Your 2021 Gaming Diary

[Jonnas]

Right, so there's something obvious I should include, here:

Metroid Dread

Yeah, so it was obvious that I played this, huh? I already wrote a meaty review on the whole thing, which you can check out by clicking the image above (if you haven't read it yet, I promise it's a good one). The main update is that I just completed this game 100%, which was pretty dang great.

Despite this, I'll not consider this game "Completed" until I do a speedrun for the extras. For now, I'll take a break from the game (I promised I'd lend the cartridge to a friend), but I'll eventually pick it back up again for further runs. I may try a sequence break or two... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

  My 2021 log (Hide contents)

 

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) Beat (January 9th)

-Fatal Fury Special (1993) No Goal (January 17th)

-Art of Fighting 2 (1994) No Goal (January 19th)

-Samurai Shodown II (1994) No Goal (January 20th)

-The Last Blade (1997) No Goal (January 22nd)

-Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers (1998) No Goal (January 22nd)

-King of Fighters 2000 (2000) No Goal (January 23rd)

-King of Fighters 2002 (2002) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Samurai Shodown V Special (2004) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Harmo Knight (2012) Beat (January 25th)

-Furi (2016) Completed (January 31st)

-Life is Strange (Episode 1) (2015) Beat (February 13th)

-The Stanley Parable (2013) Completed (February 14th)

-1979 Revolution: Black Friday (2016) Beat (February 17th)

-Azure Striker Gunvolt (2014) Beat (March 6th)

-Hitman: Blood Money (2006) Completed (March 10th)

-A Short Hike (2019) Completed (March 16th)

-ABZÛ (2016) Beat (March 20th)

-Silence (2016) Completed (March 27th)

-Huniepop 2: Double Date (2021) Completed (April 13th)

-Horned Knight (2021) Completed (April 14th)

-Inspector Zé e Robot Palhaço em: Crime no Hotel Lisboa (2013) Completed (April 18th)

-Munin (2014) Completed (April 25th)

-As Aventuras Interactivas de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy (2016) Completed (April 27th)

-Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) Completed (May 8th)

-Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge (1991) Completed (May 20th)

-Beautiful Desolation (2020) Beat (May 30th)

-Kid Dracula (1990) Completed (June 5th)

-Castlevania Bloodlines (1993) Beat (June 5th)

-Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1993) Completed (June 6th)

-Ristar (1995) Beat (June 13th)

-Nights into Dreams (1996) Beat (June 20th)

-Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) Beat (July 4th)

-Double Dragon Neon (2012) Beat (July 18th)

-A Boy and His Blob (2009) Completed (August 19th)

-Steamworld Heist (2015) Completed (September 5th)

-Master Spy (2015) Beat (October 7th)

-Metroid Dread (2021) Beat (October 17th)

 

Dropped:

-Perfect Angle (2015) (January 20th)

-Codename S.T.E.A.M. (2015) (May 16th)

-Castlevania - The Adventure (1989) (May 19th)

-Sonic 4: Episode I (2010) (June 7th)

-Sonic 4: Episode II (2012) (June 7th)

-Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (2015) (June 10th)

-Adventure Bar Story (2012) (July 20th)

-Super Metroid Randomizer (???)  (September 18th)

 

[drahkon]

Been playing Diablo 2: Resurrected extensively since its launch. Love it as much as I did back in the day (aside from server issues and crashes). It's also great playing this with a few mates who never had the experience in their youth. 

Managed to grab Ace Combat 7: Deluxe Edition and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for a pretty good price and really need to start playing either one, but D2:R is too addictive. 

Also been giving Bowser's Fury a couple hours of playtime. Not feeling it too much, to be honest, but I'll probably finish it and make up my mind then. It has potential to be quite solid.

 

We're nearing the end of 2021 (...fuck) and I've been updating my gaming list. 6 games behind the 46 I've finished last year. Not sure if I'll manage to reach that number, though. 

[Cube]

The Good Life

The Good Life is a rather odd game. It sets itself in a small British town with a mystery to solve, while also attempting to be a “life RPG” similar to games like Stardew Valley and My Time At Portia. It describes itself as a "Debt Repayment RPG", which doesn’t really fit the game at all - the debt is a reason for your character’s motivation, but it doesn’t have any relevance to the gameplay.

Naomi, a journalist from New York, is sent to “the happiest town in the world” to try and figure out the mysteries and secrets the town holds. Early on you discover that the residents can turn into cats and dogs, then gain the ability yourself to turn into either as much as you want. As you’re getting used to it, a murder happens and you try to solve that.

The gameplay itself is a “crafting” type game. You find items by scrounging around the map (a lot are gained by going through bins) or killing animals. These can then be turned into other materials and then those materials can be used to construct things like outfits or garden furniture. Unfortunately, the drop rate for a lot of things is extremely low. It’s the kind of game where you need (for example) rabbit fur, but only get rabbit meat from the first 20 you kill. Gathering materials is not fun at all, and as it’s only required for a small amount of main missions, you’ll likely just ignore it altogether. I spent most of the game wearing a ruffled dress that was needed for a mission.

You have multiple stats to keep up, like HP, health (this is separate from hit points and determines vulnerability to things like colds), hunger, charisma, stress. Some of it is always on the HUD while other times, it’s completely hidden. Most of this is managed by eating food. You can cook, but the amount of time required to get the resources means you’ll just buy it. 

The rest of the gameplay is mainly fetch quests, and the gameplay itself isn’t really fun, it’s just really slow and clunky. Turning into a cat or dog sounds great, but the cat form is barely used (you can jump up buildings but it’s used around twice) and the dog is mainly used for tracking scents. The cat can jump higher than dog/human, but it’s very wonky.

Photography is another important aspect, you start with a sepia-toned camera but can buy a better one, along with a telescopic or wide angle lens. Objects are highlighted so you know what you’re taking a picture of. Some quests will ask for photos of certain objects or people. There is also a “social media” app that you can upload photos to, where your photos will get likes. If your photo matches any of the current hashtags, it will get more likes (and likes translate directly into money).

What makes The Good Place interesting is the intrigue and mystery around it. Something I kind of like is that it’s a view of the UK from a non-British developer. As a result, things are a bit off. The food available in the game included things like hedgehog pie, red squirrel stew, red deer burgers (which some people might have, but it’s called venison), and pork scratchings are described as being great when you bite into them and pork juices flow out. I’m not sure if the food is stuff they think we eat, or if some are there purely as a use for the in-game animals. I also found it fascinating that they added models for grit bins, but seem to be unaware of what they are as they’re marked up as “rubbish bins”. 

Then there’s the mystery of what is going on. The story just gets crazier and crazier as you progress, with some amusing moments. For how the game looks, there’s also a surprising amount of swearing. I was a bit let down by how it’s resolved, but the ending was entertaining enough that it didn’t really matter. 

The Good Life is a rather frustrating, slow and clunky game that just had an intriguing vibe to it that makes you want to see the story through to the end.
 

[Glen-i]

In truth, I've played Tetris Effect: Connected before when it was on Game Pass... but I never talked about it for whatever reason. Now that the Switch has a port of it and I played it again, now's as good a time as ever.

You know what Tetris is, and this is that, but really colourful and pretty! Particle effects up the wazoo and scenic backgrounds all serve to make this more of an experience then a game. There's well over 30 different themes to stack blocks to, and each one comes with different sound effects, aesthetics, and music to accompany it. The production values are off the charts, which is certainly odd for Tetris.

Apart from the main Journey mode, there's plenty of other modes to enjoy depending on your mood. Chill out with "Chill Marathon", where you can't get Game Over, or test your focus with "Target", where you have to erase a specific block by including it in a Line Clear. That one is a particular favourite of mine.

