The base game felt fine, it’s got a fairly brisk pace and it’s not too long. I think as long as you don’t try going for 100%-ing the game you should be finishing the main story just about when you’re starting to get tired of the game.
I will also say, for a 13-year-old game it looks really great. Granted I played it with DLDSR 1.78x and RTX HDR, but it’s hard to believe this was made for the PS3.
I decided to push through and finish the Sleeping Dogs DLCs - not really out of a desire for more but rather so I could feel I’ve truly completed it and could uninstall it and move on in peace. This probably coloured my opinion on them a bit as the main story had already almost outstayed its welcome at around 35h.
Nightmare in North Point is an obviously Halloween themed DLC, so maybe I’d have liked it better if I played it in season. There are one or two funny moments, but overall the new mechanics get old quickly and the gameplay is too repetitive to be interesting. It’s also an obviously non-canon experience with all the supernatural events, which makes it even harder to get invested in. Highly mediocre, honestly don’t waste your time on this.
Year of the Snake is also holiday-themed, this time around the Chinese New Year. Taking place after the main story, Wei Shen has been temporarily demoted to a beat cop as punishment for the carnage he caused during the events of the main story. I do like this acknowledgement, though seeing him tried for domestic terrorism would probably have been more appropriate. The first half of the DLC is alright, but unfortunately the latter part focuses on the biggest weakness of the game: gunfights. In particular, there is an absurdly long boat chase where you have to shoot down probably 50 pursuing boats, most of which spawn in plain sight. Maybe it would feel better on mouse and keyboard, but on controller the gunplay was painfully atrocious. The plot wasn’t satisfying either, so I would recommend just starting it to see the cutscene of Wei as a beat cop and leaving it there.
The Zodiac Tournament is actually integrated into the main story, but I didn’t play it until now. I’m glad I saved it for last, because this was finally a good DLC. Clearly inspired by Bruce Lee type movies, it’s a very simple plot about martial arts tournament on an island. Even with its very predictable twists this was an enjoyable (but short) ride, no doubt partially because it focuses on the good part of Sleeping Dogs combat: melee. Since it is integrated into the main story you also have access to all your character upgrades - unlike the other DLCs - which also made it more enjoyable. This one gets a thumbs up.
Up next, for a change of pace, will probably be Skald: Against the Black Priory. Picked it up on sale recently and looks really neat.
Great writeup. In retrospect it’s absolutely insane how many series-defining features were introduced in Gen 2. That kind of generational leap is mindboggling.
I love your username btw, brings me back to the schoolyard, to Kangaskhans with Fly and rumours of finding Mew under the truck in Vermilion.
I will back up HeartGold/SoulSilver as well. Just a perfect modernized adaption of a classic generation, lots (and I mean lots) of content, lots of catchable Pokémon, lots of legendaries, two regions… I think they really hit it out of the park with it. I also personally enjoyed using the Pokewalker to get access to exotic Pokémon.
It’s not completely free of issues (the level curve isn’t the best and - being based on an older game - it’s much less story oriented than later titles). However, I still hold it as one of the best games they ever put out, and a great entry point.
Since you have a 3DS and love Pokémon I would suggest HeartGold/SoulSilver, I will always hold those games in high regard (even though it’s maybe partly nostalgia as Gen 2 was the peak of the Pokémon craze during my childhood). But I still think Gen 2 was great and still not yet filled with complete trash designs (figuratively and literally).
Though if you plan on procuring it the seafaring fashion you’d miss out on the Pokewalker!
Yeah I’m buying any game I can on GOG these days. Between being DRM-free and being pre-patched (sometimes with community patches) it’s definitely the best platform, particularly if you like to buy older games/retro games occasionally.
Funny, for me it’s the other way around. I probably played a couple hundred hours of Oblivion back in the day: modding, exploring and restarting. Never once finished the main quest. I’m thinking Skyblivion might be my chance to finally do it.
