http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=150899273&postcount=984

Small update:

Spectra 8bit Racing XB1 10 hours

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

DBZ Dokkan Battle Mobile 2 hours

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

16/52

Spieler Eins said:

original post

36. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii) - 15 hours;
People also said that there were some impossible music stages with the motion controls, but I really didn't come across anything like that?

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If you shake Wiki as a bell over some skulls hidden throughout the levels, you'll activate a bunch of musical mini-games. They're not impossible though, you just have to know how to correctly use the wiimote.

Triggerhappytel said:

Games 27 through 28 (updated)

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28: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) - 6th July - approx. 5-6 hours, 100% trophy completion
I really enjoyed this game. I'm still fairly new to the 'walking simulator' genre, with Journey being the only other I've really played, if that even counts. I've played a little of Ether One but I didn't get very far because I didn't think it was very good. But anyway, despite the shallow gameplay I really enjoyed Ethan Carter for a number of reasons - fantastic gameworld, utterly gorgeous visuals, good pacing and great storytelling. I would have gladly had a lot more puzzles than the game delivered and I'm sure it's a pretty slight game if you know exactly where to go, but I found it thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable, and I don't begrudge paying £14 for 5-6 hours of quality game. 8/10

Currently playing: The Fall (PS4), Super Exploding Zoo (Vita)

I haven't written an update in forever, so it's time to play some catchup.

DETAILED POST ONE | DETAILED POST TWO | SUMMARY LIST

Game 26: Valiant Hearts: The Great War - 6 hours - July 4th, 2015

This game is really something else. I may poopoo Ubisoft a lot, but I've got to give them props for their amazing UbiArt games. I can only hope they greenlight more, because this one was really special. The story actually really moved me, and that was helped on quite a bit by the wonderfully crafted OST. It may not be everyone's cup of tea given how light the gameplay can be, but it was just what I needed to pass some time, and it was a great way to spend my 4th of July alone while my family was out traveling!
- 9/10

Game 27: Entwined - 2 hours - July 10th, 2015

I'm so thankful that I got this from PS+. If I had paid full price for this game, I probably would have been pretty furious. Thank goodness I held off. I did not have a good time with this game. I hated the controls and it absolutely punishing and taxing to play. Not in a way that felt fair either mind you, but in a way that made me want to delete the game and never come back. The visuals are vague and empty at best. The narrative presented did not move at all. This is a game that's trying to desperately tap into the emotional genius of something like Journey, but absolutely failing. I could have spent these two hours doing something worthwhile, like clipping my toenails and cleaning the gutters.
- 4/10

Game 28: Injustice: Gods Among Us - 6 hours - July 11th, 2015

I'm a weirdo. I play fighting games for the stories because I'm so terrible at them. The story here was pretty good, but the game loses some serious points in my eyes because the character design in a few spots is godawful. Wonder Woman is a travesty. The game also loses some points for having their account system not work between mobile devices and consoles anymore, rendering a bunch of stuff not unlockable. Bleugh.
- 6/10

Game 29: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 17 hours - July 20th, 2015

I loved this game so much. I had played the demo of the iOS version a while back and thought it was pretty cool, but I never got around to actually buying it. The sale on the eShop was the perfect opportunity to get the trilogy though. The only problems I have with the game is that the replay value is minimal (for obvious reasons) and there are a few instances where the "correct" thing to do is a bit obtuse. But otherwise, I really enjoyed my first meaty experience with Phoenix Wright and I can't wait to move onto the next title!
- 8/10

Game 30: Journey- 2.5 hours - July 21st, 2015

It's a masterpiece through and through. The visuals are still perfection. The OST is still among the greatest to come out of the last gen. The experience of actually playing the game is still wildly unique and evocative. Although I hold the game is a timeless masterpiece, the PS4 port does have a few problems. I still really enjoyed my return, and I'll go back a few more times for sure.
- 10/10

Game 31: Transistor - 7 hours - July 23rd, 2015

I finished Bastion earlier in the year, and while I thought it was certainly very good, it never really clicked with me. I'm not sure what it was about the game, but the combat itself really bored me. Transistor was a whole new ballgame though. The artstyle? Gorgeous. The combat? Stupendous. The story and characters? Intriguing. I mean the mere fact that the game has a dedicated "hum" button makes it amazing. I can see myself returning for a few more playthroughs given how many different playstyle possibilities there are~
- 9/10

Game 32: Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - 25 hours - August 7th, 2015

This game has been on the backburner for a while for me. I got this when it came out to play the Duscae demo, and I played it for like four hours while waiting for the demo to come out. I enjoyed it, but then I played Duscae and soon forgot to go back. So I deleted my saves and just started fresh early last week. The game frankly has a lot of problems. Much of the cast, even within Class Zero seems underdeveloped and "meh." The story is an incoherent mess and I had to spend an hour reading summaries and analyses to understand what was going on. The English voice cast is generally mediocre throughout. The port itself is vastly underwhelming and doesn't take advantage of the hardware. It certainly looks decent enough considering that it's a PSP game, but the loading screens began to grate on me quickly. I suppose it's too much to expect them to have changed that and made the game seamless, but still. So many loading screens on a PS4 game is just strange. On the positive side though, I really loved a few of the characters. As you can tell from the picture I chose, I loved Deuce. I also became pretty fond of Queen, King and Cater. As for the story, once I understood the lore and what was actually going on, I became pretty invested. The OST is delightfully good, especially that one Bump of Chicken song. And the gameplay was actually really engaging. I loved being able to control all of Class Zero and switch between characters. There were a few characters who didn't really gel with my style, but most of them were genuinely fun to play as. I just got the Platinum trophy today, and eventually I may go for a second playthrough to get the alternate ending. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game and I sincerely hope it gets a sequel.
- 7/10

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Game #49: Boot Hill Heroes: 16.1 hours

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Great game, got good review from RPG sites, has an 89% positive on Steam. Nobody fucking bought it (it's at about 4000 on SteamSpy). Hell the only reason I have it is because I Kickstarted it after seeing Youtubers I like plug it.

Boot Hill Heroes was basically pitched at Earthbound in the Wild West, and it more or less succeeds at that. The art-style and sensibility is very Earthbound, the graphics are basic but serviceable. The soundtrack balances the Earthbound, Wild West and SNES styles required of it very well, but it's Jake Kaufman so I'd expect no less.

I think its humour lacks a little something that Earthbound had. But the battle intro and outro text was always a joy to read for the first time (like a group of 6 geckos that think they can overpower you but start squabbling and pointing fingers at each other when they lose). That's easily compensated for by how much thought has gone into both the combat system and quality-of-life though.

Combat is a fast and engaging ATB system where you can always see when your opponent's next action is about to occur and cancel your attacks at any time. By judging the strength/nature of attacks based on how many action points your opponent is trying to spend you can time actions to sit back and save action points to take advantage of gaps in your opponent's defenses or to shore up your own when a big attack is coming. In addition when all 4 party members have selected an action the battle speed increases by 2-3x until the next action occurs. On the other end you can pause the action if you're feeling overwhelmed trying to control 4 people at once. Also worth mentioning is that one of your equipment slots is hats, which do not affect your stats but slowly teach you new abilities (of which 4 can be equipped for battle at a time) ala the Final Fantasy job system.

The game includes up to 4-player co-op as well and a lot of polish has gone into it despite the developer's insistence that it's tacked on. I played the whole thing with my girlfriend and despite some trouble in the first 6-10 hours with party members leaving and returning all the time preventing us from easily delegating roles it all functions really well. From the pause menu you can assign each party member to different controllers/the keyboard at any time, and while the lead character (which you can cycle through with Select) is walking the party around other players are free to mess around in their equipment and ability menus.

Also worth mentioning is that the game was split into three parts during development and the second part (since rechristened Boot Hill Heroes 2 is not out yet), so the story is very introductory at this point and ends without much closure.

This game was never going to light the world on fire, but it's a solid effort that has a lot of little touches I don't see very often. It's definitely worth giving a go if you like old-school JRPGs.

Game 33 - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia – Started 6/13/15, finished 7/23/15 – 7:32

Everyone has their weaknesses. Metroidvanias are mine. Last year, I went through Portrait of Ruin (which was okay) so this completes the DS cycle for me and it ends on a spectacularly high note, with an upped challenge (but always fair) and an intriguing new system for managing weapons and skills. Some of the level design gets a bit rote but the terrific music and exciting gameplay kept me going to the end. I'm ready for Bloodstained!

Game 34 - Dragon Quest I - Started 8/2/15, finished 8/3/15 - 8-10 hours. Game didn't keep track.

My buddy Bob has taken this year to go through the entire Final Fantasy franchise so I decided to follow in his footsteps and do Dragon Quest. But since the games are so similar to each other, I want to go through them more slowly as to prevent burn-out. First up was #1. A very simple game, with very simple objectives. And the grinding was outrageously high. But there was still a lot of charm to this game, the music was wonderful (as always with this series) and I got into a groove while playing it. Looking forward to later entries.

Game 35 - INK - Started 8/6/15, finished 8/7/15 - 1:44

Everyone needs a little break from Dragon Quest II so I started this little Super Meat Boy clone. Very clever game, not nearly as lengthy or as in-depth as SMB but I enjoyed it all the same. At least until the enemies that track you in the third half, which were rage inducing. Just wished there was more of it. There's other achievements I could go for but none of them amount to much. Still, very fun game.

Almost there!

Game #46: Mighty Switch Force! (3DS) - 3 Hours
Neat action/puzzle platformer where you can switch blocks in and out of a level in order to complete your objectives. Game is pretty challenging without being overwhelmingly difficult. You get only 3 hits until you have the start the level all over from the beginning. Although, the levels are short enough that its pretty easy to speed your way to where you left off. Best part of the game (for this version) was the 3D effect. It gives you great depth perception and you can see the blocks going far into the background whenever you switch them out. And the effect works well whenever you hit yourself/an enemy and it hits on to the screen. Game is short, but there are bonus levels to do afterwards and a weapon unlock. Really fun game to play for the weekend, I highly recommend it.

Game #47: Bastion (PC) - 5 Hours
What an experience. I was expecting this game to be good, but I wasn't expecting to blow it out of water. From the start when you first experience the narration to the choices you make in the end, it was an incredible journey that i will most likely go through again and again. Combat is pretty simple and it controls well. You do get to unlock a variety of weapons, each one having its own upgrade chart which you can switch upgrades at any time in case you aren't satisfied with your upgrade. You can level up which gives you perks, and if you find the game to easy you can mess around with the in-game modifer to give yourself the perfect challenge.

Story seems pretty simple at first glance, but it really takes off once you get the later part of the game. The way the story is told through the narration is done superbly well. Even if I was messing around the level the narrator would actually comment on it, which blew my mind. Fantastic game, definitely will be the one top ten games I played for this challenge.

Original Post

Next Up: Still playing Lost Dimension, I finally got the last friendship maxed so I will be able to get the true end soon. Planning to play Stacking next. Maybe also do some local multiplayer with Mount With Friends. I haven't played it yet so that should be a fun time.

Original Post

Game 28: Donkey Kong (GameBoy) 4 hours
This is a wonderful hidden gem for the Gameboy because people just assume, especially after playing the first levels, that it's just a remake of the original. I love this game, each level has its own challenges and the locations it takes you to are very interesting and thematic. The only thing that really lets it down is that there are unpredictable difficulty spikes that can be very annoying. I also wish they could have included an original Donkey Kong mini game unlocked after beating the game. It really feels kinda empty for a game like this when you beat it and there's no unlockables. A good game nonetheless.

Game 29: Rescue Copter (PS1) 6 hours
Eh, this game is okay. I'm on a little bit of a PS1 kick lately. I'm positive someone from Sky Odyssey(PS2) worked on this game especially with the mission briefing parts. It's okay but the game should really have been made on the PS2. I got gold medal on everything except for one of the cargo winch missions. They're so frustrating and completing them takes a lot of luck. The controls also feel kinda weird and there's only one unlockable secret helicopter. Pretty disappointing, I don't recommend it.

Game 30: All Star Racing 2 (PS1) 2 hours
What a piece of shit. This has to be the worst racing game I've ever played. The back of the case looked great. It has open wheel, motorcycle, cart and truck racing. Truck racing is bigger than I ever imagined so it would be cool to see what that's about. But the game is bland as hell. The only differences between the types of racing is the track design, this feels like shovelware. Also, automatic transmission is mandatory, there is no option to change it. And every race you win ends with a "Game Over" screen, there's no championship series, cups or anything. Ugh, what a waste.

Game 31: Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 30 hours
I LOVE THIS GAME. It's a refreshing take on the GTA/open world theme. I love the location in Hong Kong and the story of an undercover cop with one foot on the side of the law and the other on the side of crime. The story was well done, the combat is even better. And it has an unlockable Bruce Lee suit!! This is such a great game that a lot of developers can learn a lesson from. I'm trying to decide whether to buy the DLC missions or not.

Game 32: Dyscourse (PC) 45 minutes
Another terrible game. I got it in an Indiebox. It's plays like a Bethesda game without any of the action and nothing but dialog trees. I can't believe this was funded on Kickstarter. i don't recommend it.

Game 33: Mega Man (NES) 4 hours
I finally beat the Yellow Devil without the start button trick!!! I was so happy for myself. The first Mega Man is a mixed bag. Most of the main levels and bosses not as hard as I remember it. But the game is just unbalanced with severe difficulty spikes especially on the Ice Man and Dr. Wily stages. You can tell the series was having teething problems but thankfully perfected the formula with the sequel. Still a great game to play and an impressive first effort that showed the series held a lot of promise, I'll probably replay 3 through 6 too. I've been replaying a lot of classic Mega Man recently which makes the current trend with Inafune milking the fans so much sadder.

Game 34: RC Helicopter (PS1) 3 hours
I love pretty much everything that Agetec publishes because it's usually a direct translation with no real localization or reinterpretation to fit what they assume a US audience would want to see. The translations are usually pretty off as well. In this game your father bought you an RC helicopter and you use it to run mundane errands for various people around the neighborhood like picking up cans, scaring away birds, cutting grass and photographing paranormal entities... Wait, what was that last one?? Yep, the final missions have you photographing ghosts that are haunting a school. Then at the end, before the credits roll you find out it was all just a dream... oh, Japan!

Game 35: Captain Forever Remix (PC) 11 hours
This game is so addictive. It's one of the best roguelikes I've ever played. the setting and characters are great too. I love building ships in this game. No two campaigns are the same. It can get challenging and shields are a must in the final stages but overall it's awesome. The music is pretty good too.

Game 36: Stanley Parable (PC) 3 hours
This is the funniest game I've played in a long time. It felt like I was Goofy in one of those shorts where they're trying to teach him to ski or something. Very very funny and highly recommended. I'm tempted to look at other walking sims but I feel I'll probably not be able to get into them because I take it that most are very humorless.

Game 37: Pheonix (Atari 2600) 1 hour
I've been wanting to play this game just because it's the first game with a boss battle. It didn't disappoint, it's still a pretty fun game today, but just a little too repetitive on the 2600. Instead of wanting to rack up a high score I just got bored.

Game 38: The Next Penelope (PC) 5.5 hours
This is a beautiful game. I can't believe it was pretty much made by one guy. He did an amazing job. Any time someone can make an action/adventure racing game, I'm totally on board. I like Gran Tourismo but I love my fun racers too.

Game 39: Nidhogg (PC) 4 hours
I doubted a friend when he recommended this one, I won't doubt him again. It looks like a game that would exist on a ZX Spectrum but damn this game is good. I had a lot of fun with it and it was interesting to see Greek mythology told in sci-fi atmosphere.

Game 40: Sir You Are Being Hunted (PC) 9 hours
I love this game. I love the whole premise of it, I guess I'm just a fan of The Most Dangerous Game. I had a lot of fun with it and since you can create your own worlds I look forward to playing it all over again. I fear robots.

Game 41: Mario Bros. (Game & Watch) 5 hours
This is the first Game & Watch I've ever owned. It has Mario and Luigi working in a bottling factory. It's pretty fun, and interesting that it opens like a book and has two screens. The controls are pretty good until you get to the later parts of the game when it's moving too fast to keep up with itself. It's impossible to get a score over 900. Oh well, I played as much as I could.

Game 42: Pac-Man 256 (Android) 4 hours
Ugh. This game isn't too good. It's pretty cool that they did a unique take on Pac-Man but it's just not very fun. There's too many corners to get trapped in and the power ups don't really help all that much. I didn't buy it nor did I pay any money for credits, I just don't think it's worth it. It is worth trying though because it's free. If I ever see it on sale for 99 cents or something, I'll probably get it then. My highest score is 7145

Game 43: 8-Bit Doves (iOS) 3 hours
This is an incredibly difficult but rewarding game. I like the GameBoy aesthetics on anything and this one did it very well. I had many hours in bed trying to get past some of the later more difficult levels. Very frustrating but fun, which seems to be a winning combination for touch screen games for some reason. I'll search out this developer's other work.

