Was interested in this game but never got around to playing it on the Vita, so I decided to give it a chance when I heard about the remaster and the sequel. All in all, the game is great. The game has great graphics and art direction. Gameplay is solid, with varied missions and fun challenges. The plot is fine and Kat is a likeable character. Overall, the game was good enough for me to go for the platinum trophy and I'm in for the sequel.
I was really excited to play this when it was announced, and I got halfway into it before I got sidetracked and left it. Picked it back up on a new save file on my Vita until my game crashed and I lost all my progress on Year 2 so I booted up on my PS4 and loaded up my old cloud save file. Great game. Great writing, great art direction, great story, great puzzles. Great great great great great great great.
Game 16: Xcom: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within
This is is the story of Emma Miller. Emma was a nice girl, a bit tomboyish. Not always the most popular one, but she had good friends and enjoyed her childhood. Emma also always had a thing for explosives and she liked adventures. When Emma turned 19 she decided she would join the army in order to serve her country and to fire up some bigass rocket launchers. Then the aliens came...
Long story short, she and her squad were sent to a harbour that was alien-infested. The encounters there were hard, Emma lost a lot of health. Eventually they found a big ship full of these creatures and decided that they would use the radio of the ship to order an airstrike. While the others fought off the aliens, Emma made her way trhough the ship to the radio. At this time, she was almost dead. She wanted to be home in the safe embrace of her loved ones. She called the airstrike. Everyone ran like hell to get away from the blast radius. Some of the aliens followed them and they were quickly coming closer. The squad wouldn't make it. Except when....
Emma stopped, picked up her rocket launcher and waited for the aliens to come to her. Then she did the heroic thing.
Her loss meant the continuation opf the Xcom-project, which would (months later) beat the aliens altogether. We will always remember Emma.
Xcom is one of the best games I've ever played and is full of these emergent stories. Play it if you haven't. But there will be some hard decisions.
Game 7: Fire Emblem Fates - Birthright (3DS) 16 Hours 2/21/2016 - Birthright lives up to it's billing as more Fire Emblem Awakening. Really happy there was a
Donnel equivalent that I could max to best character status
. Since it was more of the same and I thought the castle stuff was kind of garbage, it maybe doesn't quite have the freshness of Awakening, but it was a good time all around. I'm really excited to dive into Conquest. 4/5
Game 13: | Pokémon HeartGold | - | February 20 | - | 138 hours |
I thought I loved these games. Gen 2 was my fav as a kid and I remembered these remakes fondly from playing them at release. Turns out I hate them. Horrible grinding due to the levels of wild mons being way too low is the biggest problem. Destroys the whole game. The grind to beat Red is just too silly. Only reason I kept going was because I just had to nuzlocke every game I own. I regret it so much. Love everything else about the remakes tho. The walking with pokémon, the graphics and the UI are just great stuff. These could have been such fantastic games.
Game 14: | Pokémon SoulSilver | - | February 20 | - | 154 hours |
Same thing as above. Played them side by side with completely different nuzlocke rules. In this I did a horribly hard but interesting locke with only 4 mons in the party, no healing in battles and some other restrictions. Many many deaths. That was what caused the difference in playtime. More mons to level up in this one. HeartGold went way better since I had nicer rules. At least I found a couple of great mons I never really thought about using before. That's the best thing about lockes! But I'm happy to be done now. Bye Gen 4, never gonna play you again!
4. An Assassin in Orlandes (Android) - 15th January - approx. 3 hours (including replays before I discovered the bookmark aka checkpoint system!)
This is a 'Gamebook Adventure'; a modern equivalent of the Choose Your Own Adventure style of game. I used to love those games as a kid and found this very enjoyable as well. I'm counting it as a game because there are dice rolls, battles and an inventory, even though it's not a deep experience. Very enjoyable though, and a good distraction if you're looking for something to play on your phone for a few days. 8/10
5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS4) - 21st January - approx. 9 hours, completed on hard with 36% trophies
I played this on PS3 as well, but I was looking forward to going back to it to see how it had aged, and it honestly did not disappoint. It's such a high-quality experience overall, with amazing pacing, great characters and dialogue, superb level design and fantastic set-pieces that have not been bettered by any other series. Honestly, I love almost everything about this game and I think it completely deserves to be regarded as one of the most important action games of last generation. 9/10
6. Tales from the Borderlands (PS4) - 30th January - approx. 10 hours, game complete & Platinum trophy earned
I have no interest in the Borderlands series but I liked TWD and TWAU a lot, so seeing this in a sale and hearing a lot of its acclaim, I decided to give it a crack. I'm glad I did because it's a really well-written game with brilliant characters and wonderful pacing. The presentation is excellent too, and each episode is exciting and interesting and things are always moving along. It's slightly below those other two Telltale series, but it's an unequivocal success in that it made me interested in Borderlands and was a thoroughly enjoyable game in its own right. 8/10
7. Destiny: The Taken King (PS4) - 4th February - approx. 12 hours (including The Dark Below and House of Wolves)
I'm not a big multiplayer gamer but I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with Destiny. TTK takes things in the right direction with more interesting mission design - sneaking into
Crota's funeral
was my favourite, and I like the mission where it subverts your expectations at the end and you have to
flee instead of fight
. However, despite how much I love the gameplay, the overall structure still feels half-hearted, with too many 'defend the thing' missions and too much retreading through the same locations. I've played a few Strikes which are fun if repetitive (and I've never got any good loot) and I haven't been able to play any Raids as yet. It just feels like Bungie have this amazing gameplay wrapped up in mediocre game design, and I hope they overhaul things significantly for Destiny 2. Despite all my grumbles about the game and my overall dislike of 'always online', I do love the moment-to-moment gameplay and I will probably be on board for the sequel. 7.5/10
8. Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4) - 11th February - approx. 20 hours, Platinum trophy earned
I loved this on the Vita so I was excited to play a quality Bluepoint remaster, and they've made a wonderful game even better. Kat is one of the most likeable protagonists ever, the flight gameplay is a complete adrenaline rush and I really like the city of Heksville. It's probably the only game I've ever played where zooming around getting collectibles didn't feel tiresome. If there are criticisms it's that the combat needed fleshing out and there are very few things to do in city, but personally that latter point felt kind of refreshing. Can't wait for the sequel later this year, and one of the best games on Vita is now one of the best games on PS4. 9/10
9. Motorsport Manager (Android) - 15th February - approx. 15 hours, reached final championship
I didn't finish all of the content in this game, but I hammered it pretty solid for about a week and kind of burnt myself out on it, so I think I'm done. I was in the final championship but needed to grind a bit more to get my car good enough to win and just could not be arsed to progress. Anyway, it's an excellent little game with a surprising amount of depth and really great presentation, and it looks like it was developed by just one guy. Well worth picking up if you need something to play while on the toilet, although I found it a little frustrating that you can't set conditions for the team to run itself as it means you constantly have to micro-manage which does get a bit tiresome during every race. 8/10
10. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4) - 21st February - 7 hours, standard completion on Normal difficulty
Picked this up for a bargain at £7, and it was a great shooter which was well worth the money. The controls and movement are superb and the combat feels really explosive and violent and rewarding. The guns are good although I would have liked a bit more variety, and the level design is generally solid, even if some more wide-open areas and some levels which weren't set in the castle would have been welcome. I found it to be a punishing game where you could die quickly, and I did not like the stealth levels at all - they artificially increased the difficulty by making the two captains further and further apart, and putting in a lot of enemies you cannot stealth-kill. Despite that though I did enjoy it a lot, it had some brilliant little easter eggs and call backs to the original Wolfenstein 3D and considering it's an expandalone it doesn't feel cheap or lazy (that being said, I have not played The New Order). An excellent effort and I look forward to the inevitable next Wolf game from Machinegames. 7.5/10
Currently playing: Driveclub (working up to the Platinum), Tearaway Unfolded, Kick & Fennick (Vita), The Room 3 (Android)
Rating: 9/10 - Platform: PC - Developer: Sam Barlow
Her Story was a fantastic experience. Some might not like the lack of gameplay (you only type, click and watch videos in this game) but being myself a fan of games like Dear Esther, Thirty Flights of Loving, Firewatch,.. this game was just right in my alley. If you like mystery murders stories and games that let you have your own interpretation at the end, this is the game for you. Great job by Sam Barlow and amazing performance by Viva Seifert.
