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What Games Have You Completed? (2023 EDITION!)

Gamer Bhoy 89

Good day, one and all. Hope you all had a splendid holiday this year.

I think this has become one of my few yearly traditions at this point. It falls on this guy to make a new Completed Games thread every Hogmanay 😂 I think this is my 6th or 7th one.

With that said. A very Happy New Year to all. Hope 2023 brings happiness to everyone. Get some games beaten, as well!

I have to say my 2022 run of beating games was lackluster compared to the previous year. I'll put it down to just being a busy year for me, for many reasons. I got a PS5 and an Xbox Series X in the same year, which was nice - haven't made a dent in any Xbox games since I bought it, though 😂

Here's my completed list of 2022.

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TinCanMan

The Last Guardian [PS5] - A game that I both loved and hated. The story and the world that it plays out in are amazing with the sense of scale when outside and traversing upwards providing some exhilarating moments. The bond between the two main characters is a joy to experience and grows throughout the game. Now for the bad. The controls and camera are beyond frustrating at times and can lead to some truly rage inducing moments. In addition some of the puzzles have little logic to them and can be difficult to figure out. That aside the game was a beautiful experience and well worth playing.

Assassins Creed Black Flag [PS5] - What a joy this game is to play. It’s definitely one of the best Assassins Creed games to date and for a game almost 10 years old it still looks beautiful. The story is well written and the protagonist likeable. The ship battles add greatly to the game with some epic battles ensuing but this game is more than just that. I found the player control to be well polished as well. Overall I would thoroughly recommend this game.

Stray [PS5] - This game is visually stunning in a unique setting where you play as a cat with the ultimate aim to escape the world that you are forced into. Along the way you will encounter various puzzles and enemies. Whilst not overly challenging they do add to this unique environment. It’s a beautiful experience, especially if you are looking for something a bit different at a more relaxing pace.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons [PS5] - I can’t recommend this game enough. It really hits you in the feels. The game itself looks beautiful and has a unique playstyle as you need to control the two brothers simultaneously with the left and right analog sticks. There are various puzzles and enemies to tackle on your adventures. Whilst the game isn’t overly long it’s definitely one that everyone should experience.

Omno [PS5] - If you need a game to relax to then this is for you. It’s a delightful indie puzzle platformer that reminds me in some ways of the playstation classic Journey. It’s never too challenging but the beautiful world and almost zen-like gameplay is ideal for someone looking for a less stressful game to play.

Dishonored 2 [PS5] - If you’ve played the first then this is a huge step up both graphically and in terms of gameplay. You get a choice of playing as the main character from the first game or his daughter, both of whom have different skill sets and strengths. You can be guns blazing or super stealthy, the choice is really up to you. I played this stealthily and had a blast causing mayhem from the shadows. For those that haven’t played dishonored 1 or 2 I’d highly recommend giving them a try.

RobertFoster

Finally started Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury back in January having let it sit unplayed on my backlog pile for over a year.

Never had a WiiU so it was all new to me. Ploughed through 3D World until I got to the last world before trying Bowser's Fury.

I loved their take on open world Mario. Short and sweet to grab all 100 moons. Would definitely have played more, looking forward to how the series develops from here.

After that I decided to go back to 1-1 and have the other 4 characters catch up to Mario. That was a bit of a slog at times and I questioned why I was even bothering when I've other games to play.

I found the last two levels were quite challenging and frustrating. Finished Mystery House Marathon with all characters before moving on to Champion's Road. The slight difference between characters added to the challenge but the levels certainly got easier once memorised.

55 hours all in according to the Switch.

johnny_ultimate

Metroid Prime Remastered

There were a few moments in this expertly updated version of the GC classic where I wanted to pull my hair out. Whether it's the sometimes bullet-spongey bosses that require strategies that are easy to figure out but sometimes tedious to execute, or having to venture back through the game's 'dark' areas to grab a particular item, or even just the slightly finicky switching of visors and weapons.

