Game #9: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Not as big a fan of this as the first one. I got really annoyed by all the "durhur it's just a game!" shit . The characters also weren't as likeable, though I don't know if that was intentional . I really, really wanted Kazuichi to die. Like, I just kept hoping and hoping he was the killer with each case. I also didn't like some of the changes. The new Hangman's Gambit was annoying and the logic drive seemed so inane. Just overall, not as enjoyable as the first. Still a great game with some good twists and turns, but doesn't stand up to the first.

Game Beaten #34 Welcome Park (Vita) - Unknown
(Started 8/1/12 / Finished 4/17/15)
The sliding puzzles are really not bad with the trick of taking a picture of a colored number grid. Welcome Park is a showcase for what the vita can do and since it is free, it really isn't bad at all. All trophies get!

OG Post2

OP

Game 11 - Mortal Kombat X (PS4)
Pretty cool story mode. Nice to see some minor characters pop up now and again, and really fucking annoying to see working characters that you can have full battles with. Also fuck on-disc Goro, what a load of shit. Other than that, a good step-up from MK9. I enjoyed the new characters, especially that full-on new ones over the kids. The pseudo-adventure game Krypt is stupid and if they had enough time to program that then they probably had enough time to create fully working versions of the four DLC characters.

04-17-15 - Game 32: Dark Souls - 40 + 55 hours
Started a character together with bf, playing pass-the-controller style (due to me being afraid of the bosses so it felt good to let him handle some ) and semi-blind. Got stuck at O&S after 40 hours with a crappy character, crappy gear and no motivation to continue since we wanted to kill O first. Figured we could handle a few invasions while co-op-ing and started separate characters instead. Both had a blast even when co-op didn't work properly or when we didn't bother going human for a couple of bosses. I played a super fast Dex-character and he played the tankiest tank possible. I had a bunch of "banging head against wall" moments of pure frustration (since I have no patience at all) but I mostly enjoyed the journey. I was afraid of the bosses when we started but the second time through I got most of them on my first try and the frustrating moments were just some of the normal enemies (mostly groups, grr). Felt very strange when it was over and I'll miss it. Don't want to play the second one tho.


04-18-15 - Game 33: Papo & Yo - 3½ hours this playthrough
Played through this once a couple of years ago. Remembered it as being a bit annoying at times but mostly good. Had some achievements left to grab. I had forgotten more about this game than I realised and it just felt... obnoxious at times, especially when I had to figure out where all the hats were at the same time as trying to remember/figure out the puzzles. It's still a game I'd recommend due to the uniqueness tho, especially when not trying to get the cheevos

(Main post)

Original post

Game #24: Banjo-Kazooie



Just finished the game. I can safely say this is my favorite platformer in the N64, maybe in that whole generation (although I have a soft spot for Klonoa and Crash Bandicoot 3). First things first, the last level (Click Clock Wood) was really fun, albeit a bit frustrating thanks to Banjo & Kazooie's sloppy jumps making me fall from the huge tree a couple times. If damage fall wasn't a thing, it would have been way less frustrating. Still, the level looks gorgeous and the season gimmick was neat. Also, one of my two favorite songs in the game plays in the Spring version of the stage. The other song I have as a favorite is the one which plays on the top of Gruntilda's Lair.

Grunty's Furnace Fun gave me trouble with the questions about the characters' voices (except for the toilet's voice which is quite... unique) and fighting that box boss with a timer wasn't a cakewalk either, but I managed to reach Grunty in one piece. And lastly, the fight against Gruntilda was the hardest part of the game, especially the part you have to hit her while flying and the part you have to free the Jinjonator. Even with double health I had a lot of trouble beating her. >_>

Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot. I can't think of a level I actively dislike. The characters are really charming and funny, especially Kazooie with her passive-aggressive personality. I know many people dislike the character design, but I think Rare's crazy and weird designs play a big role in modeling the game's atmosphere and it wouldn't be the same without them. The music is really good. It is not David Wise levels of awesomeness, but it is up there. And lastly, the power ups are great, although I am not a big fan of the Mumbo transformations. :x

In short: Fantastic game and I can see why people are so excited about the Banjo-Kazooie-ish game that is being developed by former Rare devs. I should have finished this years ago, but it is better late than never, I guess.

I'm not making as quick progress as I would have liked but this will have to do.

Sendou said:

My Backloggery

Game 6: This War of Mine - February 24
# Tells stories about a side of war you don't often see in games. Mechanics wise the game is hurt by the lack of information behind how it works (worst example of this in action is the food system that's easy to misunderstand so that you use between 3 or 4 times as much food as is actually needed) yet I definitely enjoyed the 10 hours I spent with it. Has some factors that encourage replayability but unfortunately lack of scope in elements (that would make different playthroughs interesting) doesn't make it desirable at all.

Game 7: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number - March 21
# Hadn't such a good time with it as I did with the first one. Feels frustratingly hard more often than challengingly so and this is without considering bugs. At least the soundtrack is still rock solid.

Game 8: Bejeweled 3 - April 13rd
# Scratched that match-3 itch I had nicely. Perfectly realized version of Bejeweled. Only flaws revolve around the heavy randomness behind getting a good score.

Game 9: Pillars of Eternity - April 18th
# A really good game yet one I was glad that ended when it did. I really liked how well written the quests in this game were. Bugs, both severe and minor, I didn't care much about.

Game 10: A Bird Story - April 18th
# I was big fan of To The Moon but didn't get similiar feelings with this game. I wish RPGMaker would burn in the fires of hell already. While I wasn't a fan of the result I can still appreciate Freebird Games tried something different with this game.

Graveyard (or games I shelved for now after playing them some): Child of Light, Hexcells Plus, Sonic Generations, There Came an Echo, Crimsonland, (It came from space, and ate our brains)

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Game #10, Liberation Maiden
3DS

Super short, but super enjoyable shooter. Would love to see the concepts stretched out into a full retail sized game.

Ceallach said:

Game #10, Liberation Maiden
3DS

Super short, but super enjoyable shooter. Would love to see the concepts stretched out into a full retail sized game.

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They were...at least the story concepts

It became a VN in Japan.

Game 3 - Child of Light (XBone) 1000/1000

Randomly decided to give this a go seen as I had it sat there unplayed on my one. Overall it was a nice game, very low level RPG but I liked the story and the art style was pretty cool. Just seemed to be a nice change of pace before jumping into a meatier game.

Next up:

Used this as a break from Forza Horizon 2 so I'll be picking up where I left off with that, just burning through championships and online events really. Also I have The Order 1886 close to platinum, just need to do a collectible run so the addition of photo mode is enticing me into getting that done. Other plans are still GTA V, Driveclub after Forza and I'm getting Bloodborne in May so all those titles should see me through until June unless my mood changes.

I've been postponed at 25 games. I've lost a little bit of interest in games at the moment, and I'm sort of indecisive about what to start next. I have final exams (before graduating) these last two weeks, so I'll probably start back up with this in May.

Triggerhappytel said:

Original post

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15. Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark (Vita) - 19th April - approx. 8 hours
I loved this. I first played it when it came out in late 2013, and then I went back to it on a whim recently and finished the second half in a few days. As a puzzle game it was really clever, the visuals are art style are excellent and the controls are absolutely perfect for a puzzle-platformer which demands a lot of precision. It reminded me a lot of a 2D Portal, with its overarching narrative, test chamber levels and cute little googly eyes on robots and suchlike. A few levels annoyed me (seriously, fuck 8-3 ), but overall the level design was amazingly consistent across its 64 standard levels (and another 16 hidden levels). I really recommend fans of games like Portal, Braid or Fez check this one out. 8.5/10

Currently playing: Bloodborne, Axiom Verge and Destiny.

Minishdriveby said:

I've been postponed at 25 games. I've lost a little bit of interest in games at the moment, and I'm sort of indecisive about what to start next. I have final exams (before graduating) these last two weeks, so I'll probably start back up with this in May.

Click to expand...

Happened to me. I noticed that just taking a break does wonders.

The times listed are pulled from Steam and the Wii U and don't reflect the time it took to beat each game - just the total time played. I'm going to come back and keep updating periodically.



Game 1: Hexcells (January 1st - 4 hours)

I probably, technically beat the game on New Year's Eve but I got the perfection achievement the day after which feels more like the end. I think the 3rd game in the series went a little too far off the deep end in terms of difficulty but this one was a little too easy (so guess where Plus lands). Still, though, it's hard to deny how clever the machinations are, combining sudoku and picross into something unique.

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Game 2: Escape Goat (January 5th - 4 hours)



Game 3: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (February 1st - 21 hours)

The most colorful, exuberant Zelda game ever made. The art style holds up perfectly well after over a decade, thanks in part a great remastering of the core assets. Sailing the Great Sea is as fun as riding through any iteration of Hyrule Field, showing that the series evolved without getting too far away from its roots. You can also see the combat changing with the implementation of the counter system which would later be honed and tweaked. I only wish the game was more fully filled out with dungeons. One is obviously missing after the second dungeon (remember the fish that just gives you an important object - there) and no doubt another could have been used later on. Still, it's hard not to be warmed over by the whole story, which crawls back through the series past.

