Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

I'm on holiday soon and with the PS5 coming with a bunch of games expect some reviews of Miles, Sackboy, Bugsnax etc soon but before then I played a few cheap platinum games on VITA which includes things where you only need to do 10 levels to get a Plat but one of these I did finish properly


A rather simple puzzle game with 36 levels where you have to solve a puzzle on the device you can see in the pciture.


Tetris Effect just come to Xbox via Game Pass, it's still the best version of Tetris but does lack something without VR like on PS4.

I'll be honest and say I'm not quite sure what people see in Tetris Effect. It just seems to be a messier version of Tetris; if the answer is purely "VR" then I guess I'll never "get" it.

What I did "get" though was

WEST OF LOATHING

I'm almost annoyed at it. If I ever do finish making a proper game, the one thing I would consider a key ingredient in a subversive sense of humour - to point out the usual tropes, but then to not repeat them. But this game... I would never get close to thinking 1/10th of the funny things that happen during this adventure. It even gets round the turn-based combat by, in many cases, offering another solution involving words or skills - this is the option you always want to pick, as it just means more laffs. Even the OK button text is replaced with a sarcastic response to the narration. Really pleased I played this. Get it played yous.
Er, 5 out of 5.5.

It's fine without VR but better with it, like if Disney put Black Widow in Plus the film will still be decent but imagine watching it a cinema.

How much of an RPG is West of Loathing? Don't mind if the genre keeps it to the basics and if the game keeps it to the point, but for me I think it'd be the humour that'd carry it.

I've got Tetris Effect on PS4 without VR, and I'm with Jimbob. Of course it's class, but there's about five versions of Tetris I'd play first.

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Finished a couple of SEGA AGES games on Switch.



First was Shinobi, a side-scrolling action game that originally came out in arcades in 1987. The three Mega Drive sequels are rightly lauded as being three of the best games on that system, they’re genuinely excellent. This first one isn’t as good, but it’s decent enough for the standards of the time. The modern conveniences that M2 added to this version - like save states, high-power shurikens and a ‘Ninja-like’ rewind feature - are welcome, as it’s a bit of an arse-kicking in its original state. Arguably though, it goes to far with these various buffers, as it’s way too easy in it’s new SEGA AGES form. Yet compared to being ‘too hard’, ‘too easy’ is the lesser of two evils, and I’ve always got the choice of the original arcade version if I ever want to go through it again. I think I might, as Shinobi is a well-designed and well-playing game. 6/10.



Second was Fantasy Zone, SEGA’s cutesy, sugary-sweet answer to Defender. This is one of my favourite horizontal-scrolling shooters ever, it’s a fantastic game. This could very well be the best version of Fantasy Zone, as you’re not only getting a spot-on port of the 1986 arcade original, but a new Opa-Opa Mode too. That new mode gives you access to all the weapon and ship upgrades on-hand, which doesn’t just make the game far more approachable and far less punishing, but just so much more fun too. Excellent stuff, 8/10.

I have managed to get another current gen or current gen version in this case before PS5 arrives of a game I did plan to play on PS5 before my gameshare mate bought it on Xbox.


The campaign in Cold War is quite good and does some interesting things for a COD like dialogues choices giving two different end missions or a level where you need to solve something which you can do in various ways which I did with stealth & deceiving the enemy.

It just seemed shorter than normal even for a COD, guess in the bundle of what you're buying you are getting a lot of content with the campaign, multiplayer, zombies (dead ops as well) but if I had bought myself than likely would be done now, maybe would do a few MP matches just to see how MP is this year at the most as I don't care for Zombies.

Basically it's more COD and fine for this in between bit of waiting for PS5 and the games coming with that along with HW: AoC as well.

Octopath Traveller



I've chatted a little bit about it in its own thread, but I've just blitzed through the last few hours of it and finally finished the main storyline for all eight characters. I got it for Christmas 2018, played about 25 hours of it, and then put it down for ages; picked it back up again a few weeks ago and after 60+ hours I am done!

I liked it. The pace was pretty nice because it was divvied up into digestible chapter chunks, unlike many JRPGs. It had some good storylines (I liked Primrose, Therion, Alfyn and Tressa's - really because they diverged a little bit from the most tired JRPG tropes and despite a bit of tweeness, were generally pretty well told). Actually, the nice thing about the storylines is that none of them were particularly grand - they were all personal tales of eight different people, some tragic, some introspective, some bland.

