Original post


16. Hidden my game by mom! 2 (Android, 2017) - 0:31
Caught her.

Second verse, same as the first. From a cynical perspective, you could say this second set of puzzles is not much different from the first, but I think that's selling the game a bit short. What I like most about this equally bite-sized sequel is how the first game, small as it was, set up conventions and expectations that the second game subverts.

There's still not much to it and you can still complete Hidden my game by mom! 2 in a long train ride, but it's just as amusing as the first and it's just as cheap to boot (though the ads feel more intrusive).

22. The Room - 4 Hours




Platform: PC (Steam)
Completed on: 24.5.2017
Rating: 6 / 10

Quite well done little atmospheric puzzle game, but the touch origin is obvious and at times boring.

Now playing: Prey (PC), Horizon (PS4), Zelda: BotW (WiiU), Chrono Trigger (SNES)

OP

#12 Kingdom hearts 1.5



Picked up the 1.5 + 2.5 PS4 collection never having played the series before at more or less of a whim. Spent an odd 30 hours tackling Proud mode to completion.
The one and only thought that went through my head many times while playing the first game in this pack is "why haven't I played this wonderful thing before?"
Rarely does a game this long make me smile from ear to ear in an as wide a grin as frequently as this game has.
The camera controls were by no means adequate for many of the fights the game threw at me, but it's a minor complaint at most.

Id add the prequel to KH2 too that is chain of memories as game 13, but not sure whether I should given I left it at about 3 hours played and just watched the story on youtube with that gameplay.
It feels like such a gigantic misfire to just abandon real time ARPG combat for that.

GAME #21 - Old Man's Journey - 1 Hour - 6/10 - 5/27

Been in a bit of a funk for the past month or so and haven't been able to finish any games that I've started. Thus, I decided to just play through something super short to get back in the grove.

Anyway, this is a lite point and click game where you guide an old man on his journey (duh). You manipulate the environment with the mouse by raising or lowering it and solve simple puzzles this way as you try to get the old man through the area. The meat of the game is the story, which is told without any text or dialog, and recounts how the old man fell in love, started a family, and gave it all up to go back to the sea and see the world. It's not exactly a gripping narrative, but it's sweet and emotional all the same. The game looks like a story book, and there's a decent amount of interactivity in the enviroments.

In terms of word-less point and click games, this is no Samorost 3. There's very little challenge, and the game is very short with no replay value. This is a game that you can very easily beat 100% and refund on Steam without any problems, though I would certainly never do that and would be never suggest that anyone do that.

1. Gothic | PC | 2nd Jan | 30h | ★★★★☆
I finally got the incentive I needed to play this game after watching A Love Letter to GOTHIC's Open World Design. In this regard it didn't disappoint. Somehow, every part of the open world seems intentional. I particularly liked how every pack of enemies felt like a vital resource for experience and items. Terrible combat and bugs with a rushed and buggy latter-game but, overall, a rich and gratifying rpg experience that many games today could learn from.

2. Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations | NDS | 15th Jan | 20h | ★★★★☆
A fantastic third installment to the original trilogy. Great music, great characters and more twists than a Spanish soap opera.

3. Battlefield 1 | PC | 1st Feb | 23h | ★☆☆☆☆
This game feels like a Sisyphean hell devised for the punishment of Counter Strike players who were too verbally abusive during their time on Earth. An eternity of holding a sprint button before getting blindsided on your way to an objective; map control a distant and bitter memory from other, better designed, games. I actually had a lot of fun in my 100+ hours of Bad Company 2 back in the day, which I credit to more consumate map design.

4. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Crushing) | PS4 | 3rd Feb | 10h | ★★★☆☆
I love the first half or so of this game. The gameplay starts to become unstuck in Syria though. Restrictive combat arenas and unflinching enemies undermine the potentially fluid gameplay of the Uncharted series, validating the series's most unfavourable, and often underdeserved, perception: chest-high wall simulator. Despite that there are fantastic sections throughout and the spectacle and the banter dazzle and entertain.

5. Nioh | PS4 | 25th Feb | 61h | ★★★★☆
Nioh's attack animations are the best. There are few games where executing basic combos gives me such visceral gratification. Although a From clone in many respects, there are some contributions to the action genre that are unique and engaging: zone control in the form of Yokai realm(/s?), timed stamina recovery and a fully fledged loot system complete with smithing, enhancement, item abilities, ability inheritence etc. Unfortunately, I think the difficulty balance is quite wonky in places. Once you master the mechanics, most humanoid bosses become trivially easy in the late-game until they start throwing 2 at you at once, forcing you to resort to cheap tactics. Said cheap-tactics can also completely trivialise the game if you don't resist the temptation to use them.

6. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters | PS4 | 28th Feb | 12h | ★★★★★
Playing Nioh made me want to replay Bloodborne again. So I ran another character through the dlc and most of the main game. Bloodborne is just a clear winner for best game of all time for me. No other game strikes such a perfect blend of agency, challenge, mastery and atmosphere.

7. Dark Souls: The Ringed City | PC | 2nd April | 10.5h | ★★★★☆
I was let down by the initial area but not by the proceeding ones. The ending blew me away. Sad to see Dark Souls go but it's clear that From Software need a clean creative slate.

8. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade | GBA Android | 3rd April | 35h | ★★★★☆
Playing this with save-states is definitely cheating. However, abusing the RNG to maximise level-up stat bonuses became an obsession that utlimately diminished my enjoyment. I'm looking forward to playing a FE game without the temptation to explore all possible permutations at any given juncture. That aside, the mechanics were tight; as I'd expect from the same studio who made Advance Wars. I'll probably skip the more anime games on the 3DS and go straight to Echoes or the upcoming Switch entry though.

9. Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Switch | 14th April | 105h | ★★★★★
This game feels like being a kid again and visiting someone else's house. You get to run around and explore the garden, climb some trees, poke about for frogs in the pond, pick up a stick, get bored of the stick, find a better one and so on. Absolute freedom. I love that the creativity applies to the combat too. Which is suprisingly engaging for a Zelda game. What was up with that terrible voice-acting though? As a brit, I was thoroughly uninpressed at the attempts at classical English.

10. Nier: Automata | PS4 | 12th May | 40h | ★★★☆☆
I was actually quite disappointed with Nier: Automata. I love that it plays with genre and narrative structure. There's also some killer music, voice-acting and animation work in there as well. But the combat and story fell flat for me. The combat because the enemy design doesn't encourage any particular strategy other than the occasional dodge and the story because the lack of a strong overarching plot. To expand on the storytelling: it feels like Yoko Taro wrote a bunch of moments that he felt were impactful but were undermined by their detatchment from an overarching plot. The original Nier, by comparison, had a central, engaging core from which all other events derived context and therefore meaning.

11. Final Fantasy Tactics | VITA | 28th May | 43h | ★★★★★
What a classic. The praise is well-deserved. Characters with complex and sympathetic motivations and some consummate faux-Shakespearean dialogue. A refreshing contrast from the maudlin dross that dominants the genre. The rpg systems were flexible and rewarding and the strategy gameplay was tight.

12. Shovel Knight: Spector of Torment | VITA | 1st June | 6h | ★★★☆☆
I liked the agility of Spector Knight. I didn't like how he kept accidentally sticking to walls. I preferred the airtight gameplay of the original but overall a pretty good time.

13. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | PS4 | 25th June | 33h | ★★★★★
I like open-world games that have fun mobility options and allow the player to chill out between activities instead of constantly overwhelming them with ungratifying busy work. San Andreas is pretty much perfect in this respect. Rockstar had clearly made the effort to vary the gameplay for each main story mission which kept it fresh. The difficulty of some of the longer missions without checkpoints was initially frustrating but I actually ended up appreciating the tension.

14. Mario Kart 8 | Switch | 30th June | 40h | ★★★★★
For moment-to-moment gameplay I don't think Mario Kart can be beat. Corner sliding, boosting through shortcuts and avoiding attacks is just the perfect blend of reactive skill, control and strategy. 40 hours was the time it took me to get 3 stars in all Grand Prix but this will be the go-to multiplayer game for a good time yet.

15. System Shock 2 | PC | 1st July | 12h | ★★★★★
This was like Bioshock meets Dead Space with Doom's running speed. Atmosphere in spades and some surprising level design given the spaceship setting.

16. Crash Bandicoot | PS4 | 5th July | 6h | ★★★☆☆
A fun platformer with more jank than I remember. Dodgy collision detection and input latency slightly undermined the experience.

17. Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Dolphin | 15th July | 21h | ★★★★☆
Lots of charm and creativity in SMG2. It felt like there was a new idea for almost every star. Loved the castle time trials. I found the individual levels a little short for my liking, however. And I think I just don't find the weighty controls of Mario games as fun as twitchier platformers. I managed all 120 gold stars but didn't bother with hunting for the green ones.

18. Ori and the Blind Forest | PC | 20th July | 11h | ★★★★★
Fast, fluid and responsive platforming with beautiful and dynamic visuals. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

19. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood | Wii VC | 1st August | 8h | ★★★★★
My first classicvania. When I took out the first boss and got that Dark Souls rush I knew I'd been missing out. I've found myself humming along to the soundtrack while playing.

20. Earthbound | SNES Android | 4th August | 30h | ★★★★☆
Despite having played some of the games inspired by Earthbound, this still felt unique. It has a certain almost inexplicable quality to it; a tone that's ironic yet sincere, surreal and deeply nostalgic. I'm generally not a fan of turn-based rpgs and Earthbound didn't do a great deal to elevate itself above its peers in the gameplay department. I could listen to the Sky Runner theme for hours.

21. Vagrant Story | VITA | 30th Aug | 34h | ★★★★☆
Vagrant Story is beautiful, poorly designed and extremly engrossing. The gorgeous low-poly aesthetic and lonely atmosphere of this cult classic has long had me curious but I'd failed several times to push through the frustration of the initial few hours. The tutorials do not adequately explain the intricacies of the workshop, the relative importances of affinity, class and type, the impact of dp/pp or any of the many reasons your meticulously planned weapon is dealing 1 damage to its intended target. Even online resources can't always be trusted here; such is the cryptic nature of the mechanics.

Occasional victories of mechanics mastery were hard-won but felt equally rewarding. Unfortunately, the post-boss stat growth roulette was also against me. Half way through my playthrough my agility had barely moved from its base level meaning I was constantly missing attacks. My luck changed with +3 agility from a boss followed by two agility elixirs dropping. At this point, I'd gained a solid understanding of the mechanics, amassed a versatile collection of grips, blades and elemental gems and mastered the timing of chain attacks. The difficulty promptly broke and I flipped from scraping by to god mode before slapping me in the face with a enourmous difficulty spike at the last boss.

Overall a unique experience of overcoming adversity with incredible presentation. However, I can't call it a 5/5 because a) your masteey of the mechanics mean nothing when you don't have the requisite weapon parts + gems on your first playthrough to avoid dealing no damage and b) for a game so reliant on fiddling around in menus they sure are some shitty menus.

22. Samorost 3 | PC | 3rd Sept | 5h | ★★★★☆
Samorost 3 had all the things I love about Amanita Design's games: delightful interactions with curious environments, adorable animations, surreal humour and a stellar soundtrack from Tomáš Dvořák. I particularly enjoyed the protagonist imitating noises on his horn improv jazz style.

23. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | PC | 6th Sept | 14h | ★★☆☆☆
I liked the Mission Impossible vibe and Sam Fisher's sardonic attitude. However, I don't think I understood the point of this game. Walk slowly, choke out a guard, walk slowly, choke out a guard, hack a terminal. Thief 1 and 2's core design starts with this foundation but distinguishes itself by expanding the experience with meaningful resource management and risk-reward choices in how you use your bag of tricks to navigate non-linear environments.