That the game is still an absorbing, delightful experience despite that is testament to how well it has aged. Yes, it's clear from a few old design quirks that this isn't a brand new game, but the wonders of the level design, atmosphere building, visual presentation, music etc... make it feel shockingly fresh and forward-looking all these years later. A sharp visual and control makeover doesn't hurt - even more so than some other recent remakes, it really captures the look and feel of what you remember Metroid Prime looking and feeling like. But I struggle to think of any game - including this one's sequels - that have done the 3D Metroidvania style with quite as much elegance as this.

It was a joy to revisit, and I think actually complete for the first time. Its a game that in some way laid the foundation for many great games to come - there's more than a little bit of the 'Souls' games in the way the world gradually unfolds and loops around - while having that particular era of Nintendo magic of taking a 2D franchise and translating it perfectly into a third dimension.

Penn

Neon White (PS5)
Dead Cells (PS5)
Superliminal (PS5)
Dead Space (Remake) (PS5)
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5)
Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy (PS5)

Like A Dragon: Ishin (PS5)

Little bit of a letdown if I'm being honest. All the usual Yakuza-isms are there though it's very refreshing to not be in the modern era, forcing them to not just rely on the usual side stuff and city design. On the other hand though, it meant a lot of the side activities were old Japanese games that I at no point ever knew how to play. Only for one place that has Texas Hold'Em there'd have been little for me to do, but even that didn't hold my attention long.

There's also the usual singing, and a dancing mini-game, but neither held much water.

The main big side activity which can help your progress in the game is a homestead where you can grow vegetables, cook meals (with small minigames), or sell meals/produce to shops for profit. The meals were most useful as health packs during fights than anything else. A lot of side missions involve making meals or giving vegetables to people for (as is tradition in these games) very strange reasons. Again though, there's just not a lot of fun or challenge to it.

Combat is okay. You have four styles; brawling, sword, gun, sword&gun. I mostly stuck with the latter unless forced to use one of the others (and one of my biggest annoyances with the game was it automatically switching to another, usually the sword style, at the start of some fights which always threw me off). Same as other Yakuza games I played though, you'll usually just pick a style you like fairly early and stick to it.

Too many of the side missions are just needless busiwork with no variety. There are numerous missions where you just have to bring people vegetables, fish, meals or medicine over and over again with the same conversation each time. And although it happened in other Yakuza games, it feels more prevalent here that you can't walk down more than three streets without being attacked, which just got boring by the end, especially when I was trying to just plough through the game to finish the story.

The story is where the game shines brightest though. It's a lot of fun. Nothing special, and bits of it you can see a mile off, but it has enough intrigue and twists in it to keep you interested. Boss fights are generally well designed with some tricky attack patterns or abilities they might have, though the camera can be a pain in some fights.

Glad I played and mostly enjoyed my time with it, but a lot of the game relies on quantity over quality to the point of repetitive annoyance.

Retr0gamer

Sonic Frontiers (PC)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
Aladdin (SNES)
Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

After the excellent Trails in the Sky trilogy Falcom have yet again produced another stellar JRPG with Trails from Zero. Zero leaves behind Liberl for the tiny city state of Crossbell. Crossbell lies in a strategically important area between the Erbonian Empire and the Calvard Republic, two countries with a violent past against one another with Crossbell getting caught in the crossfire. Both countries claim dominion over the city state but due to a peace treaty the city state has been allowed to act autonomously as long as it does not have it's own standing army.

Despite the more compact size compared to the Trails in the Skies' setting of Liberl, Crossbell makes a great location for a game. There's tension due to it's position politically but also due to it's free state nature a lot of trade goes through Crossbell which has made it extremely wealthy. However with all that money comes consequences. There's a massive gap in quality of life between the haves and have nots. Politics are rife with corruption. Add to that the local Mafiosa smugglers are now having to deal with a triad style crime syndicate muscling into Crossbell. On top of that Crossbell is trialing the 'Orbal Network', basically the prototype for this universe's internet.

To combat these new threats the local police force have created the SSS (special support section), a team of four removed from the police force. The aim is to have them removed from the political corruption rife within the police force while also being able to interfere with the government and prosecute them unlike the civilian Bracers Guild. There's something strange happening in Crossbell and it's up to the SSS to discover what it is.

