Best Served Cold? trophy in Yakuza 0 - TrueTrophies
yakuza 0 chapter 3 trophy
yakuza 0 chapter 3 trophy - win
[USA-NV-Vegas][H] COD BO Cold War (PS5), Ni no Kuni: White Witch, Xenoblade Chronicles DE (NSW), Diablo 3, Code Vein, Bloodstained, Ni no Kuni 2 (PS4), Datel Pokemon GO-tcha Evolve Watch, SNES Classic, PS4/5, XSX/XB1/360, NSW/3DS/GC/N64/SNES/NES, Vita, DC| [W] HW Age of Calamity, 13 Sentinels, PS5/4
The main game that I’m looking to trade is my PS5 copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (this is the PS5 version with the next gen upgrade included). I also have some sealed PS4/XB1/Switch games that I’m trying to trade. For PS4, I have sealed copies to trade of: Diablo III: Eternal Collection (1 sealed), Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (1 sealed copies), Code Vein (1 copies), Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (3 sealed copies), Yakuza Kiwami (PS Hits sealed). For Switch, I've got an extra sealed copy of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch along with other games like Xenoblade Chronicles DE and 2. I have an excellent condition SNES Classic Edition as well CIB if you’re interested in that at all.
As for games from my collection that I’m looking to trade in particular, I’ve bolded most of them in my list like Minecraft Story Mode - Season 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, Owlboy, and Shovel Knight (PS4).. Anything bolded is something that I’m interested in trading away.
I’m interested in some recent PS4 releases like 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and The Wonderful 101: Remastered (as I prefer trophies) and maybe some PS3 games like Ico and Persona 4 Arena & Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. For Nintendo Switch, I’m looking for a copy of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. I’ve also got a PS5 and XSX, so offers for those systems are fine as well.
I’m listing my whole collection as well just in case someone wants to piece some other kind of trade together (or as an index for other trades). I’m probably open to trading a decent number of things that I have on this list (especially bolded items) for the right offer. I’ve also got a bunch of Bluray movies as well that aren’t listed (if you’re interested in any movies to even out a deal, just ask and I can put a list together). The only things that I might be hesitant to trade are some of my rare SNES & retro collection, but I could possibly if I was “blown away” ;)
I ALSO beat 35 Games in 2020 - And I'm gonna talk about them
Inspired by the other currently trending post, I was inspired by the sheer coincidental fact we both completed the same number of games to make my own thread talking about them. This is the first year I've actually been keeping an active list and tracking what I'm playing and what I'm beating. And I'm definitely going to keep doing it in the years to follow, because it's not only fun but helps me prioritize my time better and give me a great sense of progress. So that's neat. This list is *mostly* in order but I jump around a lot. Life Is Strange 2 - I actually forgot that I beat this in 2020 until I went back and checked my trophy list and yep, January 8th, 2020. It has been so long I thought I had beat this before the end of 2019 but nope. Anyway, I loved this game and found it to be a big improvement over the original, which I also liked but didn't love. I actually loved this story so much I made an entire video about it, which you can watch here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ISwuIQVsEE After all the hours I poured into that video, not about to repeat myself, lol. I swear I'm not gonna just be plugging videos this whole time. Specter of Torment / King of Cards - I plowed through both of these expansions to Shovel Knight after going through Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows in 2019. I actually found Specter of Torment a little underwhelming given how much its praised. I liked it, but I didn't think the story was anything super special and while Specter Knight's playset is probably the coolest of the knights, it wasn't by a huge margin or anything. And I actually like Plague of Shadows more than most people because I find Plague Knight's customization and movement to be really fun. King of Cards definitely has more content than Torment, having an actual map and its own minigame in Joust, which I found pretty fun to beat the optional challenges in. My least favorite campaign is actually the original Shovel of Hope just because I find his moveset the most difficult? Maybe I need to replay it, but I just remember struggling to get through Shovel of Hope whereas I didn't really have that issue with the expansions. The Messenger - The first half of this game is a perfectly paced, challenging but fair platforming romp with incredibly entertaining and witty dialogue. Not to mention the soundtrack slaps. The second half, while sporting some amazing 16-bit art, isn't as good due to its lack of focus and half-hearted attempts to transform into a psuedo-Metroidvania when the map was only *kinda sorta* appropriate for that. But it's still great and has its own charms. Picnic Panic is alright too. A fantastic game any fan of 2D games needs to play. The Turing Test - I like Portal a lot. I'm always interested in the many first-person puzzle games that have followed in its shoes. This one definitely scratches that itch but isn't as amazing as say, The Talos Principle... which I really need to finish one of these days. Anyway, The Turing Test has a pretty decent flow to it for most of its run, maybe veering a bit on the easy side for a lot of it but definitely complicated enough to make you think about it and find enjoyment and executing the solution, even if it comes to you fairly quickly. I will say there are some randomly very difficult puzzle chambers that require some batshit logic to figure out, but they are few and far between. The story is interesting enough to keep your interest but you realize pretty quickly that everyone is a self-righteous prick and that might annoy some people but personally I enjoyed the banter between these flawed perspectives in an impossible situation. I don't think it's *great* but it certainly kept me engaged. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - Possibly the only good game in the series. Good arcade-y fun with endearing narration and style. Not much else to say, far from a top-tier FPS but if you've got a few hours to kill in the west, this will hit the spot. Afterparty - From the creators of Oxenfree comes, I think a slightly more palatable romp through Hell. This kind of almost improv-esque writing won't appeal to everyone but I enjoy its sort of... faux-naturalism? It's very witty, perhaps to a fault but I liked it. And I don't think it overstayed its welcome either. If you wanna hear funny dialogue while holding the analog stick forward for a few hours, this is a pretty good time. Coffee Talk - This game gets compared to VA1 HALL-A a lot but I'm not sure everyone who liked that game will enjoy this one. It isn't as stylish or memorable as its clear inspiration and it's a fraction of the length, but if being a bartender (or I guess a barista in this instance) appeals to you and you just wanna chill out to some lo-fi and listen to peoples's troubles, this is perfectly serviceable. You can plow through this in 3 hours, so its a good palate cleanser between bigger games. Kunai - I *really* like Kunai and I'm upset a lot of other people on /metroidvania don't. I love its unique visual style (i have no idea how to describe it, it's kinda like if the original gameboy never stopped? But in widescreen? And with more color palates?) and its snappy gameplay. The movement feels really nice and the level design and bosses are good, it's a nice challenge with some fun abilities. It's too linear for me to call it a true MV but as a 2D platformer, I highly recommend it. Also the soundtrack is great. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir - If you've never played a Vanillaware title, I HIGHLY suggest playing Muramasa Rebirth before this. Odin Sphere is a lot more complex and if you play Muramasa afterward, it might feel disappointingly simplistic. With that out of the way, this was my podcast game of the year. Because the story is entirely contained to cutscenes, it was a great game to chill out with while listening to videos and podcasts, pausing for the cutscenes that bookend every stage. I played this on my Vita 1000 and it looks AMAZING on the OLED screen. Definitely the way to go. The story is pretty engaging if a bit tricky to follow (I just started 13 Sentinels this week so saying that about Odin Sphere feels almost quaint but hey, it's all relative). I do gotta warn you though that this game is best played in bursts. I treated each of the 5 campaigns as their own games almost and took significant breaks between them throughout the year because the combat does get a bit repetitive, even keeping in mind that every character plays differently. So I recommend pacing yourself. Thankfully the game is divided into these clear chunks so it's easy to do. This game is also a huge nostalgia trip for anyone who watched a lot of dubbed anime in the 2000s because a lot of notable names are here. I liked this more than Muramasa for its more engaging story and more complex gameplay but they're both good and worth playing. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - Not as good as the first and this is the game that made me realize I should stop playing this series on Vita, not because it doesn't run well, with overclocking it runs pretty good, but just because it's cumbersome to control in this form factor. I'll give more thoughts when I get to UYA below. Knightin'+ - This is a short and sweet dungeon-puzzler in the vein of Zelda 1 on the NES. No bullshit, just 4 different dungeons to work through, each capped with a boss. I recommend it. Ruiner - This is a fun and stylish game that really tests your reflexes. The gameplay feels very smooth and the difficulty gets the blood pumping. That said though, since the game is so dedicated to the Akira-esque aesthetic, environments quickly become samey, not providing much variety even within the cyberpunk space. And the story, while bringing up a lot of interesting ideas is too vague and detached to really be invested in. It gets you through the six hour romp, but not much else. Definitely get this for the gameplay and aesthetic. Persona 5 Royal - I probably could've gone through a dozen other games if I hadn't played this in 2020. It took me about 140 hours to finish my max confidant run. There's more to say about P5R than could ever be fit into this post but I'll try to sum up my feelings. It's a definite improvement on the original release in every way. I still think that narratively, Persona 5 suffers from some core conceptual issues that the earlier games didn't have and that keeps me from thinking its a masterpiece but that doesn't change that its still a very good and engrossing game. I actually have a video discussing why I think Persona 5 lacks thematic applicability if you wanna check that out. I wrote it before Royal released in English, but Royal didn't really change much about the games' themes so it still holds up; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8BgEaHAwWI Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - I played the HD re-release on PS3, which was a decent experience apart from the weird audio mixing and a distracting semi-frequent bug where sounds would repeat indefinitely every few rooms until you got far enough away from their source to de-load them. Otherwise it ran at a hard-locked 30fps and was pretty enjoyable. It was actually very interesting as a long-time Assassin's Creed sufferer (calling myself a fan these days isn't entirely accurate, ha) to see where some of the core mechanics of that series originated. Sands of Time has a simple story as a framing device for a very balanced mixture of platforming, combat and puzzle-solving. The adventure is well-paced though a bit unambitious, and it ends at a good spot just before it would've worn out its welcome. Definitely going to be going through the sequels sometime soon. Streets of Rage 4 - I haven't played this since launch, so the patches might have addressed some of my criticisms but anyway. For the most part, I love how this game looks, sounds and controls. A very cathartic and stylish beat'em up that recaptures the essence of the era its imitating while modernizing it. My only complaint is that the difficulty often felt cheap and unbalanced and varied wildly depending on who you playing as. Some characters were just too damn slow and had no real good options for mitigating damage, and trying to play