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Game 4: Hexcells Infinite (March 12th - 8 hours)



Game 5: Hexcells Plus (March 18th - 13 hours)



Game 6: Renegade Ops (March 26th - 6 hours)



Game 7: Outland (March 30th - 10 hours)



Game 8: Kami (April 3rd - 2 hours)

It's not very long and it's not all that challenging (until the end), but that doesn't hold it back from being one of the most charming, artistically striking puzzle games I've played in a while. The worn-paper-origami aesthetic perfectly matches the stacked lines of the game system, showing that it wasn't chosen arbitrarily and isn't just there for its looks. It goes on sale (from its already low price) all the time and is well worth a couple bucks and a couple hours of your time.

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Game 9: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (April 10th - 4 hours)

I would say this is the first Metal Gear game I've beaten but it would feel like cheating. It's definitely not the best way to start this series but I did so anyway since I got it for nothing. Kojima's really in love with himself and you can see the proof in the credits where he gets a ton of mentions, including the possessive "A Hideo Kojima game." He also loves putting some cool action moments in cut-scenes instead of letting the player experience them first-hand which is unfortunate, but given the history of the series not at all surprising. I wouldn't quite call this a demo as some have but it's a shortened experience. The side-ops help give the map some replay value but I only completed half of them before getting bored. At least it's pretty to look at and scales well on PC.

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Game 10: Shovel Knight (April 16th - 5 hours)



Game 11: Gunman Clive (April 18th - 1 hour, 14 minutes)



Game 12: Virtua Tennis 4 (April 19th - 7 hours)

I picked this up after hearing the news that it was being delisted from Steam, and because it had been so long since I'd put any time into a tennis game. In fact, Rockstar's awesome Table Tennis might have been the last time. That was a pure distillation of the sport, stripping away all the unneeded window-dressing and honing the most vital part of the game. Virtua Tennis goes the opposite direction and has a fully-realized career mode, which is what I finished. It uses the 4 major tournaments as benchmarks (although they don't use their proper names, like US Open and Wimbledon) and makes you play through mini-games and regional tournaments to prep yourself for the majors. I didn't find it terribly difficult but the variety of things to do kept it interesting. I found managing my health to be an annoying aspect, especially when it culminated in me spraining my ankle before the final match, causing me to lose, With some refinement it could have been quite good. Still, the pure mechanics are easy to learn, even if they lack sufficient depth. It didn't do much to wow me, but it did scratch the itch.

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Game 13: Super Mario 64 (120 stars) (April 20th - 15 hours)

I've finished this game more times than I can count. Seeing it come around on the Wii U gave me yet another opportunity/reason/excuse to play again. Having it available on the GamePad let me fly through while having the TV on in the background. The game is enough of a second nature to me that it doesn't need my complete, undivided attention. That also doesn't mean its lost its sparkle. This game still feels imminently playable today, almost 20 years after its debut. The pin-perfect controls and big, early 3D polygons give it that staying power. The Galaxy series took up the mantle but it never took the crown. This is the best 3D platformer ever made. I doubt i get tired of it.

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Game 14: Jet Set Radio (April 26th - 5 hours)

This game has not withstood the test of time, at least where it counts. The cell-shaded graphics and vibrant hip-hop selections make it look and sound like something modern, and honestly still unique in the grand scheme of things, but the mechanics and controls make it feel ancient. The rails and jumps lack the magnetic quality that makes the Tony Hawk franchise so appealing. You can pick up a controller and fly around relatively easily there. But in Jet Set Radio you can't. The learning curve is steeper and even when you gain a handle on everything it doesn't always work. It's never as fluid as it should be, given how poppy and fun it looks and sounds.

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Game 15: Canabalt (May 3rd - 3 hours)

One of the earliest versions of this game stands among my most played iOS games. It had a pure mechanic, a consistent style, and a ton of replayability thanks to a quick restart. The Steam version isn't much different, in its core gameplay or presentation, but it does have a host of different modes and variations. From Defenestration, which focuses on your ability to jump through windows of buildings, to Invasion, which asks you to dodge obstacles falling from above, there is enough of a mix to keep things interesting. Each of these modes has a goal and subsequent achievement attached but beyond that, each of them helps you face a different challenge of the game. The more you master these ancillary modes, the better you'll be at the main one. I completed each mode and, at least for a little while, was ranked 11th on the worldwide leaderboard.

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Game 16: PixelJunk Eden (and Encore) (May 7th - 10 hours)

There's something so soothing and so rhythmic about this game. Spinning on branches from monocolored tree to tree, round and round, collecting pollen. Hearing the synthesized beat drumming one note after the other in a steady pace. The layered backgrounds moving and sliding in sync with the beat. It all jives together in an entrancing experience. The game starts off so easily that you can lay back relax as you fly through the gardens, collecting one spectra at a time. As you progress, though, the game very gradually presents challenges to the status quo. Changes in gravity, seeds with sharp edges, meaner enemies, bigger gaps to traverse. Because the difficulty takes its time to climb you get more than enough time to master the swing, release and fall mechanics. I collected all 75 spectra (25 of which were added with the Encore expansion) and I wish there were more.

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Game 17: Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved (May 20th - 8 hours)

I imagine it's a tough task for any studio to be handed someone else's property, someone else's baby really, and be asked to follow up with their own sequel; one that's both true to the first entries and yet stands firmly on its own. For the most part, Dimensions Evolved strikes that balance, despite its stupid name. There are a bunch of single-player modes ranging in difficulty, a great variety of level layouts, new power-ups and drones to help fight the more demanding challenges, and a new coat of paint to help it look great. That's all on top of a core mechanic that remains largely unchanged and is as smooth as ever (and why change it?). New and old both working together, most of the time. When the game doesn't work it's mostly because of visibility, which might seem like a small thing but but is really quite the chore at times. While the series has moved on from the standard rectangle level design from the first couple games, it's adopted other layouts that don't always work. For instance, there's now an even bigger rectangle, so big in fact that you can't see from one corner to another when motionless. That creates scenarios where enemies fly at you from out of your line of sight and you have even less time to react than before and this regularly causes deaths to feel cheap (the last boss in particular is guilty of this). If you can get over that, though, it's a good addition to the series and can provide a ton of gameplay if you want to move on to ridiculous levels of difficulty. I was satisfied after I beat the final, grueling boss of the Adventure mode.

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Game 18: PixelJunk Shooter (June 5th - 4 hours)

A tad too short and too lenient on backtracking to try and push the game's length. Still, though, it's a hell of a lot of fun while it lasts.

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Game 19: Grow Home (June 26th - 3.5 hours)

About as charming as platformers get. I love how distilled the whole thing is, free of over-complication. Climb the tree and help it grow. Using the triggers to grab on and move around is a surprisingly simple mechanic that works well, most of the time. It is easy to get twisted up in branches or while holding on to objects, though.

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Game 20: Borderlands 2 (July 6th - 30 hours)

I tried the original Borderlands last year for the first time and put it down after an hour. It felt hollow, cheesy and sort of slow. Imagine my surprise then when I played this for 30 hours and generally loved my time with it. The sequel has a much better, more engaging start that pulls you in quicker. The world's gigantic but not overwhelmingly big, which was a problem for me with Skyrim and Witcher. The environments are tad generic early on but expand in time and each has its own set enemies with their own set of weaknesses. You can't just use one gun or one type of ammo the whole game, which is neat. It can be a tad unforgiving at times, but I chalked most of that up to it being co-op focused and not designed primarily for solo play. I did managed to beat it on my own, though, and the last couple bosses were quite fun. So many games have a tendency to ramp up the difficulty at the end but Gearbox avoided that trap. It's tough but totally doable in a couple tries.

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The big to-do list:

Apotheon
Broken Age
A City Sleeps
DeadCore
Defense Grid 2
GemCraft - Chasing Shadows
Halo: Spartan Strike
Lumino City
The Marvellous Miss Take
Nom Nom Galaxy
Ori and the Blind Forest
Pix the Cat
Strider
Tengami
Valkyria Chronicles

Orginal Post

Finished:

8.Alien: Isolation:
The game starts of really strong,but after chapter 10 the game really lost me.
The next few levels after that aren't scary and as the result very boring.While it does get better later on, I really didn't care anymore.

9.One Finger Death Punch (2nd playthrough):
It was still a blast to play on master,but near the end the game really tested my refleces to there limits.

12. Rayman Legends:
It was every bit as good as a sequel to Rayman Origins should be.
With the excepting on the bonus world,all the levels are fanastic.

13. Kirby: Power Paintbrush
While I really like the game at the start,after a while the game gets really hard and frusrating.
It doesn't help that getting heath upgrades is a pain in the ass.

