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The 52 Games of 2020 Challenge Thread

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    #46
    So far this week I've played (and finished) Uncharted Lost Legacy.

    Also started Untitled Goose Game.

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      #47
      Played Totally Reliable Delivery Service on Game Pass ... I think I've been trolled.

      What a load of utter garbage, clearly the developers have a beef with Yodel. Don't waste the bandwidth, I give this one 2 Royal Mails out of 10.

      -----------

      The earlier poor judgement has been massively made up by my next choice.

      NieR: Automata

      I don't know why I didn't try this game ealier, but the mash-up of twitch shooter and action-role playing is very well done. At first I thought the moving camera switching from 2D to 3D perspectives would be annoying but it works great. They only thing I'm not massively keen on is that it doesn't always feel like you're completely in control and there's not a lot of variety with the environments - but that's just look & feel.

      Overall this has been one of the best games I've played on the 52 week challenge yet. I give it 9 nuts and bolts out of 10.
      Last edited by MartyG; 05-04-2020, 11:35.

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        #48
        Week 15: 8th-14th April - it's another Wednesday and that means another fresh week to dedicate to your pile of shame: Stay at Home. Protect the achievements. Save the gaming industry.
        -------------------------------------------------------

        Reigns: Game of Thrones

        The previous Reigns games are quite fun, but adding Game of Thrones as the theme somehow improves this series more. The concept is pretty simple; there are four pillars that you must prevent from zeroing out (money, millitary, public and church) with a series of choices to a set of senarios. You have two to pick from and these will impact on one or more of the pillars either positively or negatively. However, although you know which pillars the choices will affect, you don't know if this will be positive or negative, you must work this out from the possible response to the scenario.

        The nice thing is you get to play as different rulers of the Iron thrown, adopting how they might respond to the different people in the seven kingdoms - it really is one of the better Game of Thrones titles and it's so cheap that it's a no brainer.

        I give it 9 unhatched dragon eggs out of 10. Defo recommend a purchase of this one.
        ----------------------------------------------------

        Also tried Mistover (PC) which was a pleasant surprise.

        It's part dungeon crawler,, part rogue like, part RPG and with a feel of Darkest Dungeon to it. You control a band of chatacters around dungeon, explored in a Rogue Like fasion into battles that are turned based from which you gain loot and experience to progress your characters.

        I'm not totally sure exactly what the story is evolving into at the moment, it seemed fairly generic tbh, a;though I have been enjoying the slightly tactical turn based combat, which has a positioning element to it, along with buffs, magic and tanking, but I'm kind of thinking it might start getting repetitive with longer playtime.

        Overall I think it's worth a look as it's on Game Pass currently (not sure I'd want to pay the £25 it's currently priced at on Steam) and I give it 7 dubious health potions out of 10.
        Last edited by MartyG; 14-04-2020, 18:13.

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          #49
          What does 4 x 4 = ? Yes, you guessed it, it's Week 16 running 15th-21st April - and you thought I'd forgotten. Your pile of shame doesn't get away that easily, oh no. Get at those unplayed games.
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          Picked one of the older games in my pile of shame this week - Waves (Steam)

          It's basically a bit of a rip off of Geometry Wars having the same colour vector look and being a twin stick shooter, even some of the enemy patterns are quite similar with chargers and repellers etc. It does have a couple of its own ideas like being able to slow the time to allow you to dodge, that ability charging up as you rack up kills. There are also a few different game modes, one which I quite liked called bomb mode, where you don't have guns available, instead you arm and explode a bomb by moving over the red arm hexagon and green detonator hexagon, thus blowing it up and destroying enemies, increasing your game time to score points.

          It's pretty decent and can be had for £4 (often a £1 in the sales) and it's worth picking up for that. I give it 8 copycats out of 10.
          Last edited by MartyG; 21-04-2020, 19:01.

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            #50
            Chalk up another couple.

            Gears 5 - start to finish. Impressive stuff.
            Crackdown 3 - s'alright. Good to dip in and out of for half an hour.
            Resi 3 Remake - Should finish tonight - it's short.

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              #51
              It's time for Week 17, running 22nd-28th April - do you know where your unplayed games are hiding?
              -------------------------------
              I ended up getting XCOM: Chimera Squad to add to my pile of shame, but played it pretty much straight away.