effectively, particularly at higher difficulties meant playing in very unintuitive, restrictive and just plain un-fun ways. Maybe that's been patched since, idk yet. I hope so. Mark of the Ninja - This is an example of a game I started previously and just decided on a whim to return to and wrap up. And I really love this game, probably the best 2D stealth game ever made, to this day. And as we'll discuss later, I really enjoy stealth games. Great visual style, very intuitive UI for the genre, the story's kind of an excuse plot but the presentation is snappy enough to make it fun to go through. Have not played the DLC yet, I should probably get on that sometime. Shantae and the Seven Sirens - The best Shantae game, in my opinion. Although this is coming from someone who enjoyed Half-Genie Hero more than the criminally over-rated Pirate's Curse so you're free to disregard my opinion if you want. Sleek presentation, funny writing, a return to a lite-metroidvania structure. It's fun to figure out how to traverse the map, which has a good variety of environments. I think it does suffer from the difficulty being a bit too fast-and-loose. Some stuff feels designed to basically do cheap nearly-unavoidable hits just because "hey, the player has a ton of food and healing items so why not". I guess it's more about resource management? But it feels a little unsatisfying at times. But this has been a long-running problem in the series so it isn't exclusive to this game. It definitely could've been more than it is, but they seem really intent on keeping things simple and light-hearted so it's hard to criticize them for that. Chaos;Child - I played this visual novel on-and-off over a few months on some friends' recommendation. It is immensely difficult to discuss without spoiling it and I have a lot of nuanced thoughts, both positive and negative. I would definitely say it is a notable and interesting experience that has more pros than cons, so give it a shot if you're prepared to have your brain broken. Death Come True - As the world's biggest Danganronpa fan, I am obligated to experience everything Kazutaka Kodaka works on, so here we are. This is definitely him watering himself down for the masses, but it still results in a decent product. Death Come True is an FMV game, weird as that might be in the modern era. I almost feel more comfortable talking about it as a film than as a game, because as a film I actually think it's pretty decent especially in the production and cinematography. It's definitely overpriced for what it is (you can beat this and see all bad ends in easily about 3 hours), but if you see it on sale, definitely worth checking out. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Huge step-up from the original game. More to see and do than just basic platforming, incorporating a lot of proper MV elements. I still feel it's too linear to be a *true* MV and a lot of the side content doesn't have really meaningful rewards but atleast that stuff is *there* as a fun distraction. The artwork and music make for an almost transcendent experience. It almost makes Blind Forest feel like a tech demo. The artists employed by Moon Studios are so goddamn talented. I'm definitely on the watch for whatever they do next. While I'm not as big into the narratives of the Ori series as some people (I think it's mostly carried by the cathartic presentation and emotional pathos, which is fine but some people talk about it like it's way more than it is and I just have to shake my head), these are absolutely a pair of games anyone fan of 2D needs to experience. Halo CE Anniversary - I'm gonna be brutally honest... I think this might be one of the weakest games I played this year. I had never experienced the Halo franchise before, being a playstation guy, but when my brother left his Xbone with me over the summer, I decided to, well number one, buy Will of the Wisps, but ALSO pick up a used copy of the Master Chief Collection and see what the series is all about. Halo CE... it has its moments but man, all I remember is just being consistently frustrated by random difficulty spikes, weirdly placed checkpoints, repetitive levels that were aggravating to navigate because of their lack of distinct landmarks. And some levels just absolutely starving you of ammo, causing you to need to just run past everything hoping you hit a checkpoint before you're killed. I don't understand why this game is so revered, it's so incredibly average to me. Like this is a pretty flat 5/10. That said... Halo 2 Anniversary - A MASSIVE improvement. Fixes it pretty much every issue I had with the first. Better level design, better combat flow, less getting hopelessly lost, better checkpoint system, more interesting story. And the anniversary glow-up makes the game feel practically modern, especially those gorgeous cut-scenes. There were a *few* troublesome sections and as I'm pretty sure everyone in the world knows, the ending is infamously abrupt, but overall, a much better experience than CE. I'm looking forward to playing Halo 3 in the near-future. Superliminal - Definitely a unique game that manages to really capture the feeling of being lost in a dream. Sometimes I'd even forget I was awake while playing this, it was that convincing at times. Check this out if you want something experimental. It's just the right length too, bailing out before the gimmick got old. Carrion - A good game, but a bit of disappointment, I think. I dunno, I guess I just assumed this would be more of a metroidvania from the trailers but the reality is that its a pretty linear affair moving from one area to the next, each new room something of a puzzle to figure out. There's a lot of catharsis to be had from being the monster in a horror film, but the novelty does wear off eventually. What holds this game back is that its sometimes very confusing to navigate, since it lacks any kind of map, and that it sometimes feels like you never get to truly play around with your abilities, every upgrade you get is more to circumvent an obstacle than provide new fun toys to play with and that kinda deflates the fantasy a bit. But the atmosphere is really well done, when you're in a groove, I don't know that any other game has succeeded in making you feel as vicious and unstoppable as this one. If you've ever fantasized about being a forty-foot long glob of biomass chomping on scientists for breakfast, this is the game for you. Psychonauts - Where has this game been all my life, I love it. So weirdly at some point during the summer, this game was accidentally made free on the Xbox store for like a day. I managed to snag it during that period and I almost feel bad for not paying for it because damn is this game fantastic. So great I made a whole video to talk about it, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AvY19p0v6s Psychonauts 2 is one of my most anticipated releases of 2021, it can't come soon enough. Styx: Master of Shadows - I actually tried this game about a year and a half ago and I dunno what it was but I just wasn't really feeling it at the time. I didn't get very far in before quitting. On a whim, I decided to start over and try again and Idk what my problem was before because the game immediately clicked with me. This is a pure stealth game, getting caught isn't game over in most circumstances but depending on how exactly you were caught, you might as well reload because fighting your way out isn't a great option. Styx is half the height of the guards and while he can fight off one, maybe two of them if he's lucky, any more than that and they'll quickly bash his skull in. Master of Shadows takes place exclusively in one big location that Styx sneaks his way into and then has to sneak his way out of it. This naturally means that the latter half of the game is mainly comprised of earlier levels, but played in reverse with some alterations. While this makes logical sense with the plot, it does come across a little bit like padding. I personally didn't mind it that much since again, it does make sense and the increased familiarity with the level layout lets you more effectively traverse it. But it's definitely a notable annoyance some people have with the game. The biggest issue I had, playing this on base PS4, was the loading times. As a pure stealth game, you're gonna be reloading saves a lot. It's part of the genre, it's what you do. But holy fuck, this game is gonna really test your patience. Now, to be fair, I had this installed on my 5400rpm external HDD. Which is slower than the PS4's internal 7200rpm drive, so that probably added unnecessary frustration that could've been avoided on my part if I thought ahead a little, but like I said, I returned to this game on a whim. But in my experience, loading screens took anywhere from 25-40 seconds. Every single time. And depending on your skill level or just how much you wanna experiment, you could be reloading dozens of time per level. This adds up. I think the game is worth it despite this annoyance, but make sure to keep your phone handy because you're gonna have a fair bit of down time with this one. Styx himself is a really enjoyable character that actually goes through a pretty satisfying arc over the course of this game. The world he inhabits seems really stock at first but it actually has some pretty imaginative takes on staple fantasy tropes. I'll talk about that more later, because spoiler alert, I went through every game featuring him this year, but suffice it to say that Master of Shadows is definitely something any stealth fan should check out, even if its rough around the edges. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit! - I feel like this game got lost to time. A 7th gen downloadable title that never quite made the headlines as far as I remember. I had always been fascinated with this game so I decided to give it a go after I installed a bigger, faster HDD in my PS3. And I gotta say, it's a fun time. The setup is that you're Ash. Prince of Hell. The paparazzi snaps pics of you playing with a rubby ducky in the bathtub so now you need to kill the 100 monsters it was sent to before your embarrassing pics get leaked and ruin your reputation. If you've ever played Disgaea, the tone is kinda like that except without the actual serious storyline that creeps up on you through all the meta-humor and irreverence. So yeah, in this game you gotta hunt down 100 monsters. They're spread through several different levels and each one has some kind of trick to killing them. Many of them also have brief amusing anecdotes to exchange with Ash, which are all a joy. The visuals aren't the highest resolution, but the artstyle is clean, sharp and vibrant and the soundtrack is surprisingly catchy. The controls admittedly take a little getting used to but once you do, there's nothing really wrong with them, they're just a little unusual. If you enjoy quasi-metroidvania titles, this might be a hidden gem. There's little else like it. It's a very amusing game from start to finish. Shadow Warrior 2 - I enjoyed the Shadow Warrior reboot quite a bit, rough around the edges though it was, but I held off on this one for the longest time because the idea of a shooter like this being procedurally generated didn't sit well with me. But I gotta say, it actually works pretty well. The visuals look great and the gunplay is quite a bit smoother than the first game. The Borderlands-style loot system, I mean, I could've done without it but it has its charms. I enjoyed modding weapons with different effects and such. Some of the weapons are really badass looking and fun to use. The story isn't as good as the first, largely because Kamiko, while an appreciably different companion than Hoji, doesn't have quite as enjoyable a rapport with Lo Wang. And I know the dialogue is really divisive in this reboot series, but I personally love it. The irreverence, the energy, it's great. Now the procedural levels *mostly* work, but there were a few occasions where I'd see stairs that lead to nowhere or objectives that were kind of obtuse to figure out how to reach, but it wasn't the dealbreaker I assumed it would be. And I can't speak to how frequent the little issues are, because again, procgen. You might have a flawless experience, someone else might get a really weird buggy one, who knows. Excited for Shadow Warrior 3. I actually don't know if the procgen levels are returning for that one, can anyone confirm? Thomas Was Alone - So I actually wanted to play Volume because I was kind of on a stealth kick but figured, hey, why not play Mike Bithel's earlier game first? So I did, the puzzle platformer, Thomas Was Alone. A *very* engaging and brilliantly paced story about differently shaped colored blocks. The narration makes this game. Like the levels are good and all but the added context makes going through level after level way more engaging. I'm actually really jealous of Bithel for coming up with this ingenius trick. Wish I'd thought of it first. Haven't yet played Benjamin's Flight though, I'll get around to it eventually. