and it's kinda endearing.
- Following up on "the companion", this is the contextualising for your abilities and upgrades on the metroidvania side of things, while the approach to double and triple jump has issues, it's pretty inspired that it requires nearby walls or ceilings so your tentacles can give you that secondary jump
- Did I mention that the game looks great when it wants to? it may not always run well, but the style is excellent
- The combat may be mid, but popping off the flare gun is always satisfying



18. Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed ★★★★

A vertical slice of XB3, encapsulated into a leaner 15-20 hour run time ala the XB2 DLC before it.
Though this one definitely expects you to have played the base game first, possibly why it lacks a standalone release. XB3 was one of my favourite games last year, even if the combat had driven me up the wall after 60 plus hours, so this was mostly more of a good thing.
Not too much to say here, monolith continues to be masters of world design that entices exploration, this time around the game has all its subsystems and exploration rewards playing into each other that nothing you do ever feels wasted, it can get a bit open world checklist for sure, but once again Monolith makes worlds that are inviting to explore so it rarely felt to me like I was just chasing icons on a map screen.

It's still that XB3 combat, which is to say a good system with some nagging issues often relating to feeling more like being the manager of a sports team at times than actual sports player participant, saying that the lead character here Matthew might be the most fun character to play as in the XB series as his martial art combo skills progress into a pleasingly rhythmic game of DPS-ing the shit outta things.
The best thing I can say about this DLC is that after the main game of XB3 kinda stumbled to the finishing line, complete with notably tedious final dungeon, this DLC ends with what I'd consider the best final area in a XB game to date, what a nice apology!
On the whole a great addition to an already great game.



19. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon ★★★

The second game in this post where I'm playing as a human and their demon, what a coincidence!
From the jump let me say that visually, this game is absolutely gorgeous, we're talking a game that I'll be posting in best artstyle threads and the like, nearly every scene you enter in the Avalon forest is an interactive picture book, teeming with style and small details that bring it to life, truly one of my prime examples of how art style can trump all, it's certainly a better looking (and performing) game than the recent Bayo 3.
Though I can't quite say it's as good as the rest of the series as a game, in a series of greats, this here is the one that's just good, and that's fine, yet the nagging feeling is there that they could've taken things further.

Origins gets off to a slooooow start, first impressions were not too favourable but it starts ramping up around chapter 2/3 when the game finally gets to bring its main focus to light, the asymmetric gameplay utilising umbran witch Cereza with the left side of the controller, and stuffed cat demon brawler Cheshire on the right side.
The game brings to mind Okami in numerous ways to me, both the positives and not so positives that have always had me appreciate Okami, but not quite love it.
It carries a similar "zelda-like" vibe that leans more into vibes and its visual theme over having as strong puzzle foundations, much like Okami a lot of the combat takes place in a locked down area as many a platinum action game does, there's just a lot of moments where I'm playing and it's like "you know what tugging on this object with a vine reminds me of? Okami", "you know what speeding myself across water on a lilypad reminds me of? Mario Sunshine Okami!"
(side note: best feeling lilypad boosting in a game right here).
Continuing the trend of zelda-isms, the game recontextualises the sorta hidden but not always Bayonetta challenge rooms as something more akin to shrines in Breath of the Wild, a good chunk being mandatory for main game progress on the central path and offering some neat bite sized puzzle chambers.
Unfortunately the more the game goes on, the more these areas devolve into actually just being Bayonetta series combat challenge rooms, about half way through the puzzles just sorta stop and combat takes the forefront like walking into another "test of strength" shrine in BotW and being kinda disappointed, the overworld exploration picks up a bit more slack from here on out mind you.

As far as the puzzle and traversal side of things go, this is where I think the game seems to reel itself in and opt to not push further, it never quite takes its ideas far enough and is rather content to repeat simpler things or rely on simple timing tasks (woah, better walk past the fire/lazer/plant during its downtime!) a bit too much.
Considering some of the dynamics that come from having control of two characters at once, it just feels like a missed opportunity.
I'd also add that while exploration in this game is encouraged, the rewards can feel lacklustre, it's mostly just currency for two different skill trees, heart containers and a few usable combat items that I never really needed, with the amount of treasure chests you stumble across it's never all that exciting opening them.
On top of that, the map is absolute pants, I thought the game was being unusually heavy handed with always pathing the main questline with wolf prints, like it took away from the compact and entwining world they'd created. In reality though, you need them because the menu map is vague, misleading and confusing, I was going to go for a post game item cleanup but stopped around 85% because the game just gets in its own way here.
If the mission was to enforce the idea that Avalon is intentionally maze like forest made by asshole faeries trying to get you lost, then mission complete I guess!

