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

[Floofi]

No Rest for the Wicked [8/10 early game, 5/10 late game]

Isometric Souls-like from the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest.

Pros:

• Game looks great visually. The art team really nailed the aesthetic of this dark and grim world
• Combat feels super impactful and weighty. Animations are great
• Souls-like combat works fairly well even using an isometric camera, especially early game

Cons:

• Loot drops and stats are randomized and very infrequent, meaning finding useful gear to your build can take a very long time. I went a strength build, and ended up using the claymore I bought at level 2 for pretty much the entire game, since good 2 handed strength weapons didn't start dropping until I was 18 hours deep, and even then I didn't use them because...
• Max level of 30 for Early Access (or maybe permanently). Means there is a hard limit to the available stat points, and with a lot of weapons having very high stat requirements, you really have to hyperfocus on exactly what kind of build you want starting at level 1. This wouldn't be so bad but...
• Core features (respec) are locked behind the Crucible (a rouge-like battle arena). The Crucible just isn't polished enough in my mind for a game with it's frequent 3, 4, or even 5 v 1.
• No transmog (or even a hide helm) feature, so your character looks like the classic Burning Crusade leveling character
• Large scale combat. Although the game uses Souls-like combat which is great for 1v1 or 1v2, anything more than that the combat starts to fall apart. Enemies can just rush you down and stun-lock you before you get a chance to retaliate.
• All healing is done via consumables. I hated farming blood vials in Bloodborne, and I hate grinding for food here.
• Crafting feels underbaked. Very limited selection of items vs the huge number of gear that can drop made me just not want to bother
• LOTS of gathering required. If you want to upgrade shops and the town for basic features, prepare to spend multiple hours running laps around first 2 areas of the game chopping trees and mining ore nodes

I was having a ton of fun early on with the game, but the deeper I got the more frustrated I started to get. The lack of finding pretty much any weapon for my build, tons of random/useless armor that I couldn't use, farming for consumables, or constantly needing to go back to previous zones to chop trees/mine ore really soured the late game for me. The final straw that made me quit was hitting max level unexpectedly and realizing that I would be unable to use all of the cool 2h weapons I just recently found because I just did not have enough points to hit the stat requirements for them.

[PACOX]

Hades II - 9/10

It's Harder but more of it. Same fundamental gameplay but more of it. Same great style and presentation. If you liked Hades 1 then this game refines the experience. Better maps, better weapons, more ways to customize your runs and experience. Took a point off because I feel like it could have co-op somewhere. Roguelike of the year.

Hades II 10/10

Changing my rating to a 10 after finally beating it. Hades 1 made roguelites mainstream, this game raises the ceiling to an unprecedented height. Glad I didn't spoil myself with early access. On the surface it's what you expect from the genre and a lot of what the first game laid out. It's gameplay, rules, progression systems, combat is what raise the bar between it and an increasing saturated field. It feels like what Elden Ring did to the Souls genre. Contender for GOTY next to Expedition 33 for me.

[Benggaul]

The Planet Crafter - 8/10

I was recently gifted this through my Steam wishlist and decided to dive into it a week or so ago. This game scratches a particular itch of mine, so maybe I'm scoring it more highly than it deserves, but I genuinely had a great time starting on a desolate, barren planet and slowly terraforming it over time to support life. There are no enemies to fight, it's just you and your environment. You can run out of oxygen, food or water and die, but you respawn instantly and have to go pick up any stuff you dropped when you died which gets stored in a handy crate, so death is relatively low stakes. The meat and potatoes of the game is exploring your environment to discover new materials to upgrade your technology and increase your terraforming score. The world evolves over time as you reach certain goals. You create water to form lakes, moss becomes grassy plains, larvae become insects, amphibians and eventually mammals on your way to completely terraforming the planet. It's kind of great for the people who really want to love Satisfactory or Factorio--but aren't at ease with all of the logistics spaghetti.

The points I took off are really for nitpicks and personal preferences. I think the game gives you the illusion of a massive world to transform but you're kind of stuck in a little corner of it (though that "little corner" is still pretty darn big, don't get me wrong). You're able to visit "snippets" of other areas of the world at the very late game but that gets old fast as they're basically instanced "dungeon" runs that you're just raiding for resources--and by that point chances are you already have all of the resources you need.

By far the biggest resource you need in this game is time. You might catch yourself spending a lot of it just staring at numbers going up until you hit certain goals. There are numerous ways to increase the speed in which these numbers go up--sometimes significantly--but for a large portion of the beginning to mid part of the game you're balancing resources between increasing that speed and building infrastructure you need to advance. There are 4-5 different metrics you need to keep track of for those advancements and different things you need to construct or enhance for each. I have not currently "beaten" the game as I'm waiting for that last number to go up while I go out collecting cosmetic items here and there. It would probably take a full day of me just leaving the computer on while that number ticks up in order to reach that goal, but then that's hardly playing the game, is it?

