I ran out of room in my
original post (and I was so close to finishing!)
46. Grow Home - 4 hours 54 minutes
#Some one took the idea of Jack and the Bean Stock and made it into a collectathon and it's amazing. Riding the budding plant and making a tangle of branches not only looks great, but it's a great way to move around. It was a wonderful little game that made me want to explore and collect all the crystals and seeds.
Status: Beaten - 6/30/2015
47. The Stanley Parable - 2 hours 30 minutes
#What an experience. It's amazing how not only narrative dialog changes based on decisions each playthrough but also the level design changes occasionally, walking out of Stanley's office can bring a variety of different office designs, sometimes a hallway sometimes a larger office spaces, and sometimes straight to the two doors. The game is handled with a ton of humor in the variety of options and dialog paths. I don't think I discovered everything, but I was starting to get repeated sequences (although sometimes they would lead me to different outcomes) and I thought it was time to walk away, having my fill, which in the end is sort of the message, don't be a button pusher anymore! Excellent!
Status: Beaten - 7/2/2015
48. Ori and the Blind Forest - 6 hours 24 minutes
# Sublime. The only design error is that there are parts of the map that get locked away (dungeons) after certain events which can be extremely frustrating if you want to go back and explore those areas or didn't finish exploring them before finishing it. Forlorn Ruins is the biggest offender of this. That being said I finished with 96% completion.
Status: Beaten -7/5/2015
49. Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure - 45 minutes
# I was expecting something along the lines of
Franz Kafka's Rock Opera in terms of amazement, and I was not disappointed. The score is amazing. The scenes are great and the construction paper art style is fabulous. There's not much challenge to game play as you're not hindered by missing beats. You can click along to the rhythm, but I don't think it's necessary although there is an achievement. Really worth checking out.
Status: Beaten - 7/5/2015
50. NiGHTS into Dreams - 3 hours 42 minutes
#It's okay. I think GiantBomb gives it a little too bad of a rep, but fans give are very forgiving. There's not much indication of how the game mechanics work unless you play it for few hours (the game only last a few hours), and while I finished it, I still don't know the nuances really, except fly through rings. I was completely lost at to what I was suppose to do until I saw a video. Ehhh... It's not as bad as my original impression which I thought it was a down right disaster, but it's not one of the greatest of all time. Interesting experiment though.
Status: Beaten - 7/13/2015
51. Volgarr the Viking - 7 hours 54 minutes
#Holy crap. Lots of memorization and retries. It's 6 AM. I wanted to finish this and show the game who's boss. Last level wasn't as bad as others. It was really rewarding. I'm really tired... One more game to go (I'm working on a good one).
Status: Beaten - 7/18/2015
52. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - 28 hours 47 minutes
#What a way to end this year's challenge. I've always had an extreme fondness for Majora's Mask although I've never gotten past what is basically the tutorial until this year. Everytime I've started the game, and I've started it quite a few times, I've put the game down after Link gets the ocarina; it wasn't out of boredom or dislike, I just became distracted by other life events. This year. with the release of the remake, I made a goal to finish what I've considered to be one of the greatest Zelda games, and after finally finishing it (I've been working on it for a couple months now), I can finally validate the opinion I held all these years. It is one of if not the best Zelda games. Zelda really flourishes when the developers leave the traditional path. Majora's Mask setting, cast, mechanics, and plot are, so abstract, unique, absurd, and surreal that it creates an experience like no other. I have just 3 more entries in the main series to say that I've played all the main Zelda games (Link's Awakening and the Oracle games).
Status: Beaten - 7/19/2015
53. Stacking - 2 hours 12 minutes
# What a boring game. I'm glad it's out of my backlog. Brevity didn't even save it.
Status: Beaten - 7/19/2015
54. Papo y Yo - 2 hours 48 minutes
# The Monster's animations were pretty depressing. Pretty simple indie puzzle-platformer with what I thought to be an okay handling of an extremely personal story. I think some of the allusions were a little too heavy handed, especially when they stopped being allusions, and I'm not sure the mechanics were really used in a way that benefited the story (I can't recall if the frogs were ever used by the boy intentionally,
but there were times the frogs' effect on Monster was used to the advantage of the boy. I actually cannot recall if any of the puzzles/solutions are found through when the Monster is enraged, except for the very last scene where you intentionally feed frogs to the monster). I thought the endings message was well done except for parts where the allusions turn into the objects they were alluding too and the building a bridge scene which I'm not sure what metaphorical purpose that had. I'm also not sure if the majority of environmental puzzles which revolved around moving floating buildings and changing the landscape has any metaphorical purpose or was just thought to be a cool puzzle mechanic (it could represent the boy moving around frequently from home to home, but I don't think there's any evidence of that). It was alright.
