Saved just in case.

update

Game #4: Space Harrier 3D (3DS)- Started 1-24-15 Completed 1-24-15 Time: 0:36
A great arcade game made by Sega. Has a nice 3D backgrounds mixed in with 2D sprites. The game is quite revolutionary for it's time. Also a great fit for the 3DS.

Game #5: Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (DS) Started 1-13-15 Completed 2-2-15 Time: 17:48
"Rupee is love, Rupee is life." A very well made Zelda spinoff. Play as Tingle to pour Rupee's in to a tower to get into Rupeeland to enjoy a paradise of riches and freedom.


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Game 8 Update



Game 8: Injustice: Gods Among Us - 4 hours [PS4, Feb. 2nd]
# So, I had watched this a while back when it came out. Never thought it'd be a game I played and was interested in the story. In the end, I got it via PS+ and decided to make my way through its story. Its pretty interesting with the parallel dystopia concept. The fighting is pretty fun, but I was never all that good. In the end, it was a fun little side project to run through quickly for this.

Original Post

Game 7 - Escape Goat - Started 1/1/15, finished 2/2/15 - 2:44

I'm a sucker for puzzle games but for whatever reason, I usually end up having to seek a walkthrough whenever I play them. Escape Goat was no exception, as I got stuck many times in a fury. Fundamentally, this is a great, very short puzzle platformer with very simple concepts, very simple graphics and some pretty catchy music. I enjoyed my time with it but have no particular desire to play through the now unlocked super hard levels.

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Original Post

Game 7 - Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 10+ Hours

- A couple of weeks ago I played the game for about 9 hours non-stop with a friend trying to complete the group events. I think I've logged about 30 hours total according to my Wii U Daily Log and about half of those hours were done in 2015 so far. What can I say, it's Smash Bros. It's fun as hell, though I really only play it with friends and barely do single-player modes. I unlocked all characters of course and tried every game mode at least once but I think I have about 2 more stages to unlock from single-player events.

Update...

Game 06: The 39 Steps Completed 2-2-15

The 39 Steps is a mixed bag that ultimately left me a bit unsatisfied with it's material. As this is a visual novel with very limited interaction, it works on some levels but not others. The audio-visual elements for presenting a great story in this medium are there, but for this endeavor the plot collapses in on itself for its contrivances.

Visually, it is nicely done. The location backdrops are quaintly presented with added touches of animation to enhance the scenes. The characters are presented as ghost-like abstractions of the human form, leaving the details of appearance to the imagination. The typography is well done with occasional flourishes that parallel the pacing or actions of the story; I noticed similarities to the stylistic English subtitling for the Russian movie "Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch)".

Aurally, it is a competent production with appropriate cues when needed and a fairly good cast for the voice over work. There are a few scenes, with one in particular, where the dialogue gets lost in the heavy accents of the characters. Since everything is also subtitled that should be a minor issue, however even the subtitles are written with the same idiolectal diction of the spoken dialogue, rendering some scenes unnecessarily obtuse. Thankfully, these few scenes do not hinder the story progression.

The plot of the story is where this entry sadly frays. I am unfamiliar with the original novel from which this is sourced and can only wonder if the story as presented here has been truncated a bit too much and/or a few too many artistic license shortcuts taken. Many of the scenes presented here are good, but when the not-so-good ones appear it dispels the suspension of disbelief.

Several plot devices are just too convenient in its occurrence. For example,

Spoiler

when the protagonist, having fled London and on the run from the police and German spies, haphazardly stumbles into the one house in a remote region of Scotland that happens to be the headquarters and home of the ringleader of the German spies

. Pure balderdash and lazy writing.

Then there is the whole

Spoiler

Masters of Disguise conceit

that strains credulity to the point of absurdity and is the basis for

Spoiler

the 'climactic' ending

.

While I can't recommend The 39 Steps, I would like to see other stories given the visual novel treatment in a similar fashion.

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Game 07: TBD

Completion update: Game 6



SteamWorld Dig

2015 Duration - 2:25
Total Duration - 5:08

#Played for a total of 5 hours 8 minutes (2 hours and 25 minutes in 2015 Completed at 11.33pm on Tuesday 3/2/15.) and reached the credits.

Total cash = 7,983
Total Orbs = 133
Deaths = 51

QUICK THOUGHTS

This game was a complete surprise. I saw it on the PlayStation Store and thought it looked like fun so I gave it a shot and I wasn't disappointed. I'm eagerly awaiting SteamWorld Heist which is bound to be a lot of fun too.

24:22h. Really liked this one, much more than ME2 I think. The combat felt beefier, it was very spectacular and unlike ME2, which felt like a 40h-long recruitment drive, you actually felt the consequences of what you did in the previous games and it's a satisfactory finale for the series.

What I didn't like was the ending - not for the usual reason, mind, but because the last choice is very badly designed. I didn't choose the option I wanted and after watching an ending that doesn't fit with my Shep's personality I was shown that if I wanted to change the ending I had to redo the ? Yeah right, I'll just play another 3 hours just to .


Updated OP

02-03-15 - Game 14: The Wolf Among Us - 15 hours with a few reloads and a bit of idling.
Wow. I had heard so much good about this game and I love Fables (which might be a part of the problem)... and I almost hated this game. I happily played through both seasons of TWD without being too annoyed at the non-choices and stuff. It felt like they at least tried to make the NPCs respond differently to what you did in TWD. It had it's problems but it mostly made some sort of sense. None of that in this game. It really made no sense at all at so many points in the game. It never listened to what Bigby actually said, it really didn't matter. I don't want to talk about this game anymore, it just makes me mad.

Game 2: Gravity Rush - ~10h

I liked the the presentation and the gravity mechanic was fun, but I found it to be an overall shallow experience. There was nothing to do when exploring, and the combat was eh. I got it for 4€ though, it's totally worth it at that price.

Now playing:

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl: On the 4th stratum, B16F. This is gonna take some time...

Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni - Dai Ichi Ya: Reading Chapter 2.

Fire Emblem: Chapter 20 in Hector's Story.

And of course some Smash Bros for Wii U, but I'm not making any progress there.

Game #4



Platform: 3DS
Duration: 2/1 - 2/2
Completed: 2:45 (on Hard)
Thoughts: Gunman Clive 2 is definitely a worthy sequel to the original. Lots of variety in stages and definitely more colorful options. A few nitpicks: would've love to have seen more weapon upgrades plus a brightness option. Certain stages were a bit too dark where I couldn't see the projectiles. All that aside, I have a lot of fun with this game. If you enjoyed the first one, GC2 is definitely more of that same fun run-n-gun action.

Game 7 - Super Bomberman 4 (Super Famicom)
Beat story mode.
Another Japan only game that I can now play on my Retron 5. This time I'm also using the console's ability to apply translation patches (not that there's much to read in this game). The game was pretty short but it's more of a multi-player game than a single player game I guess. It's pretty much what I expected. Unfortunately the Louies from previous games are replaced with some new creatures and machines which don't quite have the same character. I'm looking forward to playing some serious multi-player matches - these games are still some of the best party games out there.

Updated OP

Original Post

Game 14: D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

What the hell did I just play? I can appreciate that it's bizarre. Being invited to take a peek into someone else's mind (when it clearly doesn't work at all like mine does) is certainly compelling. Compelling enough to keep me hooked to the "end", but it wasn't so much weird and wonderful as just weird. The entire first episode is spent building these interesting characters, before throwing it the fuck out the window for the second episode and just scribbling any old jibberish into the design doc. It's obviously unfinished, but when I think about it, would I care if it wasn't? Was I even enjoying it? I was anticipating it getting good throughout and it never felt like it hit its mark.
If you like Deadly Premonition or Beyond: Two Souls, you'll like this

Beaten Game #15 Digimon All-Star Rumble (X360) - 2 Hours
(Started and Finished 2/3/15)
This is a fighting game that wants to be a bad 3D brawler. I think Namco-Bandai got confused when making the game. It is pretty shallow, feels extremely rushed and the game can be thrown in the category of press X to win.

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Original post


#10: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
~28 hours
I try to play this (and the rest of the X-Wing series) once a year, and the recent GOG release has been a good excuse to do it. And after 16 years since its release, its perfect gameplay still makes it as fun and challenging as ever... while thanks to the people of XWAUpgrade, nowadays it looks better than ever. One of my GOATs, even with its unfinished story.
★★★★★


#11: Alpha Protocol (PC)
17 hours
I'm not sure what to think about this game. On the one hand, it has TONS of great ideas, making a successful RPG-stealth-action hybrid is a huge achievement on its own, and Steven Heck is best crazy bro ever. On the other, each and every game system is unpolished as hell or just plain and simple stupid (HELLO YOU, HACKING). During all the game I couldn't stop thinking the masterpiece it could have been with more time and love... but I guess that's the usual Obsidian trademark. What a pity.
★★★☆☆

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Game #9. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES VC)
- Time played: 07:42 hours.
- Completion reached: Cleared the game. Don't think there's any collectible or sidequest in the game.

