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[NerfedFalcon]

That's a wrap on Sonic 06.

This game was an experience I'm not sure I'll ever forget. It's bad to such extremes in so many ways that it's impossible to fully describe in words, but occasionally there's moments that feel like they could have been good if they weren't in this game. The final boss, Solaris, is a particular standout in this; the guidance is bad and the controls are a bit weird, but the fight itself is epic and fairly well-designed, if a little easy to cheese. But then the game pulls the final plot twist out and it's back to the depths of hell. It's an emotional rollercoaster with a whole lot of down and just enough up to keep you thinking that it might be redeemed, but at the last moment it fails yet again.

In comparison to other bad games in the series like Heroes and Forces, those games are bad in pretty much the same way and to the same level throughout. The consistency of it makes you numb to it after a while, but 06 is always changing and finding new ways to fail, and that makes it more engaging than those games despite being worse on a technical level. That's the problem of comparing games, consistency vs peaks and valleys, and whether a game that's bad the normal way is "better" than a game that's beyond terrible. I suppose it comes down to individual taste more than anything, but in my case, I think I'm more likely to replay 06 than either of those two.

You can't buy it anymore that I know of, but if you happen to have a copy and any interest at all, I would suggest playing as much of it as you can handle, because as I said multiple times, that's the only way to truly understand it. For everyone else, it probably isn't worth seeking out unless you're specifically a connoisseur of kusoge, but if you are one, you will not be disappointed by how disappointed this game will make you.

And if you think that's a paradox, that's nothing compared to the paradoxes of the game itself.

 

[BrawlMan]

Heroes and Forces

Heroes I always found average, and Forces isn't a disaster certain people online made it out to be. I can still enjoy Forces and there's at least fun in that game. It may not have as much variety as 06, but at least it's technically consistent. I rather it be more consistent than bonkers and broken at the same time. I don't have the patience for that. I never did.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Just like with Tsushima I had accepted that I wasn't going to get engaged in the story of Yotei, till suddenly there's a reveal that actually pulls me in quite hard. In Tsushima it was Ryuzo's betrayal, and in Yotei it was... Jubei still being alive and doing fine. And actually having had a far better life than Atsu. She was orphaned, forced to survive on her own, and caught fighting in a losing war, while Jubei was taken in and nursed back to health by a samurai clan, who raised him and trained him to be a top ranking individual within the clan. And right after finally uniting again with her twin Jubei has to distance himself from Atsu, because she being a woman can't join this samurai clan, plus the clan considers her an outlaw. So eventhough one of her family members she's getting revenge for is still alive, she can't even be with him or even reveal herself to be his sister, and is still alone.

This whole moment was a nice little surprise in a game in which the story up to that point wasn't doing too much for me.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Heroes I always found average, and Forces isn't a disaster certain people online made it out to be. I can still enjoy Forces and there's at least fun in that game. It may not have as much variety as 06, but at least it's technically consistent. I rather it be more consistent than bonkers and broken at the same time. I don't have the patience for that. I never did.

The problem I have with Heroes is that it peaks at average, and a lot of it is less than that. Between the awkward controls, the occasionally unfair level design and the padding, it can get to be a slog to play through. I never finished it myself because the mandatory Special Stages combine all three of those things and make all of them even worse than they are in the regular levels. I did not have the patience to play through two stages, the second without getting hit (practically) at all, just to get one attempt at running at uncontrollable speeds through the mine-filled tube, seven times, after already beating the game end-to-end four times to get to that point.

As for Forces, I dunno. It just felt to me like nothing was going on at all, but as I said that's the playable-bad vs unhinged-bad balance again.

 

[BrawlMan]

The problem I have with Heroes is that it peaks at average, and a lot of it is less than that. Between the awkward controls, the occasionally unfair level design and the padding, it can get to be a slog to play through. I never finished it myself because the mandatory Special Stages combine all three of those things and make all of them even worse than they are in the regular levels. I did not have the patience to play through two stages, the second without getting hit (practically) at all, just to get one attempt at running at uncontrollable speeds through the mine-filled tube, seven times, after already beating the game end-to-end four times to get to that point.

