Last Game You Played and What You Would Rate It Out of 10

[Breccia]

Vaan is the biggest problem I have with FFXII. He's not important in any way.

It was a dropped ball. There are dozens of ways a recently-conquered country would inspire a local to rise up. Hell, the main character probably had access to some of those motivations but they weren't shown to be important.

I get the idea of a "blank slate" protagonist, even if it is a little...Bella...for my own taste. But the FF games are often about going after a massive authority -- a massive corporation, government, religion or god -- and the motivations of such a story should be clear. Nobody takes a molotov to a Wal-Mart without a reason.

FFXIII did not get that leniency from me; I dropped it after the first few areas because I couldn't give a fuck about any of the characters or events. L'Cie, fal'Cie, whatever, I couldn't care less.

Don't forget the lazy racism!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

the gameplay was unbearably boring.

Yeah. It's more like a CRPG, but without the fun interactions like being able to mind control people or possess them or bait them into bobby traps, and it doesn't have the cinematic flair or spectacle of the turn based games.

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FFXIII did not get that leniency from me; I dropped it after the first few areas because I couldn't give a fuck about any of the characters or events. L'Cie, fal'Cie, whatever, I couldn't care less.

FFXIII is underrated. Yes the lack of towns is disappointing and the story is told in a way that makes it seem unnecessarily convoluted, but the aesthetics and the music were really good.

[Zuben]

FFXIII is underrated. Yes the lack of towns is disappointing and the story is told in a way that makes it seem unnecessarily convoluted, but the aesthetics and the music were really good.

They were, I've often listened to the battle and boss themes on Spotify and I consider Lightning's design refreshingly good. Those things just aren't enough for me to stay invested.

[AcidicSyn]

XII for me felt like an MMO with nobody else playing. My issues weren't with it being boring so much, but two others.
1) The "program your allies' tactics" that take direct control away from you, the player, and led directly to (shudder) FFXIII. I know that real-time combat and micromanaging every PC's action aren't always hand in hand, but some games (Dragon Age) have managed to do it. FFXII made it an obstacle, with certain actions and triggers needing to be unlocked when "throw oil, then spam fire" doesn't sound complex enough to require a night course to complete.
2) The main character. Actually, this is pretty simple to demonstrate.

Who is the main character in FFVII? Cloud, of course, the iconic massive-sword-wielding spiky-haired icon of Final Fantasy. He's going on his quest for his friends, revenge against Sephiroth, and to save his world.

Who is the main character in FFX? You could make the argument it's Yuna, or "Tidus", both of whom have clear motivations and goals. Strikingly parallel motivations and goals, actually...

Who is the main character in FFXII? What are his goals? Actually, what are his stats, his abilities? He was just too bland, to forgettable. I didn't care to see how his story ended, because near as I could tell, neither did he. I'd have preferred to play the leading man (in-joke).

Thats because Vaan isn't the main character. Ashe is (or Balthier as you chose).

I liked 12 over all, I liked the gambit system and the combat taking place on the open world, and of course the hunts. It's not my favorite, and I have some complaints about it, but I found it enjoyable.

[Zuben]

Thats because Vaan isn't the main character. Ashe is (or Balthier as you chose).

I liked 12 over all, I liked the gambit system and the combat taking place on the open world, and of course the hunts. It's not my favorite, and I have some complaints about it, but I found it enjoyable.

Vaan is still the perspective character, the one that's supposed to be us. I'd rather it had been Ashe all the way, as then it would've made her quest near and dear, where as now we're just tagging along.

The way FFXII was built was very different, but it kind of serves the game well. You're traveling a lot. The gambit system worked well enough that it wasn't unwieldy, but rather you enjoyed seeing the two you didn't directly control take the initiative. I imagine it would've been a pain if there were constant random battles instead. I wouldn't want a lot of games to work that way, but it certainly worked for FFXII.

[Sinured]

Fallout 2. 4/10.
oberhyped garbage.
thanks todd for saving that brand.

[PACOX]

Final Fantasy XV.

Better than when I first tried it and I dropped it after 5 hours.

7/10.



I never finished that one. It was really boring. But that may be me getting old as I've found it hard to finish any FF game after X.

XII is my favorite and I will admit it can be dry at times. Also if you don't love the gambit system it becomes a chore.