I'm a bit torn on this one. The game is a mix between a platformer and a brawler. It is divided into stages and all stages have two sections. The first section is a "top down" brawler similar to TMNT games and the second section is a sidescrolling platformer. Also, most stages end in a boss.

Now, why am I torn on this game? First, the good stuff. Gameplay follows a simple and fun formula (if you like platformers of course). Music is cool. Quirky japanese setting is fun.

However, the game does a lot of stuff I really dislike. First one is how the game handles all power-ups. You can upgrade your weapon, your sandals (to walk quicker), your armor, your health and even learn special powers. However, every time you get hit your weapon is downgraded and you lose sandals (so you walk slower). Armor only prevents you from losing health for a few hits so it also goes away. Health upgrades only last during the stage where you got them and so do special powers. Now, this doesn't sound that bad right? Nope! Besides from weapon and health upgrades, all other upgrades have to be bought in stores, which means there's A LOT of coin grinding in the game. By the way, if you get a game over you lose all your money too, unless you managed to find the often hidden save spots.

Now, all of my complaining above is heightened by the game being pretty fucking hard. Goemon (I won't call him Kid Ying!) is a bit difficult to control but the real pain in the ass are this game's completely senseless hit boxes, particularly in top down sections. It's really off putting because deaths usually mean you have to do a lot of stuff again (like buying updates/grinding for money). I'm glad I played this on VC and could use an emulator!

Overall, this game isn't bad, but it isn't really that good either. I would recommend it if you're very interested in the Goemon franchise and like punishing (and even unfair) platformers. Otherwise, I don't recommend it all. SNES has better platformers.

Original post.


Game #6 Mighty Gunvolt. 3DS Completed Story mode with each character.

This is a short and simple, a Mega Man by any other name, title made to help promote and celebrate the full Gunvolt and nothing more. Nice in it's own way to harken back to the days of NES/Famicom run and gun platformer, a demake of sorts to Azure Strikers Gunvolt to give it some unique identity, but ultimately not that strong of a title.

Enjoyable in the sense of appreciating a retro style and doing nothing poorly per se, it does nothing to stand out as a game that I would have considered special back in the NES days and less so now. Movement and combat is as simple as can be, but lacks any precession or challenge that made many a Capcom title such a classic. It's art style is a tribute to be sure in all it's sprite work, but it doesn't stand out as memorable to me. The music is nice and relaxing.
There is strength in it's various bosses each being unique and creative, each to a theme and different combat while staying true to what it was an homage to. The end boss may not have been possible on a NES, but I can suspend disbelief to enjoy it that much more. Likewise the unique capabilities of each of the three characters made them stand out from each other, my favourite of using an enemy as an ally in particular stood out.

As a whole, a competent game that worked as a free title to celebrate what was coming and what inspired it, but pales in comparison to both sides unlike a similar Dark Void Zero that stood out as the better game for this marketing promotion idea.

DLC is now availiable, but I won't be getting it. I could be persuaded into trying out a Mighty Gunvolt 2 however if it was a full fledge time rather than a simple extra however.

Triggerhappytel said:

Games 1-2 (updated)

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3. Ittle Dew (Android) - 4th February - 3 hours
This was a charming, witty, magnificent little game and I wish there were more like it (preferably on Vita, but that's neither here nor there). It was very similar to Zelda, right down to the green-tunic-wearing hero who progresses by picking up additional items. At the beginning the (nameless, I think?) protagonist washes up at an island and to escape has to retrieve an artefact for a shopkeeper who will then build her a raft. This leads her to three puzzle-filled dungeons around the island, as well as a huge castle in the centre within which she can make partial progress after getting each new item (fire sword, teleportation wand, ice staff). The pacing is really great, there are a load of clever puzzles and the script is so great. I really recommend this to anyone who's a fan of the 2D Zelda games, and I look forward to Ludosity's next game. 8.5/10

7:10h. Best euro I ever spent. I'm even a bit sad of not having picked this up at full price. As a game, it had some faults: namely, the setting was quite dull, the story was a cliche if there was one, the bosses were way too easy while some later mooks were way too tough, and the dev likes insta-death traps a bit too much. But the action was fast, the pacing was good and the combat controlled suprisingly well, so all in all it was worth the money and then some.


Updated OP

OP

Yo I do what I want.

Game 4 - Rugrats: Search for Reptar (PS1)
Currently going for all my old PS1 and PS2 games and started with a game where my memories of it are so vivid I remembered every single level, every single mission and how much I fucking hate the circus level. Also, smashing the THQ offices as Reptar is probably the most predictive moment ever in all of games.

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My #6: Alphadia Genesis

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when I started this game, I thought it is a short one. It really isn't, or rather is certainly isn't if you try to 100% it and can't.
More about it in original post.

My #7: Cat Goes Fishing

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I had a lot of fun with this game, but now when I finally got a legendary hat I feel like it's time to move on.

Original Post

Game 15: Halo 3

Now that's more like it. Halo 3 was actually the first game in the series I played, and that was followed by ODST, so I was disappointed in the first two games in the Master Chief Collection because they simply weren't up to the standard of those. My faith was a little shaken. Was Halo 3 even as good as I remembered? Hell yes, it was. And even better, now that I could comprehend the story, and it ran like a dream. The Cortana chapter wasn't even as bad as I'd remembered (though still the low-point). The only thing that let me down was the length. Could have done with being another two chapters longer, but it was totally action-packed with nary a reused section in sight. Still one of the greats.
If you like Half-Life 2 you'll like this

GAME 6 – Half-Life: Source
Rating: ★★★★ - Platform: PC – Beaten: January 18 – Time: N/A
I enjoyed this a lot! Its dated obviously, but I still enjoyed dashing around. I unfortunately didn't get to know more about the story because I usually played it at my friend's house where I couldn't hear much from the game, but I digress. I'm excited to start this series.


GAME 7 – Dying Light
Rating: ★★★★ - Platform: PC – Beaten: February 4 – Time: 17.9 Hours
So this is the newest from Techland, the guys who did Dead Island. When announced and promoted, I'll admit I had low expectations. Another zombie game, yawn. Well, BOY was I wrong. Granted, we are early in the year, but I wouldn't be surprised if this remained my surprise of 2015. The game is great! The combat is fun yet tense. The parkour movement works way better than I expected it to. And as you progress and get more abilities, the game just becomes that much more satisfying. The story was eh to good, depending on the point in the story. I enjoyed it for the most part. However, I was disappointed by***SPOILERS*** Overall, great game. I recommend.

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Game #5: Hitman: Blood Money - IO Interactive
Format: PS3
Completion State: All missions plus Requiem completed on Pro with Silent Assassin ratings where relevant. Extra trophies collected for platinum.
Completion Date: 07/Feb/2015

Such a great game still.

The additional weapon upgrades and mission requirements are great and add a lot to the Hitman series without taking away the purity of the previous games. Some of the disguises are a little OP compared to previous games but there is still a great challenge to be found in identifying and perfecting a perfect route through each mission for the SA rating. I also really like the newspaper articles after completing a level. They add a lot despite being so simple. The story, like all Hitman games, is a thin excuse for the locales used but I have to admit, I am still a little pissed at Diana...

Platinum now done, order of completion updated in original post to reflect additional play.

Update 5:

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8. Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (NDS) - Jill & Chris, 11 hours;

This was my first time playing the original RE1, which was the only main title of the series I haven't played yet (well, excluding 6, I won't ever touch that one). It really makes you appreciate the changes in the REmake even more, although this is still fun on its own and I guess it fits well for short bursts on a handheld, while REmake will stay my choice on consoles. I guess it's decent port, since it has auto aim, quick turn and door animation skipping. But unfortunately, it also looks worse than on PS1, which is usually still fine on a small screen, but some backgrounds look a bit nasty. Video sequences have been hit the hardest, they are almost unrecognizable. I've played classic mode with Jill and the DS exclusive mode with Chris. The new touch screen puzzles for the latter are actually decent, but unfortunately there's also some annoying random encounters, in which you gotta grab your stylus quickly and stab some enemies in first person mode. A little annoying, but what really killed this mode for me was that they've removed a key item later on and implemented a (not very fun) first person boss battle required for progressing, but it's in an old room and there's never any hints whatsoever that you gotta go back. All in all, classic mode is prefered. Also, I don't know if this was the same on PS1, but you can only play Jill on normal and Chris on hard.

