Game 1: Yakuza 5 - 101h - COMPLETED
Wow, this game was worth the wait. It's also ridiculously content packed. There are well over a dozen mini games, everything ranging from racing chickens, working as a ramen chef, to more standard stuff like bowling and darts. You also have find arcades of Virtua Fighter 2 and Taiko Drum Master. The main game consists of you playing with five characters in five different cities around Japan. Each character has their own fighting style, except for Haruka who does dance battles instead of fights. Another difference with her is that you go up to people on the side of the street to initiate the battles instead of them initiating battles with you like with the other four characters. Aside from the main storyline each character also has something called an Another Drama (with the exception of Akiyama) which is a separate optional storyline that fleshes out the playable character as well as the others around them. Kiryu works as a taxi driver, Saejima is a hunter, Haruka works to improve herself as an idol, and Shinada is a baseball player. Kiryu, Saejima, Shinada, and Akiyama are basically what you'd expect if you've played the series. Haruka is the unique one. She's working to be an idol so the things she does is built around that. You'll attend handshake events, talk shows, game shows, and do general practice routines to help increase her abilities. It's really one of the best games i've ever played.
Game 2: Just Cause 3 - 20h - COMPLETED
This is pretty much what you'd expect if you've played the previous games. Mainly lots of destruction. The biggest additions are the wingsuit and gear mods. The wingsuit is pretty self explanatory. It'll allow you to glide around instead of having to constantly use your grappling hook to get around or vehicles. The gear mods allow you to upgrade the power of your weapons and grappling hook. Those are earned by completing various challenges that you unlock after liberating a settlement. The biggest gripe that I have with the game is that it felt like nearly half of the missions were either escort missions or missions where you had to defend an area. Aside from that it's sorta like one of those stress reliever games. Instead of doing any specific mission you can just go off and start blowing up stuff which is really what the series is all about.
Game 3: Tales of Zestiria - 70:31:10 - COMPLETED
This was intended to be a direct answer to many of the criticisms leveled against the Xillia titles. Primarily that they were way too linear. The development teams response to that was to make the fields significantly larger than Xillia. Some have complained that they're too large, but I never really had that feeling. Relatively early on in the game you'll gain an ability that causes you to gain faster movement. And this can be continually increased as you battle each time you battle or hear townspeople talking. It is on a timer so it can run out, but you can reset the timer by fighting again. There's also fast travel, and you can get a permanent speed upgrade through an unlock. So you can always move pretty fast. The combat is pretty much what you've come to expect from the series. Enemies are visible on the world map, and once in battle in plays like an ARPG. The one major difference is that you can fuse with another character to gain power and different attacks. The fusion character are based on earth, wind, fire, and water. So it's important to choose the right one to fuse with to take advantage of an enemies weakness. As far as the main game goes, a big part of it is unlocking characters that are called the Lord of the Land. These are characters who will bless a region and offer you upgrades, cheaper fast travel and so on. The upgrades offer things like the permanent speed boost that I mentioned earlier, regenerating chests, and a higher chance of getting better drops. You need to upgrade them by either fighting in the region that they blessed, or having them grade items and weapons. I ended up enjoying the game more than the Xillia series.
Game 4: Tales of Zestiria: Alisha's Story - 9:03:50 COMPLETED
This is a DLC chapter that basically acts as a epilogue to Zestiria. Rather than controlling Sorey you play as Alisha. Most of the systems built into the main game aren't available in this story as you only have a few towns and fields that you can visit. The gameplay is largely the same and the main goal of the DLC is to flesh out Alisha's character a bit more.
Game 5: Life is Strange: Episode 1: Catalysis - 3:00 COMPLETED
I won't discuss the story as that's the meat of titles like this and it's sorta impossible talk about it without spoiling it. So i'll just focus on mechanics. You've got dialog trees that you select from that'll end up changing the course of some outcomes. Each episode has some major choices that everyone will encounter and some optional ones that you need to look around for. The main mechanic of the game is the ability to reverse time. The main character (Max) can go back in time to alter events. Something minor that she can do is after being asked a question and hearing an answer she doesn't know, she can go back in time with knowledge of that answer to get it right. A unique aspect to her ability to reverse time is that she stays in the position that she was in when she started reversing time. This is critical to many of the puzzles in the game. The episode overall is a solid start.
Game 6: Life is Strange: Episode 2: Out of Time - 3:30 COMPLETED
More of the same in terms of gameplay. But one of the high points of the game as far as story and characters go.
Game 7: Life is Strange: Episode 3: Chaos Theory - 3:00 COMPLETED
For the most part it's the same again. But also continues where the second episode left off in terms of quality.
Game 8: Life is Strange: Episode 4: Dark Room - 4:00 COMPLETED
Same as before, and another great episode.
Game 9: Life is Strange: Episode 5: Polarized - 3:00 COMPLETED
The final episode. This doesn't introduce a new mechanic to a game, but it's the one that uses it most extensively. And that's
stealth. I've seen some that were greatly annoyed by it as it's a somewhat lengthy section (maybe around 5-10m depending on how often you mess up), but it really didn't bother me. It's extremely basic stealth as you're just trying to stay out of flashlight or searchlight cones. And there's no way to get a game over, so if you mess up you can just rewind and keep going. That should make it so frustration doesn't creep in.
Overall I thought the ending was pretty good and it tied up everything nicely.
10: Resident Evil 0 - 11:30 - COMPLETED
This is the last traditional pre-rendered background RE as well as the most controversial entry. Before getting to the controversial part, the first unique thing about the game is that you're playing through the game with two characters simultaneously (Rebecca and Billy). You can switch between them at any time. The controls now come with two options, the first is the tank controls and the second is 3D movement that was introduced in REmake HD. 3D movement means that you no longer press a button to run since its' analog based, and you'll run in the direction that you point just like a 3D game. Of course since this game has fixed angles, when it changes that means you'll sometimes have to adjust to the new angle. But it isn't anything that should take you too long to get the hang of. Now the controversial part is that the item box is completely removed. This means that you only have six slots per character available. And big weapons like the shotgun or grenade launcher takes up two slots. Instead of the traditional item box you instead can just put your items down anywhere and they'll stay in that spot. Although it's definitely worth noting that each room can only hold a certain number of items, so you can't just leave everything in one spot. But this means that the game can suffer heavily from backtracking. Especially if you forget certain items at an early portion of the game. Your best bet is to often put everything you want into save areas so you know exactly where to come back to. So that one feature is what's made the entry so divisive. The core of it is classic Resident Evil. There aren't many required fights, and it's mostly just exploration and puzzle solving. But the backtracking and simply trying to figure out what items you should bring along can be unnecessarily annoying. I can see what they were going for with this, but it just doesn't work. With that said, I still enjoyed it for those moments when you weren't worried about item management because in those you've got that classic RE feel.
11: Street Fighter V - 10:00 - COMPLETED
The story mode works a bit different from past SF games. Rather than getting some artwork at the beginning and end of the mode you instead get one after each fight. Another difference is that you generally only have three or so fights per character and the fights only last one round. So clearing the mode with a character will only take 5-10m at most. That's obviously disappointing to many, but the story mode is a lot more interesting per character because there is more to it as far as story goes. There's a reason your selected character is fighting another character rather than just running through the roster like in the rest of the series. So I feel that makes up for the lack of overall fights. Ono has stated that these stories are a prologue for the cinematic story that's going to release in June. You can tell as in many cases the story will end on a cliffhanger. That mode will use ingame visuals for the cutscenes rather than the current method which uses artwork. I enjoyed the current story mode quite a bit even though it was short. It's definitely a step in the right direction for the series as far as story goes.
12: The Division - 34:15 - COMPLETED
This is a loot based third person shooter. It has two main gameplay sections. The first is the campaign and the second is the Dark Zone. The campaign is self explanatory. It's an area that's entirely PvE. While the Dark Zone takes everything from the campaign but allows PvP. In the Dark Zone you have to extract any supplies that you have since they're contaminated. And that's where the real PvP mechanic comes in. When extracting loot you have to call in a helicopter, so other players know someone is trying to extract what they have. You never actually know when a player may be helping you or just waiting for a good time to kill you so that they can take your loot. Once someone does attack another player, the attacking player becomes a rogue agent and they're tagged to let everyone else know that they turned on another player. So you've got to be on your toes at all times when extracting loot. Getting back to the campaign, you're in an open world setting and can go wherever you want, although obviously in higher level areas you're not going to last long if you encounter enemies. While it's open world the map is broken up into chunks. Each area has a safe house where you'll find all of your missions and side missions for that area. The side missions typically involve your defending supplies, uploading virus info, finding missing people and so on. There are variations of these in each area. The main missions are where you'll find most of the variety like set pieces. One very cool thing that they do with loot is that you can find cosmetic items throughout the world that'll replace the look of your equipment while still retaining whatever stats they have. It's a very solid game.
