Game 15: Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Part 2 - 5 hours - Completed 4/27/14

Based on how things shook out at the end of Bioshock and Infinite, I should have seen this coming. Good wrap up to the series and I think we probably won't be seeing any more games in the Bioshock thread as that loop is now closed.

As for the game itself, liked the stealth portions of the game, but it didn't feel as solid as it should have been. The crossbow was OP, as was Peeping Tom, but I guess it was definitely needed to make Infinite a stealth game. Nice change of pace, but I really really craved more of what happened at the beginning of Part 1 and Part 2. Those were done expertly well.

Updated post here

KiDdYoNe said:

#1: Gunpoint - Steam says 3 hours, but i think it's 3,5. 16/01/14
#2: CS:GO - 76 hours... so far.
#3: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - 73:01. 23/02/14
#4: South Park: The Stick of Truth - about 15 hours, 17/03/14
#5: Max Payne 3: - about 8 hours
#6: Dust: An Elysian Tail - about 13 hours, 18/03/14
#7: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - about 3 hours
#8: Gone Home - 2 hours, 27/03/14
#9: Rogue Legacy - 18:40, 28/03/14

Click to expand...

Alright, finally i finished another game. Three times i started it. Took me few tries to realise, how good it is.

#10: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 05:52, 27/04/14

Actually, i am pretty sure that it took me a lot more that 6 hours to beat the game. More like 9-10 with all the failures. Shit. The boss fights in this game are things, you really wanna play it. Stylish and beautiful scenes when you kick ass with SICK music on the background. Plus nice action between stuff, that's how you make a game.

So yeah, it's #10 for me now and if you can't get into MGR, try one more time. Eventually you will love it

Game 27:Machinarium - 5 Hours
(Started 9/17/13 - Finished 4/27/14)
This is one of those point and click games that I can get behind in theory but just don't love playing it. The puzzles were creative sometimes and other times flat out perplexing even when I knew the solution. The look though is wonderful and the way the robot civilians move and how this world feels alive is great.

OP

April has gone by quicker than I expected, but I think I'll manage to squeeze at least one more game in, maybe two, before the end of the month. Pokémon FireRed and other unrelated problems are still destroying my free time...

Game 08: Mario Kart Wii - 8 - more or less 15 hours
Bought this long ago but I recently returned to it, due to Mario Kart 8 hype, to properly complete it: I unlocked all characters and vehicles, won a gold trophy in all the courses (I didn't bother for the 3 star rankings though). All in all it's a good entry in the franchise, it adds bikes, tricks and a bunch of new characters. The retro tracks selection is very good but the new ones somehow don't stand up to the aforementioned old traks, they lack a certain charm and personality, the shortcuts aren't really short in most cases, they're too plain for a Mario Kart game. The same applies to menus and the general presentation, the game lacks the usual polish and attention to details, sometimes it feels like a generic Wii Kart game instead than a proper Mario Kart. All in all though it's a fun entry in the series... but that damn blue shell... so many retried trophies due to being hit by it on the finish line...

Game 09: Super Paper Mario [replay with gf] - 7,5 - 20:51
Finished the game with my girlfriend, we played one stage each, completed the main story without any side mission. The game doesn't really feel like Paper Mario, it's not a bad game, but you start playing expecting something else: the whole plot is far removed from the Mushroom Kingdom and from the usual canon, allies and enemies we love and expect to see; aside from the 4 main characters and a bunch of enemies, the rest is made up of weird stuff like flying farting asses and pseudo-geometric stuff in general. It's not a game that one would say oozes charm at all, though it has a quite distinct style and that's a good thing. The plot isn't that elaborate or complex, even though there are a few twists, you can quite well predict them ahead of time, the game is very linear and offers a mix of elements: platforming, RPG stuff, adventuring; as often happens in these cases, none of those feel very accomplished: the flipping is a nice gimmick, though you can't help but think that it is sometimes underused or misused, the platforming isn't that challenging, the RPG elements are superficials and the game could've really done without them.

Game #14: Dead Space - 10 hours

Got this for free on Origin and I didn't expect to be in for a ride this good. Survival horror done right. It has tank like movement, but feels a bit faster than other survival horror games. There's a good amount of scarceness and the atmosphere is great too. Like Resident Evil 4, there is a shop where you can better equipment. While in Resident Evil you basicly just save up and buy better guns, in Dead Space there's a little strategy to it. See, you can buy nodes to upgrade your gun, and they are really expensive. Sometimes you have to choose between buying ammo and buying nodes(which will save you ammo in the long run, since it will take less bullets to kill enemies). So you even have to think a bit about what you want to buy, I liked the "shoot off the limbs" part a lot, changes things up a little bit from other games. Story was there to advance the plot, not much to say about it really. All in all I really enjoyed my time with Dead Space and will definitely pick it up again this year to play on nightmare difficulty

9/10

Game #15: Silent Hill 2 - 8 hours

Another horror game and another great one too. Compared to Silent Hill 1 I found this game to be a lot more scary. Just something about the locations that was a lot more scary. During one area I felt like a big boss monster could just burst out of no where any second.

Not as much improvements compared to SH1 as I was expecting, camera is still utter shit and the combat is just bad. The melee attacks were even worse than Silent Hill 1, because of weird slash angles or hitting walls(which you could not in SH1). It's a bit of a shame that the bosses in Silent Hill are always so bad. They're either laughably short or way too long. Story and atmosphere are way better than SH1. The cutscenes are lovebly cheesy.

8/10

Previously on Burnburn's backlog

Another one done!

Game #15: God of War III - around 16 hours (Finished)
Beat it on Chaos (Very Hard). You don't actually get anything for doing this, which I didn't know. You know what else I didn't know? There isn't an NG+ in this game. Disappointing. Anyway, Chaos is pretty fun EXCEPT for the giant scorpion, which was already poorly designed without the 1-2 hit deaths. That and Hades were the hardest parts, followed by anything with satyrs.