              The reviews for this one are a bit mixed, but if you're familiar with the XCOM games then you'll already know what to expect. It's the same tactical battle system as with previous XCOM games, but with a couple of extra twists. There is now an active breach phase where your team crash through doors and walls to surprise the enemies inside and you also get to play the alien / hybrids so have access to their abilities which you suffered against before (like the mind control).

              You're also playing against an ever increasing threat as time goes by (another XCOM staple), this time it's city unrest rather than some alien superweapon development - let the unrest get to high and it's game over.

              This is a parred down version of XCOM, so there are some corners cut a bit and the major one of these is story and cinematics - cut scenes are comic strip like with terrible dialogue which you will keep skipping. It's superflous and generic and really not worth bothering with. Fortunately the battles, which have always been the mainstay of the series play out as with previous games, so if that 90% change standing point blank and missing RND annoyed you before it will still be annoying you here too.

              Overall though, for £8 (currently 50% off until 2nd May) it's definitely worth a look if you like the recent XCOM style gameplay, so I give it 8 alien abilities out of 10. It won't convince the doubters, but the fans will enjoy it.
              Last edited by MartyG; 27-04-2020, 15:06.

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                #52
                Well into spring now, it's time to clean up those game libraries and remove the dusty unplayed titles; it's Week 18 running 29th April-5th May
                -----------------------------------------------------

                First up, Journey to the Savage Planet - this is kind of similar to Subnautica mixed with some No Man's Sky, but a little more structured and a little more interesting. Because this isn't randomly generated, things make a bit more sense and join together as if they've been designed to fit, mostly because they have. There's a bit of humour to the 80s look and feel and overall it's one of the better survival type games out there.

                It's the typical gather resources and improve your equipment to gather better resources to get better equipment to get better resources etc, but the world in which you do this is fun.

                I give this 8 strange space species out of 10.

                ----------------------------------------------

                Metal Gear Survive

                Well that was garbo - I give it 2 pointless crystal thinies out of 10

                -------------------------------

                Streets of Rage 4

                Nice to see a game like this turn up - classic side scrolling beat-em-up that seems to play close to the original. I quite like the new animations and graphic feel and lack of a need to have RPG elements and microtransaction store. I give it 8 enemies on screen out of 10.
                Last edited by MartyG; 04-05-2020, 08:16.

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                  #53
                  The days are flying by and we come screaching to Week 19 which runs 6th-12th May. I know you have unplayed games - play them and report back here.
                  ------------------------------------------------
                  Last edited by MartyG; 06-05-2020, 09:30.

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                    #54
                    Originally posted by teddymeow
                    Judgment (PS4)
                    Captain Toad (Switch)
                    Candy Crush Saga (Android)
                    Batman Arkham Knight (PS4)
                    Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
                    Mini Metro (Android)
                    Doom 2016 (PS4)
                    Gears of War 2 (Xbone)
                    Gears of War 3 (Xbone)
                    Uncharted 4 (to completion) (PS4)
                    Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters (Xbone)
                    Wonderful 101 (WiiU)
                    Uncharted Lost Legacy (PS4)
                    Untitled Goose Game (Xbone)
                    Gears 5 (Xbone)
                    Crackdown 3 (Xbone)
                    Resi 3 Remake (PS4)
                    That's everything I've played so far this year. Currently mainlining Days Gone on PS4 and that is the only thing I am playing. Nothing else is getting a look in at the moment.

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                      #55
                      Deathtrap Dungeon - The Interactive Video Game

                      Based on the Ian Livingstone book, this is a narrated version of this adventure. Not sure if it was this or Forrest of Doom that was the first fighting fantasy book I ever bought, but Deathtrap Dungeon is one of the classics. This is a bit like having a dungeon master (Eddie Marsan) narate a single player game, but the same flaws with the video game version as have always existed with these books; their trees are limited and their internal logic sometimes a bit obscure or daft.

                      The biggest flaw being it's entire RND as to whether you'll succeed and it's quite possible to miss vital items early on that mean no matter how far you get, a win will be impossible. Also, if you know the story, then there's not really anything here you've not seen before. There is an updated fighting system which means battles only ever last three rounds, but it's still RND based, it just means they don't drag on quite as long.

                      Overall the experience is as good as the books and it's very well produced. I give it 6 random rolls out of 10. If you can pick this up for 50% off, it's worth a look, but only if you like the books.
                      Last edited by MartyG; 10-05-2020, 15:32.

