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What Games Have You Completed? (2021 Edition)

Gamer Bhoy 89

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The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Astro’s Playroom

Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Completed and platinumed. I respect that this is a remake of a beloved classic and is adored in its own right. Just know that I am coming at this from an angle of someone who never played the original (although now intends to). I have to say, I’m impressed. It has excellent combat, animations and graphics. The characters are so loveable (especially Aerith and Jessie) and the general FF lore is always interesting. That said, this remake also has some problems which, unfortunately, prevent it from being a GOTY contender IMO.

Firstly, a little rant about padding: when people talk about padding in games I tend to be a bit sceptical because a lot of the time what is referred to as “padding” is actually content that one is simply not interested in doing. For instance, it’s unreasonable to play an open world game and then expect to only do the critical path. That makes no sense for the developers and defeats the purpose of it being an open world.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has padding. I don’t mean padding in terms of content, as the side stuff is actually surprisingly restrained and makes sense for the characters (Tifa’s pull-ups, Cloud taking jobs). When I say “padding” I’m talking running for, like, 5 seconds after a major cut scene and then being interrupted by dialogue where the characters have to stand still to talk (because, for some reason, they can’t run and talk at the same time) and then running for another 5 seconds only to have another major cut scene. Why? Just do a longer cut scene and call it a day.

And then there’s characters conveniently falling from a pillar only to end up at the place they should have started from in the first place to get an item that could have easily not been placed in a position that, logically, makes no sense. This happens over and over again to the point where it sometimes becomes an amusing mini game in its own right trying to work out how the devs are going to draw the upcoming sequence out for as long as possible. Even the boss fights are constantly being interrupted by cut scenes where the boss performs an “ultimate” move or goes into the next phase way too frequently.

Bearing in mind I haven’t played the original so I had no idea what’s been added and even I could still tell when the game was inflating its length. If it had been just 15 hours long – as opposed to about 40 - it would have been amazing but it’s constantly getting in its own way.

Additionally, I felt left behind sometimes. The story line is very inside baseball as it doesn’t make sense unless you’ve played the original. Having read up on it after I can now see how clever the story actually is but it’s a bummer I had to do research in order to appreciate it.

Anyway, the good stuff. The combat is *chef’s kiss*. On paper it should be a chaotic nightmare and yet, as Todd Howard would say, it just works. You can toggle lock-on but the camera is intuitive enough to know which target you want so it takes the load off. You quickly get used to cycling between characters and/or issuing commands to secondary characters and it flows beautifully. The levelling system and how you can add “materia” to your weapons and armour to give you different stats and create the best team build for any situation is also a lot of fun to manage.

Normal difficulty is like a primer for Hard mode which unlocks after beating the game the first time. Vastly superior in every way, it presents a new challenge where you have to be economical with your MP consumption because there are no items to bail you out when you run low. Suddenly you’re not just spamming the most powerful attacks to get through a situation as quickly as possible - because enemies will do that way quicker than you - so you have to learn to play defensively and really think about your team build before rushing in.

It means a lot of menu admin which can get annoying seeing as there’s seemingly no fast way to swap materia between characters (you can only have a party of 3 at the most and they constantly swap out). If you don’t level up your materia or don’t manage your materia in a strategic way it will be a struggle. I personally did so it was just a glorified new game plus mode for me. In other words, Hard mode is as easy or as difficult as you make it.

TL;DR: If you liked the original or you’re a JRPG fan I guess it’s a no brainer to get the Final Fantasy 7 Remake for the nostalgia factor alone. If you’re a FF and JRPG noob like me I still think you’ll have a good time - it might not hit you in the feels as hard and you’ll resent the padding without having the original to compare to but the combat is so good that it carries the game in spite of itself. The fact that overall it’s made me want to play the original means it’s done a good job. I think it’s free on PS+ this month so there’s nothing to lose (except not being able to upgrade the free version to the PS5 version should you wish to do so.)

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Astro’s Playroom
Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Bugsnax. Completed and platinumed.

You play a reporter who sets out to interview a Crocodile Dundee-type lady named Lizbert, about this new phenomenon of “Bugsnax” - a bunch of delectable creatures that behave like bugs but are visual variations of...snacks. You stumble on to Snaktooth Island where you meet Filbo, the down-on-his-luck mayor who reveals that Lizbert has mysteriously disappeared. It’s up to you to find out how and where while also bringing the other residents of Snaktooth island – who have all split off for various reasons - to their formerly inhabited town of Snaxburg so they can work out what happened to Lizbert together.

