Last game you beat

Self-explanatory thread.

Dragon Quest Builders 2.

Ghost of Tsushima on Lethal mode.

Black, finished it yesterday. Pretty great game honestly, really nailed that oldsk00l shooter aesthetic. Just guns blazing, fun sounds, cool animations, slick menus, no multiplayer. Just all fun. Levels were surprisingly long and only had a few checkpoints, final mission especially was quite brutal and the game plays smartly with different levels of elevation. Despite only having like three enemy types it still kept it interesting that way.

How did you play Black? Was it just an old console version or is there a PC port I've never heard of.

You got me there: I can't remember. For long now I am in this stasis where I'm entering new game worlds and replaying stuff I'm familiar with.
But beating as in clearing? From start to finish? In one credit?? No. No shame.

Ah, wait! I remember now: The Ninja Saviors. A 1cc, on Normal with Ninja. Earlier this year.
And Curse of the Moon 2, if the beating of single episodes count, then I beat it 4 times.
And Super Mario 64. "Let's have some cake."

But the fact remains. I this the secret purpose of this topic? To expose ourselves to ourselves?
That's "self-explantory". Very well done!

I played it on the PS2, still had a copy lying around that I bought for cheap but didn't get around to for the longest time.

Doom Eternal on Nightmare for me. Don't fancy Ultra Nightmare though - really not a fan of permadeath on anything that takes longer than your average arcade game. Now, I need to decide what to play next. Got a few different games I'm considering.

I might be wrong but I think you can play Black on XB1 via backwards compatibility. Feel like I heard that somewhere...

Yeah Black is also on Xbox One, just didn't have that game lying about.

> permadeath
I don't mind them, but I do have a few rules with them too for enjoyment. Them being no glitches, being able to save and quit and not having a game filled with OHKO enemies. And honestly D:E is fun, but on my few UN runs I got killed due to glitches and just felt it wasn't for me. It's neat that it's there though for those that have the time to invest in it.

I still wonder if someone would be able to clear Ninja Gaiden II perma-death....

Yakuza 5. Fantastic game all around, but I love the whole series. Has issues, worse than previous games in some way? Sure, but I still enjoyed it the whole way through.

Right now I'm not starting any new games until the new playstation comes in.

Haunting Ground.

How did you like it?

It's one of my favorite games now. The way the actions and antagonisms kept evolving impressed me a lot. There's still much more in the game to see, so I won't be posting in the official thread just yet.

Just finished Dawn of War. Really fun RTS title, though doubly so if you're into Warhammer. Just started Dawn of War II which is also fantastic. The original's expansions are also pretty fun, though hit and miss I must admit. Winter Assault was a ton of fun while Soul Storm was just garbage.

Apocalypse [PS1]. Excellent action game to breeze through. I picked this up based off the fact it has a flamethrower. Controls are that of a twin-stick shooter but with the ability to jump (and crouch). You'll be jumping alright; even had me thinking of Mario games. Really dug seeing the new type of stage / environment introduced after completing the prior one because of how they're actually different, fresh; being significantly visually and structurally transformed. The BGM with its chuggy guitar, the clever use of Bruce Willis' in-game line delivery, and the dynamic-nature of the camera keep things amped.

Beat it on 'Normal Mode'. That final level was something else. Hard difficulty seems to only make the enemies harder-hitting, although this is a pretty big deal considering how many times I was low on health on the default difficulty. Definitely curious if there are any good unlockables.

Bloodrayne [XB]. Great game. Will add an official thread for the series here eventually.

Hotline Miami. I can't wait to play the sequel!

Whiplash [XB].

Ghost of Tsushima. Half Life 2 right before that.

How was HL2?

Ehhh...wasn’t my favorite. It had its moments but I struggled to keep going in the last few stages.

I gave that game so many tries but I just keep zoning out when I hit the vehicles sections.

The vehicles sections are brutal. Way too long and it feels disjointed to get out of them so often for such a short amount of time. I also don’t find the game mechanically interesting enough to justify its length.

Shinobi (PS2).

Now I'm debating on whether to play MGS1, Okami, the original Doom, or one Castlevania game (never played one).

>I'm debating

Okami. Debate over.

> debating

Of that list I'd probably say Castlevania since you've not experienced them yet. It's a fantastic series. Do note that there's two series basically, pre-Symph and post-Symph, which are just different games entirely. If you haven't played the original Doom yet I highly recommend that too since it's a good way to look at western games and wonder "just where did it go wrong, this is excellent...".

Don't listen to him.

Please do, Birdman is a blind fanboy who if given the chance would have everyone only play games he likes

Yes. And you would all be better for it. Birdman is only concerned for your welfare. Do not resist. It's for your own good.