But... the stories don't overlap, and they should. Ok, I tell a lie: apparently they do overlap if you play through a bit more, but I've already played through the eight stories and I don't want to play for even longer. I saw the credits ages ago (Olberic was my main character and I finished his story first, which is when the credits play) so had I not done some Googling I would have left it without seeing that the yarns DO intertwine. I would have just thought there were light hints about it (Therion and Cyrus's endings vaguely reference each other; same with Alfyn and Tressa's). I think it's kind of shitty that I've played for 60+ hours and I don't get to actually see the plotlines merge.

Plus, the most interaction you get between your characters are tiny text interactions through the story, which don't develop the characters and come across as if the developers realised they should make the protagonists maybe speak to each other occasionally. They're basically skits from the Tales series, except in Tales games your party gets to know each other through the main story, primarily, and the skits are just fun little asides where someone eats a sandwich or falls over or something. In Octopath they just seem tokenistic and the vast majority of them serve to highlight the basic personality type of each character ("why Cyrus, what a smart man you are!" "gosh, Alfyn, you're just so optimistic!").

But if I hadn't enjoyed it I wouldn't have seen it through. It's kind of weird - a game that focuses on storytelling but stumbles on telling the stories - but it still mostly works. And it's gorgeous! I never tired of the visuals. They really are a triumph. And overall it's just very stylish. The battle system is good but I think could do with refining (it gets to a point where it doesn't really matter who's in your team as long as you've got all the jobs covered), but if there's a sequel in development they'll probably do that.

I feel like this writeup sounds more critical than I meant it to. It's an 8/10 sort of a game - it's good! It just has its eccentricities. But I'd rather play a distinctive yet familiar, slightly weirdly done JRPG than a completely cookie-cutter one.

I'm very much with you on your main criticism Rum - in fact I harped on about it a fair bit when I finished it, or rather didn't consider I'd finished it for precisely the reasons you bring up.  I think I was harsher on it than you for the things it cut the cookie regarding (standard-issue turn-based battles, grinding, random encounters, none of the QoL stuff from that team's previous games), which you probably found comforting.

I feel I'm occupying an odd place at the moment with regards to JRPGs, sandwiched in between your Rums who love a good turn-based dust-up and your Jases who can't stand the idea.  I do recognise that there'll always be a place for the classic takey-turney combat system (see the popularity of Dragon Quest XI), but from my vantage point I can't see where that place is.


On which note, I'm liking the sound of West of Loathing. If Jim likes it, Cappa, I don't think it can be too RPGish. He's not a fan of the genre if I recall correctly.

Hmm, reading your criticisms in that post I agree with you on most of it, although I didn't find it overly grindy or that the battles were too regular (unless you ran, which increased the likelihood of an encounter - I walked everywhere!). And honestly I wouldn't be that harsh on it compared to the Bravely games whose characters I remember as all... a bit shit (though I never got very far with Second so never saw their stories through). I'm actually really not that much of a turn-based fan - I just got quite into the rhythm of Octopath, I think, and liked how you could balance how long to leave it to unleash a debilitating move that would affect the enemy for longer, while trying to make sure you had enough saved up to break the enemy so they couldn't harm you... it was almost all about timing. Man, Leghold Trap and Empoison saved my bacon many times.

As for West of Loathing, I LOVED it, and I'm trying to think of how RPG-y it would seem to someone who doesn't like them - I don't think it feels massively like an RPG but the menus are quite text-heavy and the battles are turn-based. But as Jimbob says, anything that would typically be boring is generally saved by how they turn it on its head, and I don't know any other game that has made me laugh out loud as much as it did. I think it's just worth remembering that it has its roots in a browser-based RPG game so while it's a lot slicker than its predecessor, stylistically it retains a lot of that.

On turn based combat I still think it's how it's implemented as Persona 5 it's so quick that barely feels like it and Yakuza 7 has it which looks great, maybe Andy could tell us how good or bad it is.


Well as you may have seen else where on here or on Twitter my PS5 isn't working properly as it crashes on every game and part from Mlies Morales, I can't seem to install any of the other three games I have on disc.

Miles which I originally planned to platinum, I managed to do the story at least amongst my three crashes whilst playing and that's why I've not played any more as I would be on the last boss fight for instance and crossing my fingers it wouldn't crash.

So my experience was a bit an iffy one as I was always on edge on will I get through this, that I don't know how much I enjoyed the 6hr story compared to someone who had no issues with the PS5. I can say it looks great with Ray Tracing the only mode I tried and Miles story overall might be better than Peter's from 2018 with him learning to become Spider-Man then someone who been doing it for 8 years.