Game 23: Illusion of Gaia - 16 hours

This was pretty cool. It has some good artwork and an atmospheric soundtrack. Combat is fairly standard, but transforming into Freedan and Shadow was a neat change, and for a SNES character, Will is fairly well characterized.

What I likedmost was just how bizarre the game got, with some seriously dark and twisted scene. Overall, it's a pretty good game. If I had to criticize it, I'd say that the actual gameplay is kind of boring, with enemies that take stupid amounts of damage to kill, while Will doesn't have lots of combat options It's almost like the game is stuck between being a full on action game or a Zelda~esque RPG.

Game 16: Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition - 2 hours - Completed 4/27/14

I have this game on the Gensis but I never got around to beating it. Cool little game with a nice art style and minimal story about a guy transported to another world. A lot of test and redos in this game, which wasn't too bad until the last act. Most of the solutions were pretty easy, but it became a bit more frustrating at the end where there wasn't much room for error.

Well worth playing, especially with the 20th Anniversary Ed. having improved backgrounds over the original, which look fantastic. Kb/m are a must only because it made movement so much easier.

Updated post here

Oh, man. I have to do this in the Summer to go through some of the Steam games I have. I was thinking of playing all 4 Personas though...

animlboogy said:

I guess... I didn't find the words to be as off the wall and funny as the originals. I'll go back to those forever, but this one is a one and done thing for me. I'm really glad they did this project, but the original Wii game is kind of a bought on the series.

I'm trying really hard to not be a no fun clobber about this. I reaaaally wasn't amused by the tone here, which was more ignorant 2005 frat boy than 70's exploitation flick.

Click to expand...

Oh, I agree, the tone is pretty awful. I'm cutting it some slack because it's intentional (and admittedly I liked the ) and because my 70s exploitation flick knowledge is weak. But at the same time making it intentional doesn't automatically make it ironic-good, and this stuff really isn't, even if it did elicit a chuckle or two along the way.

I never played the originals so the words for the typing stuff were still novel to me. I don't feel any need to play them again with, say, the DLC dictionaries though.

Instead of studying for finals... I beat #14 Crash Bandicoot... I need to study...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=95445151&postcount=120

31: BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (PSV) - 6h (04/26/14 - 04/28/14)

Well, the slapstick and self-referential humor was kind of funny, at least. Not particularly enthused about playing the rest of the stories after seeing the true ending, though.

Let's see I've completed:
1. Bravely Default
2. Final Fantasy X
3. Dangan Ronpa

Heh. I'm going to fail this challenge for sure. Oh well.

I'm woking on X-2 at the moment and will hopefully finish off some other games I've started.

So I'm not exactly sure what to do with score based games because they in essence cannot be beaten. I'll probably just put them in a sub category because I found a couple that should get some notice and that I've been really enjoying:

Kilobite

Bullet Waltz

Game 24: Devil May Cry 3 - 15 hours

This was a huge improvement over the first game. I loved how the story attempted to be serious, with characters grimly intoning their evil plans at one another, then Dante swaggers in acting like a cartoon character. It's great. Makes me hate DmC even more.

I've been killing free time during finals week by playing a bunch of smaller indie titles found on gamejolt and indiestatik. There are some really interesting and fun titles, and they don't take very long to finish, so they're great for someone who has only an 30minutes to an hour to kill. Of course, I'm only counting the smaller indie titles with a definitive beginning and ending as opposed to score-based games.

Finished:

Persist
Gargantua (also featured in the IndieGAF thread)
How Mosquito Became Human
Tower of Heaven


I'm also in the middle of Crash 2, towards the end of Legend of Zelda (NES), and have Crash 3, Spyro Trilogy, Tokyo Jungle, Rain, Chrono Cross, Killer 7, Vagrant Story, and half of Bravely Default to go through after finals (These were just recent purchases added to my already expansive backlog).

Overall, I have 18 games down so far.

Two more down!

Game #16: Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - 25 hours, 53 mins (Finished)
This was probably the best possible way to end Layton's story, but it doesn't quite reach Unwound Future's level. This is mostly because the twists have practically no setup or foreshadowing, so they feel more "out of nowhere" than they should. The puzzles, on the other hand, are pretty much as good as they get. This is now my second favorite Layton game.

Game #17: Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (Wii U VC) - 12 hours, 15 mins (Completed)
Got 100% completion and beat the boss rush. A solid Kirby game that becomes really good with those lovely time-saving restore points. Seriously, imagine if Samus lost Morph Ball or Ice Beam every time she got hit.

Game 33: Blackwell Epiphany (PC) - 3 hrs 54 mins
A fantastic send off for the Blackwell series. Great story, voice acting, graphics, and the longest in the series on top of it.
Game 34: The Cat Lady (PC) - 6 hrs
Fantastic atmosphere, great soundtrack, and the art style really reminded me of the "Scary Stories To Read In The Dark" books from my childhood. I don't usually mention things like this but I truly think some trigger warnings wouldn't be out of place for this one. People with mental illnesses or anyone who doesn't like violent/sexual images should definitely do some research before they play. Probably some of the more intense things I've seen in a video game.

Game 35: Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos (PC) - 1 hr 18 mins
Nothing overly exciting or great about it. Just a somewhat below average visual novel. Will probably pass on the future entries.

Original post

Part 1 (Games 1-16)

17. Uncharted Golden Abyss - 10-12 hours (complete)

Good use of the vita, but it's not the experience I want from my Vita. Much prefer games like this to be on a big screen. It was enjoyable enough but seemed too long.

18. Mercenary Kings - 6-8 hours (few missions complete)

Not my cup of tea at all. Controls were too restrictive, jump and lack of diagonal shooting inparticular. I heard other people enjoying it so I perservered with it but the experience never got any better.

19. Dead Nation - 16 hours (complete)

I enjoyed it first time around on PS3, enjoyed it a bit more on PS4. Incredibly frustrating at times when the difficulty ramps up but it's manageable once you know what to upgrade. Good fun for a quick pick up and play blast.