Like Pokemon, (even down to the snax repeatedly calling out their own names) the fun is all in catching ‘em all, and many of the side quests given to you by the grumpuses – the dominant species in this game of which you are one - will require you to do just that. The grumpuses will often ask you to feed them what you’ve caught in order to gain whatever personal advantage they believe consuming these snax will provide. However, each time they are fed their individual body parts transform into that devoured snax and you get to choose what part, essentially decorating the grumpuses how you like. It sounds weird but the fact that the grumpuses are thrilled with the transformation makes sense narrative-wise (without getting into spoilers). I created some absolute monstrosities for the lols, not gonna lie.

You have to scan bugsnax to identify them first and each type requires different strategies and tools for capturing. They all have different likes and dislikes which you can use to your advantage (for instance, my favourite snax, Bunger, loves ketchup). Time of day and weather also affect when certain snax appear. Often it’s about combining the different tools you've acquired or using the environment or even other snax to help you catch the one you want.

The beauty of it is, much like Immortals Fenyx Rising recently, it’s difficult to discern whether or not the developers actually intended for you to solve it the way you did but they've created a world and a set of tools that allow you to go wild. There are also boss fights where you take on these gigantic monster-like snax which require slightly tougher and more unique strategies to bring down and eventually capture. They’re hardly challenging (you can’t die) but the visual design choices are very clever.

The reporter can keep track of all discovered and caught snax via a journal as well as track quests and examine clues about Lizbert’s disappearance. Each side and main quest completed unlocks a piece of the puzzle with characters providing keys to secret chests or audiotapes connected to Lizbert. Typically, as you undertake these side quests you befriend and learn more about each grumpus, helping them overcome their insecurities and hang-ups…or not.

At the very least you need to get them back to Snaxburg. Once you do they are willing to be interviewed about themselves and what they think happened to Lizbert which in turn moves the story forward. The grumpuses also have relationships with one another which you’ll also navigate…or not. My personal favourite was Chandlo, a dudebro type into weight lifting and getting as swole as possible.

Really, my only negative is that a lot of backtracking is required between districts with a loading screen separating each one, and yet there is no fast travel. I've said this before and I stand by it: a game without fast travel cannot be trusted. It just comes across as a decision to disguise poor optimisation. Surprisingly, Bugsnax game runs very well but the thought that it might crash was always at the back of my mind.

TL;DR: Bugsnax is mostly a chill puzzle game, sometimes a detective adventure and, depending on the ending you get, a horror story. On that note I’d caution parents thinking about picking this up for their kids. This may seem like your typical four-quadrant video game on the surface but I’ve watched the bad ending on YouTube and I’m almost certain it might make children cry and/or very scared lol. There is actually a way to make the good ending unmissable but saying how would kind of spoil the freedom of choice you have. It’s a definite buy but only for the PS5 as you will be backtracking a lot through load screens and the PS5 load times are excellent. If you don’t have a PS5 you can definitely wait.

TinCanMan

Bioshock Infinite [PS4] - I loved this game but not quite as much as the first. Although very different from 1 & 2 there are some slight similarities with weapons and vigours(plasmids). If you've never played a Bioshock game then the collection is available quite cheaply. I would highly recommend all three for those that haven't played them. They are masterpieces and should be played in order of release date i.e. 1,2 and then infinite.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider [PS4] - If you've played a Tomb Raider game before then you'll know what to expect. This one is slightly less combat heavy than the first two in the trilogy and more focused on stealth and exploration. It's a beautiful looking game and whilst I enjoyed it I found it to be the weakest of the three.

Astro's Playroom [PS5] - First things first, this game is seriously fun with so much nostalgia thrown in from Playstation history that I was grinning like an idiot at times. But what's most impressive is that they used this game to highlight the new features of the Dualsense controller and boy does it shine. This is a revolution in controller design and I can't wait to see how other games will make use of it in the near future. There's a real wow factor about the Dualsense and it lives up to all the hype.

Ghost of Tsushima [PS5] - This game is something else. The visuals are pure eye candy and the gameplay and story are excellent. Whilst the visuals on the PS5 are the same the 60 FPS makes a huge difference. I enjoyed this game so much that I went on to get the platinum. I have yet to try out the online mode though as I don't really play much online.