14. Bloodborne
My game of the year so far.It probably has the best level design in the souls series and some of the best boss battles,too.
While I have some minor problems with the game ,it's still absolutly worth playing.

15. Titan Souls
It's decent.The game is nothing,but a series of boss fights.The bosses are good for the most part, but some of them require you to be very fast and precise at the same time.
That often translates into trail and error,which isn't fun at all.

Currently playing:

16. Valkyria Chronicles
Really great SRPG,but it can get really frustrating.

17. Bloodborne (New game+)
Defeated Vicar Amelia.

#18 Bastion

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I was pretty happy when Super Giant announced that they would bring Bastion for the PS4,since i'm a big fan of Transistor and I've been wanting to play this game for a long time,since i skipped it on the X360 and felt uncomfortable playing it on the PC. And,well,it didn't disappoint at all ! Amazing graphics and OST,and the combat is excellent,the diverse options of guns and weapons made it very flexible,which is a great thing,since you need to constant change your gear for the different challenges that the game provides,especially if you play with the Idols. The Idols mechanic is great implemented too,different from the Limiters on Transistor,that made the game almost impossible,in Bastion the challenge was on point,and it never felt cheap ,you really needed to be patient and choose your moves. I didn't liked the storytelling that much though,the narrator and such,i just felt i was totally lost in the story after the twist in the middle,i hadn't idea what was going on. The "Who Knows Where" levels were amazing though,i loved how they told the backstory on these fragments.

#19 Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones



I'm a big fan of the first Stealth Inc, it's one of the most underrated indies ever imo, the level design is amazing, so i expected a lot from the sequel. And it certainly didn't disappointed ! The game got even better with the gadgets, it has some pretty amazing levels, especially the last 2 worlds, where you have the clone/teleporter gadgets that are very well utilized. The OST is amazing, the graphics, not only on the beauty aspect,but on characters models and such, is much better, and the story is pretty cool, i really liked that now we truly have an "relation" with the "narrator",you actually see him now. I didn't loved the open world, i got stuck a lot of times a lot because it doesn't do a good work showing where's the next level is,a lot of times i couldn't know that there were paths i needed to go and insisted on trying paths that i couldn't go at the time, but overrall it's still amazing as the first one, don't miss it. Oh, and the level designer on the game, Sam Robinson (@roboroto) it's a pretty cool guy, follow him on twitter

So this is a thing. What if I play Action 52?

Seriously though, I've been keeping a list of the games I play since I was 14 or 15 (I started playing games at 4 and its a damn shame I can't make a definitive list going back that far). Yes I'm weird and I love making lists. I used to just write the games in order and eventually I started adding dates for start and finish and even various notes on some games. I started writing in the margins of my study notebooks, then I had a notebook just for this and then just made word documents.

I did a quick count and I've already "won" this thing in 2013 and 2014. 53 games in 2013 and 57 games in 2014 that I beat (I don't have to beat something for it to go on my list). Well I've done it before and this year looks promising so I'm in. And I thought I'd never have a reason to share this with anyone.


1. Assassin's Creed Rogue - 12/30-1-8
It had one of the best stories in the series and the soundtrack was amazing. It was a great end to the American saga that incorporated all the best bits.

2. Assassin's Creed Unity - 1/1-1/19
At first the technical issues and gameplay changes had me raging. Then I somehow fell in love with the game. The setting was wonderful and the story felt removed from the series which I think worked out except for the flat ending. Platinumed and also did everything in Dead Kings.

3. Senran Kagura Bon Appetit - 1/16-1/25
The characters are why I love this series and the game had lots of interactions and fun moments. The fact that only 4 of the songs had singing was a big let down though.

4. LBP 3 - 1/21
I was surprised by the short length and by how charming it was. I didn't think they could match or top LBP2 and Vitas (my favorite) atmosphere but they did.

5. The Swapper - 1/25-1/26
Fun and challenging puzzle metroidvania. The philosophical scifi story reminded me of early 20th century scifi which I loved.

6. FF14 - 1/28-2/21
My first real MMO I really committed to. The forced PUGs mostly went well. The final dungeons were ruined by speed runners. A quality experience overall though.

7. Bravely Default - 2/7-3/16
Started off hating it but as a huge FF5 fan it dug its hooks into me. The cheap boss tactics late game grated on me but I got addicted to the game.

8. The Order 1886 - 2/24-2/25
Started out iffy and then the story pulled me in. And then it ended too soon. I had a fun time but damn they need to do better next time. It didn't feel like a full story or half of a story to share with a sequel, it felt like a prologue.

9. Dragon Ball XV - 2/26-3/4
RNG sucks. Fun times for a fan though. Co op was cool once the servers finally started working.

10. Thief - 3/17-3/23
I was shocked by the poor quality of the pre rendered scenes. For me, it was no Dishonored but it was a decent serving for my stealth appetite anyway. The Asylum scared the hell out of me.

11. Alien Isolation - 3/24-3/31
I know some people enjoy a challenge that derives from the game being unfair to you. I'm not one of those people. The game ran a little overlong and Ripley's terrible luck was crazy but the atmosphere was amazing and so worth it.

12. Xeodrifter - 3/29
Way too hard until it becomes way too easy. Also very tiny but I think it was mostly designed by one person so it's understandable. I also played Moon Chronicles part 1 (same dev). It was interesting but I didn't realize I had to pay for the rest so it's going to have to wait until I feel like going on.

13. Life is Strange - 4/5
Only the first episode so far. Really drew me in. Why does it have to be so unbearably sad and depressing. I'm a cryer. :'(

14. FF Type 0 - 4/5-4/10
I waited years to play this. As soon as I finally broke down and imported it and it arrived at my home, the HD version was announced. I was mostly not disappointed with the game. The final chapter was balls however and the story delivery is an incredible mess. Currently doing a 2nd playthrough bit by bit.

You'll notice I'm in sort of an RPG phase. I actually just got off an FPS kick from the late half of last year with Wolfenstien, COD, 007 Legends, Goldeneye remake, MCC and some others.

I think my list will be slowing down here for a while. Things are getting busy at work.

So, does fighting games count?

Becuase if so, I have a total of.....


....one.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=144699592&postcount=14

HiddenForbiddenHolyGround said:

So this is a thing. What if I play Action 52?

Click to expand...

If you actually play all 52 games to completion (or even for an hour each lol), then I think it's fair to say you're done for the year.

SheHateMe said:

So, does fighting games count?

Becuase if so, I have a total of.....


....one.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=144699592&postcount=14

Click to expand...

You know what you should try? Action 52!

You can even choose one game to skip.

Knurek

Original Post

Game 15: Freedom Wars - 40+ hours - April 20th, 2015

Freedom Wars is a testament in many ways to what the Vita could have been. Stunning graphics (for a handheld). Solid BGM. Great, addicting gameplay. The whole package is just tantalizingly good. Even though the story and characters aren't much to write home about, the game carries itself on the shoulders of the gameplay, which is just simply great...

However let's just address the elephant in the room: I didn't actually finish the game. You know why I didn't finish it? Because the last mission is a pile of shit. I don't get mad about games often. I don't complain about difficulty often. But the very last boss fight of Freedom Wars is terrible. I cannot complete it, no matter how much I have grinded or the strategies I've been tipped off with. Now you might say, "Oh well if it's too hard, don't solo it! Get a group online!" Great idea! Except for one little issue: I can't play online. I don't know why, as I was able to when I first bought the game. But as of January-ish, I can't get online. The game just disconnects me, no matter how many times I reset the router, my network settings or try any other officially suggested methods. And this of course doesn't happen with any other game or service. I can still download games and updates. I can still play other games online (hell I just played Killzone this afternoon). But Freedom Wars? Doesn't want to cooperate. So here I am, stuck with a game that I cannot complete. For crying out loud, there's not even a difficulty setting for me to adjust. So because of that, I'm done. I've spent nearly ten hours trying to finish this last boss, and I'm done giving a hoot. Since we don't have hugely specific rules on these things, I feel justified in counting this game.

Last year, I put this game on my GOTY list. I obviously did that prematurely, since I hadn't gotten to the last mission. To you Freedom Wars:╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮
- 7/10

Original Post



Game #16 & 17. The Walking Dead Season 1 & 2 (PS4)
I've been dying to play TWD for years but was never that happy about the price... finally took the overdue plunge (to celebrate getting a PS4 for my birthday no less!) and I came away pleasently surprised.
My Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and as big fans of the TV show we needed more Walking Dead in our lives after the season just finished. Really eager to see what Telltale do going forward, a great game overall.



Game #18. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros (PS4)
Another game that I'm rather LTTP with (as is the theme with pretty much all of my gaming this year) I had intended to buy a PS4 for this game..then the talk of the length (or lack thereof) of the game put me off I even managed to convince myself that I probably wouldn't enjoy the PS3 version and should probably just wait till I eventually get a PS4... months came and went but never bothered to jump onto the PS4 until Bloodborne came.

