The last few games you beat and rate them 5

[Frankie Blueberries]

RE2 remake, played as Leon. I never played the original game. It was enjoyable but nothing mind blowing. Will probably play the Claire portion next before moving onto RE3 remake.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Hue - 7.5/10

Hue is a fairly casual puzzle/platformer based around colors. You will have different objects throughout the game and changing the background colors will make them invisible allowing you to pass through them. Do this to solve puzzles! It's pretty straightforward. It's a neat concept and the puzzles are never overly complicated. The latter puzzles are certainly tougher than the first half but you'll never be beating yourself up with no clue how to solve them.

There's a pretty interesting story and the music is great. The controls can feel a bit floaty at times but there's really only one or two puzzles where it can get in the way. there was one particular puzzle in the factory that actually really annoyed me with how precise you had to move between lasers and the floaty controls got me killed. It didn't help that that room was very time consuming while you wait for a slow moving platform to block lasers. The solution is rather clear but with how slow you're forced to move, it can take a few minutes and it was incredibly frustrating when you died late to have to start the whole thing over. Fortunately that was the only annoying level in the game.

The whole experience was a fun casual puzzler though. If you're looking for a puzzle/platformer, I'd recommend picking this one up.

 

[pistolpete11]

I think the difficulty is tied to which one you play first and the experience you gain. I played Dark Souls 3 first and thought Bloodborne was a breeze. Orphan of Kos, I think I beat on my second or third try, even though everyone was hyping that boss as one of the hardest in Fromsofts library. I think I would have had a hard time without the 50 or so hours I put in DS3 though.

I think so, too, but as someone who's first FromSoft game was Bloodborne, I found Orphan of Kos' difficulty to be a overhyped as well. I'm still not good enough at these games to call him easy, but I found both Lawrence and Ludwig in the DLC and Martyr Logarius in the main game to be harder. And considering how new I was at the time, probably Father Gascoinge and Blood Starved Beast as well.

 

[Jovavic]

Xcom 2: War of the Chosen - 9.5/10

Loved everything they added to an already awesome game

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Atomic Heart - 7.75/10

I liked it a lot more as the game went on, particularly the story. The first portion of the game is a lot of fetching things, which was annoying, but that went away after a while. Once you're powered up, it's a lot of fun to take on enemies. I only played on normal, but didn't find any of the bosses particularly difficult. The dialogue was pretty bad from the main character, but good with everyone else.

Overall, a pretty impressive first game for a new studio. They have a lot to build off of. Visually, it looks great.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - 9.5/10.

I've actually been holding off finishing the game for the last month, because I didn't want the journey to end. It's now in my top three favorite RPGs along with Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 2.

The game is very long (140 hours), but it's probably one of the deepest I've ever played. I can't say enough about the amount of different builds and the quality of the mythic paths. The story is a power fantasy, but it's right up my alley with mortals and the forces of the Abyss going into a head to head. The demons are particularly well written and the main antagonist reminds me of Jon Irenicus, likely my favorite villain of any video game. I would say the reason I'm not giving it a 9.75 or a 10 is due to the crusade mechanics being unfinished. That said, I think it adds scale to the story that wouldn't quite be there without having full armies and commanders going to war with the demons. It's also a very hard game with one particularly annoying dungeon created by CohhCarnage.

It's a must play for any cRPG/Black Isle/Larian fan.

Curious what build you went with for your playthrough? I'm planning on starting very soon (loved Kingmaker) but I have terrible terrible terrible FOMO when it comes to classes and builds. Usually have like 10 new games wracked up prior to settling on one build.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Beat Again Via Emulation:

8.5/10

 

[Ceremony]

​

Jak X: Combat Racing (PS4, 2017 - originally PS2, 2005)

Remember that time in the PS2 era when a game series would get a racing game? I'm not sure if this was a prolonged thing or I'm just imagining it. Crash Team Racing was obviously a classic. Rayman got a four player racing game (without vehicles) and Naughty Dog stayed in the game with Jak and Daxter, putting out Jak X a year after Jak 3. Despite my professions of love for the characters and series I never played this at the time. I don't know why. Fortunately the miracle of modern technology means I could revisit this missing part of my gaming history. I'm grateful the opportunity exists. Take the f***ing hint, Sony.

