Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Bentleyma that’s good. You win some, you lose some.

Just finished my first playthrough of X-men Origins: Wolverine and thoroughly enjoyed it fair play. The final boss fight against Wade… I refuse to call him… well, whatever was a bit of a **** take but eventually worked out a strat. Let’s hope the Insomniac take on the license is similarly effective for the 9th gen.

@colonelkilgore you brought me back with this one. I remember really enjoying this game when it originally released.

@Doctor_BK still holds up too, sign of a good game.

@conelkilgore Cool Iam like always impressed when I read that folks are able to beat a game in a day or two (something which Iam like never able to do). Was graphics nice in the game btw or did the game feel graphically outdated?

Just finished DiRT 2 on Xbox 360 after roughly 20 hours of playtime. It's become one of my favourite racing games of all time. Such a fun experience, there were so many different race types and tracks. Granted, the amount of events in relation to the amount of tracks was a bit too high and it definitely became a bit long-winded towards the end. But overall, the game was a blast to play and the presentation was excellent, especially for a 2009 game! It's too bad you can't play it on current systems, but that's why I'm glad I still have my 360 available. Definitely worth playing if you find a copy.

@oliverp Thanks, DLC is on the way.

Managed to cross the threshold of the final mission in the base game of the excellent Control and nabbed a platinum for my efforts. Brilliant game, truly loved it from beginning to end. Sure, like every game, there were parts that were a bit wonky, but overall this was a great experience for me. On to the DLC next!

@FuriousMachine Well done! Definitely one of my faves from last gen! A bit jealous that you get to experience the dlc, as I only got it with the ultimate edition with no oof being able to transfer my save over from the standard edition.

Guess I'll have to watch a recap on YouTube if I ever get to Alan Wake 2.

Just finished Professor Layton and Pandora's Box on DS after 17 hours of playtime. So I actually started to enjoy the game towards the end. The first half of the game had a lot of annoying puzzles but the second half had tons of fun ones. Really weird structure, it's like the game started on hard difficulty and ended on easy. Anyway, the story was great but the pacing was so bad. I spent hours going from place to place, solving puzzles with no story progression. Then everything is dropped on you all at once. I wish they would've had more story in between the puzzles. Because the pacing was actually pretty good during the final hours when there was a great mix of story and puzzle-solving.

So yeah, I ultimately ended up liking this game and I enjoyed it more than the first title. I also want to continue playing through the series as it does feel like each entry gets better in terms of the puzzles. Not to mention that the story is so compelling in these games.

@JohnnyShoulder Thanks, it has been a great ride! Not so much for the Foundation DLC, though. Played two hours last night and I found it repetitive, dull and at times aggravating. I guess the new enemy types necessitates taking advantage of the new skills and mods on offer, which I've sort of ignored, so the aggravating fights are probably more my fault than theirs, though. May activate assist mode to see me through the rest of that, but it really needs to change things up soon. After having floated through the Astral Collision level for what seemed like hours on end I was bored out of my skull.
Here's hoping the Alan Wake DLC is better.

@FuriousMachine Thanks for leaving your initial impressions of the dlc. I don't feel so jealous now.

Just finished the PS5 version of "Jedi Fallen Order". It's glitchy as hell and the production quality varies more noticeably from stage to stage but it was a super cheap disc and playing it on story mode was nice as a Soulsborne decompression after "Lies of P". Possibly "Cyberpunk" or a new "Mass Effect" playthrough next.

Stuck in a complete rut with modern gaming so I’ve been taking part in this year’s RetroAchievements challenge, where you have to make your way across a board every month by completing games at each space. January’s was grouped by genre and this month’s is grouped by protagonist type so it’s been nice to play games I’ve passed by over the years. So, I’ve completed rather a few games.

January (genre)

3D Platformer - Lilo and Stitch on PS1 which was pretty good. Like a simpler Crash Bandicoot and graphics were impressively similar to the movie.

Third Person Shooter - The Punisher on PS2. Insanely good. One of the best games I’ve played in years, sheer fun. A bit like Max Payne to play but with added interrogation sequences that got it banned.

Stealth - MGS Ghost Babel on GBC. Never been a big fan of the 2D games in the series but this was pretty good. Last few bosses were incredibly frustrating though.

Metroidvania - Goodboy Galaxy on GBA. A new GBA game that can actually be played on hardware and an interesting one. More a puzzler than a straight up Metroidvania but the graphics are colourful and I was pleasantly surprised to see actual animated cutscenes. Definitely worth a go.

Kart Racing - Crash Team Racing on PS1. Somehow never played it before and also not my favourite kart racer ever. Feels a bit odd to play and the adventure mode gets annoying towards the end.

Also beat Need for Speed Underground last month which was fun even if the physics are laughable at times.

February (protagonists)

Pirate - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on GBA. Again a bizarrely good licensed game. A cross between a Metroidvania and Sid Meier’s Pirates, it genuinely has resource management topped up by raiding ships in full on sea battles before boarding them like a mini level from a platformer, collecting treasure to fund ship and character upgrades. The land sections aren’t as good with irritating levels of knockback but it’s very impressive for a GBA movie tie-in. Unfortunately a bug meant the achievement for beating it didn’t pop.

Undead - Avenging Spirit on GB. I liked the concept more than the execution. Very charming but also way too hard to justify its short length.

Robot - In the middle of Megaman X Command Mission for like the 4th time. Good game but mostly nostalgia speaking. Like a lost Dreamcast game, it feels like Jet Set Radio mixed with Phantasy Star Online. Great soundtrack too. Just awful mechanics and voice acting. I dunno why I’m persevering.

Food - Egg Mania on GBA. Sh*t.

Knight/Samurai - Surprisingly few options for me here. Ended up settling on Black Castle, a weird homebrew for a budget Hong Kong Game Boy clone that I can’t actually beat cause I’m rubbish at it.

Wildcard - I’ll probably offer up Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance on PS2 for this category, I’ve almost finished every arcade mode and it’s been brilliant, I detest the original games’ engine so this feels way better cause it’s a Tekken clone. That should earn me the credit for this month and I can go back to playing FIFA or something.