13: Senran Kagura: Estival Versus - 40:00 - COMPLETED
This is a Dynasty Warriors-esque brawler. There are two main story modes, Shinobi Girls' Code and Shinobi Girls' Heart. Code is the main story mode. It plays out with preset characters per story mission, although once you beat a mission you can replay it with any character in the game. Levels tend to be relatively linear, they're often times an arena like setup or one that has a few paths. Whenever enemies come out it locks you into a specific section similarly to how a character action game will. Heart is the second mode and has you playing through storylines for each girl in the game. There are five stages per girl and they're setup as 1vs1, 1vs2, 1vs1, 1vs3, and 1vs1 in terms of how many bosses you'll fight at the end of each stage. The levels play it just like they do in the main story mode, although there are some levels that are exclusive to Hearts. Each girl has their own unique moveset and special moves. As you level up you'll unlock additional moves. They also have two additional modes that you can transform into. The shinobi mode which unlocks additional moves and combos, and the frantic mode which does the same and allows you to combo forever, but also makes you take a lot more damage. So it's a risk. I'd rank this as my favorite DQ-esque game.
14: Nights of Azure - 40:00 - COMPLETED
NoA is an ARPG. The game sorta plays out like DMC where you'll enter an area and it'll be closed off until you kill all of the enemies there and then you proceed to the next area. So you shouldn't expect a lot of exploration as the areas are relatively linear. There's also a Pokemon element to the combat in which you can summon up to four Servan's to fight along side you. They'll fight on their own or you can cast their major spell manually. From a mechanics standpoint the game will probably remind you of a Warriors game. You're going to be hacking through waves of enemies who are generally fairly up until boss fights. The boss fights can range from pretty easy to relatively frustrating as you have some near one hit kill bosses even if you're at max level (which is 11 for the main character). You'll also unlock weapons along the way that you can combo into. You have a hub, which is a hotel, and from there you can exit into the world map where you'll select whichever location you want to go. All of the levels link together so you'll need to find the entrance to the next level to unlock it. When you're out completing quests or missions you're on a time limit. This time limit can be increased as you unlock new abilities. That may sound like something that should be concerning, but you really shouldn't run into issues with it as the levels are never all that big. As you advance the story you'll also unlock additional areas in the hotel that you can go to. One of which is an arena in which you need to complete goals to finish the mission. These range from simply clearing all enemies within a time limit, surviving for a set time, to only using your Servan's to win in battle. There's also an EX dungeon that's extremely difficult. I really enjoyed the game.
15: Star Fox Zero - 5:28 - COMPLETED
The newest Star Fox entry. This time there are four vehicles that you'll control. The Arwing, Landmaster, Walker, and Gyrowing. The Arwing is exactly what you'd expect from the series, the Landmaster has the ability to fly for limited periods of time, the Walker is a little robot that you use to get into tight spots, and the Gyrowing is a hover vehicle with a robot that can hack systems. The Walker and Gyrowing are rarely used in the game, which is a good thing as neither are particularly enjoyable to play with. The Arwing and Landmaster remain the highlights. Mechanically the game still has the on rails missions, but very few levels use it. You're primarily going to be in what's called the All-Range mode where you're able to fly in any direction at any time. The other new thing is that your aiming is controlled entirely with the GamePad's gyro. And this is where a major problem comes in. I at least had to constantly recalibrate the controls (you do this by pressing Y) as the reticle would end up being a mess after a few minutes of playing. This is especially annoying during boss battles. Speaking of boss battles, they're sadly a weak point as well. None of them are particularly challenging and they're all forgettable. And this is all a shame because the core Star Fox experience is still there. It's just let down by a control scheme that you have to use.
16: Ratchet and Clank - 20:00 - COMPLETED
This is a reimagining of the original R&C game. Mechanically it's the same R&C that you remember. Some platform elements but largely based around shooting. Throughout the game you can find some weapons, while most will have to be purchased with bolts. After purchasing them you can then begin to upgrade it to gain extra functions. On your first playthrough you can only reach level 5 with your weapons, but on the Challenge mode playthrough which unlocks after completing the game you can reach 10. You can also find cards and by completing a set you'll gain the ability to purchase upgraded versions of your guns on a Challenge mode playthrough as well as increase the number of bolts that you find. You'll also gain new equipment as you playthrough, like jetpacks, and grind boots. There aren't too many boss fights, but what's there is enjoyable. It's a really fantastic game.
17: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - 13:40:18 - COMPLETED
U4 is the same Uncharted that you know and love, but with a few key changes. The first is the rope mechanic which allows for much more maneuverability in the environment. You can use it to escape from encounters or even to slingshot your way on top of an enemy. The next is that the stealth mechanics actually work. Rather than stealth being for specific sections like in past games, it now can be used in any enemy encounter. And even when you alert enemies, you can still break line of fight and get back into hiding. And the last big change is that the encounter rate has dropped dramatically. In past Uncharted games it felt like you were constantly getting into fights. Now you'll go chunks of time simply exploring and traversing the environments without any worry of a gun fight. It makes the gun fights much more notable because they all seem to take place in areas where there's a lot of flexibility in terms of how you can approach the encounter. I feel this is by far the best Uncharted game as well as the best game ND has developed.
18: DOOM - 11:00 - COMPLETED
This game is such a breath of fresh air to the FPS genre. No set pieces, very light story, no health regeneration, no weapon limit, and very fast gameplay. The level designs are also large and it doesn't try to funnel you down a specific path. There are lots of secret areas to find along the way. One new addition is glory kills. This had people worried when they first saw it as they felt it was going to slow the gameplay down. But once you're in the heat of the action you see just how fast those kills happen. The purpose of the glory kills is that they give you extra health, but you can also find health packs and armor around the levels. Your chainsaw will cause enemies to drop additional ammo, but that to can be found around the arena. But you need to find gas for it, so it's not something that you can always use. Along the way you'll find enhancements for your weapons, like the ability for your shotgun to shoot burst shots or the rocket launcher to have a lockon feature. You can also upgrade those as well as upgrading your suit so that the controller will vibrate and your scanner will indicate when you're near secret areas. The only real disappointment is the boss fights, which there are only a few of but none of them are particularly memorable. Overall it's definitely my favorite FPS in years.
19: Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - 15:00 - COMPLETED
This is a reboot of the original ME, which was one of my favorite games from last-gen. It moves away from the level based structure of that game and into an open-world. With that comes the usual stuff you'd expect from open-world games like lots of items to collect and side missions. There are also missions called Gridnode's, which sorta act as this games UBI towers where it'll unlock an area of the map as well as fast travel to that part of the map. But they're also what I view as the highlight of the game. They take you out of the open-world and into a linear map like the original where you're scaling structures to hack computers. These are really the best designed areas in the game and really show off ME's gameplay the best. Since it's an open-world game it also means there's an upgrade tree. The good news is that you earn points for upgrades really fast so you won't really struggle to unlock what you need. Aside from not really agreeing with the idea of moving the series into an open-world, i'd say that the combat is my second least favorite thing about the game. Faith can no longer use a gun (although enemies can) so everything is done with hand to hand combat now. And that combat just feels sloppy. But there really aren't many sections in the game where you need to use combat. You can generally just run away from enemies. I feel that the Gridnode levels are really the height of the ME series in terms of gameplay, the problem is that there are only a few of those and you're mostly left running around a rather uninteresting open-world.
20: Street Fighter V: A Shadow Falls - 2:30 - COMPLETED
A Shadow Falls in the big cinematic story update for SFV. Unlike the character story modes that were shipped at launch, this mode features in-game character models in the cutscenes rather than artwork. The gameplay still plays out similarly to the character story mode in the sense that you have single round fights, but those all come with cutscenes afterwards. You also get a chance to play as two of the upcoming DLC characters (Juri anD Urien). It's short but pretty enjoyable if you like SF characters.
21: Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithfulness - 39:08:50 - COMPLETED
The battle system is real-time and you can have up to seven members fighting at once. All the of the main characters except for one (Relia) are controllable when you're in a battle, although once you're back in the field it switches to Fidel. All enemies are visible on the map so the game transitions straight into battle and out without any black screens. The battles can be a bit chaotic due to all the characters on screen at once, but that rarely seems to happen. With the exception of a few areas the entire world is connected, so you can run from one place to another, although there is loading when entering a new zone. For a while that's exactly what you'll have to do until you finally unlock the fast travel. There are also your standard side quests that you'd expect in RPG's. I enjoyed the game and hopefully it sets up for a new line of SO games.
I failed last year miserably, but I'm trying again this year.
Games with a star ( * ) are games that I started playing through before 2016, but forever reasons only finished in this year. I will not be reviewing every title on the list.
Week 1 (January 4th - January 10th) #1 - One Finger Death Punch (8h, pc)
#2 - The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD* (9h / 33h, Wii U)
#3 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (5h, ps1)
On one hand, it's an okay game for sure. If you like Dr. Mario, you should like this well enough. Unfortunately, the concept it adds to the game is not very good. It makes the game way too easy, because very often you can clear any virus in one "L" pill. And while you can do the classic mode, it ultimately results in an experience that's just rehashing the same game we've seen several times thus far. I played it up until about levels 21 or 22.
Do I count Dr. Luigi as having been beaten? I beat the main mode, high speed, through all 20 levels and got the Congratulations. I also tried the other parts of the game thoroughly. Ultimately I disliked it, and I won't ever go back to it. Is it fair to count that since it has a "goal" in the form of the 20th level + the fact that I have definitely experienced all that I want to experience in it?
