What Games Have You Completed? (2023 EDITION!)

Call of duty modern warfare II - PS4

First one of the year for me. Hopefully I'll be more diligent in keeping my list updated this year to motivate myself to make a dent in the backlog if nothing else.

• Signalis -

Enjoyed a lot of it but it got a bit tedious for me towards the end. Survival horror with a lot of cues from early Resident Evil games, a lot more focus on puzzling though and enemies aren't much of an issue until later in the game. They also leverage the inventory management system from RE games but I felt this wasn't implemented very well. Space is so stingy that I found myself going back and forth across the map far too much just to dump items. Often got to a roadblock only to find I have gathered the item I need but its in my storage box. Was using med packs, not cos I needed them but just to free up space on the fly. Decent game but has some frustrating design choices I found. Its on Game Pass

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes on Switch

Liked it for what it was, though fighting did become a bit repetitive and annoying at times. They try to change things up each level but then it's just the same fighting.

Managed to get through the game and its DLC in about 12 hours so wasn't too long.

If you're a Shadows of the Damned fan, Travis Strikes Again

1. Signalis - Xbox Series X
2. Sol Feace - Sega Mega CD
3. Skyrim - Steam Deck

Sol - Feace - good memories of this one. I was always a Sega guy and remember getting the Mega CD and thinking how groundbreaking it was seeing the FMV type games like Sewer Shark and Night Trap. Sol Feace didn't lean into that gimmick but I was still blown away at the intro scenes and especially liked the soundtrack on this one. Its a side scrolling shoot em up and I don't believe it was very highly regarded in its genre but I enjoyed it.

Skyrim - having owned this on several platforms like most others, I never actually finished the main quest. Only previously played it on console and was great to be able to take advantage of mods on Steam Deck. Game looked great modded up and used a mod NPC as they respawn and don't end up lost in a dungeon somewhere like the regular ones. Have a decent amount of side content to wrap up but I have a good lot of that done on console. Will tuck into the DLC at some stage but happy to have this one ticked off the backlog

First game of 2023 completed

Neon White (PS5)

What an absolute blast to play! I'd seen bits of it on different streams/videos but usually on PC where I figured if ever it came to console, it just wouldn't translate over. Thankfully I took a punt on it and can happily report I was wrong. The console version compensates for lack of kb/m accuracy with a lock-on targeting system but it still doesn't make the game too easy as enemies grouped together might affect it, and you have slower turn speed/sensitivity than you would with a mouse. So while overall the game is probably easier to play on console, you're not going to hit the level of accuracy and speed to beat PC times.

But what that really means is that the game is still incredibly well optimised for console and is tremendous fun. There are over 100 different levels, some of which you could beat in 15-20 seconds, some of the later ones and side missions could be two minutes or more. The aim is to get through levels as quickly as possible using different guns to shoot enemies, but more crucially each weapon has a traversal ability that you can use if you discard the weapon; abilities such as an extra jump, a stomp, or a dash forward, and others. These are obviously vital to getting through the levels quickly and taking the shortest paths but will also require a bit of figuring out to work out the right weapons you need. You can only hold two types of weapon at a time and can only hold three of each type of weapon, so you might have three double-jumps and three horizontal dashes for example. These weapons are obtained from cards which you find along your path or from killing certain enemies, with each level optimised for putting the right cards you need on the path for you to get the best times. This adds to the puzzle aspect of the game where each level will have a shortcut you'll need to take to get the best times, which often requires losing a second earlier in the level to save a weapon ability for later and possibly saving 3+ seconds. You also need to kill all enemies in order to complete the level so even taking a shortcut might mean having to plan how you can still kill enemies that you're skipping past.

Level design is outstanding, and gets hugely complex as more weapon types and enemy types get introduced later. It means levels can take multiple tries to figure out and can be frustrating at first but when you start to see the path and get into the rhythm that's where the game shines because all of a sudden you're just bursting through the environment like a ball of energy popping enemies' heads like balloons left and right. The feeling when you're just sailing through a level repeatedly just to shave a second or two off your time for a higher medal never gets boring.

