The last game you completed

[Zloth]

I finished The Invincible. It only took 9 hours, and I think I spent half an hour trying to figure out what was going on when a bug stopped my progress. (Re-loading my last save fixed it.)

This is what I would really call a walking sim. There's NO gameplay, really. There's a little shooting toward the end, but its inconsequential (I think you can get an achievement if you do it well). There's no puzzle solving. The only interactivity is dialog and a couple of path choices. Outside of the last half hour of play and excluding achievements, only one of the choices you make makes a serious difference to how the game plays out.

If you are playing this game, you're playing it solely for atmosphere and story. Luckily, it's good at that. The story is based on a planet crafted by Stanislaw Lem, who's one of the great science fiction authors of the last half of the 20th century. The story itself isn't Lem's, but it does have the same feel as one of his stories. The atmosphere is great, too - very 1950's with some terror mixed in as well.

The normal retail price of $30 is ridiculous, though. Even the $20 sale price is too high, IMHO. Hopefully, it will come down to a reasonable price in another year or so.

 

[Johnway]

As previosuly mentioned finished another Doom Wad, this time its DBP65 - Doom sanguine holylands another small doom wad from the doom boards. This one is a gothic themed map pack, its quite nice as we have swinging doors, reskinned enemies and color palette tweaks to make it much darker and less garish.

Nothing stood out as horrible, the last 2 maps were easily my favorite as they had the best level design and ideas.

 

[StardustJessie]

System Shock Remake. Had restarted and gotten unmotivated when it had that overhaul of the ending update and Female Hacker (I really wanted to choose the female). I was kinda disappointed by the final boss and ending, ngl.

 

[karappononingen]

Red Ded Redemption 2

 

[elizadrums]

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, the last game I completed

 

[Johnway]

well i've completed arcade paradise and honestly, good riddence. it only took 23-24 hours to reach end game and it was tedious as hell. The problem was that i spent more time doing laundry then playing and i did play the games it wasn't great. The arcade games themselves were mostly poor imitation of good / successful arcades. At worst they were bloody awful, either unplayable or really terrible to play.

i think the problem is the lack of content. its the same thing day in and day out and only the money kept me going. But you won't be missing much playing it.

 

[Johnway]

Another game completed. This time its Forgive me Father - a cthulhu inspired shooter.

TLDR: Top presentation, nice ideas, a bit too repetitive in the combat/gameplay until near the end.


Visually its fantastic, the cell shaded graphics are nice and quite varied as there are a wide variety of locales and biomes to visit and for the liquidator enemy there are a fair few varieties. The audio soundtrack is also top notch as they are fantastic heart pumping tracks that get the war bladder going.

Gameplay wise its a little more mixed. The combat, whilst simple and functional is nothing really special. its kinda strange, it feels like that the devs had intentions for this to be a quick shooter (like neon white?) as the more you kill, the more it boosts your insanity meter to replenish abilities and do more damage yet it doesn't work that way.

For the most part its corridor shooting before moving into an occasional arena for more heart pumping action. What kills it off is that in the first half its mostly tight corridors and small rooms rather then arenas. outside of boss encounters, Its not until the second half of the 4th chapter and the 5th chapters do we see more exciting arenas or ideas. FMF can finally let loose after giving you all the weapons, your character has upgraded, sufficiently and most/all of the enemy roster is finally revealed. I partly blame the biome/environments - they don't give much opportunity for creative combat/design. Sure a few good ideas here and there, but again, the majority of them only in the alien/hell world. Until then, circle strafing with your tommy gun or SMG.

To its credit, the game does have a lot of levels which are mostly quick and breezy shooting galleries, but the repetitive nature of most of the combat it can get exhausting very quickly. I couldn't play more then an hour at a time before i called it quits for the day.

In fact i should point out i'm not entirely sure if its my fault. The upgrade tree is interesting as you can convert your weapons in a variety of ways so they play differently. unfortunately most of the changes made them more powerful/unusual, but also switches to more expensive/rare ammo. other times taking the sensible choice locked you out of health/armor upgrades. Thankfully, you can reset the stats so later on when you have more points to play, you can switch to more interesting ideas.

There are a few other game modes, like wave mode and new game+. The former i found pretty annoying as they don't give me enough ammo to fight the enemies and the latter is just the same game allowing you to mess with the mechanics of the game so you can customize skills, ammo allocation, damage etc.