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4
A plague tale innocence - Xbox one
Fifa 20 - Xbox one
Hotshot racing - Xbox one

Mafia - PS4

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME Warriors of Fate
PLATFORM Nintendo Switch

I think I've come to the realisation that I just do not find Capcom beat 'em ups very appealing. They all feel the same. Throughout my time playing this game, it just felt like Final Fight if it was set in ancient China. Even the voice samples have the same reverb effect that Final Fight's voices have. Not the best brawler I've played I have to say.

|GAMES BEATEN IN 2021|
#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM

1|RESIDENT EVIL 3|PS4|11|NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM|XBOX 360|21|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3|PC

2|ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN|PS4|12|FATAL FURY (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|22|STREET FIGHTER 3: NEW GENERATION|PC

3|GRIS|PS4|13|STREET FIGHTER|PC|23|STREET FIGHTER 3: 2ND IMPACT|PC

4|SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD|PS4|14|STREET FIGHTER 2: THE WORLD WARRIOR|PC|24|STREET FIGHTER 3: 3RD STRIKE|PC

5|STREETS OF RAGE 4|SWITCH|15|STREET FIGHTER 2: CHAMPION EDITION|PC|25|SHANK|PC

6|KING OF FIGHTERS '94 (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|16|STREET FIGHTER 2: HYPER FIGHTING|PC|26|SHANK 2|PC

7|KING OF FIGHTERS '95|PS4|17|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGERS|PC|27|BLACK MESA|PC

8|KING OF FIGHTERS '96|PS4|18|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO|PC|28|HALF-LIFE 2|PC

9|KING OF FIGHTERS '97: GLOBAL MATCH|PS4|19|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA|PC|29|LITTLE NIGHTMARES 2|XBOX ONE

10|KING OF FIGHTERS '98: ULTIMATE MATCH|PS4|20|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2|PC|30|WARRIORS OF FATE|SWITCH

Retr0gamer

Try alien vs predator. It's a lot more complex, a lot more fun and if you really want to play a more technical brawler than Linn is a huge amount of fun to play once you understand her.

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
PLATFORM PlayStation 3

Grabbed the HD Trilogy off the store before it inevitably becomes unavailable digitally (cheapest option was on the US store for just a tenner).

I am ashamed at myself for ignoring this series. I had so much fun playing it from start to finish. I am not the biggest advocate for platformers, especially 3D platformers, and this one was so enjoyable.

There were two major aspects within this game that I just had no idea;

Open World
Seamless Traversal

Zero loading screens. I'd no idea how they done it but I had to know. I ended up watching an episode of DidYouKnowGaming that explains how they managed to do it, on a PS2 game created in 2001 - I was blown away, even 20 years later I still find this very impressive. The gameplay was solid as well. My only gripe was the camera was not willing to play ball at times. But it was a small issue that didn't happen too often.

The animations, the voice acting, the characters - everything was top-drawer stuff (Daxter was a joy to watch)

Managed to do everything in the game - even nabbing myself a Platinum trophy in the process

I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

|GAMES BEATEN IN 2021|
#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM

1|RESIDENT EVIL 3|PS4|11|NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM|XBOX 360|21|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3|PC|31|JAK & DAXTER|PS3

2|ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN|PS4|12|FATAL FURY (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|22|STREET FIGHTER 3: NEW GENERATION|PC

3|GRIS|PS4|13|STREET FIGHTER|PC|23|STREET FIGHTER 3: 2ND IMPACT|PC

4|SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD|PS4|14|STREET FIGHTER 2: THE WORLD WARRIOR|PC|24|STREET FIGHTER 3: 3RD STRIKE|PC

5|STREETS OF RAGE 4|SWITCH|15|STREET FIGHTER 2: CHAMPION EDITION|PC|25|SHANK|PC

6|KING OF FIGHTERS '94 (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|16|STREET FIGHTER 2: HYPER FIGHTING|PC|26|SHANK 2|PC

7|KING OF FIGHTERS '95|PS4|17|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGERS|PC|27|BLACK MESA|PC

8|KING OF FIGHTERS '96|PS4|18|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO|PC|28|HALF-LIFE 2|PC

9|KING OF FIGHTERS '97: GLOBAL MATCH|PS4|19|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA|PC|29|LITTLE NIGHTMARES 2|XBOX ONE

10|KING OF FIGHTERS '98: ULTIMATE MATCH|PS4|20|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2|PC|30|WARRIORS OF FATE|SWITCH

Retr0gamer

The first game is pretty good for an early PS2 games.

The second is so overrated and quite frankly crap.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The first game is pretty good for an early PS2 games.

The second is so overrated and quite frankly crap.

I'm enjoying it so far.

