Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

@kkslider5552000: The only glitch I ran into was triggering the Carlov Medal at 130 figurines since I got them all before beating Vaati. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to nab the last six correctly, but thankfully I was able to get them (and the medal for realsies) without incident.

@RR529: I farmed that same patch of grass, though I didn't bother with the Picolyte and just used my Rupees on buying more shells at the town shop. I found a topic somewhere that didn't really prove if using Picolyte had much of an advantage over just buying the shells. It's all a matter of preference, I suppose.

Sonic Advance 2 for the second time, except this time I didn't get all the chaos emeralds (none actually), because it's just not something worth your time.
I really like the level variety, the feeling of [GOTTA GO FAST] that was missing from the first game and the soundtrack. It's the best Advance game out of the 3 for me.

Finally got around to beating Wolfenstein: The New Order.

My feelings about it...

It was surprisingly decent on the plot/character development front. The subject matter of the game is pulpy and exploitative, but it presents the material with an incredibly straight face, which made for some interesting drama in a genre often filled with a sort of cheerful nihilism.

This game still does have a fun, old-school feel to it, though, with an old-fashioned health system (with an interesting overcharging mechanic where you can temporarily boost your health up extra high and storm a group of enemies), plenty of interesting weapons (almost all of which you're able to dual wield!), and fantastic level design that allows for a certain level of environmental exploration.

Another aspect of the game I liked was that it allowed you tackle most scenarios in different ways. The game perfectly accommodates both a stealthy "sneak around and kill one guy at a time" gameplay style as well as a more old-school "charge in, kill em all, and let God sort em out" approach. Depending on the layout of the levels, I would often tackle them differently. A "barge in and kill em" all approach works well when there's a finite number of enemies, but in the parts where commanders are able to call in reinforcements, I like to stealth kill people and save my ammo.

One thing I didn't like about it was that it had a number of flashy set-pieces and gimmicky boss battles. I realize some people love this stuff, but I hate when games get all Uncharted and start throwing setpieces with very limited interactivity at me. If I just want to watch something cool happen, I'll pop in a DVD. Too many of them happen for me. It certainly wasn't enough to ruin the game for me, but it did detract from the overall fun.

There's some sort of skill tree that you can gradually unlock throughout the game by accomplishing certain gameplay challenges, but I pretty much forgot about it until just now and didn't have any issues.

People who are big into games where you have to search everywhere and collect stuff will absolutely love this game. There's all sorts of hidden stuff to collect and notes to read (which are worthwhile, as they are usually newspaper clippings that flesh out the setting more than the main plot allows for).

Finally, this is one of the few modern shooters that really focused all of its resources on developing a big, impressive single-player campaign. It probably took me around 17 hours or so to complete, which is super-impressive for a modern FPS. There are a lot of interesting locations and stuff to explore over the course of the game.

Overall, I still prefer the style of the DOOM remake, with its focus on raw, aggressive gameplay, but I certainly can't say this wasn't a really solid FPS. I'm not really a fan of the genre, but I'm glad I picked this game up.

@Ralizah Nice mini review. I just picked it up in the sales this week, but with it being about 386th place on my backlog, it may take me a while to get far enough to compare notes with you

@gcunit I actually picked it up last year, but only recently bothered getting around to it. That describes a lot of my backlog, actually. I think I'll limit my purchases next year to half a dozen or so key releases and focus on cutting into my backlog!

@Ralizah A most sensible idea, can you help me do the same? I'm uncontrollable.

@gcunit I've had to force myself to ignore sales and pledge only to buy new games if I'm planning on playing them right away.

I don't mind having a healthy backlog for a system, but when I look in my collection and see games that I bought for full price two or three years ago that I've yet to even touch, I know something has to change. My problem is that I have a fondness for 40+ hour RPGs and have work/family/etc. to attend to, so I don't get a ton of time to play.

My biggest problem is console games, honestly. Its so much harder to carve out time to play a game when you have to sit in front of a big TV to do so. It's why I'm so excited for the Switch. It's the perfect console for me.

