I'm not sure I'll make it to 52 this year, as I would rather focus on playing specific games that I want to, rather than worrying about their lengths and letting that affect my selections. I also ended up playing pretty much nothing online last year as a result. Will still log what I complete here though, as you never know.
Claiming a spot for this, something I've been waiting for.
Currently
1. Ys 1 on Steam
2. Typing of the Dead: Overkill
5/52 Completed
1. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die(Steam) - January 5th[9.7 hours Played] - Oh wow, this game was a pleasant surprise. There was a thread a couple weeks ago with some guy giving out copies this game. I didn't get a copy from that thread, but that guy's passion for the game put it on my radar. So when in late December, a weekly Humble Bundle that included this game at the $10 price tag, I hopped on it rather quickly. Using Durante's launcher to play this game in 1440p made the game look like pure bliss, like I was in some detective comic book. The game is full of unique and quirky characters, and Forrest Kaysen(and his meals) was easily my favorite. The game offers quite a bit of replay value, which I'd love to attempt and 100% this game, but time is of the essence. Maybe if I get some extra free time to polish off a game, this one will definitely get a second playthrough.
2. Pony Island(Steam) - January 6th[3 hours Played] - Another game I decided to purchase from a random GAF thread. This one is a strange one. Imagine playing a pretty barebones and goofy arcade game, then some sort of demon or devil takes over the game and begins to mess around with it in a lot of different ways. It's part platformed, part puzzler, with a dash of point and click. The game has a bit of charm, and some of the "tricks" it pulls on you are quite nice and unexpected(think of Eternal Darkness here...). There's a tiny bit of replayability where you can collect some well hidden cards, but I don't know if I'll come back to this one. The game is a good time waster and worth the 4.99 price tag. The only thing I didn't like about the game was that the visuals gave me a bit of a headache after an hour of playing, so breaks are recommended.
3. The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna DLC(Steam) *100% Complete* - January 12th[8 hours played] - I first bought and played through vanilla Talos Principle last summer, and it was a complete blast. I'm a big puzzle fan, so this was right up my alley. I loved the first once, so when I heard there was DLC for it, I jumped on it immediately. For some reason though, I just never got around to touching it. So, I went ahead and tackled it now, and man, I was pretty rusty to be attempting some pretty tough puzzles. The difficulty in the DLC seems to be a little uneven. The first 2 zones seemed a little more difficult and time consuming than the last 2 zones. Not sure if it was because I was getting into the groove of the game, or the puzzles just seemed a tad bit easier. Of course, the difficulty definitely ramps up when going for 100% in the secret star world. Overall though, the game was pretty tricky, but nothing too bad. The story was a pretty interesting tale that was told via a messageboard, complete with unique user levels, private messages, and upvotes. Graphically though, more of the environments seemed to be the same, and it wasn't anything new and fresh. A solid DLC for a great game.
4. Halo 5: Guardians(Xbox One) - January 13th[14 hours played] - Well, I bought and started to play this game on day 1, but sort of fizzled out midway through the 6th mission. I just came back to it when I was itching for a nice Xbox One game to play with my Elite pad. The campaign wasn't bad. It wasn't that good, but it was ok. Going from amazingly smooth 1440p content with a 144+ Gsync monitor to a nice plasma displaying Xbox One games took a bit of time to get used to again, so I'll try not to judge the game on technical levels. The gunplay seems a lot different from the typical Halo gunplay I'm used to, but it's a nice change. I do like the prometheans as an enemy type, even though they're pretty annoying. The single player squad based stuff was certainly new, but it made for some interesting encounters and opened up a variety of ways to take down enemies. The story was pretty bland and I didn't really get engaged by it at all. It doesn't help that I never played Halo 4. Halo 5 is the first Halo I've played through completion since Halo 2. In fact, I've never even played 4, ODST, or Reach. So, this game's alright with me. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be touching multiplayer, that's not my cup of tea anymore...
5. MISSING: An Interactive Thriller - Episode One(Steam) *ALL ACHIEVEMENTS* - January 14th[1 hour played] - This was an FMV game that came with this week's Humble Weekly FMV game bundle for $5. It's an FMV point and click game, but a little easy and mundane. The acting and production values were ok, but the gameplay was just very straightforward and didn't really make me think that hard. The entire thing felt like an mobile game port, and when I actually looked it up to see if it was, it turns out I was correct. Anyway, the game was simply OK. It's $3.99 retail on its own on Steam, and that's definitely a bit of a steep price to pay.
1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 74Hrs (Jan 1st)
Great JRPG. Glad I spent time with the game. Have to play the sequels as well!
2. Machinarium - 4Hrs (Jan 2nd)
Nice little point and click game. Took me a bit to figure some of the puzzles out.
3. The Journey Down: Chapter 1 - 2Hrs (Jan 2nd)
Reminds me of Grim Fandango. Great style and music.
4. The Journey Down: Chapter 2 - 4Hrs (Jan 3nd)
Great second part. Sadly the composer passed away before the last part of the series.
5. The Dream Machine: Chapter 1-4 - 5Hrs (Jan 3rd)
A game that was recommended to me. I enjoyed the dialogue about dreams since I learnt about some of concepts during my academic courses. The style of the game is also great with figures of clay and the crafted setting.
6. Botanicula - 4Hrs (Jan 4th)
A really charming point and click. Puzzles aren't too difficult to solve once you click on everything possible and explore all sections.
7. Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon - 6Hrs (Jan 13th)
Another point and click. I think it was a bit easy since the answers were somewhat obvious. Just wish there was fast forward or skip for some scenes.
8. Samorost + Samorost 2 - 2Hrs (Feb 2nd)
Straightforward point and click for the most part. Samorost 2 is a bit harder since you have to time some things.
9. Detective Grimoire - 3Hrs (Feb 3rd)
Very nice point and click adventure where you try to solve a murder at a "tourist attraction" in the middle of a swamp. The voice acting was pretty nice (at least compared to other games I played so far). Easy to enjoy.
10. Wooden Floor - 1Hr (Feb 5th)
The game is a short horror, puzzle game. The atmosphere is nice. The puzzles are pretty straightforward so you aren't too lost. Ending was kind of random.
11. Wooden Floor 2 - Resurrection - 0.7Hr (Feb 5th)
Similar to the previous game except it's a bit more puzzle focused and uses less of the room changing mechanic with the doors. There are three endings to the game this time which makes it a bit more fulfilling compared to the previous game.
Two of the endings are pretty abrupt while the true ending adds a sequence at the end.
Pretty short.
12. Hare in the Hat - 2Hrs (Feb 9th)
The puzzles were okay for the most part. Had the most trouble with the slider puzzle. That's also a "cheater" achievement that locks you out of the other achievements.
13. Missing Translation - 1Hr (Feb 11th)
Enjoyable short puzzle game with some nice music. Puzzles were pretty straight forward.
14. Gemini Rue - 8Hrs (Feb 13th)
A great point and click adventure. I didn't see some of the twists coming. Progression in some of the areas was a bit tricky there was either something small in the background to click on or some term to search up.
15. Puzzle Bots - 2Hrs (Feb 13th)
Easy and sort of cheesy point and click game. It really feels like a kids TV show.
16. Sakura Spirit - 3Hr (Feb 17th)
It wasn't a bad as I thought. Pacing and dialogue felt weird and out of place at parts. There's a sort of pointless feeling to it.
17. Sakura Santa - 3Hrs (Feb 18th)
Better than Spirit I guess since there was some quality assurance.
18. A Golden Wake - 7Hrs (Feb 20th)
I don't think it has as much depth as other Wadjet Eye games, but it was still enjoyable. I wish there were resolutions options since you can only pick between full screen and a tiny window (around 300x200 or so).
19. Shan Gui - 3Hrs (Feb 20th)
Only took about one hour to finish, but I left it running for cards. The background art for the game is pretty nice. The story was so-so, but it was a nice play.
20. MechaNika - 5Hrs (Feb 20th)
Like Shan Gui, only took 2Hrs, but left running for cards. Progressing through the game was pretty simple. I liked the dark humor in the game. Makes some things seem unexpected. Some mecha references too.
21. Always The Same Blue Sky... - 1Hr (Feb 21st)
Short visual novel. Decisions have only two options and lead to two endings. It was okay.
22. Tokyo Hosto - 0.5Hrs (Feb 22nd)
The game wouldn't even start through Steam. Had to reconfigure some things and run the exe as admin for the game to start. The choices in the game are dumb and plays like browser game too. Not recommended.
23. Drizzlepath - 2Hrs (Feb 22nd)
Pretty nice and relaxing game. The narrator's accent makes it kind of difficult to follow what's being said. I had a few errors with the CryEngine in the game that crashes it. There's really no save in the game so whenever you start up the game, you start from the beginning. Annoying especially when the game crashes.
24. Proteus - 1Hr (Feb 23rd)
A colourful and relaxing game. There isn't much you can do other than explore and progressing through the seasons.
25. Nekopara Vol. 0 - 2Hrs (Feb 24th)
The visuals in the game is pretty nice. The animation is good too. Just catgirls being catgirls.
26. Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered - 13Hrs (Feb 28th)
Not too much changed from the original other than a new mode and new music I think.
27. Pixel Puzzles: UndeadZ - 12Hrs (Feb 28th)
Finally killed 5000 zombies in one sitting for the last achievement. Takes too long.
28. Loot Hero DX - 3Hrs (Feb 28th)
Plays kind of like a clicker game. Just hold right and kill enemies for gold and XP. Gets kind of boring real quick.
29. Three Digits - 3Hrs (Feb 29th)
Pretty similar to Two Digits. Too bad you don't get to balance three digits instead.
30. Unium - 5Hrs (Feb 29th)
I played a similar version of this puzzle type in Missing Translation. Enjoyed it. The difficulty curve is pretty good for the game.
31. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - 3Hrs (Mar 5th)
I wish the movement in this game was a little better. The dialogue was kind of cheesy, but I enjoyed the gameplay.
32. 12 Labours of Hercules - 5Hrs (Mar 6th)
Nice time management sort of game. Better than what I expected. The voice acting felt kind of off for the cutscenes.
33. The Plan - 0.1Hrs (Mar 6th)
A really short experimental game. The ending was kind of unexpected.
34. 12 Labours of Hercules II: The Cretan Bull - 6Hrs (Mar 6th)
More of the same plus a few new mechanics (resources being stolen, new characters, puzzles, etc).
35. Pixel Puzzles 2: Anime - 14Hrs (Mar 7th)
Puzzle pieces can be rotated now which makes solving puzzles take a while. The pool of puzzle pieces is improved too as pieces don't just respawn all at the same spot.
36. A Wild Catgirl Appears! - 3Hrs (Mar 7th)
Multiple artists contributed art so at times, the characters look fairly different. Getting onto a route of a character seems a bit random since there isn't much development in relationships.
37. Emily is Away - 1Hr (Mar 9th)
It's like how relationships are with some of your friends when you leave high school.
38. Gone Home - 3Hrs (Mar 13th)
I thought it was going to be a horror story, but it was more of a love story.
39. Jumpix Jump - 2Hrs (Mar 13th)
I don't even know why I played this. A poopy platformer made in Unity. The jumping is quite bad and most of the levels are pretty much a walking simulator.
40. Heaven Island - VR MMO - 5Hrs (Mar 13th)
Nothing much to do other than explore and pick up shells and apples. Most of the listed play time was waiting for the many cards to drop.
41. The Moon Sliver - 2Hrs (Mar 16th)
The narrative in this game was presented pretty uniquely. Dialogue appears when you interact with certain items and move to certain areas. There isn't anyone around, but you are conversing with others.
42. Home is Where One Starts... - 3Hrs (Mar 26th)
It is pretty much like Gone Home except with a bit less direction and more short.
43. Verde Station - 1Hr (Mar 46th)
In the same vein as Gone Home and Home is Where One Starts except with a sort of twist. There is less that you interact with, but I like the twists near the end.
44. Beach Bounce - 5Hrs (Mar 27th)
The dialogue was less cringey than in the Sakura games, but there are still some text errors towards the end. The intimate scenes with some of the girls are pretty sudden. Wish the pacing was a bit better.
45. Highschool Possession - 2Hrs (Mar 27th)
Similar to Beach Bounce (same developer) with some errors, but it ends more suddenly. There's a bit less choice in comparison too since the choices don't affect the results as much.
46. Neverending Nightmares - 3Hrs (Mar 28th)
There was way more walking than I expected which kind of dragged out the game. The endings were kind of open which leaves some speculation around the storyline. I enjoyed it other than some of the long walking parts.
47. Lost girl`s [diary] - 1hr (Apr 1st)
A quick free visual novel on Steam. The English was kind of broken and some things didn't make sense, but it wasn't too bad. I had no idea what a "camp" was.
48. Faerie Solitaire - 43Hrs (April 2nd)
An enjoyable solitaire game. The story and voice acting was kind of cheesy though. I wish the drop rates on the last few eggs were better since it took like forever to grind them.
49. Tap Heroes - 305Hrs (Apr 6th)
Pretty similar to Loot Hero DX (same developer). The last few achievements took a long time to grind out, especially a million kills when you can only kill one every half second or so.
50. Pointless - 0.2Hrs (Apr 6th)
Pretty much just clicking on dots with some random power-up drops that help you click more dot. Pretty pointless. Early on there was some sort of glitch and I ended up with over 700k score.
51. Splice - 3Hrs (Apr 8th)
It's a puzzle game where you splice a microbe into certain patterns. The music playing was nice and relaxing too. There's a bit too much chromatic aberration for my liking at some parts.
52. Girls Like Robots - 9Hrs (Apr 9th)
More puzzles! It was simpler than I expected. Once you have an idea of what patterns to use, the game was pretty easy. Great that there is a button to undo your last action as well.
53. Morphopolis - 4Hrs (Apr 10th)
Very casual hidden object game. The art style is great and the music is relaxing. The puzzles aren't too difficult, but they aren't completely straightforward. I wish the movement was faster, but what can you do? You're a bug.
54. The Tiny Bang Story - 3Hrs (Apr 10th)
I was pleasantly surprised by how well made it was. I could see how Morphopolis had its influences from this game. The hidden objects were integrated well into the environment such that they weren't noticed at first glance, but were not too obscure to see. I liked the puzzles here better since there were subtle hints for how to complete them.
55. Doodle God - 4Hrs (Apr 10th)
A mobile game port where you combine elements to make new elements. It was alright trying out different combinations of things. The game really chugged though and the Wikipedia links seem unnecessary.
56. Playing History - The Plague - 2Hrs (Apr 13th)
The game runs pretty badly, but it was alright overall. Learnt a few things from this educational game.
57. Where is my Heart? - 2Hrs (Apr 17th)
The way the pieces of the world are mixed messes with your mind. Lots of trial and error in this puzzle platformer.
58. There's Poop In My Soup - 5Hrs (May 8th)
You just literally poop on everything. Technically just poop on whatever is on the streets below you are different locations around the world. It was nonsensical fun.
59. DISTRAINT - 2hrs (May 9th)
I'm not sure whether I agree with the view on the morality of the protagonist's job. I like the pixel graphics of the game and the creepy atmosphere though. I haven't tried the developer's previous work, Silence of the Sleep, yet, but I might want to now.
60. Divine Slice of Life - 5Hrs (May 14th)
Like the developer's previous works, feels pretty rushed and short. I wonder if they are unable to add more than two choices per decision.
61. My Name is Mayo - 2Hrs (May 17th)
A funny clicker game with a sort of plot. I liked all the different outfits for the mayo jar, especially the
potato suit
.
62. Echo Tokyo: Intro - 1Hr (May 18th)
The writing for this was a bit better than I was expecting, however, there much written explaining the world. I wonder if they will expand on this game.
63. Goosebumps: The Game - 3Hrs (May 19th)
There are a lot of references to the books in the game, mainly in the items you pick up and in the backgrounds rather than connected with the plot directly (some are though). Some of the puzzles were a bit tricky to figure out if you didn't know some of the references.
64. Love at First Sight - 4Hrs (May 20th)
A pretty cute story about falling in love with a one-eyed girl. It felt a bit rushed at the end as the conflict was brought up and resolved right at the end.
65. Spakoyno: Back To USSR 2.0 - 3Hrs (May 21st)
I don't even know what I read. From what I took from it, you get beaten up a lot in Russia.
66. Forgotten, Not Lost - A Kinetic Novel - 2Hrs (May 21st)
The protagonist has dementia and that leads to a lot of feels throughout this short game.
67. Wishmaster - 12Hrs (May 22nd)
A match three game. I hate how you game over with three leftover spheres placed an L-shape. Lost the game so many times that way rather than running out of moves.
68. Carpe Diem - 0.2Hrs (May 22nd)
A really quick visual novel where you hang out with a girl which
turns out to be an AI in a game you made
. It wasn't too bad.
69. What's under your blanket !? - 2Hrs (May 22nd)
Fitting that this is my 69th game. A kind of fun, novel game where you attempt to masturbate in various places without getting caught. I excelled.
70. OPUS: The Day We Found Earth - 6Hrs (May 25th)
A stargazing game. I really enjoyed the exploration aspect. I wish I was able to find celestial bodies that weren't already predetermined.
