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No new games in 2020, unfinished backlog only

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DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally

Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
Finally played THE Assassin's Creed. And I get all the praise it receives, the jump from the first one is impressive.
I've done the side content which was connected to the lore : Glyphs, Tombs and Codex (which turn out to be mandatory at the end so glad I collected them while doing the story). Really liked the Glyphs with their puzzles. I didn't bother much with the Mail delivery, Beatdown, Feathers and Race side mission.
I really like the background lore of the serie so far. I regret the few amount modern day sequences, it's something I really like in the first one (in term of narrative).

The gadgets are really welcomed, the combat is a bit better, the social stealth is now a real thing and the main story is engaging. Didn't like Ezio at the start but he becomes much more likable through the story. Still Altaïr is my favorite so far. I really liked reading the Codex pages from him.
The parkour is improved and still cool, BUT it feels much less precise than in the first one. Numerous time, I whined on Ezio for not doing what I told him to do (Happened once or twice with Altaïr). If you're not perfectly aligned for a jump, he's sometimes jump in a different direction (like instead of a forward jump, he jumps quite on the right if Ezio was not perfectly straight).
Not a big big problem but quite some frustration moments for me (Note that I hate platform games and platforming is my worst nightmare).

While the game is undeniably prettier than the first one, I was a bit shocked by the general aesthetic of it. Everything is clean, polish, bright and the UI doesn't fit in with its saturated colors (red square for enemies' health bar, the little "detection indicator" yellow/red). I prefer the first game's aesthetic (loved the foggy/sepia mood and the UI was really fitting in) if I had to choose.

In the end, I really liked it and it wanted me to continue the serie. Even if toward the end it seems a bit long but it was due to some little missions of the main story that felt like filler side missions (mini games for the Golden mask, "Ho no kill this guy, he just killed a courtisane"...). BUT the ending is extremely good. Definitely my kind of stuff (The Ones that came before speaking about the creation of the humanity and addressing directly to Desmond...)

What to play next :

The logical answer is Assassin's Creed : Brotherhood. (Edit : Started 20th of June)

BUT a Demon's Souls remake was announced... I completed the original only once (I attempted 2 others runs but always dropped them), after several hundreds of hours on Dark Souls, it was good but felt like an alpha/beta version of Dark Souls. Still I really liked the atmosphere and now I am getting quite hyped for doing another run.

So let's see my mood the next time I switch on my PS3...

Side note : my PS3 is started to die I think. I had several hard drive issue (when booting the console or sometimes a complete freeze during loading times of AC II)... Sounds like, I'll have soon to buy another one if I want to continue the Assassin's Creed (I got them till Black Flag on PS3).


Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
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Phase

Phase

Member
Finished an item randomizer run for DS1 (#26), which was awesome. I started out doing a fog gate+item+enemy randomizer run but that didn't last more than a few hrs lol. I didn't have the patience for the fog gate part.

And today I finished Ape Escape 2 (#27) which I had never played. Fun game that got better as I got further. The last boss fight was pretty fun too. Only downside is the camera is a pain in the ass.

Tomorrow I'm going to start another ps2 game I've never played - Sly Cooper.
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally

Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
First my PS3 had more and more issue and my early save (around 2h) was corrupted so I had to restart... Also I bought a cheap second hand PS3.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood aka Assassin's Creed II.5. Prety similar to the second game but make everything better. Especially the sidecontent which is nicely integrated in the game world/story and pretty interesting to do.
I did quite a bit of it.
Was skeptical with the Assassins recruitment when it was introduced but in the end I liked to level them up and calling them to take down ennemies while I was infiltrating a place was really satisfying.
I still have the same issue with the parkour I got with II. It's not precise enough at some moment. I can't count the number of time Ezio ignored a ledge and just jumped over it to commit suicide or to land just in front of enemies (that got me detected and mission failed...)
Ezio will for sure not be my favorite character. I can't say I dislike him but can't say I like him either. I liked the story of II, but the one of Brotherhood is not so interesting. I have the feeling everything we've done was just there to prolong the game.
However I really like the modern days story. And that ending.... I'll definitely go for Revelations.

Side note :
People who were involved in designing, playtesting and validating the Leonardo's Flying machine side mission should get psychologically evaluated... The worst controls I have ever seen in in the video games history.



What to play next :

I'll go for Assassin's Creed Revelations for sure (actually it's installing as I am writing this... 5th of July). I want to see the sequel of the modern days sequences and also learn more about Altaïr.
And one of the main reason :


I also start to get in RPG mood again and pretty interested in Final Fantasy XII and some "legendary RPGs" like Vagrant Story or Baldur's Gate.
But I'll wait that I finished Ezio's story and maybe Desmond's saga with Assassin's Creed III.

