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[JTripper]

Game 1 - Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (PS3): 100% Completed on 1/4/2015 - 80 Hours
- Kingdom Hearts is my favorite video game series and KH2FM is one of the best entries. The platinum was tough and there were certain parts that required ALOT of grinding, which was not fun, but the gameplay is some of the best in the franchise. The game has aged well.

Game 2 - Assassin's Creed Rogue (PS3): Story Completed on 1/23/15 - 8 Hours
- I enjoyed Rogue's story more than Black Flag and Unity, mainly since it seems like it's more interested in the overarching lore of the series than the previous 2 and it ties in well. Gameplay was pretty standard AC quality. It's a fine entry in the series and I actually like it more than Unity, which seemed very bland to me besides the beautiful visuals and some nice mission variety.

Game 3 - The Swapper (PS4): 100% Completed on 1/24/15 - 4 Hours
- This game was cool. The dark sci-fi art style is really nice and the soundtrack is amazing. The puzzles are great brain teasers, although later on in the game they got so difficult I had to take breaks. The story is pretty interesting too but I didn't think much of it once I finished the game as it's pretty minimal. Great game if you're a puzzle lover. Otherwise it's a tough one for casual players.

Game 4 - Infamous First Light (PS4): Story Completed on 1/24/15 - 2.5 Hours
- I liked Second Son for it's gameplay and setting, but I thought it's story was weak and there was a lot of lost potential. I feel the same about First Light. Gameplay was fine, but the missions were boring along with the story. I'm glad it took me less than 3 hours to beat.

Game 5 - Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (Wii U): Story Completed on 1/29/15 - 5 Hours
- One of my favorite games of 2014. I like that there are multiple collectibles and special objectives in each level and even surprise bonus stages. The game is a bit short even after the extra chapter and it's camera is a little tough to maneuver around sometimes, but it's fun, charm, and originality make it worth it. I'm hoping for a sequel and it's the first game that actually makes me want to buy any accompanying amiibo for extra content as well as show my love for Toad.

Game 6 - Grim Fandango Remastered (PS4): 100% Completed on 2/2/15 - 10 Hours
- I'm glad I finally got to play this game after wondering what it was all about for years. The story, characters, performances, soundtrack, setting and style are all really great and were exactly what I was hoping for going into it. It's a difficult game though since I feel like the gameplay is problematic at times. It requires a lot of thin logic and action in certain situations where interactive objects are indistinguishable from setting. For a remaster it could have had a bit more touching up in the cinematic and mechanical departments, but otherwise I really enjoyed it.

Game 7 - Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 10+ Hours
- A couple of weeks ago I played the game for about 9 hours non-stop with a friend trying to complete the group events. I think I've logged about 30 hours total according to my Wii U Daily Log and about half of those hours were done in 2015 so far. What can I say, it's Smash Bros. It's fun as hell, though I really only play it with friends and barely do single-player modes. I unlocked all characters of course and tried every game mode at least once but I think I have about 2 more stages to unlock from single-player events.

Game 8 - Destiny (PS4): 10+ Hours in 2015, 100+ Hours total
- I recently passed 100 hours on this game and without a doubt have spent around 20 in 2015, and I've been playing it since launch. I enjoy Destiny because I like shared-world games (MMO-esque), shooters, and RPGs. Destiny is an amalgamation of all these genres. It is repetitive as hell and it's content is by no means great, but it's gameplay is top notch and it keeps me coming back nearly every week to do weekly strikes and raids with other players to upgrade my character and be ready for the next big content drop to arrive from Bungie.

Game 9 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS): Story Completed on 2/12/15, 21 Hours
- My most embarrassing gamer secret used to be that I never beat OoT, but now I did. I really enjoyed it. Not sure if it's my favorite Zelda game, but it's a damn good one. I remember reaching a certain temple years ago and stopping, but on this playthrough I really enjoyed every dungeon, water and shadow being my favorites. The game also doesn't make the unfortunate mistake of other adventure games by having you repeat dungeons or backtrack a ton. The dungeons are well designed, the story is good, gameplay is great on 3DS, and I'm glad I finally took the time to give it complete playthrough. Now onto Majora's Mask 3D!