71. The Charnel House Trilogy - 2Hrs (May 25th)
Things got really tense and strange at the end. Can't wait for Augur Peak.
72. Epic Clicker Journey - 18Hrs (May 28th)
Really repetitive and requires lots of grinding.
73. Sword of Asumi - 4Hrs (May 29th)
I don't know why I keep going through these games. Art wasn't really consistent because of multiple artists I assume. Relationships developed really quickly. Plot was kind of mediocre.
74. Autumn - 4Hrs (May 29th)
Kind of relaxing game where you grow trees and collect prana which you use to obtain quotes, inspirations, and teachings. There weren't any instructions in the game so you had to figure things out for yourself or look at the guide made by the developer.
75. Aozora Meikyuu - 3Hrs (Jun 2nd)
The writing for this was pretty cringey. Like at least 20 lines of random kissing noises.
76. Patanoir - 4Hrs (Jun 5th)
A text based adventure which makes interesting use of similes. Never played this type of game before, but I enjoyed it.
77. Snakebird - 16Hrs (Jul 24th)
Pretty hard puzzle game, but it's well made.
78. Crush Crush - 6Hrs (Jul 31st)
Simple clicker game were you woo girls. Looks nice overall, but there isn't much to keep you after getting all the girls.
79. Daily Chthonicle: Editor's Edition - 3Hrs (Aug 1st)
Interesting game and concept where you are managing a supernatural newspaper. There was a bug that didn't allow me to progress at one point and there is no save and load options as far as I can tell. The game is pretty straight forward overall with some intuitive thinking required to face some enemies and obstacles. I liked it overall.
80. Totally Unbalanced - 8Hrs (Aug 2nd)
Game was only 2-3Hrs, but I left it on overnight to finish the card drops. Simple game where you get the ball from one end to another. It wasn't bad, but nothing new about it either. It's kind of hard to get to platforms in the foreground/towards you since the camera is fixed and you can't really see it other than in the level overview or when you jump towards it.
81. 10,000,000 - 7Hrs (Aug 27th)
Match3 to escape. It's an interesting mix of match3 and RPG. I enjoyed this type of rogue-like game.
82. Chicken Assassin - Master of Humiliation - 12Hrs (Sept 2nd)
A pretty well made clicker. I liked the visual style of the game and the artwork.
83. To the Moon - 5Hrs (Sept 3rd)
It was an okay RPG Maker game. The pop culture references kind of took away from the atmosphere.
84. bit Dungeon II - 5Hrs (Oct 1st)
Pixel dungeon crawling type of game. There's not much in terms of controls. You attack automatically when you run into an enemy. I liked the music though.
85. SweatShop - 8Hrs (Dec 19th)
A clicker game. Not recommended since the game is bugged and the developer is unable to fix the bugs.
86. Plantera - 19Hrs (Dec 20th)
Clickers are life. I love the graphics of this one. The grind towards the end of the game is a bit of a bore though. It was mostly idle gameplay for this clicker.
87. Zenge - 6Hrs (Dec 26th)
Nice puzzle game that doesn't overstay its welcome. It introduces different mechanics along the way that keep it from being boring.
88. Squarecells - 5Hrs (Dec 26th)
In the vein of Hexcells. I feel like there was a bit more guess work in this compared to Hexcells, but it was a great game nevertheless.
Reserving this post, doing it this year for sure, as I forgot about this until half way through last year.
Finished my first game.
Game 1: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (X1) - 48:06
# Started it on the 360 two years ago and finally finished to today, a lot better then I initially thought, probably one of the top 3 AC games.
Game 2: Halo 2 (MCC)
First time playing it since the original, still a lot of fun.
Game 3: Minecraft Story Mode Episodes 1-4
While enjoyable and nice to see MC characters with voices, its definitely one of Telltales weaker games.
Game 4: Halo 3 (MCC)
I honestly don't remember the campaign when i first played, but its better then 2.
Game 1: Dark Cloud [PS4 / PSN]- 6 Hours
Blast from my past. The first PS2 game I ever played and really enjoying going down memory lane. Using the broken dagger glitch though as I dont have the 100+ hours to devote to this. Might be forced to put that much into Dark Cloud 2 though :
Game 2: Valiant Hearts: The Great War [PC / Steam] - 4 Hours
Games has gotten alot better for me Once Act 2 started.
Game 3: Ryse: Son of Rome [PC / Steam]- 1 Hour
Games ok so far. Picked it up on sale for $6. I actually enjoy the combat so far. Hope the story picks up.
Game 4: Fantasy Life [3DS] - 3 Hours
COMPLETED:
Game 1: Hearts of Iron III [PC / Steam]- 97 Hours
Started a couple play-throughs on this since Christmas getting excited for HOI IV. Still play this and Victoria II over the more recent polished Paradox titles. Several Playthroughs as Japan, Germany, Italy, and USSR. Still probably the hardest Paradox game to learn for me but still so worth it. Love it.
Game 2: Kingdom [PC / Steam]- 22 Hours
Fun take on tower defense. beat after about 7 hours. but did more playthroughs for 100% achievements.
Game 3: Kingdom Rush [PC / Steam]- 30 Hours
Picked this up over Christmas on sale and thought I'd give it a try. 3 star'd the main campaign on normal and thought i'd be done.. and since then i've put in more hours. Still keep coming back to this.
Game 4: Lifeline [IOS]- 5 Hours
Free app of the week a couple weeks ago. I kept dieing at the same part because I spent so much time in between playing I forgot i was selecting the same options. Finally found fast mode and was able to beat this fun little text adventure. definitely a fun genre.
Game 5: Bowling King [IOS] - 5 Hours
Fun multiplayer bowling game I've been playing with the family. Gets a little gamey as basically near the higher difficulties everyone I play bowls perfect games and becomes near impossible for me to win any money.
Game 6: Dark Cloud 2 [PS4 / PSN]- 112 Hours
Played this to 100% straight up with no exploits or glitches like the lure bait and i absolutly had a blast. The Music. the level up system. The past month has been a joy getting the platinum on this.
Game 7: Hyrule Warriors [WiiU] - 20 Hours
After putting in around 60 hours of this last year. just finished playing this game by 100% Legend mode and unlocking almost everything on the first Adventure Map.
Game 1: Trimps [PC] 7:46:30 [Finished: January 1]
Uh... well, it's a clicker game, but without the clicking. Pretty much no visuals, though the UI's alright. Like many of these games, it's attractive at the start as things escalate and you gain more upgrades and such, but this one doesn't have a lot to keep on going after the 3-4 hour mark or so. Now it's just about getting bigger numbers by upgrading what you already have, and that's not too compelling to me.
Ranks (worst to best): Shit, Weak, Ehh, Great, Wonderful
Game 1 - Dark Souls (PS3)
Let's do this. One of the best ever to kick of the year. It's not really a secret how much of GAF loves them some Dark Souls, so I will spare you the gushing, but I'm gonna be going for a couple more runs to grab myself the platinum. Just need a few boss soul weapons, a couple of covenant spells and I'm there. Also I didn't read the rules properly last year and notice that episodic games count separately, so I actually got 44 last year. Score.
Rank: Wonderful
Game 2 - Amplitude (PS4)
Well, that wasn't much of a campaign. Fifteen OK to bad songs played one after the other, alongside a bunch of extra quickplay songs, all of which are of similar quality and are un. Not a comfortable game to play. The visuals aren't particularly good for the eyes, and don't help at all during a game where concentration and reflexes are key, but the main issue lies in the button layout. If you have a DS4 handy, for fun, try pressing L1-R1-R2-R1-L1 over and over again. It doesn't feel good whatsoever. There is too much travel on R2 for it to be comfortable, and playing L1/R1/Circle doesn't help because your thumb and index finger don't alternate as well as your index and middle finger. The core gameplay was implemented far better in Rock Band Blitz.
Rank: Ehh
Game 3 - Guitar Hero: Van Halen (PS3)
Well, not much innovation on the gameplay front. The series was pretty much identical from World Tour to Warriors of Rock. Was definitely a victim of series oversaturation with Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, Van Halen and Greatest Hits all released within three months. DJ Hero too but that doesn't really count. Van Halen soundtack was solid though. Mix of your classics like Panama, Hot for Teacher, Jump and Eddie's solos and deeper cuts like Atomic Punk and Little Guitars. Guests are technically rubbish for a Van Halen game (thanks Wolfgang) but would be solid in a main line game with Queen's I Want It All, Judas Priest's Painkiller and some other good, varied picks. Was as fun as Guitar Hero always is but might as well of been a big DLC for Guitar Hero 5 at the time.
Rank: Ehh-Great
Game 4 - Guitar Hero: Greatest/Smash Hits (PS3)
Again, a victim of the oversaturation of the franchise, but I mainly picked this up to play the best of the PS2 games (1/2/80s) on the PS3. In that regard, Greatest Hits probably has one of the best soundtracks of the series, with it's array of classic hits and some good modern stuff, like The Sword. I mean, it definitely has the same issue as Van Halen where it could've just been a big DLC but I did enjoy the silly 7 Wonders venues and absurd story. Also, this game marks the first time in my nine years of Guitar Hero playing that I beat Through the Fire and the Flames on expert. It was truly wonderful.
Rank: Ehh-Great
Game 5 - Lego Marvel's Avengers (PS4)
Fun game, but suffers a little bit by being tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lego Marvel Super Heroes greatly benefited from having an original story where you didn't know where it was gonna go next, and probably also with the inclusion of the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Avengers felt like I was just going through the motions in the story missions. I found it much more fun just wandering around the hub worlds seeing who was going to show up next. All in all a decent play, but didn't like it nearly as much as LMSH or the Lego Harry Potter games, which I still consider the best of the franchise.
Rank: Ehh-Great
Game 6 - Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin - Platinum Trophy (PS4)
Actually pretty much finished it twice this year during my platinum hunt, but I'm happy to have done it, if nothing more just to see how quickly I got through the first half of the game. Ended up past the Shrine of Winter within about two hours on a leisurely playthrough and getting all the Lord Souls. All in all it's worth a play if you're into this sort of thing, despite what a good chunk of the Souls fanbase will tell you. Maybe don't go for the Platinum though. There's only so many times you can fight Throne Watcher/Defender and Nashandra and then die on Aldia, without getting any Sunlight Medals.
Rank: Great
Game 7 - Demon's Souls (PS3)
I made a thread a while back sort of logging my trek through Demon's Souls, before forgetting that I was playing it when I was the middle of Boletarian Palace 1-4 with all the other demons. Definitely feels like the foundation Dark Souls was built on and bettered, but also has some really good bits. Tower of Latria is absolutely one of the most atmospheric stages in all of the Soulsborne franchise, with a good trio of interesting bosses to boot. On top of those three, other highlights included Maiden Astraea, Tower Knight, Old King Allant and Flamelurker. I strongly dislike Shrine of Storms 4-2 and Valley of Defilement 5-2, however. They're both up there with New Londo Ruins and No Man's Wharf as my most detested Souls stages. Still worth a play though.
Rank: Ehh-Great
Game 8 - Guitar Hero: World Tour (PS3)
Ah, back when the market wasn't completely oversaturated, those were the days. Actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the setlist, as I remembered it being weaker back in the day. Got plenty of classics like Beat It (which I totally forgot was actually in the game), Hotel California and Pull Me Under, as well a selection of modern tracks like Love Spreads, Re-Education and Assassin that I love. I remember a lot of people being pissed off at the tracks in different languages back in the day, but I still think songs like Antisocial and L'Via L'Viaquez have their place on the game, great songs.
Rank: Great
Game 9 - Dark Souls - Platinum Tropgy (PS3)
At least one person told me I could count the platinum separately, so I'm running with it. Not much that I haven't already said about Dark Souls, so I'll recap what I had to do to get the platinum. 1) Finish an NG playthrough. Accidentally consume Sif's soul so you have to finish the game an extra time. I'm an idiot. 2) Finish an NG+ playthrough. Struggle against the Four Kings early on to get the Darkwraith covenant. Grind Souvenirs of Reprisal for the Darkmoon covenant. Forget to turn in Eyes for Graveservant covenant. 3) Finish an NG++ playthrough. Remember to turn in Eyes. 4) Get to the Giant Blacksmith in NG+++, claim Artorias' greatshield for Knight's Honor and the platinum. Burst into tears.
Rank: Wonderful
Game 10 - Salt & Sanctuary (PS4)
For all it rips off from Souls, and that's a fair amount, Salt & Sanctuary actually goes a way in establishing a bit of it's own identity, which I respect. They could've easily carried the Souls ball to the end of the game, but the addition of the brands, a unique levelling system and modified crafting system do help create a bit of a different experience. Combat, at least with a big-ass greatsword, feels solid and weighty, and the weapon combos make for some awesome looking kills. Dodging is a little clunky in some encounters though. I played entirely with a 2H greatsword, so getting the hell out of the way was my only option, which got a bit tricky with some of the bigger or faster bosses. The final boss in particular basically forces you to get the hell away during it's main combo, because you can't dodge fast enough to survive it. All in all though, really enjoyable experience and I'll probably shoot for the platinum later on.
Game 1: Stella Glow (3DS) - 68 Hours
When i first started playing this game, I did not really think much of it. It seemed like a solid SRPG that did not have that "wow" factor early on. It wasn't until the later half of the game where it starts throwing plot twists to keep me interested in the story and the battles themselves became a bit more complex and had a lot more "energy" in them. One of the weird cons of the game was with the enemy AI. Sometimes in missions where enemies are more aggressive and charge your characters from the start, they will get stuck behind walls because their AI thinks its the shortest route to my units despite there being a wall blocking their path. I had a couple of missions that became easier than it should be, because of this. A cool feature that should of been featured more was using elemental spells to deal with enviroment obstacles. (ex. Using fire to clear snow that slows down your units or usinf ice to make pathways in lakes and rivers)Overall, a really great SRPG game that is worth the Atlus tax. Imageepoch ended their legacy on a high note. I will definitely play NG+ in the near future so that I can access all of the individual character endings.
Game 2: Emily Is Away (PC) - 2 Hours
Woah, what a trip down memory lane. I never thought I would hear some of those sound effects ever again. A lot of love for this game comes from the fact that the dialogue in the game triggered some deep memories from when I used AIM from Jr. High until my sophomore year of high school. Anyways, one of the things that i though was really cool was how the game tries to fully immerse you into the story
by forcing you to type in order for your dialogue to show up.
. Its pretty cool for the first chapter, but after that its a hassle. Thankfully the whole game can be done in under an hour. Its definitely a game that you will only end up playing once, although you can squeeze more time out of it by looking at all the easter eggs. Thankfully, all of the hidden stuff can be experienced at the very start by putting in specific usernames and then playing the game until your reach your first dialogue choice.
Spoilers about the story and ending:
So the first time I played, the ending felt forced on me. The way I played it was to just continue on being Emily's friend and have it stay that way and also never tried to pursue Emma as well. The reason was that I felt that the game didn't do enough to try to get me to be emotionally attached to Emily, and Emma being a complete mystery to me except for the fact that she seems similar to Emily based on her "profile". So near the end of the game, it was pretty much forcing me to choose options of having feelings for Emily and getting my character to be "the one who lost it all". So yeah, at the end of the game I felt way out of touch with story and left the game on a negative note. The game could of use alternate endings instead of having everything lead up to one thing. I also thought the game's story was going to go a lot darker, and so i was a bit disappointed that it only revolved around relationship drama.
Game #3: Mabinogi Duel (Mobile) - 10 Hours
Finished all the story quests. This game is basically Nexon's attempt at making a card game that is simple to pick up, but can be very dynamic with its strategies. I have to say they did a darn good job of doing it without being too similar with it's competitors. Main difference with this card game is that you don't get to choose where your card attacks, instead they automatically attack whatever is in front of them. If there is no card in front of them, then you do direct damage to your enemy's hero. So this places a huge emphasis on card placement.
Single player is a pretty unique experience. It reminds me a lot of Hearthstone's League of Explorers adventure where you have to play through special situations (such as escaping a cave before it collapses) rather than straight up fights sometimes. Also each mission, you are provided with a specialized deck so you can breeze through story right away. Being a F2P game, I never felt that the game was trying to slow down my progress to try to get me to fork over real money. I also never ran into the problem of being out of energy, since I always got free refills for playing in their "Arena" mode.
Overall its a nice alternative to Hearthstone. I will pick up the game again once more story content comes out Game #4: Steins;Gate (PSVita) - 14 Hours
This particular playthrough was about getting the final two endings and whatever collectible achievements I needed for the platinum trophy.
This is a really great visual novel to play. It starts out really slow, but once it gets going it really doesn't lift its foot off the breaks. My first experience with SG was the anime, but i completely blanked out on what happened in the middle (which included a lot of plot twists) so it was great to sort of experience it again for the "first time". Also getting to know some characters a bit more with the different endings made me start to like characters that I previously didn't enjoy and the characters I already like, I love them even more now. I enjoyed the cell phone "gameplay" it was like getting a nice present. It was fun being able to read and "reply" to messages that Okabe gets. Also big props to Mamoru Miyano, Okabe's voice actor. The guy killed it during the mad scientist laughs and just adding a ton of personality and variety to Okabe's voice.