20. Fez - 12 hours (complete)

Loved this game. Some brilliantly designed puzzles and it is a joy to play without using any guides or assisntance. I managed to find 32 cubes on my own, but haven't had time to do the new game+ playthrough yet. Nor will I for a game detailed further down this list...

21. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - 5 hours (few area complete)

Another game I've been unable to get into. I was a big fan of the original but not this. I may go back and complete it properly at some point.

22. Infamous: Second Son - 16 hours (complete - platinum will be done later today)

Absolutely beautiful game and a joy to play. It does need more content, the side missions aren't varied enough. The actual missions themselves are good, a much needed step up over previous infamous games imho, there's just not enough of them. Story is over way to quickly. The powers are stunning if a bit repetitive and I never felt much incentive to switch, mainly favouring Neon.

23. Football Manager Classic 2014 (Vita) 30+ and counting (Won promotion with Eastleigh)

For the sake of this post I am considering it complete, however I am more than likely going to be committing many more hours to this (100+). It will probably be the reason that I never complete 52 games this year.

Another update!

Game 30: Sonic Generations - 5 Hours
Had this sitting around for a while and always meant to get round to it. One of the better Sonic games in recent times, looks stunning as well. Might try the Unleashed mod at somepoint.

Game 31: Dark Souls 2 - 43.5 Hours
Won't say much about this, been done to death everywhere else. Really enjoyed getting in at the ground level. With the first I had already absorbed so much by the time I got round to playing it. Got a couple of optional bosses left that I might do eventually but no rush.

Game 32: State of Decay - 8 Hours.
Played a fair bit of this on the 360 so was just diving in and playing mostly Breakdown but I've had my fix. A Co-op mode for this would be perfect.

Original Post: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=97786265&postcount=488

Burnburn said:

Game #14: Dead Space - 10 hours

Got this for free on Origin and I didn't expect to be in for a ride this good. Survival horror done right. It has tank like movement, but feels a bit faster than other survival horror games. There's a good amount of scarceness and the atmosphere is great too. Like Resident Evil 4, there is a shop where you can better equipment. While in Resident Evil you basicly just save up and buy better guns, in Dead Space there's a little strategy to it. See, you can buy nodes to upgrade your gun, and they are really expensive. Sometimes you have to choose between buying ammo and buying nodes(which will save you ammo in the long run, since it will take less bullets to kill enemies). So you even have to think a bit about what you want to buy, I liked the "shoot off the limbs" part a lot, changes things up a little bit from other games. Story was there to advance the plot, not much to say about it really. All in all I really enjoyed my time with Dead Space and will definitely pick it up again this year to play on nightmare difficulty

9/10

Click to expand...

That's great what you thought of DS1. Just a heads up though if you'll be playing DS2 in the future, I honestly don't think DS2 is scary like the first. It pretty much is the same game, except MORE and in a more bigger environment. Instead of a ship, you're in a space station(which is like a big ass building but in space). More weapons, more enemies, more shooting, slightly more challenges, but slightly less scariness. Still a good game though. I recommend playing it, just as long as you don't expect the scariness to be equal to the first game.

Finished the month of April at 31 games, puts me on a 93 game pace which not only beats the 52 game goal, but bests my own personal record of 88. Been playing three big, time consuming games in Civ III, Xenosaga III and Minecraft, so am currently balancing that out with shorter, older games from deep in the backlog to keep things moving. Partway through Stacking, CSI Fatal Conspiracy, Valhalla Knights and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. Probably should jump back into Warcraft III at some point as well, I stalled somewhere in the Orc campaign.

Original Post updated

Okay fine, even though I'll probably not make it, I've decided to join this challenge.

#01 - Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag / PC / 43:00 / Jan 8
I was completely done with this series after being disappointed by Revelations and the terrible ACIII, but after reading positive reviews of Black Flag I caved in and bought it. It hurts to say it, but I think I might've enjoyed this game more than ACII. Completed it 100% and while it still had its faults, I thought it was a really great game.

#02 - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze / Wii U / February 24

#03 - Fire Emblem: Awakening / 3DS / 29:39 / March 2
Somehow a whole month passed by without beating a single game. Might've been because I was struggling to get through this one during February. In the end I thought it was a very good game but as a FE newcomer it was difficult and confusing sometimes. I played on Classic Normal, restarted a few times... I know. Glad I played it, but not sure if I would pick up another game in this series.

#04 - God of War (HD Remaster) / PS3 / 08:44 / March 4
Sometimes I get in the mood to plunge into a (to me) entirely new series and after finishing up the entire Metal Gear saga last year, I decided it was now time to play God of War! I was surprised how good this was. Sometimes a little too much enemy copypasting, but the puzzles and the controls were great.

#05 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds / 3DS / 21:00 / March 14
It was a long time coming. I even bought the goddamn limited 3DS XL on its release. I really liked playing this, especially because I beat A Link to the Past (for the first time) around December last year. Glad I did, because without that experience I think a lot of the references, places and NPCs would've been lost on me. Great Zelda and a worthy sequel to the, also excellent, Link to the Past.

#06 - The Lego Movie Videogame / PS4 / March 16
Another shoutout to the super duper nice AbandonedTrolley here on GAF. He sent me the game for free . Played through the entirety in co-op with the boyfriend after watching the Awesome(TM) Lego Movie. I thought the game was really cute and fun, but the constant barrage of glitches and bugs kinda soiled the experience. It's no fun when you encounter a game breaking glitch mid-level and have to restart the PS4 and the entire level. But when it worked, it was great! Had loads of fun tearing shit apart with Rage Kitty.

#07 - Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes / PS4 / March 22
I didn't want to buy it at first because of the pricetag, but since Konami lowered the price... Aw, heck. It's MGS, I was gonna cave in anyway. GLAD I DID! The graphics, the tight controls, the mission structure and openworldness... Glorified demo or not, I absolutely loved the shit out of this game. Completed it 100%, something I didn't expect me to do. Speaking of which... Isn't Jamais Vu out now? Gotta get my 100% back...

