Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2022 Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

It is simple. Just post each time you beat a game throughout the year and the platform you played it on. Do not hesitate to add some discussion in regards to the games you or others beat.

At the bottom of this post is a link to a Google word doc that you are free to edit to immortalize your gaming accomplishments. Feel free to tinker with your color, font, and/or bulletpoint/numbering options, but do know that users are supposed to be in alphabetical order.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yIYIV88xVcdQR4Ixqah8TgNAiHzdtZgYEUpGdenAJwI

Just wanted to talk a bit about my retrospect last year. So just for context, I got laid off in December 2020 working for 12+ years in a bank. Since then I decided to take a break which is why I suddenly stopped beating games around middle of the year because that's when I got serious again jobhunting again. With the pandemic raging and lockdowns common, procrastination was my main nemesis and for every game beat on that list it was like a pang in my gut for "time wasted". Fortunately I finally did get my certification and a new start around 2nd week of December....just 2 weeks before my father passed away.

It was hard for me to choose between taking care of my dad and focusing on my future and there's alot more to this but I'm currently still mourning and this pain is never going away. If 2021 was a year for gaming regretfully, I'm hoping this year is a year for gaming to cope for a more positive future. I still have alot of work to do, but I'm better than I was when I started last year and my goals inch closer than usual.

That said, 2021 was the end of alot of things. I finally finished all the Nancy Drew games. The Onimusha trilogy. Penumbra. The Mafia Trilogy. I also played some of the worst and best games ever like there was no in between. Enderal is hands down the best thing I've ever played and will take a nice cushy seat as the new number 3 in my top 10 of all time. I also got to finally see the Hedon duology finish as well as Outer Wilds---which had been sitting on my desktop for quiet sometime.

Most disappointing game of last year goes to Greedfall. Worst game? Nothing really honestly. Mainly mediocre games most of which were the soulsclones. Never really liked Blasphemous. Currently doing Death's Gambit and I thought I'd make it but meh life stuff and my dad and sigh. I also found alot of gems I never expected like the Avernum games---I only beat the first one this year but it is deceptively longer than it looks. This will probably be my new Nancy Drew as I try to knock the 6 games---and the rest of Spiderworks' shit soon. There's also a rise in retro gaming like replaying my childhood favorite Brave Fencer Musashi. At the time, I wanted to 'cheat' with emulated retro games because they were shorter and definitely won't suck my time or money.

There are even some games that I'm surprised I actually beat in 2021. Like I'm looking at the googledoc and going "What, that was THIS year?! Fuck."

All in all 2021 felt like a stagnating bubble for me. A time where my life stood still as I gathered new skills for a better future. I'm still mourning and it is slow going now but I hope things will turn up better. The cards I've been dealt in 2022 are unexpected and I don't really know how to play them yet.

Tag

I'm first this year? Cool!

Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5)
A day late for GotM, but that's okay. A win here was an awesome way to get started in 2021!

Wow this was an awesome game! I wanted it the second I saw it at E3 and it lived up to every single expectation and more! The gameplay was fantastic. The exploring felt like it was out of The Last of Us or Uncharted (complete with the banter you'd expect from those games, in pure Guardians of the Galaxy style), while the battles were a phenomenal mix of solo-blasting while coordinating your teammates' special attacks. Battling to pure-hype 80s tunes after huddles was awesome, this was really my kind of soundtrack. I ended up doing a boss battle (Fin Fang Foom) to "Never Gonna Give You Up" and that was fucking amazing. "Every 1's a Winner" was another hype tune to battle to, and hell, most of them ("Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a bit out of place).

I often get overwhelmed and confused when there are a lot of customization options but that wasn't a problem here. The game was entirely linear and that included upgrades to equipment and moves; there was nothing difficult to figure out about it. Without giving away too much, some of it was even story-related in a very cool way that really added to the overall Guardians experience. There were some tough battles but most of them were enemy hoards - the bosses, even later-game ones, I actually found pretty easy to muscle through, even though they took a long time. I know that my actions had some effect on the story but I'm not sure to what degree. I do know that I had Mantis, World Force, Cosmo and Lady Hellbender all help me through Chapter 14 and I seem to have avoided some massive enemy hoards thanks to them, so I guess I did SOME stuff right!

