Games You've Beat 2021 - PXoD's Excellent Adventure

[TheMightyEthan]

Aya was supposed to be the main character of Origins, but stupid Ubisoft executives are sexist dicks.

[Mister Jack]

Blood and Truth

 

Got it used for about 10 bucks. It's basically an on-rails light gun shooter except it's in VR, which is pretty cool since I used to love light gun shooters but the genre pretty much died a while back. This is a cool way to bring it back and taking cover from enemy fire by actually moving your body to physically take cover is pretty rad. My only beef with this game is that sometimes the tracking didn't work so well. I don't know if that's because this was an early PSVR game, because I played it sitting down in a small room, or because the Move controllers were outdated from day one, but I found aiming down a scope too difficult to work with reliably and would instead just eyeball my targets most of the time. The game ends with some blatant sequel bait so I imagine they are working on a follow-up, perhaps for a PSVR 2? I sure hope so. I love the PSVR but I would love it a lot more if they got some better controllers with finger tracking and internal tracking for the headset like what the Oculus Quest uses. If Sony eventually unveils a new headset with more reliable, updated technology then I'll be preordering that thing on day one.

[TheMightyEthan]

After playing The London Heist I really want to try Blood and Truth.

[TCP]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Man, the pacing in this was wack. The main quest line is really long and then it just sort of... ends. Seriously, before I was at the epilogue I had an out loud thought "oh shit, is this the end?". The reason for that is... (I'll keep things vague but don't read if you don't want to be spoiled on a 3 year old game). You spend most of the game trying to get a character to stop being evil. At the end he/she just, stops. Immediately. And then they're normal and the game ends. Wut. Now, remember, there's multiple endings, so that might not even happen for you. There is some obvious hints earlier on in the game that the character might be conflicted, but it's not really enough. It could have been a more natural progression, especially in a game of this length. 

That said, I really like Odyssey. I like it more than Origins. Origins felt too much like a mix between RPGs and traditional Ass Creed. It was definitely an important step. But Odyssey they said fuck it, this is a Witcher 3-style giant RPG and it's a better game for it. I do miss the traditional AC2/Syndicate style games and I hope going forward they alternate between these two styles. I think ship combat works better in these giant open world RPGs as well so maybe that's where they can include that going forward. Though, Valhalla didn't really have ship combat (despite having small boats) so maybe not. 

When I was playing Valhalla, since it was my first AC game since Syndicate, I went down the rabbit hole of watching some Ass Creed YouTube videos to better understand the lore. I noticed that a lot of the hardcore Ass Creed people REALLY hated this game. But they like Origins?? After playing Odyssey, I suspect they have issues with some of the lore breaking aspects, like choosing between Kassandra and Alexios. I get that can be annoying but this is also the series that spent 5 games building up Desmond Miles only for him to be unceremoniously killed off to set up a new villain who never appeared in the game and *checks notes* was killed in the comics. Huh. My point being, don't take this franchise's lore and overall story too seriously because clearly Ubisoft doesn't. Appreciate the game for what it is, it's still climbing buildings, sneaking in, killing enemies, so it's still Ass Creed at its core.

I also saw Kassandra get a lot of hate online. This, I don't get. She has a lot of personality and honestly, is better than most Ass Creed protagonists. Honestly, all three of these RPG protagonists have been better than Arno, Jacob, Shae, or Edward. Kassandra made me LOL a few times without every being a joke and was serious at other times without ever being annoying.
I still have a major sidequest line to do and some levelling up but then I'll dive into the Atlantis DLC.

[MetalCaveman]

Resident Evil HD Remastered

 

This was fun, the new controls make it EASY, how easy? I didn't die, though it was close in that part where you're carrying the fuel cell, mostly because I was using a controller, and moving the stick in a direction causes you to auto sprint, and sprinting for too long causes you to go boom.  Being able to move freely makes evading enemies a simple thing, and though crimson heads sort of even the odds, it's still quite the OP mechanic, personally, I liked it.  

 

First run was with Chris in his BSAA outfit, which was fun, expected him to start punching boulders, but that didn't happen.  Managed to clear it in under 5 hours in my second run with Jill, but missed the 3 hour mark by about an hour or so, tempted to do another run, but probably move on to other games for now. One thing that did happen and I didn't realize it until I was writing this: I completely forgot about the map for the second floor, never got it, but did have the wooden mount, never remembered what it was for until this moment, that was two playthroughs without using that thing.