Game #36: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
This is a pretty interesting game, if not pretty flawed as well. It has a ton of new and unique bosses and enemies (including a Jason Vorhees expy as pictured above), as well as possibly the most unique worldset I've seen in a Mario game. Aside from Mario 2, Mario 3 was the first to introduce different world themes (as well as to introduce the standard formula - grass, desert, water, ice, etc.). Here though? We have a giant world, a tiny world, space world, "robot Mario" world?, spooky world, tree world, etc. Generally, the designers made a point of trying to be creative, as creative as possible.
Unfortunately, on the gameplay side, it comes with two pronounced flaws - firstly, the mechanics are kind of sloppy. Not nearly as sloppy as the first Game Boy game, but still not great. Granted this is, what, 1991? 1992? So it's a bit more excusable. The other problem is that it's too easy. Like the mechanical aspects it's an improvement over the original, but only because the original is way too easy itself. On its own I find it very easy to run through a lot of the levels, but if you get the Carrot, most levels you can cheese your way through, as they often have open higher areas with no enemies to worry about (and because of how the game's speed works, you often have time to react when an enemy does show up). At least the last level is kind of fun and challenging, as are the space levels (which have lowered gravity for jumps). The game isn't bad though, it's good, and is definitely helped for the fact that it is unique and interesting.
Plus, it's hard to be too critical of the game that introduced mah boi, Wario.
Game #37: New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
TBH, I could have used a gif from any "New Super Mario Bros." game and it wouldn't have mattered.
There's a lot that can be said about this game. Ultimately, however, I'll stay focused on a few things. This is the least inspired Mario game ever made. Even many of the shittiest games in the series at least have some level of curiosity to them. Here though? It's pretty evident that they made it because the 3DS was in a bad place. The game feels lazy, rushed, and entirely lacking. The designers didn't introduce a single truly new power-up, with the closest thing being the Golden Flower, which when it impacts an enemy, wall, or block creates an explosion that affects blocks and enemies nearby. And of course, being that it's a 2D Mario game, it follows the same rules as all Mario games these days - grass, desert, fire, etc., and it's bad and terrible. It's creative bankruptcy. Oh, and going back to the Golden Flower, the focus on coins as a gimmick is shitty and stupid. So many of the game's secrets are just collecting some coins, which would be fine if the game was built around it. Instead, collecting coins is for no other greater purpose than to collect coins. You collect coins to collect coins, meaning that the secrets are in furtherance of nothing, and that sucks so much ass. The co-op sucks, it's utterly terrible. And even with that, it deserves extra scorn for the fact that New Super Mario Bros. U is actually a great game, but since it came out after 2, it was harmed by player fatigue.
As for positives, eh. It's mechanically good, it's about as good as any other New Mario in that respect. The level designs aren't bad, usually, though at times it feels like they weren't designed with the leaf in mind (I actually once was able to fly over the entirety of a level). In general, I was able to speed through most levels with relative ease, more so than I feel is doable with other levels. That's about it. The visuals are frustrating and the soundtrack even more so, given that until the last two Marios (that is, 2 and U), most Mario games made a point of having a new soundtrack, whereas 2 just recycled songs from the Wii game. This is easily worse than any Mario platformer, and curiously stands at odds with Land 2, as it has good mechanics but lacks any ounce of creativity. It's practically Madden levels of lazy. Doubly so given that they called it New Super Mario Bros. 2 and yet lacked a single aspect of Super Mario Bros. 2! Like, did they even think about that before naming it!?
Game #38: Tappingo (3DS) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Tappingo is a pretty decent game all-in-all - the concept is fun, the idea of creating an image in a puzzle is something I really enjoy (a la Picross DS). Unfortunately,for all of the entertainment this game gives, it simply doesn't feel challenging - it may take some time, but I didn't find a single puzzle where I felt like I had to give up. It's all just trial and, occasionally, error. Essentially, the gameplay involves you clicking on blocks to extend them in order to fill in the blanks of a puzzle, and the number on the block represnets how far it's allowed to go. As such, some blocks may require that you do others first, as the line of blocks created will go until they run into another. Still, it's super cheap and very content-rich, so if you enjoy puzzle games (especially ones a little on the easy side), I'd definitely recommend that you get this off of the eShop.
Game 14: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PC) - 23 hours
I'm feeling slightly ambivalent on DR. This game has certainly delivered as a murder mystery title. It features some of the most satisfying whodunnit set-ups I've seen in quite some time. The ,,courtroom" gameplay that supports the plot takes some notes from Ace Attorney, but does a much better job of conveying fast paced courtroom arguments. It's streamlined, but you always feel in control and focused on the arguments and plot. You usually aren't stuck with trial and error like in older Ace Attorney games, but through constant interactivity and movement, you also don't feel like your hand is held too much.
The overall mystery though has ,,only" been okay-ish. Students are trapped for unknown reasons within some container resembling a school. There's eventually some curious things happening alongside the murders, but in the end it doesn't deliver like for example Virtue's Last Reward. But at least it also doesn't fall flat like the TV show Lost and other examples.
