wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 57. Death Come True
2 hrs.45mins. 24 out of 25
2 hrs.45mins. 24 out of 25
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52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.
- Thread starter Wozzer
- Start date
tell yourself.
Member
Just want to say it's good to be back, going to edit this post.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Part 1
Game 34 - Evoland - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 6th, 2020
It's probably a good thing that I finished the lion's share of this year's challenge before buying and renovating a house. It's been almost a month since the last time I completed a game, but I wanted to carve out a few hours today to play Evoland on the Switch. It's a fun little RPG that gets pretty meta. I played it on the PC a few years back, and really enjoyed it. The game mechanics are simple but constantly changing / evolving as you unlock new ideas - such as background music, the ability to move left, and HD textures. Battles are either Zelda-like or Final Fantasy style turn based. The characters are spoofs on Final Fantasy 7. The whole game takes about 3 hours to complete, but is surprisingly competent. An enjoyable little game.
Game 35 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 13th, 2020
This game kinda came out of nowhere for me - I loved the first game and have beat it several times, so when I saw that the sequel was released for $15 it was an instant buy for me. I picked this up on the Switch, and it ran great. The game is lovely with a great mix of characters and enemies alike. A few familiar faces from Ritual of the Night (this is another prequel) and a few new characters are introduced. The level designs are top notch and were a huge homage to the original NES Castlevania games. A lot of innovative twists this time around though, things that couldn't have been done on the old hardware. I really liked this game, and I'll definitely be replaying the other "episodes" that are included (basically just going through the game again with slight variations) for the additional story elements.
Game 36 - Evoland II - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 29th, 2020
I put Xenoblade Chronicles on hold while I was moving so I could play through both Evoland games. The first game is a charming little title that took about three hours to beat, so I was expecting something similar to that when I dove into this. What I actually found was a fully fleshed out RPG with awesome crossover mechanics and a time-bending Chrono-Trigger-like story. I have to say, this game absolutely impressed me. It retained a lot of the charm of the first game, but really ramped up it's story so that instead of being a B-tier satire spin-off it actually stands up really well on it's own. There were a few sections of the game (like the rooftop running section) that almost made me want to give up, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Excellent game that I highly recommend.
Game 37 - Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn - PC - Completed Aug 15th, 2020
I've been playing a lot of really long games lately, so I decided to take a break and play something that I knew I could finish in just a few hours. The game I landed on was Shaq Fu 2: A Legend Reborn. I enjoyed the original Shaq Fu game although I thought it was ridiculous back in the day. Well, this game is also incredibly ridiculous but I actually really liked it. A fun beat-um-up with great music and really fun power-ups. The ShaqTus was my favorite, where you turn into a giant cactus and shoot needles at enemies. The bosses were fun and interesting, but the regular bad guys were a bit lame and way too plentiful. Overall, this was a pretty fun game, made better by the fact I got it for free a while back on Twitch Prime.
Game 38 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 1st, 2020
Boy oh boy, I've been playing this game since it released in April and I had an absolutely marvelous time with it. My save file was just shy of 100 hours (96 and some change) but I completed every quest, maxed out all affinities, 100% reconstruction of colony 6, all skills learned, pretty much everything the game had to offer. It's been about 8 years since I played through this game last, and with the game's new face lift I felt like it holds it's own among all the great Switch games graphically. The absolute scope of the game is breathtaking, and crazy to think that this was originally a Wii game! As always, the voice acting was superb - and I had no idea that Jenna Coleman (Clara from Doctor Who) was the voice of Melia. My only real complaint, though it's a small one, is that sometimes the set pieces were SO big that it was a bit of a hindrance. The Earith Sea comes to mind, specifically. Other than that, this game is an absolute 10/10 and the definitive edition is by far the best way to play one of my favorite games of all time.
Game 39 - Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout - PlayStation 4 - Completed Sep 3rd, 2020
I played this for quite some time with my son, we would pass the controller back and forth between matches. While it's pretty cool simply for the massively online aspect of the game, it falls really short (ha) for me in repeatability as the matches get to be more and more just the same stuff over and over again. I would say that the game is lacking variety, but I don't think that's entirely it. In the ten or so hours that we played the game, there were a few types of matches that we only encountered once or twice - with everything else being the same 3-4 stages on seemingly random loops. The customization options are cute enough, and the fact that the stuff in the in-game store changes daily is a nice touch and adds a lot of variety to the characters you see online. But in the end, this just became a bit boring and it was easy to know how each match would more or less go depending on your starting position. The game feels like the cheap imitation of something that could be great. At least it was free on PS+.
Game 40 - Monster Train - PC GOG - Completed Sep 5th, 2020
I saw a thread on GAF about Monster Train and it seemed like it was relatively praised here by people whose opinions I value. I saw that it was on sale for 20% off and decided to take the plunge. They weren't kidding, this game is pretty awesome! It's fairly simplistic in it's execution (enemies enter at the bottom and move up, summon monsters to stop them) but it does an amazing job of blending deck building, customizable card games (like Magic or Hearthstone), rogue like elements, tower defense, and "choose your own adventure" genres. The game features five factions and a few hundred cards (many of which you have to level up the factions to unlock) and it's a recipe for success. I "finished" the game but I'm definitely not finished with it - I think I'll be playing this one for a long time yet.
Game 41 - Super Bomberman R Online - Google Stadia - Completed Sep 8th, 2020
I re-subscribed to Stadia for Bomberman R and a hand full of other games to get added to my account. Like Fall Guys, I didn't really feel like the battle royale aspect of this game really helped my enjoyment of it overall. It's entirely possible that I'm just cynical. So - the premise here is nice and interesting and the classic Bomberman powerups are there as well. At it's core, this isn't much different from Saturn Bomberman or even Bomberman '93, except that it's "online" and you're competing with tons of other players. But I use the term "players" loosely, because I get the feeling while playing that it's at least 90+% bots - the rigid weird movements (especially between rounds, as blocks are about to fall!) and questionable robotic decisions really has me thinking that there's a pretty good illusion of competition but it's not really there. So overall this fell pretty flat for me personally.
Game 42 - Slay the Spire - PC - Completed Sep 16th, 2020
After falling in love with Monster Train, I had some people let me know that it was really just "a rip off of Slay The Spire" - so I thought I'd give this game a try. Unfortunately, I've gotta say that this game was not very good, and a pretty big let-down after Monster Train. The one-on-one or one-on-many battles in this game just doesn't make it nearly as tactically diverse as something like Monster Train, and loses all of the great tower-defense-like gameplay that I love in that game. The random actions and the deckbuilding aspects are really cool and still make for some great combos in this game, but for me personally I felt like it really fell flat. In all honesty, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I had played it first before playing Monster Train.
Game 43 - No Straight Roads - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 20th, 2020
I decided to pick this game up because I knew it was pretty short and it looked like a pretty fun action/adventure game. Unfortunately, the combination of being a rhythm game (I have none) and the Switch's low framerate made this much more difficult to play than it needed to be. I looked up some videos of people playing this on PS4 and saw that it was silky smooth, but the Switch version is a frustrating low-framerate mess when it matters most. There were several times I found myself surrounded by enemies and just kept dying because the buttons wouldn't respond right because my character had already been hit / knocked down and the screen just hadn't updated yet. Somehow, I worked through the flaws of this version and finished it, but I will say it left a rather poor taste in my mouth to want to continue playing or to recommend the Switch version to anyone else.
Game 44 - Left 4 Dead 2 - PC Steam - Completed Sep 26th, 2020
So I decided to check out the new Last Stand map update, and my son and daughter and I ended up playing through all of the different campaign maps after finishing that one. This is such a fun game but it's been ages since I've played it (let alone played it with both the kids) and I had a really fun time. The new maps (The Last Stand) was fun but surprisingly short. Pretty cool to see a game like this get developer support so long after it originally came out! A true classic.
Game 45 - Ghost of Tsushima - PlayStation 4 - Completed Sep 29th, 2020
I've been playing this game a few months (since launch) and I've put around 80 hours into completing it. The game is most excellent, and held my attention for the fair majority of the time I spent with it. The beginning of the game is a masterclass in storytelling, which is why it was kinda weird how everything more or less fell apart in the last act. A weak third act doesn't really knock many points off my scale for this game, but it is disappointing nonetheless. I liberated every outpost and upgraded every weapon, armor, and bag of holding. I completed every "Tale of Tsushima" as well as all of the side quests. I completed all the optional quests and visited every location in the game. This game is easily in my top five games of 2020.
Game 46 - Hades - Nintendo Switch - Completed Oct 9th, 2020
This game. Everything about this game is a solid 10/10 - the art style, the voice acting, the music, the whole package. I'm a huge fan of Supergiant's other games (except Pyre, which was lame) and this one is better than both Bastion and Transistor. I finished the game and watched the credits roll, which means I won against Hades a total of ten times, which took me about 35 total runs through the game and about 40 hours of play time. The characters in this game were nuanced and really really well done. This is one of my favorite games of 2020.
Game 47 - Super Mario World - PC Retroachivements - Completed Oct 16th, 2020
I played through this as part of the newly formed SNES Club here on NeoGAF, and I challenged myself to complete the bonus of unlocking all 96 exits which I accomplished. I've done this dozens of times before but honestly probably not in the last 7-8 years. As always with Super Mario World, I had a lot of fun with this game and it plays exactly like I remember it playing when I was a young person. An extremely competent platformer that still holds up incredibly well today!
Game 48 - Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls (GBA) - Android Retroachievements - Completed Oct 21st, 2020
I decided to give my new Razor Kishi a shakedown by playing Final Fantasy I from the Dawn of Souls collection on the GBA. I chose playing in Retroarch because it recognizes the Kishi straight away and it integrates nicely with Retroachievements. I had played through this version of the game when it first came out on GBA but it's been... a while... since then. After the graphically superior PSP release I never felt the need to return to this one but overall I'm glad I did. The sprite work, although not as crisp as the PSP release, is really well done. The Kishi handled like a dream. The achievements were a nice, fun touch. My only real complaint is the "extra" dungeons being pretty boring. I finished 1.5 of the 4 and I had had enough, these things take an hour or more to traverse and the whole time you're fighting garbo enemies that don't give you barely any EXP. Meanwhile you get to the end and have to fight some pretty tough bosses but by the time I finished the first shine 4 times (to beat all the bosses) I could basically steamroll them. I would have liked to see a bit better enemy variety in the bonus dungeons, I suppose. Either way, the game is still a classic masterpiece and a fun RPG.
Game 49 - The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - Xbox One - Completed Oct 28th, 2020
I played through this game last year, but played it again and it was almost a totally different game this time around. The choices in this game absolutely seem to matter, which is great. I got the "bad ending", where everyone dies. However, despite that I had a really good time with the game and enjoyed it immensely. I was planning on playing through it before Little Hope launches and I definitely succeeded there - I've really been looking forward to that game and have it pre-loading on my Xbox as I type this. Man of Medan is still a great game and I feel like more people should give it a shake.
Game 50 - Cat Quest II - Nintendo Switch - Completed Nov 1st, 2020
I played the first game on the PC because I got it cheap as part of an indie bundle. I saw that the sequel was for sale on the Switch and went ahead and picked it up. There isn't really much to say about this game other than "if you liked the first game, you'll enjoy this one too". While the game does feature a new mechanic (multiple playable characters that can be switched out by pressing a button) everything above and beyond that is almost identical to the first game. Sure, now you get two different equipment loadouts that leads for some interesting strategies (and there are new weapons, armor, and spells!) but the game feels right at home to those that have finished the first. The map has two biomes now but the music, NPCs, quest items, etc. are all the same as the first game. Despite that, I really enjoyed this game and felt like there was enough there to keep my attention for the 10 or so hours it took to finish.