The Connected aspect of the title refers to the Multiplayer features added. 4 more modes where you play co-op or competitive Tetris. They're perfectly fun, but I'm a big fan of "Classic Score Attack" where you compete with another person for the highest score. The twist, however, is that this forces you to play with NES Tetris rules. (No Hard Drop, blocks lock in the moment they touch the floor, truly randomised Tetriminos, etc.) It's an utterly brutal mode, but strangely enough, I actually do pretty decently here. I put it down to the fact that my opponents can't pull any T-Spin shenanigans, so they're dragged kicking and screaming down to my level. The funky Swan Lake remix here is also great. (EDIT: Actually, is it Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy? I'm not sure, still catchy though!)
This supports cross-play as well, so you can play with people playing on an XBox or a PC! Not on a PlayStation though, because Sony has to protect all the kiddies from us Switch degenerates.

Tetris 99 is certainly a lot of fun, but I think I prefer Tetris Effect. Tetris tends to stress me out, so it's nice to have a relaxing version (sometimes) to fall back on.

 

No idea how that happened...

WarioWare: Get it Together! came out quite recently. Like most of the other entries, the game focuses on throwing short microgames at you all in a row while you attempt to last as long as possible. Get it Together's gimmick is that you control the WarioWare crew directly in order to clear each game. Each character has a different way of interacting with each game. Wario has his classic shoulder barge, Ashley can fire spells in any direction, and 9-volt makes you wish he hadn't shown up to this game at all.

It all serves to add a unique spin on the WarioWare formula, and certainly helps to keep things fresh as you chase those high scores. It's just as insane as you'd expect and is a right laugh, especially in co-op! There's quite a few multiplayer games that really get some mileage out of the main mechanic. The two big downsides, however, are the lack of voice acting. (It's there, but not as fully featured as WarioWare Gold), and the lack of completely pointless toys to play with. That second one is really noticable and is a real pity.

Still, it's solid, and I'll probably keep coming back to it each week to take on Wario Cup.

As kinda hinted in my response to @Aperson's post about it. I also played through Deltarune: Chapter 2. Don't really wanna say too much, because the humour really carries this game and the less I show, the better.

Much like Undertale before it, it's an RPG where bullet hell mechanics are used to avoid attacks. It's got various tweaks to the structure to help make it more distinct though, such as controlling a party of 3 characters and obstacles outside of battle to manuever around. It's all very solid and each enemy feels very different to fight, due to how dodging attacks work.

Anyway, won't say much more, but I did go down all 3 routes for this chapter. The third one was... tough. A real test of skill!

Both chapters of this are free, BTW. So you really should give it a shot. There's no excuse. You don't even need to have played Undertale. Barely anything to do with each other.

Spoiler

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (100%)
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (100%)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Underground
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Bravely Default II
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention
Monster Hunter Rise (Credits seen)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (105%)
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
The Legend of Banjo-Kazooie: The Jiggies of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Randomiser)
Pokémon FireRed
Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
AI: The Somnium Files
Dicey Dungeons
Yakuza 0 (Abandoned)
Super Mario World
Tetris Effect: Connected
WarioWare: Get it Together!
Deltarune: Chapter 2

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Glen-i

[drahkon]

11 hours ago, drahkon said:

It has potential to be quite solid.

Well...that's exactly what it is. A solid game, nothing more.
Fighting Bowser got old after 10 seconds, many shines play out the same, lots of exploring instead of platforming to get all shines and - as usual - it's piss easy  30 fps in handheld mode is a shame, too  

So yeah...my verdict: meh. 

Still have the Switch borrowed from a mate for a few weeks and got Metroid Dread, as well. Not sure if I'll get to it immediately, though, as I've started Ace Combat 7 today. Three missions in and...it's fun. A little...slower...than expected but still a good time. Feels like I'm still in the tutorial, though.
Gave the multiplayer a try to maybe eek out the odd trophy and holy shit I suck  Did manage to get a Battle Royale win, though, which was surprising.

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by drahkon

[Aperson]

So I've collected all 48 Beetallion members in Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

 

 

Time to start the titular Impossible Lair.

 

"31 Attempts later"

 

OK this is the hardest 2D level I've ever seen in a platformer than isn't a Kaizo Mario Rom Hack or a Super Mario Maker level. Though, it might as well be. Like, wow, the amount of concentration this level demands from you if you don't want to get hit is absolutely insane. I've only gotten up to the halfway point and that's with only 4 Beetallion left. This level is absolutely brutal, not to mention falling down Bottlomess Pits can waste so many Beetallion.

 

 

 

As a result it may be quite some time before I'm actually able to finish this game as I'm finding this level quite frustrating and triggering. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to the end so it might be an unfinished Switch game for a while. But I'll persevere and see what I can do.

[WackerJr]

On 26/10/2021 at 4:03 PM, Aperson said:

As a result it may be quite some time before I'm actually able to finish this game as I'm finding this level quite frustrating and triggering. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to the end so it might be an unfinished Switch game for a while. But I'll persevere and see what I can do.

Good luck! I had the same experience, going in with all 48 I thought I’d get through it just fine… I was so mistaken and taken aback by just how tough it was!  Thank goodness for the ‘Not so Impossible Lair’ checkpoints!

Keep plugging away, it’s so satisfying when you finally get through it (or was it simply relief!?!).  I did spend hours on the impossible lair alone.

[Glen-i]

Anyway, you lot finished Mario 64 on Switch online yet? Why not?

It didn't go completely smoothly though...

This is actually the first time I attempted a 16 star run. Easier then you'd think it would be. I'd give an account of the game, but I only played 13% of it.

Spoiler

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (100%)
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (100%)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Underground
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
Bravely Default II
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention
Monster Hunter Rise (Credits seen)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (105%)
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
The Legend of Banjo-Kazooie: The Jiggies of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Randomiser)
Pokémon FireRed
Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
AI: The Somnium Files
Dicey Dungeons
Yakuza 0 (Abandoned)
Super Mario World
Tetris Effect: Connected
WarioWare: Get it Together!
Deltarune: Chapter 2
Super Mario 64 (16 Stars)

 

[Aperson]

 

8 hours ago, WackerJr said:

Good luck! I had the same experience, going in with all 48 I thought I’d get through it just fine… I was so mistaken and taken aback by just how tough it was!  Thank goodness for the ‘Not so Impossible Lair’ checkpoints!

Keep plugging away, it’s so satisfying when you finally get through it (or was it simply relief!?!).  I did spend hours on the impossible lair alone.

As it happens, sometime after I made that post I eventually finished it. I wound up restarting the level from the beginning to try and save more bees. This worked as I was able to do the first part while saving about 41 Bees for the second part. In the end I lost all my Bees by the time I got to the final boss but felt that from that point I didn't need any more Bees in order to finish the game and I was right. I kept plugging away at the final boss, beat it multiple times and eventually beat the escape sequence to finish the game.

 

So that's all but one physical Switch game that I've finished now and I have specific plans to finish Pokken while filming for Youtube. There is also the Castlevania Anniversary Collection however... I think I'll wait until Haloween to finish Super Castlevania IV.

 

In the meantime I went back to fighting games. I have now cleared every Classic Mode route in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

 

 

The above tweet is subsequently a lie again.

 

While I was in the mood I remembered that I still needed to finish Hwang's story in Soulcalibur VI. So I went and did that, it was quite a meaty one in terms of chapters but not that many actual fights in the storyline and I barely had to play much of Hwang's tech to actually win it.

 

 

 

And then, naturally, I wasn't going to go back on Soulcalibur VI and not make new custom characters, so I made Kainé from Nier Replicant. It looks just like her, to such an extent that you would think they'd put the exact costumes in the game in a DLC pack or something... I also looked at a number of custom characters people had uploaded to the servers.

 

 

Oh, and I also made this...

 

 

Only got about 5 slots left now so need to choose wisely. Might need to make a Fighter's Pass or something!

[drahkon]

I've finished Metroid Dread last night.
The game got better towards the end because...