Grabbing a spot at the table! I think I only completed around 11 games (even though a few were large RPGs) in 2015. That's a sad trend that needs to be broken.
Game 1 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
I was 360 only last generation and missed all the great Sony exclusives. I had been dying to get my hands on this for quite a while. For a game that came out almost 9 years ago, it certainly did not disappoint. The updated graphics on the PS4 looked great. I kept reading about how the auto-aim was fairly horrendous, but it didn't impact my enjoyment of the game. And with that, I'm on to game two...
Game 2 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Fantastic Game! The amazing thing about these games is how linear they are which is usually a huge turnoff for me, but ND actually pulls it off! The visuals are lush, the characters are fun, the story is entertaining, dialog humorous, and the gameplay a blast. Can't wait to start the third....
Game 3 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
This game was a blast! I know everyone is of the opinion that Among Thieves is the high mark for the series, but I think this game gives it a run for its money. l liked the depth they added to the series by fleshing out the characters' backstory. After shotgunning the Uncharted games for the past 3 weeks, I'm now going through Uncharted withdrawal. Can't wait for part 4 in April!
Alrighty I've been waiting for this! Last time I committed I didn't make it past February so hopefully I can see it through this time.
Game 1: Knight of the Old Republic 2: restored content mod
Game 2: The Swapper
long-term commitment game: Picked up Fallout 4 in the sales so that'll take some playing, I'll be sure to scatter shorter games throughout my play through.
Game #3: Emily is Away (PC, Kyle Seeley, 2015) - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Was a really good story-based game, and free to boot. Probably doesn't have a lot of replay value, but the one time I played it it was entertaining. I ultimately
took the approach of being an item w/ Emma and friends with Emily, as I'd already seen someone go the other route.
Had a pretty somber ending. Also really liked the different avatar Easter eggs, especially
Flowey's
. An intriguing and memorable game, I'd definitely recommend it to literally anyone who owns Steam, especially if you grew up with AIM. Got all of the achievements I think?
Can I change the rules a bit for myself? I'm about to play Life is Strange, but if all episodes are +5, that'd put me 5 ahead immediately. I'd rather see it as a +1 if that's okay.
Can I change the rules a bit for myself? I'm about to play Life is Strange, but if all episodes are +5, that'd put me 5 ahead immediately. I'd rather see it as a +1 if that's okay.
Can I change the rules a bit for myself? I'm about to play Life is Strange, but if all episodes are +5, that'd put me 5 ahead immediately. I'd rather see it as a +1 if that's okay.
I'm going to go ahead and reserve this to see what happens. Last year I completed around 30 games but I spent so much time playing Destiny, it was kind of a black hole for my time. This year I'm hoping the time I save from stopping that will mean I get to experience more games.
1) Her Story - 3 hours - 1/02
I kept hearing so many positive things about this game recently so I grabbed it on the Steam sale. Played it through in one session and thought it was brilliant, such a great concept and story.
2) Batman Arkham Knight - 25 hours - 1/03
I beat this last year but decided to replay it on PS4 and do all the season pass stuff as well. Completed the story and did all the side content except Riddler trophies since I've already done those last time.
3) Batman Arkham Knight Season Pass - 6 hours - 1/06
It wasn't terrible but it certainly wouldn't have been worth $40. Season of Infamy's story was pretty good even though some of the missions were bland. Also the
boss fight at the end of the Catwoman Arkham Episode was a pain in the ass. I didn't have the reduce combo required for takedown upgrade so I had to fight 10 of the robots in the 4x4 area in the very middle that wasn't electrified.
4) Wolfenstein the New Order - 16 hours - 1/13
I had heard a lot of positive things about this game and decided to buy it during the PSN sale. Turned out to be a fantastic game with a great story and some really fleshed out characters.
So sad about how things turned out because I was really hoping Blaskowitz and Ana could come out together but it didn't happen.
5) Infamous Second Son - 10 hours - 1/23
This one has been on my to-play list forever and I absolutely loved it. The story was really quick but I might go back and clean up some of the side missions and enemy stations before I put it down for good. Loved how beautiful it was and their version of Seattle was so much fun to run around. I bought First Light last week so I'm looking forward to playing through that as well.
6) Infamous First Light - 4 hours - 1/24
Absolutely loved getting to play through the story of Fetch before Second Son takes place. The missions were fun and her neon powers felt just different enough from Delsin's to not seem like a copy.
7) Call of Duty Black Ops III - 10 hours - 1/31
I've spent a lot of time on multiplayer since launch and that is great but the story in BO3 is not good. It's confusing, has meh characters, and the actual campaign gameplay is less fun than previous games. Coming off the very good AW campaign, I was very disappointed with this.
8) Grand Theft Auto V - 23 hours - 1/31
I beat this back in 2013 but decided to replay it recently. Had an absolute blast and it was amazing how much I remembered from my playthrough several years ago.
9) The Order 1886 - 7 hours - 2/4
I bought this on sale for $10 during the holidays and I wasn't expecting much going in. It is every bit as beautiful as people say, and I was actually interested in the story even though it's a slow build (ironic given how short the game is). In terms of actual gameplay, there's not much there but I just treated it like an interactive movie so that was fine for me. My only real problem came with the ending,
it left so much unresolved and especially just leaving the relationship between Galahad and Isi hanging.
10) The Wolf Among Us - 10 hours - 2/8
I played this for the first time about a year ago but wanted to replay it since I've been reading the comics lately. This remains my favorite Telltale series because of the excellent characters, perfect atmosphere, and gripping story.
Faith was totally glamoured as Nerissa the entire game.
11) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 9 hours - 2/12
Haven't played this since it came out on PS3 but it was just as good as I remember. Fantastic story and gameplay and it's just so satisfying to run around and explore.
12) Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - 9 hours - 2/13
Really fun but some of the combat sections towards the end of the game felt a little bit too trial and error for my taste. I remember being frustrated in some parts when I played this on my PS3 the first time and the same thing happened this time. Still a great game with some amazing set pieces though.
13) The Last of Us Remastered - 12 hours - 2/15
Wow. First time playing this and it was spectacular.
Winter was my favorite section of the game and seeing Ellie survive on her own without Joel was great. I kept waiting for some cheap ending in Spring but it didn't happen.
Such an amazing ride.
14) Mirror's Edge - 3 hours - 2/21
Wanted to replay this before Catalyst comes out this May; still one of my favorite games of all time. Sometimes the action comes to a screeching halt when you have to do some slow climbing or grab a gun but when you're in the flow moving quick and darting all over the place, it's a dream.
15) Remember Me - 8 hours - 2/25
I remember being interested in this game when it came out a few years ago but I never got around to playing it. After seeing it mentioned in some threads here, I decided to finally jump in and man did I love it. People complain about the mediocre combat but I enjoyed being able to create purely attacking, healing, and super attack generating combos that I would use depending on the situation. Also some of the later fights make you think about the right strategy based on certain enemies and you have to be patient sometimes which took me a while to realize. There are some issues with this game, but I had a blast playing through it and the story was surprisingly well done.
Also the ways you get to manipulate people with Nillin's remix power is really cool.
16) Rocket League - 40 hours - 2/27
I'll still be playing this for the forseeable future but I've gotten all the achievements and am at the pro rank after putting about 40 hours into it the past week and a half so I'm going to count it as completed. Such a fun game to play with some friends and the snow day playlist is my favorite.
17) Black Ops III Multiplayer - 60 hours - 2/27
Not sure if most of you would count a multiplayer aspect of a game separately but to me it's a completely different experience. I've put around 90 hours into the multiplayer and prestiged multiple times so I'm comfortable calling it 'beaten'.
18) Driveclub Season Pass - 30 hours - 3/12
Finally finished all the championships in the season pass after working on them on and off for a few months. I'm counting this since it's got more content than the base game itself. I'll take a break from Driveclub now but I'll hop back on whenever the Bikes DLC goes on sale.
19) Assassin's Creed Syndicate - 28 hours - 3/16
I had a lot of fun with this game and ended up devoting more time to it than any other in the series since Assassin's Creed II. I actually enjoyed most of the side stuff and tried to upgrade the twins as I was playing instead of just rushing through the main story like I sometimes do in Ubisoft games. I loved being able to swap characters and I found myself gravitating towards Evie in most situations. Granted, some of the missions felt a bit clunky and
the modern day stuff didn't really go anywhere
, it was still great and most of the main and supporting characters were very well developed. I certainly hope we haven't seen the last of Evie and Jacob.
20) The Crew - 16 hours - 3/29
Phew, this game sure was something. The story wasn't great, the currency system makes buying lots of cars a bad idea for most of the game, and worst of all the driving itself feels floaty and unsatisfying. That said, The Crew isn't without its redeeming qualities. It has one of the coolest maps I've spent time in, not because of how it looks (most of the time like a 360 game), but how large and full it is. It's a scaled down version of the US but they do an excellent job of making each area feel unique and recognizable. I slogged through it but at the end of the day it just makes me want to revisit Forza Horizon 2 instead of playing the Wild Run DLC.