You take control of the SSS consisting of 4 party members, all of which you'll grow to love. There's the mysterious Tio with he high tech get up, rich girl Ellie, rambunctious ladies man Randy and then squad leader Lloyd who loves a cheesy pep talk or friendship speech and gets called out for how bad they are. The entire cast is excellent, as usual for a Falcom game. The setting also lends itself well to a RPG. Crossbell city is the central hub with roads branching out leading to places of interest and villages. Despite the smaller scale compared to Trails in the Sky there's a huge amount of attention to detail in the setting. As always each NPC has their own little story which changes as the game progresses.

The game is broken in to 4 chapters, each one a separate case for the SSS to solve before culminating in a finale that brings all the narrative threads together in a satisfying conclusion. The writing here is excellent and complimented by an excellent localisation job by the Geofront team. The battle system hasn't changed much from previous entries which is no bad thing as the Trails battle system is excellent. However it's a little jarring going from the third Trails game to this one as the combat is way less complicated. In it's defense this is a brand new story arc meant to bring new players on board whereas the third Trails game was an epilogue to two other games so anyone playing with it would be familiar with the battle system already and would want more challenge and complexity.

For me Trails from Zero is the best Trails has been from the games I've played. The more compact and focused world suits the game better, the story is great with some really tense finales to each chapter. I like how the writing went all in with the SSS team being detectives that do actual police work. Side quests are all worth doing and bring some fun flavour to the world and characters. If you like the Trails games this is a must play. As the start of a new arc this is a good jumping in point for people interested in the series however there's some references to the previous arc that will please fans (and I admit to getting a bit misty eyed at the resolution to one characters story arc that took four games to resolve).

While I love these games it's hard to recommend as they aren't for people with not much patience. They can be a bit wordy and move slowly but they are games you stick with as the pay offs are more than worth your time invested into them.

Kingp35

Yakuza 0 - PlayStation 5
Yakuza 3 - PlayStation 5
The Gardens Between - PlayStation 5
Foreclosed - PlayStation 5
Biomutant - PlayStation 5
Whispering Willows - PlayStation 5
The Quarry - PlayStation 5
Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light - PlayStation 5
Victor Vran (Including DLC) - PlayStation 5
Black Mirror - PlayStation 5
Telling Lies - PlayStation 5
The Forgotten City - PlayStation 5

Black Mirror

This was a dud for sure. Billed as a horror game, it's a simple enough puzzle game where you walk around an old mansion uncovering the plot as you go along. There's nothing challenging here and the story is a complete mess to the point of almost being incomprehensible. Avoid

Telling Lies

The concept for this game is excellent, you need to search through a bunch of FMV's using search terms to unravel a mystery. Sadly though it sounds way better than it actually plays. It just wasn't fun and I just fast forwarded through the vast majority of the videos. If they could think of a more enjoyable way to use this concept then it could be great but as it stands it's just not fun.

The Forgotten City

What an excellent game, I loved it from start to finish and purposefully got all of the endings. This game to me is the definition of how to use time loops correctly with no forced time limits etc like an other much loved time loop game. Definitely the best game I've played this year.

TinCanMan

Mafia: Definitive Edition [PS5] - A remake of the first Mafia game. You play as Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver who through chance ends up joining the Salieri crime family and the game follows his rise in the organisation. It's a chapter driven game with varying missions from driving, shooting, assassinations and robbery. It's beautifully played out with real depth to the characters and an engaging story.

Kingp35

Yakuza 0 - PlayStation 5
Yakuza 3 - PlayStation 5
The Gardens Between - PlayStation 5
Foreclosed - PlayStation 5
Biomutant - PlayStation 5
Whispering Willows - PlayStation 5
The Quarry - PlayStation 5
Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light - PlayStation 5
Victor Vran (Including DLC) - PlayStation 5
Black Mirror - PlayStation 5
Telling Lies - PlayStation 5
The Forgotten City - PlayStation 5
I Am Dead - PlayStation 5
The Medium - PlayStation 5

I Am Dead

This game is difficult to describe. You play as a man who has recently died who sets to save his island from disaster by viewing the memories of other dead islanders trying to recruit them to take on a job that will save the island. The actual gameplay is incredibly simple though as you mostly spend your time searching for objects throughout the island to unlock the memories. Objects can be located within other objects which at least creates some kind of a challenge. The game does have some charm to it, the voice acting is good and the unique animation style is well done but ultimately it's too simple and there just isn't enough to do within the game world.

