Author Topic: 52 Games Challenge 2022  (Read 43824 times)

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #300 on: October 28, 2022, 03:56:05 am »
55. Dusk (PC)

Somehow I ended up playing two modern retro throwback titles (TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and this) at the same time, and would you know it, they're both among the best games I've played all year. Dusk is pretty much every great 90s FPS rolled up into one game, however I'd say it's primarily a mix of Quake, Blood, Redneck Rampage, and Halflife, with the graphics and art direction taking a lot of influence from the first game mentioned. Visually this game feels very authentic to the time period it's attempting to emulating, and thanks to modern graphics engines, it can do things that were never visually possible in games like Quake or Unreal. The art direction, bosses, enemies, levels, and pretty much everything is fresh and never outstays its welcome (mostly). For an independent game the audio is also pretty impressive. There is a very diverse set of music in the game that like everything else pays tribute to the games that inspired Dusk; awesome metal tracks will often play when you're in an arena like level with a ton of enemies, meanwhile creepy ambient noises will play in narrow dark hallways. And then finally, the gameplay is excellent, old school projectile based combat which fortunately no hitscanning enemies are present in Dusk. My only real gripes with the gameplay have to do with certain stages being more annoying than fun, as well as poor balancing and design in certain parts of the game. Otherwise, the weapons and combat feel fast and fun mostly throughout. If you love 90s FPS games and want to play a game that not only exceeds what a lot of those titles did, but also feels like an authentic throwback to the good ol' days, definitely give Dusk a shot, it's awesome! (10/28/22) [40/50]

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #301 on: October 28, 2022, 04:00:08 am »
36 - Resident Evil: Village: Shadows of Rose (PC 2022) - BEAT - I was looking forward to this batch of DLC, but ended up being kinda mixed on it.  I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil right now as all the new games have been pretty good, with only a few lower points (Resident Evil 3 Remake, the batch of crappy multiplayer modes), so I was hoping Shadows of Rose would do a decent job of tying things up for this arc of RE7/8, but eh... it's fairly weak.  I was expecting some rehash of stuff from Village, but I was hoping it was done in a way to show more backstory or different views of what happened in Village, but without spoiling too much, it really doesn't.  It's much more self-contained.  I didn't find it terrible, just kinda alright. 

Combine that with some just bonus Mercenaries stuff and third person mode, and it's not exactly something I'd recommend for the price tag of 20 bucks at all or even to big fans of RE.  If third person and the Mercenaries stuff sounds cool, then just give it a few months, grab it on a half off sale.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #302 on: October 29, 2022, 01:09:29 pm »
Burning Rangers (Saturn) - ABANDONED


One of the most disheartening things I've discovered over the years of being a collector is the ability of nostalgia and collectorism to bolster mediocre or even bad games into some sort of long lost masterpiece status that is completely undeserved. I've noticed this is particularly bad on the Saturn, which is a console I absolutely love, but it hands down has some of the most overhyped and overrated trophy games I've ever played. It also has a decent amount of outstanding games too that didn't necessarily sell a ton of copies either. However, Burning Rangers is not one of those hidden gems it's made out to be, in fact, it's pretty bad. The controls are clunky and difficult to use, the gameplay is mostly flat and boring, the in game audio isn't great, and just overall this is a very forgettable title when looking at the game's merits and not it's status as some collectors trophy that goes for hundreds of dollars. I'm happy I was able to play this game on a MODE because had I actually dropped $500+ on a physical copy and realized how bad it is I'd be fairly pissed right now. I made it through the first two missions, but after that I just didn't want to play anymore, which is saying something since this is a fairly short game. Throw Burning Rangers into the bin of overhyped, overrated collector nostalgia goggle games because outside a piece of rare shelf candy it's definitely not worth playing. (10/29/22)

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #303 on: October 29, 2022, 03:29:27 pm »
56. Final Fight Revenge (Saturn)