So do i recommend a play? Not sure tbh, i don't regret getting it as part of the humble bundle deal. But for 16.99? no its not worth that. I'll give it a 6 or 6.5. its creative, well presented and plays competently, but i found it dull enough that i can't stomach it for more then an hour or less. hell, after 7.5 hrs i'm not exactly keen to go back for a second playthrough. Which is stupid; i spent more time playing arcade paradise then this game. Maybe because it was too easy, maybe it didn't really grab my attention or something wasn't mixed properly.

I'm disappointed. its full of good ideas and it started strong and set expectations onto a winner and then had a iffy middle and a strong finish.

 

[Johnway]

Another game finished. Just shy of 7 hrs, i finished costume quest 2. The story sort of carries on from the end of the first game's DLC. After stepping through the portal in the last game, rather then returning home, they are trapped in a multiverse of portals (which acts as a main menu for the game). In this quest, after stepping through the portal, wren and Reynold find that its Halloween again (even though it was christmas when they stepped through the portal). Just as they prepare for candy filled revelry, all hell breaks loose when Orel white the dentist unleashes the goblins and soon, the 2 children are sucked in to the future to begin their time travelling adventure to stop Oren from making his dystopia a reality.

Felt surprisingly short, whilst its nice to be back in the costume quest world, the JRPG is every bit as average as the first. The tweaked combat isn't as good as the first, no more gear for special effects as they're now behind combat cards that have a cool down mechanic. its deeply annoying as i don't want to risk using them, but that said i was able to beat them without using them at all. just made combat a slog and i just avoided combat where i could. To add insult to injury, some of the cards don't work on bosses.... Whilst there is defense/counter mechanics, its fairly wishy washy to use. The counter especially is a bit half baked as it comes with a hell of a lot of risks and best used as a last resort or when that character is on very low heal and you're gambling to keep him/her in play for one more turn.

Even though i clocked in 6.5 hrs, i'm not exactly excited or motivated to go back and get the last few achievements, so the game didn't grab me all that much tbh. Kinda like the first. Still, if you got the game on the epic store for free, its better then nothing. But like The first, the game isn't anything special and not missing much, even if i liked the setting and character.

 

[mysticus-autisticus]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I always loved Mass Effect, and after playing this, I can see where ME got a lot of its ideas from. KOTOR is a great game on its own merits too, even though I knew "the twist" beforehand.

 

[Johnway]

Anotehr Wad finished, this time its Dominus Diabolicus released in march this year. Quite a well designed wad, level design is good as it flows well and i never really found myself lost even despite the amounts of backtracking that is involved. The enemy layouts are well thought out and designed well (more about the combat later). So ultimately it looks and plays pretty well. The only map i wasn't so fond of was containment failure where the first section is a tyson map, no ammo a berserker pack and hope you can take out the hell knights in a cramped environment.

What makes this stand out is the difficulty. As described by the creator, it does have some spicy gameplay and it gets insidious the closer to the end of the game. kinda like a spicy meal that gets increasingly painful the more longer you eat it. Don't mistake the over generous amounts of ammo and health for each map, they're there for a reason as often when you back track more monsters spawn in or doors open revealing more to shoot.

Ambushes are frequent and often then not, you're attacked from all sides and door fighting is not an option as either enemies spawn behind you, walls open up . Ground threats are frequently accompanied with cacodemons, pain elementals, archviles or all 3 at once. So you're attacked from the ground and in the air all at once. But not only that, some of the maps are subtlety designed that deny the use of weapons namely its just slightly too small to use the rocket launcher and you've got an archvile/hellknight you need to remove asap and running backwards means a wall of revenant or chaingunners.

By the end of the game the combat gets especially punishing, devious and brutal. its not sunder levels of hard and its (mostly) fair, but you will need to have a few attempts to succeed sometimes verging on cheap. If you're pistol starting the maps, you'll have a rougher time. I tried for the most part played it straight (if there are shells/shotguns around i'll use it for that section), but no joke, i had to whip out the BFG/plasma gun i got from the previous maps to succeed as it was so punishing.


But again, its all well designed to have some pretty interesting encounters and designs. The first 10 or so levels are gentle but after that its a challenge. To add to the mix, the WAD also comes with some additional enemies and a different boss. They are all used effectively and brutal efficientcy. Those former vanguards especially are a surprising threat. If you didn't think the game was hard enough map 32 and 33 (deja Vu 1 and 2) are parts from all maps spliced together in a hellish difficulty course.



overall, Dominus Diabolicus was a cracking wad. probably one the best ones i played. Sure, its not going to beat Evilternity 2, its probably in my top 5 this year (have i even played 5 wads this year?) if you want a fair challenge, this is recommended.