Status: Beaten - 7/20/2015
55. Burnout Paradise - 9 hours
# I got the elite license which I guess could be considered the end game if you're not going for 100%, but I don't want to go any farther. The game can be fun, but it's also really frustrating as there is no road markers indicating you're going the right way when in a race and you can often turn down the wrong alley, and slow motion crashes which are fun at first can lead to constant frustration as it slows the pace of the game and the cutscene of your car crashing varies. A lot of races often lead to the countryside where there's not much going on around there. Also it seems like events reset after every license, so you're usually replaying the same race route multiple times.
Status: Beaten - 7/21/2015
56. The Witcher - 33 hours
#I wanted to play through the Witcher trilogy although I'm not sure playing through the first game was the best idea. It's really archaic, frustrating, and tedious. The plot doesn't pick up until around the end of chapter 3 (There are 5 chapters). I'm hoping the other games are better.
Status: Beaten - 7/29/2015
57. Her Story - 5 hours
#This is the perfect game to play with another person, especially a significant other, the asynchronous story played out through keyword searches leads to developing conspiracy moments and many shocking reveals. It's definitely one of my favorite games that released this year.
Status: Beaten - 8/22/2015
58. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - ~25 hours
# This was a vast improvement over the first Witcher game. While it was a shorter more controlled experience, the overall artistic design, story, quests, and combat were leagues above anything that was in the first game; still there the lack of a sprint, quick travel, or horse made some quests feel tedious as they involved constant journey's across the map. The third game looks to exponentially improve on this (I've been watching my girlfriend wander around the third game while I was finishing up the second).
Status: Beaten - 9/22/2015
59. Amnesia: The Dark Descent - ~4 hours
# The game lacks any tension once you realize that if you're killed by a monster the monster doesn't respawn near you; therefore, the game becomes a game of sprinting around the monster with no real consequence of it killing you. The first few times you encounter a monster, yes, it's quite scary, but the effect wears off towards the end of the game. Also the sanity meter doesn't make things more spooky, just nauseating as the screen warps and blurs, obstructing view of the atmospheric castle. It's disappointing. Hopefully, A Machine for Pigs or SOMA can resolve my issues.
Status: Beaten - 9/30/2015
60. Neverending Nightmares - ~1 hour
# Continuing the horror theme for October, Neverending Nightmares is a short but extremely creepy game, both in terms of sound design and art design. There are two areas to the game and they can begin to become repetitious towards the end, but the areas begin to blend in a nightmarish fashion which is creates a freshness to the decay. Surprisingly, the game has multiple ending paths although I'm not sure I can say I will be going back to replay as like Amnesia once you understand the enemy design the encounter don't hold as much tension although encounters are required to progress, unlike Amnesia.
Status: Beaten - 10/01/2015
61. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs - ~4 hours
#The story was better than the originals, involving a societal culling to prevent future death, and really wonderfully bizarre notes are left around the world----take, for example, this sentence from a note: "We have created a world where man is so utterly debased he will spray his seed over passers-by." It was a shorter more straightforward game than the original Amnesia. There was barely any exploration to be had as most rooms and cupboards had locks barring entry which was a shame as the exploratory nature was one of the original's strength. I think the monster design was a tad better than the originals although this was marred by the monster AI which creates less tension than in the original. Like the original, the spooky atmosphere can only amount to so much, but when you're never in any real immediate threat all tension is sucked away.
Status: Beaten - 10/3/2015
62. The Cat Lady - 7 hours 12 minutes
#An adventure game dealing with the issue of mental illness. The imagery and sound design (outside of the terrible soundtrack) is perturbing, and for the most part the script captures the subject well although intermixed with that is the hopeful, "I'm all better and have learned my lesson after a failed suicide". The latter part always feels like a cop out to a story about severe depression. The gameplay delves into the adventure genre although for the majority of the game feels like a visual novel. Puzzles are more logical, but this could also be due to the fact that you don't click around static rooms to find intractable objects, but move left and right until an arrow indicates you can interact with an object. There are some mechanics like a panic/relief meter that disappears after chapter 2.
Status: Beaten 10/12/2015
63. Betrayer - 8 hours 42 minutes
#It seems like a cool premises, landing in pre-colonial america and finding deserted forts and wilderness filled with dead spaniards, natives, skeletons, and lost souls; however, the monotonous combat and objectives of finding simple objects scattered in each of the seven open areas creates a tedium that sets and stays in early. Unfortunately, the combat and objectives were so mundane that I didn't bother paying attention to the text that establishes a story after the second area. A neat idea but tedious until the end. The game tries to sell itself of intense combat scenarios but after about the 4th area the character is so powerful that you'll be charging enemies instead of sneaking around them.