24. Sonic Mania | Switch | 16th Sept | 6h | ★★★☆☆
A consumate homage to the classic Megadrive games. Some pretty good music and relatively good flow to the levels but I'm not sure that the Sonic franchise ever really had a flawless gameplay formula. Some frustrating boss battles. I really didn't enjoy the secret final final super Sonic boss.

25. Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One | PS3 | 16st Sept | 11h | ★★★★☆
A really solid co-op experience. And a substantial one at that too. Plenty of levels with their own unique gameplay gimmick and plenty of destructive tools. We eventually discovered the unstoppable power of combining the beams of multiple Critter Strikes. Turning bosses into giant pigs never got old. Turning swarms of enemy robots into a sea of fire-breathing hell-pigs never got old. More Cpt Quark and Nefarious is always a good thing.

26. Castlevania IV | SNES | 30th Sept | 5h | ★★★☆☆
My expectations were high after playing Rondo of Blood as my first Classicvania the other month and, unfortunately, Castlevania IV just didn't quite have the same magic for me. Slightly lack-lustre visual design and mediocre music (that jazzy Submerged City track was ambitious but ended up feeling like some kind of keyboard cat Thelonious Monk). Sub-weapons seemed extremely rare. Way too easy up until an extreme difficulty spike in the boss rush leading up to Dracula. And I'm just going to come out and say it: tickling enemies with the droopy whip looked dumb and felt silly.

That being said, Castlevania has some solid base gameplay: whipping enemies, dodging attacks and utilising the right sub-weapon for the situation. So I had fun overall.

27. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 | Megadrive | 1st Oct | 2h | ★★★★☆
A replay of a classic. I feel like the first few levels of this one flow better in terms of level design than anywhere else in the series. Something about how you find yourself bouncing from enemy to enemy. Maybe the difficulty is tuned just about right for how fast you can reasonably react with such a small viewport.

28. Suikoden 2 | VITA | 3rd Oct | 40.5h | ★★★★☆
I finally understand the praise. Recruiting soldiers, growing your castle, wanting to kill the shit out of Luca Blight. What a good jrpg.

In fact, Suikoden 2 had one of the few turn-based combat systems that I've genuinely enjoyed in a long while. And I think that's largely down to its rapid pace. Instead of dwelling on lengthy individual attack animations, attacks come out in rapid succession, often firing-off simultaneously. Regarding pace, the events of the story also rattle along at a decent speed with characters joining and leaving and areas of the map opening and closing. There are a number of powerful moments in the story and I loved how the bonds between the primary protagonists are reflected by their synergy in combat.

My main criticism is that most of the soundtrack is painfully obnoxious, specifically pretty much any tune that plays while in a town or the castle. Thankfully the battle themes and the track that plays during any emotionally significant moment are all really strong so it's easy to put some other music on while playing. Also, what the hell happened to the localisation in and around Tinto? It's like they didn't have time to localise the literal translation and it ends up sounding like Half Life 2 Full Life Consequences. I didn't mind too much though, it was kind of hilarious.

29. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon | GBA | 13th Oct | 10.5h | ★★★★★
A replay of my favourite Igavania, ironically not directed by Igarashi. Tight controls, challenging encounters and an amazingly diverse magic system to explore. Cruising around with double runspeed, the Roc Wing and a close familiarity of the layout of Dracula's castle results in some seriously satisfying flow. I can't believe no other game has copied the Battle Arena. Probably my favourite part of CotM.

Two criticism I have: vanishingly small drop rates make some items not worth farming for and the run animation is kind of lame.

30. Professor Layton and the Curious Village | NDS | 14th Oct | 12h | ★★★★★
Absolutely charming and refreshingly placid. I was initially concerned that the majority of the puzzles were going to be trick questions after a slew of them near the start but there ended up being a good range of questions. A perfect game to play in short bursts. A true gentlemen never checks online for puzzle solutions.

Even though I'm not in this ta win it, I still claimed a post so I feel lame for not keeping things up ta date! So its catchup time!

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The first game I beat on my PS4 is a 6 year old PS3 game lol. Was a long time coming but I finally got Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3! Despite some struggles I had a blast mindlessly mashing through arcade mode. The first of many times to come!

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Played the demo for 7th Dragon III last summer an it sold me on the game an the full version was well worth it! A super solid rpg.

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When I hear about game "bloat" Yakuza 0 now comes to mind. Its got a load of bad things going for it, with just enough good ta make it still fun despite the shortcomings.


Games Beaten: 05 / 52
Total Playtime: 89:26:00
01 - ??

OP

B]18. [/B]
Nintendo Switch

I did wonder how Nintendo can "remaster" a two year old game, and then sucker me into buying it again the second time round. But this really is the most polished version of this game. Perfect for me on the go, and it looks stunning on the Switch. I could go on, but tire's not loads to say tbh.
8/10

Original Post



3. Prototype 2
Radical Entertainment/Activision
PS3
15 hours
6/10

Man this game is fun as hell when you do don’t actually do any of the story missions. Just running around and using your abilities is super fun. You feel like an unkillable machine. Unfortunately, this game makes you go through the story some of the most boring and laziest mission design I seen in a game. Like they are literally 3 or 4 different mission types and they are just repeated over and over again. Its always sneak into base, eat a scientist or soldier, steal some shit, and leave the base. Or its eat a dude and do an escort mission, or eat a dude and tail someone. Its just so goddamn boring and repetitive. The story was just a giant mess. I could’ve sworn Mercer was the good guy from Prototype 1 but now he’s the bad guy in Prototype 2? How?And why is he totally different? Didn’t he try and save humanity buy sacrificing himself but now he wants to end humanity? His heel turn really makes no sense. You play as James Heller, who is basically a dumb soldier dude who gets infected by Mercer and now your goal is to basically kill Mercer because the virus he unleashed killed your wife and daughter. I mean, what kind of plot is that? Kill Mercer is the plot and that’s exactly what happens. No twists or anything. I guess Heller comes off ok here but he’s so one note in everything. His response to everything is to just kill them and he’s CONSTANTLY YELLING. Like seriously, if you wanted us to like him, why would you make him so annoying with HIS CONSTANT YELLING ABOUT RIPPING PEOPLE’S HEADS OFF FOR SCREWING HIM OVER. He really just becomes annoying to listen to after a while.

The gameplay is fun as hell though. The abilities are really fun to use. My favorite is probably bio bomb. You just grab a dude and throw him into a crowd and he does a massive explosion. I think that’s probably my takeaway from the game, the story gets in the way of having fun with the game because they really don’t let you use your abilities in missions all that much. Near the end of the game, a lot of the missions you were in helicopters or tanks and defending someone. Like, why take away the funniest part of the game and put me in a damn tank or helicopter? Anyway, fun to mess around in the world with all of the powers really wish the story had any semblance of cohesion.

#25 Neon Genesis Evangelion Iron Maiden 2nd
PSP
A fun Eva VN set in the universe seen in ep 26 of the series. Its cute and fun, if shallow. I went with Ayanami. Which is kinda effed up since in the ending they have a kid, so Shinji has a child with the clone of his mother. Probably best not to think too much about it. Wish I coulda screengrabbed the ending for the Robocop cameo.

24) American Mcgee's Alice(XB360 via XB1) 5/24-5/25, 5/27

And finished American Mcgee's Alice. I got the game for free as apart of getting Alice: Madness Returns digitally in a real neat backwards compatible sale for the XB1 so no qualms or complaints on a free game but it's time to discuss the shortcomings of this game and the frustration that this game will bring forth to the player.

- By no means is this a terrible game, it isn't and certainly not for 2000 but is it a good game? Not really. The game does not age well in the very least bit which unlike games like Banjo Kazooie that precede do despite the latter coming before this game. How does this game not age well might you ask?

1) The platforming feels very clunky and not fluid in the least. Often you will find yourself needing to time your lands correct and even when you think you got the jump down to pat, you may end up clipping off the edge to your death. Add some enemies like Banshees that can obnoxiously push you back and even the most veteran platform fans will experience their frustration boil over time over the clunky platforming. Anytime a game cannot do it's supposed bread and butter well which in this case is platforming, you are simply going to have problems.

2) The inability to limit your item inventory is brutal. In this game you get about 7 or 8 weapons to use and by end game about 3 of them really matter at all, the Jabberwock staff, the starter knife and the jaxx. The timer does serve some purpose and before end game, the ice staff is very useful but the point I am trying to get at is that you are constantly needing to shuffle different items on the run which in turn can be frustrating when enemies can chip away at your health. The pause option does absolutely nothing worthwhile except for very vital concept of the game which I will touch upon later on so you can't even change it up while pausing the game.

3) The underwater swimming is a nightmare in this game. It's a constant battle with the camera while having these fish enemies nibble at your life consistently and they sometimes even come in schools. Very archaic system which is the theme of this review for this game.

4) There's a very shaky auto aim system that you have to be specifically close enough to the enemy to have have it be put upon them so your attacks don't completely whiff. The game is somewhat generous enough with the attacks homing, specifically the deck of cards and jaxx but still it will take time to get used to, especially in comparison to modern games.

5) Game is quite cryptic, like you aren't going to realize how to progress and I admittedly had to look up a few things to proceed in the game. Simple things like missing 1-2 clocks from getting hit or not stepping on a platform are the littlest of things that can throw you off. By no means is this Zelda type of cryptic but it is still nevertheless frustrating to not have the slightest clue on what to do to proceed.

6) Awful awful awful boss fight with the Jabberwock. The 2nd fight with it. Awful. He does ridiculous damage and can 2 shot you in given circumstances, he can tank a crap ton of hits and the lone real good way to hurt him is to have to use the staff but the problem is it drains your magic quite hastily and it then requires you to have to run around and pick up recoveries to get it and it goes back to him absolutely destroying you with hellfire. I spent about a half hour on this lousy boss. It somewhat just comes down to luck and RNG of him giving you enough time to secure recoveries to unleash your magic upon him to win.

- Now the one thing this game happens to do right is the save anytime option. It's EXTREMELY vital in this game where there's zero shame in saving even after the littlest of accomplishments. You best make use of this because this game is unforgiving enough that a mistake like not saving at a certain spot can and will lead you to have repeat the segments over and over again. The game will autosave but that's usually meant for the beginning of each level so not hard saving can be quite fatal. However, pick your spots with saving because all of your hard work will be for naught if you save in a spot that will repeat death such as missing a jump or getting hit by an enemy on your last bit of health.

Should you play it? Yay or Nay?

I'd say nay. Not to say it's a bad game, it's not the worst game ever. Game has some neat designs, has a cool story and the instant save feature is huge. But the aforementioned blemishes are too much to overcome for some and the question you're going to have to ask yourself is: Is this game worth my time? You may or may not play many games on the year so time is precious as The Mad Hatter would attest to and this game simply just isn't must play. It's not awful but much like with Gex: Enter the Gecko, there are just games that outclass it that have come out before or after it and this game just has not aged well in the very least.

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#26: Gain Ground: 9 hours

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This was a nice surprise but also a bit of a disappointment. Gain Ground is a top down shooter of sorts that plays unlike anything else I've ever seen before. You start with three characters, each with their own movement speed, 8-directional standard attack and a unique special attack. One can throw a spear in any direction that goes over short walls, one can fire long range shots towards the top of the screen even while strafing, and the last can throw a grenade over short walls, also only in one direction.

Your objective is to either get all three characters to the exit of the map, or kill all the enemies. If someone is hit they stay on the map and must be lead to the exit by the next character. If the next character is also hit then the first character is gone for good. Many of the maps contain other characters that can be taken to the exit to add them to your character pool, and this is where the game reveals itself. There's a long list of characters with varied special shots and in many of the levels knowing which ones are capable of surviving is the key to victory. Lose too many and you may find yourself in a tight spot later on when there are gunmen in the battlements and all of your people who can aim that high are dead.