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - A good time. I switched to PS3 for this one and I'm glad I did because it felt a lot better to control than on Vita. This is the weakest of the 'trilogy' in my opinion and I feel like I can just recommend Gaming Brit's video on it to perfectly encapsulate why. I pretty much agree with everyone he says. Good game, but has a lot of weird drawbacks probably owing to its rushed production. Jak & Daxter - So I was kinda trapped in World of Warcraft during most of the sixth console generation so a ton of classics of that era past me by. That's why I've been gradually catching up with them through the HD collections on PS3. And this was a super enjoyable platformer. I find it really interesting how this game is a more accurate successor to Super Mario 64 than any actual Mario game that came later. Not even A Hat In Time fully replicates the design of these games despite aping a lot of their style. (AHiT almost made this list but I did finish it in 2019). There's some uneven difficulty spikes here and there but for the most part, I had a smile on my face the entire time I went through Jak & Daxter. Definitely going to go through Jak 2 soon, which I hear is really difficult, hopefully it doesn't turn me off from it. Yoku's Island Express - A metroidvania-lite controlled ala pinball should not work as well as it does. This game is short, but a very fun and unique experience. You haven't played anything quite like this before. Now, admittedly, sometimes the pinball navigation makes it a little more challenging to figure out how to reach certain locations and it can make backtracking a little more involved than you'd expect, but otherwise, a good time all around. My only complaint is that by the time you can get stuff to customize your ball... the game is basically over. That kinda sucks. Of Orcs And Men - This is the RPG that Styx originated from before Cyanide decided he should be the star of his own stealth series, which might be the wisest decision anyone's ever made. The existing Styx games are actually prequels to this game. I actually imported this from France since it never got a physical release in North America. Was it worth the $24 I paid for it? Well, for collection's sake, yes but as a game? It's pretty mid. This game was actually primarily developed by Spiders, yes *that* Spiders. The notorious eurojank RPG factory who didn't get much of any real acclaim until their latest game Greedfall. And this is them *pre-Bound By Flame* just to give an example of the timeline. Of Orcs And Men is a very strange affair. The world it presents is interesting but doesn't get expanded upon much. The strongest part of the game is the dynamic between Styx and Arkail, which is legitimately good and makes me wish for the big lug to get his own game at some point, maybe a God of War style hack'n'slasher? I dunno. The gameplay is fairly clunky and unbalanced. There is some joy in figuring out how to effectively control both characters at once and strategize through the game, but not only does the adventure feel unpolished, it feels outright unfinished. The game *claims* to have 5 Chapters, but really it has maybe 2 and a half in actuality. The first two chapters are fairly fleshed out with multiple missions, a number of sidequests and give the impression of a grander RPG than it ends up really being. Chapter 3 is basically a bunch of cutscenes, a short dream sequence and a quick escape sequence. Chapter 4 takes place on a really cool looking island but it's essentially one slightly-longer-than-average level. And than Chapter 5 is a dashing sprint to the finish line, fighting your way up two floors of a tower before the final boss fight. It really gives off the impression that Spiders had much bigger plans but just ran out of money and had to scramble together than second half of the game. I've never seen a game rush to an ending like this before. There's also features that feel kinda pointless, like the equipment. There's... barely any of it. Lot of the time you'll talk to a new trader and they just have nothing new to sell you, it's so bizarre. There's some heart to the writing, which carries over into Styx's own games. But you don't *really* need to play this to understand the Styx games, and even if you're curious, I'd recommend watching a Let's Play or something. It isn't the worst, but it's a very mediocre game overall. Shadow Complex Remastered - I decided to plow through this after hearing it wouldn't be compatible on PS5 for whatever reason... not that I'm getting one anytime soon because the US government won't give adult dependents stimulus checks but whatever. Anyway, this game is good. Shorter than I expected it to be, honestly, but I see why it became a hit in the early XBLA days. My only real complaint is just that shooting at enemies in the background is really finnicky, which is everyone's complaint about this game. Otherwise, pretty solid Super Metroid clone. Tokyo Xanadu EX+ - Another game I started on a whim. I'll just start by saying that if you've never heard of this game, that the promotional artwork is WAY more epic and edgy than anything in the actual game. It's borderline false advertising. I'd never played a Falcom game before and rather than dive headfirst into the massive Trails series, I figured this standalone game would be better. All in all, I liked it, enough to finish it, which took me about 65 hours. But be warned, it is exceptionally anime. This might be the most anime game to ever anime. By which I mean, it's pretty standard fare stuff. I did grow to like the characters, but none of them are especially complicated people. The game is so easy-going it's difficult to feel a sense of tension even when there's clearly supposed to be. If you go into this expecting Persona, I think you'll be a little disappointed. It just isn't that good, it plays itself too straight and too safe. They should definitely make another Xanadu game though. I think a new game with a different cast and more ambition poured into it could be really good. As it stands, this game *is* decent, but can I really recommend you pour 65 hours into something that's just "alright"? That's a hard sell, I think. What I did find interesting about this game is its design. Instead of long, arduous grindy JRPG dungeons, the game plays more like an arcadey brawler with short stages that you're encouraged to speedrun your way through. It doesn't overcomplicate itself, and I found it a joy to plow through because of that. Also Hazy Moon might be the best track I've heard all year, give it a listen. Styx: Shards of Darkness - I was actually going to save this for later but I got a new display and figured, what the hell, right? This game is a BIG improvement on Master of Shadows, basically everything about that game that didn't work was either improved or removed. The janky old engine is gone, replaced with a pretty-looking and slick-feeling UE4 game. The gameplay is smoother, the level design is better, but the biggest improvements are quality of life stuff. This game reloads VERY quickly, even on PS4. I'm talking about 7-10 seconds, it's good stuff. The menus are snappier, you can actually see your progress in the various challenges rankings as you're playing the level, no longer restricted to the results screen. I felt compelled to replay levels immediately after beating them to experiment with new abilities or go for different challenges and I can't say that about a lot of games. This is a stealth classic. The big thing fans debate about this game is the different direction they took Styx himself. While he doesn't do it constantly, he now seems keenly aware that he's in a video game and routinely makes meta jokes and breaks the fourth wall. After two fairly straight-laced games, this is a little jarring but I actually don't really mind for two reasons.
It is MOSTLY contained to the death screens, which mock the player ala the Arkham series.
As far as I recall, Styx NEVER breaks the fourth wall when talking to other characters, only in his internal narration during gameplay, which keeps it between him and the player, so to speak. The actual storyline is not derailed by the existence of this Deadpool-esque humor.
Shards of Darkness does end on a bit of cliffhanger, so I'm really hoping for a third game. Arkail even makes a brief cameo in this one, which makes me think Cyanide might not be done with him either. They seem pretty busy with other projects these days, but one can dream, right? I'm glad I gave this series another shot because Styx is awesome. --------------------------- *phew* And THAT is the 35 games I beat this year. There were other games I spent substantial amounts of time in but I won't discuss them since I haven't beaten them yet. (Games like SMT IV, Yakuza 0, Dicey Dungeons, the MediEvil remake, Hades, and Ghostrunner). Currently, I'm going through the Destroy All Humans! Remake and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, both of which I'm enjoying immensely. There's a LOT of stuff I'm looking forward to in 2021 which will be a struggle to balance with the backlog. My most anticipated games atm are Hollow Knight: Silksong, Psychonauts 2 and Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny. But there's like fucking 20 Metroidvanias planned for release this year which makes me nervous as that genre is my obsession. Lemme know what you thought of any of these games. I'm definitely going to keep keeping track of my progress so I might make more posts here in the future.
Hello all! Last year, I decided to track all of the games I played for 2019 and write down my thoughts on them. It was my personal project as I play a lot of games and wanted to have a written history of what I played and see my opinions and experiences with them. I ended up doing that and decided to post them to /patientgamers and I got a ton of positive feedback and had a blast discussing with everyone about the games I played and I heard about what everyone else was playing! (If you're interested in seeing last year's list, here it is) Through that post, I received some constructive criticism and feedback that I implemented in my own spreadsheet for this project for 2020. If you all don't mind, I would like to share the games I finished this year as well! I have added my time spent in the game, the achievements earned, and contracted it in an easier to read format. I've never used table formatting on Reddit before, so hopefully it looks alright (kinda worried about mobile, so please let me know!) I hope you all enjoy reading and please let me know of any thoughts, concerns, or opinions on all I wrote below. Thanks! (Also the dates are in MM/DD/YYYY format as I am from the US.)
A cute little platforming game. Takes less than 30 minutes to beat, but what a wonderful 30 minutes they were. The object in this game is to go and jump on some buttons. That's it. But the way this game was crafted makes it pretty entertaining. The environment looks nice and the movement is smooth I could see some design space not being used to it's full potential, but I'm happy with what has been put out there. After your initial run of the game, some achievements will want you to run through a few more times. I did so and found to enjoy the speedruns and stuff I did post-game. If you have some spare change, I recommend putting in towards this game.
Man, 20 minutes into this game I knew it was going to be something special. This game has it all: cute characters, cute interactions, cute landscapes, cute everything. This game snuck in at the end of my year and is easily one of my favorite games played this year. Being one of the best platformers I have ever played, this game will rank highly with the likes of Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64 for years to come. With how much character and personality this game oozes, I wouldn't be surprised if this hits highly with you all as well. If you have a chance, please play this game. So so so good.
In my opinion, kind of the odd one out of the Witcher franchise. Having beaten the first one and now currently playing the third one, I can honestly say I enjoyed the second one the least. The pacing of this game feels slow, a boss made me drop the game thrice (the kraken) and overall, I didn't have that great of a time with it. The characters seemed very dull and I didn't care much for them anyways. I would recommend skipping this one as the gameplay is not fun. The story is there, sure, but I'd recommend just watching a YouTube video of a story overview.