It's always interesting to see retro games that got their start as 2D, sprite based games make the leap to 3D, which is what happened to many franchises in the 90s. It's even more interesting when they're made into another genre. That's Final Fight Revenge which is a 3D fighting game string various well known characters from the franchise. Overall, Final Fight Revenge is decently entertaining, mostly because of how over the top and ridiculous it is at time, however for this most part this is not a good game. The controls are serviceable and it's relatively easy to pull off the game's supers, but between your opponent blocking 85% of the time and the pretty shallow gameplay, this game is little more than a mindless button masher. The audio is also pretty mediocre with no real noteworthy tracks and also each character's voice acting not being of the highest caliber. And then visually this game is decent for a late 90s 3D game on the 5th gen, but it still looks pretty terrible by modern standards. The 2D backgrounds, while kind of cool, also look very murky and ugly, save a few stages. This game is worth a one time play through if you're ever able to find this game somewhere, although I could not recommend anyone actually buy this game, at least for what it sells for online. (10/29/22) [27/50]

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #304 on: October 29, 2022, 08:20:19 pm »
37 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS5 2022) - BEAT - It's been abit since I was kinda hyped for a Call of Duty game.  I played MW2019 and it was better than usual for CoD, but on PC it ran pretty poorly, not because of the game being to high end, it was just really poorly optimized.  So with this coming around and owning a PS5, and realizing I can hook up a keyboard and mouse to my PS5, it seemed like a good idea to just play it there.  And it was! Looks and runs great.

I beat the campaign and it was fine.  It's your standard CoD experience, if you've played a CoD game, you've played this one.  Terrorists are bad and we gotta stop them.  If CoD campaigns don't interest you, this will not change your mind.  Multiplayer was the bigger draw this time as they are introducing better bigger mode stuff, so Ground War is on the verge of being Battlefield (The series I prefer) and while it'll never be Battlefield, it's a lot more enjoyable to play than Battlefield is right now.  They adjusted the movement and such so it's a lot less fast paced, tad more hardcore, like it's still very much CoD, but CoD is fine when not playing on small ass maps with less than like 10 to 20 people.  Hoping Warzone 2.0 is better also as that'll be releasing in 2 weeks.

I would say to hold off on the game for the moment, it's pretty buggy from the looks of it, I had a good 4 or 5 game crashes on console over the campaign and just now on multiplayer, I had a really annoying bug in one mission that wouldn't let me interact with anything so I couldn't progress and I had to troubleshoot stuff to make it work work (Somehow crafting in the one stealth mission was getting stuck I think).  It is a decent game though.  Feels weird to be interested in CoD while Battlefield 2042 languishes over there for another year or so at least.

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #305 on: October 31, 2022, 02:01:23 pm »
10. Yakuza 3 Remastered || PlayStation 4 || 07.30.22

Wanting to space out my time with the franchise, I waited about 6 months after finishing the previous entries before finally starting Yakuza 3 Remastered. I spent a lot of time playing the game after finishing the main story in the hopes of accomplishing everything I wanted to do, which explains the large time discrepancy between when I actually completed the game by reaching end credits and the time of posting my thoughts.

Featuring series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, the story follows Kiryu's life as he begins to live a newfound life outside of the yakuza as he manages an orphanage at the beaches of Okinawa. However, with about 18 months nearly fully disconnected from the yakuza, Kiryu again becomes pulled into the yakuza life, which results in his finding a balance of sorts in living a yakuza and a non-yakuza life. Despite Kiryu having made further steps away from yakuza life as a leading figure of the Tojo clan, the inner conflict within the group continues to find ways in pulling Kiryu back into the action due to both direct involvement and his obligations to friends.

As the third entry in the series, fans should be familiar with what to expect. Following the same action-adventure gameplay formula as its predecessors, Yakuza 3 Remastered focuses on beating up any enemy that stands in the way of Kiryu's friends and family while taking a drama-filled approach with its cinematic story scenes.

Largely, the gameplay is the same as before, but I will comment on the weaknesses I believe it has. To me, fights felt lackluster in nature—they did not captivate the same energy as I Kiwami 2 had. Kiwami 2 released at a later time, so perhaps the reason lies there, but it is something to point out. A difference with 3 Remastered lies in enemy fight patterns emphasizing on skillful blocking, which led to longer fights. It didn't seem to matter whether weapons were used to overcome enemy stances, but the solution lied more in timing attack chains. Environmental battle items weren't that effective, and I did not seek out the game's weapon modding capabilities until post-game due to in-game funds. Modded weapons were clearly more effective, but I saw little use for them by the time they were acquired.