#08 - God of War II (HD Remaster) / PS3 / April 4
Definitely didn't enjoy this much as the first, simply because of one fucked up section near the end of the game and me failing the final boss QTE like 5 times in a row. That really soured my opinion of this sequel. Other than that... I liked it, but it was more of the same.

#09 - God of War III / PS3 / 09:18 / April 20
Now THIS brought back my full attention to this series! I thought I had seen it all after The Last of Us and Beyond, but this game was freaking beautiful too. Noticed there were less puzzles than in the other games but I'm not sure if I really missed them. Either way, the controls were amazing as always and I loved seeing Kratos tear everything in his path to pieces. Enjoyable stuff.

#10 - Inazuma Eleven 2: Firestorm / 3DS (DS) / 18:56 / May 2
uwotm8? No seriously, god, the dub of this game is horrible. I'm so close to importing the Japanese 3DS collection of the first three games. I absolutely adored Inazuma Eleven 1, but this took "more of the same" to a whole new level. And it was like half of the battles were completely scripted. Still... I have a weakness for this series and I have to admit I enjoyed the stupid plot of this game. Can't wait to play IE3 .

#11 - Transistor / PC / 06:00 / May 21
Sadly, I was hugely disappointed by this game. Bastion still remains as one of my favourite games ever so I had high expectations for Transistor. The battle system is absolutely genius and I liked trying out combinations. But that and the music are kinda the only things I liked about this game. Story didn't do anything for me, the narrator was boring and reminded me too much of Bastion. It was also very short. Just a big meh .

#12 - Mario Kart 8 / Wii U / June 9
I skipped out on Mario Kart Wii and the 3DS game is still shrink-wrapped on the shelf (I have a huge 3DS backlog) so it's been a while since I played a Mario Kart. I absolutely love this game. The visuals are amazing, the tracks are fun - what more do you want? Okay, maybe less Pink Gold Peach and more Dry Bones. But it's just a blast to play. Good job, Nintendo.

#13 - Banished / PC / 14:00 / June 26
I've never played a citybuilding sim game before but I was really interested in Banished. The setting and emphasis on survival was very intriguing. I'm glad I picked this up because it easily ate 14 hours of my time within a span of three days. Very addictive, but the lack of a campaign or scenario mode kills the re-playability of this game a lot. So after I made a successful town of more than 100 people I felt like I was kinda done with it. Hopefully mod tools will bring me back!

#14 - Spec-Ops: The Line / PC / 08:00 / July 10
Always wanted to play this but somehow I always missed it during Steam sales. I finally got my hands on it thanks to Humble Bundle, but after beating it, I'm sad I didn't buy it at its regular price. The devs truly created something amazing here. Not going to say anything else, but I probably won't be playing FPS games for a while.

#15 - Gone Home / PC / 02:00 / July 11
It's funny how this game isn't a horror game at all but it's definitely the creepiest game I've ever played. If you can call it a game, that is. I thought the story was cute but I'm not super impressed. I somehow feel... misled? It was building up to a crazy mystery story but in the end it kinda ends on an anti-climax. I'm glad this exists though and it was definitely interesting to "play".

#16 - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons / PC / 03:00 / July 12
Wooooow. I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't play this last year because it would've definitely ended up in my GoTY list. Everything in this game comes together beautifully and I'll admit I cried. Beautiful game and a must-play.

#17 - Tomodachi Life / 3DS / +40:00 / July 12
This game can't really be beaten but I've put SO much time in it that I can't really let this game slip by in this challenge. Since release (June 6) I played it everyday until at least the date marked above, but I'm starting to feel I've seen everything the game has to offer by now. So I'm going to mark this as beaten now. Very quirky and funny game.

#18 - Octodad: Dadliest Catch / PS4 / ~10:00 / July 13
This game is absolutely hilarious. Played it with the boyfriend and we couldn't stop laughing. The ridiculousness of it all combined with the impossible controls just made everything funny. Unfortunately it was rather short so I went for all the ties and trophies to get the most out of it. Some of the ties were frustrating to grab but I did it! Kelp!

#19 - Watch_Dogs / PS4 / ~40:00 / July 21
I somehow platinumed this game even though I didn't really like the game. I don't know why. The story was super dumb, Aiden might be even more annoying than Connor (how did you manage to do that ubisoft) and the hacking got stale pretty fast. I also thought the game tried to show "shocking things" too many times and that got really stupid.

#20 - The Last of Us: Remastered / PS4 / ~50:00 / August 12
First playthrough on Grounded, second on Grounded+. Still can't believe I pulled it off but I did! Still an amazing game. Only stuff left to get the Platinum are the two multiplayer journey trophies but... ehhhhhhh.

#21 - Tearaway / PSV / ~08:00 / August 23
Might just be the prettiest game I've ever played and yet I was super bored with the gameplay. I didn't really mind the gimmicks too much but the Vita-tilting stuff was really stupid and overall the game didn't feel challenging enough. I guess I'm in the minority with this opinion but I honestly don't think the game is really good. Graphics are godly though and worth it for that alone.

#22 - HarmoKnight / 3DS / ~08:00 / August 29
To be honest, I expected more of this. The few songs that were in there were so-so and they got remixed and rehashed to death. I would've liked it if there were more bonus Pokémon tunes, because that soundtrack is still amazing. Some platform elements felt very off, such as the drums that I only managed to bounce on half of the time. The artstyle is great though, and I especially loved the boss designs. To be honest the price is too steep for what you get.

#23 - Destiny / PS4 / ~14:00 / September 16
Saying it's a turd of a game wouldn't feel right because I put at least 30 hours into the game and most of that time I was enjoying myself. But now that I've officially stopped playing, I honestly wonder why I wasted so much time in this game. The story is a mess, the loot system is broken and there is a serious lack of content. I probably won't be buying the Expansions as they look to be a major rip-off. It was fun while it lasted.