Game 51 - The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope - Xbox One - Completed Nov 1st, 2020
I played the majority of this game on Halloween night, and it was brilliant. I'm glad that I re-played Man of Medan right before this one, because it really brought to light all the great things that this game improved upon. On the Xbox One X, the framerate was a much smoother than MoM which made the button prompts a lot easier to deal with. The game also added camera controls which were brilliant and really added to the game's spooky atmosphere. There are tons of great QoL improvements too - such as seeing trait changes without opening menus. The story was an absolute thrill ride and the ending was superb. There was a ton of symbolism that was thrown in that you have to pay attention to understand. Everything is rounded out by a wonderful performance by the entire cast - really everything was incredibly top notch. I know this game came out about six months later than they were originally planning, but it definitely looks and feels like that paid off for them. I am really excited for House of Ashes because it looks like it will be a radical departure for the series.
Game 52 - Genshin Impact - PlayStation 4 - Completed Nov 7th, 2020
I've put right around 80 hours into Genshin Impact, and I have to say that for a free game the amount of content here already really is amazing. While I did put $15 into the game (daily pass and battle pass) I feel like I got an incredible value from that, one that I could have probably still gotten without paying a dime. The game's story was a highlight for me - the voice acting was really well done although sometimes a bit over the top. The character designs were great. I did encounter a frustrating game-breaking bug near the end of the storyline but it seemed to resolve itself eventually with an update. My only other negative was the incredibly slow loading times on the PlayStation 4 Pro, so I'm hoping that the PS5's SSD will help fix this issue even if the developers don't address it directly. The 1.1 update comes out in a few days, with new story content, so I'll definitely be continuing my journey in Genshin Impact.
Game 53 - Classic NES Series: Legend of Zelda (GBA) - Android Retroachievements - Completed Nov 8th, 2020
Someone made a GAF thread recently like "Could you beat the original NES Zelda in 48 hours without using any guides?" which I thought was a bit silly. While I've never exactly timed myself, it turns out I can beat the original Zelda in a little under 3 hours without looking up any guides online, or dying. I think I have this game entirely committed to memory at this point. I picked this version of the game since I played the NES version (and unlocked a bunch of achievements for it) back in 2018. I still love this game to pieces.
Game 54 - Unravel Two - Xbox Series X - Completed Nov 27th, 2020
It's been a while since I've finished any games, thanks in part to Watch_Dogs Legion losing my save file after 40 hours. Over Thanksgiving weekend, my son and I finished Unravel Two in couch co-op mode and it was a lot of fun. However, the "story" of this game made absolutely no sense. The smoke dudes were trying to attack a lighthouse, but our yarn guys had to go and save some kids from another smoke person... or something? Really insane stuff, but the puzzles (especially in co-op mode) were a lot of fun.
Game 55 - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Nintendo Switch - Completed Nov 30th, 2020
Wow, what a game. This seemingly came out of nowhere but absolutely blew me away. I enjoyed the original Hyrule Warriors but this game seems to have taken the formula of the first game and perfected it. There are a huge number of quality of life improvements pasted over the shiny coat of new Breath of the Wild flair! While the story was ultimately a bit of a let down, the game made up for it in excellent gameplay filled to the brim with collectibles and light RPG mechanics (leveling up characters, trading loot for upgrades, etc.) which I really enjoyed. I'd say the only downside to this game was that it ran terribly - there were times where the game's FPS would drop into the single digits, even in docked mode. Like, killing a large enemy with bombs pretty much guarantees that things are going to get laggy. Despite this, I would still recommend this game whole heartedly, especially if you're a Zelda fan waiting for BotW2.
Game 56 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Xbox Series X Retroachievements - Completed Dec. 5th, 2020
I played through the GBA version of this game for the monthly SNES game club, mostly because I didn't already have all of the achievements for this version. I also wanted to see the differences in the versions, since I had somehow never played this version before. For added fun, I played this using Retroarch on the Xbox Series X which obviously handled this like a champ. The game is still amazing and easily one of my top 5 games of all time. I was a little disappointed in the down-sampled music but that was more or less expected of the GBA's hardware. Otherwise, I found this more challenging than my usual playthroughs really just because it was hard to break my old habits with the new controls. Overall, an amazing game still.
Game 57 - Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory - Nintendo Switch - Completed Dec. 11th, 2020
I really enjoyed this game although I was slightly disappointed with the lack of good Disney songs to compliment the worlds. There seemed to be a lot of supplemental music that, while quite good, wasn't very memorable. The standout for me was the recap movies that told the story of the Kingdom Hearts games (as good as it could, I suppose) and I felt like that was good since I didn't play a few of the side games. I also hadn't finished Kingdom Hearts III before playing that which was probably also a mistake but oh well. The ending of this game was nice but also Kingdom Hearts levels of mysterious and silly. Overall, a solid rhythm game that probably would have done better with a lower price point.
Game 58 - Ys Seven - PC GOG - Completed Dec. 16th, 2020
I've been playing this game on and off for the past couple of weeks and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. As always with Ys games, there was an excellent mix of action and adventure. The game had good exploration and progression, really just a great title all around. I didn't find myself needing to grind much, which is always welcome in a game like this. Even though I didn't complete all of the side quests or unlock all of the achievements (one of which, sadly, was bugged), I still feel like this PSP game holds it's own with modern titles. I'm not sure if I would recommend this game as people's first Ys experience, but if you're like me and have played nearly all of the other games, I would definitely recommend it. I'm going to try and play Ys: Memories of Celceta next - as it's the only game in the series I haven't played yet - before Ys IX: Monstrum Nox releases in a few months.
Game 59 - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Xbox Series X - Completed Dec 19th, 2020
I played this game last year on the PC but absolutely loved it. I picked it up for the Xbox several months ago but it didn't play very well on the One X. Now that I have a Series X, I tried it again and it plays buttery smooth. The game is fantastic and a wonderful original Star Wars story set before the original trilogy of movies. I played on the harder (but not hardest!) difficulty setting this time through - and the extra challenge was quite nice although sometimes frustrating. I didn't unlock all of the collectibles and I believe I missed a few optional areas / enemies. I really hope they make a sequel to this game because I'd love to see what comes of Cal, Cere, and the crew.
Game 34 - Evoland - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 6th, 2020
It's probably a good thing that I finished the lion's share of this year's challenge before buying and renovating a house. It's been almost a month since the last time I completed a game, but I wanted to carve out a few hours today to play Evoland on the Switch. It's a fun little RPG that gets pretty meta. I played it on the PC a few years back, and really enjoyed it. The game mechanics are simple but constantly changing / evolving as you unlock new ideas - such as background music, the ability to move left, and HD textures. Battles are either Zelda-like or Final Fantasy style turn based. The characters are spoofs on Final Fantasy 7. The whole game takes about 3 hours to complete, but is surprisingly competent. An enjoyable little game.
Game 35 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 13th, 2020
This game kinda came out of nowhere for me - I loved the first game and have beat it several times, so when I saw that the sequel was released for $15 it was an instant buy for me. I picked this up on the Switch, and it ran great. The game is lovely with a great mix of characters and enemies alike. A few familiar faces from Ritual of the Night (this is another prequel) and a few new characters are introduced. The level designs are top notch and were a huge homage to the original NES Castlevania games. A lot of innovative twists this time around though, things that couldn't have been done on the old hardware. I really liked this game, and I'll definitely be replaying the other "episodes" that are included (basically just going through the game again with slight variations) for the additional story elements.
Game 36 - Evoland II - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 29th, 2020
I put Xenoblade Chronicles on hold while I was moving so I could play through both Evoland games. The first game is a charming little title that took about three hours to beat, so I was expecting something similar to that when I dove into this. What I actually found was a fully fleshed out RPG with awesome crossover mechanics and a time-bending Chrono-Trigger-like story. I have to say, this game absolutely impressed me. It retained a lot of the charm of the first game, but really ramped up it's story so that instead of being a B-tier satire spin-off it actually stands up really well on it's own. There were a few sections of the game (like the rooftop running section) that almost made me want to give up, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Excellent game that I highly recommend.
Game 37 - Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn - PC - Completed Aug 15th, 2020
I've been playing a lot of really long games lately, so I decided to take a break and play something that I knew I could finish in just a few hours. The game I landed on was Shaq Fu 2: A Legend Reborn. I enjoyed the original Shaq Fu game although I thought it was ridiculous back in the day. Well, this game is also incredibly ridiculous but I actually really liked it. A fun beat-um-up with great music and really fun power-ups. The ShaqTus was my favorite, where you turn into a giant cactus and shoot needles at enemies. The bosses were fun and interesting, but the regular bad guys were a bit lame and way too plentiful. Overall, this was a pretty fun game, made better by the fact I got it for free a while back on Twitch Prime.
Game 38 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 1st, 2020
Boy oh boy, I've been playing this game since it released in April and I had an absolutely marvelous time with it. My save file was just shy of 100 hours (96 and some change) but I completed every quest, maxed out all affinities, 100% reconstruction of colony 6, all skills learned, pretty much everything the game had to offer. It's been about 8 years since I played through this game last, and with the game's new face lift I felt like it holds it's own among all the great Switch games graphically. The absolute scope of the game is breathtaking, and crazy to think that this was originally a Wii game! As always, the voice acting was superb - and I had no idea that Jenna Coleman (Clara from Doctor Who) was the voice of Melia. My only real complaint, though it's a small one, is that sometimes the set pieces were SO big that it was a bit of a hindrance. The Earith Sea comes to mind, specifically. Other than that, this game is an absolute 10/10 and the definitive edition is by far the best way to play one of my favorite games of all time.
Game 39 - Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout - PlayStation 4 - Completed Sep 3rd, 2020
I played this for quite some time with my son, we would pass the controller back and forth between matches. While it's pretty cool simply for the massively online aspect of the game, it falls really short (ha) for me in repeatability as the matches get to be more and more just the same stuff over and over again. I would say that the game is lacking variety, but I don't think that's entirely it. In the ten or so hours that we played the game, there were a few types of matches that we only encountered once or twice - with everything else being the same 3-4 stages on seemingly random loops. The customization options are cute enough, and the fact that the stuff in the in-game store changes daily is a nice touch and adds a lot of variety to the characters you see online. But in the end, this just became a bit boring and it was easy to know how each match would more or less go depending on your starting position. The game feels like the cheap imitation of something that could be great. At least it was free on PS+.
Game 40 - Monster Train - PC GOG - Completed Sep 5th, 2020
I saw a thread on GAF about Monster Train and it seemed like it was relatively praised here by people whose opinions I value. I saw that it was on sale for 20% off and decided to take the plunge. They weren't kidding, this game is pretty awesome! It's fairly simplistic in it's execution (enemies enter at the bottom and move up, summon monsters to stop them) but it does an amazing job of blending deck building, customizable card games (like Magic or Hearthstone), rogue like elements, tower defense, and "choose your own adventure" genres. The game features five factions and a few hundred cards (many of which you have to level up the factions to unlock) and it's a recipe for success. I "finished" the game but I'm definitely not finished with it - I think I'll be playing this one for a long time yet.
Game 41 - Super Bomberman R Online - Google Stadia - Completed Sep 8th, 2020
I re-subscribed to Stadia for Bomberman R and a hand full of other games to get added to my account. Like Fall Guys, I didn't really feel like the battle royale aspect of this game really helped my enjoyment of it overall. It's entirely possible that I'm just cynical. So - the premise here is nice and interesting and the classic Bomberman powerups are there as well. At it's core, this isn't much different from Saturn Bomberman or even Bomberman '93, except that it's "online" and you're competing with tons of other players. But I use the term "players" loosely, because I get the feeling while playing that it's at least 90+% bots - the rigid weird movements (especially between rounds, as blocks are about to fall!) and questionable robotic decisions really has me thinking that there's a pretty good illusion of competition but it's not really there. So overall this fell pretty flat for me personally.
Game 42 - Slay the Spire - PC - Completed Sep 16th, 2020
After falling in love with Monster Train, I had some people let me know that it was really just "a rip off of Slay The Spire" - so I thought I'd give this game a try. Unfortunately, I've gotta say that this game was not very good, and a pretty big let-down after Monster Train. The one-on-one or one-on-many battles in this game just doesn't make it nearly as tactically diverse as something like Monster Train, and loses all of the great tower-defense-like gameplay that I love in that game. The random actions and the deckbuilding aspects are really cool and still make for some great combos in this game, but for me personally I felt like it really fell flat. In all honesty, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I had played it first before playing Monster Train.
