original post



Game 16: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (PS3) - 6 hours;

At first I thought this game was a simple arcade title, in particular since it starts pretty straight forward and you can't really experiment with the controls from the getgo. But then it did unfold into a great action game. There's lots of variety in the stage mechanics and set pieces. And all of it looks great, the spritework is high tier. The difficulty is pretty fair. It doesn't feel easy, but you can see most enemy patterns and such coming on your first try. The controls feel stiff at first, but I suggest that was done on purpose. For example, the double jump can only be done when your jump is at peak. So you really need to focus on the controls to demonstrate your ninja skills. Which makes it more rewarding to play. The only frustrating parts might be overly finnicky platforming sections in a couple of sub stages. In fact, this is how you will die the most. It can eventually feel quite annoying to fight your way through obstacles and enemies excellently, keeping your (pretty big) health bar at max, just so you lose a bunch of continues at bottomless pits - which can be placed in surprisingly tough situations. But while frustrating, even those aren't that hard to master. The game can be beat on normal mode after a few retries.

Spieler Eins said:

original post

Game 16: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (PS3) - 6 hours;

At first I thought this game was a simple arcade title, in particular since it starts pretty straight forward and you can't really experiment with the controls from the getgo. But then it did unfold into a great action game. There's lots of variety in the stage mechanics and set pieces. And all of it looks great, the spritework is high tier. The difficulty is pretty fair. It doesn't feel easy, but you can see most enemy patterns and such coming on your first try. The controls feel stiff at first, but I suggest that was done on purpose. For example, the double jump can only be done when your jump is at peak. So you really need to focus on the controls to demonstrate your ninja skills. Which makes it more rewarding to play. The only frustrating parts might be overly finnicky platforming sections in a couple of sub stages. In fact, this is how you will die the most. It can eventually feel quite annoying to fight your way through obstacles and enemies excellently, keeping your (pretty big) health bar at max, just so you lose a bunch of continues at bottomless pits - which can be placed in surprisingly tough situations. But while frustrating, even those aren't that hard to master. The game can be beat on normal mode after a few retries.

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Excellent game! Glad you enjoyed it

OT

Just finished up Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. It was an Uncharted game. Not as good as 2. I never enjoyed the combat in these games since it is well only OK. I like these games for the story, set pieces, and traversal. I will Play 4 one day...

OP

Game 8 - Guitar Hero: World Tour (PS3)
Ah, back when the market wasn't completely oversaturated, those were the days. Actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the setlist, as I remembered it being weaker back in the day. Got plenty of classics like Beat It (which I totally forgot was actually in the game), Hotel California and Pull Me Under, as well a selection of modern tracks like Love Spreads, Re-Education and Assassin that I love. I remember a lot of people being pissed off at the tracks in different languages back in the day, but I still think songs like Antisocial and L'Via L'Viaquez have their place on the game, great songs.

Rank: Great

Game 9 - Dark Souls - Platinum Tropgy (PS3)
At least one person told me I could count the platinum separately, so I'm running with it. Not much that I haven't already said about Dark Souls, so I'll recap what I had to do to get the platinum. 1) Finish an NG playthrough. Accidentally consume Sif's soul so you have to finish the game an extra time. I'm an idiot. 2) Finish an NG+ playthrough. Struggle against the Four Kings early on to get the Darkwraith covenant. Grind Souvenirs of Reprisal for the Darkmoon covenant. Forget to turn in Eyes for Graveservant covenant. 3) Finish an NG++ playthrough. Remember to turn in Eyes. 4) Get to the Giant Blacksmith in NG+++, claim Artorias' greatshield for Knight's Honor and the platinum. Burst into tears.

Rank: Wonderful

Game 10 - Salt & Sanctuary (PS4)
For all it rips off from Souls, and that's a fair amount, Salt & Sanctuary actually goes a way in establishing a bit of it's own identity, which I respect. They could've easily carried the Souls ball to the end of the game, but the addition of the brands, a unique levelling system and modified crafting system do help create a bit of a different experience. Combat, at least with a big-ass greatsword, feels solid and weighty, and the weapon combos make for some awesome looking kills. Dodging is a little clunky in some encounters though. I played entirely with a 2H greatsword, so getting the hell out of the way was my only option, which got a bit tricky with some of the bigger or faster bosses. The final boss in particular basically forces you to get the hell away during it's main combo, because you can't dodge fast enough to survive it. All in all though, really enjoyable experience and I'll probably shoot for the platinum later on.

Rank: Great

Index

09. Touch My Katamari (PSV, 2016/02/15, ~4 hours)

I'm thrilled to have a fully functional two-stick driven Katamari game for on the go, although it's pretty bare-bone when compared to the last game in the series I played: Katamari Forever. I've beaten all levels on a single Vita battery charge with plenty of % to spare. There's some replay value and cosmetic unlocks, but it's all redoing stages. I'm not too bummed out though, since I picked up the game on sale when 75% off and will revisit eventually.

10. Super Galaxy Squadron EX (Steam, 2016/02/21, 6 hours)

EXtra addition to the vanilla version of the game. The initial flavor is still playable via launcher option and I do prefer some of its aspects over EX. They went back to the drawing board and redid major parts of the sprite-work. Everything is a bit more fleshed out and beefier, although the collision hit boxes are still as small as in the vanilla release. This makes things a little weird and fuzzy in EX. Dodging patterns in vanilla felt a bit more technical precise because of the small sprites in relation to their hit box. It's okay after a while, but there are jarring moments of disbelieve, when you got hit or not hit. Overall presentation is nicer with additional voice work in EX's arcade "story" mode. Unfortunately no tate mode as of today, but it seems the devs aren't done yet and more features will be added over time. I wouldn't call EX the definitive version of SGS as of now, but they might get there over time. The package of vanilla and EX is great combo though.

11. Ori and the Blind Forest (Steam, 2016/03/11, 10 hours)

Master class in every aspect of game design and then some, instant classic. I enjoyed this metroidvania romp for its varied gameplay, music, art direction, character designs and soulful story.

12. Antichamber (Steam, 2016/03/19, 6.6 hours)

I LOVE first person puzzle games, but Antichamber rubbed me all the wrong ways: illogical puzzles, lack of direction, lots of back tracking and poking around in (un)dead ends. The presentation grimey, unpolished, no music, just ambient humming, complete lack of story and narrative. The ending as anticlimactic as it gets. There's a lot of love for this game, maybe it's just me. Antichamber never clicked for me and ended up being mostly annoying.

Original post


23. SuperHot (PC, 2016) - 2:27
Completed the campaign.

SuperHot fulfills the promise of its original demo video from a few years back. It's a shooter where time seems to stand still, and the world only moves when you move. These strange powers give you the ability to dodge bullets and take on dozens of attackers as naturally as breathing, and it's a really heady concept when you get into the flow of things.

SuperHot's minimalist aesthetic, all calming white surfaces and glittering red crystals, looks gorgeous and helps focus your attention on the important things: what in this environment can I use to shatter as many red bodies as possible. Your vocabulary in the game is small, seemingly intentionally so. Run, jump, turn. Shoot, punch, throw. Each level is an exercise in figuring out how to chain everything together; your reward is a replay of all your actions in real time, making you look like a complete bad-ass.

