Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Saints Row 2022. I really enjoyed this one. I liked the empire building (even if I didn’t like all the activities) and I adore the new crew (put on a shirt Kev!). The the final boss fight dragged a bit though. The new crew was much more relatable and the jokes were less vulgar which made them more palatable to me. The Boss is still nuts, but she seems to be a better person and more balanced than the old boss. I still need to clean up the map but I can take a break.

Sifu - Although it only took a few hours to get the good ending, I had a blast. This might be the closest thing to Punch-Out that's not named Punch-Out. Or maybe The Raid: The Video Game, because the inspiration is plain as day. I might go so far as to call this my favorite game I've played this year? It would be between this and XC3 honestly.

If you love kung fu and/or linear action games that don't overstay their welcome, I can't recommend Sifu enough.

Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The combat was kind of shallow but in a way that was mindless fun. Beating the crap out of mooks was always a treat, and the combo system was cool if a bit finnicky. Mechanically there's just enough going on to make it feel like you're playing an actual video game than Simon Says. I could take or leave the detective mode (aka Batman Vision), but I guess it's harmless in the context of the game, and trying to add some Bat-sleuthing is at least in line with the lore. The fact it was adapted to the Witcher 3 is a bit puzzling and ill-fitting (both games were published by Warner Brothers so I guess there's some influence there?), but that's beyond AA's control. The plot was appropriately goofy and dumb but in a fun way. I really enjoyed finding the Riddler trophies/collectibles even if most of them were just "use gadget X on object Y". I had 85% completion at the end (just enough to squeeze in a few achievements, lol).

Overall a rock solid (Rocksteady? teehee) game that holds up well.

I also finished Call of Duty 4, the favorite game of all the 83-IQ jock bullies in middle school. While they have inevitably landed cushy managerial jobs I'm here gaming and posting on a Nintendo forum. Joke's on them! Anyway, it was alright. Too much of a pop-up shooting gallery for my tastes but I liked how the guns handled (mostly). I didn't care enough to mess around with the multiplayer for more than a few matches. I don't play multiplayer often but when I do I prefer tactical games like Hell Let Loose and Day of Defeat (which is a ghost town now...RIP), or the ol' standby Monster Hunter.

I've mostly been stuck to my PC for the past few weeks, gaming-wise. I do enjoy playing a bit of Picross 3D before bed though. It holds up to my memory.

I just beat Mega Man 11 on PC. Overall, I recommend the game, but just barely. The controls, level design, and power-ups were the only real highlights for me. Other than that, there isn't much going for this game. The bosses are pretty boring, the double-gear system feels heavily underutilized, and the story is super mediocre.

It's good to see Mega Man back after so many years, but Capcom needs to give the series a proper refresh in order to stay relevant.

6/10 Not bad

I beat the main story of Grapple Dog a week ago and it is by far one of the best 2D platformers that I have played in a long time. The way that it constantly finds new ways to use your grappling hook as well as the extremely satisfying feat of chaining together multiple grapples to blast through levels made it an extremely enjoyable experience that I highly advise checking out.

@Magician Did you play Sifu on the Switch? I've heard lots of great praise for this game, now including you, and it sounds like something I'd love, but I wonder if the Switch version is worth it. NL's review makes it sound decent, but not really the kind of "miracle port" we so crave, so I'm kind of torn on it

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (...finally) and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Now almost done with Zelda Skyward Sword (this last one took me less than I expected).

I finished live a live a while ago and I really did not like it AT ALL. I really wanted more time with the characters and every time I thought there was going to be something more it just ends without any warning.

I also finally beat enter the gungeon on Xbox with all achievements! Now onto exit the gungeon

@GreenTea

Yes, I played through the Switch version. It's rough. There's some severe stuttering when transitioning from area to area, as assists are loading in. But once the area has loaded the gameplay is...mostly fine. There are a couple spots where the framerate tanks, but that's usually when there are half a dozen enemies.

It's an above-average Switch port, but if you can play it elsewhere, you should.

@Magician Okay, thanks! I'm not that bothered by long loading screens personally, so maybe I'll try it out in the near future, though it's more likely I'll wait to play it elsewhere, especially if it's on the shorter end.

Finished Miles Morales and it was awesome! Christmas New York a fun playground

Can't wait for Spider-Man 2!

Healer’s Quest: I love the concept but the humor was grating.

