What Was The Last Game You Played?

[SweeperDee]

I want to love this game. I want to love it so fucking much. It's absolutely epic. 
So how come I don't? I'm not able to invest the time, energy or effort that is clearly taken in the pursuit of trying to 'git gud' and I'll be honest, my days of relentlessly playing games the entirety of the day are long beyond me. I played it for maybe 90 mins on Saturday and it started to grate on me.
Probably why I've never got on board with any of the Souls games, I'm probably just no longer a skilled enough gamer and can't be arsed becoming one again. It's a shame as I'd have loved to have played through it in a less punishing and grindy environment. 

I’d say that it’s absolutely okay to rattle through it at your own pace. There’s no need or requirement to “git gud” quickly. Just soak it in and take your time with each boss fight/bouts of exploration. There’s also no shame in looking online for help/explanations for anything souls related, since the in game help/lore is not easily accessible. I’d implore you to just take your time with it. Best game I’ve ever played imo.

[Cptn Hooch]

picked up Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the PS Store sale...what a brilliant game. Love the lightsaber customisation and the fight sequences are great fun. The atmosphere of the levels, the main story and all the additional lore throughout the game really pull you in but the biggest thing for me is the music. The use of iconic Star Wars themes and motifs plus new pieces that wouldn't sound out of place in Empire Strikes Back really gives it an authentic feel. Much like i enjoyed swinging through the city in Spiderman, I'm enjoying flipping lightsabers around and using the force to feel like a real Jedi. Proper geeking out with the game in case you hadn't noticed

[Albus Bulbasaur]

14 hours ago, Cptn Hooch said:

picked up Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the PS Store sale...what a brilliant game. Love the lightsaber customisation and the fight sequences are great fun. The atmosphere of the levels, the main story and all the additional lore throughout the game really pull you in but the biggest thing for me is the music. The use of iconic Star Wars themes and motifs plus new pieces that wouldn't sound out of place in Empire Strikes Back really gives it an authentic feel. Much like i enjoyed swinging through the city in Spiderman, I'm enjoying flipping lightsabers around and using the force to feel like a real Jedi. Proper geeking out with the game in case you hadn't noticed

It's a brilliant game. Reminded me of Uncharted a little bit for some of the traversal stuff but it actually makes sense because your character is a jedi not a mere mortal. 

I think one of the reasons it's so enjoyable is that they went for this new stand alone character rather than trying to copy one of the movies, makes it more immsersive I reckon. 

My one criticism of the game is the mini map is clunky, I got lost when I tried to go back to a planet I didn't need to go to but other than that it's a solid 9/10 for me. 

[54_and_counting]

1 hour ago, Albus Bulbasaur said:

It's a brilliant game. Reminded me of Uncharted a little bit for some of the traversal stuff but it actually makes sense because your character is a jedi not a mere mortal. 

I think one of the reasons it's so enjoyable is that they went for this new stand alone character rather than trying to copy one of the movies, makes it more immsersive I reckon. 

My one criticism of the game is the mini map is clunky, I got lost when I tried to go back to a planet I didn't need to go to but other than that it's a solid 9/10 for me. 

The new stand alone character was a good choice as it doesnt limit them to obvious endings etc, whats really good is that fallen order is now canon in the star wars timeline, so be interesting to see if the characters make a big screen appearance sometime in the future

[Cptn Hooch]

1 hour ago, 54_and_counting said:

The new stand alone character was a good choice as it doesnt limit them to obvious endings etc, whats really good is that fallen order is now canon in the star wars timeline, so be interesting to see if the characters make a big screen appearance sometime in the future

It'd be great to see Cal, Bd-1 etc on the big screen....Cameron Monaghan did a great job bringing the character to life

[54_and_counting]

3 hours ago, Cptn Hooch said:

It'd be great to see Cal, Bd-1 etc on the big screen....Cameron Monaghan did a great job bringing the character to life

A variation of Bd-1 was in book of boba, when they were restoring the naboo fighter, wonder if they'll retcon that into it being actual Bd-1 and have Cal somewhere in the background

[well fan for life]

Been sailing about Elden Ring and it is great. Although I am a mere level 17 so I have been getting battered a fair amount. It's definitely much, much more approachable than Bloodborne or Dark Souls for a newcomer.