At two hours and change (probably less for some people), SuperHot isn't a long game, but in this case that might be an advantage. The campaign does just enough to intrigue, and it manages to show you several novel twists on the same core concept without running any of its mechanics into the ground through overuse. Anyone who wants more will undoubtedly by drawn to the game's Endless Mode, where you take on all comers for as long as you can dodge bullets and duck fists. There's a story, too, though you can safely ignore it. (Or can you?)

Hi friend. You have to check out this game. It's one of the most innovative shooters I've played in years. [ENTER]

Game 6: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (~45 hours)
I did not expect to sink forty-five hours into GTA: Vice City, but I did.

It's important to remember this is an important game. Rockstar North proved they weren't just a one trick pony with 3D open-world games after GTA3. It's also important to remember Rockstar popularized the 3D open world genre with this game's predecessor.

Vice City builds and/or improves on what GTA3 established in pretty much every way. It's a bigger world, there is better voice acting, they've done away with the silent protagonist, there's more licensed music... the list just keeps going.

The biggest shortcoming of Vice City is this:
As a big fan of GTA4, it's nice to play Vice City for some perspective on how 4 came to be. This said, the game is too long, and the flaws GTA4 does away with are noticeable having played the next generation's sequel.
3/5

OP

Game #5: Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) - 120 Hours
Basically the main reason why my progress in this challenge has been slow. Coming in, i knew the game was supposed to be massive, but I never expected to put this many hours into it. Best part of the game was just going through all the side quest and enjoying the deep story in some of them, and also exploring Mira and finding hidden caves to explore or turning around the corner to run into an overpowered enemy that could snap my party like a twig. I wish I could of played a little longer to finish all the sidequests, but I was getting a bit burned out during the endgame. Mostly due to my progression just slowing down to a snails pace as the difficulty spike ramps up steeply out of nowhere. Other problems i had with the game included terrible sound mixing during cutscenes and I wasn't too big on the character designs ( just slap a helmet on everyone and problem solved). Overall, its an excellent game with a ton of content to offer.

Game #6: Undertale (PC) - 12 Hours
Finished neutral ant true pacifist route. I loved every minute I played this game. Hilarious, clever writing and the attention to detail in this game has really made it a one of a kind experience. The battle system itself is interesting where you can fight enemies like a traditional turn based RPG or showering them with kindness so you can spare them. Alternatively, you can beat them up to the point where they are in state in which you can spare them to get the best of both worlds. Dodging enemy attacks include an interesting gameplay mechanic which I can only describe as Warioware and bullet hell shooter have a baby. Only complaint is that I would of loved to have more actual puzzles in the game. After the true pacifist route, I can't bring myself to go through the genocide route.

Game #7: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS) - 62 Hours
My first game of the FE Fates trio. Played on Normal/Classic, while trying to keep everyone alive. My high playtime is basically me restarting a chapter over due to being careless with one of my weaker units near the end of the chapter. Anyways, gameplay-wise this game blows Awakening right out of the water. Fates in general is a lot of more challenging than Awakening. While playing Birthright, I enjoyed the map designs, more than Awakening, and some of the gimmicks thrown into some of the maps ( my favorite one being the paralogue with the three boats that kept swaying back and forth which changes the battlefield.) Also having this game contain different classes and replacing the typical European medieval setting with an Eastern aesthetic was a nice refreshing change. I wasn't a big fan of the support conversations and was a bit disappointed to obtain units who could only interact with the MC/Corrin. While I did enjoy the new fort building mechanic, I just wish they didn't limit the amount of structures I can have. Going to play Conquest next, after a short break.

Currently Playing:Project X Zone 2, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Life Is Strange

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Game 19: South Park: The Stick of Truth

After Grim Fandango, I was in a backlog clearing kind of mood, so I went ahead and started up South Park: The Stick of Truth. I bought the game on steam when it first came out 2 years ago, but never finished it (I was somewhere in the middle of day 2). I always regretted not seeing this one through, so I'm happy I finally got around to it.

I decided to do an achievement sweep in a single run, so I rolled Jew (in order to find Jesus). Turns out the class is pretty fun (some of those specials are pretty ridiculous / disgusting ( )). I was a little worried all throughout that I might miss a Chinpokomon or piece of equipment, but things worked out in the end. I still love the story and writing here, and how authentic it all feels. Even if I know a certain scene is coming up, I'm still kinda shocked how well it's pulled off and just how much it makes you feel like you're part of a multi-part episode.
That aside, I feel that the core gameplay mechanics - the mild exploration using various special skills, the combat system, the character building, make it a fairly solid RPG (I probably shouldn't be surprised with Obsidian as the developer). I was positively surprised, and mildly excited about The Fractured But Whole, but now, I'm completely on board, even if I'll probably have to rewatch some of the post-season 10 material to make sure I get all the references. I suppose this entire episode also makes me wonder why decent licensed games are so few and far between, seeing as how amazing the end product can turn out when you combine rich source material with proper execution.

Oh no, ha ha ha... PS1 version yes! Good news! It really was as good as I remembered it to be! Still the best, eat it remakes!


Games Beaten: 17 / 52
Total Playtime: 371:15:58

01 - ??

Master Post


Game 10: Assault Android Cactus - 4 hours - March 20th, 2016
I sat down with a couple friends today and ended up finishing the campaign. Obviously, the real challenge is in playing for score and searching for those S+ ranks, but even just playing a casual run through the campaign was a blast. The game runs smoothly, the music is delightful (the vocal song is particularly adorable) and each level presents a unique challenge. However, one of the most admirable things about the game is that it's a worthwhile experience for both casuals and the hardcore. Somehow, it manages to combine the best parts of bullet hells and twin-stick shooters and packages that into an accessible, fun challenge.
Should I play AAC? Absolutely, and grab some friends to join you as well!

Game #14 - Digimon Heroes [Android] (Too many hours, finished in March 20)

You don't count the number of hours you spent in a f2p game, you just accept it was too high.

I was missing a Digimon game earlier this year, and since I don't have a Vita to play Cyber Sleuth I grabbed this one.
It's a very simple card game: you match 3 cards with the same color or number to deal damage to your enemies, and each digimon has a skill that can be used after a certain number of turns.
Unfortunately it is very bloated; it introduces no new mechanic after the first third of the progression, the cost to level your monsters is exponential (so in the last levels you either have to grind A LOT, or have to be lucky with your skills) and every Trial (a "chapter", there are 9 in total) is exactly the same as the one before but with stronger enemies.
It was a fun pastime, but it needs more substantial content to deserve a recommendation.

Original Post

theecakee said:

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

Spoiler

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. Interesting world that makes me want to go hiking in the mountains now lol. This was a unique experience and a great short story to play through. If you liked Gone Home, chances are you would like this. 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. I also can't navigate around worth shit, I'm awful with directions and maps...in some ways I was annoyed with that...but it was like the only task thing you had to do in the game.

⋆⋆⋆⋆
4/5

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Another game down...3 almost 4 months in and only 5 games down! I did try some other games like Ace Attorney, but couldn't get into it. I wouldn't mine picking up Stardew Valley and giving that a go soon.

6h-ish. After playing through the whole game, I'm pretty sure it was programmed by a robot in an experiment to try to understand human humor. It's the only explanation I can find to such uproarious jokes such as a psychologist bellowing "HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL!" every 2 seconds, a psycho that apparently falls in love with animal corpses she scavenges and stitches up, a title which is a pun, and every NPC which finds himself in a sticky situation thinking "It's been a long day" every. goddamn. time.