Game 43 - No Straight Roads - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 20th, 2020
I decided to pick this game up because I knew it was pretty short and it looked like a pretty fun action/adventure game. Unfortunately, the combination of being a rhythm game (I have none) and the Switch's low framerate made this much more difficult to play than it needed to be. I looked up some videos of people playing this on PS4 and saw that it was silky smooth, but the Switch version is a frustrating low-framerate mess when it matters most. There were several times I found myself surrounded by enemies and just kept dying because the buttons wouldn't respond right because my character had already been hit / knocked down and the screen just hadn't updated yet. Somehow, I worked through the flaws of this version and finished it, but I will say it left a rather poor taste in my mouth to want to continue playing or to recommend the Switch version to anyone else.
Game 44 - Left 4 Dead 2 - PC Steam - Completed Sep 26th, 2020
So I decided to check out the new Last Stand map update, and my son and daughter and I ended up playing through all of the different campaign maps after finishing that one. This is such a fun game but it's been ages since I've played it (let alone played it with both the kids) and I had a really fun time. The new maps (The Last Stand) was fun but surprisingly short. Pretty cool to see a game like this get developer support so long after it originally came out! A true classic.
Game 45 - Ghost of Tsushima - PlayStation 4 - Completed Sep 29th, 2020
I've been playing this game a few months (since launch) and I've put around 80 hours into completing it. The game is most excellent, and held my attention for the fair majority of the time I spent with it. The beginning of the game is a masterclass in storytelling, which is why it was kinda weird how everything more or less fell apart in the last act. A weak third act doesn't really knock many points off my scale for this game, but it is disappointing nonetheless. I liberated every outpost and upgraded every weapon, armor, and bag of holding. I completed every "Tale of Tsushima" as well as all of the side quests. I completed all the optional quests and visited every location in the game. This game is easily in my top five games of 2020.
Game 46 - Hades - Nintendo Switch - Completed Oct 9th, 2020
This game. Everything about this game is a solid 10/10 - the art style, the voice acting, the music, the whole package. I'm a huge fan of Supergiant's other games (except Pyre, which was lame) and this one is better than both Bastion and Transistor. I finished the game and watched the credits roll, which means I won against Hades a total of ten times, which took me about 35 total runs through the game and about 40 hours of play time. The characters in this game were nuanced and really really well done. This is one of my favorite games of 2020.
Game 47 - Super Mario World - PC Retroachivements - Completed Oct 16th, 2020
I played through this as part of the newly formed SNES Club here on NeoGAF, and I challenged myself to complete the bonus of unlocking all 96 exits which I accomplished. I've done this dozens of times before but honestly probably not in the last 7-8 years. As always with Super Mario World, I had a lot of fun with this game and it plays exactly like I remember it playing when I was a young person. An extremely competent platformer that still holds up incredibly well today!
Game 48 - Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls (GBA) - Android Retroachievements - Completed Oct 21st, 2020
I decided to give my new Razor Kishi a shakedown by playing Final Fantasy I from the Dawn of Souls collection on the GBA. I chose playing in Retroarch because it recognizes the Kishi straight away and it integrates nicely with Retroachievements. I had played through this version of the game when it first came out on GBA but it's been... a while... since then. After the graphically superior PSP release I never felt the need to return to this one but overall I'm glad I did. The sprite work, although not as crisp as the PSP release, is really well done. The Kishi handled like a dream. The achievements were a nice, fun touch. My only real complaint is the "extra" dungeons being pretty boring. I finished 1.5 of the 4 and I had had enough, these things take an hour or more to traverse and the whole time you're fighting garbo enemies that don't give you barely any EXP. Meanwhile you get to the end and have to fight some pretty tough bosses but by the time I finished the first shine 4 times (to beat all the bosses) I could basically steamroll them. I would have liked to see a bit better enemy variety in the bonus dungeons, I suppose. Either way, the game is still a classic masterpiece and a fun RPG.
Game 49 - The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - Xbox One - Completed Oct 28th, 2020
I played through this game last year, but played it again and it was almost a totally different game this time around. The choices in this game absolutely seem to matter, which is great. I got the "bad ending", where everyone dies. However, despite that I had a really good time with the game and enjoyed it immensely. I was planning on playing through it before Little Hope launches and I definitely succeeded there - I've really been looking forward to that game and have it pre-loading on my Xbox as I type this. Man of Medan is still a great game and I feel like more people should give it a shake.
Game 50 - Cat Quest II - Nintendo Switch - Completed Nov 1st, 2020
I played the first game on the PC because I got it cheap as part of an indie bundle. I saw that the sequel was for sale on the Switch and went ahead and picked it up. There isn't really much to say about this game other than "if you liked the first game, you'll enjoy this one too". While the game does feature a new mechanic (multiple playable characters that can be switched out by pressing a button) everything above and beyond that is almost identical to the first game. Sure, now you get two different equipment loadouts that leads for some interesting strategies (and there are new weapons, armor, and spells!) but the game feels right at home to those that have finished the first. The map has two biomes now but the music, NPCs, quest items, etc. are all the same as the first game. Despite that, I really enjoyed this game and felt like there was enough there to keep my attention for the 10 or so hours it took to finish.
Game 51 - The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope - Xbox One - Completed Nov 1st, 2020
I played the majority of this game on Halloween night, and it was brilliant. I'm glad that I re-played Man of Medan right before this one, because it really brought to light all the great things that this game improved upon. On the Xbox One X, the framerate was a much smoother than MoM which made the button prompts a lot easier to deal with. The game also added camera controls which were brilliant and really added to the game's spooky atmosphere. There are tons of great QoL improvements too - such as seeing trait changes without opening menus. The story was an absolute thrill ride and the ending was superb. There was a ton of symbolism that was thrown in that you have to pay attention to understand. Everything is rounded out by a wonderful performance by the entire cast - really everything was incredibly top notch. I know this game came out about six months later than they were originally planning, but it definitely looks and feels like that paid off for them. I am really excited for House of Ashes because it looks like it will be a radical departure for the series.
Game 52 - Genshin Impact - PlayStation 4 - Completed Nov 7th, 2020
I've put right around 80 hours into Genshin Impact, and I have to say that for a free game the amount of content here already really is amazing. While I did put $15 into the game (daily pass and battle pass) I feel like I got an incredible value from that, one that I could have probably still gotten without paying a dime. The game's story was a highlight for me - the voice acting was really well done although sometimes a bit over the top. The character designs were great. I did encounter a frustrating game-breaking bug near the end of the storyline but it seemed to resolve itself eventually with an update. My only other negative was the incredibly slow loading times on the PlayStation 4 Pro, so I'm hoping that the PS5's SSD will help fix this issue even if the developers don't address it directly. The 1.1 update comes out in a few days, with new story content, so I'll definitely be continuing my journey in Genshin Impact.
Game 53 - Classic NES Series: Legend of Zelda (GBA) - Android Retroachievements - Completed Nov 8th, 2020
Someone made a GAF thread recently like "Could you beat the original NES Zelda in 48 hours without using any guides?" which I thought was a bit silly. While I've never exactly timed myself, it turns out I can beat the original Zelda in a little under 3 hours without looking up any guides online, or dying. I think I have this game entirely committed to memory at this point. I picked this version of the game since I played the NES version (and unlocked a bunch of achievements for it) back in 2018. I still love this game to pieces.
Game 54 - Unravel Two - Xbox Series X - Completed Nov 27th, 2020
It's been a while since I've finished any games, thanks in part to Watch_Dogs Legion losing my save file after 40 hours. Over Thanksgiving weekend, my son and I finished Unravel Two in couch co-op mode and it was a lot of fun. However, the "story" of this game made absolutely no sense. The smoke dudes were trying to attack a lighthouse, but our yarn guys had to go and save some kids from another smoke person... or something? Really insane stuff, but the puzzles (especially in co-op mode) were a lot of fun.
Game 55 - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Nintendo Switch - Completed Nov 30th, 2020
Wow, what a game. This seemingly came out of nowhere but absolutely blew me away. I enjoyed the original Hyrule Warriors but this game seems to have taken the formula of the first game and perfected it. There are a huge number of quality of life improvements pasted over the shiny coat of new Breath of the Wild flair! While the story was ultimately a bit of a let down, the game made up for it in excellent gameplay filled to the brim with collectibles and light RPG mechanics (leveling up characters, trading loot for upgrades, etc.) which I really enjoyed. I'd say the only downside to this game was that it ran terribly - there were times where the game's FPS would drop into the single digits, even in docked mode. Like, killing a large enemy with bombs pretty much guarantees that things are going to get laggy. Despite this, I would still recommend this game whole heartedly, especially if you're a Zelda fan waiting for BotW2.
Game 56 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Xbox Series X Retroachievements - Completed Dec. 5th, 2020
I played through the GBA version of this game for the monthly SNES game club, mostly because I didn't already have all of the achievements for this version. I also wanted to see the differences in the versions, since I had somehow never played this version before. For added fun, I played this using Retroarch on the Xbox Series X which obviously handled this like a champ. The game is still amazing and easily one of my top 5 games of all time. I was a little disappointed in the down-sampled music but that was more or less expected of the GBA's hardware. Otherwise, I found this more challenging than my usual playthroughs really just because it was hard to break my old habits with the new controls. Overall, an amazing game still.
Game 57 - Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory - Nintendo Switch - Completed Dec. 11th, 2020
I really enjoyed this game although I was slightly disappointed with the lack of good Disney songs to compliment the worlds. There seemed to be a lot of supplemental music that, while quite good, wasn't very memorable. The standout for me was the recap movies that told the story of the Kingdom Hearts games (as good as it could, I suppose) and I felt like that was good since I didn't play a few of the side games. I also hadn't finished Kingdom Hearts III before playing that which was probably also a mistake but oh well. The ending of this game was nice but also Kingdom Hearts levels of mysterious and silly. Overall, a solid rhythm game that probably would have done better with a lower price point.
Game 58 - Ys Seven - PC GOG - Completed Dec. 16th, 2020
I've been playing this game on and off for the past couple of weeks and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. As always with Ys games, there was an excellent mix of action and adventure. The game had good exploration and progression, really just a great title all around. I didn't find myself needing to grind much, which is always welcome in a game like this. Even though I didn't complete all of the side quests or unlock all of the achievements (one of which, sadly, was bugged), I still feel like this PSP game holds it's own with modern titles. I'm not sure if I would recommend this game as people's first Ys experience, but if you're like me and have played nearly all of the other games, I would definitely recommend it. I'm going to try and play Ys: Memories of Celceta next - as it's the only game in the series I haven't played yet - before Ys IX: Monstrum Nox releases in a few months.
Game 59 - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Xbox Series X - Completed Dec 19th, 2020
I played this game last year on the PC but absolutely loved it. I picked it up for the Xbox several months ago but it didn't play very well on the One X. Now that I have a Series X, I tried it again and it plays buttery smooth. The game is fantastic and a wonderful original Star Wars story set before the original trilogy of movies. I played on the harder (but not hardest!) difficulty setting this time through - and the extra challenge was quite nice although sometimes frustrating. I didn't unlock all of the collectibles and I believe I missed a few optional areas / enemies. I really hope they make a sequel to this game because I'd love to see what comes of Cal, Cere, and the crew.
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Jack Videogames
Member
17h-ish. Normal difficulty.
Black Mesa is two games bundled in one single narrative experience. The first half is the Half-Life we all know and love, though modernized and renovated. It's dated, but it feels great, of course. Most of the time, it's actually sort of a slow-paced survival horror - but as you keep advancing through the Black Mesa facility, the shooter sections become more frequent until it becomes a twitchy FPS a la CoD. It's brilliantly paced to fit with the plot.