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
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DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Epic update DelireMan7 DelireMan7

Let us know what RPG you land on. Any of those three choices are good ones.

i ended up shelving Kingdom Come Deliverance. I don't mind the game's emphasis on realism and scarcity but the monk mission broke me. I don't want to lose all my stuff and have to barter for lockpicks. Maybe I'll look up a guide on how to do the mission efficiently but for now I'm done and it's on to Red Dead Redemption 2.

Up until yesterday I didn't have any vertical CRT set up so I've neglected Daioujou during the entire Wuhan flu lockdown :messenger_fearful: It's good to take breaks but it feels even better to slip the glove back on and continue grinding.
 
LegionX

LegionX

Member
16. Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm

I was flashing back to memories of 12 years ago or so when a PS3 demo disc came out with a playable demo for this game and I was at the time amazed at the graphics and how accurate it all looked. All this time later, I've now played through it on PC, in 1080P rather than 720P.. and I'm still impressed this existed back then! I know it's a lot easier to get anime/cartoon style looks rather than shoot for realism, but it's still impressive to me! Very smooth animation also.

As to the game itself, I enjoyed the combat (even if I never fully understood it, the tutorials/training are quite lackluster, so I think I was half way through before I even worked out a few of the mechanics), and I enjoyed a few of the mini-games, but there WAS a lot of busy work to do, between each fight you go back to the village/whatever and generally have a bunch of collectables to get to gain money/items to upgrade/unlock things... This was OK early on, but getting quite dull 15 hours later when I was still doing the same things...

All up, really quite enjoyed this one! Not what I'd consider a normal style of game for me to play, but I do enjoy trying things out of my comfort level at times!

Failure 1 - The Last Of Us Pt 2

My first failure of the year... so I'm going for the 10 backlog per 1 new goal it seems!
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
After 2 and Brotherhood, I was a bit "bored" because on how similar they are and how the setting/atmosphere was not my stuff.
So I just moved to Revelations to conclude the Ezio's trilogy and probably take a break from the franchise before keep going.
But Revelations pleased me in a lot of way. Side content is weak but in a small quantity which is refreshing after Brotherhood. Also I didn't bother much with it.
The strongest aspect for me is the atmosphere and mood of several sections :
  • The Animus core gave me some Demon's Souls vibe. And I like the interaction with 16 and hearing our team in the real world.
  • The ruins to explore to find the keys really felt like ancient ruins and gave me some old Tomb Raider vibe.
  • Altaïr's memories are really touching for me (I just love Altaïr I think).
  • And finally the Desmond's sequence really surprised me. At first I was thinking, it will just be some bad First person platforming section but in the end I loved their mood and how we learn about Desmond's past. Somehow, it gave me some Half-Life 2 vibe... One of the highlight of the game for me.
I feel like that the game is weaker than 2 or Brotherhood, if I analyze it purely objectively but subjectively it's definitely one of my favorite with AC1.
I can easily see my self revisiting 1 or Revelations in several years while I know I'll never touch again 2 and Brotherhood.


What to play next :
Revelations really motivated me to go on with Assassin's Creed 3.

But I still have some RPG mood so Final Fantasy XII (I'll see later for Vagrant story or Baldur's Gate, first finish what I own ^^) is still in my visor. Would be nice to avoid making an overdose of AC.

Also Demon's Souls is still in my mind... Anyway I go for 2 weeks of vacation so I'll see after that. And my choice can be influenced by what we'll see in the next 2 weeks (AC Valhalla official gameplay at Ubi event, a potential Elden Ring gameplay at the XBOX event and can I dream of a Final Fantasy XVI surprise announcement ?)

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
VidKid369

VidKid369

Member
I've been working on beating my backlog for almost four years now. I mostly only play Japanese-style RPGs they're the bulk of the games I have all together. I'm pretty good at not buying new games but sometimes I binge on purchasing several RPGs when I go into the city. I haven't done that though for maybe two years.

I'm working on Persona for PlayStation right now. I try to focus on SNES-PS era. I always devote some time to gaming at least everyday. I finally managed to get online to get to post about all this. I do a lot of writing offline about this too as well. I find it really does help when you just post your thoughts.

I'm really glad there's a thread for this here. I try to finish an RPG in two weeks but sometimes it spills over to three weeks, but now I'm trying to, "Complete" my RPGs (i.e. "Lv. 99, collecting every item, doing 'everything'"). I devote a lot of time to this. It's pretty much my number one priority as it has bothered me for most of my life. I find myself buying/collecting/"storing RPGs for future use" and re-playing games I enjoy & incurring a backlog lol. I re-play RPGs a lot which I don't really mind doing. I don't mind spending 80+ hours on a single RPG.

Anyways. Glad to be here!
 
Phase

Phase

Member
#28 - Gris
Short game, but loved the art style and music. It was a certainly a great change up to play a relaxing and artistically driven game.