At least the gameplay is good. The "sticker" way of interacting with items works well, and the platforming, while awkward and unnecessary, never really gets on the way. The logic is of the "Cat hair + Syrup = Moustache" variety, but as there is not a big amount of items and "reading" the NPCs minds usually gets you some tongue-in-cheek hints, it's hard to get stuck because of this. It's easier to get stuck because you plain don't like the game though.

PS: If my suspicions are correct and this game has been programmed by a robot, I would be very worried by the fact that the antagonist is "The Man", who owns several robot slaves and whose apparent motivation is to troll everyone, and his mother is a kindly robot woman. Prepare your shotguns.

Updated OP

Game 21: Hotline Miami 2
The change from a mostly melee-based game to a shooter-based one makes some of the levels much more frustrating and tedious. And too often the right solution is to stand next to a door, shoot one bullet to alert the enemies and then just mow them down as they come inside the room. But when it clicks it clicks and I still had a lot of fun with it.

Game 22: Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Sunken King

Game 23: Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Old Iron King

Game 24: Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Ivory King
3 exceptional DLC's that got progressively better and have way cleverer level design than the main game. Masterpieces.

OP

OP

Pros

- Presentation: From the characters to the pause menu, it's a pretty stylish and unique looking game.
- Gameplay: It's fun at first but gets a little repetitive.

Cons

- Progression: Nearest comparison for it's rogue-like progression is Spelunky. Except it's not as varied and doesn't really touch the player very clearly so it's very unsatisfying when you have to earn back all your stuff.
- Music: Repetitive and dull besides the theme music.
- Performance: Hitches all along the way then became unplayable due to a recent patch, gave up there.

Pretty disappointed overall. 4/10.

6h-ish. Given how Episode 4 ends, and that they've already said that Episode 5 will be "A new adventure", I've therefore decided that said Episode is additional DLC and that I've completed the game itself.

That out of the way, Minecraft: Story Mode is Diet Telltale. And considering Telltale is already Diet Adventuring, M:SM is the tap water of the genre. No body, no taste, no nothing. Just 6h of the 2010s equivalent of a Sega CD FMV game. You can argue that's Telltale in a nutshell, and that might be the case. But Game of Thrones has an amazing setting, TWD has a damn-worthy story and The Wolf Amongst Us seems to be Telltale's finest. This is... nothing of that sort. It does have likeable characters, but Minecraft's world is... well, a sandbox, so M: SM doesn't have a setting to back it up.

But boy, is it pretty, even on mobile. And if you're a fan of Minecraft, you will sort of be wowed by the amount of love it professes to it. This alone will keep you going for the first Episode. If you survive the overwhelmingly boring Episodes 2 and 3, you'll get to this game's treat, a well-made, interesting Episode 4 which ends the game in a satisfactory note, with no need for the future Episode 5.

PS: Telltale needs to do SOMETHING with the buggy messes their Android releases are. I had to change the language to English because if set in Spanish, it jumps between German, Portuguese and Italian seemingly at random and for some reason.

Updated OP

The List!
Detailed Impressions 01-12
Detailed Impressions 13-xx


16. Far Cry Primal - 14.5 Hours


A change in setting that puts away the guns in favor of clubs and arrows and ferocious animal sidekicks. It's enough to breath a little life into FarCry's tried and true formula, there are moments that happen while in between outposts with different animal, enemy and a friendly AI interacting with each other that makes the world feel like its own living thing that you're only a small part of, but those moments are merely facades quickly seen through with a more cursory look. Everything presented here is so mechanically shallow it feels more like a concept or demo unnecessarily stretched to fill an entire games' amount of content, rather than a tight and refined experience like Blood Dragon was. The lack of depth in narrative, character customization, combat, side quests and animal taming and commanding results in an initially entertaining game that quickly becomes only superficially different from its predecessors and struggles to support the scope of an entire game.

Archive Post


Game 10 - Golf With Friends[PC] ★★
This was just a stupid little purchase to get a quick minigolf game. It's not very good when held up against nearly any other game, and it has a bit of a "my first Unity game" feel to it. The online worked without issue, which is pretty impressive given how ropey the rest of the presentation is. You get 36 holes for your money, and some of the holes are pretty fun. There is about 60 minutes of fun to have here with a friend, including the time spent messing with the mutators (you can change ball shape, gravity and bounciness). Not a bad choice to waste an hour or so.


Game 11 - XCOM: Enemy Within[PC] ★★★★
Went back and started this when the XCOM2 hype was in full swing. I was originally playing Enemy Unknown and got about a quarter of the way through before discovering the DLC was just the same game with some additions, so I restarted and finally worked my way through it. It was as fun as it was flawed. The pacing for EW seemed way off to start. The Exalt missions, although easy, didn't let me give my team time to recover from one mission to the next, and was constantly nagging me to send off one of my best. Likewise, having to retire units for nearly two weeks to make them MEC/genetically enhanced soldiers just seemed to mess with the rhythm of the game. That being said, I'm glad the new unit types were in, because they were the most fun to use and I'd probably have gotten bored if it was just regular troops all the time. The assault on XCOM HQ was really thrown in at the wrong time, and it decimated my team when it introduced new enemy types earlier than they were supposed to have been. And the game definitely sags in the middle, when you're just getting random mission after random mission that you dare not turn down. I almost quit around then, but I brought myself back by actually customizing my squad members. It's so silly, but it really makes you care about your grunts. Also, I turned my girlfriend into a 12 foot tall hulking mech, so in addition to being fucking hilarious, a curious new fetish was born. All in all, I'm really glad I finally got to go through this. The technical and pacing issues are easily forgiven when it plays such a tight and accessible tactical game.

40h-ish. Completed game in Keen mode, not bothering with post-game this time.

Oreshika, also known as "Feudal Eugenics Simulator 2015, starring Nueko" is basically the lovechild of a japanese roguelike and Shin Megami Tensei. If this sounds good, you're basically right. For those not in the know, in Oreshika you control a clan that has been cursed to have its members die after around two years of life. Also, they can only procreate with similarly-cursed clans or directly with the gods. Fortunately, they reach maturity in a matter of weeks. So basically, in order to remove the curse, you throw your guys against the enemies you find, and when they die you breed more to throw them at the new enemies that appear.

What I like about Oreshika is that it gives you loads of control on how to play the game. Want to make it a sprawling 100-hour epic? You can, by tweaking the difficulty level, which actually only affects the speed of your progression through the game. Do you prefer steamrolling your enemies, or carefully defeating them by intelligently applying buffs, debuffs and healing? If you don't got time fo dat, you can always grind and overpower everyone in the game. After all, most characters are viable if they're decently geared and leveled.

That is... until the final boss. If you got there and you don't know what paternal/maternal genes do, what joint skills/secret arts are, what's a Betrothal, or you never used Masking Mist before, you're boned. I got there simply breeding with the best gods I could and stomping on every boss in my path via dedicated grinding/zerging, and the final boss destroyed time after time for more than a week. I needed to Betroth my guys to some awesome QR characters and then breed THEIR kids with the top gods in Heaven, spend more than a million ryo in some top-tier QR Heirlooms, stockpile Technique/Vigour restoring items, and even then it took me like 5 tries. It was that brutal.

So don't be like me. Make your own Heirlooms as soon as you can, pay attention to the genes from minute 1, make money, stockpile Devotion, and be prepared for a crazy difficulty spike near the end of the game.