Following on from Jak 3's introduction of land-based vehicles for racing and exploration, Jak X thankfully improves the driving physics and confines them to race or combat. Unlike standard kart racers things are much faster and more open. A single lap of most circuits is at least a minute and a half, and the width of the track coupled with the fact you're almost constantly using boost just makes everything feel massive. There are four cups in the game's Adventure mode with cars you can unlock and upgrade, with things getting faster and more difficult as you progress.

The game's sense of speed and scale is really strange. You have boost, you can drift (although I wouldn't recommend trying to do it often) and you have attacking and defensive weapons, but everything just feels huge when you're on the track. The racing is centred on weapons as much as the driving and this is why there's so much space - to be able to line up shots and make the most of the firepower. I think it works from a gameplay perspective, but considering how much I love the series it's a shame the setting just goes by unseen. Haven City passes by in a blur. So does Spargus. So does some ice, and some desert.

Adventure Mode is technically centred round a story, but I think the writing took up about five minutes of the game's total development. Our heroes get poisoned in a blackmail plot to win the Kras City Grand Prix Championship or whatever it's called. It's a slow acting poison though. The antidote is timed to be given to them immediately after the final race. I almost feel like I'm insulting you by actually typing this out. Either way, if this was to be the swansong for Jak and Daxter and Keira and Samos and Torn and Ashelin and Sig then I feel really quite short changed. It's barely even worth trying to frame it when this is the best you can come up with.

Along with races there are other game modes, and this might be a first for this kind of game. They're all good. Turbo Dash gives you pickups which you charge up by boosting, with a point and a fired projectile once you're at 100%. Freeze Rally is like the classic CTR time trials. You have a time to beat and tokens dotted around that temporarily stop the timer. Death Race puts endlessly spawning NPC cars in front of you and tasks you with killing as many as you can. Bonus points for a combo. The same system applies to Rush Hour, where the NPCs are driving at you and you need to crash into them. This mode exposes the.... let's call it unrefined driving physics. Sometimes something will happen that pitches your car round. When you're driving flat out, it's fun and easy. When you come to a stop, or hit the wall, or something else impedes your progress, it's a bit more irritating.

Actually I lied, there are various arena/combat modes and they're not good. There are only ever six cars racing or competing at a time and the open maps here are absolutely huge, multi-layered affairs where you can take a solid thirty seconds to go from one side to the other. Only to get blown up and have to start all over again. The AI isn't very well optimised for these modes and they feel like a bit of a letdown mixed in with the racing.

Why did this trend of racing games ever stop? Why isn't there a BioShock kart racer where I can skid through Neptune's Bounty shooting fireballs at a Big Daddy? Am I overestimating the proliferation of the genre? It feels like something that was big and then just went away. I know you still have licensed kart racing games but they're things like Garfield and Spongebob and it just feels like something that's only aimed at a younger audience. Am I in denial about how old I am? The somehow generic yet inescapable mid-00s rock soundtrack doesn't mean anything, actually. I did enjoy it though. All games should have that kind of music from that time playing at all times, regardless of genre.

Another thing present here that you don't get anymore is an assortment of Easter eggs and behind the scenes videos. Seeing Daxter's voice coming out of an actual human is a bit odd, but it's still great to see. Why aren't things like this in games nowadays? I'm not expecting games to ship or download with a full on documentary included but is it really that much work to have someone float about the office with a phone and produce some interesting accompaniment for people who might be interested?

Looking back I think I summed up things too well in my opening. I had never played this despite loving Jak and Daxter. I've played it, I enjoyed it, it made me want both more Jak and Daxter and more kart racing games. Get to it Naughty Dog, I don't think you're too busy these days.