#24 - Hyrule Warriors / Wii U / ~08:00 / October 16
I honestly didn't expect this to be so fun! The cutscenes were gorgeous and makes me long for Zelda Wii U, the characters were awesome to play with and the maps were very fun. I'm not hardcore enough to beat Adventure Mode, but I feel like I got my money's worth with just the story mode.

#25 - Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale / 3DS / 03:00 / October 18
Gorgeous little gem of a game that EVERYBODY with a 3DS and a love for Ghibli movies should play. I felt like a child again playing this. Loved the untouched Japanese dub, the weird little card game, and the innocence of the story and its characters. I'm a bit disappointed in how the game ended though.

#26 - Liberation Maiden / 3DS / 02:00 / October 19
Short, but fun. I was kinda weirded out how the camera loved to zoom in on the main character's butt though. Would've rated this higher if the game supported some sort of lefty control scheme, but thankfully the game was quite short so I didn't sprain my hand too much.

#27 - Hatoful Boyfriend / PC / 10:00 / October 20
Possible GOTY. At first this seems like a weird dating sim on steroids, but I was surprised to find out how deep the story went. The BBL ending was absolutely amazing and nearly had me crying. Also, Ryouta is best birdie and Oko-san 4life.

#28 - Super Mario 3D World / Wii U / ~10:00 / October 22
Took us way too long, but I finally "finished" this game with the boyfriend. We had tons of fun playing this and we cursed a lot at some of the more difficult levels . Also miiverse posts at the end of the levels were a goldmine of comedy. I wouldn't rate this as high as some people do, but I do admit it's one of the best co-op games out there.

#29 - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan / DS / ~10:00 / November 6
I beat both Ouendan games many years ago but didn't own the original copies back then. I've finally bought them and added them to my collection, which made for a perfect opportunity to replay them both on Normal and Hard.

#30 - Moero! Nekketsu! Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatake! Ouendan 2 / DS / ~10:00 / November 8
Right after finishing the first game, I continued with the sequel. In hindsight it might've been better to wait a few days and let my hand recover . I love these games to death but those spinwheel sections man.... Ouchh! Also god bless hori screen protectors

#31 - Assassin's Creed: Unity / PS4 / ~20:00 / November 14
If it didn't run at 20fps, they removed the microtransactions and companion app and Initation bullshit, this might've been a pretty good game. I hope Ubisoft learned their lesson. Glad I didn't pay for this.

#32 - Bayonetta / Wii U / November 15
Oh man going from Unity's 20fps to Bayonetta's almost perfect 60fps felt great. I loved Bayonetta as a character and the gameplay in this game is outstanding. I can only imagine how much more awesome this game would be if I didn't suck at it, lol.

#33 - .hack//QUARANTINE / PS2 / 21:30 / November 25
It's been about 4 years since I played the third part in this series so it took some time getting caught up with the story and game mechanics. I still adore this franchise and wish CyberConnect would make a new game .

#34 - Youkai Watch / 3DS / 39:40 / December 28
Definitely my GOTY, although the game originally came out in 2013. The world is so beautiful and alive, and the youkai have really clever names and designs. I hope it becomes a success once it comes out here in the west.

###

Maybe with this challenge, I'll become more motivated to beat the games I play. I might have to cheat with a couple of short indie games if I still want to keep up though .

itzknickknac said:

That's great what you thought of DS1. Just a heads up though if you'll be playing DS2 in the future, I honestly don't think DS2 is scary like the first. It pretty much is the same game, except MORE and in a more bigger environment. Instead of a ship, you're in a space station(which is like a big ass building but in space). More weapons, more enemies, more shooting, slightly more challenges, but slightly less scariness. Still a good game though. I recommend playing it, just as long as you don't expect the scariness to be equal to the first game.

Click to expand...

Thanks man, always nice to hear that someone enjoys my little write ups .

I'll keep what you said in mind when I eventually start it, maybe even start at a higher difficulty.

Original Post

20/52

April

Game 18: The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 2: A House Divided (360) 2-3 hours

I'm loving this game. I really can't overstate how much I'm loving this game. Much of the jankiness seems to be gone, and the story is developing in exactly the sort of way that I want my Walking Dead to go. I won't go into any more here because it would be spoiler territory, but as an interactive experience/whatever genre we want to call it TWD is really second to none.

Game 9: The Wolf Among Us: Episode 3: A Crooked Mile (PS3) 2.5 hours

It was great to get back on track with TWAU after the pain that was episode 2. Gritty storylines, good mix of plot delivery and set up for the next two episode, and Bigby coming into his own. I'm hoping that Eps 4 and 5 can remain on track here and show that Telltale can deliver TWD style experiences elsewhere.

Game 19: Dead Nation (Vita) Around 10 hours

This one didn't click with me, but I think it was maybe more down to the Vita port. Brightness had to be chucked up to cover any kind of external lighting that hit the screen, while the smaller sprite size saw me dashing all the time on silly little things. Some mediocre game design with the zombie spawns and fully levelled guns has really turned me off returning to play through again

Game 20: Left 4 Dead (PC) Around 10 hours

I started playing this way back. Way way back, certainly 2009ish sounds about right. But even with all that time, I'd never played through all 6 (4 + 2 DLC) campaigns, so I grabbed my co-op buddies and we worked our way through all of them in a few sittings. And great fun was had by all! In some respects it was hard to return to after the improvements made in 2 (and yes, I know I could have played the original maps in 2!) but for me it still stands as a line in the sand for where co-op games should be aiming.

14) Orcs Must Die 2

14 games down. Not much to say about Orcs Must Die 2. Very similar to the first game, and I never got a chance to play it in Co-Op. I mainly focused on the same couple towers for every map which I think killed a little of the fun.

That being said, I don't know what it is about tower defense games, I can play them nonstop for a long time, take a long break, and then dive right back into them. In fact I think I'm going to start playing Sanctum 2 now.

