Topic: Xbox Games You've Recently Beat

Sup gents.

I’ll throw down a proper list of anything else I’ve beaten in the interim shortly, but for now….rolled credits on Little Hope last night. I managed to keep everyone alive on my first go, which was a nice turn of events from Man of Medan.

Wholly recommend these games if you can get them on sale.

@K1LLEGAL I gotta go back and play Old Blood…I got stuck in a section early going and ended up playing something else.
Those games looked gorgeous last Gen too

@Dusk_Actual nice, since finishing The New Order, I have gone through The New Colossus, Danganronpa 1, Shredder’s Revenge, As Dusk Falls; but also Until Dawn and Man of Medan. Little Hope will most likely be next. Really enjoying these games. Bought the 3-pack in the ultimate sale and eyeing up The Quarry.

@K1LLEGAL I have my eyes on The Quarry…played the trial and loved it, but I gotta wait until it drops to at least half off…been spending too much on games lately

RE2 Remake. Good but not as hyped or compared to the original.

Just finished Need for Speed: Payback on Series X. This was my first NFS game and I really liked it! It's heavily reminiscent of Forza Horizon in terms of delivering an open world racing experience and that's one of the reasons why I enjoyed it as I absolutely love Forza Horizon. The story was pretty decent as well, a lot of the story missions made it feel like I was playing a Fast & Furious game. They were definitely the highlights of the game.

Moreover, the way the game is structured is that you have five different kinds of races: race, runner, offroad, drag and drift. Race is your standard racing, runner is about getting away from the cops and ramming into them (like in the Burnout games), offroad is offroad racing, drag is driving to a certain point as fast as you can and drift is about getting as much drift points as you can within a certain time limit. My favourite kind was definitely runner as I loved driving away and ramming into vehicles. My least favourite was easily offroad as the offroad vehicles are so sensitive to any turn you make and so you would crash a lot during these races.

Another thing that could get annoying is having to constantly upgrade your vehicles before the next story mission. This aspect didn't matter that much with some race types, but with others it could make a huge difference. It doesn't help either that you need to come in first place in order to move on to the next story mission. So yeah, that made for some frustrating moments.

All in all though, this was a great game that I feel like not many people talk about. If you like the Forza Horizon series and are looking for a good entry point into Need for Speed, I'd say Payback is a good point to start. It definitely made me interested in checking out titles such as NFS Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise after really enjoying the runner races in Payback.

@PushButtons What made it not as good for you, if you don’t mind my asking? Curious, as I’ve not talked w many who have played the original, though I understand that’s the one Resi O.G.’s tend to laud. I tried playing it a couple years back and I got to a point where the controls frustrated me so bad I had to call off the whole ordeal.
When I went to play the recent iteration of RE2 though I was all over it. Not very scary though, admittedly…I think the fixed camera angles from the original had something to do with that, for me.

@Dusk_Actual I've not played the original RE2 since 98. What it was like playing then compared to now is not the same experience. It was a moment in time and by playing it now you have to realize what it was like bc there was nothing like it except RE1 but better. The development was long bc the first version of RE2 was scrapped and they started all over but this added to the hype.
I could be wrong in all of this but feel like the original was more atmospheric than this reimagining-remake. It also seemed like there were more enemy types too. And playing Leon and then Claire felt more like two different story experiences playing together/simultaneously compared to basically replaying the same story but with a different character and a couple of different pathways.

OCTOPATH TRAVELER

"Life is made of choices. You made a poor choice. It's that simple."

Positives:
· The graphics.
· The soundtrack and the SFX.
· The UI and settings.
· The navigation system.
· The saving system.
· The nicely crafted stories. The chapters and script will surprise you.
· The NPCs descriptions and stories are interesting.
· Tons of strategies that you can naturally learn without guides because of the comprehensive UI. I have never used as many strategies in RPG battles before and I'm not using a guide. E.g, the scholar is defending and leveling magic up, the warrior is buffing himself, the thief is debuffing the enemy or stealing skill points and the merchant is donating the thief battle points for him to perform a level 4 strike next turn. The possibilites are almost infinite whether you're going a bit more aggresive and risky, more defensive or balanced.
· The individual chapters encourage players to build all characters up progressively.
· Unlike Bravely Default, you can use all eight jobs at the same time because you can unlock second jobs early on. Jobs are not overdone and numerous like in Bravely Default. Some characters have unique abilities but they're not as important as jobs.
· There is grinding but battles and exploration are not boring because of what I stated above.
· There are no maps but the dungeons are labyrinths are the right size. There are clever changes of gameplay loops.

Negatives (in this order):
· Tressa's English voice.
· The awful combination of old? English and modern slangs.
· The orthography: 'e 'as, hasn'' 'e?
· You can only check the equipment for all eight characters at the tavern and to check a character's skills they have to be controlled.
· Some bosses are massively strong. There are ways to recover health and skills points without items but some bosses almost break the whole battle system (Gareth).

