Last game you finished, tell us about it

I need to get back into it. I started picking flowers and then stopped enjoying it.
I mean, I was picking them like I would in Gothic. That's not the purpose of them in this game, but I realised it too late.
 
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And people call this the most realistic RPG.

It certainly is :)

Anyhow, I never understood why some people bother so much with flower picking in KCD. Of course it's boring. "Flower power" is kind of cool. But the higher level skill, while useful, require so much picking that it's really just there for people who want to min-max.
 
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Flower picking can and will lead to real power in Kingdom Come. You get all sorts of benefits from this task, even before learning alchemy.

Is this a joke ?

I don't recall flower picking to be a serious task in most games ...
Only Drakensang comes to my mind ...
 
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It's no joke. There is a perk involved with flower picking that will slowly, over time, also increase your strength, should you pick said perk. Not to mention the sheer value of selling these flowers early in the game, it's a solid money-maker with no risk, no damage to your gear, simply pick until you run out of flowers and reap the benefits. My MMO days had me well trained to do this in Kingdom Come.

And there are other beneficial perks in that category as well. It might be one of the best, passive all-around designs for a beneficial activity that I've seen in recent games.
 
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I blasted through the entirety of Secret Agent HD over the week. Made by the same group that remastered Crystal Caves, another Apogee classic. It's pretty much like the DOS original, except much smoother thanks to improved controls and controller support. This does make some of the platforming easier in the end on the original 3 episodes, though the fourth episode was designed around it and is much more challenging. Other additions are a map editor and achievements.

For $5, it was worthwhile, getting about 5 hours of enjoyment without hitting any custom levels.
 
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It's no joke. There is a perk involved with flower picking that will slowly, over time, also increase your strength, should you pick said perk. Not to mention the sheer value of selling these flowers early in the game, it's a solid money-maker with no risk, no damage to your gear, simply pick until you run out of flowers and reap the benefits. My MMO days had me well trained to do this in Kingdom Come.

And there are other beneficial perks in that category as well. It might be one of the best, passive all-around designs for a beneficial activity that I've seen in recent games.

Okay … Now this game has received a +1 in my personal recommendation list …

Not to mention the sheer value of selling these flowers early in the game, it's a solid money-maker with no risk, no damage to your gear, simply pick until you run out of flowers and reap the benefits.

Again, this reminds me of the both Drakensang games. Similar.
There, however, it was like . the higher the knowledge skill, the better the flowers one could pick.
 
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Alrik, in this case the higher your skill, the more flowers you'll pick on each and every pass. Initially I was stooping to collect one flower at a time, by the end of the game I was often plucking ten to twenty at once. Therefore, you're spending far less time mowing the yard!!
 
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Finished Dead Island Definitive Edition this morning.

It got pretty repetitive by the end, but overall it's a decent open-world looter-shooter type game. It was my third attempt at playing it, but I never made it out of the first region in my previous attempts with the original release.

In a nutshell, you're trapped on an island with zombies. Lots of them. You choose from one of four characters at the start, each with their own strengths, and you have to explore the island while trying to find an escape for yourself and various NPCs who recruit you for sidequests. You have multiple skill trees you can advance in as you level up over the course of the game, and crafting is a major component. Most of the combat is melee oriented, but there are firearms as well, though ammo is very limited through most of the game.

It's a lot larger than I had previously thought with three distinct open-world regions. It starts in a tropical beach type setting before transitioning to a slum-like section of a city and then finally to a jungle region. There's a also a forth area that takes place in a large prison, but it's not as open as the previous three maps.

The definitive edition is a significant improvement over the original release, and I can't stress that enough. In addition to QOL tweaks, Techland ported the entire game to Chrome Engine 6 which is the same engine they used to make Dying Light. The visuals are improved dramatically, especially the lighting, and it adds a lot to the atmosphere as a result. While it's still nowhere near the game that Dying Light is, it's a lot better than the original Dead Island.

If you like the Zombie genre, and aren't opposed to a lot of action, it's worth checking out. Play Dying Light first though if you haven't already.
 
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Yesterday I concluded my play-through of Celestian Tales: Old North. This is a turn-based game, you have a total of six characters to choose from, of which you can field any three during most of the game. I found this to be a rather short game, I think my total play-time was under a dozen hours, and that included exploring several maps and exploring on my own, just to make certain I'd not missed anything along the way. Perhaps the creator expected people to play different characters for replay value, yet since all the characters start off together I didn't see that as something I'd want to do, except maybe on a replay some time in the future.

It's a solid game, the story is pretty good and the combat is really fun. There is a hidden named creature to fight, and to do that you have to collect some items along the way, that battle and the final one were the only fights that actually gave me pause. I tried out four of the six characters, and enjoyed them all, eventually finding three that took me through most of the game

Today I plan on starting the next game in the series, Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond.
 