Retr0gamer

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

I'm enjoying it so far.

I just found the edginess cringey, the open world kind of crappy and then it got really frustrating and hard.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I just found the edginess cringey, the open world kind of crappy and then it got really frustrating and hard.

I have heard about the game's sudden spike in difficulty alright. I ran into one or two instances where trial and error just wasn't cutting it (the red tank on one of the first couple of missions, for example) and I agree the open world is nowhere near as good as the original.

I wish Jak was still mute as well, and I already know your opinion on games that try to be edgy :pac: (Manhunt)

Aside from all of that though I'm still enjoying the gameplay loop.

ShaneU

Hitman 2 PS4
Spiderman PS4

Finally beat Assassins Creed Valhalla... 74 hours and there's still tons to do. The ending is totally bonkers.

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|Game|Platform
Megaman X2|SNES||
Streets of Rage 4|PC||
Sekiro|PC||
Megaman 7|SNES||
Megaman 8|PS1||
Megaman X3|SNES||
Megaman & Bass|SNES||
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4||
Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC||
Mischief Makers|N64||
Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC||
Deception 4: Blood Ties|PS4||

Deception 4: Blood Ties

Ties that Bind mode finished with the A and D endings. I gave up on mission mode, not because it's bad but because I could see myself putting hours and hours into it. I'll go back to it to finish Nightmare Princess and it's DLC but need a break as this game has been consuming my free time.

Deception 4 Is just a huge amount of fun. You basically chain together a Rube Goldberg machine of traps to kill enemies in the most gruesome ways possible. Variety is added my enemies that are invulnerable or resistant to certain traps or can have their armour broken to weaken them. Even more variety is added by the requests that 3 daemons give you that if you go for them force you to be very creative in your trap design. It starts off easy but gets very addictive as you try to perfect your traps to satisfy the daemon requests.

I just had an absolute blast with this game, if you have a PS3, PS Vita or PS4 it's well worth picking up the Nightmare Princess version of this game.

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Astro’s Playroom
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Bugsnax

Cyberpunk 2077. Completed and platinumed.

Even outside of technical performance, the core game gets a bad rap and I think it’s sometimes forgotten that this is essentially an unfinished product. It feels unfinished and therefore so much of what doesn’t work in Cyberpunk is likely the result of running out of time.

The main story is very well written and that’s despite being so obviously hacked at to make the release date. The chemistry between female V and Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, is strong. Without giving away too much of the plot, their relationship blossoming from reluctant housemates to genuine friends felt organic. On paper Johnny should be loathsome but CDPR knew what they were doing when they cast a naturally likeable guy like Reeves.

The campaign does get buried in a sea of an open world, making it feel small in scale but oddly enough that works for how personal the story is. The side missions are not quite up to the standards set by CDPR’s previous hit, The Witcher 3. There are glimpses of it, sure, and they still stand out amongst other massive open world competitors, but overall they’re surprisingly average save for a few.

Much has been said about the brilliant Panam quest line but there is also another, relatively short side mission regarding a repenting ex gang lord that really sat with me. Most of it just involves sitting down and having a chat but the subject matter was thought provoking and the writing felt sincere and mature. I went from disdain to genuinely feeling sorry for the character and that’s coming from someone who hated the Bloody Baron from start to finish.

Perhaps the biggest marketed aspect of Cyberpunk pre-release is Night City and yes, it's very pretty especially in 60 FPS. I often avoided fast travel because I wanted an excuse to drive around and admire the sites. Being a PS4 game at backwards compatibility on the PS5 it’s graphically not up to the standards of the PC version. I only mention that because there’s usually not much difference between PC and console to my untrained eyes but with Cyberpunk the difference is instantly noticeable. Additionally, while the PS5 graphics pale in comparison to PC, the PS4 version pales in comparison to the best PS3 games… The detailed environments are still there but the image is so blurry and low res it will make you think your eyes are going. Then there’s the delayed loading of character models which is immersion breaking at best and terrifying at worst. Simply put, it’s visually unacceptable on last gen consoles and the worst way to experience the game.

NPCs are also a mixed bag. The animations are unmatched in cut scenes with characters multitasking as they’re talking to you as opposed to standing there just staring into the camera. Feels very natural and very next gen (current gen?) Sadly, the same cannot be said of the nameless NPCs. We’ve already seen the lack of driver A.I. and the weird, inconsistent reactions to V terrorising the city in countless YouTube videos. There are also no animals to speak of, not even birds in the badlands (although I read somewhere that this is for lore reasons). Not really much to interact with in the open world either. So whilst Night City is great looking, it’s fake feeling.