It's refreshing to play a visual novel game that has environments to walk in, like Hotel Dusk, too. Supported by another great soundtrack from the composer behind early Suda- and later Mikami titles.
Unfortunately, on the other hand, the game is also drenched in trite tropes. Some twists directly turn them around and nullify them, but certainly not all of them. The entire premise of being in a high school is cliched to begin with. There's still completely out-of place fanservice and a few generic character designs. The fact that the game fosters a fanbase that argues about the best waifu shows that the writing (and pandering) unfortunately took some wrong turns. On top of that, a typically wimpy main character that falls for some childhood idol crush in minute 1. Ugh. And I must not forget yet another case of Japanese writing taking the concept of ,,friendship" several steps too far into schmalzy levels.
Still, when it got going, I was usually hooked for several hours for each individual session. Most of the cases and the trial gameplay were too awesome, even if you could guess a few outcomes. And despite all the downsides in certain parts of the character department, it has also delivered one of the best villains I've encountered in a long time. Which is the highly prominent teddy bear on every artwork. Which I can only describe as a mixture of Spongebob, Deadpool and Charles Manson. A very big joy to experience.
Game #39: SteamWorld Heist (3DS) - ★★★★★★★★★★
This game is utterly fantastic in nearly every way. You take control of Piper, a steambot space pirate who is looking for treasure and such. She is accompanied by a fair few other steambots, and one of my favourite things about the game besides how fun it is is that a lot of the female characters are not like, blatantly female, you know? I remember one character who I recruited, and she didn't look visibly feminine at all. Not only that, apparently she has two dads. Image & Form is just going off of the rails with progressiveness it seems! All that aside, it's a really fun game, and pretty accessible too. It's a side-scrolling turn-based strategy game, where the focus is on aiming and positioning your characters and their weapons. It's very much one of those "simple yet complex" games, and really shines when you're controlling Piper, as she has the gimmick of having a laser sight and a ricochet weapon, allowing her to do bananas-tier shots off of walls, enemies, and objects. It's about $20, and feels like about the right length. Along with BOXBOY and Art Style: PiCOPiCT, I think it's among the best the 3DS eShop has to offer.
Game 9-The Walking Dead: Michonne- Episode 1 (In Too Deep) (1 Hour, February 23, 2016)- As a huge fan of both seasons of Telltale's Walking Dead series (and most of the developer's work in general) as well as the Walking Dead TV show, I was fairly excited for this mini-series. While I'm still interested to see where Michonne's story is going here, this episode did nothing for me aside from Michonne herself. She's a fantastic protagonist and I loved how I frequently used the "silence" option, something I rarely did in other Telltale games. The rest of the characters, however, were not nearly as interesting. This miniseries, so far, lacks the emotion and atmosphere that made me love Telltale's Walking Dead. I think this story still has potential, it just hasn't shown it to me yet. 5.5/10
Hmm, I'd say that I'm disappointed that it's apparently mediocre, but I'm also not surprised. Season 2 was only barely able to meet certain standards of Season 1. I didn't even know it was close to being released!
So I finished Saturday Morning RPG. This game is very fun and only $10!! It played a lot like the Mario and Luigi RPG games. Time to do more dmg/take less dmg Item buffs before the match and so forth. It is simple and not to deep but very enjoyable. You can beat this in about 5-6 hours but has a ton of replay ability. I strongly recommend.
21. Darkspore (PC, 2011) - 16:30 Completed the campaign on Onslaught difficulty (1-1 to 6-4).
Darkspore is almost dead. As of March 1st, 2016, EA will shut down the Darkspore servers, turning a once-functional game into a login screen to oblivion. When Blizzard pulled the always-online stunt with Diablo III, there were two saving graces: one, Diablo II still exists, and two, Blizzard has a history of supporting their games long after other publishers would have thrown in the towel. Darkspore, unfortunately, has neither. There are no other games in the Darkspore franchise to return to (and Spore, though related, doesn't really count). EA is well known for pulling their servers down quickly and often; it's a miracle that Darkspore survived five years, when other EA games have had shorter leases on life. Hell, Darkspore outlived the studio that made it, with Maxis shutting down in mid-2015 and remaining an arm of EA in name only.
In other words, if I was going to play the copy of Darkspore I got a few years ago on the cheap, it was now or never. I'd written off Darkspore as a poor attempt to salvage something from Will Wright's last game, Spore, by repackaging some of its elements into an action RPG that could be sold to the Diablo audience. In the process, EA took Spore's cute, cuddly and weird aesthetic, and gave it a nose ring and a fauxhawk. It sounds embarrassing, and Darkspore has its fair share of embarrassment. The always-online requirement is the biggest one, obviously; there's no reason this game has to die, and yet here we are. Next on the list: Darkspore's story, which is told to you completely through bland animated storyboards narrated by an emotionless robot voice and filled with paint-by-numbers sci-fi technobabble (progenitors, corruptors, e-DNA, etc.). It's one of the few games that puts so much effort into lore that does nothing but make the game worse every time it surfaces.
Once you get past all that, though, there are interesting ideas here. Nothing about Darkspore will make you abandon Diablo or Torchlight, but like the latter there are some neat tweaks to the basic model that would've been interesting to see evolve in a better title. First, you don't have a single character, but multiple heroes that you group into three-person squads. Every time you launch a mission, you take a squad into battle, and can switch between heroes almost at will. This lets you mix up styles of play and experiment with new heroes relatively easily, and also provides a larger safety cushion. The level only ends in failure if all three of your heroes die. Swap out one that's close to death for a fresh hero, and you can nurse the wounded back to health by collecting health capsules that work on the entire squad.
The second interesting idea is the chain concept. Every time you finish a level, Darkspore offers you a choice: return to your ship and roll for a new item, or start the next level immediately and get two items of better quality later. You can chain as many levels as your ship upgrades will allow, all the while improving your chances at rarer, higher-level items. And since you can repeat stages at any time, the penalty for not chaining is really just time.
Other than that, Darkspore is a Diablo-style RPG, and you've seen them before. If you're better at Diablo than I am, you probably won't find much challenge here, and the Skinner box mechanics aren't as well tuned, but the core gameplay seemed sound. I wouldn't call it an essential experience, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable for what it was. It doesn't deserve to die.
Game 12: Project X Zone 2 (3DS) 12/02/16 - 25/02/16 47 Hours
A total fan service game in an SRPG genre with a mashup of a lot of different characters from different video game franchises. As much as I enjoyed the game, I found the second half of the game's chapters to be long and tedious, it felt like it took me almost an hour to do a chapter each. I fell asleep while playing in bed a couple of times because I was rushing to get as many chapters done in a single session. If they manage to make a third game in the series, I hope they can fix the issue I had with the long chapters or just having waves of enemies appearing one after another just to drag it along.