Game #5: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) - 120 Hours
Basically the main reason why my progress in this challenge has been slow. Coming in, i knew the game was supposed to be massive, but I never expected to put this many hours into it. Best part of the game was just going through all the side quest and enjoying the deep story in some of them, and also exploring Mira and finding hidden caves to explore or turning around the corner to run into an overpowered enemy that could snap my party like a twig. I wish I could of played a little longer to finish all the sidequests, but I was getting a bit burned out during the endgame. Mostly due to my progression just slowing down to a snails pace as the difficulty spike ramps up steeply out of nowhere. Other problems i had with the game included terrible sound mixing during cutscenes and I wasn't too big on the character designs ( just slap a helmet on everyone and problem solved). Overall, its an excellent game with a ton of content to offer.
Game #6: Undertale (PC) - 12 Hours
Finished neutral ant true pacifist route. I loved every minute I played this game. Hilarious, clever writing and the attention to detail in this game has really made it a one of a kind experience. The battle system itself is interesting where you can fight enemies like a traditional turn based RPG or showering them with kindness so you can spare them. Alternatively, you can beat them up to the point where they are in state in which you can spare them to get the best of both worlds. Dodging enemy attacks include an interesting gameplay mechanic which I can only describe as Warioware and bullet hell shooter have a baby. Only complaint is that I would of loved to have more actual puzzles in the game. After the true pacifist route, I can't bring myself to go through the genocide route.
Game #7: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS) - 62 Hours
My first game of the FE Fates trio. Played on Normal/Classic, while trying to keep everyone alive. My high playtime is basically me restarting a chapter over due to being careless with one of my weaker units near the end of the chapter. Anyways, gameplay-wise this game blows Awakening right out of the water. Fates in general is a lot of more challenging than Awakening. While playing Birthright, I enjoyed the map designs, more than Awakening, and some of the gimmicks thrown into some of the maps ( my favorite one being the paralogue with the three boats that kept swaying back and forth which changes the battlefield.) Also having this game contain different classes and replacing the typical European medieval setting with an Eastern aesthetic was a nice refreshing change. I wasn't a big fan of the support conversations and was a bit disappointed to obtain units who could only interact with the MC/Corrin. While I did enjoy the new fort building mechanic, I just wish they didn't limit the amount of structures I can have. Going to play Conquest next, after a short break.
Game #8: Project X Zone 2 (3DS) - 50 Hours
At first glance it may seem more or less the same game as last time, but its a more polished and just an overall better experience. Missions are less frustrating and a lot shorter this time around. While you do have the 1 hour missions near the end of the game, they aren't actually a pain to play through. The battle system is still fun, and they added a new feature to it as well (which I never used, but im guessing its more crucial on harder difficulties). Writing in this game is a lot better, and its still a great fanservice game with seeing all your favorite characters interacting with each other.
It still blows my mind that they referenced Zero Escape in this game
Game #9: Life Is Strange (PC) - 21 Hours
At first, I wasn't really getting into this game at all. I thought the first episode was a nice intro, but hasn't really drawn me in yet. I thought episode two dragged on until the climax at the end. Episode three was when I started to get invested in the game. My biggest fear was that the rewind mechanic would get old for puzzles, but the game does some intriguing stuff with it and does it while paying attention to detail. Out of all the episodic adventures I played, I felt that I had the hardest time choosing what option to go with during the major decisions in this game. It does a great job making each choice equally appealing. Of course, it also helps that you have all the time in the world to make the decision.
Game #10: Lume (PC) - 2 Hours
Extremely short puzzle game. (only 7 puzzles in the entire game). Most of the puzzles were pretty straightforward and didn't require that much thinking. There was one puzzle where the game wouldn't give me the clue for it no matter what I did, so i just looked the answer up. The game does have fantastic visuals where all the characters and settings are made out of cardboard and paper. Even when this game felt really lacking, im still interested in playing the sequel to see what the developers can do with a bigger game. For this one, I recommend only getting it during a sale.
Game #11: Dear Esther (PC) - 2 Hours
I like the fact that the story is very open ended and that there is not a correct way to look at it. I find it interesting that some of the scenery changes each playthrough (and does it completely at random), which can actually change a way how a player sees a certain part. For example:
The narrator mentions throw some books into a fireplace before continuing on his journey. One player might see those books in the fireplace just like the narrator says. Another player could see a different thing and see that the books are actually fine and one a nearby table which suggest that the narrator can't be trusted completely and may be already breaking away from reality.
. Overall, I really like the visuals, especially in the caves. Great use of sound effects, had to stop and take a breather a few times cause I kept hearing very faint voices being mixed in with the wind.
Game #12: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Vita) - 30 Hours
Second time playing this game, but first time on the Vita. I was impressed with how better the character models looked on the Vita, I never noticed how the models still sort of moved with their breathing animation. Downsides for the vita version was that the gyroscope didn't work as well as the 3DS version for some of the sliding puzzles (although you can just use the D-pad for that). Also the memo function was almost impossible to use. I enjoyed the puzzles in VLR a lot more than 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, there were more of them and were overall more challenging.
Game #13: Her Story (PC) - 4 Hours
Enjoyed the concept behind this game. Having to look up keywords in order to find related video clips and then having to piece together the story from there was a unique experience. Even though I ran into one of the main plot twists early on, there was more to the story to keep me going. I do recommend finishing this game in one sitting.
Game #14: Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ 2015 (PC) - 8 Hours
Played this for last year's challenge and enjoyed a lot, and was thrilled when they added to new content towards the end of 2015. The new update adds new places to visit, extra scenes, alternate endings, updated art to support higher resolutions, and adds animation to character sprites. Played through the old areas again to see if they added anything new, which they didn't. The new content alone should take you around two hours to go through. If you already have the game, the update is well worth the extra cash. Only main complaint is that your old save data from the original doesn't carry over to the update so you can't just fast forward to the new content right away.
Game #15: Superhot (PC) - 3 Hours
Played this over at a friend's house and only finished the story. Gameplay is addicting and I loved every minute of it. The idea of having time only moving when you move is a fresh idea (or at least to me) where it gives you enough time to think about your next move, but doesn't give you too much time that you can abuse it since time is still technically moving but very slowly. After seeing that there is more stuff to do after the story, I really want to buy the game myself and enjoy more of it.
Game #16: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors (DS) - 18 Hours
It was little rough playing through this game after going through VLR. Having to go through the same room a couples times, and having to solve the puzzles over and over again was a bit of a chore. Anyways, still had a great time playing through this game again, I still get all these feels whenever I go through the final puzzle.
Game #17: Hard West (PC) - 23 Hours
A fairly decent turn-based strategy game that tries do a lot of things, but doesn't exactly excel at any of them. Instead of having one big campaign, the game is divided into several smaller ones, each with different gameplay mechanics. For example, one campaign has you leading an expedition and you need to manage your resources and workers. Whenever you need to get tasks done, you can send your workers and spend resources, or send out your own party members, but risk having them get injured. Another campaign keeps track of your kills and as you kill more, your bounty goes up. As your bounty goes up, certain things can happen: store prices increases, getting new gear, etc. A lot of these are pretty interesting, but I felt that the campaigns are too short for me to really get into them.
I do recommend playing this game on hard, you can easily breeze through normal. A lot of the skills you learn are overpowered and pretty much kills off any challenge the game has to offer. Sometimes the enemy AI will just run back and forth for their turn without doing anything and just stop in the open. Usually the enemy AI's strategy is to rush you head on and rarely ever tries to flank your units.
Overall, its a really interesting concept and has a lot of neat ideas to keep things interesting, but the execution isn't quite perfect yet This game is definitely worth checking out when its on sale.
Game #18: Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ (Mobile) - 14 Hours
Finished all the story quests and also just estimating my playtime. A pretty solid turn-based f2p mobile game. Gameplay is very simple and easy to pick up and play. Every mission has you going after a certain enemy target with some side objectives you can complete. There's not a wide variety to these missions so expect for it to feel very repetitive. Missions are in nice bite size chunks that makes very easy to play in short bursts. The story is very slow, about 90% is about doing random tasks in the worlds you visit with only the other 10% being related to the main story plot. Another awesome thing about the game is that you can get by harder missions by using lower tier gear (or medals in this case) since any medal can be a high ranking medal. Its a well polished gatcha game, and would recommend to play especially for KH fans. Also, shoutout to GAF Hearts!
Game #19oker Night at the Inventory (PC) - 3 Hours
Poker is poker, its pretty hard to screw it up, but its also difficult to make it stand out as well. Telltale does a good job making their poker game stand out by having you play against some recognizeable characters: Tycho (from Penny Arcade), The Heavy (from Team Fortress 2), Max (from Sam and Max), and Strong Bad from (Homestar Runner). The casual chatter between each of these characters are pretty interesting and occasionally funny. My persona favorites are between Strong Bad and Max. The game itself is pretty easy on normal difficulty, very easy to force the AI to fold. You will get a lot more mileage out of this game if you actively play Team Fortress 2 as you can unlock items for that game. Overall, it was a decent poker game and probably will buy the sequel if its on sale during the steam summer sale.
Game # 20: Golden Axe (PC) - 3 Hours
Very simple and fun pick up and play beat em up game, but very challenging. I do recommend playing as the dwarf for single player mode as he has the strongest physical attack and also the longest attack range. Its not a long game, but it does extend its life by making itself difficult. Anything more than 2 enemies on the screen is difficult as its pretty easy to get caught between two enemies and get mauled to death. Its one of those games where you can't just get buy with one or two tricks, but rather you need to utilize all your moves and enemy patterns to your advantage. Thankfully, being able to save in between stages takes a lot of the frustration out.
Game #21: Sonic CD (PC) - 2 Hours
I was expecting the same old 2D Sonic formula, but I got a lot more than that which is awesome. A lot of things i love about this game is all the extra content they added to the gameplay. Aside from running from A to B and collect chaos emeralds (or time stones in this case), you can also jump between future and past versions of each stage. Boss battles are pretty interesting, while most of them are the same old boss battles you know, some of them take a creative step to it. One example has you running on a treadmill in order to grind out Dr. Robotnik's armor. The race with Metal Sonic is one of my all time favorite boss fights in the franchise. I would love to go back and get the good ending for this game after completing this challenge.
Game #22: Sam & Max Save the World (PC) - 12 Hours
Thought the first 3 episodes were pretty weak. While there were only a few clever puzzles, most of them were too easy and didn't require much though to them. The writing and humor was decent at best. The game really shines in episodes 4-6 and really enjoyed the content there. Puzzles were good with a few that had obscure solutions. Liked the political satire in episode 4 and all the gamer jokes in episode 5 (bonus points for doing gamer humor without doing all stereotypical jokes). The revelation of the big bad in episode 6 was ridiculous and enjoyed the ride. Overall its a very decent point and click game and would recommend for anyone who are starting to get into these type of games. I do enjoy the game not being very linear giving you some freedom to complete tasks in any order , which also gives you unique dialogue as well. I'm pretty excited to start playing the next season.
Game #23: Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (PC) - 11 Hours
I enjoyed this one more than the first game. The puzzles this time around are more challenging, with only a few obscure ones sprinkled here and there. I do recommend taking advantage of the hint system and turning it on to the lowest level before it turns completely off. The writing is solid throughout the whole game. I recommend playing the first game before jumping into this one as a lot of characters from season one return. A lot of these character's dialogue involves pulling jokes from season one's events. Only huge gripe about the game was that getting sam to run was a pain, and that you could only do it in the bigger areas.
Game #24: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (PC) - 12 Hours
This game stands out a lot from being a lot different than the last two games. While Season one and two had episodes with different plots that are loosely connected, season three has all episodes be directly related to each other. Controls are completely different than before where you now control Sam via WASD/clicking on points of interests instead of having to click everywhere. This season of Sam and Max has probably the best puzzles out of the three Telltale S&M games.
Game #25: Melody's Escape (PC) - 9 Hours
This is a side scrolling rhythm game that also analyzes your music to create the tracks akin to Audiosurf. Its a fun game where you can just shut off your brain and relax awhile playing along your favorite music. Although, it was hard for me to find music that the game can properly analyze it accurately. The game tells you how confident it feels about analyzing your music, which i mostly get "acceptable" rating. Most of my music is fast paced rock which doesn't give great results in the game, but i noticed that my pop songs and slower songs were able to translate well into the game. I like the fact that you customize the difficulties to your liking. For example, i like the amount of notes that come with the hardest difficulty but i don't like how it makes you push the dpad/control stick and face buttons at the same time and so i can customize it so I can take that part of the difficulty out. The game doesn't have anything else going on outside the main game, if you are looking for something with more substance you might want to look somewhere else first. Otherwise, if you need something simple to scratch that rhythm game itch, this is right up your alley.
Game #26: Bioshock Infinite (PC) - 14 Hours
I could not put this game down. First time playing a Bioshock game and after playing this one im really interested in playing the first two games. The shooting gameplay is pretty decent, most of the time the enemy's strategy is to rush you down hoping to make you move out of cover while some enemies, who stayed back, take a shot at you. It gets pretty repetitive after awhile, but thankfully the use of vigors help speed up the process and make things more interesting. My favorite battles always involve the sky rails and i love using them to zip around the battlefield, get some shots off, jump on an enemy, maybe punch another one to see if my gear skills activate, and then jumping back on the sky rails before the enemy could get a shot on me. Game looks absolutely fantastic, aside from a few weird textures when you look at some stuff in detail, and I enjoyed taking in some of the sights the game had to offer.
I really enjoyed this game. I expected a Metroid clone and I got a lot more than just that. It's clear the game was inspired by Metroid, but it does have its own charm and personality.
Obviously, the gameplay is similar to classic Metroid games and as to be expected from this kind of game, there's a ton of backtracking, cool weapons/power ups (in this aspect, this game kicks Metroid's butt) and bosses with relatively great designs. The story is cool, too, even though it doesn't make much sense... I think.
Count me in for another year. three years running I've already finished 50 but...i'll keep going until Dec. 31. i may or may not finish five or so more.
2016 "獅童 Games Finished Throughout the Year"
Game 1: BloodBorne: The Old Hunters - 45 hrs. 32 mins.
20 out of 25 Points.
Game 2: Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark - 7 hrs. 25 mins.
15 out of 25 Points.
Game 3: Naughty Bear Gold Edition - 5 hrs. 10 mins.
15 out of 25 Points
Game 4: Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - 8 hrs. 15 mins.
17 out of 25 Points
Game 5: The Darkness 2 - 6 hrs. 22 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 6: Gears of War: Judgement - 6 hrs. 45 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 7: Game of Thrones a telltale game - 6 hrs. 22 mins.
17 out of 25 Points
Game 8: Fit-It - 4 hrs. 15 mins.
12 out of 25 Points
Game 9: Street Fighter X Tekken - 5 hrs. 22 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 10: Super Street Fighter 4 AE - 3 hrs. 30 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 11: Ninja Blade - 9 hrs. 10 mins.
22 out of 25 Points
Game 12: JOURNEY - 1 hr. 24 mins.
25 out of 25 Points
Game 13: Space Raiders - 1 hr. 26 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 14: Arslan The Warriors of Legend - 12 hrs. 19 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 15: Samurai Warriors 4 Empires - 5 hrs. 24 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 16: Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires - 5 hrs. 38 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 17: Dark Souls 3 - 41 hrs 25 mins.
20 out of 25 Points
Game 18 : NioH (Alpha Build) - 55 hrs. 45 mins.
25 out of 25 Points
Game 19 : Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day - 1 hrs. 2 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 20: Dead or Alive Extreme 3 - 4 hrs. 15 mins.
15 out of 25 Points
Game 21: Feeding Frenzy 2 - 4 hrs. 06 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 22: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Arcade - 45. mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 23: Fatal Frame V - 25 hrs. 30 mins.
20 out of 25 Points
Game 24: Devil May Cry 2 - 4 hrs. 8 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 25: The Mark of Kri - 7 hrs. 40 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 26: Gungrave: Overdose - 9 hrs. 7 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 27: Resident Evil: Dead Aim - 2 hrs. 24 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 28: Gungrave - 2 hrs. 15 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 29. Zombie Army Trilogy - 16 hrs. 39 mins.
20 out of 25 Points
Game 30. NioH (Beta Demo) - 35 hrs. 10 mins.
22 out of 25 Points
Game 31. Flower - 3 hrs. 30 mins.
25 out of 25 Points
Game 32. The House of The Dead 3 - 0 hrs. 45 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 33. Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition - 17 hrs. 16 mins.
15 out of 25 Points
Game 34. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - 10 hrs. 5 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 35. Life is Strange - 7 hrs.35 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 36. RePublique - 7 hrs. 22 mins.
17 out of 25 Points
Game 37. Resident Evil Rebirth - 4 hrs. 57 mins.
23 out of 25 Points
Game 38. Resibent Evil Zero - 12 hrs. 17 mins.
22 out of 25 Points
Game 39. Double Dragon (NG) - 1 hrs. 33 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 40. Resident Evil 2 - 4 hrs. 03 mins.
22 out of 25 Points
Game 41. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis - 5 hrs. 48 mins.