The Medium

I loved this game. It's the perfect game for me - a narrative driven horror game with a good story with the gameplay mostly consisting of puzzle solving. The only downside for me were the stealth sections but that's mostly because I hate stealth sections where you're put back to the start if you fail. A really enjoyable game.

da gamer

Call of duty modern warfare II - PS4

Lego the Incredibles - PS4

A plague tale requim - Xbox series s

High on life - Xbox series s

Prodeus - Xbox series s

Goldeneye - Xbox series s

The last of us - PS4

TMNT shredder revenge-Xbox series s

Shadow warrior 3 - Xbox series s

sdfg4

Age of Empires 4 is a good game, and I hope more people will participate.

Mr.Fantastic

God of war: Ragnarok -PS5
Signalis -Xbox Series X
The Callisto Protocol - PS5
FF7 Crisis core reunion -PS5
Fire Emblem: Engage - Switch

Fire Emblem: Engage

There is 30 hours I won't get back. After loving three houses and playing path of radiance last year I was really looking forward to this. The combat and character models are great but the story was really a let down. I was actively skipping cutscense near the end as the story was just pure and utter shite.

Very much a 7/10 had its moments but the story for me really held it back.

Retr0gamer

Sonic Frontiers (PC)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
Aladdin (SNES)
Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)

Thief: Deadly Shadows

The third game in the excellent Thief trilogy. While the first two games dealt with the Pagan and Hammerite factions, this third game concerns itself with Garrett's former guild, the secretive Keepers. Garrett once again reluctantly gets himself involved in a conspiracy. Something isn't right on the streets of the city and there's rumours of a terrifying Hag wandering the streets terrorising its inhabitants. But Garrett being the master thief that he is might as well steal and pick a pocket while he is helping out.

I absolutely adore the first two thief games. They are masterclasses in level design and have some of the best sound design of any game. While I found Deadly Shadows disappointing, it's still an great game and a good bookend to the series. Like the other two games I played this on the highest difficulty level. this doesn't make the game harder but adds more objectives for Garrett to complete, doesn't allow you to kill human enemies and gives you a loot threshold to cross for each mission.

If you've not played Thief, it's very different from any other game or even stealth game you've played. The most terrifying thing you can come across is a electric light with no way to turn it off or a marble or metal floor and knowing there's no way to cross it without causing a massive racket. Your havens are soft ground like carpets and shadows. The biggest change Deadly Shadows brings to the series is technology, although it's a double edged sword here.

The first two thief games weren't lookers when they came out but they had a very advanced for the time lighting and sound engine that allowed for its unique stealth mechanics. Technology had come along was in six years. Deadly Shadows came out on PC and XBox and this allowed for it to have a fully dynamic lighting system which really enhances how the game plays. Lights and shadows move and cast realistically and some guards even carry torches to give away your position. It's also a real looker for its time. The game makes heavy use of stencil shadows and pixel shaders which were very advanced for the time. It looks old now but the art is still effective and it has a striking unique look and feel.

On the other hand the game suffers slightly from having to ship on the XBox. The original Thief games were known for their huge labyrinthian missions. Deadly Shadows missions are quite large but broken up by loading screens. This is thankfully fixed in a fan patch on PC but the mission locations do seem a little basic compared to the missions of the old games. New to the series is how the game lets you explore the city between missions. The city opens up more as you play the game so it doesn't become too confusing and there's some fun side missions to take part in. Unfortunately you'll be seeing a lot of the City while playing the game and it does get tiresome knocking out the same guard yet again when returning from a mission. Mission design and locations are quite high quality but special mention must be made to the Shalebridge Cradle which is one of the all time great videogame levels.

It would be remiss not to mention the excellent music and soundscape from Eric Brosius. The dynamic music works brilliantly to set the mood but Shalebridge Cradle takes the sound design to another plane of excellence. Just like the other Thief games, the world building is probably the best you'll find in a videogame.