Game 7: Fate/stay night - 85:27 (Finished on 2/11)
Gadzooks, this is the longest visual novel I've gone through, and very well may be the longest game on my list this year. Fate/stay night details the events of the Holy Grail War: a phenomenon in which individuals who are versed in magic, henceforth known as Masters, summon beings known as Servants--historical or mythological figures with incredible physical and supernatural strength--and fight for possession of the Holy Grail, which is said to grant any wish. What's interesting about Fate/stay night (and what gives it such a long length) is that while the Holy Grail War is the central premise, the game has three separate routes, each showing the events of the Holy Grail War unfolding in vastly different ways. Each successive route builds upon what was established in the route before it, making it interesting to compare events that happen in one route but not another. Adding to this, there are dozens upon dozens of bad endings, that always go into vivid and bloody detail about how you picked the wrong choice. With each route being 30ish hours long, it makes for a lengthy ride. Overall, it was a pretty cool story full of twists, and violence, and introspection and cooking... my god the cooking. The game would go into excruciating detail about the characters cooking and enjoying breakfast and dinner. A personal gripe I had was that at times, the plot felt too dark, which induced a bit of apathy in me in regards to what would come next for the characters. I'm interested in the other works in this franchise, but after 85 hours... I'll get around to checking those out eventually.
Game 8: Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night - 1:29 (Finished on 2/22)
Having never played a Touhou game, I was pleasantly surprised. Being faced with a seemingly insurmountable wall of bullets flying at you is really exciting. Learning the patterns, weaving through bullets and defeating bosses is very satisfying and gameplay itself is addicting. I would also like to point out the dulcet piano tunes in the game, such as: Retribution of the Eternal Night Voyage 1969 I enjoyed them greatly.
Game 9: Mirror's Edge - ~3 hours (Finished on 2/22)
With Mirror's Edge Catalyst not too far off on the horizon, I decided to revisit Mirror's Edge, one of my favorite games. I really love how well this game holds up. The primarily white color scheme is offset nicely by sharp and vibrant uses of reds and greens and yellows and oranges and blues. The soundtrack strikes a fine balance between a calm, lonely ambience when faced with a puzzle area, and tense, adrenaline fueled beats, when running from enemies who possess extraordinarily bad aiming. The game just feels really good to play, especially as you keep up the momentum and speed through levels. The gameplay flow kind of falls apart when faced with combat, but that's pretty much my only problem with Mirror's Edge. Oh, and those weird 2D cutscenes that tell the story, but I shall remain coy on those. Looking forward to Catalyst.
Game 10: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved - (Despaired on 2/24)
It has been over 7 years since I first played this on Xbox 360. I left this game satisfied with a high score of 1,550,095. Upon revisiting it for old times sake, I learned to accept how far I have fallen, managing only a shameful score of 725,640. Such is the way of life. Flowers grow, then they die. Also I need to check out Geometry Wars 3.
I don't want to spoil anything so I won't comment on the story at all. I think it's a good experience that just feels tedious sometimes. The atmosphere is really well done along with the music. Too bad the framerate is such an issue, 6/10
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.
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.
I must have completed Super Mario 64 every year since I was 8, it is the game that made the pastime my passion and eventually, lead to it being my career. Playing it nowadays I can see some of the flaws much more clearly. Mario controls like a submarine in some cases, and the camera causes endless grief, so it just hows quite how strong nostalgia can play into your experience with a game. Not only do I continue to come back to Mario 64, I love it more each time I do, getting to re-experience some forgotten moments and seeing them in totally new ways.
The Unfinished Swan is gorgeous, and has a lovely paint based mechanic similar to (but not used in anyway the same fashion as) the ink in Splatoon. Whilst the Unfinished Swan gave a really strong opening, starting you with a blank canvas and letting you move your way throughout the world, every function or feature it added after this seemed like a mis-step. The vine gameplay was dire at times, and other spins on the "paint" feature later throughout the game feel erratic and are never fully developed. The game has some really beautiful moments, but the whole thing feels really half-baked. Perhaps I'm still feeling the disappointment of the ending being so rushed and short, but all in all, the Unfinished Swan is a lot rougher around the edges than I expected it to be.
Rating: 8/10 - Platform: PC - Developer: Tiger Style
Here's another game that my laptop could run so I gave it a try and boy I was not disappointed. You are a scientist on Mars forced to explore caves and find your way out by growing plants and leveling up the biomass. When I think about it, it's not so different than Grow Home but here you're going down while also trying to unlock some mysteries about an Alien life form. Real Cool !
Game #5 : The Plan
Rating: 5/10 - Platform: PC - Developer: Krillbite Studio
Free, have 1 achievement and last for about 5 minutes. You're a fly, you go up, you're Done ! Some will find the meaning of Life in those 5 minutes, I didn't. Easiest and quickest 100% game ever and the perfect one to play if you're short of 1 game here at the end of the Year.
Game 17: Anno 2070
So, I stopped this game 2 missions before the very end, but I'll still count it as beat. It would just have been a waiting game, forwarding time until you can produce enough of the new thing your citizens crave. So while the campaign is disappointing, the core gameplay remains strong and mostly unchanged from its predecessor Anno1404.
The few changes they made didn't turn out so well, unfortunately. You know have to have enough power to produce and you have to be environmentally safe. Both is achieved by simply placing some more buildings on the map and doesn't require any strategy. Also, there's more focus on combat which has never been a good idea for this genre. It's still one of the best city-builders/economic sims out there though and I'm looking forward to a coop-game that I'll be starting in a week or two.
Game 13 - Until Dawn
Man, what a ride. I loved the sound design, the atmosphere, the graphics. It was just awesome, but I think some of the QTE were unfair and led to some deaths that felt cheap.
I think the plot lost a lot of steam when it was revealed that what happened in the lodge was just a twisted prank.
It could have been one of my favorite games of all time but it fell a little short. Still a great game, hopefully more people play it after the current sale. 9/10
Rating: 8.5/10 - Platform: PS4 - Developer: Campo Santo
I really enjoyed this one, the dialogues and the 2 actors who are delivering them are among the best you'll find in any video games. The style and graphics are gorgeous although let's be honest, the PS4 version still needs a patch or two to be perfect. I wish it was longer but it was still a great experience and probably deserve another playthrough.
I Loved this game back on the NES. When I had a Wii I was hoping it would come to VC (I didn't realize the IP was owned by Rare at that time), so when I saw it was part of Rare Replay I was very happy. Still a fun game to play and the game "held up well" almost 3 decades later.
This is a fun short game. The graphics and world design are amazing. One of the best puzzle platformers I've played (not that I've played many).
8. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - PS4
Completed Main Story: 2/25/16
TIme: 22 hours
Rating: 3.5/5
This is the first Final Fantasy I've played since FFX on the PS2. Despite my somewhat lower rating, I still really enjoyed the game. It just didn't have enough for me to want to try to play through a 2nd time to do all the things and see all the cutscenes you can't see on your first playthrough. The battle mechanics were interesting and I liked the Breakpoint/Killpoint mechanics. The only thing that is disappointing to me is the story. I think the story itself is really good (I had to read through a wiki page of it after I completed to tie everything together) but they way it's presented really shreds it. If they would have presented it more cohesively, it would have been one of my favorite RPGs.
9. Battlefront - PS4
Completed all Missions and significant MP playtime: 2/25/16
Time: 20 hours
Rating 4/5
It's a MP Star Wars game that has a great presentation. As a Star Wars fan it's really fun to play. I don't think it's that light on content either, and will keep coming back to this game with the free updates they do and once the DLC packs start dropping.
10. Street Fighter V - PS4
Completed Story Prologues; Easy Survival; Bronze Level in Ranked; ~80 Ranked matches; >30 wins: 2/25/16
Time: ?? Guessing ~15 hours but unsure so far
Rating: 4/5
I haven't enjoyed a fighting game this much since SFII on the SNES days. The core gameplay is great and I'm enjoying myself even though I'm definetely on the left-half of the bell curve in skill level. The criticisms of the game are warranted and it's what keeping the game from getting a 5/5 on my scale. I played Normal Survival mode yesterday and now understand others frustrations. It's tedious to go through ~28 very easy opponents to get to Necalli that ramps up the difficulty then to M. Bison that absolutely wrecks me.
Made great progress this month by picking back up games I started then dropped last year (Battlefront, Destiny, FF Type-0, RC Pro AM to name a few)
Now deciding what RPG to start next between trying to pick ESO back up or starting a new one. Currently debating on Fallout 4, Witcher 2 or Bastion.
Been a while since I updated. I finally beat Assault Android Cactus, that last boss is a motherf***er.
Game 22: Raiden III Digital Edition (PC)
Finished 2/21/2016 (1.5pt)
Time to complete: 66 minutes as per Steam
One of my favorite shooters from back in the day, I've never really owned a copy up until now... blasted through it in a little over an hour and had a lot of fun. The port is a little bare bones, but I'm pretty sure anybody who buys Raiden games doesn't really give a shit. Also appreciate that they give you limited credits so you can't just force your way through.
Game 23: Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Classics: Streets of Rage 2 (PC)
Finished 2/27/2016 (1.5pt)
Time to complete: 2 hours 47 minutes as per in-game timer (failed the first playthrough, restarted)
Jesus, games were tough back in the day! Got this as part of the recent Sega giveaway (Make Love Not War) and thought I'd revisit it - first playthrough I got rekt around halfway through (I made the critical mistake of switching to Blaze, then Max). Next time out I played as Axel all the way, and just barely beat the game on my last life. Still a lot of fun, although the bosses can be cheap as fuck. Had to spam F, F + B to cheese the annoying claw guy out.
Screen above isn't my screenshot - Sega's stupid emulator doesn't allow screenshots for some reason.
Game 24: Momodora III (PC)
Finished 2/27/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 54 minutes as per Steam
An entertaining little platformer that's short but relatively enjoyable. Looks like Cave Story visually, but is much more linear. The bosses are cool, but are not what I would call challenging... this one boss I beat, I barely had to move and just spammed charge shots from across the screen. Lame!
Also, I couldn't find a way to make it run in full screen - stuck in windowed mode all the way.
Game 25: Assault Android Cactus (PC)
Finished 2/27/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 5 hours
I enjoyed this game thoroughly - it's a better game than Broforce, for my money, and should have won the March PS Plus Vote To Play contest... but I digress.
AAC is the most hectic twin stick shooter I've ever played in my life! You can take multiple hits (running out of life just stuns you for a couple of seconds), but you have a constantly draining battery meter that permakills you if it empties, meaning you have to keep killing things to stay alive. This is easier said than done, as the screen can get absolutely lousy with projectiles. Thankfully, switching between your primary and sub weapons triggers a little "hop spin" that gives you invincibility frames!
One beef (and this is a common complaint): The final boss has a huge, HUGE difficulty spike when compared to the previous levels/bosses - so hard in fact, that trying to beat her took up half my playtime. Multiple forms, cheap moves, fake deaths, you name it, she's got it. When combined with the constantly draining battery life... well, let's just say that there were some (clearly justified) cries of "bullshit" around here.
Here's a game I've been really wanting to play for years. I played through most of it with a friend that I also played through both X-Men Legends and the first MUA game, but he binged it with someone else and got sick of it before I got to see the ending. By the time I was ready to just grab my own copy, the DLC had been delisted, and I couldn't justify it.
So I was thrilled when it popped up as a $10 download with the DLC included earlier this month.
Its slow, its repetitive, it overstays its welcome, and it runs like absolute dogshit. Except none of that matters and I had a blast with it. It features a super corny twist on the Civil War storyline, but fits in a great range of playable characters. Complete with cheesy pointless dialogue, but I enjoyed that, too.
If you want to pump a bunch of points into one move and watch that move fuck dudes up, this is it. This is the game. I got Cable a dumb simple laser blast that felt incredibly satisfying. I got Psylocke murdering bosses left and right with a grossly abusable crit rate buff. I got Jean Grey just turning every map into debris with excessive, frame rate destroying psychic blasts, and I got Gambit....
Gambit was there, too. He gets a real early buff to throwing stuff that's practically busted in the early-mid game. Just throw garbage at people like a true hero.
Maybe not the best game, but it was a great Marvel punchin-stuff experience.
I know I'm not the only one here that grabbed this for free. But that was the only grabbing going on here.
Because the game didn't grab me. I was left ungrabbed.
I was actually ready to call it quits when I realized I had beat it. So, this one is kind of a fluke. The writing just wasn't there. Its a really charming premise in terms of how it plays. You have a real time instant message display as you get choose-your-own-adventure choices. So when the in-game character is sleeping, you don't hear from them for a good eight hours. I just wish the writing was entirely there. I don't feel like it took advantage of the format well.
For instance, there's about fifteen instances where the dialogue options consisted of the character stopping mid sentence to go "AH!" and you can say either "What happened?" or "Are you okay?"
I feel like I ran into that exact scenario for like 25% of the dialogue choices during my last couple sittings.
The concept is solid, and the story beats are just fine. I'm legitimately curious in grabbing a sequel if I think it'll be a step up. I remember some people in here had played it, so its time for me to go looking for their feedback.