 

An issue I did have though, I was never able to burn a zombie, I don't know if there's a specific position, or if I had to combine the fuel with the lighter in a specific way, or maybe you have to wait (or not wait) for a while before burning them? Tried burning crimson heads, but that didn't work either, flame rounds for the grenade launcher didn't work either, so that's a thing. 

 

A pretty cool update, and a fun revisit to the original, which I remember being scary as hell, from the start when you get that scene of Chris(?) getting chomped by a zombie dog, before the title screen, this time around, specially after playing 7, not that scary, but still quite fun.

 

Onto RE0 HD, which is going to be a thing, because unlike this one, where I did remember certain things, where to get certain items and stuff (even so, I got lost a bunch of times), I don't remember anything about 0, so that's going to be fun.  

[Mister Jack]

I think to burn the zombies you're supposed to use the kerosene on them and then the lighter separately? It's been a while since I played the remake.

 

Edit: Apparently it's a little sensitive to where you try to use the kerosene container. You have to be standing near their midsection for it to work.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Mister Jack

[MetalCaveman]

I never found the sweetspot.  Kept trying to use the kerosene, but it kept telling me "there's no need to use this right now".  

[MetalCaveman]

Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster

 

Kinda fun, I enjoyed being able to switch between Billy and Rebecca, their interactions are pretty neat  , the story was cool, seeing more of the events that led to RE, and how the virus was released, the story behind Wesker, the origins of Umbrella, all that stuff. Billy hasn't been in any game since, but I'd like to think he's still around.  

 

That being said, the inventory management is hell, there's a ton of stuff to pick up, and without item boxes the only option is to look for a room with many doors, some place you're likely to pass through a bunch of times, move all your key items there, then make progress, find another room like that, move everything there, repeat as necessary. Worst part is there are certain items that will be needed later on, and if you forget to move those, you're in for quite the journey. In particular, a key item you get at the start, that uses 2 inventory slots, and that's needed a bunch of times later on.

 

It also feels harder in certain ways, there are more enemies, a bunch of ambushes, and enemies that are faster/stronger or that can be a pain if you don't have the right weapon with you at the time. Having a teammate might seem like it makes things easier, but in reality it's just one more person to try and keep alive, and they can go through ammo quite fast if you're not careful.

 

All in all though, I had fun, though not one I'd want to replay immediately, unlike RE1.  

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

 

I've never been a fan of musou games, but this one sucked me in with its connection to Zelda, and it being officially canon, and I actually ended up really liking the game itself too (I liked it enough that now I'm planning to get Persona 5 Strikers, which originally I had written off as not for me, as soon as it goes on sale). They did a good job tying the musou mechanics into the BotW world and enemies and stuff, and keeping some of the BotW mechanics that make sense (like perfect dodge). Also, the story was pretty compelling, and has interesting implications for BotW2.

 

Spoiler

Terrako going back in time and helping them defeat Ganon 100 years before BotW has created another alternate timeline, and it's possible BotW2 will be set in that new timeline, instead of carrying on from the end of BotW. Similar to how Majora's Mask was set in the Child Link timeline after Ocarina of Time.

 

4/5 - Would be 5/5 if I were a bigger fan of the musou gameplay.

[Thursday Next]

What even is the game? I've seen the art style is BOTW like but no idea what the gameplay is like. Guess I should hit up YouTube.

 

 

Edit: So it's Dynasty Warriors?

Edited February 24, 2021 by Thursday Next

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, it's fundamentally Dynasty Warriors gameplay, but with a Zelda plot, Zelda enemies, Zelda-style attacks, etc. Persona 5 Strikers is the same except with a Persona theme instead of a Zelda one.

 

Unlike Hyrule Warriors 1, however, the story of Age of Calamity is actually canon.

[Thursday Next]

Might give it a go. I've nearly finished Phoenix Wright trilogy and could do with some fairly mindless button bashery.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, there are only two attack buttons, so you can easily play it as a button masher, but also combos are super easy, to the extent that even I used them, and I never used combos. They're always X number of light attacks followed by Y number of heavy attacks, with different combinations of X and Y yielding different specific attacks. It was a lot of fun.

 

I tried to go play the Immortals Fenyx Rising DLC last night after I finished Age of Calamity though, and I keep hitting the wrong buttons (specifically crouching when I try to dodge is extremely unhelpful... )

[Thursday Next]

I'm fine with some combos and stuff, I just really didn't enjoy BOTWs pacing, especially in terms of resource management, so wouldn't want to get into that again. A more pure action experience will be nice after the more cerebral Ace Attorney games. 