Hatch is an odd game, but in a good way. The goal here is to climb a uniquely shaped "mountain" all while avoiding the sun's glare. That's right, the sun. For some reason, being within view of the sun (which looks more of a Greek symbol than a sun) will slowly drain the life out of you. Starting out you hatch from a giant egg, for a reason that was lost on me, and then talk to some elder guy that tells you "Sun bad, top of mountain good" in more or less words. And that's it. Now you gotta climb this giant ass mountain that has a whale orbiting it. The climbing mechanics are, angle-based, I guess? You cannot climb up and acute angles or right angles; only obtuse angles for you! Any obtuse angle you see, you can start climbing vertically or horizontally on it at your will. You'll encounter some odd scenes on your way up to the peak, but a little too few for my tastes. Overall, this game was weird enough to keep my attention. I think there could have been more assets up the mountain to keep me motivated to press on (as falling can really dampen your will to continue) but overall, it was a great short game. Once again, great short experience that I enjoyed.
Talk about a journey. What hasn't been said about this game that I can say? Probably nothing, so prepare for things you've already heard. BotW is an excellent open-world action/adventure game. The feeling you get when you obtain the glider and float all around the world is not like any other I've had in the past with open world games. This world feels like a true sandbox, with interactions between the player, enemies, items, and other assets you would never think of. The creative ways to defeat certain puzzles or bosses I've seen is honestly mind-blowing. Utilizing all of the powers given to Link in certain ways really lets you take a look on how much care and attention to detail and love was put into this game. Knowing that I could cook for half an hour and then go around and tackle certain environments I wasn't prepared for was all good fun, but have you ever fished by creating ice blocks underneath the fish you eyed and then glided over like a hawk to grab it? This game can and does provide almost non-stop entertainment. A true reason to own a Switch.
The Cat Lady is an odd bag of assorted treats. First off, the beginning is a real drag. It takes about 1.5 hours to get into the meat of the game. Once you're there, it grabs your attention suddenly. Before that, it is very easy to bounce off. This game has a unique art style that isn't up my alley, but unique nonetheless. The gameplay is very much a standard point-and-click, but the mouse is NEVER used. Going into this, I think the lack of mouse support is detrimental to the game as it could very easily be implemented, but instead it wants me to use my arrow keys (which personally is never too comfortable). The story is what you're here for. This game deals with depression, self-harm, abuse, and other darker subjects. I believe it handles these well, but really start to lose its steam in the middle of the game. In either chapter 4 or 5, the game has another dull hour or hour and a half. Overall, the story stays interesting (albeit a little predictable) but overall was worth my time. To finish up, the gameplay here is weak and it takes some dedication to stick with this game, but if you do you're rewarded with a gritty story that still holds up after 8 years.
Whispers of a Machine is a pretty standard point-and-click adventure game with an intriguing atmosphere. With a story revolving around mysterious murders happening around a town after the fall of robotic and AI, Whispers of a Machine contains mystery and twists that you might see coming. I found the story to be very interesting and different, but the twists and turns it holds onto for the last hour or two are pretty standard. I feel like I've seen the same elements and storytelling design in multiple movies and read them in multiple books. I wish the story was a little more polished, as I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and world-building the game had. The "Post-Collapse" world felt real and like something that could happen in our world. The character designs were varied and left impressions (I thoughly enjoyed the robot ventriloquist) few characters were stale in their personalities. The gameplay and puzzles were pretty basic, but I did get stuck once or twice and had to reference a guide (classic adventure game feeling). Overall, I don't feel like I wasted my time with Whispers, I just wish the story felt as unique as the world it lived in.
A cute detective game with pretty decent humor. You play as a frog detective that goes to an island that has haunted tendencies. At said island, you'll talk and interact with other interesting animal characters while trying to solve the mystery at hand. I really enjoy the art style here as it is light-hearted and welcoming. The humor is also in the same vein, as it's pretty cute one liners and things of that nature. Overall, a very good half-hour of content. I do think it could have been longer without overstaying its welcome, but I am looking forward to playing the other episodes whenever I get around to it. Overall, definitely recommended if you're needing a small break from the regular game rotation you have. A true breath of fresh air.
A nice spin on the traditional indie platformerpg. In Minit, you have 60 seconds to explore, solve puzzles, and well, live. You'll need to find items to progress through certain areas (a la metroidvanias) and gather upgrades to keep progressing. I thought the life timer was a unique twist that makes you think outside of the box while increasing the feel of accomplishment. I enjoyed my time with this game, however, there were one or two points where I had no idea how to keep progressing and needed to look up the solution to continue. Overall, pretty happy with this game. Not a ton of memorable moments besides the 60 second timer mechanic though.
One of my favorite series and the sequel to my favorite game of last year. Resident Evil 3 Remake does fail to deliver on the same caliber of content as Resident Evil 2 Remake did, but it was still a fun experience. Nemesis is definitely not as frightening (or annoying) as Mr. X was, but he is still a force to be reckoned with. If you've played RE2, then you'll notice the shortcomings pretty early on in this game. The story's pacing and feel is not as good, the campaign is not as long, and it is lacking the replayability it's older brother had. However, I still recommend this game to Resident Evil fans, albeit on a discount as $60 for the amount of content you'll receive is asking too much. Also, Resident Evil Resistance (the multiplayer component tied into this game) is unbalanced and basically dead on arrival. I didn't need to play too much of it to see that it was a unnecessary rushed multiplayer game that needed balancing changes. I haven't played it since launch, so they may have fixed some issues, but even if they did, I wasn't too impressed with it to go back and check it out.
A short and sweet journey through the 80's and 90's genre of games. I'm a real sucker for these type of indie games that know how to capitalize on a feel from years back and that merge different classic genres into one game. From a Streets of Rage clone to a Phantasy Star clone, there's probably a game or two in here that is reminiscent of something from your childhood. However, this game is pretty short and is supposed to be episode one of a series, but the developers have been pretty quiet and there's no updates or news about EP2. If you're looking for a relatively short blast from the past type game, I'd recommend this one. Nothing too revolutionary, but a fun game to chill and finish in a night.
Adventure Pals feels like a mix between The Oatmeal web-comics and Donkey Kong Country. It's definitely an interesting game and pretty fun, but doesn't really standout from the others. It wants to be a zany platformer with a ton of jokes, but it really feels like it just CTRL+C/CTRL+V'd for each world, but with a different theme. I think the story is also sub-par and the characters don't seem meaningful enough. There are a handful of characters that were funny, but that's just because their design was interesting or they had a clever one-liner. Overall, I can't recommend or tell people to stay away from this one. If you get this in a bundle, it's a good bundle member if that makes sense.
This game was a trip! Time travel story done right. I don't want to say too much about the story as that's what makes the game special. Something I enjoy in my daily life is a change of pace and this game really hits that cord. Choices matter in this game as they directly impact the story and impact the TV show. That's right, there's a show built into this game. After every chapter, you get a ~20min live action show that goes through some background story and is affected by the decisions you make in the game as well as certain items you may come across while playing. I think this is a great idea as some chapters were taking a little too long gameplay wise, but after watching an episode at the chapter's end, I was ready to jump back into the game. The quality of the show is pretty great for being integrated into a video game. There are some actors you may recognize from other shows like Spartacus and X-men. The combat in this game is pretty decent (I've read most of the complaints are about the combat, but I didn't mind it at all.) you have certain powers to use in combat like a shield, stop time, etc. I played on the hardest difficulty and all the combat was pretty intensive so that might be the secret to enjoying it a little more. Overall, great story, interesting concept of a show within a game, decent combat. I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for an interesting and enthralling story that doesn't mind/looks forward to a TV break in-between the gameplay.
If you're sitting there thinking to yourself, "I've been feeling pretty smart recently! I think I need to be grounded in my intelligence." this game is for you. I don't play a lot of extreme puzzle games (i.e. Zachtronics), but this game made me feel like a real dum-dum. Supraland is a first person puzzle/metroidvania game with some solid humor and pop culture references. The gameplay consists of going to a new area, finding new upgrades, solving puzzles with said upgrades, rinse, and repeat. This is a formula that a lot of other games do, but Supraland has enough variety that it keeps it pretty fresh. You'll amass different tools throughout your time with Surpaland each with their own uses and some you'll need to think outside of the box with. There are also optional chests hidden around that upgrade health, damage, and other stats. I will say, this game rewards exploring. There was one time where I thought I was getting somewhere I was not supposed to in the map and I worked for about half an hour to get where I wanted to get by abusing a mechanic. Turns out the game expected me to do so, as there was a chest WAY up above and exactly where I was trying to get to. Consider me surprised and impressed. If anything you've read interests you at all, please check out this game. It has great puzzles and mechanics that keep you coming back for more. There is a DLC planned to release soon and I will be jumping on that as soon as it releases.
Basically, Stranger Things: The Game, but not great. This has all the elements of being a fun, campy, teen 80's movie (of which I am a sucker for), but it falls apart or rather never comes together. Personally, I think all of the characters fall flat and I never really cared for any of them. The combat is just button mashing and uneventful with just an attack and dodge button (and the dodge only works half the time). I don't know, the game was just kind of a bore-fest and now thinking back, I am not sure why I ended up finishing it. The story is probably the best part of the game, but that doesn't say much unfortunately. The collectables weren't worth going out of my way to collect and I usually enjoy doing so. There really isn't much left to say. I wouldn't recommend this game to most people. It has potential, but never capitalizes on it.
I'd call this a weekend puzzle game. Black: The Fall has dark overtones and light platforming, but it truly shines in its puzzles. The variety in each section of Black keeps it fresh. You start with using a laser to control other people and direct them to certain objects, then that laser is used for activating devices and doors, and then later you get the cutest robot companion to direct, solve puzzles, and navigate around. I'll be honest, I didn't really get the point of the story until the very end. Don't know if that was how it was supposed to happen, but it is what it is. Having said that, I believe the story is about something I do not have a lot of knowledge on so I don't think I can rate the story. That being said, the overall atmosphere and feel of the game's tone is dark and makes you feel unwanted. Overall, game has some solid puzzles and tone. I'd recommend if you're looking for a game to finish in a weekend.