 

[Johnway]

Well... give or take a year, i have finished Age of Empires 2 Definitive edition!

its been a long time coming, i played AOE2 back in the early 00s and gave up as it was too difficult, but nearly a quarter of a century, i have finally put those demons to rest.

Compared to the original AOE2, AOE2 : DE looks better and addresses a lot of problems i had from my previous experience (namely adding auto reseeding of farms) and retweaking some of the maps accordingly. On top of that, the DE also bundles the original expansion packs, a whole load of historical battles and a challenge mode, so there's plenty of content to keep players satisfied and a lot of bang for your buck. Even if it gets samey. For the most part all the factions play identically with a couple unique units and stat tweaks. i was able to rinse and repeat strategies making minor adjustments where required.

i played it on standard and for most of the campaigns, the enemy weren't really threatening and But (un)surprisingly, the hardest maps were perhaps from the original Age of kings and age of conquerors packs. Didn't play it in multiplayer or skirmish mode, as i'm not interested in multiplayer. But there's plenty of opportunity for some ranked gameplay, even if the first few matches you have to take a pounding.

So lets wrap this up, did i have fun with the game? for the most part, i did. Would i recommend it? i would say so, there is a lot of content and with more content constantly being released so theres plenty of life into it. My advice? play the base game, play the age of kings and age of conquerors campaigns (they're the most developed and challenging) and any that suit your fancy before considering getting any of the DLC packs. After playing all the DE content, i'm sick of playing any more of AOE2 content and i've had my fill.

 

[Nancy68]

Alan Wake 2

 

[Johnway]

Just some admin tidy up as to the stuff i completed.

As most of you know, i finished yakuza 4 - its alright, despite the additional content over Y3 its not all that much better. Thats not to say i didn't like it (i enjoyed it) but its more of the same. I'll give it a generous 7/10. made a rambling post on the yakuza thread.

So with some free time, i decided to play some of my back caterlogue. This time i selected Helltaker, a free puzzle game with the aim of getting to the demon girl and make her join your harem. Although there is the option to skip puzzles if you get stuck etc, the game is pretty unforgiving. You have only a select number of moves and typically thats the only puzzle. When you do meet the lovely demon in waiting, make the wrong 50/50 comment and you have to repeat the level again. Love the artwork and humor, but a bit put off by the unforgiving requirements. Still for Free, i can't complain.


Doom Wad news, I've finished DBP 66 - Lunar strain. A Moon/space themed wad where the aliens (i call the hellborg) have taken over the moon surface and doom guy hopes to stop the aliens in their tracks to prevent the invasion of earth itself. A pretty well designed wad, riffing on Star Trek. Nothing too stressful and was Entertaining stuff.

For Halloween i played Rip and tear (1). A surprisingly short wad. I finished it in 1 or 2 hours and its mix of mostly small maps with minor combat. Nothing to write home about and most disappointingly the most well designed map turned out to play the worst of the bunch,. Part of the problem is that you barely start the level with any weapons and i spent a good chunk of my time running around scrambling for one. But i suppose for the time set i wasn't going to expect absolute gold tier mapping from the Wad. Wasn't really worth my time tbh.


With 2 days free, i need to find another quick game/wad to finish off ready for saturday when the POE league starts again. Will i sink 2 months into play or will i spend maybe 2 or 3 days get to level 50 and ****** off? We'll see.

 

[Johnway]

Another quick game finished, this time its Behind the Frame: the Finest scenary. A beautifully rendered animated visual novel puzzle game of sorts that resembles a studio ghibli movie. The story revolves around a young artist on her daily work painting a picture to submit to an art gallery in the hopes of making it big. During this time she spends time tending to daily chores and staring at her old neighbour for inspiration.

Things aren't all they seem and the puzzles begin as she opens mystery locked boxes and someone appears to be messing around with her room etc. Its not long she spends time painting and sprucing up paintings in her home which tells more of the story, as they say, every good piece of art has a story to tell, a picture speaks a thousand words etc, etc.

Spoiler: M. Night Shyamalan twist

It turns out that amber (the female character you play) isn't actually real. She's more of the old man (jack) interpretation of the real one. She has more history with the old man that she gazes at each day. The final spoiler is that her window resembles the picture frame and ends with the real amber staring back at the amber in the picture.

the ending does leave a few loose ends but if you play the epilogue/bonus chapter as the old man, does answer some of the questions. Like what happened in later life? why did they split when they clearly had chemistry? etc.

so is it worth a play? for the full RRP of 10.99 absolutely not. Its way, way too short. Even if its a pleasant, well made animated story, I got to the end in 85minutes. But for the £0.59? i think it was well worth the asking price. i do want to get the other work but it will need to be at a knock down price.