Spoiler

...the E.M.M.I.s were put out of the spotlight.

Thank goodness  

One more annoying thing: The amount of times you have to fight the same mini-bosses just with a little damage modifier (or a two on one variation) is astounding.

Well, Metroid Dread is a solid game but nowhere near as good as reviews have made me believe it was.

And with that my Nintendo Switch intermezzo in 2021 is over. The two experiences I've had solidified my stance on Nintendo games: I simply don't enjoy them as much as I have in the past. To the point that I'm glad I sold my Switch and I don't spend any more money on Nintendo's output.

42 games played in 2021 so far, two of which I've stopped playing. Not sure if I can finish 6 more games by the end of the year to at least reach 2020 numbers  

Next up: Ace Combat 7 (finally )

[Aperson]

After designing one more Soulcalibur VI character and then playing a bit of Super Castlevania IV my eyes were turned to the Steam Sale. Rivals of Aether was on sale and I'd already seen a bunch of videos on it, in particular its compatbility with Steam Workship.

 

I've played the Indie equivalents of Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Earthbound as well as a bunch of other indie games which aren't necessarily inspired by anything in particular. So naturally, its time to go for the juggernaut... Indie Smash Bros.!

 

So, using Workshop I've downloaded a bunch of Indie game characters from there. These are fully functional characters, its honestly pretty impressive how much scope you get for being able to play these characters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these aren't mockups at all, all these characters are fan developed and playable in game, though quality may vary...

 

 

 

 

 

 

But hey, why stop at Indie characters?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, never mind Smash Bros. EVERYONE is here, including a bunch of characters I haven't downloaded yet. Haven't even played much of the actual game yet haha!

 

[drahkon]

7 hours ago, drahkon said:

Next up: Ace Combat 7

Well, I just finished mission 6.

The speed certainly increased  Still feels a little tutorial-ish, though.

So far, a few characters have been introduced (one of which has a million names: Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage - not joking, that's what he's called) and the general conflict of the world has been established. The main character also did something stupid (or not, probably, but who knows).

Very much enjoying it. Can't wait to see where it all goes eventually.

Also: That soundtrack came from the angels...

 

[Jonnas]

I wanted to play a couple of short spooky games for this year's Halloween, but I already knew I'd be short on time. However, I did bother to play one of those games over the course of the week, little by little, until I managed to complete on the 31st. And that game was:

INSIDE

WAKE ME UP INSIDE! (can't wake up)

Released in 2016, INSIDE was the first follow-up by the Danish developer Playdead after their previous game LIMBO. This game made waves when it first came out, so it has always been on my wishlist, until I purchased it on GOG earlier this year. It solidifies the developer's niche of "2D-Platforming-Puzzler-videogames-starring-a-clueless-young-boy-in-a-hellish-creepy-setting-with-a-plot-that-is-told-entirely-without-words-and-also-the-title-is-in-all-caps". All I'm saying is, Playdead's got a type.

I don't know what much non-spoilery stuff I can say about this game, because if you've seen a clip or two, you get the gist: kid runs around trying to escape/survive a nightmarish concentration camp that seems straight out of the gray world of 1984, albeit a more grotesque, sci-fi version of it. You solve puzzles along the way (the kind that allows you to reach higher ledges or reach vents), and get involved in some scripted sequences. The controls are meant to feel awkward in a Shadow of the Colossus kind of way, making you feel like you're the awkward kid as much as possible.

The strength of these games tend to be atmosphere and presentation, and yeah, INSIDE delivers in that regard. It does a good job at signalling that part of your brain that's still afraid of scary adults in authority, mostly through good use of visuals and striking sound design. Plus, it's pretty detailed, with various unique animations scattered throughout the game, and of course, a lot of gruesome ways for the kid to die. It's actually impressive.

Unfortunately, I can't say I was as impressed by the implied plot...

Spoiler

I mean, I get the various moments of control scattered throughout the game, with the kid controlling chicks like lemmings, then controlling prisoners and workers in a similar fashion, and how it all relates to the implied authoritarian regime going on in the background, doing the same on a larger scale, corrupting everything in sight... but the Akira style blob at the end just perplexes me.

I mean, if all of these are metaphors, then surely the blob has to also represent something as well, right? A riot, a rebellion, a failed coup? Plain old hubris? But then the regime just wins again by luring the blob into a hole and letting it run away until it...dies on the beach? "Dying on the beach" is a common Portuguese expression that means "being close to your goal, but then you fail". I mean, fuck, maybe that's it, the whole point was just the helplessness of 1984 all over again.

But then I unlock the alternate ending and... the kid just unplugs a mind controller and then dies. So all of this was a succession of mind control? Or the kid unplugged the player's control? I guess the kid being a mindless zombie is entirely possible if the intention behind it was coherent, but this alternate ending just sounds like twisting the plot for the sake of a twist, and I do not care for it.

And don't even get me started on the kid arbitrarily learning to breathe underwater, or suddenly controlling people without needing a helmet. That's just the writers winging it.

Basically, I can see the overall themes, but the specific scenarios felt lacking.

All in all, I enjoyed the game quite a bit, though I don't really see it as the masterpiece that others do. But I'm nevertheless glad that so many people got something more meaningful out of this game, anyway.

  My 2021 log (Hide contents)

 

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) Beat (January 9th)

-Fatal Fury Special (1993) No Goal (January 17th)

-Art of Fighting 2 (1994) No Goal (January 19th)

-Samurai Shodown II (1994) No Goal (January 20th)

-The Last Blade (1997) No Goal (January 22nd)

-Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers (1998) No Goal (January 22nd)

-King of Fighters 2000 (2000) No Goal (January 23rd)

-King of Fighters 2002 (2002) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Samurai Shodown V Special (2004) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Harmo Knight (2012) Beat (January 25th)

-Furi (2016) Completed (January 31st)

-Life is Strange (Episode 1) (2015) Beat (February 13th)

-The Stanley Parable (2013) Completed (February 14th)

-1979 Revolution: Black Friday (2016) Beat (February 17th)

-Azure Striker Gunvolt (2014) Beat (March 6th)

-Hitman: Blood Money (2006) Completed (March 10th)

-A Short Hike (2019) Completed (March 16th)

-ABZÛ (2016) Beat (March 20th)

-Silence (2016) Completed (March 27th)

-Huniepop 2: Double Date (2021) Completed (April 13th)

-Horned Knight (2021) Completed (April 14th)

-Inspector Zé e Robot Palhaço em: Crime no Hotel Lisboa (2013) Completed (April 18th)

-Munin (2014) Completed (April 25th)

-As Aventuras Interactivas de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy (2016) Completed (April 27th)

-Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) Completed (May 8th)

-Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge (1991) Completed (May 20th)

-Beautiful Desolation (2020) Beat (May 30th)

-Kid Dracula (1990) Completed (June 5th)

-Castlevania Bloodlines (1993) Beat (June 5th)

-Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1993) Completed (June 6th)

-Ristar (1995) Beat (June 13th)

-Nights into Dreams (1996) Beat (June 20th)

-Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) Beat (July 4th)

-Double Dragon Neon (2012) Beat (July 18th)

-A Boy and His Blob (2009) Completed (August 19th)

-Steamworld Heist (2015) Completed (September 5th)

-Master Spy (2015) Beat (October 7th)

-Metroid Dread (2021) Beat (October 17th)

-INSIDE (2016) Completed (October 31st)

 

Dropped:

-Perfect Angle (2015) (January 20th)

-Codename S.T.E.A.M. (2015) (May 16th)

-Castlevania - The Adventure (1989) (May 19th)

-Sonic 4: Episode I (2010) (June 7th)

-Sonic 4: Episode II (2012) (June 7th)

-Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (2015) (June 10th)

-Adventure Bar Story (2012) (July 20th)

-Super Metroid Randomizer (???)  (September 18th)

If I find some time in the coming week, I may try to play the other spooky game I had in the cards.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Jonnas

[Scratch]

Well I've finished Ocarina of Time, and had an absolute blast. I didn't QUITE get 100% - I did everything except I missed the one perma missable (you lose one of the Deku Nut capacity upgrades if you do the Biggoron Sword Quest before you do that), and got bored of looking for the remaining spiders at 75 (forgot to print out that checklist lol). I did collect all of the Dungeon spiders though.