Every time Titanfall 2 is brought up, all I heard about it was its terrific campaign. It always interested me, but I just never got around to it. Well, recently it released on Steam for $10 and I figured now is as good of a time as any. Guys, Titanfall 2 has a terrific campaign. The movement feels so fluid, swift, and seamless. Jumping into a giant mech has never felt more badass. Huge action scenes with the world's most agile pilot or battling mech against mechs, this game never really lets up. The story was pretty interesting, however I wish the bad guys had more of a character profile or meant more to the story. They all had unique looks, but the battles were a little same-y and during the credits when it went past everyone, I felt like I should have cared more about the baddies than I actually did. That's really my only complaint about this game's story though. Everything else was top-notch. If you're looking for a FPS that is different and high action, check this out especially since it is super cheap as of the time of writing this. For the multiplayer, I've only played a handful of matches. I believe I have only done team deathmatch with mechs, but I need to jump in a little more and explore all the other game modes. It does have the same multiplayer progress as a Call of Duty where there are class loadouts and unlocks for guns and such. Please check this game out if you can. Best FPS campaign I've played in years.
Paratopic was not what I was expecting going into it. I bought it on a whim as it was a horror game with positive reviews, a unique art style, and from what I read revolved around VHS tapes. All of these things I found interesting, so I grabbed it. Playing it now, it was not necessarily what I expected and I don't know if that is a good thing or not. First off, the game is roughly 40 minutes long, but I went ahead and played it through twice back-to-back. I finished it twice because I have no idea what the hell happened in the game. I don't know if it was just me not able to piece together the possible 3 timelines together or me not making sense of anything in the game. The story throws so much at you in abrupt segments, it's really difficult to piece it together in the first (or even second) playthrough. I'm planning on reading or watching a synopsis of the story, but figured I should write this first as I didn't want to be influenced by outside sources. Gameplay is alright. Basically a walking simulator with some minor driving segments. Art style is great as I expected. Music is alright as well. Overall, this is a hard one to recommend. I'm not terribly pleased with my time with the game, so I don't think I can recommend it at all. The game should be right up my alley, but it missed all marks for me. EDIT: I watched a video over Paratopic and a lot of stuff did go over my head. I'll not be editing my review as it was my thoughts, but I know see the game for what it is. However, I still do not think I can recommend it.
We Were Here is a free co-op game that has two sequels. My girlfriend and I were going to get one of the sequels before we realized there was a free entry to the series. Overall, I was pleased with this free co-op experience. The game relies on one person being a "Librarian" and the other the "Explorer". Since my girlfriend is a librarian in real life, it only made sense she jumped on that role. The librarian in We Were Here is in charge of information. They are placed in a large room with books, maps, items, and the like all over. It is their job to go through all of the information at their disposal and find out what info is needed for the explorer to navigate to the next room. On the other side of things, the explorer is locked in a room with cryptic letters and needs to figure out which ones to press and in what order. Communication in this game is done through an in-game walkie-talkie. How this usually goes is the explorer tells the librarian what is around them in the current room and the librarian rushes to something that correlates in their room and tells the necessary info to the explorer. The explorer then does what they need to do and TADAH, the next door opened and everyone is led to the next puzzle. Overall, this was a fun experience. There was one puzzle that caused some confusion, but exiting the game and switching roles gave us enough perspective that we got through that one easily. If you're looking for a short co-op experience to go through with a friend or loved one, there is no reason not to try this game. It is free, remember?
Layers of Fear 2 was a pretty big disappointment for me. I really enjoyed the first game in the Layers of Fear series and played through it multiple times. It was the game I would make friends play whenever they wanted to watch or play through a horror game. Layers of Fear 2 really can't live up to that. The setting of being on a boat and having movies be a large story story element are interesting and provides a lot of creative and experimental potential for the story and horror elements. However, I still wasn't ever spooked or nervous besides from a few cheap jump-scares. The main antagonist is literally just a glob of what looks to be white paint and the only thing that catches you off guard about it is that it comes out of nowhere sometimes. There is nothing about the actual "monster" that is scary or unsettling. The game showed its hand pretty early on with this antagonist because you know that as soon as you see it, you're in a chase scene. Also, this is really the only thing that can hurt you. Knowing this makes every other horror element of the game less intense as you know it can't really cause you harm. Having a predictable mechanic or knowing what you need to avoid or look out for in a horror game can cause the urgency and the unknown to become known and understandable. That may not make tons of sense, but part of the horror of games (in my opinion) is not necessarily knowing what is going on within an intense and unsettling atmosphere. Layers of Fear 2 shows its hand after the first act. Once I got to the second or third act of the game, I just found myself basically walking through a not-so-spooky haunted boat. There really isn't much to it other than that. Additionally, having mannequins as the main humanoid presence within the game was creepy at first, but when you see then as the only humanoid asset for all of the game's five chapters, it gets old very quick. On the positive side of things, I will say that I took more screenshots within Layers of Fear 2 than I have with any other game because it can be downright beautiful in some areas. The setting and atmosphere of certain areas of the game were jaw dropping, so it's too bad the game and story side of things were yawn-inducing.
Oneiros is basically a room-escape game on acid. I enjoyed the humor and atmosphere the game brought to the table and had minimal complaints about the game in the entire ~3 hours it takes to complete. Let's start with the complaints: The inventory system is slow, cumbersome, and basic. Having an item wheel whenever you have 7+ items at a time is an oversight and I don't see why this couldn't be turned into a grid-based inventory system. At the very least, let me see all the items I have at once. The only other complaint is the protagonist's voice wore me down towards the end of the game. There's nothing wrong with it inherently (I'd even go as far to say the VA is pretty good), but it just grated on me after hearing it for awhile. Now, the positive in this game are the puzzles are interesting and unique, the one character you actually meet in person is entertaining and funny, and the humor of the game is light-hearted and nice (however I can't tell you how many games have QR codes that just get you rick-rolled.) In the end, this is an easy game to recommend to any first person puzzle fans that want a nice ~3 hours stroll through a surreal journey.
Remnant was sold to me (and many others) as "Dark Souls with guns". I played this through with a friend and we both had a really good time! The story is nothing to write home about, but the randomized maps, random boss encounters, and the bosses themselves were very fun. Combat is pretty tight, however, we played through the game on normal and found it was a little too easy to run through. Looking back, we do wish we would have played it on hard to start. Regardless, I think this is a very solid co-op game and can easily recommend it to friends to play through it, but I don't think it would be as fun when playing solo. My only main criticisms about Remnant is that the game felt a little short and the loot felt a little too spread out.
Hypnospace was a mixed bag for me. I definitely dug the aesthetic and the 90's geocities feel of the game. I think Hypnospace really nailed that aspect of the game and got the ENTIRE feel of early internet down perfectly. The story was fun to roll through and kept me interested. The only reason why I can't recommend this to everyone is that if you aren't interested in early internet nostalgia or aren't interested in reading everything, then this game isn't for you. There were a few nights where I was not in the mood to play this or almost fell asleep while playing. I don't think this game has a very high engagement factor. Maybe it's just me, I dunno. Overall, this is more of an experience than a game. An experience I would recommend for anyone familiar with the early internet times.
I've bounced off of this game multiple times in the past, but after some motivation by the newest Dead By Daylight DLC, I decided it was finally time to sit down and finish this game. In short, I did thoroughly enjoy this game. I was not a huge fan of the story ( I know it's a solid story, it just wasn't my type of story), but I did enjoy the characters, monsters, and environment. The shopping mall and the amusement park were the highlights for me, personally. I was irked by the subway level as all of the areas look the same and felt like a giant maze. It's unfortunate the subway level is pretty early in the game as it has made me put down the game before and I am sure it is the same for many others. Overall, a solid entry to the Silent Hill franchise, although it has a rocky start. Silent Hill 2 still holds its place as my favorite in the series and Silent Hill 3 is definitely a good sequel to it.
This is a small collection of Indie horror games. Each one a unique experience. I really enjoyed the variety of the game and the uniqueness each one brought to the table. I would say I enjoyed 75-80% of these games. I won't get into detail about any of them here, but look it up for yourself and don't spoil any of them before you play them.
Interesting game, but kind of a slog. This is a lovecraftian game that doesn't really do anything to set itself apart from the rest. The writing is the best part of this game. Gameplay is average at best, pacing is horrid, but the story and characters remain interesting enough for me to stick with it and play it through. I wouldn't recommend this game to most, but if it is on a pretty deep discount, you could do worse.
I was super excited about this sequel as I loved the first and the experiences it brought. This one changes things up as instead of just a menu to select the games, you must venture through a mansion of sorts and solve puzzles to unlock games. I LOVED this as it added atmosphere and intrigue to something that used to just be a menu screen. Great improvement. HOWEVER, I feel like the quality of games in this one suffered horribly. I didn't enjoy most of them. A lot of them were more janky than the originals and less of these had smart or unique ideas. That isn't to say some of these are still good! There are truly some shining moments with some of these games, but they overall fail in comparison to the original cast. I will stick with this series for as long as it goes on, but they definitely need to see some improvements in the quality of games or ideas.
Control was a blast. The story felt so fresh as being influenced by SCP leads to a ton of creative freedom and new ideas that do not show up often. Combat was a blast and the powers you grew to have were varied and useful enough to provide fun benefits. On this topic, I do want to point out that the skill tree was pretty boring to say the least. Definitely the most boring part of the game. ANYWAYS, the story was super sweet as well as the writing for all of the items and characters. I don't want to say too much as I believe most people should experience this game and its story. Overall, highly recommend as it is a game you are not likely to forget anytime soon. If I could wipe my memory of this game to try it again for the first time, I would.
A Visual novel that could have been more. Tokyo Dark is a visual novel/Point and Click mystery/horror game. Detective Ito has been haunted by a case involving a young girl and must get to the bottom of it to save her partner. The game was a kickstarted game that raised quite a bit of money from its backers (just FYI). My overall feelings about this game are scattered. For one, I was pretty interested in the story as it has a darker tone and is actually pretty interesting with its turns and twists. However, it might be just me, but the anime feel of the game was slightly off-putting. I like anime and have no issues with it at all, but the theme and feel of the game and its atmosphere did not share the same emotions felt as the visuals presented. Granted, the visuals are great. Great 2D environments, characters, and everything. BUT I just felt almost conflicted with the art style and the game itself. Not a big deal, just took me out of the element sometimes. The story is pretty good as well! I don't want to get into it too much, but I always wanted to keep pushing ahead to see where things went story-wise. Characters are pretty okay. No one was really a standout in the story besides the antagonist and protagonist (however I did enjoy the cat from the cat cafe. Which cat and which cat cafe is up to you to find out). The gameplay was nothing much, you move around with the mouse and click ahead to advance dialogue. Writing was pretty decent, but nothing too crazy. As mentioned before, not a ton of characters stood out to me. Most were bland. The story was the main reason I stuck around. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind reading a ton and wants a short interesting adventure they can finish casually in a weekend. I think this game took be ~6 hours for a full playthrough, but then I went back to do some stuff I missed.
