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Games You've Shelved 2022


TheMightyEthan
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Dying Light 2

 

I wanted to like this game, I really did, especially after hearing everyone praise the parkour. But it just has the same problem people always accuse Sonic games of: the fun part is going fast, but the game is designed to stop you from doing that. I liked running around the city, but every single mission revolves around either fighting hordes of zombies or sneaking slowly past them. Half the skill tree is parkour, but you only use it to get between mission sites. Not to mention that you start out with basically no skills, can't even wall run or slide, you have to unlock them, and fairly far down the tree I might add. And to add insult to injury, the combat they keep making you do instead of running isn't even smooth. I had the same issue with Dying Light 1, so this isn't surprising, but it is disappointing after all the praise.

 

I just kept thinking I'd rather be playing Mirror's Edge*, so that's what I'm going to do.

 

Grade: D

 

*People also level the bad combat criticism at Mirror's Edge, which is justified, but it's a much smaller part of that game than it is in Dying Light.

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Disco Elysuim 

 

Seems like a super neat game, but one that just isn't going to work for me. I wonder if playing this on the Switch is a contributing factor here? Maybe I guess, but what is absolutely for certain is that I'm just not feeling it. I'm going to be super reductive now and say this: If I wanted to read that much text, I'd read a book. I know that's a shit way to look at this game, because I've heard it does some truly amazing things, but much like the game below...I think it might be place and time thing for me. 

 

Pokemon Legends Arceus 

 

I know I moaned about the game when it launched, and whilst my opinion hasn't really changed on it, I do think there's fun to be had here. Unfortunately I don't think I'm in the right head-space to find that fun, and as such I've decided to put it down. Maybe I'll return at a later date, or if I find myself suddenly with a load of free time, but right now my time is far too limited to be spent on something I'm not enjoying/getting anything out of.

 

 

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I still find it fascinating how much you dislike Arceus. Again, no shade, you like what you like, there are plenty of games I don't like that are generally regarded as great, I just find it so interesting when it happens.

 

Regarding my post (and speaking of a game I don't like that everyone else does), I definitely made the right call switching from Dying Light 2 to Mirror's Edge Catalyst, this game is so much better.

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I'm not even sure I dislike the game as a whole. It just falls down in some incredibly obvious ways and I think we can/should expect better from arguably one of the biggest entertainment franchises on the planet. As I said in my post, I think there's a game I could enjoy in there, but right now I'm just not in the right mental space to find it.

 

In short.... It's me not Pokemon Legends Arceus.

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  • 3 weeks later...

CrossfireX

 

I'd heard the multiplayer was terrible but that the campaign was alright, so I started it before HFW came out thinking I could finish it since it was only a few hours, but I didn't quite make it. After I finished HFW I thought I'd go back to it, but I just have no interest. I was mildly engaged by the plot, but having taken a break I just don't care to go back, the gameplay itself was on the bad side of passable, so that's not bringing me back.

 

Grade: D

 

Crysis Remastered

 

I couldn't even finish the first level, the aiming was so terrible. Even at max sensitivity it felt like I was moving through cold molasses when I tried to turn. Literally unplayable.

 

Grade: F

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Crysis 2 Remastered

 

Okay, I think I'm done with Crysis. I tried this one because I heard it played better than the first, and it was true, the aiming felt fine, it was actually playable. However, the game is presented as giving you the choice as to how to approach encounters, but the enemies are so hyper aware that stealth is basically impossible. I would go invisible and sneak to somewhere where it seemed like I should be blocked from sight, decloak (because I'd be running out of energy), and instantly every enemy in the area would know exactly where I was. The combat wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either, and I didn't want to play it as a run and gun shooter, so back to Gamefly it goes.

 

Grade: C-

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55 minutes ago, Mal said:

It was a pretty good sandbox game with decent AI (I think?) but it was rather limited in scope. I honestly probably went around punching and tossing stuff at people to death more than anything.

 

Yeah, it was always more of a "so much room for activities!" kinda game. But you had to actually go out of your way to use the tools the nanosuit provided. It's very easy to just play it like any other shooter and the game in and of itself isn't exactly mind-blowing  as a normal shooter. I liked it at the time but I'm not exactly eager to revisit it.

 

4 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Crysis 2 Remastered

 

Okay, I think I'm done with Crysis. I tried this one because I heard it played better than the first, and it was true, the aiming felt fine, it was actually playable. However, the game is presented as giving you the choice as to how to approach encounters, but the enemies are so hyper aware that stealth is basically impossible. I would go invisible and sneak to somewhere where it seemed like I should be blocked from sight, decloak (because I'd be running out of energy), and instantly every enemy in the area would know exactly where I was. The combat wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either, and I didn't want to play it as a run and gun shooter, so back to Gamefly it goes.