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9. Streets of Rage 2 (Megadrive Collection, PS3) - 6-8 replays on normal (so somethng between 5-10 hours), highscore 510k;

This is the first time I've ever played this game and yet it was still strangely nostalgic. Probably because the spritework is just beautiful, the art direction full of colours and just screams earlys 90s. The music is also top notch and locations are really enjoyable. Most importantly though, beating up punks is tons of fun, even if it lacks the crazy combos of character action titles nowadays. It's a little annoying how enemies often fall outside of the screen and you gotta wait for them to come back, but you can also deal with that better as you become better. I guess the game was a little easier since I was mostly using the control stick, but the PS d-pad is really uncomfortable for this title. I looked into SoR3, but it kinda felt too serious with some of the fun taken out of the presentation and the bosses seem immediately more annoying. Gonna stay with SoR2 for highscores - amazing game.

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Original post

Game #10: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All: ~17.5 hours

Oh please don't make me choose my favourite out of this and the first one. Loved the gameplay additions, Psyche-locks add more of a puzzle element to the investigation sections which can be a bit directionless otherwise and the ability to present profiles should've been in the game from the start. Love the new prosecutor, love the way the game continues to contrive ways that Phoenix is always an upstanding defence attorney and I also love that one of the character is basically just the Ventriloquist from Batman. The new Pursuit music isn't as good, but nothing is as good as Cornered. Looking forward to Trials and Tribulations.

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Game 13: Borderlands: The Pre-sequel - 20 hours
# Played on PC, finished 2/2. I have a group of 4 that played B2 together for 200+ hours and we just finished our first play through of this one. Not as epic as B2, but MOTS is not always a bad thing.

Game 14: Resident Evil 5 Gold - 14.5 hours
# Played on PS3, finished 2/5. This is solo main campaign as well as Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape. I came into this expecting it would be bad and was pleasantly surprised. It is very far removed from early RE games, and even RE4 - mostly linear areas, no backtracking, and almost no puzzles. But it's fun shotgunning zombies and working through the crazy RE storyline. I'm sure it would have been even better co-op. It's quite a nice package, as well. One bonus scenario that's a throwback to RE1 and another that's a crazy shooting gallery. Then there's a couple of Mercenaries modes that I didn't even touch as well as other content. And I got it through PS+.

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Original Post

12. Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker - Finished all three chapters on 2/5/15 - Time played ~8 hours 30 minutes on Wii U

This may have been the first Wii U title I picked up around its launch. I've come late to the Wii U, so I'm very much playing catch up. I have barely touched 3D World so I wasn't sure what the Captain Toad levels people referenced, but everyone seemed excited so I bought in.

Aaaaaand I'm glad I did. It's a fun game with a good amount of challenge if you are going for everything - and if it frustrates the hell out of you (like the very last boss fight did with me) it throws you a bone and lets you be invincible. I've got too much shit going on, bashing my head against a wall for the sake of bashing isn't in the cards anymore. I didn't like how you weren't sure what the bonus objective was until you finished the level, it felt more like padding and less like good game design. I spent 5-10 minutes several times scouring a level for a golden mushroom only to find out the bonus objective was something along the lines of "only touch the screen four times" or "don't get damaged". Not the worst game design of all times, but about the only gripe I have about the game.

Looks great BTW. Wii U visuals continue to impress.

13. The Unfinished Swan - Completed All Chapters 2/12/15 - Played ~2.5 hours on Playstation 4

This is one of those games that I had heard about last gen, but not really what it was about, and was kinda intrigued. Obviously not intrigued enough to spend 45 seconds researching what it was actually about, but still intrigued. Anyway, fast forward to recently when it was a PSN flash sale, and I jumped in without any more information.

I'm glad I did, and especially at a $3-4 price range. It was fun, and inventive, but not a whole lot of substance. Some of the different art styes were cool, and I really enjoyed the Journey Easter Egg, but I kept waiting for the payoff and it never came. If you already have this game, or you can get it super cheap than I think you should get it and play it. At $10-15 I don't think it's a good value.

14. Infamous First Light - Finished story and cleared all areas 2/13/15 - Time Played ~4 hours on Playstation 4

I enjoyed Infamous Second Son, and I enjoyed this, but playing this made me enjoy Second Son less. There was too much filler, this was the appropriate amount of stuff to do. Sure, DLC versus main game, free (with PS+) vs $60, but still. I liked what they did with the story, I liked the new powers, I really liked it all.

I especially liked that I had given it this much time. I played Second Son when it launched, so having lots of time to let open world Seattle marinate until I came back was nice. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much if I had just jumped right back into it. I dabbled a bit with the arenas, but I think I'm ultimately not an arena guy. Especially when I'm in the clear the backlog mode that I'm in.

15. Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition - Finished all 5 chapters on Hard on 2/21/15 - Time Played ~20 hours on Playstation 4

I don't care what anybody says, Diablo was made to be played on consoles. I'm sure that its current state on PC is markedly better than it was at launch (I played the better part of a hundred hours at launch getting a monk to 52, wizard to 25, the rest to 10ish), but playing Diablo with a controller is the best.

Playing it coop, and local coop even, is even better. I played essentially the entire thing with my buddy Joe, all local coop. We started split screen, and with this recent sale he picked it up on PSN, and today brought his system over so we were on separate TVs but in the same room. My only gripe with split screen coop is the inability to do item management with both players at the same time, otherwise it is a flawless experience.

I realize that finishing the story isn't really the end, and that the story sucks - but I'm 67 and I'm sure I'll play some more at some point. After spending the better part of 10 hours playing today I'm a little burned out - but I did solo the first 5 bounties, that is GREAT. I really like what they did with that game, that will always stand out as a borderline broken launch game that came back with a vengeance. Good job Blizzard.

16. Assassin's Creed 4: Freedom Cry Finished all story missions on 2/21/15 - Time Played ~5:30 on Playstation 4

What a let down. I had read a number of great things about this game, but I kept getting distracted by how fundamentally broken it is. Probably the jankiest game I've played in the last five years. More crashes, more freezes, more hitches and hang ups than any 5 games combined - and that was in the short time I played it. If it hadn't been its own standalone DLC and had been the full game it would have been unfinishable for me it was so broken.

Then there's the storyline, and using slaves as currency. It seemed heavy handed, then the QTE to free slaves near the end, was not a fan. The game definitely has balance issues, you take out the entire city of slavers and 30 seconds later they are repopulated again. At this point in the year, this is easily my least favorite game I've played, which is a bummer - because I really wanted to like this, and I think they did interesting things with the story, but there was too much they did VERY wrong for a good story to save it.

17. Sunset Overdrive - Finished story on 3/6/15 - Time played ~11 hours on Xbone

This game was a decent sized chunk of why I bought an Xbone, but for some reason didn't dive into it the day the UPS guy dropped the system off. I now see that was a huge mistake.

I honestly think this is the most fun game I've played in the last 20 years of my life. Maybe longer; though I mean that single player. Playing 4 player Super Pole Riders or Kung Foot on Rayman Legends probably takes the cake, the level of hilarity with my friends and I finds new levels. Anyway.

At first the traversal stuff didn't land with me, then I started getting used to it and was like being in college again, and looking at the handrails in my dorms after a 5 hour Tony Hawk session thinking "I could grind that". You have to embrace grinding, bouncing, wall running - all of it. If you stand still, you're dead. If you run on the ground, you're dead. If you aren't always moving in a ridiculous fashion, you're dead. And that's great once you embrace it.

The zany guns were fine, I mostly used the hand cannon and the shotgun, though some of the specialized guns definitely have their place, and I still have ~5 more guns to unlock.

The story was fun, and funny, and I feel like funny is in short supply in games these days. I found myself legitimately laughing at least a dozen times, and when the reference at the first ending, I fucking lost it. I felt the game was very fair, and I absolutely loved the portals that would materialize underneath you if you fell in a story mission. The final boss fight was a little frustrating at first, but just took me taking a step back and really thinking about how to do this. Though out the game I only died a few times, and until the final mission I thought the checkpointing was done perfectly.

If you have an Xbox One you should play this game. If you don't have an Xbox One, but you are thinking about it, you really should. I'm not a Jet Set Radio guy (never played), and I fell out of love with Tony Hawk in the early 2000's. I don't have any weird nostalgia for Ratchet and Clank either. I guess I'm saying there's nothing in my past that would make me absolutely fucking love it - and I absolutely fucking love it. I'm already coordinating two of my best friends to borrow my Xbone so they an play this game. You should do the same.