Game 44: Ultraman (Wonderswan) 2 hours
I've been trying to hunt for Wonderswan games that are playable by people who don't read Japanese. I took a chance with this one, it wasn't on any sites recommending playable games for the system. But I'm just a fan of Ultraman so even if I couldn't play it it would be worth it to have. I was very surprised to find out it's very playable! In fact, it might be the best Ultraman game I know of! The controls are very simple, which is great for someone like me who doesn't play fighting games. And best of all, the story mode follows some of the Ultraman episodes verbatim! It's incredible, the battle scenes have little cinematics here and there when something from the show's episode happens. It's so great. Definitely one of the best games I've ever found on the system. The menus can be a little confusing if you go too far in and the story mode is too easy but overall it's just fun and most of all playable, which is hard to find on the Wonderswan.

Game 45: Red Amazon (PC) 1 hour
I love this little game, I need to find other games from this dev. There's supposedly three endings die/lose/win. I've seen more than three endings, so I don't know if I've won yet, which is kinda weird but I'm sure I've seen everything there is to be seen... I hope. Here are the endings I found 1) I was shot and killed; 2) I killed the guy; 3) I killed the guy in the window and was killed by the guy at the front door; 4) I killed the guy in the window and the guy at the door; 5) I killed the guy in the window but used up my ammo, I slowly inched into the doorway and the other guy didn't shoot, I was then able to walk up to him and around him, he kept aiming at me and didn't fire I think it might have been a glitch? Oh well, fun game.

Game 46: Hotline Miami (PC) 4 hours
I've always heard rave reviews about this game. Back when it came out it was one of things that made me want to get into the indie scene. The game is okay. I feel the controls are a little awkward at first and be very unfair since the enemies kill in one shot and have perfect accuracy while the autoaim locks onto the least threatening enemy, the manual aiming is tricky and some enemies take more than one hit. Still, I thought it was okay, the story was stupid IMO, I skipped through most of it. Pretty decent game but no where near the level of excellence to justify the hype.

Game 47: Journey (PS3) 3 hours
Now THIS is a game that lives up to the hype. I was entranced the entire time. The visuals, the world, the gameplay, it's all a top notch presentation. Obviously it's a little too easy, I don't even think you can die and it plays out more as a visual novel. But what it does it does well. I can understand why people are so into this game. I don't take the whole "videogames are a work of art" argument seriously but this game makes me rethink that.

Game 48: Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (PS3) 2.5 hours
I bought this game while it was on a flash sale. Now that I've gotten around to playing it, I was surprised to find that it was made by the same guys who did Guacamelee. There's even a few references to that game in here. This game is okay. It plays like an extremely simplified Katamari. The puzzles were very mild, the game was very short and easy, each time I put down the controller I did it because the game had become tiring to play. On the plus side, I thought the controls and physics were well thought out and I like the 1950's vibes. The game has its charm, but it's definitely no Guacamelee in either charm or gameplay. There's also a little bit of scaling that happens, as you eat more and the blob gets bigger, but this was only really noticeable and put to good use in the last level where you start out in the streets and end up eating the whole city. The game is okay but playing it feels like having a brain slug on your head because the game is so monotone and unexciting at times.

Game 49: DLC Quest (PC) 1 hour
I bought this on sale and had a great time with it! I unlocked all the extras and "DLC" which I guess is the point of the game. I'm starting to really like parody games. The game was very boring towards the end but overall not a bad waste of an hour.

Game 50: Fallout: New Vegas (PS3)
Ughhh... I finished this yesterday after dragging myself through it. It wasn't a bad game but I didn't enjoy most of it. I'm so disappointed because people overwhelmingly suggested I play it after being introduced to the Fallout series with Fallout 3 this summer, which I, really, really enjoyed. New Vegas is terrible. The desert lacks variety, the tribal factions feel tacked on, and the NPCs are all lifeless and impossible to feel empathy for. The story sucks too. Really? It all came down to control over the Hoover Dam??

This whole game made me feel disassociated with the Fallout community because they all recommended it but I didn't enjoy it. I liked Fallout 3's story even though everyone said it's stupid. I really do feel that some scientists trying to create a source of clean water in the wasteland is a lot more interesting than factions trying to take over a dam. People also praise the combat in New Vegas but I felt it was exactly the same as 3 aside from the iron sights, which were useless anyways. Everything felt like a fetch quest, especially the Big MT being the worst. There were also a few times where I mistakenly skipped or didn't get to some critical point of the story and so it locked me out of certain missions while I was in the middle of them, that was very frustrating. I don't know if I even want to complete the rest of the DLC or alternate endings. I also encountered the usual bugs with the PS3 version. It would freeze every now and then and a few times it would slow down to 1 frame per second.

I'm still hyped for Fallout 4. I think I can see it going back to a setting more like Fallout 3's with the whole Nuclear Family satire that was missing from New Vegas. I've considered checking out Fallout 1 and 2, but that's another one that the community keeps recommending ad nauseam and you fooled me once with Fallout: NV, I'm not falling for that one. No thank you.

Game 51: Spec Ops: The Line (PS3) approx. 8 hours
This game is fucking fantastic. It was so refreshing to play it after not liking New Vegas. This game is how a post apocalyptic desert sin-city is supposed to be portrayed. I was able to take in the scenery and loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute, the controls can be annoyingly clunky at times with run and cover mapped to the same button and melee and vault having the same issue. But as long as you can make it through those parts, the game is incredible.

This is how I expect AAA gaming to be. Great story, fantastic setting, well crafted combat/enemies/weapons, and a cast of NPCs that aren't outright annoying. The story is even cerebral and even though I knew about the whole Heart of Darkness storyline, I didn't expect the ending. Or endings, I should say. This is one of the few games I've beat this year where immediately I had to replay each ending scenario to see how they turn out and I even clicked on DLC and was disappointed to see that it's just multiplayer bullshit. I can't recommend this game enough.

On to #52! I'm on the home stretch!

Game 52: Kirby's Adventure (NES) 3 hours

Well, I've made it and I decided to make #52 my favorite game of all time. I play this game every now and then but never really completing anything, just using it as like a comfort food. This time I did a whole play through in one night and 100%'d it for the first time. The game is still fun but doesn't have the same zing as it did when I was a kid and I was discovering everything for the first time. I also don't remember Kirby's controls being so clunky when there are too many enemies on screen. Also the first few levels are a bore but the last half is still pretty good.

I was happy to 100% it but I also had some sadness because I had never paid attention to the credits before but this time I noticed one of the producers- Sotaru Iwata. I never knew he worked on this game. When he died it didn't really affect me because I haven't been following Nintendo for the past few years and I'm not a fan of Earthbound. But now I do feel some of that connection that I suppose others felt after he died.

I also didn't know there was a second quest. But all it does is make the bosses stronger and gives you only 3 bars of health. Everything else looks the same so I don't think I'll go through it. I used to have the GBA remake and I think I'll buy it again since I looked it up and it's pretty cheap.

Game 53: Bulletstorm (PS3)

This game is always heavily recommended but it took a while for me to get into it. The scenery is imaginative and beautiful. The humor works in some parts but not others and I'm not sure if it's trying to be a self-parody of the hulking space marine genera, if it is it did it poorly. I also found the guns extremely unsatisfying. They may as well be Super Soakers. The game also does not know when to end, I think for a while I was shouting "END ALREADY!!!!" at the screen. Overall though, I thought it was okay, nothing too amazing but I enjoyed it enough to say it's a pretty good game, just not stunning like everyone portrays it to be. Maybe it's because I don't follow FPS games but if this is one of the best then I don't think I've missed out on much by avoiding them.

Game 54: Hitman Absolution (PS3)

Now this game is a breath of fresh air. Unlike Bulletstorm, I only hear endless shit being talked about this one on GAF. People say it's the worst in the Hitman series, it's nothing like the earlier games, it's terrible. Which is strange because I could swear it got stellar reviews when it came out. But as a fan of the series, I knew I had to take the plunge because it was cheap and I hoped I would at least find something to like in it. Once I played it, I thought it was fantastic, it's some of the most fun I've had in a game all year, it totally came out of left field for me. It's not as good as Blood Money but it did scratch that Hitman itch for me. Their portrayal of 47 is a little off, you can tell he got injected with some Squeenix. It also ends too abruptly, and that makes me hesitate to trust them if the next game is going to have episodic content. But I never thought I would even consider the next game at all but after playing this one I'm actually looking forward to hearing some news about it. A fantastic game regardless of what the haters say, I would recommend it even to non Hitman fans.

Game 55: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3)

I'll just reiterate this post of mine.

I'm playing through this right now. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE recommends this game. I'm close to the end and I'm having a hard time understanding why it's so highly regarded. The combat is extremely clunky and slightly delayed because of character animations. The camera is frustrating and the platforming pretty much consists of just mashing a single button and aiming in the right direction. It really sucks because platforming and combat are 90% of the game. Every level feels like a bunch of little cut scenes all strung together and just waiting for you to press a button to activate them. I think people want to recommend this game because the post-apocalyptic landscape hits close to home but after playing Fallout 3 and NV for the first time this year I found Enslaved to be very lackluster and constraining.

One reason I always hear when people recommend this game is that it's based on Journey to the West. I'm not familiar with that story but I'm going to read the cliff notes when I finish this game because I'm almost done with it and so far it seems like the furthest you can get from ancient folklore. It's just a cookie cutter story about two mismatched but co-dependent travelers who have to go from point A to point B to point C and overcome obstacles and enemies in between.

I'm still trudging through it. I don't find it difficult to recommend, I just plainly don't recommend it.

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Welp. I beat it. I hated it.

What it tries to do, it does well. I'm not knocking anyone for liking this game and there were parts that I liked. But just as I was enjoying myself I'd jet locked into another button mashing cut scene. It almost feels like this game was trying to be Shenmue without the open world but all that did was take the parts of Shenmue that I hate and took out the parts I love.

This game was a big learning exercise for me. It showed me that just because something I know nothing about is highly recommended, it might not open me to a new experience I'll enjoy. I know that's common sense but I, like most people, go to others for recommendations and usually it pays off. But I think now I'll only take recommendations for games that I know a little about and am at least a fan of similar games with that approach. I know that's going to close me off because maybe there's a JRPG or a game very similar to Journey to the West that I'd actually enjoy and now I won't ever get to play but it's just something I'll have to deal with so I don't waste time on stuff I'm not going to like.

Game 56: Grow Home (PS4)

Out of all the games I never thought Grow Home would be the first one I beat on PS4. And what a way to end the year! This was a recommendation from a friend in the Netherlands who's deeply into the indie scene and he was right, I love this game. I pretty much beat it in one sitting. This has been a hell of a year for me and especially because I've discovered a love of indie games. I hope to find and enjoy more indies on PS4 because that's definitely what I want to be playing. I really don't have any complaints about Grow Home. It was a very fair and very fun challenge. I plan to play it all over again next year.

MGS: VRM, PSO Ep.1, an PSO Ep.2 join this years list! Ep.2 is soooooo goooood.


Games Beaten: 33 / 52
Total Playtime: 252 hours, 46 minutes

01 - 26
27 - ??

Main post

Game 25: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) - 2h57m in 2015 [7/31/15] ★★★


I went back intending to finish the 150cc Grand Prix cups, but lost interest at a certain point. This seems to happen every time I try and get back into the Mario Kart series. At the tougher 150cc races, it becomes borderline unplayable for me. If I win a race, I feel like I got lucky, and when I lose I often feel cheated -- too much is just out of your control. I just don't find the racing aspect of it particularly fun, and generally I've always found Mario Kart's chaotic gameplay to be better suited for Battle Mode. I'll probably mess around with the online multiplayer from time to time, but I doubt I'll be going back to the single-player. It's the most well-made Mario Kart in a while though, I'll give it that. Going into the game though, I was still not sure if the series was for me, and now I'm pretty sure that it's not. At least I gave it a shot.


Game 26: Dead Island (360) - 25h38m32s [8/8/15] ★★½


Beat the game as Sam B. Unlocked 22/58 achievements.

There's potential for a great game here, but Techland didn't seem to realize that. The combat is fun, as is exploring and traversing the resort/jungle environments. The skill tree and weapon crafting systems are consistently rewarding. But the game fell into the modern AAA trap of going for a large scale, and it doesn't have nearly enough content to fill it. The initial map area should have been plenty enough for this game.

The mission design is absolutely dreadful, consisting of one fetch quest and/or escort mission after another. And much of the game is spent mired in boring, uninteresting locales such as a large, generic abandoned city and endless sewers. It loses a lot of what makes the "Dead Island" special. The entire last 10% of the game was offensively bad, and featured most of my biggest game design pet peeves.

It's weird too, because this game was in my backlog for a very, very long time (almost 4 years) and I had a feeling that was because I didn't expect to like it a whole lot. But I was delighted by the first several hours of the game. I was really having a great time with it, and hoped that it wouldn't go in the direction that it eventually ended up going with. But by the last couple of hours, I really didn't want to play it anymore and really had to force myself to the finish line. Missed opportunity.

OP

34. INK
[Finished 09/08/15]
What an awesome surprise this game was! Patrick Klepek featured it on his youtube channel and I immediately fell in love with the colourful aesthetic and Meat Boy style gameplay. It doesn't do anything radically crazy or different from other masochistic platormers in terms of level design, but the ability to spray ink and slowly reveal the level takes the challenge and turns it on its head. This might be my favourite genre/style of game next to Metroidvania and as a result I absolutely adored what INK had to offer. It is really cheap so I suggest if you like games like Super Meat Boy then you should pick it up without hesitation.

Games 1 - 20
Games 21+

Game 37: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

I'd played through the Ground Zeroes mission of this on PS4 already, but with the imminent release of The Phantom Pain, I decided to give this a run through on PC. This time, I cleared all the main mission and all the side ops (but not the extra ops). The gameplay is still as impressive as when it released. The enemy patrols and AI routines are on another level any other entry in the series, and to go for a full-stealth approach is much more difficult. It's pretty daunting, actually. The side ops are also as much fun as the main mission. That action-packed agent extract was a great way to mix things up and the stealth-only assassination was an inspired challenge. It's pretty amazing how densely designed the base is, and how they managed to keep it feeling fresh with each mission. I even started warming to Keifer by the end. My hype levels for TPP are through the roof now.
If you liked Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, you'll like this

52/52!
HowLongtoBeat

Ok, original post is full, so I'll use this one from now on.


Game 31: 140 (PC) - 1.0 hour
Simple platformer with basic visuals, a little bit like Thomas Was Alone but crazier and more hallucinogenic. Levels are built around rhythm elements, like timed obstacles and disappearing platforms. It's quite short (around 45 minutes), and I'm not sure it's worth the regular price (5$), but it's still a great little experience and the music is quite good. The bosses are the highlight of the game.



Game 32: Super Metroid (Wii) - 12 hours
I owned pretty much every Nintendo home console (except the Wii U), but somehow I never played Super Metroid before. Even after reading all the glowing comments. One day I bought it on the Wii Virtual Console, and I still waited several years before playing it. Finally did and it was a great experience. Still true in 2015. Music, controls, exploration, level design, bosses, almost everything is top notch. It's also quite deep, you can finish the game just by being a decent player, but this is some moves that are quite hard to master. Not to mention the dozen of secrets. By modern standards, the game can be a bit confusing, two or three times I didn't know what to do/where to go. There is also barely any storytelling. On one hand, you really feel like you are alone on this dangerous planet, with nothing and nobody to guide you. On the other hand, it also made me appreciate the scanning in the Metroid Prime trilogy, which allows you to learn about the worlds and the enemies.



Game 33: Wimp: Who Stole My Pants? (PC) - 6.8 hours
This was a nice little surprise. Yes, another indie platformer. But it's fun, it's cute, it's quite lenghty and there is enough variety to keep you interested. In each level, you need to collect your stolen undies and optionally three toilet paper rolls. Your character can use different skills. Some levels are more puzzle-like than platformer-like. Boss fights are also designed as puzzles mixed with platforming. Controls are quite weird at first, some people might not be able to adapt, but after an hour I was fine.



Game 34: Valiant Hearts The Great War (PC) - 6.6 hours
One of the few good games set during WW1. And it's a not a shooter, which is really nice. It can be brutal and emotional, not to mention a great learning experience. I liked the artsyle used. I also thought the length was perfect. However, a few things really bothered me. First, the main villain is just bad. Instead of being a human being doing terrible things, he's just a caricature. Second, while some puzzles are great, others are quite rudimentary. Third, the medical sections are supposed to be critical and intense, but all that falls apart when you have to play a Guitar Hero clone to complete them. Bad idea. Still, Valiant Hearts The Great War is worth it just for the emotional ride.



Game 35: Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (PC) - 10 hours
This didn't start well. For some reason, I didn't really like the first section of the game (first mission I guess). I stopped playing for a week to play something else. Fortunately, it got better for me as far as the game opened up and became like Far Cry 3. With laser-shooting dinosaurs and cyborg crazy shit. The story is full of cheesy 80s references and impossible twists, but that's fine since it's all part of a parody-package, whcih also includes the visuals and sometimes the music. If you don't do sidequests and treasure hunts, the game is quite short, but the missions are all good and varied. The final one is just totally memorable. Great stuff. Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is not innovative in any way, but it's the perfect execution of a spin-off.



Game 36: Hexcells Infinite (PC) - 14.6 hours
More of the same. Which is a good thing. Still a great puzzle game. The designed ones are really good. The random one are not that interesting, but when you have a few minutes to spare, you can just create and complete a puzzle.