So anyways, MGSV:GZ... it's a nice warmup to Phantom Pain I guess, but after all my waiting and self hype, I must say that I was left a little underwhelmed by it all... Oh how I wish this would have just been included in the Phantom Pain like 'The Tanker' from MGS2 was.



Game #19. Resident Evil HD (PS4)
As a long time fan of RE and Day one buyer of the original Remake for Gamecube way back when, this purchase was a no brainer. I throughly enjoyed the trip down memory lane but I could have sworn that I don't remember it being so damn hard....
As mentioned with Advance Wars, my gaming ability has seriously dropped off a cliff as I've gotten older I'm unsure if its my fault or just a reflection of how the gaming industry has generally leaned towards the cinematic & streamlined approach in the years since this game came out, either way it sucks and I want my damn 1337 skills back.


Congrats to Knurek for being the first to 52! Currently playing:
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Bloodborne
Hyrule Warriors (Adventure mode)
Golden Sun
Mario 64
FIFA 15

Claiming this post.

I'm jumping in late here, but if nothing else I hope this gives me some motivation to eat through some of my backlog even if I don't make the goal. When I play a game I tend to get very invested in it, so I know my biggest issue will be knowing when to pull back and say "done". This list will focus on completion.

#1 - Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Played with a buddy. Great co-op as expected, but short and not all too different from the first.

#2 - SD Gundam 2 (SNES)
Fun bullet hell-esque action game from my childhood. Quick nostalgia trip enhanced by actually having watched the Gundam series that it references. Some BS boss battles though.

#3 - Goof Troop (SNES)
Played the Japanese version on Hard Mode with a friend. Classic better-than-you'd-think licensed Capcom game. Some of the sliding block puzzles were real head scratchers.

#4 - Transformers Prime (Wii)
After marathoning the show I was itching to jump back into the world since Robots in Disguise 2015 wasn't quite doing that for me. Above average licensed game with some actually kinda fun combat. Great spending time with these characters again. Super short campaign is a plus for me since it allowed me to indulge in some emblem (AKA achievement) hunting.

#5 - Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation (GCN)
Beat the game with every character and even got all the little rubber M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. I cleared it on hard with all the characters with the notable exception of Sunshine and Skullduggery; their slow movements are just too vulnerable to the A.I. I'm glad I unlocked Pandaman because he's just great, though I don't think anyone can touch Chihuahuaman (one of the pre-made custom fighters). Excellent AKI game I would love to try in multiplayer someday.

#6 - Monument Valley (Android)

Beautiful. A showcase of what mobile gaming can be capable of. The puzzles are never really head-scratchers until the final level, but I believe that actually works well in the game's favor - creating atmosphere as you slowly delve deeper into the monuments. All the little touches are what make this game. Also a great source of phone wallpapers.

#7 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)

Game froze up on me a few times. By the time I got up to the end boss I had the level select cheat memorized. I'm in still in awe of how great the level designs were in these older Sonic games. As a kid I was always amazed at how many different branching paths there were in any given level and that feeling hasn't receded at all. Growing up as a Super Nintendo kid had its perks, but Sonic 2 makes damn good case for the Genesis.

Favorite track: Aquatic Ruin Zone

#8 - Banjo-Kazooie (N64)

I stopped playing BK when I got to Rusty Bucket Bay and returning to it years later I can see why: just an exceedingly poorly designed stage. The less said about the engine room the better. This is exacerbated by the musical note count being reset after any death, forcing hours of meaningless backtracking. I wonder if it would be easier to stomach if I was younger and had more free time. Thankfully the game is still really charming; the smaller, more compact worlds are still a fond memory for me. Banjo and Kazooie themselves are great characters. I really dig the effort Rare put into their animations.

#9 - Castlevania (N64)

Man, isn't YouTube great for retro games? Another game I stopped playing towards the end (probably ~15 years ago) but this time I was literally at the final boss. I remember stowing it away in disgust when I found out Dracula had a 3rd form and losing meant you had to start over from the 1st. I looked up a no-damage run of this fight on YouTube and soon enough I had his pattern down pat, even easily defeating his final form with unused roast chickens to spare.

#10 - The Writer Will Do Something (Browser)

Having a game production education myself this was terrifying. All the stress I've experienced in tense game dev meetings just rushed back to me. The totality of game development is obviously not as bad, but as a microcosm this is an excellent tool to sober up over-eager game dev hopefuls. It generated instant sympathy for game writers though so mission accomplished.

#11 - Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GCN)

Busted the ol' Gamecube dance mat out for some exercise. I enjoyed the soundtrack more this time around; I remember being disappointed with the tracklist at release considering the legendary source material. I was in much worse physical shape when I played this in '05 so it was very empowering to see how much more stamina and energy I had this time around and the effect it had on my performance. Unlocking all the songs is pretty awful, you basically have to repeat story mode several times. Still, you can't deny the appeal of seeing Bowser doing pinwheel kicks as he puts Mario to shame with his wicked dance moves.

Favorite track: Moustache, Barrel and Gorilla

#12 - Transformers (PS2)

Played to completion and collected all the Mini-cons and Datacons on Normal. This one -really- took me by surprise with its quality. Exploring large open levels as my boy Optimus Prime? Yes please. Even technically speaking this game oozes production values with solid graphics and slick menus. The Mini-Con loadouts add a lot of variety in approaching different situations, although I wish you could swap them out mid-level. It likely won't happen, but I'd like to see another Transformers game in this vein. Maybe a slightly less difficult though. As it stands this is the only Transformers game I am aware of wherein Megatron can piledrive you from the stratosphere into a volcano. Recommended.

#13 - Azure Striker Gunvolt (3DS)

Got the true ending and beat the Special Missions. Gunvolt has a lot going on for a download-only title. A worthy successor to Mega Man Zero, although I don't think the tagging mechanic is quite as fun as good ol' blasting and slicing. The devs might have been able to alleviate this a bit by not making the cooldown when you expend all your EP so brutal. I didn't enjoy "reloading" by double-tapping down, would've much preferred a simple button press. Still, you don't see too many games like this anymore with that acrobatic dashing-all-over-the-screen-and-off-the-walls flair. Boss fights are easily the best use of this and Inti got a ton of mileage out of the mechanics here. Replay value is high; it was legitimately fun tackling some of the challenges and exploring the RPG mechanics. Respect for anyone else who beats Special Mission 5.

Its story is sparse and mostly serves as a framing device (as it should be), but the boss characters in particular get some fun personalities. I felt a little bad destroying them over and over in gradually more efficient ways. I'm sure this has been discussed extensively elsewhere but, this being my first foray with 8-4's specific blend of localization, they could do with turning the dial back a little on the dialogue.

#14 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

#15 - Mega Man V (Game Boy)

#16 - Broken Age (PC) - Part 1 was charming and a joy to play. Part 2... not so much.

#17 - Super Mario Maker (Wii U) - Unlocked all the level tools, completed all the 10-Mario Mode courses and beat the NWC levels. I don't have all the mystery mushroom costumes but considering how long that will take I consider it completed as far as single-player content.

#18 - Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade)

#19 - Mega Man: The Power Battles (Arcade)

#20 - Marvel vs Capcom (Arcade)

#21 - Amiibo Taps: Nintendo's Greatest Bits (Wii U) - Unlocked all games and played every scene.

#22 - Halo: ODST (X360)

#23 - Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (PS3)

#24 - Darkstalkers Resurrection (PS3)

#25 - Transformers Devastation (PS3)

#26 - Mega Man X (Wii U) - I've beaten this game probably dozens of times, but I wanted to do a no-buster, minimal upgrade, no e-tank run on the Wii U VC version. I ended up using e-tanks on the final Sigma form (cuz damn), but otherwise a clean run.

#27 - Undertale special demo (PC) - This supposedly has original content not found in the game proper so I'm treating it as its own thing. I also don't expect to play the full game this year.

#28 - Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (PS2) - There's no real single-player content here worth noting, but I've put a lot of time into the Create-a-Wrestler mode. I have buddies that stream matches with our characters every Monday so it's a lot of fun seeing our creations go at it -- we also bet on the outcomes with fake money Salty Bet-style. I'll continue to add more characters this year probably, but I'm going to mark this completed since I've acclimated to the editor.

#29 - Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (Arcade) - Beat this earlier but can't place exactly when.

#30 - Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360)

#31 - .detuned (PS3) - An "interactive" music video that doesn't really have any goals or objectives. However it does have some trophies, which I managed to collect all of.

#32 - Resident Evil 5 (360)

#33 - LIT (Mobile)

#34 - Sonic Runners (Mobile) - Played enough to know that I don't want to play anymore. Progress is far too slow and it is too difficult to unlock anything of note. A shame because I like the base gameplay and some of the unlocks are genuinely cool.

#35 - Vib-Ribbon (PSOne Classic via PS3) - Got a high score on all 3 difficulties.

#36 - Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4)

#37 - Grand Theft Auto V (PS3)

#38 - Life is Strange: Episode 1 (PS3)

#39 - Linger in Shadows (PS3) - A short "interactive art" piece from the PSN. Despite the interaction, I was disappointed I couldn't have any real effect on the narrative.