18. Forza Horizon 2: Storm Island - Finished Finale on 3/8/15 - Played ~6 hours on Xbone

I have really enjoyed every single Forza property I have touched. I dabbled in 3, did EVERYTHING in 4, most of everything in Horizon, only a bit of 5, and most of Horizon 2. I liked the more open world of FH2 over the original, but a lot of what I didn't love was the offered visibility.

So an expansion based solely around offroad with the addition of crazy storms should not have appealed to me - but it was pretty fun. Introducing rally tires and suspension helped, and bringing a whole new land mass was also nice. Some of the new vehicles were nice as well, though driving a RWD high horsepower heavy car from the 1970's offered was frustrating. Thank god for the rewind function.

I'm kind of glad to have FH2 in my rear view (sorry for that). I'm decently into Forza 5, and swapping back and forth between the two is rough. I know F5 isn't hardcore sim like iRacing, but the differences between F5 and FH2 in handling are stark and vast. You need to drive cleanly in F5 or you're hosed - FH2 is far more ...forgiving. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because I really prefer F5's way of doing things, even though I love open world approach of Horizon.

19. Sniper Elite 3 - Save system glitched near the end of the 5th mission on 3/20/15 - Time Played ~6 hours on Xbone

First time I've had to walk away before actually completing a game. Near the end of the fifth mission there's a somewhat ambiguous section about tracking one of the generals, I had saved directly before, but somehow in failing it decided to auto-save over my one save (yeah I know, I should've used other slots - but I hadn't intended to go back and do things better) so when I load it instantly fails me and puts me back to the load menu. Since I spent 6 hours, and I'm really not enjoying the game all that much, I'm done. Finito.

If I had been enjoying the game more I'd probably think about jumping back in. I don't know if its the over the top graphic x-ray vision (which I only recently figured out you can cancel out of), or the somewhat ambiguous side stuff (still have no idea what a long shot is) but I can see this being the poster child for a second tier game. It's too big to be a true indie, but in scope, scale, and polish it in no way rivals a AAA game. I had major frame rate issues several times, and that was the first time I've seen it so bad on any console since the 360/PS3.

It's a fine game, far from great, and since I grabbed it for a song during the xbox sale I don't feel bad about it, but I really don't think I'd recommend it for anyone unless stealth shooting is *really* your thing.

20. CounterSpy - Completed on 3/21/15 - Time Played ~2.5 hours on PS4

I actually bought this at launch, it looked cool, and IIRC there was some sort of deal. I actually really enjoyed it - more on the PS4 than Vita, but it wasn't bad on Vita. But for some reason it really didn't grab me. I played it in late August for a pair of missions, then came back to it seven months later in my quest to defeat my backlog.

It is stylish as all get out, which may sound like a copout generic term, but it really looks great. The art direction, the music, the whole thing works. I really liked the little bit of customization you could do, and I *really* liked how they hid things. It felt like every time I found something hidden I knew I had missed at least two others - and yet I didn't mind that a bit. The 2D shooting was more enjoyable to me than the 2.5D shooting, but I liked what they did. I have a few gripes with how money and upgrades are handled, but largely it was a great game. Considering it has now been free through PS+, if you have it you should give it a shot, it's a fun little game.

21. The Order: 1886 Finished Story on 3/24/15 - Time Played ~6.5 hours on PS4

A buddy of mine let me borrow this and I tore through it. Not because it gripped me, but because I'm going out of town on Thursday and wanted to wrap this up. Man, what a disappointing game. I had pre-ordered this the day I put a deposit on my PS4 - i.e. the night of E3 - and I'm really glad I didn't follow through on that pre-order.

The good - visuals are fantastic. I like the steampunk stuff, I thought the graphics were amazing, the story was...fine. I liked being Galahad, that you had Tesla running around, a bunch of little things. But...this is 2015 and this is a huge first party game, and it does not deliver in that regard.

It feels like playing Gears of War 1 all over again. And I don't mean that in a good way, though GoW was fantastic for its time. Maybe The Order: 1887 will capitalize on what they did well and expand in a new way, but I'm not holding my breath. Jeff Gertstmann's review holds true - rent this game.

22. Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc - Finished all chapters on 4/8/15 - Time played maybe 20ish hours? on Vita

I had heard from a number of places, but probably most prevalently from Patrick Klepek that this game shouldn't be skipped. I picked it up last year and jumped in to find it is a very strange game. However, I 100% finished VLR last year, and found that to be weird as hell and also enjoyable so I figured I'd dabble at some point.

For some reason handheld games have always been second class citizens to me. I don't know why, but they've always felt like a compromise if I am playing them at home where I have a 55" tv with consoles attached to it. As a result, I really didn't get into this until last October when we went to Chicago so I could run the Chicago Marathon. I got through the first chapter, and then it languished until a few weeks ago when I started playing a bit at night as I fell asleep.

It's a game about a high school/prison where the students have to commit a murder, and get away with it, in order to leave. The schools headmaster is a sadistic teddy bear. Probably a *great* thing to play right before falling asleep. Anyway, fast forward to the end of last month when we visited family in Colorado, and I got a few more chapter down.

This was a game that the gameplay irked me, but the story was creative enough I couldn't stop playing. I hated backtracking over and over through the school, and man, if that game isn't hyper Japanese I don't know what is. Also, the trials were on the frustrating side - though I've never been an Ace Attorney guy, so maybe that's what those are like and it is what it is.

Hopefully a few of these are ironed out, because I downloaded Danganronpa 2 a little while back when PSN had it on sale. I don't think I'm jumping right into it as my goto Vita game...but we'll see. I've been playing a lot of Bloodborne, which is why there's such a gap here - but when I wrap that up maybe I'll see what Danganronpa 2 has in store for me. Or maybe I'll finally get back into Fez.

23. Bloodborne Completed New Game on 4/19/15 - Time played ~29 hours on PS4

Well, it's over. The long drought has ended. I bought this game about a week after launch and it has essentially been the only game I've played for the last three weeks. I played an hour of Demon's Souls a while back, and it didn't resonate with me, but so many of the things I've read made me think Bloodborne would be the place to jump into the series - and I'm glad I did because it definitely was.

I completely understand now what people mean when they say that something will click and you'll start getting it. I think it took killing Father Gascoigne, after dying a half dozen times, and literally saying to my buddy "I'm going to bed", only to try him one more time and killing him. After that...I just kept pushing.

I didn't kill all of the optional bosses, and I didn't mess with the chalice dungeons. While I enjoyed the game, after ~20 hours I was about ready to be done with it. The lack of pausing isn't helpful as a dad to a little one, and the whole "everything can always kill you if you aren't paying attention" meant I had to be on my game, and not tired when I played. But, I knew if I dabbled in other stuff I likely wouldn't ever come back, and I wanted to this one.

I started with the saw cleaver, and I finished with the saw cleaver. I tried the axe, cane, kirkhammer, and Ludwigs Holy Blade - and none of them felt right. The saw cleaver was the perfect balance of quick and hard, and it did the knock back enough. Same with the blunderbuss. Really just worked for me. Though, I don't feel bad I never tried new stuff, just kinda weird I started with the last weapons I used.

I did a fair bit of coop in the last third of the game. My buddy (who earlier on I played while he did and we'd just voice chat) and I played in each other's game, primarily with him in mine because he's single and has more downtime, so he's always been a few bosses ahead of me. As a result, there were a pair of bosses that he was my counterpart for the entire run up to them - which was a nice change of pace.

I really think this is a great place to jump into the series if you have not already - but I can also see people who aren't interested still won't be interested.

24. Mario Kart 8 Finished Grand Prix, unlocked all drivers 4/23/15 - Time Played 12 hours on Wii U

So much was great and awful about this game. Absolutely stunning visuals that never got old. I thought the track designs were fun and almost whimsical at times, with the changing gravity being a cool touch. I thought battle was a steaming pile of shit. I thought multiplayer hurting the frame rate was pretty weak. And I ultimately got really sick of leading for 98% of the race only to finish 6th.

I know it's *the* cart racer that had the wonky items, but when I'm in first place I get a coin, banana peel, or maybe a green shell - and when the computer is he gets some great items. That's some grade A bullshit, and I'm fresh from Bloodborne. Which I guess illustrates how ultimately fair Bloodborne is - it just asks that you learn and play better. MK8 just wants you to keep going over and over, and eventually you won't get nuked with a blue shell 20 yards from the finish line.

I think the main reason I'm so sour on the game is battle mode. I loved battle mode on previous versions of the game. I played so much battle mode on the N64 version, we broke controllers in the dorm from doing so. This isn't battle mode. This is what happens when a person, who has played battle mode, does drugs for the first time, and in the middle of it describes to someone with a learning disability what battle mode is, but there's an interpreter in the way who's in the middle of his first day on the job. Something got lost in the translation, and that really sucks. Play it if you are a kart racing aficionado, but otherwise you can pass. Unless you like to look at things that look pretty...because it sure is.