Game 37: Super Mario RPG (PC) - ~20 hours
Rented this several times when I was young because I loved it, but I never actually finished it. Always ended up stuck at the same place, probably because English isn't my first language and back then I didn't understand everything. Since then, I read several times that it was overrated. And after replaying it, it sure is, probably because it was the first time with Mario in an RPG, and it was developed by Squaresoft when they are on top on the world. It is a basic RPG without depth and with simple systems. The level-up system and the economy are all over the place (basic enemies giving more XP/coins than boss). The story is nothing special and the characters are boring (altough I appreciated the new characters introduced). Still, it well done, the humor is decent and it's mostly fun. It's just nothing special, unlike some of the Paper Marios.



Game 38: Ori and the Blind Forest RPG (PC) - 10.9 hours
Beautiful game, beautifully crafted. Every image could be a nice artwork, and some fantastic ones. It's animated really well. It's also a really fun platformer with great mechanics. With a clear touche of Metroidvania, which means you can only access some areas after unlocking new skills. And then each new area let you try, explore, combine and master that new skill. Great pacing from start to finish. I can only find two flaws. The first is minor: not enough variety for the ennemies. The second one pissed me off when I finished the game: you can't go back to some areas after finishing them. You missed some things ? Too bad, you have to start over.



Game 39: Speedrunners (PC) - 6.8 hours
You can't really finish this game, but I feel like I played enough to form a decent opinion. It's a really good 4-player multiplayer game, colorful, fast and intense. It's basically Mario Kart as a platformer with a grappling hook and other different power-ups. Easy to pick up and have fun, but hard to master. It becomes really important to learn and remember every level.Sadly, I couldn't really try the local multiplyer mode, but I heard it's a good way to end friendships.



Game 40: Waves (PC) - 3.0 hours
Another Geometry Wars clone, but a really good twin-stick shooter. The field is circular instead of rectangular, but some enemies are pretty similar. Really nice visually, with neons aplenty, and the soundtrack is great. Since you're always doing the same thing in the same place, it becomes repetitive. Thankfully, there are several modes, each with an interesting twist. Waves is a good game to play in short bursts.



Game 41: Beyond Gravity (PC) - 3.2 hours
The only reason I can think of why this game has a "Very Positive" rating on Steam is because the Achievements are easy and it gives cards. Because Beyond Gravity is a very simple game, clearly designed for mobile platforms. It works well on PC, but it's so straightforward. Jump from planet to planet by clicking on the mouse. Again and again. Make sure you don't hit anything. There is no depth. The skills you unlock don't change a thing, except make this easy game even easier. The procedurally generated feature just means the order of the planets change each time, but that's about it. Thankfully, it's cheap.



Game 42: Ziggurat (PC) - 6.7 hours
Ziggurat is really good, but it could have been so much better. It's a first-person rogue-like where each dungeon (level) is randomly generated. It's dark, it's fast, and it's quite fun. However, you eventually realize it lacks a bit of depth. Not enough monsters variety, the weapons are theorically different but they are all the same in practice. The randomly generated rooms also lacks variety and imagination. They are also quite tiny for the most part. I also have to mention your success is partly dependent on your luck (weapons, perks). After beating the game once or twice, there isn't enough depth to make you come back. It's still the best game from Milkstone Studios, by far. I hope they improve if they choose to develop another installment.



Game 43: The Talos Principle (PC) - 16.0 hours
With Portal 1/2 among the best first-person puzzle game I have ever played. The Talos Principle is an excellent game, with dozens of interesting puzzles of various difficulties. Some of them are really, really good. For most of them, you have to use a two of three tools/objects to solve them. You just wished there was a bit more variety. The story is intriguing, the storytelling is innovative and the atmosphere is fantastic. The Talos Principle will also ask you some interesting philosophical questions about life and humanity. The game is quite pricey, and I was lucky enough to win it in a giveaway. It's currently 40% off on Steam, and at the price it's worth it.



Game 44: Out There Somewhere (PC) - 2.7 hours
Except the main mechanic (shoot to teleport), I found Out There Somewhere pretty bland as an indie puzzle platformer. The description says "Inspired by Cave Story, Super Metroid, and Portal". I haven't found Cave Story, and comparing this game to Super Metroid is ridiculous. It's not bad, it's just average and it's incredibly short. Feels like a demo of a proof of concept. Only buy it for really cheap (like now, 96% off).



Game 45: Defense Grid 2 (PC) - 11.1 hours
I REALLY liked the first Defense Grid, so I was glad when something sent me the sequel as a gift. After finishing the campaign, I must say Defense Grid 2 is still a good tower defense game, but I was slighty disappointed. It's basically more of the same. Biggest letdown: there are not enough new towers. Then, somehow, the enemies felt like a downgrade. Also, the scoring system doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I still don't know how I can improve my score. Visually, it's a big improvement, except the monsters models which are mediocre. Finally, the story is just...blargh.



Game 46: Child of Light (PC) - 10.5 hours
Child of Light is a beautiful, charming and atmospheric role-playing game. In other words, it's gorgeous. It's also fun to explore, and the music is fantastic. However, the story is average. More importantly, the battle system is quite repetitive. Some of your characters are quite useless. The leveling system is an afterthought. The crafting system isn't interesting. Treasure hunting is fun at first, but no new idea are introduced to improve the discoverability. Child of Light length is perfect, I just wish the combat system was better.



Game 47: Tengami (PC) - 1.8 hours
Pretty, slow and short point-and-click adventure game. Few puzzles, but an interesting book-style gameplay. Nothing really memorable. Regular price is really expensive considering the amount of content. Could have been so much more.



Game 48: BasketBelle (PC) - 2.9 hours
Like Tengami, another "experimental" game. Also short, but but much more captivating to me. It tells the nice story of a kid playing basketball in order to save his sister in a colorful Paris. It's not really basketball, more a wacky platformer using basketball elements (dribbling, jumping, shooting, dunking). Each chapter is quite unique. Music is good. Keyboard controls are the weak link here. A bit too much trials and errors.



Game 49: South Park The Stick of Truth (PC) - 17.5 hours
Among the best games I playing this year, and I haven't watch a South Park episode since at least 10 years. Visually, it's fantastic, aka it's basically like a TV episode. Voice acting is top notch, since the original cast is all there. South Park humor is also everywhere, for better and worse. The story is...really good. Not much social commentary however. Exploring the city is really fun, you'll visit most important landmark of the town, and they are all pretty well done. there are tons of secrets and some of them can only be reach or discover after you find an iten or skill. Combat is average, it's loosely inspired on the Paper Mario mechanics, so it's kinda basic and it can become repetitive, especially against weaker grunts. Some found the game quite short, but I thought the length was perfect (I didn't pay 60$ however, so I understand why people felt a RPG at that price should be longer). It's gonna be hard for South Park: The Fractured to top this one.



Game 50: Braveland (PC) - 4.0 hours
Turn-based tactical game with combat similar to Heroes of Might & Magic, but with very little depth and no base building. It's a well done game, which makes Braveland a decent point of entry into the genre. The story is bland and the replay value is non-existant. The game is quite short, but there are already too sequels. I hope they are a bit more complex.



Game 51: I, Zombie (PC) - 2.9 hours
Decent puzzle game where you actually control zombies instead of killing them. Pretty good level design makes the game good and fun, while it lasts. Main gameplay problem is the zombies you do not directly control sometimes make stupid mistakes, especially pathfinding errors. There isn't a lot a depth here, visually it's cute but simple and the colors are always the same. The only replay value is to beat your best time in each level.



Game 52: Teslagrad (PC) - 7.3 hours
Would probably by my favorite Metroidvania of the year if I didn't play Super Metroid and Ori. Teslagrad is a bit different because there aren't a lot of enemies. So it's mostly puzzles and rooms where you need to figure out how to reach the other side with the skills you acquired. You have to juggle magnetism and polarity. Art style is nice, soundtrack is really good and the platforming would be perfect if it was less floaty. It was also impressed by the story, and more importantly the storytelling. Bosses were a highlight, even if they are puzzle-based and require trials and errors. Finding every secrets in the game was also fun. Highly recommended.



Game 53: Fort Meow (PC) - 3.9 hours
I was trying to find a game to buy with my remaining GMG credits back in November. This indie game had great Steam reviews, so I bought it. Fort Meow is basically reverse Angry Birds. You have to build a fort using household items like mattress, broom, lamp, pillows, clocks, etc. Each items has a unique property. You need to build a fort to protect yourself from...launching cats. There are half-dozen different cats. At first, it's pretty fun, but it gets repetitive way too quickly. Gameplay is also shallow. Click, click click to place your items, then press play to look at the cats attacking you. Rinse, repeat. It's not a bad game, but I feel like a wasted my credits on this one.



Game 54: Rachet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS3) - 18 hours
Bought the trilogy a few years ago, but only finished the first one, which was pretty good even after all those years. Rachet & Clank 2: Going Commando uses the exact same formula, with new weapons and planets. It's still pretty good and fun, but for some reason I though it was worse than the first. I didn't like the ship missions, and the two collect-a-thon things were lazy design. The skills you can unlocked are way to obscure, unless you use the Internet.



Game 55: A Bird Story (PC) - 1 hour
From the creator of To The Moon, a 1-hour game with little gameplay and no puzzle. You are basically just a bystander watching the story unravels. It's 100% linear. It's a nice story, and the music is good, but this isn't worth 5 bucks. I was never emotionally involved. I should have watch a movie instead.



Game 56: Rocket League (PC) - 33 hours
Man, the first few hours playing Rocket League were exciting. I understood the appeal right away. Reminded me of the best multiplayer games I played over the years, like the Mario Kart series and Team Fortress 2. After 33 hours, it's still great, but the magic somewhat disappeared. Mainly because, unlike MK and TF2, your are heavily "teammate-dependant". In about half the matches, your partners don't work as a team. It's attack, attack, attack, and you HAVE to stay back. Games where your team continually cycles between offense and defense are so much better. This is also kinda true for a game like TF2, where you rely on your teammates, but at least you can still have fun doing your thing and in one-on-one battles. Still, Rocket League is fantastic and a must-have.


Original Post

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#29. Rocket League (PS4) -- August 6 -- 40:00:00+ --★★★★☆
This is the first multiplayer game I've stuck with for an extended period in a very long time. It's the classic "easy to learn, difficult to master" thing. Very fun and deceptively deep. They've improved the online play since launch, but it could still use some work.

Click to expand...

#30. Machinarium (PC) -- August 9 -- 4:00:00 -- ★★★☆☆
Nice visuals, good music, and a solid amount of charm. Most of the puzzles are pretty logical, but I had to consult a walkthrough a couple times.

Click to expand...

#31. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4) -- August 10 -- 4:10:00 -- ★★★☆☆
Solid game. The bosses, which blend action and puzzle-solving, are probably the highlight. There are some good puzzles throughout, but none of them will really test you. Even the optional challenge rooms are straightforward. The story and voice acting are bad, but they didn't affect my enjoyment of the game.

41h-ish. Completed all sidequests, including Riddler's, and Harley's Revenge/Catwoman DLCs. 70% of the game seen (so, everything but Riddler's DLC, which I don't enjoy). Man, after Arkham Asylum's stealth/survival horror-ish experience, I didn't think Arkham City would be such a sprawling game. Every quest and sidequest you complete makes you feel like you're getting a bit closer to a big picture, to the game "lore". Nothing you do feels gratuitous or irrelevant .

Still, I think Rocksteady should chill a bit with the collect-a-thon part. It gets old real quick and making it required for Riddler's sidequest, while perfectly logical, feels like a chore. Probably my only gripe with the game, though. Really psyched for Arkham Knight (less so for Arkham Origins, which I have heard is not such a good game)


Updated OP

Triggerhappytel said:

Games 27 through 29 (updated)

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29: The Fall (PS4) - 10th July - approx. 6 hours
I backed this on Kickstarter but didn't have a Wii U or gaming PC, so didn't claim any reward. Thus, I was pretty happy when it came to PS4 as it meant I could finally play it, and so far it has been one of my biggest surprises of the year. It plays like a mash-up of Limbo, Metroid and '90s LucasArts adventure games. The atmosphere is amazing and the writing is really good too (and it brings up some interesting questions about robots and their function). One puzzle pissed me off, but for the most part it was a terrific game with great level design and solid logic, excellent pacing and a really eerie, pronounced sense of place. 8.5/10

Currently playing: Super Exploding Zoo (Vita), Helldivers (PS4).

16h-ish. Completed Story Mode + Goblin Menace DLC. This game has me torn. On one hand, it's beautiful, addicting, whimsical and imaginative. On the other hand, 80% of the puzzles can be solved by skipping the intended solution and moving boxes and platforms out and about until something gets stuck enough time for you to jump across. On one hand, you don't really want it to end. On the other hand, specially with the DLC, it drags for way. Too. Long.

Will I get Trine 3? Probably. But I think Trine 2 is overall a worse game than Trine. I hope Trine 3 doesn't continue a downwards trend.


Updated OP

I keep moving steady towards the goal, things are going much more smoother than last year. Here's my third game of July, I started it after the Bloodstained kickstarter ended and played it every now and then:

Game 30: Super Castlevania IV - 2,5/5 - around 8 hours (25/07/15)

Completed the story, beat Dracula. I must say that for its age the game's a very fair one: the learning curve is nice and steady, there aren't real difficulty spikes, unless you count the last two levels, but then again, they are supposed to be difficult. The password system lets you continue from the last level reached and it's good they thought about adding a "checkpoint" before the final boss as well. Graphics are nice for its age, so is the catchy music; the gameplay is a little repetitive, but it's spiced up through Mode 7 usage, which creates some cool obstacles and hazards. Love how they implemented the whip, letting you hit in 8 directions and making it limp to control it manually: awesome mechanic, especially for a SNES game.

+

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Games #1-20
Games #21-

Game 37: Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut - 21 hours
PC
I beat the regular version when it ame out but I decided that I wanted to go through the story with the improvements and added content before Shadowrun Hong Kong gets released. If you like wrpgs, this could be a game for you.

Game 38: Omerta: City of Gangsters - 16 hours
PC
On paper, this had the potential to become my favorite game of all time. Unfortunately, the missions were fairly boring and the fights were really bad. Stayed with it through the end, but by the end of the day, it isn't a game I will remember fondly.

Fell just short last year, but I'll have another go this time around. Still going to try and focus on playing games for enjoyment rather than completion's sake though...

GAMES COMPLETE: 48

Games 1-13 here.
Games 27-48 here.

14. The Unfinished Swan (PS4)
Picked this up when it was on sale, having had my eye on it since it's initial reveal. There isn't too much to say other than it's a good game. Not great, but far from bad. Like a lot of smaller titles, it suffers with the fact that it's core mechanic/gimmick/hook that gains your interest, doesn't quite have the longevity to sustain a long experience. Where Journey is a sublime experience wrapped in just a 2 hour playtime, The Unfinished Swan, at a comparable length, can sometimes feel like it has padding. That said, I haven't played much like it this year, and it served as an excellent palette-cleanser amidst some very "videogames" AAA titles.

15. Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4)
An enjoyable FPS title that I had enough fun with to get the platinum trophy, though I'm not as enamoured with it as quite a number of fellow gaffers. To its credit, it's absolutely a welcome antidote to a largely stale FPS space in recent years, preferring to revert back to some decidely more old-school FPS game design. On the downside, the campaign is a shade too long for my tastes, especially in the latter stages which fall back on the trope of chucking loads more enemies on screen and making quite a few of them bullet sponges. A 7/10 experience for me, and I'm pleased for the developers that it found a healthy word-of-mouth following.

16. Apotheon (PS4)
As many have already correctly pointed out, Apotheon is God of War through the visage of an ancient Greek pottery murial. The artistic vision and its execution are undoubtedly the game's strongest asset, and pleasingly, the aesthetics carry through consistently well to the very end of the game. The slightly janky ragdoll-esque character movements will not be to everybody's tastes, but with some practice and finesse, it is possible to master the combat. Ultimately it's a 6 or 7 out of 10 kind of game, but it deserves to be judged in the context in which it was received; that is to say it's a very pleasing title to receive for free as part of PS+.

17. Bicolor / Quetzalcoatl (iOS)
Decided to combine these as one entry as they're from the same developer and fit into quite a specific bracket of iOS puzzle games. Both Bicolor and Quetzalcoatl exhibit polished, minimalist presentation, which allows the core puzzle mechanics room to shine and speak for themselves. Both do excellent jobs of introducing you to the gameplay mechanics by some very easy early puzzles, but they also both ramp up significantly in difficulty as you move through the stages. Great if you only have a few minutes to spare here and there.

18. OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood (PS Vita)
Early contender for GOTY. Such a gem of a game and it boggles the mind that it was given away for free on PS+. Having played and completed everything there was to do on the original OlliOlli, I was prepared for (and totally happy with) more of the same, however the developers delivered a game that improves on its predecessor in every way. The main change is a gameplay one in the form of reverts and manuals, which are quite literally game-changers. They add depth to the precise twitch gameplay and give you the potential to seemlessly combo an entire stage. OlliOlli2 has plenty of extremely challenging content, much of which seems impossible at first glance, but can eventually be mastered through practice. It's a classic example of 'easy to play, difficult to master', and an absolute joy to earn a platinum trophy in.