#29 - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Good sequel. Some parts were unexpectedly hard with lots of enemies, but overall loved the experience. I still consider 1 to be the best but this game is no slouch. Maybe I'll give 3 a shot even though it looks quite different.

#30 - Dusk
An amazing and fast paced shooter that I loved after getting out of the first area. The beginning kind of sucks imo but the game kept getting better and faster as it went. Some of the later level designs are awesome. The hitboxes seem a little generous but the result of that makes you feel like a beast sometimes.


Thoughts so far for this year: I've been playing more games than usual to keep pace and get 52 for the yearly challenge, but I've also been spending a lot of time outside skateboarding so it's been tough to allot enough time. On the plus side it's great to be playing a lot of games I would have just forgotten about or put in a backlog.
 
VidKid369

VidKid369

Member
Heylo. Just wanted to let y'alls know that I've beaten Persona for PlayStation, finally! Pretty sure I did everything right. Pretty nice introduction to the series I always wanted to get into the games so I'm happy I managed to pick this one off.

A lot of RPGs in my backlog for this year and I'm sure a few more. Trying not to buy any new games.

I dunno which RPG to start next!
 
Phase

Phase

Member
#31 - Frostrunner
Short but fun, especially trying to get the quickest possible times. I had this in my steam library and had never played it, and it made me realize 3D platformers are what I've been missing lately. So I went searching for more and found

#32 - Deadcore
What a breath of fresh air this game was. Physics puzzles akin to portal but surprisingly unique. You've got to climb to the top of a monstrous tower with changing gravity and different obstacles along the way. Loved this one.

#33 - Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Played through for the first time since its release. Very good walking sim.

#34 - Refunct
Back to the platformers. This game was on sale for a dollar so I figured why not. Nice clean looking simple game. Very short, but I've now speedrun it a few times and will probably again.

#35 - Portal
#36 - Portal 2
Then I saw both Portal games in my list and thought, man, it's been a while. So I played through the first and the sequel, which I finished yesterday. The writing and personality of these games are the cherry on top. Witty, sardonic, and enjoyable.


Now, someone find me some more good 3D platformers. They're like crack to me.
 
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Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
Phase said:
#31 - Frostrunner
Short but fun, especially trying to get the quickest possible times. I had this in my steam library and had never played it, and it made me realize 3D platformers are what I've been missing lately. So I went searching for more and found

#32 - Deadcore
What a breath of fresh air this game was. Physics puzzles akin to portal but surprisingly unique. You've got to climb to the top of a monstrous tower with changing gravity and different obstacles along the way. Loved this one.

#33 - Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
Played through for the first time since its release. Very good walking sim.

#34 - Refunct
Back to the platformers. This game was on sale for a dollar so I figured why not. Nice clean looking simple game. Very short, but I've now speedrun it a few times and will probably again.

#35 - Portal
#36 - Portal 2
Then I saw both Portal games in my list and thought, man, it's been a while. So I played through the first and the sequel, which I finished yesterday. The writing and personality of these games are the cherry on top. Witty, sardonic, and enjoyable.


Now, someone find me some more good 3D platformers. They're like crack to me.
Click to expand...
here's some stuff off the trail, some heavier on platforming than others -->

cloudbuilt, inferno climber reborn, lemma, a story about my uncle, tower of guns, fallen order, a hat in time, crash or spyro trilogy, mirror's edge, valley, supraland, sonic generations
 
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Phase

Phase

Member
Tesseract said:
here's some stuff off the trail, some heavier on platforming than others -->

cloudbuilt, inferno climber reborn, lemma, a story about my uncle, tower of guns, fallen order, a hat in time, crash or spyro trilogy, mirror's edge, valley, supraland, sonic generations
Click to expand...
Out of that list I've only played A Hat in Time, Crash series, the Spyro's, and the Mirror's Edge games. I'll have to check the others out, thanks!
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII Ongoing
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
Currently playing :
Finally went for Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac Age (Started 25th of July). Honestly I almost drop it after my first 2h session... Walking/running is slow and there is a lot of round trip to do... Of course there is the "speed up" fonction but it looks too goofy and breaks my immersion. Then the fact that you have to manually "reactivate" the auto attack after each enemy was really annoying. Also I made Vaan an archer and was thinking that the arrows were limited... So didn't use the bow because it was too costly...

But I gave it another try and now I enjoy it ! I think I was not in good condition on my first go. I wanted something more "immediate" after my 2 weeks break...
Now I am really into the world/story and I have unlocked the Gambit system and it looks promising. It makes the combat much much better and will probably stick to "auto combat" for the rest of the game. And I finally realized that I need only "one arrow" to use a bow xD
The License board looks interesting.

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
ExpandKong

ExpandKong

Banned
I PLAYED DELTARUNE INSTEAD.