25. Super Mario 3D World - Completed main levels on 5/3/15 - Time Played ~10 hours on Wii U

I bought this game when I bought my Wii U, and I dabbled a bit right away solo, and with friends. With friends was both great, and fucking frustrating. So many wasted lives, so many wasted power ups, so many almost punchings - but that was part of the great.

Playing it solo I decided to go for stars, but not kill myself for stars. Turns out, that was the right way to go - I had all the stars I needed to unlock stuff until the final Bowser/Mouser level and then I only had to get 5 more to get to 170. Interestingly enough, I died 113 times - and I would guess more than half of those were in the first 3 worlds which I played with two friends.

Anyway, onto the game. Absolutely gorgeous. The art style is nostalgic but modern, and done so well. I liked the little stuff you could do in the map. Kinda felt like a true version of the shit kids lied about in the Mario 3 map. The levels had a great variation to them, and while I enjoyed most of them, I didn't enjoy them enough to get going with the bonus levels. Part of that is I'd like to get some more of these games off of my list.

I also really liked the cat suit - I didn't use it nearly as much as I should have, but I liked it. Though, it made the raccoon suit feel stupid and I don't know why, maybe because I never flew with the raccoon suit, and that was always my favorite part of that in that past.

The camera bugged me at times. I didn't like not being able to always change it, and especially in that final tower climb, but that's a pretty minor nitpick. I really liked the invincibility star you could get if you kept dying. Very clear they wanted you to enjoy this game - and I did.

If you are in your upper 20's to 30's and played Nintendo games growing up, you should play this. It's a lot of fun, and you should dabble with friends. You may lose those friends, but it would probably be worth it.

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#6. Metroid Prime (Wii) -- February 5 -- 9:08:00 -- ★★★★★ -- Replay
Finally managed to get 100% scans and items. This is my favourite game of all time. It excels at basically every aspect of game design, even in areas where it didn't really need to. Like, it's one of the best examples of storytelling using gameplay and game mechanics. The level design is impeccable, the music and sound design are amazing, the attention to detail is impressive to this day, the controls are perfect, the atmosphere and level of immersion are unmatched. It's just the best.

Game #1: Grand Theft Auto V - 40 hours(Finished)

This game was something. Tons of interesting but extremely fucked up events and overall many thrills from the Heists. I really loved GTA V even if there was some issues they could have worked on(more interesting female characters being the biggest) and would really heavily recommend it to anyone wanting to get into the franchise.

Oh and I still feel sick from death. Just...urgh.



Game #2: Tales Of Graces f

This will be my third Tales game so I'm pretty excited to start this. Just at the beginning but the scenery is nice and the music is gorgeous. Let's see how this fairs in comparison to Symphonia and Abyss.

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Game #6: Alien: Isolation - The Creative Assembly/Sega
Format: X360
Completion State: Completed the story on Normal as a bit of a group play through with some friends (pass the controller - life/save/checkpoint).
Completion Date: 05/Feb/2015

We have been getting together every couple of weeks to play through this pass the controller style. It's been a really good way of playing. With the lights down low and the sound up high it has a lot of great tension.

The story is pretty good as well, I get the impression that some people think it went on for too long but I think (and the people I played with seem to agree) that it was just about perfect with enough going on throughout to keep it interesting whilst still sticking very much to the flavour of the film upon which it is based. The actual finale is a little disappointing mechanically but overall the whole thing is very slickly done.

I am going to call this completed but I suspect I will go back and buy it to replay alone on PS4, I enjoyed it a lot and would like to play it further in my own time.

Dryk said:

Looking forward to Trials and Tribulations.

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To me it's the best one out of all those I've played (original trilogy + first Miles edgeworth game). Lots of content, interesting cases and ties up every loose end of the series.

Any games that are cross platform and are really short like the Monopoly games I will count as 1 entry; but if it is a more involved cross platform 'stack' (Like Gat out of Hell or Sleeping Dogs) it will be 2 entries.

Under Defeat HD 360 10 hours
Played through the game in it's entirety 6 times across 3 days to get all the achievements available in the game. Once through on each difficulty and each mode. A Schmup that is a little too slow paced for me, I guess Deathsmiles and Guwange me a bit being some of the first ones I played.

Monopoly Deal One & 360 8 hours
Got all the achievements in the game, being online only I didn't really care to do anything else with it. Done on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One, but I am only counting it once.

Monopoly Plus One & 360 6 hours
Got all the achievements in the game on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This I will probably revisit in the future when friends come over or family is visiting since most of us like Monopoly a lot.

Saints Row 4 Re-elected One 29 Hours (idled 11 for the last achievement)
Bought the re-released version on the Xbox One in a bundle with Gat out of Hell. Got all the achievements, so that's all the collectibles, story beat, all freeplay stuff beat, Dinosaurs visited and Christmas saved.

Riptide GP 2 One 12 Hours
Fun arcade Jet Ski racer for the very nice asking price of $5. Got all the achievements in this one. Had a lot of fun for the most part, a few of the 3 stars for the hot laps were mildly annoying.

Saints Row Gat out of Hell Xbox One 21 Hours

All achievements unlocked. All challenges done, all free play done. The last few Challenges and the let's bounce achievement were the only annoying bits.

Assassin's Creed Rogue 360 40 Hours
810/1000 Gamerscore earned. Story beaten, extra sync options for all the main missions completed and most side activities finished. I would go and finish off the achievements but one of them glitched on me. Really good game with a good story that ties up plotlines from 3 and Blackflag nicely.

Soul Calibur 2 360 20+ hours
Finished weapon master mode. Some of those fights were really annoying.


Soul Calibur 360 Sub 5 hours

Started a new xbl gamertag so I booted up one of my favorites to reclaim the full gamerscore in it. Beat arcade mode with all characters.

Charlie Murder. 360 5-10 hours

Someone gave me the hard ending achievements and the relics so I just needed to beat the game once through all the way and use each character enough to get their skill related achievement. Ended up getting the full completion in this game.

Neverwinter One 690 hours and counting

My play everyday addiction since the day it came out on the Xbox One. Edit: I no longer play it everyday, but I still play on a semi regular basis.

The Last of Us Remastered PS4 10-15 hours

Played through the story, felt it was a tad over hyped but still a fantastic game. It left me ready to cry a few times.

Tower of Guns PS4 5 hours

Been playing it on and off to kill time. Fun silly little game.

Infamous First Light PS4 4 hours

Liked the first infamous, never played any of the others on PS3, so I jumped in on the PS4 with this game. Planning to eventually play Second Son, I just don't know when I will get around to it.

Spectra 8bit Racing XB1 10 hours

Twitch based survival racing game with a wonderful soundtrack and charming retro graphics. All achievements obtained. Did quite enjoy.

DBZ Dokkan Battle Mobile 2 hours

Still playing this on and off on my phone. Something to kill time with when I have nothing else to do. Surprisingly good.

Looper Mobile 1 hour
Endless runner that boils down the genre to its most simple form and manages to create something amusing even with the lack of content that other runners offer. It even lacks music, which given its aesthetic would have been perfectly matched with some trippy music. It's free so nothing to lose by trying it out.

TT Game of Thrones Episodes 1-5 One 5-8 Hours
Morally grey is the best way to describe this game. Almost to the fault of trying too hard. While I enjoyed it overall, it is seriously flawed. Can't wait to see the conclusion given how Nest of Vipers ended.

Warframe One 45 hours
Played a lot more, gaining progress..

Fat Cats and Mice Mobile 2 hours
Fun little game, I play it when I am trying to kill a few minutes.

Fallout Shelter Mobile 5 hours
Has a nasty bug, that drains resources on the android version. I just got fed up on my third Vault and uninstalled the game

Barcode Knight Mobile 3 Hours
Fun little RPG with a neat gimmick. I play it on road trips or I need to kill more than a minutes and I am out somewhere.

Loadout PS4 2 Hours
Trying too hard to be funny multiplayer centric fustercluck.

Guns, Gore, Cannoli XB1 6 Hours
Zombies + Gangsters + Cannolis = Slightly above side scrolling shooter

Uncharted Drake's Fortune Remastered PS4 8ish Hours
Somehow never managed to have this game spoiled for me, so it was fun finally getting to play it. I really quite enjoyed it, even if the shooting is a little wonky.



