Modern Games Beaten in 2021

[+wongojack]

On 6/7/2021 at 3:56 PM, cimerians said:

Mass Effect 1 from the Mass Effect legendary edition

 

I have also now completed a playthrough of Mass Effect 1 via the legendary edition (on Xbox One).  I played this game A LOT around 10 years ago (give or take).  I really thought it would be a chore to play through it again, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it.  It struck me how fast entertainment is changing.  By 2021 standards this game is much more like watching a movie (with a fictional encyclopedia to go with it) than the battle-royale, multiplayer madness we have now.  It struck me that "making the game like cinema" used to be a goal that I don't think is there anymore for these big game studios.  Is making cinema like cinema even a thing anymore?

 

 

I had a somewhat related experience with two Telltale Walking Dead games recently too.  I completed Walking Dead:  New Frontier and Walking Dead:  Michonne in the past few weeks.  Again - I started on on a whim and expected it to be a chore.  I thought that I was burned out on TWD, but I guess enough time has passed because I found both the Telltale episodic game format and TWD universe to be quite enjoyable (again).

 

[cimerians]

Mass Effect 2 from the Mass Effect legendary edition

[cimerians]

3 minutes ago, wongojack said:

I have also now completed a playthrough of Mass Effect 1 via the legendary edition (on Xbox One).  I played this game A LOT around 10 years ago (give or take).  I really thought it would be a chore to play through it again, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. 

 

Same with me, I'm in the middle of the third one right now and I have to say the first one is my favorite and surprisingly the second one is a little bit more of a chore! I always thought the second one was great back then but as far as replayability it's not IMO. It's basically go get these people, do a mission for them, now play the final mission. lol. ME2 might be my least favorite today, but they’re all good. 

 

The Walking Dead is phenomenal love that series, although like you I got burnt out on it. I haven't played the final season that came out on epic. I have to go back and play them all straight through some day. Also, Wolf Among Us was GREAT, wish they made a sequel on that one. 
 

[Punisher5.0]

I recently finished The Last of us 2. Overall I liked but it wasnt nearly as good as the first. I really enjoyed Abby's story line but found Ellie's to be a bit lackluster. 

[Razzie.P]

10)  Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox Series X)

 

Fantastic game, if you like 2D Metroidvania platformer type games.  It never really hit that sweet spot that the first one did, for me personally, but Ori and the Will of the Wisps, but a gem of a game all the same.

I tried playing it on my Xbox One X at launch, and just couldn’t do it.  Framerate stuttered, input lag made simple platforming areas feel needlessly frustrating, and it just ruined what I believed could be an incredibly positive play through, otherwise.  So I put it on the backburner for a bit.  I’m not sure if it’s been patched/fixed since then, or if the newer gen system’s extra horsepower made the difference, but playing the current version on the new tech feels like it plays the way it should.
 

[digdugnate]

Mario Golf: Super Rush  (Switch)

 

I finished Adventure Mode this morning.  ?

[+jgkspsx]

Bust a Move Universe, not much of an accomplishment.

[Agamon]

I finished Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Fun D&D rules RPG. Felt like it ended a bit prematurely, but the save file was 65 hours, so I can't complain.

[Punisher5.0]

Just finished Half Life on PC. This is only the second time finishing the game (first time was on Dreamcast). Next up will probably be Blue Shift. I've never played that one but it sounds good.

[+wongojack]

12 hours ago, Punisher5.0 said:

Just finished Half Life on PC. This is only the second time finishing the game (first time was on Dreamcast). Next up will probably be Blue Shift. I've never played that one but it sounds good.

Cool!  Did you play the Black Mesa remake or were you fumbling with actual CDs on this playthrough?

[Punisher5.0]

9 hours ago, wongojack said:

Cool!  Did you play the Black Mesa remake or were you fumbling with actual CDs on this playthrough?

It was actually the Steam version of the original. I wish it was the CD version though!  