Deltarune Chapter 1 (Switch)

I liked it. I got into Undertale before the super crazy fandom got really out of control and ruined it for everybody with their weirdo shit, so I was able to really enjoy it for what it was.

Deltarune just feels like more of that with a slightly different battle system, which I'm not complaining about. Plus the soundtrack slaps, as expected. And it's free so hey.

Good game will buy the rest whenever it happens.

Will probably try to finish....I dunno, RE2 Remake next...unless I get distracted by some anime tiddie game.

EDIT: lol @SLoWMoTIoN it's happening
 
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Phase

Phase

Member
I've had a heightened interest to game lately so I've been trying to keep riding that wave to more completions. Finished 43/52 so far for the "52 games in 2020" challenge which I'm happy about. I'll be resuming some of my long games now as I can relax the pace and coast a bit.


#37 - Neave
Short quick platformer a la Refunct, but less refined. Wish there was more to it. Even speedrunning it a few times after finishing it didn't account to much time. It could definitely use an art style (like any lol) as it's basically textureless.

#38 - Tacoma
Good voice acting and decent story. Not very original, and even listening to most of the dialogues it only took me just over an hour. Kind of expected it to be longer. Pretty boring though.

#39 - The Stanley Parable
Great narration. Lots of branching deaths lol. I will probably play some more to find some of the alternate paths I missed but overall very well done "walking sim."

#40 - Mark of the Ninja Remastered
I played it way back but remembered none of it. Wonderfully designed game. Good soundtrack, ambiance, art style, and mechanics. Might play the NG+ but probably not since it takes away some things like being able to see behind you. I'd just feel less like a ninja in that case.

#41 - Supraland
Really well done. Puzzles can be a bit frustrating as there's not always more than one way to solve them, but this is a pretty amazing platformer. Earning abilities and skills as you go along really gives a good sense of progression and freedom. Art style is fun and overall controls are on point.

#42 - Fez
A big surprise to me. I grabbed it a while back free from the Epic Store and just got to it. Very innovative puzzle platformer with brilliant music. It really grew on me the further I went. Would've gave it perfect marks but it was frustrating finding the last few cubes in order to have enough to beat the game.

#43 - The Talos Principle
Great puzzle game with great writing, minimal that it is. Some puzzles are pretty hard, especially the ones with a play button, but overall they're awesome and diverse. Even the 2d puzzles to unlock items and helpers I enjoyed. I got to the 5th level of the tower but that's where I stopped climbing (can't be arsed to find all the stars) and just went to the "heavenly gates" ending.
 
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LegionX

LegionX

Member
17. The Uncertain : Last Quiet Day

I wasn't sure what next to play, so I literally used a random number generator with my Steam collection, and it picked this.. It ended up being an interesting, if short experience. It's a small indie devs first game, which was supposed to be episodic, but ended up with them moving to a full sequel after years of delays etc. It's basically an adventure game in 3D, but where you directly move your character rather than purely point and click. I found it to be quite glitchy, obviously the developers did not do some things correctly as it was easy to get the character stuck, or at times a voice line would not play, but all up I was interested by the story and enjoyed the 3 or so hours it took to play through

18. Rise of the Argonauts

A bit of an odd one this.... It was billed as an Action RPG, and I guess it kind of is, but equally... not... The game feels like it wants to be two different things at once, and they got the mix wrong... The two things you do in this are... walk in to a big map and talk to every person, to get a bunch of side missions and a LOT of plot/story... then you walk back and forth to each of these other people to finish those side missions.... and the second part of the game is every now and then there is combat... The weird thing is I'd say it's 75% talking, wandering about, and 25% combat... and that might be being generous still! doing the side missions allows you to choose perks from some pretty big skill trees, however, I found the actual combat parts to generally be a breeze, so most of that wasn't really needed anyways... I still enjoyed my time with it... but it's odd for me as somebody that loves a story line in a game to say.... perhaps less of that and more action would have been better.....
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII Gave up !
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
  10. Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac age (Started 25th of July, stopped 21st of August, around 40h)
Well, I am a bit sad because I rarely give up on a game (especially on a FF !) but I don't have pleasure anymore playing it.
The game is not bad and I liked many aspect :
  • The world and art design are really nice
  • Hunts are good
  • Gambit system is pretty good and I love experiment "builds" with it
  • And more important : it feels like a Final Fantasy to me. Can't explain but it is a true FF for me.
But there is several stuff that was too "mediocre" for me to continue.
First the story... It never takes off. Not that much happen. It's not an epic adventure and I don't feel like our mission is that important. Maybe due to the fact that I find Ashe doesn't look like to know why she wants the throne back and doesn't seem prepared to rule. She sounds more like "I am the princess, I want my throne back !". I am probably close to the end but I don't even want to know how it's finishing.