 

[Osprey]

I just finished the campaign for Titanfall 2. I was really impressed with how good the graphics were for a 7-year-old game and how smoothly it ran (never dropping below my framerate cap of 140fps on my 3070). It looked and ran better than most new games. It really makes you wonder why a lot of 2023 games don't look as good (even with ray tracing) and run much worse. The story was good and the gameplay was really solid and unique, with wall running, a wide array of weapons and gadgets and titan combat that felt different than normal combat. My main criticism is that it's extremely linear, like a CoD campaign, with always only one direction to go. I wasn't always a fan of the forced platforming (wall running and jumping, often in series, that was required rather than just optional). As linear campaigns go, though, it was pretty good and didn't bother me as much as others . Overall, I enjoyed it. It's only $4.49 on Steam, which is well worth it for about 7 hours of very solid graphics, gameplay and story.

 

[pistolpete11]

I think the difficulty is tied to which one you play first and the experience you gain. I played Dark Souls 3 first and thought Bloodborne was a breeze. Orphan of Kos, I think I beat on my second or third try, even though everyone was hyping that boss as one of the hardest in Fromsofts library. I think I would have had a hard time without the 50 or so hours I put in DS3 though.

So I've been replaying Bloodborne and I can confirm both that Orphan of Kos is not that hard and slightly harder than I was expecting

After pretty much one-shotting every boss except for Martyr Logarius and Laurence, I thought I had a chance to one-shot Orphan of Kos, too. But it took me 3 tries. Took a couple of attempts to re-find the parry window, but then it was smooth sailing.

I don't even know how many tries it took for Logarius. I think I have some kind of mental block with him, though, because whenI beat him, it was such a smooth, easy attempt.

Laurence.....in my opinion.....is the hardest boss in Bloodborne. When I finally beat him, I had 1 Blood Vile left and kind of took a risk to get the last hit or 2 in. One more hit from him and I would have been dead. He just hits so hard and has a couple of combos that will kill you if you miss the first dodge and your health isn't topped off.

 

[Ceremony]

I just finished the campaign for Titanfall 2. I was really impressed with how good the graphics were for a 7-year-old game and how smoothly it ran (never below 140fps, which is what I have the framerate cap set to). It looked and ran better than most new games. It really makes you wonder why a lot of 2023 games don't look as good and run much worse. The story was good and the gameplay was really solid and unique, with wall running, a wide array of weapons and gadgets and titan combat that felt different than normal combat. My main criticism is that it's extremely linear, like a CoD campaign, with always only one direction to go. It reminded me a lot of Crysis 2. I wasn't always a fan of the forced platforming (wall running and jumping, often in series, that were required rather than just optional). As linear campaigns go, though, it was pretty good and didn't bother me as much as others. Overall, I enjoyed it. It's only $4.49 on Steam, which is really good for 10 hours of very solid graphics, gameplay and story.

When you play Titanfall 2 you just wonder what other FPS developers are thinking.

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

Policenaughts on Sega Saturn emu translated.

Great story, great to look at point and click. If you want a relax and chill this is it. More interactive movie then game but the story is excellent.

Just turn off the horrible action sequences.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Titanfall 2 had a great campaign. I don't really remember much of the story but it's all about the game play to me. It was fun running around and wall running, jumping, sliding, etc feeling like a bad ass throughout the whole game. I ended up getting every achievement but I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if I didn't play on hard difficulty.

 

[Bocephus86]

Can anyone help me with Wasteland 3? I thought I was cruising through the game, running basically the same squad with a sniper/2 assaults/1 close/1 medic/1 tech but I got near end-game (I think?) and can't even get to the stupid camp without getting jumped by monsters so often I run out of medical equipment & ammo.

Do I have to restart and hoard all the materials that I didn't realize were important early on so I can crank out med supplies & ammo? Or did I just get unlucky with the path I chose and get screwed trying to get to Aspen? I got jumped by monsters twice and had to fight both times. By the time I got to Aspen I was basically out of supplies.

 

[Andrei79]

Can anyone help me with Wasteland 3? I thought I was cruising through the game, running basically the same squad with a sniper/2 assaults/1 close/1 medic/1 tech but I got near end-game (I think?) and can't even get to the stupid camp without getting jumped by monsters so often I run out of medical equipment & ammo.