The dynamic this creates of having to quickly assess your roster and the map and determine which characters to deploy and in which order to clear out the enemies is fascinating and a ton of fun. But after a while the enemies become faster, with better weapons, and the fun starts to wear off. After trying to play the game the whole way through about 10 times getting hit by gunfire I was unable to dodge and losing the character I knew the next level really needed, or trying to learn a boss pattern knowing that if I got hit I might as well restart wore thin. Luckily I was playing via Sega Game Room and I could just save scum my way to victory.

Great concept, would love to see other games expand on it, the arcade-era design isn't really for me.

Currently playing: Still making my way through Inazuma Eleven

#50 Titan Quest ★★★.5 - PC - May 25th - 19 hours
Good dungeon crawler, played it on and off for years but never finished it, it does go on a bit and by the final part I was ready for it to end


#51 Resident Evil 2 ★★★★ - PS1 - May 25th - 7 hours
Builds on all the good points from the first game and adds more fun. Pacing is excellent, you're never too far away from an item box and great replay value with all the different playthroughs, I did Leon A and Claire B.


#52 Titanfall 2 ★★★★ - Xbox One - May 28th - 6 hours
One of the best shooter campaigns of recent years, pacing is good, titan fights are fun and there's that one level that just elevates the whole experience. I just wish it wasn't so short.

First Gunvolt is mixed messages: the game. "Look you can level up and get better gear if you're having a hard time." falls apart when in order to get gear ya gotta do challenge missions in which you're expected to be moderately to damn good at the game. An if you're that good, why would ya need special gear? Also I musta spent an hour on the final boss which was quite a disaster x.x;


Games Beaten: 06 / 52
Total Playtime: 94:00:37
01 - ??

Ive had a hiatus from gaming for last 6 months due to Tourette s actually interfering with my ability to play im reAdy to try again fingers crossed

My main post.


15 | Rime | PS4
~7 hours | Completed May 28th

Neat puzzle-platformer with a great soundtrack and gorgeous visuals. Heavily inspired by Ico, Journey and The Last Guardian and I actually thought that that was sadly one of its weaknesses. Don't get me wrong, the game has its own story to tell for sure but it borrows a bit too much from the aforementioned titles in my opinion. Also, without spoiling anything, I don't necessarily agree with those praising Rime's story as something truly mind-blowing, but overall I enjoyed it. The framerate is quite inconsistent and the performance problems bugged me way more in this game than in The Last Guardian for example. Despite the game's 35€ pricetag, it's still very clear that this is an indie title and it shows in the character's animations and the clumsy platforming/climbing. There's also some weird lighting decisions in the darker areas of the game (as in I couldn't see shit at times). Despite all that I still had a fun time with the game and it does offer a fair share of epic moments for sure. And I'd buy that soundtrack on vinyl in a heartbeat, haha!

21. Human: Fall Flat (Steam, 2017/05/20, 7.5 hours)

I'm a sucker for physics based gameplay and this game is all about that. The player "just" needs to reach the exit of each level to proceed; lots of environment puzzles need to be solved to complete this goal. The player character plays a bit like a drunk sack filled with potatoes. You toddle from one check point to the next and fandangle "clever" contraptions. Clever is highly subjective here and over engineering solutions can cause more chaos than good. Patience is a must. Things go wrong, very very wrong, although it rarely bothered me. Failing is fun in this game, because it's usually hilarious in a physical comedy kinda way. I wish there were more games like Human: Fall Flat.

22. WOLFLAME (Steam, 2017/05/24, 1.2 hours)

ASTRO PORT delivered another quality SHMUP: no frills, no gimmicks, 1 shooting button, 1 bomb button and 10 vertical scrolling stages filled with hostiles. The gameplay, design and sprite work leans into the direction of Raiden, lots of military gear to clear. The enemy return fire isn't bullet hell curtains and is very manageable. Power ups, in three weapon flavors, just add to the fun.

23. Tower of Archeos (Steam, 2017/05/27, 5.3 hours)

It only took one screenshot to rope me in. The art and sprite work are really pretty in this game. Luckily the gameplay itself is also neat. This puzzle game got tons of depth in form of RPG and roguelike elements. You battle your way up 10 floors to the final boss. Matching bigger groups to maximize the dealt damage while minimizing the received one. There's plenty of room for mistakes or highly efficient play. You have to build up your party and characters to stand a chance. The items and monsters variety is top notch. I've beaten the game after the 4th or 5th try, but still haven't seen all. There's definitely replay value in this little gem.

24. Unfinished Swan (PS4, 2017/05/28, less than 2 hours)

I've enjoyed the environment puzzles, clever path finding gameplay, smart level design and art direction. The story tided everything nicely together. The walking speed could have been a notch faster, but else there's not much to complain about. Delightful, but brief experience.

[index]

23. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (24 hours)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a great game, and Virtue's Last Reward is a great sequel with many of the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor.

Full list to date.

Main post

May was a very productive month for the challenge.

Completed

19: Assassin's Creed Syndicate - 30 Hours


The last AC game I played was AC3 ~4 years ago. I expected to hate this, having long grown tired of Ubisoft open world games chock full of pointless collectibles and uninspired quests. This game ended up being… okay? I liked both of the main characters, I liked the setting of Industrial Revolution London, and I liked the improved movement options (grappling hook and carriages). Everything else about the game was the same tired AC formula, but the setting and characters carried me through to some extent. The game is definitely much too long, and I was ready for it to end by the 50% mark. My better-than-expected experience would be encouraging for AC: Empire (or whatever the reboot/2017 offering is), but I have a hunch that the long delay for this iteration will only mean it is more bloated and full of bland activities to do, so who knows.
6/10

20: Pony Island - 3 hours


I started this over a year ago and finally got around to finishing it. It’s a very creative game with a bunch of unexpected twists. Not to the same extent as something like Frog Fractions, but the same premise. I’m glad I played and experienced this weird creative thing someone made, but I’m not actually sure it was all that fun.
7/10

21: RIVE - 5 Hours


This was a free Humble Bundle game that I had pretty low expectations for, but ended up really enjoying. It’s like a twin stick shooter mixed with a light platformer, with very satisfying controls, visuals, and responsiveness. It was difficult, but very frequent check-points and instant respawns meant it was never frustrating.
8/10

22: Injustice 2 - 7 Hours


When will I learn? Several times a year a new fighter will come out and I’ll think, “This is it. This is the fighter I’m finally going to get good at!” Then I play the training mode, see a bunch of Cancel attack stuff, and immediately realize “No, I won’t.” Injustice 2 is also a fighter I will never be good at, but it’s got an incredible amount of single player content, a great mix of characters I already have some fondness for, and doesn’t delve into hyper-violence in a way that alienates me. It feels much more accessible than something like SFV, but still not quite enough for me to wrap my head around. Still, it doesn’t feel as out of reach as most fighters, and I did sort of okay in the multiplayer matches I tried. I expected the Story mode to be half as long as it was. It’s the best time I’ve had with a fighter since the original Blazblue in 2008.
9/10

23: World of Goo - 8 Hours


I started this way back in 2009 and only got around to finishing it/replaying it thanks to this challenge. It holds up surprisingly well: the puzzles are still clever, and the physics gameplay is still pretty satisfying. The PC port is very barebones however, and occasionally the simplistic controls lead to some frustration.
7/10

24: Deadbolt - 7 Hours


Initially the similarities to Hotline Miami and this bothered me: it felt like borderline plagiarism. It won me over because at the end of the day, it’s much more competently made: I didn’t run into the same AI, aiming, and camera issues I had in Hotline Miami. The game played flawlessly from start to finish. I could have lived with a checkpoint or two in each mission, as it was pretty frustrating to finish a mission and die to an enemy on the way out, but overall this was a fun test of skill. I still think Hotline Miami is the more interesting game, but this was inarguably better made.
8/10


25: Farpoint VR - 7 Hours


This has a lot of similarities to RE7 in my mind. It’s a very impressive display of what VR is capable of, but the last third of the game also throws away a lot of goodwill that the game earned by being too action focused. The PSVR Aim Controller mostly felt great to use, but towards the end with lots of flying enemies it had a lot of tracking problems with upwards aiming, and I experienced a ton of cheap deaths. This wasn’t the best game I played in 2017, but it will probably be the one with the most jaw-dropping moments, and it makes me hopeful about what the future of VR tech is going to bring.
8/10


26: Vanquish - 7 Hours


I played a bit of this on Xbox 360 back when it came out, but the PC version feels like a new game: Keyboard + mouse controls, 60fps, higher resolution. It looks and feels wonderful to play. Some of the cover-shooter bits gave me an unwelcome sense of last-gen déjà vu, but the speed and style of the gameplay surpasses the sometimes-boring last-gen cover shooter design.
8/10

I didn't abandon any games in May, and with Vanquish I'm officially at the halfway mark with 26 games down! Since I'm ahead of schedule a little bit I decided to take on something meaty for June: Witcher 3.

I kind of forgot about this thread as I accepted that I won't be able to finish enough games this year, but I guess I'll just go with it and catch up.

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3. God of War 3 Remastered - 12 hours

It was the first game I played on my PS3 back in 2010 and I always wanted to come back to it. After grabbing a cheap PS4 copy I decided it's time and MY GOD it's still stunning. It holds up very well, plays like a dream and doesn't stop with the action. Got my platinum too.

4. Stories: Path of Destinies - 10 hours

A solid PS+ addition imo. The gameplay seems a little too simple, but I liked the way you could alter the story with a bunch of simple A/B choices. The story itself was pretty interesting too. Platinum achieved aswell.

5. Horizon Zero Dawn - 60ish hours

My favorite game I played this year so far. Insane production values, fantastic gameplay, fascinating world and a very well written story.

6. Arcade Game Series: Pac-Man - less than an hour

No idea why, but one day I felt like playing some Pac-Man and yup... it was Pac-Man. Haven't played it since elementary and it's still fun and I'm much better at video games now than as a kid.

7. Fire Emblem Heroes - still playing since mid-April

It's really a nice surprising little game to speed up the time when you need it the most. The gameplay is really simple and a little disappointing, but I love the design behind the characters enough to come back to it regularly.

8. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir - 50ish hours

I love Vanillaware games, but I never played original OS. Got the remaster on my Vita and played it since December last year. Despite recycling content it feels new thanks to introducing new characters, shuffling bosses and going forward with a fantastic story.

9. Transistor

I have extensive thoughts about this game but as a big fan of Bastion I feel they created more problems than they solved by trying to include a deeper combat system in what is essentially a story driven game. The combat gets in the way of story which became confusing, overwrought and reached a false crescendo that felt rushed rather than clever.

10. Horizon: Zero Dawn

Took 40 hours to do and while I love Far Cry games it wasn't until the story caught hold properly that I ever felt compelled to play more. I enjoyed the combat but I definitely feel that when you've fought one Rockcrusher or Stormbird you've fought all you ever want to. Revisiting these elongated boss fights was tedious at best. The story was surprisingly excellent although like many others, found the ending to be unnecessary and actually quite predictable.
I really enjoyed the game but I can't say I'll be rushing to play a similar one for many years.

The second half of the month didn't give me as many hours to play games as the first half did, so no 10 games this time. But 16 in a month is nothing to scoff at!


Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle - PC - Completed May 17



Runaway: A Twist of Fate - PC - Completed May 21



Gemini Rue - PC - Beaten May 24



1954 Alcatraz - PC - Completed May 27



The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - PC - Completed May 28



Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge - PC - Completed May 30


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OP

19.
Sega Megadrive

A completion 25 years in the making! I could not even get past the second stage as a young'n, who'd have thought there was only 5 stages?? I honestly don't think this has aged too badly, I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was, a quick blitz through a basic b'mup.
6/10

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17. Nier (360, 2010) - 28:21
Completed on Normal, 37% quest completion. All endings.