Game 25: Tales of Eternia - 35 hours

This was just awesome. The battle system is fast paced and plays at a silky smooth framerate, which you wouldn't expect with all the crazy special effects flying around. The cast is sort of flat, with little development, except Reid himself, who goes from an apathetic shlub to a compassionate, driven hero. None of them reached the horrible lows of Cheria and Karol, so there's that.

Overall ended up as one of my favourite PS1 RPGs.

Slowly truckin' along.

Game 5 - Wario Land II (3DS VC) 9:19h
Maybe one of the first cases where Nintendo pulled the "oh, you think you're finished? NOW THE FUN BEGINS" trick? Anyways, this is exactly what this game does. I was initially a bit let down by the game, especially since its predecessor is such a marvellous game. For your initial playthrough the game just makes you play through its levels in order, only to present you with a tally of "you've beaten about 40% of the levels" after the final boss. Then you get a map. And realize that the game is full of branching paths and hidden storylines.

I still think Wario Land 1 is superior, but I definitely appreciate what they did here. I always felt that the Wario series were the platformers where they could afford to be really weird and experimental beside the very codified Mario games.

Game 6 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) 21:51h
Okay, big confession: I never liked 3D Zelda all that much. When OoT came out I was all like "GET OFF MY LAWN WITH THESE POLYGONS THINGS". I have kind of mellowed on that, but I still maintain that the series lost something in the transition between 2D to 3D, the series' high point being Link's Awakening. ALBW is the first game since back then that made me feel in a similar way.

Playing through this game was simply glorious. Don't care if it was because of nostalgia goggles or whatever. Loved it.

Complete list

Sakwoff said:

Game 5 - Wario Land II (3DS VC) 9:19h
Maybe one of the first cases where Nintendo pulled the "oh, you think you're finished? NOW THE FUN BEGINS" trick? Anyways, this is exactly what this game does. I was initially a bit let down by the game, especially since its predecessor is such a marvellous game. For your initial playthrough the game just makes you play through its levels in order, only to present you with a tally of "you've beaten about 40% of the levels" after the final boss. Then you get a map. And realize that the game is full of branching paths and hidden storylines.

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Yeah, thought I'd need to go back and get a few treasures here and there only to find out the game was only half done. Say what! :lol

A potentially controversial update as I define my games as complete when I play through them enough to be shown the credits once. In my defence:

1) I will definitely be putting a lot more time into both of these this year and
2) I spent 40+ hours over the last few weeks platinuming Dark Souls 2 so I've technically completed that again but am not counting it towards this challenge thing so I feel OK with this, particularly the fairly cheeky first entry below.

Game 21: Sayonara UmiharaKawase - Completed 5/5/14. 1:55

Didn't think Europe would get this but we did in the end and it's probably my favourite version. Rock hard, lots of levels and some great touches like online leaderboards and the stop-time mechanic make this probably my favourite Kawase title. One of those games I'm actually glad is a download as it's great for firing up on the train here and there.

Game 22: Mario Golf World Tour - Completed 5/5/14. 6:30

That's six and a half hours in the twenty four that I've owned it. I like this. The online side bodes well for Mario Kart (although I hope the DLC trend doesn't), nice and easy to play with randoms and friends and communities and nobody can really be a dick to you. I like Everybody's Golf but this has much mroe charm and I've barely scratched the surface.

I only have two issues and they are thus: WHERE the FUCK is my crazy golf from the N64 game? That was my favourite mode! Also the layout of where game modes are and how you progress are poorly signposted, a chore to navigate and just generally awful. Nintendo are great at games but a lot of their UI work is really unintuitive these days in my opinion. Everything is nested several menus down and you have to walk around this big complex to find it and just ugh.

Original post.

Yasawas said:

A potentially controversial update as I define my games as complete when I play through them enough to be shown the credits once.

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What you define as complete is up to you, as long as you're consistent (and reasonable ), I think. I'm not sure where to draw the line and say "Complete" with Mario Golf either. Maybe when I feel like I've beaten enough of the challenges (if you don't see the "crazy golf" part, you need to play the Mario Golf section more, I think. Tons of stuff to do over there, in addition to the Castle Club portion) and unlocked a good portion of the customizations or something. Not sure. Will be playing it for a while past that to be sure, though.

donny2112 said:

(if you don't see the "crazy golf" part, you need to play the Mario Golf section more, I think. Tons of stuff to do over there, in addition to the Castle Club portion

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Sweet! I haven't fully explored everywhere so this is all new to me. I played online a bit and enjoyed using all the items so I knew there had to be a single-player mode somewhere that offered the same.

When I said crazy golf (this might be just a British thing, I think they call it minigolf in the US and elsewhere) though I was thinking of the mode in the N64 one that was just putting in mad wee levels. I think it was top-down but I might be misremembering it as it's been a good 15 years now. That was cool.

Yasawas said:

When I said crazy golf (this might be just a British thing, I think they call it minigolf in the US and elsewhere) though I was thinking of the mode in the N64 one that was just putting in mad wee levels.

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I loved that in Mario Golf 64! Spent so much time playing mini-golf on that game ("crazy" golf does fit that well )! It's never had another appearance in a Mario Golf game, and this one is no different. Sorry.

Game 26: Resident Evil Revelations - 10 hours

Is it sad that I immediately grabbed this game because it was a copy with the 'Revelaitons' typo on the box?

As for the game itself, it was really, really good. This is actually the first RE title I've played to finish, so I can't say whether it's actually like the old school games, but on its own it's a pretty excellent title, and it's absolutely stunning to look at, probably the best the 3DS has ever seen, and leagues above any of Nintendo's own work. The monster designs are excellent, and some of the scenes are genuinely freaky, like the encounter with the comms officer or chasing down .

I do have some complaints, though. The presence of the support characters was grating, since I always had a helping hand, and Jill and Parker bantered a lot which killed the mood, to say nothing of the parody-level depths Quint and Keith sank too. The constant switching to other narratives and flashbacks was alright for some variety, but they're ultimately pointless. Lastly, the game is bad at explaining its mechanics, and even at the end, I never had a firm grasp on dodging.

