Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Beat mario odyssey a few days ago. Today i got all 900 moons. Only thing left to do is money farming. I think thats also the only really negative part of the game and its not that bad. The game is really great.

Assassin's Creed II - really enjoy Assassin's Creed games. If my backlog wasn't so ridiculous I'd happily go round and collect everything, but I need to go on a game-beating spree.

I'll take a break from AC for now, but which AC game should I play next? I've played 1 & 2, and I know Brotherhood and Revelations complete the Ezio trilogy, but I really want to start AC3 on my Wii U.

@gcunit: Out of the three AC games that I've played (I, III, and IV/Black Flag), Black Flag was by far my favorite. I know some people think AC III was kinda meh, but I personally enjoyed it; I'm a sucker for historical fiction. XD

Though if you have Brotherhood and Revelations, it might be best to play them in order.

@subpopz @Tyranexx I do have Brotherhood and Revelations in the ol' Steam backlog, so I guess I'll play those first. But I'll probably take an AC break between each one, so it'll be ages before I get to my Wii U versions

Got a couple of Splinter Cell games to catch up on, so I'll probably alternate SC then AC.

Finished Sonic Forces and I didn't like it that much. I wish they would get creative again like with Colors and Unleashed. Classic Sonic is just not fun to play as and the Avatar levels were just boring and bland. Only levels I had fun with were the Modern Sonic stages and even then they were pretty glitchy. This game is a 5/10 in my opinion.

Super Mario Odyssey: So, I actually beat the game last week, but I wanted to unlock and complete the final level of the game before sharing my thoughts on it. I'm sitting at around 530 moons now, so there is still a fair bit of content left for me to complete, but I feel like I've seen most of what this game has to offer and can judge it fairly.

PRO:

• This is a gorgeous game. Environments are colorful, evocative, and detailed. Character models are sharp and attractive. There are some wonderful lighting effects on display that make everything look good. I feel like, on a technical level, this is a good showcase for what the Switch can pull off.
• Aside from a few hitches, this game runs at 60fps almost all the time, and it feels great!
• This is an incredibly creative game. Far more so than almost anything Nintendo has released since Super Mario Galaxy.
• There is a lot of content here. And, unlike so many previous Mario games, the length all comes from unique content as opposed to replaying levels over and over with different characters. There is just SO MUCH cool stuff to do in the post-game.
• Great OST. One of the best in the series, apart from the peerless Galaxy games.
• The normal platforming controls are fantastic, and Mario has never controlled better.
• This game has a decent number of cut-scenes, and they're all gorgeously animated and fun to watch. Definitely the best game in the series in this regard.
• I love how you can instantly warp to the checkpoints, as it makes the size of some of these worlds much less daunting when you're trying to find everything.
• The hat throwing mechanic is fantastic, and the capture ability was very well-integrated into game. Feels less like a weird gimmick and more like a cool ability that supplements the core gameplay. Although I still prefer FLUDD.

CON:

• The motion controls are horrendous. Unlike Mario Galaxy, which smartly only connected Mario's spin attack to waggle motions, this game maps a variety of hat throws to specific motions which, more often than not, don't work as intended. This was also a problem in ARMS, but at least in that game you can do everything with sticks and buttons, whereas in this game certain moves can ONLY be accomplished with motion controls.
  • Sub-complaint: The focus on specific joycon motions clashes profoundly with the hybrid design of the Switch. The fact that I don't have access to Mario's full moveset in handheld mode is crippling, and a huge oversight on Nintendo's part.
  • What makes the lack of button alternatives to motion gestures even more offensive is how much redundancy there is in the controls. Why are there, like, three different buttons that make Mario jump?
• There are too many moons, and I think they fail in a way that korok seeds don't. While there are a wider array of activities to engage in to collect moons, collecting moons is pretty much THE point of the game, whereas korok seeds were designed to reward exploration and little else. As such, I feel like moons, being more of a central focus of the game, are much more redundant. And korok seeds were never just given to you, whereas there are so many of these moons barfed out across the game that many are just... sitting out in plain sight waiting to be collected. I also don't like that you can literally buy moons from the shop, as it devalues them further.
• The bosses are mostly pretty disappointing. Particularly the Broodals, which are pretty much this game's way of sneaking in the koopalings. Like the koopalings, their fights are boring and easy. Some of the original bosses are decent in terms of design, and I know that Mario games aren't known for their stellar boss fights, but I was still sort of let down.
• The ending is disappointing. It feels like a joke, which is a shame, given the epic scope of the narrative.
• The final level isn't so much difficult as it is tedious. It takes a long time to complete if you keep making stupid mistakes, but it doesn't feel like you completed some sort of massive ordeal.