While I really enjoyed the game despite it not living up to the originals (which is a tall order when they are two of the all time greats) I had some issues. I had a few crashes and every so often the game would bug on geometry and put you in a state where you could move but not perform an action until you fell off a ledge of some kind. The highest difficulty level expert is a bit too demanding when it comes to loot. Missions require you to steal 90% of the loot in the level and every mission I would end with 75-80% loot and I'd have to scour the mission to reach that limit (once or twice looking up a walkthrough if I had major trouble tracking down the well hidden loot).

da gamer

Call of duty modern warfare II - PS4

Lego the Incredibles - PS4

A plague tale requim - Xbox series s

High on life - Xbox series s

Prodeus - Xbox series s

Goldeneye - Xbox series s

The last of us - PS4

TMNT shredder revenge-Xbox series s

Shadow warrior 3 - Xbox series s

Mafia 2 - PS4

Sephiroth_dude

The outer worlds spacer's choice - ps5

Forspoken - ps5

Mal-Adjusted

Fight Night Round 2

total $h1t, with very akward controls.

Bioshock Infinite: Buried at sea

This was so dissapointing. for such a plot heavy game, it compleatly contradicts the ending of infinite, as well as itself by the end. it's like it was made by a different development team. I also hate the cliche of having the new favorite darling character bieng retroactivly inserted into previous games and be the most important person in the universe. The only real saving grace was seeing Rapture in it's prime before the collapse.

Motocross Mania 3

A fun little racing game, the combat sortof reminded me of Road Rash a bit. A light breeze will make you crash, which can be frustrating but i found myself always going back for one more race, so they must be on to something.

Resonance of Fate

This one was pretty out there. i still don't really know if i liked it or not. a drab steampunk inspired world set on a giant clocktower thing assured liberal use of the piss-fitler. the quasi-relgous overtones and utter lack of coherance in the "story" of a game that stubbornly refuses to explain anything will always make for a disconnected esperience. Whenever i got a cutscene, i'd have to go online because i thought i missed some other vital information, like if some of the main story was hidden away in a sidequest i missed. Speaking of which, the game is broken into various chapters, each with their own sidequests. if you do the main mission first, any unfinished side content gets locked out and replaced with chapter specific new ones. Why?

The real meat is the combat, infamous for it's complexity. In truth, it's more convoluted than complex, with scratsh damage and direct damage that need to be used together (in reality, it's just the stagger bar from FFXIII but less flashy). Once you understand how movement works, you're sorted. still a hard game though, and the need to farm hexes to unlock more of the map was unnecessary. Even now as i'm writing this, i think i liked it, but just about. it's 70-75 or so rating seems fair enough, maybe a bit too generous even. it's a wierd, oddball game, but definetly not a hidden gem.

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption

Another strange RPG. You start off as a crusader-era knight who gets turned into a vampire after the first dungeon. the story is complex and deep, even if most of the characters are not. the plethora of vampire powers you get can be a little overwhelming and having to micromanage your four character party is a bit unwieldy, but otherwise a good romp. It is kind of funny where about two thirds of the way through, a pillar falls on you in 1141 and you wake up in 1999, still talking in ye olden speak. I played the vanilla version so there were a couple of bugs but there's plenty of patches for it. it can be a little hard to get into, but thoroughly enjoyable and doesn't take a million hours to beat like so many modern RPG's.

Mr.Saturn

Just bought Resonance so looking forward to giving it a pop.

Infinite’s DLC was just miserable and tried to retcon way too much for its own good.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418525#Comment_120418525

I actually liked episode 2 of Burial at Sea despite hating Infinite. The stealth gameplay was really fun. But yeah the retcons were awful especially Ken Levine trying to heavy handedly retcon one of the worst and most racist scenes in the base game.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418588#Comment_120418588

I thought you meant the excellent point and click game. Still Resonance of fate is a game I really want to give a go at some point. I heard the tutorial actively tells you the wrong way to play the game which is a big issue to learning the combat system.

