Super Games You Beat in 2024 Turbo Thread: Arcade Edition

[TheMightyEthan]

Tim Breaker, who 

Spoiler

is a version of Jack Joyce, they just can't actually say that. But Tim/Jack/Many-other-names is jumping between realities. Same with Hatch/Door. There's huge hints on Tim's whiteboards and stuff about it.

 

Door was supposed to be played by Reddick, but then he died. 

 

But actually in the DLC

Spoiler

it's not even Tim himself, it's a different version of him from a different world, just referred to as "The Actor".

 

[Thursday Next]

Not so much "beat" as played till I was sated, Helldivers 2. Will give it a break while they sort out balancing issues and maybe return if the Illumninate turn up.

 

Also finished Assassin's Creed Mirage. Good, old-fashioned Assassaning, and Dave the Diver which was mostly fun, but started to wear a little thin toward the end. Started Jedi Survivor, seems to be more Jedi-ing about, which is good.

[TheMightyEthan]

Stray

 

This game is pretty, and the cat acts like a cat, but that's about all it has going for it. The gameplay itself is boring at best (outside of a very small few highlights), and tedious at worst. The whole thing is basically a series of nuzzles (a word I recently learned coined by the Darksiders devs which means "not-quite-puzzles"), so there's never anything to really engage with, it's just going from point A to point B, and doing a bunch of annoying fetch quests in between. There's really just nothing to the game at all, besides the cat.

 

Grade: C

[Thursday Next]

I enjoyed the world and exploring as a cat. Agree it was more "walking sim" than anything else with the odd chase sequence. I played it for free on PS plus so was happy with the game overall.

[TheMightyEthan]

You're not alone, I'm the weird one, it has Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.

[Mister Jack]

HEARD SOMEONE TALKIN' SHIT IN HERE.

 

[deanb]

Marvels Midnight Suns

 

Completed this on my Steamdeck where it plays quite well (as long as you make a minor tweak to tell the 2K launcher to eff off).

 

Very enjoyable game. Cool mix of marvel characters, fun designs for them too, and the day-mission night-social pattern is easy enough to get into (especially if you've done a Persona title or similar). Neat playing about with the decks to suit your play style. The hub map was actually quite a bit larger than it initially seemed.

 

Only issues would be some of the story tries to create drama for the sake of it that can make some characters seem obnoxious (or tease a reveal that never comes). It's also a bit lopsided in progression - I kind of had to drag the end out so I could level up the few remaining characters friendship stats to unlock their "Midnight Sun" armour and special moves. It also wasn't super clear instructions on the card upgrades and I found out I'd basically ended up with a bunch of "waste" cards that should just be junked (it changes the 'frame' around the cards and you're meant to have inferred that meant it was at max upgrade. But it also had a + on some and a star on others so...yeah)

I also wish I'd got the deluxe/season pass version as it does seem it adds quite a bit to the game (especially expanded on Blades mechanic given it adds vampire enemies and Morbius). So yeah if you're looking at it I think the deluxe version would be well worth it - I want to try them out but not worth going through the full game. I'm also unsure that given the base amount of characters it took some dragging out to level up friendship I'm not sure if it'll be even more grinding at the end with more characters to befriend)

[TheMightyEthan]

Sonic Superstars

 

I recently played through all of Sonic Origins (1, CD, 2, 3, & Knuckles... and learned to my shock I'd never beat 3 & Knuckles before) and Sonic Mania, then went straight into this one, and I gotta say it's a mixed bag. First off, the good: Sonic controls perfectly. The physics are exactly like the old 2D games, it feels perfect. That's something that Sonic has always struggled with, but they nailed it here. The bad part is that the level design just never lives up to the old pixel games, with the exception of one act in one zone, which was absolutely great. They just aren't as complex and interesting as the older games (save Sonic CD, which I didn't think was all that great either). It was a real letdown going straight from Mania, which I still think is the best 2D Sonic game, into this one, which I think is tied with 1 for 2nd-worst, only ahead of CD. Then to add insult to injury, the 3D art is just bland. Nothing looks particularly interesting, it's just the most bog-standard simple 3D models you can imagine.