Is Birdman a Borg? :O Resistance if futile. You will be assimilated. You will play Knack II.

Interesting. So, if I replaced two of my choices with Chaos Legion and Knack 2, which one would you suggest?

And just for future reference, are any of the pre-Symphony games worth a try?

Anyone not recommending MGS is wrong.

On a serious note, Castlevania is a great choice, amazing series. There’s been three excellent classic style CV games in the past couple years as well.

>pre symphony games
CV1 and 3 are good, but they’re a little hard to get into if you’re not used to the style. The games’ difficulty mainly comes from knockback, where enemies hit you and you fall into a pitfall, so positioning and sub weapon use is absolute key. Although I’d be lying if I said I ever had a desire to play them now that Curse of the Moon exists.

CV4 is awesome, there’s been some debate as to the quality of it all because of Egoraptor’s video(sort of like Matthew’s Souls video) but it’s definitely much easier to get into and more friendly for newcomers, thanks to the more mobile jump and multiple ways to use the whip. Great art and music too.

My favorite pre Symphony title is Rondo of Blood. It resembles CV1/3 more than 4, but it has excellent level design, is hard as hell, and some of my favorite music from that era of gaming. You really can’t go wrong with any of these games. If you try one and it’s not your thing, it could just be that title since they’re all quite different(especially symphony and the subsequent handheld games).

>knack, CL, Okami
I wish I had input on these games. I’m sure Bird is disappointed in me.

> Chaos Legion
I started a playthrough of this and enjoyed what I played, it had some interesting mechanics. However, on the emulator I was using I was getting semi-frequent crashes that kind of soured it for me (however, not the game's fault). It's the only PS2 game where I've had issues like that, unfortunately. Original hardware would be preferred if possible.

>So, if I replaced two of my choices with Chaos Legion and Knack 2, which one would you suggest?

Both. Toss a coin for which goes first.

>I’m sure Bird is disappointed in me

Very.

>Original hardware would be preferred if possible.

Going to need to see more effort out of you.

Darkwatch [XB].

Marking the day for this as the substitute game I played in place of RE Village.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.

Absolutely great title, not only I had a lot of fun playing this, it surpassed Link's Awakening for me. At first I thought OoS was going to have a lot of similarities with LA, but the more I kept playing, the more I realized that this was really on another level. Very interesting take on the Hookshot with the Magnetic Glove. I think I also enjoyed the bosses better than the ones in LA, but it's been years since I played the latter.

The overworld, the dungeons, the items... everything was interesting enough to keep me hooked. I will say this. I wanted to try Final Fantasy XII right after playing OoS, and leave the other game and their ''game B'' scenarios for later. Now it's the other way around. I'm not playing XII until I'm fully done with these games.

Now the game says Oracle of Ages will act as a sequel if I use the password given to me. But I think I will try OoA without the password first.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is not a new game, but a very surprising one. I was very surprised when I came across it again after all these years.

> Zelda Oracle
Great to hear Phoenix! It's a fantastic game for sure, really pushed the entire subseries forward imo. Regarding the Oracle of Ages, up to you. Note that if you play Ages-B now you'll also get the final-final boss which is cool. That said I think the most fun way to play is:
SeasonsA
AgesA
SeasonB
AgesB

That way you don't have to play two of the same games in a row.

> Deus Ex
It's honestly the best game in the series imo. I love the original, but Human Revolution just has...something to it that I can't quite put my finger on. While Mankind Divided is also fantastic (and maybe mechanically even better), HR is just a really good game.

I managed to snag a PS5 last week, so I've been playing Spider Man: Miles Morales. I did a post on the previous Spider Man game and praised it, and there's more of the same good stuff in MM. There were enough new abilities added to make Miles feel like a different character to play as. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the previous game, but it was still pretty enjoyable, especially using the game's performance mode (dynamic 4k/60fps), it looks and plays excellently. I got the Ultimate Edition, which includes the remaster of the previous game, so I'll definitely give that another play at some point. Will be moving on to a different PS exclusive now, and playing Wipeout Omega Collection on the side (which I'd also recommend for anyone that doesn't need their racing games to be on-wheels).

Zelda: Oracle of Ages. Currently working my way through Level 6 in OoS with OoA's password. It's surprising how short these games are when you know what to do next, but then again, that applies to basically every game ever. Do note that I would've already finished the game by this point, but the game got stuck in a white screen in the 4th dungeon, and lost my file somehow, so I had to start all over again.

Now I know what you meant with OoA being more focused on puzzles, Roy. Even most bosses felt like puzzles in a way.

Also, now that I think about it, some of the things seen in Ocarina of Time are stuff from the Oracle games, right? Like those Deku NPCs, Gorons, the Biggoron, the Zoras (not the hostile ones), Jabu Jabu, etc.