While the fights themselves felt more drawn out in a negative way, the presentation of fights and enemies in general felt pleasantly ridiculous. Unlike Kiwami 2 where enemies casually stroll about the city in a natural manner, 3 Remastered's enemies instead maintain a fixed position and wait for someone (always Kiryu) to mug. After fights, enemies look absolutely brutalized—blood-stained appearance, black eyes, cut lips, and tattered clothes—all while Kiryu's fists are completely bloodied. Truthfully, it is over-the-top to some degree, but it was always a touch of humor to enjoy.

However, the game's pacing was definitely something I felt was more unsuccessful than not. As a story-heavy game, a lot of the narrative takes form through cutscenes. The cutscenes are enjoyable, but there is an imbalance between narrative and gameplay. With Kiwami 2, there was a good division between action taking place and watching the narrative unfold. But with 3 Remastered, that ratio of back-and-forth was largely gone, with cutscenes having felt quite lengthy with multiple being strung together at once while gameplay opportunities seemed minimal. Only when the player actively seeks out non-story related content does more action become available.

Offering a surplus of mini-games and overall world-building elements, the non-story related content was pleasing, mostly. This extra content is the entire reason why I casually spent two more months playing. Wanting to check off everything from the in-game achievement and to-do lists, I mostly accomplished that goal. However, some minigames are infamously broken, such as billiards. I spent roughly 10 hours with expert rotational pool alone, and I never was able to clear it. I came close to winning a few times, but it never did seem like it was earned but instead based on luck. Other than billiards, the only other content I left unfinished was the post-game Ultimate Match mode. I cleared through some, but I didn't feel as compelled to complete its entirety. With all that said, I continue to enjoy playing riichi mahjong within Yakuza games alongside a new appreciation for koi-koi.

Overall, the Yakuza franchise continues to be an enjoyable experience. I'm greatly looking forward to playing Yakuza 4 Remastered.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #306 on: November 02, 2022, 03:18:09 am »
35 - Grounded (PC 2022) - BEAT - Gotta say, this is probably my favorite survival crafting game I've played.  Before this, it was Subnautica, a really solid scifi underwater experience, but to me this games just has a whole lot to explore, do, and accomplish, all with a very decent story and really great 80's throwback setting.  I have very little to complain about, mostly just nitpicking with some performance issues it has (Certain textures and effects will tank the framerate like 80% until you move away or get rid of them, and some of the final boss/fight stuff wasn't my favorite stuff, I wasn't in love with them, but I didn't hate them.  I really hope this gets a sequel, or an expansion of some sort could work that has you doing stuff inside the house, or just do a sequel in all new setting with all sorts of new stuff, it's ripe for building off what they have here and I'd be 100% on board.

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #307 on: November 02, 2022, 09:01:16 pm »
11. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition || Xbox || 10.01.22

Having been mildly interested in The Elder Scrolls franchise for years, I before did not want to undertake a RPG with a scope of its size. Nevertheless, after a long time, I finally decided to try the series from somewhere, and I began with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

With the little I know about The Elder Scrolls franchise, Morrowind seems to begin just as other games (at least its successors) in that the player-character is declared the world's hero related to their heritage who must stop some force of evil. The plot isn't original by any means, but the world crafted around telling the story through story progression and simple exploration is exemplary. NPCs recall historical events or relay oral stories passed throughout time, and the information remains consistent across all corners of the game's world. Additionally, written materials further develop any history, which can be impressively depth. I opted to read little of such written material, as my long playthrough would have otherwise been much more so.

I learned that, in addition to the game's natural story, over 400 sidequests are available for the player to discover and accomplish. Morrowind provides a decent amount of player independence, but I think that my impression of this aspect is marred by time. Compared to modern games, there was not a lot of player guidance for the player to rely on, if needed, which can be a positive aspect to some, and negative for others. The player will be instructed to reach a destination or to fulfill a task, and the goal seems fairly straightforward. However, not all quest details can be fully recounted when trying to revisit information, which is an aspect I grew to dislike more and more. On the other hand, there are many instances where the player is given perfect directions for how to reach their goal. There may not be way markers or compass system, but such detailed instruction only requires either remembering or documenting. It is difficult to say whether the player is given more independence or dependence, but there is some balance of both.