Current Count: 25/52

Game 8 - New Super Mario Bros. 2 - Started 2/4/15, Finished 2/6/15 - 3:02

Last year, I went through a massive Mario binge, playing 3D Land, 3D World and New Super Mario Bros. U (and Luigi U). I have no regrets as it brought me back to my roots and provided hours of gaming pleasure (almost 100 of them). This year, I returned to Mario with this game and I'll admit, the luster is wearing thin. New Super Mario Bros. 2 sticks to the "New" brand with unsettling ease. It recycles graphics, music (MAKE THE BAHS STOP) and level concepts. It's still fun, as every Mario game usually is but I went on autopilot mode playing this game. The one thing they tried new was sticking shitloads of coins in there. Gotta collect them all! Problem is, this just made an already easy game even easier with all the 1ups you collect. By the time it was over, I had over 100 lives and it's not like I played this game for long periods of time. There's still some bonus stuff left but I'm not sure if I'll bother this time around. If I do, I'll accordingly update.

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Original Post.

Game 9: Ducktales Remastered - ??? Hours
PS3, PSN
I loved this game as a kid but I don't remember ever beating it. I played this on easy because I'm not great at platformers but the game was as fun as I remembered. Unfortunately, the trophy for beating the game never popped up and I can't say that I know why. I also had to play the unpatched version because every time I tried to update the game, my PS3 would lock itself up and beep three times which scared the shit out of me.

OP
Some quick thoughts on all the games I beat in January. It was a killer month. Games presented from most to least favorite.

Essentials
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Do you like Assassin's Creed? Do you want to continue to enjoy Assassin's Creed? Then I can't recommend Shadow of Mordor, my favorite game of the month, which incorporates the parkour and sneaking of the AC series flawlessly into a much more compelling, fun combat system (namely, Arkham's). The nemesis system completely lives up to all of the hype, too, making for a hell of a fun time dismantling Sauron's army. I expect I'll be spending some more time with it as I wrap up challenges and, eventually, dig into the Lord of the Hunt DLC.
Geometry Wars 3
This was a close second on my list of faves played in January. I can't remember the last time it took me days of practice to beat a final boss...or the last time I didn't simply walk away from such a challenge! But I just couldn't let this game beat me. Geometry Wars 3 constantly demands that you do better - that you improve your tactics and familiarity with all of the different shapes. This was my first GW experience and I loved it. The variety in the story mode is great, even if the boss battles weren't so hot.
The Walking Dead, Season One
Another one I can say I completely loved without any hesitation. I finally played the Walking Dead and I can't believe I didn't play it sooner. This series did an amazing job of presenting bad choices and worse choices, and making you feel like you're really doing the best you can in impossible circumstances. The characters were great to watch as they shifted in response to your choices. Hell of a finale, too.
inFamous: Second Son & First Light
I was pleasantly surprised by both First Light and Second Son. The morality system here is still really silly, but exploring Seattle was always fun as either character. I didn't expect to be playing Second Son this month at all, but I loved First Light so much I picked it up immediately, and it didn't disappoint.
Defense Grid 2
Defense Grid is one of my favorite strategy games of all time, so this had a lot to live up to, especially since I played it on a console. I guess I ended up liking it as I stuck around for the Platinum. Initially I was bummed that there weren't really any new towers, but as I played it became clear that all possible effort had gone into balancing the classic towers and ensuring each had a role to play on almost every map. The console controls held up just fine, too. The story and script leave a lot to be desired, but it doesn't get in the way.

Recommended
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Somehow I have avoided the Call of Duty series since it first launched over a decade ago. At the time, there was a glut of WWII shooters, and when CoD launched I had already had my fill of them. By the time the series had launched into present day, it had a bit of an image problem that kept me well away from it. The future setting of Advanced Warfare was irresistible, though, and the campaign got its hooks in me quickly. The multiplayer still isn't for me, but I got my money's worth out of the campaign. One of the most cinematic gaming experiences I've ever had.
Game of Thrones, Season One, Episode One
So far so good! Feels like an authentic piece of the Game of Thrones world that we haven't seen before, their story is compelling and the choices are well constructed. Not much to say about this with only the first slice available, but I really enjoyed what I played (the combat sections of Telltale games are always kinda lame, though).
The Walking Dead, Season Two
I couldn't figure out why I liked the second season of Walking Dead so much less than the first one. The characters are at least as good. The story is intense and fun. Eventually, it hit me: the choices themselves were just not nearly as compelling as the first game. One cool feature of these games is it always tells you how many people made the same choices as you in the story's most critical moments. I rarely saw any decision above mid-60% in the first game, whereas almost all the choices in this one seemed to have above 80% consensus; I was always either in the clear minority or the majority. The choices - always between bad options and worse ones - are one of the big reasons the first game is such a classic, so it's disappointing that they didn't come through here. Still, I enjoyed it quite a lot. The first game just set a high bar.
Resogun
I'm not much of a shmup guy...one run through an easier difficulty is usually enough for me. That was true of Resogun as well, but that doesn't dilute my admiration of the game's stellar production values. Still, I have trouble appreciating the differences that make each shmup stand out from the pack, and this game was no exception. Ultimately, just another entry in a genre I have always found impenetrable.

The Rest
-Disney Infinity 2.0: Guardians of the Galaxy: Decent fun with your young 'un. Pretty short.
-Injustice: Gods Among Us: Pretty good MK game. Surprisingly robust story mode...got me interested enough to check out the associated comics, and I'm not really a DC guy.
-The Swapper: If you like puzzlers you'll like this. I got pretty fed up by the increasingly convoluted design, but stuck with it for the creepy atmosphere and story.

First update of February!


Game #5- Ghost Trick (DS) | 2/6/2015 [9 hours 34 mins]
What a great game! The puzzles were fun, the characters were great, and the story was intriguing. There were a lot of twists I didn't guess that surprised me! I really enjoyed it. I really don't know why I kept putting off playing this one. Too bad there isn't a sequel cause that would have been amazing. Still, I enjoyed the ride and highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to play it.

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theecakee said:

02: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors

Currently playing this right now, its getting pretty good. I'm at the kitchen part, and I know just everything that is happening probally has some deeper meaning but I haven't connected it yet. Game gives me a really eeire feeling from the game in general.

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Started 999 I'm really behind, been busy I hope to beat 999 this weekend.

Dying Light: PS4

This is game no5. This year I think.
I'll have to total it up late and update my original post.

playmate bought it and played for the last 6 hours.. must be alright I guess.

Starting now.
Will play for as long as the coffee allows

www.twitch.tv/owwmykneecap if you would like to play along at home.

GAME #7: Costume Quest 2 (2014)
| Rating: ★★½ | Platform: PS4 | Developer: Double Fine Productions |

The first game is such a good game that I convinced me that Double Fine is a company that could do no wrong and while Stacking and Iron Brigade were sort of missteps I remained convinced. Costume Quest 2 is a boring and unpolished game. The design isn't properly thought out and it's needlessly unbalanced for the entirety of the game.

I could go deeper into why the game is a dud but I choose not to. I'm disappointed. Sure, some of the charm survived but there's nothing except what was already present (and better) in the original. It's a shame. And the muddled launch was a bummer too.

Game #7: Ys: The Oath in Felghana 2/2/15(15 hours)
Screw inferno difficulty, I just do not have it in me to finish the run(11/15 bosses down). Decided I would just finish up my playthrough on a save I had for an easier difficulty instead. There wasn't a whole lot on easier difficulties that gave me too much trouble once I had a strat down, but inferno didn't really seem to be strat friendly. Some bosses would do their normal thing and wouldn't be much of an issue, while others had more of a random thing to them where if you misread a tell, you lose half your health, where as every other difficulty was far more forgiving. I would definitely consider this to be one of the hardest games I've played.



Game #8: Metroid Prime 2/7/15(9 hours)
Just going to reuse the same spot/logo for this when it comes to 2 and 3 since I plan to play through them again this year. This game feels like it hasn't aged much at all since my first playthrough on GC. The world is just amazing and I have yet to play a game that compares to how well they made everything fit in this. Took me longer than I thought it would to finish it, due to forgetting where 3 of the artifacts were and spending an hour running around looking for them before opening up youtube and getting them in less than 10mins. Ended up with 91% at the end since I would rather have my full clear file to be on hyper mode.

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I'm never going to make it, but will post anyways.

1. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (been playing it since last year, currently have about 22 hours)
2. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS (also been playing since last year, now at around 70 hours)
3. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (once again, continuing from last year- have 9 hours)
4. Super Mario Bros. 3 (bought on the Eshop- around 2 hours played so far, only on the second world It's so hard!)
5. Metroid Prime (just started. It's pretty good, though it sucks how you need to restart when you die. That happened to me twice on the first level. Played for around 1 hour.)
6. Pikmin 3 (started late last year. It's really good, but I am not able to play it for more than 40 minutes at a time. Played for about 4 hours)
7. 2048 (it's a game, so I'm counting it. I play it every once in a while when bored or waiting for something)
8. Mario Kart 8 (played very little of it so far this year, but the play time is definitely going to increase once the DLC comes out! DLC Pack 2 is my most anticipated piece of software coming this year. In total, I have played the game for about 46 hours)

Overall playtime this year: Around 20 hours I think.

echoshifting said:

Initially I was bummed that there weren't really any new towers, but as I played it became clear that all possible effort had gone into balancing the classic towers and ensuring each had a role to play on almost every map. The console controls held up just fine, too. The story and script leave a lot to be desired, but it doesn't get in the way.