9/10

I played what remains of Edith frinch as it is going out of gamepass and I don't get it. It is one of the worst things I ever played... I don't have a problem with walking simulators (I played the life is strange and really liked them for example) but all the syories are nonsensical and boring and slow

@Banjo- Oh, so good to read your take on Octopath Traveler - I downloaded 'cause it's on Game Pass, played it for two hours or so and really liked it!

Sure thing, I am going to jump back to this title, probably after I beat Psychonauts 2, NieR: Automata, and Persona 5: Strikers.

@HarmanSmith I'm glad that you liked my input and the game. Make sure to play it until the end once you have the time for it. I really enjoyed it and I'm not a huge fan of wandering and levelling up. The locations and dungeons are good, and the navigation is easy. It's the first time that a "classic" RPG encouraged me, even taught me without tutorials, how to deliver deep strategies of my own. I only used a guide to find the job shrines, very recommended in order to have a team of four with all eight jobs. It's also the first time I really cared about choosing the weapons, armour, accessories and second job for each character depending on what makes more sense. This game is perfect for teaching players how to deal with older RPGs. It's a masterclass.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising

Now that I have beaten the game, including Hermes's Heroic Tasks Board and all the collectibles I could find, this is what I've been writing about it.

Where Breath of the Wild was shallow, half-empty, repetitive and soulless, Immortals Fenyx Rising is packed with amazing vaults, hidden (and worthy!) treasure and phenomenal creatures and powers. It has a huge amount of Greek mythology, so that alone makes it worth playing. The controls and physics are smooth, and combat is easy yet deep and fun. The graphics are awesome. It has ideas from Breath of the Wild, Assassin's Creed, Monster Hunter... I mean, just like Breath of the Wild also copied those games, Immortals copies others, but the world here is much more endearing. The characters are great. Noble Fenyx is, too. Gameplay is perfect.

A large part of the map is optional and to have those optional elements on the map is positive because they are of good quality. The vaults where you get something for the gods are like full dungeons and the puzzles inside and outside the vaults are very satisfying. In other words, completing the game gives pleasure until the final vault.

I recommend trying to get most stuff in a region before moving to the next one. Yes, you could get more ambrosias to upgrade life in faster ways and, of course, you could try to rush the game, but I don't think it's worth it. Gliding is nicely done, better than in any other game. Accidentally, I'm completing the supposedly fourth area as the third and don't have any issues. Combat is mostly fair. The game is magnificent.

I've enjoyed all of the 100 hours I've spent playing this game. Even the few things that didn't click with me in the beginning, clicked in the end, like Zeus. All of the gods are a great addition. Late area King's Peak is presented in a different, more linear way, that was a nice change of pace.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of the most enjoyable games that I've ever played. Its positives are the gameplay, world, puzzles, music and cultural value.

@Banjo- Great insight! I have beaten it, but I have the DLC and I want to do a NG+ just to do all that I left undone and replay the story. One of the most enjoyable games in recent memory, imo. Looks beautiful, too.

@HarmanSmith Indeed. I'll get the DLC as well, or perhaps the Gold Edition that includes the DLC. It looks beautiful and performs perfectly (in performance mode) on Series X 😍.

Just finished FEAR on Xbox 360. Loved it! Fun shooter, plenty of jump scares, basically an overall great horror experience. Looking forward to playing the sequels!

Finished Unpacking tonight. It was a delightful indy game and a great pallet cleanser. It's not a long game maybe 5 hours and that's if you take your time. I even manged to get all the achievements which I rarely do but honestly they weren't that difficult to get. The story was great and it left me in a great mood after playing it. Definitely worth playing it especially if you just want something to relax and not have to think to deep.

Up next for me, Stray.

@Tasuki I've been playing Unpacking as well these last few days!

I finished Alan Wake Remastered last week - earlier than I expected - and suddenly I found myself without any meaningful games to play. Sure, I still have some cleanup to do in Sea of Stars, but I haven't felt like a completionist so far this year. So I decided to try something new (and free).

Enter Unpacking. And I love it. The gameplay is fine, but (like you said) it really gets you in a kind of mood. Both good, but also kind of melancholic at times. It's really lovely!

I haven't finished it yet. I've already played for over 5 hours, and I am not nearly done, so I must be taking it really slow!

@Kidfried Yeah it all depends how much detail you go into placing items. I enjoyed it alot it reminded me of why I enjoyed Sims 2 and 3 so much. My only complaint was how short it was and wish they had some DLC for it. I mean I get why they can't do DLC but sadly there's no other game like it that I can think of.

It's also great to for achievement hunters too as you can get a.1000 gamerscore in just a few hours.

Another quick Indy game, this time A Short Hike which yeah that's pretty much what it is. It's an open world game so it all depends on how quick you want to beat it. The main goal is to take the main character, a bird named Clarice and make it to the top of a mountain. However there are other characters that you can interact with and they will give you side quests and tasks that you can complete along with the main goal.

It's a fun game and there is alot to do but even doing everything it's only like 4 to 5 hours. A good pallet cleanser game. I did overall enjoy it for what it was.