Mr.Saturn

Games Beaten 2023

1. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

2. Yakuza 5 (PS4)

3. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4)

4. Nano Assault Ex (3DS)

5. Pokemon X (3DS)

6. Burnout Revenge (360)

7. Dragon Quest 7 (3DS)

8. Tetris Effect: Connected (PS4)

9. Pokemon Scarlet (Switch)

10. HarmoKnight (3DS)

11. Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)

I cannot emphasise enough how much I love the DS/3DS as a system, just bags and bags of stupidly fun **** to play. Like where else am I gonna get a tap rhythm game where I play as the shopkeep in an RPG? Some iOS horseshit - bah!

Mal-Adjusted

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418789#Comment_120418789

Christ, i'd forgotten about the turotial. instead of learning through easy, early missions, you go to an arena outside the city where you have to do like twenty little turorials one after another. awful.

Did you ever finish Invisible War Retr0? What did you think?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120421871#Comment_120421871

Yep, wrote about it in this thread. Basically thought it was heavily compromised compared to the original game but overall a decent entry in the series and taken on it's own merits it was a pretty great game despite not living up to one of the best games ever made.

Retr0gamer

Sonic Frontiers (PC)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
Aladdin (SNES)
Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
The Firemen (SNES)

The Firemen

I've always really wanted some good firefighting games and been disappointed with the lack of them. Firefighter FD18 on the PS2 was decent enough. The SNES got two firefighting games both of which are worth playing. Ignition Factor got a US release but never made it to Europe. However the Firemen is a much better game. It's also one of those rare games that came out in Japan and Europe but not the US. So I guess European SNES owners won when it came to firefighting based games and lost in almost every other genre.

The Firemen comes from Human Entertainment who made some of the SNES's weirder titles (Clock Tower, Fire Pro Wrestling, SOS). While The Firemen isn't your typical action game due to the subject matter, it's probably Human's most approachable SNES game, it's very easy to pick up and start having fun with it. Set in the far distant future of 2010, an office Christmas party goes awry in a chemical plant when a fire gets out of control in the kitchen. Soon the entire building is up in flames. It's up to Pete and his second in command to enter the building, rescue civilians, dispose of the MDL explosive compound in the building and ultimately try and get the blaze under control.

You take control of Pete who carried a fire hose capable of creating infinite amounts of water. Pete is also joined by his AI companion Danny. Unfortunately there's no two player mode but Danny will run up to fires and try to put them out with his axe, open doors and rescue civilians. While AI companions usually don't work very well (see the annoying AI in secret of mana that managed to soft lock the game on me many times) Danny's AI is excellent and never becomes a hindrance or gets caught up in scenery.

Pete's hose has two firing modes. He can shoot out a long range stream of water. As well as that he can aim at the ground which reduces the range greatly but is required to extinguish floor level fires. You can lock Danny's aim in position with the shoulder buttons. There's a risk reward dynamic as Danny is a lot slower when using the hose. On top of that you have a limited stock of water bombs and can duck to avoid hazards and crawl under obstacles.

The star of the show here are the fire effects. The game starts with relatively simple fires that teach the player how to use both firing modes. The challenge soon ramps up with more interesting fire patterns, berserk robots, flying explosive canisters and even backdrafts that cause massive explosions if you open the wrong door. The flame effects are excellent. They will propagate if left unchecked and leave scorch marks behind on the ground. This level of background destruction is rarely seen in SNES games. The game uses the SNES hardware to really sell the fire effects. There's gorgeous smoke and rain effects as well as the use of mode 7 for the backdraft explosions. Each of the game's 6 stages is punctuated with a boss fight which are well designed and challenging. There's also civilians to be rescued that will give you a health refill.

The Firemen is a top tier SNES action game. The firefighting is fun and the visuals really sell the destructive force of the fire . The soundtrack is pretty good. There's a fun little story here told through interactions between the firefighters and their support crew (even if it's a big rip off of the Towering Inferno but, hey, I love that movie). It's challenging but shouldn't be so tough that you won't see the end credits with practice.