22 out of 25 Points
Game 42. Resident Evil Code Veronica X - 10 hrs. 37 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 43. Alan Wake : The Write - 3 hrs. 8 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 44. Monster Hunter Tri - 25 hrs. 32 mins.
20 out of 25 Points
Game 45. Microsoft Mahjong - 3 hrs. 21 mins.
20 out of 25 Points
Game 46, Ryse Son of Rome - 8 hrs. 13 mins.
21 out of 25 Points
Game 47. State of Decay - 23 hrs. 41 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 48. Injustice Gods Among Us - 4 hrs. 28 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 49. Quantum Break - 6 hrs. 59 mins.
21 out of 25 Points
Game 50. Ori and The Blind Forest DE - 17 hrs. 28 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 51. Dragon Quest Heroes - 28 hrs. 42 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Game 52. Attack on Titan - 7 hrs. 34 mins.
16 out of 25 Points
Game 53. Senran Kagura EV - 15 hrs. 22 mins.
14 out of 25 Points
Game 54. Samurai Shodown 6 - 1 hrs. 32 mins.
18 out of 25 Points
Master Post
I feel like I don't beat enough games in a year so I'm gonna go ahead and give this a shot. It'll hopefully also act as a deterrent so I can stop buying games and not finishing them.
Game 1: Disney Infinity 3.0 - Twilight of the Republic Jan 13th, 2016
This was random. I never expected to like a TTL game, but Infinity 3 is so damn good. Combat feels satisfying and when you amp up the difficulty it can actually get pretty challenging. Best Star Wars game in a while. (fuck Battlefront III). Going to play The Force Awakens playset next.
Fallout 4 (XB1)
The Division (PS4)
Life is Strange (XB1)
Backlog Bingo Book:
Bloodborne (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid 5 (PS4)
Star Wars Battlefront (XB1)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1)
Uncharted Collection (PS4) <--- Does this count as 3?
Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
Grand Theft Auto 5 (XB1)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4)
Gears of War: Remastered (XB1)
The Witcher 3 (XB1)
Mirror's Edge (XB360/XB1)
Total - 4/52
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (XB1)
Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
Nintendo Land (Wii U)
Street Fighter 5 (PS4)
GAME 2: Hardware: Rivals - 10+ hours multi - 06/01/2016 - PS4
Vehicles, guns, power ups. Decent concept, not much depth but a lot of fun with friends. Unique super weapon for each map is really cool. Not gonna complain for a free PS Plus game.
GAME 3: Rocket League - 50+ hours multi (Platinum) - 07/01/2016 - PS4
One of the best games of 2015. Football with cars, what more do you need? Brilliant, pure fun! And my first PlayStation Platinum Trophy! I'm sure I'll be playing it for a long while, with Boxes.
GAME 5: Lara Croft: GO - 3.5 Hours - 07/01/2016 - Android
Lovely art style, soothing soundtrack, a great little turn-based puzzler. New mechanics added often to keep it fresh. Slightly short though. May have to try Hitman!
GAME 6: The Room Two - 4.5 Hours - 09/01/2016 - Android
The controls are a little clunky, and some of the puzzles are too obscure, but this was a great sequel to The Room with clever puzzles and amazing atmosphere.
GAME 8: The Last of Us: Left Behind - 4 Hours - 10/01/2016 - PS4
A fantastic trip back into the beautiful, brutal world of The Last of Us. With cleverly designed encounters and some touching moments, it fleshed out parts of the story we never got to see. I just wanted more, Naughty Dog.
GAME 9: Mark of the Ninja - 10 Hours - 12/01/2016 - PC
Finally got round to completing this after starting it almost two years ago. Combining well crafted game mechanics and superb animations with a gorgeous art style made for a brilliant stealth platformer. Besides the odd sections of frustration, this was a joy to play.
A masterpiece. A superb soundtrack, incredibly clever writing, unique battle system.. Amazing characters that I cared about. 2D Sprites that I cared about! Quite the rollercoaster that I was able to share with two friends. I almost missed this gem, make sure you don't.
An elegant, minimalistic puzzle game that seems to have been missed by many. What starts as a manageable, simple task suddenly booms into chaos as you manage a booming city of "people" that want to get from A-B. They couldn't have picked a sleeker method of transportation.
Supernatural coming of age story told in a very clever way through the use of a "real time" dialogue system that felt really fresh and innovative. A few hiccups here and there though with interruptions I didn't want to make. The overall art style and visuals were great and really added to the atmosphere. The actual gameplay was fairly basic, and the walking speed got a little tiring. The characters and story were good but never fully grabbed me. Enjoyable but ultimately a little disappointing.
A thoroughly entertaining surprise hit that had me on the edge of my seat for most of the game, when I wasn't jumping out of it. Really well done branching narrative that had me questioning myself at every turn. This is a beautiful game, the setting and atmosphere was incredibly well done. Although it had the odd janky controls here and there and a slightly weaker second half.
GAME 14: Nuclear Throne - 4 Hours - 18/01/2016 - PC
I don't often play roguelikes, but this is so much fun in short bursts. Challenging and brutal, I will keep coming back to this again and again I'm sure.
GAME 15: Driveclub - 10 Hours+ multi - 22/01/2016 - PS4
I'm not a big fan of racing games, but... Breathtaking visuals, with some of the best lighting and weather effects combined with fun gameplay and addictive multiplayer make this one of the best racers I've ever played. It has received brilliant post-launch support too!
An ambitious sci-fi game that is as thought-provoking as it is nerve-wracking. It touches some serious concepts that really makes you think and question the things you're doing. I had some performance issues and and I preferred the quiet sections, but this was a game that had me hooked as I figured out where I was, who I was, and what on Earth was going on. Stick around after the credits for this one.
GAME 17: Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - 1 Hour - 27/01/2016 - PC
An absurd, funny and free game from Crows, Crows, Crows; the new studio headed by one of the minds behind The Stanley Parable. It's short, it costs nothing, and it excites me for what's to come. I can't wait to see what these Crows have hidden in their feathers.
GAME 18: The Division (Beta) - 10 Hours+ multi - 31/01/2016 - PS4
I might not pick up the final release so I figured I'd include this for now. The Division has the potential to something incredible that will have me hooked for a very long time. Satisfying gameplay, addictive loot, incredibly fun with friends and tense as hell PvP. Fingers crossed on this.
GAME 19: Cookie Clicker 2.0 - 10 Hours+ multi - 10/02/2016 - PC
The craving for cookies begins once more with the 2.0 release. This game is ridiculously pointless and even more addictive. Beware the cookies. Click, click, click.
A well written story with believable, authentic characters set in a world that felt real and grounded, brought to life by the incredible art of Olly Moss and the rest of the Campo Santo team. I could live in this world and listen to these characters talk all day.
A deceptively challenging little puzzler in which you change the colour of paper in a super satisfying, cascade effect. I was losing interest towards the end but it was good enough to complete.
A meticulously crafted masterpiece from Jonathan Blow and his team. Lose yourself in a gorgeous, incredibly well designed world as you explore and solve challenging puzzles that have you pulling your hair out one minute, and jumping for joy the next. My mind was blown more than once. Play this, you owe it to yourself.
A fascinating interactive narrative that had me and my GF totally engrossed as we tried to piece together the story playing the role of detectives reviewing evidence.
GAME 24: Dota 2 - 10 Hours+ multi - 17/02/2016 - PC
One of the best multiplayer games I've ever played, with incredibly deep gameplay and as rewarding as it is punishing, I will be playing this for a long time. Best of all, it's entirely free.
GAME 26.5: The Division - 60+ hours - 16/03/2016 - PS4
Set in an incredibly detailed Manhattan, this will keep me coming back for its addictive loot-game, fun co-op and tense multiplayer. Although it isn't the most innovative game and get repetitive at times, it's a lot of fun with friends.
GAME 27: Mario Kart 8 (Replay) - 5 hours - 26/03/2016 - Wii U
A blast to play with friends, Nintendo are the kings of local multiplayer. With beautiful graphics and creative tracks, this is something I can always get out and have fun with.
While the controls were at times clunky and certain encounters were frustrating, this was a well-paced, action-packed ride that Indi himself would be proud of. There were some incredible set pieces, that are impressive even now. Onto number 3!
GAME 29: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition - 9 hours - 01/04/2016 - Xbox One
Stunning artwork and a beautiful soundtrack complements what is a surprisingly emotional story. Don't let that fool you into thinking this can't be a brutally difficult (sometimes frustratingly so) platformer however. All of the abilities you pick up along the way are satisfying to use and make for some brilliant moments during gameplay.
GAME 30: Minecraft - 30 hours+ multi - 03/04/2016 - PC
It's crazy to think the first iteration of this phenomenon was built in a week. Minecraft is a game in which you get out as much as you put in, in my case, many many hours of fun. A near infinite, randomly generated game in which you can build anything you can think of, allowing you to unleash your creativity. I forgot how much I enjoyed playing this game, and it only got better playing with friends.
GAME 31: Hyper Light Drifter - 9.5 hours - 15/04/2016 - PC
An intriguing, stylish and challenging action game set in a beautiful world full of mystery, that is let down at times by being too vague. It has excellent mechanics, offering difficult but satisfying combat, although certain encounters are more cluttered than challenging. It has some fantastic boss battles too! Another game with a superb soundtrack that amplifies the incredible, pixelated colours on display. My Kickstarter backing finally paid off!
GAME 32: Quantum Break - 11 hours - 17/04/2016 - Xbox One
My favourite TPS of recent years! IQ issues aside, this is an incredible looking game with some of the coolest particle and physics effects Ive seen to date. Its time-bending story was thrilling and had me hooked. Accompanied by a surprisingly good live action segments tying the pieces together, it outdid my expectations. Combat feels great although the shooting itself is quite standard, the powers are a lot of fun to use. Heres to a sequel!
Completed the night prior to Uncharted 4s release, this was a fun ride. Bogged down by some poor encounters and a rushed ending. Its terrible hit detection made for some infuriating gameplay sections. Visually however the game still holds up with some gorgeous sights and great lighting. The set pieces are incredible too. A true blockbuster.
GAME 34: Overwatch 40+ hours multi - 24/05/2016 - PC
Polished to perfection team shooter from Blizzard filled with memorable characters and unique abilities. Fantastic fun in a group, this will certainly have a permanent slot in my multiplayer line up for a long while. I am obsessed with skins!
A spectacular send off for Nathan Drake, with jaw dropping visuals, lifelike animations and impressive acting. It has a great mix of exploring, shooting, driving and climbing with refined mechanics in more open levels. The set pieces are subtler, but more impactful and extensive. Although this is a slower entry, for me it was near perfect. Overall UC4 nails the feeling of a grand adventure. Another contender for GOTY!
GAME 36: Dangerous Golf - 2 hours - 05/06/2016 - PC
Burnouts Crash mode in golf form. With impressive physics and great graphics on display, it can be quite fun to destroy rooms full of fragile objects. But it feels like its missing a layer of polish, theres a lot of waiting, and the concept gets old quite quickly. It feels like a mini-game for something bigger.
GAME 37: Shovel Knight 7.5 hours - 09/06/2016 - PC
A retro platformer inspired by games of yesteryear with all of the best bits but none of the bad. With an awesome soundtrack and satisfying shovel swinging gameplay, this is a must play. Im so glad I backed this on Kickstarter way back when!
This game is a masterpiece. Beautiful visuals, stunning animations and haunting sound design combine with perfect pacing to create something truly special! Im still thinking about this game.
GAME 40: Pokémon GO 10+ hours - 19/07/2016 - Android
A cultural phenomenon. Everyone I know has played this at some point. Discussing it, comparing Pokemon, planning where to go to catch more! The game itself is incredibly basic, but it brought people together in a fun and social way. Ive never been on so many walks!
GAME 42: Dark Souls III 45 hours - 07/08/2016 - PC
The first Soulsbourne game I have played to completion. For me this was a fresh, knuckle-clenching but incredibly satisfying experience. Superb combat and amazing bosses combined with soul crushing difficulty made for an experience that left me beaten and bruised. But every time I came back more determined and a little wiser. Im sure I will return to the beautiful world of Lothric soon.
After all of the hype, all of the expectation, this was incredibly disappointing. It has the makings of something great, with some impressive technology behind it, but the experience is hollow and repetitive. Leaving a planet for the first time was incredible, but the excitement didnt last long. Refunded.
GAME 44: Rainbow Six: Siege 50+ hours (Multi) - 05/09/2016 - PC
It does not surprise me that this game continues to get more and more popular through word of mouth. This is an incredibly well-crafted, tense and tactical multiplayer shooter that is a welcome addition to the market. There is a lot of depth to the strategy here, and whether you are blowing a hole in the wall or breaching a window, your blood will definitely be pumping.
GAME 47: Golf With Your Friends 3 hours - 07/10/2016 - PC
A fairly basic (early access game) elevated by the hilarious fun that can be had with a group of friends. Crazy golf with your buddies, what more do you need?
GAME 49: Battlefield 1 40+ hours multi - 21/10/2016 - PC
This is the first Battlefield game that has truly hooked me. This is one of my favourite multiplayer shooters of recent years, with gripping all-out warfare on a grand scale. The setting of World War I is brought to life by jaw-dropping visuals and impressive destruction, immersing you in the world. This is a game that makes you stop and look at the sky in awe, no cutscenes necessary.
GAME 50: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered 10+ hours multi - 06/11/2016 - PC
A classic game that (for better or worse) set the standard for multiplayer shooters to follow, the game shows signs of its age but its still the fantastic shooter it was back in 2007. With an impressive new lick of paint too.
GAME 51: Gears of War 4 10+ hours multi - 09/11/2016 - PC
This game is certainly more Gears. There are some amazing sights to behold in this game, but ultimately for me, they plastered over what was fairly basic gameplay with incredibly linear levels. I enjoyed playing the game in co-op but in the end it was a disappointing game.
Considering I absolutely loved the first game, it took me far too long to pick this up. Im damn glad that I did! Tight, fast-paced gameplay that builds upon everything that was great about the first game with a bit of added finesse. The single player campaign is incredible too, one of my favourites this year.
Last year I realized I wasn't gonna make it pretty early. Stopped participating. This year might be a similar story, but let's start it off with something great.
GAME 1: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) - TIME PLAYED: ~100 hours
Started: December 18, 2015
Beat: January 1, 2016
Sorry for the inaccurate time. My in game clock couned 87 hours, but there was a lot of time spent making ill fated attempts on the final boss that I had to abandon, and reload my previous save to grind up. I won't bother retyping my thoughts on this game here, but suffice to say I loved it A LOT. I gushed over it in the OT, so I'll quote myself from there.
I had two weeks to beat this game over break and since I leave tomorrow morning, I guess I finished right on time. I easily clocked 100 hours in this thing, and I loved it to death. From start to finish it was fantastic. I wish I'd had more time to play with the side content. Even when it comes to the affinity missions, I've left SO much undone and it kills me that I may never come back to it. I certainly won't have the opportunity while it's still wildly popular here on GAF, but c'est la vie.
The return of Monolith's gorgeous, enormous, massively
usually
singleplayer JARPG (can I say that?) series was great. The mechs. The huge open world. The awesome combat. The plethora of interacting systems. The depth of avatar customization. The stupid lyrics. The dumb anime dialogue. The creepy lifeless doll faces. The occasionally impenetrably arcane mechanical minutiae and quest objectives. The wonky wobbly difficulty curve. The amazing talking space potato. I love this game warts and all. I needed this in my life, and from the reveal trailer to the end credits, I'm still kind of surprised it happened at all. The original seemed like such a fluke to come as an exclusive to a Nintendo platform, such a mismatch of genre and gameplay to Nintendo's usual faire and audience. Getting a follow up, both now and then, after we only just barely managed to score a north American localization, seems nothing short of miraculous. Iwata willing, Monolith will grace us with such a game again some time in the future.
Okay that's it. I think I'm done slobbering all over this big stupid game. It's been a huge pleasure to follow the conversation here while I waited for my chance to play the game, and while I sprinted my way through it.
That difficulty curve really did throw me for a loop. Progression really really slows down towards the end of the story if you aren't willing to break away from normal questing to do a little grinding on easy kill, high xp/loot mobs. The last mission alone accounts for something like 20-30 hours of play time, alternatingly getting stronger and making ill-fated attempts. But it was a fantastic game, and I'm so glad that it's the one I start off my list with.