While I have a lot of love for the game's style visually, the game's tone strikes me as completely bizarre.
Even if you've never played a Bayonetta game, you probably have a certain idea of the character and tone in mind, this here meanwhile is the complete opposite, a storybook narrator, Cheshire's own voice being like a parent putting on their monster voice when reading a bedtime story, by the numbers tale about a scared child getting braver and an uneasy alliance turning into a bond (or more accurately, it's not that I like you or anything baka!). Interuptions for story time are very frequent, yet the game has very little to say a lot of the time, Cereza spends a big chunk of the game being intentionally set as a stark contrast to her adult self and it's not exactly riveting stuff I tell ya.
Towards the endgame things start getting way more Bayo-arse-bayonetta in both gameplay and tone, the final three hours go pure platinum (if you know, you know) which also further muddies my feelings on "so who was this game actually for again?"
And therein lies the conudurm of Bayonetta Origins to me, it's a perfectly good game that flirts with greatness, it's platinum games making something fresh and novel, the kind of fully fledged 40 quid adventure you don't sen enough of (contrary to its initial looks and trailers, this game is not something that should be £20 on the eshop like even I initially thought, this is as fully fleshed out an outing as any other bayonetta game), it's a risk!
But I just don't know who the heck for? the combat is simplistic yet fun with a strong enemy lineup, but it wont satisfy the deep depths of the mainline game's fans, it could be bayonetta for a younger audience but every time I consider that I then think "what and then on board them to Bayonetta 1 with is markedtely different adult tone and poledancing? hmmm no",
So it's Bayonetta for the niche of the niche, someone like me who can happily plonk the money down for a weird tonally dissonant spinoff, this game has cult classic written all over it for sure, it just falls short of true sleeper hit status.

 

[Rhaknar]

Game 15 - Bayonetta 2
Platform - Switch
Time: 9 hours
Rating: 4.5/5

Fantastic sequel that looks much better than the first game (one of the best looking games on the Switch especially in a oled portable, so wtf happened with 3? a story for another time I guess), and still has some fantastic set pieces and bosses, but I actually didn't resonate with it as much on this replay, as I felt the second part of the game isn't as strong (hell the game peaks in the first level to be honest) and the story is a time travel mess. Still awesome tho, and im really curious to finally play 3 now.

Main Post

 

[sabertoothzombie]

Main Post

February
16. SEASON: A letter to the future (PC) | 1st Feb - 6.7hrs | 4.5/5 : Basically a walking simulator on a bike. It resonated with me and I loved it
17. Button City (PC) | 3rd Feb - 5 hours | 3/5 : Chill and fun, but doesn't really stick with me
18. The Block (PC) | 3rd Feb - 86 minutes | 2.5/5 : It's...fine.
19. Like a Dragon: Ishin! (PS5) | 23rd Feb - 30 hours | 3/5 : Probably one of my least favorite Yakuza games. I just preferred modern day environments
20. Genesis Noir (PC) | 24th Feb - 3.9 hours | 2.5/5 : I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would after looking at the art
21. The Last Campfire (PC) | 26th Feb - 4.6 hours | 3/5 : The puzzles were actually pretty good, gave me a bit of a pause
22. Embracelet (PC) | 26th Feb - 4.7 hours | 2/5 : I didn't enjoy this, kinda boring and didn't connect with me

March
23. Octopath Traveler 2 (PC) | 8th March - 95.1 hours | 4.5/5 : A great JRPG, better than the first in every way
24. Tinykin (PC) | 12th March - 8.6 hours | 4/5 : After A Hat in Time, it's probably one of the best platformers I've played. It was so good
25. Strange Horticulture (PC) | 14th March - 4.2 hours | 3.5/5 : Pretty chill and forgiving with mistakes
26. Norco (PC) | 19th March - 5.5 hours | 3.5/5 : Uhh...I'm not sure I understood everything but it was Disco-like
27. Frogun (PC) | 22nd March - 7.8 hours | 2.5/5 : So many issues with inputs not being recognized and the overall gameplay not feeling the best
28. Teacup (PC) | 24th March - 2 hours | 3.5/5 : Cozy, like the definition of cozy
29. Solar Ash (PC) | 26th March - 6.4 hours | 4/5 : It's basically a 3D platformer on skates. I was expecting HyperLight type difficulty but this was actually pretty easy
30. Terra Nil (PC) | 31st March - 8.8 hours | 3/5 : Good, chill, but wayyy too expensive for what is there

April
31. Olija (PC) | 5th April - 4.1 hours | 3/5 : The combat was pretty interesting with how the spear worked. It's a good game
32. 9 Years of Shadows (PC) | 9th April - 11.5 hours | 3.5/5 : Really good game that suffers from the sin of contact damage on enemies
33. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) | 17th April - 12.1 hours | 5/5 : A pure video game. Just perfect, and I suck at character action and rhythm games
34. Dredge (PC) | 26th April - 8.6 hours | 4/5 : I thought there'd be more horror, but it felt more like a chill fishing game with inventory management. Fun.