This was my first playthrough in, let's just say a long time xD, and I really enjoyed it a lot. It remains my favourite Zelda and definitely one of my top games ever. Due to such a long break I was expecting the controls/physics to feel clunky or tanky or something, and I was completely proven wrong. It plays excellently all these years later and they absolutely got it right the first time. I even spent some time looking into the different timelines and stuff like that, it's interesting stuff. As unlikely as it is at this point, I really hope they do a game between MM and TP to show if Link ever *spoiler 1* and perhaps shows what happened to that version of Hyrule a bit more.

There's some speculation as to where BOTW is on the timeline... *spoiler 2*

Spoiler

found Navi

Spoiler

I think BOTW is at the end of all timelines due to some timeline magics that merged them. And yes this is just because Nintendo wanted to put references to all of the games in BOTW. xD But in terms of the story, maybe the Triforce didn't "like" existing in multiple timelines and therefore the different "copies" merged and as a result merged the timelines themselves.

 

I'll probably play Ecco next or just try out the different games on the Mega Drive/N64. When MM comes out I'll definitely be playing that.

Another gaming choice I've made is to skip Pokemon BDSP... I've played through DPP a few times and not sure if BDSP really looks like that much of an upgrade enough to make me want to play it again yet. DPP is (unpopular opinion I know) my least favourite Gen/Region anyway. And finally I really went for it with SwSh and I'm not sure if I really feel like starting the whole Pokemon process over right now. I also change my mind like the wind and this paragraph might be a complete load of rubbish! 

 

[Glen-i]

5 hours ago, Sckewi said:

There's some speculation as to where BOTW is on the timeline... *spoiler 2*

Spoiler

In my opinion, it has to be at the end, nothing else makes sense.

Oh, and the timelines merged because of Hyrule Warriors (The first one). The Hyrules from Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess all got transplanted into whatever land Hyrule Warriors is set in. Hence, all the landmarks in BotW make sense, as well as the fact that Zora and Rito exist at the same time (Wind Waker established that Rito evolved from Zora).

Spoiler

The irony here is that the second Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity, has split the timeline in two again, because they beat Calamity Ganon without Link being put in that chamber thingy. They just couldn't help themselves!

 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Glen-i

[Aperson]

Amid endless possibilities from Steam Workshop I've also found some time to play the main story of Rivals of Aether. I've done the campaigns of Zetterburn and Forsburn so far but found both characters quite bland to play. Forsburn in particular was really hard to get anything going until I realised that some of the eaiser AI opponents you can just juggle with Up Tilt over and over  That didn't quite work out though and adjusting from Smash has proven to be somewhat difficult. Characters don't feel powerful and the focus is more on a more speed focused game where evasion and counter punish is the key to wins and specials don't feel quite as important.

 

That being said I played Maypul's storyline next and this character felt a lot better to play, she speeds in and out in a way that kind of reminds me of Greninja so that was kind of the moment that the whole thing clicked for me.

 

On a side note:

 

Anyway, the list of Modded characters continues to grow. I'm at something like 76-78 characters now, not including the main cast. It's basically giving Smash Ultimate's roster a run for its money in terms of size and kind of overshadowing the original cast, bar the two Indie Guest characters in the lineup. Its basically Rivals of Aether x Shantae x Cave Story x Roblox x I Wanna Be the Guy x Castle Crashers x Spelunky x Bit.Trip x Plants vs. Zombies x Tower of Heaven x Minecraft x The Binding of Isaac x Shovel Knight x Freedom Planet x Five Nights at Freddys x Crypt of the Necrodancer x Undertale x Enter the Gungeon x Hollow Knight x Ori x Cuphead x A Hat in Time x Celeste x Dead Cells x Among Us x Deltarune x Untitled Goose Game x Fall Guys x Dragon Ball Z x Yu-Gi-Oh x Digimon x Stick Figures on Crack x The Simpsons x Family Guy x Scott the Woz x America x Memes x TerminalMontage x Kirby x Super Mario x Pokemon x Final Fantasy x Chrono Trigger x Crash Bandicoot x Castlevania x Guilty Gear x Dark Souls x Nier: Automata

 

All it needs now is Dante from the Devil May Cry Series and a New Funky Mode.

[Glen-i]

 The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles 

 N-Europe Review

Just when you think you've seen it all, suddenly a review for a 3 month old game (as far as the West is concerned, anyway) appears!

Thanks to @S.C.G for getting it up, and @RedShell for the site graphics.

EDIT: Oh right! And @Jonnas for proofreading it.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Glen-i
Posting at 3am is dangerous.

[Cube]

The Forgotten City

• Release date: 28th July 2021
• Platform Played: Xbox Series S
• Completion: All four endings

The Forgotten City starts off with the worst part of the game, with some poor writing which includes a really dumb Karen joke. It gives a sour taste to the start of the game but thankfully the choice of name actually ends up becoming an interesting twist, but it’s a bad way to date your game at the very start.

This Karen has saved you from a river, and asks you to find someone called Al. Coming across some ruins, you fall down a large drop into a hidden ancient city, filled with gold statues of people, except these statues look like people frozen in time. Entering a portal, you end up hurled back in time around 2000 years into a mysterious ancient city.

The city has what the inhabitants call “The Golden Rule”. If any one person commits a sin, everyone will be wiped out (by some kind of god, the people there disagree on which one). Some inhabitants think this is just a way for the magistrate to control the people. The Magistrate knows (based on your appearance) that someone will break The Golden Rule within the next day, as he’s discovered a ritual that allows him to reset time.

In order to return to your own timeline, you are told that you have to stop this sin from being committed. While there is some combat in this game, the majority of the game is talking to people, discovering their history, motives and plans, as well as figuring out the puzzle of how the city works. If you fail, you have to rush back to the portal and start the day again, regaining your knowledge and any items you have collected.

Unlike The Outer Wilds, another time loop game, The Forgotten City doesn’t run on a clock, events happen by you triggering them (often by walking to the location where they happen), which gives the game a very relaxed feel for the most part, as you don’t need to rush around. One other thing which is extremely handy is that as you complete tasks, you can tell the first person you meet each day to do a load of stuff for you, so you aren’t constantly repeating the same things and can focus entirely on unravelling more of the mystery.

The writing (other than the one section at the start) is great, the 23 residents are mostly interesting (there are a couple that don’t do much) and it’s very satisfying learning how to manipulate events. I recently played Twelve Minutes, which is another dialogue-heavy time loop game, and in that it was a constant frustration that I couldn’t try any ideas or ask the questions I wanted due to the game’s limitations, but in The Forgotten City it seemed like most things I wanted to ask were there, and one crazy idea I had actually led to one of the game’s endings (there are four in total, although you really should aim to discover them all).

The Forgotten City has a very interesting mystery, with lots of great revelations and discoveries throughout, and a conclusion I was very satisfied with.

 

Unpacking

• Release date: 2nd November 2021
• Version Played: Xbox Series S
• Completion: Finished game

Unpacking is a game where you simply unpack boxes as someone moves house. The unpacking isn’t a challenge to overcome, but rather how you experience the game’s story, as it’s told through the items you unpack.

You start off with some boxes in a child’s bedroom, you learn about their hobbies and interests as you go through each item and choose where to place it. You can be as neat or as messy as you want, you can take the time to make nice displays or just find somewhere for it to go.