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, there's no weapon breaking or anything like that.

[TheMightyEthan]

Paper Beast

 

This is a PSVR game, and I don't even really know how to explain it. You're going through these surreal, fantastical areas, populated by paper beasts, and doing some light puzzle solving, some involving reshaping the environment with sand/water/etc. It's amazing. It gave me more of a sense of place than I think any other PSVR game I've played. It also made me really really want a From Dust VR port.

 

5/5

[Mister Jack]

I've seen footage of that game but I feel like it's one of those things I'd have to play for myself to truly "get." Maybe if it goes on a good sale I'll pick it up.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, it's different. It's definitely in the "weird indie game" category, you know the kind that starts off making a fair amount of sense, but starts to get more and more surreal as it goes on.

[Mister Jack]

Maneater

 

That game where you play a killer shark. Claimed it on PS+ last month and figured I'd give it a whirl. It's okay, but repetition sets in after a while. You play as a shark so all you can really do is swim around and bite things. They try to give you some variety by letting you evolve special skills like a poison bite, but it's still pretty basic. Not too bad in short bursts, though. A pretty easy platinum too.

[TheMightyEthan]

Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God

 

Pretty good. A little light on story content, it's basically just an excuse to do a bunch more challenge trials, but the trials were well designed and I enjoyed doing it.

 

4/5

[Mister Jack]

Astro's Playroom

 

This game is adorable as hell. In fact, I might go as far as to call it the best console pack-in game since Super Mario World. This game does a great job showing off the really cool things that the Dualsense can do. It really does feel like a next-gen experience. It also makes great use of the PS5's hint video feature for collectibles and the levels themselves are chock full of downright charming easter eggs and shout outs to everything in Playstation history from God of War to Vib-Ribbon of all things. Anyone else remember Vib-Ribbon? There's all kinds of super fun and creative gimmicks in each world that makes them all feel unique. If Sony made a full-length version of this game it could be good enough to compete with some of the modern 3D Mario titles. The gameplay is really on point with Astro Bot. The only thing it doesn't have that Mario does is iconic characters with decades of history.

 

On a side note, the Dualsense controller is so cool that it makes me annoyed that Nintendo has practically forgotten that HD rumble even exists in the joycons. Why even include it and charge extra money for it if you're not going to use it for anything? I didn't own an Xbone but I've heard from others that it barely got any use out of the adaptive triggers in its controller too. If there's one thing you can't accuse Sony of doing it's not taking advantage of the controller features in their first party games. If anything they might be too eager to use them sometimes.

[Thursday Next]

6 hours ago, Mister Jack said:

On a side note, the Dualsense controller is so cool...

 

I can't tell you how excited I am to use a bow in Horizon Forbidden West. Hearing the creak from the controller, feeling the tension in the string on the trigger, rumble increasing as you hold the draw.... "Immersive" gets overused a bit, but damn will it be true for some things.

[TheMightyEthan]

I loved how you could feel what surface you were walking on through the controller. Hard surfaces felt tappy, soft surfaces felt cushy, it was nuts. And then the part where it's raining, and you can feel the raindrops and still feel the footsteps at the same time. Amazing.

 

I will say with the Switch, Nintendo seems to remember the HD rumble, just nobody else does. It's not as advanced as the haptic feedback in the Dualsense, but I've recently started playing Mario Odyssey again and you can definitely get a feel for what's happening through the rumble. I think part of the problem there though is that due to the limited size of the joycons the mechanism has to be smaller, so you end up with more of a buzzing feeling than an actual rumbly feeling.

 

I had completely forgotten the Xbox One even had anything special with the triggers. Looking it up, they're not adaptive the same way the Dualsense ones are, they don't provide variable resistance, it just has rumble motors built into them so you can feel them rumbling based on what's going on.

 

According to Tech Radar though, now that PS5 has the adaptive triggers 3rd parties have started actually using the impulse triggers on the Xbox controllers.

[Mister Jack]

I don't doubt that the joycons aren't as advanced but I remember playing 1-2-Switch at a friend's place back when the Switch first launched and being amazed that they were able to accurately simulate the feeling of metal balls rolling around and knocking against each other so the joycons are definitely capable of more than what they've been doing. I mean, you would think Breath of the Wild of all games would be eager to take full advantage of it but nope.

[TheMightyEthan]

Well Breath of the Wild was developed with Wii U as its main platform, so it makes sense that it wouldn't have the Switch features super well-utilized.