My only real complaint about the game is a personal one, in that generally I hate first-person platforming (only real exceptions would be the likes of the Portal games). There will be times when you're trying to make difficult jumps or tricky manoeuvres and you fail because you took half a step too much because you couldn't see the floor, overshot a jump even though you'd be sure that if your character models feet were really there they would have landed on the platform (or that you wouldn't have overshot if you could see your character's feet), or in particular there are times when you have to look down and use rocket jumps to climb higher but because you're looking down you can't see what's above you, if you've climbed too high, or you hit a slight ledge which stops you etc... It's not a huge issue in this game because most levels are so short and you get used to them so quickly that it doesn't take long to re-do but when trying to repeatedly run a level to get a better time it can impede your progress very quickly and compound minor frustrations.

All in all though, it's an incredible experience and is just such a joy to play to the point where I've even re-bought the game on Steam as well to try playing with kb/m, which is incredibly rare for me. I think regardless of your platform of choice it's well worth playing if you haven't already.

Totally. And I refused to move on to the next level without getting the Ace medal for the level I was on, while the layout, strategy and muscle memory was in my head. I was doing the same with the gifts for the first few missions, but by the second half of the game some of them are so well hidden or tricky to get that I had to leave them behind. Went back and got them all before the last mission though as I wanted to do all the side missions.

My list for 2022

1. The Artful Escape (Xbox)
2. Yakuza like a dragon (Xbox)
3. The Gunk (Xbox)
4. Psychonauts 2 (Xbox) 
5. The Procession to Calvary (Xbox)
6. Hitman 3 (Xbox)
7. Fight Night Champion (Xbox 360)
8. Ryse: Son of Rome (Xbox)
9. Carrion (Xbox)
10. Exo One (Xbox)
11. A Plague Tale: Innocence (Xbox)
12. Elden Ring (PS5)
13. Trek to Yomi (Xbox)
14. Guardians of the Galaxy (Xbox)
15. Empire of Sin (Xbox)
16. The Forgotten City (Xbox)
17. Chained Echoes (Xbox)

Doubt I'll get that many this year. Elden Ring GOTY with Chained Echoes 2nd.

1. God of War: Ragnarok

Brilliant game, I'll like to say I enjoyed every minute, but there was a very annoying section with Atreus that I couldn't wait to be over. If they do a spin-off with him I'll be giving it a miss. I got the platinum trophy fairly easily (I got free PSN avatars for doing it the last time so hope they do that again). The Muspelheim trials and Valkyrie equivalent bosses seemed way easier in this than the first game, I remember tearing my hair out over them in GoW 2018.

1. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
2. Yakuza 5 (PS4)

There's a single QTE at the end of Yakuza 5's final boss where if you fail you then have to restart the entire 10 minute fight. There's a lot to love here, but it's a bit of a series low and is exceptionally disrespectful to the player's time in a series renowned for taking the mick in that regard.

Ah, the old FMV cutscenes are charming in their own right! the actor playing Kyle is clearly having a blast. which ending did you get?

The Last Guardian [PS5] - A game that I both loved and hated. The story and the world that it plays out in are amazing with the sense of scale when outside and traversing upwards providing some exhilarating moments. The bond between the two main characters is a joy to experience and grows throughout the game. Now for the bad. The controls and camera are beyond frustrating at times and can lead to some truly rage inducing moments. In addition some of the puzzles have little logic to them and can be difficult to figure out. This aside the game was a beautiful experience and well worth playing.

It runs at 60 FPS on PS5 so long as install the original released version, i.e. from disk and do not let it update. There are some parts where you need to update to get past game blocking bugs, then reinstall again ... It's a bit daft they don't release an upgrade for free.

Was convinced the next round of Yakuzas were going to be that for me, but just learned they're all coming to PS4 anyways. It doesn't take this long for generations to get going, right? That's not a thing I'm imagining?