 

Grade: C-

 

Stealth in Crysis is more of a "hide and set up an ambush then start shooting" kinda deal. It's not an immersive sim, stealth is a tool rather than a playstyle. Also Crysis 2 was pretty bad in general, just a huge step down from the original. I don't think I ever got around to trying the third one lol.

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4 hours ago, TheFlyingGerbil said:

Was Crysis any good at the time? The only thing I remember was that people had difficulty running it.

 

The problem I had with Crysis 1 this time around was specifically the aiming with a controller, so I imagine that wouldn't have been an issue with a mouse (but I am a man of culture, so I will only use a controller 😉). I did play a little of Crisis 1 on PC when it first came out, bounced off fairly early just because it just wasn't great then either. I went back because I keep hearing people say they're good games, but I just don't see it.

 

2 hours ago, toxicitizen said:

Stealth in Crysis is more of a "hide and set up an ambush then start shooting" kinda deal. It's not an immersive sim, stealth is a tool rather than a playstyle. Also Crysis 2 was pretty bad in general, just a huge step down from the original. I don't think I ever got around to trying the third one lol.

 

But I mean I wouldn't even have an opportunity to scope out the area to plan an ambush because the instant I decloaked they'd know where I was and start attacking, even if I was crouched behind a concrete barrier on a rooftop a block away. 😂

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gran Turismo 7

 

I am simply not enough of a car nerd for this game. From the very beginning, the interminable, unskippable opening credits that do the Star Trek Enterprise thing of like showing the history of car technology, but like 1000x slower than that, which then segues into like 5 minutes of in-game footage of races, also unskippable, had me fed up with the game before I even got to start playing. I mean yeah, those in-game races were pretty, sure would be great if I were driving in them. Then I've got to talk to all these assholes so I can learn the history of Japanese coupes, then I get to do a couple races, then I have to talk to the assholes again to learn about more differenter cars before I can do more races. I mean, goddamn, I played for an hour and a half and got to do like 5 races.

 

The racing itself was fine, nothing stand-out, except somehow contrived to make me feel like I was going 20 mph the whole time. I would rather be playing Dirt or Forza, but if I didn't have any other racing games available this would be an okay option.

 

As I said, I am not enough of a car nerd for this game.

 

Grade: C

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The Touryst

 

I got this game mainly because it's pretty/charming as all get out, and turns out that's the only thing it has going for it. Aside from the art it's a bad puzzle game with worse platforming elements. The puzzle solutions are either blindingly obvious or absurdly obtuse, no in-between, and the platforming is plagued by lack of spatial queues combined with camera angles that make it impossible to tell where you are when you're in the air (there's a reason Mario always has a shadow directly under him).

 

The art is amazing though. It's a voxel style with a tilt-shift depth of field effect that is 😘👌. It also runs at 8k60 on PS5, made possible by its simple style. It's really lovely to look at.

 

Grade: D+

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Disco Elysuim 

 

Following @danielpholt's example. I'm also ditching this. There's a few things I don't like:

 

1. RNG skill checks. I feel like this should just have been a threshold thing. If you are over the requirement you pass. The happiness of passing a 12% skill check I had no business even attempting is far outweighed by how much I felt cheated when I failed a 79% skill check.

 

2. The relentless darkness. It's all so grim, like yeah it's a dystopia, but gods is it fucking depressing.

 

3. The pressure. Add to the grimness the pressure to pass skill checks, and the pressure to scrounge up $20 a night so my character can sleep, and the pressure to constantly make choices it just feels like working in a horrible, unfair place, which is not remotely fun.

 

I saw the game over screen when my character shot himself in the face, so imma call it "completed" and move on with my life. 

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Kirby and the Forgotten Land

 

This game is aggressively fine. As my wife said, "there's nothing wrong with it." There's nothing especially great about it either. It's charming enough, but not in a way that stands out among Nintendo's other offerings, it's as close to "generic" as I've ever seen from Nintendo. It's also so easy it fails to be terribly engaging from a gameplay perspective, though if I had young children this would probably be a good game for them. As it is, I was just bored more than anything.

 

Grade: C+

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It's probably not fair to judge the game on this, but I really don't love the art-style. It's nice enough, well presented and cohesive, but I kind of just don't enjoy looking at it for long sessions. 

 

I'll keep it on the Switch, and maybe when (if) I get some free time I can throw myself into it, rather than playing 25-30 minutes every few nights.

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The Medium

 

I was liking this game fine enough, nothing amazing, but fine, but I was mildly interested in the spooky ghost stuff. Then I got to this stupid mandatory stealth boss thing, and after failing several times in a row I decided I wasn't liking the rest of the game enough to put up with this shit.

 

I will say the character designs and setting, an old abandoned Soviet Worker's Resort, were great. Not something I see all the time, and really well done.

 

Grade: C-

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