The second half of the game, Xen, is a totally different animal. Xen feels like an adventure game/walking simulator which lets you hold a gun and use it from time to time, while you solve puzzles and run away from things. This is not necessarily bad, as it gives you time to soak in the lush environments of the alien planet (Seriously, the quality is so high it's easy to forget this is a fan project) but it contrasts strikingly with the first half and, at the end, it sort of overstays its welcome, particularly in loooong chapters like Interloper.
All through, Black Mesa is a remarkably solitary experience. Freeman is a mute protagonist and the NPCs aren't particularly chatty, and you spend more than half of the game absolutely alone.
The bad? Well... the game systems are a bit archaic. Some of the things you need to do to advance are counterintuitive (you feel like you're just climbing the scenery in hopes of finding a glitch that allows you through) and a bit more handholding would be appreciated, particularly during Xen. This is not a 17h game - not by a long shot - but I got lost pretty frequently. I'm not asking for a briefing or an objective tracker, but a simple compass would work wonders.
My Score: ★★★★☆
Original post
marcincz
Member
Game 27 - The Last of Us Part II (PS4) - 28h 08m
Beat 27/06/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Game 28 - Life is Strange (PS4) - 10h 35m
Beat 01/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Game 29 - Call of Duty: WWII (PS4) - 06h 44m
Beat 05/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 30 - Resogun (PS4) - 01h 16m
Beat 05/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 31 - Nier: Automata (PS4) - 12h 34m
Beat 09/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Beat 27/06/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Game 28 - Life is Strange (PS4) - 10h 35m
Beat 01/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Game 29 - Call of Duty: WWII (PS4) - 06h 44m
Beat 05/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 30 - Resogun (PS4) - 01h 16m
Beat 05/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 31 - Nier: Automata (PS4) - 12h 34m
Beat 09/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
1. Concrete Genie (PS4) | 2nd Jan - 8-ish hrs | 3/5
2. Final Fantasy IV (DS) | 24th Jan - 25-ish hrs | 3/5
3. Rayman 2 Revolution (PS2) | 25th Jan - 11.2 hrs | 3/5
4. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) | 30th Jan - 40-ish hrs | 4/5
5. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (PS2) | 1st Mar - 10-ish hrs | 4/5
6. Donkey Kong (GameBoy) | 3rd Mar - 5-ish hrs | 3/5
7. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4) | 11th Mar - 60-ish hrs | 4/5
8. DOOM Eternal (XBONE) | 27th Mar - 20-ish hrs | 5/5
9. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies | 6th Apr - 20-ish hrs | 4/5
10. Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4) | 8th Apr - 6.4 hrs | 3/5
11. THIEF Gold (Steam) | 23rd Apr - 12-ish hrs | 3/5
12. THIEF II: The Metal Age (Steam) | 26th Apr - 14-ish hrs | 4/5
13. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) | 3/5
14. Kirby's Blowout Blast (3DSDL) | 30th Apr - 4-ish hrs | 4/5
15. Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (3DSDL) | 30th Apr - 3-ish hrs | 3/5
16. Little Misfortune (Steam) | 30th Apr - 4-ish hrs | 3/5
17. Adventure of a Lifetime (Steam) | 30th Apr - 5-ish hrs | 4/5
18. VVVVVV (3DSDL) | 30th Apr | 4/5
19. Gotta Protectors (3DSDL) | 1st May | 4/5
20. Final Fantasy VII Remake [First Class Edition] (PS4) | 1st May | 4/5
21. Metroid (VCH) | 5th May | 1/5
22. Metroid II: Samus Returns (VCH) | 5th May | 4/5
23. Thief: Deadly Shadows (Steam) | 8th May | 4/5
24. Afterparty (XBODL) | 10th May | 2/5
25. Tracks: The Train Set Game (XBODL) | 10th May | 2/5
26. Old Man's Journey (XBODL) | 10th May | 3/5
27. 2064: Read Only Memories (PSVITA) | 25th May | 0/5
27 1/2. Spiderman: CTNS (PS4) | 25th May | 2/5
28. Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (PS4) | 25th May | 3/5
29. Batman: The Enemy Within (PS4DL) | 25th May | 4/5
30. Human Fall Flat (PS4) | 25th May | 1/5
31. The Girl and the Robot (PS4) | 2nd June | 3/5
32. Astral Chain (Switch) | 4th June | 3/5
33. Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch) | 7th June | 2/5
34. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky [Premium Edition] (PSP) | 10th June | 5/5
35. GRIS (Switch) | 10th June | 4/5
36. Super Bomberman R (Switch) | 11th June | 3/5
37. Metroid Zero Mission (GBA) | Sometime in May, I forgot to list. | 5/5
2. Final Fantasy IV (DS) | 24th Jan - 25-ish hrs | 3/5
3. Rayman 2 Revolution (PS2) | 25th Jan - 11.2 hrs | 3/5
4. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) | 30th Jan - 40-ish hrs | 4/5
5. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (PS2) | 1st Mar - 10-ish hrs | 4/5
6. Donkey Kong (GameBoy) | 3rd Mar - 5-ish hrs | 3/5
7. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4) | 11th Mar - 60-ish hrs | 4/5
8. DOOM Eternal (XBONE) | 27th Mar - 20-ish hrs | 5/5
9. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies | 6th Apr - 20-ish hrs | 4/5
10. Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4) | 8th Apr - 6.4 hrs | 3/5
11. THIEF Gold (Steam) | 23rd Apr - 12-ish hrs | 3/5
12. THIEF II: The Metal Age (Steam) | 26th Apr - 14-ish hrs | 4/5
13. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) | 3/5
14. Kirby's Blowout Blast (3DSDL) | 30th Apr - 4-ish hrs | 4/5
15. Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (3DSDL) | 30th Apr - 3-ish hrs | 3/5
16. Little Misfortune (Steam) | 30th Apr - 4-ish hrs | 3/5
17. Adventure of a Lifetime (Steam) | 30th Apr - 5-ish hrs | 4/5
18. VVVVVV (3DSDL) | 30th Apr | 4/5
19. Gotta Protectors (3DSDL) | 1st May | 4/5
20. Final Fantasy VII Remake [First Class Edition] (PS4) | 1st May | 4/5
21. Metroid (VCH) | 5th May | 1/5
22. Metroid II: Samus Returns (VCH) | 5th May | 4/5
23. Thief: Deadly Shadows (Steam) | 8th May | 4/5
24. Afterparty (XBODL) | 10th May | 2/5
25. Tracks: The Train Set Game (XBODL) | 10th May | 2/5
26. Old Man's Journey (XBODL) | 10th May | 3/5
27. 2064: Read Only Memories (PSVITA) | 25th May | 0/5
27 1/2. Spiderman: CTNS (PS4) | 25th May | 2/5
28. Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (PS4) | 25th May | 3/5
29. Batman: The Enemy Within (PS4DL) | 25th May | 4/5
30. Human Fall Flat (PS4) | 25th May | 1/5
31. The Girl and the Robot (PS4) | 2nd June | 3/5
32. Astral Chain (Switch) | 4th June | 3/5
33. Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch) | 7th June | 2/5
34. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky [Premium Edition] (PSP) | 10th June | 5/5
35. GRIS (Switch) | 10th June | 4/5
36. Super Bomberman R (Switch) | 11th June | 3/5
37. Metroid Zero Mission (GBA) | Sometime in May, I forgot to list. | 5/5
38. The Last of Us Part II (PS4) | 25th June | 1/5
39. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PSP) | 2nd July | 4/5
IKSTUGA
Member
60. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, 7/10
I'm a huge MCU fan, so I kinda got a kick out of this, even though it suffers from a plethora of issues. For example the camera is just ass when you're playing with 3+ people. Graphics don't look too hot either. Still, it's a lot of fun if you have friends to play with, who enjoy Marvel stuff.
61. Resident Evil Revelations 2, 8/10
It is a pretty good co-op game, but for a solo player Revelations 1 is sooooo much better. How you end up with different endings is also really weird. Raid mode is sick though, much better than mercenaries.
62. Streets of Rage 4, 9/10
Now this is a video game. I love the old Streets or Rage games and this is a really faithful follow up. Looks gorgeous, plays great. I have no major complaints.
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jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 35 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 13th, 2020
This game kinda came out of nowhere for me - I loved the first game and have beat it several times, so when I saw that the sequel was released for $15 it was an instant buy for me. I picked this up on the Switch, and it ran great. The game is lovely with a great mix of characters and enemies alike. A few familiar faces from Ritual of the Night (this is another prequel) and a few new characters are introduced. The level designs are top notch and were a huge homage to the original NES Castlevania games. A lot of innovative twists this time around though, things that couldn't have been done on the old hardware. I really liked this game, and I'll definitely be replaying the other "episodes" that are included (basically just going through the game again with slight variations) for the additional story elements.
IKSTUGA
Member
63. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, 9/10
Wow, this was way better than Origin, which is the only other Ys game I've played. Story was surprisingly interesting, same thing with characters. Combat is fast and fun of course. OST is just killer! So many great songs that get you pumped up for monster slaying. There is also a crazy amount of side stuff you can do if you're into that sort of stuff. Great game.
Why dont u 100% those yakuza play throughs son.Good luck folks, may your completions be many ^_^!
IKSTUGA
Member
64. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, 9/10
It's gwent with an interesting story and cool side activities. Good stuff. Looks pretty as well!
65. Ghost of Tsushima, 9/10
I gotta admit, this game has a lot of flaws. Its gameplay loop is kinda repetitive, dialogue is boring most of the time and character animations can be super janky at times. Still, I really enjoyed the game. First of all, the environments are gorgeous, especially at night. This game has some of the best lighting I've ever seen in a video game. Second of all, the combat. It's a lot of fun and just complex enough to not get boring at any point in the game. Enjoyable ~35 hours for sure.
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 58.Catherine Full Body
7 hrs. 34mins. 22 out of 25
Game 59.Last Blade 2
1 hrs. 34mins. 22 out of 25
Game 60.Garou: Mark of the Wolves
1 hrs. 30mins. 22 out of 25
Game 61.Ghost of Tsushima
38 hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
7 hrs. 34mins. 22 out of 25
Game 59.Last Blade 2
1 hrs. 34mins. 22 out of 25
Game 60.Garou: Mark of the Wolves
1 hrs. 30mins. 22 out of 25
Game 61.Ghost of Tsushima
38 hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 36 - Evoland II - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 29th, 2020
I put Xenoblade Chronicles on hold while I was moving so I could play through both Evoland games. The first game is a charming little title that took about three hours to beat, so I was expecting something similar to that when I dove into this. What I actually found was a fully fleshed out RPG with awesome crossover mechanics and a time-bending Chrono-Trigger-like story. I have to say, this game absolutely impressed me. It retained a lot of the charm of the first game, but really ramped up it's story so that instead of being a B-tier satire spin-off it actually stands up really well on it's own. There were a few sections of the game (like the rooftop running section) that almost made me want to give up, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Excellent game that I highly recommend.
Jack Videogames
Member
15-ish. S rank in all cases except case 3
Murder by Numbers is an aggressively okay game. As a Picross game, it does its job: doesn't take risks or use gimmicks apart from the "hacking" mini-game. The puzzles are all B&W and on the easy side so it gets boring quickly. The best feature are the bonus puzzles you unlock if you do well during the main game, which in turn unlock some extra scenes with a bit more of backstory. But some of those are permanently missable if you chat with people before investigating, with a particularly egregious one in case 3 that can lock you out of an S rank even if you normally take your time.
As a VN, though, MbN is a bit of a trainwreck. The story is as bland as they come, thanks to most of the interesting characters (Becky, KC, Ryan...) being unceremoniously kicked out of the plot after the second case. After that, we mostly follow what I originally thought was the B-plot for the game, driven by forgettable characters like Lady Scientist or Surly Sea Captain that are only introduced near the end. MbN tries to emulate the tried and true Phoenix Wright case structure, with an introductory/tutorial case, a couple cases only tangentially related to the plot, and then a "grand finale", but it doesn't have enough meat on the bone to carry it to a satisfactory conclusion.
