Last Game You Played

Haha, I love customizing in-game appearances and load-outs, etc. My son completed Spider-Man 2 without ever changing skins or upgrading the suit tech. It drove me nuts.
 
Spider-Man was one of the few games where I unlocked and used every costume. I don't know why because that usually isn't a thing I concern myself with doing.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
As I've gotten older, I've gotten more into the idea of rewatching, rereading, and replaying the best stuff I've seen/read/played. I never used to have patience for it.

RDR2 is by no means one of my favorite games, but I respect the hell out of the craft. I'm thinking about giving it another shot. I know you're super high on it.
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I mean.... it's not for everyone. I'm willing to sing that game's praises as one of my personal favorite video games ever made and recognize some people are just gonna not like it, tolerate it, or think it's just 'okay.' The worst defense I have for it is the one that has been said by many people but always sounds like making excuses: it's intentionally slow and you need to embrace that.

Arthur walks slow, for fuck's sake. Hunting in the woods takes time. Exploring to see what weird stuff you can find - often for no tangible reward - is slow. It's a game that you have to be in the mood for, and also it needs to be something that sounds exciting to you to begin with. If someone is looking for high-octane... maybe RDR2 can deliver that if you power through the story missions only (and even then, there's some slowness there too). But I think really enjoying the game comes from knowing you're going to sit down drink it all in and really live in that world for a while.

Of course, it's one of my favorite games so I'm going to say it's worth it. But I'm sure for some people it's just not enticing and never will be. I'll also say that I don't think the story really HITS unless you do spend that time. The longer you spend with it, I would argue the more emotionally invested you are in the fate of everyone in the gang.

akajomiha said:
Haha, I love customizing in-game appearances and load-outs, etc. My son completed Spider-Man 2 without ever changing skins or upgrading the suit tech. It drove me nuts.
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It would have been physically painful for me to say nothing.
My son, I think, used almost every costume at one point or another.

Justice said:
Spider-Man was one of the few games where I unlocked and used every costume. I don't know why because that usually isn't a thing I concern myself with doing.
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Yeah, there's something about both Spider-Man games. Maybe it's because a lot of what makes the game fun is just the spectacle of swinging around as Spider-Man, that you really want to see that visual candy in as many ways as possible. The different costumes keep it fresh and interesting as you engage in what really can be a repetitive game loop.

I can't wait to collect all the Wolverine costumes in that game.



I started playing the Robocop game last night since it's one of the monthly games on PS+. Seems fun so far, but nothing incredible. On normal difficulty it seems, at a very early stage at least, that they managed to walk the line of making Murphy feel slow and cumbersome but also fairly tanky so you don't feel like you're being hamstrung by his inability to avoid getting hit all the time. Of all the games I've played going back to the Xbox360 era, this is probably the one that feels the most like an on-rails arcade shooter without being one at all.
 
It's been a whirlwind gaming month for me. I've been busier than I have in quite some time, so I haven't had time to actually play games, but I have had time to buy them.

I posted about Pyre on the ProBoards site. I beat it again at the end of March. It's one of my 15 or 20 favorite games of all time and it still holds up. If you like Hades or Bastion or any other Supergiant game, give it a look.

I'm in the middle (closer to the beginning, really) of my third Mass Effect 2 playthrough. I like to binge games, but I've only had time to play a few missions at a time. It's worked in my favor. It's been better to savor this one.

I finally bought Helldivers 2. I was worried it was a flash-in-the-pan multiplayer hit when it came out, but my friends still play somewhat regularly. My friend group and I need more PvE multiplayer games we can get into. PvP is great in its own right, but our reaction times are slowing. Frustration and toxic player bases make PvP harder and harder to enjoy. I only played about four hours of Helldivers over the weekend, but it lives up to the hype. I'm excited for more.

I bought Blue Prince on the back of its stellar reviews, but I haven't touched it yet.

Frequent visitors to the old Fwoosh video game thread may remember that I'm a huge Oblivion fan. I was pleasantly surprised by the Oblivion Remaster leak/announcement. I bought it, too.