Updated OP

Game 25: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Movie Tie-In with a combat system about as shallow as in the Assassin's Creed games. The traversal parts are fun though. In the end, not a very remarkable game with zero ideas. How I wished the 2008 reboot had been a success that Ubi Soft could've built upon, Now we'lll likely never see another game in the series again....

OP

Game 21: | Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy | - | March 16 | - | 4 hours |

I'm sad that I didn't listen to all the people saying this first Frogwares Sherlock game should be skipped, because it really should. You never get the feeling that you actually play as Sherlock Holmes, the gameplay is finicky at best and the whole thing is just a bore. Ugh. Avoid!

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Game 22: | Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring | - | March 17 | - | 8 hours |

After the disappointment that was the first game, this surprised me with how pleasant it was. The Sherlock feeling is there right from the start. There are still some strange gameplay parts (timed stuff is always horrible) and some pixel hunt feeling but the good parts are really good so I can overlook that. Nice one!

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Master post

The Master Post

Game 08 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

This is the first Zelda game I have completed in quite some time, and my first experience with the Top-down style of Zelda game. I thought the rental system was very clever, albeit a little tiresome later on down the line. The dungeons proved quite challenging at times and the wall-merging mechanic was employed in basically every dungeon to some degree, but never became overbearing. Essentially, every dungeon boiled down to utilising a single item + the wall merging. The story was neat, and I thought Ravio was interesting, whereas most of the other characters didn't really appear to have much to them. It took me a lot longer than I would've liked to complete Link Between Worlds, and I doubt I'll be going back to play it anytime soon. It's probably a combination of leaving a rather large gap between playing it, and the tiring final boss battle, but for however good I thought the game was, it's re-playability isn't something I'm interested in. Especially not with 44 more games to complete this year.

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OP

Game 14: Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS) 02/03/16 - 19/03/16 58 Hours
I really enjoyed Bravely Second, the story is pretty light-hearted compared to the 1st game but the characters bonding with each other is my favorite part of the game, couldn't help but laugh and smile during them, really enjoyed the party chat and tent events. I truly hope they'll make a third game, so they can answer all the mysteries they have presented in the previous games and conclude it as a trilogy to the storyline/series.

Game 15: Pony Island (PC) 22/03/16 - 24/03/16 4.8 Hours
My friend gifted me this game and I actually thought it was about ponies or some joking game and I was totally wrong about it. I think it is safe to say that my friend hates me and wants me to have nightmares. With all that being said, I found it very interesting and original, had a blast playing it and made sure I completed all the achievements, that's how much I liked it. I still think my friend hates me.

original post

Game 17: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PS3 replay) - 2 hours

S3&K might be a grander adventure, but nowadays I feel Sonic 2 simply is more fun as a platformer. It strikes a good balance between platforming and focusing on the control of your speed. However, there's still a few bullshit moments and obstacles you can't realistically escape without memorization (and it's hard even with that). I forgot how annoying the finale was though. BS endbosses, in particular if you forgot how to beat them. It's like the barrel in Sonic 3. I wasted like 4 continues that I've gathered beforehand, because I didn't remember what to do on the last one.

Also, I was interested in the role of Mark Cerny for this game, but he sure as hell wasn't named in the credits.

Game 18: Super Mario Land (3DS replay) - 30m

Still works for nostalgia purposes on the Virtual Console, but it's not really a good Mario game. The music is great and that's about it. The level design is simply nothing special and could be any other GB platformer. It doesn't really feel refined compared to the NES games and then it ends on some generic shooting level. I guess you can applaud that they tried a new setting for Mario, which would be desperately needed in the series nowadays.

Main Post

Game 20: Sleeping Dogs

I should probably be spending more time preparing for exams. At least I can feel semi-good about myself for clearing out my backlog, one game at a time.

The next game on my list is Sleeping Dogs. I bought it cheaply during a steam sale (how else?), and it's been sitting in my library since, so I figured I should finally play it. At the outset, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect (I only remebered some footage showing the hand-to-hand combat, so GTA in China, perhaps?), so I tried to go in with an open mind.

First off, I think the plot, while a little confusing (due to the abundance of secondary characters I'm having a hard time distinguishing between), works fairly well. The criminal scene angle provides a natural sense of progression, going from first contact and initiation to the inevitable inter-gang warfare and eventual showdown with rival leaders. The fact that you're just an undercover cop doesn't really change much about that. In fact, I'd say that the references to Wei Shen's police background and identity are probably one of the weaker parts of the story presentation (at times, I was actually hoping he'd just go rogue). Still, the package as a whole works, and provides plenty of incentive to play through the main game (which I'd put in stark contrast to eg AC:U, which was more tedious than fun).

As anticipated, there was much focus on melee combat, including the characteristic environmental finishers (which are fun to watch the first few times, but eventually become little more than a tactical component used to drive up the triad Score during missions). I appreciate that there is a decent amount of variety in how you approach the combat, and that you are encouraged to mix up your attacks.

Ultimately, though, I feel that this comes at the expense of gunplay. While the game's campaign provides a ready explanation for why it's to hard to get a weapon, I would have liked to be able to just try different guns outside of missions. Alas, when you're not in a gunfight with rival triads, you are actively discouraged to fire a weapon, even at enemy NPCs (owing mostly to the weirdly perceptive police force that always seems to appear out of thin air when you attack someone in the middle of nowhere). I also would have liked more variety than just a dozen weapons, half of which are hand guns.

At least slow-motion during vault attacks and car chases is a lot of fun, although at times, I found myself wishing I could to May Payne-esque jumpshots, as well. In fact, whenever I play games like this, I eventually get to the point where I'm disappointed in my traversal options. A big problem here, in my opinion, is the use of context-based traversal in lieu of a simple jump button, which, on the surface, should give you more options / flexibility, but often ends up limiting your mobility.

A few final notes:

• I like they way in which side content is presented. All the optional missions are engaging enough for me to want to do them.
• Mini-game options are a little disappointing (I guess RDR forever spoiled me in this regard), but the karaoke 'rhythm game' is pretty decent, particularly because of the song selection (which is small, but good).
• Speaking of music, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of the music in the game, especially on the various radio stations. I certainly didn't expect to be hearing Dream Theater come on while street racing.
• I'm quite fond of the way collectibles were done here. Every collectible has a clear purpose (the shrines give you health upgrades, the statues give you access to new moves, the lock boxes give you clothes and / or money, and the cameras are used for drug busts). I also like that a good portion is more or less out in the open, so you can potentially stumble upon them on your own. But what I like most is that there is a way to get maps for the various collectibles without having to refer to a guide (which you almost definitely end up doing if you want to get to 100%).
• While playing, I couldn't shake the feeling that the game was really meant to be played using a controller. While camera control and aiming with the mouse are fine, default key assignments and a general stiffness to movement make the keyboard seem ill-equipped for the task at hand.
• Because, for some reason, steam showed their achievements, I ended up buying the two story DLC packs. I think both of these were fine, but nothing exceptional, either. They mostly revisit locales from the main game and are relatively short (3-4 hours each maybe if you do everything). At least they introduce some new gameplay. Also, menu navigation can be a pain.

I feel like I've ended up writing more than I originally intended (guess I just had a number of competing observations come up during my time with the game). Above all, though, I really liked it. There's not much incentive to stick around once you hit 100%, but I still got a decent amount of time out of that. Above all, I appreciate that it's not overly grindy or bloated. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and that's more than can be said for most sandboxes.

