VideoGame_Discussion

Got through The Lost Legacy (Uncharted) this is my 2nd time beating it and this time did it on the Steam Deck. It's a great game, great story but more climbing and frustrating puzzles than I remember. Length was great for my life right now and the final chapter is easily my favorite (on a train.) I'd love to see Naughty Dog do a sequel for this.

Am finally playing Uncharted Drake's Fortune - 7/10
I'm playing the collection on my but I remembered the opening boat/casket scene and getting into the first temple from a long while back when I tried it on the . I didn't get very far though since I didn't remember the uBoat...
I ended up going 48% through the story on my first session, according to the save file and did right around another 25% tonight.
It's pretty good but darn that upstream jet-ski section was crap. I'm not in love with the controls either, but it's what a 15 year old game now? Without traditional levels or loading screens it's very easy to just keep pushing through it. And really besides two of the jet-ski sections, I've really not had much difficulty with gun fights or even falling to my death. I mean I've died a few times like that, but not enough that I felt annoyed or anything.
Looking forward to wrapping it up and moving into the 2nd title since I've heard it was a big step forward.

Slickriven wrote:

Uncharted 1 was just barely good enough to get me to play Uncharted 2 (the jet ski section is particularly terrible). Glad I did though, because Uncharted 2 is great (a major step up) and Uncharted 4 is one of my favorite games.

Been deep in FF12 recently. Loving it. I get lazy with LP and Gambits but i appreciate the system, gambits are pretty awesome

DrizzDrizzDrizz wrote:

Man, I love FF12! I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and it isn't perfect, but it's honestly one of my all-time fav JRPGs.

EB wrote:

The first jet-ski section was fine, I just blasted through and didn't bother to shoot at the enemies, partly b/c I didn't know how, but it was short and not too bad. The 2nd section was about the same but took a few times for the game to finally tell me what I needed to do to progress, and stop getting killed. But that 3rd, upstream section was where it all became terrible - the controls especially when trying to turn or climb the falls showed up poorly and why am I using the R1 button for acceleration and not R2's linear progression for throttle? I found I really had to take out the enemies to avoid death and no grenade launcher this time but instead a pistol and your ride was affected by the current... Yeah it was crap. But I'm past that and based on the setting am not thinking I'll get another section unless it's headed back to the coast.
Game reminds me a lot of the first 2 Tomb Raider games of the latest reboot trilogy (haven't got to Shadow yet) and I suppose that doesn't surprise me. Obviously TR and Rise are more open world and have crafting/upgrading baked in and are better in some ways, but they came after this game so I'd expect them to be stronger.

The last 2 games I beat were indie games:
Unmetal (Metal Gear parody)
Blazing Chrome (a very good Contra-like game).

Trying to figure out what next game will actually keep my attention. I've started the following recently but none of them have me wanting to play every night and I haven't touched them recently.

DmC: Devil May Cry - Definitive Edition
God of War (2018)
Live A Live
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Games that I'm considering:
Axiom Verge 2 just came out today on PS+ Essentials.
Ghost of Tsushima - Director's Cut
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

Mom Hid My Game

It's a puzzle game. You have to find what looks like a DS by interacting with the items in the environment.

For a game that doesn't have all the bells and whistles, this is surprisingly solid. It's funny at times and clever.

Puzzle games like these, I typically play gradually, as opposed to bingeing the levels.

@Sun What were your thoughts on UnMetal? I almost picked it up in the latest Switch sale but held off.

@Slickriven Yeah, the upstream jet ski section was the one I remember really being terrible. I liked the first two TR reboot games better than Uncharted 1 for sure, though like you said they are newer and therefore should be less janky.

EB wrote:

I found it enjoyable. The humor was funny enough and the gameplay was decent (think old school Metal Gear). The game was decently challenging, but rooted in pattern recognition and timing. Difficulty can be adjusted as well. There are some puzzle aspects to the game as well. I picked it up on sale as well and enjoyed it. I would wait for the next sale. Not overly long (an hour a chapter spread over 10 chapters).