19. Sunday Lawn / Sunday Lawn Seasons (iOS)
Another couple of games that may as well be judged as a single entry. The Sunday Lawn games see you chasing high points totals by cutting grass/sweeping leaves/clearing snow and earning point bonuses for continuous activities, all the while trying to avoid environmental hazards like dog poo and hedgehogs. For those of you who are familiar with Donut Games's iOS output, you'll pretty much know what to expect here. That is to say fairly simplistic games with a core gameplay mechanic/hook, presented through a large number of stages that are usually easy to complete, but require a decent level of skill to master (i.e. get 3 stars).

20. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, I totally get the complaints about the amount of game of offer for the asking price when this was released. On the other hand, to earn all of the trophies in Grond Zeroes as I did, takes a reasonable amount of time. On the other other hand, all of the side missions and really just minor variations of what you do in the core story mission. It may be daylight and the enemy patrols may be different, but you're still playing on the same single map. All that aside, to the game's credit it looks great and is mechanically very solid indeed. In terms of gameplay and a sense of player control, it feels like the best the MGS has seen. I enjoyed my time with the game, but not so much as to make me a day one purchaser of TPP. I'll prefer to wait and see what that has in store, after being burned by the insane cutscene experiences of MGS4.

21. Rogue Legacy (PS Vita)
Rogue Legacy was my first experience with a game considered to be a 'roguelike', and I enjoyed it a great deal. What worked for me as that every failure wasn't a complete waste of time. More often than not, you earnt enough money to upgrade something, and you usually learnt something about your playstyle as well. In that sense, it reminded a bit of the Souls series. I enjoyed the variation that comes with choosing a descendent to play as, complete with their own skills/quirks, although it was occasionally frustrating to get a bad roll on all of your heirs, leading to a bit of a wasted attempt. This will go down as one of the few games where I gave up on the pursuit of a platinum trophy due to it being too difficult. To quantify that, I beat the main game, it was just the remixed bosses that were a step beyond me!

22. Transistor (PS4)
Yet another PS+ freebie that I decided to play after hearing good things. All praise PS+ again, as this was a title that I enjoyed and would otherwise probably not have tried. Like it's predecessor Bastion, Transistor really shines in the presentation department, particularly because of the beautiful art style and the excellent narration. The combat encounters that make up the core gameplay could be considered fairly pedestrian, however the way the player can mix/swap/overlay/augment their upgrade abilities to determine their combat capabilities is incredibly clever. It means that there are countless combinations and approaches to battles, which the player can undercover by some genuinely interesting trial and error.

23. Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PS4)
As many have already said, this is quite a unique and charming little title, with the emphasis firmly on story rather than gameplay. The combination of the always-excellent UbiArt along with some sobering stories across a spectrum of different perspectives during WW2 makes for an interesting experience, and one that thankfully comes of sincere rather than trite. The gameplay is a fairly simplistic affair, but that feels appropriate for what the developers seem to be going for; rather than mire the player in retries and failed attempts, the game moves along at a fair clip, allowing the story to flow at the right pace. Certainly one of the more unique games I've played in the last year.

24. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
MK8 comfortably sits as one of the strongest games in the series. There's a wide variety of tracks, characters and vehicle mods on offer, and this is especially true if you pick up the excellent DLC packs. In fact, Mario Kart 8 will be held up for a long time as an example of DLC done right - a wealth of additional, high quality content without feeling like anything had been needlessly stripped from the base game. As for the gameplay itself, it's more of the same that we all love to hate, complete with rubberbanding and blue shells galore. Everything feels tight and responsive, and with that sprinkling of Nintendo polish that has been evident in almost all of their first party output this generation. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this game is bloody gorgeous!

25. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
This was the only mainline 3D Zelda I hadn't played, so I was always keen to give it a go. After seeing the Symphony of the Goddesses, I HAD to play it. All told, after many many hours and a 100% complete save file, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Skyward Sword. For the amount of criticism this game gets, I think much of it is undeserved, and it appears to be another example of the 'Zelda cycle' in effect. I had no issues at all with the motion controls, and the gameplay felt fair and a decent level of challenging. After the crippling, soul-suckingly long intro/tutorial in Twilight Princess, I was pleased and relieved that Skyward Sword doesn't commit anywhere near as big a sin in letting the player actually play the game and crack on! Interesting characters and a lovely art style make this a worthy and memorable entry to the series in my book, and I'm glad I finally got round to ticking it off the list.

26. Fullblox (3DS)
AKA Stretchmo to you overseas folk. Pretty much as soon as I saw this game was being released, I decided to buy it. I'd played a fair bit of the first title in the series (more of that later), and I'm always on the lookout for a substantial puzzle game for both short and long play sessions. In a nutshell, Pullbox is bloody brilliant. Don't be deterred by the freemium-esque download model; you're better off just buying the whole lot of content as a single bundle. You don't get short-changed at all. I can understand the complaint from veterans of the series that many of the early stages are not especially challenging but while true, I found them to be a nice and relaxing way to get into your groove. By the time you tackle some of the latter NES Expo and Perilous Peak puzzles, you'll be glad you're well practised in the games mechanics! Bags of fun/challenging puzzle content in a well-packaged title - there really isn't anything here not to like!

Original post

#44 - Sonic After the Sequel



Sonic After the Sequel is a fantastic game, that easily rivals the classic Sonic games. In fact, IMO, AtS > Sonic and Sonic 2. The level design is great and creative, the scenery is gorgeous and the best thing about the game, the soundtrack, is outworldly.

If the "Spark, the Electric Jester" is as good as Sonic AtS, it's already a classic.

Sorry for the double post

Original Post

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Game 12: Steins;Gate (July 23rd 2015) PSV
Time played: 70h

I watched the anime back in 2011 when it launched and was kind of bored during the first couple of episode until the major event that triggers the story happened. Lets just say that I felt the same way with the game. The beginning was hard to get through, and really really long, I understand why they did it but it makes replaying the game a real chore and I don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon. But holy shit did I loved it, I already knew the story but they were so much more in the game that I didn't care about it. Making choices based on the emails you sent is a really interesting idea. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, I don't think I'll be doing all the ending, I might watch a walkthrough on youtube of the last 2 endings I missed, but I recommend this gem to anyone that likes VN because it is quite possibly in my top 5.


18/20

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Game 13: Choice of Robots (August 11th 2015) PC
Time Played: 3h

I didn't expect to enjoy this game this much, I always loved making choices in games but text-only games kind off put me off. But on impulse and since it was cheap I decided to try it out. I absolutely loved it, finished it in a sitting, the level of choice in this seems to be really big, the writing also feel really and quite clever. I'll do another playthrough to see how much but one think is sure, I'll keep an eye out for COG's games from now on.


16/20

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Game 14: Hollywood Visionary (August 12th 2015) PC
Time Played: 3h

Same developer and type of game then Choice of Robots but completely different setting. Hollywood in the early 50s seems like a great setting which it was, but I couldn't help but found that the writing wasn't on par with Choice of Robots and I was a bit let down by that fact. It's still a pleasant experience, it just could have been better in my opinion.

14/20

For the past few years I have been quietly coming onto these boards and I have been secretly admiring everyone attempting this challenge. It really says something about our commitment to gaming when people create these year long events centred around achieving a personal goal. It was only this January that I committed to doing it (but planning for the last few years). A slight twist for my attempt is that I will be trying to complete (whilst going through this challenge) some of the best games ever reviewed. BTW - I think this is probably the best year in gaming since ‘98, absolutely spoilt for choice. Here goes nothing...

Game 1 : Monument Valley (3 Hours)
Started: 18-12-2014. Completed: 03-01-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (IOS)
Beautiful game, finished it whilst my 5 year old daughter was hovering next to me. Exactly the type of game I want to play on a mobile device and the first game to grab my daughter’s attention.

Game 2 : Dragon Age Inquisition (55 Hours)
Started: 20-11-2014. Completed: 03-01-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PS4)
I really love the dragon age series, even the second one. They always reminded me of what a traditional table-top DnD campaign would feel like in a digitised form.

Game 3 : Assassin’s Creed Unity (18 Hours)
Started: 14-11-2014. Completed: 04-01-2015. Rating 6/10. Platform (PS4)
I love the Assassin’s creed series… god damn it this one was f%$king terrible.

Game 4 : Farcry 4 (42 hours)
Started: 27-12-2014. Completed: 30-01-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PS4)
Not a huge farcry fan (number 3 is yet to be finished) but this one really stood out me. Platinumed it.

Game 5 : Tales for the Borderlands Ep 1 (3 hours)
Started: 02-12-2014. Completed: 24-01-2015. Rating 6/10. Platform (PS4)
Really? I personally didnt enjoy it as much as the reviewers would have you think.

Game 6 : Resident Evil Remaster (13 hours)
Started: 08-02-2015. Completed: 08-02-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS4)
Solid game. I can totally understand why people loved it back. Defined a number of mechanics that are prevalent across the gaming landscape. Never finished it on PS1, so great to finally do so.

Game 7 : Super Mario Galaxy 2 (19 Hours)
Started: 15-01-2015. Completed: 16-02-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (Wii U)
What an amazing game!? You see how it appears on everyone's top 10 lists? DESERVED. Also, the first game that I finished couch co-oping with my daughter. Magic.

Game 8 : The Order 1886 (9 Hours)
Started: 20-02-2015. Completed: 28-02-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS4)
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes cinematic. Yes short. Yes fun.

Game 9 : Mirrors Edge (10 Hours)
Started: 26-01-2014. Completed: 12-03-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS3)
The only game that has ever made me feel nauseated. Makes me doubt how I will handle VR when it comes out. That being said, such a great take on platforming.

Game 10 : Shadow of the Colossus HD (11 hours)
Started: 17-08-2013. Completed: 16-03-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (PS3)
Having never completed any boss rush games (maybe it isnt one) I didnt know what to make of this game going in…. fantastic, so tight and full of experiences.

Game 11 : Super Mario 3d World (12 hours)
Started: 18-02-2015. Completed: 21-03-2015. Rating 10/10. Platform (Wii U)
Alrighty. Second game completed with my daughter. DEVOURED IT. LOVED IT. This game is perfection. One of the greatest games I have ever played <full stop>. At first I wasnt sure I was enjoying it as much as Galaxy 2 but by the mid-point I felt every single level reinvented and fused 3D and 2D mario perfectly. God I wish they would make a sequel.

Game 12 : Counterspy (4 hours)
Started: 20-03-2015. Completed: 22-03-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS4)
Fun little romp, really enjoyed it.

Game 13 : Bloodborne (72 Hours)
Started: 24-03-2015. Completed: 07-04-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PS4)
I am a huge souls series fan and this was one of the most complete packages in gaming this year. Again platinumed.

Game 14 : Shovel Knight (8 Hours)
Started: 21-04-2015. Completed: 26-04-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (PS4)
A real 8-bit homage in a world full of pixel art games. Superb.

Game 15 : Hearthstone (20+ Hours)
Started: 04-04-2015. Completed: 09-05-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (IOS)
I am marking as completed due to the rules of the comp but this is an ongoing obsession. Loved it. Finished all the single player campaigns and have poured over 20 hours into multiplayer.

Game 16 : Assassin’s Creed China (8 Hours)
Started: 27-04-2015. Completed: 10-05-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS4)
Ironically (so far) the best AC game I have played all year. Sigh. Decent.

Game 17 : COD Ghosts (8 Hours)
Started: 28-04-2015. Completed: 12-05-2015. Rating 6/10. Platform (PS4)
Average COD. Very very average. I laughed at the story more often than not.

Game 18 : Castlevania : Symphony of the Night (16 hours)
Started: 05-06-2014. Completed: 12-06-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (PSOne)
Fantastic side scrolling RPG game. I never finished this one before, complete understand the acclaim.

Game 19 : Batman Arkham Knight (14 Hours)
Started: 27-06-2015. Completed: 07-06-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PS4)
Love the Arkham games and this was the complete package. The cinematography and reveals were handled really well. That being said, the graphics were mind blowing.

Game 20 : Axiom Verge (13 Hours)
Started: 04-04-2015. Completed: 13-07-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (PS4)
One guy made this game? One guy? You are kidding me? This is the perfect metroid game in so many ways.

Game 21 : Framed (3 Hours)
Started: 18-12-2014. Completed: 14-07-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (IOS)
Fun, short mobile game. Loads of trial and error - not necessarily logical. Would have liked a fast forward to the bit I failed button.

Game 22 : Brothers (4 Hours)
Started: 26-01-2014. Completed: 20-07-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS3)
Enjoyable game that didnt overstay its welcome. I liked it but I dont think I loved it the way others have.

Game 23 : Super Mario Bros (4 Hours)
Started: 18-07-2015. Completed: 21-07-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (NES)
Never finished this, sat down in a chair and committed to doing so. This game is as hard as a souls game and to this day is absolutely perfect. Required playing.

Game 24 : Rocket League (30+ Hours)
Started: 04-07-2015. Completed: 24-07-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PS4)
Biggest surprise of the year. I love football, i hate cars but together. Again, finished season mode and am playing every week a few hours multiplayer. Will not stop playing. This year is punctuated with games I will be playing for the next two at least.

Game 25 : The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (5 Hours)
Started: 19-07-2015. Completed: 25-07-2015. Rating 6/10. Platform (PS4)
Biggest let down of the year. I like narrative based games. I like cthullhu-esque games. I like pretty graphics. Why didnt this game grab me?

Game 26 : Splatoon (20+ Hours)
Started: 28-05-2015. Completed: 28-07-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (WiiU)
Game number 3 finished with my daughter. Best multiplayer shooter of the year right here ladies and gentlemen. Fun fun fun single player, great bosses.

Game 27 : Valiant Hearts (8.5 hours)
Started: 08-10-2014. Completed: 01-08-2015. Rating 7/10. Platform (PS4)
I didnt love as much as my friends and colleagues. The narrator's voice seemed comical after a while and I would pretend at work to narrate episodes of ‘Allo ‘Allo. I am a monster.

Game 28 : Mega man (4.5 hours)
Started: 28-07-2015. Completed: 01-08-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (NES)
Fun, tough, tight game. Loved it. Only mega man I have ever finished. Which one should be next?

Game 29 : Rogue Legacy (20 Hours)
Started: 19-08-2014. Completed: 07-08-2015. Rating 9/10. Platform (PSVita)
A love letter to Ghouls n Ghosts. I adored this game. Made me understand and appreciate the rogue-like genre.

Game 30 : Unfinished Swan (4 Hours)
Started: 03-06-2015. Completed: 09-08-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (PS4)
At first I wasnt sure if I could keep going. I was getting bored of the pew pew color splashing mechanic but after a few levels it really opens up and offers great variety. Great little title I would not have otherwise played. Thank you PS+.

Game 31 : Halo Wars (12 Hours)
Started: 2012?. Completed: 09-08-2015. Rating 8/10. Platform (X360)
The announcement of Halo Wars 2 made me go back and finish the last five missions. I thought it was a solid game but it was clearly missing some things that had to be pulled out at the last minute (campaigns for other factions, etc)

Games 1-19
Games 20-30
Games 31-40

Game 41: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 78:19:20 - COMPLETED
This is my first Witcher game, so I have no real way of gauging what it does better or worse than the first two games. With that said, CDPR said that it's still a good jumping in point for new players, and they made sure to include an introduction that describes what happened story-wise in the previous two entries. Anyway, on to the main game. I think perhaps the most important aspect of any RPG is its battle system. I've quit a number simply because I don't to spend 40 hours (or 78 in TW3's case) playing with a bad combat system. And while TW3's combat probably won't win any awards for its combat, it's certainly enjoyable at the very least. It has your basic fast and heavy attack buttons, along with dodging, parrying and magic. It's not amazing, but it feels well put together and has a solid flow to it once you get the mechanics down. I just wish there were more sections where But the area where this game really shines is in its questing. There are four types of quests in the game. The main story branch, side quests, contracts, and treasure hunts. Contracts are quests where you're tasked with finding and slaying a special beast within the world. Before you accept the contract you're also able to bargain for a higher payout. There's an annoyance meter that lets you know if you've gone too far with your asking price. The tracking is usually done by going to a highlighted yellow area on the map and then using your Witcher sense (a mode that allows important objects to turn red) to find tracks or a smell for you to follow. Treasure hunts are exactly what they sound like. But you also sometimes come across special hunts where you can find pieces of the highest level armor in the game. The side quests are the most impressive of the bunch. Largely because it doesn't feature very many of the really boring type of side quests that really plague RPG's. The "go here and fight this" or "go there and find that" type quests. They do still exist, but they're always wrapped with interesting stories and characters. So even if you are searching for something, it's not as straight forward as in other games where you get the quest and then go to a field looking for some specific item. The fact that many side quests result in major events in the story is also something that separates TW3 from other games. I think most of the critical decisions that you make that impact that ending are done within side quests. With all that said, the major negative I think the game has is in its boss fights. There aren't very many in the game, but I found none of them memorable. Not in their actual design or in the mechanics that went into the fight. So that was definitely disappointing given how almost everything else in the game is. But overall I really loved it. It took around 10 hours for the game to really grab me for some reason, but when it did I didn't want to stop playing. And after finishing it I understand why so many people think of CDPR so highly.