Critically acclaimed sequels are always a good reason to do some backlog clearing, and so it is I found myself playing a 360 game that had been languishing on my bookshelf for years. All I really knew about it was that Justin McElroy hates fishing in it, and that maybe he just sucks or maybe he has a point or fuck games journalism or I don't know it was a long time ago. Anyways, I expected the fishing to be somewhat unintuitive and difficult. Which it kind of is, but who cares, moving on.

Nier is one of those rare JRPGs that seems to have something to say beyond "the bonds of friendship will heal the world" or "bad guys are bad and they should be stopped." That, along with its occasionally idiosyncratic changeups in gameplay genre, already mark Nier as a game set apart from its peers. Add in the multiple endings conceit, which don't provide alternate views of the same event so much as add context to events you're already familiar with, and a pretty devastating mechanical method of wrapping up your time with the game, and you have a pretty special work of art.

In this version of the game, Nier Gestalt, you play a father whose daughter suffers from something called the Black Scrawl. You will do anything to cure her, including team up with a sentient magic book with a barbed tongue and a busty lady wearing nothing but lingerie and two giant-ass swords to fight "shades," mysterious half-crazed enemies that destroy everything in their wake. Most of the ways in which we traditionally judge games--does it play well, are the graphics cool, etc.--don't really work for Nier. The action RPG combat is decent, but ultimately not that interesting. The graphics are a bit dull, even for a mid-generation 360 game. Sidequests tend to feel like fillers, and figuring out which ones have actually interesting stories--and whether it's worth the fetch-quest activities needed to pursue them--can be difficult.

But Nier doesn't feel like a mediocre game. For example, there are several spots where the game intentionally veers away from the third-person perspective that serves as the default experience. Walking into some buildings pulls the camera back into a diorama-like side view; other areas switch to a top-down view that plays up the game's occasional bullet-hell segments. One dungeon is played entirely like a Diablo-style isometric hack-and-slash, and several sections of the game turn the camera off entirely, instead relaying the events of the game via visual novel-style walls of text against a stark black screen. Mechanically, all these sections work well enough. But most games tend to take a more naturalistic approach to gameplay, preferring to establish a specific perspective and then let the artifice of that perspective fade away over time. Nier's sudden shifts in perspective are purposeful, and occasionally delightful.

And then there's Nier's story, which is tough to explain without spoiling the nature of the multiple playthroughs. Suffice it to say that the events of the game aren't what they seem at first glance, and the reexamination of those events is what drives the endgame. The four endings of the game don't explain everything that's happened, and this feels very intentional. Some of the most interesting snippets that tell of the world left behind are flashed on the screen for a split second. Other revelations are left for you to discover on your own, after carefully piecing together what the game has told you. What emerges, then, is a story that feels like a slow-rolling tragedy, with each ending adding context and removing doubt that the outcome could be otherwise.

Nier has its share of annoyances, and not everything the game does can be handwaved away as an intentional conceit of game director Yoko Taro. Kaine's outfit is still ridiculous, even if in theory there is an in-game justification for it. Having to go through the same dungeons multiple times, and adding tedious roadblocks in the middle of some of them for no apparent reason, still grates. Combat occasionally feels less than responsive, and it's not always clear why certain button presses straight-up fail to register sometimes. But Nier is a game with a complicated message, one that avoids falling into the usual JRPG traps and tropes. It feels like few other games, and that's worth celebrating.

6:04h. 85% of the game complete. 9 Hearts, all dances.

Half Genie Hero is the biggest disappointment I've had in 2017 so far. After liking The Pirate's Curse so much, I was eager to pick this up: the beginning of the game was stunning. Going through the first level while listening to the awesome main theme made me all giddy. This feeling lasted approximately until the second boss, the now-famous Mermaid Queen - everything about her was awesome, but I realized she went down a bit too easily...

And lo, after the Mermaid Queen, the game petered out fast. Once you get a couple Heart Containers, the game becomes easy as cake, and short, very short. TPC wasn't exactly long, but HGH is easily a good 30% shorter. Perhaps this is because TPC's last level and true final boss are hellishly difficult, while HGH's are... not.

Even though the game is as funny and charming as ever, I wouldn't pay full price for this. I would totally get it at 50% off or better though. Just keep in mind you're getting less Shantae for your buck!

My Score: ★★☆☆☆

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Game 2 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) - 85 hours
Finished May 30

A classic. Nintendo is so far ahead of the curve in understanding the expressive possibilities of video game aesthetics that I imagine I'll regularly return to Breath of the Wild simply to wander through fields of windswept grass and wildflowers. I disagree with criticism of the story as slight; on the contrary, there is a palpable sense of loss everywhere, and Zelda's last line before the credits is an all-time great. Comparisons to Hidetaka Miyazaki are inevitable, of course, but there is joy and light and color here that one would never find in Bloodborne or Dark Souls (although I love those games as well).

I will say that there is something in those first hours with the game that faded as I progressed. The road to Dueling Peaks Stable and Kakariko Village felt like a thin ribbon through forests and along rivers--like being in the mountains in late spring, overwhelmed by the smell of fresh earth and the scale of the land. Link seemed small against that landscape; catching up with someone on the road carrying a lantern against the darkness imparted a sense of companionship and shared experience. But the farther I traveled and the more I realized I needed to explore (the more I realized that there was to explore), the more that enormity and mystery gave way to, not exactly obligation, but... purpose. I lingered less; I fast-traveled. I would never complete the game otherwise. But for a brief span of hours, there was no "game" to complete--just a place to be. It was exhilarating and impossible to sustain--but what a feeling while it lasted!

People who have completed the challenge will be posted here, please remember to send me a PM with your post once you’re done!
Tambini

Fifth update for May. Thankfully a lot more done compared to last month.

Main post|Backlog Blitz main post


Game Ten
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch) - May 2
★★★★ (4)

Still as fun and brilliant as the Wii U version. Just straight up fun. Might even be in my top ten for the year.


Game Eleven
Forza Horizon 3: Blizzard Mountain (Xbox One) - May 8
★★★ 1/2 (3.5)

A pretty fun expansion to the Forza Horizon experience. Hot Wheels expansion I'll get into down the line, but this is a great one to begin with.


Game Twelve
Ratchet & Clank (PlayStation 4) - May 13
★★★ (3)

Wish I had gotten into this sooner than later. It's a pretty good remake on Insomniac's part and if this is what we can expect from more Ratchet & Clank games on PS4 from Insomniac, I'm all in.


Game Thirteen
For Honor (Xbox One) - May 15
★★ 1/2 (2.5)

Campaign was very meh and I've opted not to touch the multiplayer. Combat was a lot better than what I found in the beta, though.

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#27 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PC) - 4 hours


A bit shorter than the first one but I think the gameplay is a bit more polished in this one.

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Big month of short games.


God of War: April 30-May 3
This game shows its age. The tougher enemies and combat later on are a bit much. There are perhaps three different environments in the entire game. There are only two real bosses, and they're at the end. God of War is a good game, but I didn't find myself enjoying every bit of it.


God of War II: May 3-5
God of War II is the typical second installment improvement you see so often with a series. Combat is much better. Story is more interesting. There is a greater variety of environments. There are a number of bosses throughout, and they're good.


Sonic the Fighters: May 6
Far worse than I expected it to be. It plays terribly. Attacks don't seem to have consistent damage output. I'm glad I settled my longstanding curiosity with this. I have no intention of ever touching this thing again.


God of War: Chains of Olympus: May 6-7
Impressive for the hardware. It even outshines the PS2 games in some areas. Maybe its story isn't pertinent to the main arc of the series, but that's fine. Even with the fewer buttons and sticks, the controls managed to be perfectly fine.


Sonic R: May 7
Another ass game. There is some fun to be had with finding shortcuts or just breaking the game, but the gameplay on its own is poopoo.


Escape from Monkey Island: May 7-10
3D simply does not work for these sorts of games. Navigation is a pain. Point-and-click gameplay thrives when you can see everything in an environment at once, but this game fails at that. There simply isn't as much interaction with the world thanks to the 3D. On top of that, the 3D graphics are horrible. It was the cartoony exaggerations seen in Curse of Monkey Island that did an exemplary job of displaying emotions. The writing, music, and voice acting are still as good as ever though. Also, fuck Monkey Kombat.


God of War: Ghost of Sparta: May 10-11
Surprisingly good story. Gameplay-wise it was nice to see meaningful changes with enemy design and combat options. It's a shame that there were so few bosses, and they weren't as good as the ones in previous games.


Oxenfree: May 11-13
Slow at first, but then it picks up. Good story. Encourages multiple playthroughs. Good voice acting. Nice paranormal stuff. Reminds me of Life Is Strange.


God of War III: May 13-15
Clearly a cut above all the other games so far. Kratos truly feels like a force to be reckoned with. This game delivers character development, good bosses, a nice final challenge ,and strong themes. Looking forward to the upcoming game.


Papo & Yo: May 15
Good storytelling and nice puzzles. I could easily slip into the protagonist's shoes and understand his struggles. Papo & Yo does much better than what Journey and the Ico games poorly attempted.


Sonic Heroes: May 15-18
What kills this game isn't the gameplay, the gimmick, or even the characters. It's the controls being inconsistent garbage, having to replay stages with little variation, and glitches that break everything. In special stages you can lose momentum for no reason or even somehow get launched backwards. Half the game is a repeat, with Team Dark's levels just spamming more enemies. The Team Rose banter is unbearable. Big the Cat responds to fucking everything with "FROGGY." That's not even a slight exaggeration. Conversely, the Team Chaotix missions are actually somewhat fun except for a few stinkers, and its members aren't the worst characters in the series.


Ristar: May 18
Games used to be so simple. I really liked the level with the metronome. Ristar got every bit of mileage out of its central mechanic that it could have. Seems like a fun game for marathon play.


Shadow the hedgehog: 2016-May 20
I decided to finish this because I'm a masochist, but I came to discover that Shadow the Hedgehog is leagues better than Sonic Heroes. The worst thing about it is that you have to play through some levels more than once just to make a different choice, but fortunately with the different missions that's not too bad. Despite the laughable edge, the game is actually fun. Its story is... not as terrible as I imagined.


EarthBound Beginnings: 2015-May 23
EarthBound Beginning's gameplay is the epitome of Nintendo Hard 1980s JRPGs: so many fucking random encounters, horrid dungeon design and navigation, tedious. There are huge cases of guide dang it, such as finding the canary melody. Despite all this, the writing holds up exceptionally well. I'm frankly astonished, but that's why I chose to return to this game anyway. As a result of playing, I have a much greater appreciation for its successor, EarthBound.


Touch My Katamari: May 23-24
The same old fun. Perhaps too same and too old. It's nothing new. The Katamari morphing makes little difference. This series refuses to change.


Sonic Colors: May 24-25
It's simple, it's fun, and Sega trimmed much of the fat and bullshit that plagues this series. I'm not a fan of how subsequent acts will reuse level design or bosses, but that's minor in the grand scheme of the game. Sonic Colors was a step in the right direction for the series.

Shovel Knight - Plague of Shadows
Platform: Switch
Time: 07:37
Date: 06.01
Score: (3/5)

It's neat that how different they managed to make Shovel Knight by changing the moveset and some locations. I thought Plague of Shadow's story and characters were more enjoyable than OG Shovel Knight's, and I like Plague Knight more than Shovel Knight in general. I thought it was really cool how the starter town was changed for Plague Knight, for example, rather than just having Plague Knight walk around freely in town. However, from a pure gameplay perspective, after the first few levels things are far more frustrating in Plague of Shadows than they ought to be. Plague Knight's moveset is cool, but it lacks the basic utility of Shovel Knight's, and the game was extremely tedious at times as a result.