While not as impressionable as the first, Outlast 2 does dive into the religious horror quite well. Having more of a coherent storyline and an emphasis on varied environments, Outlast 2 just didn't hit all the buttons like its predecessor did. There's nothing really wrong with the game (other than a pretty weak ending IMO), but I think the whole "hide here to avoid a game over" horror genre needs more variety. I am interested to see how Outlast Trials does, seeing how it is a multiplayeco-op Outlast coming next year. I believe multiplayeco-op makes horror LESS scary, but who knows.
One of the most popular puzzle games out there, the 2nd is a fine game to exercise your brain a bit. I played this one with my partner and we had great time doing so. I will say, random clicking to figure out the next step did happen quite a bit, but that comes with the genre, right? Maybe I am just not too good at puzzles. Overall, definitely recommend this game and the rest of the series. I will be playing Room 3 sometime in the near future, assuming it is just as good as the others before it.
One of the most dense, most entertaining, and most believable open world games out there. What haven't you heard about this game yet? The story is a fantastic gang drama built around one event that spirals out of control. The characters are memorable, lovable, and downright hilarious. The gameplay is tight, energizing, and rewarding. The side missions are intriguing, fun, and downright weird. Please do yourself a favor and play this game. Never has there been (in my opinion) so much variety in a game like this.
The Last of Us is a game that I played through multiple times. One of the games that I vividly remember and hold close to my heart. TLOU2 is pretty close to that. I will say that I "No-Life"'d this game. Putting in around 25 hours into this in a weekend just because I could not put the controller down. This game puts its claws in you QUICK. I don't want to go over any story elements or anything like that as I was able to dodge spoilers myself for this long, but it is fantastic. I do have some of my own strong opinions about how the game wanted you to feel, but I won't put those here because spoilers. But holy shit, this game will stick with me for a bit. The gameplay is still tense, stressful, and strategic just like the first. I really enjoyed my time with this one and can see how it won so many awards. I know people have strong feelings about this game, one way or another, but I am a fan. I don't think it dethrones the first Last of Us for me, but it sits right by it in my head.
Hello all – and welcome to a (slightly overdue) review of my year in gaming! As always, I first want to thank the sub. I maintained motivation to continue to work through a significant chunk of my backlog throughout the year, and even found the chance to play a few newer releases as well. I did make a list of 12 specific games I wanted to play back in January last year, but abandoned as it just felt a bit restrictive, which is totally at odds with the fun that gaming is supposed to be about! I then just focused on playing what I felt like, making sure to consider all the games I owned already before spending on something new. A combination of increased motivation and more spare time due to - well, you know what - I managed to maintain steady progress throughout the year and beat 37 games in total, just shy of the 40 I beat last year. This did, however, include a fair few longer titles which I've typically been averse to in previous years where I tended to stick more to 10-15 hour campaigns. In broad terms, there were three general highlights to my year:
Discovering my love of a challenge - specifically in beating all the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne and Sekiro, but also in finding I often have more fun when I bump regular games up to harder difficulties - which I did in The Last of Us (1+2), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Ghost of Tsushima
Discovering the 'immersive sim' genre - Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an incredible find for me this year, having previously pretty much ignored the series, and it sparked an interest in immersive sims which led to me discovering several new games to try
Catching up on my 'missed generation', i.e. the PS3/360 era. Back then I only had a Wii, and many quality titles completely passed me by, so it was great to catch up on some of them. Highlights include the above mentioned Dark Souls and Deus Ex:HR, as well as the Bioshock series, Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, Arkham City and Dead Space
I thought I may as well copy in my brief thoughts on all the games I played this year. Mostly these are just copied from when I originally posted them in my monthly updates, but in some cases I’ve altered the review if I felt that my opinion had changed significantly since I’d played the game. In some cases I've just posted an abbreviated version... if for some reason you do give a shit about what I think you can dig through my post history on the sub! Here are my mini-reviews for everything I beat in 2020: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4) – absolutely incredible experience. Played it through 5 times pretty much back to back and it gets an extra special place in my heart for opening my eyes to the wonders of FromSoftware and challenging games in general – ★★★★★ Bloodborne (PS4) – played this straight after Sekiro and loved the combat, world design and atmosphere. Bosses were a bit hit and miss but overall a great experience - ★★★★ Yakuza 0 (PC) - this was terrific... I probably started back in October last year, and very slowly made my way through until eventually reaching the end after ~60 hours of play. At one point I went about 15 hours without progressing the story because I was so engrossed with some of the mini-games. The gameplay is pretty basic, although the combat was very satisfying. The story itself could get a little confusing at times, but for the most part it was quite character driven which kept me invested even when I wasn't totally sure about all of the political intricacies going on in the background - ★★★★ Dark Souls Remastered (PC) – finally hopped on the Dark Souls train nearly a decade late, but still it’s probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. So many vivid memories of my journey through such an intricately designed, haunting world. Stumbling across the great hollow – and subsequently ash lake - in my desperation to find a bonfire (apparently I missed one at the bottom of blighttown) might be one of my most incredible gaming memories ever. The game lived up to the ‘tough but fair’ reputation I’d heard of and I never felt like giving up. Only hiccup was the archers in Anor Londo which made me so angry I kicked a hole in the wall, resulting in some awkward email exchanges with the landlord, but all’s well that end’s well - we got the hole patched up, didn't get kicked out, and I beat the game a few days later – ★★★★★ A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4) - This was an okay game, especially considering it came from a small studio. The gameplay switches between some straightforward stealth, and puzzles that involve manipulating massive swarms of rats with light sources. Both were fine, but I thought there was some missed potential with the puzzles. The game in general is quite easy, and in the middle it was almost boring, but towards the end it became a bit more challenging and actually really fun In any case, it's actually quite a narrative focused game, which perhaps explains the lack of complexity in the gameplay, and it does at least deliver on that front with a creative, well written story that ensured I kept playing, even when the game itself was quite slow - ★★ Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (PS4) - got this to play with my friends whilst we're all on lockdown, and managed to get 100% in the story mode. The story mode is alright, but mainly just a way to learn some of the tracks and unlock a few customisable options. It's a fun game - I think it's ridiculously high skill ceiling, meaning that even after 50 or so hours of play you're still getting obliterated online, which with limited features and support is probably not worth the effort, but it was a fun diversion at the time - ★★★ Dark Souls II (PC) – a strange, but ultimately very enjoyable experience. I went into this knowing nothing other that it’s considered the ‘black sheep’ of the franchise, but it wasn’t until after I beat it I really got why that is. My sense for the first half of the game was how overwhelming it was – so many different directions to go and so much to keep track of – and the volume of enemies in certain areas produced some huge difficulty spikes throughout. I felt this lost the ‘tough but fair’ mantra on a few occasions, with some rooms or areas taking several hours for me to progress through. The bosses as well were definitely a case of quantity over quality. Still, I did really enjoy most of the time with the game, and I was well and truly hooked for the 60 hours it took to beat it - ★★★★ Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) – This was the first Final Fantasy game I ever finished, and one of the few RPGs I’ve played that I actually enjoyed all the way through. I had played the beginning of the original, so I was familiar with the events of this game without necessarily having any kind of nostalgia or expectations. Visually I thought they did a great job of bringing those PS1 era pre rendered backgrounds into the HD era. The highlight for me though was the combat. It was super satisfying, with a perfect balance of broader strategy/preparation and making decisions on the fly in the heat of battle. A few chapters in the middle portion of the game the game felt really slow and stretched out - I did like that they’d clearly gone above and beyond in developing the world, but adding in long empty corridors, tedious puzzles and “platforming” really did not help the experience. Overall though, great game and hopefully the next instalment can live up to the potential shown here - ★★★ Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC) – picked this up on a whim since it’d been a while since I’d had my Metroidvania fix. The first half of the game is great, a steady stream of new abilities and great enemy variety pulled me through. I slowly grew tired of it though, as all the small issues I’d noticed at the beginning became more and more irritating. Still though, I did get a few fun hours out of this, and some of the songs were stuck in my head for a while, so it wasn’t all bad – ★★ Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) – I held off on this game for a while as I’d kind of dismissed it as yet another open world action RPG in a new coat of paint. For the most part, that’s what it is, but I’m still really glad I played it. The combat is really fun and gets better as you unlock new weapons, and uncovering the mysteries of the “post-post-apocalyptic” world was really compelling. Visually it's one of the most impressive games I think I've ever seen. I thought the crafting, levelling system and skill tree were a bit tacked on, but that’s something of a nitpick, and somewhat undermined by the fact that I did find every collectible to get the platinum anyway. I really liked the game overall, from the exciting combat, to the stunning visuals, to the intriguing lore, and I’m interested to see where they take the story in the sequel - ★★★ Final Fantasy XV (PS4) – had a pretty fun time with this game. It felt like a proper road trip which was helped by the characters feeling genuinely likeable, and some impressive visuals. The game itself is pretty weird though. Nothing you do really matters, since if you just buy 99 potions you basically can’t die, so experimenting with all the different weapons and strategies never felt worth it. It also removes any motivation to do side quests, but they weren’t especially interesting anyway. Still, it was a good ride and aside from a late game chapter which I can only describe as an indefensible piece of trash, an enjoyable if disjointed experience - ★★ Control (PS4) – I was initially attracted to this game by a few Metroid comparisons I’d seen, and in that regard it fell short, but it’s still a good game in its own right. The combat was super satisfying and the setting and the story did not hold back on the weirdness. I had a few serious framerate drops when there were a lot of enemies on screen, which ultimately did detract from my enjoyment a bit, but your mileage may vary (for reference I played on a 3.5-year old PS4 slim). The most fun I had was actually after I beat the main story. The side quests had some really good boss fights in there and helped add context to the world, and I ended up getting the platinum trophy - ★★★ Batman: Arkham City (PS4) – I don’t really