I'm not sure when I'll play all these games. 🙃
 
I finished Mass Effect 2 for the third time. It's still a masterpiece. This time around, I was struck by just how much of a shooter this game is. The RPG elements—the paragon/renegade system, skill point allocation, and class system—are pretty basic. I found myself wishing there was more mission variety, too. Every mission is: go to the planet, shoot a bunch of things, and make a decision. Returning to a 15-year-old game is always dangerous. I enjoyed my time with it, despite my complaints. 9/10.

I grabbed a month of Xbox Game Pass to play a bunch of stuff on my radar over the last several months.

First, South of Midnight. I wanted to love this one. I think I was oversold on the story and music. They're both good, but I wouldn't say they're worth playing the game for. The combat is a real drag. I actually activated the accessibility setting to skip combat because it was mindless and unfun. I'm a bit of a media elitist, and this game was a reminder as to why. I feel like my time is wasted on mediocre things. 6.5/10.

Mediocre things takes me to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This game has a few really special moments. Moments that rival even the best scenes from Raiders or Last Crusade. Still, for me, it wasn't worth the 15-hour journey. The combat was monotonous and the stealth was clunky. Several gameplay sections were so poorly designed that they detracted from my enjoyment of the full package. I expected more from MachineGames. 7/10.
 
Mass Effect 2 is so good. I really prefer the gameplay of 3 -- I just find it a bit punchier, a little more gravity to everything you do and how you engage, and I like having the grenades as a separate consumable and all that (although they hardcore nerfed my favorite gun in 3). I like the weapon customization and the armor customization is better too, as I recall.
But 2's story feels tighter and better and, weirdly, more epic. 3 gets bogged down too much in the whole 'gotta catch 'em all' aspect of trying to unify all of your forces and have enough to go into the endgame with. Feels like it takes you out of the story itself a bit too much sometimes. And of course the ending was... not handled well.

Still, 2 and 3 together basically form one of my favorite gaming experiences ever.
 
I recently 100%'d Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. It unlocked an achievement and that was it. After all those hours it would have been nice if it unlocked... something usable.
 
I don't really game as much as I used to, right now I have been playing a bit of Super Mario World 3D with my oldest.

Other than that I have been playing.........FOR 10 YEARS NOW!!!!........Boom Beach on my phone (by Super Cell makers of Clash of Clans). I can't believe I have been playing that game consistently for 10 years without a break. Probably the best return on investment of any game I have ever played. I think I have maybe put in $30Cdn over the 10 years, but played probably thousands of hours.

So many other games have come and gone in that time, but somehow Boom Beach has survived.
 
Chooch555 said:
I recently 100%'d Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. It unlocked an achievement and that was it. After all those hours it would have been nice if it unlocked... something usable.
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I always felt like the only thing worthwhile to get after 100% is bragging rights. But I have this super unpopular opinion that actual useful rewards should be doled out while there is still game to play. Don't give me the super cool outfit ONLY at the end of the DLC that you can only even start if you've completed the main story. What good is that? So I can use it for 25 minutes before I completely run out of content to make the game worth turning on?
I think I've only ever 100%'d Spider-Man 2. Because it wasn't time consuming or difficult to do so. I never go out of my way for it. But I've gotta think that if you go through all the trouble of getting 100% completion... like.. there's nothing left to do, right? Is there anything they can give you that would matter -- is a new lightsaber color or a new character skin or something actually going to make you go back to playing a game you've played long enough and thoroughly enough to have 100% completion? Genuinely asking.
 
In the case of older Lego Star Wars IIRC they had a fun "Enter the City" level that unlocked at 100% (or near). Basically your Lego Star Wars guys ran around a Lego City area. It was fun. I agree that waiting to finish the game to get a new suit or weapon that you'll now never use is annoying.
 
Ah, I love an achievement hunt. In my teenage days, I used to buy games with easy achievements. I'm not quite so crazy now, but I do shoot for 50% of the achievements in every game I play. Gameifying video games unfortunately works well on me. I found Nintendo Switch games less engaging because they didn't have achievements.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Frequent visitors to the old Fwoosh video game thread may remember that I'm a huge Oblivion fan. I was pleasantly surprised by the Oblivion Remaster leak/announcement. I bought it, too.