I've done a couple of seasons on Master League in the new PES and I'd say that qualifies as beating it. I started in the Brazilian second division and managed to win that in my first season with Cruzeiro. It usually takes me a couple seasons to get a decent squad together and win that, so it felt a bit easier this year. I then said to the chairman I'd aim for mid-table and ended up winning the top division too! Took a job at Bayern halfway through the season (Brazilian seasons run January-December which was weird as you get that massive transfer window in the middle of the season) and won the f'ing treble - their team was ridiculous. I'm not sure why they sacked their manager halfway through the season, as they were 10 points clear in the Bundesliga. I then took a job at Genk in the Belgian league (naturally) and we are on course to win that league too.

I've always played on Top Player since the PS2 days, as Legendary always felt a bit cheap and when the game is cheap, it can feel scripted. When you lose the ball and just know they will score and you can't do anything about it, that's the worse thing a sports game can do. But I do think Top Player has got a bit easier this year unless I've got better. As far as the gameplay goes, it's the best it's ever been. PES 2020 was the first PES in years that I simply didn't get along with, it just didn't feel right. PES 2021 feels a lot zippier and they have fixed the goalkeeper and referee issues (you actually get fouls now!). Also, if the CPU wins a free kick on the edge of the box, it doesn't automatically mean they score (which it did for years). Everything else though, still feels like the 360/PS3 days as far as the menus and modes go, which is unforgivable. PES 2022 HAS to do something different and add something to the Master League, because everybody I know that plays PES, just plays the Master League (an offline career mode) yet Konami continue to focus on the online MyClub mode. That's not why people buy PES!

Anyway, is it the best PES yet? Yeah probably. But it is a very tired and dated game, outside of the gameplay. It sounds like Konami are revamping it on the PS5 which it really needs, and that will probably be the point that I join the next-gen (assuming you can still import kits/licenses).

9/10

That does make this years PES sound good but with playing FIFA 21 already and FM2021 soon where I'm likely to do like you going from club to club, not sure I need more footy in my life.

Playing FIFA when you can play PES is like choosing those American style cheese slices over a good mature cheddar.

They have said that the reason for the "season update" was so they can focus on the new one so in theory I would think they'll try and add more to stuff like Master League but at the same time like with many online modes they make all their money through MyClub so I can see that still being the main focus.

FIFA, I have "free" access to, I wouldn't buy it that's crazy when PES is better.

The only thing they've said is they're moving engine to Unreal.

gjones wrote:

I'm not sure why they sacked their manager halfway through the season, as they were 10 points clear in the Bundesliga.

Master league is just full of random shit, after playing a couple games on PES2020 today I had two players say they are retiring at the end of the season.......one is 29 years old and the other 30.

I think my favourite though are the teams who are challenging you in the league wanting you as their manager.

The_Jaster wrote:

gjones wrote:

I'm not sure why they sacked their manager halfway through the season, as they were 10 points clear in the Bundesliga.

Master league is just full of random shit, after playing a couple games on PES2020 today I had two players say they are retiring at the end of the season.......one is 29 years old and the other 30.

I think my favourite though are the teams who are challenging you in the league wanting you as their manager.

Yeah I do like that. There's so many silly quirks that I continue to find hilarious, like the 16-year old regens that have full beards (Buffon is literally his 40 year old face). Or any time the CPU goes ahead, they will make subs and show you the scorer going off applauding the fans just to rub your nose in it. Or the awkward cut scenes where your manager has a coffee cup glued to his hand. Or when a player wants his contract renewed and asks for a smaller salary. Or the completely pointless "My Favourite Players" option which does NOTHING. At least they don't have Petr Cech in it any more, signing contracts and doing media chats with his headgear on.

Ah, PES...

It's a good thing the on the pitch stuff is top notch eh? While it does give it a certain charm I'm ready for them to rip up most of this ML format for something more exciting - though I hope they go more a sim style route than story based one.

A couple things I'd like to see them focus on are:

1. A much much much better transfer system.
2. More involved training for your players so it allows you to shape your team the way you actually want it.