Once all items are out, some items will flash because they’re not in a “correct” spot. As long as you’ve been somewhat sensible and not just thrown everything on the floor, this will only be a few items, some are requirements like kitchen utensils doing in drawers or cupboards, but sometimes items simply need to be hidden out of view, representing an aspect of this person’s life.

As you complete each level, you’ll move to the next house or apartment that this person lived in, deducing their life’s story through the items that follow to the next house, the ones that are hidden and the state of the house to begin with. The items tell stuff about the person and their current state, and if like me you’ll waste a lot of time analysing the games and DVDs, trying to work out what game or film the pixels are supposed to represent.

There’s not a lot to actually say about Unpacking, it’s a very relaxing and calm game that tells a simple story in a unique way. It’s short (around 3 hours), but definitely worth experiencing.

 

Kill It With Fire

• Release date: 13th August 2020
• Version Played: Xbox Series S
• Completion: All objectives and challenges

Kill it with Fire is an absurd and over the top game about killing spiders. It starts off nice and simple, before descending into complete madness.

One interesting thing about Kill it with Fire is that the spiders are just spiders – there are some different types such as ones that jump, or queen ones that release young when killed and some that shoot webs, but there’s no venomous spiders, they can’t hurt you at all. I personally love this about the game, as it delves into one key aspect of arachnophobia, which is an illogical fear as spiders can’t hurt you (fearing venomous spiders isn’t a phobia, as there’s a valid reason to fear them).

Each level will have a list of objectives such as killing certain kinds of spiders, killing them in specific ways, destroying or moving specific objects. You have to discover these objectives by finding them through the level, but if you happen to complete the objective before finding it, then it will be revealed and marked as completed.

Weapons start from a clipboard, hairspray (with lighter) and a pistol, and throughout the levels you will find assault rifles, C4, hedge trimmers, frying pans and more. There are a few non-aggressive items such as cheese puffs (which serves as a lure but can also change spider type), energy drinks and flashbangs.

The game is short, which works for a game like this as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It doesn’t do anything mind blowing, but is simply entertaining and amusing.

 

Backbone

• Release Date: 8th Jun 2021
• Version Played: Xbox Series S
• Completion: Story completed

A detective game featuring anthropomorphic animals, with a beautiful pixelated visual style, Backbone definitely starts out on the right foot.

The game opens with you, a racoon detective, taking on a case involving a cheating husband. The club he’s suspected to be in doesn’t allow racoons, so you have to find ways into it. You have dialogue options which won’t alter the plot, but will alter how people will react to you, along with what options are available to you. You will also encounter a few puzzles, including one where you have to move objects around to work out a code.

Everything about the opening act is wonderful, the characters you talk to are interesting, everything looks fantastic and the feeling of a detective is spot-on. There’s no “fail state” but it feels like you’re solving a case. It’s a brilliant start to a game, and showed a ton of potential.

If only it kept it up. I get the impression that there was a lot more planned for Backbone, and that this first section was carefully crafted to show its potential, then when it came to developing the rest, they simply didn’t have the budget for it.

The next few chapters are still good, held together by some great characters and good writing, as well as the mystery of what you discovered from the first case being interesting, however it feels more like a visual novel as you just move on to the next location, have a conversation and move on. Everything feels more scripted and it doesn’t feel like you, the player, is actually working out anything, just following instructions, although at least it feels like your conversation choices matter and affect how people perceive you, even if it does have no impact.

Then, just as it seems like things are getting interesting and the mystery is starting to unravel, the game gives you another big twist, only this one really does not land. I won’t spoil what it is, but it feels like the game is derailed at this point, and from this point, it feels like your conversation options matter even less than they did before. There’s also no more exploring of new areas, it’s pretty much “press A to continue” at this point. Then the game just seems to…stop.

The big twist itself would have worked, if it were the halfway point of a story, as it feels like there should be a lot more. There’s some new things set up right at and some aspects of the original mystery are just forgotten about. It further solidifies the idea that the developers ran out of money, as the game ends.

It’s a shame, because the early stuff is fantastic, and the visuals, music and songs throughout remain a treat for the senses. There are some segments that let you sit back and enjoy the spectacle, and the story definitely seemed like it was going somewhere…it just never did.

 

[Aperson]

Still playing Rivals of Aether. I wound up changing my controller up for PC as I found that the default control system on my controller wasn't very good. In particular I am struggling to recover properly in this game due to forgetting where the jump button is and then remembering to combine that with the Up Special. In part this is because Rivals doesn't have ledges and instead I'm having to figure out how to combo the wall jump with the up special, apparently this resets your up special if you use a wall jump to make up for the lack of ledges.

 

I played the biggest meme character in the game (Kragg) but still and finding it tough to keep all my stocks in Adventure without being KO'd. Kragg is definitely my favourite of the main cast with the possible exception of Shovel Knight.

 

Though, getting to know all the Workshop characters is another mountain to climb altogether...

 

 

 

 

I've got two more Adventure campaigns to go but I'll do them in my own time.

[Jonnas]

So I did play a second spooky game, about a week after Halloween:

Claire

That is, indeed, "Claire" with an "E"

Released in 2014, Claire is an indie horror title (the developers Hailstorm Games are American, I believe) that takes clear inspiration from Silent Hill... And ooh boy, where to even begin?

I suppose I should start by mentioning the Halloween post I made last year, because there's some comparison points between those games and this one. This is a 2D game that takes place within a bunch of 2D corridors and rooms. Normally this would mean the game is either entirely plot-focused, with the perspective being merely a simple way to interface with it (like Distraint), or simply a genre that's proven to work well with 2D in the first place (like how INSIDE is a puzzle-platformer, or The Fall is a Point&Click-Metroidvania hybrid). This game, instead, takes the design from Silent Hill (explore a bunch, while solving a few puzzles that range from basic to grotesque) and transposes it onto a 2D plane.

This comes with a myriad of problems, starting with level/map design. Navigation is done room-to-room rather than a large interconnected world, which would be fine if said navigation was linear through a simple X&Y axis, but... there are these transversal doors in the Z-axis that needlessly shift that simple understanding, and makes it very hard to get your bearings and make a mental map of the world. The actual map itself is a top-down view plant of a huge floor, and it only barely helps. They clearly wanted to make a 3D game, and tried to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Oh, and hilariously, one of the doors is poorly coded: instead of dropping you on the northern end of the next-door corridor (which is where logic dictates you should be), it actually warps you all the way to the southern end of said corridor! It actually took me going through that door like 3 times before I realised something was wrong, and even then I only figured out what was happening by checking and re-checking the map several times, which goes to show how disorienting this game's navigation could get.

Next there's the horror mechanics. You'll occasionally find these enemies through the game that attack you, and you can only run away (yes, through the map that's confusing to navigate). Once again, normally a better function for a 3D environment (since dodging is so much easier and more organic like that), especially because this game has very simplistic controls and movement for a 2D game. Heck, you can run past these enemies... so long as you see them, because if they're waiting for you on top of a door, it's impossible to dodge as you enter a room. There are some larger ones that can only be avoided by hiding in trunks and closets, but due to the nature of the art style, what counts as a hiding spot or not is arbitrary, and you won't know until you actually interact with it.

There's also a "sanity" meter which once again, has a lot of issues. Namely, it seems to go up and down according to whichever room you're in, and there's no clear indication of what to do to influence it, beyond using specific items to restore it. Like, we have a flashlight, but that doesn't seem to help any (in fact, the flashlight seems functionally useless in gameplay beyond helping the player see better in dark environments). This is mostly an issue because your health goes down when the sanity is low, and I'd like to not die pointlessly while exploring! Beyond the health thing, the only other consequence of low sanity is that the screen goes static and you see moving shadows in the corner of the screen.