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Game #49: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path (DS) - ★★★★★★★★★★

I opted to not use a screenshot as nothing I could find seemed non-spoilery enough, either revealing characters who return from past games or revealing clues about the cases. Regardless, Prosecutor's Path is an excellent game, and I am going to write in much greater detail in an LTTP thread to it. I liked the first Investigations game quite a bit, but as a lot of people did, I found some problems with it in terms of pacing and logic. Here, I felt that a lot of it was ironed out, and not only that, it gave us some of the best episodes in the series, particularly 4 and 5 (as per usual, haha!), though the 3rd case stands out as being the flat-out best 3rd case of the series. PP has a lot of great new characters, and does a lot with its old one. The one thing that really bothers me however, relating to Dual Destinies, is that (spoilers for both Dual Destinies and Prosecutor's Path)
And thus, my 52nd game (before I decided to convert certain games to non-completions)!



I held off on beating games for a while, as I wanted my 52nd game to be an awesome game, and this ever so was one. If you are able to play it, I do recommend that you play it!

EDIT: LTTP thread, unmarked spoilers for all localized Ace Attorney games!

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Game #50: Nintendo Badge Arcade (3DS) - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Nintendo Badge Arcade isn't too bad, for what it is. It's basically a matter of it being a bit of a waste of time, haha. I've accumulated a fair number of badges so far, and barring a few characters, I think I've gotten every badge I care to own. Furthermore, as someone who spent a bit of money on it (particularly to try out the themes they were offering), it was a huge disappointment - much of the themes they offered were flawed in that they lacked a song corresponding to the theme, and even worse, some were utterly generic, like the Bowser's Castle theme. Ultimately, I deleted the app, having decided that I got all I wanted out of it.

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Game #51: Wrecking Crew (NES) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Wrecking Crew is a decently good game - it's at the very least a unique one. Your objective is to break all of the walls in a level, while avoiding strange enemies (including Eggplants?). The gameplay and puzzles are enjoyable, but at times I found the levels kind of frustrating - for instance, as you're walking along a platform to go break a wall, a fireball can very well spawn right in front of you, forcing you to backtrack. This can ultimately result in an unwinnable situation if you're being chased however, making for cheap deaths. I didn't beat every level in the game, but I tried to sample a good number of levels from throughout the game, including the last level.

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Game #52: Ice Climber (NES) - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Ice Climber is... not quite so decent, haha. I can't be too harsh on it given that it was an NES launch game, but nevertheless, it's a pain to play. Just like Wrecking Crew I sampled levels from throughout the game (including the last level, which after a lot of struggle I got through). In this case, it wasn't cheap deaths as much as it was deaths related to poor controls, and gosh does it ever have poor controls! Not only are the physics really weird, they gave these physics to a game with icy, slippery platforms. What kind of monsters are these people?

Also, now that I've updated the rankings, this is officially my 52nd game.

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Game #53: Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (GB) - ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is a solid Game Boy game, and a respectable follow-up to Kid Icarus. In fact, in some ways it's actually better. The NES game always had a big problem with starting out with a very high difficulty curve, putting off a lot of players. In this case, while OM&M is perhaps a little too easy, it certainly isn't effortless, and is a lot more approachable. It's at least worth playing if you enjoyed the first one.

Link to OP: https://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=190927712


Game 32: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PC)
Finished 3/25/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 8.6 hours as per Steam

I first played Max Payne 2 waaaay back in the day, and while my potato PC at the time didn't really do it justice (a really shitty GeForce card, I can't remember the specs), I remember having an absolute blast with it.

Coming back to it all these years later, I was extremely pleased to see how well MP2 has aged. The same relentlessly morose tone, but tinged with bits of hilariously black comedy. The so-bad-it's-good dialogue. Constantly saving and reloading scenes, not because I was dying a lot but because I wanted to try some bad-ass new way to take it on - jumping off a balcony with akimbo dual ingrams, filling sinister Eastern European motherf**kers with lead.

"One last thing left to do. I was compelled to give

Spoiler

Vlad

his gun back... one bullet at a time." Cue the Caruso gif.

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Game 21: Resident Evil HD Remaster

I'm really on a roll this week. I'd been meaning to do this one for a while (I was waiting for a steam discount, to be honest). Now, with the 20th anniversary at hand, and nicely reduced, I finally jumped in and got Resident Evil HD Remaster. I actually got pretty much every RE game on steam while I was at it, but this is the big one, so I just had to start with it.

I'm not sure what I could possibly say about REmake as a game that hasn't been said a million times before. It truly is a timeless classic, the quintessential survival horror, and easily one of my favourite games of all time. There is no way I could possibly do it justice, so I'll talk a bit about my personal experience with it, instead.

REmake was my first M-rated game (I was a fragile 10-year old boy at the time). It was my older brother who wanted to play it, but ironically enough, I don't think he ever really gave it a proper shot, while I ended up playing it so many times I feel I could play it blindfolded. At the time, it was still relatively early into the Gamecube's life, and I believe I only owned 4 other games besides it (Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race Blue Storm, Rogue Leader, and Melee), so it immediately stood out besides most of my other games. When I first started it up, I had no real notion of what kind of game it was (I grew up a Nintendo kid, never owned a Playstation, and had not heard of the original before this). I only knew that it was supposed to be scary.

That first time, I felt a biting chill creep through my spine the moment the short reanimation sequence before the title screen started up. When I launched the game, I was immediately blown away by the opening cinematic and the seemingly impossibly high-fidelity environments. Still, I also immediately noticed the what I at the time thought were 'clunky' controls.

Initially, I didn't get to experience much more of the game. When I encountered the first enemy (the one snacking on Kenneth), I was so utterly terrified that I turned off my system. This initiated a cycle of fear and renewed resolve that would keep me going for years. Every time I started up the game, I'd launch a new playthrough, get a little farther than before, but eventually lose faith. To this day, it's the kind of thing I have to beat in one or two sittings. I simply can't come back to the later parts of the game after a longer break because I don't trust myself to have left off the game in a decent state.

I'd especially like to highlight a few moments I still remember vividly, almost 15 years later.

When I first wandered through the Residence and eventually found my way down into the Aqua Ring, I had no idea what lay in store for me. The short shark POV movie was almost enough to make me quit right there, but I managed to push through. What ended up getting me is me creeping along the upper ring, scanning for more enemies, only to be killed in one devastating snap. When the Game Over screen came up, I couldn't believe what had just happened.

On the next attempt, I managed to clear the Residence, but my joy was short-lived. The instant I arrived back at the mansion, I was completely thrown off my game when I encountered my first Hunter (once again, I found the POV scene to be completely petrifying). I killed it, but I couldn't go on.

Those two moments each managed to kill a playthrough in spectacular fashion, and even now, when I know the game inside out and probably haven't died in years, I still get tense whenever one of them comes up. Well, those two, and of course whenever I have to deal with Lisa. I eventually got to a place where I could comfortably mess around with her and exploit here sluggishness, but until I'd beaten the game a few times, she was the absolute bane of my existence. Bad enough that she does a devastating amount of damage with every hit, but she can't be killed, either. There are few things worse than feeling absolutely helpless in the face of an opponent. A decade ago, I had to rely on what I called 'emotional support' in order to make it past her. Playing with others spectating calmed me down, and this has fundamentally shaped the way in which I approach playing games, in general (I started doing showcase playthroughs of games they didn't know for my friends and younger siblings, for example).