Speaking of the story, it was everything you could want from a Guardians of the Galaxy game. Each and every character had the charm and whimsy you'd expect from this franchise, while still having enough originality to make this adaptation stand out from the rest and be its own thing. I liked the way they incorporated the "origin story" here, picking up with the Guardians team already established while providing some origin via flashbacks. A great way to get right into the action of the game while still providing an origin story. There were plenty of wacky moments, hysterical dialogue, and over-the-top action, but also some very emotional moments and dare I say it I actually felt a tiny bit of water in my eyes in chapter 15 when Star Lord was convincing Nikki that Ko-Rel was dead. They also left out plenty of staple Guardians characters, locations and themes, no doubt to leave room for a sequel and I hope to God it happens.

I will say this - I found a surprising number of glitches for a major release in 2021. A lot of getting stuck between objects and walls, and on at least one occasion I spawned out of bounds after a cutscene. But I wouldn't say they hindered the experience.

Overall this game was an absolute delight. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the source material, and even if you're not, if you enjoy exploration games with fast-paced action battles, I still recommend it. This is definitely my pick for Game of the Year 2021.

1. Finished Yoku's Island Express earlier tonight. Did not 100%, but I beat the boss.

Technically I also beat Bloodstained, but that was clearly not the real ending.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Richter mode) via Castlevania Requiem (PS4)

I don't really count this as "beating a game" but I've surprisingly never done it before, because unlike the extra modes in later IGAvanias, it isn't fun. You die in a few hits, there's no story or character progression, and Richter is not fun to control. Also, Hydro Storm kills everything in a single use, including bosses, so like... it's just poorly thought out. But now I can say I've done it.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood via Castlevania: Requiem (PS4)

This is better than some other Classicvanias that I've played (I don't think I've beaten any of them, though) but it's still just... kinda bad? These games just don't control well and the combat and platforming aren't fun as a result. Things did get better when I unlocked Maria, mostly because she's super OP.

I took the top route and only rescued two maidens (Maria and Annette, presumably the easiest ones to find? idk). My final completion was 64% with a somewhat embarrassing 9 continues.

I did enjoy the incredibly lame anime cutscenes. The cutscene where Dracula reacts to Maria beating him is especially hilarious, I highly recommend it.

Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season (PS4)

Was shocked at how great and emotional this one was. Easily my 2nd-favorite Telltale game after TWD Season 1.

What helped the Final Season was downsizing from 5 episodes to 4. The pacing was fantastic, there was no filler, and every character served a purpose. This came as a big surprise after Season 3, which was decent but had virutally no impact on the overall series.

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection (Vita)

Basically a simulation game where you train the CPUs to become idols as a knock-off of AKB48 has stolen all the shares in Gamindustri. It's not worth tracking down, even as one of the few Vita exclusive games.

Raji: An Ancient Epic (Xbox One)

Combat felt a bit stiff with the executions feeling rather lacking and it has a very lame final boss fight and ending which was sequel baiting. The platforming was ok and the art and environments looked nice at least.

Jenny LeClue - Detectivu (Switch)

Very enjoyable mystery/puzzle game. I love the setup of the game being about a writer being forced to make a darker story in his kids detective book series. The writing and characters are very charming. Loved the running gag of Jenny going against the writer's narration. The story definitely had me intrigued so it sucked when it ended where it did. It's hard to imagine the story stretching to a 2nd game. It was also intriguing to see the Telltale-like choices in the game and it did have me wondering what would happen if I chose differently.

Didn't quite expect that I'd post here so early in the year.

Unpacking (Xbox One)

So I thought it'd be nice to start the year with a game that was said to be kinda chill, and ever since this was on Game Pass, I've been meaning to try it and I'm glad I did.

Basically the idea behind this game is that someone moves to a new location throughout different periods of their life. At each location you unpack their things out of boxes and place them around their home, and as you move down the timeline you see how their life unfolds. The puzzle part of the game is finding the space to place things in an appropriate spot because if you have anything out-of-place once you pull everything out of the boxes, the game won't let you progress until you fix it.

And you know, despite this being a "chill" game some of the later stages did not feel that way with me stressing to find a good spot to place things, but maybe that was just me.