Consolidated post here.


Updating for May, I'm now just over the halfway mark so nicely on target for the year. I'm also very close to being done with Superhot (Steam) and Kamiko (Switch), but there's just a little more clean-up to do before I call it a day with those.




22. Headlander (PS4) - 1 May 2017
Platinum trophy; 100% completion reported in-game. This has been in my to-play list for a little while, since picking up the game in a recent sale - and as I feel that I should try tackling something a little shorter before my next 'big' game, it seemed to fit in quite nicely here. It's a fun little 'Metroidvania' with a neat twist in the use of different enemy robot bodies as the 'keys' that unlock different areas and an aesthetic that I don't see being explored that often. There's nothing overly challenging here, but it's still a satisfying experience in exploring the game's world and tracking down all of the available upgrades, plus a fairly interesting plot.



23. Grow Up (PS4) - 7 May 2017
100% of trophies. I enjoyed Grow Home, so this has been a game that I've been meaning to get to for a while and it's a nicely-done extension to the first game's premise, with a larger world to explore and a few new mechanics. Sadly, the game's somewhat glitchy and, while this in a way could be seen as part of its charm, overall I'd have preferred a but more polish. I don't regret my time with the game, though, as its climbing mechanic is a satisfying one (even post-Breath of the Wild), augmented with the world exploration and collectibles which always have some appeal to the completionist mentality that I have.



24. The Sexy Brutale (PS4) - 9 May 2017
Platinum trophy; 100% of brochure entries unlocked. This game really is... superb, an absolute gem and one that deserves all the success that it can get. If you've not heard of the game, this is a puzzle game set in fictional casino mansion, tasking you with preventing the murders of nine guests, through the use of close observation and an innovative time-manipulation mechanic. The puzzle difficulty is nicely balanced throughout and intricately designed, but where the game really excels is in its world design and intriguing storyline, which compels you onwards to discover the secrets that the mansion hides. Topped off with a fantastic soundtrack, this really is a game not to be missed!



25. Song of the Deep (PS4) - 14 May 2017
100% of trophies earned; 100% of items (49/49) and treasures (209/209) collected. My second 2D 'Metroidvania' for the month and again one with an unusual take on the formula, this time coming from the underwater setting and the more freeform movement that that results in. There's a charming backstory and some nicely-done in-game art to compliment the gameplay. Combat is fairly simple but generally well-balanced, with satisfying controls and enough variation in enemies to remain interesting throughout the game's 10-hour playtime. Item pickups, a 'Metroidvania' staple, often require solving some form of simple puzzle - with only a couple of exceptions, these add to the satisfaction of tracking them down, while having them marked automatically on the in-game map limits the potential frustration that could otherwise come from going after the last few.



26. Raptor: Call of the Shadows - 14 May 2017
100% of achievements unlocked; all waves completed for all sectors; all weapons and equipment purchased. I played the heck out of the shareware version on my very first PC, years ago, so when I found that this had come to Steam it was pretty much essential to pick this up at some point. While undoubtedly nostalgia will be an influence on my opinion, this was still good, if fairly mindless, fun to playthrough, and this time get the full experience. The upgrade mechanic afforded by the supply room keeps the game compelling as you see your plane becoming ever more powerful from mission to mission and there's a fairly good variety of different enemies throughout.



27. Prey (PS4) - 29 May 2017
Platinum trophy. I've always enjoyed immersive sims, and with Prey Arkane have brought us another excellent entry in a genre that's sadly far too underserved. Admittedly the game's combat wasn't particularly to my liking - primarily due to being rather unforgiving on higher difficulties - but appropriate neuromod selection and being prepared to drop down the difficulty level makes it much more approachable. That niggle aside, though, Prey's atmosphere and well-crafted world really are outstanding, with the result that Talos I (the space station on which the game is set) feels very believable.and is a joy to explore. And of course, for those others who've completed it, that ending... even though I was partially spoiled on it (partly by the game itself, partly by an unmarked spoiler posting elsewhere), I didn't see it turning out quite how it did, topping off an intriguing story that draws your through the game.

Ladekabel said:

May:

Game 22: Paint it Back (PC): Out of the three Picross games I played, Paint it Back is the best. Presentation and puzzles are great. 4/5

Game 23: Inside (PC): Weird puzzle platformer. It has some great and playful puzzles, I like the presentation and nothing could've prepared me for the last bit. 4/5

Game 24: PuyoPuyoTetris Adventure Mode(Switch): I skipped all the story stuff. The missions were sometimes pretty tough. Certainly not the mode you buy the game for. No Score

Game 25: Persona 5 (PS4): It's not better or worse than Persona 4: Golden for me. I liked most of the characters, the refined mechanics, the style and design. The main battle theme was no Reach out to the truth though. It'll be either my GotY or lose to Zelda if nothing better comes along. People should certainly play Persona 5 though. 5/5

Currently Playing:

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May update. Got two time sinks done. Now a few shorter games before I commit to something long again. Dead Cells and Battlegrounds with the occasional Hearthstone eat a lot of my time though...

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20. Ankh - Anniversary Edition - 4 hours
Nice comedy quest, obviously developers are big Monkey Island fans. Can't say it's perfect, pixel hunting and backtracking are really annoying in second half of the game, but great atmosphere and humor are worth it (with walkthrough were all important items are highlighted so you won't waste your time on looking for them).

Original Post
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=227815833&postcount=394

Games of May

33. Assassins Creed: Freedom Cry

Pretty fun game. Just like Black Flag, I loved the sailing portion of the game and found the on land part to be ok despite annoying controls.


34. The Legend of Korra

I heard this game was bad but I wanted to play it and it was on sale for under 5 bucks. I actually enjoyed it. It obviously has a lot of issues but I thought it was fun overall and an especially worth it if picked up when it goes on sale every so often.


35. Gravity Rush Remastered

I picked this up on sale recently. So far this is the game that as been the biggest suprise for me. I thought i would enjoy it somewhat but I liked it way more than I thought I would. I really loved flying around the city using the gravity mechanic. So much fun.


36. Time Machine VR

Waste of time and money. They basically a model veiwer and then tried to make a game around that.


37. Farpoint

Amazing fun with the aim controller. Being able to move in one direction, aim in another and be looking in a third direction really adds a lot to the FPS genre. Plus ....giant
spiders.

38. Fated: The Silent Oath

It was a fun game. I really liked the art style. My only issues were the cliffhanger ending and no option for smooth turning.

39. Marvel Heroes Omega

A really fun Diablo clone featuring comic book heroes. I didnt think it was that good in the begining but it eventually hooked me and even after completing the main story I am still going back and playing more.

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#26: Boson X: 5.8 hours

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Initially I hated this game, about halfway through the first world I was ready to give up. But then eventually I realised that I was playing the game all wrong, the correct way to play doesn't necessarily make the game good, but it certainly makes it more enjoyable.

Boson X is an endless runner set inside a hexagonal track. Press forwards to jump forwards, press left to jump forwards and rotate the track anti-clockwise, press right to rotate it clockwise. If you hold down the button you jump further until eventually you fall below the track and die. Simple stuff. The other main mechanic is that there are blue pads on the ground that fill a charge meter when you run over them, making you run slightly faster in the process. When you hit 100% you "finish" the level and enter a boost mode and are able to rack up bonus percentage before your extra speed inevitably sends you careening into the abyss.

Before I talk about what I didn't like I want to say that I really like the general idea of the boost pads. The riskier you are with your jumps, the longer you stay on each one, the more charge you can extract from them, which can later save you from leaving one at 99% and dying before you reach the next. My main problem was with the way the levels are designed. Each of the game's 18 levels are procedural assembled from sections exclusive to that level, and some of them require a lot of rote learning to be able to navigate successfully. It really sucked when I would only see a component I was bad at later on in a level, before I managed enough practice to get past it consistently. But more than that it leads to the feeling that finishing a level is less about learning how to deal with all of the patterns, and more waiting until you randomly roll a long enough sequence of patterns you're good at to reach 100%. Sometimes the level would throw patterns with impossible to reach boost pads at me as well which just felt mean-spirited, but that's the least of the problems really.

Overall once I came to terms with the fact that Boson X was one part rote learning and one part waiting for a lucky roll I had a lot of fun with it.

Currently playing: Still making my way through Inazuma Eleven[/QUOTE]

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#28 Tekken 7 (PC) - 5 hours


Beat the story mode and the character episodes which doesn't really take that long.

I should've finished this game in a week but I slacked off :V overall I enjyoed it. There are mixed opinions of the game, like how some didn't like it outright, or that some enjyoed the first half but not the last.
I overall enjoyed the first 4 episodes but felt the finale left much to be desired.
Great voice acting though, esp. since Christopher Llyod narrates much of the game.



This was a fun platformer, it has its flaws, but I overall really enjoyed it. I liked the humor, characters, music and visuals. At its best it is a well crafted platformer IMO and even if you don't like collectathons, def. give it a play if you like 3D Platformers.

Last few games I completed in April:

Game 20: Pirate Pop Plus - 1/5 - 4:06 hours (25/04/2017)

There's actually no ending, but I'd say I invested enough time in it to call it a day; reached level 7, bought all but some faceplates and screens from the in-game shop. It's a different take on the classic Pang, featuring random changes of gravity and the novelty of changing the parts of the virtual handheld used to visualize the game. It's not a bad game, problem is that it's very barebones: the whole game is one screen only, no different stages, no different modes, the characters are basically all the same, no intro, no ending. There's a serious drought of content and the only thingsa you can earn in the game, besides the characters, are cosmetic parts that don't change the gameplay at all. In conclusion the game's simply lacking.

This game is:

+

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Game 21: Fast RMX - 3/5 - more than 15:00 hours (27/04/2017)

Got 1st ranks on all Subsonic and a few Supersonic cups, conquered Hero mode on Subsonic, beat a bunch of time trials. The first takeaway is that on the big screen the game's amazing to look at, especially at higher speeds, Storm Coast in particular being a sight to behold. The commands are responsive and tight, also thanks to the customization options, the gameplay require good reflexes more than anything though, as there's pretty much no deeper strategy involved: there are no weapons, no tricks, no drifts like in Mario Kart, you just have to get on those boosts and don't crash. The only strategic choice, which is much appreciated and adds a bit of variety to the game, is the need to switch between colours to use boosts and jumps without being slowed down. The game when all is said and done is very enjoyable, but lacks variety or something truly unique, like F-Zero's cutscenes and lore, while instead featuring an incredibly pernicious rubber-banding, which makes truly a hard trial to win the last few cups of every speed class.

This game is:

+

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Game 22: Jotun - 2/5 - 4:48 hours (28/04/2017)

Reached the ending and very briefly touched on Valhalla mode, found all apples, statues and points of interest. Went in blind expecting a boss rush mode, got an action game with a few puzzles, some battles, lots of walking and just 6 bosses. The game is very pleasing aesthetically, with hand-drawn backgrounds and characters which feature fantastic animations; however after the first hour or so you already got down the structure of the game, that is, from a certain point of view, very repetitive: 5 worlds, each 2 levels featuring a secret apple, 2 divine statues and the rune, which is the main objective. The monotony is mildly alleviated by the levels being pretty unique in what you actually have to do in them, though it's mostly exploring and solving very boring puzzles. The fights with the giants themselves are pretty nice, but sometimes frustrating due to the difficulty and due to the very lackluster combat options. Beautiful but not that fun.