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Missile towers have been completely changed in their role and function so they might as well be new towers. Missile towers are also fucking awesome. I never really used Gun towers anymore though

I also have an update!

Game #11: Gunman Clive 2: 2.1 hours

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Essentially this game is more Gunman Clive, and that's not a bad thing. There haven't been any changes to the platforming levels as far as I can tell, but the level design has been kicked up a notch, with a focus on set-pieces. The flying and horse-riding levels are neat but don't really gel with me, mostly because of the controls. But yes, overall a step up from the first game across the board, good job Beril.


Game #12: KAMI: 4.1 hours

AKA Fill Tool: The Game. An amazingly simple concept (use the fill tool to turn the pattern into a solid block of colour within a certain number of moves) elevated by good puzzle design and a fantastic Japanese papercraft aesthetic.

I found the way that the simple mechanic manifests within the puzzles fascinating. Every puzzle can be mashed through to the end, but you will only be awarded a gold medal for meeting par (and a silver for slightly over). In practice though you want to restrict yourself to par, because the solution space for par + 1 is significantly higher than for par. It means that you will often try an approach and realise that if you were allowed just one more move that it would've worked, encouraging you to try again.

Another interesting point I found was that the most crucial step in solving a puzzle is getting the first move correct, with the rest of the solution stemming from the proper starting point much more easily. To this end the game has a hint system that will show you the opening move (which I had to use more than I'd like to admit). You are given 10 coins to spend on hints every day, but each hint costs 3 with no way of spending the remaining one. I suspect that in the mobile version the regeneration of hint coins is a continuous process and they changed it to a hard reset for the PC release, it doesn't affect the game in any way (especially since Youtube has a full walkthrough), but it's an interesting quirk.

Original Post

Game 7: Transistor -
Started: 2/6/15
Finished: 2/7/15



Awesome game. Similar to the previous game made by developer Supergiant Games, Bastion, Transistor is an isometric ARPG. Also, like Bastion, the game is visually stunning, with a unique art style that really adds atmosphere to the isometric world and its characters. This time, however, the combat is different. The player can slow down time through the use of the R2 button when playing on PS4. This adds a new layer to the combat seen in Bastion, and in my opinion, improves upon it. The story of the game is a bit confusing, but some of it is addressed. The rest is a bit hazy to me, which I'm not sure is my fault or the game's. The soundtrack of this game is great, with songs that sometimes seem to mix genres or styles, and others which either have full vocals, or just humming. Perhaps my only concern with the game is that it's too easy, but this can be fixed through activating optional objectives which serve to increase both the game's difficulty, and the percentage of experience that the player may gain. Transistor has my utmost recommendations, but if you aren't into linear games, I would stay away as it is very narrative driven.

Hours Played : 5

Overall Score : 9.0

"Play it if you liked Bastion or other beautiful games"

Almost 6 weeks in, 6 games down. Good progress so far.

Game 1: Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition (GBC) - 35 Hours
XY was the first Pokemon game I ever finished (just this past December), so I decided to check out the rest of them, starting with this. It's charming, but the years have maybe not been kind. Feels really slow and grindy compared to XY, and maybe purists like that, but I found it to be a slog. Still, very cool to see all the original Pokemon, and I did catch all the legendaries before moving on. B-

Game 2: Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Special Demo (3DS) - 5 Hours
I know, it's a demo and it's pretty basic overall, but I spent a decent amount of time in this completing all the quests, secrets, and transferring stuff to the retail game. The world needs more demos like this and Bravely Default's. B

Game 3: Jazzpunk (PC) - 2 Hours
Recommended to me by a friend. It's so weird, doesn't play well, but it's very funny at times, and I stuck around long enough to get all of the Achievements. C+

Game 4: Space Harrier II (Genesis) - 1 Hour
Game pretty much sucks compared to the arcade game, and in some ways, I even prefer the Master System version, but I guess it's OK to play through for old time's sake C-

Game 5: Type:Rider (PC) - 2 Hours
Great visual and sound design, hilarious final level, but infuriating controls at times that made me want to rage quit. C+

Game 6: Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS) - 120 Hours+
This game's been consuming my life for weeks, and I've been burning the midnight oil with the postgame. Love the battle music, and the improvements in breeding and other areas over XY are welcome. Also going for my first National Pokedex, and I have 5 out of the 6 regions complete. The GTS has been very good to me. A+

So far, so good- Original post here.


Game #5- Frog Fractions
Rating: ★★★★★ - Platform: PC - Beaten: January 26th - Time: 00:34
On the surface, Frog Fractions is a generic, boring flash game and could have easily faded away as quickly as it came, but if you can stick out the first couple minutes, it quickly evolves into one of the most wonderfully subversive, absurd, quirky experiences I've ever had in the gaming industry. When I first heard about it a while back on the Giant Bombcast, I knew I needed to play it for myself, and ever since then, I've found my way back to go again once every few months or so. There's not a whole lot to say about Frog Fractions that doesn't go into spoilers for what Frog Fractions even is, so all I'll say is that it's one of the most charming experiences I've played in years, and remains so on subsequent playthroughs, and I urge everyone to give it a shot for themselves. I can't wait to see what comes of the Frog Fractions 2 kickstarter.


Game #6- Diablo 3
Rating: ★★★★ - Platform: PS4 - Beaten: January 30th - Time: ~20-25 Hours (no in-game clock)
Despite my immense love for Blizzard games in-general, I decided to hold off on Diablo III at launch. The build-up buzz and the design philosophies made it seem clear that we could expect a console port to come, and I'd much rather play it there than on my awful PC or laptop, and so I waited- a decision I felt completely validated for as the Auction House turned into a disaster and the backlash towards the game spiked up. When the game finally came to the PS3 last year, I once again waited, reasoning that the announced PS4 port would probably include the Reaper of Souls expansion and that I waited this long, may as well pick it up for my shiny, new system. Now here we are, years after the announcement, and I'm finally getting to play through my "definitive", awaited Diablo, and I've absolutely loved every minute of the experience. Last year, a big part of what ruined my 52 game count was falling down a 600 hour Marvel Heroes hole, but Diablo is in a tier of quality far apart from the F2P game. I played through the game as a female Demon Hunter named Valla for my first playthrough, and I enjoyed every minute- I really had a blast tearing into enemies with dual crossbows, strafe and rapid fire and supported by turrets, all while backflipping all over the place. I made one major mistake, and played through the game on Normal instead of Hard at first, so it ended up being a huge cakewalk, but all-in-all, I can't wait to keep playing more of this. I want to keep taking Valla through higher difficulties, but I also can't wait to see the other classes- Monks sound like a blast, just straight punching demons to death, and I want to try the Crusader too.

I know people (rightfully) complain about Blizzard writing all the time, but the game's story and lore is delightfully cheesy and dumb in all the ways that I love things to be dumb. I think the cast is full of fantastic and memorable characters- all three followers, Leah, Belial, Azmodan, Imperius and plenty more make me really hope the Diablo franchise gets more love in the future of Heroes of the Storm.


Game #7- Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Rating: ★★★★ - Platform: PS4 - Beaten: February 3rd - Time: ~6-10 Hours (no in-game clock)
Reaper of Souls is pretty much just more Diablo 3, which I really enjoyed, so of course I still really enjoyed my time with Reaper of Souls. I do have quite a few more complaints regarding the story stuff in this one than the last one- namely that Malthael is a really cool design who doesn't really get to do anything, with cringingly awful dialogue. The story kind of glosses over some stuff that could have been really interesting, and ending without one of Blizzard's signature pre-rendered cutscenes and instead with a lame narration was pretty weak. Overall, I still had a blast, and can't wait to start a Crusader and play through these two a second time. Hopefully those rumors aren't true and the Diablo team isn't being shuttered, I'd love to see more games set in this universe.


