Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Recently beat Persona 3 and the game is pretty good. The game does get really repetitive near the end and traveling up Tartarus can be exhausting at time but fun game. Also beat Mario 3D World and Zelda Wind Waker HD recently as well.

Until Dawn. My feelings are mixed.
(BTW, I'll omit any spoilers, but I will discuss what I thought of the game)

On the pro side, it had an amazing atmosphere that it developed early on. There were great camera angles in this game as well. As opposed to the boring behind the shoulder viewpoint we get in most games, Until Dawn actually positions the camera in different parts of a scene to create an effect not unlike a Silent Hill or Resident Evil game. I love the idea of an interactive horror narrative like this.

The OST, if a bit generic, is still effective at establishing a tense atmosphere most of the time. And that's not even considering the gorgeous song that plays during the game's opening credits. The game can look incredibly beautiful at times, with characters that verge on photo-realism and detailed, haunting environments. And, finally, it has the best use of QTEs in a game since Resident Evil 4

On the con side, most of the cast is obnoxious. I get that this is supposed to spoof aspects of cheesy horror movies, but I really didn't care if any of these people lived or died, which impacted the narrative for me. There are too many false or meaningless choices in the story: I don't mind the creators wanting to establish a consistent narrative for the game, but I detest when a game gives you a supposed choice, only to reveal you never had a choice to begin with. Oftentimes the game will force you to go along with the choice you didn't make and too many actual choices result in roughly the same result. The plot is really stupid once you figure out what is going on, and it makes the mystery and build-up of the game's early hours feel like a waste. The game gets less and less scary as it goes on. unfortunately.

Despite looking very good most of the time, the game sacrifices performance to achieve this level of visual fidelity, with the framerate often plummeting into what seems like sub 20 fps. However, even the visual fidelity of the game itself is uneven: I would often marvel at something photo-realistic in the environment that the artists clearly intended for me to see, only to notice really bad or unfinished textures in something else they clearly didn't intend for me to look as closely at. The portions of the game where you control a character directly are usually pretty clunky as well. The controls feel... heavy. It's something I've noticed in a lot of Western games, and this one is no exception. I often had issues navigating my characters around certain objects in the environment.

All in all... I liked it. I thought it was interesting. Definitely worth the $23 I paid for it on PSN. Unfortunately, the plethora of false choices take away from this game's replay value. I don't mind if a game wants to establish a strong central narrative, but that is kind of antithetical to making a game about real choices and consequences, which is what the game tried to sell itself as. Unfortunately, very few of my choices had real consequences, and, in all honesty, the main plot was bad enough that I wish it had just focused on making the consequences of my actions complex and meaningful. I probably would have regretted paying $60 for this.

Still, if Supermassive Games can fix the performance issues and create a better horror story for their next game, I would love to play it.

Until Dawn. My feelings are mixed.
(BTW, I'll omit any spoilers, but I will discuss what I thought of the game)

On the pro side, it had an amazing atmosphere that it developed early on. There were great camera angles in this game. As opposed to the boring behind the shoulder viewpoint we get in most games, Until Dawn actually positions the camera in different parts of a scene to create an effect not unlike a Silent Hill or Resident Evil game. I love the idea of an interactive horror narrative like this. The OST, if a bit generic, is still effective at establishing a tense atmosphere most of the time. And that's not even considering the gorgeous song that plays during the game's opening credits. The game can look incredibly beautiful at times, with characters that verge on photo-realism and detailed, haunting environments. And, finally, it has the best use of QTEs in a game since Resident Evil 4

On the con side, most of the cast is obnoxious. I get that this is supposed to spoof aspects of cheesy horror movies, but I really didn't care if any of these people lived or died, which impacted the narrative for me. There are too many false or meaningless choices in the story: I don't mind the creators wanting to establish a consistent narrative for the game, but I detest when a game gives you a supposed choice, only to reveal you never had a choice to begin with. Oftentimes the game will force you to go along with the choice you didn't make and too many actual choices result in roughly the same result. The plot is really stupid once you figure out what is going on, and it makes the mystery and build-up of the game's early hours feel like a waste. The game gets less and less scary as it goes on. Despite looking very good most of the time, the game sacrifices performance to achieve this level of visual fidelity, with the framerate often plummeting into what seems like sub 20 fps. However, even the visual fidelity of the game itself is uneven: I would often marvel at something photo-realistic in the environment that the artists clearly intended for me to see, only to notice really bad or unfinished textures in something else they clearly didn't intend for me to look as closely at. The portions of the game where you control a character directly are usually pretty clunky as well. The controls feel... heavy. It's something I've noticed in a lot of Western games, and this one is no exception. I often had issues navigating my characters around certain objects in the environment.

All in all... I liked it. I thought it was interesting. Definitely worth the $23 I paid for it on PSN. Unfortunately, the plethora of false choices take away from this game's replay value. I don't mind if a game wants to establish a strong central narrative, but that is kind of antithetical to making a game about real choices and consequences, which is what the game tried to sell itself as. Unfortunately, very few of my choices had real consequences, and, in all honesty, the main plot was bad enough that I wish it had just focused on making the consequences of my actions complex and meaningful. I probably would have regretted paying $60 for this.