Kinda wish that I didn't somehow get spoiled on the "plot" of this game because it would have been nice to see how things went down naturally, but I didn't actually get spoiled on the very end of it, which was nice.

Anyways, glad I played it on Game Pass, because the game isn't very long. Only a few hours long and I wasn't exactly rushing it either. Though I certainly wasn't trying to place things "properly".

2. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night beated for real. Decent, I guess, but I always felt like there was more to the game I wasn't taking advantage of that was limiting me.

Avernum 2: Crystal Souls (PC)

Oh fuck this game. I had this installed when I beat the first one. Last time I underestimated the length of that adventure. Now I really underestimated it. Its really more of the same but now its aware of how tough and oldschool it can be. Previously the map was designed so you could eventually unlock shortcuts making the whole thing circular. Now, the game teases you like a crescent moon---you can see other parts of a map but you have to backtrack all the way around to see them. It can get confusing especially with the no-handholding nature of quests in this game. Plotwise, I sort of didn't like it much. Your main enemy was the Empire who was just all over the place making up about 45% of the enemies in the game. But I won't deny the writing is strong still and the designer really knew what he was doing so meh. Finally glad to be done with this.

3. Guacamelee finished. Not 100%, but I liked this one a lot until I tried doing the post-game stuff and it was painfully hard. The rest of the game was just constantly adding and moving forward.

Mythic Ocean (XB1)

Kind of weird and neat exploration/adventure game where you talk to gods and wild life before, based on your conversations/intervention, one of the gods creates a new world and you see what unfolds. I successfully chose one god over the others only for things to not work out for reasons why I didn't choose some of the other gods. I wonder if I can resume that before making a choice because I would very much like to see what the other gods would have done.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5)
It feels like a long time since I've even beaten a game. Here is a full-price AAA PS5 game. As a Ratchet & Clank game (at least within the main series) it is almost perfectly average. Some good chaotic segments, colorful weapon designs and snazzy visuals are counterbalanced by some truly frustrating choices involving shoddy, unpredictable checkpoint behavior and one-way paths. Go back into a completed area for a collectible or two and you're easy prey for these issues. Just saying, much irritation could have been averted by a menu option to return to your ship.

Final Fight (PC/Arcade)

Replayed via Capcom 'Beat Em Up Bundle with a friend online. I was Cody and he was Haggar.

Fight 'N Rage (PC)

My first new game for the year beaten.
A very awesome beat em' up. Has a lot of combo stuff you can do and parries. It also has multiple paths and endings. I got the Normal Ending. Also played this with a friend via Parsec. I was F. Norris and he was Gal.
I might go back to this again sometime to unlock more stuff.

Hidden Through Time (PC)

Great game! I was a fan of Where's Waldo when I was a kid, and I still have some books and a card game. I was a big fan of Hidden Folks, and I had been playing on buying this for a few years now, but I was gifted it during our Steam Secret Santa. It isn't as richly detailed as Hidden Folks nor as interactive or have the amusing sound effects, but the use of colors and more useful hints help bridge the gap.

I purposely held off finishing the last level so I could do so on my birthday. I still have all DLC packs to go through, and if the first one is of any indication, there's way more levels than I would have thought. I will continue going through them along with some player-made maps.

Hidden Folks kind of annoyed me with the b/w and huge maps. I also never recognized important interactive elements because there were so few of them.

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne (PS4)

Ignoring the ridiculous word salad the title happens to be, this is a pretty simple visual novel with a handful of strategy RPG like scenes scattered throughout its runtime. It deals with an alternate path off of volume 3/episode 11 in where instead of the royal selection being continued, a sixth candidate is found which delays it all together, and Subaru tasks himself with finding out who the fake candidate is. It was a pretty interesting story, all things considered, but the runtime was pretty short (around 18 hours long). What is nice is that Spike Chunsoft opted to dub the game, with all the voice actors from the anime returning to reprise their roles. Considering I watched the dub myself, it was nice to have the game like that, as most anime games don't get this treatment.

Saint Kotar (PC)

Lotta problems but I will say the voice acting is great. And if you're into a good horror story then definitely play this. Visuals and audio aren't a slouch either as it gives you that depressing eastern european feel.