[GiGi]

I'm getting near the end of Elden Ring now, I think. It's been really good. The ability to re-spec your character rather than start again if you've made a mess of your build is keeping things interesting.

It's been the biggest challenge I've had in a game in years though. Some fights were just not fun and had me stuck for ages. Won't name who.

I think now I've maybe 3 or 4 main story bosses and at least 3 more optional big bosses (who I want to fight anyway) before I'm done. That might sound like a lot but I've now opened up every area of the map to bounce between so other than a secret area to the north which actually needs clearing and worked through, I'll mostly just be going from boss to boss without much filler and hoping they don't take me a million goes each.

Even at a high level (near 150) the mobs in the last 3 areas of the map I've been to can still kill me quite easily if I'm not careful. The story bosses should be fairly straightforward with the weapons and ashes of war I have but I know a bit about the optional ones to come and not nearly as confident about them.

Great value though, picked up on CDKeys for a bit over 30 quid and really happy with that. Will no doubt give it another run at some point in the future.

[Cptn Hooch]

17 hours ago, 54_and_counting said:

A variation of Bd-1 was in book of boba, when they were restoring the naboo fighter, wonder if they'll retcon that into it being actual Bd-1 and have Cal somewhere in the background

I watched book of boba fett (outstanding btw) before I picked up fallen order so I missed that one. Might need to rewatch it to see the little guy. Would make sense that Cal would be around a setting like that with his background as a scrapper. I love how the Star Wars writers can make you feel so connected to a piece of metal that beeps and boops

Edited March 16, 2022 by Cptn Hooch

[Clown Job]

On 22/02/2022 at 20:50, Clown Job said:

Rainbow 6 extraction 

Decided to pick it up after giving the free trial a bash 

What I will say, the lobbies are a lot less toxic than Siege

Its good fun though. 

Still playing this, still having great fun 

New update has made the game a lot hard though, especially if playing with randoms

[pj_puttz]

For X-Com fans have a look at Phoenix Point which has the Behemoth Edition on sale on the PS Store now. Same folk who made X-Com I believe. Well worth a look. [emoji106]

[Albus Bulbasaur]

Fortnite with no building is kinda fun for the first time in 2 years. 

[Mallo_Madrid]

What a game Elden Ring is.

I get completely lost in it. Throw it on with the intentions of having an hours playing time and three hours later I'm still engrossed.

Paternity leave came at the perfect time, two weeks with a baby that sleeps 20 hours a day and the older two at school was great. Finding the hours to play now I'm back at work with three kids, a dog and a wife (in that particular order) is brutal.

*checks works the annual leave calendar

[StewartyMac]

On 16/03/2022 at 01:42, GiGi said:

Even at a high level (near 150) the mobs in the last 3 areas of the map I've been to can still kill me quite easily if I'm not careful.

The Haligtree areas are absolutely brutal for this. Even after you've beaten the first boss of that area, the next section is ridiculous. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Project CARS (PS4, 2015)

Right, Project Cars. Technically it's Project CARS but then technically it's Project Community Assisted Racing Simulator and I'm not typing that out every time. There are tracks, there are cars, there are events, there's a driving physics model and fully dynamic time and weather. There are cars from the 1960s onwards and there are tracks from all over the world, as well as several created just for this game. I played the Game of the Year Edition so I had all the DLC content, so I can't really comment about the size of the base game. I also started playing several years after release and even after Project Cars 2, so this is very much a retrospective review with that in mind.

There are basically two things to actually discuss with this game, so I'll do them in order. First up is the gameplay. I spent the majority of my time playing with a wheel and pedals, so my experience is based on that. I briefly played with a controller a long time ago and it's manageable, but nowhere near as satisfying. There are lots of car classes in the game and each one has its own unique style and challenges to keep in mind. Trying to keep Jim Clark's Lotus pointed in the right direction is a fantastic experience, yet just as challenging as driving a modern Le Mans-winning Audi R18. Or their interpretation of a modern Formula 1 Car. Or a kart. Or any of the road cars in the game. With this many racing disciplines available and a career mode which encompasses all of them, you never really have the same experience any two times you play the game, which makes it all the more satisfying when you finally get to grips with a car.