21) NBA 2K16: A Spike Lee Joint - 6 hours - 4/3
Just finished the story mode in 2K16 and man was it bananas. This year, instead of presenting the player with a bunch of choices that come with the stresses of fame and fortune, they handed the reigns over to Spike Lee and you watch the story unfold as you play through the games of your high school, college, and rookie year in the NBA. There are some really off the wall twists thrown at you that was hard to take seriously but it's actually kind of sad at the end.
22) Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious - 3 hours - 4/8
I was craving some Horizon 2 action so I decided to replay the Fast and Furious promotional game from last year.
23) Pneuma Breath of Life - 2 hours - 4/9
A decent puzzle game that I've had since it was free with gold a while back.
24) Deus Ex - Human Revolution - 26 hours - 4/23
I really wanted to like this game but the controls were so clunky and the voice acting and dialogue was so rigid that I didn't really enjoy it. I liked the variety of approaches that you could take but at the end of the day the gunplay was so bad I just rushed to get through the last half of the game.
25) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - 15 hours - 5/14
I was about 50 hours into Witcher 3 but when this game came out I put that on hold immediately. I love the Uncharted games but this exceeded my wildest expectations. It is the best game I've ever played hands down. It's stunningly gorgeous, wildly impressive, and is the perfect end to Nathan Drake's story. I felt like I played through it so slow because I wanted to savor the world they had built and explore all the levels. I abused the photo mode and probably snapped around 50 screenshots before the credits rolled. I absolutely can't wait to replay this and go for the platinum.
26) Rise of the Tomb Raider - 13 hours - 5/21
Coming right off of Uncharted 4 I was a little bit worried I wouldn't enjoy this game as much as I could. I really liked the first of Crystal Dynamic's reboot and although this one started a bit slow for me, I ended up having a blast and the last third of the game was a ton of fun. I did a lot of exploring as I went through and completed all of the tombs so by the halfway point I was pretty overpowered for the human enemies, but
by the time the undead enemies showed up, things leveled out.
Overall this was a great second entry in the new storyline.
27) Octodad: Dadliest Catch - 2 hours - 5/28
This was a wacky and funny short game. It takes a little bit to get used to the movement but it was a fun little romp.
28) Killzone Mercenary - 5 hours - 5/30
I picked this up during the last PSN flash sale after hearing a lot of good things about it and I've got to say I had a ton of fun. I played it while I was flying this weekend and although it's not very long, the combat and story were both good. This is my first Killzone game so I'm actually looking forward to playing Shadowfall which I also picked up on sale.
29) Goat Simulator - 4 hours - 6/4
A fun little game that actually reminded me a lot of the old Tony Hawk games because there's a few relatively small levels but they are jam packed with easter eggs and all sorts of weird challenges and objectives. I got all the achievements but I have to say the 'flappy goat' one was painful.
30) Mirror's Edge Catalyst - 11 hours - 6/10
I've been looking forward to this game for years and it didn't let me down. The movement was even better than the first and they did a great job creating a beautiful world to run around in. The story wasn't very good and some of the main characters are pretty unlikable, but gameplay wish it is fantastic and the missions were a lot of fun. I did all the main story, all the side quests, and some of the ambient, open world stuff and I intend to go back and do more for sure.
31) Sunset Overdrive - 13 hours - 6/14
Wow, this has been in my backlog forever and I have no clue why I waited this long since it's exactly my type of game. It exceeded my wildest expectations and is probably the most fun I've ever had in a game. Everything about it is a blast and the traversal was incredibly rewarding as I got better at grinding, bouncing, gliding, and wall running across the city.
32) Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - 8 hours - 6/17
When I first got my 360 I tried out Gears of War but barely made it past the tutorial before I decided I wasn't interested and just wanted to play CoD4 instead. All these years later I decided I should probably experience them all through once so I ran through the Ultimate Edition and it was pretty decent. Not really my kind of shooter but the characters were decent and it had some cool moments. I've got 2, 3, and Judgement digitally so I'll go through those as well before 4 comes out.
33) Killzone Shadow Fall - 7 hours - 6/18
Coming right off the heals of Gears of War, I decided to try out Shadow Fall which I picked up for $5 during a flash sale recently. There were parts of this game that I really loved, like the minute to minute gameplay, and parts that really wore on me, like the huge spider robots that you could only kill by finding these energy cores and putting them in certain stations. The story and characters were whatever but it did have some really cool moments and some beautiful environments. One of the coolest things was at the end when
you got to play as Echo using her cloaking even though it was only for one small section.
I definitely enjoyed the Vita title Mercenary more, but I'm glad I played through this.
34) Just Cause 3 - 15 hours - 6/26
Just Cause 2 was one of my favorite games from last generation and although 3 added some really fun elements like challenges and the wingsuit, it was a disappointment to me. First of all the performance on Xbox was terrible, often dropping the framerate into single digits when I was fighting in a town. Also the world didn't feel as fun and varied as Panau in JC2. There were no large cities, international airports, or really fun areas like the race track or pie island. It just didn't feel as fun overall.
35) Dishonored Definitive Edition - 10 hours - 7/1
I really enjoyed the world and the story of this game but I basically rushed through the second half of the game because I was tired of my stealth playthrough. Definitely a really good game though and I'm excited about the second one still.
36) Grow Home - 2 hours - 7/1
This was a fun and very pretty game. It was relaxing climbing and growing my way to space.
37) Quantum Break - 12 hours - 7/17
I'm really surprised this game hasn't sold more or received more attention with how good it was. Great story and some fantastic characters that I got invested in. The show aspect was much better than I thought it would be since it fleshed out some of the secondary characters and what was happening behind the scenes.
Really sad about how things worked out with Beth, she was my favorite character in the game, especially after reading the book she gave herself as a young girl and then the diary she kept when she spent 11 years on her own waiting for Jack. I felt so bad when Jack decided he couldn't risk saving her back at the end but hopefully there will be a second since he promised to come back for her.
38) Life is Strange - 23 hours - 7/28
I started this game over a year ago but am just now finishing due to getting sidetracked after breaks in episodes. It was a fantastic experience that left my mouth wide open after some of the twists and turns. They did a great job with the characters and the setting that I'm sad to leave it behind.
39) Limbo - 4 hours - 7/30
I got this game on Steam probably 5 years ago but haven't beaten it until now once it was made free on the One right before Inside came out. It was a really nice puzzle game with a unique tone so I'm excited to eventually play Inside since I've heard even more rave reviews than this one.
40) Red Dead Redemption - 11 hours - 8/6
I decided to replay this when it was released on Xbox backwards compatibility a few weeks ago and it holds up very well. The most impressive aspect of the game is the sense of place and atmosphere created by the amazing world and it was still so much fun to go from the desert around Armadillo to the barren landscape of Mexico to the snowy foothills of tall trees.
41) Beyond Two Souls + Advanced Experiments DLC - 12 hours - 8/22
I've been waiting since this came out on PS3 to play it so when I finally picked it up in a digital sale a few months ago I was really excited. I've got to say, this might be the craziest game I've ever played in terms of the staggering array of experiences Jody goes through. Over the course of 12 hours,
Jody is homeless, helps a woman give birth, pees in a -40° blizzard, accidentally kills her own mom, pilots a sub into an underwater military base which she destroys, goes on covert CIA missions in the middle east, almost gets raped / beaten up numerous times, and of course interacts with her spirit companion.
I've got to say I mostly enjoyed the ride since I like these kinds of games and I'm eagerly awaiting Detroit now.
42) Pokemon GO - 80 hours - 8/22
I guess I'll go ahead and include Pokemon GO in my list of beaten games. I played this virtually nonstop for the first 3 weeks after its release to the point that I wasn't playing any other games because that was time I could've been using to catch Pokemon. It was a ton of fun, but the removal of any tracking feature and the takedown of PokéVision really killed my drive to play this. I was always more interested in filling out my Pokedex rather than battling and as a result, I have a Pokedex around 105 but little way of expanding it further without stumbling into something I need through blind luck. When tracking comes back, I'll probably play this again, but in the meantime I'll put my Poke-aspirations on hold.
43) Gone Home - 2 hours - 8/23
I didn't really know what to expect going into this short game, all I knew is that a lot of people liked it, some people didn't, and that it involved exploring a creepy house to find your family.
I kept waiting for some scary stuff to happen but it never did, and what I got instead was a surprisingly touching story about a younger sister trying to come to terms with her sexuality and some parents in denial. When I found one of the last audiologs where my sister was upset about her girlfriend leaving and said she was going to spend the night in the attic, I was scared that I was going to go up there and find her dead. I was relieved when I learned that she decided to run off and try to start a new life with Lonnie. I thought all the audiologs were brilliantly acted and I only wish there was more narrative, maybe fleshing out the parents better.
All in all I enjoyed my experience.
44) Forza 6 - 18 hours - 9/11
Went through all the motorsport volumes starting with basic sport cars and working my way up to Formula 1 cars. It was a lot of fun and I'll still be coming back to it, I just wanted to finish this off before I hop into Forza Horizon 3 in a few weeks.
45) Tron Run/r + Outlands DLC - 5 hours - 9/18
This is a basically a Tron themed runner that's got some satisfying gameplay, but sadly the game runs so poorly on Xbox One that it drags the entire experience down. Just to make it through the 50 or so levels, I had to hard reset the game at least a dozen times and restart levels even more because the framerate would suddenly dip for no reason to an unplayable level. This was especially frustrating when you're towards the end of a long level and die because of it, or use some of the currency for an item that gets wasted because it just freezes. Really frustrating experience all around.