Also, the bad guy calls the protagonist "Hollyweird liberal" unironically. If cringe could be harnessed for power, mine when I read that could have light up a small city.
My Score: ★★☆☆☆
Original post
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 62.Oneechanbara Origins
10 hrs. 46mins. 22 out of 25
Game 63.Streets of Rage 4
2 hrs. 47mins. 24 out of 25
Game 64.Night Trap
3 hrs. 32mins. 20 out of 25
Game 65.Samurai Shodown V Special
1 hrs. 35mins. 18 out of 25
Game 66.Kizuna Encounter
1 hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
Game 67.Blasphemous
17hrs. 28mins. 14 out of 25
Game 68.NINJA MASTERS
3hrs. 12mins. 20 out of 25
10 hrs. 46mins. 22 out of 25
Game 63.Streets of Rage 4
2 hrs. 47mins. 24 out of 25
Game 64.Night Trap
3 hrs. 32mins. 20 out of 25
Game 65.Samurai Shodown V Special
1 hrs. 35mins. 18 out of 25
Game 66.Kizuna Encounter
1 hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
Game 67.Blasphemous
17hrs. 28mins. 14 out of 25
Game 68.NINJA MASTERS
3hrs. 12mins. 20 out of 25
Last edited:
marcincz
Member
Next monthly update:
Game 32 - Horizon Zero Dawn - DLC The Frozen Wilds (PS4) - 14h 20m
Beat 16/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 33 - Midnight Deluxe (PS4) - 01h 25m
Beat 19/07/2020 - my score: ★★☆☆☆
Game 34 - Midnight Deluxe (PSV) - 00h 50m
Beat 21/07/2020 - my score: ★★☆☆☆
Game 35 - Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) - 26h 47m
Beat 27/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 36 - Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4) - 18h 28m
Beat 03/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 32 - Horizon Zero Dawn - DLC The Frozen Wilds (PS4) - 14h 20m
Beat 16/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 33 - Midnight Deluxe (PS4) - 01h 25m
Beat 19/07/2020 - my score: ★★☆☆☆
Game 34 - Midnight Deluxe (PSV) - 00h 50m
Beat 21/07/2020 - my score: ★★☆☆☆
Game 35 - Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) - 26h 47m
Beat 27/07/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 36 - Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4) - 18h 28m
Beat 03/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 69.The King of Fighters 2000
1hrs. 12mins. 20 out of 25
Game 70.Sengoku 3
3hrs. 32mins. 18 out of 25
1hrs. 12mins. 20 out of 25
Game 70.Sengoku 3
3hrs. 32mins. 18 out of 25
IKSTUGA
Member
66. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, 9/10
I played this game over 10 years ago on the 360, it's still great, even though combat is a bit more brain dead than I remembered. There's also quite a bit of padding at times. Still, the lovable cast of characters and world building more than make up for the the game's shortcomings.
67. Yakuza Kiwami, 9/10
Feels like a good expansion to Yakuza 0. It's Yakuza, it's awesome.
68. Crash Bandicoot, 9/10
It's weird, the more I play Crash, the more I appreciate it. Classic.
Extra! Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, 9/10
Earlier this year when I played RotN for the first time, I wasn't really feeling it, but after finishing the game a couple of times more (Miriam + Zangetsu) I finally get it. Love the level design and the fact that you have so many combat options as Miriam. Also, Zangetsu is probably the coolest second playable character we've seen in a Igavania so far. Can't wait for RotN 2 or whatever it's gonna be called.
69. Catherine: Full Body, 10/10
Fitting number, lol. This game is my guilty pleasure. I beat it a bunch of times on the 360 when it came out and now I'm hooked once again. Unique gem.
Psychotic_Mantis
Member
Main Post
53. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - 9/10
Felt like I beat this twice. Unlocking all characters in normal battle and then hammering out the adventure mode. Lot's of fun but adventure mode was probably too long for it's own good. Solid recommendation though.
54. Playstation VR Worlds (PSVR) - 6/10
1 of the 5 games I really liked. Danger Ball was fantastic. The rest were pretty meh. I wish they would build on Danger Ball and make a full fledged game. Could be a blast with multiplayer. Was surprised how non-interactive The London Heist was. Low recommendation unless it is cheap.
55. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - 6/10
50/100CC were fun and fine just a tad uninspired. 150CC was hell. The AI made it impossible to have fun and there seems to be no rhyme or reason on getting 3 Stars with the Gold. I unlocked all characters and moved on.
56. Ghosts 'N Goblins (NES) - 4/10
Crap game as a kid and even more crap of a game now. I don't know why I bothered to play it through twice. Save states helped but it was still awful. Bad sound and awful controls make this a mostly miserable experience. I had this as a kid because I was obsessed with Super Ghoul's 'N Ghosts...and no this was bad.
57. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Gameboy) - 8/10
Actually enjoyed this more than the original Metroid. Now it's time to move on to Super Metroid which I have started many times and never completed. Time to clear that shame.
58. The Bunker (PS4) - 5/10
Really basic game. It's actually hard to call it a game. I have a soft spot for FMV games from growing up in the 90's but this was pretty meh. You barely can do anything or go anywhere. The plot was pretty basic too. I expected there to be more to it but there wasn't.
59. Super Bomberman R (Switch) - 6/10
Went in looking for that good old Bomberman charm and left with a headache from the awful voices and cutscenes. I found the best way to beat any boss was to run in kamikaze style and just take them out.
60. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PS4) - 9/10
Loved this game. The design of the world and getting to the bosses was a blast. I ended up loving the artstyle and had a blast switching back and forth to retro mode. I think I need to play more Wonder Boy!
61. Call of Duty 3 (Xbox 360) - 7/10
Feels good to clear this one off the backlog shelf. I started it years ago and wasn't really impressed. I found it much more enjoyable this go round. It's your standard classic CoD but I found the checkpoint system in this one made it much more difficult. I died a lot but kept pushing. Pretty good game.
62. Vader Immortal (Oculus) - 7/10
It's good but it could have been great. So many missed opportunities. I really hope they take the controls of the lightsaber and force and put it into a legit full game. This was more walk into a room, stop, listen and then take out the bad guys. Maya Rudolph was super annoying in this too.
63. Torin's Passage (PC) - 6/10
Really odd Point and Click game from the mid-90's. The first two chapters are pretty solid but everything is so rushed after that. Some of the puzzles are annoying but they were all pretty fair. The story/humor was kind of a mess. It also just ends and you sit there with and go huh. I know they were planning on making more but they should've added something to that end.
53. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - 9/10
Felt like I beat this twice. Unlocking all characters in normal battle and then hammering out the adventure mode. Lot's of fun but adventure mode was probably too long for it's own good. Solid recommendation though.
54. Playstation VR Worlds (PSVR) - 6/10
1 of the 5 games I really liked. Danger Ball was fantastic. The rest were pretty meh. I wish they would build on Danger Ball and make a full fledged game. Could be a blast with multiplayer. Was surprised how non-interactive The London Heist was. Low recommendation unless it is cheap.
55. Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - 6/10
50/100CC were fun and fine just a tad uninspired. 150CC was hell. The AI made it impossible to have fun and there seems to be no rhyme or reason on getting 3 Stars with the Gold. I unlocked all characters and moved on.
56. Ghosts 'N Goblins (NES) - 4/10
Crap game as a kid and even more crap of a game now. I don't know why I bothered to play it through twice. Save states helped but it was still awful. Bad sound and awful controls make this a mostly miserable experience. I had this as a kid because I was obsessed with Super Ghoul's 'N Ghosts...and no this was bad.
57. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Gameboy) - 8/10
Actually enjoyed this more than the original Metroid. Now it's time to move on to Super Metroid which I have started many times and never completed. Time to clear that shame.
58. The Bunker (PS4) - 5/10
Really basic game. It's actually hard to call it a game. I have a soft spot for FMV games from growing up in the 90's but this was pretty meh. You barely can do anything or go anywhere. The plot was pretty basic too. I expected there to be more to it but there wasn't.
59. Super Bomberman R (Switch) - 6/10
Went in looking for that good old Bomberman charm and left with a headache from the awful voices and cutscenes. I found the best way to beat any boss was to run in kamikaze style and just take them out.
60. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PS4) - 9/10
Loved this game. The design of the world and getting to the bosses was a blast. I ended up loving the artstyle and had a blast switching back and forth to retro mode. I think I need to play more Wonder Boy!
61. Call of Duty 3 (Xbox 360) - 7/10
Feels good to clear this one off the backlog shelf. I started it years ago and wasn't really impressed. I found it much more enjoyable this go round. It's your standard classic CoD but I found the checkpoint system in this one made it much more difficult. I died a lot but kept pushing. Pretty good game.
62. Vader Immortal (Oculus) - 7/10
It's good but it could have been great. So many missed opportunities. I really hope they take the controls of the lightsaber and force and put it into a legit full game. This was more walk into a room, stop, listen and then take out the bad guys. Maya Rudolph was super annoying in this too.
63. Torin's Passage (PC) - 6/10
Really odd Point and Click game from the mid-90's. The first two chapters are pretty solid but everything is so rushed after that. Some of the puzzles are annoying but they were all pretty fair. The story/humor was kind of a mess. It also just ends and you sit there with and go huh. I know they were planning on making more but they should've added something to that end.
Jooxed
Gold Member
Main Post
Been a while since an update but i've given up on catching up to
jshackles
haha
Loved this game, Liked the characters and story better than XC2 and I thought it was really well done However I thought the combat and art style/worlds were better in the second game. Overall first was superior. Looking forward to 3.
Our third trip to Kanto? It was Fine.
I liked this game a lot more than others did. Typical Pokemon game. I do think game freak could do a lot more with the series. Wild areas from the DLC are a great step forward. Graphical issues set aside it was a fun game.
I have spent about 12 hours with Rogue Company it is fun for what it is. It beats out anything available on switch. If you are looking for a 3rd person hero shooter cant beat it. 60fps and the game looks good. Not overly complicated.
...This game..I really wanted to like. I have heard fantastic things about the No more Heroes series. This was my first delve into the series and it was very tepid for me. Really liked Travis Touchdown, he is a dick and a fun character. I found the concept cool about being sucked into a video game world.... but all of the levels played the same. It got super repetitive, it really put me off to playing the main like NMH games I hope they are not like this. Boss fights were the fun parts.
Beautiful, Funny and Charming game. Battles got old after a while but honestly it was great to just go through the story, and watch the plot unfold(heh) Glad I gave this game a shot there were some really heartwarming moments.
Been a while since an update but i've given up on catching up to
jshackles
haha
Veysetia
Member
Okay here is an update
Game #01 - Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)
Beat 05/31/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★☆☆☆ - Very off, the beginning of the game seems way longer than the end
- Character Building - ★★☆☆☆ - Better than some games, but I did expect a lot more from Nomura, it all just felt very rushed and tied together way too quickly
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Yikes, things flow somewhat smoothly, but they definitely rushed way too much to tie everything together
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - A lot of effort was put into the quality of the story, but I can't say as if that outweighs some of the negatives
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★★ - There definitely was plenty of story
Gameplay - ★★☆☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - It plays like any other KH title, the leveling system and characters are what I expected
- Combat - ★☆☆☆☆ - If any part of a review deserved negative stars it would be this, the games combat was horrific, all of the Disney quirks the carousel etc made combat not fun and not just easy, but boring as sin, even trying to actively avoid using those things you still could not avoid it at times, combat used to be challenging in these games
- Memorability - ★★☆☆☆ - The game, story in this specific title and the series are actually pretty forgettable as much as I have loved the series at times
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - If you were doing a competitionist play-through or speedrun there is replay value in that.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★☆☆☆ - I say this as someone having played through the entire series, getting the platinum trophy on every game in the series except for this one, this game is not easy to get into for the simple fact you need to have played the other titles to understand what's going on and even then just simple things you would do normally can spoil things, that alone makes it not as easy to get into as I feel it should be
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - The controls are very intuitive, they've had several games to polish them granted, but it does play in a natural kind of way
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - There are a tonne of Disney-themed worlds for you to visit and even a couple that aren't, but overall there is a lot of variety in both the way the levels feel and look as well as depth, there is some latitude with the levels now and that's pretty neat
- Soundtrack/music - ★☆☆☆☆ - Surprisingly of all the KH games this was the one I liked the music in the least, nothing new, and not much variety
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - They went above and beyond here, this is a visually stunning game.
