Mini-Review/Backlog Destruction Thread

Ori 2: Seemed too similar to Ori 1, but that's not a bad thing. However, lots of audio bugs (sound effects disappearing) and lag (low fps and other hiccups) towards the end of the game bothered me. Fortunately, I have a decent PC, so I completed the game there without any probs. Thanks to Play Anywhere my save transferred over.

Mutant Year Zero: Great game! Played on PC, thanks to Game Pass. It's a turn-based strategy game with a real-time stealth element. There isn't the city management element presented in X-Com, so it allows you to just focus on your characters. Very fun game with great visuals.

Outer Worlds: I'm trudging through this. I haven't really enjoyed a Fallout type of game for a while. Maybe I've grown tired of them? Fetch quest after fetch quest. At least it's got a lot of funny dialogue.
 
Ori 2: Seemed too similar to Ori 1, but that's not a bad thing. However, lots of audio bugs (sound effects disappearing) and lag (low fps and other hiccups) towards the end of the game bothered me. Fortunately, I have a decent PC, so I completed the game there without any probs. Thanks to Play Anywhere my save transferred over.

Mutant Year Zero: Great game! Played on PC, thanks to Game Pass. It's a turn-based strategy game with a real-time stealth element. There isn't the city management element presented in X-Com, so it allows you to just focus on your characters. Very fun game with great visuals.

Outer Worlds: I'm trudging through this. I haven't really enjoyed a Fallout type of game for a while. Maybe I've grown tired of them? Fetch quest after fetch quest. At least it's got a lot of funny dialogue.

So you level up your characters and unlock skills in Mutant Year Zero? I thought about trying that out a few times.
 
I finished Outerworld finally. It's lacking in action & RPG part (Lots of recycled mobs & asserts) , but strong in dialog & artstyle. I rated it 7.7/10.

Now waiting for FF7 to hit my mailbox from Amazon.
 
So you level up your characters and unlock skills in Mutant Year Zero? I thought about trying that out a few times.
Yep - I actually started playing it last year then gave up on it after playing for an hour. Finally went back to it and then it just clicked with me.
 
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I finally played Overwatch, despite preorder the game.....after like 3 years or so!

The combat & animation is baby bottom smooth. Game is hard with high skill ceiling. I got my S kicked & 1/2 of the time, I have no idea what killed me, often even after watching killcam. So many explosions & visuals effects. Every hero feels unique.

I guess I understand better with time. So much depth.

My biggest complaint is lootbox. I hate anti consumer lootbox. Just let us buy the skins we want.
 
Been replaying Tomb Raider 2013. That to me is a masterful single player game that is far superior to either of its sequels.
 
Sea of Solitude (EA Access): Huge meh

Game trailer was pretty cool, but the game was just grating. From the contrived story, to the weak dialogue, to the bad voice acting, and the weak gameplay. And while the art style was nice at times, the graphics were fairly unrefined. The only reason why I actually completed it was because it was easy, quick, and I figured I'd at least just get the Achievements. But yeah what a disappointment.
 
Journey to the Savage Planet
Amazing metroidvania like game.
I would've liked more variety in music though, the music in there is great but there's to little.
 
I went back to Xcom 2 while awaiting Gears Tactics. Playing this time with the WOTC DLC. Top 5 game of the gen for me. Between my first time playing it vanilla before getting stuck and this round, almost up to 100 hours. Addictive game.
 
I got FF7 remake. I have mix feelings for the game. Overall its positive but its not exactly a remake, but more of a gem featuring Most of the main FF7 cast, & some OG FF7 parts.

The game so far (played 12 hours) is very lineal, & some areas are overstretching for play playtime milage like (minor spoiler) the railway area/sector 5 which is mostly a very long corridor. Some areas are jaw-dropping & combat is a massive evolution (in the right direction) from the turn base. If you are not quick with actions, you can always pause the game to issue the commands ala dragon age. Cloud seems a bit too try-hard to be cool. There are at least a few occasions in my gameplay that he could hit on one of the hot lead ladies, but he acted cool walked away.