EB wrote:

I pushed through the ending of this tonight. I'll add that the Roman Numeral section was a pain and really the gunfights seemed to ramp up in difficulty in the final 15-20%. There was 2 aspects after that Roman Numerals section that I didn't expect and they sort of felt out of place but eh. I'd add that the final time you regain control of Nate and have only a shotgun sucked too as that section was a PITA with that gun - which you keep into the next section too... which also wasn't well suited for it either.
But it felt like a decent conclusion to the game and didn't feel like there was any cliff hangers or suggestions that a sequel was coming - likely b/c there wasn't until Sony got the review and sales figures to decide upon.

After beating, I had found 50% of the collectables and unlocked some concept art - interesting to see so much of Drake's designs had him with 2 pistols yet that wasn't in my game at all. I also unlocked some graphic filters and tweaks and the 'next gen' filter looked pretty good on the opening boat scene.

Days Gone (PS4 on PS5) - 8.5/10 - This starts off really rough and is kinda confusing but after sticking with it, it started to come together. Although really heavy-handed at times, I enjoyed the overall story and there are a few nice surprises along the way. My biggest complaint is that the game is just far too long and the pacing is inconsistent. The story and the map could have been chopped in half to make this a tighter experience. I don't know what my total game time was to beat this but it's gotta be 40-50h+ at least. I can see how not everyone likes this but I really enjoyed it.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5) - 7/10 - Playing this 2 years late without the new-console launch-title rose-colored glasses on...it's alright. Zero surprises other than you not actually playing Ratchet with Clank together. Things I don't like:

- The extra characters play identical and weapons are shared so it doesn't feel special.
- The pull-the-rift-towards you gimmick is no different than just using a grapple or doing a big air dash. Walking between worlds is cool but the standard gameplay traversal mechanic didn't deserve all the attention it got.
- The maps encourage exploration but you get stuck on geometry regularly. Lots of thinking you can jump on top of something but the game doesn't want you to.
- Cutscenes are not great quality and feel rushed. And the story really isn't very interesting.

It's still been fun as a pallet cleanser after spending an eternity in Days Gone though. And I dig the rocket boots.

I'm a couple of hours into Gotham Knights and it kinda sucks. Looks like the critics and gamers were right about this one. It just feels off. Combat is slow and clunky and boring. Traversal as Batgirl doesn't feel good and the batcycle doesn't feel fast and isn't exciting to drive. I booted up Arkham Knight for a quick comparison and it's amazing how Gotham Knights manages to look worse than an 8-year-old game. It's inferior to Arkham Knight in every imaginable way. And honestly, releasing something this meh with a property this valuable is unacceptable. I knew to temper expectations when I saw it was a WB Montreal game, but this is a pretty big step down from their last game Arkham Origins. Also Batgirl's voice actress is kinda awful. To be fair, it could just be the voice direction and not the voice actress herself, but I really only want to play as Batgirl and I may have to mute it so I don't have to listen to her crappy dialogue.

So yeah, this definitely isn't worth the $70 they tried charging for it at launch. It feels directionless and after only 2 hours, I already know it's going to be a slog. I hope I'm wrong, but this certainly hasn't made a great first impression.

Callisto Protocol 7/10- Took me a little over 12 hours, playing on Max Security (hardest setting). Honestly, save for one part a decent ways into the game, this was an overall fairly easy game. The way the core combat mechanics of the melee works, you just hold a direction and dodge or block, then strike back with counter/melee combos. You eventually get guns and they work about like you think, so nothing too out of the ordinary there. Had some choppiness in random sections, but runs pretty decently now with a couple of patches under its belt at mostly highest settings at 1440p - ray tracing definitely had to be turned off, but the game is gorgeous for the most part even without it, so not worth the performance hit in my opinion. Overall, I enjoyed it for what it was but Dead Space is still king of this hill. If you need something to play, pick it up in a few months when it goes on sale and maybe by then some story DLC will be out as well since the ending is a dangling carrot.