know why it’s taken me so long to play this, but I have now and it was absolutely superb, one of the best I’ve played this year. I played Arkham Asylum last year and loved it, but I had worries that the switch to open world would sacrifice some of what made that game so good in favour of just having more content, but I needn’t have been concerned. The main story was one of the most compelling I’ve experienced in a game recently, and the combat, stealth rooms and Zelda-dungeon-like item based puzzles all alternate wonderfully to ensure I was basically never bored. Even the side missions were interesting and introduced their own unique gameplay twists. The riddler trophies were as addicting as always to pick up and ensured there was always something fun to do when travelling between mission locations - ★★★★ Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) – a great game and a satisfying way to round out a superb series. It carries over everything that makes the previous games great – simple but satisfying combat, exciting stealth encounters and plenty of Zelda-like environmental puzzles – but the new additions in this game improve all of that. The combat is more fluid with a whole bunch of new abilities and animations, the stealth sections are made infinitely more dynamic by the multi-fear takedown, and the puzzles are as good as ever. The riddler trophies in particular are much improved – pretty much all of them require some level of thought to get compared to previous games where they were often extremely basic to figure out. Plotwise, it was engaging throughout, although I never found it reached the heights of Arkham City. The Joker’s inclusion as a memory(?) felt a bit forced - like they regretted killing him off in the last game - but that’s understandable since he is such a great character - ★★★★ The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) [REPLAY] – Decided to replay this in preparation for Part II. Previously I had played it on the Normal difficulty and found it way too easy, so I stuck it on hard and found it much more enjoyable. I’d actually forgotten how much shit happens in this game, the pacing is so good it never feels like a drag. The scenarios are tense throughout, although never truly mindblowing On the surface it’s a relatively simple story, but the development of the relationship between Joel and Ellie is the driving force and is compelling right up to the end. It’s close to perfect, although I’m still not a huge fan of the winter section from a story perspective. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably the most fun area – controlling Ellie with her reduced abilities really ramps up the tension, the section where you crawl through a blizzard is great, and I found the boss fight at the end fun. However, it feels a bit jarring to have an outright villain given the morally ambiguity of the actions from the rest of the characters Still, it’s a classic – a bit limited on the gameplay front but more than made up for with a simple story with emotional depth - ★★★ Wreckfest (PS4) – been playing this with a friend online. The single player is actually really good, but primarily functions as a method of unlocking the vehicles you need to compete online. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in an online racing game. Being aggressive and booting other players off the track is a genuinely viable strategy, and there’s a glorious satisfaction in nailing someone into the wall on the final corner. It also solves an issue with many racing games whereby, if you fuckup early on you have to just slog it out until the next race for a chance to win. This is still true to an extent, but now you have the perfectly legitimate option of just going backwards round the track trying to destroy the leaders, which can be just as fun as fighting for victory - ★★★ Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) – I know it’s the same engine as Uncharted 4, but a lot of the time it felt a little off. Aiming didn’t feel as snappy, and the platforming wasn’t quite as reliable as I’d hoped. It’s still a worthy addition to the series - Nadine and Chloe are both likeable in their on way, and there’s a few great set pieces in there. The plot is generic Uncharted fare, but you do get to ride an elephant - ★★ The Last of Us Part II (PS4) – check my post history if you want my longer thoughts on this game but the short version is that I thought it was great. Ellie is so much more dynamic than Joel was in TLOU1, with several new tricks up her sleeve. She can go prone, lay trap mines and actually dodge melee attacks, all of which added a real sense of improvisation to the tougher encounters in the game. Whilst the scenarios that required these new moves were exciting, they were also quite sparse, particularly in the first half of the game. There was a lot of walking around and light puzzling, and a bunch of less exciting mini-encounters before you get to the really good stuff. Not that this stuff was bad, but the ratio of super open exciting stealth-combat arena to slow-paced walking and talking meant that the game felt like it wasn’t playing to its strength a lot of the time. There’s a lot to go into with the story, but the ultimately I enjoyed it and found it engaging through to the end – it wasn’t a mindblowing masterpiece and I thought they tried a bit too hard to “subvert expectations” at times, but it was a good ride - ★★★ Until Dawn (PS4) – I was surprised by how much fun this was. The story was a pretty good twist on the standard cabin in the woods type drama, the quality of the voice acting helped me to feel invested in the characters, and whilst the gameplay was simple, the QTEs were fun and added a lot of tension to the experience. Also, all the choices felt meaningful and, unlike certain similar games (looking at you Detroit: Become Human), it was genuinely fun to see the consequences of your actions. Unfortunately it looks like the developers’ more recent efforts have fallen flat but this was definitely a worthwhile experience - ★★★ Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut (PC) – This game was a revelation for me. Within the first few hours I was completely hooked, a feeling that lasted for the full 30 or so hours it took to beat the game. The game is just amazing. The mission structure, level design, upgrade system and weapon/item variety all come together to create an experience greater than its already substantial parts. Even the dialog wheels were fun! I could go on… the world, the visuals, the music was great and it was one of the few games where I actually bothered to read all the little notes you find. The narrative was pretty good as well, although sometimes a bit difficult to follow and with some dodgy voice acting along the way. All in all I was absolutely delighted with this game, I’d honestly rate it amongst the best games I’ve ever played Similarly to Sekiro, it will always be a special game for me for opening my eyes to a new ‘genre’ – in this case the immersive sim, which I have subsequently begun to dig into – ★★★★★ Sleeping Dogs (PS4) – Another surprisingly great game. The game very closely follows the GTA structure, and while it doesn’t do anything major to differentiate itself from Rockstar’s bigger budget hits, it does do a lot of little things that made it, in some ways at least, better than the GTA series. The melee combat is actually fun, the narrative is really engaging and, because of its shorter length, seems to have a lot more focus. Most appreciated was that all the tedium of GTA games has just been entirely removed here. If a mission requires you to drive somewhere you’ll actually start the mission in a car. Collectibles actually appear on the map (once you do certain side activites). Setting a waypoint for your next mission just requires clicking the analog stick. The game always gives you the weapons you need for each mission. So many nice little touches like this mean that the whole experience felt so much more seamless compared to GTA, which I’ve always thought had a tendency to sacrifice a smooth gameplay experience in the name of ‘realism’. It's certainly not as big and bombastic as the best GTA games, and there’s a lot less to do on the side, but the content it does have is, in my opinion, better than the equivalent in any GTA game - ★★★ Bioshock (PS4) – I did try this a few years back but dropped it fairly early on. In the intervening time I spoiled myself on the story and the big twist as I’d kind of written off the idea that I’d actually play it myself, but having the trilogy for free on PS Plus recently I thought I‘d give it another go. Turns out that one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time is, in fact, really good. Knowing the big plot twist obviously took away from one dramatic moment but there was a lot more to the story that I wasn’t aware of previously, and uncovering all the mysteries of Rapture was compelling right to the end. It’s possibly one of the best and most creative settings I’ve ever seen in a game. I played the Remastered version, and visually it was stunning. I was really immersed in the world, and the various different areas were each impressive their own right. On the gameplay side, it’s a lot of fun once you get past the first few hours. At the start, you have very few abilities and there were some weird design choices that made the game incredibly frustrating until you’ve got some good upgrades, but once you’re past that it really is an incredible game - ★★★★ Bioshock 2 (PS4) – Thought I would jump straight into this after beating the first. The first half of this game is a bit frustrating – to my horror they kept the health system exactly the same as the first which made the opening couple of hours a little rough, but the game is mercifully a bit more forthcoming with cash and health packs this time. Also, nothing really happens from a story perspective for a good 5-6 hours. It does eventually pick up though, both in terms of story and gameplay. The story itself actually turns out to be just as good as the first, taking some pretty weird turns I didn’t expect and wrapping up in a very satisfying way. The gameplay builds well on the foundations of the first game, with newer weapons, improved plasmids, and a much better hacking minigame. All in all a very fun time I also went on to beat the Minerva’s Den DLC the next day too which was fantastic - ★★★ Bioshock Infinite (PS4) – went into this one without too much being spoiled for me… all I really knew was that the setting had changed to a city in the sky and the gameplay was much closer to a traditional shooter. Similar to when I played all the MGS games last year I had an idea that there was some crazy shit going on in this game but it still managed to surprise me – although I did figure out the final twist a good few hours before the end I won’t go into the story too much more but I really enjoyed it. It touched on a lot of interesting themes and wrapped them up in the kind of weird mystery sci-fi I tend to love in other forms of media but rarely see done well in games. Columbia was a beautiful place to explore and the bright colours were wonderful, especially coming out of 2 games + a DLC of dark, dingy underwater corridors. The gameplay itself was okay, obviously being more of a straight shooter there wasn’t as much scope for creativity, but there was a good range of abilities to keep things interesting. It was much, much easier than the other two games as well - Ordinarily this might have disappointed me but it was actually nice to be able to kick back and just enjoy the ride - ★★★ Dishonored (PC) – I played this on the back of having enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution so much, as it seemed to have a similar approach in terms of freedom in how you approach things. It was definitely a worthwhile experience – the variety of the levels was great and succeeding was always satisfying no matter how you pulled it off. The House of Pleasure and Last Party missions were both particularly memorable. I did think the abilities you could unlock felt a bit limited, and the way the game was broken up into separate missions meant it lacked the addictiveness you might get in an open-world or metroidvania structure, but it was good fun and I’m definitely going to check out the second at some point - ★★★ Disco Elysium (PC) – I bought this on a whim, having pretty much no experience whatsoever in this type of game, or indeed most kinds of RPG, but ended up really enjoying it. The slow-paced nature of the game took some getting used to, and after the first 8 hours I actually stopped playing for a good couple of months until I eventually picked it back up again, but when I did resume it really sucked me in. The world and the characters were all pretty interesting, and at times it was genuinely hilarious but I mostly enjoyed how the levelling system worked with your attributes