As an RPG, there’s been lot of complaints about the “illusion of choice” and I think that term is thrown around too much for RPGs that attempt to tell more linear stories. Meaningful choices don’t rest solely on consequences for decisions but moral choices that determine how you shape your character, and Cyberpunk does this extremely well. Likewise, I don’t see the so-called identity crisis that has been lobbied at the combat side of things. Like the Witcher 3 before it, you can be a jack of all trades and get by adequately with a little bit of everything but you will be rewarded more if you make a dedicated build. Combat was immensely satisfying as an assault techie character. There are so many great weapons that, if anything, it's easy to get choice paralysis.

Where it does fall short in the choice aspect is that sometimes there really isn’t a choice at all: you either complete a mission or you fail it. “No” doesn’t seem to be a legitimate response and so quests are left incomplete in the log or failed if you don't reload. It’s like the game is outright telling you you’re playing it wrong. That's a nitpick though and thankfully this didn't occur too often in my playthrough.

The only real issue that significantly impacts the experience is the economy which is very, very bad. Again, likely the result of the devs not having enough time to properly balance it but I can only judge what’s there now. Everything costs ways too much and you earn way too little, forcing you to grind out repetitive open world fluff and by the time you do so much of the game has been played. Consequently you can’t really experiment as a full-on netrunner as the best cyberware upgrades are dear. You can cheat the economy with a huge money glitch but this will undoubtedly be patched. The crafting economy almost feels like a troll, requiring you to craft a thing to craft a thing but so much is a required to craft each thing just to craft the thing you want that it’s counterproductive.

The quality of life is also lacking. Menus are a nightmare to navigate whether simply comparing, buying/selling or crafting and I often hesitated to pick up loot just because I don’t want to deal with it in the menus – that is, when I could loot an item... This, unfortunately, brings me to the other main negative:

Yeah, Cyberpunk is bug ridden. It’s not the most buggy or poorly optimised game ever but it is annoying in an otherwise enjoyable ride. Most bugs I encountered could be be fixed by reloading a save. I only had one at the end that couldn’t but it was an optional task that didn’t affect the ending. (This bug has also allegedly been fixed with the most recent patch.) It's worth noting that I got lucky as there are well documented game breaking bugs should you be unfortunate enough to find them.

TL;DR: Obviously, do not buy Cyberpunk 2077 now even with the most recent patch, as it may break as much as it fixes. Also, do not under any circumstances play this on last gen consoles. It’s definitely worth playing if you accept it for what it is rather than what was promised, but wait for the next gen patch and all the bug and QOL fixes for a smoother, uninterrupted experience.

Gamer Bhoy 89

I'm shocked that game is still a mess. I've yet to buy it due to being completely turned off from all the issues I've heard about it. When I buy that game I don't wanna be a practicing technician looking for problems. I wanna enjoy it. Looks like I'm waiting a while longer

Retr0gamer

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

I'm shocked that game is still a mess. I've yet to buy it due to being completely turned off from all the issues I've heard about it. When I buy that game I don't wanna be a practicing technician looking for problems. I wanna enjoy it. Looks like I'm waiting a while longer

Sometimes its worth it, plenty of over ambitious messes have been released on PC that were incredible experiences once you found a way to live with the jank. Bloodlines and Stalker are complete messes but also two of the best games ever.

Cyberpunk by all accounts is just grand...

At least we have the shadowrun games and Deus Ex for cyberpunk RPGs.

[Deleted User]

Game Platform
Code Vein Xbox
Haven Xbox
Call Of the Sea Xbox
Immortals Fenyx Rising Xbox
Hitman 3 Xbox
Donut County Xbox
The Medium Xbox
Day of the Tentacle Remastered Xbox
Full Throttle Remastered Xbox
Trailmakers Xbox
Dark Souls 2 SotFS Xbox
Fallout 4 PC
Undertale Xbox
Genesis Noir Xbox

Played Genesis Noir on Gamepass over the week end, loved the art style and music but hated the game. While the puzzles aren't really difficult can be a bit ambiguous and the game does a piss poor job conveying to the player what it expects them to do. I don't need my hand held but when I'm forced to randomly click the screen or press A in the hope something happens they've not done the best job. Won't even get started on the plot

Next up for me I think will be Nier Automata on PC (gamepass version)

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Astro’s Playroom
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Bugsnax
Cyberpunk 2077

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered. Completed and platinumed. I played this last year but replayed the entire campaign this year for the ‘Immortal’ trophy which requires completing every mission without dying. Still holds up as one of the best COD campaigns. If you're a fan of COD single player but for some reason never played this one it's a must. If you hate COD and want Activision to suck a d*ck this won't change your mind.