This game is:

+

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Game 23: Year Walk - 2/5 - 2:12 hours (30/04/2017)

Got both endings. The game is short and to the point, it doesn't offer much of a challenge but some points are rather obtuse because you're never really briefed on what you can and can't do control-wise. The atmosphere is there though, and so is the general creepiness of the theme and of the game itself. The whole secret ending is at times creepy and at times comical... I don't quite understand what tone the writers were going for. A simple but enjoyable game to try once and that's it, I can't see myself ever playing it again.

This game is:

+

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Game 1-Criminal Girls 2 Party Favors-Vita-Beaten on January 2nd
-I really enjoyed the grind in this game. I usually hate grinding but this game makes it very easy to do so. Fun little game that took about 25 hours. 8/10

Game 2-Shantae Half Genie Hero-Vita-Beaten on January 6th
-This was the perfect game after the long grind of my previous game. Very light-hearted and fun! Perfect on the Vita! 8/10

Game 3-Alone With You-Vita-Beaten on January 14th
-While this adventure game wasn't great, it was very relaxing to play which is what made me enjoy it overall. 7/10

Game 4-Call of Duty Infinite Warfare-PS4-Beaten on January 15th
-I might be in the minority that only play the story mode in Call of Duty games and have to say that I never tire of them. They are like a summer blockbuster. I really liked the on ground parts of his game but didn't really like the flying portions. Still waiting for a return to WWII. 8/10

Game 5-Severed- Vita-Beaten on January 17th
-I really enjoyed this game outside of a few difficulty spikes here or there. Great atmosphere and great touch controls which I usually hate. 9/10

Game 6-Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7-Vita-Beaten on January 19th
-This was the weakest game I have played in a long time. This game was before Lego characters talked so all it is is a disjointed story with very weird grunts/sounds from the characters. I really like the Harry Potter universe but this game is just bad. At least I got it super cheap from a PSN sale. 4/10

Game 7-Neverending Nightmares-Vita-Beaten on January 21
-I really enjoyed this little (2 hours long)horror game. It had great atmosphere and sound especially with headphones on. The title explains the game perfectly as you keep repeating the same nightmare over and over again with slight differences everytime you die. The story is slight but interesting as well. 7/10

Game 8-Trails of Cold Steel 2-Vita-Beaten on February 17
-Over the last 13 months, I have beaten all four of the recent Trails games and have loved every single one of them. This one took me 50 hours which is why this is he first game I have beaten in almost a month. If you like RPG's this is one of the best. 10/10

Game 9-World of Final Fantasy-Vita-Beaten on February 25
-Where January was meant for shorter games for myself, February has been dedicated to longer RPG's. I really enjoyed this game for the most part. It was great to see all the supporting stars from previous Final Fantasy games. The story was not great but kept me interested for the most part. I finished the game with the original bad ending and then saw all that I had to do to get the good ending and just decided to call it. I watched the good ending on YouTube. I had just had enough of all the random battles at that point. 8/10

Game 10-Odin Sphere Leiftrauser-Vita-Beaten on April 1
-Wow. Where did March go? I played a lot of games in March just didn't finish any. I finally beat this game on April Fools Day and as a game, it is no joke. What a great game! I really enjoyed the gameplay and while the environments repeated themselves over and over, the gameplay made up for it. 9/10

Game 11-The Walking Dead Episode 3 Above the Law-PS4-Beaten on April 2
-I am a sucker for all these Telltale games. Can't get enough of them. If you liked the previous games, you will like this. I like how Clem is really developing as a character as she is gets older. 9/10

Game 12-Mr. Shifty-Nintends Switch-Beaten on April 22
-I really liked this game as it's like the Hotline Miami series, which I love. If it hadn't been for the slowdown in the Switch version, I think I would have liked it better than the Hotline Miami games. 8/10

Game 13-Guardians of the Galaxy The Telltale Series Episode 1-PS4-Beaten on April 29
-I feel like this was the weakest of any Telltale series game. It was boring as I had to start the game over three different times because I fell asleep. I do really like the opening song "Why Can't I Touch It" by the Buzzcocks. Hopefully the series will pick up with future episodes. 6/10

Game 14-What Remains of Edith Finch-PS4-Beaten on April 29
-Favorite game of the year so far. Great atmosphere and strange(in a good way) story. Loved the Holloween music in one of the stories! 10/10

Game 15-Full Throttle Remastered-Vita-Beaten on May 1
-I have to admit that I didn't really like this game. If it wasn't for an online guide, I would have never beaten the game. It also was very choppy(not the frame rate but the game)which I'm not sure if that was in the original game or not. 5/10
Last edited by Bastion; 05-01-2017 at 07:56 PM.

Game 16-Gal Gun Double Peace-Vita-Beaten on May 22
-Inreally don't have much of an opinion on this game. It is a on rails shooter where you shoot girls. Without a gun peripheral it just isn't much fun in my opinion. 5/10

Game 17-The Walking Dead: A New Frontier-Episode 4 Thicker than Water-PS4-Beaten on May 25
-Again, good episode. 9/10

Game 18-The Walking Dead: A New Frontier-Episode 5 From the Gallows-PS4-Beaten on May 31
-I really liked the entire series and thought this was a good concluding episode. Not as good as the first two but still good. I am looking forward to what happens next as the ending sets it up pretty well. 8/10

Game 19-Assassin's Creed Unity-PS4-Beaten on June 4
-I really enjoy the Assasin Creed games. I haven't played all of them so I haven't got burned out on them yet. I only play the story missions so it keeps me focused because the map is just filled with tons of things to do so it can be overwhelming. I didn't try the co-op missions in this game so I can't speak to those at all. 7/10

Game 20-The Little Acre-PS4-Beaten on June 5
-This is a very brief(about two hours) point and click adventure game. I had an average time with this average game. I got this for a couple of $$ on a PSN sale and played it as I knew it was really short. 6/10

Original Post

For the month of May I completed 10 games.

My progress for this challenge is 52/52

1. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment – Finished on May 3 – 4 hours

I loved this game from start to finish. I enjoyed Shovel Knight when I first played it. I hated Plague. But this game was great. It felt great to control. I liked the red skull collecting gimmick and the unlocking of curios. The jump slash gimmick was great both for stylish movement but also making bosses really easy and fun to engage. Being able to combo a few slashes in a row off a boss in quick succession felt good every single time I did it. Being able to time something using the jump slashes to traverse a tough area or to kill an enemy on a small platform and take it over from them felt good every single time. Most of the curious were also fun to use, even if some were a little situational. The hover one was cool for cheesing a little bit like Rush Jet was a little in Mega Man. The heal was also very clutch sometimes when I would be near death but not near a checkpoint. The checkpoint system again was very nice and felt really fair. I feel like I could go on forever about this game. Definitely one of my favorites so far in 2017.

2. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors – Finished on May 6 – 20 hours

I played this on the DS last year and it is easily in my top 10 games of all time. I came in completely blind and was able to enjoy the story from start to finish. This was a replay on the newly released Nonary Games collection on the Vita. While I still really enjoyed the game, especially the new voice acting and flow chart, it wasn't as impactful the second time around. I sort of took a break for a few weeks from this game in April because there are certain puzzle rooms that I absolutely hate. I picked it back up this week and was able to finish. The new flow chart makes it very easy to get through the game but it loses the impact of feeling like each path and ending you take is like one complete “run” through the game. I thought the flow chart would be one of the big reasons I liked this version more but it is a tradeoff. Not having to redo puzzle rooms is very nice but jumping around in this game doesn't feel right to me.

3. BOXBOXBOY! - Finished on May 7 - 8 hours, 2 minutes

More Boxboy! This time you can create two sets of boxes! This makes the puzzles infinitely more intricate and challenging. I was expecting a few more worlds so when I saw the credits I was a little surprised. I have been chipping away at the challenge worlds and bonus worlds but some of them are really hard and it may be the sort of thing where I again move on to the next game while coming back later with a fresh mindset. I really want this trilogy on cart with the amiibo so if Nintendo is holding that reveal until E3 I am so down to double dip. The goal is to clear enough levels to buy all the costumes. This game keeps much of the same mechanics from the first game but having two sets of boxes adds a whole lot of strategy and puzzle to the game. There were only a few times where I really had no idea what to do and had to look up how to solve something. The rest I could feel my way through a little bit and eventually find a solution that worked. Definitely play this game if you enjoyed the first one.

4. Team Kirby Clash Deluxe – Finished on May 7 – 5 hours

I'm calling this one complete but it is mostly me not wanting to proceed forward with the free to play aspect of the game. I could plop down another $20 in one lump purchase of in game currency to really make things easier on myself going forward but I'd much rather put that $20 toward another game. This game was fun but I'm not sure with only four different play styles how much I'd want to keep fighting the same bosses over and over again, grinding out materials and EXP. Even if I pay money I still have to wait 12 hours to harvest more in game currency. I still have to contend with the Vigor meter which may still have me waiting. I enjoyed my time with the game and I definitely enjoyed this mini game in Planet Robobot, but I'm just not really willing to subject myself to more free to play stuff on a game I will have spent almost $30 total on. I may come back to it eventually just to push further and see how far I can go, but that won't be for a while. I know for a fact the amount of apples you need for things like unlocking stages or buying better weapons spikes considerably further on in the game.

5. Bye Bye BOXBOY – Finished on May 8 – 7 hours

This game was almost insultingly easy for about 90% of the game. It reverts back to the one set of boxes limitation seen in the first game which restricts big time the complexity of the puzzles. Instead of complex puzzles, many gimmicks centered around your controls are present. You are either stuck in water and can't jump or are restricted by black smoke which will destroy blocks that come near it. The baby escort levels are pretty good but again are really limited. I had fun with the game and it is longer than the second game but much of this game is easy. I flew through the first fourteen worlds in almost no time flat while watching TV one night. Only the last couple main story worlds present any sort of cohesive challenge based on everything introduced in the game. The gimmick of the final world was amazing and was a worthy sendoff to the series. It is a mix of the familiar BOXBOY controls and at some points the snakehead lifts that first appeared in Super Mario World. Overall still a great game that I wish was a little more difficult throughout compared to the other games.

6. Warrior's Way – Finished on May 18 - ??? hours

Finally the great and perilous journey to (re)conquer the world has ended. I did this basically without any actual streetpasses the past six months or so. Basically just getting my 10 play coins per day and hiring 7,500 soldiers or so at a time. I've been using this game to blow play coins once or twice a month since I'm would take my 3DS with me everywhere to get steps anyway but now I'm not sure where to spend them. I was walled for a while on a couple Berserker and Ninja battles but cleared them a few weeks ago.

7. God of War III – Finished on May 20 – 8 hours, 30 minutes

I liked Chains of Olympus and God of War II almost equally, but I think some of the epic boss fights in this game put it over the top for me. I was also expecting Kratos to just be an asshole in this game based on what other people have said but I found that not to be the case. Killing himself to give hope to mankind is one of the most selfless things I have ever seen in a video game. The way he genuinely seems to care for Pandora in the short time they are together is nice too. I did experience a couple weird glitches though including one that made me redo the entire Hercules fight. It was a really fun fight so I'm not complaining too much. I enjoyed the weapons too. Hooks were good. Nemean Cestus reminded me a little of the gauntlets from Chains of Olympus. Everything just fit together so well and was so fun.

8. God of War: Ghost of Sparta – Finished on May 21 – 6 hours, 30 minutes

I continued my series playthrough with Ghost of Sparta. It is a pretty fun game but I'd say it is maybe half a step below God of War 2/Chains of Olympus. I enjoyed the game but it didn't hit the highs for me that the other two games did. The puzzles in this were extremely basic or nonexistent. While I love the story, it stinks that it really does feel like a side story with important and relevant story stuff never hearkened back to in other games. Deimos seems pretty important and yet other than a passing reference at the end of God of War 3 nothing important comes up. Chains of Olympus has a few references as well but they seem more meaty. Gameplay wise the game was fun and I still have some trophies to grind out in the combat arena so I will probably put another few hours into the game doing that.

