I had no issues on easy. If I can do it anyone can. I did ZERO side missions.
Mini-Review/Backlog Destruction Thread
- Thread starter Razzel
- Start date
And that's a wrap on Darksiders 3; only Genesis left in the series though I'm really hoping we get a 4 eventually. Overall really enjoyed it. Was a good challenge but never got to the point of being ridiculous.
Next up I'm finally starting my most anticipated game of 2023 and probably many years to come: Alan Wake 2.
Next up I'm finally starting my most anticipated game of 2023 and probably many years to come: Alan Wake 2.
I don't know if we ever are getting a proper 4. The publisher of all the games THQ is owned by the Embracer Group and you know how they are.
I’ve been running through the Tomb Raider games. They have aged extremely well. Especially Shadow, as that game looks amazing on Series X!!
Finished Tellatale game: The Expanse. Told a good story and looked good while doing it. The switch from their proprietary engine to Unreal was a god send.
Really enjoyed 3. Didn't complete Genesis but might go back to it one day.
Sadly I think the series is dead even though Genesis met its sales target.
Saw that Modern Warfare 2 was finally on "sale," but $35 is still too much if I just want to play the campaign. So I got it from cdkeys for PS5 for $16. Should be fun to feel the haptics with the controller.
Added more games due to sales. Picked up Octopath Traveler 2 (PC) and Star Trek Resurgence ( SX) . Resurgence I'll probably knock out this weekend. Octopath I'm told is a very long game, so I don't know when I'll start it. @aceattorney let me know that cdkeys has MW2 for ps4/5 for $16. I can't play thee multiplayer worth a damn but I enjoy a good campaign and the last COD I played, Cold war was pretty good so I might pick this up too.
Updates on games I'm still playing:
Updates on games I'm still playing:
- I'm replaying Doom Eternal and its has aged well. Still every bit as visceral and fast as I remember.
- Somebody said something about Arkane games in another thread, so I'm replaying Dishonored 2. You can really see the bones for Deathloop in this game. Deathloop solidly remains my favorite Arkane game ever. Dishonored 2 is still a great game but I do see why it didn't see well. Very well designed but very much an acquired taste. Not for the mass markets at all.
- I've uninstalled Balder's Gate 3 (PC). I played and finished the game in its launch window. While I may do another playthrough down the line, it better for me to wait for all the patches instead of letting it take up space on my hard drive.
- I'm this close to uninstalling Star Ocean: The Divine Force (PC). It so mediocre and the port isn't very good either. I know Square gives the Star Ocean team the tiniest budget but this is ridiculous. I didn't think the series could get worse than Integrity and Faithlessness but here we are. This might be the 1st Star Ocean game I don't finish, and I've played all of them from the SNES days. I don't say this lightly but if Square is going to treat the series like this, just go ahead and put the series on ice until you get serious about it.
- ON the flip side, I'm having a blast with Forspoken (PC) Combat and traversal is great. Game got far too much hate for odd reasons.
- Might be ready to give up on Plague Tale: Requiem( SX). Its a well made game but its getting very repetitive and the story really doesn't grab me like the first one.
- I started GOW: Ragnorok (PS5) but just haven't had time to do anything in it.
- I'm trying to finish Horizen Forbidden West but I think the Ubisoft-ing of the game burned me out a bit and I need a break from it.
Got some time over after Christmas eve and started fiddling with an RGH modded Xbox 360... ended with me putting it in one of my Sega Cabinets through VGA to the 29" arcade CRT... just waiting for an adapter to connect all the buttons and the sticks, but it plays fine with an Xbox controller.
Fkin FTP client transfer was a bitch, but it now has around 40 games, mainly fighting games and XBLA games since there's a fairly good selection of vintage arcadey games to download (golden axe, streets of rage etc).
Now, to the reviews;
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - plays pretty much like 6 and 7 with amazing graphics considering its 2 gens old now... it actually looks better than 7 does on newer TVs, on that CRT, maybe because of the smoother and less vibrant colors idk.