The level of detail that goes into the driving is huge too. There are lots of tuning options for the cars which I naturally ignored but which I'm sure some people on the internet get a lot out of. Tyre and brake temperature is modelled brilliantly, being features that need genuine attention no matter how long your race is. Being able to manage these is just as important as actually driving the car itself, and the result is extremely rewarding. The same goes for driving in wet conditions, with the right tyre choice and management being crucial. Factor in what I said about each car being its own unique challenges and this is probably the best racing sim I've played in terms of managing a car through conditions and driving style.

In terms of looks you can tell this was a game released relatively early in the 8th generation of consoles. It's not a bad looking game and the lighting in particular is very striking especially as it changes during a race, but cars and environments can look a bit shiny. A bit low-detail. Not to the point of looking bad or out of place, but at times it feels like function rather than style was the overwhelming priority when designing everything. Maybe I'm just spoiled from all the time I've put into Gran Turismo Sport, but I think it's telling that a game which does offer full dynamic time and weather progression doesn't stun me. Again, this is me playing and writing about the game long after release.

While the driving model for the car you're actually in is detailed and immersive, the game does have some problems in this regard. Collision physics are legitimately impossible to deal with. You can't drive wheel to wheel with any cars because if you touch you will become glued to that car and you will drive straight off the track. Doesn't matter if it's a road car, GT car, open wheel, kart, if you touch someone you're going off. Sadly this meant I couldn't really get any enjoyment from the AI difficulty slider because I couldn't actually afford to race anyone for fear of being driven to frustration about not actually being able to drive. This also adversely affects some cars more than others, because you really can't drive classic formula cars in these conditions. Factor in how much more sensitive to damage cars like that are and you're in for a really bad time.

While the game offers complete freedom in creating your own races and race weekends with practice, qualifying and race times all adjustable as well as multi-class racing, to get the best out of these you're probably going to have to go into Career Mode which offers a structured rise through motorsport classes with invitational events thrown in throughout the in-game calendar. At the start of your career you pick a team in a class to race for throughout the year. Once that championship is completed you get more offers from higher levels, and as you complete championships and other invitational events you unlock even more which you can pick and choose from over each season.

This structure is, in theory, great. It's great if you can understand it and follow it, if a bit repetitive unless you start skipping the always available invitational events on a year by year basis. I say in theory though because the layout of the menus here are terrible. At the start of a season there's a big deal made about the championship you've entered, but it could quite easily be a few months before you actually do a race in it. The whole thing just feels a bit unintuitive. I have a theory about bad design like this. The people making the game have become so familiar with the game that they don't notice when something isn't obvious or clearly explained, and it just falls by the wayside as a priority to fix.

After enough years and seasons you do get the hang of it, but no matter what you achieve or how thoroughly you beat the championships on offer, there's never any real sense of achievement. Whether you win the entry-level karting championship or the Formula A World Championship you get the same reward. A short animation of a trophy, then an e-mail in your inbox which looks like every other one you get. Maybe the "social media feed" on the career homepage will finally sync up with the last event you entered. For a game which offers a sprawling, progressive career it all feels a bit short on consequence or significance, and it's a real shame.

With my playing the GOTY edition in mind, I have to mention the rate at which you unlock and can enter career events. Even after about fifteen full seasons I didn't complete every championship or unlock every invitational event or series. As a result there are several cars and tracks I never had the chance to drive in Career Mode. It feels churlish - especially in a world where Gran Turismo 7 has recently released - to criticise a game for having so much content in it that it takes too long to unlock and access it all in the main game mode, but it just ties in to my previous point about the career structure being a bit unbalanced and directionless. I can't believe a game would include circuits like Road America, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca and Sonoma along with an Indycar class and not somehow make a championship involving those a bigger focal point of the career. It's there, but I never unlocked it after 100+ hours, and it's not obvious how you can. This is just one example too, there's so much I feel like I missed out on, somehow. From what I know of Project Cars 2 this was addressed, so hopefully whenever I get around to writing that up I can be a lot more satisfied.