Another great outing from Crystal Dynamic, they continue to secretly make the best Uncharted games (thats right, I said it!). Like it more than the first one overall, even if its more of the same. Performance issues on PC were a shame, but the end game is much better than the first, and theres a ton of stuff to do besides the main game for those into that. My only real complaint is it feels like a 20 hour game with mechanics for a 40 hour game. By the time you have all your stuff and you feel like spending another 20 hours with it, the game is over. Still, highly recomended, will probably be in my top 10 this year.
Im still ahead of schedule with 9 games in 8 weeks, but all these 20+ hour games arent helping lol. Im not sure when ill include Darkest Dungeon, as ive now put 50 horus into it, but I havent played in awhile and im not sure if ill actually ever "finish it" (aka run the last dungeon three times. And of course theres Street Fighter V, which im already 50 hours in and theres no real ending to it, ill include it eventually I guess
Game 9: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 32 hours, 53 minutes - February 27th, 2016
I have admittedly been one of the more vocal (and probably annoying) critics of Fire Emblem Awakening ever since it came out. There are all kinds of things I didn't like about that game, from the modern anime influences even to basic game design. Birthright therefore had a lot to overcome in my eyes, and I think it did it fairly admirably.
On the negative side, the game has indeed doubled down on the "animu" stuff, evident in the ridiculous bathouse stuff, the embarrassing "Invite Ally" scenes and the absurdly incestuous overtones of some of the relationships. Even without the petting game, the otaku-ish influences had me rolling my eyes time and time again. Also like in Awakening, the cast seems too big for its own good at times, and the secondary characters barely get a decent story arc. There are entirely too many characters who join just because and then disappear into the background of your army. And even when you seek them out to learn more, the writing for their supports is so poorly written that it's hard to care enough to want to get to know them. Right along with that, the explanation for children this time around is pants-on-head stupid. I thought Awakening's was bad, but this makes Awakening seem like a stroke of genius.
On the plus side of things, the cinematic cutscenes are again gorgeous, the OST is nice and the decision for the Birthright side to trade in the standard medieval fantasy aesthetic of the series for a Japanese-influenced art style is brilliant. I honestly cannot get over how much I love the character designs for Hoshido (Takumi is the GOAT). More importantly though, even within Birthright, presumably the game targeted more towards Awakening fans, the game is mechanically more compelling. There's more tools to utilize, maps feel more interesting (if a bit gimmicky at times) and the design team addressed many of the basic complaints I had with Awakening. I'm really too lazy to go indepth with this aspect because someone else will be able to explain it better, but suffice it to say they fixed a lot.
The biggest problem with Fates is the sense of incompleteness that the whole thing leaves you with. Having finished Birthright, now I have to decide if I'm prepared to drop another $40 on Conquest and Revelation, which would bring the total cost to a whopping $80. I'm not sure yet, but I'll probably return for at least Conquest. Should I play FE F: Birthright? Whether you're a fan of Fire Emblem of old, or Awakening, yes.
Game 9: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 32 hours, 53 minutes - February 27th, 2016
I have admittedly been one of the more vocal (and probably annoying) critics of Fire Emblem Awakening ever since it came out. There are all kinds of things I didn't like about that game, from the modern anime influences even to basic game design. Birthright therefore had a lot to overcome in my eyes, and I think it did it fairly admirably.
On the negative side, the game has indeed doubled down on the "animu" stuff, evident in the ridiculous bathouse stuff, the embarrassing "Invite Ally" scenes and the absurdly incestuous overtones of some of the relationships. Even without the petting game, the otaku-ish influences had me rolling my eyes time and time again. Also like in Awakening, the cast seems too big for its own good at times, and the secondary characters barely get a decent story arc. There are entirely too many characters who join just because and then disappear into the background of your army. And even when you seek them out to learn more, the writing for their supports is so poorly written that it's hard to care enough to want to get to know them. Right along with that, the explanation for children this time around is pants-on-head stupid. I thought Awakening's was bad, but this makes Awakening seem like a stroke of genius.
On the plus side of things, the cinematic cutscenes are again gorgeous, the OST is nice and the decision for the Birthright side to trade in the standard medieval fantasy aesthetic of the series for a Japanese-influenced art style is brilliant. I honestly cannot get over how much I love the character designs for Hoshido (Takumi is the GOAT). More importantly though, even within Birthright, presumably the game targeted more towards Awakening fans, the game is mechanically more compelling. There's more tools to utilize, maps feel more interesting (if a bit gimmicky at times) and the design team addressed many of the basic complaints I had with Awakening. I'm really too lazy to go indepth with this aspect because someone else will be able to explain it better, but suffice it to say they fixed a lot.
The biggest problem with Fates is the sense of incompleteness that the whole thing leaves you with. Having finished Birthright, now I have to decide if I'm prepared to drop another $40 on Conquest and Revelation, which would bring the total cost to a whopping $80. I'm not sure yet, but I'll probably return for at least Conquest. Should I play FE F: Birthright? Whether you're a fan of Fire Emblem of old, or Awakening, yes.
Just to let you know, apparently, Revelations gives you the "true" ending (ie, a more satisfying one) than just playing Conquest and/or Birthright. Apparently it's also harder than Birthright (though easier than Conquest). You might want to look up this info of course, but from what I'm hearing, it might be beneficial to prioritize it.
Just to let you know, apparently, Revelations gives you the "true" ending (ie, a more satisfying one) than just playing Conquest and/or Birthright. Apparently it's also harder than Birthright (though easier than Conquest). You might want to look up this info of course, but from what I'm hearing, it might be beneficial to prioritize it.
See though, that still leaves this a jumble of directions to be pulled in. On the one hand, you have Birthright for the focus on fun shipping and supports (thanks to grinding). Then you've got Conquest for the reportedly more challenging and satisfying gameplay. And then last of all, you've got Revelations to give you the "true" ending (which I annoyingly can't buy until Mar. 10th).
I understand why they went this route, and it seems to have been extremely successful. But there is a part of me that wishes I could just have all of that in one game: fun supports, challenging gameplay and the true ending, rather than having to play three games to get a sampling of each in different places.
I guess I can't complain too much though, I just have more Fire Emblem to play, which isn't ever a bad thing.
True. Without spoilers, can you say if Birthright feels complete in that, if you didn't know about Conquest or Revelations, it would be a satisfying game?
True. Without spoilers, can you say if Birthright feels complete in that, if you didn't know about Conquest or Revelations, it would be a satisfying game?
If I didn't know about them, I think I'd feel pretty satisfied for the most part, especially with the gameplay being polished up.
But, that said, I won't say exactly how, but with some plot thread and dialogue hints, the game itself doesn't seem afraid to let you feel a bit unsatisfied. I wager that's deliberate though, to make me want to buy the others to figure out what I missed.
Game 06. Megaman X5(Vita) - <10 hrs; Story finished
Just like Megaman x4, I got through this with a guide and it's been great.