Game #8- Remember Me
Rating: ★ - Platform: PS3 - Beaten: February 6th - Time: TBD
Finishing Remember Me has been a long time coming. I initially downloaded it when it was one of the month's Plus games a while back, reasoning that even if it wasn't great, I wanted to try out a game with such interesting art direction and new ideas. Unfortunately, the art direction is the only thing worth saying anything positive about in this game; and even that is squandered for half of the game, moving from the gorgeous Neo-Parisian cities to generic, sterilized hallways of buildings and sewers/slums. The story is filled with a cast of incredibly unlikable scumbags, obvious plot twists and a terrible script. The gameplay is complete garbage- the combo system is inherently detrimental to the combat, forcing you to create custom combos that the game itself has difficulty not resetting mid-combo, which ultimately feels like a poor man's, broken Batman game, and then you realize that you can just set a three hit combo to give you health back and shorten the cooldown on your powers and only use that to cheese the game because the game fails to let you finish any longer combos half the time anyway. The generic guard enemies are okay, but the Leapers feel awful to fight, and even worse, the boss battles are some of the most user unfriendly combat encounters I've ever seen in a video game. "You can only hurt this boss by using a power for a couple seconds and then waiting for a 2 minute cooldown, also we're not going to indicate which power that is, and it's not going to make any actual sense, have fun!" I mean, the final boss can only be damaged by attacking a box, and in one stage of the boss, the box becomes invisible unless you use one specific attack, which up to this point has not been used to reveal things that are invisible, and there is no indication that the box is in the arena yet or needs to be found. Throw in problems like framerate dips, broken platforming, script breaking bugs and plenty of others, and it's not hard to see why no one really remembers Remember Me; it's not a failure of a game because it stars a female, minority protagonist, as I've seen people argue in the past, it bombed because it's a shit video game.


Game #9- Star Wars: Republic Commando
Rating: ★★★★ - Platform: Xbox - Beaten: February 8th - Time: 06:34
Star Wars and video games have had a long, long relationship full of incredible experiences and moments, and maybe its just the era I grew up in, but when I think about video games and Star Wars, there's three moments that immediately come to mind; Kriea's deconstruction of morale decisions on Nar Shada in KOTOR 2, the revelation of the player character's name in the original KOTOR, and the opening sequence of Republic Commando, from cloning vat birth to deployment on Geonosis, riding in to the desert battlefield in the open LAAT. No other Star Wars game has come close to recreating the raw intensity of Republic Commando, with its visceral combat, tight pacing, and excellent squad-based dynamics. The game really makes you feel like a Clone Trooper, and each sequence in the game is just dripping with atmosphere. The combat encounters all feel great, and the arsenal of weapons is varied enough for the size of the game that it feels like there's plenty of options, and the intractable environments and squad commands really bring it alive all the better.

The only real problems I have with it is that I wish there was more of it to play. There's only three locations- Geonosis, a derelict Republic Cruiser, and Kashyyyk, and while all three are super varied and awesome, I would have loved to see Delta Squad deploy to more locations across the galaxy and fight in other battles through the war. That said, the game is pretty fantastically paced for the content it does have, and makes each of the three squad members shockingly interesting characters in their own rights. It's a damn shame we never got a sequel to this, but on its own, it stands as one of the finest Star Wars games ever produced, and that's a pretty prestigious list. Hopefully an Imperial Commando is on the radar for the future, now that we're entering into a new age of Star Wars gaming.

Original Post

I've completed some games since my initial post and felt it was time to sit down and update the list, so here we go!


Game #2 - Nidhogg (PS4/PSVITA) 1/08/15 [10+ hours]
I picked this up on a sale around new years and loved it. Sadly I haven't had much luck finding opponents online, but its the perfect game to just pick up and play a few quick rounds when I have 10-15 minutes to kill.


Game #3 - Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS3) 1/10/15 [22 hours]
My Fiance picked up 2.5 and while I wanted to jump straight into that(I've never played BBS), I felt I should go in chronological order and so began a feverish two week period of KH games. The first was one of my favorite PS2 games when I was in high school, and its never looked better now that its in HD. The camera took some time to adjust to again, but overall it was a good time. I finished it on normal(largely due to the difficulty trophies not stacking), but I've put it on my list of games I'd like to go back and platinum at some point.


Game #4 - Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (PS3) 1/19/2015 [27 hours]
I originally completed this on GBA back in the day and had pretty lukewarm memories of it. The card battle system is pretty neat, but it did get kind of tiring as it went. Also unlike the main KH games, the worlds themselves are just kind of there, and the real meat of the game is everything around them(Castle Oblivion, The Organization, etc.) I ran through it on both Sora and Riku and had a good enough time I suppose. Also watched all of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but I'm not going to count that on this list.


Game #5 - Persona Q (3DS) 1/22/2015 [42 hours]
I picked this up back in November, but my time for portable games is largely late at night before bed so it took quite awhile to finish. This was my first Etrian Odyssey style game and I have to say I'm fairly impressed! The drawing your map feature is pretty neat, and combat is pretty good. Some of the puzzles in the later dungeons were pretty challenging which was also nice. The draw for me was the Persona theme, and it did not disappoint, lots of fan service from that series!


Game #6 - Freedom Wars (PSVITA) 1/29/2015 [22 hours]
Picked this up in December and finally got around to playing through it. Had a good time with it for the most part(the AI of the cpu characters was awful at times despite issuing orders), but it felt like the game ended right as the story was going anywhere. I haven't had a chance to really do much of the end game after the story ends, so maybe there will be more for the game to give.


Game #7 - Resident Evil HD Remastered (PS4) 2/3/15 [6 hours 28 minutes]
I played the original on Playstation in 1996 when I was 10 years old but had no experience with the game outside of that, and no knowledge of the GCN remake whatsoever. I went through on Jill and just took my time exploring, and wow, they don't make games like this anymore. Little things like walking into a room and a giant tarantula crawling down behind me without loud music or audio cues just give the game great atmosphere and let it really breathe. I'm already planning to take what I've learned and improve for a Chris playthrough, $20 well spent!


Game #8 - Hotline Miami (PSVITA) 2/4/15 [7 hours]
Just did a quick run through in anticipation of Hotline Miami 2 in March. Surprised how well the game worked on VITA, my original playthrough years ago was on PC. Can't wait for the sequel, hopefully its even better.

original post

I made first bad decision this year, decided to play a short game,

Click to expand...

which had to be my #8 game. Played through 4 story levels and one arcade level and decided enough is enough. A game isn't funny (it is supposed to be) or fun. I don't see myself getting back to it ever, so it's first unfinished game this year. Good that I wasted only hour on it.

instead went and finished for my 8th spot

Click to expand...

Game 8: Time Mysteries: The Ancient Spectres - 8 hours
Another Artifex Mundi adventure game: point&click, puzzle, hidden object. This was one worse than other their games, even if I liked time travel idea and how it was implemented, but there were less variety of puzzles and no minigame instead of hidden object ones.

probably will get back to Transistor now.

No. 6: Resident Evil COMPLETED 3 TIMES, 15:02, 4:07, 2:44


What a phenomenal game. This was one that I was legitimately scared of when I first tried to play it a few years ago. Something about not being able to see what was in front of me terrified me on my first try. The initial experience of not really "getting" where stuff is in the mansion was also really disorienting. However, after finally grasping how to start the game properly, I was off. I beat this game 3 times in a week, getting my final run score under 3 hours with Jill. Still need to complete it with Chris and do the same, but I'm content to say I'm putting this down for a while, with a desire to come back in a few weeks.

No. 7: Grim Fandango COMPLETED - ~12:00


This was one that threw me for a loop. I went in with the intention to not use a guide for ANYTHING throughout my experience, and was broken after spending about 6 hours in the opening chapter. There are some extremely obtuse puzzles here. I only used a guide on two specific puzzles (ones that had relevant hints at the beginning of the entire game), and felt like I got my money's worth. This was an awesome experience. I loved every minute, and I wish more developers would put this much time and energy into creating such an awesome world with really great characters inhabiting it. However, some of the puzzles are downright crazy, which drove me away at first from really seeing this through to the end.

No. 8: Super Mario Galaxy COMPLETED - 20 Hours


Completed this with 60 stars in an unusual fashion, which is why it took 20 hours. I played through this entire game with my girlfriend. The rule was: both players could only use one half of the wiimote set: one person on nunchuck, one person on the actual wiimote. You can imagine, this took some getting used to. In the end though, I don't think I've ever been more challenged by a Mario game, and I actually really enjoyed turning SMG into a co-op experience. Actually a really fun way to play through the game.

NEXT UP: Rogue Legacy, The Evil Within, State of Decay (maybe?)

I still have 2 games from January to add which are metal gear solid 3 snake eater and last of us left behind if dlc counts. Will update when I have the time. February is gonna be a slow grind since I'm back in school. So fare I am so close to finishing Pokemon x. After that I'm gonna try to fit in persona 3 portable on my PlayStation TV and resident evil remake on my pc. Hopefully I can Finnish something before my Xbox one comes in the mail with gta5