 

Which all of that does make it sound worse than it is. I enjoyed it, it was definitely the best non-pixel Sonic game we've ever gotten, taking that title from Generations. It just didn't hit the highs of 2, 3, & Knuckles, or Mania.

 

Grade: B

[toxicitizen]

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix

 

I finished this back in June but I'm just now realizing I never posted about it. There isn't much to say, though. It's fun but a bit rough around the edges. I found the combat in particular to be pretty frustrating at times.

 

It's the only Kingdom Hearts game I had already played before but it had been so long I really needed to replay it before moving on to the rest of the series. Looking forward to finally playing KH2 (I started it years ago but never got very far into it) but idk when I'll be able to make time for it. The next couple months actually have a few new releases that I'm interested in, so it probably won't be any time soon.

 

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Master Collection Version

 

Finally got around to wrapping up my playthrough. I had started it right after finishing MGS2 earlier this year but I ended up not touching the game for months. Other than my Street Fighter 6 addiction and that couple of months where I got sucked back into FFXIV pretty heavily, I just haven't been playing a lot of games this year. 

 

Anyway, this game is every bit as great as I remembered. To the point where I almost feel like a 1-to-1 remake is completely pointless. Almost because there's definitely room for some minor QoL improvements, like making it faster to switch camos, treat your injuries or change your loadout. Constantly going into the menu really gets old after a while.

 

The addition of crouch-walking will also be very welcome. And I really hope they'll also add the ability to carry bodies on your shoulders like in MGSV because dragging unconscious guards around is needlessly slow and tedious in this game.

 

It's still one of the all-time greatest video game stories, though. I'm glad they seem to be leaving that untouched. Can't wait to re-experience it with modern graphics.

 

Also, Konami, for the love of God please stop hinting that MGS4 might be in Master Collection Vol. 2 and just fucking confirm it already. That game needs to get out of PS3 jail so bad. Hell, I don't think I even have my PS3 copy anymore. So even if I wanted to hook up my PS3 I'd still have to hunt down a used copy...

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Behind The Screen was just about OK. Luckily it was short and not too much combat which I found particularly annoying as my Switch Pro Controller doesn't seem to register all button presses (not sure I've ever had that problem with an official controller before, so don't love that as I haven't used it much). It was an unusual story but not brilliantly written so even though it was a  cheap game I couldn't recommend it.

[TheMightyEthan]

Astro Bot

 

This game was cool, lots of great level design, varied mechanics, most of it pretty easy but with some real kick-your-ass challenge levels to change things up. My only complaints are really small things, like I wish it had a big bad with personality, like a Bowser or whatever, and I wish each nebula had some kind of overarching theme, but none of it really detracts from the experience. It's just a great platformer with lots of love for Playstation's history and a real sense of joy and whimsy.

 

Grade: A

[Thursday Next]

16 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

I wish it had a big bad with personality, like a Bowser or whatever

 

It's a good point, the whole Astrobot premise is great in terms of being able to absorb current popular culture or trends, so it always feels "current", the downside of that is that it lacks a bit of its own identity.

 

Reminds me a bit of Ubisoft's Rabbids in that respect. Astros are more cute/wholesome vs Rabbids more chaotic/mischievous but otherwise similar pros and cons.

[TheMightyEthan]

Black Myth Wukong

 

I really liked this game. It's kind of a soulslite (rather than soulslike). The combat feels a lot like a souls game, there are shrines that function as bonfires, and normal enemies respawn when you use them. It's missing an actual souls mechanic though, you keep everything when you die, which changes the risk-reward dynamic of exploration. It also doesn't have the shortcut-heavy level design, which makes more of a difference than I would have expected.

 

Overall it's very well done, the world is cool, the game is gorgeous, it's great. However, there are a few weird decisions that drag it down. There are entire really basic mechanics (such as upgrading your armor) that are easily missed entirely. There's no map. The entire structure of the last chapter is... a choice. Ultimately it was fun throughout, a few frustrating bosses aside, and it ended strong, so I'm happy with it.

 

Grade: B+

 

It would have been at least an A-, possibly an A, if not for those weird choices dragging it down. Hopefully they do another game and improve upon that stuff.