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Vaan is still the perspective character, the one that's supposed to be us. I'd rather it had been Ashe all the way, as then it would've made her quest near and dear, where as now we're just tagging along.

The way FFXII was built was very different, but it kind of serves the game well. You're traveling a lot. The gambit system worked well enough that it wasn't unwieldy, but rather you enjoyed seeing the two you didn't directly control take the initiative. I imagine it would've been a pain if there were constant random battles instead. I wouldn't want a lot of games to work that way, but it certainly worked for FFXII.

I always just saw the story being told through Vaan's eyes while never considering him the main character (after like an hour or whatever in the game). It's not a perspective you always see in story telling because it's hard to write.

[Poppincaps]

XII is my favorite and I will admit it can be dry at times. Also if you don't love the gambit system it becomes a chore.

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I always just saw the story being told through Vaan's eyes while never considering him the main character (after like an hour or whatever in the game). It's not a perspective you always see in story telling because it's hard to write.

The problem with the gambit system is that eventually the game just plays itself. The only time I had to manually control my party was during the final boss. Granted, I didn't do any of the superbosses but that was mainly because I didn't like the gameplay.

I did eventually try manually controlling my party but it was very tedious and didn't really make the combat any more engaging so I just stopped. I should mention I played the Zodiac Age version, so I dunno if they made the combat way easier in that version or not.

10/10 story, world building, and lore. Like... 5 out of 10 gameplay.

[segara82]

Fallout 2. 4/10.
oberhyped garbage.
thanks todd for saving that brand.

It has arather slow start and takes quite some time to get rolling. But it fleshed out the world, gave us the Enclave to hate and loath/love, and far more things to do than Fallout 1.

It sadly has bugs, problems, plotholes, and was in dersperate need for the mods.
I recommend:
Restoration Project (adds lots of cut content plus a few extras)
Fallout et tu (Fallout 1 in the F2 engine, with bugfixes and add-able cut content)
SCAR (Skilldex Colour Aesthetic Redux)
MGO - Minor Graphics Overhaul
SCP - Standard Crafting Panel, just ... don't overdo it.
FO2 Starting Inventory Extra equipment depending on your char creation
FO2 Cheat Chest (Grampa left you some of his things)

[Sinured]

i know, played fo1 fo2 back then and wastelanders, too.
but fo2 is an overhyped classic in my oppinion.
daggerfall, arx fatalis an warlords was more of my cup of tea back then.
fallout 3 and nv on the other hand are very good.

thanks for the mod suggestions, i have the game on steam and gog, lets see which version is more easier to mod.

[Traveler Voltin]

Gears tactics
Its almost as annoying as XCOM but i think worse in some areas.
5/10 right this may change when i beat it

[PACOX]

Wildermyth

8/10

A small little RPG game sort of resembles For The King or Darkest Dungeon in its simple loop but long campaigns. You control a band of procedurally generated heroes through structured or procedurally generated campaigns. The campaigns last for several 'chapters' which are several years in game. Your characters grow old, abd quesrs can change as time progresses. Eventually your characters grow old, have kids, retire. New heroes take their place and can be sort mentored/inspired by the previous generation.

Quests and events are random and predetermined, reflecting previous choices you've made. Most quests present you with a binary choice that mean extra loot or a curse that doesnt manifest until 50 years later. At the end of your campaign you can preserve the legends of the heroes you used/created. Those heroes xanbthen pop up or be used in new campaigns.

Combat is similar to a lot of turn based tactical games. Youre character spwnsa there turn moving/defending/attacking, stuff like that. Less emphasis on levels, they come slow, more on execution. Monsters grow stronger after each fight makimg you choose between fighting or focusing on the chapters objective (in top of your characters getting older). Dying is permanent with an asterisks. When you receive a fatal blow you can choose to go out in a blazw of glory or retreat but 'maimed' (your hero suffers some sort of penalty the rest of their life - some can be steep).

Its a very simple game with a lot of charn for those who enjoy strategy/RPG games.

[Ausr]

Eastward: I would say 9/10

Really solid story with the gameplay with it's Zelda based combat that does switch up a bit for one or two boss battles latter. The music is top notch as I'll be downloading the soundtrack later. The graphics have that 32bit based sprite animation and I would compare it to Stardew Valley as they helped publish the game and probably lended some help there.