#40 - Ace Mathician (DSiWare on 3DS)

#41 - Dokidoki Letter Relay (Wii U) - Free downloadable game from the Nintendo Game Seminar. Only available on the Japanese eShop. Shame because it's both fun and a great use of the gamepad.

#42 - Gundam Wing: Endless Duel (SNES) - Beat story mode on hard.

#43 - Lightsaber Escape (Chrome/Mobile) - TRAITOR!

#44 - Emily is Away (PC) - I like the way the game was laid out and everything, but the whole time I just wanted to be talk with Emily and the game kept assuming I wanted to be in a relationship. The game gives you false agency and then keeps trying to goad you into playing it the way it wants to be played before telling you how you're supposed to feel at the end.

#45 - Alphabet (PC) - Keita Takahashi's LA Game Space experiment. Did not like it.

#46 - VideoHeroeS alpha version (PC)

#47 - Perfect Stride alpha version (PC)

#48 - Pachalafaka (PC)

#49 - Inputting (PC)

#50 - IZLAGS (PC)

#51 - spiralsky (PC)

#52 - Tyto Ecology (iPad)

Game Beaten #35: Goat Simulator (X360) - 4 Hours
(Started 4/17/15 / Finished 4/18/15)
I played this last year on Steam but was super happy to see this on Xbox 360. The game is a blast to play and it was fun chasing the achievements. Aside from Flappy Goat, that little mini game caused me so much anger.



Game Beaten #36 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PSN) - 4.5 Hours
(Started/Finished 4/19/15)
Another game I did last year. Replayed for a game of the month club I'm in but on PSN this time instead of X360. Still find it to be a beautiful game, and oh so sad.



Game Beaten #37 Paint Park Plus (Vita) - 10 Minutes
(Started/Finished 4/20/15)
Was told about this game after finishing Welcome Park, it's a badly designed Paint app with easy trophies!



Game Beaten #38 Yoshi's New Island (3DS) -5.5 Hours
(Started 4/3/15 / Finished 4/21/15)
My opinions are mixed because the game feels like a bad remake of the SNES game but it's actually a sequel. As a game standing on its own it isn't awful it just doesn't feel particularly creative, something that the series has always been good at. The only element added for this release was giant eggs and while they are cool their isn't a lot they can do with them. There is zero challenge, lives are given out like candy, and each level rarely deviates from a straight line.

OG Post 2

Damn, Knurek, fast as Hell.

I have officially hit the 20 game mark.

Game 17: Assassin's Creed (PC) - March 30 - 25 hours
My first non-handheld foray into the Assassin's Creed franchise. I thought it controlled horribly, and it seemed like most of my battles were with the interface, jumping in and out of modes by accident. Never felt I actually was in complete control. However, the game is strikingly beautiful, uses a great time period and setting, and probably the best-realized cities (the crowds, ambience, ect.) in any game to date. A good game, albeit flawed, would be my final verdict.

Game 18: Ar Tonelico Melody of Elemia (PS2) - April 1 - 44 hours
Beautiful RPG with incredible, haunting music. In game visuals were standard fare, but the character designs and portraits are top-notch, heroes and villains alike. I chose Mischa's path, and besides for a long slog through the tower in the middle of part 2, the game never lost pace or became a chore. I liked the combat where it was all about the 'mages', who were the key to everything and the focal point of the game, and you are more or less the bodyguard. My first Gust RPG, won't be the last.

Game 19: The Pinball Arcade (PS3) - April 11 - 3 hours
Very faithful pinball simulation, with classic tables recreated. Well made, but the wife and I (she's the big pinball fan) both prefer the Zen Pinball games, so I got the high scores on the available tables and called it a day.

Game 20: The King of Fighters '95 (PSP) - April 16 - 3 hours
As with the rest of the KOF PSP games, fun classic KOF gameplay, looks great, marred by terrible load times. Beat the game with the Ikari Warriors team, smooth sailing save for Omega Rugal, who was pretty ridiculous.

Original Post

Original post

Game #25: Ori and the Blind Forest



This game is the most beautiful love story I've ever seen in a video game. But not the story of a couple, instead it tells the story of maternal love, the purest of all forms of love. The story is beautiful, touching and deep, but at the same time it doesn't overstay its welcome, it doesn't interrupt the flow of the game with long ass cutscenes and the dialogues are few and between. You see the story happen. You feel the story. The actions of the characters in this game are moved by their feelings and emotions, mainly love. Ori is a game I recommend to everyone. It is a masterpiece.

Game 8: Steven Universe - Attack the LIght - 6h | Started: 4/3/15 - Completed: 4/5/15
Fun RPG on mobile with a nice short story in the Steven Universe...universe. Decent combat system with a bit of choice for a mobile game. Did have a few harder fights early on as well. Very well made, though it did eat up tons of battery. I'd suggest playing it if you're a fan of the show. While it lacks a ton of it, there is a little voice acting from the official cast and cute scenes with them in it.

Game 9: Kentucky Route Zero - Act I - 1h 30m | Started: 4/19/15 - Completed: 4/19/15
I got this on sale ages ago and am finally getting around to it. It's way more VN than even adventure game, but it seems so open ended in where you can go and see. Almost directionless at first until...well, this game is weird. The right kind of weird. Love the art style and the entire vibe it puts out.

Game 10: Kentucky Route Zero - Act II - 2h | Started: 4/19/15 - Completed: 4/21/15
Umm...man is this game out there. Like way way out there. I can't say more other than I do like it. It's just...I don't expect half the stuff going on and I'm not even sure what is real or fake anymore.

Initial Post Here

Original Post - Part 1
Original Post - Part 2

Game #30: HanaFuckyouNoESakura Samurai: Art of the Sword: 5.7 hours

Click to expand...

AKA Iaijutsu Simulator 2011. As stated on this forum before, it's basically Punch-Out in feudal Japan with 3D movement and less complexity. I found the 3D movement doesn't add anything though as the lock-on is automatic and disengaging it is an easy way to get yourself killed.

If this game was a little shorter I would've hated it. The end-game enemies have a nasty habit of starting attack chains that are only differentiable after they've initiated the first attack and you're busy dodging it. It was only near the end I came to realise that for all the game's encouragement to do perfect dodges performing a good-enough dodge or dodging for the worst case scenario and missing an opening are acceptable courses of action. After that some enemies became a lot easier to deal with, especially the enemies that also use iajutsu because by the time you realise they're going to do two attacks it's too late. But if you dodge twice assuming they will the worst then you'll be okay, even if you miss the opportunity to kill them if they only attack once.

Putting really long levels infront of the bosses also soured the boss fights a bit, and there was only about 4 backgrounds/levels to fight in. But in the end I did get the hang of it and thought it was pretty enjoyable.

Game 11: Kentucky Route Zero - Act III - 3h 30m | Started: 4/21/15 - Completed: 4/22/15
Well, I wasn't really expecting any of that. This game continues to surprise with each additional act. I cannot wait to play the final one, whenever that comes out. That song in the middle too...this game is truly something special.

Initial Post Here

Original Post: Games #1 - #6
Original Post 2: Games #7 - #10
Original Post 3: Games #11 - #14



Game #15: The Walking Dead: Season One - PS4
Completion: Platinum Trophy
Personal Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

One of the better storytelling attempts in gaming, The Walking Dead tries very hard to emulate the comics and tv series. The problem I've had with it, however, is that I hate just about every character other than Lee and Clementine. I'm supposed to be forming tense relationships with the other survivors but I'm constantly wanting to unload my handgun into Kenny's chest. Pretty much every other survivor is nothing other than a mildly annoying burden (at best) or a life-threateningly incompetent powder-keg waiting to blow. There's very little actual gameplay going on as I sit through painful dialogue sequences that are occassionally timed for seemingly no rhyme or reason. I feel like the game takes me out of the game (which is mostly solving simple puzzles) for dialogue and cutscenes. That said, it's still an enjoyable, if flawed, experience.



Game #16: Dragon Age: Inquisition - PS4
Completion: Completed Main Story and majority of side-content (90 hours)
Personal Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Inquisition quickly becomes a very tedious game. It was around the 10 hour mark where I realized that I had basically seen everything the game would ever have to offer and the remaining 60+ hours was going to be tedious repetitive bullshit. But I pressed on because the combat is still fun and it is still a very engrossing world. But so much of that is overshadowed by the horrendously designed side-quest mechanics, most notably requisitions and the war room table missions. Requisitions are essentially MMO-style material dumps for Power, which is a completely unnecessary currency since you will have 100s of extra Power by just doing a handful of exploration and side-quests (at one point I was sitting at over 250 Power with almost nothing left to spend it on). The war room table missions are even worse - being limited and timed events that take one of your advisors out of use for anywhere from 10 mins to 24 hours of real time. This becomes especially frustratingly stupid when the game then throws required missions into the mix that you need to send these advisors on to further the story and open up new quests. However, if you've already sent them on some other timed mission, you must wait for them to return before you can continue playing the game. It is F2P mobile design in a single-player console RPG that has no business being in the game, at all.