Overall, it's a pretty great game, and I definitely think the positives outweigh the negatives. It's most certainly my favorite of the exploratory 3D Mario games, and I'm excited to see where Nintendo goes next with this franchise. Not a masterful home run like BotW, but still one of the best games released this year. I'd probably give it a solid 9/10.

I recently picked up and finished 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 via a discount through My Nintendo. I think M2 really did a good job of transitioning the game into 3D, and I can easily see why many enjoy the classic Sonic games for what they are. I had a lot of fun with some of the worlds (Casino Night and Mystic Cave were my favorite sections), but the mechanics of some of the other worlds were a bit frustrating for me. I feel like the best moments of the game (other than the fun yet occasionally frustrating Eggman/Robotnik encounters)were when Sonic was running along at crazy speeds with wild abandon. Conversely, I didn't like sections that occasionally slowed you down or trolled you with enemies that were just off-screen until it was too late to see them.

This was my second foray into the Sonic series (the first being my brother's copy of Sonic Advance 3). While I don't believe I'll be picking up the first game (apparently it takes my complaints from Sonic 2 and makes them worse), I will consider getting the third game if I get the opportunity. Also, when I do get a Switch, I may pick up Sonic Mania; let's just say I'm a cautious almost-fan at this point. XD

I can't believe I forgot to post about this one, but I did finish Metroid Prime 3: Corruption a while back, and thus Metroid Prime Trilogy as a whole. The following section will be in spoilers.

Bring on Metroid Prime 4!

Since August:
3DS:
Pokemon Moon

Megadrive:
Taz-Mania
Cannon Fodder
AAAHH!!! Real Monsters
Warlock
Sonic the Hedgehog
Gods
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Jurassic Park
Dino Land

Switch:
LEGO City Undercover
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

DS:
Warioware: Touched!

PC:
Hitman: Absolution
Grand Theft Auto V
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

That brings the total number of games I've finished this year to 64, 3 more than last year.

@subpopz: There were a couple of instances, but the one that really stands out in my mind right now was how Dark Samus got from Tallon IV to Aether. How she got off of Aether was well explained in Prime 3, but the games never really did address how she got off of Tallon IV. Did she hitch a ride on an off-world ship? Did she influence some Pirates at that point in time as well? I suppose it ultimately doesn't matter, but it was a question that I had when she reappeared in Echoes.

Interestingly enough, I did the exact thing with classic Sonic with the classic Mega Man games as well. I intentionally skipped the first game and went right to the second one. In cases like this, if I'm not sure if I'll like the series, I usually try to start with one of the better games to see
if I should invest more time into the series as a whole. I may go back to the first entry later on.

If I'm able to get a hold of Sonic 3 + Knuckles, I'll definitely be giving that a try.

@subpopz: There was a scan in Prime 2 where the Pirates confused Dark Samus for Samus, but I don't recall if they ever fully addressed where she came from in that game. Prime 3 is where she definitely stowed away on the Space Pirate ship, as shown in both the opening cut scene and explained in scans that I found on the Pirate Homeworld. That's how I figured things happened as well, but again, I'm not totally sure. XD

I beat Child of Light yesterday. Ohhh boy. I can't express how much I love the game. I'm going to restart it and play it again soon in a while.

Freedom Planet. Finished Lilac's route. I know there are other routes, but... meh.

PRO:

• The game has a surprisingly elaborate plot for an indie Sonic-inspired platformer, with some fun and endearing characters.
• I enjoyed the Ristar-esque dashing move Lilac is able to use.
• In general, the sprite art is fairly high quality. This feels less like a lazy retro-inspired game and more like a real retro game.