Currently in Progress:
Ghost Trick (iOS)
Lara Croft Go
On the Horizon... Some Day:
Shadowrun Returns
Pillars of Eternity
Fire Emblem: Fates Birthright
Fire Emblem: Fates Conquest
Fire Emblem: Fates Revelations
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Kid Icarus Uprising
Persona 4 Golden
Undertale
Her Story
I haven't played the HL2 saga since before Steam added achievements and playtime counters (2009-ish, at least) and realized I was long overdue to revisit it. Coupled with my new Steam controller it seemed a fresh way to re-experience the journey of Gordon Freeman. I played HL2 in mid December (still a fantastic and near-flawless landmark game) and thought I should save the episodes for the new year and enjoy some multiplayer games in the mean time before I dove back into THE CHALLENGE once again. So here we are! EP1 is a nice one-sitting game, and while I hold the minority opinion that it's better than EP2 (too many same-y antlion caves that go on for too long drag it down, combined with some Source engine and HL2 gameplay fatigue- we'll see how my opinion on that has changed in a few days), playing it right on the heels of HL2 doesn't exactly do it any favors. You spend the first third of the game back in the citadel with the super-powered gravity gun basically retreading HL2's final segments, followed by the somewhat rote proceedings of re-collecting all your weapons one at a time. Pistol. Shotgun. SMG. Grenades. Yawn. This worked at the time of release if you hadn't played HL2's rather exhilarating final third in the two year gap between HL2 and EP1 but having just played it a few weeks ago it leaves a large part of EP1 feeling kind of underwhelming. Admittedly, the game turns a corner at a certain point (somewhere around the hospital) and suddenly becomes frantic and fun again, but it's about halfway through the game so what we're left with is about an hour and a half of quality gameplay. And without much advancement of the narrative the game feels more like HL2: Epilogue rather than HL2: The Next Chapter. It's a damn fine game when taken on it's own, but when compared to the quality and the diversity of it's predecessor it's hard not to feel a bit let down.
2. NaissanceE - 3.5 Hours
This "walking simulator" that seems to borrow primarily from Mirror's Edge on the surface, in regards to how one navigates and traverses the environment, manages to be a rather eclectic experience in spite of the rudimentary game mechanics. The game is reminiscent of a dream, always seeming slightly intangible or abstract and never content with exploring one idea for too long. It feels as though you're journeying through some kind of limbo, with levels, designs, and ideas pulled out of the ether rather than being something consciously created. Influences and references abound, invoking at times thoughts of MC Escher, Star Wars' Cloud City or Blade Runner, Journey, Antichamber, 2001: A Space Odyssey and more. Environmental puzzles punctuate the experience, involving primarily working out how to get from point A to point B and some light platforming, rather than defeating or avoiding enemies (there are none) or solving obtuse and out of place logic puzzles. Suffice to say NaissanceE resonated rather deeply with me and if you're inclined towards more unique, thoughtful and solitary experiences I highly recommended it.
3. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - 5 Hours
Boy, do I feel silly. As I noted in my EP1 impressions a few days ago, I've long held the opinion that EP2 was the inferior HL2 sequel. How wrong I was! The most welcome difference between the episodes is that EP2 doesn't make you go through the tedious ramp up of finding all your weapons all over again one at a time. Within the first 20 minutes or so you've got both pistols, shotgun, SMG and grenades at your disposable. Also absent in contrast to EP1, of course, is any segments taking place at the citadel or in the city streets which goes a long way to EP2 feeling like a proper next chapter in the saga rather than something tacked on to the end of HL2 like EP1 does. Yes, the antlion caves do go on for a *bit* too long still, but if you don't concern yourself with hunting antlion grubs you can put the caves behind you in less than 2 hours, and that's including the introduction with Alyx's near-fatal encounter with a Hunter and the tower defense section with the antlions and turrets to break things up. Having a car to drive around gives the whole game a grander sense of scale similar to HL2, with enough diversions to keep things from feeling like drudgery like the Route Canal and City 17 sections of HL2 can. Meanwhile, the story has enough references to Black Mesa and HL1 for long-time fans to get excited about, while simultaneously peeling back the layers of story to give hints towards the answers of the series' many unanswered questions. And what an ending, huh? Hopefully, with us being on the precipice of Vive's release and Source 2 being tweaked for use beyond Dota 2, we might finally get the next chapter of the Half-Life saga within the next few years (2nd half of 2017 is my current ballpark prediction)? One can only hope.
4. Octodad: Dadliest Catch - 2.7 Hours
I wasn't quite as enamored with this game as I was hoping to be. It was cute, it was charming, it was occasionally funny. But the gameplay doesn't quite hold up for me. I think this style of game where the difficulty is in the intentionally abstracted/challenging movement (see also: Surgeon Simulator 2013) just isn't for me. I still enjoyed Octodad enough to beat it and do the extra side levels, but that was only after I realized I can only play it in half hour chunks before everything starts to fall on the bad side of tedious. I'm sort of torn, where on one hand the game feels somewhat half-baked, but on the other hand I feel like I didn't quite exhaust everything the game has to offer as I want to go back to get some achievements and better times on the levels. For better or worse, Octodad feels like a Dreamworks movie (as opposed to a Pixar movie), and I can't help but think it would have been more successful in that medium as opposed to a game with clunky controls.
5. Five Nights at Freddy's - 3 Hours
While this game is (initially) pretty good with the horror (by which I mean jump scares), I found the actual game to be a little lacking. You're an after hours security guard and the entire game involves managing your power supply while checking cameras, flicking lights on and off, and closing the doors to your security room. The more things you have active at once, the quicker your power drains, and the less likely you are to make it to 6 am and thus make it to the next night. The game ramps up difficulty appropriately over each night, but by night 4 you start to see the forest for the trees and learn the patterns and tricks you need to do to maximize efficacy, rather than reacting to events and stimuli in a natural way. It's at this point that all fun, tension, and horror is removed from the game and begins to feel more like a puzzle where you can see and know the solution but have to trudge through the motions to get there, occasionally relying on RNG to deal you a good hand. While I initially felt very positively about the game, by the end I was relieved rather than satisfied having beaten it and being able to put it behind me.
6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 79 Hours
I suppose I should preface all this by saying that even though I've played all the numbered Metal Gear Solid games, it's always been a series I've played for the gameplay rather than the lore and the story. I didn't like 2 very much and 4 is basically irredeemable in my eyes, but 1 and 3 are very complete and cohesive experiences. So the short version on my opinion of 5 is: I don't really mind that the narrative has been truncated, because the gameplay is the best the franchise has ever seen. So much so that I'm inclined to call this the best MGS game, though 3 certainly gives it a run for its money. Previous MGS games, especially 1 and 2, operated on a kind of binary system. You did everything in stealth, and if you messed that up you were pretty much hosed and had to do it over again. 5's big success is its possibilities with Plan B once Plan A's stealth goes tits up. The overwhelming options provided to the player are nothing short of staggering and it's this bouquet of player choice that more than makes up for its shortcomings. I'd heard enough about the problems of the 2nd half of the game and how it wraps up too quickly from others before I started that I was able to brace for it. But the truth is, saying it "wraps up too quickly" is disingenuous. The final mission comes straight out of left field, with zero ramp up to it indicating the game's about to conclude. It really does feel like there's a huge chunk of narrative missing. But before I reached that point, it seemed easy to view the end of Chapter 1 as the game's real ending, and Chapter 2 as what should have been DLC or some kind of expansion pack. There's already so much content in the game, I find it kind of boggling that there's a Chapter 2 at all. Konami could have easily pulled all that out, released Chapter 1 as MGSV, pulled a Square-Enix and further developed the rest into an MGSV-2. But in spite of all that, the story still managed to get its hooks into me, and I find myself inspired to play through the rest of the series again. Warts and all, MGS5 is nothing short of a success. Kojima should be proud.
7. NiGHTS Into Dreams... - 4.2 Hours
I'm sorry I didn't play this sooner! I grew up a 'Nintendo kid.' My only Sega console was the Dreamcast, but I was always jealous of the kids who got to play Sonic and have generally always had an affinity for Sega's unique brand of score attack arcade-style games, and NiGHTS fits the bill perfectly. You can tell this is a Sonic Team game in the approach and aesthetic, but trades Sonic's speed for more style and finesse. In modern times it's initially rather obtuse, and I had to resort to online guides to figure out how the scoring system worked (perhaps something that was detailed in the manual in the original release), but once you crack that egg you're rewarded with a unique game that deftly balances the "easy to learn difficult to master" mantra. The twist on the classic sidescroller formula is that each level is circular. You can do as many 'laps' as long as time permits to get your score as high as possible, and it's this twist that allows the game to shine. The catch is you have to get back to the starting point before time expires to trigger the next section (each level is divided into 4 different circuits that have their own independent timer) or risk having your score reset to zero. A combo system involving stringing together collecting trinkets and flying through hoops in quick succession rewards repeat completions of each level as you learn the most efficient route of each circuit. Enemies and obstacles increase across the game's seven levels providing a nice difficulty curve, culminating in the final level that throws most of that out of the window in a wonderfully wide-open level that allows a more fun and care-free celebration of the games mechanics that caps the game perfectly(upon reflection I'm reminded of the final section of Journey). And I'd be remiss not to mention the wonderful soundtrack. I understand now why this game has endured amongst Sega fans.
8. Quake II - 9 Hours
Whereas the original Quake has a long list of entirely self-contained, unconnected levels, Quake II presents its levels as more of a traditional campaign like its contemporaries Unreal and Half-Life do that is still continued to this day. This isn't such a bad thing on principle, however the level design that results from this leaves something to be desired compared to the original. Quake 1's levels were compact and intricate, and used vertical space in a unique way that has been rarely seen before or since. Each level, each room was a new playground that showcased the excellent mechanics that still hold up to this day. Quake II loses some of this with its larger scope in the way of flatter levels, longer corridors and occasionally obscure mission objectives that leaves the player wandering levels looking for the correct switch or the right path long after the enemies have been obliterated. The mechanics are still solid and hold up fine against modern standards, but at the end of the day the trade-off isn't worth it. The slightly diluted moment-to-moment gameplay found me yearning for the original's tighter design. Coupled with a change from the original's gothic, cosmic-horror style to a more sci-fi setting that seems so commonplace nowadays, makes the whole game feel a little underwhelming. A good game, but not quite the timeless classic its predecessor is.
9. Betrayer - 8.4 Hours
A story-first exploration/horror game about talking to ghosts unable to let go of their corporeal lives and discovering how they each came to meet their fateful ends. This involves scavenging open-world areas for items to show to the ghosts in order to jog their memories and uncover another piece of their story. Meanwhile you occasionally fight off skeletons, floating skulls, and un-dead Spaniard invaders and Native Americans with Elder Scrolls-style combat. It creates a fairly nice whole where initially you're forced to tread carefully, armed only with a bow and perhaps a single-shot pistol with a grueling reload animation, all designed to dissuade you from combat and keeping atmosphere and tension high. The problem comes from the game being segmented into 7 or 8 (admittedly rather large) self-contained areas that all follow the same strict formula of meeting a ghost, finding a few story-related items, another ghost that is either a murder victim or themselves a murderer of the first ghost, and then running back and forth between these two ghosts showing them items and unraveling their unfinished business before moving on to the next area. By the 4th or 5th area you've got the idea and it all becomes rather perfunctory and businesslike, made worse by the fact that you're getting weapon and stat upgrades along the way, overpowering enemies and undoing all the balance that makes the first couple of hours so intriguing and stimulating. The last 2 or 3 areas rebound a bit by having a more interesting and overarching story that ties them together, but by that point you're practically the Predator, taking on undead hordes by the dozen. The combat itself is mostly acceptable but it's hard not to feel disappointed that the game becomes an almost fundamentally different (and worse) experience than it started out as. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. I did end up enjoying this more than I expected, but truthfully there isn't enough diversity in content to support the game's length. Take out the middle 3 areas, turn it into a nice, tight 5 hour game with less power creep and it would be an almost flawless experience. As it stands, the developers betray the game's strengths almost as much as any of the game's morally questionable characters betray each other.
10. Life Is Strange - 13.2 Hours
I knew from around the 3rd episode or so I would have a hard time putting into words exactly what it is about Life Is Strange that makes me enjoy it so much. Or even how to succinctly describe it (especially without spoiling anything). At its core it's a story about people and life, the friendships you make and the effects and influence people can have over each other. Different relationships in all their manifestations, both good and bad. It captures an essence of life that is equal parts familiar and fantastical. The innocence of youth and the realities of adulthood. The (amazing) soundtrack gives the game a unique tone and voice. Writing is excellent and although the voice acting is occasionally stilted, the actual dialogue is nowhere near as bad as some hand-picked screenshots floating around GAF would have you believe. Characters are lush and full of depth, even the ones you barely get to spend time with. Everyone has their own story, personality, quirks and flaws lending heavily to the games emotional heft, which contrasts wonderfully with the games more fictional elements. And unlike a lot of games in this genre (looking at you Telltale), the choices you make can have a great deal of impact on the story and the relationships with the people around you. The mechanics compliment the story in a way that justify the game being a game instead of a novel or movie. I don't think there is a way this experience could be transferred to another medium without losing something in the translation. This unsuspecting tale about a week in the life of a teenage girl is sad, beautiful, gripping and everything in between. Life is strange indeed.
11. Firewatch - 4.6 Hours
Sadly, I think this kind of misses the mark. The story felt like it was building to something much grander or sinister, and in the end it was rather mundane. The game never stops to let the player breathe or exist in the world. From minute one the game presents a sense of urgency to accomplish tasks, never giving the player a chance to explore the world without feeling like you're betraying the narrative. Which might actually be a good thing because, in spite of it being "open world," the trails you take are entirely curated and inorganic. Far too often you are gated off by shrubbery, dams, boulders, steep inclines and the like, constantly being funneled down a predetermined path instead of having the freedom to find your own way. The devs said in testing people constantly complained about getting lost, leading to the player icon being added to the map, always tracking your exact position and I'm completely flabbergasted how that would be possible. Even with it turned off I almost never needed to refer to the map to know where I was, only to figure out which direction I needed to head to get to where I was going. As a whole, the world felt sadly artificial. Similarly to the narrative, the relationship between the player character and Delilah feels empty and lacking payoff. The dialogue choices you make seem to have no bearing on anything other than the flavor of the conversation. Maybe it was the choices I made, but the relationship felt superficial and unrewarding. The entire time I was questioning design choices. It seems the game exists to serve the narrative, rather than the other way around which is baffling considered the lackluster conclusion. I question why this is a game at all? It could just as easily exist as an animated movie or short story with no loss of experience. The game rushes you down a path to an unsatisfying end rather than letting you find your own way there. Let me explore and wander onto the next plot point myself, rather than ushering me along with a constant, "You need to go here and do this!" in my ear. Slow the pace of the game down, let me feel like a natural part of the world rather than an observer and the end result would have been entirely more satisfying. I'm reminded of criticisms of The Revenant. It's a fine game and competently made and gorgeous to look at but, I question what the point of it is or what I was supposed to get out of it. Overall, a hollow experience.
12. The Howler - .75 Hours
Obviously designed with smartphones in mind, The Howler's gameplay involves guiding a hot air balloon through opposing air currents to your target landing zone. Left mouse makes your hot air balloon rise, releasing it causes it to fall. Timing and momentum are the name of the game here, avoiding obstacles and not getting blown off course by being in an air current blowing the wrong way for too long. It practice the game seems to fall somewhere between Flappy Bird and a Pilotwings proof-of-concept. Mostly too easy, and only once or twice crossing the line into "challenging" territory, at 45 minutes long the game is over almost before it really begins. The concept and presentation are interesting enough, it's just a shame the possibilities in the mechanics aren't more fully explored. At the current sale price of 50 cents on Steam, however, it's difficult to feel let down by what could have been. A nice distraction for a rainy afternoon.
Recently acquired this gem of a DS launch title. It has a neat little concept to it and utilizes all of the DS's gimmicks well in a nice Wario Ware like game. It has a cute little story, some deceptively hard mini games later on, and it's made by Sonic Team (It has a lot of aesthetic similarities with Space Channel 5).
Xenoblade Chronicles X- 89 hours 1/23/16
Damn this game is good. If you have ever wanted an RPG that plays like an MMO, here you go. One of the most beautiful looking WiiU titles around, with some of the most amazing (very subjective, it's like it or hate it) music I have heard in the past year or so. I would say only Bloodborne and Undertale beat it out for best OST of last year. The story is decent, especially if you don't go in expecting a magnum opus for writing. Some fun twists along the way as well. The sidequests are without a doubt some of the most well fleshed out bits in the game; you will be surprised at the storytelling and world building you will find in them. It's also one of the first RPG's I've played in a while where your choices in dialogue (mostly within the side quests) can have pretty significant effects.
The amount of content is astounding as well. But it is content that hooks you. I have given up countless Open World games after getting bored with them, yet this is one I kept coming back to.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - 7 hours 1/23/2016
Based on one of my favorite graphic novels, and with FANTASTIC music by Anamanaguchi, this has quickly become one of my go to beat-em-ups. A fun mix of moves, with fairly in-depth lite RPG elements leads to a substantial bit of replayability. It was a blast to play with my best friend and roomate, and I highly recommend it. I fully intend on going for platinum on it as well.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - 10 1/2 hours 1/23/16
My roommate, best friend, and I first booted the game about a month ago, and we were hooked immediately. We played for a good 5 hours, switching off and having a blast. Made it all the way to tier 6 before we hit a roadblock. So we shelved it.
Came back tonight and blasted through the rest, even the exotic bombs, with ease. This is a great party game to play with 3-5 people. I highly recommend this game as well.