Game 10 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4): Story Completed on 2/27/15, 7 Hours
- I usually play every CoD campaign on veteran difficulty. It's kind of a weird gamer tradition of mine. As for Advanced Warfare, it had fun campaign missions (that estate-stealth mission was pretty sweet) but the story itself is pretty unmemorable. This CoD will be remembered as "the one with Kevin Spacey". I played a little multiplayer as well and enjoyed it. The slight changes and exo additions add some verticality and generally make for a fresher version of the typical CoD multiplayer, but as a CoD game it can only change so much. Definitely liked this installment more than Ghosts, but for me CoD peaked at Black Ops (for both campaign and multiplayer, zombies too) and I've greatly lost interest in each game since then. Still waiting for a WWII comeback!

Game 11 - CounterSpy (PS4): Completed on 3/3/15, 2 Hours
- My time with the game consists of one complete playthrough and another partially completed one with only a few levels left. What made this game fun was finding all the secret extras in each level. The stealth mechanics are a bit simplistic which make being detected frustrating sometimes but the game isn't very hard despite that. Since it's so short, the game really warrants multiple playthroughs to unlock everything, including trophies, but I had my fun with it by seeing what it had to offer. It's an enjoyable, simple, short side-scrolling shooter with a pretty cool art style.

Game 12 - OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood (PS4) Career levels completed on 3/4/15, 3 Hours
- I completed the career levels on amateur difficulty. This game is great once you get hang on the controls and it's really satisfying when you complete a level in a full combo. Then soon after that you'll want to tear your hair out during the final levels. Timing is key in this game and sometimes there's just so little room for error. I guess that's what skating is all about? It's pretty fun, and there are plenty of challenges and extras in it for a small indie game.

Game 13 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) Completed Story on 3/5/15, 20 Hours
- What an unusual game to follow OoT. It's dark story and emphasis on side-quests and time management really highlight how unique this game is, and it's definitely now one of my favorite Zeldas because of just how different it is. The game's level design is genius, including all of the settings outside of the dungeons. Even though there are only 4 official ones, the prerequisite quests to unlock the main dungeons are almost like mini-dungeons themselves, just in more wide-open settings. The newly enhanced bomber's notebook and the new save points are cleverly implemented and are smart additions to this version of the game to save time and lessen frustration. I got about half of the masks and completed the story, but I plan on going back in to unlock all the masks and the side-quests.

Game 14 - Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS4) Completed Story on 3/13/15, 5 Hours
- Not as good as the first one, but I still enjoyed it. The story was interesting and I appreciate the added focus on it but I felt the simplicity and ambiguity of the first game's was more unique and memorable. Also, some of the level design felt overused and sometimes cheap, such as windows everywhere and unfair enemy placement in areas that are way too open. Soundtrack was top notch and there are definitely some bangers. Still, that first game tho.

Game 15 - Halo 2: Anniversary (X1): Completed Campaign on 3/15/15, 8 Hours
- I've been a Halo fan since nearly the beginning. I have fond memories of Halo 2's campaign and it's co-op. The remade cutscenes are beautiful and it's amazing. Despite them being pretty much on par with other modern games, seeing how Halo 2's campaign would have looked like had it been made today is pretty great. In the end, I think Halo 2 actually has the weakest story in the franchise (including 4) and mostly serves as set-up and prep for 3, but it has some good individual missions. I think the best thing about it's campaign and story is the inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable protagonist. As for the remastered sounds and visuals in multiplayer, it almost feels like a whole new game. It's so good.

Game 16 - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (PS4): Completed every quest on 4/1/15, 15 Hours
- Had a lot of fun with the Pre-Sequel. I completed every main and side-quest. I never played it on last-gen so I waited for the next-gen version to release. It doesn't do too much new with the franchise with the exception of small things like a gravity mechanic and ground slam. Oh, and you get to play as a Claptrap. Which I did. And it was great. It's definitely a worthy addition to the franchise, albeit seeming slightly smaller in scale than the numbered titles when it comes to locations and number of quests. Maybe it's just me though.