While the game is a mess in terms of gameplay features and design... there are some good ideas here still. For example, checking the map doesn't pause the game, which can be properly stressful. There's also the fact that most of the doors featured in the map are actually locked or barred and cannot be opened, and they will not be marked as "impassable" until you check them out for yourself. In other words, the interface lies to you for the sake of more engaging exploration, and to increase the claustrophobic stress of a horror game.

Visually, the game is...passable. There's nothing that impressive about the game's spritework, or the trippy effects it uses to chill your spine, but it does use well what little it has. There are some highlights (like the faceless Dementor-like creatures in the latter half of the game) and some stinkers (the regular enemies look terrible), but nothing that shifts the average. Audio-wise, the game is considerably more impressive, with strong ambient music and memorable sound effects, to the point that the latter half of the game even uses the regular enemy sound effect for the sake of empty jump scares, keeping the player even more on edge ("I heard the groan again, is there an enemy here or not!?").

The plot... is kinda bungled. The protagonist Claire seems to be going through a personal hell, and we get all of these breadcrumbs to her troubled upbringing, but the game never really lets us reach the full loaf of bread. We get hints and implications, and it never goes beyond that, no major twists, no dramatic punches... So there's nothing to actually write home about, other than the fact that the dialogue is weirdly stilted and lifeless (and not in an intentional way, I think).

The game then gives you an ending depending on how many optional sidequests/puzzles you did. Though the game is only 2 hours long, I don't feel like replaying it just because of that, it's got serious flaws. Also, this isn't the game's fault, but Steam just...decided to not let me open the game after a certain point. Not sure what that was about (and I sure hope it doesn't affect other games in the future), so I watched the last 20 minutes on Youtube (which means I don't even know which ending I would've gotten. Probably the second-best, I figure).

On the positive side, there's a silly dog ending. Yeah, they put one in. That's nice.

  My 2021 log (Hide contents)

 

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) Beat (January 9th)

-Fatal Fury Special (1993) No Goal (January 17th)

-Art of Fighting 2 (1994) No Goal (January 19th)

-Samurai Shodown II (1994) No Goal (January 20th)

-The Last Blade (1997) No Goal (January 22nd)

-Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers (1998) No Goal (January 22nd)

-King of Fighters 2000 (2000) No Goal (January 23rd)

-King of Fighters 2002 (2002) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Samurai Shodown V Special (2004) No Goal (January 23rd)

-Harmo Knight (2012) Beat (January 25th)

-Furi (2016) Completed (January 31st)

-Life is Strange (Episode 1) (2015) Beat (February 13th)

-The Stanley Parable (2013) Completed (February 14th)

-1979 Revolution: Black Friday (2016) Beat (February 17th)

-Azure Striker Gunvolt (2014) Beat (March 6th)

-Hitman: Blood Money (2006) Completed (March 10th)

-A Short Hike (2019) Completed (March 16th)

-ABZÛ (2016) Beat (March 20th)

-Silence (2016) Completed (March 27th)

-Huniepop 2: Double Date (2021) Completed (April 13th)

-Horned Knight (2021) Completed (April 14th)

-Inspector Zé e Robot Palhaço em: Crime no Hotel Lisboa (2013) Completed (April 18th)

-Munin (2014) Completed (April 25th)

-As Aventuras Interactivas de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy (2016) Completed (April 27th)

-Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990) Completed (May 8th)

-Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge (1991) Completed (May 20th)

-Beautiful Desolation (2020) Beat (May 30th)

-Kid Dracula (1990) Completed (June 5th)

-Castlevania Bloodlines (1993) Beat (June 5th)

-Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1993) Completed (June 6th)

-Ristar (1995) Beat (June 13th)

-Nights into Dreams (1996) Beat (June 20th)

-Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010) Beat (July 4th)

-Double Dragon Neon (2012) Beat (July 18th)

-A Boy and His Blob (2009) Completed (August 19th)

-Steamworld Heist (2015) Completed (September 5th)

-Master Spy (2015) Beat (October 7th)

-Metroid Dread (2021) Beat (October 17th)

-INSIDE (2016) Completed (October 31st)

-Claire (2014) Beat (November 6th)

 

Dropped:

-Perfect Angle (2015) (January 20th)

-Codename S.T.E.A.M. (2015) (May 16th)

-Castlevania - The Adventure (1989) (May 19th)

-Sonic 4: Episode I (2010) (June 7th)

-Sonic 4: Episode II (2012) (June 7th)

-Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (2015) (June 10th)

-Adventure Bar Story (2012) (July 20th)

-Super Metroid Randomizer (???)  (September 18th)

So, while fetching last year's post, I noticed that, between that post and this year, I played 5 Horror games of wildly varying quality. I think it'll be a fun exercise to rank/quantify them:

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is 1 star out of 5. It was aesthetically boring, gameplay was mechanically obtuse, and it just failed to keep me engaged in general. It's interesting to note that, from a technical standpoint, it's actually quite competent, but there was such a lack of focus on what actually matters (player engagement, and well-presented horror), that the game is vastly inferior to the sum of its parts.

Claire is 2 stars out of 5. It's a messy, messy game, and it falls well short of what it wanted to accomplish... but it at least managed to make me feel things. I did feel goosebumps as I played, and I did panic at the sight of enemies (before I figured out their AI, anyway). It did keep me engaged long enough to want to see it through to the end. It had a decent idea of what it was aiming for.

Distraint is 3 stars out of 5. While I disparaged it last year over its simple themes and odd dialogue, I have to admit that it was pretty good at disturbing the player, especially considering the chibi-stylistic art style. Furthermore, it didn't bloat the game with needless gameplay mechanics or filler segments, sticking mostly with its own story.

INSIDE is 4 stars out of 5. A solid, simple game with striking aesthetic and disturbing imagery and themes, with my only complaint being that I was relatively unphased by certain aspects of it (including parts that were supposed to be strong features).

The Fall is 5 stars out of 5. An excellent game that hits all marks. Strong plot, engaging mechanics, solid aesthetic, creative puzzles, and deeper themes that can be discussed and theorised about after the fact.

I might refer to these thoughts in the future, when playing these sorts of games. Maybe one day I'll do the same for different genres, too.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Jonnas

[killthenet]

I kicked off October by playing Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5. I enjoyed the first game to some extent but the map was far too busy for my liking, too many collectables popping up made it seem really overwhelming but Miles Morales seems to pare that down somewhat. Despite it being ostensibly a smaller scale experience I actually found myself getting more invested in the world and characters of this than I did the first game, the story is still as nonsensical as ever and seems to escalate hilariously quickly at times but on the whole I would say I enjoyed it more than the first game. Miles felt more fluid to control in combat, the wider variety of options making encounters less frustrating than those in the first game, with the ability to stealth your way through some areas making things much less irritating. I still have a problem with the Tinkerer's henchmen being so overpowered but at least there is a more consistent in universe explanation for their proto-super powers now. Also need to mention the music, the dreary orchestrated score is still there but it is more tolerable when paired with the more interesting music that Miles listens to, giving the games soundtrack a more interesting flavour than its predecessor. 