Backlog:
Jedi Survivor
Murder of Sonic
Coffee Talk 2

 

[shadowman16]

69. Spider-Man and the X-Men (Gameboy) - Good news, its easier than the console version. Plus you can use Gambit's level to hoard extra lives which is handy.
The game itself is a cutdown version of the console game, and its handled surprisingly well - the levels resemble the console versions, you have most? of the moves you had in the console version, and the controls are slick. The differences are - only one stage for each X-Men character, Spidey gets the opening stage with the bombs? and one more after that, and they are all short. Wolverine for example gets the Apocalypse level, his Juggernaut level is missing... Gambit doesnt have the spiked ball of death chasing him... and so on, its basically a really forgiving version of the game which can be clocked in 30 mins if you know what your doing.
Its far from the best Spidey game Ive ever played, but thanks to its gentler difficulty curve, fine levelks and decent controls, its at least somewhat fun.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Death's Door
Bramble
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

[/QUOTE]

 

[bushmonkey]

20 - Dead Island 2 - PS5 - 30 hours / 5th May - 8/10
Fun zombie looter brawler with fantastic graphics and addictive gameplay. The various maps you go through shine with personality and the weapons you can craft and the skills you unlock allow for some creative ways to take on the zombie horde. there's nothing unique about the game but it's really well polished and well worth going through.

21 - Pistol Whip - PS VR2 - 5 hours / 5th May - 10/10
This is the third platform I've played through Pistol Whip and it's as fun as ever. This is the definite edition and I will keep playing it regularly to improve my scores and challenge my friends on the leaderboards.

I have a shot at beating my record last year. I'm well on track to 60.

 

[KtotheRoc]

33: Mega Man Battle Network. End: 5/3/2023.

I've never played through the Mega Man Battle Network series before. The new legacy collection lets me correct that. I've heard the series is a little rough compared to later entries. My impressions are pretty positive overall on this first game. It makes me curious how much more enjoyable those future entries are, but for now I'm enjoying this very different take on the Mega Man franchise.

34: Hi-Fi Rush. End: 5/5/2023.

I'm not particularly good at rhythm games, which makes me choice of playing a title like Hi-Fi Rush stand out. Even with that being said I found this an interesting and enjoyable game. Visually stunning and a rock solid presentation make for quite the experience.

 

[Rhaknar]

Game 16 - The Last Case of Benedict Fox
Platform - Xbox Series X
Time: 14 hours
Rating: 3/5

Boy what a bummer this was. On one hand, the visuals and art design are absolutely fantastic, and it has some of the best puzzle design in most of the metroidvanias I've played (it's very akin to Resident Evil style puzzles in fact), but on the other hand, it's also one of the worst playing metroidvanias I've ever played, with super floaty gameplay and horrible combat, so I'm super torn on this one. I guess it depends on what you value more out of these games, if it's the gameplay stay away for sure, if it's the puzzle's and exploration, there is great stuff hidden underneath the terrible gameplay here.

Main Post

 

[Nocturnowl]

Accidentally adding two turbo quick games to the list, almost feels like cheating

20. Kirby's Dreamland ★★★

Surprisingly I'd never actually played the original Kirby game, despite having tackled every other mainline platforming entry in the series to my knowledge.
So it took about 30 minutes to right that wrong, a breezy yet perfectly playable GB title that more than does the job.
I suppose if I were to try and dig deeper here, it's presentation is strong for its time and platform, the little pre stage cinematics, the large detailed sprites, green greens is eternally an absolute bop.
I suppose it was also interesting seeing how the original game differed from its pseudo remake in Kirby Superstar's spring breeze, you know there's something that's still fun about kirby without copy abilities.


21. Fighter's History ★★

Sometimes you just click a random SNES game in that switch app and bam, it's data east with another mediocre trend chasing outing, in this case I went blindly into their attempt at Street Fighter 2, a game so uncannily similar that when reading up on it just now I found capcom tried to sue.
I picked this chap called Jean on the character select because he had a rose, that's flavour right there.
I managed to bumble my way through arcade on the default difficulty without fully losing any matches which is wild to me, because even on the basic default difficulty most old fighting games tear me a new one.
Fortunately here I quickly found that being proactive was met with some intense CPU blocking, but waiting and landing pokes on the ever encroaching CPU would be the winning formula, why even the final boss Karnov (woah, that caught me off guard, mother fudgin' Karnov! the legend himself!) couldn't hold back Jean's fancy footwork and rose throwing projectile, which is the only special move I could find with my button mashing.

Oddly impressed by the game not being complete dog doo, I ventured into survival mode that lets you pick 5 characters to go against 5 CPU characters in a team battle format which is pretty neat for a SNES game, pfft, it took Smash until ultimate to let us do this, when's Jean for Smash?
I almost feel like two stars is too harsh here but like, it's one of a million SF2 knock offs and certainly not a contender for the 16 bit fighting game crown with its basic gameplay and tepid roster, on the flipside I'm pretty sure it wont be featuring on Matt McMuscles worst fighting game series on youtube either so, good going I guess!

 

[el_galvon]

Main Post

24. Silent Hill (PS1 / PS Vita - 1999) | Apr/05 - 9hrs | 8.5/10

The good: Superb sound design; lot of exploration with a great map system
The bad: Some puzzles are a tad too obtuse

25. Bugsnax (PC - 2020) | Apr/30 - 10hrs | 6/10

The good: Combine traps to capture a cute burger
The bad: The endless drama of the mutant muppets

26. Patapon (PSP - 2008) | May/01 - 13hrs | 7.5/10

The good: See that the mix of rhythm and real time strategy really works
The bad: Missions could be more varied

27. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1 / PS Vita - 1998) | May/06 - 10hrs | 9/10

The good: Fantastic soundtrack, superb visual presentation and a great challenge
The bad: The collision system is sometimes too punishing

 

[KtotheRoc]

35: Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster. End: 5/7/2023.

