I picked up “Mafia: Definitive Edition” cheap the other day (I’ve linked it on Steam as it’s still on sale for the next few days).
I was a fan of Mafia (the original from 2002) and felt it was cheap enough to give it a shot and I’m glad I did: besides the infamous/arduous racing level I found it to be very enjoyable overall.
I was sad to see that there wasn’t any “Freeride Extreme” in the latest version (this was bonus, fun, ludicrous content, available after completing the game) as it would have been a nice addition, the “Freeride” mode is likewise a little lackluster but the actual campaign is great.
What was the last game you finished? Was it any good?
I finished Outer Wilds a few weeks ago. It was, in my opinion, one of the strongest arguments for treating video games as an art form that I’ve ever experienced. It’s not long - I finished it in about 20 hours - but the narrative and story is so well put together and thought out that it felt a lot longer. I thought it was beautiful and thought provoking.
Video games as a whole aren’t for everyone, but if I meet someone and they’re interested in games but hasn’t played them much, Outer Wilds is on the top of my list of recommends. If you play a lot of video games, this one will amaze you. Don’t read anything about it - just grab it when it’s on sale and go in blind. I did and it made a big difference.
In the same boat, it’s such a beautiful game, especially the less you know about it beforehand. It’s been awhile since I’ve played a game like that. I’m just about finishing up the DLC, then going back through the final sequence to see how that affects the ending, I might try to go back and finish out the Steam achievements on it too, just to have them done. If I could have any memories erased in my life, it would be all knowledge of that game, just so I could go back through it one more time with fresh eyes. The ending kind of mirrors the reality of finishing out the game itself, it’s kind of sad and bittersweet, it’s like a book that I never wanted to end.
Any of the main games by Quantic Dream are of similar artful quality I’d say. Really a playable story with choices impacting the plot and twists and discovery that keeps you hooked. I liked Beyond: Two Souls the best, but Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human aren’t far behind.
Life is Strange is great in that same vein too.
I just finished Lies of P. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a souls-like game that takes story elements from Pinocchio.
I found it a lot more approachable than other souls-like game. It’s a lot more linear (but I don’t think it suffers from that) and does a better job of introducing you to game mechanics. What also made it more approachable was the parry system felt a little more forgiving and there is always a save point right before a big boss (so even if you’re stuck on one, you can keep jumping right back in).
I’d give it a 9/10
I really loved the parry mechanic of Sekiro. I know the games were developed by different companies. Are you able to make any comments about how they compare?
If you like Dark Souls/Sekiro/Bloodborne then you will love Lies of P. It’s very high quality. If you didn’t know better - it could’ve been made by From Software.
The biggest complaints are that it’s almost not original in how well it copies every single facet of From Software. They’re clearly very talented - I’d love to see what they do if they added their own spin.
I only played a bit of sekiro, so keep that in mind. However, I would say that Lies of P gives a similar level of importance to parrying/perfect guard, but it’s not solely dependent on it. In sekiro you really need to parry, but in Lies of P (in many instances) you can get by with dodging and finding openings. That being said, the rhythm element to parrying is very much there, and most bosses require learning the cadence of attacks so you can parry.
Some added context, in lies of P if you block at the right time it’s a perfect guard which uses no stamina and blocks all damage. It also has the benefit of reducing the stamina of the enemy, which after enough guards or hits will open them for a critical strike (similar to a stance break in souls games). If you’re playing bosses without assistance, this is the key way to win, so feels a bit like sekiro.
If that sounds interesting I would take a look at a gameplay video.
Thanks, sounds promising
Oh man I know what I’ll be trying after bloodborne then haha. Thanks for the info!
Alan Wake 2. What a masterpiece, especially THAT sequence. I absolutely loved this game.
The older I get, the more I start to appreciate studios that take risks and believe in their creative identity. Games like Death Stranding and Alan Wake 2 are perfect examples. They’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s what art is. Someone might hate something that you personally find breathtaking. And vice versa.
