Topic: Last Game You Beat

@LtSarge I really enjoyed Origins and I too 100% completed the game. I found it 'easier' to clear an area of the map before moving on the story to a new area - that way, I got a 'mix' of activities and narrative content and was always above level too- rather than play through the story and then go back to those areas to clear afterwards. In some areas, I would endeavour to do ALL the side quests/?'s in that region 'first' - before moving the story forward. Perhaps that's why I preferred this to Odyssey which had so much 'busy' work and you could easily end up with 4 'elites' at much higher power level 'interfering' with your plans/enjoyment. I never completed Odyssey, but I completed Origins and the DLC extra content to 100% completion. Valhalla and its DLC too and I played that in a very similar way to Origins (ie completing every district as I moved through each. Its interesting that Odyssey was made by a different Ubisoft team to Origins and the team that made Origins, made Valhalla.

@BAMozzy Yeah, I think Origins' structure still resonates with a lot of people who just want to do everything in one area before moving on. Because that's almost how I've been playing it as well, it's just addicting to do everything even if it feels a bit pointless once you get towards the end of the game and you're at a high level as well as have tons of resources.

It's interesting that Odyssey was made by a different team. Even though both games are very similar in terms of being open world and such, the way you're allowed to explore the world is different in both games. So it's going to be interesting playing through Valhalla and see how much that game differs to Origins or even Odyssey.

I've actually started up The Hidden Ones DLC today as I just can't stop playing this game and I'm almost done with it. It's not that long but at least the next one will be much longer. It doesn't have a lot of story either, which is a shame, but the outposts are absolutely massive and challenging, which is nice.

Finished mafia definitive edition this weekend and altough the fresh coat of paint is nice to see I felt the game way buggier and the direction decisions to be a bit odd as there was nothing wrong with the OG ones. On top of that the game is a fair ammount shorter now and they completly removed free ride Extreme and instead they make you repeat missions to find the collectibles you missed. If I have not paid only 18€ for it i would be really disapointed...

@Balta666 I never played the Mafia games and the trilogy was on my maybe to buy 1 day list (since my backlog is already huge) but this doesnt make me any closer to buy the trilogy lol

@Lavalera if nothing else play the second one (my favourite storywise is the original but definitely it did not age well from a gameplay point of view), the third one i still found it enjoyable but it is not of the same quality as the others

@Balta666 thanks for the feedback. I'll keep an eye on the sale of it then. It still is like €30 when on sale and waiting for it to drop lower to put it in my backlog

Finished the main story of Dark souls 2 much quicker than I was expecting as shrine of amala was a drag but everything after was fairly straightforward and not that hard (kind helps that I finish it around level 170 I guess...).

I really enjoyed the game altough not as much as the first one mainly due to the lack of a proper world and its length. Gameplay is fine after a while as the chip adapts to its specifics. Everyone complains about adaptability but I felt much more the division of vitality, vigor and endurance as I had to out a lot of levels at first into my wheight capacity to have a build I was happy with and only from half way point I managed to get a halberds on my hands (my favourite type of weapon from the series) as it is very heavy in comparison with the first.

For now i am not going to continue with dlc/ng+ but I will start 3 soon.

'Finished' Assassins Creed Odyssey - or at least the main 'Odyssey' quest lines. Think I may have bought the Deluxe edition or something though as some DLC seems to be available now! Ended up at Level 60 and around 150 hours playtime, but I'll likely play the DLC at some point too.

My first AC game since I got a bit burned out after playing the Ezio Trilogy back-to-back on PS3 and I have to say, I loved it - there's something so satisfying about taking out a fort full of enemies without being seen, and 'Sparta Kicking' a soldier off the top of a tower never gets old either 😂

I probably spent 3x more time on this that I really needed to because uncovering every '?' and synchronisation point on the map became a bit of an addiction - to the point where I'd sometimes play for days without progressing the story at all because I'd be clearing out camps, caves, forts, doing side missions etc and ignoring the story quests. I still didn't uncover them all though.

Even though the enemy camp layouts did get repetitive pretty quickly there was just enough variety in the way you could tackle them that it never got boring. The Conquest Battles - just 2 groups of soldiers going at each other in a field - and the battles at sea provided a bit of variety to the main stealth/assassination gameplay too and were pretty enjoyable overall.

Got a few other AC games in the backlog, and definitely looking forward to playing those, but will likely have a break and play something else first - don't want to risk more series burnout if I play them all in quick succession.