46) Assassin's Creed Chronicles China - 6 hours - 9/23
I decided to give this game a shot since it was free on gold this month and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a pretty fun stealth game with some fun parkour although it started dragging towards the end.
47) Pokemon Y - 28 hours - 10/1
I bought this at release back in 2013 but since I don't play my 3DS much, I just now got around to finishing it. I really loved many of the advancements in this generation like the 3D world, roller skates, the xp share, and the mega evolutions. I had a blast and will probably get Alpha Sapphire next since I probably won't buy Sun and Moon in hopes it comes out on NX later.
48) Forza Horizon 3 - 23 hours - 10/8
This is an absolutely amazing game, spectacular in every way. Horizon 2 is one of my favorite games of this generation and this one is an improvement in every regard. Hurricane Matthew blew into town today so I stayed inside and put about 12 hours into this game but I never get tired of it because of all the variety. I beat the final showcase and the credits rolled, but I'll still be playing this game for a very long time because there's still so much to do.
49) Journey - 2 hours - 10/10
I have no clue why I waited so long to play this game, it was phenomenal. It's such a beautiful world and the music was incredible. I'm going to definitely revisit this at some point to get some of the other trophies and try to go through the whole game with the same partner because I ended up getting paired with quite a few.
50) Bastion - 6 hours - 10/11
I picked this up on a PSN sale at least a year ago and I'm so glad I made the time to play through it. The setting, music, combat, and narration were all fantastic, the only issue I had was that the story itself was a little nebulous and hard to follow. Still, I really enjoyed myself and now I can't wait to play Transistor.
51) Super Mario 3D World - 8 hours - 10/15
This is the first game I played when I got my hands on a Wii U and it was fantastic. I loved the world construction and some of the new powers like the cat suit. Also it's one of the most beautiful games I've played just because of all the great effects like the rain on the camera during certain stages.
52) Halo 2 Anniversary - 7 hours - 10/23
I was really looking forward to this when the Master Chief Collection came out, but I never played it because all the issues with the game turned me off on it. I just went back and played it for the first time since the original Xbox and it was fantastic, the new cutscenes were a real treat as well.
53) Halo 3 - 8 hours - 10/30
Been on a real Halo kick lately and 3 is probably my favorite since I've definitely played it the most through the years. Fantastic story and I love how everything comes full circle at the end.
54) Mass Effect - 9 hours - 11/12
I had played through most of this when it came out on the 360 but never finished it. When the trilogy was put on EA Access last week I decided to start a fresh playthrough to get ready for Andromeda. The gameplay was definitely clunky and nowhere near as fun as 2 or 3 but the story was soooooo good and I'm really glad I played through it. I managed to blast through it pretty quickly thanks to just doing the story missions and ignoring pretty much all the side content. I'll probably slow down and enjoy my playthroughs more with 2 and 3 since they've held up better.
I need something to motivate me this year so count me in.
Grimm - Started amusingly enough but after a few episodes it became a bit stale and i was playing it just because it's easy to play aside from some jumping puzzles. 23 Stories and i finished most of them, well got the badges or whatever for most of them.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald ~30 minutes - Very short, very amusing and the community threads are a joy to behold. I've been through twice and will do again when the achievements are "fixed".
I've also finished some short free games but can't quite remember which ones due to holiday drinks so i won't count them.
I had some vague sense of what the game was about, but didn't really know what to expect. After finishing, I feel that it's quite interesting how your focus shifts as you play (
going from legitimately wanting to solve a crime to just wanting to hear more about Hannah / Eve's life
)
I ended up just kinda jumping in at first and getting through using just basic intuition and word association, but afterwards, I decided to be a little more meticulous and ended up several sheets worth of notes to help me keep track of what I'd already done. Probably a bit beside the point, but I consider it a good sign that something so minimalistic is still so engrossing.
Ultimately, completion meant getting all the achievements for me (there were few enough, to be honest). Perhaps not surprisingly, the final achievement was getting all the clips, and the final clips I was missing were all part of
the lie detector test (I failed to realise how to properly search for those short answers despite reading all the documents)
.
I'm glad I got around to playing this one. I'll probably add a comment in my GOTY post.
Edit: I'm really considering gifting this to my sister for her birthday.
Game 1: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) - 30 hours
What do you get from a middling upport from the GOAT? Well, still a good game and the new graphics are pretty interesting to see alongside a few other changes. Too bad they couldn't just leave it be mostly a texture update like Ocarina of Time. As expected from modern Nintendo, way too many casualizations are too intrusive or nonsensical. Some bad changes are not as bad as expected, but still just produce needless clutter in the menus and make the controls worse. Majora's Mask is the greatest Zelda game, but this is basically the Star Wars Special Edition or Ninja Gaiden Sigma of it. Now there's no real ,,definitive" version of the game anymore, but it can still be enjoyed in partially improved ways.
Game 2: Her Story (PC) - 2 hours
I really like getting into titles in which you need to orientate all by yourself within an unknown game structure and don't really know where you're heading. So there's really not much you should say about this game, but to get it. But preferably with a discount, since it's really designed to be ,,beaten" in a single sitting and the effect of the game probably only works once.
When it comes to writing and the style of experimentation, this really feels like the director's other work Silent Hill Shattered Memories on a smaller scale. And since most likely more people at this point have played Her Story than the former, I really suggest people to dig out their Wiis and get a copy of Shattered Memories, if they found any kind of interest in Her Story.
Game 1: Super Mario Maker - 28 Hours
I've already played 100+ levels and built 3 of my own. I plan to spend a lot more time with this throughout the year.
Game 2: Her Story - 3 Hours
I had a notepad out writing things down the entire time, I loved it. I only wish that some of the videos a little less of a pain to find without help, some required a really specific search.
Game 3: The Beginner's Guide - 2 Hours
A great follow up to The Stanley Parable, it was emotionally brutal.
Game 4: Life is Strange - 15 Hours
The writing was a little rough to start but improved a lot after episode 1. A really solid ending and some great mechanics.
Game 5: Invisible Inc. - 4 Hours
A stealth tactics game, I don't know how I didn't get into this game sooner.
Game: 6 Until Dawn - 11 Hours
The game is great despite a few performance issues. The Quantic Dream style of game really suits a horror story, I'm curious to see if this inspires more games like this. Lost 6 out of the 8 on my first time through.
Game 7: Splatoon - 10 Hours
I'm not normally a big fan of multiplayer shooters but this game is fantastic.
Game 8: Halo 4 - 7 Hours
I had this sitting on my shelf unplayed for a while, finally played through it when I got an Xbox One. Solid campaign.
Game 9: Halo 5 - 7 Hours
I liked the campaign more than most but those last two boss fights got pretty tedious.
Game 10: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - 71 Hours
This game has been in my back log for so many years, I'm glad I finally got around to it. Great game all around, especially some of the later boss fights. Went back and played through a new game plus run to get the TDE.
Game 11: XCOM 2 - 31 Hours
A lot of great improvements from EU and EW but the technical issues really hurt it.
Game 12: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - 9 Hours
A great end to a great series.
Game 13: The Witness - 5 Hours
Finished 3 of the main puzzle areas. I might go back at some point.
Game 14: Hitman Go - 6 Hours
Surprisingly good.
Game 15: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker - 63 Hours
Great sequel to a game I really loved. Finished with the Yamato ending, and completed the Triangulum Arc with the Yamato ending as well.
Game 16: Hitman (2016) - 17 Hours
I was skeptical of the episodic model but it actually makes a lot of sense for this game.
In Progress:
Lego Dimensions - 6 Hours
I've finished the Doctor Who level in the main campaign, really enjoying the game so far. Moving the characters around on the platform can get a little tedious though, mostly the Wyldstyle puzzles.
Game 3: To the Moon [PC] 3:47:03 [Finished: January 4]
It was a nice little, sentimental story. I enjoyed the world and Inception-like premise they set up, and the main characters were suitably endearing. Sometimes the quips were a bit much, but the writing was generally good (thankfully, because the writing is the foundation of To the Moon). It had several predictable turns here and there, but I was okay with that since I don't think this was meant to necessarily be a story with surprises or twists in that way. The ending was a bit too saccharine for my tastes, but it is conceptually bittersweet enough for it to not have spoiled the experience for me. I'm glad I played through it, even though I don't think it struck a chord with me as much as it did for others.
Game 1: Until Dawn | 10 hours | Finished: January 4th
First game that I actually got my family interested in playing. It was really fun, I let them make all the choices. I was planning on replaying it myself since I thought they'd make dumb choices but we ended up with only one character dead at the end, which is good enough for me. Hope there's more games like this but preferably not in the horror genre..
-- Game 2: Gran Blue Fantasy | 4 hours | Finished: January 5th
Bleh, I can't believe people actually play this. The art's cool but that's about it. Rie Kugimiya's voice would be a plus if it wasn't on some weird animal..
5 Stars: Very remarkable game, left me thinking a lot and resonated with me as one of the best games I ever played. I try to give them out sparingly, may go back and re-rate if I feel it did later.