With that out of the way, I wanna say the story was disappointing. It started very strong but I guess they rushed it for Halloween. It incorporated elements of noir and the supernatural, but the lovecraft references were a bit on the nose and after a certain arc it sort of plateaus into madness for madness' sake. Especially the ending.

Also another thing to note is that this is not a point click adventure at all, but a visual novel in pnc form. You're going around collecting items and using them and strangely you even have the option of mixing items but you never do it and those segments are so minimal. Most of the game is spent finding the next person to talk to and exhaust all their dialog only to move onto the next one. And I guess the moral choices and secret achievements are nice; it is fully-on rails but once you know what those secrets are, it can get boring real quick. Mercifully, dialog is skippable but I find I do not do it often because the voice acting is so well-done even though the accents are off sometimes.

Solid Effort but sort of flat execution.

Dragon Fantasy: Volumes of Westeria (Vita)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79848539

Sparkle 2 (Vita)

An old match-3 game given out on PS+ a while back, this has you shooting colored orbs to make them disappear before they reach a hole in the ground. There's various powerups and more colors the farther you get in the game. Funnily enough, there's versions for the PS3, PS4, and PS5 but I don't think it would work as well without the Vita's touch screen.

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79851280

Deponia

I like adventure games but this one just was not very good. The main character is completely despicable and I know that you're supposed to hate him, but also, most other characters are pretty unlikable, too. The puzzles are mostly logical, but there are a few silly leaps that you have to take which I find pretty common in these games. The humor was very hit and miss, and sometimes a bit offensive. I do not think I would recommend this one to anybody except the most dedicated adventure game enthusiasts.

Blasphemous (PS4)

85% completion, 92% map, got the true ending.

Final boss was an a****** yet reasonably challenging. The game's overall challenge was right at the sweet spot for me: kicking my ass often, while still creating momentum with smooth stretches of exploration and platforming. Quite similar to Metroid Dread's difficulty, which IMO was perfectly balanced between challenging and fair.

Can't recommend Blasphemous enough to fans of SotN. It reminds me of the pre-Aria of Sorrow Castlevanias, where the focus was strictly on combat and platforming rather than collecting spells from enemies. I love that Blasphemous doesn't distract you with 42,838 different attacks/weapons/spells and instead focuses on a few attacks you can power up over the course of the game.

Top-tier Metroidvania in my book. I'd only rank Super Metroid, Dread, SotN, and Order of Ecclesia above it. To be fair I haven't played Ori or Hollow Knight, but still... Blasphemous gripped me and reminded me why I love this genre so much in the first place.

10/10 from Plasma.

Batman: The Enemy Within (XB1)

Not that I'm a Batman expert or anything since I've never read any of the comics, but I'm been impressed with some of their creative uses of the license in the two games.

Still catching up on some of the games that I beat last year.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PS4)

Another adventure game down. This one is much better than the last one. I played a little bit of the original PC game when if first came out, but at that age I just could not really understand how to get through. 30 years later, the adventure game logic is a bit easier. Still got stumped on a couple places for a long time (the cherry tree was the biggest offender for me), but for the most part it was very reasonable. I had a lot of fun with it.

The voice acting still holds up really well, all things considered. Lots of amusing little jokes spread throughout, and great art. I tried to do Maniac Mansion again too, but I just did not have the patience for that. Turns out there is a big difference between 80s and 90s adventure games. UI improvements probably are the biggest difference.

Immortals Fenyx Rising

Really great game. Prometheus and Zeus narration duo is really great and I thought they always had interesting or amusing stuff to say. The other gods in the game are decent as well and it has no issues whatsoever bringing up how bizarre Greek mythology could be. It was a really fun experience even though there are some of the usual open world game flaws in it.

A lot of the loot you dont even need, but might feel compelled to collect anyways for completion and eventually the powerful moves you can learn make the game a bit too easy. Some of the puzzles can be cheesed as well with abilities, but I thought it made creative use of all the powers you get when constructing them. Probably the best open world game Ive played in quite a while.

Downwell (PS4)

This is probably the best game I played last year. It's a simple roguelike but incredibly addicting and very challenging. The super high skill cap made all the hours (maybe 30 total?) I dumped in worth it. Once you can start getting huge combos consistently, the game becomes so satisfying. It's also got a pretty good score that despite getting repetitiverestarts on the first stage happen a lotdid not get on my nerves that much.