It's the otherway around actually. The Oracle games are, surprisingly, quite new. They released in 2001 if you can believe it, only one year before games like Metroid Prime and Kingdom Hearts 1. They were Color Exclusive, releasing 1 month(!) before the Gameboy Advance came out. So the handheld went down with a banger I'd say.

> Ages
Yeah it's a lot more puzzle focused, IIRC a later dev-interview also noted that the team had a lot of ideas for combat and puzzles and went on to focus them between the games. It's been a long time, but I think the games also swapped this around a tad if you used passwords i.e. Seasons getting more puzzle aspects to them. Curious what you'll think of the final-final boss.

> PS5
Good to hear Greg! The entire line of next-gen systems is still out of stock in the Netherlands sadly, I'm becoming more and more interested in a Series X as time passes.

-PS5
Got one myself towards the end of April. Been playing DMC 5 SE and Nioh 2, but not much else (aside from ps4 games through back-comp).

>the Oracles came out later

I see, now it makes a bit more sense. I was surprised that they used designs from a GB game in OoT... the windmill hut theme is also present in Seasons.

I also read something about the games having slightly more content if you put the catridges into a GBA.

>Seasons getting more puzzle aspects

So far, I think Hero's Cave is the one aspect you mean.

>true final boss

Already beat Level 8, so I'll be getting to that pretty soon.

The GBA content is just a shop IIRC, nothing too special.

Kingdoms of Amalur.

Too many boring quests. I just rushed the story.
Crafting is annoying requiring separate parts of various qualities. Waste of time.

Just beat Seasons' Linked Game scenario. Hero's Cave was tough to learn, but satisfying once you figured out how to solve the puzzles. That section where you had to use the L-2 Boomerang to hit a switch was a pain though. You have very little room to maneuver the Boomerang. And the fast moving switches was... really something.

Twinrova's 1st phase was simple enough, but a bit difficult to land a hit. You have to deflect an energy sphere back at one of the wizards, which are very mobile. His 2nd phase was much easier, to the point that I think I regret getting the L-3 Sword. He died too fast, and I didn't have the L-3 power ring equipped.

I should've known who was the true final boss in the beginning, but the fact that he wasn't the main antagonist in LA made me question that, even though you did fight him indirectly.

His fight was interesting. His patterns were readable, but also a bit dangerous if you got reckless. I actually fought him a second time to see more of his patterns (L-3 Sword is indeed too strong), and besides his main teleporting gimmick, he can also warp you to some place where, if I'm not mistaken, the directional inputs get inverted. Took a lot of damage during this since he appeared right on top of Link, but I managed to survive. As with many Zelda games, you shouldn't expect much in terms of challenge (unless you try a 3 heart challenge, but I've never done that), but imo the fight was really well done for what it was. I don't have any serious complaint about it. Enjoyed it better than Onox.

Thank you for suggesting me these titles, Roy. I just have one major complaint, that I didn't play these games when I was much younger, even when I certainly knew they existed. Both Seasons and Ages are now up there for me with ALBW, and even above LA.

Gonna play Ages B tomorrow.

Glad to hear man, really! I was a bit worried it might have been nostalgia when I thought about how great these games were. Glad to see that wasn't the case!

What's next up for you? AgesA-SeasonB? Or the other way around?

I've just finished The Last of Us Remastered. It had been sat on my shelf for years, still sealed. It came with my PS4 and I didn't really have any intention of playing it back then. Now I have the opportunity to play with the PS4 Pro enhancements (via PS5), I thought now is as good a time as any to see what all the fuss was about. After all, it won over 200 Game of the Year awards (a fact proudly displayed on the box art), so it must be pretty good, right?

I'm just going to be honest - I enjoyed it. The story and characters were genuinely interesting and easy to invest in. For a game using art assets originally designed for the PS3, the game still looks pretty good running at 1800p on PS4 Pro/PS5. I believe the game was not a locked 60fps on the Pro, but the PS5 ironed out any performance issues that might have been present previously. The music was very good all around, and did well to compliment the emotion or atmosphere of the given moment. There are plenty of nice little details, like Ellie squinting and shielding her face when you shine your torch at her, or the crunch of stepping on broken plates alerting a boss in a certain encounter. It'd have been easier to say that everything aesthetic (non-gameplay) was pretty damn good, truth be told.