Kingp35

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Astro’s Playroom.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Bugsnax.
Cyberpunk 2077.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered

Spider-Man: Miles Morales DLC. Completed and platinumed.

No, it doesn’t officially say "DLC" but that’s essentially what it is dressed up as a full price game that no one should in no way, shape or form pay for until there is a significant price drop! Basically, if you like the main game then you will like this. It’s exactly the same but truncated and with new abilities. The combat overall is still the best version of the Arkham style every basic bitch third person action/adventure seemed to be aping around 2013 to 2015.

This DLC attempts to draw a line between itself and the main game by highlighting Miles’ inexperience as Spider-Man, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, when you perform ‘awesome’ or ‘spectacular’ combos during swinging Miles yells excitedly, “that was sick!” which brings a smile to the face. On the other hand, his landings and overall acrobatics are deliberately sloppy in comparison to Peter’s which I get but isn’t as visually fun to watch. That's a nitpick though - the swinging is still the standout mechanic of this franchise.

There are some more notable changes but not for the better... The aforementioned moment of glee is rare for Miles who is a whiny little bitch throughout and is incapable of internalising his thoughts. The game is so patronising that Miles has to tell you how to complete puzzles before you even realise you've started one. I think the moment it dawned on me just how much I am not a Miles Morales fan is when I found myself using the skip button whenever a relic from his past was acquired unlike, say, Peter’s stories about his backpacks which I was happy to listen to. I also did a New Game Plus playthrough and in the opening sequence with Rhino I paid more attention to Peter's quipping in the background and it was hilarious. Really made me miss him.

To top it off, there’s the cringe-inducing way Miles' race is "handled". I like the Avengers-style score music but then they have to drop an awkward and cheap sounding Hip Hop beat over it (because apparently Hip Hop is the only music black people listen to). There’s also a weird Black Lives Matter reference which comes out of nowhere,

and the Roxxon enemy faction - who act as hyper aggressive stand-ins for the police - are prepared to shoot a complying Miles once his skin colour is revealed. That scene didn’t even make sense seeing as one of Spider-Man’s abilities are his fast reflexes so he could have easily dodged each and every one of their bullets,

as he does throughout the entire game.

Putting aside that black kids should get the chance to experience the power fantasy of being a superhero without real world ugliness creeping in, to only reference racism when the protagonist is (half) black seems like a cynical marketing ploy, especially when his Latino heritage is portrayed more positively. There is so much more to black people than oppression.

And then there's the story. Oh boy. The story is simply not as good as the 2018 one, I'm sorry to say. There are just too many moments of characters saying or doing something insanely stupid in order to advance the plot. For instance,

Miles’ morally ambiguous uncle saying that he recognised Miles as Spider-Man from "shooting hoops" (as opposed to his whiny, lipsy voice) because apparently being good at basketball is comparable to being a wall crawling acrobat... Then there's Phin warning Miles during his infiltration of her hideout that The Underground gang will take a while to warm up to him only for them to spill all their secrets moments later…

Like I said, the game treats its player like an idiot.

Speaking of Phin, who I guess is the main antagonist alongside Troy Baker, she is by far and away the biggest casualty of this subpar plot. Going from sympathetic to psycho way too quickly. I never bought into her trying to kill Miles who she previously thought of as family. She also had no reason not to believe him when he desperately tells her that her plan is going to kill innocent people. He lied, like, once. Why would you take the risk that he’s telling the truth?

It’s a real shame because the story and characters in the main game was one of its biggest strengths.

Lastly, the graphics on PS5 are OK but even with ray tracing and 60FPS it’s still inferior to the PS4 version of the 2018 one IMO. Load times are obviously excellent.

Look, it’s a good bit of DLC but don’t bother with it at full price. It’s probably better to get Spider-Man Remastered as I think this comes packaged with it, otherwise wait for a significant price drop.