Dasgessabel wrote:

I've been playing Arcade Paradise on PS5. I've got 20-something of the 35 games, and am really enjoying my time with it. I'd probably give it a solid 7-7/5/10. Some of the "arcade" games are actually really fun, albeit knockoffs of preexisting games that I like

Dasgessabel wrote:

I liked this too, nothing special but not as bad as reviews showed. I just wish I had known to not even bother with the Tactical Pistol. Was absolutely worthless and I just sold all the amm I got.

Heavyd814life wrote:

Yeah without a buddy to play with to ease and soften the blow the game is severely lacking in most areas. What a disappointment.

Happy Game {} 7/10
That title is a ruse, I tell ya. They just wanna trick you with that title because this game ain't happy at all, it's psychotic. And that's what I liked about it.

You start as a little boy just before he goes to sleep and has one heck of a nightmare. I don't know how to describe the actual game beyond that other than it's a point-and-click game with some puzzles that aren't really too difficult to figure out. Actually due to the on-screen cursor controls I would probably recommend playing this on PC instead if you have the option, because the controls are a little clunky at times with analog sticks (I didn't play in handheld mode, so I don't know if it supports the touchscreen or not). It's a short game at barely 2 hours long, but I guess that's better than overstaying its welcome.

Borrowed TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge from the library and played through the first 4 stages with my 4-year old. He’s having a blast. Raph is his favorite.

Sun wrote:
Every once in awhile someone mentions taking video games out from the library. Pretty cool that some libraries offer this.

nonamesleft wrote:

Probably just me! I've played through a number of single-player games this way:

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
Horizon Forbidden West (didn't even install it)
The Last of Us: Part II
Life is Strange: True Colors
The Quarry
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (I only played Bowser's Fury since I beat 3D World on Wii U)
Tactics Ogre Reborn (didn't even get a chance to play it)
Tiny Tina's Wonderland (didn't play it very much)
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

I don't check out longer games since I know I won't finish them.

I put Marvel's Midnight Suns, Hogwarts Legacy and God of War: Ragnarok on hold request as well. Maybe I'll finish God of War (2018) by the time it's my turn for Ragnarok.

Sun wrote:
Wow. Some great games on there. And they have Switch games? Your library is

I'm not going to even bother checking my local library to see if they carry games. They almost certainly don't... okay, fine, I'll check, but only because you insisted

Somebody didn't like my R&C Rift Apart 7/10. Would love to hear from folks that would rate this higher in 2023.

Anxiouz wrote:

I didn’t neg you but I loved R&C A Rift Apart. Easy 8-9/10 for me.

Finally finished Yakuza 0. I'd give it a 8.5/10. Great game but got a bit repetitive.

I started Yakuza 1 (remake) the other day. Very similar to 0 except a little more lifeless? Hope I can make it through, it's OK so far.

sa330206 wrote:

I played 0 last year and enjoyed the story, but the gameplay does get repetitive. That’s why I haven’t finished Kiwami yet. It’s good in small spurts and will take a long time to finish as a result. I have all the games on PS4 but it’s gonna take a long time to get thru them all.

@Sun

I checked and, from what I can tell, only books and some movies. No video games. I didn't think they'd have any. Checked on the very slight chance that they would.

Frank wrote:

(Spoilers for Callisto Protocol in the spoiler tag for those who haven't played, don't click it)

Kommie wrote:

Yeah the tactical pistol was given way too late. Should have been the first gun, honestly. The five round burst is fun but overall, a worthless gun because you get the last gun not too long after.

As a normal adult man doing normal adult things, I tried out Teddy Together on 3DS today. It's basically like Nintendogs but with a talking teddy bear.

I got to Level 2 friendship and he went outside to see if he could make friends. Lots of kids around but he lamented there were no other bears so he couldn't make friends.

The dialog choice was between "I'm sure you'll make friends soon" (or something similar) and "Yep! No friends for you!" (That exact wording).

This game is simultaneously charming, a bit creepy, and hilarious at the same time.

