2018 Completed Games List

[Master_Craig]

PS4:

-The Evil Within 2: 8.5 / 10
-Tales from the Borderlands: 8.5 / 10
-Monster Hunter: World (main story): 8.5 / 10

I've finished the main story of Monster Hunter: World, including both low rank and high rank. Now, when I say "story", I did not pay attention to the story at all. I completely ignored it and didn't care.

I'm still playing the game because frankly, its multiplayer mode is quite addictive. The game has been out since the 26th of January this year, and not even a month has gone by and I've already poured nearly fifty hours of game time into it. It doesn't feel like I did, but the evidence and reality is there. Maybe I should back off a bit.

For the most part, I enjoy Monster Hunter: World. Playing by yourself is pretty boring (and difficult) while playing with randoms makes the game easier, but more enjoyable. Where this game truly shines, is when you play with friends.

Graphically, it's an amazing looking game with a pretty good soundtrack. Gameplay wise, it does the job quite well. The combat system reminds me of the Soulsborne games, e.g. you'e a little person going up against huge bosses, different weapons change play styles etc. The monsters you battle are all quite challenging, as they're essentially boss fights. Sometimes though, the game can be downright unfair but I think it's just a matter of luck and coincidence, e.g. you get hit by a boss, suffer heaps of damage, get stunned (and thus can't move) and then you get hit again, dead.

The game has a lot to do and is actually quite complicated. I think the instructions of the game aren't told very well and the menu structure is a huge mess. It's a terrible user interface, in my opinion. That being said, you do get used to it and it's apparently better than previous games.

If you've got friends to play with, Monster Hunter: World is a blast. If you're playing by yourself, it can get boring but you might find fun with randoms, and it's not hard to find randoms. Don't be surprised if you waste heaps of time playing this game.

 

[MattAY]

Add RiME to the list! Platinumed baby!

It was actually a very pleasant game once it got going. And the story was quite unexpected I must say, pretty neat at the end (and sad).
It's free this month, I recommend it if you're into slow-paced, easy going chillout games.

Puzzles got harder too, nothing was Water Temple level, but a few head scratchers!

It was also a lot longer than I expected. I thought I was near the end, when it just bumped me onto chapter 2!

 

[Master_Craig]

I kinda wanted to get RiME because of the soundtrack. It was done by Lindsey Stirling (or at least, she has a song or two in it, or something). She's a violinist that my partner and I really like.

 

[Jason Faulkner]

I finished the main story of Kingdom Come a week ago and am still going through side quests and writing guide content. As you could probably tell from the review I really enjoyed it. I've always wanted an Elder Scrolls-like game that placed more emphasis on the "real life" aspects of medieval-style combat and living and KCD really delivers that in spades. It's buggy as all get out sometimes, but I'm still having a ton of fun with it.

 

[MattAY]

I kinda wanted to get RiME because of the soundtrack. It was done by Lindsey Stirling (or at least, she has a song or two in it, or something). She's a violinist that my partner and I really like.

Soundtrack was really pleasant. Added to the atmosphere, especially when something was "triggered" or something particular was seen.

 

[NegFactor]

Finally finished the first Trails of Cold Steel game. Good stuff...it really made me eager to dive into the second game in the series. Definitely not going back to platinum it, though. Time to go run through some old and fun games before hitting ToCS2.

 

[Master_Craig]

PS4:

-The Evil Within 2: 8.5 / 10
-Tales from the Borderlands: 8.5 / 10
-Monster Hunter: World (main story): 8.5 / 10
-Secret of Mana (remake): 6 / 10

I finished the Secret of Mana remake for PS4. Prepare for a TL;DR.

I did enjoy some parts of the game but ultimately, it was a disappointing experience. Maybe I had too high expectations, overly-hyped myself and thus was lead to disappointment? The original Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo is a beloved childhood classic and one of my all time favourite games, certainly somewhere on my top ten list.

So... I learned Secret of Mana is not as long or big as I thought it was, but in saying that, the game didn't feel particularly too difficult. Finishing in just over twelve hours of total play time, I only saw the game over screen once on my entire adventure. For the most part, the game felt a lot easier than the old SNES days. I found that I could honestly defeat a lot of bosses in under thirty seconds or less.

