Modern Games Beaten in 2020

[Steven Pendleton]

Beat Three Houses Crimson Flower maddening on a fresh save a few days ago and damn it felt good. It's really no more difficult than hard after chapter 2. If you can get through chapter 2 without anyone dying, you're good for the rest of the game. Of course the entire game is basically Curved Shot Simulator 2019 on maddening until you get Death Blow Hunter's Volley Bow Crit+10 Shamir. Now to play the other routes, as Silver Snow (hard pre-maddening) and Crimson Flower (pre-maddening hard and maddening) are the only ones I've done so far.

 

Kind of shameful as I bought it about 3 days after launch, but I got burned out from 2 blind back-to-back playthoughs and didn't know Crimson Flower existed.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Razzie.P]

On 2/17/2020 at 1:29 AM, wongojack said:

I finished the main story and the "present day" story on Assassin's Creed Black Flag (for XOne).  What an incredible game!  It helps that I am a big fan of Pirates both real and fantasy, but this is just an amazing game.  Nothing new to add to the slew of positive reviews, and I'm sure everyone has heard about it by now, but the way they took the old AC formula and mixed it with ship combat was a stroke of genius.  I love Sid Meier's Pirates! and this game really feels like it took some inspiration from that while of course keeping the best of the AC formula.  I'm sorry that I waited so long to play it.

 

If you happen to be wanting more of the same, check out Assassin's Creed Rogue.  I played them back to back some years ago and it felt like they reused the Black Flag engine (naval parts and all) to tell a new story with Rogue.

[Skarrj]

Doom 3, Far Cry New Dawn, Wolfenstein New Order, Gears 4

[+chicgamer]

Are original Xbox games considered modern? I beat Hulk tonight. The game had a few annoying flaws (mostly the camera), but I enjoyed it. It's definitely better than the movie.

 

Now, I need to finally beat Ultimate Destruction. When I played it years ago, I got to the final battle with Abomination, but I couldn't beat him. I think I'm going to start over from the beginning and play through it.

[+wongojack]

14 hours ago, chicgamer said:

Are original Xbox games considered modern? I beat Hulk tonight. The game had a few annoying flaws (mostly the camera), but I enjoyed it. It's definitely better than the movie.

 

Now, I need to finally beat Ultimate Destruction. When I played it years ago, I got to the final battle with Abomination, but I couldn't beat him. I think I'm going to start over from the beginning and play through it.

 

Yes it is modern

 

There's always a debate, but in one section of these boards, we classify modern as any game for a console or computer that was released after Jan 1, 2000.

 

Someone will undoubtedly argue below, but just keep doin what yer doin.

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, wongojack said:

 

Yes it is modern

 

There's always a debate, but in one section of these boards, we classify modern as any game for a console or computer that was released after Jan 1, 2000.

 

Someone will undoubtedly argue below, but just keep doin what yer doin.

I personally consider anything released on or after 30 October 1987 to be modern, but I'm weird and eccentric and everyone is going to tell me that I'm wrong, and that's okay.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[cimerians]

I consider PS2 and Xbox modern but in reality someone born then is 20 years old now, it's like watching a TV show or listening to music from the 60's and calling it modern in the 80's.

 

I know people look at us like we're nuts, but that's fine.

 

[Steven Pendleton]

On 2/14/2020 at 1:52 AM, digdugnate said:

it's episodic in a way, but darn it i got a credit crawl, lol- the crawl has you controlling a T-Rex for studs.

 

Lego Jurassic Park - Jurassic Park (Switch) - I finished out the first movie (Jurassic Park) for Lego Jurassic Park.    This is a really well done game!

I can't believe I missed this post, but this game is awesome. I don't have the Switch version since it came out way earlier on PC, but I played it for at least 80 hours before beating it and the whole thing was great and I never once got bored. An excellent game overall, and I hope more people play it.

[digdugnate]

Frederic (Switch) - what a strange game this is- it's a rhythm game that has music based on the works of Chopin, where he's resurrected to save music (or something).  it's a crazy short game at about an hour, which covers 12 of Chopin's pieces that are remade for the game.  i think if anything, the one thing that keeps this game from being a knockout would be the ability to play the original pieces- even as a bonus for finishing the game.

 

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Switch) - finally finished this today after a hair over 68 hours of gameplay.  I got waaayyy close before lunch but was smacked down by the last boss when they had about 5% health.  Fantastic game beginning to end!

 

Lego Jurassic World - Lost World (Switch) -  I changed the title of the game to reflect the correct title.  I played through the second movie last week and finished off Friday night.  On to Jurassic Park 3!