Sequels are an interesting idea. And Final Fantasy II is one of the more interesting video game sequels out there. The Pixel Remaster makes some of the more cumbersome elements of the original much more manageable for the modern gamer, but some issues still remain. (And yes, I absolutely used the boosting features with this entry as well. I didn't want to spend all day having the characters beating themselves up to go up a few HP points.)

 

[hydruxo]

Main Post

[8/52 completed]

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.0/10 | Date finished: May 6th

There was a lot to like about the first game Jedi Fallen Order, but it was also a flawed game with some significant issues. I remember platinuming that game and having really mixed feelings about it because while overall I had a good time, I couldn't shake this feeling that it had so much potential but ultimately fell short. Jedi Survivor thankfully improves on virtually every aspect of the first game and I absolutely loved playing through this game. It makes the first game feel barebones and almost not worth revisiting in comparison. The combat has way more depth with the 5 stances and skill trees, story is vastly more interesting, the level design is more open and intricate, and visually it's one of the most stunning games on current gen consoles (and PC). One of my favorite things about the game is the saloon which acts as somewhat of a home base for you to keep returning to where you can recruit people to go back to the saloon and then you can go and talk to them every time you come back. There's a little space frog named Turgle voiced by Invader Zim's voice actor Richard Horvitz who is hilarious and keeps talking about trying to pull off heists, there's Skoova who is basically Mimir from God of War but in the body of a tiny Star Wars alien in a scuba suit who you'll regularly run into out in the wild on Koboh, there's Caij who is a mysterious woman who sits in a booth with her hat covering her eyes and ultimately ends up being who gives you bounty hunter locations to go hunt down. I could keep going on and on about how awesome the side characters are in this game. Everyone is so memorable. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the performance woes which are unfortunately a problem, but even with that I still would give this game the same rating as I would if those issues weren't around. It was just that fun of an experience and I think this is one of the best Star Wars games of all time. A must play in my opinion, but maybe not until they fix the performance issues properly.

 

[Ganepark32]

Final update for April:

48. Elechead (XSS) - April 26th
This finally launched on Xbox a couple of weeks back, noticeably later than the other platforms but nice to finally have it launch. Had some Reward points to use so put them towards a gift card for this as I'd been curious about the title for awhile but never followed through on picking it up. I'm glad that I finally did as it's a great little puzzle platformer that uses it's main gameplay hook well, wringing out every possible use of it but not to the detriment of the game. There were definitely a few head scratch moments for a couple of the puzzles but overall, I thought the difficulty of the proceedings was nicely handled and I liked how they slowly added new elements to each zone you went through. Came away from finishing it in about 2 hours thinking it was a quirky but really great little game and definitely wished there was more, maybe in a sequel of sorts as I'd love to see more of these simple premised puzzle platformers and especially from the Japanese indie scene. Well worth a play through if you haven't already.

And first update for May:
49. Whimsy (PC) - May 2nd
The first game released by Madison Karrh, who developed one of my favourite indie games of 2023 so far in Birth, this is available to play for free and while the general game is a little more nebulous than Birth and even Landlord of the Woods to an extent (in so much as they both had a more overtly explicit objective in each location), the game was still a great experience. Once again the visuals are a highlight here and they offer, at times, a much more watercolored effect than in her subsequent titles which looks fantastic. I'd love to see her tap more into that in her next title. It's another point and click puzzle title but as I say, it's not quite as instructed as subsequent games. There's a bit more back and forth for putting things together but there's nothing that'll leave you scratching your head for how the put things together. It's a short experience, I finished it in 38 minutes, but like her other games I thought it was a great experience and well worth giving a look, especially if you are on the fence about Birth and want to see if these types of games are for you.

50. Bramble: The Mountain King (XSS) - May 5th
The positive reviews on Steam finally got me to pull the trigger on this one. I'd liked the look of it but wasn't sure how it'd all come together and critic reviews had it sitting in the mid-70s score wise. Thankfully, after going through it, I see that I side more with the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. The game is very much akin to a Little Nightmares title, especially in terms of it's gameplay. It's perhaps where I thought Tarsier would go with LN2 but if you're a fan of those games, especially for the tense and grim parts of it you'll like this one. The game is beautiful, creating a Nordic inspired world that holds an incredible amount of detail for an indie title. It somewhat reminds me of the dense foliage you'd see in the Unravel games for that matter (likewise produced by Nordic developers). Scenes look beautiful and the camera work is nicely done to showcase this off allowing for beautifully lit vistas and just generally allowing each scene to show rather than tell the events unfolding. It has it's footing firmly in Nordic folklore and gets really dark and grim, nicely juxtaposing the almost fairytale like moments during the day time, although even these inevitably take a dark turn the further in you get. The platforming perhaps feels a little hit and miss, another issue that plagued the LN titles, but works well for the most part and while some of the boss encounters feel a little gamey for what's happening, they work well and really do ratchet up the tension. I definitely came away pleasantly surprised with the game for how good it was but I would say that it can get dark in ways I wasn't expecting. If you can look past that, then I wholeheartedly recommend giving it a go.