If you want a game where you can drive a bunch of cars on a bunch of tracks with genuinely amazing and immersive conditions, with loads of settings to fiddle around with... Project Cars probably isn't now the game for you. Although it took me a while to reach this point and although I didn't properly devote myself to it, I'm still glad I did.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Miguel Sanchez

[Busta Nut]

I've been playing Rust recently and it is frustrating as f**k.

[Clown Job]

That new Lego Star Wars game is tremendous

[GiGi]

On 03/04/2022 at 18:29, StewartyMac said:

The Haligtree areas are absolutely brutal for this. Even after you've beaten the first boss of that area, the next section is ridiculous. 

I finished Haligtree last night (after finishing the main story bit). The boss there was surprisingly alright for me given what I'd seen and heard but I was ridiculously strong by this point as well and used a summon to help.

Then went and did the optional boss at Farum Azula and that's me done with this run altogether now, got all the remembraces and think I've cleared just about every dungeon, probably the vast majority of minibosses etc.

Games just superb. I'll be diving back in for a fresh run on a new character over the weekend.

[Mark Connolly]

On 07/04/2022 at 16:06, Clown Job said:

That new Lego Star Wars game is tremendous

My nieces love the Lego games, so we ordered this as well. Accidentally got the PS5 version, and they only have a PS4, so I suppose I'll have to hold onto it for them...

[Miguel Sanchez]

Celeste (PS4, 2018)

Although the 2D platformer is one of the oldest video game genres, it's not one I've played a lot. My first console was a SNES so I had some Marios and an Aladdin game, but I was very young and I could never finish them. I tried Mario and Mario 3 when I was old enough to know what I was doing and I never made it to the end of 3. Even in the modern era it's not something I've spent a lot of time with. At least, looking at my PlayStation profile there's one thing that almost all of the platformers on there have in common. They're all easy and accessible. Braid is about the hardest thing I've finished. 

And so we come to Celeste, a 2D platformer in which you control a girl called Madeline as she climbs a mountain while suffering from mental health problems, dealing with people along the way who suffer from mental health problems. Controls are the standard runny jumpy affair, with some additions. You can cling to vertical surfaces for a limited time. You can double jump or dash when in the air, and throughout the different sections of the game there are new interactive elements introduced to get you through the environments. 

The controls are probably exactly what you need for a game like this. They're easy to understand and quickly become intuitive once you've played for about five minutes. Each chapter is split into individual areas with either a straightforward route to the exit or a few objects you need to gather to open up the next area. This means you have regular checkpoints, but it also means the controls have to be as tight and refined as they are to ensure it's always a logical solution to progress. This doesn't mean it's always easy to carry out the right commands once you know what to do, but I'll get to more on that later.

Each of the game's main chapters introduces a new object to interact with, either to platform on (is platform a verb as well as a noun in this context?) or to avoid on fear of death. Each of these (except the dark blocks you direct as they're moving) is as quickly logical as the standard controls, which opens up the range of puzzles available. This, along with the backgrounds and music keeps the game fresh and interesting throughout. 

Celeste feels like a very modern platformer and a big part of this is the aesthetic. If you read the word aesthetic in italics, or with some squiggly punctuation either side of it. The retro pixel-art style of the characters and backgrounds is bold and engaging. The lack of detail in the player characters - especially when contrasted with the depth of the backgrounds - is a nice homage to the origin of 2D platformers while still feeling refined. The music is similar, sounding obviously modern but in a retro style which complements the art style nicely. Crucially, it only rarely gets irritating when you're stuck on an area for a long time. 

The pixelated art style of the characters and backgrounds is in contrast to the dialogue boxes at the top of the screen which tells the game's story. A character's face appears, the words they're saying appear on the screen next to them, and some noises that sound a bit like Pingu come out. A clever way to get around language localisation problems for a small developer. I think I found this the most endearing part of the game, hearing these noises actually correspond to the emotions the characters were expressing. I also liked the image of certain characters reaching out of their little avatar space when they were terrorising Madeline. The game has lots of small touches like this that feel like they were all created very deliberately. You start noticing things and then you start trying to notice things, because you realise if someone put them there they must be important. 

That isn't to say I found and noticed them all myself and found the game as deep and engaging as I'm making it out to be but again, I'll come to that later.