4 Stars: Great game, usually the score I give to just games I like. I had no real problems with it and I didn't love it.
3 Stars: Decent game, I enjoyed it but had a few large grips with somethings that I didn't like.
2 Stars: Bad game, I didn't enjoy it it has flaws or something I didn't like. I could see why people liked it, but I didn't
1 Star: I hated this game, it was unplayable or just not fun or interesting. I don't see how anyone could enjoy this.
1.Undertale - 8 Hours
Played through once and watched the other endings on Youtube. I enjoyed this game a bit, it was funny and had a emotional story. I didn't really get as into it as others did, I kind of saw where it was going from early on as well. Though, still one of the best games of 2015 I played.
2.Until Dawn; 20 Hours?
Spooky. Definitely did the whole teen horror film well, there were many times when I was thinking "why logically would you ever do that?" moments that I've seen in teen horror films. I loved the multiple endings, first time I played a few died, second time all survived. The story was pretty dumb when it came down to it, but I enjoyed the characters and the different endings. I also felt that the QTEs really worked well in this, where as many games it just becomes annoying.
3. Jazzpunk - 2 Hours
I didn't finish the game, but I thought it was unique and funny. Lot of exploring but the game got a little too unlinear and confusing I thought....points where I was running around wondering what I'm even suppose to do or go to.
4. The Beginner's Guide - 1.5 Hours
Finished it but didn't enjoy it much. The story was neat and the games Coda made were neat but I didn't really feel much for the story, like "oh ok, well that sucks" even though I'm usually all for deep stories.
5. Firewatch - 3 hours
I enjoyed this game, the story was interesting and unique. I like how it ended and I liked the themes of
mental health with Alzheimers, PTSD, and dealing with people we are victims of these. The story was building up to where, I guess I expected some like Scfi twist like most games, but nope. A nice, somewhat happy ending.
Spooky game at points, for a lot of the same reasons how Gone Home was spooky despite not being a horror game. This was a unique experience and a great short story to play through. I had problems with the controls at first on Linux though, left shift when you hold it down too long activates some universal access thing, and it locked up my game. I changed it to caps lock mid way through. If you liked Gone Home, chances are you would like this.
I got like 2 hours into this but wasn't feeling it. I use Linux and of course the Unix terminal quite a bit, it is my main OS on my computer and I dual-boot Windows for games. Idk just seemed really boring I thought it would be right up my ally. I don't want to rate it because I didn't really get far to says its good or bad. I got it on sale because Vinny kept saying how much he liked in during the Giant Bomb GOTY.
This is still on going, I'm pretty close to finishing the main story according to just looking at the table of contents with a guide. I haven't touched any side quests besides Sanctuary. There is certainly a lot to do in this game, I see why some of my friends have like over 100 hours put in. I'm having fun for sure. However, I've never been a huge die hard fan of Fallout, so I doubt I'll go far into the side quests once I'm done the main story. If they interest me I will.
Pros
+Still fun, still a lot to do, and still a fantastic Bethesda RPG
+Huge world
+Improved gameplay outside of VATS, which is huge.
Cons
-Story isn't that interesting, some of the writing is still pretty flat and forgettable.
I was kind of worried going into this thinking it would just be an Uncharted 2.75 and nothing new from the past games....I was wrong Naughty Dog really raised the bar to end the series on a high note. The story has improved so much in this one, it feels deeper and more real than in past entries that felt typical hollywood action movie. They improved the gameplay as well. Overall just huge improvements.
Pros
+Deep rich story better than past Uncharted games.
+Still great graphics you expect from Naughty Dog
+Gameplay has improved.
Cons
-Minor weird things, like things that break the immersion, but other than that.
Terrible game. The whole plot is typical and boring, the controls are wonky as hell even more so than past games. The whole Owl touchpad thing was awful. It starts out very slow, just not a good game.
The only redeemable factors are how good looking it is and the multiplayer is decent.
I liked Killzone 2 and 3, this just was awful I stopped the campaign barely in because I just couldn't take it anymore.
I played like 4 hours of this last year when it came out, but couldn't get into it. The game has a bit of a learning curve. However this time, I installed a bunch of mods and such and went to town. A lot of fun, I'm more interested in the transportation aspect and all...really hard to design that. I'm a GIS minor in college, and Transportation Geography is a class I am taking next fall anyways for it....so maybe I'll revisit if that helps at all.
This game is great, with mods and everything. I felt it did have some kind of buggy issues at points though.
This game was amazing, it really got pushed to the side due to a heavy year of releases and good games. This game had such a great story, really gets you to think and I was really aching to hear more. The horror part was pretty good, less jump scares more just straight up horror. An amazing game all around in my opinion, one of the best from last year.
I was a huge fan of the past Zero Escape games (999 and VLR). Personally thought VLR was better than 999, and was certainly not expecting them to make a third game. Time Dilemma was pretty good, but I think it fell short with some things, the animation was weirdly lagging and bad, the story wasn't as big of a surprise or twist as the past were, etc. Though, it still had great characters, a story that rolls real fucking dark, and overall was a good end to the series.
Game 1: Bloodborne (ongoing)
Amazingly fun game to play, could take a while to complete since if I die over and over I just stop and do something else so that I dont get frustrated. Currently knee-deep and really enjoying myself.
Game 2: Lego Star Wars (ongoing)
A game I used to play as a kid, a good game to balance out the other harder games I am playing. Only going to play the original trilogy missions since I have already played the prequel missions before. Still a fun game!!
Definite games on my list
Dark Souls 3
Dues Ex: Mankind Divided
Street Fighter V
Killer Instinct (PC)
Persona 5
XCOM 2
Mirrors Edge: Catalyst
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Scalebound
The Last Guardian
FF7 Remake
Dragons Dogma (PC)
JoJos Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven
Game 1-Gone Home (2 Hours, January 4, 2016)- Absolutely loved it. Excellent writing and characters, great atmosphere. 9/10 Game 2-To the Moon (4 Hours, January 4, 2016)- First game ever to bring me to tears. Beautiful, poignant story with a wonderful soundtrack and also some good humor. One of the most emotional games I've played in a very long time. 9.5/10 Game 3- Three Fourths Home (1.5 Hours, January 6, 2016)- Interesting game. Left me pondering some deep questions about myself, and the writing was good. It ended too abruptly, just when I felt like I was getting to know the characters. 6/10 Game 4- Until Dawn (8 Hours, January 10, 2016)- I was super excited about playing this one, especially on my birthday today with friends. I absolutely loved the concept and presentation, and the actors gave great performances. I was intrigued by the story and definitely thought it was intense up until that twist around the halfway mark. It just didn't make any sense and from that point on the intensity kind of deteriorated for me. That said, I still enjoyed the game overall. It had a ton of potential that it didn't live up to in some ways, and I would love to see a sequel that improves on it. 8.5/10 Game 5-That Dragon, Cancer (2 Hours, January 15, 2016)- I don't really know quite what to say about this game. I felt miserable playing this game at points because of the very tangible pain and sorrow that this game focuses on. This is a very deep and personal story, and I didn't feel comfortable playing through it, yet I still think it was presented and designed thoughtfully and beautifully. I can't say I would recommend this game to everyone because it's a very depressing game, and the subject matter is very heavy. There are a couple of shoehorned gameplay sections (racing and platforming) that felt out of place and hurt the pacing. Overall the story that this game tells is both harrowing and beautiful, and it's one I won't forget. 7.5/10 Game 6- Oxenfree (5.5 Hours, January 15, 2016)- Absolutely loved this game. From the creepy atmosphere to the phenomenal conversations and dialog to the interesting characters and intriguing plot, Oxenfree completely captured my attention from start to finish. I had no idea what to expect going in, but I was thoroughly surprised and satisfied with this game. Also, there's an insanely cool mechanic revealed towards the end that I won't spoil, but it really changed the way I looked at the game. There are a couple of pacing issues towards the end but it didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of it. This is a must-have for anyone remotely interested in adventure games or mystery stories. 9.5/10 Game 7-A Bird Story (1 Hour, January 16, 2016)- Since I loved To the Moon so much, I was really eager to play this one. It was short, predictable, and pretty cheesy, but it was also cute and heartfelt. Compared to To the Moon it's pretty mediocre, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. 6/10 Game 8- Firewatch (4 Hours, February 14, 2016, PS4)- Had pretty high expectations going into this one. I loved the concept and the relationship between Henry and Delilah. The voice acting was incredible as well as the writing. Without the strength of their relationship, Firewatch wouldn't be any good. Luckily, Campo Santo got that 100% right. The game looks absolutely beautiful, but it was a pain to play on PS4 because of the bad performance problems. Constant framerate drops as well as multiple crashes annoyed me, but I was still invested in the storyline. The tension and atmosphere established in the first half of the game totally had me hooked, though I was expecting a satisfying resolution to what exactly was happening to Henry and Delilah. Did we get that? I didn't think so. The last third of the game really lost me. That said, this is a good game. I love the characters, tone, writing, and atmosphere. The story let me down but for a good portion of this game I was truly engrossed in it. Overall, a little disappointing considering my high expectations but a solid experience nonetheless. 8/10
Going to jump in on this to give myself an extra push along with the Backlog Blitz thread. Don't really like my chances, but we'll see how I go.