Been playing Sleeping Dogs for the first time after picking it up for cheap on a GOG sale. I never played it back in the day and never heard much about it, but man, even 13 years later this is a good looking game. I guess I’m giving it a leg up by using DLDSR and RTX HDR, but still. It looks very impressive for its age. I can’t believe this was a PS3 game! The streets are crowded and the city looks great. Though I will say, playing something like this hammers home even more what a marvellous piece of architecture and level design Night City is in Cyberpunk 2077. Hong Kong looks nice and all in Sleeping Dogs, but it doesn’t have near the same character, the same variety and the same distinct but different districts as NC does.
The game has been very enjoyable, though. To a certain extent you might call it slop. And yes, it might not be Disco Elysium or Bioshock or Alan Wake 2, but not every game needs to be. You can’t eat salad every day. Sometimes you need a pizza. And this is a pretty fucking good pizza. It’s got all the trappings of a GTA clone you might expect, with a chinese flavour that adds some kung-fu to the mix and a boilerplate undercover cop story to make the tension tick along and let it at least pretend it’s somewhat different. The pacing has been very snappy so far as well. Almost no downtime, as far as I can tell. After playing some lengthy CRPGs lately that really tested my patience it’s been the perfect antidote - ideal brain-off gameplay, whether racing cars or beating up thugs (or singing karaoke).
I’m only about halfway so far, but from what I’ve seen so far I thoroughly recommend it if you like these kinds of games, especially if you can pick it up at a big discount - it was 80% off recently and at that price it’s a no-brainer.
I can’t believe I blanked on them in my own reply, but to piggyback off your Restoration Project nomination: the Talking Heads Addon and Talking Heads Actually Talk Mod for Fallout 2 Restoration Project (updated) are both absolutely insane, and breath some new life into the game while seamlessly slotting in next to the existing art and voice acting.
Splinter Cell was primarily an Xbox franchise, so if you’ve got an Xbox of any kind that’s probably your best bet, assuming they’re still for sale. I believe they were all developed for Xbox and ported to other platforms. For Chaos Theory in specific though the PC port was pretty good, so if you don’t it’s not a big problem. Possibly some controller issues that need a fan fix? Though on the plus side you can find a wide-screen fix mod for modern resolutions. The first two games had worse ports, if I remember right. And the Playstation and GameCube ports were pretty universally bad I think, for all the games.
The one where the console version is really important is Double Agent, but that is a whole other can of complicated worms, because then it wasn’t just the matter of bad ports - they released two completely different games with different mechanics, levels and story executions (albeit the same overall plot).
I want to highlight two mod makers, instead of single mods. lStewieAl and WallSoGB for their efforts unfucking New Vegas. Being forced to pick a single effort, the engine optimizations is probably the most impressive. Honorable mention to all the various script extenders that make so many fantastic mods possible in the first place.
The first couple games are really good stealth games, highly recommended. There is not really an overarching story between games, so if you’re just looking to dip your toes into the series I’d start with Chaos Theory. Honestly, if you’re into stealth games you should really play it like, right now. I consider it an all-time great.
After Double Agent the series started going into a more bland action style as Ubisoft felt stealth games were too niche I guess. Never played Conviction or Blacklist but as I said, I heard good things about the co-op in the latter so it’s on my list to try. I don’t really have a good candidate to play co-op with at the moment though, so it’s on indefinite hold.
Cooperative stealth is an interesting genre, not that well represented either. Did you ever play a Splinter Cell game with your friend? The earlier games had wholesale co-op campaigns, and I’ve heard really good things about the co-op in Blacklist too, though I never played that one myself.
I have no idea how AC2 holds up, honestly. I’ve never replayed it and it was my first game in the series - I didn’t own a Playstation when the first one came out so I only experienced it through being over at a friend’s house and watching him play it, occasionally taking turns for missions. Playing AC2 was an incredible experience back when it released and I’m full of fond memories, but I don’t know how well it’s aged. It’s probably a less impactful experience now than it was 15 years ago.