51. Ravenlok (XSS) - May 7th
An Alice in Wonderland inspired hack and slash adventure, mixing voxel based and standard 3D visuals, Ravenlok is the latest game from Cococumber, makers of Echo Generation and Riverbond. This one felt more in line with the latter of those previous games I mentioned and definitely carries with it some of the easiness especially in the combat department. Story wise it's not the most captivating experience and pulls you into a conflict with little overarching explanation. There's just enough there to push you forward but given the richness of the visuals on display and from which they've taken inspiration, I was hoping for a little more there. The gameplay itself is very straight forward, basic hack and slash fare here and while it's serviceable, a little more depth would've been appreciated as mob encounters devolved to essentially stunlocking enemies while spamming your standard attack and when you encountered mobs or bosses that didn't become stunlocked, spamming abilities as they were unlocked made short work of them. It was a little disappointing then on the gameplay side of things but even then, I didn't come away feeling like the game dragged because of it. It all went along at a breezy pace and I finished it up in 3 hours so again, it felt a little like playing through Riverbond. A simple action experience that you don't really need to worry about genre staples like dodging or parrying and that can be played by all ages. If you're looking for a short action experience that won't require much from you then you could do much worse. As it is, it's a decent experience but I'd hoped for a little more.

Road to 52 (1 Remaining):
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - I'm 14 hours into this and thought that given I've played a lot of indies on my way to 52 game completions, I'd make the effort to get a bigger title done for the finally game. Enjoying it but don't know if I'm enjoying the more open locations, something that I wasn't overly keen on in GoW: Ragnarök. Also feeling like the platforming, which they've ramped up on this time around, isn't fully coming together as controlling Cal feels a bit flighty at times. I'll see how it goes but this'll likely finish my tab for the 52 before I continue onwards.

Main Post

 

[shadowman16]

70. Bramble (PS5) - A game which focuses on Nordic Tales, with a nice mix of platforming and puzzle gameplay. Its gruesome, darkly entertaining, and has some amazing set pieces. Its a bit rough round the edges mind you, but I really loved it from beginning to end. Its only a few hours long, so definitely worth peoples time... unlike...

71. Shovel Knight Dig (Steam Deck) - Along with Flintlock, a perfect example of how great mechanics are ruined by absolutely moronic game design and rogue lite elements. I rage quit on the true ending because the bomb I needed, randomly exploded ahead of the time limit and that requires a complete restart of the game. How about I delete the game instead? Fucking POS. Insult to the proper SK.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Death's Door
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[Rhaknar]

Game 17 - Picross S4
Platform - Switch
Time: 30 hours
Rating: 4/5

Another game in the S series, same quality you expect from the Jupiter picross games. Not much to say really, there's no new puzzle types (unlike 3 which introduced the color puzzles), just another great collection of picross. I wish there was more color puzzles, and the extra puzzles you get from owning the previous games are a bit too big to play portable (the 40X30 grid becomes tiny portable) but thats just a tiny nitpick. If you like this series, you know exactly what to expect.

Main Post

 

[Memory Pak]

10. Bastion (2011/2018, Switch) ★★★☆☆
Re-release of the XBLA game which put Supergiant Games on the map. Cool to see how their trademarks (excellent score & voice acting, isometric combat, in-universe difficulty modifiers and narration, base building etc.) date back to their very first release. The action is already serviceable here, albeit a tad simple: a dodge roll + strike will carry you throughout the game if you want. Coupled with the absence of enough systems with which to distract you from the combat, it does grow monotonous though.
The story is presented in small enough chunks to establish a sense of it unraveling. Unfortunately, it did frustrate me at times. Particularly when it becomes clear your mission is to finish a genocide, and the game simply offers you no ways to cease participation or resist until the very end. Regardless of which ending you pursue, if we take the game at face value, your character remains complicit. Either he commits mass murder to reset the world, hoping to avoid said genocide and mass murders from happening in a future loop (the presence of a New Game+ mode suggests the cycle of violence never ends, however). Or he kills a lot of Ura people in service of nothing beyond learning a lesson at the expense of their lives. Only to then return to live with a manipulator who, had they been upfront with you, could have prevented the countless senseless murders. For the game to paint the latter as the hopeful of the two endings, without offering a way to opt-out entirely feels weirdly tone-deaf, as if its implications were not fully considered.
This lack of character agency around such a topic reminds me of another, albeit vastly different, 2011 release: The Last Story, which features an oddly similar storyline. Speaking of character agency in Bastion, it feels like a missed opportunity for the only named female character to make notably less unprompted decisions by herself than the other characters. Her backstory provides plenty of tragic material to work with, but she's left to complete her character arc mostly off-screen.