CON:

• I hate the way this game doesn't tell you when it's saving. It generally saves after you complete a stage, so I thought I was safe to stop playing the other night, but apparently there was a bonus stage which I didn't know about, and I lose thirty minutes of progress. So annoying.
• The stages are too long and sprawling. I don't want to spend thirty minutes playing a single stage before the game saves and I can move on. These Sonic-esque levels just aren't that interesting. At least break them up into separate acts or something.
• The physics in this game are broken, which is bad for a platformer that emulates the momentum-based gameplay of Sonic games. Like, you can slowly walk up walls. Hitting a spring that that should send you back the way you came barely does anything. It all feels unnatural and gross.
• The audio balancing in this game is terrible. The voice acting sounds really muffled half the time.
• Getting a game over is functionally identical to losing a life in this game. Why have a lives system at all if you're not going to use it to punish the player? Granted, considering how difficult some of these bosses were, I suppose I should be thankful that lives and game overs are effectively meaningless in this game.
• Some of the boss fights are fun, but too many feel borderline unfair. Weirdly, mid-stage boss fights are often way more difficult than end-stage boss fights.

Overall, it was OK. I can see why some people would like this, but there are too many annoyances that continually crop up.

Mario Odyssey. 8/10.. It's more of a collectathon than a platformer which isn't my cup of tea. But good game overall.

I finally beat Advance Wars 2. Which means I've finally beaten all three Advance Wars games.
"But wasn't there a fourth-"
Which means I've beaten ALL three Advance Wars games.

@kkslider5552000 Not a fan of grimdark Advance Wars, huh? That's actually the only one I still own.

I mean, I didn't dislike it, but outside of a couple of story sequences that worked pretty well and actual online(IIRC), I can't think of anything it improved from previous games and a number of things that made it worse. Though the worst part of it is easily that it seems to have killed the series.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. Other than the obvious audiovisual overhaul and addition of some new levels that weren't in the original, I'm not really sure how much has been changed here, but the core gameplay and level design are shockingly accessible and modern for a game made in 1989. This is a Metroidvania years before Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night ever released.

The visual style of this game is just GORGEOUS. I'm playing this on the Nintendo Switch, primarily in handheld mode, and it looks fantastic on the tablet screen, but it also looks good on the TV. The remastered audio is similarly superb. Every bit of music in this game is a joy to listen to. Controls are fluid and responsive. The various dungeony areas are a bit on the short side, but they well laid out and fun to tackle.

There's a variety of fun enemies to fight. The bosses aren't quite as strong, and you defeat them all in essentially the same manner. Some of them look pretty cool thanks to the gorgeous art design, but they really don't pose a threat at all and broadly attack you in the same way.

My only real issue with the game is the price (although I got it for 2/3 of its normal price in a sale). $20 for what amounts to a 3 - 4 hour game (I got 6 hours out of it by 100%ing it and grinding for money) doesn't seem like a great bargain, and, outside of a gender-flipped girl character who doesn't really change the gameplay at all, there's no incentive to replay it. I guess this might be a good candidate for speedrunning, but otherwise, I can't think of a reason I'd play this again any time soon.

Still, my (brief) time with the game was quite fun, and, if the price tag and short play time don't bother you, I'd highly recommend playing it.

SOMA

Liked

• Dark, complex, and mostly well written science-fiction/horror narrative.
• Great character writing. You really get a sense of these people: their hopes, their fears, and the way they fall apart under inhuman levels of stress.
• Supremely atmospheric setting that channels the original Bioshock at its absolute best.
• Game is the perfect length and doesn't overstay its welcome.
• I take back my previous criticism about the "audio logs" in this game. The game explains what is happening perfectly, and this is one of the few games where it makes sense to hear logs of peoples' thoughts in their final moment everywhere.
• The game is a fascinating meditation on the nature of consciousness and identity. What is to be a person? Would an intelligent machine think and value in the same way humans would? If human consciousness can be represented as code and manipulated like a computer program, then to what extent can this representation be said to be any more real or significant than any other piece of software that replicates intelligent thought? Would deleting the coded representation of a human intelligence be the equivalent of murder, and, if not, what is the crucial difference between the two acts? If there are multiple copies of my consciousness out there, which one is "me?" Does the term "me" even have meaning in such a situation? The game implicitly raises all of these questions, and many of them are... difficult to grapple with in a candid manner.