Multiplayer is another odd-ball. The combat is built around having a definitive tank (Warrior with high health and guard), at least one rogue to unlock, a Mage with Barrier skills, and careful use of potions. Multiplayer throws you into a random group which very often will be missing a key role (Warriors not built for tanking, no Mages, no Rogues, a Mage without Barrier or that doesn't use it) and only gives you a single health potion to start. You will quickly discover that without a solid party, even the easiest of the multi-stage levels can be punishingly difficult. A single bad pull can easily wipe the party, forcing you to start the entire level over again. And without a solid tank, a good barrier mage, and every single person in the party maximizing their potion efficiency, every level becomes a battle of attrition that usually ends with your party facing the final 'boss' room of 20-something enemies with the whole party being at low health and void of potions. 15 minutes are arduous fighting ends in painful defeat with little reward. It's a sometimes fun distraction to the main game that more often than not ends in frustration and disappointment. Once again, Bioware has shown a glimmer of an amazing RPG but managed to fuck it up with terrible design decisions - a staple of the Dragon Age franchise evident in all three iterations to varying degrees.



Game #17: Orcs Must Die! 2 - PC
Completion: Completed all Nightmare levels and DLC
Personal Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

This game is amazingly fun. I've beaten it both in single-player and co-op and played through all of the available DLC. This is a good example of a sequel that doesn't stray away from the solid, fun formula of the original while improving just about everything. There's more weapons, more trinkets, more traps, more enemy variations, more levels, more game modes and the co-op is a blast. It's probably the best active 'tower defense' style game I've played so far. Highly recommended.



Game #18: The Witcher - PC
Completion: Act I
Personal Rating: Abandoned - No Rating

I intended to playthrough the entire Witcher series, in order, prior to jumping into Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. But after 20 hours of frustration, I'm calling it on the original Witcher. I've reached a cutscene in Act 1 that continually crashes both the Witcher and often my entire PC. I'm not able to get beyond this cutscene or find a solution to the issue. I've tried just about everything I can think of - patching, drivers, starting a new game, reinstalling, the memory patch for x64 systems. If I can't diagnose the problem, I can't fix it. I have too many other games to play to put up with this shit. This is why I prefer consoles.

Original post

Game #26: Rayman Legends



I have been playing this one for over a month, but I didn't want it to finish so I slowed down my playthrough. Rayman Legends is to me the best platformer of the past generation and far better than the already great Rayman Origins. The level design is fantastic and also kinda bizarre. I have been playing platformers since 1995 and in almost two decades I have never seen nothing similar. I am a Sonic fan but Rayman Legends does a better job with "running" stages than Sonic does in a lot of stages (take that, SEGA).

Rayman Legends allows the player to use various playable characters, the majority being nothing but different skins of the main characters (Rayman, Globox, Barbara and a Teensie). I like that because it gives the player lots of variety of playable chars. I think other developers should follow the lead, actually. Imagine if Tropical Freeze allowed you to use Funky Kong instead of DK or Tiny Kong instead of Dixie? It would have been nice.

The bosses are great, this one being my favorite. The soundtrack goes from average to great and speaking of it, the highlights of the game to me are the musical levels. They are like a mix of Sonic and Harmo Knight, pretty fun. An example.

Game 12: Mirror's Edge - 7h | Started: 4/22/15 - Completed: 4/23/15
It's a bit old, but still looks really good on PC. Lots of indoor and outdoor scenery is still stylish and well presented in-game. Running around the rooftops were equally enjoyable once I got the hang of most maneuvers, though a few I didn't quite get the hand of till much later. Sad that the PC version didn't allow for full customization of controls. Using the bumpers a ton on my 360 controller sucked. The main thing that was disappointing was the combat, which felt it lacked the same grace and speed that movement allowed. The control scheme didn't help all that much either, making a few of the later areas a bit harder to complete. I hope that the sequel to this game lives up to the visual style of this one and they drastically improve the control scheme to make the entire game more enjoyable.

Initial Post Here

First time posting on Gaf but I would like to partake in this activity if it is not too late.

Reserving post!

Games in progress:

1) Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (Start Date: 3/19/15 End Date: ???)

2) Never Alone (Start Date: 4/20/15 End Date: ???)

3) Dragon's Crown (Start Date: 3/8/15 End Date: ???)



Games completed!

1) Mighty Gunvolt - Time: <1hr



A nice little fun game. It helps scratch the jump and shoot itch in a small dose and its short enough to keep people like me (who's mind wanders like crazy after sometime) attentive. It is like eating a fun size pack of peanut M&M's, short and sweet. Bosses are pretty easy once you get the pattern down. Everything about this is just simple. And for the price it seems sort of fitting. Don't see much replay value after beating it with all 3 characters though and it does become a bit stale going through all the stages again with a new character. Still not terrible though

2) The Unfinished Swan - (Start Date: 5/7/15 End Date: 5/10/5)



A fun and whimsical game. Very entertaining and quite engaging as well. The puzzles were not very difficult but they were interesting and felt fresh and new. Never really played a game like this before. Beautiful game and seems like a perfect game to share with the family.

3) Murasaki Baby - (Start Date: 5/13/15 End Date: 5/13/5)



An odd game at first. I didn't really appreciate the aesthetics from the start but it grew on me once I learned to read the feelings shown by the characters. I wouldn't call it a horror game by any means but its themes seem to dwell in a child's fears made manifest by their imagination. The gameplay is very unique and seems to be one of the most interesting games to play on the Vita since it seems to use the Vita's capabilities and features better than any other game I have played on the system. It is all about learning the tools you are given and using them to solve puzzles that for the most part are simple but satisfying. My one gripe is that there were moments where i hate to take care of multiple things using the touch screen and it made my fingers feel a bit cluttered. Over all it was a very cute and found the level design interesting and fun. a decent 8 out of 10.

Blurry15 said:

First time posting on Gaf but I would like to partake in this activity if it is not too late.

Reserving post!

Click to expand...

It's never too late. You might not succeed but you might be glad you did it anyway. Even though I'll probably make it to 50 this has been good motivation to not get caught up playing Smash Bros for 500 hours and it gives me a nice record of what I thought of everything I played this year.

Been a while since I updated this thread.

My list in my last post:

1. Danganronpa 2 (platinum)
2. Gravity Rush (platinum)
3. Flower
4. Ico
5. God of War (platinum)
6. Shadow of the Colossus
7. Uncharted 3

Since then I have done:

8. God of War 2 (platinum)
Been so long since I updated that this is already a blur in my mind lol. I definitely preferred it to the first game (especially when it comes to pacing), but overall I just feel this series is too mindless as a hack and slash. Still enjoyable and I'll keep playing the rest of the games though.
7/10

9. inFamous: First Light (platinum)
This took a while to get through as it just didn't really click with me until the end. It's the arena's that this game shines in, they make use of your toolset and let you go wild. Makes me want a full fledged inFamous that ditches the open world aspect and goes for more focused combat scenarios with tight level design.
8/10

10. Resogun (platinum)
I think I included this last year but I only ever beat the game once then. Really got into it this time around and did the harder difficulties and eventually the platinum trophy. Really adored it.
9/10

11. 999: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors
Ah this game was fantastic. Having to re-do puzzle rooms each playthrough to get the endings was a bit of a grind but overall I loved it. Great characters, great writing, a bit of humour, a great finale, and overall a great game. Have to start up VLR soon.
9/10

12. Rhythm Heaven
Having loved the Wii game so much I figured it was time to play this seeing as I had the DS out for 999. Overall I think it was a bit weaker, but still a fantastic rhythm game and cements the series as one of my favourites, and it made me import the GBA game!
Favourite games would be DJ School, Frog Hop, Lockstep (after the frustration of getting good at it), Karate Man, Love Lab and Fan Club.
9.5/10

13. Dark Souls (platinum)
Finally got back into this after a long break and finished it up (as well as the DLC). Then went on to do another one and a half playthroughs to get the platinum trophy. Those extra playthroughs made me really appreciate the level design, as I used as many shortcuts as I could to skip as many bosses as possible. It's amazing how quickly you can get through the game if you know what you're doing (and have the Master Key).
Definitely one of the highlights of the past generation.
10/10

14. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Still have the final, final, final level to go but I'll count this as done for now, because who knows how long it'll take me to finish that, all gems and challenges are finished. I adored this game, the levels got nice and complex towards the end which was nice, but oh my god it's so cute, it's taken the clean HD Mario aesthetic to absolute perfection and made one of the most gorgeous looking games of all time, and the Toad's animations are perfect. Also gave us a neat new Mario villain (hurray for no Bowser!).
9/10

Blurry15 said:

First time posting on Gaf but I would like to partake in this activity if it is not too late.

Reserving post!

Click to expand...

Great choice for a first post! Not too late at all!