Game 17 - Halo 3 (X1): Completed Campaign on 4/22/15, 7 Hours
- Finished it during my playthrough of every campaign included in the Master Chief Collection. This is still my favorite Halo campaign in the entire franchise and I think it still holds up. The 4-player co-op was great, the sense of an epic scale conclusion to the "trilogy" at the time was immensely satisfying and delivered. I liked the way Bungie capped off their Master Chief story but still left it open-ended enough so that it could be picked up for the future. I could go on about the multiplayer too but didn't play much on Master Chief Collection as opposed to the 360 days.

Game 18 - Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) (PS4): Completed on 4/23/15, 2.5 Hours
- A pleasant little game that teaches us and exposes us to some of the culture of the indigenous Alaskan tribes it was created with the help of. I appreciated what it showed us in it's insight clips and the way it's story was told in a simple little fairy-tale style, as if these types of stories were passed down through the ages by these people. The controls and AI weren't perfect at times and even became a little frustrating in some parts, but for such a short game with a specific purpose and story behind it's development, I can't help but appreciate it.

In Progress:
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix (PS3)
Shovel Knight (3DS)
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (X1)
Master Chief Collection (X1)
Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper (iOS)
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (PS4)
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (PS4)
Bloodborne (PS4)

 

[kierwynn]

I thought DR2 had several mechanics that were worst than the first game, in particular the hangman and Logical Dive come to mind.

I agree those were worse (though, honestly, I didn't hate logic dive until the later cases), but it's not like the original hangman was that great to begin with. I think where they were going with the hangman was a nice thought, and with some more changes it could actually be good. I thought the addition of the rebuttals and being able to agree with statements were an improvement. It makes the whole trial dynamic better imo Of course, that's just me, but I can see why some people don't like 2's gameplay as much.

 

[Teggy]

Original post

Game 6: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - 12.5 hours
# Played on Wii U, finished 1/24. I wasn't aware until just recently that this game was different than the PS360 game. Great to suddenly have a new SoT-verse game to play. The game was fun, but about 75% through the limitations on control and camera when using the Wiimote started to become apparent and some frustration set in.

 

[Captainbojanglesiii]

Original Post

Game 6: Banjo-Kazooie -
Started :??/??/14
Finished :1/24/15

Despite playing a decent number of Nintendo 64 titles, I had never played Banjo-Kazooie until last year. After getting through the majority of the game before, I finally finished it today. If there is one extremely positive thing about the game, it's its charm. The music, characters, world and levels have a lot of soul put into them. The mechanics themselves are a bit outdated and sometimes feel odd, but it's still playable. I personally don't care for "collectathons", but I actually had a lot of fun with this game and all of its different types of collectables needed to progress the game. I played the XBLA port of this game and the 360 controller worked very well with the gameplay.

Spoiler

Getting me ready for Banjo-Threeie?

Age is the only thing that takes away from this game, both in terms of mine as I don't hold any nostalgic relationship with the title, as well as it's age, as its mechanics are no longer prevalent in modern day game titles. All things considered though, Banjo-Kazooie is an amazing game by an amazing developer.

Hours Played : 9

Overall Score : 9.0

"Play it if You Can Accept It's Age"

 

[Spieler Eins]

Age is the only thing that takes away from this game, both in terms of mine as I don't hold any nostalgic relationship with the title, as well as it's age as its mechanics are no longer prevalent in modern day game titles.

What mechanics?

 

[LGom09]

#5. Darksiders II (PC) -- January 24 -- 19:25:36 -- ★★★★☆
Really enjoyed this game. Combat isn't very deep, but it looks cool and feels good. I like being able to press the jump button mid-combo to launch the enemy and transition into an air combo. I'm surprised I've never seen that before in a game like this. One aspect of the gameplay I'm not particularly fond of is the platforming. It might be the most automated platforming I've ever seen in a game. For example, this sequence took a single button press and no input on the left stick.