The game story and characters are akin to Earthbound so if you like that kinda kookiness, you'll enjoy it here.

I didn't get into too much of the rogue like Earthborn game that you can play inside of Eastward, but from what I've read, it's pretty good. I'm just not into rogue likes and I won't hold it against the game. The little figurines you get and the game itself tells some neat backstory stuff about the world.


I think my only two knocks about the game is sometimes you have to go back and forth along very long stretches for 2-4 quests and I kinda wish the combat had some sort of dash or block mechanic.

[kaminaris]

Half Life Alyx

7/10

Yeahhh it wasnt bad game but it really wasn't anything special. Last 15 minutes were a lot more interesting than the rest. Nades kinda sucked. People hyped it to the maximum but in the end I wouldn't recommend even with last discount. Mini games and puzzles were kinda cool but searching map for trash was exhausting.

Story was meh, shooting was ok except for shotgun, gravity gloves were mostly used to pick up trash. I was thinking about giving it 8 for the last part of game but then I remembered everything before.

[Dastreus]

last game I played was red alert 2:yr. 10/10 can't beat classics.

[WinningOne]

The Long Dark. The creators managed to so accurately capture the experience of walking through the woods in the middle of winter that I occasionally have flashbacks to my childhood growing up in Minnesota.

[Nastard]

Metroid Dread, 9 out of 10. Took me about 11 hours to 100% it, and I'm already feeling the urge to go through it again. I like that it wasn't completely linear/hand-holdy and there were a few spots where I had to figure out where to go. So many newer games revel in their "HEY LOOK OVER HERE, THIS IS WHERE YOU HAVE TO GO NEEEEEEEEXT!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOK" that I had forgotten what it was like to get a little lost in a game. The challenge was at a sweet spot of difficult but not impossible, and the moveset was very classic Super Metroid with a few extra tools thrown in. Moving around felt great and I got legit excited every time I'd receive a power up. The powerups are paced in a way that as soon as you start to master the previous one they add a new one to the mix to expand your arsenal. The bosses were cool, though I wish there were a few more of those "big hideous monstrosity that takes up multiple screens" bosses. The final boss was one of those guys that kills you in about 30 seconds leaving you thinking "wtf, how do I do this?" but after a few more attempts you get the hang of his patterns and it becomes a very fun battle. The music isn't anything special, but Metroid music was more atmospheric in the first place. Samus was back to being her badass silent protagonist character which I think works best for her. I was always a huge fan of the 2d Metroid games, so if you're not accustomed to those I don't know if you'll enjoy this one as much as I did. Very solid title and I hope it sells well so Nintendo starts making them more often than once every 10 years.

[Nyel]

On PS5:
Metro Exodus
7/10

On PC:
New World
3/10

[Yriel]

Days Gone: 10/10

Such a great game. The world was cool, the driving was awesome (in fact if might be the only game where i never used fast travel at all since riding your bike is just too much fun) and i really like the main character and Boozer.
Zombies were well done and fighting the Hordes was chaotic and fun, it was great to see 100+ zombies running towards you.
It has some story problems midgame where it can seem that there is no real main story to follow but it picks up big time towards the end and i really thought 4 times "ok this is the final mission" only for the game to go on for quite some time.
It had some bugs for me, there were times where i just had no missions at all and only by sleeping a few days i got new ones and in one of the final missions a cave system just didn't load for me so i had to restart the mission a few times. But all in all nothing major.
I'm sad that part 2 was cancelled, i'd like to see more of Deacon St. John.

[hellhamster]

Metroid Dread: 9/10

Another worthy addition to the series. It just plays great, the movement is as it should be, the gunplay is on point, the visual are good, it's just very enjoyable to play. The bosses are absolutely stellar, the EMMI's are fun, the story is decent and the maps are huge.

However, it has some major issues with enemy design, the music is pretty bland and forgettable, some areas are pretty samey and the atmosphere just isn't there. Once you get the screw attack, every enemy in the game just doesn't exist anymore.

If those flaws were improved upon maybe in a sequel, this could potentially surpass Super Metroid. Still, a highly enjoyable experience.

I would rank it higher than Other M, Samus Returns, Metroid 1 and 2, on the same level as Zero Mission, Metroid Prime 2 and 3, and lower than Super, Prime 1, AM2R and Fusion.