Then some of the dungeons are too long and not that interesting...

Also my big complaints are on the Licence boards... The system is addictive and interesting in the beginning, but in the end it's just frustrating. I find the Spheregrid from FFX a much more rewarding system because every XP point you spend on it make you character better (and later you can customize you grid if you want specific STAT bonus).
The licence board just gives you "right" to use/wear spells/equipment. So you still have to find or spend money to benefit the licence points you spent (if you find the said equipment/spell...). Also if you find an equipment/spell but don't have the licence, then you have to wait before using it... It's frustrating for no reason.
Of course it's not only that, you can gain some HP, physical/magic boost and some interesting passive (but too few and not enough diverse across all the job).
My boards are now quite filled so it's mainly equipment slots waiting to be actived... So spending my LP is not fun anymore to me.

And final point : the soundtrack... It's probably not bad but it's difficult to judge because you barely hear it. It's never "in front". It's always some quiet background music. It's the first time after playing a game for so much that I can't "sing" or remember at least a song of the OST.

So yeah, I am sad to gave it up but the last 5-6 hours I played, I was just forcing myself to finish it. So it's better to drop it. Maybe I'll go back and finish it in few weeks (but I don't think so)

11. Batman Arkham Knight's DLC : Batgirl, Red Hood, Catwoman and Harley Quinn (21/22 nd of August, around 3h)

I played Arkham Knight (the whole Trilogy acutally) last year when it was for free on PSplus. I bought the season pass on discount but never played the DLC. With the imminent announcement of the new Batman game, I decided to play some of them.

Well, it's entertaining.
The best was Harley Quinn with her brutal style and personality. I loved the UI and the detective mode (rename "psychose mode") style.
I was a bit disappointed with the Batgirl's one. It's the most "constructed" to look like small story with several mission. Also I was expecting a reinterpretation of "The Killing Joke" comic book that explain how she became Oracle, since the setting is similar (except that Gordon and Barbara's place are switched compare to the comic). I was expecting any moment Barbara to be shot and when at the very Harley shoot Robin and Barbara jump to save I was "That it's !" but no... I didn't get that scene. Also gameplay wise, it's just Batman with a new skin while all the others have some specificity.

What to play next :
I have several games I'd want to play (Vagrant Story, Death Stranding, Control, Resident Evil...) but I'll first continue with Assassin's Creed 3 (started 23th of August) to finish Desmond's saga. Then I'll try to alternate a new game and an AC game.
I almost took Mortal Shell but they announced the physical edition for October so I'll wait for it :)



Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
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LegionX

LegionX

Member
19. FUEL

So this was a first..... first time I've had a backlog game I legitimately own.. that I had to download a pirated copy to play! I own it on Steam..... but it seems Codemasters never removed Securom protection from it, they just delisted the game... so it's impossible to register the key and play it...
Anyways, the game itself is a off-road racer type game... with an absolutely insanely huge map. At the time it had the Guinness World Record, probably not anymore.. but you get the idea.. The map can be traversed in one go with no loading and it would take multiple hours of driving to get across... They cut it up in to 19 sections, with each sections having 3-6 races for stars (which you need to get to unlock more areas) plus 10 races for fuel (to buy new vehicles etc) so there's an absolute tonne of content.... It's an arcadey feel, with a number of different vehicles to keep up the variety (from bikes up to trucks). I put in over 27 hours to do all the star races, but about half way through I slowed on the races for fuel... that's not counting the fact you can find vista points (nice view locations basically) and skins by free travelling around the map... so to 100% this game would take a very long time indeed.
I enjoyed my time with it... aside from the pain of getting it up and running... (It also required me to get GFWL installed on my PC)
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII Gave up !
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
  10. Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac age (Started 25th of July, stopped 21st of August, around 40h)
  11. Batman Arkham Knight's DLC : Batgirl, Red Hood, Catwoman and Harley Quinn (21/22 nd of August, around 3h)
  12. Assassin's Creed 3 (Started the 23th of August, ended the 5th of September, 19h)
A nice conclusion to Desmond's story. Modern day story was what I was the more interested so far and I really like it in this one.

The combat is somehow the best so far but it still remains "chaotic". I still don't get how the execution are triggered. So I just keep attacking/countering/using tools till Connor decide to kill the enemies. I kind of like it. The new animation are really cool.

I find out the equipment system really late but honestly I don't get the point of it. Already in Ezio's trilogy. What's the point of this pseudo RPG system in a game were you don't really do damage to your enemies and you can anyway one shot them. I wish the they embrace their "old school philosophy" of "I am an assassin, I have a hidden blade, a bow and a tomahawk and that's it". In this regard, the first Assassin's Creed is superior in my opinion. You unlock few tools in the main story but you don't have this pointless equipment system.