@dmcc0 Especially if you want to play Origins or Valhalla, it's better to wait in my opinion. I love those big open world games, but after playing Valhalla and Odyssey back to back i was happy to take a break from AC for a bit. I tried a bit of origins but basically delayed that with a few months to also try and play that

@Lavalera Yeah, I've got Black Flag, Unity and Origins in the backlog and Valhalla on the wish list too, but plenty more in the backlog that I can be getting on with in the meantime.

Recently finished Gears 5, in my opinion it's the best game in the franchise and easily one of my favourite games of all time.

Before that I finished Life is Strange True Colors and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. GotG was epic and True Colors was a decent game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Just completed dark souls 3 and it is now a wrap on the trilogy! Have to say the third one is my least favourite as I prefer the slow and methodic fighting from the first one. Someday I will get elden ring, sekhiro I am not so sure as I am not a fan of parry combat.

The last game I have beat is Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands on the PS5. I’m now making my way through Spec Ops: The Line via backwards compatibility and it’s fantastic. I’ve heard people complain about the gunplay and how it’s generic, but it doesn’t seem that way to me. I feel like it’s solid and has some unique elements to it - such as using the sandstorms to your advantage and shooting glass ceilings and walls to have sand kill the enemies.

State of Decay 2. Beaten a Sherrif run and a trader run. Almost done the warlord run.

Mario Golf: Super Rush (Switch)

Gameplay:

• Standard Golf - The first of the main modes is this traditional take on the game. Play on any of the games 11 courses (up from the 6 the game launched with) with up to 4 players (human or CPU) with various other optional adjustments (intensity of wind speed, use of special shots, number of holes played, etc.). Easily the best part of the game IMO, as there's something chill about a generally normal round of golf with just enough arcade zaniness added in.
  
• Speed Golf - The highly advertised new mode for the game. Same course selection & adjustable rules as the former mode, however in this variant everyone tees off at the same time & you have to run to your ball after each shot, adding just a smidge of that trademark Mario platforming to the proceedings, with total shot count & time spent both contributing to your final score. Really didn't play it much (beyond what you have to in the story mode) as I think the idea kind of runs counter to the vibe of golf.
• Battle Golf - Another new mode (and one I haven't tried) which is essentially Speed Golf on steroids. Playable on two different arena themed courses (which aren't playable elsewhere), it seems to have the same general rules as Speed Golf, however you can go after any hole on the course at any time, with a hole being removed from play once someone completes it, so the name of the game is to complete more holes than your competitors.
• Target Golf - A game play mode where you have to aim for the highest score by aiming for one of three different targets (you change teeing position after each round, and there are sometimes things to mix things up, like special balls or a 4th bonus target). It has Regular, Forest, & Volcano layouts (each being more difficult than the last). It seems to have been added in an update sometime after launch.
  
• Golf Adventure - Probably the most substantial mode in the game, where you take your Mii on a journey from Rookie to Pro. Your adventure takes you through the six courses included at launch (each one has a cozy little hub world), where you can level up your Mii RPG style by completing rounds of golf (usually some variant of the "Speed" variety. Even the "Cross Country" golf that appears in one area never to be seen again which reviewers were confused by is clearly just training for "Battle Golf"), or by taking on optional target challenges in each area's training grounds (which could be quite brutal, IMO). There are even a few boss battles on display, which I actually quite enjoyed when they popped up. Kinda mixed on this one though, as I wasn't a huge fan of Speed Golf, which is what is mostly featured (I thought I was going to get a break in Wildweather Woods when one of the Toads said they don't play Speed Golf there due to it being so wet, but after the 3 hole practice round it was all Speed Golf anyway...).
  
  
  
  
• Otherwise there are a handful of Medals (achievements) to unlock (one for completing Golf Adventure, one for obtaining Birdie on every hole at least once, etc.), "Star" & "Super Star" club sets to unlock for each character by playing as them repeatedly (obtaining these is another Medal achievement), and of course most everything (aside from the story mode for obvious reasons) can be played online if you have NSO.

Audio/Visual:

• It's definitely a bit more of a B-grade game in this department (this ain't no Odyssey or MK8D), but still, it's clean cartoon styled graphics look generally nice. There is some texture pop in, but this is really only noticeable during wide panning overhead shots & I didn't really find it all that distracting.
• As I mentioned before there are 11 courses, two of which have "Amateur" & "Pro" variants, so arguably a total of 13 (plus the 2 Battle Golf arena courses, I guess), and these range from the relatively mundane (Beginner Course, Bonny Greens, Ridgerock Lake) to the Mario-rific (Bowser Highlands, New Donk City, All-Star Summit). My favorite has to be New Donk City as it's clear they just lifted it wholesale from Odyssey and puked a few greens all over the place (it clearly wasn't designed for golf, but that makes it all the more fun as it gets pretty creative with how you have to get the ball to it's destination, especially on it's "Pro" variant).
  