I’m also playing Spiderman 2 at the moment, and while it’s good and it’s very fun, I will not remember this game 1 day after I finish it. Death stranding I finished 3 months ago and I still think about it. I’m extremely excited for DS2 and hopefully Alan Wake 3.
I also just finished Alan Wake 2. The first game is in my top 3 favorite games of all time, so I was super excited for the sequel. The overall presentation is definitely A++ and so are the graphics. However, there were a couple of really obvious and annoying bugs that should never have made it past QA.
While I really liked the new characters, the overall storyline has become (even by Remedy standards) extremely convoluted and the ending wasn’t very satisfying. I also found the constant references to Finland a bit too much on the nose and they kinda took me out of the game a couple of times.
Of course the game makes it up in other aspects, such as the new gameplay that was clearly inspired by Resident Evil, which I also really like. Alan’s mind place was also fun and I found the ability change the scenes by rewriting them very creative. Saga’s mind place started out great as well, but it started to feel like a chore as the game went on.
Despite the nit-picking, it is pretty good game overall and I’m excited for their future projects in this universe.
Ugh, same. Overall I was rather disappointed. I didnt feel the same sense of mystery that I felt from AW1 or Control, it just felt like surface level odd-ball stuff that didnt really have anything to do with anything. The game does look amazing, but I found the combat boring overall and somewhat inconsistent, as in I didnt have any clue what to expect in a given encounter for the entire game. Its still a very solid game, but feels to me like remedy is losing some of their focus on good gameplay and is leaning too hard into the off-the-wall strangeness aspect.
I understand where you’re coming from 100%, and I agree with you somewhat. While I personally enjoyed the gameplay in Alan Wake (nothing like landing a perfect headshot for a 1 hit kill with the rifle), I understand why some will be turned off by it.
On the other hand, I think of Control. Very solid gameplay and mechanics, but the story in my opinion was lackluster, and I think it might be because they were scared to go all out on a mind bending storyline. They wanted to sell games, and you sell them with good shooter mechanics to cast a wide net over the audience, at the expense of creative identity.
I feel like for Alan Wake 2 they went all out to make sure they follow Sam Lakes and the team’s creative direction. And that’s why I love it. You can feel the work that went into this to make sure it’s exactly what they wanted to create, instead of what they needed to.
Show me the champion of LIGHT!
Just completed Sea of Stars 100%. Was a charming game and was a nice break from the game I last finished: Dark Souls
Hotline Miami. Very fun game.
That was my go-to “blow off steam” game before DOOM 2016. What a killer game, literally, and a work of art imo.
I’ve realised that I need fun, skill-based gameplay the most. I get fed up with doing inventory management, stuff-shuffling and crafting, both in-game and IRL! Edit; awesome soundtrack too
Try out some mods, it’s fun
You don’t really ‘finish’ Factorio, but a few months ago I FINALLY launched my first rocket after a thousand hours of play over 6.5 years. I just always had other things I was up to and for a long time launching a rocket mechanically did nothing so I had no incentive. Here I am detailing some of it at that other site
Last game I finished was Days Gone and it was great. Nice open world zombie shooter in the US state of Oregon. Great map, great characters, decent plot, good action. Very cinematic at times. After the 10+ minutes of cinematic closing credits you can actually start roaming again and there is some more story after the credits.
I 100% it just a few days ago. What a fun game. Btw it’s definitely worth it to continue roaming and do all the side missions, There’s a “secret ending” that’s really worth it imo
Days gone gets a lot of hate but I thought it was a blast and the motorcycle travel was such a great game mechanic.
What did it get hate for?
Just Cause 2. Very fun game that is too big for its own good.
They really need to mod the wingsuit into the game somehow. I remember playing the demo way back when and being blown away by how much you could explore even there. I got the game a couple years later and to this day I still haven’t finished it.
It blows me away how little publicity that game got. All the best elements of a cinematic action movie packed into one game.