Game 42: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - 6:35:25 - COMPLETED
This is really more of the same of TNO's gameplay, which is a really good thing as it was one of the best FPS to come along in awhile. Although I don't remember there being nearly as many Commander sections as there are in TOB. Those are areas where you have Commanders that sound alarms that spawn waves of enemies if you alert them. The majority of the areas in TOB seem to have that mechanic. And while it is more of the same of TNO's gameplay, it's also more of the same of its awful boss fights. Luckily there's only in this game. So it's not too annoying. There are some cool touches with classic id characters placed around the environments. And really cool . The game in general is great for those that are just looking for pure gunplay without many setpieces.

Game 43: rain - 4:00 - COMPLETED
This is a puzzle platformer without combat. It only uses three buttons, a jump button, interact button, and a run button. The main mechanic in the game revolves around the fact that your character is only visible when it's raining. Which means that whenever enemies are around, you want to get under a rooftop or some other type of cover so you're no longer visible to them. Once you're under cover you can still see your foot prints for a few seconds after walking out of the rain, although eventually they dry and all you see is dust kicking up. Occasionally you'll find muddy puddles around and those will make your legs visible until you jump in a puddle of water or in a container of water. The enemies I mentioned earlier can't be killed in traditional ways since there's no combat. But there are occasionally environmental puzzles that allow you to kill them. The main enemy is called the Unknown, and it will stalk you around entire levels at times. Sorta similar to Nemesis in RE3. Deaths occur when you fall too far or into a pit, and when you touch an enemy. The reload after the death is really short, so it's not a big deal. The game it'd probably draw the most comparisons to is ICO due to the genre and the fact that it involves a story about a girl and a boy. Some differences aside from the lack of combat would be that the girl in rain is fully AI controlled. You don't need to direct her around or even call her. The game also takes place in a city that's broken up into sections rather than one nearly seamless area. There's also no spoken dialog in the game between characters. Instead the story is displayed on the environment while you play through as well as rare watercolor-style cutscenes. After completing the game you can go through it again and collect Memories, which are little pieces of art that contain small details about the boy and girl. Those are only collectible after completing the game once. I thought it was fantastic! It's one of those rare relaxing games that comes along every now and then.

Game 44: Deception 4: The Knightmare Princess - 14:00 - COMPLETED
This is a series where your main combat action is to set traps to kill enemies. It starts out fairly simple with easy enemies that are often scared so getting them into traps and killing them is relatively easy. But you'll eventually run into ninjas, healers, and enemies that are immune to certain traps. There are three categories of traps in total. Floor, wall, and ceiling. Each category has various types of traps. There are also stage specific attacks. You generally want to combo enemies in traps, especially when dealing with enemies that can heal themselves. If you can get a good string of traps set you can often times kill or come close to killing any enemy in a single sequence of traps. There's a story mode and a quest mode. The story mode is pretty straight forward. As you progress through it you'll unlock new traps and abilities. Abilities are things like healing, auto dodge etc. You can have two abilities set at any given time. The quest mode puts an interesting twist on the formula. You play as a character that has a physical attack (a kick). It doesn't appear to do any damage, but it'll stagger an enemy which could get them to stumble back into a trap. But the biggest difference is how you actually progress and unlock traps and abilities. Instead of them just unlocking as you play through like in the story mode, you have to do specific actions during a quest in order to unlock them. So one quest may ask you to simply kill an enemy while another may want you to do a four hit combo to kill them. There are three unlockable elements per quest, all with their own conditions for unlocking them. And after you reach a certain point the quests start having branching paths. In order to unlock those paths you need to complete the previous quest in a specific way. Also there's a time limit in each quest while there isn't in the main story mode. The game really feels like a puzzle game once you get deeper into it. A solid and unique experience.

Game 45: Onechanbara Z2: Chaos - 30:00 - COMPLETED
This is probably best described as an entry level DMC-style game. I mean that in the sense that the combos are quite simple to do. It's largely pressing Square or Triangle multiple times. The battle setting is very similar DMC with areas gating off and filling up with enemies that you have to kill before moving forward. The upgrade path is also similar with you using orbs that you obtain from killing enemies to upgrade and buy swords and such. Where it separates itself in a very interesting way is that you have four characters that you can swap in at any given time. Mid-combo or just running through a stage. And each character has three weapons that they can use. There's also something called a Cross Merge Combination where all four character come in and fight at the same time. This adds a ridiculous amount of flexibility to the combat. The game itself is quite linear as you'd expect from a character action game. Bosses are fairly enjoyable and have touch pad swipes in place of QTE button presses for killing them. There's also a Mission mode where you're tasked with completing certain objectives. Some are as simply as kill X amount of enemies while others will only allow you to inflict damage while you're in a certain mode like Climax (think Devil Trigger). This is really one of the big surprises for me this gen. I didn't really go in with any expectations, but I enjoyed it more than nearly every game i've played so far this year.

Game 46: Limbo - 3:30 - COMPLETED
Another puzzle platformer with no combat. For the most part the puzzles and platforming aren't all that difficult. The timing based ones are the only one that made hold you up. It's actually somewhat of a relaxing game, which is surprising given how fast you can die. But since it's not particularly hard it ends up having a nice flow to it. It's a short but enjoyable experience.

Game 47: Sound Shapes - 4:00 - COMPLETED
A fun little platformer based around music. Simply playing through the levels is actually pretty easy, the difficulty comes in when you attempt to collect all the notes in each level. But those are optional. There's also a mode called Death Mode once you complete the main game. These take small sections of the main levels with a time limit where you have to collect all the notes in a level before the timer runs out or before you die. Unlike the main game, the notes aren't optional as they're the main point of the mode. And Death Mode as you'd expect is extremely difficult. Really enjoyed my time with it.

Game 48: Until Dawn - 30:00 - COMPLETED
This is the choose your own adventure genre done right. Choices that can affect feelings towards characters and choices that can impact whether they all live or die. There are eight characters in total that you get to play as. You can't specifically select who you want to play as since it's all done by story There are also times where a character death may lead to you missing entire sections of the game. Mechanically it plays similar to a lot of the other games in this type of genre. There are QTE's and dialog options that you select. The main new mechanic it brings is a hold still mechanic, where you have to keep the DS4 still for a period of time. It may sound easier, but there are some that seemingly go on for a good 20 seconds or so, and any slight movement of the controller can register as a move. Which in some instances will lead to instant death for a character. So it can lead to some of the most tense moments I can remember in any game. But the heart of the game is really how much the game makes you feel like your choices matter. There have obviously been a lot of games like this since Heavy Rain, but this is the biggest step forward for those games so far. As of now this if my favorite game of the year.

Game 49: Super Time Force Ultra - 5:00 - COMPLETED
This is a Contra-esque game with some interesting mechanics. You still die in one hit just like you would in Contra. And you have 30 lives to start each level. Rather than having weapon pickups like Contra, you instead have multiple characters all of which have their own unique weapons. Both a standard shot and a charge version. But the main mechanic is time. If you die you can rewind to any previous point and respawn, which will take a life. When you respawn you can select any character in your current roster. What's really unique is that your previous run is still active in your new run. So all of their attacks are still dealing damage to enemies, which obviously comes in handy against bosses. If you can save your previous self before their death you'll be able to collect them and that'll allow you to take an additional hit without dying as well as giving you their attack until you get hit. There's also a 60s time limit on each level. Although you can collect clocks that'll add time to your run as well as find items that'll slow down time. I enjoyed the game, but the time limit combined with the time mechanic can cause frustration if you aren't using the time mechanic properly. Especially in boss fights when you're going to need multiple versions of yourself going at the same time in order to deal enough damage to kill the boss quickly.

Game 50: Xeodrifter - 4:00 - COMPLETED
A Metroidvania-inspired game. Except instead of just one large area you have four small planets. You still progress through them like you would in a Metroidvania game where you collect an upgrade and then go back to a previous area to make it past some point that you couldn't before. A solid games for fans of the genre.

Game 51: Entwined - 1:30 - COMPLETED
A game you control "Fish" and "Bird" with the two analog sticks. You collect orbs that match the color of each of them (blue and orange) while trying to pass through gates that also match the colors of each. Collecting orbs slowly builds meter so that you can combine together. Missing gates will knock down your meter. I'm not really sure if you can "die" in the game since I never did, so it's pretty relaxing overall.

Game 52: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 100h - COMPLETE
For me, this is open-world gaming perfected. Playing it made me realize just how limited so many open-world games are today. Something like a GTA where you'll have chase missions that restrict you from completing the mission until the person you're chasing gets to its preset destination doesn't exist in MGSV. Instead everything is occurring in real time. So there aren't on-rail situations like that in the game. If you see a jeep carrying a hostage to somewhere you'll be able to stop them before they get there. This also means that if you're doing something like a tailing mission, but you know where the person or object is that you're supposed to get, then you can just go there instead of doing the tailing. It's a completely different dynamic than a lot of open-world games where you need to do the tailing to trigger your objective. Even though it's open-world, I do feel that it's still similar to past entries. You have two main locations (Africa and Afghanistan), but any time you select a main mission you're always locked into an area that's more or less the size that you'd expect from past entries. Just dropping yourself into one of the locations will allow you to explore them or take on Side-Ops (which are highlighted with a blue circle on your map). You can stay out as long as you like completing those or you can also travel to them with your helicopter. You also have access to buddies in this game. These are D-Horse, D-Dog, Quiet, and walker gear. D-Horse is best when you're looking to travel quickly, so he's obviously excellent if you're trying to S-Rank missions. D-Dog can spot enemies, hostages, other animals, and resources for you to pick up and he can attack enemies as well. Quiet can do the same as D-Dog aside from spotting animals and resources, but she's also a sniper so you can send her off to take out an encampment or just spot all the enemies in there for you. You can also give her a lethal or tranq sniper rifle depending on which route you're taking (killing vs. non-lethal). The walker gear is basically a mini Metal Gear that you can use to ride around on and attack enemies. A big reason why you may not want to go the lethal route, aside from the obvious ranking issues, is that you can fulton out enemies to bring back to Mother Base if they're still alive. There they'll help you with such things as field recon by showing you the general area where enemies are, helping build weapons for you, helping to heal sick members of your crew and so on. You can also fulton vehicles, animals, and resource containers. Speaking of building weapons, there are literally hundreds of weapons and probably thousands of different weapon attachment combinations available in the game. Much like the gameplay itself the weapons give you pretty much endless possibilities to experiment with them. The gameplay is where things really fine for the game. I've always felt that gameplay in open-world games could never be taken out of that game and put into something linear. They're games that seem to get by just on the fact that they're full of tons of content rather than the base mechanics being anything to really make noise about. But MGSV is different as everything feels tight. The shooting mechanics are perfect. They're something that could work in any shooter or stealth game without issue. The AI works well. It's a game where it just feels like there's an infinite amount of possibilities of what you can do. Easily my favorite game of the generation.

Game 53: Mad Max - 18:00 - COMPLETED
I just couldn't get into this game no matter how hard I tried. It feels like a by the books example of an open-world game. Lots of doing side-quests just so you can progress to the next story segment. And then often times the story segments often feel like side quests as well. Then you have standard progression mechanics where you can upgrade your car and Max himself with different abilities. The car gameplay can be fun at times, but other times it sort feels like the controls become extremely loose. You can also unlock fast travel spots by finding new hideouts and hot air balloons. The hot air balloons allow you to scan the surrounding locations to find side quest objectives. The map starts to look sorta AC-like with all the objectives once you start to unlock more on the map. The combat is basically your standard Arkham-style combat that it seems WB's games have become known for, but with a few notable differences. The main one being in Batman it feels like as long as you press triangle to counter it'll happen no matter what you're doing at the time. In Mad Max you need to time it properly. If you're mid swing and press it, then you're going to get hit. Enemies can also hit you out of "finishing" type moves, which isn't something I ever remember happening in the Arkham games. There are also some weird glitches that will cause you to have to restart the game. I once had Max fall through the game world and afterwards he was floating slightly above the ground even when running. It meant that he couldn't go through any narrow spaces because the contextual animations wouldn't trigger. Another time the fast travel ability was disabled. In both cases I had to completely shut the game down and restart it for it to work again. With that said, the game isn't poorly made or anything. It's just like I said, it feels very by the books. There are so many open-world games being made these days, so it's important that there's something about each game that really makes them stand out next to the pack.

Game 54: Tearaway: Unfolded - 15:00 - COMPLETED
I never got around to playing the Vita version, so i'm not sure what the differences are between the two. The platform mechanics don't have the loose or floaty feel of LBP. They're pretty tight, which they need to be as there are far more demanding platforming sections than I remember in LBP. I also very much like how the game is structured compared to a lot of 3D platforms. It's just standard progress rather than having to collect a specific number of objects to unlock the next level. It has side-quest style elements in each of the chapters, but they aren't required for any sort of progression. They're just there for completionist content. They can range from anything like drawing something (which you do with the touchpad), taking pictures to finding something for a character. I'd say the main weakness for the game is its combat. You have your standard jumping on enemies heads to kill them mechanic, but those can only be done on specific enemies or in specific situations, like when they're stunned. For the most part you either have to roll into them, or use the light on your controller (which you activate with L2 or R2) to direct them toward their deaths. The light is probably the quickest and easiest way to dispatch most enemies, so that keeps frustration from creeping in. But I feel that this is the best game that MediaMolecule has made so far.

I may have reached the goal of 52 but that's not going to stop me! Here's an update with 3 more.

53: Hatsune Miku: PDf2 (VITA) [6/10]
- 03/08/2015 (~10:00)
- Completed all songs. Rhythm games are one of my favourite genres but for some reason this game felt like a chore, hopefully Dancing All Night won't be the same way.

54: Super Mario Sunshine (GCN) [8/10]
- 11/08/2015 (~12:00)
- Finished the game by defeating Bowser with around 70 stars, I love this game but it can be really frustrating. I have no desire to go into that pachinko level ever again.

55: Paper Mario (N64) [7/10]
- 14/08/2015 (~30:00)
- Finished the game by defeating Bowser and clearing chapter 8. Storywise I think this game is a lot better than Sticker Star but I honestly feel as if the battle system is worse, I'm playing TTYD next so I'm hoping that one is even better.

Will update this post later on

Main post

#37: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 25 hours &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Better than the first in every way IMO aside from the numerous baffling gameplay tweaks/additions. Most of the trial mechanics are downright terrible. Still, I really enjoyed the game for its characters and plot shenanigans, moreso than the first.

#38: Cradle - 4 hours &#9733;&#9733;
Sets up some interesting sci-fi ideas and mysteries, but fails to really capitalize on any of them. The lack of a satisfying ending made this feel like a waste of a few hours, unfortunately.

#39: Invisible, Inc. - 14 hours &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
I'm always interested in seeing how different genres tackle stealth, which might be my favorite subgenre. Turn-based strategy stealth roguelike? I'll take it! Some UI issues aside, Klei did a great job here.

#40: Time Clickers - 2 hours &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Decided to try my first idle/clicker game. "Played" it for a couple hours and feel like I had my fill of this genre. While a fun time waster, it's not appealing enough to me to become addictive.

#41: Gravity Rush - 8 hours &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
There was great potential here with the cool gravity shifting mechanic, but the things the game asks you to do with it aren't very fun. Combat, especially. Simply flying around was the best part of the game for me. I wanted to enjoy playing this so much more than I did.

#42: 3D Streets of Rage 2 - 3 hours &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Confession: I had never played SoR2 despite owning a Genesis back in the day. Finally made amends with the 3DS version. Fun game. Excellent 3D implementation. Great soundtrack. Money and time well-spent.

I will be updating this post from now on.
Games 1 - 23
Games 24 - 47

Game #48: Stacking (PC) - 9 Hours
Had fun for the first few hours, but quickly became a bit repetitive for me. Although I do appreciate being able to solve a challenge multiple ways, a lot of them were easy to solve as just talking to the people around you can get really obvious hints. The difficulty does ramp up near the end as some puzzles had you combine abilities together. What i really like was just exploring the world and seeing how much thought was put into it. Also, I really liked the art on the dolls so collecting all the unique ones was a must for me. I still had a good time, I just wish the puzzles were a little bit more challenging early on.

Game #49: Sine Mora (PC) - 3 Hours
Started this game around Feburary, but I gave up on it after a boss just kept stomping me. Came back to it recently since I wasn't sure what I wanted to play next, and found out how easier the game was for me with a controller rather than with the keyboard or mouse controls. Mostly because it was a lot easier for me to make precise movements. Fun sidescrolling shump which makes me want to go play the other ones in my library. Gorgeous looking game and also a really interesting story (once you piece it together). Definitely recommend giving this a try.

Game #50: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It does have a few rough edges to it, but in the end I kind of liked the game. Combat was fun to play, being able to issue a ton of commands like spitfire was satisfying. The only huge problem i have with the combat was the pathfinding. It was easy to get enemies caught on the stairs and pick them off, but on the flip side a lot of my game overs were caused by my squadmate taking weird routes to revive me which ends up taking a lot of time. Running around the base and doing small side quests were tedious and found it pointless whenever the reward was a quest with a new recruit as a reward. Overall, this game could of just used a lot more in a few departments: More enemy variety, perks, decisions that affect gameplay/story.

I couldn't care much for the story and characters. Amusingly near the end, the story does go crazy and off the rails. A little bit underrated, but I would still wait for a sale to try this game out.