Game 1: The Bridge - January 3rd
Bought this during the recent Steam sale. I thought it looked interesting and seeing the Destructoid review comment that it gives P.B. Winterbottom and Braid a run for their money really made me want to play it - but I don't think it holds a candle to either game. It wasn't terrible, but it was slow and not very difficult. I had enough beating the main game, the mirror mode just seemed to be about adding annoyances more than making the puzzles more difficult to solve.
Game 2: Kirby's Adventure Wii (Kirby's Return to Dreamland) - January 10th
This is the third Kirby game I've played through, after having a great time with Epic Yarn and liking Triple Deluxe and I have to say this is my least favourite. I don't mind the lack of difficulty, but the levels are just too straightforward. It was fun enough but I'm also kind of glad to be done.
Game 3: Until Dawn - January 10th
I'm very much a gameplay first type of person, but I really, really enjoyed this. There were a couple of minor annoyances (the one character I lost died for no real apparent reason) but overall I would easily recommend the game. Would love a sequel, or even a similar game with a different theme.
Game 4: Stasis - January 18th
Haven't played a point-and-click adventure in a really long time, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. A pretty good story here (though not the best voice acting). It didn't escape the usual p-n-c pitfalls, but there was nothing too annoying.
Game 5: Mad Max - January 29th
Definitely a good, well made game but I think I need a break from open world games of this type. Unfortunately, Mad Max does the same annoying thing Just Cause 3 does, where you have to do open world stuff to progress the story which is a problem when I'm kind of bored with it. Worth playing if you haven't tired of the genre.
Game 6: Axiom Verge - February 5th
Pretty crazy that this game was made by one guy. Really good Metroid clone, among the best I've played. A few little problems but nothing that really impacted my enjoyment. Tempted to go for 100% but will probably leave that for another time.
Game 7: Contrast - February 7th
Kind of started this since I knew it was fairly short and I ended up really enjoying it. There are some control problems and it could've used some more checkpoints given that it can be easy to get stuck in geometry, but this was a genuinely pleasant surprise.
Game 8: Shin Megami Tensei IV - February 23rd
That was 55 hours well spent! This is the fourth SMT game I've finished and, while it's my least favourite, it was still an awesome game. I ended up on the Law path (was determined not to use a guide) and was a little annoyed that it meant I missed a couple of things for what felt like unnecessary reasons. Also, the first five hours or so were rough - I think I died more in that short time than in the 76 hours it took to finish Nocturne. Overall, though, fantastic game.
Game 9: Lego City Undercover - March 7th
Being burnt out on open world games and Lego games, I did the only sensible thing and played an open world Lego game. And, surprisingly, I really enjoyed it, to the point where I spent nearly 42 hours getting 100%. It's just a relaxing, fun, virtually consequence-free game that was just what I needed at the moment.
Game 10: Picross e - March 31st
I loved Picross DS but for some reason never got around to picking up any other games in the series. Grabbed this on a whim and enjoyed the hell out of it. Definitely need a break before playing more,but it is nice to know there's another 5 games in the e series to go!
Game 11: Picross e2 - April 12th
Said I was going to take a break from Picross, but felt like playing some more after all. Not much to say since it's just more Picross for the most part, but I have to say I wasn't a big fan of the Micross puzzles.
Game 12: Picross e3 - April 15th
This is the first one I haven't completed 100% - I am not a fan of Mega Picross at all. It wasn't explained well and just seemed like it added an annoyance to normal Picross. Completed everything else, though.
Game 13: My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess - April 28th
Yep, more Picross! I can't help myself, it's a good game to have a play of before going to sleep. Anyway, the Zelda themed stuff is neat, even if it doesn't really add much. I got my head around Mega Picross a bit more, but still not really a fan.
Game 14: Quantum Break - April 28th
Unfortunately, this one didn't really do it for me. It was enjoyable enough that I don't regret playing it, but given the premise it was surprisingly unambitious in gameplay. The time powers weren't that exciting and I don't know why Remedy don't seem to be able to match the fun gun play of their Max Payne games.
Game 15: Picross e4 - May 4th
Yep, more Picross! I think my thoughts on these games are pretty clear now, and there's no reason for this one to change anything.
Game 16: Ratchet & Clank - May 9th
Sort of torn on this. I did really enjoy it and I realise it's supposed to be a remake/reboot, but it kind of felt unambitious. I think a big part of it is that I loved A Crack in Time, especially Clank's puzzles, but since then we've only had a couple of fairly safe entries in the main series. I still enjoyed it and recommend it, just found it was a bit unremarkable for me.
Game 17: Picross e5 - May 25th
More Picross! Kind of disappointed with this one, puzzles felt more straightforward than past games. Just e6 to go now, hope it is a good (current) final entry in the e series.
Game 18: Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition - May 25th
Decided to give Dark Souls another go with all the DSIII hype last month and it finally clicked for me. I still have some little problems, but overall I enjoyed the game immensely, to the point where I neglected Uncharted 4 and Doom and bought DSII, DS III and re-bought Bloodborne!
1. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One (Playtime: 8 hours, 1/3/2016): Amazing game, perfect blend of Meatboy level precision platforming and metroid style progression and map layout. Plus it looks outstanding. Perfect game to kick off 2016 with.
2. Game of Thrones Episode 1: Iron From Ice - PS4 (Playtime: ~2 hours, 1/3/2016): Meh.
3. Until Dawn - PS4 (Playtime: ~10 hours, 1/3/2016): Played this along with my wife. We started it months ago and stopped playing it because other games came out. We picked up where we left off and finished our first play through last night, only 3 survived lol. We plan on going though it again and getting the platinum eventually.
Currently Playing:
1. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - PC: I'm nearing the end of my first play-through at 102 hours played as of tonight, should be done in the next couple of days. Can't wait to jump into the DLC.
2. Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls - PS4: The missus and I are playing coop and are nearing the end of the Reaper of Souls content. It'll be my 3rd or 4th play-though but our first time coop. This game is so much better coop and, it's blasphemy, but I'm enjoying it more with a controller than I did back on the PC with mouse and keyboard.
So, yesterday i wanted to play (and possibly finish) Until Dawn but PSN was down and i discovered my one and only PS4 is not set as my "Primary" so i could not play any of my digital games, how fun!
But it was not a wasted night as i finaly finished a game i first started (and never finished) on my 360 back in January 2011. This thread is working!
3- Limbo (Xbox One) ★★★☆☆ 04/01/2015 About 4h
Finally finished Limbo! While i liked the style and atmosphere of this game, i didn't like the trial and error approach (this, and i'm really not good at platforming games). The last part of the game with all the gravity changes puzzles is really good.
Game 1: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd - (Finished on 1/1)
Starting off the year right, with some Miku. It's pretty much the same deal as Project Diva F. Though, that's not a bad thing. The gameplay remains simple but addicting, as well as getting ridiculous on the higher difficulties. I felt that as a whole, the songs in Project Diva F 2nd were a tad more challenging than those in Project Diva F, with trickier patterns. I wasn't a fan of the newly introduced linked star notes, because it was hard to gauge how fast the star would travel along the path, which led to my combos disappearing before my eyes. Overall, a fun game that is also very colorful.
Game 2: Persona 4: Dancing All Night - (Finished on 1/3)
Of the all the Persona spinoffs, Dancing All Night has secured its place as my favorite. Right off the bat, it continues to exemplify the stylish aesthetics the series has become known for, with fantastic menu design and loading screens. The gameplay was weird to me at first, as I wasn't used to playing rhythm games on Vita, but once I got the hang of it and moved up to higher difficulties, things became fast and frantic. Hard and All Night difficulty felt unforgiving early on, as it doesn't take much to fail out of a song, and maintaining your gauge to the end of a song so that you actually pass can also be troublesome. Since the game's announcement back in 2013, along with my experiences with Persona Q and Persona 4 Ultimax, I didn't have much faith for the story of Dancing All Night, but I was surprised. The whole premise of the game is definitely ridiculous, but at the same time, It truly feels like a genuine continuation of where Persona 4 left off. The Investigation Team resemble their un-caricaturized selves, and their characters play off of each other just how they did in Persona 4. At the same time, Dancing All Night manages decently in building up new characters and somehow making the plot work. It's not an amazing story, but definitely a solid effort and it succeeds in resurfacing the nostalgic feelings of being with the Investigation Team. If this is the last installment in the Persona 4 saga, then it does a good job at being a send off. Thanks to this game, I have imagined the step, and it was genius.
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4) - Campaign in this game was beyond terrible. Not sure why I pushed through to finish it but it's my first completed game in 2016. - 8 hours - Jan 2nd
2. Just Cause 3 (PC) - Game was super fun for the first 6 or so hours but then the gameplay never really changes and it loses a lot for it. - 17 hours - Jan 12th
3. Emily is Away (PC) - A super neat game. Totally free and a fun and nostalgic look back at the world in the mid 2000s. - 1 hour - Jan 12th
4. Shovel Knight (PC) - Fantastic platformer that took me far too long to get around to beating. Highly recommended. - 7 hours - Jan 13th
5. Super Meat Boy (PC) - Solid if not masochistic platfomer. Absolutely worth checking out. - 2 hours - Jan 16th
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) - Not the best mario game but I still had fun with it. It's pretty short so you're not held down for too long. - 6 hours - Jan 16th.