[cimerians]

On 7/8/2021 at 7:26 PM, Punisher5.0 said:

It was actually the Steam version of the original. I wish it was the CD version though!  

God man did that game make me sick. Great game but had to play it in 30 minute spurts. 

[cimerians]

Mass Effect 3 from the Mass Effect legendary edition (finished them all)

[Punisher5.0]

19 hours ago, cimerians said:

God man did that game make me sick. Great game but had to play it in 30 minute spurts. 

Bogus. Does that happen with all FPS games?

[cimerians]

27 minutes ago, Punisher5.0 said:

Bogus. Does that happen with all FPS games?

 

No only a few of them (older games), it's the resolution or the fishbowl type effect with some of the engines. Descent (if you remember that one) didn't bother me at all and that was a 360 degree game. But for some reason Valve games like half life and later on Portal (orange box) really F’d me up after 20-30 minutes. Modern hi-res games don't bother me so I think it's just the age of the games and maybe the engine they're running on or something.

[Razzie.P]

11)  Psychonauts (PC)

 

Thank God that’s over.

Loved the aesthetic.  Loved the worldbuilding.  Didn’t love the game.

The combat was weak.  The platforming was borderline broken.  Much of the game is spent simply running through collectibles called "figments," with no real gameplay at all.    If I hadn’t promised myself I'd finally play through this one, I’d have quit at several points.

 

Someone (a super fan) told me – “you’re playing it wrong.  You need to stop thinking it’s a platformer and approach it like a graphic adventure.”

Can’t wait to find out how the heck they got through that mess of a level that was “Meat Circus” without approaching like a platformer.

 

 

 

[Punisher5.0]

2 hours ago, cimerians said:

 

No only a few of them (older games), it's the resolution or the fishbowl type effect with some of the engines. Descent (if you remember that one) didn't bother me at all and that was a 360 degree game. But for some reason Valve games like half life and later on Portal (orange box) really F’d me up after 20-30 minutes. Modern hi-res games don't bother me so I think it's just the age of the games and maybe the engine they're running on or something.

Ahh ok. Thankfully I don't have that problem. I can't handle swings though and a merry go round will make me puke

[+wongojack]

12 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

11)  Psychonauts (PC)

 

Thank God that’s over.

Loved the aesthetic.  Loved the worldbuilding.  Didn’t love the game.

The combat was weak.  The platforming was borderline broken.  Much of the game is spent simply running through collectibles called "figments," with no real gameplay at all.    If I hadn’t promised myself I'd finally play through this one, I’d have quit at several points.

 

Someone (a super fan) told me – “you’re playing it wrong.  You need to stop thinking it’s a platformer and approach it like a graphic adventure.”

Can’t wait to find out how the heck they got through that mess of a level that was “Meat Circus” without approaching like a platformer.

 

You're not alone here.  My wife loves the same things about this game that you do AND also hates the game for some of the same reasons.  It took her almost 20 years to finish it.

[Eltigro]

Finished Suikoden 3 today!  And started Suikoden 4.  So now instead of filling up minutes in the Modern Games Tracker with S3, it'll be S4.  lol

[cimerians]

35 minutes ago, Eltigro said:

Finished Suikoden 3 today!  And started Suikoden 4.  So now instead of filling up minutes in the Modern Games Tracker with S3, it'll be S4.  lol

A Suikoden fan! I beat ALL of them and I've been meaning to replay some (I just replayed S1 and S2 a few years ago).

 

I remember liking 3 overall but disliked them going to 3D rather than 2D. Suiko 4 is hard to get into, especially controlling the damn ship. Once you get the hang of it it's not that bad, it's pretty different than the other games. It's my least favorite but I been thinking about replaying it to confirm, just remember hating navigating the ship. Suikoden 5 was good but pretty hard if I remember, it's almost like a throwback to the first two. This is just memory, it's been a decade and a half since I've played some of them.

