I really enjoyed Halo when I replayed it as part of the MCC - more than I did originally. It’s aged very well.
Halo 2 starts off well but the second half is dire. Halo 3 is good but the Cortana level near the end is so bad it almost derails the whole game. Haven’t played ODST, 4 or 5.
Am I the only one then who played Halo and thought the Cartographer level where you spend ages fighting your way into that structure, get to the end and then have to go ALL THE WAY BACK AGAIN was fucking cobblers? Clearly so. :)
No; but the greatest thing about that is the triumphant, rock-out version of the theme blasting as you stumble, lost and confused, through poorly-laid-out identikit corridors until an Elite kicks your teeth out through the back of your helmet.
God that was just awful. They even painted arrows on the floor, if I recall correctly, because every room looked literally identical. And the shitty checkpoints could see you losing a good fifteen minutes of progress, having to fight through the same corridor again, before getting to a new bit of the same corridor.
I love Master Chief, I like Halo too but MC is so cool imo. I had fond memories if Halo 2 multiplayer too.
The weekend after Halo 2 came out, I brought my XBox to a uni friend's house, and we had an 8-v-8 LAN. That was pretty cool.
That Cartographer level was as far as I ever got too. Hallo always seemed to me to be the most boring of all SF universes. I enjoy everything from Babylon 5 to Borderlands, but somehow there was just nothing in Halo that made me want to explore.
It's probably not helped by the fact that it's all incredibly derivative; if you've not seen/read the stuff it's all lifted from, it's much more interesting.
Also, it's much more interesting in the first game when it only hints at the wider picture. With its evocative names, unknowable aliens and mere touches of back story, it's an intriguing universe. The more they explain it, and the more they get wrapped up in their own tedious lore, the less interesting it gets. But that goes for most sci-fi.
Yeah Reach is great. I actually love ODST. The back end of Halo is much improved in the rebuild I feel, purely due to better lighting and signposting.
Just fired up two last night and not only could I not remember any of the starting level but it's got really jarring cutscenes now that where added to set up Halo 5 from what I've read up on them.
Spider-Platinum! Not much of an achievement, going by the stats (11-point-something percent), but I'll take it. Haven't seriously considered any of the DLC yet; the first bit is apparently just more of the same, so it might work as an excuse to revisit this later if it goes on sale.
…now what do I do?
…now what do I do?
Red Dead Hold-LT-Repeatedly-Tap-A-Tap-LB-Bump-Into-Wall Redemption 2.
I don't really have the inclination towards RDR2, and I definitely don't have the time to put into it.
I just have to entertain myself until Hitman 2 arrives.
…now what do I do?
Have you ever heard of Earth Defence Force?
…now what do I do?
Have you ever heard of Earth Defence Force?
Sadly, there's no option to approve of posts on this forum. If there was, I'd have broken the button by now. :)
OnDrive, that racing game by Codemasters that flopped so hard they laid off most of the development team, is £13 on PSN right now. That's my biting point, so I went for it.
Alternatively, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is out on PS4 now. :)
I just started playing Overwatch again. On PC, this time, because I have a bunch of IRL friends I can play it with there. It feels like a much more frantic experience than PS4, and it's had huge changes to some heroes since I last played. Fun, though.
JANUARY
Four Last Things
FEBRUARY
Slayaway Camp
Rise & Shine
Small Radios, Big Televisions
Her Majesty's Spiffing: The Empire Staggers Back
Fortnite
Iconoclasts
MARCH
Red
Part-Time UFO
Metroid: Samus Returns
Tembo The Badass Elephant
APRIL
Burly Men At Sea
Minit
The Adventure Pals
MAY
Dandara
The Swords of Ditto
JUNE
Crazy Taxi Tycoon
Tearaway Unfolded
Yoku's Island Express
Burnout Paradise Remastered
Omega Strike
God of War
JULY
God of War II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Headlander
Mother Russia Bleeds
AUGUST
Chasm
Batman: The Telltale Series
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
WarioWare Gold
Guacamelee 2
Donut County
SEPTEMBER
Absolutely nothing and I'm ashamed. :)
OCTOBER
Hollow Knight
NOVEMBER
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Got the bad ending deliberately for a trophy. Managed to get 100% of the first castle though, so that pleases me. I've already waded into the Inverted Castle now, having got the interlude ending, and I'm at 144.7% complete. It's a lot easier than I remember it being, I've only died a couple of times and nothing's really challenged me so far. Will keep going and I reckon I'll have it totally done by the end of the week.