Story wise it was OK, I didn't always get why I am doing what I am doing...
The frontier area is too big and a pain to go across. Hopefully there is the fast travel system even if it's immersion breaking for me.
Too much pointless side content (the trade system, assassin's recruitment system...).

Then the best : Naval mission. I was skeptical because sailing is not really my stuff but I had a lot of fun. I did every missions. It got me pump up for Black Flag.

What to play next :
Before jumping into Back Flag (the last game that I own and want to play), I want to try something else. I ordered Baldur's Gate (Started 14th of September) bundle for PS4.
Really curious about it. But it will arrive only in 2 weeks, so I might play some old PC games I liked when I was teenage and play from time to time : Civilization 3 or Transport Tycoon Deluxe (don't why I love this one). Or maybe go on so MP game...

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
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VidKid369

VidKid369

Member
Hey, guys! I forgot to post, lol. I started and beat Chrono Trigger like a month ago, hehe.

Now, I'm playing Star Ocean: The Second Story (PSX). I'm about 44 hours into the game.
 
Phase

Phase

Member
Four more to tally. Five more to finish to get 52 for the year!


#44 - A Story About My Uncle
Another 3d platformer, but unfortunately it's too inconsistent mechanically to enjoy. First, your grapple gloves distance isn't consistent throughout the game so what you think will work sometimes just won't, and some sequences have to be done in a specific order otherwise what should work simply doesn't. Very frustrating. Second, the story seems shoehorned in to give the game some emotion. Fell pretty flat for me.

#45 - Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
Decent fps. Had good fun but it does get pretty repetitive and there are too many cutscenes (which aren't good). I'm glad it was short.

#46 - Abzu
Great underwater environment and music. Very relaxing swim, but basically just a swimming simulator.

#47 - Prey
Great game, albeit a bit frustrating at times. You get into the flow after a while and the story becomes very interesting. There's really a lot of freedom in how you want to play, and every aspect of this game is done well. Had a lot of fun.
At the end I was going to fabricate the new nullwave thing and save everyone but they designed the game so that many paths were blocked and I'd have to go around the ship to find a fabricator and a recycler. It became annoying to me when I diverted my original path only to find my alternate path was also blocked. I said fuck it, armed the ship to blow, then Alex gave me this guilt trip speech so I blasted him with the shotgun and took off in an escape pod as the ship blew up.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Prey and Abzu, two of my favorite games from this gen. :messenger_heart:

Regarding Abzu, have you also played Flower, Journey, and some of the other similar games? How do you think Abzu compares? I think Abzu is my all-time favorite owing to the variety of marine life. Felt like a digital fishtank.
 
Phase

Phase

Member
DunDunDunpachi said:
Prey and Abzu, two of my favorite games from this gen. :messenger_heart:

Regarding Abzu, have you also played Flower, Journey, and some of the other similar games? How do you think Abzu compares? I think Abzu is my all-time favorite owing to the variety of marine life. Felt like a digital fishtank.
Click to expand...
I've played Journey. Thought it was beautiful. The marine aspect of Abzu was very cool. I found myself diving down and exploring looking around for secrets. Very relaxing game. I'm about to play The Unfinished Swan next. Gonna have to check out Flower now too!
 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
I'm still holding strong in 2020, but I will have to break the pact in 2021 (MH Rise). Currently going back through MH Generations Ultimate to shake off the rust. Mostly playing Valor Hammer and Valor HBG.
 
ExpandKong

ExpandKong

Banned
I keep getting distracted from my plan and jumping around chaotically but I did finish another game and that game was

Deadly Premonition Origins (Switch)

Man, I bought the game on 360 and on PS3 and on Steam and then I bought it on Switch the day it dropped because I've got mental problems I guess. I never got close to finishing it before so it's good to finally do that at least.

Game's weird. Characters are weird but I like them. The town is maybe a bit too big for its own good and the map sucks and there's no fast travel but that's kind of okay because you get to hear York talk to himself about movies and punk music and shit.

I did very little of the side stuff - just what I needed to get the infinite ammo sub machine gun and shotgun, and a handful of others I happened across - so I probably missed out on a lot of quirky stuff. That's okay though, I'm just trying to finish some games right now. Game got pretty wild at the end not gonna lie. Some body horror stuff I wasn't expecting, too, and I've been on a bit of a Junji Ito kick lately so that was neat.

I think this game is sort of the perfect example of how something with jank but a lot of heart can end up more memorable than a lot of the high production AAA schlock that gets churned out every year. Like I can power through the shitty map and brain dead combat to listen to York talk about a dude drinking rum & Coke out of somebody's skull while he's eating a burger and everyone around him looks terrified because that's hilarious. I like it.

Up next: maybe a big titty anime game for real this time? Maybe Witcher 3 finally? Probably none of those.
 
DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII Gave up !
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
  10. Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac age (Started 25th of July, stopped 21st of August, around 40h)
  11. Batman Arkham Knight's DLC : Batgirl, Red Hood, Catwoman and Harley Quinn (21/22 nd of August, around 3h)
  12. Assassin's Creed 3 (Started the 23th of August, ended the 5th of September, 19h)
  13. Baldur's Gate (PS4) (Started the 14th of September, ended the 5th of October, "162 days")
After completing it, I have regrets... Regrets I didn't play it sooner.

I always pictured playing this game, the same as reading a book during a snowy winter night, in front of a fire while drinking tea.

Winter it was not, but I could see the snow falling through the window...
Fire I hadn't, but I could hear it crackle...
The tea was real and a welcomed companion during this cold night...
A book it was not, but I loved every page of it...

A masterpiece. My only complaints is the final boss fight... Without any shame or regrets, I turn the difficulty to story mode for this one (I played in Core rules)... I couldn't last more than 10 second in Core rules. Even Normal and Easy were near impossible...

What to play next :

I will for sure play the Siege of Dragonspear and then Baldur's Gate 2.
But I really want to make a proper last run of Demon's Souls (Started the 5th of October) before the remake came out. So that will be the next.

Also the announcement of Final Fantasy XVI got me hyped and I want to finish XII and replay XV/X and play IX and XIIIs...

Demon's Souls, Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy will fill my next gaming months... :)

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
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DonJimbo

DonJimbo

Member
Yep my backlog is huge ps5 will come in my home when I'm finished with my backlog I started playing Horizon and my backlog gets bigger and bigger
I need some first party recommendations to play
 
VidKid369

VidKid369

Member
Oops, I dunno why I can't edit my post. (Sorry for the Double Post.) I popped in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64 like I was planning for two months now. I dunno why I always change my mind the night before lol.
 
Phase

Phase

Member
3 more games completed.


#48 - The Unfinished Swan
I finished the swan. But being serious it was a fun and original game. Really enjoyed the pacing.

#49 - Diablo 3 + Reaper of Souls Expansion
Hadn't played an arpg in a while before finally starting this. Story was so-so and I didn't really like the new skill setup but I had fun and definitely enjoyed my playthrough. I also got a ridiculous drop after beating Malthael that goes perfectly with my build. I'll be playing Adventure mode for sure when I finish this 52 game challenge.

#50 - Dead Space 2
Fantastic game minus a few forced cinematic sequences (for some reason the mouse sens was messed up in those). The near end and ending got my blood flowing. Great sequel to the first. I hadn't played it until now.


Only 2 games to go!
 
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DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
My challenge :
No 2020 games (or the strict minimum). I can buy older games as my "physical backlog" is quite limited ( 2 physical games and 1 from PS+ I really wanted to play).

"Physical backlog" :
  • Xenoblade Chronicles Done !
  • Final Fantasy XII Gave up !
  • The Last of Us (PS+) Done !
  • The surge (PS+, still don't know if I want to play it or not) Not interested finally
Games completed :
  1. Dragon Age Origins (started early 2019, finished 6th January 20, around 80h)
  2. The Last of us + Left Behind (Started 1st January, finished 19th January 20, 18h30 + 2h20, Survivor Difficulty)
  3. Dark Souls Remastered (thanks to the lockdown, finish a coop playthrough (half NG and full NG+) with a friend)
  4. Xenoblade Chronicles (Started 25th January 2020, finished 10th May 20, 78h30)
  5. Streets of Rage 4 (Online coop with friends, several runs on hard)
  6. Assassin's Creed (Started 12th of May, finished the 30rd of May)
  7. Assassin's Creed II (Started 2nd of June, finished 17th of June, 15h30)
  8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Started 20th of June; finished the 5th of July, 14h42)
  9. Assassin's Creed Revelations (Started 5th of July; finished 11th of July, 9h03)
  10. Final Fantasy XII : The Zodiac age (Started 25th of July, stopped 21st of August, around 40h)
  11. Batman Arkham Knight's DLC : Batgirl, Red Hood, Catwoman and Harley Quinn (21/22 nd of August, around 3h)
  12. Assassin's Creed 3 (Started the 23th of August, ended the 5th of September, 19h)
  13. Baldur's Gate (PS4) (Started the 14th of September, ended the 5th of October, "162 days")
  14. Demon's Souls (PS3) (Started the 5th of October, ended the 17th of October, 25h)
Seven years ago I played it after several hundred of hours on Dark Souls. It was nice to see the source of the Souls but it fell like a beta version of Dark Souls.

I wanted to replay it a last time before the remake. I like the beginning but quickly I felt like the first time that some zone are really opressive (Latria, Valley of defilement and Shrine of the storm)...
Also I was disturbed on how the damage type (slash/blunt/piercing) is drastically impacting your damage output. Honestly I thought about quitting and my hype for remake decreased a bit...