Game #51: Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut (PC) - 39 Hours

100% Complete. This game pretty much gave me almost every reason to stop playing: the dull combat, the tedious driving where the faster cars could easily flip over or do an instant 180, and the terrible sound mixing. But, I never really minded those imperfections. The experience I got from the story and the characters was so incredible that it easily makes it worth the trouble. Even when I already watched an LP of it, it was still great to finally experience it first hand. Sure it rips off Twin Peaks a lot, but I feel that this game has plenty of its own moments to make it feel original.

Game #52: One Piece: Unlimited World Red (Vita) - 12 Hours

After playing One Piece: Romance Dawn, this game was a breath of (much needed) fresh air. The combat is fairly simple, two attack buttons with a dodge button. Its a much more relaxing action game as the combos never get too complicated. Being able to bring two other character along helps add a little more gameplay variety as I went through the lengthy stages. Outside of the main game, there's side quest you can tackle in a Monster Hunter style which features bosses that are not included in the main game. I also had a lot of fun building the main town and making the place feel more lively and bigger to roam around. Can't tell you how amusing it is to just use Gum Gum Rocket all over the place. I haven't spent much time in the Coliseum mode yet, but I plan to do so as I wait for Steins;Gate to come out.

Game #26 : Colony Wars

Rating: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734; | Platform: PS1 | Beaten: 04/08/2015 | Time: 02:06 h

It was my first contact with CW, so I didn't know what to expect. Very difficult game I would like to say, I've never ever played in a such tough game. Reached only 1 ending - the easiest. I tried for over 4h to beat one act and couldn't do it, so I gave up (hate doing this). Maybe one day I'll be back to this title?

Game #27 : Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Rating: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734; | Platform: PS4 | Beaten: 07/08/2015 | Time: 02:51 h

I am a fan of Snake's adventures. Like each part of this beauty saga, this title wasn't exception. Good game/demo and next gen MGS, fantastic.The most expensive demo in video game history, but hey! that's MGS. Can't wait for MGS V: TPP. Only 2 weeks left.

Game #28 : Colony Wars: Vengeance

Rating: &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734; | Platform: PS1 | Beaten: 09/08/2015 | Time: 01:05 h

Once again Colony Wars, but second part. This time difficult level went down. That's good information for me. After 1h I achieved first ending, besides I've done second ending, too. Of course game has probably 5 endings and I am still trying to beat next acts, but it's hard. I am very close to reach next act (beating one mission in act without problems, but second mission is a real pain in the a...). Besides I like it much more, than totally hardcore first game.

Original Post

Original post


45. Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker (3DS)
Completed the Septentriones campaign on Apocalypse difficulty, got the Anguished One's ending. Completed the Triangulum campaign on Apocalypse difficulty (new game plus), got the Hotsuin ending.

The only reason I started playing Record Breaker so soon after its release was because there were Spotpass doodads and free DLC available in the first few weeks after release. I was planning to play just long enough to unlock the Spotpass-related material, and then I'd set it aside for other games. I'd already played the original Devil Survivor 2, you see, and found it pretty good but lacking compared to its predecessor. Devil Survivor Overclocked was a more polished package, with a better story, more complex-seeming characters, and a native 3DS port.

Over 60 hours later, I realize that Devil Survivor 2 is, in many ways, equal to the original. The characters still fall into tropes but feel more like real people, possibly because of the added voice acting. The story turns out to be a lot more interesting if you take the right route. And thanks to Record Breaker being on the 3DS, it's now clearly the superior package--same great native feel, with all the gameplay improvements carried over from the original DS version like the Add-On system and the Persona-esque social links.

Besides all that, Record Breaker has one other great feature: an entire second campaign, playable immediately for people who don't want to replay the original game's single-player. I never managed to see Overclocked's new 8th Day scenarios because the routes I picked on my two playthroughs of the game didn't actually have extra days. The Triangulum arc is everything you would want out of a second campaign with the cast and setting of Devil Survivor 2. It adds new dimension to characters you already know, upends the balance struck at the end of the original game, and takes you on a wild ride that goes places you probably didn't expect. Clearly this is the last we'll see of the Devil Survivor 2 gang--even if the series didn't habitually reset with every game, Atlus has taken the Administrators storyline as far as it can go. But I really hope this isn't the end of the Devil Survivor franchise. I dare say I might even like it more than Persona at this point.

P.S.

Games 1 - 20
Games 21+

Game 38: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

It took me two attempts to get through Dear Esther. The first time, I was expecting something else and was immediately turned off. The second time, I loved it. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is an improvement in every regard, and due to having my expectations in check, I enjoyed it all the better. A part of the reason this resonated so much is that I've been to places very similar to the setting in this. It is an utterly accurate representation of a little village in the English countryside. The layout and scale, and the much-criticized (yet accurate) walking speed, all go a really long way to giving it a real sense of place. It no longer felt like I was running around an environment admiring the graphics, but that I was actually walking around this village, working out who lived here once and what happened. The stories themselves were great and the characters felt like they had real personalities (helped out by the excellent voice acting), but I found myself more interested in the day-to-day lives being affected by the supernatural rather than intrigued as to the nature of the thing that caused everyone to disappear. In my mind, all the sci-fi stuff was simply a means for The Chinese Room to tell the story in a deserted location, and to put an extra bit of stress and impending doom on these characters. Simply put, it's about the people who lived there, not what happened to them. And I got really choked up on more than one occasion, so I certainly felt something. It's not for everybody, granted. Loads of people will hate it through unmeasured expectations, or it not resonating with them. But it got me, and I thought it was fucking brilliant.
If you like Dear Esther, you'll like this

Main post

A few updates from the past week:

Game 27: New Super Luigi U (Wii U) - 12h46m [8/9/15] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½


Beat the game, found about 2/3 of the star coins.

Overall, I really liked it. One of the more consistently challenging "Mario" games in some time. I really felt like I earned every flagpole and star coin, from the first stage to the last. I appreciated that they went with a very different approach to the NSMBU stages, as Luigi controls very differently and they've made the levels play very differently. Both completing the levels in time and finding all of the star coins was a real challenge.


Game 28: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - 5h30m [8/13/15] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;


Finished the game. I apparently missed a few of the characters' endings; unlocked 2 trophies.

Gorgeous, atmospheric and haunting. The Chinese Room did an excellent job in terms of the storytelling and the world-building, and was very effective in terms of allowing me to understand this place and the characters that once resided there.

I do have a few gripes. Like with The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, I appreciated the lack of hand-holding. But with narrative-focused games like these, I think they should encourage less straying from the golden path. Because eventually I get to the point where I'm investigating every nook and cranny for story content, but that starts to feel like a grind instead of something that should play out more naturally. And due to the slow pace, it drags in spots when you are exploring these huge areas with nothing turning up. This discouraged me from backtracking to areas I'd already explored, and I missed some important story sequences as a result. These sorts of games would benefit greatly by being less open and more linear as opposed to getting sucked into the AAA model of everything being huge open worlds.

All that said, the game had me hooked from beginning to end. The whole experience was very intoxicating, and got me emotionally invested into the lives of these characters. Many moments gave me genuine feelings of sadness and heartbreak for the people of the community. As someone who has drifted apart from some friends and family members over the years, for some reasons that were serious and others petty, the storytelling really resonated with me. The way it all wrapped up wasn't altogether satisfying, but it felt appropriate and was nevertheless thought-provoking. It delivered about what I was expecting from it.


Game 29: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (360) - 11h30m [8/15/15] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;


Beat game on Normal. Unlocked 14/20 achievements.

Pretty good game, but definitely not as good as Escape From Butcher Bay. Solid, but there really wasn't any area (combat, stealth, design, storytelling) where it wasn't a step backwards from the previous game. I suppose it was tough to top a really good game and while I suspected that, as a newer game, it would have been a bit dumbed-down compared with its predecessor. But I was a bit surprised to see that certain things like A.I. and overall game balance regressed as much as they did.

The stealth element, in particular, was a bit of a bummer. It was generally de-emphasized as a valid approach to enemy encounters, and often it wasn't possible to tackle a situation with stealth at all. It was designed as much more of an action game, and even in that regard, it lacked gameplay balance. You get two weapons over the course of the game that give you a huge advantage over the enemies -- one stealth-centered, and one combat-centered. Otherwise, you are at a huge disadvantage due to the enemies' unfair A.I. So using those weapons makes it a lot easier to get through the game, but it doesn't feel like good stealth or good combat; it feels like I am cheating, whereas it feels like the enemies are cheating if I don't (or can't) make use of those weapons. Quite disappointing coming off of Escape From Butcher Bay and The Darkness, two Starbreeze first-person games that I was quite fond of.

Liked it overall, but again, didn't quite live up to my expectations.

POST #4: Games 70-84 (August 16 - October 3, 2015)

Link to Post #1 (Games 1-34):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=145272880&postcount=225

Link to Post #2 (Games 35-44):
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=158688913

Link to Post #3 (Games 45-69):
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=169235348

Post 4 progress as of 10/02/15: 84 games completed versus initial target of 52 games (+32 games over target)

My personal ground rules (copied from my OP):

1. If I own all episodes of an episodic game when I start playing, then beating them all counts as just one game.

If I own just the one episode (ex. Game of Thrones, Republique) then that counts as one game by itself... But subsequently buying and finishing more episodes (if I liked the first) will not add to my completed game count.

2. Games finished in 2015 all count, regardless of when I started them. This is supposed to be backloggery!

3. No "re-finishing" any short games I've already beaten for purposes of padding my stats, unless i'm revisiting the game for Platinum run.

Note: the entries listed below without a "finished" date listed are stubs, representing half-finished games; I'm using this as a work-in-progress checklist. I'll be editing the post to reflect completion as I progress.



Game 70: Supercharged Robot VULKAISER (PC) - 1 hour 21 minutes as per Steam
Finished 8/16/15
I binged on Japanese indies in the recent sale, and picked up a lot of shmups and 2D action games... One of them was this Voltes V-flavored sidescroller which really made my day.

Basically, you play as the "Red 1" equivalent, and can "volt in" with any of the other four members of Voltes.. Er, I mean Vulkaiser, which generates different subweapon types, charge moves, and supers. The hook is, if you stick with the same guy/girl (and manage to keep them alive), then you become closer to them off the field and can read more of their backstory. Charming - and the actual shooting mechanics are tight!

Game 71: Cel Damage HD (PS4) - Around 2 hours
Beaten 8/21/15
Picked this up with my leftover change in my PSN wallet. I gotta say, its games like this that make me wish PSN allowed refunds like Steam, as this is easily the worst game I've played this year (finished or otherwise).

Who thought it was a good idea to remaster this shitty kart racer??? I know its an OG Xbox game, but the graphics truly are stunningly poor. The battle arena gameplay (which is the only mode I managed to force myself through) is kind fun in a stupid way, but feels heavily dependent on chance (i.e. you get good powerup spawns, you win). All the other modes (which are more akin to a Mario Kart style circuit structure) are just absolute balls. Deleted immediately after clearing all stages in battle mode - I will never download this again as long as I live.

Game 72: Fairy Bloom Freesia (PC) - 2 hours 25 minutes as per in-game timer
Finished 8/22/15
I was absolutely blown away by how good this game was. Despite the dippy (and badly drawn) animu look, FBF is chaos in a box - imagine a 2D arena battle game with shades of Bayonetta and Street Fighter, then add the impactful, meaty impacts of Smash Bros. (you know, the feeling you get when you mash somebody with the Home Run Bat). Yes, it does get old eventually, and there are very few enemy types in the game (the developer is super low budget), but the quality still shines through.

Obviously, its still not nearly as good as any of those timeless classics named above, but for how much theyre selling this for, it's nearly criminal how cheap it is (low risk Steam purchase). It has Just Defend! It has air combos! It has a Hokuto (SFEX+a) parry! You know what to do!

Game 73: Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) - Around 16 hours
Beaten 8/24/16
I skipped Arkham Knight when it released due to my standing policy to never buy the regular edition of games published by WB (I'll buy the GotY, TYVM). Thankfully, my cousin loaned me his copy so I could finish it. And...

This game absolutely blew me away! This was, against all odds, the best game I've played in 2015 so far, finished or otherwise (disclaimer: I haven't made much headway into Witcher III, despite owning it since launch). The writing was really sharp, the Freeflow combat system has been refined to an astounding degree, and there are a wonderful variety of different things to do... AK has that "just one more mission" quality that all the great ones have, and I binge finished it in a weekend.

There are so many highlights that stick out in my mind, thinking back on my time with Arkham Knight:
* Tag team combat with a ridiculous enemy count, plus no discernible lag!
* Surprisingly enjoyable tank battles with the Batmobile!
* Huge amounts of world detail, with dialogue for the most minor of NPC's and easter eggs galore for Batman nerds!
* And to cap it all off, one hell of a finale that just doesn't let up on the intensity!

Some (fairly minor) things I wish Rocksteady had changed:
1) Less Batmobile racing. Seriously, I wish you didn't put all that AR challenge shit in there. Tank battles are fine, though.
2) Don't lock important story content behind something as asinine as 100% completion. I understand that you probably did this so people wouldn't trade your game in early, but beating all the Riddler challenges is something most people won't have time for.

Game 74: Until Dawn (PS4) - 7 hours 30 minutes
Beaten 8/30/15
I can't say enough about how fantastic this game was - I came into it with very few expectations, and came out of it grinning from ear to ear. The tension I got from my first run with this game is almost unparalelled - the impression that any false move could truly be your last really puts you on edge, and the sections where you have to remain perfectly still had me holding my breath IRL.

Im planning to get right back to it tommorow to see everything else the game has to offer, but for now I'll bask in the afterglow of my virgin playthrough... Barely anybody among my group of "teens" survived, but they can rest easy knowing they died in service of some good old fashioned family fun.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Game 75: XBLAZE Lost: Memories (PSV) - 7 hours (Platinum)
Beaten 8/30/15
This game is a poster child for the "bad" kind of visual novel - ostensibly a sequel of sorts to the first XBLAZE (Code Embryo, which I enjoyed quite a bit due despite its mechanical defiencies), this is apparently more of a "fandisc". Unfortunately for me, I did not think to look up what a fandisc was before actually purchasing this, to my great regret.

75% of the game is recycled content from the first game, but with inane commentary from two flimsily-written omniscient protagonists. The last 25%, which promises to be a direct continuation of the first game's "canon" ending, doesn't fare much better, with plot and dialogue slightly below the level of your average magical girl anime.

Ah, well. Win some, lose some. At least it was an easy Plat.

Game 76: Savant Ascent (PC) - 1 hour, 29 minutes
Beaten 8/31/15
The first of several games I copped based on recs from this excellent thread (http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1094928).
An amazing shooter with very simple controls - WASD allows you to hop left and right between two "ledges", and the mouse controls which direction you shoot. Hard as all hell, and sometimes seems a little unfair, but always gets you coming back for more.

It's so hard in fact, that initially I thought it was just an infinite score attack game. When i figured out that using a gamepad was essentially impossible, I switched to KBM and finished the story mode no sweat...

...then I unlocked Time Attack and Endless, and promptly failed to unlock even a single cheevo. So frustrating, I was worried about damaging my laptop keyboard.. But it hurts so goooood.

Game 77: Astebreed (PC) - 2 hours
Beaten 8/31/15
Absolutely glorious shooter - in my book, the spiritual sequel to the Squaresoft classic Einhander (PS1) that we sadly never got.

You pilot the Macross-esque mecha Astebreed against a ridiculous armada of enemies, armed with circular and targeted lock on missiles, concentrated and spreadshot lasers, and a godly sword that can stop enemy fire (and be used to dash into enemies as well). The perspective changes constantly but you never feel like you're out of control; further, the graphics are absolutely amazing - the best looking bullet hell I've ever played. To top it all off, the difficulty is very inclusive - can played by novices and idiot savants alike.

Highly, highly recommended - if you have even the slightest interest, buy it.

Game 78: Gigantic Army (PC) - 1.2 hours
Beaten 8/31/15

Very satisfying sidecrolling shooter in the vein of Metal Slug, except that you're always in the "slug", and you're piloting a mech instead of a tank. It has that same "weighty" feeling movement, but you're always racing against a clock and have to constantly pick up time extend powerups. A weird combination that somehow works... Love the 16-bit style graphics as well, shades of Contra III: The Alien Wars.

Game 79: Crimson Clover World Ignition (PC) - 40 minutes
Beaten 8/31/15
My Japanese indie shmup-beating day ended with this nutso little number. Shades of Raiden Trad, this one, with its main gimmick being able to "boost" your firepower to a ridiculous degree after filling up your super meter. The best part is, if you fill up the meter again before your initial boost expires, you get to use something called "Double Boost" which is the single most incredible display of weaponry I've seen in any shooter ever.

This is a great showpiece game for any shooter fan, as its visually excellent - the staggering amount of sprites on screen is incredibly impressive. The bullet patterns also feel a lot more "fair" than something like GunDeadLigne.

Game 80: Xeodrifter (PSV) - 3.5 hours
Beaten 9/6/15
I spent the weekend double-fisting MGSV and Danganronpa AE: UDG (putting sizable dents in both games), but managed to spend some time cooling down by beating Xeodrifter. A pleasingly compact Metroidvania from Renegade Kid, this was short and sweet - bringing that punishing Famicom-era difficulty, I enjoyed it while it lasted. September is a godly PS Plus month!