 

 

 

 

[Eltigro]

8 hours ago, cimerians said:

A Suikoden fan! I beat ALL of them and I've been meaning to replay some (I just replayed S1 and S2 a few years ago).

 

I remember liking 3 overall but disliked them going to 3D rather than 2D. Suiko 4 is hard to get into, especially controlling the damn ship. Once you get the hang of it it's not that bad, it's pretty different than the other games. It's my least favorite but I been thinking about replaying it to confirm, just remember hating navigating the ship. Suikoden 5 was good but pretty hard if I remember, it's almost like a throwback to the first two. This is just memory, it's been a decade and a half since I've played some of them.

 

 

 

 

I've played through Suikoden 1 and 2 several times, but this was my first time ever playing 3 and was doing it blind... no walk through or anything... well, except cheating on the duels.  But I played through 1, 2, and 3 in a row and now working on 4.  It's apparently the Summer of Suikoden for me.  Although I used to have physical software for 1 and 2, they were lost long ago.  So I got 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the Playstation Store on my PS3.  Not exactly sure what I'll be doing for 5 just yet, but the plan is to go through all 5.

[cimerians]

Horizon Zero Dawn kind of stinks. Anyone play it? I'm severely unimpressed (except for the pretty graphics).

 

Looks like I may stop playing it, was planning on beating this next.

[Razzie.P]

57 minutes ago, cimerians said:

Horizon Zero Dawn kind of stinks. Anyone play it? I'm severely unimpressed (except for the pretty graphics).

 

Looks like I may stop playing it, was planning on beating this next.

 

Yeah, I played and finished it some years ago, before the expansion was released.

 

I like it alright overall.   I do remember, though, I wasn’t too fond of it during the first bits.  And actually quit after a couple/few hours in.   But I came back to it some time later and I don’t remember why, but it just clicked at some point and I ended up enjoying it enough to play through, and even got a platinum trophy (which wasn’t very hard, admittedly)
 

[cimerians]

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

 

 

I like it alright overall.   I do remember, though, I wasn’t too fond of it during the first bits.  
 

 

Exactly, the first 45 minutes or an hour because of the constant tutorials...I can't tell where I'm at now but I think I came into it at the wrong time just having beaten Mass Effect Legendary. It's almost a carbon copy of Far Cry Primal too which I enjoyed more (in terms of world and weapons). Anyway I may finish it and try to skip some of the side quests, seems that bogs it down a lot.

[+jgkspsx]

I beat -KLAUS- for the Switch. I was too deep not to and I really want to play The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. This is not the ending, but this is where you get to choose the good or bad ending (if you got all the memory cards).

 

 

I was nonplussed to see that the total time recorded in the statistics is less than the time I had already reported in the weekly report, after I spent another two hours (conservatively) wrapping it up. I was playing the game with an eye on the clock so I know my time was relatively close to accurate.
 

 

I think the game must not count the time taken by attempts to get between checkpoints that ended in deaths towards the total. I KNOW the game does not count the ENDLESS minutes spent on loading screens. I estimate it’s 20 to 30 seconds a pop, and that is conservative. This is absolutely the worst game for loading times I’ve played in many years, and the full-length loading time even when going to and returning from the bonus sub-levels means that I likely spent upwards of two hours waiting for the game to load.

 

The last boss was fine in concept but lacking in reality. There was a bug, most likely added INTENTIONALLY to prevent an almost instant victory halfway through the battle, but it led me to many wasted efforts before I realized it was not just a transient bug but happened every time. (In my defense, I expected the final boss to take more than two hits to defeat, and didn’t think of what I was doing as cheating.)

 

It was fun, but perhaps not worth that much time and effort. By the time I got to the ending level I sighed out loud that I had to play more of this game. (But the last level was a lot of fun and I’m glad I played it after all.) I’m glad I finished it, but I am deleting it and will never play it again.