The dungeons are mostly pretty forgettable. I don't think I would be able to describe more than half of the dungeons or bosses in great detail, probably because of how easy they are. Most of the puzzles barely entered my brain before they were solved. There are, however, some solid environmental puzzles later in the game after you gain some more abilities.

One thing this game taught me is that the repetitive structure of Zelda games is really effective at providing the player with a sense of progression as well as something to work toward. There's no build-up to anything in Darksiders II. You open a door and suddenly you're in a dungeon. You open a door and suddenly

Spoiler

you're fighting the final boss

. I think being able to fast travel from basically anywhere also hurts the pacing.

Story: whatever. Writing: good. Voice acting: good. Music: decent. Visuals: great.

I realize I'm posting mostly negative thoughts, but I really did enjoy the game as a piece of mindless entertainment.

 

[Hispanicguy]

Update

Game #4

This is a shmup which came out yesterday on Steam. I just beat it on normal, 1CC. It's a decent game. Nothing that will blow your mind. It's simple and fun. There are times where it can turn into a bullet hell, but because of how small the hitbox of the ship is, it won't be much of a problem.

6 stages in the campaign as well as an endless mode. 14 ships to choose from. Normal and hardcore mode. Hardcore is "one hit and you're dead. Restart the whole level over.." whereas in Normal mode you can take many hits before you actually die.

For it's release, it's on sale for $6.79 (regular price $7.99) and proceeds go to the Child's Play Charity.

On another note, I wanted Paper Mario: Sticker Star to be one of the games I beat this year, but I can't stand it, lol. No leveling/exp system killed it for me from the beginning but I still wanted to give it a chance. I beat World 1 and I just became lost....lost and bored. I can understand the negative impressions now. It COULD have been something great. They took 2 steps back with this Paper Mario entry.

 

[Hyrule Warrior]

Still not sure if I'll hit 52 by the end of the year, but I'm gonna post here whenever I do finish some games just to see how far I can make it ^_^

Game #2: Saints Row 4

Before playing Gat out of Hell which I snagged off gamestop for $5, I decided to go through the entirety of SR4, and all the DLC. Had a fun time playing through it, and appreciate how crazy the story gets.

I was a little bummed that Enter the Dominatrix and How the Saints saved Christmas were as detached as they were. I was hoping they'd be a continuation of the SR4 story, but at least they were kinda funny.
---

Game #3: Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Almost immediately after finishing all of SR4, I started playing GooH, and even though I was expecting it to be short, even I was kinda surprised how quickly it took to get through everything. I don't hate it by any means, it felt like an expansion pack, or what I would hope to see in a DLC pack more often. As a stand alone game, it's not a great package, but it's a fun extension of SR4. I am a little bummed that the writing is not as good, or the mission structure is as weak as it was though.

 

[LGom09]

On another note, I wanted Paper Mario: Sticker Star to be one of the games I beat this year, but I can't stand it, lol. No leveling/exp system killed it for me from the beginning but I still wanted to give it a chance. I beat World 1 and I just became lost....lost and bored. I can understand the negative impressions now. It COULD have been something great. They took 2 steps back with this Paper Mario entry.

Sticker Star has some seriously baffling design choices. Only redeeming quality is the music imo.

 

[GLuigi]

Game #6: Final Fantasy III (DS) - 42 Hours
Decided to give this game another playthough (and probably the last time) since i saw that i was really close in completing the Beistary in my playthrough last year. The only enemies I missed were some of the ones in the sea, that were missable after upgrading the ship. Finished the game with a 100% Bestiary and item completion. This time around I finished with a party of the following: Ninja, Geomancer, Devout, and Magus. I actually enjoyed the game a lot more during this playthrough, but mostly because the boss fights were still fresh in mind so I was able to prepare my party accordingly. Anyways, I'm excited to move on to FFV.

Original Post

 

[Labadal]

Original post.

Game 6: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - 26 Hours
PSP
One of the more unique rpgs and I love it for it. Its problem comes from how easily you can break the game if you know what you are doing, but I doubt you'll do that on your first run. The Japanese take on Norse mythology is funny but I enjoy it anyway. The combat is fun and I don't mind most dungeons, although some drives me crazy no matter how many times I play the game.