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini Land Mayhem - 6 hours 1/23/16
It was a busy day for me, but I had some down time after finishing Xenoblade and before my friend came over, so I found an old game I never quite finished. This is a cute, fun Mario based puzzle game with interesting mechanics. It is a little on the easier side, never mixing it up too much in the main game, but there are also challenging expert/special missions and a 'plus' mode upon beating the game, wherein you have to deal with different minis to finish the levels. Charming and definitely worth a look.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - 45 minutes 1/25/2016
An interesting game by some creators of The Stanley Parable, this is an interesting little concept worth a look by anyone who can afford it (it's free)
Bayonetta - 10:27 1/28/2016
An extremely fun and entertaining Character action game, as we've come to expect from Platinum Games. The only things I didn't care for were the lack of a click lock-on feature, and the QTE timings being a bit brutal (Damn you, Lava).
Shantae - Risky's Revenge - 4:26 1/29/2016
A neat little platformer with roots in Castlevania. I thought it had a bit too many filler 'find x items to progress' sections towards the end, but with such a short game it is understandable. From what I've heard the later ones are much better, so I'm looking forward to that.
Dragonball Xenoverse - 14 hours 1/29/2016
I've always been a fan of 3d fighters in the vein of the Dragonball/Naruto games. So this was a must for me. It was a fun game with a terrible story and a decent character creator. Looking forward to kicking
Broly's
ass.
Fairy Bloom Freesia - 1:49 minutes 1/30/2016
Holy crap. If I had known I had a game like this in my library, I would have beaten it long, long ago. It is a brilliant blend of the combat system from the Tales games, Smash Brothers, Beat-em-ups, and (to some extent) bullet hells. It has a pretty bare storyline, but the boss fights are to die for. If you can pick this up, DO IT.
Xeodrifter - 3 hours 2/7/2016
I've already vented about this, but this game was comprised of 4 small stages, 6 power ups, and fighting the same boss 7 times. Highly disappointing, and the first game I've played in a while that I hated.
Home - 2 hours 2/8/2016
The second disappointing game I've played, and it was back to back with the other one. A walking simulator wherein I figured out the twist within literally the first minute. It lost all tension quickly after that, and was the first game I considered dropping from my steam library.
Firewatch - 5 hours 2/9/2016
The first good game of the month, this was a joy to play from start to finish. The writing/VA was perfect from start to finish, and the ending left me feeling every bit as empty as was intended.
Jazzpunk - 2:16 2/10/2016
This was a trip. I could have finished it within 20 minutes, but there is so much side content, and it rewards you heavily for exploring. It's on sale now. I'd recommend checking it out and playing with friends.
Danganronpa - 26 hours 2/12/2016
I can totally see why this was GOTY for many people a couple of years back. I am pretty sure I went into it without being spoiled, but the fact I knew who the mastermind was as early as chapter 3 makes me think I may have been spoiled a long time ago and just forgot. If you want a visual novel game with some fun gameplay in the form of class trials, and mysteries ala Ace Attorney, pick this up for sure.
Cosmic DJ - 2 hours 2/15/2016
What a great little game. You can pick it up on the cheap, and it is a fun little sequencer game. It's pretty hard to make something that sounds bad in it. As a composer, I can highly recommend this game.
Dyscourse - 2 hours 2/18/2016
This was a neat choose your own adventure game where each of your choices mattered. In the end, it reminded me of a bit of a visual novel style branching path system, which I love. If you don't like narrative games, this could be rather dry, however.
Savant Ascent - 42 min 2/18/2016
A fantastic surprise for me. It's a short twin stick shooter with a fantastic soundtrack. It can get a bit frustrating at times, but it never gets too bad.
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 44 hours 3/4/2016
GOD I love these games. The ninja class adds a lot to the gameplay and the game was surprisingly challenging compared to what I was expecting. Hard on this game could compare to lunatic on some of the previous titles, but I still recommend playing on that difficulty, because normal was FAR too easy. The music and aesthetic as a whole is phenomenal even if the story was pretty bad. I'm looking forward to Conquest and the no-grind, classic FE feel with these gameplay advances.
Triforce Heroes - 12 hours 3/12/2016
A great time to play with friends. We had a blast playing through all of the stages, although the final boss got a bit annoying and frankly exhausting in the last phases. Play with good friends, though. Solo was too much of a slog for my effort.
Pokemon Yellow 16 hours 3/16/2016
I had forgotten just how well these hold up. Other than the lack of running, I'm surprised at how seemless the transition back was for me. That said, fuck the safari zone.
Gunman Clive - 1 hour 3/26/2016
This is without a doubt the best indie I've experienced on the 3DS. It plays like a megaman, with responsive controls and platforming. It also has enough challenge and variety to make the time fly by. For two bucks, this is an absolute must have.
Mario Land 2 - 1 hour 30 min 3/27/2016
Sin and Punishment - 2 hours 30 min 3/31/2016
OutRun - 2 hours 4/1/2016
Kirby's Adventure - 3:30 4/2/2016
Kirby's Dreamland - 30 min 4/2/2016
Super Mario 3d World - 10 hours 4/5/2016
Amplitude HD - 3 hours 4/6/2016
Warioware Touched - 1 hour 30 min 4/10/2016
Elite Beat Agents - 5 hours 4/12/2016
Dark Souls 3 - 80+ hours 4/29/2016
Rhythm Heaven - 4 hours 5/2/2016
Star Fox Zero - 7 hours 5/6/2016
The Deadly Tower of Monsters - 5 hours 5/6/2016
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle - 12 hours (+46 to read the manga to avoid spoilers) 5/9/2016
Roundabout - 3 hours 5/11/2016
Pony Island - 4 hours 5/13/2016
World End Economica Episode 1 - 8 hours 5/14/2016 (I don't usually count episodes, but these count as completely separate games on steam and are each 7 hours long)
1) Broken Age - As likable as it is colorful, no one will be able to resist Broken Age's comical characters or its intriguing premise. Its plot twists caught me by surprise--and then went nowhere. Broken Age introduces a world that begs to be explored, but never allows you to. While intended to be a fresh return to point and click puzzlers of yore, Broken Age fails in the gameplay department by highlighting the worst tropes of puzzle games: arbitrary puzzles and solutions. More often than not, whenever I figured out how to solve a puzzle in Broken Age, I didn't feel accomplished--I just felt as stupid as the solutions themselves. If you're looking for a smart point and click adventure whose puzzles are a naturally occurring part of the world, then keep looking. Broken Age's puzzles are unfortunately a mere blockade to an unsatisfactory, seemingly cut-short conclusion. 12 hours played, completed on January 04
2) Undertale - I'm not going to review this game. I'll replay it eventually. 8 hours played, completed on January 05
3) Metro 2033 Redux - 10 hours played, completed on January 10
4) The Talos Principle - One of the hardest games I've ever played. 28 hours played, completed on January 21
Finished 78 games last year but never updated my post on this topic. I guess it stays that way this year too. I don't need recognition, the fact that I know I finished 52 games is enough for me.
At least it should be easy to finish this challenge this year with all the great games coming. I've already made a list of games I'll play in January and February. If someone wants to know what it includes here it is:
Tembo the Badass Elephant
Suikoden II
Wolfenstein New Order
LISA
Why I Am Dead At Sea
The Witness
Mighty Number 9
Firewatch
Fire Emblem Fates
And I'd also like to play Dragon's Dogma, The Rise of Tomb Raider, Gravity Rush Remastered, Slain and Unravel but don't think I have time for all those.
First game beat started it last night finished it tonight
Game 1: Soma - ~12 Hours
The narrative and ideas in this game are the only thing that kept me from dropping it, the actual mechanics of the game just didn't feel good. Nearly all the enemy encounters were more annoying than tense and something that Alien:Isolation may have spoiled me on. Outside of delta stations plot hooks and a few intercoms scattered throughout every ocean segment just became a chore due to the water physics. The games narrative and the ideas presented in it on what it means to be human, what is it to be alive, and what is the human conscious were really enjoyable. This is one of those game that makes you want to read every email, data pad, and note just to find out who the people of Pathos-II were as well as what is actually going on. While playing through the game I had a thought that I would much rather read a novel version of this game that fleshed out the games world and characters and inner thoughts of Simon himself than actually play this game. Can see what all the hype was about this game, just wish that it was more than an interesting set of ideas wrapped in a mediocre game.
1. Resident Evil: Revelations (11 hours). Since RE4 hit, it's hard for me to be impressed with an RE title, but this was definitely an improvement from the last one I played (5). The cruise ship was a good setting, shame you had to revisit the areas so many times and you had to backtrack on numerous occasions. The gunplay was ok, but it lacked the oomph of RE4 and some of the creature designs were very uninspired. The best new addition is Raid Mode, which mixes elements from Mercenaries with random loot. You level up, sell and buy weapons, and find rare ones by playing levels. You can also do this co-op.7,5/10
2. Mirrormoon EP (8 hours). This is a minimal space exploration game, where the first hour is probably the most interesting. You're on a planet and you have to figure out a long puzzle. Here you learn all the mechanics you will find on other planets. After this, you switch over from side A to B, and you have to figure out the control panel in your spaceship. The game has a 'show, not tell' approach, so you're randomly pushing buttons to see each function. After you figure out how to space travel, exploration starts. Once you cross over to side B, you get access to a galaxy full of planets. What you find there is random, so it could be an actual puzzle, or nothing besides the exit. Once you touch the exit orb, you get to name the star if you're the first exploring it.
So there's a community angle too: everyone playing at the same time, is in the same 'season'. The actual goal of side B is to find an observatory, which has a consellation map that leads you to the 'anomaly' planet. Even though you can explore planets indefinitely, this is the 'ending' to the game. If you visit the Steam forum for the game, you can find help with other players in the same season. For instance if you can't find an observatory or the anomaly, they can help. This is a very interesting experiment. Only big downside is that most planets are very similar and repetition sets in fast. I played it for 8 hours because I wanted to find an anomaly, but if you want to get what this game is about, 1 or 2 hours suffices. The point of this game isn't really to 'complete' it, or see the ending, it's about exploration and the sense of wonder to figure out how everything works. 7/10
3. Life is Strange (17 hours) Dontnod showed promise with Remember me, and with Life is Strange, they're one step closer to greatness (but not quite there yet). I liked episodes 1-4 a lot, with emotional moments that hit like a brick, but the finale ended up how I feared. Basically they
used the time power to 'retcon' everything in the previous episodes, so that you still end up with a binary A or B ending. I felt really bad about not being able to save Kate in ep2, but by picking the 'good' ending, she's alive again, along with Victoria and others. I thought they were working up to something a little bit more impactful with their choice system, because your choices ultimately don't mean anything when you pick the 'good' ending. In that sense, the 'bad' ending works better because you're done playing with time and just accept what happens (and what happened before).
4. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (9 hours). The New Order was last year's big surprise. It was one of the best shooter campaigns in years, so The Old Blood had a lot to live up to. It starts off on the wrong note, with an opening section that drags on for a while and even feels a bit out of place. After this segment the game quickly gains momentum though, and before long the excellent encounter design from TNO is back. It always feels great when you manage to stealth kill the commanders, to prevent them from getting backup. And when that's done, it's time to dual wield your shotgun and go ham on the remaining enemies. Towards the end the game introduces
Nazi zombies
, which is a great way to mix things up a bit. Final boss is surprisingly hard, but overall I had a great time with The Old Blood. If you're hungry for a quality fps and you loved TNO, then this is a no brainer. 8/10
5. Ori and the Blind Forest (15 hours). Probably the first time since Pixar's Up that an intro hit me this hard. After that, when you're done gawking at the insane level of detail in the beautiful world, you can start focusing on the action... because this is not a casual adventure. It's a metroidvania that doesn't allow many mistakes, at least in the beginning when you have little health. It has a very strong focus on platforming, with some sections that'll have to retry a bunch. The great save system removes any possible frustration: you can save whenever you want, as long as you have enough orbs. The game is very generous with them though, so you'll never have to replay much when you die.
There aren't that many surprises in your move and ability set, but the 'dash' is really cool: it allows you to boost off projectiles and enemies in the direction you want. You can throw an enemy's bomb back at him, or use it to get higher up. It even works on ground level, where it's a great tool to move around quickly.
There's also a great orchestral score to go along with this, so Ori pretty much excels in every category. It's a bit disappointing that there's one cardinal metroidvania sin: you can't 100% the game if you left some items in areas you can't return to. Getting a 100% map is easy, but full item completion is a bit trickier. The Definitive Edition coming soon, should fix all this. It'd also add warp rooms, another weird omission. 9/10
6. Undertale (10 hours). I love games that subvert your expectations, and Undertale does that constantly. It breaks the fourth wall all the time, with eccentric and quirky characters. At the same time though, it also has a very strong emotional core. Even though there's a strong comedy element to this game, it still has a lot of heart and manages to sell both sides of the coin perfectly. There are times when you'll love the game for mocking rpg staples, then other times where you get gut-punched by strong story moments. It reminded me of golden age Simpsons in this way, where the barrage of jokes could be mixed up with a sweet 'syrup' moment, but still work. The characters are very unique and interesting, and they all behave differently depending on the path you take.
Gameplay-wise, Undertale is also refreshing: it feels like you've been through an epic 60+ hour rpg, when it only took you 7 hours. The game achieves a lot in very little time, and trims all of the usual fat found in rpg's. And if you still want more, you can replay the game using a different approach (by killing or sparing enemies).
I was surprised by how fun the different battles were, especially if you choose to talk your way out. The light puzzle element, mixed with the bullet hell dodging, makes the battles fun all the way through. Game has a very low encounter rate, so you won't even see enemies more than 3 times. And it has an absolutely stellar soundtrack, that can't be stressed enough. The best moments in the game all have a memorable track to go with it. All in all it's a very remarkable and unique game. 9,5/10
7. Axiom Verge (10ish hours). Great metroidvania, especially when you consider all the work was done by one man. Loved the soundtrack and pixel art, and had fun experimenting with the weapons. 8/10
8. The Witness (challenge included, maybe 40 hours). My game of the generation so far. I loved everything about this. One of the best puzzle games I've played, with an amazing concept behind it. Its 'open world' structure is the first time I've felt that approach benefitted gameplay. If you're stumped on a puzzle, go look somewhere else. Dropping a puzzle sometimes works wonders, because when you return with a fresh mind, sometimes you get it in a few minutes. There's even a whole metroidvania element to it: if you're running around the town in the beginning of the game, you can't decipher any of the puzzles because you haven't learned that 'code' yet. The upgrades in this game are knowledge, it's genius.10/10
9. Firewatch (4 hours). Staring at breathtaking vistas while listening to Chris Remo's fantastic soundtrack... there are worse ways to spend your time. But at its core Firewatch is about the growing bond between two people who haven't even met. A lot of players were disappointed by the ending, but I thought it was very fitting, a bit daring even. 8/10
10. Super Time Force Ultra. Initially this game looks like just another sidescroller, but the rewind function makes it unique. You control a team of heroes, with a bunch of continues. Every time you lose a life, that character's actions persist through continues. So when you reach a boss with only 10 seconds on the timer, you can still beat him if you keep rewinding, using team members. It get very chaotic this way, but it's part of the charm. 8/10
11. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. From continue to prove that they know how to do dlc. The new areas are fun to play through, but the bosses are exceptional. 8,5/10
12. Rise of the Tomb Raider. Crystal Dynamics had an opportunity here to improve on their 2013 reboot, but failed to in most ways. The story is even more forgettable and poorly executed than the original, and the upgrades you can find still feel useless. It's such a shame, because the concept of these games is pretty good, but it's disappointing to see such unsatisfying rewards for exploring. The optional tombs start out great, but fizzle out by the end. Still they're the most fun part of the game, so I made sure I did them all. 6/10
13. Dark Souls 3 (40 hours PS4 + 35 on pc). We know how the Souls games work and play out by now, and at worst 3 would feel like 'another' sequel, but Miyazaki and team somehow avoided that. The level design was more complex than ever, and the references to DkS 1 were mostly well handled. I continued to be impressed while playing, somehow they made this the best entry yet. 9/10
14. Shadowrun Returns (11 hours). I thought turn based gameplay wasn't for me anymore, but Shadowrun proved me wrong. Even though the story crashed near the end, I had fun with the battles. It gave me incentive to put Dragonfall on my wishlist and give my next game another chance: 7,5/10
15. Transistor (8 hours). Played this when it came out, and it didn't click. After beating Shadowrun however, I felt like it'd be fair to give this another shot. I ended up loving this game, and couldn't get enough of the combat. Even did a bunch of challenge rooms and played NG+ for a bit. So much fun to combine different Functions, and find out which combos are OP. 8,5/10
17. Uncharted 4 (16 hours). Ah man, so disappointed. For this entry Neil & Bruce tried a more slower paced approach, which worked sometimes (I actually liked ch16 in itself), but more than often didn't. This game has pacing issues galore, and the first half is full of them. The second half on the other hand, is way better and feels like a long tribute to Drake's Fortune. I loved the chapters on the island.
The problem with U4's focus on story, with an approach closely resembling TLOU, was using this method for a franchise that wasn't a perfect fit for it. TLOU had great introspective moments, but that fit the universe and the characters. The bond Ellie and Joel developed for example, was complexer and cut deeper than anything in the Uncharted universe. From the outset TLOU is way more character-driven, whereas Uncharted was kinda forced in this direction.