There is a vehicle in the game but I find it extremely underwhelming. Given the rough landscape there are few places you can drive it to with any speed. You can probably build a roadway with the foundations you're given but the time sink in doing so is not at all worthwhile for what you would need the vehicle for--which is mainly carrying loot from your expeditions back to your base. You're better off just making multiple trips on foot (or jetpack). It's a bit of a missed opportunity unless the speed of the vehicle is buffed along with its ability to navigate terrain--and even then there are many, many areas it wouldn't even fit through to get to some juicy resources. I built it, built upgrades for it, drove it around once or twice and then never touched it again.

The graphics are both simplistic and beautiful at the same time. The game itself is only roughly 5gb, so don't go expecting too many high def/high poly textures, but from the plant life stage on the world you're shaping becomes pretty damned...well, pretty. And as the heat rises and your tech improves you're able to reach more and more areas to explore and discovery new resource types, biomes and secrets. There are periodic meteor showers (some induced) which deliver various resources nearby, though they are often a pain to pick up amongst the debris. Still, if you're stressed that you've run out of a certain material and aren't sure where to get more of it, a sudden color change in the sky could be your salvation.

Overall this is a very chill, slow-paced game which pairs well with "watching" something in the background. The sound design in the game itself isn't anything spectacular, but it's serviceable. And yes, you can pet the mammals.

[hellhamster]

Metroid Prime Trilogy just in time for 4.

Metroid Prime Remastered: 11/10

I've reviewed it already but the original is a serious contender for the greatest game ever made and the remaster is flawless and solves the tank controls, a remnant of that age.

Having a planet and its biomes to get lost in and explore is probably my favorite trope in videogames only because of this game.

Metroid Prime 2: 9/10

Many people love it more than 1, but I'm not one of them. The last quarter of the game is the best part of the trilogy, with the best boss and best area. However, I kinda disliked the visuals of the first part, it's kinda there without triggering any neurons and that's a bad thing for a Metroid game that relies heavily on visual storytelling.

Metroid Prime 3: 9/10

As good as the second one, with actually truly impressive vistas and progression system with multiple planets to explore this time. My grievance stems from the fact that it doesn't try to take risks, Retro played it way too safe and even applied a Halo layer of mission oriented exploration and storytelling, which I think is kinda not the point of Metroid games. Still, a lovely game and probably my second favorite of the trilogy.

[owbu]

Winter Burrow. Cute survival crafter to play with your kids. Really basic and missing a bunch of QoL, but otherwise I enjoyed it.

7/10?

[Faldric]

One Piece Odyssey 8/10

I'm not very far in yet but good lord do I love it. Seeing the animations and ability names from the show and getting to play as the Strawhats is so much fun.

The worst part about the game is the non existant difficulty. Even by todays RPG standards this one is far too easy. The backtracking is a little annoying, but the combat being on autopilot is the worst part. And I hope they finally do an One Piece game without redoing the classics again and again. (Looking at you too Dragon Ball).

[Kilpi]

Out of curiosity did you play the first game and/or Control? I always wonder what fans of the full Remedy-verse take away from AW2 versus what those who are only familiar with Alan Wake

I love it that they are doing their own shared universe stuff. I have this slim hope that they are going Max Payne remasters with a contract that in addition to getting funding for the development, they would get the IP back as part of the payment. And also make relevant changes to MP/MP2 story to tie it to the larger Remedy-verse.

[Benggaul]

I love it that they are doing their own shared universe stuff. I have this slim hope that they are going Max Payne remasters with a contract that in addition to getting funding for the development, they would get the IP back as part of the payment. And also make relevant changes to MP/MP2 story to tie it to the larger Remedy-verse.

I think Sam's trying to tie it in as much as possible obliquely (as we see in AW2), but I'm not optimistic about them getting the IP back. Same with Quantum Break. The voice actor for Max Payne, James McCaffrey, also passed a couple years ago so that's a bit of a bummer. Remasters might become possible if enough interest is raised in the original games--which I think Microsoft has the rights to--via these references, but again I'm not ready to start up on hopium.

[doledippers]

risk of rain 2 , been playing the new DLC and its a banger. honestly a perfect game in my eyes aside from the seekers of hiccup , 9.5/10

[Haytham]

NFS Porsche Unleashed ( PC )

Not the first time I play it,but it's been several years since I last booted it up.

Game is still fun ,controls are a bit janky but the tracks are still superb and gameplay remains enjoyable.

8/10

[Kilpi]

I think Sam's trying to tie it in as much as possible obliquely (as we see in AW2), but I'm not optimistic about them getting the IP back. Same with Quantum Break. The voice actor for Max Payne, James McCaffrey, also passed a couple years ago so that's a bit of a bummer. Remasters might become possible if enough interest is raised in the original games--which I think Microsoft has the rights to--via these references, but again I'm not ready to start up on hopium.

What you mean about the remasters? MP1 and MP2 are currently being remastered by Remedy. Quantum Break is a different thing, I don't expect Microsoft to ever go something sensible.

But also Microsoft has nothing to do with Max Payne.

[Benggaul]

What you mean about the remasters? MP1 and MP2 are currently being remastered by Remedy. Quantum Break is a different thing, I don't expect Microsoft to ever go something sensible.