EDIT: And done that as well, in just a night. That was far, FAR easier than I remember it being. That said, I did discover the secrets of the Shield Rod which kind of spoiled everything for me… being able to kill any boss, even Dracula's ultimate form, in five seconds flat was a bit much. I mean, it's not a cheat because it's in the game as something you can just do, but even so…
JANUARY
Four Last Things
FEBRUARY
Slayaway Camp
Rise & Shine
Small Radios, Big Televisions
Her Majesty's Spiffing: The Empire Staggers Back
Fortnite
Iconoclasts
MARCH
Red
Part-Time UFO
Metroid: Samus Returns
Tembo The Badass Elephant
APRIL
Burly Men At Sea
Minit
The Adventure Pals
MAY
Dandara
The Swords of Ditto
JUNE
Crazy Taxi Tycoon
Tearaway Unfolded
Yoku's Island Express
Burnout Paradise Remastered
Omega Strike
God of War
JULY
God of War II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Headlander
Mother Russia Bleeds
AUGUST
Chasm
Batman: The Telltale Series
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
WarioWare Gold
Guacamelee 2
Donut County
SEPTEMBER
Absolutely nothing and I'm ashamed. :)
OCTOBER
Hollow Knight
NOVEMBER
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - My, that was relatively unfun and difficult. Proper old-school Castlevania, but with some horrible cheapness thrown in. Managed to brute force it eventually and got the 100% trophy, but it's one I'm glad I don't have to go back to. Just got two SotN trophies to earn (linked to things you can't do until you beat Dracula) and then that's another Platinum out of the way.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - all three main storylines completed - hurrah! What a great game this was.
Got a few trophies left to get - one to do with a specific quest chain, and three wars of attrition (visiting all regions, exploring all underwater locations, and finding enough Ancient Tablets to fully upgrade the ship). Given that there's a steady drip-feed of both free and paid DLC incoming over the next few weeks and months, I'll no doubt be back soon so I'll mop those up as part of future activity. (And I think the underwater locations one is glitched in the current patch anyway). For now I need to play something a little less open-worldy, as a palate cleanser.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rogue Aces
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Celeste
Ratchet & Clank
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Horizon Zero Dawn
Tetris Effect
Mark of the Ninja
Dear Esther
As mixed bags go, that is one…
Tetris Effect is wonderful. A lovely game, that I had an enormous amount of fun with (in getting noticeably better over the time it took me to clear the Journey mode on Normal), but that I haven't since been back to yet.
It remains a qualified recommendation at full price, but everyone should try it at some point.
Mark of the Ninja I missed the first time around because I'd sold my 360 before it was released, but I'm happy I've finally played it now, because it's a stealth classic, from a little studio I hold in quite high regard anyway (Klei, who are also responsible for Invisible Inc and Don't Starve, among others).
Dear Esther is an early-ish example of a "walking simulator", from the people who went on to do Welcome to the Rapture, and which I picked up ages ago for a pittance on one of the myriad PSN sales. I put it on on a whim last night (in my apparent ongoing resolve to avoid playing RDR2) and finished it in one (surprisingly brief) sitting last night.
After being initially underwhelmed (not least because some of the narration seeming needlessly, distractingly, pretentious), I ended up finding it quite interesting. It certainly got under my skin, having conjured a surprisingly haunting atmosphere, and I found myself going online late last night (or, rather, early this morning) to see what others had made of the story.
Probably about to contradict myself.
Bin
Red Dead Redemption 2 - I kinda' rushed through the last two chapters in the end, I say 'kinda' did absolutely every quest I could find, including Stranger ones. And also, if you're not up for Hunting I don't really know a lot of ways to just screw around despite me posting loads of personal anecdotes on Twitter. It came dangerously close to padding itself out at the end but managed to just about save itself with a wonderful finale. I did enjoy the story yet at the same time, looking back a lot of it is just
Spoiler - click to showDutch continually fucking up again and again and the most interesting part is when Arthur is diagnosed with Tuberculosis and then with what limited time he has left tries to help many of the gang escape Dutch's bullshit. The Guarma section seemed to be similar to the Mexico part of RDR1 where iirc John found hmself in the midst of a revolution, only nowhere near as naturally done and honestly I didn't really like that entire section.
Also…I think I'm in the camp that isn't a fan of the 'slowness' of the game after all, I think RDR1 captured the western feeling without needing any of that and the process for some of the in game mechanics like hunting feel kinda' unfun at times even though hunting CAN be kinda fun sometimes. So I enjoyed the story mode but now I'm done I've lent it to my brother because I don't really have any desire to go back to it.
Play
Shenmue 2
I somehow like this for things I didn't like RDR2 doing?!?! This game also has a lot of 'pointless' intricate details to it too, like how I can go into various diners and shops and not be able to buy or interact with anything. Maybe because I don't really think of Shenmue 2 as an open world game I don't look at it and say 'oh this is kind of a crappy playground' but more like 'Oh I'm enjoying this story and I'm walking through a Hong Kong that feels very much alive while doing so' (and I think it's more impressive for this world to feel real for a PS2 era game than RDR2's does for the current gen tbh). Unlike Red Dead 2 I'm perfectly content with drawing this game out if needs be, it's a better story for one, and sometimes it's nice to know that you don't have like, 30 cover based shootouts ahead of you as motivation to carry on.
And there are no fucking horses in Shenmue 2 IIRC. Fuck horses, man.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rogue Aces
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Celeste
Ratchet & Clank
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Horizon Zero Dawn
Tetris Effect
Mark of the Ninja
Dear Esther
Injustice 2
Bought cheap, just to go through the story and play as Hellboy and the Turtles, and I did that in a couple of sittings.