Got another game off of the ol' backlogg, Journey on PS4. This was one of the games that almost got me to buy a PS3 last gen and it was one game that I hoped was going to be ported to the PS4. Now after waiting so long to play it I can say the wait was worth it. One of the best Indy games I have played in a long time, and the hype behind it was deserving it. The atmosphere was especially good and my one real complaint is that it was short. Still if you have a PS3 or 4 this is a must play game.

@Tasuki I really need to buckle down and just play this one night.

@Ralizah That's basically what I did. I wanted to play something this afternoon but wasn't sure what I wanted to play and I saw it in my library and figured now is as good as anytime. It's honestly not that long of a game, you can probably beat it in an hour or two.

I'll try to keep this in mind for next year. I got two coming out in the first quarter that I know I'll want to play, but the rest I'll just have to leave on the back-burner, though I got two that I'll be looking at reviews for, since I might want to jump into those if they don't drop the ball (talking specifically about Akiba's Beat and Nioh...and maybe Digimon World: Next Order...heck, screw Nioh, I suck at those hard-as-balls action games. I need me some Digimon!).

But yeah, it'd be tough for me to stick to, but I might be okay if I remember that golden rule.

@CanisWolfred I really enjoyed Nioh, but I could NOT beat that second boss fight with the succubus in the Beta. It was harder than any Souls boss I've ever encountered, that's for sure. I hope they either balance the difficulty a bit or include difficulty settings.

I've contemplated how I'm going to square the torrent of releases next year with my current... ah, philosophy. I finally settled on buying and playing Gravity Rush 2 on release, buying and playing Yakuza 0 after I'm done with that, and then working on my backlog until April when Persona 5 drops. I'll have to pass on a lot of decent looking games at launch (Zelda: BOTW, Nioh, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Resident Evil 7, etc.), but at least I won't be adding to my enormous backlog.

My current temptation: a decent PSN sale, with a 10% off code that stacks with the sale prices. But I'll remain faithful. I'd love to work through the majority of my games in the next few years.

@Ralizah I'm just lucky that I own most of the interesting games in that sale already, with the only exception being the Season Pass for DOOM. And $23.99 is still too much for that, IMO.

Just 100% Lego Jurassic World. Got every character, red brick, gold brick, race etc. Everything.

Last night, using my NES Classic, I completed my fastest Metroid playthrough to record. I don't know the exact time but I got the best ending and got to the Mother Brain w/o ever having defeated Ridley.

@Nimkip If I may nitpick: The Last of Us already had more of that than any Uncharted game, although it tries to warrant it to some degree. I mean, the story that they're going for kind of requires some downtime for things to sink in, and it already had a lot of cutscenes...

So...yeah, hopefully they don't have more of that. I should hope they'll use the 5+ years between games to actually learn from their previous mistakes.

Didn't really "beat" it, as I did that months ago, but I finally got around to platting Peggle 2. After a few failed tries, I could usually get it running via Remote Play, but I swear to god, I wish it was just on the Vita. I've never seen a more perfect handheld game.

I beat Guacamelee. 100% (barring some gold medals in that one area), best ending, everything bought. Excellent video game! Probably my favorite Metroidvania that isn't Metroid or Castlevania. (...or Cave Story if that counts)

Recently finished Final Fantasy VII for the first time. It took me a while to get into it, but in the end I absolutely adored it, despite some flaws and aged aspects to it. I can wait to further explore that world with Crisis Core and Advent Children. I've also just started FF VIII.

Sonic CD (the version from Sonic Gems Collection). Sonic CD is my second favorite Sonic game and I played most versions of it by now.

This version is based on the PC version, and one of the main differences is that there's no transparency effect on the water (Tidal Tempest). The framerate is better than the SCD version and the FMVs were restored to their full quality.

The 2011 version is the best one, the remade HD graphics look very sharp, you can choose between the Japanese/US soundtrack and there's a proper spin dash. Still, the Gems Collection version isn't bad at all.