11. Transistor (2014/2018) ★★★☆☆
Very ambivalent on this one. On paper I think it all works. It ticks the usual Supergiant boxes (gorgeous art, soundtrack, diegetic integration of options), and has a unique combat system which mixes real-time and pre-planned elements like some hypothetical hybrid of Faselei! and Bayonetta. Said combat has decent depth too, with weapon aspects you can arrange in dozens of combinations to achieve slightly different effects. The game encourages experimentation through penalties and optional challenges, too.
In practice though, half my battles consisted of unloading a pre-planned sequence, and then either hiding or spamming the one move Jaunt allowed me to, while waiting until a meter refilled. I'm sure there were better defensive options, but the old adage of players optimising the fun out of games rang true for me.
Sticking to just a few trusty combinations also meant I unlocked fewer character profiles. Tying exposition to combat experimentation seems like a good idea, but I found myself bored by these text dumps. Thus I quickly stopped trying to unlock them. It's a lot of telling, rather than showing, which is frustrating since Transistor's writing is otherwise quite competent.
Sure, some elements feel a bit basic (voiceless lady teams up with a bodiless voice), but the game finds touching ways for Red to communicate via humming and writing-then-deleting questions on message boards. The script clearly has things to say about the commodification of attention via social media platforms, initially demonstrating how hive-mind thinking will lead to fickle populaces chasing momentary convictions over cohesive long-term policies. It's subsequently also clever enough to realise how such commentary is easily hijacked by technocrats with visionary claims, though. That said, the game's intentionally vague delivery does slightly hinder its ability to speak to real-world topics. Unfortunate, since the foundation for a convicing thesis feels laid, but the game offers its players too much wiggle room to insert their own interpretations.

 

[Ganepark32]

52. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5) - May 10th
Managed to clear the plate and finish up this today to get ready for TotK on Friday. I'm a little mixed on this one. It's a fantastic game in many ways but it definitely suffers some of the same issues that I felt GoW: Ragnarök suffered from, namely trying to take the best of both worlds with both linear and more open world sections and I think a more focused approach with one or the other (I'd have been happy to keep it in line with Fallen Order's structure to be honest) would've helped it click more with me. The open sections of Koboh and Jedha, while filled with secrets and objectives, grew a bit thin with me, especially the former because of how often the game has you going back and forward to it. I'd kind of had enough of seeing Koboh half way through and then it was still the stop between every other section pretty much.

There's also a smattering of technical issues on PS5. It looked blurry throughout, there was noticeable pop in, frame rate drops in areas with reflective surfaces or where water was present, character models appearing multiple times in cutscenes (I'd often see Greez standing in the kitchen on the Mantis in the background when there was a cutscene in the cockpit for instance). Just some general technical issues that while not taking much away from the overall experience were noticeable throughout.

Even with those issues and concerns, I had a good time with it. It builds up the combat in an enjoyable way, giving you far more options to customise your playstyle (I went with dual blades and blaster stances). They really develop the platforming and I enjoyed that there was a heavier focus on puzzle sections that incorporated platforming. The game still manages to look beautiful even with it looking blurry at times. And the overarching story, while in many ways a Star Wars staple at this point, was well done for the most part. I do think the ending and the final boss are a misstep here as they don't land as well as they could and fall very much into "second part of a trilogy" territory. Some plot developments feel like they only go part way to where they seem to be leading which furthers this point (Cal and Merrin for instance as that seems completely unclear as to where that stands at the end given dialogue post credits between the two).

As I say, I enjoyed it even with certain areas pulling it down a bit. It's a good sequel but just falls short of being being great and I guess we'll see in the inevitable third part where they go with things.

And with that, I hit my 52 game completions target after 130 days of the year. Now I can kick back and tackle the plethora of other games I've got in the backlog and those coming up. Most I've completed in a year was 90 games before, maybe I'll match that or even go for 100. We'll see.

Next up:
Road 96: Mile 0
Pizza Tower
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story
Mr Sun's Hatbox
Vernal Edge
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterflies

Main Post

 

[RedShift]

April / Pre-TotK update. Week 19, 19 games down. Expecting to not stay on track due to TotK, but I have a couple of short games I might try to squeeze in over the next few weeks if I can drag myself away from it.

15. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (Steam Deck)
Very nice little short game. Enjoyed the Ace Attorney esque gameplay with Sonic characters, and the autorunner sections were surprisingly fun IMO. Definitely worth spending a couple of hours on as it's free. Also this was the mouse based game I played on deck, I love the trackpad. Honestly feels so good just flinging the cursor around the screen.

16. Pizza Tower (50% PC, 50% Steam Deck)
I really love Wario Land 4, so unsurprisingly I love this too. I love the disgusting artstyle, Peppino as a character, and the ridiculous and amazing movement. Was also surprised at how challenging but satisfying the boss fights were. Definitely a strong recommend for any 2d platformer fans.

17. Advance Wars (Switch)
Advance Wars was one of my favourite games when I was younger, and I was worried I'd not be as in love with it coming back to it in Reboot Camp. If anything I loved it more. The battles are as fun as ever, and the remake has even more charm poured into it than the original (the remixed CO power themes and animated power sequences in particular are amazing). For now I've just done the AW1 campaign, might go back and do the paths I missed in the campaign and even plough through the AW1 war room before coming back to AW2 post TotK (partly so I can count it as a second game for this list haha). Please let there be a new Advance Wars game one day.