7. Resident Evil HD Remaster (PC) - First time actually beating REmake. After multiple times of getting near the end and just forgetting about it. Fantastic game and at 60fps it's absolutely worth buying the remaster.
8. Pokémon Blue (3DS) - Returning to Blue for the first time in at least 12 years. It's still decent enough but definitely doesn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. - 19:57 - March 2nd.
9. Star Wars: Racer Revenge (PS4) - 2:04 - April 23rd.
10. Ratchet and Clank (PS4) - 8:00 - May 1st
11. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PC) - 26:30 - May 23rd.
12. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered (PS4) - June 4th
13. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered (PS4) - June 18th
14. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered (PS4) - June 29th
15. Street Fighter V (PS4) - July 5th
16. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) - July 10th
17. The Wolf Among Us (PC) - August 20th
18. The Walking Dead: Season Two (PC) - August 29th
19. Castlevania (NES) - September 10th
20. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest (NES) - September 11th
21. Resident Evil 4 (PC) - 10:05 - September 18th
22. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (PS3) - 25:00 - September 29th
Allright i'll give this a go... If i'm being realistic i know i don't stand a chance of actually doing this but at least it will force me to tear myself away from Destiny and actually play some games from my massive backlog
Bye well. Picked the game up during the steam winter sale after selling some steam trading cards, beat the game on normal might go back and beat it on hard but I doubt it. Was a fun time waster to play in between doing other things sit down for 10-15 minutes and do a run or two.
- The Witcher 3 (Gwent playthrough in order to Platinum)
- Alien: Isolation
- Uncharted Collection (Plat)
- Super Time Force Ultra (Just looking to finish the story missions)
- Driveclub Bikes (Platinum)
- The Crew: Wild Run
I kinda just want to take a moment to say that I am completely blown away right now. The music. The writing. The hilarious (and at times downright insane) boss fights. The horrible moral dilemma. The humbling feeling of questioning everything I've come to expect from an RPG.
I just know I have to get that happy ending. I have to prove to myself that I can do it. I fear I need to do it for my conscience alone.
If I was wondering whether I might have to edit my GOTY picks before, I am now completely sure.
Game 1: Japanese Rail Sim 3D Journey to Kyoto (3DS) 2:16
In Europe this game was just 1 Euro for a while so I gave it a chance. I must confess that I had a pretty good time playing this game but ever since I was about 10 years old I've had an interest in playing simulation games.
Game 2: Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS) 10:26
This game was heavily mismarketed, I don't know why I only purchased it second hand last year because it's truly a gem of a game.
Game 3: Mighty Switch Force (3DS) 2:15
One of WayForward's best and it has an amazing OST.
Game 4: Consortium (PC) ~4:00
I sort of enjoyed this title but I don't know whether I actually accomplished anything.
Game 5: Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS) 37:52
Played this one again in anticipation of Fates, such an amazing game!
Game 6: Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas (3DS) 4:36
Small downloadable eShop game that I'd describe as 999 or VLR 'lite'. Decent in terms of puzzles but story and characters leave a lot to be desired. Still enjoyed it for what it was and for its price.
Game 7: Sunset Riders (SNES) 0:30
Fantastic 2-player coop sidescrolling shooter set in the wild west. Too bad it's such a short game but fortunately there are multiple difficulty levels to tackle.
Game 8: Star Fox Zero (Wii U) 5:30
Quoting myself from the OP: "Zero is to Star Fox what Overkill is to House of the Dead; in a couple of years SF:Z will be remembered as one of the best (of not the best) in the series".
Game 9: Mighty Switch Force 2 (Wii U) 2:30
I found this game a little easier than its predecessor but still great fun and definitely one of my favorite WayForward games.
Game 10: Brawl Brothers (SNES) 2:00
As opposed to Rival Turf I find Brawl Brothers a pretty competent beam 'em up. What's interesting is that depending on the character(s) you use different bosses will be presented in the game's story mode.
Game 11: Panic in Nakayoshi World (SNES) 1:00
This game plays like a mix between Tank City (NES) and Super Bomberman, it's kind of short but still good fun in 2 player co-op.
Game 12: Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U) 4:30
Surprise of the year so far for me, it left the same sort of impression on me that Journey did the first time I played that game (likely has to do with me playing this game co-op with a friend without pausing). I would like more of these kinds of asymmetric co-op games.
Game 13: Star Fox Adventures (NGC) 16:00
I used to dislike this game back in the day but I gave it another chance and this time it clicked with me. It's no Zelda but I'd probably rate it just a little higher than Beyond Good and Evil.
Game 14: Radiant Historia (DS) 33:53
Fantastic jRPG from Atlus, I loved the battle system and how characters afford different types of control over the grid. The pacing is perfect too.
Game 15: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure (3DS) 6:22
A pretty decent game. It's as if SEGA looked at Professor Layton's success and thought they could do it too but replaced the logic puzzles with rhythmic ones.
Game 16: Hungry Cat Picross (Mobile) 14:00
In its class of 2D picross games I think this exceeds the Picross games on Nintendo systems, lots of free content and the varied video game iconography helps too.
Game 17: Karen (by Blast Theory) (Mobile) 2:00
Excellent interactive narrative that's so much better than anything Telltale or Quantic Dream could possibly come up with, incredible experience.
Game 18: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) 104:30
Flawed masterpiece; does some things so well but it's held back by its overcomplex systems. I had a great time playing it but IMO the first Xenoblade Chronicles is still the better game.
Game 19: Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) 7:10
I liked the game structure of Umbrella Chronicles better with its halfway scores and rewards for destroying as much of the environment as possible. Darkside Chronicles has a better narrative structure.
Game 20: Illusion of Time (SNES) 15:00
Remarkably fun action-RPG which I finished over the course of two weeks. Because you don't see this title often I wasn't expecting much but I had just as much fun with this game as with an Ys game, if not more.
Game 21: Transformers Devastation (PS4) 5:00
Short but sweet, and although it was clearly made on a relatively tiny budget it still oozes that PlatinumGames feel. An excellent entry-point for people who are intimidated by the likes of Bayonetta and Wonderful 101.
Game 22: Civilization V (PC) 17:00
I don't know if I technically finished it but it was a complete playthrough with the Chinese culture, I already purchased both expansions because this game is going to keep me company for months to come!
Game 23: Fire Emblem Fates Birthright (3DS) 29:10
What a great entry in the Fire Emblem series, it does most things better than Awakening too.
Game 24: Gears of War 4 (Xbox One) 16:00
Fantastic work by The Coalition, it's tied with Gears 1 for favorite campaign. Finished it in co-op mode on hardcore difficulty.
Game 25: Retro City Rampage DX (3DS) 6:00
Very enjoyable game, very well made too. I enjoyed how many ideas were packed into this nice little retro-style game.
Game 26: Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories (3DS) 1:15
A very low-budget Cing-esque visual novel that feels like a court room sequence in the Ace Attorney series but with a more serious tone. I liked it (not loved it) but hope that they're already working on sequels.
Game 27: Tearaway Unfolded (PS4) 8:00
Boring first quarter, okay second quarter, mind blowing third quarter and good fourth quarter. All in all I really enjoyed this game although I think I like the Vita version better.
Game 28: Doom 2016 (PS4) 14:00
This is probably the best retro revival we've seen so far. The game is just unbelievably fun, merging a genuine retro Doom feel with excellent mobility and intense combat. GOTY contender for me.
Game 29: StreetPass Trader (3DS) ?
No idea how much time I took to finish this game but I did use a fair amount of play coints to speed things up. It was a decent StreetPass game.
Game 30: Batman Arkham VR (PSVR) 1:30
I'd describe this as a virtual escape room; short but really sweet and a good showcase for what VR has to offer when a studio can put some production values into it.
Game 31: Sara is Missing (Mobile) 1:30
It attempts to tell an interesting story but does so in an uninteresting way and then falls on its face.. unfortunately :/
Game 32: Paper Mario Color Splash (Wii U) 30:32
This was much better than I expected and even though it misses the mark of the first two games in the series I'd say it's not that far behind. I do hope that they ditch the Sticker Star mechanics for the next iteration though.
Game 1: Until Dawn (PS4)
Really enjoyed this until it went all David Cage stupid in the last act. I'll maybe replay it one day but it doesn't look like my decisions make as much difference to the story as I thought.
Sure, might be fun. In theory, just five games a month and your good. Reasonable.
Game 1: Spec Ops the Line: 8-10 hours?
Wow, this game was kind of weird. I remember people saying it was dark, but it wasn't actually as dark as I thought it would be. Then again, I did just see The Hateful Eight. Gunfights were fun, though controls not perfect. What really sold me were all the little touches in certain sequences, the underrated soundtrack, and the antagonism of the loading screen.
Game 2: Yomi- 8 hours(and counting)
Reminds me of what I liked about magic when I used to play. It's essentially a very slow fighting game where deep understanding of your character and the opponents leads to some intense strategizing mid match. A lot of weird characters with neat gimmicks to mess around with, and even more so with the expansion. My only big complaint would be the art, love the game but character designs not so much, though a couple cools ones in there.