Kingp35

Yakuza 0 - PlayStation 5
Yakuza 3 - PlayStation 5
The Gardens Between - PlayStation 5
Foreclosed - PlayStation 5
Biomutant - PlayStation 5
Whispering Willows - PlayStation 5
The Quarry - PlayStation 5
Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light - PlayStation 5
Victor Vran (Including DLC) - PlayStation 5
Black Mirror - PlayStation 5
Telling Lies - PlayStation 5
The Forgotten City - PlayStation 5
I Am Dead - PlayStation 5
The Medium - PlayStation 5
Last Stop - PlayStation 5
Omno - PlayStation 5

I'm currently playing through Yakuza 4 but I decided to break it up by playing some shorter games in between my play time with Yakuza 4.

Last Stop

Last Stop is a narrative driven sci-fi game with a nice animation style and a decent twilight zone inspired story. You play as three different characters whose stores eventually come together. I enjoyed it and it's well worth a playthrough despite there not being a huge amount of actual gameplay here. Very easy platinum trophy if that's your thing.

Omno

Omno is a puzzle platform game similar to Journey although not as good. It's divided up the ten chapters, each set in a different landscape where you solve puzzles are collect things to progress. There's a very vague storyline but the game play is fun and there's another easy platinum trophy to be gotten.

TinCanMan

The Last Guardian [PS5] - A game that I both loved and hated. The story and the world that it plays out in are amazing with the sense of scale when outside and traversing upwards providing some exhilarating moments. The bond between the two main characters is a joy to experience and grows throughout the game. Now for the bad. The controls and camera are beyond frustrating at times and can lead to some truly rage inducing moments. In addition some of the puzzles have little logic to them and can be difficult to figure out. That aside the game was a beautiful experience and well worth playing.

Assassins Creed Black Flag [PS5] - What a joy this game is to play. It’s definitely one of the best Assassins Creed games to date and for a game almost 10 years old it still looks beautiful. The story is well written and the protagonist likeable. The ship battles add greatly to the game with some epic battles ensuing but this game is more than just that. I found the player control to be well polished as well. Overall I would thoroughly recommend this game.

Stray [PS5] - This game is visually stunning in a unique setting where you play as a cat with the ultimate aim to escape the world that you are forced into. Along the way you will encounter various puzzles and enemies. Whilst not overly challenging they do add to this unique environment. It’s a beautiful experience, especially if you are looking for something a bit different at a more relaxing pace.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons [PS5] - I can’t recommend this game enough. It really hits you in the feels. The game itself looks beautiful and has a unique playstyle as you need to control the two brothers simultaneously with the left and right analog sticks. There are various puzzles and enemies to tackle on your adventures. Whilst the game isn’t overly long it’s definitely one that everyone should experience.

Omno [PS5] - If you need a game to relax to then this is for you. It’s a delightful indie puzzle platformer that reminds me in some ways of the playstation classic Journey. It’s never too challenging but the beautiful world and almost zen-like gameplay is ideal for someone looking for a less stressful game to play.

Metro 2033 Redux [PS5] - a moody, atmospheric first person shooter set in the post apocalyptic metro tunnels of Moscow. Not the longest of games and very linear but I highly recommend it. Really enjoyed my playthrough.

SuperBowserWorld

Mass Effect 1 - Legendary Edition - XBox Series X

Liked the story, voice acting, dialogue/story options, characters, setting. Really this would be a better movie than a game.

The gameplay and exploration is very basic and easy. But I only really ever used the solder skills and didn't do any side content, .. Its a quick game to complete the main quest, so it has that in it's favour too.

The legendary edition with 60 FPS, updated textures and HDR looks pretty good for an old game too. It's a nice appetizer for Mass Effect 2.

Kingp35

Yakuza 0 - PlayStation 5
Yakuza 3 - PlayStation 5
The Gardens Between - PlayStation 5
Foreclosed - PlayStation 5
Biomutant - PlayStation 5
Whispering Willows - PlayStation 5
The Quarry - PlayStation 5
Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light - PlayStation 5
Victor Vran (Including DLC) - PlayStation 5
Black Mirror - PlayStation 5
Telling Lies - PlayStation 5
The Forgotten City - PlayStation 5
I Am Dead - PlayStation 5
The Medium - PlayStation 5
Last Stop - PlayStation 5
Omno - PlayStation 5
Yakuza 4 - PlayStation 5
Gabbuchi - PlayStation 5

Yakuza 4

Still working my way through the Yakuza games and this fourth instalment is probably my least favourite. The main story is excellent as always, full of usual silly twists and turns, and I did enjoy how it all unfolded and getting to play as four different characters. What I didn't like were the side missions and the side content. The side missions were mostly boring and really lacked the silliness from other entries. I gave up on the remainder once I got the trophy for completing 40 of them. There's also nothing new when it comes to side content, yet more hostess maker stuff as the main focus.