  
  
  
• Also, there are over 20 playable characters & while the generic baddies (Boo, Koopa Troopa, Chargin' Chuck, Ninji, etc.) don't get much of a glow up the series mains are dudded out in their finest golf attire, including Pauline (from the original Donkey Kong arcade game) after her reintroduction in Odyssey, which is pretty cute.
  
  

Conclusion:

• Again, it's a bit more of a B-grade offering, but I'm actually quite glad to have given it a shot. I wasn't a huge fan of Speed Golf, but the classic variant is still here & accounted for, and I enjoy that quite a bit.
  

I'm just rolling the credits on infinite now. I gotta say it was a great experience and I really enjoyed the story. I did go off randomly exploring a bunch but at the end when i was just following the story path it all really came together nicely. The gunplay was amazing and just having the options of how to attack was great. Definitely recommend folks play it if they haven't. Ascent is next for me, put it off far too long.

Finished Eiyuden chronicles and Cyberpunk 2077 main story. Eiyuden is a pretty relaxing side scrolling rpg game which is pretty relaxing mostly because it isn't challenging at all. It can be a bit to grindy if people don't like that. But I finished everything in like 15ish hours. Cyberpunk 2077 is eehm, I still don't really know how I feel about that. There are times when I loved it and there were times that I felt not playing anymore. So certainly not the banger I hoped it would be. Good thing is I didn't encounter any bugs so those parts are fixed. I don't know if I'm gonna sweep some side content that I missed but I doubt I will. Guess I just should start something new and maybe I'll do a bit more with a dlc

Just finished Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge on Series X. Great game and perfect to play in between AAA experiences. I didn't grow up with TMNT but I did watch the 2012 show on Nickelodeon quite a bit and enjoyed it a lot. So I did like Shredder's Revenge more than I otherwise would have, it was nice seeing all these characters again.

And most importantly, I didn't find it to be that challenging compared to other arcade beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage. I played through it on Normal and found it to be a fair challenge. There's always a good amount of health pickups throughout the levels and the amount of lives always reset after each level, so you'll always start out with at least three lives, which is plenty. So even if you find games like this challenging and therefore not up your alley, this one is milder in difficulty and you can even play it on Easy if you want. I highly recommend it.

Just finished Guardians of the Galaxy. What a fantastic game! I liked the GotG movies a lot but this game made me like the GotG franchise even more. That's the advantage of experiencing long stories through media such as TV shows and games; you get to spend more time with the characters and they start growing on you. I tend to not care about most Marvel characters because I've watched their stories through the MCU movies. Having now played this game for roughly 20 hours and experienced the backstories of the Guardians, I care about them a lot. I was also surprised to see so many interesting characters in the game in general. Moreover, the humour was on point and the constant chattering between the characters always kept the missions fun and interesting.

I'm also glad that the gameplay managed to stay interesting until the end. It felt very simplistic at the start but then you start pulling off all these different moves and attacks towards the end of the game. At that point each battle would become an exhilarating cluster of chaos and it was super fun. The different elemental attacks and abilities helped spice things up and the enemy variety was decent enough. Not to mention the huddle up all-out attack where you get to listen to a classic 80s song while going berserk on enemies.

Speaking of which, the soundtrack for this game was stellar. If you loved GTA Vice City because of its 80s soundtrack, then you're going to love GotG's soundtrack for the same reason. Listening to songs like Take On Me, Final Countdown, Never Gonna Give You Up and so on during battles made fighting so much more satisfying. There's just something about listening to songs like these during gameplay that enhances the experience a lot. It's the same reason why I loved Metal Gear Solid V when you e.g. fly in on a helicopter to a mission while listening to Take On Me. It's just so awesome. However, I do have to say that doing a huddle up attack against the final boss while listening to "Don't Worry, Be Happy" kinda killed the mood.

With that said, this was one of the best licensed superhero games I've played. The story was concise and the character development was so good. Furthermore, the gameplay was fun and it remained interesting until the end. On top of this, the music helped elevate the experience a lot. So overall, I loved this game and I'm glad I got to experience it.