[+wongojack]

I Finished Youku's Island Express, and it was amazing.  It's a pinball platformer - not too many games like it.  Maybe a little too easy, but that's ok sometimes.  I played this one for "free" through XBox  gamepass, but I think I also actually paid money for it on Steam.

[digdugnate]

6 hours ago, wongojack said:

I Finished Youku's Island Express, and it was amazing.  It's a pinball platformer - not too many games like it.  Maybe a little too easy, but that's ok sometimes.  I played this one for "free" through XBox  gamepass, but I think I also actually paid money for it on Steam.

I mentioned this on the Tracker thread, but I really liked it too.  One of the only places I had trouble with initially was with the Slug Vacuum- sucking them up versus obliterating them, lol.

[+wongojack]

6 hours ago, digdugnate said:

I mentioned this on the Tracker thread, but I really liked it too.  One of the only places I had trouble with initially was with the Slug Vacuum- sucking them up versus obliterating them, lol.

I'd say the most difficult part for me was swinging around the flowers with the "sootling."  It took me a lot of tries to get the timing right.

[+chicgamer]

I need to get around to playing Youku's Island Express ... along with hundreds of other games.

 

I finished the remastered Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on the PS3 tonight. It was okay. I think collect-a-thon platformers haven't aged particularly well.

 

I started playing Jak II. I think I'm going to enjoy it much more. 

[digdugnate]

This one came as an unexpected surprise last night-

 

Dead Cells (Switch) - after apparently 100 runs, i managed to finish the game and get my first Boss Cell.  I consider this a pretty decent accomplishment for me!

[Steven Pendleton]

Does Three Houses DLC story count? I finished it last night/this morning. It was okay.

[+chicgamer]

I finished Daxter on the PSP. I started playing it after I realized it takes place during the two-year gap that happens at the beginning of Jak II (from the time that Jak is taken prisoner until Daxter saves him).

 

I really enjoyed Daxter. In fact, I'm about halfway through Jak II, and I like Daxter better than the first Jak and Daxter game or Jak II so far.

 

I don't know if this warning is valuable to anyone considering how old the games are, but I would recommend you NOT complete Daxter prior to finishing Jak II. Something I didn't see coming in Jak II got spoiled for me, and honestly, the spoiler was unnecessary, because it occurs during a cut scene that Daxter isn't a witness to.

[cimerians]

Just beat Dragon Quest XI....this game is insanely long. Played for 160 hours. The 'post game' is actually probably bigger and longer than the main game. I was very surprised at enjoying the story which normally takes a back seat for me in a lot of JRPG's. The voice acting was superb. 

Edited March 1, 2020 by cimerians

[digdugnate]

9 hours ago, cimerians said:

Just beat Dragon Quest XI....this game is insanely long. Played for 160 hours. The 'post game' is actually probably bigger and longer than the main game. I was very surprised at enjoying the story which normally takes a back seat for me in a lot of JRPG's. The voice acting was superb. 

i'll agree with that!  I'm not sure where my savegame is at time-wise, but I'm pretty sure it's 140+ hours.  It's a fantastic game.

[Austin]

2. Demon's Souls (PS3) - Hated this game at first. Even broke a disc in half in a rage-inducing moment. But after watching someone else play it, I grabbed another copy and finally finished it. It's not a bad game--it just has some frustrating design choices that have since been refined in later Souls games, like the ridiculously long runbacks. It's the kind of game that's tough to learn, but once you know where everything is and how to handle each situation, it's pretty easy (and satisfying to play through). It's also quite easy to cheese a lot of situations in the game with arrows. I do enjoy it now, but it was the roughest of all the Souls games for me to learn. I've now finished the game three times total. I'll be interested to check out the remake if it is indeed in production like it's been rumored to be.

[cimerians]

4 minutes ago, Austin said:

2. Demon's Souls (PS3) - Hated this game at first. Even broke a disc in half in a rage-inducing moment. But after watching someone else play it, I grabbed another copy and finally finished it. It's not a bad game--it just has some frustrating design choices that have since been refined in later Souls games, like the ridiculously long runbacks. It's the kind of game that's tough to learn, but once you know where everything is and how to handle each situation, it's pretty easy (and satisfying to play through). It's also quite easy to cheese a lot of situations in the game with arrows. I do enjoy it now, but it was the roughest of all the Souls games for me to learn. I've now finished the game three times total. I'll be interested to check out the remake if it is indeed in production like it's been rumored to be.