9. Mega Man X – Finished on May 27 – 3 hours, 20 minutes

I had actually never beaten this game. I played the PSP remake but never the original SNES game past the intro stage. As a kid I just didn't like the game very much. I rented it expecting just the classic Mega Man experience and it was slightly different so I hated it. I got all upgrades and stuff minus the Hadouken because I didn't feel like getting it. It probably would have made the final bosses easier but I managed. I'm not sure if it is just this game or other games in the series but Sigma hits hard and many of his attacks are difficult to avoid. The mavericks were fun and not that hard. I played this on 3DS and it was pretty good in that regard. I've been watching a popular Twitch streamer playing Mega Man games all month and I finally decided to give in to impulse and buy this game to play it. I look forward to continuing the series.

10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Finished on May 28 – 15 hours+

For games where I will primarily be playing online in the future, I will add games to my completed list when I exhaust the single player content for the game. This is especially true for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which I will be playing online forever it feels. The game looks and plays like a dream. I loved regular Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. I had a chance to get a Switch and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the only game that interested me. I've been playing off an on just about every day since I bought the game and have reached a point now where all I will be doing in the future is playing online. I have actually enjoyed playing online this time around. I normally do not like online multiplayer aspects of games but Mario Kart is just so fun and relaxing that I don't care when chaotic things happen. I love just fighting on and continuing to grind and gain positions out on the track instead of expecting to win every single race.

This was a simple and short PnC game, with some nice animation. I didn't find it TOO remarkable but it can be beaten in under 2 or 3 hours. Grab it if you see it in a bundle at least.



This LucasArts classic didn't click with me, sad to say. Like various other PnCs of the era, movement and traversal is slow and this really hampered my enjoyment of the game somewhat. It also didn't help that there was barely any music at all outside of certain scenes and the usual Distaff chimes.

Long time since last update but not much to show for it.

March/April/May 2017

#5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Completion Level: Beat the game and cleared all Shrines, which is as far as I'm willing to go regarding completion % with the game.

Breath of the Wild has definitely been one of the hottest games of the year, reaching a ridiculously high Metacritic score and being showered with praise from players too. A lot has been said by many people about the game so I don't really think I can add much more honestly, but anyway, I'll share a quick description/opinion.

BotW is an open world game with a strong focus on exploration and freedom, which was highlighted right from the original reveal by Aonuma's famous "See that mountain? You can go there" that became almost a meme before the game's release. The game begins with a tutorial section that showcases this freedom by having you explore a "small" region to get Link's powers: bombs, magnesis, stasis and cryonis. After this tutorial, you're free to do whatever you want, even beat the final boss! Although BotW is completely free, it tries to lure players to a path at the beggining by setting story goals that, if followed, will teach you many of the basics of the game. On my playthrough I went by what I assume is the path the devs expected players to take and it was awesome. People have been critical of some parts of the game like the durability system but I honestly liked that aspect. If I were to criticize something, I wish there were more unique enemies in the game. The Zelda franchise has a shitton of different baddies so it was slightly disappointing to see so many of them missing here. In particular, Poes, Skulltulas and Deku Babas are weird omissions considering the theme of this game.

In terms of presentation, BotW shines. The graphics are beautiful and performance is for the most part excellent. The music is more subdued but whenever it appears it's usually really good. Story takes a backseat too but there are many emotional moments and watching Link's final memory was a very memorable moment to me.

Overall, I loved my experience with the game. Exploration completely captivated me, the world was full of surprises and it also presented a fair amount of challenge. I can only hope the next game takes the blueprint of BotW and continues to improve since this formula's a winner to me.

No screenshots since I can't upload easily from Switch atm (don't want to link Twitter account to it).

Currently Playing:
- Advance Wars (GBA VC): Still stuck on final battle (haven't played really).
- Fire Emblem 7 (GBA VC): Continuing a draft run.
- Pokémon Moon (3DS): Sitting outside Pokémon League.
- Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (iOS): Definitely will keep playing rest of the year.
- Final Fantasy Record Keeper (iOS): Not as good as BE but has its moments. It'll stay on my playlist.

I'll definitely not reach 52 (never have, probably never will lol) but I still enjoy writing these small reviews.

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#27: Firewatch: 3.9 hours

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Really enjoyable first-person narrative set in a national park. It takes a lot of cues from Gone Home, but the forest setting and constant companion on the radio give it a different feel. Don't really want to explain too much before it lessens the impact.

#28: Puzzle Kingdoms: 26.3 hours

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It's Puzzle Quest! But a more different one. It uses match-3 puzzle mechanics in the vein of Bejeweled, but instead of swapping blocks you slide a row or column one space. The biggest difference to previous games of this style is that instead of gathering mana of each colour and using them to cast equipped spells, mana is directly funneled into equipped units.

You can bring up to 4 units into battle, each with a charge meter, and attack and defence values. When you match gems of the colour of your units, the unit furthest to the front that isn't fully charged receives meter. If your units of that colour are all charged, or if you have no units of that colour, the power goes into your hero's mana pool for casting spells. When units are charged you can use your turn to deal damage, but if multiple units are charged they each receive an attack bonus. Different units attack differently (top of the list vs random vs top of the list but excess damage overflows), and whoever loses all their units loses the battle.

So you wander around the map fighting battles, clearing a kingdom lets you move on to the next one but also unlocks minigames to unlock more gear. To unlock new units you have to generate a certain amount of power in a given time limit, and to unlock new spells and gear you have to clear a board in a certain number of moves. The later is interesting as the mechanic of a board where new blocks only spawn manually and there's no gravity isn't used anywhere else.

Each of the kingdoms you conquer gives you a new build slot, and each kingdom lets you make a build worth 100 points, with some colours made cheaper and more expensive in each kingdom. There's a lot of levels to the build customisation but the limits are also very tight.

Like the other Infinite Interactive games the game's story seems to actively repel attempts to care about it, and the gameplay is a bit of a slog by the end. I settled into a build I liked fairly quickly and then hit the level cap halfway through the game. At that point it was just going through the motions, until I got bored and started leveling a different character with a slightly different build.

If you're hankering for some mindless puzzle RPG gameplay then give it a shot, but probably just give up when it starts to drag.

#29: DEFCON: 0.6 hours

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Interesting concept, seems like it has depth, ultimately unable to hold my attention for very long. As a timer ticks down to armageddon place your missile silos, nuclear subs, long-range radar and airbases around your region in order to achieve two goals: When nuclear war breaks out kill as many people as possible while losing as few of your own.

#30: The Novelist: 2.7 hours

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I'm probably going to be thinking about this game for a long time, it's short but very impactful. The Kaplans are spending the summer in a holiday home on the coast, and they all need something. Dan is trying to write a novel to salvage his career, Linda is trying to salvage their marriage, and Tommy is struggling at school. The game is broken up into nine chapters where you, as the benevolent spirit of the house, uncover their needs and their motivations. Ultimately you decide whose needs wins out that week, whose needs are partially-met, and who is left disappointed. Great core idea for a game and it gives you a lot to think about.


#31: Inazuma Eleven: 26.2 hours

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I hate this game at first, but once I got used to it it really grew on me. Inazuma Eleven is a soccer RPG, but the thing that you have to understand is that the RPG part barely matters. Yes your characters have stats and movesets and grinding to level up improves your chances, but the mechanics are so opaque I stopped trying to figure them out.

When two players clash their stats are run through a formula and you're shown two numbers that indicate the strength of each at that action. Then after a random die roll one of them wins, and it's hard to tell why any of it is happening. You can choose between two options for each interaction, one is the standard and one gives you a better chance of coming out on top at the risk of losing control of the ball. At the beginning of the game when your players suck and you don't understand what's happening it seems like choosing the second risker play is always better and it takes many, many hours before you get used enough to the matches to understand when it isn't. In the end the mechanics are too obtuse for what they are and it makes trying to learn them an exercise in pointless frustration. In one part of the story your team is poisoned and their stats drop to almost nothing, and the match that follows plays out basically the same, it's silly.

What really makes and breaks the battle system though is the special powers. As they level up or you progress through the story each character unlocks a suite of powers that they can use to win clashes. If someone uses a power and their opponent doesn't, they'll win the clash unless their opponent has considerably higher stats. This leads to a guessing game whereby if you're like to win a clash anyway you can save your MP at the risk that your opponent will deploy a special move of their own. That factor becomes more critical when it comes to scoring.

Generally the keepers of each side are very good, and it's hard to score past them. A cross into a header can do it sometimes but it's still a risk. But with special moves all that changes. In all my time with the game I never saw a goalie stop a special shot with their bare hands, ever. If you or your opponent uses a special shot and you don't use a special block they will score. Special blocks can be thwarted by powerful enough shots too, so they're not a guarantee. But the most disappointing feeling in the game is your opponent's star striker taking a shot, which you block with a powerful special move only to discover they went for a basic shot and you've wasted one of your precious chances to block on nothing. It's an interesting system but ultimately you're trying to read an AI so it's kind of random.

The music is bland and forgettable, and the story is stock shonen/sports anime fare about believing in yourself and your friends. I think I would enjoy the anime adaptation but it was a slog to read in text form. There are a core group of 11-13 team mates, plus 100s more that you can recruit, but I never saw much point in it. You can stick with the same people and as their stats are all roughly the same why not keep the original squad together. Another instance where trying to add RPG mechanics just falls flat.

Overall the game was good fun once I found it's groove instead of expecting it to be something it wasn't. But it dragged on a bit long.

#32: Pokemon: Soul Silver: 20.3 hours

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I decided to continue on from my revisit of Pokemon Yellow via Nuzlocke Challenge and attempt to make it through Soul Silver. I failed, again, twice.

After deciding to name my Chikorita Avocado after the storied Australian tradition, I went with a food theme for my nicknames this time. But the first run came to a screeching halt when Falkner's Pidgeotto killed my entire team, as I wasn't expecting it have recovery and none of my Pokemon could 2HKO it.

The second run went better, opening with Capsicum the Quilava. With me bothering to teach my Geodude (Almond) Rock Throw before taking on the gym, this time I made short work of it. Almond (Walnut was already taken by the first run's late Geodude) was my plan for defeating the next two gyms. But during the battle with Bugsy Almond met a sticky end after a combo of Leer, Leer, and a critical U-Turn. Thus is fell to Sausage the Slowpoke to carry the team, as is quickly becoming tradition at this point.

After Sausage and his new team mate, Durian the Nidorino, made short work of Whitney and her honestly underwhelming Miltank. I was a little worried at this point, because Sausage was the MVP by far but wouldn't be able to stand up to Morty's Ghost types. At that point the team welcomed Pretzel the Stantler, and Morty became a non-issue. On the way to Olivine City Potato the Magnemite also joined the ranks. The team was starting to take shape, and there had been no major deaths in a few gyms and they were starting to get access to more powerful attacks.

The beginning of the end was Cianwood City, where after a chance Suicune sighting, the obsessive Suicune hunter Eusine flew into a jealous rage and went on the warpath. A more seasoned adventurer, the team was under-prepared to face him but they put up their best fight. Eusine's trump card was his Electrode, which like most Electrode was incredibly fast, which began throwing Thunders around with wild abandon. In the face of such an onslaught it was clear that not everyone was going to make it out alive, and in the end Potato joined the ranks of the fallen. Stringbean the Spearow was ill-prepared for what came next, but he joined the team and quickly leveled up and evolved. It was time to take on Chuck.