I also just want to make a special note on the final boss, which is the most ridiculous boss fight I have ever seen in a game.

Game 16: Battlefield: Bad Company - 8 hours

Another FPS for my list and it certainly won't be the last. As far as single player FPS campaigns go, Battlefield: Bad Company was pretty great. It had humor, it had action and I liked the idea of an off-beat quartet of rag-tag soldiers to be refreshing. The game felt like it had the action of a Battlefield or a Call of Duty while also taking itself somewhat less seriously than my recent playthrough of CoD:Ghosts.

I felt far more engaged in the story and the characters of Bad Company than I ever did with the Ghosts crew. It was a war game without feeling like it had the unwavering patriotism ingrained with what I experienced in Ghosts. I never felt like the game was trying to recruit me to the U.S. military just by playing it. To that end, I salute it. It was top notch. I will be playing Bad Company 2 next.

Main Post Link

MXRider said:

Game 1: Halo Spartan Assault- ~6-8 hours
This game does not live up to the Halo name. It is a mediocre twin stick shooter with a Halo skin slapped on it. Clearly a moblie game ported to consoles, its not worth it at all.
6/10

Game 2: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - ~6-8 hours
Great game with an interesting story. But kinda of lacks a single narrative with it branching off and rewinding so many times. Great ending though. Seems like a chaptered story rather than a single game. Great gun play and time freeze mechanics.
8/10

Game 3: Syndicate- 8 hours
This game has an interesting story but overall it feel just like a stereotypical FPS. It has an interesting story and mechanics that saves it from complete mediocrity. The Suicide, Backfire and Possession powers are the only thing that set this game apart. I dint play co-op however. Cant believe this was made by the same studio that made Brothers.
7.5/10

Game 4: May Payne 3 - 15 hrs
Max Payne has great gun mechanics and a great narrative. I loved the cut scenes where the key words were highlighted. The story sometimes fell flat but it was good overall, sometimes the cut-scenes dragged out too much. Also the last level was pretty frustrating.
8.5/10

Game 5: Spec Ops: The Line - 8 hours
Interesting story and some amazing art. The sand physics were pretty neat. Though the guns were very clunky, they felt very unpolished and that made my accuraccy crap. This game was also very short, at least I got a lot of achievements on one playthrough (600 gs).
7.5/10

Game 6: Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warefare - 10+ hours
Super fun tf2esque 3rd person shooter. Simple mechanics and super balanced. Have kind of set this aside because of other games but plan on going back because it is a blast to play, sort of a causal game.
9/10

Game 7: Titanfall - 20+ hours
As of 5/6/14 Im a gen 2 pilot and enjoying this game tremendously. Great mechanics and more of a fun stigma then call of duty. Love the drop ships to end the match instead of a sudden ending.
9.5/10


Game 8: Deadlight - 5 hours
This was an awesome game for GWG. It was a different take on platformers with a lot of interesting puzzles and mechanics. Was a quick and satisfying story line but little replayability. It is also hard to sometimes distinguish which objects are climbable or not.
8.5/10

Game 9: Trials Fusion- 10 hours
More trials fun. Each game improves the formula without changing much. Hope they add online multiplayer soon but for now this is still a great use of $20. Same trials fun with more features and new tracks.
9/10

Game 10: Mirrors Edge - 5 years(10ish hours)
Rented this game in 2009 and played half of it. Finally picked it up when it was on sale to finish it. Its funny I have 5 years in-between achievements, probably my largest gap. This game still holds up to the graphical quality and gameplay mechanics of today. Titanfalls wall running seems very similar. Still a great game that was way ahead of its time. I love the minimalistic design, using red items in the world as landmarks is genius.
9/10



Backlog:
360
Dead Island
Dead Island:Riptide
Darkness II
Dishonored
Hitman: Absolution
Far Cry Blooddragon
Flashback
Iron Birgade
Lara Croft: GoL
Mars: War Logs
Shoot Many Robots
Sleeping Dogs
Sonic Adventure
WRC Powerslide

X1:
COD Ghosts Campain
Forza 5
Dead Rising 3

PS3
Ratchet and Clank HD

That looks terrible when I type it out.

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I feel like a slacker, almost half a year gone and im only at 1/5 done.

Game 16 Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, patch 2.2 The Second Coil of Bahamut [PC] ~50 hours or so

This is a really late post but we cleared Turn 6 and 7, World First on turn 8 and 9 both. Really solid patch, some great encounters that called for very solid raid execution. Blue Garter is my FC if anyone is curious.

Updated Post

15) StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

I have had this game since day 1 and put a lot of time into the multiplayer. I figured it was time to finally play through the campaign.

Game #16: Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos - 2 hours

First non-Japan VN I've enjoyed playing. It mostly helps that it is really short and it's an interesting concept. You are a mediator in training, what they do is interfere in worlds where there is chaos. During your first training shit hits the fan in the world you are in and you try to make the best of it. There's not much to say really, because it's so short, but I still enjoyed it. Would've been better if it was atleast an hour longer so that the choices you make feel more weighty and the interactions between characters would be some more in depth.

7/10

Game #17: Just Cause 2 - 73 hours

The game that has been eating my time for the last 3 weeks. It's just so much fun, I truly believe this is a hidden gem of the 7th gen. It's pretty much your standard fare open world game, only difference is that your character has this claw. I usually don't enjoy open world games, but the claw makes it fun. I think I could mess around with the claw for an infinite amount of time. Not to mention that the world of Just Cause 2, Panau, is beautifull. There are like 300-400 places to go to, which is a little TOO much, but 5-10 of those places almost make you go "holy shit". One area in particular I really liked was a military base in the depths of the jungle. The regular missions that you do aren't anything really special, but they're a nice change of pace every once in a while, which is nice.