 

I actually imported this game and played the crap out of it before it was even released here, it was brutally hard, I think I made it as far as the spider or the flame demon and then gave up. If there is a remake or remaster I hope it comes out on steam I'll buy it for sure it's actually a favorite of mine. I remember discovering the arrow trick to kill the dragon early on, there are definitely a bunch of cheese opportunities in this game lol

[Austin]

6 minutes ago, cimerians said:

 

I actually imported this game and played the crap out of it before it was even released here, it was brutally hard, I think I made it as far as the spider or the flame demon and then gave up. If there is a remake or remaster I hope it comes out on steam I'll buy it for sure it's actually a favorite of mine. I remember discovering the arrow trick to kill the dragon early on, there are definitely a bunch of cheese opportunities in this game lol

Haha, yep! Both those bosses gave me hell when I first played. Then I learned you can simply block most of the spider's attacks. On recent runs, I learned to just wait and take on the Flamelurker (fire boss) at the end of the game instead of doing it right after the spider. So much easier that way. That is one of the nice things about this game--having the choice to play through each of the areas in any order. It makes specific bosses much more doable and less frustrating.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Austin

[Austin]

Oh, I forgot one.

 

3. Painkiller: Hell and Damnation (PC) - Played through the main campaign of this and got the ending. This is a remake of the 2004 Painkiller with a lot of liberties taken. You go through many of the same stages, updated in the Unreal Engine 3. It looks good but performance is very inconsistent which makes for a jarring experience. The game is also very dark. You have a flashlight, but it's way too bright, blowing everything out. So the game's either too dark, or too bright. Adding to the jarring, inconsistent feel is the reuse of 2004 music tracks. This wouldn't be such a big deal if there weren't newer, drastically different tracks used as well. I really wish they just went 100% old music, or 100% new music (the later would have been more fitting given the other liberties taken). Many enemies were swapped around as well, causing gameplay balance issues. You also have a new weapon that's encouraged to be used for most of the game, making many of the weapons redundant. My biggest complaint with the game is that there is no visual indicator when you take damage. You can have full health one second, then in another you are dead because you didn't realize you were actually taking damage. Overall the game is still fun, and there is a neat gimmick used on the final boss, but I prefer the original Painkiller in just about every way. Can't say I'm a fan of the new story integration and the deviation from the original game's plot either, but when it comes to the gameplay itself, it's fine. There's actually just as much DLC content as there are levels in the base game, so I'm currently going through those at the moment. Many of these stages consist of original Painkiller and Battle Out of Hell levels left out of the base campaign, along with new ones. While the game is a FPS, one of the DLC levels puts the camera above you and turns the game into a twin-stick shooter. Pretty neat.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Austin

[cimerians]

17 minutes ago, Austin said:

Haha, yep! Both those bosses gave me hell when I first played. Then I learned you can simply block most of the spider's attacks. On recent runs, I learned to just wait and take on the Flamelurker (fire boss) at the end of the game instead of doing it right after the spider. So much easier that way. That is one of the nice things about this game--having the choice to play through each of the areas in any order. It makes specific bosses much more doable and less frustrating.

I'll have to keep that in mind someday whenever I play it again, I'm hoping they remake it. You're right that's the part of the game that is cool, really liked that it had a hub, a sort of depressing limbo of despair. And for me personally the world was funner to explore, Boletaria Castle then the mine, it was consistent it felt like you were trapped in this dark medieval place. Sometimes in a Dark Souls game you're just kind of like OK I'm playing a video game…whereas demon souls kind of sucked you into its own world, I guess what I'm trying to say is it seemed more immersive and more of a joy to explore and discover, but it's just my opinion.

[Steven Pendleton]

I think I forgot something! Beat Castlevania Order of Ecclesia back in early January. It's okay, but maybe not worth the $100+ that I paid for a CIB copy. Supposedly this is the best of the Metroid copies in the series. I think I'll be sticking with the Castlevania games that released before 1995, but I'll get around to playing all of them eventually.

[Austin]

24 minutes ago, cimerians said:

I'll have to keep that in mind someday whenever I play it again, I'm hoping they remake it. You're right that's the part of the game that is cool, really liked that it had a hub, a sort of depressing limbo of despair. And for me personally the world was funner to explore, Boletaria Castle then the mine, it was consistent it felt like you were trapped in this dark medieval place. Sometimes in a Dark Souls game you're just kind of like OK I'm playing a video game…whereas demon souls kind of sucked you into its own world, I guess what I'm trying to say is it seemed more immersive and more of a joy to explore and discover, but it's just my opinion.

With these Souls games, it always seems like the first one people play is the one they get the most attached to, or the one that makes the biggest kind of impact in the way you describe. For me it was Dark Souls 1, with the interconnected world and whatnot.