Still, if Supermassive Games can fix the performance issues and create a better horror story for their next game, I would love to play it.

Beat point and click adeventure game "The Next Big Thing" and action-puzzle adventure Beyond Good & Evil (PC - GOG) in short order.

Now that I've played Beyond Good & Evil, I can see why people want that sequel to happen - there were some really fun set pieces.

Dragon Quest V (Android)

Great JRPG, if you don't mind it's old school by the books gameplay style (plenty of random encounters, standard turn based combat). Took me somewhere between 50-60 hours to complete (but I sent a lot of time grinding in Nadiria).

Anyhow, I like the vibrant, colorful art style, and many of the towns & other locations feel unique to one another, which is quite saying something given it's a remake of an older game. I love the cool thing it did with your party (you grow throughout the adventure, starting out as a kid traveling with your dad, and by game's end, you're a father yourself, travelling with your wife & children), and the monster recruiting mechanic was also quite useful. I also really liked some of the side attractions (T n' T, Treasures n' Trapdoors, was really fun, and could be a game on it's own).

Jet Set Radio (PC)
Jet Set Radio is an absolute JOY to play. It's strong presentation and catchy soundtrack welcome you to the city of Tokyo-To, the game is well-designed and challenging, the characters are all memorable and fun to play and overall, the game is just so much yes!!

have you played jet set radio future on xbox? that game is better in every aspect. one of the best games ever made IMO

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for GBA. It was fun enough, but unfortunately the game had no interesting characters or bosses in it, sans Dracula, who is brutally difficult in this entry if you are underleveled due to not level grinding.

The DSS system was pretty darn cool, though. I like finding out the different things I can do by combining cards.

Rockman 5 (3DS Megaman Legacy Collection). The Japanese version runs better than the English version for some reason. Fun game, fun series!

I finally collected my 719th Pokemon in Rumble World on Monday. I only bought the first bunch of diamonds on special offer which unlocked the first couple of balloons. The payment was basically to give some support/thanks to a game I later spent way too much time playing.

BTW Edhe - I thought "Beyond Good and Evil" was a very poor and very empty Zelda clone. I can't remember any point and click bits in it. I completed it 100% on PS2 years ago. Getting all the photos was a bind.

I completed Witcher III recently too. Awesome game - still missing a couple of Gwent cards though (one I can't get at all as I failed the Bloody Baron's quest). Just started on the DLC.

I just beat SMB2 Japanese version on my FDSStick. Very fun game and very hard game.

Just beat Undertale with the True Pacifist ending for the fourth time.
P.S. Is the Genocide Ending worth killing all of the characters you grow attached to in the pacifist route?

I beat Normal mode of the Legend of Dark Witch yesterday with the main character. Great game!

@MrMario02: Genocide mode is honestly what made me fall in love with the game. Not just the genocide mode, mind you, but the entire experience. It's a horrifying, emotionally exhausting journey into a very dark place, but it has some INCREDIBLE boss fights and I think the dark, nihilistic perspective of the story it offers both allows you to truly appreciate the pacifist route and really gain an appreciation for certain characters who don't receive much development in the other routes.

I will warn you, though: if you successfully finish a genocide mode run, it'll... taint... any future pacifist mode runs you do on that PC.

I finished Metal Gear Rising recently. It's probably my second favorite Platinum Games game, right after Wonderful 101.

I beat Shantae: Risky's Revenge last night. Fun, but quite short. It only took me about 5 hours. Worth $10, but I must say I enjoyed Pirate's Curse a lot more. Now to wait for Half-Genie hero!

Popcork! (Android).

It's a F2P mobile game I've had for a long time. It's a carnival shooting game (has a Japanese festival setting) where you use the gyro to aim. It looked like a breath of fresh air compared to all the countless Match 3, Tower Defense/RTS, & "Team Building" games that litter the mobile landscape.

Anyhow, after playing it off & on casually over a long time, I've finally managed to win all the prizes (never spending a cent). It's also very fair with it's F2P mechanic, because the better you do, the longer you get to play (you get 3 coins a day, each worth 5 shots. As long as you knock something off, you don't lose that shot, so in theory you can play indefinitely. I've had sessions where I've played for a half hour on a single coin). Anyhow, I found it relaxing.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3)
So.. Much.....YES!

Finally beat Never Alone (Wii U eShop). It's to be commended for using the video game medium to respectfully explore a culture that doesn't get much time in the spotlight — I love the idea of translating cultural myths (especially those of the oral tradition) into the video game format, and particularly enjoyed the well-documented collection of artifacts and interviews.

The game itself was an engaging puzzle-platformer with superb art direction. I played through the entire adventure cooperatively; it's an ideal game to play with a significant other (in fact, I have a hard time imagining how you'd do it solo). I can really only fault it for just a bit of jank — the bola controls are real rough, the framerate isn't very stable and some hit detection gets a little glitchy. Other than that, I was engaged all the way through. Definitely hope to see more from this group.

My Nintendo® Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS eShop).

This was quite a treat. Picross is always fun, and Zelda fits it perfectly (especially the music). I only wish the "Mega Picross" puzzles had unique solutions, rather than recycle the images in "Picross". It was still very fun though, and I hope to see more exclusive rewards like it.