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4
A plague tale innocence - Xbox one
Fifa 20 - Xbox one
Hotshot racing - Xbox one
Mafia - PS4

Resident evil 3 - PS4

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|Game|Platform
Megaman X2|SNES||
Streets of Rage 4|PC||
Sekiro|PC||
Megaman 7|SNES||
Megaman 8|PS1||
Megaman X3|SNES||
Megaman & Bass|SNES||
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4||
Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC||
Mischief Makers|N64||
Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC||
Deception 4: Blood Ties|PS4||
Final Fantasy Adventure|Gameboy||
Virtua Racing|Switch||

Final Fantasy Adventure

For an early Gameboy title this is an absolute triumph for Squaresoft. They basically turned final fantasy into a zelda like game and while its not a patch on Link's Awakening it's still a great game and predated that game by 2 years. At the time it was the best zelda type game by a long shot.

There's a few issues with the game. Due to the lack of buttons inventory management can be a pain. Some of the clues to progress can be a little confusing. And some puzzles, usually involving the ice spell, can be a pain as the collision detection with the floor tiles is suspect to say the least. Music is also pretty weak for a Squaresoft game.

Although this is called Final Fantasy Adventure it's actually the first Secret of Mana game but it actually contains a lot of FF references. Enemy types look like recurring enemies from FF, there's lots of little FF references like fighting the four elemental fiends from FF1.

Brilliant game that plays to the strengths of the handheld format.

Virtua Racing

The switch port of this game isn't arcade perfect, it's beyond arcade perfect with tonnes of additions and a silky smooth 60 FPS as opposed to the arcades 30 fps.

When I say finished this I mean I finished all three tracks, scraping over the finish line of arcropolis with 0 seconds on the timer. The handling model feels very basic next to the likes of Sega Rally but it's still a really fun racer.

Kingp35

The Phantom Pain

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Astro’s Playroom.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Bugsnax.
Cyberpunk 2077.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered
Spider-Man: Miles Morales DLC

Rage 2. Completed and platinumed.

If you’ve played Avalanche’s previous games like Just Cause and Mad Max you know what you’re getting with Rage 2. It’s an open world that’s less of a 'world' but more like a checklist of repetitive but satisfying tasks for you to take care of.

At first it's kind of dull. You’re going around base clearing but you don’t have abilities yet, so that mainly consists of sitting behind cover and taking out enemies with the assault rifle so you can eventually plunder the base’s resources, in which you can spend several minutes searching for because almost every box containing loot is marked pink in a game that is overall very, very pink. At this point you’ll probably want to put the controller down but stick with it because when you do find those abilities, better weapons and upgrades that’s when id Software takes control of the wheel.

Suddenly you’re storming in with your shotty blowing everything in sight while enemies scramble to get away from you. That’s when you’re not using The Force your abilities to push and pull enemies around, shatter their armour, slam them to the ground etc, whichever comes first. The issue of locating resources within the base becomes trivial when you’re double jumping all over the place while using your eagle vision ’focus’ and radar to easily spot them. You get into this rhythm that’s so addictive that it turns into a, “just one more mission” game several missions later. Each base has different levels from 1 to 10 but there is no player level. The game doesn’t tell you when you’re ready to take them on; you’ll just feel it. And that progression from, “can I do this?” to, “you are sooo dead” is *chef's kiss*

There’s not much vehicular combat other than the respawning enemy convoys which are fun, but don’t go in expecting Fury Road. It’s very much a stripped down version of Mad Max due to a lack of weapon variety and virtually no off-road manoeuvrability. There are multiple vehicles in the world which you can obtain by finding and bringing them back to trade towns, but your starting vehicle, the Phoenix, is usually the most efficient. Phoenix also talks by the way but she’s more annoying than anything, constantly backseat driving.

On that note, the story is just...nothing, and its presentation is rushed. Something about a ranger who is the last surviving member of her squad and she needs to stop an evil mutant alien guy from killing humanity and cloning himself and making more mutants and the only way to do that is to make some super weapon or something. The characters are mostly forgettable and the game is so eager for you to get into the action as quickly as possible that its idea of character introduction is literally pausing to deliver exposition about an NPC while their bio is displayed on screen. What’s worse is that NPCs ramble on about absolutely nothing. For instance, it takes a couple of minutes for them just to tell the player to clear out a mutant nest that, at that point, you’ve probably done a thousand times. I don’t usually skip dialogue on principle but I did for this.

The lead character, Rachel Walker, is OK when she is not screaming over every bullet flying her way. It ruins the power fantasy when your protagonist is constantly going, “eeerrgh! aaaargh!” What’s funny is that at a certain point you’ll heal too fast from the health currency enemies drop to even die so her whining is OTT. You can choose your gender at the start of the game so I’m not sure if the male Walker differs in this regard as I never chose him.