But also Microsoft has nothing to do with Max Payne.

Ugh, sorry, I was apparently conflating it with Quantum Break (re: Microsoft). But MP1 and 2 aren't being remastered, they're being remade. Semantics, maybe, but the remake is supposed to combine both games and tweak it for the wider Remedyverse, last I read. I don't want to derail the thread further, but wanted to acknowledge I was wrong.

[Kilpi]

Ugh, sorry, I was apparently conflating it with Quantum Break (re: Microsoft). But MP1 and 2 aren't being remastered, they're being remade. Semantics, maybe, but the remake is supposed to combine both games and tweak it for the wider Remedyverse, last I read. I don't want to derail the thread further, but wanted to acknowledge I was wrong.

I doubt it will fit for Remedy-verse if remedy don't get to use the IP freely afterwards

[hellhamster]

Yakuza 0: 9/10

Despite the number in the title and my score, the game is objectively a 10. It just has that masterpiece quality to it, from the characters to the direction and story. The soundtrack is a classic, the minigames are incredible, the voice acting is top tier. The side quests are either incredibly funny or incredibly well written.

However, apart from the minigames, the beat em up combat is just kinda ass. I used one (the best) fighting style for each character, and breezed through it. Increasing the difficulty just means I have to stock on more potions and my character landing way too much on his ass, which is just annoying. Just very simplistic compared to the Marianna trench tier depth of everything else in the game.

Great ending as well. You should approach this game as a movie with some beat em up gameplay and hundreds of hours worth of minigames in between the story.

[DarkAmbient]

Currently in the middle of my first Silent Hill 2 remake playthrough. I swear the original didn't have anything like as much combat as this. It's actually obnoxious. It feels like Bloober turned it into an action game. This does not feel like the Silent Hill I know from back in the day.

[Relapses]

Currently in the middle of my first Silent Hill 2 remake playthrough. I swear the original didn't have anything like as much combat as this. It's actually obnoxious. It feels like Bloober turned it into an action game. This does not feel like the Silent Hill I know from back in the day.

The game is a solid 8-10 hours longer than the original, too. The first few areas up through the hospital are largely the same, but they really fleshed out the back half. I didn't mind the increased combat frequency, I just hated the stupid fucking spider mannequins. Motherfuckers take forever to kill then respawned when you're required to backtrack to solve a puzzle. Those guys can fuck off the highest mountain.

[hellhamster]

Currently in the middle of my first Silent Hill 2 remake playthrough. I swear the original didn't have anything like as much combat as this. It's actually obnoxious. It feels like Bloober turned it into an action game. This does not feel like the Silent Hill I know from back in the day.

I agree, this was my biggest complaint as well. The action takes away from the brooding, psychological and atmospheric mindfuck that the original was and it transforms it into an action game with some puzzles in between. It gets worse later in the game. Still a good game on a technical level.

Silent hill f is a lot worse in that regard. I just don't like this direction. Sure, the game is a lot longer, but at what cost?

[Relapses]

I agree, this was my biggest complaint as well. The action takes away from the brooding, psychological and atmospheric mindfuck that the original was and it transforms it into an action game with some puzzles in between. It gets worse later in the game. Still a good game on a technical level.

Silent hill f is a lot worse in that regard. I just don't like this direction. Sure, the game is a lot longer, but at what cost?

At least SH2 has firearms.

[DarkAmbient]

The game is a solid 8-10 hours longer than the original, too. The first few areas up through the hospital are largely the same, but they really fleshed out the back half. I didn't mind the increased combat frequency, I just hated the stupid fucking spider mannequins. Motherfuckers take forever to kill then respawned when you're required to backtrack to solve a puzzle. Those guys can fuck off the highest mountain.

Yeah, fuck these mannequins. Do they really need to be behind every corner? Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit.

Silent hill f is a lot worse in that regard. I just don't like this direction. Sure, the game is a lot longer, but at what cost?

I already decided from gameplay videos that Silent Hill F is not for me. Honestly for me it might just be an age thing. I'm more interested in the atmosphere and exploration than constantly fighting enemies.

A screenshot I took of my first encounter with ol' Pyramid Head. I think it looks cool, although it's a bit darker than it actually looked on my TV.

[Koriani]

Yeah, fuck these mannequins. Do they really need to be behind every corner? Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit.



I already decided from gameplay videos that Silent Hill F is not for me. Honestly for me it might just be an age thing. I'm more interested in the atmosphere and exploration than constantly fighting enemies.

Then, as one old gamer to another, might I suggest playing games with cheat codes. (Or at least if you're on PC its an option) I like to use WEMOD (now rebranded to WAND I believe) as its free and has cheats for most all the games and never gives me issues.

All the atmosphere and story, and then cheese the fighting you don't want to have to waste time on. What's really nice is you can fight "normal" all you want, and then when you're sick of messing with the fighting, cheese it.

That's what helps me anyway. Don't let stupid mechanics that frustrate you turn you away from games you wanna experience - just cheat'em.