@sa330206 Definitely don't try to play the Yakuza series back to back. They will feel insanely repetitive if you don't put some other games in between them. I try to play one per year. Out of the five I've played, I still like 0 the best.

Also beat the Callisto Protocol - 8/10 for me

Visually, one of the most impressive games I’ve seen this generation. It’s not exactly scary but I do like the atmospheric dread and melee heavy combat. I liked it more than most people because I felt like the length was just right for a single player game. Once I upgraded my grip gun, combat became a lot more fun. Not replayable but DLC would intrigue me to jump back in

Stray {} 7/10
I had heard the usual complaints about this game, such as the final game being different than what people were expecting from the initial announcement trailer. I guess you can put me in that category too. What's the deal with all this robot stuff? I just wanted to play as a cat, but they felt the need to complicate things with this super uninteresting story about robots.

I've heard it's a short game, but at one point I didn't even know if I wanted to finish it. There's even a trophy for beating the game in 2 hours, but I spent that much time alone just getting lost in the slums and not being able to find my away around because so much of the area just looked the same. Really, that is pretty early on into the game and it had me wanting to quit. I haven't finished the game yet, but once you get out of the slums/rooftops section the game gets slightly better.

I do want to give some kudos to whoever was responsible for the game's music. The bass sounds so good with the Pulse 3D headset, in the rare times you actually hear any music. As for the rest of the audio, it is just environmental effects and those sound alright too. I feel like there's nothing special about the graphics. The environments look nice at times, but overall I was expecting this to look better than it does. I know it's from a small studio so I guess they can be forgiven, but early on I had to double check and make sure I hadn't downloaded the PlayStation 4 version by mistake.

I think the game is just barely above average, but I'll add a +1 to the score because once in a while I catch my cat staring at the TV when I'm playing this and he doesn't usually do that for too many other games (Animal Crossing is another one he seems to like).

=-=

KeyWe {} 8/10
This is a pretty fun co-op game. You can play it solo, but it's clearly meant for two players, and you're playing as little kiwi birds working in a post office, sorting mail and stuff.
It sounds simple, but things can get pretty hectic in the later levels. This is definitely something where you can enjoy it with a friend that is as much into gaming as you, or a spouse that is more of a casual gamer.

there was nothing really going for Stray other than "cat game" and even then it doesn't save it from below mediocrity.

And yet 'Stray' keeps getting Game of the Year nods...somehow.

I love cats but that game had nothing interesting going on. If it were more in line with a typical puzzle game like Limbo, Another World, Heart of Darkness, or Little Nightmares and removed the force story nonsense it may have been better. The whole robot part/story crap was so bad.

The beginning where you just run and jump on stuff and be a cat was kinda cool, but the game lost me immediately after that.

Kommie wrote:

Been playing a lot of Fantasy Life for 3DS lately.

It reminds me of how much I miss Level 5 in the US market.

Not saying we need more Layton games after 5 and 6 though.

But their creativity when they aren't shackled to a single series/concept is pretty great.

benstylus wrote:

Looks like I got this one at some point but haven't played it yet.

I've had The Last of Us Part 2 on the shelf for awhile now, and just never felt in the mood to start it. But it fit the bill perfectly last night and I'm enjoying the story beats and the quality is as impressive as I was expecting. Naughty Dog really is something special. I do think that they introduce far too many characters too early, and jumping between them works as a narrative for a film but it makes it tough to connect with who I'm supposed to care about. I'm excited to see where this goes though.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I'm actually stuck here now. I felt like I mostly did everything in that area before stopping for the night. But then a week or so later when I resumed, I couldn't figure out where to go/what to do. I think I need to get 3 more soda cans for the merchant?, and then there is a clue about rooftops? (but I thought I did that already). But after running around the same area for 10-15 minutes I keep turning this off.

Anxiouz wrote:


Yeah you need to get up to the rooftops to advance (I think it was having to track down 4 books) and then briefly you will return to the slums area again before eventually moving on and not being able to return. Buying the last item from the merchant with 3 cans was optional, because I was only able to find two of the cans before I just gave up and left.