I did find some parts of the game frustrating though. At some stage during my travels, the enemies suddenly became a lot harder, dealing a lot of damage, hitting often and always evading my attacks, despite my characters having a near 90% success rate in their strikes, according to the statistics screen.

This leads me to think that something was wrong with the late game's enemies and formula of attack versus evasion... maybe I was under level, but to me, it seems strange for the game to just suddenly throw you in the deep end of the pool. I noticed the game's difficulty spiked tremendously once I reached the Mana Palace (when you go underground, shortly before the Mana Fortress rises into the sky).

It was also disappointing to see some minor things removed, such as the animation for the Cannon Travel Centre. Most of the soundtrack was remixed pretty badly, and some of the voice acting wasn't great either. The game also had a tendency to crash. Last night alone, the game crashed four times over a period of three hours.

I have no idea who was behind the game, but it was a mess. Nostalgia is not enough to make this remake as great as the original once was.

 

[NegFactor]

When I was a young and got to play this game, I remember reading in the instruction book that the game would take somewhere between 30-40 hours to beat. I remember when I got to the end screen and waited to see if maybe something would happen if I waited long enough...because I finished it in 20 hours, so where was the other 10 hours of content?!

Really disappointed to hear they messed up so much on SoM. This would have been a great opportunity to pitch a potential rebirth of the series (possibly including a remake of Secret of Mana 2). Way to drop the ball, people.

 

[Master_Craig]

PS4:

-The Evil Within 2: 8.5 / 10
-Tales from the Borderlands: 8.5 / 10
-Monster Hunter: World (main story): 8.5 / 10
-Secret of Mana (remake): 6 / 10
-My Life is Strange: Before the Storm: 8 / 10

My partner did most of the driving, but I watched the entire thing and was given the controller every now and then... and since My Life is Strange is a story game, I'm throwing it down as a completed game.

Before the Storm is a prequel to the original and honestly, it's not as good. I still enjoyed it, it's a great drama with a compelling story. The one thing I didn't like about the plot is, if you've played the first Life is Strange, then you'll essentially know how Before the Storm is going to end. It is nice to see how they get there, but personally, when I already know the punch line, it's not as effective on me.

At first, I didn't really like Chloe as an protagonist, but she grows on you and honestly, she's a typical teenager... in saying that, I did prefer the first game's protagonist (Max) and I very much preferred the supernatural, time reversal mechanic, rather than the "back talk" mechanic shown in Before the Storm. The graphics and animation are okay (sometimes, the animation and lip syncing can be sketchy), but the voice acting is mostly great and the game has an appropriately cool soundtrack.

It's a shame that there's only three episodes (when the previous game had five), but I suppose if three episodes is all it takes to tell the story, then it's all takes. For the deluxe version of the game (or the retail version), you get a forth bonus episode where you play as Max before she leaves Arcadia Bay.

For the most part, I enjoyed it.

 

[used44]

Super Hot

Pretty fun. Perfect length. It closed with its strongest levels, which is always impressive.

There's a bunch of Challenge and Endless trials, but I doubt I play them right now.

 

[Master_Craig]

PS4:

-The Evil Within 2: 8.5 / 10
-Tales from the Borderlands: 8.5 / 10
-Monster Hunter: World (main story): 8.5 / 10
-Secret of Mana (remake): 6 / 10
-My Life is Strange: Before the Storm: 8 / 10
-Bloodborne: 9 / 10

I finally finished Bloodborne. I played it almost three years ago but I gave up on the final boss fight (technically second final boss fight) but this time, I did it.

Still love Bloodborne. I love the HP Lovecraft aesthetics, the Victorian gothic environments, the whole experience just oozes style. The graphics for the most part hold up very well today and the soundtrack is still amazing. The monsters are designed with a grotesque brilliance and I love that the environment isn't expansive, but it provides plenty of opportunity for exploration.

Bloodborne isn't perfect. Weapon variety is quite shallow and unlike Dark/Demon's Souls, armor doesn't play that much of a role. Armor is more about resistances, rather than actual defense. As mentioned, there aren't many weapon types in the game, as throughout my recent play through, I only used two weapons, the initial starting blade (Saw Cleaver) and then eventually, Ludwig's Holy Blade.