Worried about Chuck's Poliwrath, Capsicum was sent out first to soften up Chuck's Primeape. That was the last mistake my character ever made. My team was ill-equipped to handle Primeape's movepool of Double Team, Leer, Rock Slide, and Focus Punch. If Potato were still alive they may have gotten off a brave Thunder Wave before it was too late, or if I had led with Sausage a Yawn could have shut down the strategy... but alas, the Primeape set up and Capsicum, Stringbean, Pretzel, and Sausage were lost in short order.

It fell to Durian to survive the battle and take the day, a task it turned out he was well-equipped for. While he couldn't find an opening to hit back, Primeape was poisoned by one of his spines and slowly succumbed while he failed to knock Durian out through a steady supply of Super Potions. It came down to the final round, Durian vs Chuck's Poliwrath. Poliwrath's opening salvo was devestating, a Body Slam that tore through Durian's HP and left him paralysed. After two more Poliwrath remained healthy, and it was at that point that I knew the battle was lost. While it was eventually poisoned too, with Durian paralysed and my stock of potions running dry there wasn't enough time to strike back or wait for Poliwrath to succumb to poison. Even the sacrifice of the team's reserve fodder and Strength user, Gruel the Machop, wasn't enough to stall it out. Another run had ended.

#33: Human Resource Machine: 6.6 hours

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First off I want to say that "office workers mindlessly executing computer programs" is a great theme. Kudos to Kyle Gabler and his team's games are always very critical of the corporate world, with underlying themes of environmentalism and consumerism in World of Goo and Little Inferno, and that doesn't change here.

Functionally the game plays a lot like something from Zachtronics (not a bad thing). You create a program using a very limited set of functions to form operations on letters and numbers. As someone who does a fair bit of high-level programming it was interesting to delve into some very low level stuff for once. The most complex levels in the game involve the player struggling to cobble together a working program to perform relatively basic tasks like sorting or factorisation.

Anyone who was turned off by Little Inferno's focus on story and deconstruction over gameplay won't be disappointed here. It's way more like World of Goo in that sense, and I heartily recommend it.

#34: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land: 9.9 hours

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What an interesting turn for the Super Mario Land subseries to take. Wario is an interesting spin on a Mario playable character. A bit less agile and with a lot more attack options, it's really easy to see why the shoulder bash is so iconic because it's a really useful skill. The main powerups are all useful and deciding between them is daunting at times, and the level design had gotten very good at this point.

This subseries progressed so much across the life of the Game Boy, it's been an interesting ride taking a look back. Super Mario Land is definitely early and limited but it's two sequels really shine.

#35: Company of Heroes: 27.8 hours

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There's nothing wrong with Company of Heroes 2's campaign, but it mostly just made me long for the familiar comfort of CoH1. Its few new ideas (breakable ice, freezing to death) are used very sparingly so it just feels like more of the same. In short: fun but doesn't light the world on fire.

The DLC campaign, Ardennes Assault shakes things up a bit more, though the missions stay pretty stale. You have three armies taking territories on a map, and they can lose a set amount of units across missions. Winning missions grants you currency that can be spent buffing your powers or replenishing your numbers. In the end I barely eked out a win, and it was incredibly tense.

The multiplayer additions are ultimately for the worse I think. You can buy extra doctrines and small passive buffs and it ultimately just makes the thing a convoluted and confusing mess. Admittedly I didn't play very much, before those things turned me off.

Overall it was worth playing in a vacuum, but mostly just made me want to play Company of Heroes 1 and Dawn of War 2 again.

Currently playing: Rhythm Thief, probably a few hours in now.

19. Shovel Knight - Shovel of Hope
~?? Hours
I don't really like these types of games. The difficulty is never right for me and so I either stop them fairly early (to give a reference point: I never made it past World 3 in New Super Mario Bros Wii lol) or cruise through to the point where it takes away all fun.
Shovel Knight is somewhere in between, so overall I enjoyed my time with it well enough. The game still didn't leave a lasting impression, and since I have absolutely zero nostalgia for the genre, it couldn't ride on that one, either.
2/5

20. Arcanoid vs. Space Invaders
~?? Hours
Made it through all Silver medals and it was fairly fun. Only a fifth of the game's level were actually challenging and required a certain amount of adaptability on my part, but it was entertaining through-out. It also makes for a great case study for comparing a game that was designed as a bottleneck microtransaction machine in an actual "premium price" environment.
3/5

21. Final Fantasy XV
+ The world is great, albeit a bit lacking in terms of variety.
+ The main group is pretty good, nothing outstanding, though. The dynamic is the selling point here.
+ The combat is the definite highlight of this game and the singular reason I had no doubt I would see it through to the end.
+ The story presentation on occasion was on point.

- The quest were garbage drivel
- I liked the story and characters, but there was so many jumps, cuts and omissions, it never unraveled to something great.
- The game didn't feel much like a road trip and more like driving around in circles.

Overall: There are many issues with this gamee, that eliviated by the combat. I didn't have that much of a problem with the fetch quests, because there were at least useful in driving me from one combat encounter to the next and thus served a purpose. Traversing the world was sometimes great, sometimes dreadful, especially in regards to the stupid decision to not implement endless sprinting on foot.

In a lot of ways the overall product of FFXV resembles Mass Effect: Andromeda.
3/5


I don't know what I will play next. Either I buy Black Flag for cheap or I try to tackle Deus Ex: MD. I put Final Fantasy IV on hold - I don't know what it is with these games, but until XV I never finished a single FF title before, albeit starting IX, X, V, VII and XIII at one point or another. My IV playthrough went well enough til they gotta throw me a curveball. Wouldn't it be great if there was a dungeon where all your equipment doesn't work, so you gotta get another suit! Oh you have no money? Tough luck. Even if the preparation overall would be only one hour - it is tedious,unnecessary and boring.

One question in that regard: Does VI throw curveballs like that - and are there ways to prepare for them beforehand so I have a smooth sailing-experience?

Plan for the Future in the next few month
Final Fantasy VI
Yakuza Kiwami
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NEW)
Mario Kart 8 (NEW)
Splatoon 2 (NEW)

Still working on
Danganronpa 2: Reload (On Pause)
Final Fantasy IV (On Pause)
Final Fantasy VII (On Pause)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (On Pause)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (On Pause)
Persona 5 (On Pause)

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23) Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - 6 hours - 6/4
I bought Injustice 2 because of the rave reviews and how much story content is supposed to be in it so I decided I needed to play through the original first. The story was pretty good although the cutscenes left a lot to be desired which isn't surprising considering this game was developed for last gen consoles. The actual battle system was really well done although I didn't even scratch the surface over the course of my short playthrough. Very excited to play the second now.

I've been really bad with not only playing games this year, but also keeping up updating my challenge posts on here. Going to do a quick catch up. Hopefully my only huge post like this in the thread, sorry.

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OP.

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Game 2 - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS4) - 3/5 - ~20 hours

I'm so relieved that I actually liked this one. I've been a Resident Evil fan since I first played 3 back on the PS1 but the move to first person was really the first change I wasn't sure of. Thankfully everything worked out relatively well mostly There's definitely some issues to be found such as the lack of extra content/replay value, declining quality as the game goes on (this has been a problem with the series since pretty much the beginning and especially moreso with 4 and 5), and

Spoiler

messy ending "choices"

but I find myself mildly optimistic about the future of the series.

The DLC in this one is sure disappointing other than Ethan Must Die so far though...

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Game 3 - Lara Croft GO (PS4) - 3.5/5 - 6 hours

This one was such a treat. I'd played bits of this on my Android device but I played through the game in full this time on my PS4. The outfits are a nice surprise for fans and the puzzles give a decent challenge. Probably my favorite modern Tomb Raider experience available at this time. I really wish the main series would learn some stuff from this.

Mildly unrelated but the GO series of games from Square Enix has really just been great as a whole. I hope they continue with it.

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Game 4 - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4) - 2.5/5 - 8 hours

Grabbed this one in a PSN sale. I have really hit or miss experiences with Telltale games. I love The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead S1, and Borderlands but everything else has been okay at best. Game of Thrones has been a personally low point but I think that's heavily in part due to my lack of interest in the license. I'm not a huge Batman/superhero fan but this was definitely a bit better than I expected it to be. As always with Telltale games, this was a disaster on the technical front. I had 3 or 4 crashes in addition to the framerate looking like a slideshow and some other glitches at a few points. I'm not handwaving this by any means but this was one of my lesser problematic Telltale experiences so I don't want to complain too much in that regard.

More than anything, I just really want TWAU S2 and every time I see a new announcement from Telltale and it isn't that I die a bit inside.

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Game 5 - Yakuza 0 (PS4) - 4.5/5 - ~120 hours

What a game. I already had high expectations for this from what I had been seeing around for this series but this really went above and beyond. I was particularly surprised to even enjoy the fighting elements of the game as someone who isn't usually a fighter/beat em up player. Just content after content for this, probably the best value in terms of purchasing a game at full price/launch in at least 5+ years for me. Kiryu is a heartthrob <3.

Yakuza Kiwami is preordered and paid off in full!

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Game 6 - Gone Home (PS4) - 4.5/5 - 3 hours, 37 minutes *

Was in the mood to replay this after discussing it a bit with a friend. 100% completion on PS4. Still one of my favorites, the atmosphere is absolutely amazing in this. The game has a very nice story and selection of music to boot. Commentary mode is also a very nice bonus.

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Game 7 - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (DS) - 4.5/5 - 15 hours, 29 minutes*

This one definitely hasn't held up as well as Hotel Dusk: Room 215 upon this replay. Some of the characters feel severely underused which is a huge shame as I feel like most, if not all had potential. Even still, this is one of my all time favorites and always will be.

I miss Cing so much.

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#29 Battlefield Bad Company 2 (PC) - 4 hours


Played through this before and it's still a great game.

Got through both Inside (PS4) and Dead Rising 3 (X1) enjoyed both

Went through Inside twice in a day. had to look online for that second globe thing though! I had trouble finding it a second time, even when I knew (roughly) where to look!

Had fun with DR3, It's easily one of my favourite new IP's from last GEN and I kind of enjoyed the more laid back approach to time management. Looking forward to going through Dead Rising 4 at Christmas. In fact, I might make it my final game of 2017...

Have started Assassins' Creed Chronicle: China. Was a freebie with Gold, It's okay so far reminds me a lot of Mark of the Ninja (as it's supposed to) but the smooth controls aren't there... Speaking of which; why isn't Mark of the Ninja on BC yet? What are they waiting for??

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Decided to replay this via the PS2 ver. on PS4. I could sense a 0.5 second lag on my inputs, so either this is from the emulation or my HDTV's set up.
Still I enjoyed it, it's a fun romp although when there are lots of enemies on screen and bullets, shit can get tricky to maneuver.

At its core though, its a lovely run 'n gun shooter, but now I feel like Metal Slug X greatly outshines it for me.

Game #46 - Path of Exile
Time: 12 hours

12 hours to "finish" the campaign, which in these types of games is all but meaningless because the whole point is replaying in higher difficulties and grind for loot, but at the same time I feel like I got all I was going to get out of the game. Dont get me wrong, thats not a slight on the game itself, it seems like a excellent one of those and I can totally see why its popular, but like I said, I got all I was going to get out of it.


Game #47 - Leap of Fate
Time: 9 hours

Fantastic rogue-like, a futuristic-fantasy action game, basically a top down dual stick shooter in randomly generated levels with a little story campaign to go through and unlock new characters and costumes. Tons of special powers to collect, characters feel unique and each have their own skill trees, the "card game" meta is great (the whole thing feels like what Hand of Fate should have been), great gameplay and visuals, just a really fun game that is very easy to play in short bursts. I didnt finish all the character campaigns (they dont really change, its always the same set of 6 levels) but I got to a point where it was just more of the same, so I got my moneys worth out of it. If you catch it in a bundle be sure to give it a spin.

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