Game 81: Grow Home (PS4) - Around 4 hours
Beaten 9/6/15
I'm of two minds regarding this game, a quirky platformer about a robot growing a "beanstalk" from the ground all the way into outer space.

On the one hand, it's technically amazing (not surprising, as its an "indie" idea funded by a big publisher, in this case Ubi), with an insane draw distance amd a fantastic sense of scale.

On the other, the controls are janky as all get out. While I'm sure this was somewhat intentional, you just never get that 100% confidence that you're going to stick a jump because of the iffy ledge grabbing mechanic. Seriously, this game made me invent new curse words.

But then all of a sudden everything does work again, and you nail a long distance jump right where you intended to land, it feels amazing...

...I don't know. I'm glad to have played through Grow Home, and won't forget the experience anytime soon, but i'm also pretty sure I'll never play this again. Take that as you will.

Game 82: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (PSV) - 20 hours, 48 minutes
Finished 9/17/15
Got laid up in the hospital with appendicitis and went on a major Vita tear, beating UDG in the process. Can't say i had much fun with it - the 3rd person shooting is very weak, the plot is terrible, and the direct link to Danganronpa 2 is tenuous at best. The upgrades you can get to beef up your stats don't really do much of anything, which I personally find really annoying. And the game has technical issues - the loading times are annoyingly frequent, and there are apparently a bunch of crash bugs that occur if you load from "chapter break" save files (which I happily avoided after reading about the issue on GAF).

I can't really say too much about the other stuff I disliked without major spoilers - bottom line is, Spike Chunsoft might have done a significant amount of damage to the Danganronpa brand with this game IMHO. After this drivel, I no longer view this series as being on the same level as Zero Escape - Danganronpa is now definitively the B-Team.

Game 83: Super Time Force Ultra (PSV) - Around 6 hours
Finished 9/18/15
STFU was very enjoyable - it took a little getting used to, but the central conceit of rewinding time, and creating convenient duplicates of yourself at opportune moments, is pure gold. It makes some levels more "puzzley" than I'd like, but overall its well implemented.

The script is stupid-witty in the typical Capy style. Cameos from PS personalities abound - Galahad from the Order and the wanderer from Journey are present and accounted for! I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida (which is the best playable character name in the history of mankind).

Game 84: Croixleur Sigma (PC) - 1 hour 50 minutes as per Steam
Beaten 9/19/15
It had to happen eventually. After playing through an amazing cavalcade of Japanese indie games from Steam, I finally unearthed a brick. Essentially an 3rd person arena based action game, Croixleur Sigma is basic to the point of stupidity. You've got a basic slash, a Rockman X style dash with i-frames, a rechargeable super (of the spinning-around killing everything variety) and whatever "special move" your weapon has. That's pretty much it - your gameplay from the first minute of the game is pretty much the same all throughout.

It's mercifully short - you can do a run through the story mode in around 15 minutes, with additional modes unlocking to encourage repeat playthroughs (it IS an arena game, after all). Beat it several times with both characters to ensure that there wasn't something I missed.. I was right the first time.

Original Post and Second Post (ran out of space).

Game 34: RC Helicopter (PS1) 3 hours
I love pretty much everything that Agetec publishes because it's usually a direct translation with no real localization or reinterpretation to fit what they assume a US audience would want to see. The translations are usually pretty off as well. In this game your father bought you an RC helicopter and you use it to run mundane errands for various people around the neighborhood like picking up cans, scaring away birds, cutting grass and photographing paranormal entities... Wait, what was that last one?? Yep, the final missions have you photographing ghosts that are haunting a school. Then at the end, before the credits roll you find out it was all just a dream... oh, Japan!

Game 35: Captain Forever Remix (PC) 11 hours
This game is so addictive. It's one of the best roguelikes I've ever played. the setting and characters are great too. I love building ships in this game. No two campaigns are the same. It can get challenging and shields are a must in the final stages but overall it's awesome. The music is pretty good too.

#34 Metroid Prime

#35 Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

#36 Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Did a LTTP thread explaining my felling towards these games, heres the link http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1088622&highlight= . TL;DR: they're amazing, especially MP2.

#37 Life Is Strange EP. 4

Damn, guys at Dontnod keep delivering. Thought EP. 3 was their best, but they did even better. Great twists, character development, and the ending kept me in my toes. Can't wait for the finale episode !

#38 Metal Gear Solid 3

Replaying Big Boss games before TPP release, and goddamn this game is better than i remembered. First time i played it i didn't noticed how great of a character The Boss is, and how amazing her backstory is. And, of course, game has a ace pacing, great boss battles, the list goes on and on. Time to replay PW and then, MGSV !

Games 1-20
Games 21-

Game 39: Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts - 4 hours
PC
My favorite New Vegas DLC of the three that I have played. I have Lonesome Road left to play. Overall, I enjoyed it. I only wish it was a bit meatier and fleshed out. Liked Graham a lot.

original post

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37. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) - 160 hours+ ;

The combat is still great and quite profound and there's probably never been that many completely different monsters to fight, even if most of it is more of a collection of previous titles. There's also still tons of different weapons and it's always fascinating how all of them are balanced well enough to be suited for each enemy. And again, there's tons and they are still fun to fight.
It is however not my favorite in the series. The graphics for everything but the monsters are pretty meh - however the OST is as good as ever. The new mechanics are all kind of redundant. Guild quests instead of epxlorations feel pretty half-baked after a while, the enraged and frenzy monsters later on would be an okay (if certainly not spectacular) addition, if they wouldn't require extra items which redundantly clutter your inventory. The online end game requires grinding and the online community unfortunately doesn't really lend itself well for variety in quests.

38. Bloodborne (PS4) - 29 hours ;

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I feel high fantasy is just played out and utterly boring at this point, so I never got into Souls, but I was interested in this one from the very beginning. I love gothic- and horror settings and this delivered on that better than I could have imagined. Sony has clearly put some money into this, the graphical fidelity and gigantic amount of detail and different locales, decoration and enemies is staggering. There's optional secret areas that feel like they've received more effort than entire games altogether.
Although I usually don't like silent games, this world was still highly atmospheric, although I still don't get why they wouldn't use music every now and then. One area has a bg chorus, but only if you enter through a secret entrance, and it automatically pushes the atmosphere. Not sure why there wasn't more, it's easily my only big gripe alongside the technical hiccups.

The gameplay feels great and it's very addictive. The combat is satisfying despite its simplicity (when it comes to commands) and the exploration too is highly motivating. It feels very rewarding to progress and discover things without hand holding in a modern game and the level design feels very focused and open to highly different experiences per player, but certainly nothing like randomly generated open world trash. I really didn't need any help to get through this under 30 hours. From what I hear, it's quite streamlined compared to Souls and I welcome that. I don't want a singleplayer game in which I can level wrong stats, which thankfully isn't really possible in here. And I prefer a smaller amount of items, because the big ones you discover feel more special because of that. I just wish enemies in the last quarter didn't stop dropping HP pots, because farming those gets tedious (plus adds lots of loading screens) and that you get immediately thrown into NG+ without the option to sill explore pre-final boss through loading.

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#32. Devil May Cry HD (PS3) -- August 16 -- 5:00:45 -- &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;
This holds up surprisingly well. Obviously, it's not as complex as later DMC games, but all of the basics are covered and the combat feels great. There are some cool environments and thanks to the fixed camera, you get some nice, cinematic angles. Enemy variety is a little lacking and you repeatedly fight the same bosses, but what's there is good. The remaster itself is pretty half-assed. All of the menus and pre-rendered cutscenes are in SD and show up in a small 4:3 window. I should also mention that you'll want to prepare yourself emotionally before playing this game. The gripping story and Oscar-worthy voice acting left me awestruck.

Games 1 - 20
Games 21+

Game 39: Rocket League

So, I bought Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars for PS3 when it came out, but very few people on my friends list played it, and a lot of them were simply too turned off by that name to give it a go. So as a result, I didn't play much of it myself. Putting this on Plus was a damn masterstroke. It doesn't do much on the surface (it's just cars playing football), but the finely tuned physics and controls give it such an incredibly high skill-ceiling that it immediately feels like an actual sport. I've played it almost every single day since it came out over a month ago, and I feel like I'm improving all the time. Some of the shit I can do in this game now I couldn't have dreamed of doing on day 1, and that's what makes it so great. You have the freedom to express yourself with ridiculous aerials and stunts that, maybe you only nail it one time in 5, but when you do, it's the sweetest feeling in the world. I may have finished Rocket League (as in, the Platinum Trophy unlocked for me last night) but I don't think I'll ever truly be finished with it. I think this is the greatest multiplayer game I've ever played. Believe the hype.
If you like Haxball, you'll like this

WeWereGiants


Teggy

Game 9 &#8211; Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (PS3) (Started in 2013)
I haven't really enjoyed a Ratchet and Clank game since ACiT. This game did a better job at trying to recapture the magic but in the end it failed. Next year's reboot is looking promising.

Game 10 &#8211; The Order: 1886 (PS4)
It was alright.

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Games 1 - 20
Games 21-39

Couldn't fit this in the last post, so time for a new archive post! This will cover games 40 and up.

Game 40: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

I finally put the Main Scenario of A Realm Reborn to rest tonight. It definitely fizzled out at the end, due to the gear that becomes available at lvl50 removing the challenge, and the way in which the finale is presented is a little silly if you're with a group that won't wait for you to finish watching cutscenes. The final two dungeons were essentially me watching cutscenes while the rest of the group did the quest. I could have skipped them and watched later, but that ruins it being the climax of the story. So, a disappointing final two hours, but two hours in this game is a drop in the ocean, and doesn't even come close to bringing the experience down. Long story short, I loved it. There is an embarrassing amount of content, and everyone I bumped in to was super-friendly (including the GAF Free Company). I recognise that it's just a FF-skinned MMO, but even at that, it's the best Final Fantasy game in ages. All the nods to the previous games, the incredible soundtrack, impeccable presentation and gorgeous locations. The developers just get it. And I've barely scratched the surface. I've all the endgame content of ARR and then Heavensward to get stuck in to, but I think I'm going to take a week off. I hit a milestone today, and it must be respected.
If you like Final Fantasy XII, you'll like this

Game 41: Lara Croft Go

This was a delightful little surprise. I haven't played Hitman Go because I've never been that into the franchise, and while I'm also not that in to Tomb Raider, hearing people rave about this on the Giant Bombcast prompted me to pick it up. I was playing on an iPad Mini 3, and it ran fine for the most part, but I'm not sure I can vouch for older iPad models, as there were a few hitches here and there. The isometric turn-based nature of it is a perfect fit for iPad, and there were some intelligent puzzles designed within it's tiny little ruleset. The main gripes I had were that there wasn't any room for experementation and exploration, and it was maybe a little too easy. It ended just as it felt like it was about to kick it up a gear. Still, I'd welcome a sequel or DLC episodes, and I'll probably look to pick up Hitman Go off the back of this. Great stuff.
If you like Monument Valley, you'll like this

Game 42: Until Dawn

Another real surprise, this. In the whole pre-release cycle, I figured this just wouldn't work. It seemed like it was relying too heavily on trying to scare the characters instead of the player. Even in the demos that were shown, I really wasn't feeling it. But, my god, when you're playing it, it's just instantly engaging. A bunch of sexy teens with their sexy sexual tensions in a classic screamer. They fucking nailed it. The atmosphere, sound design, visuals. It's magnificent. They were a little too on-the nose with the whole "Butterfly Effect" mechanics, and the framerate sometimes dipped so low as to be distracting (thankfully inconsequential to gameplay, though). But it's a great performance by a great cast and although it's far from perfect, everybody should play this through at least once. Easily the best "interactive movie" the world has ever seen. And Chris is a ballbag.
If you like Scream or The Cabin in the Woods you'll like this

Game 43: The Beginner's Guide

It's an interesting personal creation. That's all you're getting on this one.
If you like The Stanley Parable, you might like this

Game 44: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

While I know this isn't the best Uncharted game, it's still the one closest to my heart. Before the spectacle creep of over-the-top setpieces in the sequels came this humble little pulp adventure about raidin' ancient tombs in the tropics. The port that Bluepoint have done here is mostly fine work. It looks and runs great. But it's definitely buggier than the PS3 version ever was in any of my previous playthroughs. Grenade aiming often had a mind of its own and sometimes there'd be an invisible wall in front of me when shooting out of cover that meant my bullets couldn't travel more than a foot in front of me until I left the cover and re-snapped to it. Sometimes the bugs worked out in my favour, though, like when one shotgun guy tried to take cover, clipped right through the wall, and after being able to shoot at me for a couple of seconds, died in the void. I mean, I'm not super mad about the issues, but that's only because it's my tenth time through the game. I'd be pissed if it was my first run through. So, yeah, mostly great port, but it needed a little more attention in QA.
If you like Tomb Raider (2013), you might like this

Game 45: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Truth be told, this is the first time I've played this so close to playing the first game and the differences are more stark than I thought. Mechanically, Drake's Fortune was like having all these pockets of enemies that roadblocked your progress, while Among Thieves was more like it being a continuous obstacle course of smaller encounters and traversal. The slow, methodical approach to combat is thrown out for something that better rewards taking risks and pushing to move forward. It's really hampered by everything that goes on after the Convoy chapter. It ramps the difficulty to unfun levels and becomes a real chore to finish. And if I think about it, that's why I prefer replaying Drake's Fortune. I know this is a much better game, but I really don't want to do that final quarter. The port is, again, sterling technical work by Bluepoint. But again, it's a bit buggier than the original release was. Not as bad as the first game, but it still tarnishes it. I'm starting to feel like QA was minimal because it's a collection of remasters of games that had already been through it. Shame. Uncharted 3 next, though, and I've not finished that more than once, so it's going to feel much fresher than the first two.
If you like Tomb Raider (2013), you'll like this

Game 46: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Well. This was a load of old shit. It's a technical marvel, though. The set-pieces are impressive in both scale and detail, and the game looks great for a PS4 game, which is some kind of sorcery. The port is the best of the three, with bugs at an absolute minimum. But holy shit, the moment-to-moment gunplay is just fucking trash. Unlike in the previous games, enemies don't react to getting shot at in the slightest, and they soak up a ton more damage before finally dying. You can unload an entire clip in to the body of one of the regular grunts and they won't so much have flinched. So you're left with this situation where you can barely ever leave cover because someone will still be shooting back at you with undeterred accuracy while you're actively shooting them in the face. And that's compounded by some shocking animations as they're pathfinding around the environment, or just plain having a stupid design (hello "agents" in suits and shades). The writing takes a serious dive compared to the previous games, Cutter is the only new character that wasn't shit, and all the "ahh spiders!" stuff is just laughable. On it's own, with none of the multiplayer and having been through it once before, this isn't fit to lace the boots of the other entries. Incredibly, the game that looks like it's brand new has aged the worst for me.
If you're a DIEHARD Uncharted fan, you might like this

Game 47: Life is Strange

I picked up the season pass before we all knew how fantastic this series was going to turn out, so this has been one of the rare times in gaming where blindly pre-purchasing has paid off in spades. Always interesting and engaging, Life is Strange tells a moving tale of friendship, loss, and finding out who you are. Dontnod have tackled several topics that few other developers have ever dared to, and handled them with absolute class, giving the player plenty of opportunities for quiet reflection. It does it a little hyperactively, quickly jumping from one hot topic to the next, and some of the dialogue is a little awkward, but the whole thing is an emotional rollercoaster that doesn't ease up until it's all done. It's refreshing to see a developer that isn't Telltale tackle the modern adventure game, and even better to see them show the veterans how it should be done. Brilliant, brilliant game.
If you like Telltale's The Walking Dead, you'll like this

Game 48: Halo 4

I didn't have high expectations for this going in. Most people will tell you it's one of the weakest games in the series, and when I picked it up on 360, I only did a couple of chapters before calling it quits. If I'm honest, though, I found it to be very good. One of the most enjoyable Halo campaigns I've played. It was well paced and introduced some fun new vehicles to mess around in. Unfortunately, though, while the cutscenes were much better produced, the story they told was trash (how Master Chief can die from being shot, but can safely karate-chop a fucking nuke, I'll never know), and I experienced a massive UI bug at the end that was giving me the completely wrong button prompt to finish the game. Still had a much better time than I did with the first two games, so it was a great first effort by 343 Industries.
If you like Destiny, you might like this

Game 49: Halo 5: Guardians

Completing this only a day after beating Halo 4 really puts into perspective how much of a step up Halo 5 is. There are countless improvements across the board. The format of the story is refreshing (even if the story itself is average), and the general presentation is magnificent. Having a squad at all times to revive you when you get caught out, or order to take out a priority target while you go looking for more ammo, is truly a godsend. You no longer feel handicapped by playing solo. The scale of the levels is something else, too, with great verticality. Now that you can sprint and vault, there's plenty of ways to climb to higher ground if you don't want to play about down below. Everything's just faster and more immediate in general, and I found myself in a kind of "rush mode" throughout, as opposed to the slow, methodical clearing of areas in the past titles. As you progress through, every environment feels unique, with nary a identikit corridor in sight. Even tiny little features, like the visual feedback given by the crosshairs on hits or kills, just shows what a labour of love this has been for 343. People might criticize it for changing too much, for feeling too much like Halo diluted by modern FPS gameplay. But I thought it was one of the most consistently fun shooters in years. Brilliant stuff, and in my opinion, the best Halo game ever.
If you like Halo 3, you'll like this