Entwined (PS4)

I do not have much to say about this one. It's a pretty boring, kinda artsy, rhythm-type game. The whole game is just rotating the thumbsticks to line up some patterns. Not hard to beat but frustrating to master. I didn't bother doing the 100% on itjust not worth the effort and sore thumbs.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4)

Finally got the platinum for this game which means I'm done with the trilogy.

It was fun overall, nothing super special but it was an entertaining game. I enjoyed that the game had more of a focus on puzzles and platforming and less on combat since Rise of the Tomb Raider just felt like you were shooting stuff all the time.

Ninja Cop (GBA)

So cool. Very difficult as well. The first few levels can be challenging but are mostly down to figuring out the best way to take care of enemies and such. Once you get to the third stage, mistakes become way more costly, figuring out the grappling hook and the platforming becomes crucial and knowing the level design by heart. In general, I'm not fond of games that teach you the game by dying, but I can forgive this one because I was never stuck on a certain area for too long. The boss fights have their own unique gimmick, but they actually feel relatively easy, compared to the levels you had to traverse to get to them. The final levels especially are brutal and will punish you if you haven't mastered the platforming elements yet.

Technically, the game is a mixed bag. It looks nice, has some great colours and variety in enemy and level design, but the soundtrack is kinda bland. It does its job but there's very little variation.

Story-wise, you're a ninja. And a cop. What more do you need to know?

aria of sorrow (GBA via switch)

yeah baby soma cruz is a chad

Nobody Saves the World (PC)
A frail amnesiac husk wakes up. Acquiring a magic wand of shapeshifting and a mortal enemy, they set out across a land threatened by Calamity to uh, do ARPG stuff. The plot is rather light and goofy by design, but it gets pretty damn close to being the plot of Zelda 1: go to the dungeons and get each piece of a thing. This is a common complaint, but it's carried by the gameplay loop. I was glued to this game for the last few days. So you have a skill tree of forms, ranging from Guard and Ranger to Rat, Horse and Mermaid. Each has its own mini-objectives needed to rank up, unlock new moves and abilities, and unlock other forms. And you can combine them like the Job System! There are plenty of sidequests, many performed at the behest of several colorful guilds, but they kind of only exist for XP and completion because that's what they give you. So you go in to explore, make creative builds, slaughter countless monsters, and see weird ideas. I'm going right into NG+.

Simoun posted...

Avernum 2: Crystal Souls (PC)

I feel your pain. Back when it was Exile, 2 felt weakest to me also (especially since exploding the teleporter without blowing up half of Exile along with it kept happening due to a savefile bug.)

I hope the Avernum 3 remake is as good as Exile 3 was.

Rabi-Ribi (PS4)

Hard to say what counts as beating the game here, but I waited until I cleared the post-game and DLC bosses to count it. Just felt like a more natural conclusion to the story.

I liked this one a lot! It definitely has flaws, both in the presentation (bad character designs; terrible translation) and in the gameplay (the combat is pretty repetitive and can be a slog against the tougher bosses; a lot of the bosses are very same-y), but overall I think it's a really good Metroidvania. The obvious comparison is Touhou Luna Nights (Rabi-Ribi is *just* a Touhou game. Look at the characters. Look at Ashuri/Ashley's boss fight and tell me she isn't just Marisa. Come on.) and Luna Nights does a few things better, but as a whole package I preferred Rabi-Ribi. There's a lot more exploration and non-linearity and ultimately that's a big reason I'm playing a Metroidvania game.

I played this on normal difficulty and that was just about right for me. Once I started using healing items I felt pretty unstoppable, but the post-game and DLC areas and bosses sure put an end to that. I don't think I'd have wanted it any harder overall.

Bartzyx posted...

Deponia

I like adventure games but this one just was not very good. The main character is completely despicable and I know that you're supposed to hate him, but also, most other characters are pretty unlikable, too. The puzzles are mostly logical, but there are a few silly leaps that you have to take which I find pretty common in these games. The humor was very hit and miss, and sometimes a bit offensive. I do not think I would recommend this one to anybody except the most dedicated adventure game enthusiasts.

Yes do not play the rest of the games. He is an asshole and the devs make no secret about that.