Game feels great to play and it's a perfect match to play on an arcade imo.
DOA 5 ultimate - also looks amazing and plays just about the same as the newer installments. Amazing environments and frantic fights that flows like the wind.
King of fighters XIII - meh... it looks okay I guess, but the smoothed pixels looks strange to me. Plays like the older KOF games and feels pretty dated tbh.
Fkin FTP client transfer was a bitch, but it now has around 40 games, mainly fighting games and XBLA games since there's a fairly good selection of vintage arcadey games to download (golden axe, streets of rage etc).
Now, to the reviews;
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - plays pretty much like 6 and 7 with amazing graphics considering its 2 gens old now... it actually looks better than 7 does on newer TVs, on that CRT, maybe because of the smoother and less vibrant colors idk.
Game feels great to play and it's a perfect match to play on an arcade imo.
DOA 5 ultimate - also looks amazing and plays just about the same as the newer installments. Amazing environments and frantic fights that flows like the wind.
King of fighters XIII - meh... it looks okay I guess, but the smoothed pixels looks strange to me. Plays like the older KOF games and feels pretty dated tbh.
Small note on Dishonored 2. I've always felt that the game/series was emulating something I just couldn't put my finger on it. My wife was watching me play and this is the conversations we had:
Wife: What are you playing?
Me: I'm replaying an old game. Its from the same guys that made Deathloop. *( Deathloop is beloved in this household)*
Wife: It looks like that old computer game that you used to play where you had to steal everything without getting caught.
Me: ???? What are you talking about?
Wife: You know the stealing game in the shadows but with no super powers.
Me: ?????
Me: *Light bulb goes off* You mean Thief?
Wife: Yeah that one.
I NEVER put the 2 together. IF you play the Dishonored series stealthy with low/no Chaos, it plays close to if not exactly like the Thief series. And given the poor sales numbers for both series, seems that fans agree too. I'm just surprised I never connected the 2 together. Did an internet search and droves of people came to this conclusion very early.
Wife: What are you playing?
Me: I'm replaying an old game. Its from the same guys that made Deathloop. *( Deathloop is beloved in this household)*
Wife: It looks like that old computer game that you used to play where you had to steal everything without getting caught.
Me: ???? What are you talking about?
Wife: You know the stealing game in the shadows but with no super powers.
Me: ?????
Me: *Light bulb goes off* You mean Thief?
Wife: Yeah that one.
I NEVER put the 2 together. IF you play the Dishonored series stealthy with low/no Chaos, it plays close to if not exactly like the Thief series. And given the poor sales numbers for both series, seems that fans agree too. I'm just surprised I never connected the 2 together. Did an internet search and droves of people came to this conclusion very early.
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Haptics are pretty fun to use in the campaign. Not sure if I'd like them in MP though as it adds resistance to the triggers.
The game is definitely fun, with great pacing, but I can't help but feel like the graphics aren't as impressive as Modern Warfare 1. To be fair though, I played MW1 on PC, so I had all of the settings on ultra. I just figured the PS5 would look at least slightly better. I don't even see HDR settings on PS5.
Day one of the new year and one game already down (though almost all of it was played in 2023) - Alan Wake 2. Easily the best game I've played in years and somehow managed to live up to the 13 year wait. Can't wait for the coming DLCs and tie ins to the Remedy Connected Universe.
Next up I'm going through Return to Monkey Island, courtesy of Game Pass.
Next up I'm going through Return to Monkey Island, courtesy of Game Pass.
Finished Dishonored 2. I feel like this game more than Dishonored 1 , Death of the Outsider , Prey or Deathloop, gives you the most freedom on how to approach missions within reason. Obviously the game is slanted toward stealth and they want you to approach it that way but you don't have to. I still think the story of Death of the Outsider was better and Deathloop's combat was better but Dishonored 2 set the stage for both.