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Game #27 : Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest



My favorite game since the 90s. I play it at least twice every year. Donkey Kong Country 2 represents a lot of what I like about video games. The game has charisma, a fantastic soundtrack, simple and entertaining gameplay mechanics, beautiful stages and level design that very few games are comparable. Not to mention the great boss battles. It is a game I will never get tired of playing.

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Game 14: Ryse: Son of Rome (6 Hours)(XBox One) – 4/1/2015

Better than i thought. For a launch game it still is among one of the better looking games on the Xbox One, although the lack of variety on AI models did stick out sorely. The combat was simple and grew a bit repetitive but it still felt great to feel like a badass hacking everyone down. I wasn't to impressed with the story mode and felt it really dragged at the start but the last 3 or 4 chapters really got interesting and they ended on a strong note.

Game 15: Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious (3 Hours)(XBox One) – 4/2/2015

I really enjoyed Forza Horizon 2 this past fall and after not playing it for a few months i thought i would really enjoy coming back. The idea was interesting in having to win the cars for the story but integrating it into the challenges in horizon just didn't feel right. Driving was as expected and great, but when it came down to it after running through the story i wasn't compelled to keep playing. A great demo for the base game and i would still encourage those who enjoyed this game and haven't played the base game to pick it up.

Game 16: DriveClub (19 Hours)(PS4) – 4/12/2015

I must say the graphics including the weather of this game were stunning and i really enjoyed racing around the environments and taking it all in. I was also surprised at the amount of vehicles. I know some said it was on the light side but i never felt like i had no options or overwhelmed with to many. Unfortunately that's where my enjoyment ended. I wasn't a fan of how the cars handled and in a racer that's what really matters.

Game 17: Mortal Kombat X (9 Hours)(XBox One) – 4/20/2015

The combat felt great as ever, the fatalities, and interacting environments were a treat to run through. The story had an interesting thing going for it although i cant say i was to grasped with the next generation of the fighters. But overall a good mix-up of cast and no terrible end boss difficulty spike like in MK9. I would have spent more time with this but i kept encountering issues with online play. Either i had a terrible connection or the net code wasn't up to par and for that reason i don't see much life for me in this game going forward.

Game 18: This War of Mine (11 Hours)(PC) – 4/23/2015

Beautiful art, and a very unique take on things. I loved the characters and felt the impact of choices, missteps, and results. The survival aspect was challenging, and offered plenty of different approaches. My only complaint with it was that a lot of it was left unexplained resulting in it being difficult to judge what exactly you needed to concentrate on. But once you get the hang of this, you can really get immersed in everything, and experience the impact of war from the survivor/victims side.

Game Beaten #39 Tennis In The Face (Vita) - 3 Hours?
(Finished 4/23/15)
So this is a strange Angry Birds clone about a tennis player with anger issues caused by a soda that is addicting and can cause explosions (of both temper and actual). You bounce tennis balls or cans of EXPLODZ in stages to knock out the stages enemies (clowns, cops, nerds, other stereotypes). Easy trophy list too because you don't need to 3 star any levels. The downside is the balls have a mind of their own, precision bouncing is simply luck of the draw.

OGPost2

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21. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (PC)
Completed the first half of the winning path on Ace, the second half on Veteran. I cheesed the first ground mission by using invulnerability because fuck ground missions that don't let you target or shoot missiles at tanks.

The good news first: that new engine makes Wing Commander III so much more fun to play when it comes to dogfighting. Collisions with other ships is much less of an issue than it used to be, the game doesn't slow to a crawl or speed up depending on the number of ships in the battle, and ships actually look good even close up. Compared to Wing Commander and its sequel, Heart of the Tiger has aged considerably better where it counts: the gameplay.

Or it sort of has, anyways. First, the technical issues: something about the joystick support is wonky, because subtle movements of the stick can often translate into movement in the OPPOSITE direction on screen, making fine aiming basically impossible. This would be less of an issue if the hitboxes were about the same size as previous Wing Commanders, but in Heart of the Tiger you have to be much more precise with your shots to hit anything. This means guns are generally much less useful than missiles, and you've only got so much of those. Certain fights (i.e. a certain early-game duel) practically require you to use missiles, because otherwise you'll be locked into a guns-only stalemate. Furthermore, ground missions require much more precise aim because you can only destroy tanks with gunfire. You can't target tanks, so no missiles. Worse, you don't get ITTS either, so the aim assist on the Excalibur is useless. Ground missions are basically an excuse to fly your ship into the ground or get shot up by tanks ten, twenty, thirty times over.

But let's get to the real sin of Wing Commander III: its mission design. Missions tend to fall into two categories: normal missions, which are fun; and marathon missions, which seem designed solely to wear you out through attrition and remind you that Chris Roberts hates in-mission checkpoints and also fuck you and your valuable time. Thanks to the Wing Commander CIC site, I know exactly how many ships one mission forces you to face with just one wingman, both of you in Hellcats or worse. That number is FORTY-EIGHT. Forty-four fighters and four corvettes. I know Confed's supposed to have it tough in the war, but if every Confed pilot is able to reliably kill 24 ships per sortie like I'm supposed to be able to, we should've marched on Kilrah decades ago. Heart of the Tiger wins the dubious honor of having the worst mission design I've ever seen in a space sim. Eventually I broke down and found a different build of DOSBox just so I could use save states (which worked flawlessly, btw). Without them, I probably never would've finished the game, or at least spent several more hours trying to break through walls of fighters by bashing my head into them.

Compared to the abhorrent mission design, all of Wing Commander III's other problems feel slight, but they're worth mentioning. It's far too obsessed with being a movie, forcing you to watch interminable cutscene after interminable cutscene of Mark Hamill walking into and out of elevators. Its branching cutscenes turn ludicrous when it comes to forcing you to pick a love interest for no apparent reason, and then depicting the spurned woman as petty to the point of childishness (women amiright? No, Chris Roberts, you are not right). And though the story asks you to believe Confed is on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Kilrathi, it never feels like it. You're doing AWESOME in the game. By the end, you'll probably have 200+ kills to your name alone, including at least one carrier. How are we losing the war? And especially how are we losing the war when we have a whole fleet parked just outside Kilrah? Name me another war where both sides had an invading army lurking just outside each other's capital city.

Wing Commander III cements my opinion that Wing Commander IV is the best Wing Commander, but it also makes me wonder if maybe the entire series isn't as good as I thought it was when I was a kid.

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Game 16: Genroku Legends: Fishy Tales of the Nekomata - 9 hours, 54 minutes - April 25th, 2015

This was some damn good DLC. Not often do I get to sink 9+ satisfying, delicious hours into something that I bought for $5. Tales of the Nekomata has everything that a Muramasa DLC needs: beautiful art, absurd character design, ridiculous bosses and addicting combat. There was a point in the DLC where my jaw just dropped. The boss design at one is just so nutty that I couldn't believe Vanillaware actually put it into a game. The best part? It all still hearkens back to traditional Japanese folklore in a really fun way. You might see the cat-girl on the DLC cover and roll your eyes. I know I did. But damn, it wasn't quite what I thought it'd be. Really this DLC could be done in less than 3 hours if you're going slow, but I amassed 9 hours goofing around trying to get the second ending. I'm not sure if I'll do that for all of the DLCs, but I might...
- 10/10

Game 19 - Megaman X2 - Started 4/10/15, finished 4/18/15 - 3ish hours

More of the same but it's hard to complain when the same is pretty damned entertaining. I found collecting the special items much harder than X this time around whereas the final bosses were quite a bit easier. Regardless, I have enough fun to where I immediately started on X3. We'll see how that goes.

Game 20 - Megaman X3 - Started 4/18/15, finished 4/21/15 - 3-4 hours

Disappointing about sums it up. X3 takes everything from X2 and makes it worse. The level designs are uninspired, the bosses are simple (especially if you have their weakness) and the music is garbage. The game adds even more backtracking and collectables to the mix, which would have been okay if they mattered in the grand scheme of things but collecting the armors ultimately amounts to nothing as they get practically zero use. In the grand tradition of X1, the difficulty spikes quite a bit for the final levels and battles. I just wish I relished the challenge when I really just wanted this game to end.

Game 21 - Dark Souls (including DLC) - Started 1/16/15, finished 4/25/15 - 75:59

Amazing. Incredible. Superb. All words that went through my mind while I was playing Dark Souls (most of which I played in the last month). The joke is that I started the game not figuring out that Estus Flasks recharge at bonfires and so I kept getting slaughtered by the first non-Undead Asylum boss because I refused to use them. Once I finally figured it out, the game was frequently challenging but never sadistically so. The level and art design is superb, the fighting engine absolutely perfect and the bosses. Shit, the bosses. Some of them gave me the biggest challenge since Oath in Felghana. It's a very rare game that can keep me engaged for over 70 hours but Dark Souls managed it, to the point where I bought Bloodborne! But Dark Souls 2 will be first (at some point). Hell, I'm even tempted to do NG+! Shit, I loved this game.