Gameplay, however, was a mixed bag to say the least. The stealth sections seemed to be inconsistent, as I'd occasionally alert an enemy even though I was sneaking directly behind them. Some encounters became frustrating as I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I found some of these sections to be extremely slow, but maybe that's down to my own taste. Combat was better than I expected it to be, with fights against the infected being the standout ones. Some encounters are actually pretty intense and quite enjoyable. I was a little disappointed that enemies don't have detailed hit reactions like RE4, but you can use bricks or bottles to throw at and stun enemies which opens them up to a melee combo if you want to save ammo. Crafting has to be done in real time, so if you need to craft mid-combat you need to be tactical about it. While checkpoints are plentiful, mistakes can be critical as there a few enemies that will OHKO if they can grab you (and they aren't exactly slow either). Combat against humans wasn't as interesting because many of them use guns, forcing you in to more of a typical "cover shooter" playstyle, making the melee combat techniques that worked against the infected much less useful. There's just a lot more variety in the infected encounters that made them better. Still, most of the guns have a nice weight and punch to their shots, enhanced by the gory messes they leave enemies in. The biggest criticism I had of the combat was something I'd seen mentioned in RE Village discussions, where some enemies move so erratically that they're hard to hit. It may be intentional, but it did become tiresome at times.

The AI in several sections was so poor that I'm assuming it's an emulation bug on PS5 - I can't believe that the game would have been out for 7/8 years without me hearing about these problems. I saw on a few occasions enemies and friendlies walking in to walls over and over. Enemies would sometimes teleport while scanning them in Joel's "hearing mode" thing (if you've played it you'll know what I mean). Some enemies ran round in circles repeatedly. Friendlies would semi-frequently block doorways and other areas you needed to access (though they'd eventually move). Enemies would sometimes randomly sprint away from their usual pathed route, and I couldn't figure out why. Also, curiously, sometimes enemies wouldn't move at all during stealth sections, making some areas impossible to beat unseen. Getting a game over or reloading the checkpoint would fix it. The inverse would happen too (as in, when the pathing was working but I died, it'd be broken again when I continued).

For a game trying so hard to be an " immersive" experience there are MANY immersion-shattering occurrences throughout the game. The worst offender is undoubtedly the companion AI during stealth sections (I haven't mentioned this in the above AI section as I'd heard about this criticism years ago). The companion AI is unable to trigger enemy alerts (thank god), which means they will frequently bump in to enemies, sit or walk directly in their line of sight, literally SPRINT all over the place. The fact they can behave in ways that would get Joel killed in a second is pretty jarring, and you will probably see something distracting in nearly every single stealth section. There's more, though. One enemy, the Clicker, is blind and only reacts to sounds to guide it towards you. If you aren't crouch walking, you'll alert them from quite a distance away. However, if you perform a stealth takedown on a different enemy near a Clicker, it doesn't alert them, despite it being very noisy with the sounds of Joel straining, the enemy choking, clothes rustling etc. There is a section towards the end of the game where you stealth past a group of enemies and then boost Ellie up on to a truck so she can knock a box down from it, allowing you to climb up after her. The enemies are in the same area as the truck, but miraculously don't hear the box hitting the ground, despite it being extremely loud. These things are done to prioritise the gameplay experience, which is actually a good thing, but the game design is clearly at odds with itself here. One pro for immersion (and so many games are guilty of ignoring this) is that your AI companions can actually do damage to and kill enemies. I hate it when games give you a partner or team and they're completely useless and may as well not be there. The AI companions are actually most useful for splitting up the aggro in enemy encounters so you don't get too overwhelmed. They clearly do less damage than Joel, as not to make the difficulty trivial, but they will lay on damage and come to help you if they've dealt with their own threats. In return, you'll need to come to their aid when they are grabbed by enemies, and you'll get a game over if you don't react quickly enough. It's a pretty good compromise in terms of difficulty. Ellie will occasionally bring you ammo she finds, although I'm not sure if she picks up items in the environment or if the game just spawns ammo for her to give you. I never saw her wander off and return with ammo, so I'm thinking it's the latter, but I can't say for sure.

I enjoyed the game a lot more that I thought I would. You definitely need to be in the mood for a narrative going in to this one, but I'd say it's a good experience. I may replay it on a higher difficulty some time, but going to do the Left Behind DLC and then put it down for now.

>what's next
Ages B. It's the only remaining thing to complete. Already beat Seasons A/B, and Ages A.

I said I'd play FF XII after finishing the Oracle games, but I'm in the mood to play one platformer. Perhaps it's time to finally play the Castlevania games, like I said I would a long time ago.

The Last of Us is a great game honestly if you stick to the script it lays out. The second you deviate i.e go for melee when it wants you to shoot, shoot when it wants you to stealth etc. it just blows up in your face.

> the AI was bugged
Nope, that's it in all its glory. At times I was wondering if my PS3 was fried but the AI really is freak'n terrible in that game and insanely inconsistent.

> higher difficulties
I did a pistol-only (mostly) on Grounded back in the day and it was pretty tense (again, when sticking to the script). There's some really fun sections and it varries up its setpieces from time to time to great effect.