Don't worry, I one hundred percent agree with you on all that. Once I got the true ending for the game, I never played it again, and traded it in a few years later, down the line.

for Forces, I dunno. It just felt to me like nothing was going on at all, but as I said that's the playable-bad vs unhinged-bad balance again

Forces at least has an entertaining villain, even though he's not that much of a threat. Infinite is just hilarious though. I do love to create a character.Aspect, and this game is the closest we are ever going to get to a Sonic SatAM. Forces did have wasted potential, but what came out is a good and fun enough game. That soundtrack is awesome too. Still, one of my top favorite Sonic soundtracks. It probably goes somewhere in the middle of my top ten.

 

[Bedinsis]

Playing Alwa's Awakening. A metroidvania with sluggish controls, but it was free.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Hotline Miami

Played the first five chapters so far, but it only took one to be hooked. Gameplay loop, pacing, design, soundtrack, aesthetics, etc. all make for a no-nonsense kinda fun time. I can see how replay value comes from becoming increasingly efficient and dare I say stylish.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I finished Silksong 100% precisely one month after it released and at precisely the time it was beginning to become a pain. The final final final boss is a pain and I don't care for the teleporting into my personal space or generally just how cluttered the last phase is. Actually beat it twice, but the first time I somehow died during their death animation. Isn't that fun when it happens.

Playing Alwa's Awakening. A metroidvania with sluggish controls, but it was free.

If you like it but could do with better controls check out Alwa's Legacy. It's basically the same game but significantly optimized.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Found out that an old shmup from my childhood (RealArcade was a real one) got a remaster less than a month ago. I'll probably take a few runs at this in between some other stuff. It's fairly simple (doesn't even have smart bombs), but the huge variety of weapon powerups, trying to grab fruit and enemy elimination bonuses, and the enemy patterns being pretty complex gives it a fair bit of depth. The claymation look holds up really well too.

 

[Worgen]

Found out that an old shmup from my childhood (RealArcade was a real one) got a remaster less than a month ago. I'll probably take a few runs at this in between some other stuff. It's fairly simple (doesn't even have smart bombs), but the huge variety of weapon powerups, trying to grab fruit and enemy elimination bonuses, and the enemy patterns being pretty complex gives it a fair bit of depth. The claymation look holds up really well too.

Oh that does look pretty cool. I do love a good shmup and while it doesn't look as good as something like Devils Blade or Drainus it does look pretty cool.

 

[BrawlMan]

I am loving the shit out of this game! Yotei is off to a much faster start, and does not wastes the player's time at all. I am using the shit out of Wantanabe/Nujabes/Shin02/Samurai Champloo Mode. I did my first bounty mission, and got smoke bombs for it. I needed the money so I can get the bow and arrow. SP has done it again! I love my samurai-ninja games! They did it for the good of humanity....

 

[BrawlMan]

I got the Dual Katanas. I am going to stop for tonight, and get do a bunch of side quests before the next main mission. I want to really get Atsu powered up. Though she is already powerful from the start.

 

[Bedinsis]

I picked up Storyteller in the Steam sale. Premise: you are going to set up a bunch of characters in a bunch of scenes as a comic strip in order to create the story that fits the headline of the puzzle in question. Reviewers claim it is overpriced for what you get and I agree, but I had fun. 2-3 hours of gameplay. I have finished the main puzzles, only cheating at one. This unlocked a new mode where some earlier puzzles are replayable only you now have a new character present and a new headline.

I wish there was some sort of freeform mode where you can explore all the interactions without having to bother with the headline. The game I'd compare it to is FRAMED collection, which it was quite some time since I last played, but I definitely consider Storyteller better. I think in FRAMED too many of the puzzles involved rearranging panels to get the character to run into the right alleyway whereas Storyteller was much more creative.

 

[Ezekiel]

What the fuck?

Rocksteady's Batman is just an asshole.