18. Railbound (Android)
Pretty fun little puzzle game that looks great and plays great on mobile. Lots of fun mechanics, but I found some of the optional levels and some of the mainline later levels felt a little too trial and error when you had four carts looping around switching directions.

19. Beyond Blue (50% Steam Deck, 50% PC)
Nice little game I picked up as an Epic freebee, very chill and short diving game inspired by Blue Planet II. Not exactly enthralling to be honest but I enjoyed my time with it. Gave up playing on Deck as it doesn't really work with Proton.

 

[shadowman16]

72. Spider-Man & X-Men (Snes) - Literally the only good thing is the music.

73. Spider-Man & X-Men (Gamegear) - Hilariously enough despite some issues (squashed screen), its still better than the console version. I still emulated it due to the frustration of repeatedly doing levels with only a couple of lives (and no stage checkpoints, and plenty of instant kills...) but Im impressed that its a notch above the Gameboy version content wise - all the stages are present (GB version is missing about 1/3 of stages) while it controls ok. Difficulty wise its still easier than the console version, if it werent for no continues this would be an ok game.
GB version despite the content cuts is the one that controls the best and has the best level design (well, least bad) so it wins by default though.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Death's Door
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[AvianAviator]

<< Previous Post | Main Post | Next Post >>

22. Townscaper

I've seen this described online as "more of a toy than a video game" and I'm inclined to agree. Townscaper is a city builder that involves no strategy, no planning, but simply plonking your finger down on a tile and seeing what happens. Every tile you place is created dynamically based on what is around it and determines what kind of structure you make - for example, touching a water tile will place down a dock. Touching that doc will put a house on top of it. Tap the house, it gets a second floor. Do this a third time and, depending on what surrounds it, the structure could become a spire or a lighthouse. The whole game is about experimenting with your placements and carving out a pretty little town. I enjoyed my time with it.

---

23. Citizen Sleeper

A wonderful story-driven RPG about surviving late-stage capitalism on a space station. You are an android implanted with a human consciousness, with a body designed to break down should it ever leave the labor company that owns it. In your quest to escape, you find yourself on a space station in permanent limbo, that has evolved past it's original use and now houses a self-sustaining group of folks who are, similarly, just trying to survive.

This is a game about stories, about folks struggling in a system that views you as an expendable commodity. About people trying to hold onto their humanity in spite of it.

You weave in and out of the lives of different people in different circumstances, helping them get by (or struggling to make it yourself). How successful you are at any action is determined by a roll of the dice. These dice are how you interact with the world around you. How you make money, advance storylines, get medicine. A bad roll means the story won't advance as quickly, or worse, your body breaks down a bit. This makes the early game really tense, when you have nothing and every little scrap you can hold on means the difference between life and death. You can't afford a bad roll. But, the more people you meet, the more relationships you form, then the more people want to help YOU, and the more self sustaining you become.

Great storytelling, great writing, great mood & atmosphere and soundtrack (very low key, echo-y and industrial). Highly recommend this game overall.

---

 

[Subnats]

Main Post

Just under halfway there now. Been a bit since I last updated this but I'm finally adding my last game for April and first for May

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Future Redeemed (Nintendo Switch) - April 30th
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was by far the best game I played in 2022 and has found itself among my favourite games. While I never got caufght up in the hype cycle for it it, once I got my hands on the game I very quickly fell in love with it. Because of this, Future Redeemed had a lot to live up to, and I'm happy to be able to say it did, for the most part. Having had a little over a week and a half to fully digest the game before getting a chance to write this I definitely don't feel quite as strongly as I did upon first beating it but nonetheless I'd still say it's a fantastic expansion to a game I already adored. It took a bit for me to initially get back into how combat works within the game but once I did it all just clicked. The replacement of Ouroboros with Union Combos is one I actually really like, I never really cared for Ouroboros forms in the base game so I think I actually prefer this system. Future Redeemed's world design feels like the best the series has had since X, and the changes made to the affinity system mean that you'll be constantly rewarded for your exploration in a way the series has never done better. One of the game's biggest achievements is actually getting me to like Rex, which is a big achievement considering

Spoiler: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Spoilers

The creepy harem shit. Really makes me want to subscribe to the headcannon of him only marrying Pyra.

But him and Shulk are really well done as older and wiser mentor figures here. Matthew and A as characters are also fantastic, their dynamic is just great to watch. Glimmer and Nikol are cool too but they get so little screen time and development compared to the rest that their potential just ends up feeling wasted to some extent. The story is another high point but it really expects you to have knowledge of every Xenoblade Chronicles game with how technical it can get. References to past characters are often very vague though for some reason which just sounds very odd whenever it happens. I'm also not a super big fan of the potential

Spoiler: Future Redeemed Ending Spoilers

Xenosaga connections teased at the end. I get how that's probably exciting for those who have played these games but as someone who hasn't I just couldn't care less and would kinda prefer these games to stay standalone.