But I took it easy and start to like it more and more. The atmosphere is really strong on some areas (Nexus, The Old One's lair, Latria...), I love speaking to the NPCs (always in the Souls but these one are very "Soulesque") and start to accommodate to the damage type system.

While I don't really like reducing the Soulsborne to their difficulty, the statement : "Challenging but fair" is well defining these games. But I find that in Demon's Souls, it's quite often unfair... Shrine of the storms is a prime example :
Narrow path next to a cliff, with ultra agressive skeleton blocking the path and the flying creature constantly bombarding you.
I also note the trend of many fight in corridor/narrow area (Like the stair case just before the Old monk fight where you have 2 dreadful "squid" guards...) which can lead to many frustrating death.

The upgrade system is great on paper and I love how you can "customize" the stats scaling and the variety of builds it offers. BUT the upgrading cost are extremely high and you need extreme farming to max out a weapon (I didn't went to the max despite some farming). I hope this will be address in the remake (decreasing cost or make some stone vendors more accessible and not a in middle of a level).

World/Character tendencies are interesting concept but need some fixing because it force some "unnatural" way to play since you don't want to die in human form in a world you want the Pure white.(maybe it was better with online)

Then the bosses... I love how unique they all are. And how the Archdemons offer some truly unique fight/scenery. I just hope some will be improved in the remake (I speak about you Dirty Colossus... What about getting a real moveset ?)

My verdict : I loved it. Much more than the first time. And honestly, if the remake was not coming soon, I would have start a new character right away, like I always did with the Soulsborne. Really hyped to see some areas in the remake like the Tower of Latria which gave me some strong Bloodborne vibe or the Astraea "fight" which is the best moment in the game (the scenery and the music...)

Umbasa !

What to play next :

As I mentioned before, I want to go back on some Final Fantasy. So I will try to finish Final Fantasy XII and/or replay Final Fantasy XV (Was disappointed for a FF but I stil enjoyed my first playthrough so I want to do a second run to see all the changes from the Royal edition and the DLCs).

I'll go back to Baldur's Gate : Siege of DragonSpear after that (or if I succeed to grab a PS5, it sounds like I'll spend a LOOOOT of time on the Demon's Souls remake)

Multiplayer games in which I sunk quite some time :
  • For honor (January/February, 1v1 Warden/Peacekeeper)
  • Warcraft 3 (April/May, 1v1, Orc)
 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Handed out and sold off about 1/3rd of my collection over the past month. This challenge has been an eye opener, helping me to hone my tastes further.

I've been sinking more hours into fewer games. I say "fewer", but the reality is I still have shelves full of 100s of favorite puzzle games, shmups, adventure games, fighting games, racing games, etc etc

Heck, I have over 150 games on the DS/3DS alone and those are the ones I've trimmed down to. It's a handsome collection, if I can brag, but it's only a few hundred strong. This is more than enough for me. I'll still be buying new titles for my Switch and PS4. I love looking at upcoming games, but the FOMO has withered and died. I guess (nearly) two years of playing no brand-new games does that.

Games that keep landing in my rotation in the past 3 months:

- Siralim 3. Exceptional roguelike on console, with all the hair-pulling depth that I love. Now if only Caves of Qud made it over...
- Bloodborne. Screw the haters. Chalice dungeons are great fun. I keep jumping in to clear harder and harder Roots (randomized)
- Sekiro. One of the new-to-me 2020 games. I'm gonna platinum it before the end of the year, I think
- Death Stranding. Another new-to-me 2020 game. A strange experience that I can't turn away from.
- RingFit Adventure. Totally worth the time. A great challenge, if you want it to be.
- Dodonpachi Daioujou. Approaching the 4 year anniversary of starting this game. Longest break away has been a month.
- Spelunky. Yeah I know #2 is out but I'm brushing my skills back up on this first.
- Risk of Rain 2. I am still terrible at it, but I keep returning. The overpowered monster you can become is addictive.

Looking forward to next year:

- Luigi's Mansion 3
- Nexomon Extinction
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Ghost of Tsushima
- many more
 
Drake

Drake

Member
I actually finished one! I was two third's of the way through South Park The Fractured but Whole, but I stopped playing it like a year ago. Had to re-start as I forgot the plot and beat it in like 10 days. Trying to get through Metro Exodus (almost done) and Dragon Quest 11 (not even close) now. I'm kinda glad that Cyberpunk got delayed as I can work my way through these games.

Other games still installed on my PC that I need to beat:
Far Cry 5 (I may uninstall this as I kinda got bored with it. It's the same thing over and over and over)
RE: 7
Red Dead Redemption 2
 
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