Throughout the main quest, dozens of dungeons exist for the player to discover. Some were certainly personalized, but many also felt trivial and cut-and-paste. Originally, I wanted to actually explore all throughout the game's world and finish each of these areas, but that goal felt less and less important as the story was reaching its end. Truthfully, exploration is not that enjoyable, as there almost always seems to be flying enemies named Cliff Racers in the vicinity to target the player from overhead. They are easily the most annoying enemy in the game and even probably the most annoying in any open-world game I've played. Even disregarding that aspect, the Xbox port does not offer a mini-map, which results in the player frequently pausing to open the menu map.

With 20 years of UX design in mind, obviously Morrowind has aged poorly but is something to expect. Still, the one aspect I would have loved to have been given better attention to is the player's Journal. The Journal keeps track of every game event, big or small. However, even in spite of its keyword tag system, it is very easy to lose track of what the player experiences simply due to the sheer amount of events happening. I resorted to taking photos or writing notes of my own, such as which page of the Journal an active quest was last updated, to help counteract the problem. Similarly, inventory management was another issue I'll briefly mention. There is a tab system that separates types of items, but it felt more of a hassle to utilize than not. In the spell menu, the player's dozens (hundreds, possibly) of spells, enchanted items, and magic scrolls are listed, but only one of these can be active at a time. There is a out-of-menu shortcut to cycle through these items, but it is not ideal and easy to cycle through what you're actually wanting to use.

Another major negative aspect lies in the game's combat. For a long time throughout the beginning hours, many of my attacks would not connect. In this regard, combat feels very one-sided against the player. Something else to mention is the game's use of magic. Magic attacks do not indicate to the player when the attack is successful in addition to not indicating how much damage has been inflicted. For these reasons, I almost never performed offensive magic. Early on, the game's fatigue system also makes early-game combat difficult, but it is an afterthought later on. Unfortunately, the fatigue meter depletes extremely quickly while replenishing slowly. Fatigue dictates every player action: attacks, spells, lockpicking, sneaking, bartering, persuasion—everything.

With this in mind, the endgame was incredibly anticlimactic. At the time of when I actually made my way to defeat the end boss, my character's stats were nearly maxed. While equipped with a good weapon, I was able to defeat the end boss in only two attacks. At first, I wasn't sure if they had teleported elsewhere or the game had glitched, but it turned out to be that they were really just a pushover. The biggest issue regarding this aspect relates in how combat can be when encountering average field enemies. There were many times even in the final hours of my playthrough did a simple rat enemy require three attacks to kill with an average weapon. Such damage discrepancy is an issue which I believe works negatively toward maintaining a sense of player immersion.

Apart from my opinion on Morrowind's design choices, the game also has a fair share of glitches. None of these aspects were too terrible, although I did experience maybe 4 or 5 crashes. Other lesser glitches include audio issues that may occur as it's raining and NPC movement. At some point throughout my time playing, a boat guide I regularly frequented had died after falling in the water somehow, which forced me to utilize quick travel means elsewhere. It is also very common for NPCs to block doorways which usually requires jumping over them to hopefully pass them.

Games like Morrowind which are massive and are known to have set industry milestones during its release are prone to being outdated years later. Still, it maintains the high expectations that fans loved then and continue to love all this time later. With that said, I enjoyed my playthrough. I certainly have more negative remarks to report than positive ones, but that shouldn't sway anyone to believe I didn't enjoy my time playing. Morrowind is a great game, and it was a fantastic introduction to the series. I am interested in continuing forward with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but I would like to wait a considerable amount of time before doing so.

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #308 on: November 06, 2022, 04:51:13 pm »
We had a pub crawl in Indianapolis, IN and the first bar was a "barcade". I was able to replay some classics despite the expected jank from the alcohol soaked buttons/joysticks.