Next up was the one I had been looking forward to ever since it was unveiled earlier in the year, Metroid Dread. Over the past few years I have practically played through every entry in the series, going from a complete novice to someone with a real fondness for Samus' adventures so it was great to be able to join in with the hype for the launch of Dread, I felt like I was all caught up and raring to dive into a brand new Metroid story. Excitement was curtailed somewhat in the early stages, it takes a little while to get control of Samus and exploration is soon curtailed by the arrival of the first EMMI which certainly took time to adjust to - I had become so accustomed to the only roadblocks in Metroid games being environmental or tough boss battles so being completely helpless took some getting used to. Thankfully the world does open up and you quickly realise that the EMMI are only a minor inconvenience, forcing you to plan ahead and memorise the layout of the EMMI zones to avoid getting cornered by an aggressive bot as you take a shortcut to your next destination. I still experienced frustration in other areas, despite the relative linearity I did get a bit lost a few times, leading to a few frustrating diversions (aggravated by the fairly long load times, which I only really noticed when travelling back and forth between regions while looking for the route forward) and I did hit a boss shaped brick wall on several occasions but for the most part I found the difficulty to be quite fair. The boss encounters specifically seemed to imposing to begin with, their attacks hard to dodge, but after a couple of attempts I was picking up on their patterns and feeling like I was making progress so even when they seemed insurmountable I always felt like I was learning from my mistakes. Visually, for the most part at least, the game is gorgeous - there were a couple of really awe inspiring moments when reaching new areas, seeing the flora and fauna stretching off into the distance was really impactful. My only real complete in terms of the presentation stems from the music, it never really grabbed me throughout my play through the way that previous Metroid soundtracks have, it's certainly an area that Mercury Steam can improve in on their next game (I know that Yamamoto was credited for Dread but I feel that the arrangements were where the music really fell down). Besides that though I was really impressed, I enjoyed Samus Returns but Dread feels like a real step up, it shakes up the Metroid formula while putting its own spin on series staples, there aren't many games that I devote myself wholeheartedly to completing 100% but I felt compelled to do so with Dread (some of those shinespark puzzles took a while to master but it all seemed worth it in the end) and I look forward to seeing what Mercury Steam cooks up next.

I picked up Life Is Strange: True Colors for the PS5, I had intended to play it on launch but other things got in the way so it took me a few weeks to get around to playing it. I avoided basically all of the pre-release info and trailers so I went in pretty blind, only really aware that the new protagonist was a girl named Alex who could read peoples emotions. Releasing the whole game in one go definitely gave me pause, it was obviously welcome (nobody wants to wait 9 months for all the episodes to come out) but I feared that it might signal a step away from the episodic structure so I was delighted to discover that the game still takes place over 5 distinct chapters. Arriving in Haven Springs I immediately felt connected to Alex, but the initial banter with other characters felt a little forced so I was worried that I wasn't going to feel as engaged with the story as I had done in previous entries. Thankfully as the first chapter unfolded True Colors got its hooks into me, a shocking cliffhanger ending putting to rest any fears that I had about not being on board with the narrative. In terms of gameplay it is exactly what I have come to expect from the series and Deck Nine build on their experience with Before The Storm to incorporate a tabletop RPG storyline into one of the episodes, that marries beautifully with Alex's abilities to lead to a truly transcendent moment. Setting the whole game within Haven Springs certainly allows more continuity of characters than Life Is Strange 2 but at times it felt a little too restrictive, even though the first game (and BTS) took place entirely within Arcadia Bay there seemed to be a greater variety of locales than are on offer in True Colors, making it seem like a larger more cohesive world - True Colors practically limits you to a solitary street, breaking the illusion of it being a living, breathing world somewhat. Despite that though Alex and her new pals feel among the most in-depth characters the series has produced, an aspect that is helped enormously by the stunning visual upgrade - the more detailed graphics enhance the visual style and allow the characters to convey more subtle and complex emotions, if the Remastered collection brings the same visual overhauls to the first two titles then I can't imagine how impactful Max & Chloe's stories are going to be the second time around. Although True Colors didn't hit me emotionally in the same way that previous entries had, it was still such a wonderful experience to play through, I'm definitely on board for wherever Deck Nine takes the series next.

Looking for a shorter experience next, I decided to play through Castlevania: The Adventure on the Switch. I don't think me or my brothers ever owned the GB Castlevania so I didn't really have any idea of what it was going to be like but after firing the game up the sluggish framerate was pretty alarming. It coalesced with the stiff controls to make the platforming unnecessarily challenging and, as I played through the first stage, I was not looking forward to the boss battles. Thankfully the boss fights aren't anywhere near as challenging as previous entries in the series and it was only really the final battle with Dracula that gave me any trouble (I was pretty thankful of the save states at that point). It was definitely a compromised entry due to the hardware limitations and I can't say I really enjoyed my brief time with the game but it felt enough like Castlevania for me to want to try the sequel at some point down the line.

In the lead up to Halloween I thought it appropriate to play through a horror game so I fired up my PS3 and started Dead Space 2. One thing I forgot to mention in my write up about the first game is that it was super weird for Isaac to be a silent protagonist, the decision for him to be mute never seemed justified so I was happy to discover that they gave him more of a personality in the sequel. Other than that I don't really have much to say, setting the game on Titan was a nice surprise but it still plays out in very much the same fashion as the original, with a couple of new varieties of necromorph to keep the combat encounters interesting. I decided to try and play through the whole game with just the plasma cutter and I managed it without much trouble, you can upgrade it pretty quickly if you divert all the power nodes you find into doing so and I never felt like I was too restricted by just using the one weapon (apart from the frustration of constantly getting ammo for guns I didn't have). All in all though it was the same polished and atmospheric sci-fi horror experience I enjoyed so much in the first entry, I'll definitely search out Extraction for the Wii at some point but, from what I've heard about 3, that might be the extent of my exploration into the franchise until the next-gen remake comes out.

Lastly I played through a couple of games on the N64 online app, starting off with Super Mario 64 which I've played through numerous times in the past so I won't go into much detail - needless to say it's still a joy to play, despite the frustrating camera, and getting to play it on a proper N64 controller was a real nostalgia hit. One game I never had on the N64 was Mario Kart 64 though so I took the opportunity to finally play through the GP mode and it might be the meanest Mario Kart ever made. Rubber banding has never particularly bothered me before but it seems particularly aggressive in MK64, Yoshi always seemed to be right up my backside and the slightest mistake allowed them to overtake - made for more frustration than there needed to be. Overall it seemed like a pretty bland Mario Kart experience and it feels as if pretty much all of the tracks have been remade in future entries, making it feel a little unnecessary these days (a feeling not helped by the relatively ugly visual presentation) I can't imagine I'll revisit the game much in the future.

Currently banging my head against a Super Monkey Ball shaped wall, hopefully I can conquer that soon to turn my attention to more big hitters. 

[drahkon]

Ace Combat 7: Sweet Mary Jesus, the pace has picked up quite a bit  Not so much story-wise, but once I've unlocked better planes and parts gameplay got a lot quicker. It's awesome. There are 20 missions in total and I've completed 8. Looks like there's a lot to uncover  

Sackboy: A Big Adventure: Reached world 4. It's still tons of fun. Replayed some levels for 100% completion and it's such a blast to play. Co-op is where the game really shines, though. Especially when cooperation is actually necessary  

Diablo 2: Resurrected: Managed to acquire some pretty cool gear, also a runeword that even back in the day I've never gotten. Of course, mine's gotten the second worst roll it can have  Anyways, still having lots of fun just grinding and farming items with music in the background. Soulfood in video game form  

[BowserBasher]

Well haven’t used this thread but thought this was the best place to put this as I just wanted to share. 

Yes, I had this game at launch and only just beat it. I had probably gotten about 98% through the game when I first played it, but always got stuck on the Hotel Owner fight, Helen Gravely, I was having issues with having to split Luigi and Gooigi to do the two floored bit in that fight. I remember giving up when a new game probably came out and I moved onto that. 
Well after I beat Metroid Dread I decided to dig this out and have another go. Instead of just picking up where I left of I just started a new game. Glad I did as some of the floors in the game are so fun to play, my favourite still being the film set, loved that. 
Anyway, I made my way through over the course of maybe a week, taking a few floors at a time. Got to the top and made my way to the owner once more. Yep, same pain in the butt fight I’d known, this time though I had stocked up on a full arsenal of gold bones. So I just took the hits and finally beat her, think I lost 4 golden bones. So saved Mario out the painting, followed him through the door,  not before stocking up again cause E.Gadd told me it was dangerous up ahead. Silly Mario making me jump, made it to the top to face off again King Boo, which I found significantly easier only losing one golden bone. Though that last phase with the time limit was getting tense as I didn’t know which one was real and lobbing the bombs back was awkward. I somehow got him and that was that. 
Fun game, glad I went back to it to finish it, always bugged me that I didn’t. 