This is because Uncharted is -and should be- pure lighthearted pulp, with characters that weren't rounded or complex like Joel or Ellie were, which is fine. As much as I love Nate and Elena, I'm not that interested in their relationship therapy. I realized this when
the optional convos in the jeep/elevator chapter
didn't do much for me. Don't get me wrong, I love them trying something new, but this was the wrong way to approach it. You can't inject mechanics that worked in TLOU, and expect them to work in a different franchise. 6,5/10
18. DOOM. (16 hours) DOOM is back with a downright outstanding campaign, even outmatching Wolf TNO for me. The action is incredibly frantic, and the glory kill system (melee finishers) is a great addition to the combat. The animation for those finishers is top notch and they feel incredibly satisfying to do. You also get health for doing them, so it's a mechanic that is very useful when things get hairy: you get health, and a split second to catch your breath.
Every weapon is fun to use, and have alternate fire modes you can upgrade. Combat hardly ever gets stale if you mix those up a bit and combine them with power-ups. The rush you feel when you complete one of the bigger encounters, is magnificent. I want to replay this on a harder difficulty, just to get that feeling all over again.In between encounters it pays off to explore the complex maps, because they're riddled with secrets, upgrades and other - actually useful!- collectibles. The great map is your trusty companion here.
You rip and tear until it's done... and if you're like me you'll want to start all over again immediately. Biggest surprise of 2016. 9/10
19. Ratchet & Clank (2016). It's a remake of the first game, so it's no surprise this game feels like every other game in the franchise. That being said, I'm kinda hoping they shake things up a bit in the future, because it all feels a bit too familiar. 7/10
20. Tales from the Borderlands. I wasn't a big fan of TWD season 1, so I was kind of wary to play another Telltale game, but I'm glad I tried it out, because TftB is one of the best games I've played this year. Make no mistake: this is a full-on comedy game that's always 'on', so there's a constant joke stream. Luckily, there are rarely any misses and if it's your style of humor, you're in for a treat. Tales however achieves the rare feat of successfully combining this humor with a lot of heart. Over time you get attached to the characters and when a serious character moment does come by, it still hits home. But somehow they get away with the other extreme too: very absurd and outright over the top moments work just as well.
The opening credits for each episode are amazing. Whenever I started a new episode I was looking forward to that moment. When I finished the game I rewatched all of them, some incredible stuff there with great song choices. That's another big standout: the soundtrack is ace, with a perfect song selection. The final credits song gave me goosebumps. It helped that I was a fan of
First Aid Kit
, but still.
After finishing this game I was ecstatic and over the moon. It'd been a really long time since a videogame story and its characters did this much for me, but Tales is really on another level. It's so rare that a genuinely funy game comes along, and this it. That it combines this with great writing and directing is just icing on the cake.
Since the game is lighthearted in tone, the writers also poke fun at Telltale's own series clichés, like the choices. So if you were critical of their games before, you should try this at well.
Oh, important: no knowledge of the Borderlands universe is required. I've never even touched a B'lands game and I loved this like nothing else. I'm sure it helps if you know the world, but Tales is a standalone thing.
I'll remember Tales from the Borderlands for a long time to come, it's a game I'd easily recommend to anyone. 10/10
21. Grow Home (4-5 hours). The concept of this game is fantastic: climb back to your spaceship using beanstalks to make it to checkpoints. The traversal is fun, but I never really grew to like the climbing controls. I got used to them, sure, but I never loved them. By the time I had collected all the seeds I was glad it was over. It's fun for a while, but after the novelty of the concept wears off, there's not much left. 6/10
22. Gravity Rush Remastered. I'm kinda baffled at this game's design decisions sometimes. The concept and mechanics are great, but then they'd have you tracking down 7 people in the city to get info about a girl, and have you search and look for statues. Same with these maid missions, looking for missing manuscript pages.
This is in contrast to the awesome 'Creator' levels, where you actually have to use your powers, slide around, float, what have you. I was kind of expecting more challenges like this, all the time. Now there's too much typical open world bs getting in the way of that. I like the game, don't get me wrong, but I'm disappointed with the menial shit they'd have you do in a game where superpowers are the main focus. I had to complete all the races to make the most out of the mechanics presented here. The sequel has a lot of potential, so I'm looking forwar to that. 7/10
23. Unravel. Very charming puzzle-platformer, with very inventive puzzles. Also looks absolutely gorgeuous. It may look like a style over substance game, but the platform/puzzle mix is really well done. Good soundtrack too. 8/10
I've been playing games a bit less since I hit 52 last year and I want to play more long games this year. That said I will still be talking about everything I play in this thread because I enjoyed it so much last year.
Since this year i got my new computer and i'll actually be able to play most of these, i'll try this challenge!
Beaten!7 Games
Far Cry 4
Was a pretty fun game, although it's definitely not my cup of tea.
- American Truck Simulator
What can i say, it's a Trucking game and it's nice and relaxing to play.
- Besiege
Really great Vehicle sandbox, enjoyed the level design and the Steam workshop has some works of art in it
Cities: Skylines
Extremely fun city management game, it's what EA should've done with Sim City.
Firewatch
Amazing narrative story, Ending kind of sucked though.
Grow Home
Lovely little game, enjoyed every second.
Gone Home
Never had played the game and hadn't heard much besides "It's an amazing experience". Got into it expecting a Horror game, went out with a story that been pretty much beaten in this day and age's media
- Battleblock Theater (3 Hours)
Playing through the Story with a friend, in Chapter 3 currently. Absolutely Fun!
- Bioshock Infinite (5 Hours)
I right where you get Shock Jockey from Whatsits face, The games fun, but it's nothing like the Original series in terms of setting and backstory.
- Hitman: Absolution (5 Hours)
Almost done with the Main story, it's a pretty decent hitman game. Can't wait to test Contracts when i'm done with the Story.
-Metal Gear Solid V(21 Hours)
Just Fought man on Fire, and got my Doggy.
Need For Speed: Most Wanted (1~ Hours)
Got that NEED for SPEEED
-Dark Souls II(11 Hours)
Just got through Poison Land, and met the Rat King, games super fun and extremely difficult, but i like the fact it's hard \_(ツ_/
-Dark Souls I(4 Hours)
... STOP THE AGONY
- Rayman Legends (1~ Hours)
I Really wanna play through this, but it's Soul sucking.
GTA V
Games having some weird performance issues on my computer as in it's Overheating my CPU to 71c, on hold till i decide the future of my Cooling setup.
Anything to help with my ginormous backlog! Let's give this a shot. My short-term goal is play several (mostly older) titles concurrently until I knock a few out then start on more current gen/Steam games.
Games Completed: 1/52
The first few that come to mind:
1. Never Alone (PS4): 6-7 hrs logged. Finished. Played in co-op mode w/ my fiance'. Beautiful game with superb presentation and wonderful message about the world within which we live. The platforming is average and the weaknesses show in single player mode. But the game's strengths really shine in co-op. We had a lot of fun playing through it together and finished the whole game in one sitting. I enjoyed it enough I'll probably go back through a couple sections to pop the 2 trophies we somehow missed. Although this game is certainly not perfect, it's exactly the kind of game I want out of PS+ indies... it's a really nice change of pace from the ubiquitous pixel-art, rogue-like filler. The team that put this together has real talent. I hope we see a more ambitious sequel.
2. Dungeon Defenders (X360): currently playing. 11 hrs logged (given the nature of the game, I'm not sure it's possible to ever really "finish" it, but I suppose we could count this as my game for week 2).
3. Uncharted (PS3): currently playing. 4 hrs logged.
4. State of Decay (X360): currently playing. 3 hrs logged.
5. The Walking Dead Season 1 (X360): 2 hrs logged.
6. Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 (X360): currently playing. 1 hr logged.
7. Amy (X360): currently playing. 1 hr logged. Seems ok so far, not nearly the dumpster fire most reviews would suggest.
The Walking Dead: Season 2
11th Jan | 5/5 | Loved it. Clem has to be p4p one of the best video game characters of all time.
Grand Theft Auto 3
28th Jan | 4/5 | GTA3 is still tremendous. I enjoyed the shit out of this game. Solidifying GTA as my favourite series.
Rocket League
4/5 | Legitimately a great game. Fires me up too much.
February
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
4th Feb | 2/5 | Well, scratch what I previous said. This game was so frustrating to play. The shooting is fucking atrocious in this game. You could get away with it in GTA3 but this one sucked. A lot of the missions were poorly designed and felt like trial and error. I really didn't enjoy this as much as I remembered. It was just too frustrating.
LittleBigPlanet 3
5th Feb | 3/5 | Slow start. Actually is a pretty enjoyable, albeit short platformer. Great artstyle. Some cool mechanics.
Lego: The Hobbit
6th Feb | 3.5/5 | Churning through these now. I love Lego games and this one is solid. But I'm not a bit fan of the Hobbit movies. I'm also not a big fan that they only made this game feature the first 2 Hobbit movies, so it ends on a cliff hanger. Wtf.
Tearaway Unfolded
8th Feb | 4/5 | First half was basically a tutorial. Gameplay wise, this just felt like a really long tech demo for the control. But holy shit the art direction, the creativity, the visuals, the feels. Brings this up to a 4/5 for me.
The Last of Us: Left Behind
12th Feb | 5/5 | TLOU is p4p the greatest game ever made. This dlc is top notch too. Character development. Production levels. The writing. Neil Druckmann is a bad motherfucker.
Helldivers
2.5/5 | Eh, its ok. I get the appeal. Just didnt really grab me.
March
Mad Max
3.5/5 | It is what it is. Just a mindless fun game. Solid as. Did get boring towards the end though. Didn't end up finishing it.
FIFA 16
4/5 | Once you fuck around with the sliders and make the difficulty spot on, this is one of the best football games ever made imo.
The Division
2/5 | Looks great. Is boring as batshit. Disappointment.
Smite
4/5 | Still playing this. Its pretty goddamn good. Lots of fun. Solid console/couch moba.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
5/5 | Awesome. Fucking LOVE this game.
April
Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV
3.5/5 | A tech demo, for sure. But not without some charm. Made me excited for FFXV.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
10/5 | Holy shit! This is a certified all time favourite now. I had no idea how it could be better than the first one. But it was. In so many ways. Holy shit. I FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME. naughty dog are maniacs.
Battleborn: Open Beta
2.5/5 | Urgh.. feels bad man. Chaotic. Nauseating. I wanted this to be good but theres a lot wrong with it just from a UI stand point. No idea why I would pay to play this over the free Smite.
Dark Souls 3
3.5/5 | Look. I know this game is a 4.5 but I just didn't enjoy it. Shit was too frustrating. Too trial and error.
Minecraft
3.5/5 | Played this for a bit to come down after DS3. Its one of the best games ever. But I've played so much of it. Cant get back in to it.
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
4.5/5 | Better than the original. So much content. A good jolly game to wash away the pain of Dark Souls 3. Only issue is the player numbers and networking problems.
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
3/5 | This game is just too addictive. I can't play it or I'll end up ruining my life.
Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas
4.5/5 | Graphics haven't aged well at all. The tricks they were using to make this look great on ps2 are so noticable on a big 1080p screen now. Besides that though, the gameplay holds up better than the previous 2 and the story and setting are arguably the best in the series.
May
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
4/5 | Just got my s7 edge. This game is addictive. First mobile tap tap tap game I've gotten into. I just love Star Wars and there seems to be so much to do and so many rat pellets. But... I recognise this. And have deleted it.
Lego: Star Wars
4.5/5 | Ok, here is a game I'll leave on my phone. It has an ending. Also Star Wars. I love this game.
Overwatch: Open Beta
3.5/5 | I mean, yeh, its a good, well polished game. Looks great. But it feels, shallow. Having come from PvZ2 which is just packed with so much content, modes, skins, etc. This just feels a bit meh.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
9.5/5 | Naughty Gods. This has turned into my favorite series of all time. So fucking great. LOVED IT.
World of Warcraft
5/5 | Oooh jesus.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
10/5 | Just. Perfection. Uncharted with a Last of Us storyline. Hands down my favorite series now. I am genuinely sad to be leaving Nate and Elena. ~sigh~
BACKLOG Wolfenstein: New Blood Tales from the Borderlands Wolf Among Us Witcher 3 & DLC
Ratchet & Clank [April 20th]
Uncharted 4 [May 10th]
Overwatch [May 24th]
No Man's Sky [June 21st]
Lego: The Force Awakens [June 28th]
Last year's thread got locked before I could post my final results. I only managed 36 titles, thanks to some games that each took up 100s of hours (Xenoblade X, Witcher 3, Mario Maker).
1. Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)
2. The Inner World (PC)
3. Year Walk (PC)
4. Castlevania LOS 2 Revelations DLC (PC)
5. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4)
6. Escape Plan (PS4)
7. Art of Balance (Wii U)
8. Duck Tales (PS3)
9. Touch Kirby (DS)
10. Chaos on Deponia (PC)
11. Mario Club Picross Plus (3DS)
12. Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4)
13. Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber (DS)
14. Zombi U (Wii U)
15. Lara Croft: The Temple of Osiris (PC)
16. 80 Days (Android)
17. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PS4)
18. Shovel Knight (3DS)
19. Ryse (PC)
20. Broken Age (PC)
21. Splatoon (Wii U)
22. TowerFall Ascension: Dark World (PS4)
23. Hydroventure: Spin Cycle (3DS)
24. Aaru's Awakening (PS4)
25. XenobladeX (Wii U)
26. Crysis 3 (PC)
27. Xeodrifter (PS4)
28. Picross e6 (3DS)
29. Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)
30. Penta Tentacles (Wii)
31. Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
32. Super Time Force Ultra (PS4)
33. Hiku Dasu (3DS)
34. Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS)
35. Armikrog (PC)
36. FAST Racing Neo (Wii U)
I'm looking forward to playing some shorter games this year so I'll have a chance at reaching the 52!
Just have a question: I keep updating my games on the post that I claimed or in new posts?
And if its on the original one how do I do to find it when this topic gets huge?
Sorry, new user...
I promised myself I'd be in this in 2016 so here we go:
Completed 69/52:
Game 01: Hotline Miami [PS4] (10h, platinum)
3.5*
It's a cool top down twin stick shooter with an 80's vibe, I didn't think highly of it's plot which means I might've missed the point in some way but the gameplay alone warrants a playthrough. It was 2,99€ on the PSN and it wasn't difficult to get every single trophy.
Game 02: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam [3DS] (25h, didn't get everything in the game)
4*
After the letdown that was Dream Team Bros. I wasn't sure that slapping Paper Mario on a new M&L would work but surprisingly it did. The plot is regular Mario with really sparse new stuff thrown in but the little tweaks like fast text scrolling and running gives the game a much quicker pace (these would do wonders in DTB). The combat is as good as ever and it looks great, the giant papercraft battles are a nice distraction that don't get enough time to get stale which is a good thing.
Game 03: Hardware Rivals [PS4] (+15h, working towards getting the platinum)
2*
After being underwhelmed by the beta the full game didn't really change anything to make me change my stance. It's a boring vehicle shooter with forgettable music, flawed controls and balancing issues. It looks nice and the online is stable from what I've played, it's hard to come up with more positive things to say. I'll still stick with it till the end just to get the platinum trophy but I'm not going to have a great time doing it.
I find it offensive that this is priced at 19,99€ with only 4 maps and 2 veichles (the other 2 variants don't really change a whole lot), so far it's the worst I've played this year.
Game 04: Legend of Korra [PS4] (6h, working towards getting the platinum)
3*
Platinum can't do a bad game, I still believe this after playing Legend of Korra. The combat feels fluid as always and the game looks pretty good for a budget download title. Scratch that last part, what I just said applies to the interity of the game, it's a pretty good budget download title of a licensed IP. I never watched the show but the story was ok on it's own, the characters and dialogues had some personality and as action brawlers go it's good enough. The different bending styles work really well even though their a little unbalanced, I'm doing an Extreme run right now and Water is close to useless with Wind being the main element that kills everyone in an instant. The difficulty is a little unbalanced as well but it's not a big deal if you're used to P*, and it might still be their easiest game to date. Cool stuff.
Game 05: Broken Age [PS4] (About 8h, highly doubt I'll bother with the platinum)
3*
It's a good adventure game with a cast of likeable characters but that throws a couple of "wtf was I meant to figure that out". The ending was pretty anticlimatic but I enjoyed the journey enough to come out of the experience feeling happy with it. Worth giving it a go.
Game 06: Resogun [PS4] (+10h, platinum)
4*
Really great shooter, looks great and plays even better. The power up system tied to rescuing humans brings everything together and makes for a really engaging experience. The soundtrack is techno/electronic goodness that reminds me a lot of Velocity 2X's soundtrack (which is also excellent may I add). Despite getting the platinum I still have the DLC's to plough through which add some new twists to the core game. It's still one of the best PS4 games and it's best played there.