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Finished Dead Island Definitive Edition this morning. If you like the Zombie genre, and aren't opposed to a lot of action, it's worth checking out. Play Dying Light first though if you haven't already.
@JDR13; Does either game have parkour? I sometimes like killing zombies if there is a lot of loot and some crafting, but I cannot execute the parkour scenes. Also, can you turn off or lower the gore settings? I'm not 12, so blood and gore don't get me off.

I'm playing Hold Your Own and it's survival with militia and animal enemies and I turn off as much of the gore as I can and it's low poly already :)
 
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@JDR13; Does either game have parkour? I sometimes like killing zombies if there is a lot of loot and some crafting, but I cannot execute the parkour scenes. Also, can you turn off or lower the gore settings? I'm not 12, so blood and gore don't get me off.

I'm playing Hold Your Own and it's survival with militia and animal enemies and I turn off as much of the gore as I can and it's low poly already :)

There's no parkour in the Dead Island series, but it's a big part of Dying Light.

I don't think you can adjust the gore, but it didn't seem excessive to me given the theme. I'm sure there's probably a mod out there for it though.
 
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Might give it a shot then. I can always refund it if it's not my thing in a 2 hour test.
 
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Last evening I finished the second game in the Celestian tales, Realms Beyond. This game closely follows the previous one, yet some time has passed in that the child you were sworn to protect is now a youngling, I think she's around ten years old or so. Much has remained the same, though your new role as the future rulers "companions" has placed your group in a somewhat awkward position, both for the good and bad.

They made some rather interesting changes with this entry when compared to the previous game. Gone is the quest journal, in its place you must either pay strict attention to what you read, or scour the map as to where you should be going next. As for me, I took notes. The map, like the prior game, is fine for the over-world travels and such, yet utterly fails for the most part when it comes to sussing out the cities/villages. It makes it challenging to navigate at times, though the story is good and the combat fun, so that had me chugging along.

This game is a bit longer than the prior one, so that was nice. It does reuse many assets, which is also a positive as much scenery remains the same, yet some of the inhabitants might have changed. There are some negatives, though, in that much of the game just seems...empty. If there are any side quests or hidden opponents in this game, I didn't find any. Now, the main quest is meaty enough and will keep you busy for a bit, but I also enjoy exploring and finding hidden things, which did exist in the prior game. Not in this one though, unless I missed them.

All in all, I'd recommend the games, both of them in fact, should the genre be of interest. I'd catch them on sale though, as neither are very long.
 
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Finished Lost Planet 3 a little while ago.

It wasn't very good, and I kind of regret taking the time to finish it even though it was a fairly short game. I enjoyed the original Lost planet from Capcom, but this installment was developed by a third-party company for them and didn't measure up. The best way to describe it would be that it feels like a cheap Dead Space knockoff.
 
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Control was fun. There was some strangely dumb stuff - like why do you use the old save point system from 90's JRPGs in a 2020 game - but the setting was enough to overcome that sort of silliness. I didn't like Alan Wake, but I sure liked this game!

(@Joxer: lots and lots of respawning. You probably want to avoid it.)
 
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Control was fun. There was some strangely dumb stuff - like why do you use the old save point system from 90's JRPGs in a 2020 game - but the setting was enough to overcome that sort of silliness. I didn't like Alan Wake, but I sure liked this game!

Is there more variety to the levels later in the game? One thing I didn't like about it was that most of the areas and rooms looked too similar. The enemies were also very repetitive.
 
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So, I finished a bunch of games since my last visit.

Mass Effect LE trilogy.

This was an interesting experience, I must say. I find that my old opinions were changed quite a bit - as I played more and more, and reflected upon it.

Overall, though, I must say that I'm just not that big a fan of the trilogy. Don't get me wrong, they're all more than worth playing - they're just not really approaching other of my sci-fi favorites. In fact, I have to say I still think Andromeda is the superior game - which is obviously a preference thing.

I'm more into the mystery and exploration of sci-fi - and I prefer more elaborate and flexible RPG mechanics, including both progression, loot and combat. I also like bigger games with more open world natures.

But as for the original trilogy, I must now agree that Mass Effect 2 is the best one overall. I would probably rate it 7.5/10 or something like that. Both 1 and 3 are around 6.5/10 - for different reasons.

The first game is the most compelling in terms of world building and ambience - because it has more mystery and more meaningful exploration, at least to me. The RPG systems are somewhat more involved, but also a little barebones and dull at the same time. Combat is clunky as hell - and the actual narrative is hit and miss. The lore is fantastic - but I consider that shared between all the games.

ME2 is superior because it's so much more varied when it comes to the environments and the quality of each mission tends to be high. The systems are rather boring and underwhelming - and the combat is trivially simple. But at least it feels better - and I think the writing is at its peak here. Do note, though, that "peak" is referring to the trilogy - and, apart from the lore, I think it's slightly above average at best. But I'm hard to please in that way.