Lastly, REmake also holds what is probably one of my biggest achievements in video games. When I began to get a better hold of the game, I was still relatively young (15 years old, maybe). I'd partially used a guide the first time I beat it, but after a while, I began noticing things that weren't mentioned anywhere in the guide. When I suddenly realised what the significance of the billiard balls and lamps in the Residence's bar is, I was dumbstruck. A short while later, I found myself creating my very first vial of V-JOLT, and consequently bypassing the Plant 42 fight. This has to be one of my favourite puzzles of all time, simply because of how low-key it is. I'd always assumed there was no further meaning to any of it, because it is completely optional. I now always operate under the assumption that absolutely every element of a game has a purpose, and have become a much more attentive and meticulous person for it.

I could go on and on about what this game means to me. It is true that I didn't finish the actual REmake today, but rather a fancy PC port of it, but all the same feelings came back up again this evening. I don't really find the game all that challenging, anymore. I know exactly what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go, but every time, it is an unquestionably fun experience. I think that's what truly speaks to its quality and replayability - being able to do the same run over and over again, and it always feeling as fresh and intense as the first time.


Update: I decided to also go for a Chris run. I usually go for Jill because of the lockpick, extra inventory space, and of course Barry's invaluable assistance, so this was a bit of a change of pace. I also decided to try a higher difficulty, and the extra enemies certainly made things a deal more interesting in the beginning. Still, things calmed down rather quickly after the first visit to the mansion.

Somehow, I also ended up beating the 5-hour timer without trying, and although I made a point of exploring everything. I'm beginning to think that the 3 hour run really isn't as big a deal as I thought, especially on the lower difficulties. I think I'm also going to give the no-save run a go sometime later this year. I still haven't died (I'm beginning to think I'll have to force it to get the achievement), so I probably could have gotten this a long time ago.

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Game 16: LISA the Joyful | 2016-03-16 | - | 3 hours | ★★★☆☆

I really really liked LISA the Painful RPG and this DLC expansion is more of the same, for good and for worse. The battle system is still pretty repetitive and simple and the exploration can be somewhat tedious, but the atmosphere, music and story is top notch.



Game 17: Choice of Robots | 2016-03-17 | - | 4 hours | ★★★★☆

The recent disappointment that was Hatoful Boyfriend made me dive in to another text heavy game in my backlog - Choice of Robots by Choice of Games, and I'm really glad I did. This game is amazing. It's an entirely text based choose your own adventure story with an insane amount of choice and branching paths. I replayed it twice and will likely go through it a couple of more times before the year is over.

You play as a budding young robot maker about to put the final touches on your latest creation. The game lets you decide what kind of traits the robot should have, how it looks and how it will behave. Sometimes your actions will influence the robot in ways you couldn't have predicted. Sometimes you'll end up starting a war with China. Or maybe you'll get famous and attract fans, some of whom may be paranoid government spies. Sometimes you might create robots that want to take over the world. Or maybe you ignore your robots and try to date that hot friend of yours instead.

Unlike a lot of branching narratives in games, this one actually makes you feel like your choices matter and have actual consequences. Part of that comes from the text interface - creating a unique path is easier with words than it is with 3d assets of course. It's still quite an accomplishment, and while there are obvious mandatory gates and progressions points, the story feels alive and interesting thanks to the interesting subject matter and some pretty decent writing.


Game 18: Valkyria Chronicles | 2016-03-24 | - | 30 hours | ★★★☆☆

I played this game on PS3 back in 2008 and enjoyed it quite a bit, but never got around to finishing it. Picked up the Steam version on sale and thought it might scratch my turn based strategy itch. It did, mostly. The combat is... weird. I mean, I like it, but it's more of a puzzle game than a strategy game. Enemy placement is fixed and most maps are about finding the specific trick to beating it, rather than applying tactics in a broader sense. I wish it were a bit more dynamic I think. Anyway, it's still enjoyable and has a nice sense of progression.

The story on the other hand... ugh. I think my tolerance for generic anime tropes and melodrama has reached a new low in the last few years, because I remember enjoying the story and characters the first time around. This time, I found myself skipping cutscenes and skimming through most ot the text just to get a cursory feel for the story. That's not to say that the story is awful or anything, I just found it to be incredibly boring and unappealing.


Next up: Read Only Memories. Looking forward to this one, seems right up my alley.

A Link to the Past said:

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And thus, my 52nd game!

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Congratulations, especially on finishing so early! Are you aiming towards another specific games beaten milestone, or just playing them as they come up now?

maybe this is a stupid question but Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga should count as two games, right?

shortsFortallPeople said:

maybe this is a stupid question but Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga should count as two games, right?

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We have no official rules to this, so you can decide that yourself. But since the game consists of two games on one disc I would personally count them as two.

eefara said:

Congratulations, especially on finishing so early! Are you aiming towards another specific games beaten milestone, or just playing them as they come up now?

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Thanks! My goal is to get to 104, though I may continue on past that.

shortsFortallPeople said:

maybe this is a stupid question but Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga should count as two games, right?

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It's two games in one right? I think so.

shortsFortallPeople said:

maybe this is a stupid question but Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga should count as two games, right?

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100%

A Link to the Past said:

Thanks! My goal is to get to 104, though I may continue on past that.

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Wow! I look forward to seeing what else you play! Do you keep a backloggery or anything to keep track of your games?

eefara said:

Wow! I look forward to seeing what else you play! Do you keep a backloggery or anything to keep track of your games?

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Nah, I find Backloggery to be really unwieldy. I just have an OpenOffice document I made one day when I did inventory of all my unbeaten games, haha.

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Game 19: Beyond Oasis/The Story of Thor (PS3) - 6 hours

Basically, a Zelda clone. But the focus more than often goes further into the action route. And while you, like in Zelda, can only hit in 4 directions, the combat is still much more profound and fun. It controls pretty well and adds several layers of combat depth and agility. On the other hand, the exploration and puzzle solving isn't as strong as in Zelda. Nonetheless, it's competent. As a unique feature, you must summon spirits from the elements in your sorroundings, which makes for some decent variety in puzzle gameplay. Unfortunately, the game falls a little flat when it comes to atmosphere. There's even less story than say Zelda 3. And I wasn't particularly fond of the art direction, which is a mix of anime and western saturday morning cartoon. However, the graphical fidelity is one of the game's strongest points. It easily has one of the best spriteworks you'll see from that generation. In fact, I can't think of more impressive spritework in any other SNES/MD game. The biggest reason it still doesn't really convey a sense of being in some oriental adventure story might be the music. I was shocked to find out that the music was done by the same person as Streets of Rage 2. The soundtrack is an incomprehensible mess and I don't even know what they were aiming for. It's a bummer, since the game is very good otherwise.

Game 8: Spooky's House of Jump Scares. PC.
Played it because my kid wanted to play it with me. It was something. She really enjoyed the arcade game where you stab people. Uhhhh, I should be worried.

Game 9: Undertale, PC
Replayed it again, still so good. Went total pacifist this time. What else is there to be said, the game os phenomenal.

Game 10: Arkham Knight, PC
Trash. Dumb story, Hated the Batmobile, didn't bother finishing all the sidequests.

Game 11: Blazing Star, Neo Geo.
Great horizontal shooter. But I definitely wtf'd at the final boss, an evil space fetus.