Say No more: I honestly enjoyed this one. The presentation and narrative were cute yet it spoke to an overworked desk jockey like myself.

Super Mario 3D Land is good fun. I really tried but I can not simply play through a game anymore. It does not feel right to me. I missed some requirements for five stars I think, like dying less than five times. It was too late, when I read about that requirement. It feels good to play the 3DS after so long and I really missed the 3D effect.

Finished up Star Ocean: the Divine Force (PS5) today.

It's not GOTY material or anything, but it's nice JRPG comfort food.

Notable Pros:

• I felt the sort of Star Trek-ish world building gave it a unique feel in comparison to it's contemporaries.
• flying around with "D.U.M.A." made exploration & combat really fun.
• The board game mini-game, E'sowa, is actually really fun (the pieces are based on characters from past games too, so there's a bit of that kinda fan service for established series fans too), and it's worth it to play as the pieces you earn double as accessories you can equip to your party members, some of which have really useful effects.
• Very unrepentantly Japanese/embraces the sillier elements of the genre. It's too bad this'll likely go under the radar as it kinda runs counter to those who fear Japanese games are being westernized too much (for example, on the topic of "fan service", Elana & Marielle have the most active "jiggle physics" I've seen in a big-ish JRPG since certain Blades in XC2).

Notable Cons:

• It's apparently not optimized very well. TBH I played it on "fidelity mode" so it was probably capped at 30 FPS or some such in order to push the graphics and I didn't have many issues, however there were times it obviously fell below that (luckily they were usually cut scenes for some reason, so it really had no impact on gameplay). Apparently "performance mode" is worse, as while it targets 60 FPS, it has a harder time hitting it consistently than it does hitting 30 FPS in "fidelity mode". Of course last gen versions apparently perform even worse & the PC release isn't well optimized either.
• I can't help but feel it's lowish budget limited it's scope. It still feels like a complete game (took me between 30-40 hours to complete & I didn't do all side quests), but without getting into spoilers, it feels like there could have been more to later game areas compared to the environment(s) you're in for the first half of the game.
• Any time someone leaves the party all their equipment is removed and re-added to your inventory. This would normally a good thing (so you don't lose anything good), but the game has a bad habit (particularly in the early hours) of officially removing characters from your party for really small amounts of time (like for 5 or 10 minute periods), so you constantly have to refit them out. It becomes less prevalent as the game goes on though.

I completed the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time. I played the first two games when they originally came out, enjoyed them, but skipped the third (can't remember why). Fwiw my current playthrough was the Legendary Edition.

ME2 gets a lot of praise, and while it may be the most consistent game of the three, the real treat for me was ME3 using the consequences of your choices to resolve stories and character arcs. It creates this emmergent storytelling that's tailored to the player. For example: I romanced Liara in the ME1 and Jack in ME2; when ME3 rolled around I tried to have both relationships (at first by accident, but then on purpose. I was renegade, sue me). Liara confronted me saying something like "I know you've gone back to Jack..." and for the remainder of the game she always came off very cold to me. Then, at the end of the game right before the final assault on Earth, Liara shared a memory with me. It's a truely beautiful moment and i felt like Liara was saying she forgave me. She wasn't necessarily, and i'm mostly certain she'll have that line of dialogue with any Shepard at that point. But in that Shepard's story she was and it was touching..

I may write up more on the individual games later if i find the time, but suffice it to say Bioware really did manage something special.

So in the past few months I replayed the Resistance trilogy on PS3 with the second game coming out as my favourite of the three.

I recently finished Crysis remastered which had some cool moments but was a technical disaster. 4 crashes per session really did suck a lot of enjoyment out of it and the gunplay has not aged well. I still plan on playing the other 2 Crysis games which I also bought recently.

I also finished Doki Doki Literature club and replayed Resident Evil 4 and I'm currently playing Blasphemous and Pokemon Scarlet. I'm jumping in and out of Lego Star Wars Skywalker saga on PS4 trying to get 100% completion which is a monumental task in itself.

I went back and got the Good ending in Resident Evil Revelations 2. It is a good game with nice atmosphere. For me it is SO much better than Revelations 1.

Luigi's Mansion 2 for the 3DS. I like it. The controls are surprisingly good. It can feel a little repetitive, but that was because I decided to go for 100%, which I managed for the main campaign. The difficulty is pleasantly easy. It is incredible how much they improved in Luigi's Mansion 3.

Maybe I try again to simply play through the games.