I'm not sure when I'll play all these games. 🙃
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I managed to carve out time for a few of these.

I bought and beat Elden Ring Nightreign within a week. I hope they address the nagging quality-of-life issues because I can see myself going back for more when they add new content. An Elden Ring + Fortnite roguelite shouldn't work, but it does. My friends and I had a lot of fun with this. (Clearly, we put ~30 hours in over seven days.) 8/10.

I finished Oblivion for the third time. It's still got the Bethesda jank and some middling combat. Unlike Starfield, I can cut it slack; the game came out almost two decades ago. This was my first time playing the cult-classic Shivering Isles DLC. While the writing is excellent, it's held back by poor quest design. Nearly every main quest in the DLC is a fetch quest. Some people in my life said it's the best DLC they've ever played. I don't have a comprehensive list, but it's well behind The Witcher 3's Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine for me.

Unfortunately, this has again been me bitching about one of my five or 10 favorite games ever. The faction quests are (in my opinion, at least) the best in any Bethesda RPG. Every town has a unique personality, layout, and culture. The story, dialogue, and character writing put almost every modern game to shame. 9.5/10.

Finally, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. What a mouthful. I picked this up just this morning. There are seven different games in here, and the only one I've played before is MvC2. I beat the 1993 Punisher arcade beat 'em up today. It's expectedly straightforward. I'm too young to have any nostalgia for these arcade cabinet games. Funny enough, my only real experience with them is on the old Xbox 360 arcade. I played the TMNT and X-Men beat 'em ups back then. I'm relieved that the rest of the games in the collection are fighting games. I don't have a lot of patience for beat 'em ups. In any case, the story had its charm and the iconic original cabinet art adorns both sides of your screen to make up for the difference in aspect ratios. 7/10.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Finally, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. What a mouthful. I picked this up just this morning. There are seven different games in here, and the only one I've played before is MvC2. I beat the 1993 Punisher arcade beat 'em up today. It's expectedly straightforward. I'm too young to have any nostalgia for these arcade cabinet games. Funny enough, my only real experience with them is on the old Xbox 360 arcade. I played the TMNT and X-Men beat 'em ups back then. I'm relieved that the rest of the games in the collection are fighting games. I don't have a lot of patience for beat 'em ups. In any case, the story had its charm and the iconic original cabinet art adorns both sides of your screen to make up for the difference in aspect ratios. 7/10.
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This is HIGH on my to-buy list. I'm working my way through some other games, so I'm not in a big rush to get it. But I'm quite excited about it. I love the old Marvel fighting games, and I loooooooved the '93 Punisher game when it was new (because, unlike you, I am old). Can't wait to give it another go.


Nightreign looks interesting, but I haven't tried it yet. We do own it, because my son really wanted to play it. He definitely didn't get into it like he did Elden Ring, but he says he likes it. So...? I dunno. I'll give it a try eventually, but I'm not in a big rush.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Finally, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. What a mouthful. I picked this up just this morning. There are seven different games in here, and the only one I've played before is MvC2. I beat the 1993 Punisher arcade beat 'em up today. It's expectedly straightforward. I'm too young to have any nostalgia for these arcade cabinet games. Funny enough, my only real experience with them is on the old Xbox 360 arcade. I played the TMNT and X-Men beat 'em ups back then. I'm relieved that the rest of the games in the collection are fighting games. I don't have a lot of patience for beat 'em ups. In any case, the story had its charm and the iconic original cabinet art adorns both sides of your screen to make up for the difference in aspect ratios. 7/10.
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Ha, I just bought this yesterday too. Couldn't pass it up for the price. My 12 year old son absolutely loves the Punisher game. I like the Streets of Rage feel to it. Definitely more fun than I expected. I don't even remember it existing, most likely because '93 was the year I graduated High School and I was...doing a lot of illicit things at the time, so that era is a bit of a blur. I had fun messing around with the Marvel VS. suite of games. I even almost talked myself into POing a Shuma figure (a character I was unfamiliar with apart from the name). Still on the fence, though.
 
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