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                        #56
                        As the last seven days melt into the past, there's no time to lose; take your pile of shame to the next gen level and get those yet unplayed games played.

                        Yes folks, it's Week 20 running 13th-19th May
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                        Last edited by MartyG; 13-05-2020, 21:13.

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                          #57
                          Originally posted by teddymeow View Post
                          That's everything I've played so far this year. Currently mainlining Days Gone on PS4 and that is the only thing I am playing. Nothing else is getting a look in at the moment.
                          Days Gone continues to be the only thing I'm playing.

                          At least 3 hours a night, every night for the past fortnight. I can't get enough. It came out the day before my birthday last year and I played a couple of hours but it was pretty buggy in places and I let it slip away from me.

                          Now that Bend have finished patching it the game is fantastic!! It's so addictive, the story (though clichéd) is engaging and the lead character is actually a likeable one.

                          I just wish it had a statistics page so I could see playtime, enemies killed, items crafted etc.

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                            #58
                            First up for week 20: Chaos Code New Sign of Catastrope

                            I seem to have collected a lot of these Arc System Works 2D fighters over the years many of which go unplayed. Typically picking them up in the sales under the pretence I quite like 2D fighters.

                            This one plays reasonably enough, typical of the Arc System published games, they er more towards KoF than SF and are typically anime like. The systems in this one don't seem particularly sophisticated, with fairly simple combos and there didn't seem to be much of a counter system in the game. The characters are nicely animated (if low res) and the backgrounds pleasant enough if a little sparse.

                            There are plenty of different game modes, but I didn't try the net code - it's nice enough, so I give it 7 fisticuffs out of 10.

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                              #59
                              And as if by forgetting to update the thread yesterday, it's Week 21 running 20th May to the 26th.
                              ------------------------------------

                              Old Man's Journey - Xbox One

                              No, not a story about my life, but a point and click puzzle game. Nice art style and at first I was quite enjoying it. It consists of moving the horizon of the land so you can continue to move across the screen. Then it started to get a bit tedious and I stopped playing. I did manage to put in about 30 minutes though and remove the game from my file of shame.

                              I give it 6 bulldozers out of 10.
                              Last edited by MartyG; 23-05-2020, 12:02.

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                                #60
                                We are at Week 22 already. This one runs from May 27th through to June 2nd. June, can you believe it?

                                Stay alert, stay Inside and test your eyesight by playing your unplayed driving games
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                                Munchkin Quacked Quest

                                What a dreadful game. Wooly controls, wooly objectives, wooly concept. Almost trying to be castle crashers but with some nonsense with ducks. Wooly combat, wooly everything. Definitely not worth wasting your time on.

                                I give it 2 quacks out of 10.

                                ------------------

                                Ride 3 - PS4 (via PlayStation Now, yes I bought into that and suddenly increased my pile of shame significantly)

                                I've played Ride 1 & 2 and they were both pretty awful, so I didn't expect this to be any better. It didn't break my expectations.

                                The only people who would think this game is representative of riding a motorcycle are people who've never ridden a motorcycle. I'm not really talking about the physics of it (though I think they are seriously questionable), or even the realism of the thing (it's not realistic either) it's just the way the game feels. The experience simply doesn't capture the excitement or the feel of riding a bike fast, the important bit.

                                Few games have ever captured this properly which is quite amazing really when you consider how well driving games have captured the feel of driving cars fast, those that have done this well are very early MotoGP games on the Xbox original, Burnout Paradise and surprisingly, The Crew 2.

                                There is also a distinct lack of motorcycles available in the game which is odd given that is its raison d'être, well unless you want to shell out for a load of DLC.

                                Nope, I give this one 3 squared off tyres of 10. It only gets that because it's got a KTM 1190 RC8 in the bike list.

                                -------------------------

                                Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star - PS3

                                An RPG I wasn't familiar with at all, but turned out to be quite interesting, lots of different and unique systems to other RPGs I've played using a symbiosis of characters and music powers. There are typical JRPG tropes such as the obsessions with restaurants and food, along with endless exposition in cutscenes, but the battle system is a nice combo of largely turn based combat but with a flicker of action via user input combos.

                                Overall it is a game I'd like to explore more if there were time, but first impressions are good and I give this one 8 noodles out of 10.

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                                Last edited by MartyG; 30-05-2020, 10:41.

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