There are three main NPCs who provide you with the story missions to take down the main bad guy. Each of them has “projects” that come with incredibly useful perks. You open up more projects by doing each NPC’s corresponding tasks in the open world. Once you’ve done a certain amount of these tasks you level up with that NPC and get 3 points per level to spend on any of their projects. At some point in the story this becomes mandatory, as you cannot progress until you reach a minimum of level 5 with each NPC. The amount of XP you get is extremely generous though and no other story mission is gated thereafter. In fact, it’s likely you will be level 5 with at least one of them before you’re even asked to be.

One last thing, I also beat this game on Ultra Nightmare difficulty for my NG+ run. Let me lend some friendly advice for anyone remotely interested: don’t do this. No matter how badass you think you are it’s not worth the literal headache. Playing on the highest difficulty forcibly regresses you back to a state of hiding behind cover and popping your head out occasionally to shoot enemies with the AR because you die in 3 hits tops, sometimes 1 hit depending on the enemy. This render’s the game’s best asset – the manic, fast paced Doom-inspired CQC - virtually impossible. Also, enemies are such bullet sponges on this mode, even with damage output upgrades, that ammo depletion becomes a concern where it isn't usually.

TL;DR: If you like sandbox checklist games where you go from base to base with not much in between like Mad Max and Just Cause then no doubt you’ll enjoy this. The grind of these bases, while rarely imposed on the player, is not supplementary to the missions; it’s the meat. The Doom-like gunplay from id is so enjoyable though that you won’t feel the grind, and the story is so short that ultimately you get to decide when enough is enough. I've beaten the game 3 times now and it's definitely worth playing if you know what you're getting into.

Mr.Fantastic

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4
A plague tale innocence - Xbox one
Fifa 20 - Xbox one
Hotshot racing - Xbox one
Mafia - PS4
Resident evil 3 - PS4

The walking dead a new frontier - Xbox one

Mr.Fantastic

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
PLATFORM PC

This game is nothing but a massive collect-a-thon with a Star Wars story thrown in, with Lego characters.

Doesn't make it bad but it does make it overly reliant on "getting everything in the game" so much so that beating the main story isn't enough. You have to do EVERYTHING in order to complete it.

Well I'm not doing that lol

I took my time and played through the six campaign stories. That's enough for me. It's fun but it's clearly obvious who the target audience is. The game bears no challenge whatsoever. Not once was I ever stuck or consulting a guide. Got lost once or twice but that was it. I like the idea of the Lego games but as a grown adult with a short attention span there is way too much collecting in this one, and as a result it ended up feeling very repetitive and tedious. That's not to say I won't play more Lego games in future, I do enjoy them, I really enjoyed Lego Marvel back in 2014, but the Star Wars titles in particular are not that good - not for me anyway.

|GAMES BEATEN IN 2021|
#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM|#|GAME|PLATFORM

1|RESIDENT EVIL 3|PS4|11|NEOGEO BATTLE COLISEUM|XBOX 360|21|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3|PC|31|JAK & DAXTER|PS3

2|ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN|PS4|12|FATAL FURY (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|22|STREET FIGHTER 3: NEW GENERATION|PC|32|LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA|PC

3|GRIS|PS4|13|STREET FIGHTER|PC|23|STREET FIGHTER 3: 2ND IMPACT|PC

4|SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD|PS4|14|STREET FIGHTER 2: THE WORLD WARRIOR|PC|24|STREET FIGHTER 3: 3RD STRIKE|PC

5|STREETS OF RAGE 4|SWITCH|15|STREET FIGHTER 2: CHAMPION EDITION|PC|25|SHANK|PC

6|KING OF FIGHTERS '94 (ACA NEOGEO)|PS4|16|STREET FIGHTER 2: HYPER FIGHTING|PC|26|SHANK 2|PC

7|KING OF FIGHTERS '95|PS4|17|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGERS|PC|27|BLACK MESA|PC

8|KING OF FIGHTERS '96|PS4|18|SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO|PC|28|HALF-LIFE 2|PC

9|KING OF FIGHTERS '97: GLOBAL MATCH|PS4|19|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA|PC|29|LITTLE NIGHTMARES 2|XBOX ONE

10|KING OF FIGHTERS '98: ULTIMATE MATCH|PS4|20|STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2|PC|30|WARRIORS OF FATE|SWITCH

Mr.Fantastic

The Raging Bile Duct

Mr.Fantastic wrote: »

Its Sony propaganda but god damn it is fun.

Astro's Playroom is propaganda? I've heard it all now...