Pretty much just finishing up Outer Wilds +DLC, I just haven’t taken the time to collect some last scraps of information to close out some clues and then finish the game again (after now going through the DLC area). I had actually started this game up about 2 years ago, but got stuck and had some other things come up so that I put it aside. Then I resolved to just watch somebody else’s playthrough to spoil the game. I started by watching an astrophysicist playthrough, ‘Oliver Plays’ on Youtube. I watch as he starts out and relive some of my own experiences of discovering the early game, when suddenly in one of the episodes, I notice something small that brings me back to where I had been at in the game in my own playthrough and the solution instantly became clear. So I jumped back into it like I had never left and now I’ve pretty much about to finish the game.
I originally went in blind because of everything I kept reading about it being such a great game, blah blah blah. And it lived up to the hype, it was such an awesome experience going in completely blind (I didn’t even watch any trailers), but the shitty thing is, I can’t really talk about the game that much. So much depends on experiencing it for yourself and discovery, that saying anything about the game potentially spoils somebody else’s first experience with it, and I don’t want to take that away from anybody. It’s just such a beautiful gem of a game, I’ve not really played anything like that before (though I’ve read of some others that may be similar).
Deathloop. I kept reading reviews saying it failed to live up to the standards of Dishonored and Prey, but I think those people went into it with the wrong expectations. Dishonored and Prey are amazing immersive sims, yes, but Deathloop was like if you took an indie game that sought to better contextualize trite video game mechanics like endless multiplayer war, respawning, checkpoints, etc. within a reasonable story and then polished it with the skill of industry veterans and a big fuckin budget and everything about it (short of some network latency) worked magically. It’s one of my favorite games now and I strongly recommend it to any fans of well-told stories and FPS games.
If I had any complaint, it’s that the game holds your hand at the end a little too much. If they had given you space to plan your final attack it would’ve felt so much more satisfying. Regardless, great fuckin game.
Lately I seem to be collecting unfinished games. The very last game I finished was Cyberpunk 2077 and that was a few months ago, on patch 1.6 I think. I absolutely loved it and I’m definitely planning to buy the dlc and go through it again. I’m a sucker for good story and interactive experiences, couple that with the cyberpunk genre, this was the game of this year for me, no doubt.
I guess it was Baldur’s Gate 3. Fantastic game. I got partway through a second, heavily modded playthrough—I say second, but I spent a ton of time with it in early access—but I got a bit burned out, and have subsequently been replaying Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Undertale. Finished the neutral and then the True Pacifist ending. I refuse to go genocidal. I’ve had my happy ending
The Dead Space remake, absolutely loved it! Never played the original or any of the sequels even thoughthey always intrigued me. Gonna play through NG+ immediately.
Baldur’s Gate 3. I loved it as a cRPG fan who grew up on them. It’s ambitious, innovative and I’m really happy it’s brought the genre to a whole new audience. I hope we see something of a genre revival. But if you’ve been online at all you’ve seen all the praise I could give it already anyway, so lets talk about the bad.
It’s shockingly buggy and it’s weird that it’s always just a footnote in the discourse. I’m not sure I’ve ever finished a game this broken before. I was constantly encountering issues that would cause me to reload a save. There are plenty of posts about the bugs - pretty much every single quest in the game will have dozens of threads about various issues - but when it comes down to reviews people are really forgiving of it in a way I haven’t really seen before.
It’s also made some fundamentally terrible design decisions that wont be fixed by patches. Long resting to progress the story triggers is particularly awful. It absolute kills the pacing, despite the narrative suggesting a heavy time pressure (that isn’t actually there), and encourages you to just nova everything. I found myself just spamming long rests after every narrative beat until the cutscenes stopped triggering just to make sure which was very tedious.
Yeah it really felt like they wanted you to rest as little as possible, only for me to beat act 1 missing 75% of events!
I guess I’m just lucky that the only bugs I’ve gotten are bad jump pathing
Same! it is like my 7th playthrough already, going for the good dark urged route.