Do I have to restart and hoard all the materials that I didn't realize were important early on so I can crank out med supplies & ammo? Or did I just get unlucky with the path I chose and get screwed trying to get to Aspen? I got jumped by monsters twice and had to fight both times. By the time I got to Aspen I was basically out of supplies.

Do you mean your base ? You can ask for a tow at any point of you run out of supplies and try again. Never ran into the problem you're talking about. But, does anyone in your party have the survival skill to skip the encounters ? Just have to respec if you don't.

 

[Osprey]

I just finished Dredge, which I wrote about yesterday in the "Games you are currently playing" thread. I won't repeat myself, so check that out if you want a description of the game. It's one of the better recent indie games that I've played. My main criticism is that I would've liked it to have been longer than only 12-15 hours, which is a lot better criticism than wanting the game to end. I definitely still recommend it.

 

[Bocephus86]

Do you mean your base ? You can ask for a tow at any point of you run out of supplies and try again. Never ran into the problem you're talking about. But, does anyone in your party have the survival skill to skip the encounters ? Just have to respec if you don't.

I ended up restarting after learning a bunch of things I didn't realize the first time around. This was one of them. Also that I should have a barter specialist that I use just to sell stuff. And that assault rifles aren't very good in this game so my custom leader should be SMG based. Hoping this time around things go a little better for me.

 

[Andrei79]

Curious what build you went with for your playthrough? I'm planning on starting very soon (loved Kingmaker) but I have terrible terrible terrible FOMO when it comes to classes and builds. Usually have like 10 new games wracked up prior to settling on one build.

I went with a sorcerer but respecced later. I like playing spellcasters though . One of the things you can do is merge spellbooks if you're a Lich/Sorcerer or Angel/Oracle, giving you a potential powerhouse as a MC. I highly recommend cRPGbros build guides if you're interested. He has a ton of videos on WotR.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Forgive Me Father - 6/10

This game's not bad, it's decent, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

The aesthetic and heavy metal soundtrack is great. The trailers and videos make it look like a lot of fun but the issue is the trailer is all small snippets and that's about where it shines. It was fun enough for me to finish the game but I would finish a level or two (most levels can be completed in under 10 minutes,) and I would shut the game off because I had no desire to keep going that session.

The level design is just terrible. Most levels are just long corridors with some twists and turns with the occasional large arena room which is really just a square or the occasional arena where the devs wanted to get fancy and made it a circle instead. Every level just feels the same. A single playthrough took me about 6 hours so it's a decent length for a retro shooter.

There are just better retro shooters out there. I got this in a bundle so I'm not complaining but I certainly wouldn't recommend this at full price, only under a heavy discount. I see they're making a sequel to this. I hope they spend a lot more time on level design because if it had good level design, I think the game could be a lot of fun.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Forgive Me Father - 6/10

This game's not bad, it's decent, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

The aesthetic and heavy metal soundtrack is great. The trailers and videos make it look like a lot of fun but the issue is the trailer is all small snippets and that's about where it shines. It was fun enough for me to finish the game but I would finish a level or two (most levels can be completed in under 10 minutes,) and I would shut the game off because I had no desire to keep going that session.

The level design is just terrible. Most levels are just long corridors with some twists and turns with the occasional large arena room which is really just a square or the occasional arena where the devs wanted to get fancy and made it a circle instead. Every level just feels the same. A single playthrough took me about 6 hours so it's a decent length for a retro shooter.

There are just better retro shooters out there. I got this in a bundle so I'm not complaining but I certainly wouldn't recommend this at full price, only under a heavy discount. I see they're making a sequel to this. I hope they spend a lot more time on level design because if it had good level design, I think the game could be a lot of fun.

I still remember playing this in early access forever ago and still have it installed but have yet to go back to it. I think I'm just afraid to play it because it might not turn out great. I do that a lot lately actually. Afraid of disappointment.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I am a fan of retro shooters and I feel like you would be disappointed with this one lol.