ME3 combines the fluidity of ME2 with a few bits of the customization from ME1 in terms of mechanics - so the combat ends up being a significant step up from the first two games. This is about the only area where it's superior. The story isn't as tight or well written. Around half the content is uninspired - and the ending, while "ok" (I never played it originally) - is nothing special. It does have a few missions that I really loved, though. The Leviathan mission is probably my favorite - and that whole thing with the party on Citadel was just great for what it was. But it's so clearly a rushed game and it shows in many places.

Anyway, I finally completed all of them back-to-back - which is something I've been wanting to do for ages.

As for the Legendary aspect in itself - I think it's a somewhat competent remaster. Not what I would consider low-effort as such, but definitely a cash-grab with suits calling the shots in terms of how much to invest.

Ask me, they should have combined all the best parts of each game - and made a unified character system - with the ability to import all aspects from game to game.

But that would have required more in the way of actual work, so….

I still don't think 60 Euro is quite fair - but it's better than I originally thought it would be.

Watch Dogs

I never played this much upon release, as I found it rather bland and underwhelming compared to the massive hype campaign.

But since there's a DLC out for Legion where you can finally play a real character that I can actually relate to (Aiden from the first game) - I told myself I should give the first game a shot, so I have the background info on the character and story.

Tell you what, I'm glad I did - because Watch Dogs is really quite good, considering it's mostly a standard Ubisoft game.

I quite liked Aiden, actually - and found him a reasonably well-written character. Sure, he's stoic and a little one-note - but he does have a way about him.

Most surprising was the excellent gunplay and the entertaining way you can utilize the various hacking abilities during missions.

Having played GTA and RDR2 - I've grown sick of missions that are overly designed and rigid when it comes to how you're expected to execute them, and Watch Dogs was - for the most part - quite open and generous in terms of how you dealt with enemies and challenges.

Meaning, I ended up benefitting from wise progression choices and I was allowed to use my rather OP weapons just like I wanted to use them, which I appreciated.

Also, a handful of the missions were genuinely inspired in terms of set up and ambience.

I would probably rate it around 7.5/10 - which is very high for me, considering what we're talking about.

Dead Space 1 + 2

Since my trilogy obsession worked so well for me, I decided I also needed to replay the Dead Space trilogy - since I never played the 3rd one through.

Another interesting experience, actually - because I've reversed my opinion of these two games as well.

I used to largely prefer Dead Space 2 - but now it's the other way around.

First of all, I was surprised at how well these two games hold up today. The first one in particular was surprisingly pleasant to play in pretty much every way.

Dead Space has just the right amount of quiet moments - where you can be reasonably certain nothing is going to attack you, so you can invest yourself in the various logs and environmental details. I also greatly appreciated what little backtracking there was in the game - which was just enough for me to enjoy it.

It's true that the Ishimura is quite samey - but it's less due to technical constraints and more because of the nature of being a single spaceship with a single purpose. For that reason, it didn't bother me that much to explore samey areas.

Now, for Dead Space 2 - I have to say I was quite disappointed with the last half of the game. I remembered it as much more vibrant and varied when it comes to ambience and areas - but that's really only true for the first half of the game.

If I had to rate these games based on the first half of DS2 - then it would still be the clear winner overall, but I must say it becomes more and more uninspired as it goes on.

It also doesn't help that it's absolutely chock full of ridiculously cheap jump scares and endless "cinematic" moments where you're taken out of the action.

In fact, the entirety of the last level is pretty much one big chase action sequence - where you're basically just running away from the same shit over and over and over.

The story was also a little underwhelming.

Anyway, I would rate Dead Space 7.5/10 and Dead Space 2 6.5/10.

Still relatively high scores from me - because I will always think of them as too shootey - and somewhat cheap System Shock knock-offs.

Obviously, they're not quite that - and I know they're going for a different kind of audience. They're more trying to be Resident Evil 4 in space - and I suppose they are.

But well worth playing all the same.
 
Is there more variety to the levels later in the game? One thing I didn't like about it was that most of the areas and rooms looked too similar. The enemies were also very repetitive.

Yes and no, really. They do some pretty weird/cool stuff with the environments that change things up quite a bit - but it still retains a similar vibe and ambience throughout.

I don't know how much you played it? I consider it one of the best games of the past few years.

While I don't think it's strong in the horror department, it's very close to games like Dead Space and System Shock in overall gameplay and structure. It's more open world with meaningful backtracking (something I love about SS1) - and it has some cool progression systems and a very interesting story. It's also a pretty strong shooter - which I know you like.

As for the enemies, I would say it's about on par with Prey - in that enemies share the same "otherworldly" quality and look similar on a surface level - but there are significant differences all the same. Also, some of the boss fights are pretty crazy and NOT samey.

You should definitely give it a go if you're on the fence.
 
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