Status: Beaten 10/19/2015
64. Grim Fandango: Remastered - 7 hours 42 minutes
#I'm so glad this classic was restored to allow new audiences to play it. It was a really great comedic story.
Status: Beaten - 10/25/2015
65. Costume Quest - 4 hours 30 minutes
#A cute halloween RPG for all ages.
Status: Beaten - 10/25/2015
66. Strike Suit Zero - 4 hours 36 minutes
#While it may be heavily influenced by ZOE, Strike Suit Zero is a space flight combat game that doesn't really capture the fluidity of ZOE.
Status: Beaten - 10/26/2015
67. Shank 2 - 2 hours 54 minutes
#Never played the first, but this was a silly over the top action romp. At this point in the year, I'm tired of writing longer thoughts on the games, especially the ones that aren't mind blowing.
Status: Beaten - 10/27/2015
68. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon - 5 hours 18 minutes
#You shoot insects. You shoot larger insects. You shoot robots. The larger insects and robots are bullet sponges.
Status: Beaten - 11/1/2015
69. Final Fantasy III DS - 33 hours 28 minutes
#Lots of grinding and a heavy penalty for death. It doesn't respect your time.
Status: Beaten - 11/12/2015
70. Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed - 11 hours 30 minutes
# I finished all 5 world tour cups on hard difficulty and unlocked the Superstar Showdown cup (6th mirror cup) and expert difficulty. I played the majority of Superstar Showdown; however, the level unlocks required too many stars, earned by winning prior challenges on expert, so I've decided to stop. I got a credits screen after completing the first 5 world cups, but I had a hard enough time on hard, so I don't want to go down the road of expert. This game is not Mario Kart. The tracks are not as polished, being too claustrophobic and cluttered causing frequent drops in momentum, and the characters are less memorable--these two factors are the heart and blood of character kart racers. The gimmick of this racer is the transforming vehicles and the race tracks that transverse different mediums--land, air, and water. I found the shift into boating cumbersome and tedious as you have less control in water and you're more prone to hitting rocks or the sides of the course. All too often I found myself hitting the sides or invisible walls near the edge of the course and losing all momentum. There are specialized events that offer something different from the traditional races which is a good feature. It's fun for a kart racer, but when I have Mario Kart 8 sitting on my shelf, I don't need this.
Status: Beaten - 11/15/2015
71. Cities Skylines - 32 hours
#First time going in depth with a city builder game, and I enjoyed it for the most part. Once my City reached 80,000 citizens it became a slog of trying to figure out why growth was stagnating and unlocking buildings. I wish the game would give better instructions on the various interactions within the city. For example, parks lower the want for shopping causing stagnation in Commercial zones, and when your city is highly educated, unemployment rises because everyone wants office jobs, not industrial work. It became a more of a game that idles in the background while I wait for stats and numbers to increase (it's idling in the background right now). After completing all the requirements for unique buildings and monuments and hitting 100,000 citizens I'm going to put this game to rest. Maybe I'll dig it back up to play with mods which there are a ton.
Status: Beaten - 11/22/2015
72. Gunstar Heroes - 3 hours
#Pretty fun shoot 'em up. The homing upgrade (green) + rapid fire (orange) make is a pretty big exploit to making the game super easy.
Status: Beaten - 11/24/2015
73. Cibele - 1 hour 27 minutes
#The autobiographical voyeuristic nature of the game detailing Nina Freeman's early teenage sex life left me with a feeling of ambivalence. Nostalgia when reading her old blog posts and IMs about my early teenage blogs and IM conversations and uneasiness when clicking through folders viewing Nina's childhood pictures. A lot of the game I felt I was overstepping certain boundaries, invading a private conversation.
Status: Beaten - 12/17/2015
74. Bloodborne + The Old Hunters DLC - 33 hours 37 minutes
#FromSoftware has found the winning formula. While their games are becoming annualized, the core gameplay is so well refined that it's not losing its luster has fast as some annualized series has. Bloodborne mixes the Souls formula by exchanging shields for fast dodging, creating an almost new combat experience for those who tanked their way. A shift from medieval fantasy to Victorian horror fills the game with an even greater dread than found wandering the corridors of the Souls series. Most bosses have similar beastly forms and wails which are grating but also fit the atmosphere. I was in line to finish the main game within 20 hours, but playing the DLC took about 10. The final boss of the DLC takes a few hours to last long enough to learn his skill set in both forms, and then another few hours to act on your knowledge and finish him.
Status: Beaten - 12/26/2015