I enjoyed the game a lot more when I just played through the main story which I may do again for the 5th entry.

Gabbuchi

This is a puzzle game with a very simple concept that gets surprisingly difficult in the later worlds of the game. It definitely doesn't need to be played on a PlayStation 5, it's probably much more suited to mobile, but it's a fun way to spend a few hours.

Mr.Saturn

Hope you've cleared your calendar for Yakuza 5, you're in for the long haul even just following the critical path stuff.

Kingp35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465065#Comment_120465065

I've heard that it likes to waste your time alright!

Penn

Neon White (PS5)
Dead Cells (PS5)
Superliminal (PS5)
Dead Space (Remake) (PS5)
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5)
Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy (PS5)
Like A Dragon: Ishin (PS5)

Resident Evil 4 Remake (PS5)

Only played the first few hours of the original (up to the Lake I believe). Never really had any affinity for the original. Can't even remember why I stopped it, but whatever everyone else was seeing in the game to give it the praise they were, I just wasn't seeing. So I went into the remake fairly blind.

It's a great game. The controls, graphics and QOL improvements have obviously been tremendous, and Capcom have something really special with the RE Engine. Bar a few graphical glitches here and there, the game performance was tremendous. There's a good range of enemies and it keeps you on your toes the whole time. Many enemies will require specific targeting or tactics to take down, but there's a risk to that in itself a lot of time (such as flashbangs easily taking down the plagas, but flashbangs are rare enough and aren't the best use of resources to craft, and there's always a risk any enemy could pop a plagas).

I did find some enemies frustrating due to their speed/movement making them very difficult to track, especially if they have small weak points. Some of the insect-type enemies move faster than the standard movement/aiming sensitivity, and when they attack in numbers they can be annoying as hell. But ammo and health is generally plentiful enough that it's not a big deal.

Level design was a bit hit and miss. Most of the village was great, and the castle was terrific. The island was a lot weaker and uninteresting though. The game length was okay but I would have preferred more in the castle. The island added little and just felt like enemy areas for the sake of enemy areas. Open an area, clear out enemies, throw a switch, more enemies come, throw another switch, more enemies come, open door to next area, more enemies. Just felt bland and repetitive by the end. I think it's kind of a consequence of how well equipped you will be by then that enemies stop feeling like a challenge, and instead even tougher enemies just become an annoyance rather than a danger.

The story etc was fine, though it appears to have lost a good chunk of the fun and cheese from the original. It seemed perfectly serviceable but antagonists were just uninteresting. Boss battles were generally fine, Oswalt was the only one that annoyed me.

Overall, it's a great game, but due to the length it's not one I'm likely to revisit like I did with RE2 & 3 remakes, where I enjoyed just speeding through them as quickly as possible. It's a much better game than RE3 Remake, but I'd put it under RE2 Remake.

Kingp35

I haven't played RE4 Remake yet but other than the awful controls, my other main problem with the original game was it's length in that it was far too long! It sounds as if the controls have been fixed in the remake but not the length issue.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468247#Comment_120468247

I tried to replay the original RE4 a few weeks ago in advance of the remake, but the controls and especially the camera, I just couldn't hack it. They've definitely addressed both in the remake. It's modern and fluid.

Can't really comment on the length of the original, it just felt here that once you reached the last main area of the game, it was just waves and waves of enemies. Clear out enemies in an area, and as soon as you throw a switch or whatever to open the path to the next area, another wave of enemies drop in. Rinse and repeat. The level design just wasn't interesting enough to sustain any great interest in it, and your arsenal by that stage would be good enough that it wasn't that challenging, even with the occasional brute thrown in.