Which was the last game you finished?

[ExpertGamer]

star warz the old republic

[PixieGirl]

Dear Esther (PC)

Well it's not really a "game" as such, its a short narrative in which you just kind of... walk. Take in the scenery and explore and figure out whats going on. It was very interesting and unique, it has really great writing and narration, also for a source engine game the attention to detail is amazing. It only takes about one hour to finish though (and I was trying to take my time). Still it was a very beautiful experience in every way and its something that will stick in my mind for a while.
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[Shadow Wave]

^ lol was I just looking at the Dear Esther page on steam.. got me very interested but $10 for one hour? I dunno
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[PixieGirl]

Yeah I don't know if I could say its worth it either, the original mod for Half-Life 2 is free though so you can try that out first maybe. Or wait for a steam sale
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[Shadow Wave]

yeh steam sale methinks thanks
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[PixieGirl]

[Nietzsche]

Ah Alan Wake. Has a great first impression that kinda just goes on too long. I actually liked Barry. That's a pretty good interpretation of the ending, I didn't think that deep on it, just took it literally. I wonder how much better if the game was how it was originally conceived with it being open world. They would have had to fix the major problem with combat though which is lack of variety. Favourite part of the game was the TV segments.

[Nietzsche]

I know it's a double post but new game and all that. Tonight I finished the Darkness 2. What an awesome finish. Without spoiling it everything after the Darkling steals a truck is great. The game's combat is what I would call broken but awesome. It's at it's best when you just rain down the triggers and just kill everything in front of you. Halfway through the game I switched to the mouse and I enjoyed it more. While it's not a game that requires precise aim, I just felt more confident with the mouse and keyboard. I don't care much about the very ending but it fits with the tone even if it's a bit comic book'y.

[ManeKast]

Skyward Sword, all hearts, Hyrulian Shield. 68 HOURS!

Great game. Still hate motion controls but they work here, for the most part.
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PSN/XBL/Steam: ManeKast
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[Coltaine]

Final Fantasy XIII-2
6/10

I've never really been much of a Final Fantasy fanboy but XIII was extremely enjoyable. It was really disappointing then to play XIII-2.

In an attempt to address complaints of linearity in its predecessor, XIII-2 has not a single straight corridor that I can think of, and instead, the various areas of the game feel like large circular bits of boring. There were very few times that I actually felt driven or motivated to explore a particular area.

To address the same complaints, you are also given the option to travel to which time zone or area you want to at almost any given time. This sounds awesome, except that most areas have their own kind of contribution to the main story of the game, but the design is such that it all feels disjointed, and you never feel like the unifying narrative is as compelling as it should be.

No upgrading of weapons. That sucked. I spent hours on XIII farming components to upgrade. Only two playable characters. Neither evoked any emotion through their various struggles. XIII had 6 playable characters, and all of them were likeable, barring one or two. The minor characters were also excellent, yet, in the sequel, even they were disappointing. I only ever liked Zaidelle, and Hope sounded like some terrible infomercial salesman.

The linear corridors of XIII at least felt like they gave meaning to the journey. The layouts, although limited, were fantastic, and enemies often got progressively harder. XIII-2 feels like aimless wandering for the most part, and since enemies now magically pop up out of the ground, you don't see them anymore as you run around, cannot as easily pick your battles. This detracts from the entire visual impact of the game, and provides a boring interaction with the area as enemies respawn perpetually and you will spend ages battling easy, low rewarding enemies because of this system. Players can also interact with a lot of NPCs, some quest-giving, but the dialog is terrible bad and the bobbing heads drove me insane. The stories behind the sidequests are also horrible, for the most part. It got to the point where I just skipped all conversations until I got told what I needed to fetch for them.

I spent 110+ hours on XIII, and I can still pick it up today and have an enjoyable experience. XIII-2, on the other hand, provided fun for about the first 7 hours, after which I stumbled through the game for another 25 hours just to get to an ending so I could justify buying it in the first place.

The only incentive there is for me to pick it up and play it again would be to unlock different endings, and even then I don't feel like there is anything stopping me from just hopping onto youtube to watch them.
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[Cyph]

Nice review Coltaine. I disagree on some of your points i.e. the lack of compelling nature to explore areas, or how the characters were not enjoyable, or how the story was disjointed (obviously this was purposely done). That said I also didn't like how there was very little thought put into weapons or any of the equipment for that matter.

[admeister]

[Furianshi]

Finished the Skyrim main questline. After I had a bit of a break and got over the glitchfest that was the retail release, I went back to it about a week ago and it's been heaps better.

So I nailed the main questline, got my 20 shouts and 50 locations discovered, my house in Whiterun is packed with smithed weapons and armour, all ready to sell when the shops have the gold. My character is running around in enchanted Dragonscale Armour that improves archery, sneaking, carry weight, single and double-handed weapons, stamina and magic regen... Maxed enchanting, speech, smithing and light armour skills, level 62, something like 200hrs clocked up...

And there's still heaps left to discover and do. I almost feel like I should be putting this in the 'currently playing' thread.

[Coltaine]

@Cyph: I get the concept and idea behind having something not flowing completely naturally, I mean, the game toys with warped timelines and the like. I just didn't get that from the game. It just felt like a clumsy narrative for the most part. I liked Serah in XIII for the weak, young woman caught up in some bad circumstance, which is why I didn't really get her transformation into a character as powerful as L'Cie Lightning, if not more so given the tasks she and Noel set out to complete. And Noel was just annoying. I understand the internal conflict he must have been experiencing at points, and the difficulty of his decisions, but the character just seemed shallow.

@Admeister: Yeah you can run away from them. That doesn't spare you the annoyance of having to change your direction every now and then because random mobs pop up out of nowhere, and I liked seeing enemy mobs in XIII instead of just bumping into them. It made everything more purpose driven than just random encounters.

One thing I forgot to mention was the soundtrack, which is absolutely amazing. One or two odd choices, such as the heavy rock track when battling the Gogmagog (IIRC). But it's the one thing that stood out. I mean, the Dying World sequence was incredible. That area was beautifully designed, and Noel's Theme gave me chills.
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[byrnezy]

Just finished Portal 2, something different and quite challenging at times. I would give it 7.5/10 personally don't see what all the fuss is about.
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Solid Snake is the shit

[Furianshi]

Think I'm mostly done with Forza 4

While I didn't end up racing every event in 4, I got the car collection achievements and the level 50 Ferrari one, so pretty happy with that. Besides a couple of them, the rest of the achievements are either to get you to buy kinect or Forza DLC.

[harhis23]

I finished Angry Birds Space on my Android yesterday. lol
I'm waiting for more updates. I never finished the first Angry Birds, though. Perhaps, that's the one I'm gonna get myself busy with. I gave up playing FPS games as they are so time-consuming.

[brianwhite159]

Contra is the name of game that i have just finished at my home. This is my favorite game of all played so far.

I am playing this game from my childhood