The game is still great, though I now realize that they were pushing Zero far too hard for my current tastes. Too bad that PSN does not have Megaman X6 because I would like to replay it again too.
Game 07. Trails in the Sky The 3rd (PS3) - <70 hrs; Story and almost all side-quests finished
I posted my overall impressions on the Trails community, so here they are and they contain no spoilers.
So, I finally finished the 3rd and it's a great game.
I don't know if I would put it over SC. Some moments drag on, but a few parts of the story hit hard. Very, very hard.
Summary of my opinion regarding the 3rd without spoilers:
- It's a giant dungeon crawler. But, since all characters are high level, it's also probably the best combat-wise of the TitS games.
- The doors are great for expanding the lore of the entire series and they also show a lot about character's past, future actions and interactions between the party. That said, I will probably remember all Moon Doors and a few Star Doorrs that I really liked.
- The main story is cool, even if most of it is predictable. Towards the end, I really liked the interaction between the main characters.
- One thing that bothered me. The last Star door has content cut from the PSP/PS3 release and I ended up seeing it in full on Youtube with an english translation. While on the PS3 version I managed to discover what was happening, the writing on the original really makes the door much more "effective".
Really, I think everyone that played 3rd PSP/PS3 should see this scene in it's complete way.
Thanks to Gu4n for helping me with a few things on the game.
Now, I will return to Zero no Kiseki and should be over soon since I stopped near the last chapter.
I know I'm not the only one here that grabbed this for free. But that was the only grabbing going on here. Because the game didn't grab me. I was left ungrabbed.
Alright, I've had a master post up for a while, but now I finally have a chance to dig into this.
Game 1: Dragon Age: Inquisition: Trespasser DLC
I played and enjoyed Inquisition when I played it in 2014, but I definitely tired of the gameplay by the end. Jumping back into it with this DLC reminded me of that. I like some things about this DLC. It provides a good bridge between Inquisition and the next game in the series and does a good job of ending the Inquisition story. I also like how some things change depending on what you did in the main game. However, I worry that the major choice you make at the end of the DLC won't play a major role in a sequel because that sounds like a massive undertaking. I also wish this DLC had no gameplay. I think the more diplomatic parts of Inquisition were the best parts of that game, and this DLC sets it up to be only that. However, that quickly changes which disappointed. I'm glad I played this, but it doesn't live up to its potential.
Rating: 3 Stars
Game 2: Rise of the Tomb Raider
There are so many things I love about this game. I love the environments, I love the tombs, and I love the thrill ride sections. However, it just has too many problems and a lack of focus that actually makes me like it less than the previous game. First, the input lag on Xbox One is insane and really drove me crazy at some points. It made the game much more frustrating to play than it needing to be. But this game's larger problem is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Some of the mechanics, such as crafting health, are completely at odds with the gameplay. The game tries to be more than a cover shooter, but it does such a poor job that I wish it was just a cover shooter. The semi-open world and metroidvania elements also don't help this game. I got to the first area and wanted to do everything, but once I saw that some things were blocked off I decided to just move on and only come back once I beat the game. It also annoys me having to relearn skills I had in the previous game and that I never get the dual pistols which made a big entrance at the end of the first game. Rise of the Tomb Raider would benefit from less ambition. The tombs are great, but they should have been part of the game instead of optional side activities. This would give Crystal Dynamics a chance to better control the pacing of the game. They probably won't move in that direction though and will instead go more open world in a third game.
Rating: 3 Stars
Game 3: The Witness
The Witness is one of the best games I have played in a long time. This game does not insult the intelligence of the player and instead expects you to figure out its rules. However, it also isn't cheap and frustrating. None of the solutions are arcane bullshit. Instead, the game gradually teaches you a language and constantly adds more mechanics to it. I've never seen a game do so much with so little. The Witness is truly a modern masterpiece, and I don't have enough nice things to say about it.
Rating: 5 Stars
Game 4: Strider
I grabbed this game a while ago off of PS+ and finally decided to jump into it. It's fun and cool. The animations and gameplay are over the top in a really satisfying fashion, and it is just awesome to see a modern day re-imagining of a game like this. It isn't a great game though. The combat wears thing by the end, the item distribution is oddly back heavy, and the story is... there. The game isn't very difficult either, and when it is it feels cheap more than anything. It's a problem that by about the halfway point I wanted to just run through the entire thing. I'm glad this game exists and I enjoyed my time with it, but it's not a great game.
Rating: 3 Stars
Game 5: Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V is a great game. The fighting is top notch, the characters are great, and the visuals/animations are beautiful. However, this is offset by the lack of content at launch. The story mode present is pathetic and should have been replaced by a regular ladder mode. The tutorial teaches you nothing about how to play the game, and it's ridiculous that you can't play a Player v. CPU match. I love this game and will keep playing it for a long time, but it has so many issues right now. I don't blame them for releasing it now, and Street Fighter V might be a 5 Star game one day. But for now, it's just too content deprived.
Rating: 3 Stars
Game 6: Sunset Overdrive
When I bought an Xbox One last summer, this was the game that I got with it. I played through the majority of it last year, but then I went away for a week and never came back to it. However, once I did I was reminded about how much fun it was. I was surprised with how quickly I was able to pick up the controls after being away from it for so long. But I immediately got hooked again and played through the back half of the game in one day. I really love this game. Traversal is one of the most important things to me in a game, and Sunset Overdrive nails it. The world is also fun to traverse because of how beautiful it is. The humor can be hit or miss, but most of the time it either didn't bother me or actually made me laugh. There were only a few instances where I found the game to be grating or cringey. The biggest problem with the game is the mission structure. There is never much more to it than travel to place and kill things, but that's okay because both of those are really fun in this game. The boss fights also have an incredible sense of scale, and I love how some of them bring you through the city. Sunset Overdrive is chaos, but it's a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite games of this generation, and I hope we see a sequel one day.
Rating: 5 Stars
16) Rocket League - 30 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 30 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.
Game 14: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Game 15: Assassin's Creed Unity
Alright, these took me a bit longer than anticipated, but I finished these two over the last 2-3 weeks (I've actually been done with Black Flag since about two weeks ago, but forgot to update until now.
First, concerning Black Flag, I still really like this one. Sure, it has a few intensely frustrating sequences, but for the most part, very enjoyable, and more importantly, very refreshing. I still hold that there is absolutely no reason for that game to be part of the AC franchise, and the meta-plot and in-time assassin storyline is easily the weakest part of the game in my opinion. For the most part, sailing the world and being a pirate is just much more fun, and while there is a decent amount of 'pointless' collectibles, I feel they are sufficiently spread out for it not to become a nuisance. Of course, I am still also very much an opponent of the real time limitation of the fleet missions, but given the minimal influence they have on the main game, I can live with them.