I like the Deponia trilogy even though Rufus is an unapologetic asshole.

Isquen posted...

I feel your pain. Back when it was Exile, 2 felt weakest to me also (especially since exploding the teleporter without blowing up half of Exile along with it kept happening due to a savefile bug.)

I hope the Avernum 3 remake is as good as Exile 3 was.

Never played the Exile games so I really can't say if the 3rd Avernum remake is good. I'm still finishing it right now and what I can tell you is I prefer it to the 2nd game but not the first. It's too easy this time I feel (you get the Orb of Thrlani not even halfway in the game) but it did add puzzles like lasers and mirrors and actually optional dungeons with more than just a gauntlet of foes to face. They added a few more spells to the repertoire so your theorycrafting doesn't plateau midway and they made the quest structure more like a traditional jrpg idk.

My full thoughts when I'm done with it. I just finished the 4th plague but I'm backtracking to get the legendaries

KCF0107 posted...

I like the Deponia trilogy even though Rufus is an unapologetic asshole.

Trilogy? Then you should play the 4th game Doomsday in which the devs were like "oh you wanted a 4th game? take this piece of shit and eat it"

I am actually playing the random, unnecessary fourth game, but I am not far into it so I wanted to specify the original trilogy.

Understood. And yes I agree it is rather unnecessary. Still, I do appreciate the puzzles. They were a bit better here.

Level 22: Gary's Misadventures (PS4)
This is a stealth-puzzle game that I saw someone post about in this topic last year. It seemed interesting enough for me to buy. I played it for a bit and then in typical darkx fashion got distracted after just a few levels and never really played much of it. Now I finally decided to go and do a playthrough of it.

For what it is it's pretty fun! You play as a notorious office slacker trying to sneak into work without being caught. Getting through each level without being caught requires some creative thinking and there is generally only one solution to each puzzle (I think I found at least one level where I was able to skip a step or two). The difficulty is pretty much perfect. There are definitely parts that require you to use your brain but no solution was so incredibly obtuse that I had to either trial-and-error it or look it up in a guide. Once you master every item at your disposal, the biggest challenge is simply avoiding the eyes of the NPCs and figuring out their movement patterns.

The real challenge is getting the two collectables on each stage, which I was mostly unable to do. I may go back and do it someday, but for now I just wanted to figure out the main solution on each level.

The music and artstyle were really cool, and three of the four boss battles were fun and creative. I will say that the final boss was the easiest and most boring, which was a disappointment. Also, there was, as far as I could tell, some inconsistency in how quickly each character spotted you as you moved into their field of vision. Some had a second or two grace period where you could quickly move in and out of their field of vision, and others would nab you instantly, and there was no real way to tell which was which until they caught you (even enemies of the same type varied). There were also points where enemies could spot you before you spotted them. This was alleviated a bit once I found out that the right analogue stick could expand your field of vision, but still not entirely. I swear there were also a few NPCs that could literally see through walls.

The game wasn't perfect by any means, but it's a very short (like, a few hours tops) and fun romp that, if it sounds like your thing, is worth checking out if you need a new, different game to distract you for a day or two.

God of War (2005)

This is definitely a game that 100% must have caught fire by aesthetics and the story because wow, the stage design was maddening. "You don't want cool fighting, you want to scale a moving cliff covered in spikes where hitting any spike will bounce you to the start and probably knock you through the game's geometry"

I always liked the puzzle design in GoW but the combat is kind of lacking. You have a main character who attacks very stylishly and then a bunch of enemies who rarely react to it and just need to soak up a certain amount of damage before you can finish them off. That's why everyone dodges and light combos.

God of War doesn't hold up well today, but when it came out it was pretty sensational. The graphics and sound design were incredible for the PS2, and it took the type of action gameplay that Devil May Cry had introduced and polished it up a bunch. It's heavily influenced by that seriesand it proudly wears that influence on its sleevebut it came with much higher production values and was much more user friendly. No more wrestling with the camera, very little jank, many more grand setpiece moments, and a ton of edginess. Early to mid 2000s were all about being edgy. And the spectacular bosses were kind of jaw-dropping, too. If I remember correctly, it managed to hide loading times in the seamless world, which few games were doing at that point.

The problem with it is, it's been done much much better a dozen times since then, including by every other game in its own series.