My biggest gripe with Bloodborne is the enemy's targeting. When an enemy performs an attack while engaging you, you might try and roll out of the way, but they'll automatically and unnaturally turn to follow you whilst they're attacking, so their attacks essentially track you.

Bloodborne made me rage quit a few times but, Goddamn, it's still great. I'm so glad that I finally finished this game.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Batman: Arkham Knight
It wasn't bad. It was pretty fun, but the story sucked.
9/10

 

[Master_Craig]

Arkham Knight is a lot of fun. The Batmobile sequences unfortunately get quickly repetitive (especially tank mode), but the rest of the game is fun. The story is probably the worst of all the Arkham games... all the enemy tanks being remotely operated via drone, how convenient for the superhero who doesn't kill.

 

[COMaestro]

Some elements of the story were quite good, but as a whole, it just didn't make much sense (such as the drone tanks Craig mentioned). Really, I feel it was the boss fights that were the biggest let-down, as really there weren't any! There are a couple of Batmobile ones, and then taking out the Arkham Knight, which just felt like a Predator challenge map. Especially considering the wonderful Mr. Freeze fight from Arkham City, there should have been at least one boss battle which aimed to top that, but nothing.

Best combat of the Arkham games though.

 

[Master_Craig]

I agree, while Arkham Knight is probably the best Arkham game, it's also probably the most disappointing, making it a funny paradox.

SPOILERS (I know the game is nearly three years old but uh, courtesy spoiler tag?):

The story to me felt so unnecessary, because of how Rocksteady hyped it up, claiming that the Arkham Knight was a brand new, original character who could go toe to toe with Batman... and then it just turns out that the Arkham Knight is just Jason bloody Todd, who goes on to become the Redhood anyway. It's essentially just one gigantic re-written version of Under the Redhood. As soon as Alfred mentions to Batman about Jason Todd in one of their conversations, you immediately know the punchline.

What disappointed me the most was the absolute final "boss fight". You go to face Deathstroke, one of the baddest villains' of Batman's rogue gallery, but you take him on in a stupidly easy tank battle. Seriously, to beat him, I drove right up to his tank, and literally did donuts around him while firing my cannons. See ya, Slade. :/

 

[Bretimus_v2]

That Batman Beyond skin is magnafique.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Honestly, I didn't mind the boss fights because the boss fights from the other games were all absolute trash (other than Mr. Freeze).
I really liked going around and capturing villains, I liked that they added a lot of variety to the stealth and combat missions, and I didn't mind any of the Batmobile stuff because although it got repetitive, it was mostly easy and satisfying.

But the story wasn't written by Dini like the first two were, and it really showed.

 

[Master_Craig]

PS4:

-The Evil Within 2: 8.5 / 10
-Tales from the Borderlands: 8.5 / 10
-Monster Hunter: World (main story): 8.5 / 10
-Secret of Mana (remake): 6 / 10
-My Life is Strange: Before the Storm: 8 / 10
-Bloodborne: 9 / 10
-Far Cry 5: 8.5 / 10

I finished the story of Far Cry 5.

For the most part, I really enjoyed it. The game offers so much freedom, the perks/challenge system is a welcoming change (rather than level up and craft for items) and the co-op mode is so much fun.

The story is okay, but aside from that, the game is far from perfect. The game has a couple of annoying bugs (Ubisoft open world game, go figure) but some of the game's mechanics are questionable.

I hated that the game forces your character to get captured like three times per region (so what, nine times?), it is so annoying and interrupted me on multiple missions.

In my opinion the ending was... disappointing, to say the least.

Other than that, Far Cry 5 is a lot of fun, especially with a friend.

 

[MattAY]

Yeah Far Cry 5 is def something I'll pick up on deal sometime down the line. They're all the same now.

Just completed Dante Must die mode on Devil May Cry 1 HD...which gave me the platinum - YEEEAAAASSS!
Was nigh on ripping my hair out towards the end of it.

 

[MattAY]

Burnout paradise remastered...complete and platinumed! Brings me back to the days of awesome playlists whilst gaming.
RIP tony hawk games.