Like I said, mechanically it's fine. But it's just boring to play through since it feels like the same thing over and over and over when you're just running down long corridors.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

A Little Golf Journey - 7.5/10

A Little Golf Journey is an enjoyable little golf/puzzle game. I didn't put much effort into trying to get every star and I finished all the levels available to me in about 3 hours. If you want to go for every star, I assume it would take significantly longer. Personally, I don't think it's worth the effort but playing through it as normal, getting the scores that I get, and completing each hole once in a few hours was still enjoyable.

The only things I didn't like about the game was sometimes trees would change your ball trajectory in a way the cursor wouldn't show. It got very frustrating at times going for shortcuts. You think you have it very precise and will just land your hit perfectly only for it to hit some leaves halfway through the shot, which the game wouldn't indicate while taking the shot, and it ruins the hole for you. Also the last couple worlds have moving objects in them that can block your path. It didn't add much of a challenge, it just made you have to wait to take your shot and it got annoying. If you want to add objects in the way of shots, don't make me wait through moving objects while my cursor moves around for max power. It wasn't challenging, it was just annoying.

Still, with those notes aside, it was still fun for the three hours it took me to complete all the holes once. If you want a casual golf game, I recommend this one. There's definitely a lot more value than the 3 hours it took me if you want to 100% it too!

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Policenaughts on Sega Saturn emu translated.

Great story, great to look at point and click. If you want a relax and chill this is it. More interactive movie then game but the story is excellent.

Just turn off the horrible action sequences.

Looooove Policenauts. Actually been thinking of running through it again, so maybe this was my sign. I'm a sucker for anything made by Kojima lol.

 

[SimGrindcore]

Resident Evil 2 Remake: 7.5/10
A few years ago, I tried Resident Evil VI: Biohazard and I hated it. I'm not a horror movie fans but I do enjoy zombie movies/series like The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, World War Z, etc. I wasn't really a fan of the Resident Evil movies with Mila Jovovich and I never owned a PlayStation so I never played the OG games. That being said, I thought they used jump scares as a shortcut for the overall ambiance in Biohazard.

When I saw the Welcome to Racoon City movie, I was hooked by the overall atmosphere and really enjoyed the story (which is the RE 1 and 2 plots together). So I figured I should give a try to RE2 remake.

I enjoyed the game, it was stressful at times and I found the puzzles really challenging (compared to, let's say, Tomb Raider). Even thought I checked the internet a lot to help me, I had a really good time. The only downside I have is that you have to redo a big chunk the Police Station part in Claire's campaign. I would have loved doing something completely different in parallel with Claire's arc. I would rate the game a 8.5 if wasn't for that thing. The game relies less in cheap jumpscares and more on adventure, which is perfect for me.

Just bought RE: Revelations 2 and I'm waiting for the 3 remake to go on sale.


Rise of the Tomb Raider: 8.5/10
I had a really great time with that sequel. I liked it more than the previous game. The controls are way more fluid (it's hard to go back to the 1st game) and the action is bombastic (the intro/tutorial part hooked me)! It's cool to craft bombs and molotovs along the way too. I think the story is a little more grounded in reality even thought there's a big part of surnatural.

I considered starting Shadow of the Tomb Raider (which I already own) right after but paced myself haha!

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

Looooove Policenauts. Actually been thinking of running through it again, so maybe this was my sign. I'm a sucker for anything made by Kojima lol.

I always tell everyone, Policenaughts is what Snatcher would be if Snatcher was cool. Point and clicks are a hard sell especially if the story isn't good (most Sierra games). I get the whole "interactive novel" thing, there's thousands of them out there and a lot of them are translated. I just don't like tacking on the crappy action sequences.

Policenaughts especially didn't need them. It might have been cool with a light gun, but other then that you see the outline of the guys your supposed to shoot and the guys take a lot of shots before you can move on with the story, which is the bread and butter of Kojima point and clicks.

I actually owned Snatcher and sold it at a game convention for 5 grand then laughed after someone actually gave me five grand for a video game when there's emulators out there that are just as good as the og consoles.

To that paper thin small crowd who think games should be played on original hardware and not emulation good luck getting those games with the manufactured "it's extremely rare" prices. A semi big YouTuber offered me 500 bucks for that same copy of Snatcher who was selling copies of Mario 3 for 300 bucks at the same show loose.