Game 12: Resident Evil 0 HD, PC
LOVED this game on the GCN, still find it quite good. But man, the inventory management drove me crazy in this one. So little space to carry shit around. Still leagues better than any modern RE though.

The List!
Detailed Impressions 01-12
Detailed Impressions 13-xx

17. XCOM: Enemy Within - 40 Hours


I was pleased to see how this expansion to Enemy Unknown simply made the whole game bigger without making it feel different. More maps, more missions, more enemies, entirely new classes and ways to customize your soldiers, new weapons, new currencies. Enemy Within adds so much to the game and does so seamlessly, feeling neither tacked on nor beyond the vision of the original Enemy Unknown. While there may be some issues with the pacing or the presentation, the focus, as always is the gameplay and XCOM's best-in-genre turn-based combat is made only better here. Coupled with a wide array of gameplay and difficulty toggles means everyone can get exactly the experience that suits them.

Link to OP


Game 33: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (PC)
Finished 3/26/2016 (1pt each - Base game, Nightmare at North Point, Year of the Snake)
Time to complete: 15.8 hours as per Steam

I first played (and thoroughly enjoyed) Sleeping Dogs on it's original run as a free PS Plus title, and fully intended to buy a retail copy just to have it in my collection. This never happened, for one reason or another, so I jumped at Squeenix selling it for $4.00 on Steam.

Ostensibly a spiritual sequel of the old True Crime series from back in the day (a mediocre GTA clone), Sleeping Dogs evolved into a significantly different beast - a halfway house between GTA and Sega's Yakuza franchise. The focus on story is much sharper here - a fun, if tropey take on Chow Yun Fat-style Hong Kong action cinema. SD also succeeds wildly at establishing a sense of place - HK is one of my favorite places in the world to travel to, and this game absolutely nails the feel of it.

The gameplay is also on point - Arkham Asylum-style kung fu combat with environmental attacks, smooth third-person gunfighting (you can engage slow-mo while vaulting over cover!), and extremely fun driving mechanics with that pitch-perfect powerslide feel (developer United Front had ex-members of the Need For Speed team on the payroll).



Since the DLC campaigns were free with the DE, I finished those as well (playing them for the first time), and unfortunately these are much more of a mixed bag.

Nightmare at North Point is the Sleeping Dogs take on Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare DLC, but is overall much less successful. They didn't do enough with the mechanics or the plot, and it just feels pasted on. One of the unlockable costumes here is the get-up of the dude from Ong Bak though, so that's a plus.

Year of the Snake was a much more enjoyable ride. Essentially a half-serious continuation of the Sleeping Dogs campaign, Wei in the main campaign. Here the developer seems to well and truly be taking the piss with the mission scripting, and I laughed out loud several times. Much closer in tone to a Jackie Chan flick.

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Game #54: The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures (Wii U) - ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The game is definitely fun enough - enjoyable as far as its mechanics and level design go, and for people who enjoy The Angry Video Game Nerd, the humour and references will not be overlooked. Unfortunately, it's a game I'll never truly beat because I was simply not able to beat the final boss, as the game requires you to mash fire instead of having an autofire, which puts serious strain on my wrist that I cannot keep at it for long enough to get his pattern down. Thus, this is as far as I go. While I can understand the reference behind why they did it this way, doesn't mean it's fun or beneficial for me!

Link to OP


Game 34: The Legend of Dark Witch (PC)
Finished 3/26/2016 (1pt)
Time to complete: 2.1 hours as per Steam

Needed a break from all the crime-related games I've been playing lately, so I decided to de-stress by pulling this 3DS port out of the backlog.

LODW is essentially an animu-styled clone of Mega Man, with six "robot masters" (which in this case happen to be superdeformed girls), special moves you can learn after beating each, some "Dr. Wily" stages that only unlock after you beat the first set, and a penultimate area where you have to re-fight all the bosses by jumping into capsules. They didn't forget the difficulty as well, as on Normal or above the game is hard as rock. Devs did try to balance out the difficulty by giving you the ability to upgrade your stats by using earned cash - if the game's got your number, you can grind your way into more health and heavier weapon damage.

I also loved the unlockable character they added after the end credits ,except tuned for expert players.


Game 35: The Detail (PC)
Finished 3/26/2016 (1pt of all released episodes - 1 & 2)
Time to complete: 3.4 hours as per Steam

... aaaand I'm right back into the crime genre. :-/

Jesus motherfucking Christ, it's HBO's The Wire, in game form. Where have you been all my life?

Well, OK, it's not as deep or as good as The Wire, but what is? The important part is, the nailed the tone, the brutality, and the addictive multiple-perspective storytelling.

A simple adventure game in the vein of Telltale, The Detail is one of those "choices matter" adventures with only light puzzles impeding progress. If that sounds good to you, I highly, highly recommend you pick this up, as it goes on sale quite often (Note: Only Episodes 1 and 2 are finished as of this writing).

The only caveat: Also in the vein of Telltale, this game is buggier than a box of roaches. The developers seem to be active on the community page and are responsive to feedback, but it's scary as hell not knowing when your inability to progress is due to your own stupidity or the game freaking the fuck out.

hersheyfan said:

Game 35: The Detail (PC)
Finished 3/26/2016 (1pt of all released episodes - 1 & 2)
Time to complete: 3.4 hours as per Steam

... aaaand I'm right back into the crime genre. :-/

Jesus motherfucking Christ, it's HBO's The Wire, in game form. Where have you been all my life?

Well, OK, it's not as deep or as good as The Wire, but what is? The important part is, the nailed the tone, the brutality, and the addictive multiple-perspective storytelling.

A simple adventure game in the vein of Telltale, The Detail is one of those "choices matter" adventures with only light puzzles impeding progress. If that sounds good to you, I highly, highly recommend you pick this up, as it goes on sale quite often (Note: Only Episodes 1 and 2 are finished as of this writing).

The only caveat: Also in the vein of Telltale, this game is buggier than a box of roaches. The developers seem to be active on the community page and are responsive to feedback, but it's scary as hell not knowing when your inability to progress is due to your own stupidity or the game freaking the fuck out.

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Oh man, this looks awesome. Definitely going to pick this up in the future.

By now it's clear I won't beat 52 games this year but I like writing these mini reviews so...

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Game #6: Mega Man Zero 2 (GBA VC).
Time Played: 12:06 hours.
Completion Reached: Cleared the story with A rank.

Mega Man Zero 2 is the sequel to Mega Man Zero (duh), which is some sort of successor series to classic Mega Man X where the evident preference for Zero over X finally made the former the main character. In this series, the story narrates a war between reploids and humans because of Cyber Elves or something like that. Story isn't the main focus of these games...

Either way, I talked about Mega Man Zero 1 last year in a review. Essentially, these games take a lot from classic Mega Man X. The movement is very similar to those games, with dashes, long jumps, wall climbing and all the cool stuff that made the X series so good in the SNES days. Main difference between the two series is that, first, Zero is the playable character with X relegated to plot and, second, you aren't limited to the buster as a weapon. Instead, you pick 2 weapons and can actually use both at the same time. There are 4 weapons: buster, saber, chain and shield. In all honesty you practically never need to use anything other than the buster and saber to clear the game, but the other 2 can be fun from time to time.