Finished Cocoon on Game Pass. Took me just under seven hours. Think of it as a pocket dimension puzzle game. Some parts get quite taxing, and you'll figure things out by trial and error (or luck). I thought the game was quite clever, but a bit too long.
Game is on sale, but knowing my luck if I buy it it'll show up on Game Pass the next day.
I've always wanted to check out Dishonored since I'm a big Thief fan. Never got around to playing it. I thought Prey was just okay because I'm not a fan of all of the backtracking. Does Dishonored require a lot of backtracking?
Started up Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. Game runs great and is actually fun. Can't wait for the main story to ramp up and hit me with the nostalgia.
The dishonored series in general does not make you back track. In fact once you leave certain areas you can't go back. I thought Prey was the weakest of Arkane's titles to date due to the back and forth weaker story.
Intergrade is really good. I would say stick with the main story as the side quests are terrible.
Just finished chapter 3 of 18, and the game mostly looks phenomenal. Highly cinematic at times. The characters are gorgeously modeled and are familiar archetypes. Regarding the story, I honestly don't remember much from when I played the original 20 years ago, so it's been fascinating to follow it along.
I will say that this is much better than the last FF game I played, which was FFXV.
New Year so I'm dropping the extra baggage.
Uninstalled Star Ocean: The Divine Force (PC). Its a bad pc port with mediocre everything including story, gameplay and graphics. Star Ocean is one of my favorite series but this is just too much for me. Will pick up Star Ocean Second Story R to wash the taste of Divine Force's mediocrity out.
Uninstalled Plague Tale: Requiem( XSX). Just lost the will to continue playing.
Uninstalled Lamplighter's League. It is a fun game but its longer than I want to play right now. And it crashes alot.
Uninstalled Star Ocean: The Divine Force (PC). Its a bad pc port with mediocre everything including story, gameplay and graphics. Star Ocean is one of my favorite series but this is just too much for me. Will pick up Star Ocean Second Story R to wash the taste of Divine Force's mediocrity out.
Uninstalled Plague Tale: Requiem( XSX). Just lost the will to continue playing.
Uninstalled Lamplighter's League. It is a fun game but its longer than I want to play right now. And it crashes alot.
Started MWII on PS5. As someone who never plays Call of Duty games, this campaign is pretty good. Haptic feel right, guns and gunplay are awesome. Animations are tight. The most impressive part surprisingly is the sound. On my 7.1 surround system everything just sounds visceral and right. Not that I wish Halo to EVER become COD, but there is ALOT 343 could learn from Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward.
Will be really curious to see what you think of the stealth missions. I thought there were too many and they were mostly tedious
Finished Star Trek: Resurgence ( XSX). What a contrast this game is to The Expanse game. So both games are made by studios compromised of former Telltale studio members however the games couldn't be more different.
The Expanse is quite frankly visually stunning with great voice work and superb animation, whereas Star treks looks and runs like a telltale game of yesteryear with decent voice acting.
However, Star Trek feels like an episode of The Next Generation with its narrative and writing. Whereas the expanse feels a little off but still true to the show.
The major difference is how dialog and choices are handled. In Star trek, EVERY conversation matters from the mundane to the critical, every conversation effects something in the game. Whereas in the Expanse, generally only the major choices effect the story and the other dialog is just for lore sake.
I enjoyed both of them immensely but wish the 2 teams could get together and make one game as the strength of one complements the weakness of the other.
The Expanse is quite frankly visually stunning with great voice work and superb animation, whereas Star treks looks and runs like a telltale game of yesteryear with decent voice acting.
However, Star Trek feels like an episode of The Next Generation with its narrative and writing. Whereas the expanse feels a little off but still true to the show.
The major difference is how dialog and choices are handled. In Star trek, EVERY conversation matters from the mundane to the critical, every conversation effects something in the game. Whereas in the Expanse, generally only the major choices effect the story and the other dialog is just for lore sake.
I enjoyed both of them immensely but wish the 2 teams could get together and make one game as the strength of one complements the weakness of the other.