58. Street Fighter II - Ken

I'm glad everything was on on free play. This game's difficulty was either cranked up to the max, I'm just that bad at fighting games, or a combination of the two.

59. Bad Dudes

Time has not been kind to this game. The highlight was the "I'm bad!" shout at the end of a level.

60. Shinobi

This game, however, has aged quite well. It was difficult but fun. It's actually the first time I ever played this, despite seeing it all over various restaurants or hotels when I was a kid.

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #309 on: November 06, 2022, 04:52:56 pm »
61. Kirby Squeak Squad

This is kind of an unsung hero of the Kirby universe. There's a lot of neat stuff here. The game is easy as heck, but it's still super fun and super adorable. I was able to get 100% in only a few hours. A nice palette cleanser.

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #310 on: November 06, 2022, 05:02:21 pm »
62. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

I kept hearing how this was one of the best, if not the best, entry in the Dragon Quest series. I liked it. Didn't love it. The writing was even more campy and silly than others. It felt like the game never took things seriously despite how dark and depressing things got for our hero. Speaking of, this hero had to go THROUGH IT. I'm so glad that he got a happy ending. I'm also glad that the monster recruitment wasn't as vital as I thought it'd be since I barely got any of them recruited. Luckily, the ones I got more than pulled their weight.

With this game finished, I have finally finished all of the numbered games in the series except for X. My favorite is still IV, but I can understand why V is held in such high regard.

kashell

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #311 on: November 07, 2022, 07:53:06 am »
63. Bloody Roar 3 - Jenny

One of the game I picked up while hanging with Telly was Bloody Roar 3. Similar to how I feel about Samurai Shodown, I feel that Bloody Roar is one of those lesser talked about series. I prefer 2D to 3D, but I can appreciate good 3D action when it's done right. I'm not sure if that's the case here. But, I did have fun and will probably play through it again with a few more characters just to see if I can learn it more, and to see if it's worth picking up the rest of the games in the series. I really enjoyed the first and fourth games.

undertakerprime

PRO Supporter

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #312 on: November 07, 2022, 12:30:01 pm »
We had a pub crawl in Indianapolis, IN and the first bar was a "barcade". I was able to replay some classics despite the expected jank from the alcohol soaked buttons/joysticks.

58. Street Fighter II - Ken

I'm glad everything was on on free play. This game's difficulty was either cranked up to the max, I'm just that bad at fighting games, or a combination of the two.

59. Bad Dudes

Time has not been kind to this game. The highlight was the "I'm bad!" shout at the end of a level.

60. Shinobi

This game, however, has aged quite well. It was difficult but fun. It's actually the first time I ever played this, despite seeing it all over various restaurants or hotels when I was a kid.

Which gaming bar did you go to? I live near Indy and I pass by one called 16-Bit on my way home from work. I’ve been meaning to check it out (that Q*Bert arcade machine in the doorway beckons) but I haven’t had the time yet.

tripredacus

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #313 on: November 08, 2022, 10:07:37 am »
I was under the impression that we don't count arcade games in this thread! :p (or browser games)
If we did count arcade games, then I would be over 100 every year by February instead of just games we actually own in one way or another.

For my entry, I'm pretty much done with this for the year because I set myself a new goal. In Diablo III I had already beaten the game and its expansion years ago, so the game is technically in endless phase. But one thing I never did was complete a Seasonal journey, so now I am doing that. I completed Chapter 1 of Season 27 last night and really hope to be able to finish it.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2022
« Reply #314 on: November 08, 2022, 01:03:35 pm »
I did it! ;D

52. Blair Witch (PS4 on PS5) 07/11/2022
I was curious to play this after the news of Bloober Team workign on the Silent Hill 2 Remake. The games setting is very well realised, the texture detail of the woodlands is very rich. The game itself was ok, I liked the PTSD themes with Ellis but I found the last act overstayed its welcome and the Bad Ending is pretty much default - To get the Good Ending you really have to go out of your way and not kill anything. The mechanics with the Dog worked really well apart from one section in the fog where he was fixated on an enemy and I needed him to search the areas to progress but overall a decent experience.