Gameplay is very solid in MMZ2, mainly since it takes so much from an older established series. Level design is usually pretty cool, with enemies that are fun to battle and many challenges. However, there are some very tedious "puzzles" (crystal one mainly) and, sometimes, the small screen makes hazards hard to see. One interesting thing about the game is that it has a rank system that grades you depending on how well you did in every mission. This is very typical but what's cool about it is that, if you have high grades, boss battles are tougher and you get extra abilities after beating them. This gives the player an incentive to actually try and do a good job in the missions.

Presentation-wise the game looks pretty good with cool detailed sprites, although there's a lot of recycled content from Mega Man Zero 1. Music is, sadly, surprisingly unmemorable for a Mega Man game.

Overall, I really liked the game. If you like challenging platformers with tight controls then I strongly recommend this one.

Part 1

14. Conker's Bad Fur Day - March 25th

Certain archaic elements aside, I prefer the original 64 version to the Xbox remake. Even the 5th gen graphics work in its favour, as it exists as this hilarious parody of the kind of funny animal collectathon that Rare got lambasted for endlessly cranking out.

After Donkey Kong Country 2, Bad Fur Day is my favourite Rare game.

15. Castlevania Symphony of the Night - March 28th

Actually tried exploring and discovering secrets this time and enjoyed it a lot more than I did when I played it years ago.

16. Demon's Crest - April 2nd

I love this game so much. It's this amazing blend of Mega Man, Castlevania and Metroid with a visually stunning gothic artstyle and loads of gameplay options. One of the best games nobody's played.

17. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - April 9th

It's certainly aged, and learning about all the cut content is disheartening, but Soul Reaver is still pretty dang great. Kain and Raziel are stunningly complex and interesting for characters in a AAA mass market game made for the PS! in 1999.

18. Bloodborne - April 20th

Wasn't really able to get into Dark Souls, so I was more hesitant to try Bloodborne, and I'm glad my initial impression were wrong because I love the shit outta this game.

19. Soul Hackers - April 22nd

The hidden gem of MegaTen. Soul Hackers definitely shows its age, but the late 90s cyberpunk aesthetic is just way too cool for me not to overlook its problems.

20. X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse - April 29th

I'm a huge nerd for the X-Men so the amount of continuity porn in this game makes it all the better for me, but then I'm the kind of person who gets really excited about being able to play as Sunfire and Bishop.

21. Katamari Damacy - May 1st

Probably shouldn't count this because I booted up a two year old save on a whim and cleared out the last few levels, but eh, might as well. I love the sincerity Japanese put into making weird games, unlike how Western developer usually go for the over the top "ironic" brand of
humour.

22. Undertale - May 17th

My PS3 is borked so my Dark Souls run is probably dead, so I booted up Undertale in the meantime. It's Undertale and Undertale is fantastic, and that's all she wrote.

23. Ratchet & Clank - May 24th

It's probably the weakest main entry in the series, but it's still Ratchet & Clank and that's always fun. The levels are tiny, the writing has taken a huge nosedive, the characters all stand ramrod still during cutscenes, the cast feels really underdeveloped and none of the new characters leave any impression, there's a small amount of weapons, and there's very little meat on the bones with only two aerial missions and no arena. Still, I liked how they worked Qwark's heel turn in this game almost as much as I liked it in UYA, it is genuinely gorgeous, the expanding of Nexus' jetpack was a highlight for me, and at the end of the day it's still R&C so I forgive a lot.

Whether we get a Nexus sequel or a follow up to the reboot, I imagine that the massive success the game has over the movie will give Insomniac more creative control for the next installment.

24. Grim Fandango - May 28th

I never had any desire to play adventure game, and that hasn't changed, but I did end up loving Grim Fandango a whole lot, because the bizarre characters and setting drove me further and further. I say with no shame I used a guide, because I can only do so many puzzles about filling balloons with packing foam before it starts to interfere with my love for Manny and Glottis.

25. Bravely Second - June 12th

A massive improvement over its predecessor and dethroned SMT4 as the best RPG on the 3DS. I get that it recycles a lot of content from the first game, but I haven't played Bravely Default since it came out so it came off more like a trip to an old neighbourhood I haven't been to in years. The writing and characters are massively improved over Default's fairly standard JRPG fare, and the story plays with the same twist Default received so much scorn for in such a brilliant way that can really only be compared to Undertale. Even if Default burned you bad, you gotta try out Second.

26. Dark Souls - June 22nd

Well, that was something.

I didn't like it as much as Bloodborne, even though it does a lot better than its successor in a whole lot of really important ways. I don't even think I saw half of the content. I didn't really get sucked in until Anor Londo, and the last few areas like Tomb of Giants and Crystal Caves were garbage, so there was a pretty brief window where I was having as much fun as I was with Bloodborne, which didn't really take long for me to really get addicted to.

I'm not entirely sure I'll want to play it again anytime soon. It's not as infinitely playable as Bloodborne was to me, where I just wanted to dive back in the first chance I got. Still, what a game.

OP

Game 16: Card Crawl (Android) 25/01/16 - 25/03/16
I can't believe but I finally did it, I've reached Depth 10 thus finishing Quest mode thus completing the game, only the 18th person in the world to do it according to the scoreboard. I don't know how long it took me but I basically spent most of my free time during work and whenever I was free playing this on my phone, as it is quick to play but hard to put down when I'm trying to reach depth 10 but keep going backwards in the process. If I had to describe this game, solitaire mixed with dungeon crawling. I'll probably continue playing this whenever I'm bored or have given up on trying to beat Downwell on my phone.

Game 17: The Walking Dead: Michonne Episode 1 (PC) 26/03/16 - 26/03/16 1.5 Hours
This was a lot more violent and action packed than I can remember from the other Walking Dead Telltale games. It is typical Telltale fanfare so far but I can't complain as this was a gift from a friend.

Game 18: Shadow Blade: Reload (PC) 26/03/16 - 27/03/16 2.6 Hours
An action-platformer that plays more like a hardcore platformer game IMO because I'm pretty sure I've died more from death traps than enemies trying to kill me. It is your typical ninja clan killing storyline that is told via comic panels and the action is pretty simple, you have pretty much 3 weapons to use out throughout the whole game, your sword, throwable ninja stars and your chain sickle which is the same button as your sword attack. Every level comes with a timer which makes you want to rush the level to complete and you are graded on how many collectables you collect, how many enemies you kill, how fast you complete the level and how many deaths you have suffered. It plays very much like a hardcore puzzle platformer, overall the game is short but enjoyable due its simplicity.

Roarer said:

Oh man, this looks awesome. Definitely going to pick this up in the future.

Click to expand...

Yeah you should! I was pleasantly surprised, it's actually really good. Wait for a sale so the bugs don't piss you off as much, I got my copy for like 2 bucks. ;-)

Game 10: Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie
DS - 48 hours - Beaten 27/03/16 - ★★★★
My third Dragon Quest game after playing 4 and 5 on DS last year, and well, I think it was definitely the weakest of the 'trilogy'.
While 4 and 5 both had a really unique aspect that made them stand out, this game was really just a standard JRPG, which isn't a bad thing, but it means it wasn't really memorable. Overall I did enjoy my time with the game, though I was a little soured by the crazy difficulty spike of the final boss, I had to grind for around 8 hours which was no small feat.

Main post

Another RPG and further behind I fall

Onto the Dark Souls II DLC next, which I decided I'll count separately, so there's three, then Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, then onto Dark Souls III!