It’s a good game, with plenty of content, but I think I might have to add beat ‘em ups to my list of genres I’m pretty much over.
JANUARY
Four Last Things
FEBRUARY
Slayaway Camp
Rise & Shine
Small Radios, Big Televisions
Her Majesty's Spiffing: The Empire Staggers Back
Fortnite
Iconoclasts
MARCH
Red
Part-Time UFO
Metroid: Samus Returns
Tembo The Badass Elephant
APRIL
Burly Men At Sea
Minit
The Adventure Pals
MAY
Dandara
The Swords of Ditto
JUNE
Crazy Taxi Tycoon
Tearaway Unfolded
Yoku's Island Express
Burnout Paradise Remastered
Omega Strike
God of War
JULY
God of War II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Headlander
Mother Russia Bleeds
AUGUST
Chasm
Batman: The Telltale Series
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
WarioWare Gold
Guacamelee 2
Donut County
SEPTEMBER
Absolutely nothing and I'm ashamed. :)
OCTOBER
Hollow Knight
NOVEMBER
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Dandara - They finally patched the broken trophy, but sadly my save got wiped so I had to finish it again with 100% of rooms and chests found. Platinum earned, so that's deleted.
Castlevania Requiem - Finished SotN as Richter (wasn't actually very hard!), so that's the Platinum done.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rogue Aces
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Celeste
Ratchet & Clank
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Horizon Zero Dawn
Tetris Effect
Mark of the Ninja
Dear Esther
Injustice 2
Headlander
Pretty decent, genuinely amusing Metroidvania I picked up for a couple of quid in a sale because (I think) Mart said something nice about it once. I decided to try to start and finish it in the few days I had before I went back to Oslo, managed it, and can/will go back and get the Platinum pretty easily if I ever feel compelled to.
(I think) Mart said something nice about it once.
I did! 
JANUARY
Four Last Things
FEBRUARY
Slayaway Camp
Rise & Shine
Small Radios, Big Televisions
Her Majesty's Spiffing: The Empire Staggers Back
Fortnite
Iconoclasts
MARCH
Red
Part-Time UFO
Metroid: Samus Returns
Tembo The Badass Elephant
APRIL
Burly Men At Sea
Minit
The Adventure Pals
MAY
Dandara
The Swords of Ditto
JUNE
Crazy Taxi Tycoon
Tearaway Unfolded
Yoku's Island Express
Burnout Paradise Remastered
Omega Strike
God of War
JULY
God of War II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Headlander
Mother Russia Bleeds
AUGUST
Chasm
Batman: The Telltale Series
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
WarioWare Gold
Guacamelee 2
Donut County
SEPTEMBER
Absolutely nothing and I'm ashamed. :)
OCTOBER
Hollow Knight
NOVEMBER
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Dandara
Castlevania Requiem
DECEMBER
LEGO The Incredibles - Very enjoyable and much easier than LEGO games have become of late. Not bloated, not too grind heavy, just right. Nice Platinum.
The Spectrum Retreat - Didn't really know what to expect of this going in, as I overlooked all the coverage it got on release. Turns out, it's a Portal-esque puzzle game with colours… not bad, relatively enjoyable, interesting story. And yet the whole thing was ruined for me by the fact that there's a trophy for seeing both endings… except the only way to get that is to play it all the way through twice. A totally linear story in a puzzle game where each room has only one solution, and you have to experience the whole thing twice. You can't cheat it, you have to do it all twice on the same save file. Who does that?! What a horrible bit of design. So, that spoilt the whole thing. Gah.
Just finished subsurface circular. Only short but a fairly enjoyable and charming narrative driven conversation game. Set entirely in one location. Felt a bit like a Sci fi Harold Pinter play.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rogue Aces
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Celeste
Ratchet & Clank
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Horizon Zero Dawn
Tetris Effect
Mark of the Ninja
Dear Esther
Injustice 2
Headlander
Steamworld Dig
It was about time I finished a Steamworld game, seeing as I own all of them on at least one platform, and with Hearthstone no longer occupying my idle moments I've actually started using my 3DS again.
This is a fun, I think possibly procedurally-generated metroidvania/dig 'em up with bags of character, that maybe starts to get a little bit repetitive towards the end, but doesn't outstay its welcome.
I'll probably start the sequel (apparently a better game in most every way) shortly, and with a bit of luck I'll finally finish Steamworld Heist (which is brilliant) at some point too.
possibly procedurally-generated
Nope, pretty sure it's not. Placement of the ore might be, possibly, but the layout of the map and caverns is all locked I believe. Only thing that changes is how you dig through the ground to access everything.
Katamari Damacy REROLL - I did quite enjoy this in the end and it provided the required blast of nostalgia. It's not dated as well as I'd hoped but it's so unique and bizarre that a lot of what it does is relatively timeless. I think perhaps my problem was that the games I've played in the series previously (Beautiful Katamari and Katamari Forever) are both 'greatest hits' type affairs and therefore much broader in scope than this relatively slight first outing. Here's hoping that has been a big enough hit for them to warrant releasing at least the sequel as a similar remaster.