Hoped to find the negative pregnancy tests in this old Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC playthrough, for something I wanted to say, but the game didn't let me freely explore the place so late in the story. I remember taking a screenshot of the pregnancy tests, but must have deleted it.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Started Sonic Frontiers, played about an hour so far - enough to do a Shadow of the Colossus bit on one miniboss and then get punched out by an even bigger Colossus. I've found my initial impressions of Sonic games are rarely accurate in the long run, so I don't want to say anything too early, but it definitely feels like something is cooking here. I don't know what for sure yet, but considering I saw effectively no 'average' reviews of the game when it came out, only extreme positive or extreme negative, I doubt it'll fail to leave an impression at least.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Oh my god Persona 5 is so long lol...
I mean sure I have myself to blame for playing two Personas back to back with only a short break in between but there are so many relationships to balance that it's nuts, it feels more than P4 but I didn't do the math. I mean in addition to my fellow high school warriors, there's also a politician, a fortune teller, a doctor, two teachers, four other high schoolers, a journalist, and an arms dealer.
The silliest one is just some random girl that has nothing to do with the plot that is a gymnast, and you just... encourage her gymnastics? Turns out this one was added as part of the "Royal" update and I'm like... what the f*** is the point of her?! I mean other than the combat perks which are cool but I mean for story. So silly.

The last dungeon I did was hella cool though- it was Egyptian pyramid themed with some neat level progression, highlighting my favorite thing this game does over P4 which is way more interesting dungeons.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I was going to do spooky games on spooky month but ended up playing Viewfinder because I'm mentally exhausted from fighting Lost Lace in Silksong and want something nice and chill and unpunishing for a change of pace.

It's a first person game where you hold up photographs to your face in order to bend reality around you. It's a neat concept with a neat execution. Don't know how hard it's going to get. So far it mostly boils down to creating bridges or erasing blockades.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Oh my god Persona 5 is so long lol...
I mean sure I have myself to blame for playing two Personas back to back with only a short break in between but there are so many relationships to balance that it's nuts, it feels more than P4 but I didn't do the math. I mean in addition to my fellow high school warriors, there's also a politician, a fortune teller, a doctor, two teachers, four other high schoolers, a journalist, and an arms dealer.
The silliest one is just some random girl that has nothing to do with the plot that is a gymnast, and you just... encourage her gymnastics? Turns out this one was added as part of the "Royal" update and I'm like... what the f*** is the point of her?! I mean other than the combat perks which are cool but I mean for story. So silly.

The last dungeon I did was hella cool though- it was Egyptian pyramid themed with some neat level progression, highlighting my favorite thing this game does over P4 which is way more interesting dungeons.

P5 is significantly longer than earlier entries. I think P3 and P4 were both 100 hours for me but looking at the playtime listed on PS5 P5 was over 170 hours. I was pretty thorough and got the platinum, though.

 

[Worgen]

Oh my god Persona 5 is so long lol...
I mean sure I have myself to blame for playing two Personas back to back with only a short break in between but there are so many relationships to balance that it's nuts, it feels more than P4 but I didn't do the math. I mean in addition to my fellow high school warriors, there's also a politician, a fortune teller, a doctor, two teachers, four other high schoolers, a journalist, and an arms dealer.
The silliest one is just some random girl that has nothing to do with the plot that is a gymnast, and you just... encourage her gymnastics? Turns out this one was added as part of the "Royal" update and I'm like... what the f*** is the point of her?! I mean other than the combat perks which are cool but I mean for story. So silly.

The last dungeon I did was hella cool though- it was Egyptian pyramid themed with some neat level progression, highlighting my favorite thing this game does over P4 which is way more interesting dungeons.

Yeah its a big slice of game. The Egypt palace is one of my favs, such a good story and great music, plus you can get anubis who is really powerful for pretty much every other palace.

Do you want very mild spoilers?

 

[Ezekiel]

After what I said about video game dreams and hallucinations always being too obvious, this one in Arkham Knight was actually good.

Spoiler

I previously played through the story ten years ago and forgot what exactly transpires. Barbara's death, or the manner of it, bothered me. I thought, this is too grim for superhero silliness and you can't just snuff out a beloved character like that. At worst, it's prideful. But then I got to the part where they wheel her out, hours later in the game, and remembered that her drug-induced suicide was only a hallucination. Scarecrow pushes her from the tower, in front of her father. Although I knew that of course Batman would swoop down and catch her, that moment was the highlight of the series for me. I was successfully tricked, for once.

Is the story good? No.