Anyway, due to the current situation, my company has to impose pay cut & reduce work time. That was expected, but what left me a sour taste, is the senior executives will get 10% pay cut while expendable like us get 40% cut! The CEO was asked why the double standard & he replied that if he reduces the pay of senior executives like us peasants, he worried that they will leave for other companies. The same guy that tells us to be loyal & make sacrifices for the company, refuse to take the same pay cut as us, & that his elite executive may leave if someone paid them better to excuse paycuts.

Anyway, due to the pay cut, I am also reducing the cost of living, & I wouldn't be getting any new games unless they are an absolute must-have. Anyway, unrelated, I am thinking of going independent as I can't stand the 2 tier class system of corporation. Either I returned to game development or content creation.
I always felt the artistic, creative & comedy sides are waste in a serious engineering job.
 
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A buddy and I just finished Streets of Rage 4 (XB1) story mode. Its pretty good. Its a little on the short side though. The netcode for playing through Xbox live was excellent and it was almost like having the other player right next to you via couch co-op. We're going to try again with the other modes and maybe a higher difficultly on story mode.
 
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Speaking of Xcom, I tried the new Chimera game they came out with (basically a $20 game so not a full blown release).

I'd recommend sticking with Xcom 2 WOTC. Basically, it is just a 4 person room clear game. Instead of the larger battles from past games, your 4 man team clears a single room, then moves on to the next. There's a breach mechanic which has promise but doesn't really add much.

The worst part is if any of your soldiers die, you have to restart the mission. Sacrificing your soldiers is kind of a staple of Xcom games in the past. This feels so dumbed down as most times you just end up critically wounded and then can quickly recover next day.
 
I’m still playing through the Diablo 3 campaign with my Crusader I’m in Act 3 at lvl 52. After I finish the campaign and hit lvl 70 I thought about buying the Necro pack and creating a Necro seasonal character. I’ve never played through a season.
 
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I’m still playing through the Diablo 3 campaign with my Crusader I’m in Act 3 at lvl 52. After I finish the campaign and hit lvl 70 I thought about buying the Necro pack and creating a Necro seasonal character. I’ve never played through a season.
When you reach level 70, you can start farming gears for the heaven fury build. Its super fun & powerful.

I played a bit more Final Fantasy 7, & the hardest part by a landslide is the pull-up challenge. It took me 2 hours to finally beat the pro level challenge. I think I am close to brain damage & destroying my controller for the challenge.
 
A Plague Tale: Innocence - EXCELLENT

Don't read any spoilers about this game. Just play it.

It is a linear, story and character driven game that although starts slowly, ramps up to a fantastic game.

Available on Gamepass for Xbox and PC.
 
A Plague Tale: Innocence - EXCELLENT

Don't read any spoilers about this game. Just play it.

It is a linear, story and character driven game that although starts slowly, ramps up to a fantastic game.

Available on Gamepass for Xbox and PC.

Agreed!!! The definition of an underrated game
 
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A Plague Tale: Innocence - EXCELLENT

Don't read any spoilers about this game. Just play it.

It is a linear, story and character driven game that although starts slowly, ramps up to a fantastic game.

Available on Gamepass for Xbox and PC.
Played for an hour, didn't enjoy the stealth, guess I'll try again.
 
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Final Fantasy 7 down. Now weighting which game to pick up.

some short list
dead by daylight- for those that doesn’t know. It’s a Asysmetric horror 1 killer vs 4 survivor MP game.
AC Tanned Geralt
Dragon quest 11
 
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Final Fantasy 7 down. Now weighting which game to pick up.

some short list
dead by daylight- for those that doesn’t know. It’s a Asysmetric horror 1 killer vs 4 survivor MP game.
AC Tanned Geralt
Dragon quest 11

Dragon Quest 11 is ungodly long. Its great if you enjoy old school JRPGs. It really doesn't change up the formula at all. I found it enjoyable but again ungodly long.
 