- World building - ★★★☆☆ - It's pretty hard to knock this considering the nature of the game, and that is the trend, each level (world) is it's own entity separate from all the rest in most cases, so I'd say they did what I'd come to expect of a game like this, but when compared to other games and their world building aspects this doesn't do as well, things aren't as interconnected
Game #02 - Final Fantasy VII:R (PS4)
Beat 07/15/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Story - ★★★★★
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - They nailed it! This is how you do pacing
- Character Building - ★★★★★ - Even more incredible character building than the original
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - There are only a few missing pieces of the puzzle I wish we would see, but I"m sure that's to come in part II
- Quality - ★★★★★ - Wow! They covered so many of the finer details that I never would have expected
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★★ - There definitely was plenty of story, I want to replay it at some point to explore some more and see all the little interactions between some of the NPC's
Gameplay - ★★★★★
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - The materia system took me a minute to adjust to in this fashion, but I really enjoyed it and want to explore it more in depth
- Combat - ★★★★★ - There were a few times where I questioned if I was going to make it through the game, but thankfully there was an easier mode so I could still enjoy the game while completing the fight at my leisure
- Memorability - ★★★★★ - Even for Cloud himself this would be an easy to remember game
- Replay Value - ★★★☆☆ - You unlock a hard mode after your first complete playthrough so I'd say in that alone they intended for the game to be replayed and there are probably some neat little extras if you do
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★★ - Extremely easy to play, this game is incredibly easy to pick up and even harder to put down
Atmosphere - ★★★★★
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - The controls are very intuitive and natural feeling, quite easy to get into
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - They've done a fantastic job in the remake of making every level/area feel unique and I love that very much
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★★ - They outdid themselves with this soundtrack, every song was revamped for the better in my opinion
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - They went above and beyond here, this is a visually stunning game.
- World building - ★★★★★ - Amazing in every way, the world feels very interconnected and every place you visit feels like a part of the same whole
Game #03 - Final Fantasy III (3D) (PC)
Beat 08/01/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★★☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing in the story was excellent, everything flowed smoothly, even right up to the end.
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - While there isn't a TON of character building there is a little that happens with each of the characters and some NPC's get some love as well so for that I give props.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★★ - Overall the characters blend very well together in this installment I felt.
- Quality - ★★☆☆☆ - This is where I felt the story lacked a little bit, it was most definitely not their best work, some parts were interesting, but overall it just seemed not as good in quality as FFI or FFII.
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★☆☆☆ - The story in FFIII felt like it was a little longer than it really needed to be, there were some cool things you were able to go do, but that didn't make up for the time I felt.
Gameplay - ★★★☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - I have to say that I really love that cursor memory in combat, that is extremely helpful!
- Combat - ★★★★☆ - Combat in this game is what you'd expect in a typical FF or JRPG
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - Out of the first three FF's it's not the most memorable, but it was still a solid installment in the series
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - None unless you are going for 100% or missed your bestiary like I did (I'm not going back for it)
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Good god is this game hard to navigate, like the first two I followed a guide or I wouldn't have known where/when to go to some places.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - I think the controls of this game are very intuitive and easy to adjust to for first time players
- Level Design - ★★★★☆ - A lot of the areas look similar and don't have as much of a unique feel for me as I'm used to, but that being said there are still a tonne of areas to explore so that alone is encouragement to see them all, there could have been a bit more variety though.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★☆☆ - Your run of the mill FF score, nothing out of the ordinary here
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - I was thoroughly impressed with the graphics on this one
- World building - ★★★★★ - From the world building perspective this game excels at that, they did a wonderful job of tying all the components of the world together nicely and even threw in a few hidden gems you'd never expect to find
Game #04 - Final Fantasy IV (PC)
Beat 08/06/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - I would have said that this was decent pacing up until the last bit of the game where the last parts seem to go on for much longer than it felt they should have, otherwise the pacing throughout most of the game is pretty reasonable.
- Character Building - ★☆☆☆☆ - Wow! Is all I have to say. This game doesn't do much character building simply for the fact that every 10 minutes, I kid you not, you either gain/lose a party member and sometimes both. It made it very hard for any of the characters beyond the main to develop in any sense.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Overall I think there are some good things here between some of the characters, but obviously it's not the best character immersion due to the fact everyone is joining and leaving the party so frequently, it felt like a soap opera sometimes.
- Quality - ★★★☆☆ - I thought the story had a fairly interesting plot, not the most exciting plot of all time, but it did a great job of telling a story, a little bit better than the standard story telling of most RPG's, but not great.
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★☆ - I did feel that there was just the right amount of story, not too much and not too little for what the game is. I don't know that they could have made many improvements without completely overhauling some other areas.
Gameplay - ★★★☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - One of the first things I noticed was that you don't have to worry about white/black magic spells anymore and that immediately made it light years better for me than the first 3, that's a huge quality of life update in my book.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - I got used to the cursor memory in FFIII, but that aside I do love that the combat is ATB.
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - Well I'm not sure how memorable this game is from a gameplay perspective, it doesn't do anything that is unique or stands out, but it does fit the FF mold.
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - There isn't any, once you've beaten the main story, unless you are an achievement hunter there is no reason to go back.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - I think the game is fairly easy/simple to get into and it's even easier to forget how long you've been playing, which is a good sign.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★☆ - The controls for the game with a steam controller and no preloaded configuration felt very intuitive. The menu's/interface seemed to flow very nicely and everything made sense, you even had a few options for color schemes that were easy to find.
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - Well I'm not sure how far one could go with this one at the time the game was made, but there are various level themes/designs all throughout the game which makes each area feel unique in it's own way and you move throughout the areas frequently so you are often seeing somewhere new.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★☆☆ - I would just say it's about average, it didn't feel like too much new was done in regards to sound or musical measures, but I can appreciate that they kept a lot of the same stuff.
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - Coming from the remakes of I, II, and III I wasn't sure what to expect graphically and honestly I was surprised at how it was a little better than those.
- World building - ★★★☆☆ - This is a big one for me, oh boy. They do a fantastic job of world building up until a certain part of the story where they just break all of that in order to go to a specific area, there is a part later which I feel makes much more sense to go there and is in a way connected, but it really did bother me how disconnected one part of the story felt because you were in said area and we really just went there to say we went there.
Game #05 - Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
Beat 08/09/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing of the entire game is very linear and well laid out
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - Given that it's not a story telling game, I think it does do a pretty decent job of character building despite the fact.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - All of the characters blend well together, albeit in a simple manner
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - The quality of the story we do get I feel is pretty great
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★☆☆☆☆ - This isn't a game aimed at story telling, but there are some good tidbits in there.
Gameplay - ★★★★★
- Mechanics - ★★★★★ - Overall the mechanics of the game are great and everything works together smoothly.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - The combat/move set is pretty simple at first and it expands into much more as you progress through the game, having the full move set unlocked by the time you get to the final world.
- Memorability - ★★★★★ - It's a memorable game, I came back to complete it since I had never done that before and wow is that last boss fight tough, you won't soon forget it.
- Replay Value - ★★★★☆ - If you weren't for a competitionist play-through or speedrun there is replay value in that.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - Most of the game is very easy to get into the only issue I have is the camera just does what it wants sometimes and it's very hard to get it where you'd like it to be at times, most notably in the final fight, other than that this game is very easy to pick up and get into.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - All of the controls do seem very intuitive and the tutorial at the beginning does a great job of letting you get used to everything.
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - I love the variety of the levels as well as the numerous types of enemies/creatures you encounter.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★☆ - It has a very catchy soundtrack and a lot of upbeat sounds as you'd expect from Rareware
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - This game seems to have aged very well and is still appealing, it's not modern day graphics by any stretch, but it holds it's own.
- World building - ★★★★☆ - I think this game does a decent enough job of world building, I'm not sure how much one could expect being trapped near an evil witch's lair, but everything flows smoothly and meshes as well as you'd expect.
Game #01 - Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)
Beat 05/31/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★☆☆☆ - Very off, the beginning of the game seems way longer than the end
- Character Building - ★★☆☆☆ - Better than some games, but I did expect a lot more from Nomura, it all just felt very rushed and tied together way too quickly
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Yikes, things flow somewhat smoothly, but they definitely rushed way too much to tie everything together
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - A lot of effort was put into the quality of the story, but I can't say as if that outweighs some of the negatives
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★★ - There definitely was plenty of story
Gameplay - ★★☆☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - It plays like any other KH title, the leveling system and characters are what I expected
- Combat - ★☆☆☆☆ - If any part of a review deserved negative stars it would be this, the games combat was horrific, all of the Disney quirks the carousel etc made combat not fun and not just easy, but boring as sin, even trying to actively avoid using those things you still could not avoid it at times, combat used to be challenging in these games
- Memorability - ★★☆☆☆ - The game, story in this specific title and the series are actually pretty forgettable as much as I have loved the series at times
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - If you were doing a competitionist play-through or speedrun there is replay value in that.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★☆☆☆ - I say this as someone having played through the entire series, getting the platinum trophy on every game in the series except for this one, this game is not easy to get into for the simple fact you need to have played the other titles to understand what's going on and even then just simple things you would do normally can spoil things, that alone makes it not as easy to get into as I feel it should be
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - The controls are very intuitive, they've had several games to polish them granted, but it does play in a natural kind of way
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - There are a tonne of Disney-themed worlds for you to visit and even a couple that aren't, but overall there is a lot of variety in both the way the levels feel and look as well as depth, there is some latitude with the levels now and that's pretty neat
- Soundtrack/music - ★☆☆☆☆ - Surprisingly of all the KH games this was the one I liked the music in the least, nothing new, and not much variety
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - They went above and beyond here, this is a visually stunning game.
- World building - ★★★☆☆ - It's pretty hard to knock this considering the nature of the game, and that is the trend, each level (world) is it's own entity separate from all the rest in most cases, so I'd say they did what I'd come to expect of a game like this, but when compared to other games and their world building aspects this doesn't do as well, things aren't as interconnected
Game #02 - Final Fantasy VII:R (PS4)
Beat 07/15/2020 - my score: ★★★★★
Story - ★★★★★
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - They nailed it! This is how you do pacing
- Character Building - ★★★★★ - Even more incredible character building than the original
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - There are only a few missing pieces of the puzzle I wish we would see, but I"m sure that's to come in part II
- Quality - ★★★★★ - Wow! They covered so many of the finer details that I never would have expected
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★★ - There definitely was plenty of story, I want to replay it at some point to explore some more and see all the little interactions between some of the NPC's
Gameplay - ★★★★★
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - The materia system took me a minute to adjust to in this fashion, but I really enjoyed it and want to explore it more in depth
- Combat - ★★★★★ - There were a few times where I questioned if I was going to make it through the game, but thankfully there was an easier mode so I could still enjoy the game while completing the fight at my leisure
- Memorability - ★★★★★ - Even for Cloud himself this would be an easy to remember game
- Replay Value - ★★★☆☆ - You unlock a hard mode after your first complete playthrough so I'd say in that alone they intended for the game to be replayed and there are probably some neat little extras if you do
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★★ - Extremely easy to play, this game is incredibly easy to pick up and even harder to put down
Atmosphere - ★★★★★
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - The controls are very intuitive and natural feeling, quite easy to get into
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - They've done a fantastic job in the remake of making every level/area feel unique and I love that very much
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★★ - They outdid themselves with this soundtrack, every song was revamped for the better in my opinion
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - They went above and beyond here, this is a visually stunning game.