Aside from that though I do really enjoy the story and by the end the game had me absolutely bawling. Overall Future Redeemed was a great experience, it has issues which have definitely become a lot more clear after putting some distance from the game, but it's still a fantastic game in its own right and a worthy sendoff to this part of the Xenoblade Chronicles series.

4.5/5

New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS) - May 11th
Decided to replay this one after finishing up with exams and it ended up being a lot better than I thought it would be. While I wouldn't call it particularly special, especially not when it has received 4 sequels in much the same vein, the original New Super Mario Bros. holds up surprising well. It's simply a solid enjoyable platformer from beginning to end. Having to grind for mini mushrooms and blue shells for certain star coins and secret exits was a little annoying but otherwise I can't really think of any major complaints with the game. It may not be particularly new anymore being nearly 20 years old (yes seriously) but New Super Mario Bros. is a super fun time and I'm glad I decided to come back to it for the first time since I was a kid.

3.5/5

 

[shadowman16]

74. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Mega CD) - All three endings against Kingpin, two of which Im somewhat surprised to see in the game (Spidey and MJ dies, and MJ dies) along with the canon "good" ending where no one is melted away in acid. The game has even more slick controls than the Mega Drive version, runs smoother, has four brand new boss fights (Mysterio, Vulture, Typhoid Mary and Bullseye) alongside a reworked Venom fight (you have to use the ringing of the bell to defeat him, rather than beating him into submission). The story cutscenes and VAs arent good at all, BUT the plot is written a bit better to explain a few little things (why Kingpin wants to blow up the city, why Lizard is working for them, a better explanation as to how Spidey finds the other villains etc.) - its little things, but it makes for a structurally better plot.

Gameplay wise is great, you fight and swing through the levels similar to the MD game, fight the villains, get the keys, stop Kingpin... the only real difference is the removal of the cool photo feature to get webbing. There's also tons more levels to explore, but almost every one of them is pointless, its really quantity over quality (the MD one is far better designed/paced in that respect) BUT the MCD version is less linear, letting you tackle most villains in any order, save for Hobgoblin/Venom.

Overall? It might be my favourite version. It plays great, challenge level is just right, and you fight Kingpin AND the Sinister 6... which is awesome. Oh, and the soundtrack is gloriously cheesy - for some reason it has a bunch of rock tracks that are just completely at odds with the rest of the game.

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Death's Door
Horizon VR (pretty good, really pretty. Fun climbing)
Monster Hunter Rise
RE4 REmake (Onto the castle!)
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Avengers
NMH3
Bayonetta 3
Sonic Frontiers
Plague's Tale
Mass Effect 3
Jedi Fallen Order

Original post:

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress! How do I take part? Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images...

www.resetera.com

 

[Nocturnowl]

22. Tchia ★★★

The kind of game where you can feel the passion from the devs just oozing out of every angle, a lovely little celebration of New Caledonia (Will fully admit, did not know about until this game, I am uncultured) in the form of an open world ala the BotW/Sable style.
So that's my kind of jam, the simple visuals do their job tremendously with a clear (and almost clay like) style that has the most poppin' sunsets in video games.

This is definitely a title to play for the experience and not so much a gameplay tour de force, now don't get me wrong, this game's movement options and fun commitment to mechanics like sailing your raft or playing your ukelele give it plenty of oomph there. It's just that the overall format of the game is a pretty basic series of fetch quests and collecting stuff, and the world as lovingly created and well done for such a small team, is one of two halves, almost literally.

Two islands making up the bulk of the game world, one leans on the natural side, and another more urbanised. Surprisingly this does make a difference in a mechanical sense because a lot of the game's fun exploration and movement benefits from lush forests to fling through, wildlife to possess (you heard me, mainly just for novelty and mobility though) and slopes to build momentum from. So the urban side is already at a disadvantage both visually and in traversal, and this ramps up in the final third of the game where you have to do some back to back factory/enemy camp clearing (yes, this game does in fact have a combat element, it's light and inoffensive until this part) which compounds on the already checklist heavy approach to the main story progression

Side note, it's nice to have an open world that takes more advantage than most of its H20, even if its mostly vast expanses of ocean and a few coral reefs to nab pearls from, I just like having that extra element factored in as a sick twisted water level enjoyer, throw the raft sailing on top of that and ya got the island vibes down pat.
The story's tone is kinda wild, the cutesy surface hides some....real stuff. It does make me wonder how much of the story is potentially a regional fable of sorts or something the game mostly put together itself with elements of New Caledonia tales, it's not always that engaging but does the job and has its moments.
A nice time, though I certainly had my fill, it's not quite got enough depth to push further but is still a pretty impressive indie effort where that surface level open world exploration is a relaxing vacation of sorts.

(and yes, I was gunning to get this done before Zelda: TotK potentially upends the open world formula once again lol, just made it!)

 

[bushmonkey]

22 - Season: a letter to the future - PS5 - 6 hours / 11th May - Platinum- 9/10
Season is a delight. It's a beautiful game with a charming story, interesting lore and quirky characters. The game mechanics are also quite innovative. The way you build and customise your journal is really fun and it uses the PS5 adaptive triggers to great effect when controlling your bike.