 

[StingX2]

Game Beaten #10 Watch_Dogs (X360)
(Started 12/13 / Finished 1/24)
My feelings are extremely mixed on this one. There are brilliant aspects such as the Online Tailing, it has good shooting, and some good concepts. The problems? The driving is absurdly bad, the main character is a generic protagonist with mixed signals for character motivation, the game has lots of random side stuff that feels tacked on instead of being a part of the city, and the missions are really bad. There are only really four mission types that repeat endlessly. 1.Don't Be Seen or don't let the escort be seen but you can kill people as long as you stand outside the 'red area' with a sniper rifle, 2.Take a car down, 3.Play Pipe Dream and hack into something 4.Kill everybody

The fixer contracts represent most of this and what isn't represented there is in gang hideouts and criminal convoys. The game can feel maddening when you play too much of it.

And yet, there is something here. There is something that gives me faith a sequel could be fantastic. The blocks are there, they just need that Assassin's Creed 1 to 2 jump in quality.

OG Post

 

[Cilla]

How do you guys deal with episodic releases? Just got the season pass for GoT and will mark it done with episode one but it seems like cheating to add the other episodes separately. If I bought it together I wouldn't even consider it.

Opinions?

 

[TP17]

How do you guys deal with episodic releases? Just got the season pass for GoT and will mark it done with episode one but it seems like cheating to add the other episodes separately. If I bought it together I wouldn't even consider it.

Opinions?

Last years thread saw some users have each episode as a game completed and others put the whole series down as a single game. I personally used the latter but it's personal preference.

 

[Spyware]

How do you guys deal with episodic releases? Just got the season pass for GoT and will mark it done with episode one but it seems like cheating to add the other episodes separately. If I bought it together I wouldn't even consider it.

Opinions?

I don't see episodes as whole games, so I only count seasons. If I were to play the first episode of GoT, I'd see it as if I had played 1/5th of a game. It's completed when I play through the whole season.

The only important thing is consistency. If you say +5 for 5 beaten episodes you need to say -5 if you buy them all too.

 

[LiquidSolid]

I don't see episodes as whole games, so I only count seasons. If I were to play the first episode of GoT, I'd see it as if I had played 1/5th of a game. It's completed when I play through the whole season.

The only important thing is consistency. If you say +5 for 5 beaten episodes you need to say -5 if you buy them all too.

1/6th There's 6 episodes in Game of Thrones.

Personally, I'd probably do a mixture of both depending on how I played them. If I played each episode as they came out, I'd list them separately (so a -1 when each one comes out and a +1 when I finish them). But if I waited until all six episodes were out and played them all together, I'd list them as a single game.

 

[WeWereGiants]

Original Post

Game 4: Yoshi's Story (N64) [8/10]
Time: 0:45

I really enjoy Yoshi's Story. I decided to replay this because of how excited I am for Yoshi's Woolly World, I'll never understand how someone can prefer Yoshi's Island over this fun and charming little game. I really enjoy the arcade feel of the game, you can travel through different levels each time you play and finding all of the melons can be fiendishly difficult.

Game 5: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U) [9/10]
Time: 5:36

This game is adorable, the Wii U has had some seriously great games and this one is definitely included. I couldn't help smiling almost the whole time I played, I'll definitely be going back and collecting all the gems and doing the SM3DW levels. Great game.

Game 6: Pokemon Link Battle! (3DS) [4/10]
Time: 7:31

I didn't like this game, it gets hard for no reason and offers no upgrades for you outside of a few Pokemon abilities. I used Zoroark exclusively after I got him as flinching enemies was the only way I could win. There are a few post credits stages to do but I will probably never play them. I miss old school Pokemon Puzzle games.

Game 7: Pokemon Trading Card Game (3DS VC) [7/10]
Time: 5:11

More Pokemon! Love the TCG and bought this the day it came out, never beat it as a kid but now that I'm an adult and I can put together a reasonable deck that doesn't get destroyed I was able to breeze through this game. I'd love to see an updated version of this game, giving us the most recent cards too but with the online game it won't happen.