- World building - ★★★★★ - Amazing in every way, the world feels very interconnected and every place you visit feels like a part of the same whole
Game #03 - Final Fantasy III (3D) (PC)
Beat 08/01/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★★☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing in the story was excellent, everything flowed smoothly, even right up to the end.
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - While there isn't a TON of character building there is a little that happens with each of the characters and some NPC's get some love as well so for that I give props.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★★ - Overall the characters blend very well together in this installment I felt.
- Quality - ★★☆☆☆ - This is where I felt the story lacked a little bit, it was most definitely not their best work, some parts were interesting, but overall it just seemed not as good in quality as FFI or FFII.
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★☆☆☆ - The story in FFIII felt like it was a little longer than it really needed to be, there were some cool things you were able to go do, but that didn't make up for the time I felt.
Gameplay - ★★★☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - I have to say that I really love that cursor memory in combat, that is extremely helpful!
- Combat - ★★★★☆ - Combat in this game is what you'd expect in a typical FF or JRPG
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - Out of the first three FF's it's not the most memorable, but it was still a solid installment in the series
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - None unless you are going for 100% or missed your bestiary like I did (I'm not going back for it)
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Good god is this game hard to navigate, like the first two I followed a guide or I wouldn't have known where/when to go to some places.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - I think the controls of this game are very intuitive and easy to adjust to for first time players
- Level Design - ★★★★☆ - A lot of the areas look similar and don't have as much of a unique feel for me as I'm used to, but that being said there are still a tonne of areas to explore so that alone is encouragement to see them all, there could have been a bit more variety though.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★☆☆ - Your run of the mill FF score, nothing out of the ordinary here
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - I was thoroughly impressed with the graphics on this one
- World building - ★★★★★ - From the world building perspective this game excels at that, they did a wonderful job of tying all the components of the world together nicely and even threw in a few hidden gems you'd never expect to find
Game #04 - Final Fantasy IV (PC)
Beat 08/06/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - I would have said that this was decent pacing up until the last bit of the game where the last parts seem to go on for much longer than it felt they should have, otherwise the pacing throughout most of the game is pretty reasonable.
- Character Building - ★☆☆☆☆ - Wow! Is all I have to say. This game doesn't do much character building simply for the fact that every 10 minutes, I kid you not, you either gain/lose a party member and sometimes both. It made it very hard for any of the characters beyond the main to develop in any sense.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★☆☆☆ - Overall I think there are some good things here between some of the characters, but obviously it's not the best character immersion due to the fact everyone is joining and leaving the party so frequently, it felt like a soap opera sometimes.
- Quality - ★★★☆☆ - I thought the story had a fairly interesting plot, not the most exciting plot of all time, but it did a great job of telling a story, a little bit better than the standard story telling of most RPG's, but not great.
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★☆ - I did feel that there was just the right amount of story, not too much and not too little for what the game is. I don't know that they could have made many improvements without completely overhauling some other areas.
Gameplay - ★★★☆☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★☆ - One of the first things I noticed was that you don't have to worry about white/black magic spells anymore and that immediately made it light years better for me than the first 3, that's a huge quality of life update in my book.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - I got used to the cursor memory in FFIII, but that aside I do love that the combat is ATB.
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - Well I'm not sure how memorable this game is from a gameplay perspective, it doesn't do anything that is unique or stands out, but it does fit the FF mold.
- Replay Value - ★☆☆☆☆ - There isn't any, once you've beaten the main story, unless you are an achievement hunter there is no reason to go back.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - I think the game is fairly easy/simple to get into and it's even easier to forget how long you've been playing, which is a good sign.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★☆ - The controls for the game with a steam controller and no preloaded configuration felt very intuitive. The menu's/interface seemed to flow very nicely and everything made sense, you even had a few options for color schemes that were easy to find.
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - Well I'm not sure how far one could go with this one at the time the game was made, but there are various level themes/designs all throughout the game which makes each area feel unique in it's own way and you move throughout the areas frequently so you are often seeing somewhere new.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★☆☆ - I would just say it's about average, it didn't feel like too much new was done in regards to sound or musical measures, but I can appreciate that they kept a lot of the same stuff.
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - Coming from the remakes of I, II, and III I wasn't sure what to expect graphically and honestly I was surprised at how it was a little better than those.
- World building - ★★★☆☆ - This is a big one for me, oh boy. They do a fantastic job of world building up until a certain part of the story where they just break all of that in order to go to a specific area, there is a part later which I feel makes much more sense to go there and is in a way connected, but it really did bother me how disconnected one part of the story felt because you were in said area and we really just went there to say we went there.
Game #05 - Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
Beat 08/09/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Story - ★★★☆☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing of the entire game is very linear and well laid out
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - Given that it's not a story telling game, I think it does do a pretty decent job of character building despite the fact.
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - All of the characters blend well together, albeit in a simple manner
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - The quality of the story we do get I feel is pretty great
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★☆☆☆☆ - This isn't a game aimed at story telling, but there are some good tidbits in there.
Gameplay - ★★★★★
- Mechanics - ★★★★★ - Overall the mechanics of the game are great and everything works together smoothly.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - The combat/move set is pretty simple at first and it expands into much more as you progress through the game, having the full move set unlocked by the time you get to the final world.
- Memorability - ★★★★★ - It's a memorable game, I came back to complete it since I had never done that before and wow is that last boss fight tough, you won't soon forget it.
- Replay Value - ★★★★☆ - If you weren't for a competitionist play-through or speedrun there is replay value in that.
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - Most of the game is very easy to get into the only issue I have is the camera just does what it wants sometimes and it's very hard to get it where you'd like it to be at times, most notably in the final fight, other than that this game is very easy to pick up and get into.
Atmosphere - ★★★★☆
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - All of the controls do seem very intuitive and the tutorial at the beginning does a great job of letting you get used to everything.
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - I love the variety of the levels as well as the numerous types of enemies/creatures you encounter.
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★☆ - It has a very catchy soundtrack and a lot of upbeat sounds as you'd expect from Rareware
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★☆ - This game seems to have aged very well and is still appealing, it's not modern day graphics by any stretch, but it holds it's own.
- World building - ★★★★☆ - I think this game does a decent enough job of world building, I'm not sure how much one could expect being trapped near an evil witch's lair, but everything flows smoothly and meshes as well as you'd expect.
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 71. Astral Chain
23hrs. 31mins. 18 out of 25
23hrs. 31mins. 18 out of 25
Phase
Member
So uh...
MiyazakiHatesKojima
you close those oblivion gates yet?
MiyazakiHatesKojima
you close those oblivion gates yet?
MiyazakiHatesKojima
Banned
Decided to play it on my friend's PC when the time comesSo uh...
Hows your backlog going!?
Phase
Member
Destroying it. I've finished 45 games so far this year. But now slowing down and relaxing, going more my normal pace. You?Decided to play it on my friend's PC when the time comes
Hows your backlog going!?
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MiyazakiHatesKojima
Banned
I'll let you know by the end of the year but I've picked up pace as well!
Looking forward to your list
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 37 - Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn - PC - Completed Aug 15th, 2020
I've been playing a lot of really long games lately, so I decided to take a break and play something that I knew I could finish in just a few hours. The game I landed on was Shaq Fu 2: A Legend Reborn. I enjoyed the original Shaq Fu game although I thought it was ridiculous back in the day. Well, this game is also incredibly ridiculous but I actually really liked it. A fun beat-um-up with great music and really fun power-ups. The ShaqTus was my favorite, where you turn into a giant cactus and shoot needles at enemies. The bosses were fun and interesting, but the regular bad guys were a bit lame and way too plentiful. Overall, this was a pretty fun game, made better by the fact I got it for free a while back on Twitch Prime.
Phase
Member
My list is on the first page for your viewing pleasure (about 2/3 of the way down).I'll let you know by the end of the year but I've picked up pace as well!
Looking forward to your list
Jack Videogames
Member
50h-ish. Platinum.
Caution; you're entering an area with overwhelming spoilers! Third paragraph has spoilers about the endgame!
Ghost of Tsushima is a love letter. There's no two ways about that. Every detail in the game has been meticulously handcrafted to the developer's perceived idea of perfection. From the sprawling fields of silvergrass to the Uncharted-style jumping puzzles that lead to the amazing vistas of the shinto shrines, everything in GoT is a pleasure to the senses. It's not because of the graphics themselves - which are no rival to other PS4 heavies like The Last of Us - but because of the masterful artistic direction. If I was a resident of real-life Tsushima, I would be really pleased. I seldom Platinum a game, but I couldn't bring myself to finish my tour of Tsushima before trying to find everything the island had to offer.
Gameplay-wise, GoT is a very easy game to play and a hard one to master. Don't expect a Sekiro-level challenge, at least not in Normal mode; at its hardest, you rarely will need to retry a fight more than twice. Fortunately, GoT doesn't penalize you for favoring direct combat over stealth, and you can even blend both playstyles seamlessly in a way that reminds me of MGSV. If you aren't very good, you will still be able to squirm your way out of most fights. If you are good, you will stilishly tear through mongols like some sort of unholy Samurai-Ninja God. When you manage to pull it off, it's hard to stifle a "fuck yes".
The story is good, not great, but definitely interesting. It blends a "seven samurai" plot with a "Honor vs Reason" moral conflict and even though most of the cliches are there, it does it well thanks to the well-built characters. Khotun Khan manages to be authentically scary thanks to his realistic (for mongol leaders) "wicked but cultured" characterization. The twist of Shimura being the final fight was both cliched and a bit out of nowhere, somehow - but the final fight was beautiful from beginning to end and left me with a bittersweet feeling.
GoT is a great way to end the Playstation 4's life and no fan of open world games should miss it. A contender for my GOTY.
My Score: ✪✪✪✪✪
Original post
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Veysetia
Member
Game # 06 - Pokemon Omega Ruby (3DS)
Beat 08/18/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Pokedex - 155
Story - ★★★★☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing of the entire game is very linear and well laid out
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - Albeit a bit brief, the character building was well done
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - All of the characters blend well together, albeit in a simple manner
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - The quality of the story is really great, I enjoyed this one
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★☆ - There was plenty of story telling, I'm satisfied with the amount, not too much, not too little
Gameplay - ★★★★☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★★ - Overall the mechanics of the game are great and everything works together smoothly.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - The combat is exactly what I expected it to be for a Pokemon game, it was pretty self explanatory and simple
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - It's probably not the most memorable game out there, but it was a good experience
- Replay Value - ★★★★☆ - There is replay value for a completionist/speedrun setting
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - Very easy and simple to get into
Atmosphere - ★★★★★
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - All of the controls are very intuitive and the game has a natural feel to it
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - There is a ton of variety in environments you encounter, I loved the random pokemon that could spawn in tall grass that you could sneak up on
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★☆ - Typical soundtrack of a game in the series, nothing too much better than what I was used to, but I think there was some slight improvements
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - WOW! This game looks incredible
- World building - ★★★★★ - The world building is fantastic, everything is connected very well
Beat 08/18/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Pokedex - 155
Story - ★★★★☆
- Pacing - ★★★★★ - The pacing of the entire game is very linear and well laid out
- Character Building - ★★★★☆ - Albeit a bit brief, the character building was well done
- Character Immersion (how well do all the characters work together?) - ★★★★☆ - All of the characters blend well together, albeit in a simple manner
- Quality - ★★★★☆ - The quality of the story is really great, I enjoyed this one
- Quantity (is there enough/too much?) - ★★★★☆ - There was plenty of story telling, I'm satisfied with the amount, not too much, not too little
Gameplay - ★★★★☆
- Mechanics - ★★★★★ - Overall the mechanics of the game are great and everything works together smoothly.