Yeah the transfer system does need some work. I would like to see them implement skill trees from RPGs and emphasise the levelling up of players more, as that is something that is already in place but could be expanded upon.
They need to sort their menus out - I shouldn't have to go Database > Tables > International > England > Premier League > Goal Rankings to see where my strikers are in the Top Scorers chart. That's like 6 menus. After each match, you see the League table, but I swear in older games you could press L1/R1 to cycle through different tables. It's almost as if they don't play-test the titles any more.

I also think Become a Legend is rubbish. You only get to play as your character, but FIFA does it so much better in Be a Pro by letting you control the whole team, and also offering incentives and targets before each match. It's a more complete mode in FIFA, and Konami have the template there, it just needs tweaks and incentives.

Basically, I expect a hundred new scenarios or things to happen each year, but actually get nothing AND STILL BUY THE GAME. I want to see what every manager has won in the world of PES. I want to see the all time top scorers for all the clubs, and how my striker may break records. This seems so easy to implement (along with trophies/achievements) that can add a lot of value to the modes, but is simply ignored. Instead we get the same "score from 30m", "score 100 goals" bollocks. Oh and bring back Scenario mode from ISS.

Rum wrote:

Hmm, reading your criticisms in that post I agree with you on most of it, although I didn't find it overly grindy or that the battles were too regular (unless you ran, which increased the likelihood of an encounter - I walked everywhere!). And honestly I wouldn't be that harsh on it compared to the Bravely games whose characters I remember as all... a bit shit (though I never got very far with Second so never saw their stories through). I'm actually really not that much of a turn-based fan - I just got quite into the rhythm of Octopath, I think, and liked how you could balance how long to leave it to unleash a debilitating move that would affect the enemy for longer, while trying to make sure you had enough saved up to break the enemy so they couldn't harm you... it was almost all about timing. Man, Leghold Trap and Empoison saved my bacon many times.

I'm an impatient person so I didn't much like the running thing, but even when walking the rate seemed a bit too high! To be honest, in this day and age any random encounter rate is too high unless you can adjust it. Even DQXI, which felt like something exhumed out of the nineties, had the monsters showing up on the overworld. Even Pokémon.

Second had the better... well, most things actually. As for the battling, I'd agree that Octopath does turn-based battling better than many 'old-school' RPGs, and I agree with Mas (I think) who said that there's still room for TBB so long as it's done well. I preferred the dynamism of Brave/Default to breaking, but breaking was still a nice twist. (Leghold = gold.)

Stories Untold



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I actually finished this about 2 or 3 weeks ago but didn't want to type anything up about it right away, not because it isn't good because it definitely is, but I just had to think about it a bit more even though I still don't know what to say without giving anything away. Hmmmmm....... I'm going to keep this brief then.....it's an adventure/puzzle game that you will be done with in about 2 maybe 2 and half hours but that's perfectly fine for the story it tells (the story is the part I don't want to give away) which is just so well done & on several occasions gave me those big time goosebumps that start on your arms and go all the way to your neck.
I can see why this is highly praised from a lot of folk and is easy to recommend from me as well.

I've read good things about that game, including the entire plot because I'm too much of a wuss to play it.

Ahh that's a shame, most places say it's a horror but it honestly bleeds more toward a thriller for me and I loved the suspense of it all. Perfect game to play with some headphones on as well.

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Also I've finished another game.

Carrion



This was an odd one as it has some good ideas & playing from a monsters perspective is unique but overall it feels like it could have executed them way better if it was a full blown MetroidVania, not terrible but not exactly great either. I'd say only get this if you see it for less than a tenner.

RiME



Boy did this game catch me out, didn't really know what it was about going in to it and initially it seemed like it'd be a nice looking walking sim of sorts, turns out it's a puzzle platformer with plenty of collectibles hidden away if you wanna look for them.

It's the difference in the chapters that make this game what it is though, I really enjoyed seeing what each section would center around and what ideas it brought to puzzle solving, there was a good mix of clever a traditional tropes in there. It didn't become apparent till the latter end what the story actually was but by the final scene I was welling up a little bit and it really put a lot of the earlier moments of the game in to perspective.

At 5-6 hours with some collectibles in there if you want more I can definitely recommend this if you're looking for something that isn't too taxing.

8/10

I enjoyed what I played of RiME on PS4 back when I had a PSN subscription. I see the physical version on Switch for under a tenner often enough, I'd be tempted to give RiME another go there.

As a heads up, it might be fine now but I remember hearing the Switch version was a bit janky.

I've had RIME in my Steam library for years and it has just sat on my desktop, staring at me. I also had no idea what it was about but puzzle platformer sounds up my street. Will check it out!