You know, i said i wanted a quick game, but i didn't want THAT quick. Oh well, i'll do something else for 2 days.

 

[red_5ive]

Star Wars: Outlaws

I have mixed feelings. While the game isn't as bad as it seems to get credit for, I also wanted the game to be better than it actually is. If I'm disillusioned by my own bias, I would rate it a 7/10, but sobjectively it's more a 6/10. The game has a lot of promise and there are plenty of things to do, but at the same time it feels like Ubisoft couldn't think of anything better to do, so they just gave you a lot to do .

Against my better judgement having for years wanted an open-world + space-faring Star Wars game, I probably should have waited as what's been typical with most releases these days, the game is getting improvements, QoL or otherwise. Incurring a replay isn't something I care for unless it's something I really enjoyed, but this is Star Wars so I will likely revisit it at some time. However, as I'm not one to normally buy a game up front when it releases and often wait 6 mos to a year, if not more, this will serve as another lesson for me to stick to my guns and just wait, regardless of how bad I might be interested in a game.

In hindsight, with my fears that this was going to be some Far Cry rehash, after playing it, I almost wish that it was.

 

[Brian Boru]

this will serve as another lesson for me to stick to my guns and just wait

Patience, Asshopper.

Close your eyes:
Hear the water;
Feel the sun;
Expel the wind;
Excuse yourself.

 

[red_5ive]

Patience, Asshopper.

Close your eyes:
Hear the water;
Feel the sun;
Expel the wind;
Excuse yourself.

I have mixed feelings...

 

[DPSIIGames]

What was the last game that you completed, and how would you rate it?

Completing games is not something I do often. The most recent game I completed was Halo Reach for the MCC on PC. I had originally played it on 360, but I barely remembered the campaign so it was great to get back in it. I haven't played much of the multiplayer, but I'd give the campaign 8/10 (nostalgia could play a big part)

Harry Potter Legacy - 2023, game was very fun, but a little easy and entirely to short.
Edit: I give it a 7/10.

 

[DPSIIGames]

After 20 years of procrastination, I finally finished Roller Coaster Tycoon. The original released in 1999.

Also completed the single player of Skyrim for the first time. I've got at least 1000 hours on that game

Both are 10/10 games

Two staples of any gamers catalog. Skyrim is one of those games you could easily put 1k+ hours in and not finish, so fun!

 

[BeardyHat]

Killer Frequency.

It was fine, I didn't hate it and it was what I was looking for at the time. I'd probably give it like a 6.5/10, using the whole scale.

 

[Brian Boru]

Secrets of Magic 2 Witches and Wizards

Fun Match 3 in Challenge mode, which gives you all the time you want, but restricts the number of turns you can take. I got 5 of these Secrets of Magic games for ~$7 recently on Steam—dropped #1 but may return to it, while this one's gone in my Replay folder and I'm now halfway thru #3.

If it's ages since you played a Match 3, Challenge mode is fairly new to the genre and makes all the difference for me—can walk away any time, and is more interesting in a relaxed way. Should also be an ideal genre for kids.

75/100.

 

[Johnway]

another game finished, this time its Rakuen an indie adventure game where a boy in the hospital who decides to help his fellow troubled souls of the patients so that he can be granted a wish. To achieve this, he listens to those in need and manipulates the alternate universe to make things happen.

Not a bad game at all. Visually its made in RPG maker, but the cute artwork, the excellent soundtrack and heartfelt story makes it a damn fine game. yes, its every bit a tear jerker as everyone says as we get to understand the issues and stories of our fellow patients by living through their memories and stories.

So would i recommend it? for the right price yes. its certainly better then other walking simulator story stuff and its one of the few things (besides Grave of the fireflies) that gave me an uncomfortable lump in my throat as you really do wish the best for these guys. its full of excellent touches and ideas and there are some seriously well written stuff that is a absolute punch to the guts when things are at their most hopeful.

Spoiler: Sad stuff here

There are 2 that stand out. The first that is perhaps when Sue finally leaves. All this time you've been talking to her and getting to know her collection of marbles as awesome little worlds. Letting her tell her story helps her to feel less lonely and come out of her shell. its heavily implied that she died as she gives her precious marbles (her worlds) to the protagonist. its a punch in the gut after we get to resolve her story reuniting her with friend, unburdening her guilt and seeing her friend once more. Plus the boy gets to see and play with sue during the star festival to finally giving her a chance to visit those magical marble worlds for one night. it unsurprisingly falls into a negative spiral as all that optimism just disappears.