Overall, I've been reminded why Black Fag belongs with II and Brotherhood at the top of the AC fold. Interestingly enough, it is also to date the only AC game I've bought twice (originally as a physical version on the Wii U, and now digital on PC). Since I bought a complete version, I also got to try Freedom Cry and the short Aveline thing, both of which are fairly adequate, though I'm not sure how I might have felt about them if I'd had to pay extra.
Unity, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. While I eventually grew accustomed to its pace and playstyle, I can't remember many titles that have given me as hard a time as this one. The opening hours were riddled with frustration and disbelief for me, and I found myself wondering if it was worth it continuing (after all, playing games should be fun, not stressful) and asking why this game was being so reluctant to let me like it.
Even after I managed to get over that initial hurdle, issues both minor and major kept coming up, be it the over-abundance of pointless side objectives, the story and main character that did not capture me, at all, the fact that I had to buy skills I'd always just gotten for free, the still sub-par performance, or any other of the many annoyances the game kept throwing my way. Now, after almost two weeks, I am finally done, and above all, what I feel is relief. I can't imagine myself ever picking this up again, and I'm glad that I can look at the 100% completion and tell myself that there's no reason to do so. I don't think Unity is bad - it's certainly nice to look at, and at its core, it is functional, but there are simply so many design decisions surrounding that core that make it unloveable to me. Never mind the fact that I played the heavily patched version, giving me an already improved performance, and not forcing me to use companion apps to get rid of all the chests. At the end of it all, playing Unity just felt like a chore, and I'm glad it's done.
I could probably rant on, but I just want to get this behind me. I still have Rogue and Syndicate sitting here, but I need to take a break from the franchise for a while. Rise of the Tomb Raider arrived last week, so I'll probably tackle that next.
Yeah, I thought the same too, but after playing the recent FFXIV patch I realised they're actually pretty similar in content. The story 'episode' took me around 3-4 hours alone which is about the same as your average (for example) LiS episode. This isn't counting new optional dungeons etc, of course.
I dunno, at the same time it still does feel a little odd. Like I didn't really finish a game. I'll think on it.
Game 13: Hacknet (PC) 27/02/16 - 28/02/16 5.8 Hours
I haven't played many hacking simulators but this is by far my favourite one yet. An amazing terminal based hacking sim with UNIX commands, the game starts off simple and then gets more technical as you advance and learn about the world of hackers in the game. I actually learned a bit from this game as I had no experience with a UNIX system before, I've always just used a Windows system. The devs plan to add multiplayer and an expansion in the future, I look forward to coming back to the game with all the new changes and additions to the game.
Game 26: Tales From the Borderlands - The Complete Season (PC)
Finished 2/28/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 11.9 hours as per Steam
I first played Tales From The Borderlands' first episode on PS4, when Telltale released it for free last year as a teaser. Had my jollies with it, but didn't feel like I had enough fun to warrant the price of admission (and was seriously turned off by TTG's shenanigans with the boxed versions - the last episode isn't on the disc? Really?).
Eventually I gave in to GAF hype, and bought the game at a bargain basement rate on Steam...
All I can say is, WOW. IMHO, this is the best freaking game Telltale ever made, and I've played through most of their recent output, with the exception of Game of Thrones. Yes, I think this is better than The Walking Dead Season 1 and The Wolf Among Us. It just kept getting better from episode to episode... and the last one in particular is almost a fucking wish fullfillment checklist. So, so, badass.
I know most people consider the Telltale GoT to be mediocre, but I am SO buying that in the next Steam sale. Need... more... TTG.
Game 27: Blue Estate: The Game (PC)
Finished 2/28/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 3.1 hours as per Steam
Now this was a pleasant surprise. An on-rails shooter in the vein of Time Crisis, with cheesy comic book humor, even cheesier voice acting, decent graphics and the scoring system from 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand (an action classic, for those not in the know).
The auto-aim is very forgiving and tends to assist you in getting headshots (or nut shots), and the game knows you'll be playing using a mouse, so they compensate by throwing a crapload of enemies at you. This leads to some pleasingly hectic firefights, although the long levels (for a rail shooter) makes things kind of samey at times.
Had a truckload of fun with Blue Estate, and heartily recommend it. Not much replay value for people who are not fans of beating their old scores in "arcade mode", so if you're on the fence, wait for a sale.
Game 8: D4: Dark Dreams don't Die: I don't know what to say about the game. The writing is good, the characters are great and weird although sometimes the voice over is a little bit cheesy performed. Overall good impression of the game even with a nasty cliffhanger. Game 9: Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS): I'm speechless. For many people this game is hit or miss. For me it was the former. I know there is a lot of praise for the game around here but I didn't expected such a great game. While it is uncomfortable to play I got used to it pretty quick. The flight sections are where I had the most fun. On the ground it is less enjoyable due to controls but still good. But what really makes the game shine for me are the characters and story. The characters are all likeable,, the dialogue is smart, fourth wall breaking and funny. Add a great performance from all the voice actors to that. It is sad that the action of the gameplay makes it hard to follow all that. While the story has a pretty generic premise of bad vs. good, it comes with so many twists that it makes it interesting. My only disappointment with the game was that I couldn't use the second nub on the New 3DS for camera control. Game 10: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (Vita): I thought I'd never see the day where I can say, I finally beat the game. Took me about half a year. It wasn't because I hated the game, far from hit. It was because I sometimes hit a wall which I didn't want to breach. So I put it down for a month or two, played it for a bit and put it down again. Due to longer train rides, I took my Vita with me and played FFT during the ride. Wouldn't have finished it without it. Enough for the personal story, let's get to the game. I like SRPGs even though I'm not a big tactican. And Final Fantasy Tactics: WotL is a great one with a few shortcomings. Sometimes you are denied overview because there is always something in your view. Not even moving and tilting the camera will do anything. And the game is a tad too slow in my opinion. The random encounters are annoying, too. But nevertheless, the game is amazin. I has beautiful sprites, great characters and a story that is on GoT levels of treason, backstabbing and twists. If you haven't played it, you should. Game 11: Framed (iOS): Fun, little interactive PuzzleComic. You swap panels to get through a level. Neat idea and it ends before it can get annoying. Game 12: Game Royal (iOS): Game Royal is an adventure game based on a German late night show. It takes characters, items and jokes known from the show and uses it in its stories and puzzles. It is a neat little game, that is over faster than you expect. If you understand German and have a (very) little itch for adventure games, you can check it out. It is free and available on iOS, PC and I think Android. And I'm not working for them.
Interesting concept, but hampered by some poor design and lack of depth. It's an easy plat, but you have to grind a lot for BigNotes, the in-game currency. The game's got some good ideas, but many other simulation games have done it a lot better.