Game 50: Batman: Arkham Knight

Ok, so I played this on PC and I can absolutely recommend that you do not play this game on PC. I'm fortunate enough to have a machine with enough power to brute force an acceptable performance out of the game, but even then, as I started approaching the endgame, stuttering crept in and audio started dropping randomly. For the vast majority of people, it's going to run like ass. I will say that it's an absolutely gorgeous game, though. The scale and effects and destruction on display were impressive from the first moment to the last. Gameplay has changed a little from Arkham City to focus on driving and tanking around in the Batmobile, which means a lot less beating up random thugs on the street. The Batmobile stuff isn't as good as the rest of the game, but I welcome the change. It gives Arkham Knight its own identity instead of being City/Origins all over again and gave Rocksteady a greater set of tools to pace the gameplay beats. It's basically a wonderful addition to the Rocksteady Arkham trilogy and I had a blast with it. I haven't seen the full ending yet because it's locked behind completing all the sidequests, and that's a dumb move. But, if it is what I suspect, it makes sense that everything else needs to be taken care of first. I'll definitely go back and mop up the remaining stuff, but now it's time to move on to something else. I'm really, really excited to see what Rocksteady do next. Just do the PC version in-house next time, yeah?
If you like Batman: Arkham City, you'll like this

Game 51: The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna

I'll admit, when this was announced, I wasn't wild about it. Even though The Talos Principle (Game 2 on this list) was my GOTY 2014. It didn't need DLC. It was a well wrapped up package and more of the same content would just be another case of the games industry not knowing when to leave something be. It could have been really easy for Croteam to stick a new ability in the player's hands and base it around that, but they took the tools you already had, and from them created some really challenging puzzles that use the old tools in new ways. And it's fucking magnificent. This is the game I loved before, distilled to its best parts and refined to within an inch of its life. On more than one occasion, upon beating a room, I walked back through it slowly to marvel at the sheer ingenuity of the solution. Without a doubt, this is the finest display of puzzle design I've ever seen. And it's all backed up by a script that further cements Tom Jubert as one of the best writers in the business. Gotta go back for all the stars (and, I assume, the "true ending"), but I'm happy to mull over what I got for the time being.
If you like Portal, you'll like this

Game 52: Game of Thrones Season One

I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones, and a big fan of Telltale's The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, so this had every right to be a thoroughly enjoyable episodic adventure. But it was anything but. As each episode released, my enthusiasm waned more and more. By the end of Episode 4, I just stopped giving a shit, and I just blasted through the last two tonight to get it the fuck done. I was so bored of the story that I had to resort to making sarcastic shocked reactions to keep myself entertained. Aloud. Alone. Read that again: this game is so fucking dull that I could only drag myself through it by talking to myself. And on a level of craft, the whole package is just shoddy. Barely-animated marionettes spouting the bare minimum of dialogue in barely-modelled environments. All the while, everyone moves about at a glacial speed, occasionally stopping to do a silent exaggerated facial expression so you know they're upset. And on top of all the JPEGs and jank and embarrassing lip-sync, they could barely even come up with an original idea the whole series. It's all twists on famous scenes from the show, so everything has about as much impact as a feather duster. Telltale need to re-assess their formula. Doubly so in the wake of Life Is Strange this year. There's nothing to be proud of in this package. Absolute garbage.
You won't like this

Game 53: The Blackwell Epiphany

Maybe five games in this series was too much. While it was nice to unwind with another round of Rosa 'n' Joey's Paranormal Case Files, I find myself with very little to say about it. It's another Blackwell game. Well written characters in a hardboiled yet somehow goofy point and click adventure in which you play the role of a spiritual agony aunt. As a concluding chapter, it works well. Definitely provides closure and it made me feel a little sad. The throwbacks to the older games were a nice touch, but they felt a bit loose. Like it was just a contrived way to give the feeling of the game tying up loose ends that never really existed in the first place. Still, I enjoyed this quirky little series while it lasted, and this is a solid entry.
If you like the other Blackwell games, you should play this

Game 54: Tales from the Borderlands

This was brilliant. Just when I thought I'd had enough of the Telltale formula, I find this going for just £5 and had a blast with it. And I'm not even into Borderlands! The sharp writing, visual gags and stellar VO cast (showing great enthusiasm throughout) made it a delight to breeze through, and provided plenty of laughs along the way. Some of the greatest title sequences ever, too. It's hard to believe that this came from the same studio as Game of Thrones, because where that felt like borderline incompetence, this just seems like masters of the art creating an effortlessly stylish and fun experience. However, the final chapter stands out a good bit because it's significantly less enjoyable than the rest. It's a lot more straight-faced because it's trying to raise the stakes and feel like a climax, but it falls flat by punctuating that with twee sentimentality instead of the humour you'd expect. It's not bad, it's just in unflattering company. Still an amazing series, and Telltale's greatest work to date.
If you like The Secret of Monkey Island, you'll like this.

#33. Devil May Cry 2 HD (PS3) -- August 17 -- 3:10:12 -- &#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
Yeah, this is a travesty. If there's one positive thing I can say about this game it's that I love Dante's design and animations. Otherwise, it's a huge step down from DMC1 in every category. The level design and environments are boring, the story is bad, but not so bad that it's good like in DMC1, the AI is atrocious, the combat has zero depth and the guns are totally overpowered, the targeting system is broken, and holy shit, the camera... It makes Sonic Adventure look like a Stanley Kubrick film. Multiple bosses were defeated without them fully entering the frame and that had nothing to do with their size. I can't remember the last time I played a game this bad. At least I got a Diesel jacket for completing Dante's story. Diesel, for successful living. I'm not touching Lucia's campaign.

SPOILER ALERT: Game #52 is going to be (somewhat anti-climatically)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Game #50: Rocket League: 13.2 hours

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I probably don't need to describe Rocket League, everyone already knows what it is. Features are barebones except for the wealth of customisation options but that really just makes the game clean, pure fun. I'm not great at it, and I got burnt out trying to unlock everything but once my funk wears off I can see myself dipping into it often for a few rounds.

Game #51: Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters: 12.1 hours

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I wanted to drop this at first. It felt clunky and weird, it was a little confusing and the difficulty spike at the first boss felt insane.

It turns out I was approaching the game all wrong, it is a very clunky hack and slash but it's not as unfair as it first felt. It's a little grindy, and expects you to play each of the 5 levels multiple times before you beat it. This is counteracted by the exit to each part of the level unlocking when you kill everything in the room and then staying unlocked for subsequent attempts letting you just run straight to the boss.

The dodge move has horrendous start and end lag and a bad button combination (jump + attack) but in the end I learnt to live without it. The lack of attack options kind of sucks (3 hit combo + magic) but the magic system makes up for it. When you hit enemies they have a chance to drop elemental gems, you can hold six and they are consumed in reverse pick up order (starting at one and upgradable to a maximum of 4) to change the resulting spell or add modifiers to it.

Not a great game, not even really a good game, but strangely enjoyable and compelling.

Game 1:Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Vita) - + 20 hours
I loved this game it was so much fun to play and took me quite some time to finish all the races and reverse but I did it! I would recommend it for vita it worked like a charm and no problems! 8.5/10

Game 2: Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4) - 99 hours
This was quite a good game and loved the characters, I did like making your own character and dragons fights were the bomb digity! I had a few glitches and problems but solid game going in as my first dragon age game. 8/10

Game 3: Alien: Isolation (PS4) - 15 hours
This game looked amazing and was a delight to play. But it's not perfect playing on hard you do get cheap deaths and checkpoint stations are sometimes to far apart. Lastly, the game dragged on way to much and felt like fetch quests over and over. 7/10

Game 4: DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round (PS4) - 13 hours
This game was fun and a fighting game with a storymode great! But the story mode made no sense and was a bit to weird for my taste but the gameplay was fun enough to ignore. 7.5/10

Game 5: Bloodborne (PS4) - 36 hours
At first I hated this game but I came through and loved this game! The game design is simply amazing and the gameplay was fun but fair it is my favourite game this year so far! 9.5/10

Game 6: Killzone: Mercenary (Vita) - 10 hours
I love the killzone seires and wanted to play this badly but after two hours I was done with the game. It was not as fun or enjoyable as shadowfall and hearing this is the best story for a killzone game was laughable. Final boss was also terrible. 5/10

Game 7: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4) - 7 hours
So i beat this game in 2014 but I am a trophy maniac so I played through it again on veteran and still an overall good game. It was much better then ghosts and left me excited for the future games of sledgehammer. 8/10

Game 8: DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition (PS4) -10 hours
I cannot say how much I loved this game it was great and the music is really good for the mood. I can't wait for a sequel and hope it comes out soon. 9/10

Game 9: Mortal Kombat X (PS4) - 4 hours
This game's story mode is short but sweet and gives you a taste on what the rest of the cast will play like. I played all the ladders and still enjoy playing this casually. 8/10

Game 10: Rayman Lengends (PS4) - 9 hours
This was way more enjoyable then the last game. It was easier but for a person who is playing alone it was needed and the music levels were amazing shame there weren't many of them. 8/10

Game 11:Witcher 3 (PS4) - 40+ hours
Terrible game, one of the worse game I have played in the past 5 years. I sold it immediately after. 4/10

Game 12:Batman Arkham Knight (PS4) - 23 hours
I loved/ like this game. I loved asylum and city they are beyond amazing games. This never reaches those levels and do feel like they could of been a better way to end the series. The batmobile is way overused and arkham knight is disappointing but combat and stealth is the best it's ever been. 8.5-9/10

Game 13: Destiny (PS4) - 21 hours
This game is alright, it's what i thought it would be and nothing more. The story isn't even a story and the game types is generic as well. 5.5/10

Game 14: Rocket League (PS4) - 10 hours
Man this game is the best! It's amazing and so simply. Played through season mode and online with buddies for hours. This game is a classic now! 9/10

Game 15: Battlefield Hardline (PS4) - 7 hours
So let me just tell you battlefield 4's campaign was terrible, it was totally tacked on and not needed. This is the exact opposite this time, the campaign is great and muiltplayer feels like a expansion pack. It's a mixed bag but still a decent one. 7.5/10

Game 16: Saint's row the third (PS3) - 24 hours
So this game is crazy and mindless fun! I enjoyed every second and even through it doesn't look pretty to today's standards the game is still a huge amount of fun to play. 8/10

Game 17: Sound Shapes (PS4) - 2 hours
It's a unique platform that is charming and different. With a new world created by a different artist it really does bring out charm and variety. 8.5/10

Game 18: Everybody's Gone To The Rapture (PS4) - 5 hours
This a weird experience for me, I loved the game for the story telling but their really is no game play here. It's walking around and finding what happened. It was good for a one time experience but that's it. No need to replay it at all. 7/10

Game 19: Last of Us - (PS4) -12 hours
So it was that time of year again, to replay last of us and it never gets old! I love this game to death, it is what gave last generation a good way to end with a bang and now we can experience it on ps4 all over again! 10/10

original post

39. Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA replay) - 3 hours;

Bored and GAF is down? Time for a Metroid replay. I actually didn't play ZM in quite a while too. It's great, but even with the enhancements, feels definitely much smaller than SM. I was also testing a GBA SP for someone and that thing sure isn't comfortable nowadays.

Game # 32
Hatoful Boyfriend
PC, Steam, 2-ish hours

Got the Sakuta ending. It was...something.

Game #33
Donkey Kong
NES, played via Virtual Console.
Still so damn good even it it was the gimped NES version missing a level.

20-ish. Now this is more like it. A full group, a story (albeit simple) that goes beyond "rescue the princess and defeat the dark lord" and a vast world that greatly expands on the first game's. Still, DQ2 really needs a sense of direction, as its extremely easy to get lost since the main story objectives are never really described to you, just "pointed out" in the form of hearsay or throwaway rumours (it's really descriptive that after completing Channock Castle, all you get for your troubles is a hint)

But I can see how this game was revolutionary for the time. Can't wait to start DQ3 and see how it expands on DQ2's system!


Updated OP

Finally some more progress!


08-07-15- Game 65: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - 95 hours
I just love this one. Been thinking about it since playing DA:I. I liked the first zone in DA:I but the rest were way too empty. I remembered this game being stuffed with stuff to do in every zone and missed it.
Since I had completed it before and the story isn't that interesting, it was a really nice game to play while watching TI5 on another screen. My biggest problems with the 360 version were the horrible load times and the awful FoV, both fixed by playing it on PC (thanks Widescreen Fixer <3). Grabbed all the cheevos and had a blast. Only thing is miss is mounts. Would have been sooo cool.



08-17-15 - Game 66: Golden Sun - 26 hours
This is a big one for me because this game has been in my backlog for almost 9 years! Finally through it! When I complete the sequel I will be done with GBA :O
Would have never guessed 24 hours if the save file didn't tell me that. It feels like it's twice as long! I actually tried to start this game earlier this year but gave up really early. The story was just... I dunno. Slow? The gameplay tho! It's a really nice game if you can overlook the talky talky talk. I liked both the puzzly stuff and the battles.



08-18-15 - Game 67: Escape Goat - 3 hours
An "old" fav! Played through it a couple of years ago but wanted to go back and complete it. The cheevo run took me 2 hours and I can't say I was looking forward to the "speed run" (beat it in 45 mins). Thought for sure I was gonna have to replay it until I hated the game since I've never been good at this kind of stuff. But... first try! and that's with lots and lots of mistakes. I died/retried almost 50 times :O


Main post 1-49
Main post 50-??

theecakee said:

I forgot about this, but I'll update so far since like...February?

03.Wolfenstein: The New Order

I liked it, was a fun FPS that had no business being as good as it was. Story was pretty interesting, and gameplay wise...while its still kind of overdone it still does it right.
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04. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Spent a lot of time with this game, so far my GOTY. I played a lot of this in June, I am really close to the end up to Skellige and

Spoiler

have to go find that Uma thing the Baron owns.

I got kind of bored though, was a little too much. I will pick it back up sometime later though. Best RPG I have played in a long time.
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05.Town of Salem

Pretty much an online version of the card game Mafia, so much fun all about lying and deceiving others and figuring out who is lying. It is similar to the Resistance/Avalon card game and is a free flash game or you can buy the Steam version.
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06. Rocket League

Fun multiplayer game, a lot of people seem to love the hell out of this game. Played it with some friends a few times and also got the platinum trophy.
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07. Danganronpa 1's School Mode

I'm gonna throw this in here, even though I played the main game last year...I went back and spent a lot of time on the school mode. I didn't like it, was very grindy and the extra plot points to each character weren't that great. Just kind of "oh well thats cool" but I could have just read the wikia for the game instead. Got the platinum trophy, but not worth it.

&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734; "for school mode!, the main game is easily a 5/5 for me"

08. Far Cry 3

I played this on the PS3, and it was...bad. Graphically it looks so choppy I just couldn't play it anymore. I got like 5 hours in and stopped, I never find PS3 games to look that bad but this...idk looked awful.

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09. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix

I think this game is pretty overrated after finally playing a good bit of it. Its not a bad game by any means, solid JRPG to play through with a decent story and the Disney world..and really bad controls. I just don't see how its consider by many to be the best or one of the best JRPGs. KH doesn't even compare to games like Persona 4 for that title. Overall...not bad.

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10. Bioshock

The story and the world is amazing, but I'm not a fan of the survival horror-ish side of the gameplay...I prefer Bioshock Infinite but this game was pretty great none the less.
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11. Demon Souls

FINALLY played a Souls game, not my thing didn't finish it but I can see why people like it. I won't rate it, but I'll still count it since I put a bit of time into it.

12. Toy Story Racer

Played this with friends a few nights, for a kart racer based off a movie its alright a decent party game for dirt cheap.

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13. Spongebob Lights Camera Pants

Same situation as the previous one, played this with some friends and still a really fun party game. I enjoyed this more, it has a lot of pretty good minigames within it. For what its worth...its better then Crash Bash.

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14. Super Mario Galaxy

Wow, this is one of the best platformers I have ever played. It really changed up the Super Mario series for sure, I was kind of disappointed by the last one I played on the 3DS...but this is leagues better. The camera can make you dizzy but besides that.
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15. Ratchet & Clank

Fun platformer/adventure game. It was pretty hard at times I am not going to lie. I hear the guns get better with the other games, but I didn't really find them all that fun in this one.
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16. Spyro The Dragon

Did my annual 100% run of this game, still love it, was a childhood game. Favorite in the series, but not the best...that goes to the 2nd one.

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Click to expand...

Here is an update on this...a few months later. I don't see myself playing 52 games lol...but I'll still keep going. Maybe I'll get to like the 20s or so not sure...I intend on playing in the coming months...

• Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls Another Episode
• Persona 3 Portable
• Fallout 4
• Persona 5 (if it comes out)
• Rainbow Six: Siege
• Virtues Last Reward
• Maybe Just Cause 3
• Maybe Hitman

And probally others I don't have my eye on yet.