The other one comes at the end where you take control of the mother and we understand more of the story behind our boy protagonist . He has cancer and his father dies trying saving to save the city working at the nuclear power plant after a massive earthquake (side note: its not mentioned, but its heavily implied it was fukashima). it carries on from events after Sue's passing, as the mother does everything she can to find her son. When we finally find him, his negative alter ego is holding him hostage and its full of guilt. he knows he is dying no matter what his mother tells him and the guilt eats at him. Without his father, who will look out for his mother? The boy was her everything and her strength. What will happen to her?

The mother tries to muster up the strength to sing a song to bring her son back but the reality is too much for her to complete it. But she finds strength from all those his boy has helped and finally sings the final song to rescue her boy. The boy after long journey has completed his quest and is granted one wish; to ride on the boat to rakuen. The boy and mother make their final farewells before the boy boards the boat and all his friends are there to wave her goodbye.

 

[DPSIIGames]

another game finished, this time its Rakuen an indie adventure game where a boy in the hospital who decides to help his fellow troubled souls of the patients so that he can be granted a wish. To achieve this, he listens to those in need and manipulates the alternate universe to make things happen.

Not a bad game at all. Visually its made in RPG maker, but the cute artwork, the excellent soundtrack and heartfelt story makes it a damn fine game. yes, its every bit a tear jerker as everyone says as we get to understand the issues and stories of our fellow patients by living through their memories and stories.

So would i recommend it? for the right price yes. its certainly better then other walking simulator story stuff and its one of the few things (besides Grave of the fireflies) that gave me an uncomfortable lump in my throat as you really do wish the best for these guys. its full of excellent touches and ideas and there are some seriously well written stuff that is a absolute punch to the guts when things are at their most hopeful.

Spoiler: Sad stuff here

There are 2 that stand out. The first that is perhaps when Sue finally leaves. All this time you've been talking to her and getting to know her collection of marbles as awesome little worlds. Letting her tell her story helps her to feel less lonely and come out of her shell. its heavily implied that she died as she gives her precious marbles (her worlds) to the protagonist. its a punch in the gut after we get to resolve her story reuniting her with friend, unburdening her guilt and seeing her friend once more. Plus the boy gets to see and play with sue during the star festival to finally giving her a chance to visit those magical marble worlds for one night. it unsurprisingly falls into a negative spiral as all that optimism just disappears.

The other one comes at the end where you take control of the mother and we understand more of the story behind our boy protagonist . He has cancer and his father dies trying saving to save the city working at the nuclear power plant after a massive earthquake (side note: its not mentioned, but its heavily implied it was fukashima). it carries on from events after Sue's passing, as the mother does everything she can to find her son. When we finally find him, his negative alter ego is holding him hostage and its full of guilt. he knows he is dying no matter what his mother tells him and the guilt eats at him. Without his father, who will look out for his mother? The boy was her everything and her strength. What will happen to her?

The mother tries to muster up the strength to sing a song to bring her son back but the reality is too much for her to complete it. But she finds strength from all those his boy has helped and finally sings the final song to rescue her boy. The boy after long journey has completed his quest and is granted one wish; to ride on the boat to rakuen. The boy and mother make their final farewells before the boy boards the boat and all his friends are there to wave her goodbye.

Haha I love indie games, they're so much more creative then AAA titles tend to be.

 

[Johnway]

yeah Indie developers can do far more exciting things and we love them for it. Whereas the AAA industry just turns games into a bland product with ever increasing sequel numbers focusing on maximizing profit and milking the fans for all their worth.

 

[Johnway]

Well i finished another Doom Wad, this time its Die Rowdy a speedmapping project (number 33) a festive die hard spoof full of christmas cheer. The maps are reasonably small and constrained to the nakatomi plaza shape building.

For the most part the maps are all jolly good festive fun. Some are more conventional offices, others are warped areas. But make no mistake the last few missions are brutally difficult. Slaughterfest / sunder difficult that verges on BS. Won't lie i cheated to see how horrible the map. Still, if had fun, and for the speed of how quickly these maps got knocked out they're alright.


With that done, time to play another doom wad. i had hoped to play the longtrek home or the new DBP_64 mad max maps. But i think i'll go and play Ramp 2024... all 300+ maps. its like playing 10 doom wads in one go! Will i prevail or break first? only time will tell...