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Game #24 - Never Alone (PS4) - 13/04/15

A neat, short little puzzle/platformer that reminded me a lot of Brothers. The brief look into native Alaskan culture, both in the videos and the game story, was pretty cool, as I always enjoy finding out about other cultures. And the art style really clicks at certain points of the game.

My only real problem, and it was a big one, was the janky platforming. There were a couple of points near the end of the game, where I was meant to jump onto a spirit on the side of the wall and yet every time I made the jump, I went straight the the spirit and fell to my death. I must've tried one jump 10+ times and since this was at the very end of the game, it really soured my experience with it. By the time I finally got past those points and finished it, I was glad it was over.



Game #25 - Bloodborne (PS4) - 19/04/15

There's still eight more months left in the year but I feel pretty safe in naming Bloodborne as my Game of the Year already. While I haven't gotten around to playing Dark Souls 1 or 2 yet, all-out melee builds was by far my favourite in Demon's Souls, so I loved all the changes they made to Bloodborne's gameplay. There may be a lot less weapons than all the other games but they've obviously put a lot more time into each of them and the trick feature is pretty cool. Guns aren't as powerful as I thought going into it, mostly used to parry but in combination with Bone Ash Marrow, can still do some good damage.

Alongside the gameplay changes, I love the world they've created. The art style is incredible, making it easily the best looking game From Software have ever released. It's going to be difficult going back to the Dark Souls art style, once I eventually get around to them.

I think my only real problem with the game, aside from the loading time and bugs (which are being improved), are the chalice dungeons. I really think they would've been a good opportunity to add traditional co-op to the game, since they don't progress like the normal campaign, but no, they're even worse, since you can only co-op in the same instance of a dungeon (so you have to import your friends dungeon to connect AND progress through it to where they're up to). It's really poorly thought out and pretty disappointing compared to the rest of the game.

But oh well, bring on the DLC!



Game #26 - MonsterBag (PSV) - 20/04/15

An interesting little puzzle game that really wore thin by the end, especially with the way they tried to up the difficulty near the end, making it more frustrating and annoying than anything else.



Game #27 - Helldivers (PS4) - 24/04/15

I'm still waiting on the 1.04 patch to fix the trophy bug that prevented me from getting the campaign trophy but for all intents and purposes, I'm finished with the game.

My first few hours playing Helldivers was in single player in the easier missions and I found it alright but not particularly noteworthy. It wasn't until I finally jumped into multiplayer with randoms that I really saw the appeal. When you're in a bad team, it's a pretty miserable experience. They'll stop every time they see an enemy, start shooting and on the harder planets, quickly get bogged down against a never ending stream of enemies. But when you find a good team, one that knows that speed is an asset, that you don't need 4 mechs all the time and that it's only worth stopping when you're at an objective, it turns into an incredible co-op experience. After 10 hours of that though, I had run through all the content in the game numerous times and was just pretty sick of it. I managed to will myself into grinding to level 25 but I think that's as far as I'll go. I might come back later on though, since they've promised to continue supporting the game for a while to come.



Game #28 - Virtua Fighter 2 (PS3) - 25/04/15

I bought this on a whim because it's absurdly cheap in the current EU PSN sale and I hadn't played it in something like 17 or so years. I went through everything I could and while it's still fun and a good fighting game, it's kinda hard to go back to it after VF4 Evo and VF5 FS.

Currently Playing

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC)

There's I'll beat Witcher 2 this month, so I guess that's it for me until next month. I'm hoping to get Witcher 2, FF Type-0 and Witcher 3 all done by the end of May but honestly, I'll probably be lucky to get two of those done in that time.

Ok so, I broke my New Year's resolution of finishing 5 games for every 1 I buy, and as a result, this is the first one I've finished in a month and a half.

Games 1 - 20
Games 21+

Game 24: Mortal Kombat X

Truth be told, I wasn't terribly excited to play this. I loved MK9 to bits, but when this was announced I thought that a flashier version of the same thing wasn't necessary, so I tuned out completely from all the pre-release coverage. I saw it picked up some good scores, and saw it available on PC for less that £20, so I thought, "why not?". Fuck. ME. I had severely underestimated how good this would be. The story was a blast of nonsensical comic-book fun and I wasn't expecting so many new characters, let alone for almost all of them to be great. Cassie Cage has probably shot straight to being my favourite of the whole damn series. Sure, it doesn't have the depth and longevity of something like Street Fighter in multiplayer, but I'll be damned if this isn't the greatest single-player fighting game of all time.
If you liked MK9 or any superhero movie, you'll like this.

9. The Little Mermaid

This game was really, really easy.

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Update:

Game #13 : Bloodborne

Rating: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734; | Platform: PS4 | Beaten: 24/04/2015 | Time: 33:20 h

Finally. I finished next game.
It was my first encounter with "souls" game. Firstly I am very proud of myself, that I finished it. Secondly I thought this game will be tougher, especially boss fights. After that I have enough "souls" games and probably it was my first and last time with these games. Rather not my cup of tea.

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Game Beaten #40 Dead or Alive 4 (X360) - An Hour
(Started & Finished 4/25/15)
This was the last Dead Or Alive title I needed to finish to beat them all at this point in time. 4 reminds me a lot of 3 but more polished. In fact its hard to spot new things in this and just easily spot elements from 3 that have been made better.

OGPOst2

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Update after almost 2 months. Still behind schedule to finish 52 in a year. Probably won't make it, but I'll keep this up anyway.

March:


5. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (3DS) - 49 hours
Had loads of fun with this game, way more expansive in song choices in comparison to the first iteration.
I've completed each song (DLC excluded) atleast once, but with lots of plays of my more favorite songs, and some quest medley's here and there, which by the way are a great improvement over the chaos shrines.
I'll probably bring this along for the long flights that await me in May. There is still lots I can do but I consider it completed.


6. Divinity: Original Sin (PC) - 100 hours
The tactical combat was very well executed. Loved to have some party members start combat and then some others sneak-attacking the enemies.
Played this co-op with a friend from start to finish which probably also partly expains the 100 hours. Co-op had a few issues with following text-conversation when one player initiates, the second didn't really have a nice way to follow. But that was all solved after the numerous patches it received over the past year.
Around the last part of the game, it did feel a bit long in the tooth, as skill variety did not change much once you've found the good combo's. All-in-all, great game!

Oh, I almost forgot.....THE MUSIC IS PHENOMENAL! Not much I can say about it, you'll just have to listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiR4g0A-83s


7. Final Fantasy XV - Episode Duscae (PS4) - 10 hours
Amazing introduction for an unfinished game. Certainly still needs improvement to the final game. But certain things have me very hyped.
I'm ready S-E. Bring on the release date during E3 for the end of the year. I cannot stand the wait much longer than that!

April:


8. Rust (PC) - 131 hours
Doesn't really have an end, but I think 131 hours qualifies as completed.
This game irked my compulsive need to build, which unfortunately puts me in the crosseye of raiders wanting to raid an adventurous building.


9. Infamous - First Light (PS4) - 6 to 8 hours
First Infamous title I've played. It's nice looking, combat is okay, great even for this length of a game.
But I doubt I could play a longer game (Infamous: Second Son) to completion as its constantly the same thing.
The story updates that are mostly given through phone calls feels cheap. The few cinematic moments present in tha game, are great though.

Update :

Game #9 : The Last of Us : Left Behind

Rating: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734; - Platform: PS4 - Developer: Naughty Dog
I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed by Left Behind, not for its quality but because it was very short and with very little actual gameplay. It's not bad at all of course and it was really cool to know more about Ellie's past and to understand how she saved Joel. I just wish there was more.

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Game 10: Super Metroid (SNES) 7 hours 2 minutes according to the game

Just finished this game and WOW it was great. Definitely one of the best in the genera but I was a little disappointed it wasn't as epic as I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought both GBA Metroid games were better so I blame nostalgia for the rabid fanbase around this game. But I can tell it was hot shit back in the SNES era. My favorite part is when you first arrive on the planet and all the bugs scatter away when you enter a room and the eye-light thingy and statures stare at you, it's such a strange feeling to play a game where you're a foreigner on an alien planet. So creepy!

I got lost a few times but nothing major and usually it was because the stupid game didn't tell me I could just walk through a solid rock wall. Ugh. I also got stuck at the n00b tube. I thought the final boss battle was anti-climactic. There wasn't a lot of skill required, it was more like a cutscene which felt really strange compared to the other boss battles in the game. I did like the traditional Metroid hurry-your-ass-to-the-ship final sequence. Not a bad game and while it didn't live up to the hype everyone gives it, I would recommend it to anyone.

Now I've got an itch for Metroidvanias again. I'm planning on playing Hero Core soon.

NoFaceNico said:

Honestly, I thought both GBA Metroid games were better so I blame nostalgia for the rabid fanbase around this game.

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I played the GBA games first and no. Controls might be slightly tighter on GBA, everything else is worse. Fusion in particular isn't too great.