Game 8: Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (3DS VC) [6/10]
Time: 2:04

I said to myself whilst playing Link Battle that I missed old Pokemon Puzzle Games but they actually weren't much better. Beat this one on all 3 difficulties and played some extra modes, there isn't too much to do in this one. Long Live Chikorita!

Link to Update 3

 

[HolyCheck]

I'm really struggling.

I powered through Wind Waker in the first 5 days, then got 80% through Toads Treasure tracker!

now i'm about 5 - 20% through 10 games... with no interest

 

[Rubius]

Game 5 : Gears of Wars - About 8 hours - 01/24/15

Pretty good for a console shooter, pretty unforgiving in some places and the weapons are pretty limited but the story was pretty okay. Good designs too. 4/5

 

[eot]

This is the 3rd time I've tried to get into Mass Effect, its always been a game that really interests me but it just never clicked but this time it really did. I fucking loved this game, I had no idea I would enjoy it so much. The story was phenomenal and the combat really started to grow on me. The only bad things I have to say about it is that the FPS on PS3 is pretty damn poor but I highly doubt its like that on PC but I've committed to playing the series on PS3 now and the auto saves were so bad, it was hardly a feature, there were a lot of times where I lost around 30-40 minutes progress because I forgot to save due to not being used to manual saving any more. I didn't enjoy the combat at first mainly because of the Matriarch Benezia fight which I found very frustrating but once I got past that it was pretty good from there on. I'm going to go start the download for Mass Effect 2. I can't wait to start it.


Original Post

You're in for a treat Mass Effect 2 is something quite special.
I hated ME1 the first few times I tried to play it too, seems like a common experience.

 

[Sölf]

I will never manage to beat 52 games, for the simple reason that I stop playing way too often. Whatever, let's see how far I can get.

Beaten

Instead of playing my Wii U games I bought this and Sacred Stones on the eShop (I already own both). Played through Eliwood normal mode once, not sure how long it took me exactly.



Currently Playing

Chapter 12, Eirika Hard Mode, Girls Only run

Beat the first two worlds (not with all secrets), then I started Fire Emblem. Will continue this later on.

Have only unlocked 3 characters so far. Well, I beat classic a few times, this game is actually quite hard to "complete". I will just update what I have from time to time.

 

[Spyware]

1/6th There's 6 episodes in Game of Thrones.

Ah, I have not read a single thing about the game. I just went with a number

 

[Cutreman]

Damn, I have just discovered this thread. 2014 was the first year I started to list every game beaten.

 

[jiggles]

Original Post

Game 11: Transistor

I had this sat half-finished since it came out, and went to go back to it last night. Couldn't remember a thing about it, so I started it from the beginning and nearly clocked it in a single sitting. The music is excellent, the artstyle very good, and the gameplay had some really bright ideas. Being able to tweak the difficulty and your abilities to your exact preferences was great, and I was a big fan of the combat system. But whole package felt a little half-baked. The brevity and linearity, coupled with the seriously under-developed setting, just made it feel rushed, and it seemed like it was trying a little too hard to be deep and artsy. The voice of the Transistor taking a dramatic pause every 5 words got really annoying by the end. (But on that, special mention must go to how the DualShock 4 lit up and spoke like the Transistor in-game. That was a masterstroke)
If you liked Bastion, you will like this

 

[Yuterald]

Game 6: Bonk's Adventure - about 4 hours - TB16/VC

Just finished Bonk's Adventure on the virtual console this afternoon and loved it. Was able to 1CC the game too (had about 10 lives left after beating the final boss as well). Randomly decided to play it last night, got to the final boss with no lives and got sort of stuck on the boss rush after hitting my first continue. Decided to replay the game for real this morning and played better, stocked more lives, did more bonus rounds, etc. and fucking nailed a run with a score of 100,000+. Never was really exposed to/into Bonk back in the day, but I'm all about it now.

Man, the most satisfying stuff I've played so far this year were two old school games. Between Bonk and Faxanadu, I've had the most fun returning to my Virtual Console library than anything else I'm in the middle of. Good times!