all being different parts of your psyche, and they’d talk to you and give you advice throughout the game. The game itself was quite satisfying to work through as well, it felt a bit like the classic point-and-click but without the frustratingly obscure puzzle solutions – instead you can just explore elsewhere and return when you’ve upgraded an ability or found a key item. I did feel like towards the end of the game you were just going through the motions, and opportunities to express yourself through the dialogue became less frequent, but this wasn’t a major drawback and it was somewhat offset by the fact you were then dealing with the consequences of the choices you’d made earlier. All in all an interesting game, one I’m glad I took a chance on, but I doubt I’ll be digging any deeper into the ‘CRPG’ genre - ★★★ What Remains of Edith Finch (PC) – an interesting way to spend my bank holiday afternoon. A 2 hour ‘walking simulator’, another genre that I’ve not really explored, but it was a really nice game. I didn’t blow my mind or anything, but I was really impressed with how much variety – both visually, thematically, and in terms of gameplay – they managed to cram in to the experience whilst still feeling totally organic. As with Disco Elysium, I don’t really feel compelled to check out any similar games, but still felt it was a worthwhile experience and one I’m glad I had - ★★★ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4) - this is probably my game of the year. I still rank the original THPS2 as one of my all time favourites, and when this was announced I was almost overwhelmed with excitement - particularly as it previously seemed like the series was pretty much dead. The game itself is incredible - effectively bringing a refined, streamlined version of the gameplay from the later games to beautifully reconstructed levels from the first two. All the gaps and goals were still there, and it can't be understated how massive it was for them to get most of the old soundtrack on there as well. The introduction of a ton of new challenges, high scores and, of course, online play means I'll likely be playing this for a long long time, especially if they do what the people want and bring in THPS3 levels as DLC – ★★★★★ Metro 2033 Redux (PC) - A pretty fun game, although without too much depth in gameplay terms. The atmosphere here was genuinely oppressive, and I really liked the slow paced nature of the levels, especially when contrasted with the dopamine overload of other modern shooters. Have heard positive things about the sequels so will hopefully have a chance to give them a go in the coming year - ★★★ Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) - Essentially another one of these open world checklist type games, but the combat, story and side activities were all slightly better than you usually see. The 'following the wind' was interesting at first, but functionally not much different from following a way point so the novelty wore off after a few hours. I kind of wish the game had been a bit more linear and focused as the main story is actually quite good, but I kind of ruined the pacing for myself due to my completionist tendencies. Not really a complaint against the game itself I suppose, and I did overall enjoy my time, even if I did bog myself down running around chasing foxes for hours - ★★★ Dark Souls III (PC) - A superb end to an incredible series. The gameplay was at its most refined, the enemy variety was the best it's been and some of the bosses were absolutely incredible - a welcome change from the quantity over quality approach DS2 had. The difficulty I think was tougher but fairer than the previous games - Essentially the bosses were harder and there fewer bullshit traps and ambushes in between, which I quite liked I felt like progression could be a bit linear at times, for the first 25-30 hours there was only really one direction I had to go, whereas in the older titles I usually had two or three different routes to prod at. It opened up a bit towards the end as I discovered a few secret areas and tried the DLC, and ultimately I loved my time with this game. It's also another to tick off from the wider Soulsborne series which I've played all of this year (except Demon's Souls, waiting to get a PS5!). Difficult to say how I'd rank them, the first Dark Souls is probably my favourite, it felt most like a genuine adventure, but they're all absolutely incredible games – ★★★★ Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - A bit of a weird one. It looks and plays just like Yakuza 0, which I loved, but I occasionally notice the very '2005' DNA of the game coming through, with the odd tedious fetch sequence, and some pretty underwhelming side stories. I started out trying to do quite a lot of stuff on the side, but quickly realised most of it was just a rehash of what was in Yakuza 0, which I didn't really fancy doing again. I was also wary of getting bogged down in the world like I did for Ghost of Tsushima, especially given that the main story here was actually very, very good. A slow start and a weird midgame chapter aside, the story here was a really tight, focused experience and I was always genuinely excited to see what happened next. The last couple of chapters were absolutely gripping and I'm definitely going to check out Yakuza Kiwami 2 some time to see where it goes next - ★★★ Dead Space (PC) – honestly found this a bit of a slog. It was a nice twist on the survival horror, and the atmosphere and story were good, but the levels and missions got pretty repetitive and the moment to moment gameplay was a bit dull. Running out of ammo was frequent which – I get it, it’s a survival horror - for whatever reason it just irritated me in this game. The story was good though, and the payoff at the end made me glad I stuck with it, but any possible interest I had in the sequels was extinguished long before that point - ★★ GRIS (PC) – absolutely stunning, if brief, experience. Visually this game is one of the most beautiful I’ve played, and there was actually a bit of depth in some of the puzzles, which kept me engaged throughout its runtime. I’ve heard people say that the story made them cry, but honestly I found it too abstract to even guess what was happening, let alone have it elicit a strong emotional response. Still though, a nice way to spend 4 hours - ★★★ Final Fantasy VII (Switch) – decided to go back an experience the original as I couldn’t wait for the remake sequels to see what was gonna happen (plus I realised that they were gonna shake things up in terms of the story anyway). I really loved this game, a really good mix of high concept fantasy sci-fi and more emotional personal stories. The gameplay modifiers (turning off random encounters/speeding up the game) were really helpful in getting me through what I think is the first non-Pokemon JRPG I’ve ever beaten - ★★★ Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) – this was a pleasant surprise… the level design and exploration were really enjoyable, and the combat was fun and strategic, if a bit unwieldly at times. I’m not a massive Star Wars fan outside of the films themselves, so didn’t have any particular hopes or expectations with regards to the story, but found this to be a worthy addition to the Star Wars canon that I know- ★★★ Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) [REPLAY] – I rate this as my favourite game of all time and replaying it on Switch has done nothing to change that. It’s not quite as massive as I remember it being over a decade ago, but this time round I appreciated more the sheer variety and creativity in the levels, backed by one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It was also amazing to play it in full HD for the first time and, despite a few minor issues with the pointer controls, I think this is now the definitive version of the game – ★★★★★ And that's it. As for what's next, I'll make a post soon outlining my challenge for 2021 - haven't decided on what it will be but I'm hoping to keep my gaming varied so potentially something around beating games from different genres. In the meantime I'll also make a 'bonus' post of all the other games I played this year but didn't beat - either because I dropped them, put them on hold or just they're not the type of game that can be 'beaten'. In gaming terms, I've got a couple currrently on the go, both of which I'm really enjoying and will share my thoughts here once I'm done:
Paper Mario: Origami King (Switch)
Prey (PC)
And that's it, thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
Best Served Cold? trophy in Yakuza 0. Best Served Cold? Take more than 15 minutes bringing the takoyaki. +0.2. 1 guide. How to unlock the Best Served Cold? trophy . TheBig-BB107,149. 03 May 2018 03 May 2018 17 May 2018. 3 0 0. This trophy is missable. Early in chapter 7, Makoto will send you to a stall to get Takoyaki. You simply buy it and then stand around for 15 minutes. You can just get up Yakuza 3 Trophy Guide. Written by Wertkiller 8 Ratings. 50,394 Views. 30 Favorites. Yakuza 3 Trophies. English (US) Default; English (US) English (UK) Order (PSN) Alphabetical; Grade; PSN; Rarity • PSN; Rarity • PSNProfiles; Hide Secret Trophies. World's Greatest Dad Earn all other trophies in the game. 1.1% Ultra Rare: 7.22% Very Rare: Mad Dog Tamed Defeat Majima in Chapter 1. 88.5% You'll get a Calming Towel as your reward and the video of Rina Ito. Watch PS4 - Yakuza 0 - Chapter 4 - Part 1 of 3 - randomgaming38 on Dailymotion. How accurate is this game when it comes to yakuzas? If you don't do so hot, you'll get a Staminan X. Now, you'll have an opportunity for a trophy here that can be missed, so listen up. Leave and come back to find two thugs eyeing her. Time to Say Chapter 3: A Gilded Cage Yakuza 0 This is what you need to do to get the trophy, although it won't drop until Chapter 4 starts. Chat up Takako about whatever you like to pump her for info, then watch Majima do his thing. Once you're done, head to the middle of Sotenbori Street and you'll notice a fracas going down by the river. Watch the weapon dealer and you'll learn the Slugger Style The two then get pumped up about the future and creating a new age of heroes. Nanba then explains to Ichiban that the city is split up by the Ijin Three. Chapter 2: A Bloody Reunion 03 May 2018 03 May 2018 03 May 2018. Nanba goes on to explain that Ichiban is lucky that he was brought to Yokohama which is the only place that the Omi Alliance couldn't penetrate. He informs you of a disagreement Yakuza 0 Trophy Guide By Undead_Wolf_N7 • After leaving The Grand in Chapter 3, your objective will be to head over to Odyssey, but before you do so, there are three NPC's scattered around Sotenbori you can talk to in order to gain information that will be useful for the negotiation with Yamagata. Check the map below for the locations of the NPC's; they've been numbered. They can be Yakuza 0 — Guide and Chapter 3 - When you are told to scout the club Odyssey, first go speak to a man in a green jacket on Bishamon Bridge, then a woman in a green coat southeast of Le Marche, then a pair of businessmen south of Odyssey itself. Once you're inside Odyssey and looking around, you'll need to look at four tables. Three of them are on the other side of the room from you, from As always, this is the most time-intensive trophy in a Yakuza title. While that hasn't changed, I feel that it has been made significantly easier than in previous titles in the series. Most of the standard minigames/tasks from the previous games are included, but the requirements for each are generally more reasonable and some of the worst offenders (like pachinko, performing every Heat Action Welcome to IGN's Walkthrough for Yakuza 0, continuing with Chapter 3: A Gilded Cage. In this chapter, you play as Goro Majima. This guide will help you You won't know, though, until a bit later. Once you go back to the Grand at the beginning of Chapter 4, that's when the trophy pops. The trap here is that the game prompts you to save at the end of chapter 3, and if you overwrite your save, you won't be able to retry if the trophy doesn't pop without starting a new game.
Spoiler alert. During chapter 2, you are required to buy alcholic drinks for the homeless guys. One guy asks for champagne. For the trophy you have to buy a... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Yakuza 0 is set in Japan's bubble era, a period of extremely high property prices in Japan during the second half of the 1980s. The game's two principal loca... The conclusion of Chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3. sub stories, karaoke and more. =====... Kicking off Majima's section with chapter 3! As always, feedback is always welcome. It's manager time Chapter 3: A Gilded Cage Walkthrough of Yakuza 0 on the PlayStation 4 Pro in 60fps. Complete walkthrough: https://goo.gl/E6ytbN Genre(s): Action-adventure Pl...
