Topic: Games you've recently beat

@HallowMoonshadow It all has that same 'generic American CG cartoon movie' look Skylanders had (minus the really stupid Spyro re-design), for sure, but the actual in-game environments can look quite nice. Cutscenes make me feel like I'm watching clips from a Dreamworks movie, though.

The third game was shopped out to a separate developer? That's unfortunate. Curious to see how different it feels now compared to the remakes of the first two.

There really is just nothing in the platformer world that compares to the vibe of the Spyro trilogy. Especially the original game. I can get lost in the zen of these games for hours on end.

A new Spyro game more in line with the original trilogy would be cool, but I won't get my hopes up considering who owns the IP now.

@Yousef- It starts out as a prequel and takes place over like 50 years. Let’s just say it catches up with the timeline and leave it at that for spoiler reasons!

Oh yeah the in game environments did look nice, I'll give you that for sure @Ralizah!

Acti being Acti I believe rushed the game to market after Crash N.Sane Trilogy's runaway success.

You'll really be able to tell from how in the first game they gave every Dragon a unique design and personality and yet the dragon babies in 3 are repeated ad nauseum. Not to mention it just doesn't look or animate quite as nice if I recall. 3 was handed to Sanzaru games I believe? The ones who did Sly Cooper 4.

Completed Spyro 2, with the exception of the logbook challenges. Having permanent super flame is cool, I guess, although I never fully understood giving you access to cool powers once there's not much to do with them.

I'd have probably opted to do them, but I know I'll go nuts trying to speedrun those flying challenge levels, ugh.

I'll do them if I need them to unlock cheevos, but otherwise I'm not worried about it.

@HallowMoonshadow That's disappointing to hear.

Thankfully, the games are fun on a sheer mechanical level, so as long as there aren't too many bugs or performance issues, it hopefully won't affect my enjoyment of the trilogy too much.

Prince of Persia (2008) done and it just kept growing on me for some reason… that is difficult to quantify if I’m honest. Doesn’t particularly play all that well if you get down to the brass tacks but there was something about it that entertained.

A slightly tricky plat due to some inherent glitches which can prevent two of the more grindy and finicky of trophies from popping Light Seed Master (for collecting 1001 light seeds) and Combo Master (for completing all 63 combos) but seemed to pop okay for me.

Conversely, there is a positive glitch that helps players pop two other trophies that can be a pain Be Gentle With Her (for not dying more than 100x) and Speed Demon (for completing the game in under 12 hours). If you refuse to install the latest patch until right before the final boss, then install it… it resets your death and time counters 😉.

At the end of the day that’s what matters.

A slightly tricky plat due to some inherent glitches which can prevent two of the more grindy and finicky of trophies from popping Light Seed Master (for collecting 1001 light seeds) and Combo Master (for completing all 63 combos) but seemed to pop okay for me.

Conversely, there is a positive glitch that helps players pop two other trophies that can be a pain Be Gentle With Her (for not dying more than 100x) and Speed Demon (for completing the game in under 12 hours). If you refuse to install the latest patch until right before the final boss, then install it… it resets your death and time counters 😉.

I know that pain. Can be really demoralizing, so it’s nice that didn’t happen.

Completed Shadow of the Erdtree! For me, it is almost the perfect piece of dlc to accompany the main game. And to call it dlc is a bit of a misdemeanor, as it is flippin huge with so much content.
I probably preferred the layout of this compared to the main as it felt more natural how everything is laid out.
I didn't find it difficult as some people either. I only used npc summons and spirit Ashes when I was really struggling, or for story reasons.
I found myself experimenting a bit more than i did in the main game too, and tried a lot more weapons and Ashes of war then I have previously.
Feels bittersweet at the moment as I'm glad I've managed to finish it but feel gutted that there will no more Elden Ring.

I completed Daxter the PSP midquel to Jak (& Daxter) II.

Enjoyed this more then Ratchet & Clank: Size matters. Rather good looking, played really well. The story was a bit pants though and kinda nothing to be honest.

... Was better then Jak 3 though

Still Wakes the Deep

A linear walking simulator, so if you have no tolerance for them, this won't change your mind. Doesn't outstay its welcome, and it's quite a depressing tale, but I thought it was great. The setting was brilliant, the character interactions and the monster design, too.

Just finished Red Dead Redemption II on PS5 after about 50 hours of playtime. What a phenomenal game! In terms of the story, I enjoyed this one much more than the first game's. I feel like the first game didn't have much of a serious tone considering Rockstar titles tended to be more tongue-in-cheek back then. But this game is the complete opposite, which made for a more memorable experience.

I really liked the gang aspect, which was missing in the first game. You can't have a wild west experience without being part of a gang, so the second game basically complemented the first one in that regard. Not to mention getting to know the characters you encountered in the first game a lot more and seeing how different they were when they were younger. It was seriously so cool seeing how everything connected to the first game and it makes me wish for Rockstar to make more games that are connected like this.

I can't stress enough how much I liked the characters. Arthur Morgan is probably one of the coolest protagonists I've seen. All the other guys, like Javier, Charles, Dutch, Sadie and so on were also really cool. I just loved how much time you spent with them, doing basic stuff like playing dominoes or more serious stuff like robbing banks. Even the moments when you sat around a campfire and sang were just so wholesome. Rockstar absolutely nailed the social interactions with your friends.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the lengthy epilogue. It was awesome to play as John Marston and experience the events that lead up to the first game.

All in all, absolutely phenomenal game and I'm glad to have finally played through it.