[Aperson]

Taking the story mode in Rivals of Aether quite slowly, but I've just unlocked the final stage after beating Orcane's story. So just that to go.

 

Meanwhile however...

 

 

In an attempt to get in on the action I've decided to try and make my own character for the game... I'm doing Yooka and Laylee given that I played Impossible Lair a few months ago.

 

 

Judging by the complete lack of reactions from previous posts when talking about this game I'm going to assume that nobody else here has actually played this game. I'll say its a pretty good alternative to Smash, a bit more on the side of Melee than other entries. The Modding scene is where its at though, so much custom content that is accessible.

[Cube]

The Gardens Between

The Gardens Between is a short but sweet puzzle game all about manipulating time, while living through the memories of two children as one is about to move away.

You don’t control the characters directly, you control the flow of time itself. As you advance time, the two characters will follow a set route. You can move time forwards or backwards, then activate actions if a character is near something they can interact with. These interactions can be grabbing “light” in order to progress through the level, or manipulating objects that keep their positions outside of your “flow of time”, meaning you can rewind and interact with them in a different location.

While the game is short (about an hour long), and the levels don’t get too complicated, it’s filled with some really neat ideas and lots of creativity.

 

AI: The Somnium Files

 

This really took me by surprise in quite a few ways. I went in only knowing that it was some kind of detective game and was extremely impressed with it by the end…well, mostly.

You play Date (pronounced something like “Dah-Tae”). He’s part of a special investigations team with extremely special tech that can dive into someone’s subconscious. Date is a “psyncher”, which means he is one of the people who explore people’s peoples minds to try and decipher the meaning to gain valuable clues to cases. He’s also accompanied by Aiba, an AI that lives in his prosthetic eye, an extremely useful asset.

It’s a “visual novel” game, where you pick dialogue options and ask questions, moving between different locations. It does a good job at making it feel like you’re doing the detective work and figuring out the mysteries. The sections where you are in people’s mind has you control Aiba in a “human avatar” form, as you try to figure out the twisted logic of the dream and solve the puzzles. You can only spend six minutes in a dream. Standing still will move time significantly, while interacting with objects will cost a set amount of time, but also unlock modifiers which can reduce this time (or in some cases, increase it). If you fail, you can restart from a checkpoint or the beginning. With the handy fast forward feature (which speeds you past cutscenes and dialogue), I found myself just starting these from the beginning when I failed, as you can pick the correct options without taking too much of your (real) time.

The game begins with a mysterious death, someone who is an old friend of Date’s, and the mother of the 12 year old girl that he’s unofficially adopted. The investigation will take you to meet a rather colorful cast of fun characters, as more deaths happen. I won’t go into many more details on the story (it’s best to find out for yourself), but there are a lot of shocking twists, turns and character moments. There’s a lot of silly stuff, but also some really deep, depressing and emotional moments.

As you play, you’ll either reach a “bad” ending or a “locked” route. The Somnium File features different choices, these send your investigation going off in different directions. This isn’t used to force you to play the game multiple times, as you simply go back to where the story branched. Instead, it leads to very different outcomes, all with different surprises and revelations. The mechanic becomes a really great way to keep the mystery flowing, while revealing information in different ways. This all then boils down to the “proper” ending. I found the mysteries to all make sense in the end, everything fit pretty nicely and was explained well.

One thing I did dislike about the game is one aspect of Date’s personality: he is very pervy. It ranges from amusing instances (such as the over the top nature of his excitement for porno mags being used in QTE combat moments, a trait which all the goons share), to hitting on receptionists, to making outright disturbing comments about girls much younger than he is. The worst moment of this is right at the very end of the “proper” ending, and gives the same a sour note to end on (although there is an amusing and over the credits sequence after that).

 

Forza Horizon 5

 

One of Microsoft’s big games for this holiday season, Forza Horizon 5 keeps the strengths of its predecessor: some brilliant driving mechanics and a great map design, while also retaining most of its weaknesses.

The Mexico map in Horizon 5 is gorgeous. It features some quite diverse areas like jungle, desert, city and mountain (well, technically a volcano). There’s a lot to explore and do, including the main story of setting up different Horizon outposts.

These “story” events are great, and are much more tied into the game than the ones in Horizon 4. It created a much improved sense of progression in terms of playing through the singleplayer content, and features some spectacular moments like driving by an active volcano and driving in some impressive dust storms. Sometimes the spectacle of these events can make the freeroam mode feel a bit…static. These amazing storms only seem to happen during the story events, and the lava in the caldera is just a lake of water outside of that one mission. It could be that this changes based on season, but unfortunately the seasons are locked to real-world time, and it changes by a weekly basis. This was frustrating in the last time, and is still frustrating here, although playing about with the custom events (where you can set them in different seasons), the different seasons aren’t as different as in the previous game.

In terms of the stories, there are quite a few. The initial ones for each region are nice introductions to each area and the style of racing they focus on, while there are more specific ones like being a stunt driver, Mexican wrestling inspired car events (although there’s no car fighting), and helping test out a restored Beetle. The dialogue isn’t great, but it’s not awful and does the job well enough.

If you don’t like stories, you can focus on the different races instead: road races, dirt races, cross country (a mixture of both) and stunt races. There are also stunts such as beating speed cameras, drifting or maintaining a high speed along a stretch of road or getting a long distance on a jump. One new type for FH5 is trailblazing. Once you pass the starting gate, your goal is to get to the end point as quickly as possible, ideally going in a straight line. I think it would have been an interesting race type, but I feel it was not done as a race as the AI wouldn’t have coped with it (messing with the route creator, the AI is useless when they’re not on a road).

On the subject of AI, FH5 brings back the rather creepy drivatars, where unrealistic AI racers pretend to be your friends (as in they use the names of people on your friends list). I really wish Playground would add an option to have generic names instead, as giving them names you know just makes the races feel fake, as you know it isn’t them.

The reward system once again relies on a slot machine style system, giving you random rewards. You gain money very quickly and the cars just feel like they have no value, and once I bought the houses and had a few cars I liked, I didn’t feel like there was much use for the large amounts of money I had, and getting new cars just felt empty. Oddly, there are some customisation options which are exclusive in the “wheelspin” slot machine, such as different horns for the car. I would have easily spent the millions of credits I had on the one I really wanted, but grinding for the wheelspins and getting lucky is the only way (I was unsuccessful in getting it).

FH5 also has a fair few bugs (which may get sorted in future updates), such as the wheelspin itself not being given to you after most level ups, even though the game informs you that you have unlocked one. One persistent one was your car randomly halting for no reason, which would also cancel any stunt chains you currently have going. I fell though the map a few times, experienced a few crashes and there were lots of disconnections to the server (which personally for me was great, as it meant there were no other players, but it hadn’t activated “Solo” mode where AI drivatars would get in your way).

I had a few problems with the UI as it feels unintuitive at times. I love browsing for designs for the cars, but the browser makes it a pain to reset choices after you’ve changed cars. If you’re looking for a certain design, there’s a great search tool…but once you’ve found a design you like, the only way to know what car it is for is if you actually recognise the specific model. I found myself opening and closing the wrong menus quite a lot, too.

Forza Horizon 5 has some great accessibility features, but unfortunately not in the main area that affects me: colourblindness. It features the “filters” (which have never helped me out) and that’s it. I often didn’t know if I had set a waypoint on the map because the trail towards the marker was different to distinguish from the regular road colour, and the design tools don’t feature colour names, so I had to ask for help in picking the colour I wanted.

Forza Horizon 5 has some amazing gameplay, but features a lot of annoyances that hinder it.