Game 07: Chibi Robo Zip-Lash [3DS] (6-8h, didn't collect every single thing)
3*
It was a good platformer with some strange ideas. I still can't get over that stage selection wheel which made no sense and wasn't necessary at all. Other than that I don't remember the game doing anything terribly bad, on the other hand it doesn't make enough to leave a lasting impression (other than the final boss, that was pretty cool). Anyway, I do love platformers and they fit the portable consoles really well so I'm glad to own this little game in my collection.
Game 07: Tearaway Unfolded [PS4] (8 hours, got every trophy that doesn't require to collect every single collectible, not sure if I'll try to go for Platinum)
3.5*
After hearing all the praise when the original hit the Vita I had moderately high hopes for the PS4 reimagine, and for the most part I really enjoyed my time with Tearaway, but at the same time I started asking myself 'who's this game for?' around midway through it. The gameplay is inventive but gets repetitive really quickly since it doesn't really matter what you create, you always win. Tied to that are some really vibrant and, for the most part, kid friendly visuals which would make this the perfect game for children. But then they start throwing you tricky platforming with a spotty camera and, at points, tied to motion controls. It's a strangely heartwarming game with frustration and glitches sprinkles.
Game 09: Kickbeat [PS4] (4 hours)
2.5*
Decent rhythm game with a music selection that I didn't appreciate, but still good overall. There's not much to say really, I wish they kept the mode where you can use your own MP3's in the PS4 version, this would surely bump the score a bit.
Game 10: Tales from Borderlands [PS4]
3.5*
My first Telltale game, it was pretty cool as I was able to play with my girlfriend.
Game 11: Radio Hammer [3DS]
2*
A downgrade of the mobile game, still decent.
Game 12: Super Stardust Ultra [PS4]
3*
Top down shooter reminiscent of Geometry Wars and Nano Assault, I liked it less than the examples that I just gave though.
Game 13: Peggle 2 [PS4]
3.5*
Simply genious and despicably infuriating at times, I love Peggle and Peggle 2 is more of it to love.
Game 14: Trials Fusion: Awesome Max Edition [PS4]
3*
It's a Trails game, the envoironments could use a little more variety, gameplay is solid as ever and the level sharing was pretty neat.
Game 15: Gravity Rush Remaster [PS4]
4.5*
The best remaster on PS4, loved it to bits despite not being a huge fan of it on the Vita.
Game 16: Deathsmiles [iOS]
3*
Classic bullet hell shooter on a touch screen, works better than I expected.
Game 17: Persona 4: Dancing All Night [PS4]
3.5*
One of the most boring games I had to sit through, the first time in years where I simply said 'Fuck it' and skipped through the majority of the dialogues. The core gameplay is fun, the soundtrack is a bit too samey but it's pretty good. I hope to see a Persona 5: Dancing All Night.
Game 18: Persona 4: Arena Ultimax [PS3]
3*
Beat the arcade mode in one go, it felt a bit weaker than other Arc System fighters like Blazblue/Guilty Gear but it was still fun.
Game 19: Lumines Electronic Symphony [PSV]
3*
Great puzzler, Lumines never gets old.
Game 20: Bravely Second [3DS]
4.5*
Sleeper hit of the year, loved every minute of it. I thought it was going to be more of the same thing and that it would be a chore to play through but it was better than the original in nearly every way.
Game 21: Touch My Katamari [PSV]
3*
Disapointing Katamari is still a decent game, microtransactions make no sense and pretty much lock free content behind paywalls.
Game 22: Broforce [PS4]
1.5*
Great game, not on PS4 though.
Game 23: Far Cry 4 [PS4]
3*
After loving FC3 I had to play FC4 and I can understand some of the complaints people have, it doesn't feel nearly as inspired as previous games and the locations could use a bit more variety but it was still a pretty cool sandbox to mess around in. Dumb fun.
Game 24: Rayman Origins [PSV]
4*
Replayed one of my favourite Wii games on the Vita for trophies sake, it's still as good as I remember.
Game 25: Hotline Miami 2 [PS4/PSV]
4*
Hotline Miami 2 is an odd one, it tries to make sense of a game that didn't really need any clarity, HM1 was fine as it was but nonetheless HM2 came to be to ruin some of the magic of the original. Being able to play with different characters kinda ruined the masks mechanic of the original but it made for more diversity in the story chapters. I liked it and think it's nowhere near as broken as some people claim, but I might still prefer the original.
Game 26: Muramasa Rebirth [PSV]
4.5*
Another one of my Wii favourites, it looks spectacular on the Vita
Game 27: Ratchet & Clank [PS4]
3.5*
My first Ratchet and Clank game, it looks absolutely gourgeous and is quite fun. The game structure is a bit basic but it's still a fine platformer, here hoping for a new one in the near future.
Game 28: Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 [PS4]
3*
Garden Warfare 2 has a great overworld to play around in, co-op is a neat addition. Could use a larger player base as it's kinda tricky to find players online at certain times.
Game 29: Gone Home [PS4]
2.5*
PS+ game, it was alright.
Game 30: Infamous First Light [PS4]
3*
Game 31 Stories: The Path of Destinies [PS4]
3.5*
Game 32 Table Top Racing World Tour [PS4]
2.5*
Game 33 Doom [PS4]
4*
Game 34 Furi [PS4]
4*
Game 35 Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell [PS4]
2.5*
Game 36 Kirby Planet Robobot [3DS]
4.5*
Game 37 Boxboxboy [3DS]
4*
Game 38 AVGN Adventures [3DS]
3*
Game 39 The Talos Principle Deluxe Edition [PS4]
4.5*
Game 40 Tembo The Badass Elephant [PS4]
3*
Game 41 Shovel Knight [PS4]
5*
Game 42 The Evil Within [PS4]
3*
Game 43 Dust: An Elysian Tale [PS4]
4*
Game 44 Wolfenstein: The Old Blood [PS4]
3.5*
Game 45 Assault Android Cactus [PS4]
4*
Game 46 Mad Max [PS4]
3*
Game 47 The Wolf Among Us [PS4]
3.5*
Game 48 Caladrius Blaze [PS4]
4*
Game 49 3D OutRun [3DS]
3.5*
Game 50 Metroid Prime: Federation Force [3DS]
2.5*
Game 51 Grand Kingdom [PS4]
4*
Game 52 Mighty No. 9 [PS4]
3.5*
Game 53 Actual Sunlight [PSV]
1.5*
Game 54 Ultratron [PSV]
2.5*
Game 55 The Deadly Tower of Monsters [PS4]
2*
Game 56 Rhythm Paradise Megamix [3DS]
3.5*
Game 57 Yo-Kai Watch [3DS]
3*
Game 58 Yomawari [PS Vita]
4*
Game 59 Frobisher Says [PS Vita]
2.5*
Game 60 Kung Fu Rabbit [PS Vita]
2*
Game 61 Ys: Memories of Celceta [PS Vita]
4*
Game 62 Mortal Kombat XL [PS4]
4*
Game 63 Playstation Vita Pets [PS Vita]
1*
Game 64 A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV [PS4]
3*
Game 65 Virginia [PS4]
2.5*
Game 66 VOLUME [PS4/PSV]
3*
Game 67 Croixleur Sigma [PS4/PSV]
3*
Game 68 Color Guardians [PS4/PSV]
2.5*
Game 69 Street Fighter x Tekken [PS Vita]
3.5*
Currently Playing: Xenoblade Chronicles X, Soul Sacrifice, Fire Emblem Fates Birthright, Murdered: Soul Suspect
Just have a question: I keep updating my games on the post that I claimed or in new posts?
And if its on the original one how do I do to find it when this topic gets huge?
Sorry, new user...
I was wondering the same thing. I assume the idea is we go back to our original posts and edit/add to the list as we finish games. But it does seem like it'd be a little difficult to find my original post on page 4 when this thread hits 50+ pages....
I will claim a post and try this one as well.
Let´s see how this goes.
1. Game
Ori and the blind Forest (8 hours)
Great game overall only real thing that started to annoy me as the game went on where the environments that instantly killed ori.
2. Game
Hatoful Boyfriend (5 hours)
Didn´t expect much out of it but got some laughs so i guess it was okay.
1. Gears of War 2 [In Progress]
- Score: X/10
- Playtime: 1 Hour
- Opinion: ...
Games I want to buy this year: [17]
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
- Quantum Break
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Gears of War 4
- Halo Wars 2
- The Last Guardian
- No Man's Sky
- The Witness
- Adrift
- Unravel
- Firewatch
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Final Fantasy XV
- Assassin's Creed Next
- Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Dishonored 2
- ReCore
Games I want to play before the sequel: [17]
Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Gears of War 3, Gears of War: Judgement, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin's Creed: Rouge, Assassin's Creed: Unity, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Halo CEA, Halo 2A, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 4, Halo Reach, Halo Wars, Dishonored
Games I want to replay before the sequel:[4]
Mirror's Edge, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted: Aming Thieves, Uncharted: Drake's Deception
Games I started and I want to finish:[8]
DriveClub, Life is Strange, Walking Dead Season 2, Broken Age, Valiant Hearts, Grand Theft Auto V, Catherine, Beyond: Two Souls
Games I want play from 2015:[3]
Mad Max, Star Wars: Battlefront, Just Cause 3
Just have a question: I keep updating my games on the post that I claimed or in new posts?
And if its on the original one how do I do to find it when this topic gets huge?
Sorry, new user...
Claimed - all games played live on http://twitch.tv/smaczne and aswell I want to made this really hard for me so I'm not counting mutiplayer games like Diablo 3 or H1Z1.
Completed: Game #1: Ryse: Son of Rome - 5 hours - 01/01/2016
Combat became a bit boring during the last 2 chapters but overall a decent game. Graphics were amazing though.
7/10
Game #2: Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 1 - 3 hours - 02/01/2016
8/10
Game #3: Victor Vran - 6 hours - 03/01/2016
Combat was fun but the story and the jokes were horrible.
6/10
Game #4: Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 2 - 3 hours - 05/01/2016
9/10
Game #5: Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 3 - 1,5 hours - 08/01/2016
8/10
Game #6: Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 4 - 3 hours - 08/01/2016
8/10
Game #7:Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5 - 3 hours - 09/01/2016
Best Telltale game I've played. Loved the story, jokes, characters and setting.
9/10
Game #8: Emily is away - 1 hour - 10/01/2016
I heard some good things about it and it was free so I tried it out but didn't really like it in the end.
6/10
Game #9: Contradiction - 6 hours - 10/01/2016
A really fun and different experience. Some more games like this would be awesome.
8/10
Game #10: Halo 4 - 10 hours - 17/01/2016
8/10
Game #11: The Witness - 8 hours - 27/01/2016
I was so hyped for this game and it delivered. I couldn't 100% it since I'm not smart enough but I did get to the end and it probably will end up on my GOTY 2016 list.
9/10
Game #12: Rise of the Tomb Raider - 13 hours - 12/02/2016
Better then the first game which I also really enjoyed. I didn't really run very well on my system (SLI GTX970) so I'll probably start it up again now that I have a GTX1070.
9/10
Game #13: Hotline Miami 2 - 7 hours - 12/02/2016
Fun. Weird. Awesome Music.
8/10
Game #14: Path of Exile - 50 hours
I leveled a few characters and played it around 50 hours this year but Diablo 3 is the better game for me.
7/10
Game #15: Dark Souls 3 - 40 hours - 08/05/2016
The Dark Souls serie (including Bloodborne) is my favorite serie so I was so hyped for this. I was only able to play this during the weekends when my girlfriend was here since she wanted to also see everything so it took a while to finish it. But everything was just so amazing. Gameplay, world, graphics, ... The only negative point I have is that most bosses were easy.
9/10
Game #16: Ratchet & Clank - 10 hours - 06/05/2016
This is how all remasters should be. The game is just gorgeous, guns were amazing, gameplay fantastic.
9/10
Game #17: Uncharted 1 - 8 hours - 16/05/2016
In the past Uncharted 1 is the only Uncharted game I ever completed so my goal for 2016 was to play and complete all 4. Once again I could only play them when my girlfriend was there since she also wanted to see everything. We played it together (I did the shooting parts and she did some of the platforming.). We enjoyed it but this game really didn't age very well.
7/10
Game #18: Uncharted 2 - 9 hours - 19/06/2016
Best Uncharted game. I can't really think of anything negative. My girlfriend and I both loved it.
9/10
Game #19: Cibele - 1 hour - 04/07/2016
7/10
Game #20: Firewatch - 3 hours - 09/07/2016
Fantastic game until the plottwist (Which was pretty obvious.) which made the ending just bad. Great game to play on my 21:9 monitor.
8/10
Game #21: The Room - 3 hours - 09/07/2016
7/10
Game #22: SquareCells - 2 hours - 09/07/2016
7/10
Game #23: Uncharted 3 - 8 hours - 23/07/2016
After playing Uncharted 2 we had big expectations for 3 but we ended up being disappointed. Overall it's an okay game but the ending felt rushed, not enough platforming and adventuring and way too much shooting.
7/10
Game #24: Batman The Telltale Series - Episode 1 - 2 hours - 05/08/2016
8/10
Game #25: Typing of the Dead: Overkill (co-op) - 6 hours - 06/08/2016
8/10
Game #26: Inside - 4 hours - 09/08/2016
9/10
Game #27: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Co-op) - 4 hours - 13/08/2016
Fantastic co-op game. I finished it with my girlfriend and we had a blast.
8,5/10
Bought this to try out my new 21:9 monitor and it ended up being one of the most beautiful games I ever played. I took around 70+ screenshots and it's one of the best games to show my monitor to other people.
9/10
Game #31: Uncharted 4 - 10 hours - 14/10/2016
Great game except the bad pacing and ending. The ending felt like fanservice to me.
8/10
Game #32: Monument Valley - 01/10/2016
7/10
Game #33: Shadow Warrior 2 - 7 hours - 21/10/2016
I had no idea what to expect with this game but I enjoyed for the short time I played it.
8/10
Game #34: The Witcher 3 - 50 hours - 22/10/2016
My 2015 GOTY even though I didn't finish it last year. After finishing the main story I still think it's one of the best games ever and I can't wait to complete all the side quests, contracts, ... and start the DLC's next year.
10/10
Game #35: Batman The Telltale Series - Episode 2 - 1,5 hours - 25/10/2016
8/10
Game #36: Batman The Telltale Series - Episode 3 - 1,5 hours - 25/10/2016
7/10
Game #37:Halo 5 - 6 hours - 25/11/2016
I had to finish this since I was going to trade in my Xbox One for a PS4 Pro so rushed through it on easy mode. Gameplay wise it's so good but the story was bad. I'm happy that I played all Halo games now and will probably buy the next one.
8/10
Game #38: Refunct - 1 hour - 25/11/2016
7/10
Game #39: Batman The Telltale Series - Episode 4 - 1,5 hours - 22/11/2016
I played this with my girlfriend. She did all the social stuff and investigating and I did the trials. One of my favorite games I played this year and my girlfriend also liked it a lot. Monokuma was fantastic and so was the story. I already bought Danganronpa 2 for next year.
9/10
Game #41: Portal - 2 hours - 10/12/2016
Replayed this again when I was bored. Still one of my favorite games ever.
10/10
Game #42: Message Quest - 1 hour - 27/12/2016
7/10
Game #43: Darks Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel - 3 hours - 19/12/2016
A little bit short but the last boss was amazing.
9/10
Game #44: Lost Constellation - 1,5 hours - 19/12/2016
7/10
Game #45: Batman The Tellstale Series - Episode 5 - 1,5 hours - 19/12/2016
I liked that they created a new villain but once again the illusion of choice kind and the technical problems (Like the controller issues on PC that didn't get fixed until the last episode.) of annoyed me. Overall a decent Batman story.
7,5/10
Game #46: Monster Loves You! - 1 hour - 21/12/2016
7/10
Game #47: Kickbeat Steam Edition - 2 hours - 27/12/2016
Great rhythm game. Music was amazing and not something I listen to usually and the story was okay.. I'll probably keep playing this from time to time.
7,5/10
Game #48: Super Mario Run - 10 hours - 27/12/2016
8/10
Game #49: WoW: Legion
Best expansion since Wotlk but since I don't have time to raid I got bored last month and decided to cancel my sub until I get that itch again.
9/10
Game #50: Hearthstone
I started playing this last year after my girlfriend got me hooked. Got the cardback every month.
10/10
Game #51: Guild Wars 2
Leveled a character to level 80 but then got distracted by WoW: Legion. I'm going to start playing again next year since I also bought the expansion but I haven't had the time to play it yet. I did get a bit bored after a while although that I also because I haven't found a guild yet.
7,5/10
Game #52: Diablo 3
Played all seasons except the last one and always reached the goals I set for the season.
8/10
I managed 59 last year. It really helped me push forward with playing games instead of wasting time on the Internet. So sign me up for 2016. I have 73 games on my steam backlog to get through.
Let's get started with what I'm currently playing:
Just taking this post
Tried it last year, got up to almost games proud of myself for that. School gets in the way so im only able to play during the winter and during the summer. Doesn't stop me from finishing my backlog!
Games need to finish:
1. Metal gear solid V
2. Halo 5
3. Tales of the borderlands
4. Telltale game of thrones
5. Life is strange
6. Rise of the tomb raider.
7. Fallout 4
oker Night at the Inventory (PC) - 3 Hours