Mixed

• The ocean exploration bits. Most of them are slow and boring wastes of time, in my opinion, but there is one terrifying sequence near the end that evokes emotions of terror and helplessness in the player that also takes place in the ocean.

Didn't like

• This is probably exclusively a PC problem, but the game has major performance and screen-tearing issues at times (I know it's not just me, because other people were reporting similar problems).
• Some of the writing is a bit lacking in subtlety. When you have characters explicitly discussing the game's themes with somewhat obvious dialogue, it's time to take another pass at the script.
• The level design is a bit unsuited to the "hide and seek" gameplay in many cases, and it can be pretty difficult to avoid certain monsters.
• The game has monsters that navigate entirely by sound, and it also allows you to pick up and toss items, but, for some reason, you can't throw items to trick these monsters. Weird oversight.
• The game doesn't seem to have any kind of feedback about whether you're well-hidden enough from enemies, which can be frustrating.
• The screen flickers whenever an enemy is approaching. I get that this is to warn about the presence of a monster nearby, like the radio static in Silent Hill, but where as that was unnerving, this effect is just annoying.
• Not really a fan of games where you have to run and hide from all of the monsters.
• There are some annoying bugs near the end. In particular, one death sequence near the end can glitch and loop endlessly. I had to exit out of the game and go back in after five minutes of listening to my character scream in pain.

This is a game that every adult sci-fi fan should eventually play.

I finished Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya on the 3DS VC a little bit ago. Overall, it was a fairly decent game if you can look past the relative blandness of the first third of the game. I'm still not terribly fond of the random turn order vs. the Fire Emblem series's "Move all your units, then they move their units" rule. The fact that enemies could not retaliate while you were going, however, became a double-edged sword that I felt alleviated this somewhat.

The plot was nothing to write home about, but it did pick up in the second half of the game. I found it fairly predictable, but still enjoyable once things became more interesting. The maps likewise improved as I kept playing.

Overall, I would recommend this to any fan of strategy games or Shining Force in general. It was my first SF game. While I won't be running out to get any other SF titles anytime soon (partially because of its absence in the West lately), it's definitely a series I'll consider in the future.

Bastion

Liked:

• Simplistic but engaging combat.
• Gorgeous visual presentation. The environments really pop on a bigger display.
• Loved the weapon challenges that rewarded weapon mastery with additional upgrade materials.
• A lot of weapons to use. Tons of variety for different play styles.
• Good music.
• Bite sized levels make this a perfect pick up and play sort of game.
• Frequently autosaves
• There's a rudimentary upgrade system that is still addicting to use and abuse.

Mixed:

• The narration. Everything in this game is constantly being narrated by a particular character. On one hand, the voice is deep, mature, and dare I say somewhat sexy, and he gets a lot of fantastic dialogue. On the other hand, it get a little tiring listening to the voice constantly. I would have preferred for the voice to only chime in during important moments, not narrate every single thing that happens in the game. Less is more.

Didn't like:

• Bland characters. The narrator's voice and dialogue has a lot of character, but he's the only person who is really characterized at all. Everybody else... might as well not even be there. Including the "kid" who you play as. You never get a sense for what sort of person he is.
• Muddled storytelling. There's a ton of style in the storytelling segments. Perhaps too much. I still only have the foggiest idea of what was actually happening in the game. As such, I never really felt connected to what was happening in the game.
• Lack of gameplay and level variety. I mean, it does one thing, and it does it reasonably well, but it feels like you're doing that one thing through the entire game, and even as short as this game is, it got old.
• The ending didn't feel notable or impactful at all. No real final boss or climactic encounter. Last level just felt like any other level in the game.

A pretty decent game overall, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others at full price. Maybe on sale.