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I am leaning towards AC Tanned Gerald but the game is not on discount on steam. I think I wait for a discount while I can spend more time on my own game development work. I started this week & it's been going well. Slow but I am gaining momentum as I familiarise with 3D modeling again.

Edit; I tried Amnesia (Got it free from Epic game store), & chickened out after 5 mins. LOL
 
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I bought Dead for daylight. I wanted to get the asymmetry PvP experience & try the killer/survivor fantasy. I only played survivor so far though. It can be pretty intense & scary at times, but no where as scary as Amnesia.

I pretty much suck at the hide & seek gameplay but improving but I am focusing more on fun than competitive. Sometimes I am over critical of myself & end up not only not improving but also not having fun.
I figure too many think IRL that is stressful, & I don't need to stress myself to boost my gaming ego.

I have no major complaint about the game except maybe the occasional lag spike that caused me to teleport which often got me stab & the visuals (both on characters & environment) can be much improved.
 
I'm slowly progressing thorough Nier Automata when I have a chance to use my X, and on PC I just finished Planescape: Torment and started the follow-up, but with some side action in the new 4X game Old World. I also got Civ VI in the past month or so, and it sucks less than V.
 
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I'm slowly progressing thorough Nier Automata when I have a chance to use my X, and on PC I just finished Planescape: Torment and started the follow-up, but with some side action in the new 4X game Old World. I also got Civ VI in the past month or so, and it sucks less than V.

They just announced a whole bunch of addon stuff for Civ 6 kind of out of nowhere. I love that game but it is one of those time sinks that is tough to find time for.
 
Just Finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III (PC). Pound for pound the cold steel series is the best JRPG series going. There are many individual games that on their own are better( Persona 5, comes to mind). But as a series of games who's whole story arc continues over the course of the games, Cold Steel cannot be beat.

Cold Steel 3 was a slow burn with a lot of character development and a lot of story shifts. Gameplay wise they tightened up the combat.

Only major complaint about the game is it ends on 1 hell of a cliffhanger, something the series is known to do.
 
I'm playing through Control (PC) . Starts off slow, but once it gets going, it gets going. Having a good time with it. Its physics and procedural level destruction is what I expected from Crackdown 3.
 
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Finished Control (PC). This is a Remedy game through and through. The storytelling is not quite direct and you will need to read some of the notes you find to get a complete idea of the story. They managed to incorporated the live action stuff they cut their teeth on in Quantum Break into the narrative more seamlessly in Control, though I didn't mind Quantum Break's approach to live action.

The highlight of the game for me was combat especially after you get most of your powers and the total chaos you can inflict to the environment with respect to destruction. The destruction/physics in this game is absolutely what Crackdown 3 should have been. Remedy did a damn fine job with the game play and should be very proud. This kind of interactive destruction should be the norm going forward with the new generation of consoles TBH. And with RTX on, the look and atmosphere of the game is enhanced tremendously.

After playing the game, I can see why Control was nominated and won a few GOTY awards. There's really nothing like it out there. If it pops up on a sale, give it a shot on the enhanced consoles or PC. Games like Control make me wish MS was still in studio acquisition mode. It seems like Remedy takes what they learn from their previous games and build upon it with each new product. IMO, Remedy would have been a great purchase ( far better than Compulsion) and MS would have benefited greatly from the amount of new talent on board and the new IPs that could have been made franchises.
I've got a feeling that after their publishing deal with Epic ends or maybe even before that, Epic may make a play for Remedy as might Sony. MS may have missed the boat.
 
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Finished A Plague Tale: Innocence (PC). I miss games like this. A solid "AA" title with lots of heart. Good production values in both story, graphics and voice acting. The final acts seem a bit rushed but other than that, it a well put together game. Some of the stealth sections are a bit unforgiving but usually trial and error will get you through.