Now during 73 hours things get to irk you too. I've had a fair amount of glitches happen during my playtime. Sometimes you just want to clear some villages, but in order to do that you often have to demolish things. This in turn will generate heat which is the typical "omg cops are after you" thing all open world games have. It's almost impossible to avoid having heat and the cops are magnets, they will find you everywhere. Not to mention that after a while they will send helicopters after you. If you don't take them out they will kill you, it's almost impossible to avoid their fire thanks to bad hitboxes. So to take them out you grapple on to them, take out the passenger and then you have to do a little quick time event to get in the helicopter. So now you're in the helicopter, but you don't want to be there, since there is stuff to collect on the ground, so you disembark. By the time all of this has happend the next chopper has arrived, rinse and repeat.

8/10

Previously on Burnburn's backlog

Game 28: NES Remix - 8 Hours 54 Mins
(Started 5/2/14 - Finished 5/9/14)
Love this remix! I have played some of the second already and still feel they are both on par with each other. This is a big focus on Nintendo's more arcadey titles instead of the titles we know and love featured in 2. Still I loved everything that wasn't Clu Clu Land or Ice Climbers. I look forward to pursuing all 612 stars!

OP

FFX HDR done! GAF sold me on this games sequel but I ended up liking this one itself! What happens if I end up not liking X2 though o.o?


Games Beaten: 20 / 52
Total Playtime: 250 hours, 22 minutes

link!

32: BlazBlue: Chronophantasma (PS3) - 7h (05/07/14 - 05/09/14)

Having multiple converging parallel storylines makes a lot more sense than isolated character-specific stories that unlock each other. It doesn't make the actual fighting parts any less perfunctory or the plot any more sensical, though.

Playing Fallout and Fallout 2 has put me behind schedule. We're in week 19/20 and I've only finished 17 games! Thankfully I have a ton of iOS>Steam 1 hour games to play too. Phew.

Game 23: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 10/5/14. 9:36

I thought this was a disappointing follow-up to be honest, it looks gorgeous but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the previous game on 3DS. Too many water levels and rocket barrel bits, nowhere near enough minecarts.

Original post.

Full List

45. God of War 3

Can't believe anyone likes Kratos as a character, so laughable. Good apertif when I was frustrated by No Man's Wharf in DS2 though!

46. Dark Souls 2

My first Souls game completed! I stopped in the first one at the Londo archers, simply because I got distracted by Skyrim, always intended to go back but haven't. Loved the game overall, Found the beginning a real struggle but seemed to get much easier past the first primal bonfire for me. Good difficulty level for me though. I like the difficulty in the Souls games coming from fear and traps and the unknown, not from bosses or invasions. I'm not going to bother with the optional bosses right now.

Yasawas said:

Game 23: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 10/5/14. 9:36

I thought this was a disappointing follow-up to be honest, it looks gorgeous but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the previous game on 3DS. Too many water levels and rocket barrel bits, nowhere near enough minecarts.

Original post.

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Sorry to hear it. Congrats on being past the halfway point, though! As to DK, did you get to try the K levels at all? I only ask because I think those have some of the best level design in the game.

maxcriden said:

Sorry to hear it. Congrats on being past the halfway point, though! As to DK, did you get to try the K levels at all? I only ask because I think those have some of the best level design in the game.

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Weirdly enough I miscounted this too and thought I'd passed halfway at first but really we just stink at maths

That must be bonus stuff I'm guessing? I have not seen that and likely will not get round to unlocking it. I appreciate that collecting things can make a huge difference in perception - like if you played Mario 3D World with the sole intent of getting to the end of the level then yeah it's OK, but when you go for the stars and stamp every level you fully appreciate the skill that went into designing the level. It's maybe unusual then that I never felt the need to do that here (and I didn't in DKCR either). Part of that is that collecting four letters and however many jigsaw pieces in each level is just too much for me as I am a lazy man and I have other games to play and things to do, but also the odd time I tried it at the start of the game I found it so difficult I was enjoying the game less and decided to stop caring about them.

I don't mean to come across as too down on this as it did plenty right - it's an impressive achievement how many of the levels are memorable and unique and the bosses were more fun than DKCR, but it was "only" a fun game rather than the 2D platforming event of the year like I'd hoped for me.

Started GODLY, lately i haven't had many chance sto play!
Hopefully i'll close around 30-35ish games..

Btw..
Do timesink game counts?
E.g. Finishing d3:ros with all char (stopped at paragon 190,1 per class at 70 bored from rng unwillingness)

Yasawas said:

Weirdly enough I miscounted this too and thought I'd passed halfway at first but really we just stink at maths

That must be bonus stuff I'm guessing? I have not seen that and likely will not get round to unlocking it. I appreciate that collecting things can make a huge difference in perception - like if you played Mario 3D World with the sole intent of getting to the end of the level then yeah it's OK, but when you go for the stars and stamp every level you fully appreciate the skill that went into designing the level. It's maybe unusual then that I never felt the need to do that here (and I didn't in DKCR either). Part of that is that collecting four letters and however many jigsaw pieces in each level is just too much for me as I am a lazy man and I have other games to play and things to do, but also the odd time I tried it at the start of the game I found it so difficult I was enjoying the game less and decided to stop caring about them.

I don't mean to come across as too down on this as it did plenty right - it's an impressive achievement how many of the levels are memorable and unique and the bosses were more fun than DKCR, but it was "only" a fun game rather than the 2D platforming event of the year like I'd hoped for me.

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Haha that is strange! I guess my math skills are not what I thought they were!

Anyway, as to the game, I've found much of the excellence in it actually comes from going back to the levels and getting those collectables--the letter and puzzle pieces--on separate runs. When or if you feel like giving it another shot, I would recommend trying to get all of the letters in a world, then trying a K level which that would unlock and seeing if you found that to be a worthwhile and enjoyable endeavor. FWIW only the letters unlock levels; the puzzle pieces unlock behind-the-scenes artwork and the like.

maxcriden said:

FWIW only the letters unlock levels; the puzzle pieces unlock behind-the-scenes artwork and the like.

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That is good to know, cheers! I have nearly three weeks before I need that disc slot for something else so I might give this a go if I get the notion.