I beat all the current Archon Quests in Genshin Impact, if that counts as beating the game.

inFAMOUS 2 (PS3)

This game is a technical improvement over the first one. Back then, it was pretty normal for games in a series to come out every two years, with each entry just a little different than the last. Infamous 2 is very very much like the first game. The powers are a little different, but the game plays mostly the same. You do story missions that gradually unlock the open world, you do side missions to make the bad guys disappear, and collect little shards to power up.

So whether you think Infamous 1 or 2 is better probably comes down to the setting and story. Infamous 2 features the same kinds of good/evil choices as the first game, but ties them to a couple new characters that you meet. Which character you choose to side with determines if you are good or bad or whatever, and also gives an excuse to tie the good or evil powers to certain elements. It mostly works. The city of Fake New Orleans was not as fun as Fake New York, and the new characters did not really catch my interestKessler was a much more interesting antagonist than whatever the bad guy was in this gamebut overall I think it was a better, more polished experience than the first game.

It helped that I took a two year break between playing them. I actually started the game right after beating the first one, but lost interest after a couple hours and just never got back to it until my PS4 stopped working a few months ago.

Avernum 3: Ruined World (PC)

Finally done. As I mentioned yesterday, I prefer it over 2 but not 1. Escape from the Pit was special I think because I had just been introduced to Jeff Vogel's brand of CRPG. It was a discovery in and of itself. All Crystal Souls ever did really was make it "bigger" instead of deeper in hindsight---it felt like an expansion pack of sorts. Which is why this game trumps that in itself. There's a whole new world to explore and I can't believe I'm saying this but I love that TREES are a sight for sore eyes.

That said, Valorim kinda sucks. Its full of these tinier towns that I get it is suppose to evoke the vastness of the world above but it just ends up being useless most of the time. Sure I'll still talk to people and such but after awhile I felt tired just exploring generic town location number 14. I ended up just using the hintbook for some of the minor quests.

The story is way better and I suppose you had to finish Crystal Souls to really understand the context and weight of things. The plot though...I dont know. It's alot more railroaded and I think the idea of the plagues is cool but it just felt like a JRPG which is fine if it were any other game but a Jeff Vogel one. Instead I very much loved the Legendary Items quests which brought some rather creative and fiendish dungeons and puzzles thereof and mirrored a bit on Avernum 1's sense of discovery. The final boss was okay---certainly better than the bs that was the 2nd game.

One thing I kinda hated too was that exp was no longer divided so I couldnt just play the game as 2 mages and hog the exp for myself which is what I did in the last game.

So yeah 3 > 1 > 2. I think this is a good place to stop. I dont know if I want to start on the 4th game but basically these games are my new Nancy Drew. The plan is to finish Avernum then Avadon and Geneforge. Though I hear that the latter is only just being remade so I might hold off on that.

As I said in my first post on this thread, last year was a blackout in terms of gaming for me so I might just play catch up with some of the big games I'm missing. Or maybe just play something else that isn't a CRPG hahah.

Quarantine Circular (Switch)

I prefer the slice-of-life waxing philosophical AIs/robots from Subsurface Circular, but this did a very good job at creating a sense of urgency.

inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood (PS3)

I beat this one in a day. It's a stand-alone DLC for Infamous 2 and it's fine. The bat flying power is a cool new thing to use to get around. Might like it more if you are really into the whole Vampire/Halloween thing, but I'm not. It's basically 3-4 hours of more Infamous, for better or worse.

Telltale Games' Poker Night (PS3)

Like all Telltale games on PS3, this is one laggy glitchy mess. It's Texas hold-em with some characters that may or may not make you laugh. I enjoyed Sam and Max but did not really care about anyone else. I do not play poker often so I had to brush up on my skills, but once I got into it the AI is kind of a breeze to beat. Very easy to avoid showdowns, except against Ash, who often busts out right away because he's an idiot.

The game saves after every hand and for some reason that causes the whole thing to freeze more often than not, which really ruins the experience. Either the whole game stops, or it stutters, or the lines glitch and repeat. By the time I finished all the trophies, I had gotten through all the preset conversations and things got a bit repetitive. Glad this one had been free at some point because I can't imagine paying for it.

The free PS3 themes are cool I guess.