What then of Madeline, and the story? Madeline gets to the mountain. Madeline is adamant she's going to climb it even though she's scared. Madeline meets and old woman who laughs at her and says she'll never make it. Madeline has a panicked phonecall to a mysterious figure who's not seen again saying she's scared, they tell her she always phones in the middle of the night claiming something bad is happening. Madeline walks past a mirror and breaks it, and a dark, purple-haired version of Madeline pops out and terrorises her through gameplay and the story, and so begins the obvious allegory for mental illness. 

I had a vague idea of what the premise of Celeste was before I went in. I also noticed that when Badeline (yes, aren't the game's fans hilarious) appeared and was saying things I was often too focused on trying to avoid dying to really appreciate what she was saying. You see, Madeline is trying to climb the mountain. Badeline, who is all of Madeline's fears, anxieties, doubts and failings, tries to stop her. Tells her consistently that she won't do it, tells the other characters that they won't and they're horrible people. Eventually Madeline comes to realise that she can't suppress or hide from Badeline, she has to embrace her and use their strengths together to keep climbing. 

As much as I can look at Celeste and recognise it does many things well mechanically, artistically and thematically, something about Madeline's relationship with herself seems too obvious for me to find it profound. In some ways it feels obvious what happens and what is supposed to happen. In other ways - and I appreciate quite how much personal insight I'm revealing here - it just ends up leaving me feeling inadequate, since I've spent my life not facing up to my problems the way Madeline does, and I know even once I've finished the game I'm not going to. The deliberateness I mentioned earlier almost feels like a failing here, with the resolution being a bit too neat and obvious.

It's not just through Madeline and Badeline that this is explored, there are other characters along the way. If you've played the game, I spent the entire time hoping Theo was going to get thrown off the mountain and die, but it didn't happen and I feel a bit robbed. I don't feel right criticising the game in this way but the central premise of the player character feels like something I should identify with, and I just don't. I don't know how much of that is down to me and how much to the game, but the result is something which I know means a lot to a lot of people in a way it doesn't to me. As I write this now I think I shouldn't care what other people think, and you shouldn't, but does that mean I've missed out on something? 

One nice way the gameplay is tied into Celeste's depiction of mental health struggles is dying. In one of the loading screens the game cheerily tells you to be proud of your death count. "The more you die, the more you're learning." This brings me to my biggest problem with the game's controls. This concept, in theory, is sound. I'm a big sim racing fan and I'm currently playing Trackmania Turbo, so the concept of constantly trying and failing and learning isn't lost on me. On difficult platformers like Celeste I can see the point too, and there's no denying that as you go on the game's difficulty progresses steadily, but always within reach of what the player is capable of doing. 

There are two problems with this. The first is how refined the controls are. I played with a gamepad obviously and you have eight directions of movement. Up down left right and then up left, up right, down right, down right. Straightforward enough. Using either the d-pad or joystick though, it's not always easy to point Madeline in the direction you need to. When you're doing quick jumps and platforming through small or moving gaps and you need to land in a certain place to recharge your jumps or there's wind blowing affecting your trajectory, this is a problem. This isn't learning by doing or dying, this is knowing what you need to do but needing to hope your inputs are smooth enough that the game knows what you're trying to do.

I realise this makes it sound like I'm trying to blame the game for me not being any good at it, but I honestly don't think that's the problem. I'll give you the best example. A collectible later in the game requires you to slide down a vertical wall, dash to the right to pick it up, fall a little bit, then dash left to get back to the wall. There's a very small path for you to do this without touching something that kills you. There's no learning or figuring out required here. Once you've reached it, you can look at it and know exactly what to do. Then you can spend half an hour trying and failing to do it like I did, and the novelty wears off. It might not be the game, it might be me, it might even be my controller which does have some stick drift, but either way to me it's not difficulty or learning, it's just level design which doesn't fit with what the player is able to do.

What makes me start leaning towards it being my fault rather than the game's is the game's final chapter, B-Side and C-Side levels, and some of the harder to reach collectibles. The game's main story has six chapters and then an epilogue. The difficulty curve throughout is fair and never felt cheap or easy. Later levels are noticeably harder than early ones and my death count (which the game tracks for you to wear as a badge of honour) reflects this. The B-Sides and C-Sides are hidden throughout the normal levels and once you collect them you can try them from the main menu. Effectively they're like a condensed version of Celeste, shorter and with the difficulty and precision ramped up. 