- Combat - ★★★★★ - The combat is exactly what I expected it to be for a Pokemon game, it was pretty self explanatory and simple
- Memorability - ★★★☆☆ - It's probably not the most memorable game out there, but it was a good experience
- Replay Value - ★★★★☆ - There is replay value for a completionist/speedrun setting
- Ease of Play (is it easy/difficult to get into?) - ★★★★☆ - Very easy and simple to get into
Atmosphere - ★★★★★
- Controls (intuitive or not?) - ★★★★★ - All of the controls are very intuitive and the game has a natural feel to it
- Level Design - ★★★★★ - There is a ton of variety in environments you encounter, I loved the random pokemon that could spawn in tall grass that you could sneak up on
- Soundtrack/music - ★★★★☆ - Typical soundtrack of a game in the series, nothing too much better than what I was used to, but I think there was some slight improvements
- Graphically appealing - ★★★★★ - WOW! This game looks incredible
- World building - ★★★★★ - The world building is fantastic, everything is connected very well
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 72. The Coma 2
7hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
Game 73. Real Bout Fatal Fury
2hrs. 32mins. 18 out of 25
Game 74. ManEater
21hrs. 57mins. 18 out of 25
7hrs. 15mins. 20 out of 25
Game 73. Real Bout Fatal Fury
2hrs. 32mins. 18 out of 25
Game 74. ManEater
21hrs. 57mins. 18 out of 25
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Jack Videogames
Member
31:27h. All bounties, all quests completed except for Spy Cards stuff, postgame bonus boss defeated.
What a delightful little game this one is. My son called it a "Paper Mario ripoff" and it some ways it may seem so, but I prefer to think it's a loving homage to the first couple games.
Artistically, the game is... OK. The character designs are cute and functional, the graphics are meh and the music is pure fire. But once you get into it, Bug Fables really hooks you in. The characters have a depth and a personality seldom seem in a game like this, and while the setting is deceptively cute and childish, there's a certain underlying creepiness that can be unsettling when it appears, like in Leif's backstory the cordyceps laboratory and the zombie insects and the last level. Also, almost every friendly NPC is unique, named, and can be subject to idle gossip from the heroes. You can feel this game is a labor of love.
The combat and the systems are basically Paper Mario 64 with some details from Paper Mario Thousand Doors, so if you're a Paper Mario fan you know what you're going to find here.
Anyway, hidden gem of the year for me. If you're on the fence, go for it.
My Score: ★★★★★
Original post
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marcincz
Member
ABC and S games
Game 37 - Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) - 02h 35m
Beat 09/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 38 - Afterparty (XBO) - 05h 37m
Beat 14/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Game 39 - Blair Witch (XBO) - 05h 40m
Beat 15/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Game 40 - Carrion (XBO) - 05h 52m
Beat 19/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 41 - Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PSV) - 18h 40m
Beat 22/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Game 37 - Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) - 02h 35m
Beat 09/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 38 - Afterparty (XBO) - 05h 37m
Beat 14/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Game 39 - Blair Witch (XBO) - 05h 40m
Beat 15/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
Game 40 - Carrion (XBO) - 05h 52m
Beat 19/08/2020 - my score: ★★★★☆
Game 41 - Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PSV) - 18h 40m
Beat 22/08/2020 - my score: ★★★☆☆
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 75. Destroy all Humans
10hrs. 12mins. 16 out of 25
10hrs. 12mins. 16 out of 25
Jack Videogames
Member
40 minutes. Standard Ending.
I mostly played this because it was free and because the imageboards I check are usually full with memes about this game and I wanted to know what the fuss was all about.
And well... it's a 40 minute long sokoban with a slight visual novel twist. Not a lot more to it. Nice character designs that I'm sure appeal to someone's fetish. In fact, I would like to see those characters in a longer, full-fledged game. But Helltaker plays like those porn games that give you boobies after completing a puzzle - and in fact, that's sort of true in-universe. But no boobs for us.
Still, it's free and can be fully played while you're having your afternoon coffee, so if you're curious like me, well...
My Score: ★★★☆☆
Original post
IKSTUGA
Member
70. Yakuza Kiwami 2, 10
Yakuza at its finest. Played a crap ton of cabaret club and mahjong this time around.
71. Yakuza 3, 8/10
Feels kinda aged at times, but it still has that Yakuza charm.
72. Donkey Kong Country, 10/10
This game is my childhood. Fucking love it.
73. Yakuza 4, 9/10
A clear step up from 3. Really like the new characters, especially Akiyama.
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 76. Remnant From The Ashes
31hrs. 37mins. 17 out of 25
31hrs. 37mins. 17 out of 25
Jack Videogames
Member
69:28h. Base game + Future Connected. Did most of the sidequests. So... many... sidequests....
Xenoblade Chronicles had the chops to be one of the best JRPGs ever. The setting is unique, the characters are strong, the worldbuilding is aces... everything in XC is so well crafted. The plot is, at its core, a "Deliver Sandwich to Kill God" JRPG cliche, but it's delivered masterfully with the right amount of twists, epicness and cinematics to make it feel "new".
The combat, however, is a mixed bag. Some people have said it's one of the best in a JRPG, but for me it's easy to handle and an absolute bitch to master. I changed to Casual mode from time to time just because hard fights didn't feel challenging, just boring and insurmountable. I started XC2 and stopped because of the combat - XC's was better so I managed to soldier on, but I would have preferred either an Action RPG a la Zelda or a pure turn-based-system.
Also, there's the matter of the sidequests. There are SO MANY of them. I'm not exaggerating - at the end I counted how many I completed and it was in the vicinity of 400. Likely half of the game was spent doing sidequests, and not all of them were good or interesting - lots of them were of the "Collect 10 Bear Asses" variety. Not cool. Between this and the Encyclopedia, completionists will find this an absolute bitch.
My Score: ★★★★☆
Original post
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 38 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 1st, 2020
Boy oh boy, I've been playing this game since it released in April and I had an absolutely marvelous time with it. My save file was just shy of 100 hours (96 and some change) but I completed every quest, maxed out all affinities, 100% reconstruction of colony 6, all skills learned, pretty much everything the game had to offer. It's been about 8 years since I played through this game last, and with the game's new face lift I felt like it holds it's own among all the great Switch games graphically. The absolute scope of the game is breathtaking, and crazy to think that this was originally a Wii game! As always, the voice acting was superb - and I had no idea that Jenna Coleman (Clara from Doctor Who) was the voice of Melia. My only real complaint, though it's a small one, is that sometimes the set pieces were SO big that it was a bit of a hindrance. The Earith Sea comes to mind, specifically. Other than that, this game is an absolute 10/10 and the definitive edition is by far the best way to play one of my favorite games of all time.
Game 39 - Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout - PlayStation 4 - Completed Sep 3rd, 2020
I played this for quite some time with my son, we would pass the controller back and forth between matches. While it's pretty cool simply for the massively online aspect of the game, it falls really short (ha) for me in repeatability as the matches get to be more and more just the same stuff over and over again. I would say that the game is lacking variety, but I don't think that's entirely it. In the ten or so hours that we played the game, there were a few types of matches that we only encountered once or twice - with everything else being the same 3-4 stages on seemingly random loops. The customization options are cute enough, and the fact that the stuff in the in-game store changes daily is a nice touch and adds a lot of variety to the characters you see online. But in the end, this just became a bit boring and it was easy to know how each match would more or less go depending on your starting position. The game feels like the cheap imitation of something that could be great. At least it was free on PS+.
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jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 40 - Monster Train - PC GOG - Completed Sep 5th, 2020
I saw a thread on GAF about Monster Train and it seemed like it was relatively praised here by people whose opinions I value. I saw that it was on sale for 20% off and decided to take the plunge. They weren't kidding, this game is pretty awesome! It's fairly simplistic in it's execution (enemies enter at the bottom and move up, summon monsters to stop them) but it does an amazing job of blending deck building, customizable card games (like Magic or Hearthstone), rogue like elements, tower defense, and "choose your own adventure" genres. The game features five factions and a few hundred cards (many of which you have to level up the factions to unlock) and it's a recipe for success. I "finished" the game but I'm definitely not finished with it - I think I'll be playing this one for a long time yet.
Jack Videogames
Member
18h-ish. Normal difficulty, Good Ending.
I can sort of see why Metro fans don't like Exodus much, because it doesn't really feel like a Metro game most of the time. Instead of the trademark grimdark tunnels, you travel to a lot of impressive-looking locales, some of which are actually open world(...ish). Artyom is still slow and tanky, which makes movement through this open, expansive world a bit of a chore sometimes. Where Metro 2033 was oppressive and Last Light was just plain sad, Exodus is bright and hopeful... if you play your cards right.
Yet, I think Exodus might be the best game overall in the Metro series. Many of the problems that previous games had (An obtuse karma system and the absence of a crafting system worth its salt, for example) are solved here. The cast of characters is really strong and it gets better (and bigger!) if you aim for the good ending. Not to mention that the game is graphically really impressive.
Metro Exodus is (or should be) a great sendoff to Artyom's story. Even though it's more Stalker or even Fallout than Metro, it's absolutely worthy of the name.
My Score: ★★★★★
Original post
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 77. Kill La Kill IF
3hrs. 38mins. 22 out of 25
Game 78. Dead or Alive 6
3hrs. 13mins. 18 out of 25
3hrs. 38mins. 22 out of 25
Game 78. Dead or Alive 6
3hrs. 13mins. 18 out of 25
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 41 - Super Bomberman R Online - Google Stadia - Completed Sep 8th, 2020
I re-subscribed to Stadia for Bomberman R and a hand full of other games to get added to my account. Like Fall Guys, I didn't really feel like the battle royale aspect of this game really helped my enjoyment of it overall. It's entirely possible that I'm just cynical. So - the premise here is nice and interesting and the classic Bomberman powerups are there as well. At it's core, this isn't much different from Saturn Bomberman or even Bomberman '93, except that it's "online" and you're competing with tons of other players. But I use the term "players" loosely, because I get the feeling while playing that it's at least 90+% bots - the rigid weird movements (especially between rounds, as blocks are about to fall!) and questionable robotic decisions really has me thinking that there's a pretty good illusion of competition but it's not really there. So overall this fell pretty flat for me personally.
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 79. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
8hrs. 19mins. 14 out of 25
8hrs. 19mins. 14 out of 25
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 80. Blade II The Return of evil
22hrs. 43mins. 22 out of 25
22hrs. 43mins. 22 out of 25
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Game 42 - Slay the Spire - PC - Completed Sep 16th, 2020
After falling in love with Monster Train, I had some people let me know that it was really just "a rip off of Slay The Spire" - so I thought I'd give this game a try. Unfortunately, I've gotta say that this game was not very good, and a pretty big let-down after Monster Train. The one-on-one or one-on-many battles in this game just doesn't make it nearly as tactically diverse as something like Monster Train, and loses all of the great tower-defense-like gameplay that I love in that game. The random actions and the deckbuilding aspects are really cool and still make for some great combos in this game, but for me personally I felt like it really fell flat. In all honesty, I'd probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I had played it first before playing Monster Train.
wyvern_bloodfist
Member
Game 81. SoulCalibur VI
5hrs. 32mins. 12 out of 25
5hrs. 32mins. 12 out of 25
IKSTUGA
Member
74. Yakuza 5, 8/10
+ great combat
+ taxi driving + eurobeat
+ some epic story moments
- lack of story focus
- way too fucking long
- final playable character isn't very interesting
75. THPS 1+2, 10/10
+ great soundtrack
+ super tight controls and feel
+ fun challenge list
+ create a park mode is super well done
+ Tony Hawk is back!!!
- longish loading times (ps4)
- some of the basic objectives are not that fun to do (eg. collect 5 robot toys etc.)
76. Resident Evil 7, 9/10
+ creepy atmosphere
+ fun puzzles and level design
+ awesome boss battles
+ End of Zoe DLC
- Chris Redfield
- boat section felt kinda dragged out
77. Super Mario Sunshine, 8/10
+ variety of movement options
+ Mario moves fast
+ nice summer vibes
+ FLUDDless levels
- camera
- too many unfun bs shines
78. Super Mario Galaxy, 10/10
+ feels magical
+ super fun level design, they totally nailed the gravity aspect
+ one of the best soundtracks of all time
+ Mario controls extremely well
+ Switch version doesn't require as much waggle as the original
+ looks amazing in HD
- a bit too easy