I think with enough time and practice I could get through these. Eventually. What I couldn't get through are chapters 8 and 9. You see, these are post-game chapters where the difficulty doesn't so much follow a curve as it does become completely vertical. It gets so steep it practically becomes an acute angle. Most of this is optional and doesn't really offer much in the way of story or narrative so it's fair to say it's content aimed at the Celeste-obsessed. Going into chapter 9 I scraped past the first couple of areas then realised how large and complex and precise they were becoming, and I realised I just couldn't. 

But, then, I could. Celeste has an Assist Mode, where you can change gameplay settings. You can turn down the game speed. You can give yourself unlimited stamina for clinging to walls, you can give yourself unlimited dashes and you can use dash assist, which lets you aim your dashes more precisely. I used these when I was clearing up the last of the game's collectibles I hadn't found, and I felt like I was just about getting away without cheating the game while using some of these. I still had to control Madeline and not hit anything that could kill her, and if anything this was harder because the urge to spam the dash button could be overwhelming, for me and for her.

Go and look up Celeste chapter 9 speedrun now on YouTube and get back to me. There's only one way I was getting past that and it was using the final assist - Invincibility. As I bounced through the final areas (which are the same as the main game - unique and distinctive) I just laughed, imagining the sort of stress I would have been under if I'd tried to do it legitimately. I spend a lot of time playing video games. While I said earlier I'm not a massive platforming fan, I'm pretty good across various different genres. I can think, I can react, I can take on new skills and adapt to different situations within individual games and across different ones. If Celeste was the only video game I had ever played in my life and I absolutely adored it in a way I found transcendent and life-affirming and any other gushing adjective you want to use, I would not have been able to finish it without Assist Mode. 

Which brings me to the point I've been trying to bring up over the past four paragraphs - is this fair? I've finished Celeste. I've earned the Platinum trophy. I've not found quite all of the collectibles and I'm pretty sure I somehow missed the ending where it turns out Madeline is transgender, but I have ostensibly finished and beaten the game. I did so without cheating. I didn't break the game, I didn't do anything which isn't part of the game's design. Did I though? Can I say "I platinumed Celeste" knowing there are people out there who could say the same thing having spent hundreds if not thousands of hours perfecting their runs and strategies to do the same?

I suppose this brings me to my ultimate question of accessibility in games nowadays. I'll be looking at this from a trophy/achievement perspective which I realise isn't for everyone, but it's a verifiable means of tracking progress across the majority of a game's playerbase. There are swathes of things which barely qualify as video games nowadays which are released purely because the people making them know people will buy them because it earns them trophies. My first ever Platinum was Terminator Salvation back in 2009, a game I rented purely because it was known for easy trophies. Play the game on hard and in four hours you'll have a bunch of trophies. So I did. Nowadays you can pay pennies for the same experience in about five minutes. 

Celeste is obviously a real and very good game, and even if you played the entire thing with Invincibility turned on and didn't read any dialogue it would still take you a few hours to get to the end. And a few hours more to earn all the trophies. Does the presence of Assist Mode cheapen the story, or the achievement of finishing it without? Does the potential of Assist Mode do this? I genuinely don't know. There are games I'm proud of beating because they're difficult, or at least large and time consuming. I don't know that I'd feel the same way about earning all of Mirror's Edge's trophies if there was an accessibility mode which made Faith automatically climb up every ledge she was near.

At the same time I can't honestly say this is a bad thing because as video games become more mainstream, what harm is there in attempting to reach as much of an audience as possible? Imagine a child or an old person or someone who's never held a controller playing Celeste for the first time, being frustrated by dying all the time and never playing it or anything else again. I know when I was younger lots of games I still have I could never finish. I already mentioned my Super Mario experience, and that was as an adult. If the option of difficulty and precision is still there for people who want to and can handle it, why should anyone else be excluded from the story of Celeste or any other game which has a comparable to Assist Mode? Why would any game developer not include such an option if it's going to make their experience and their story playable by as many people as possible?

Celeste, then. It's alright I suppose.