 

[maxcriden]

Game 6: Bonk's Adventure - about 4 hours - TB16/VC:

Just finished Bonk's Adventure on the virtual console this afternoon and loved it. Was able to 1CC the game too (had about 10 lives left after beating the final boss as well). Randomly decided to play it last night, got to the final boss with no lives and got sort of stuck on the boss rush after hitting my first continue. Decided to replay the game for real this morning and played better, stocked more lives, did more bonus rounds, etc. and fucking nailed a run with a score of 100,000+. Never was really exposed to/into Bonk back in the day, but I'm all about it now.

Man, the most satisfying stuff I've played so far this year were two old school games. Between Bonk and Faxanadu, I've had the most fun returning to my Virtual Console library than anything else I'm in the middle of. Good times!

Hey Yute, if I might, I'd like to ask you about this game. My wife and I tried it a month or two back and couldn't really get into it. I think a big part of why is when you die you have to start the whole game over. Is there a way to override this or a code for 100 levels or something to make it less likely? I suppose quitting via the home menu I believe can act as a save state. I'm glad to hear it's a lot of fun, though.

Also, while I'm on the topic, have you played Ufouria? Had a similar concern there with IIRC an archaic password system we didn't really want to deal with. Maybe we could use those ostensible save states similarly there, though.

 

[sackninja]

New game done. A bit ahead of schedule.

Game 6: Framed (ios): Great little game That's free on itunes today to celebrate australia day or something. When I say litte I mean little, beat it in about an hour, I think. Honestly don't think it's worth more than 99 cent but I really enjoyed it for free. Very clever gam mechanics and beautiful art and animation made it a pleasure to play but I wish after you replayed a scene a few times you could fast forward, some of the animations were quite long. Overall another great game 8/10.

Original post http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=144732676&postcount=106

 

[Yuterald]

Hey Yute, if I might, I'd like to ask you about this game. My wife and I tried it a month or two back and couldn't really get into it. I think a big part of why is when you die you have to start the whole game over. Is there a way to override this or a code for 100 levels or something to make it less likely? I suppose quitting via the home menu I believe can act as a save state. I'm glad to hear it's a lot of fun, though.

Also, while I'm on the topic, have you played Ufouria? Had a similar concern there with IIRC an archaic password system we didn't really want to deal with. Maybe we could use those ostensible save states similarly there, though.

Hey, buddy! You know what's funny, I've had this downloaded for ages on my VC and I remember when I tried to play it initially I was really turned off for whatever reason too. This wasn't a series/game I was exposed to when I was younger, so playing it as an adult without any sort of nostalgia attached was probably (unfairly) working against it. As a side note, I haven't had a lot of time to play games as of late and I won't for the next few months (due to my line of work), but I've been trying to enjoy the little time I have on Saturday evening and Sunday to play games, so these old school games have become sort of a weekend ritual for me as of late.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure on having to start the entire game over when you choose the continue option. With my first run of the game last night, I made it to the boss rush (right before the final boss) and whether or not if I died from the final boss or during the boss rush, I was placed right at the start of that area after I chose to continue. The game itself definitely has its own unique feel. It took me a few tries to wrap my head around the mechanics, but once I did the game made total sense to me and I was stockpiling extra lives and blasting through the stages like there was no tomorrow. There are an ass-ton of bonus rooms scattered throughout the stages that aren't too difficult to find either and they're essential for gaining more lives. I guess your mileage may vary, but I was able to 1CC the game on my second run with a ton of lives to spare, so maybe you just need to mess around with the game and get used to the enemy hit boxes, Bonk's spin, and all that jazz.

I'm weird/stubborn/old school when it comes to using save states and such. If the game was meant to be played in one sitting then I'll continue to play until I can beat it as if I was playing the game on the original hardware. If the game supports a password system, I will typically take down the password to test to see where/how the game will load/place you upon input and then just quit out at that same spot and use the system's internal save-state to continue my playthrough, for convenience purposes. Unless it's some super ridiculously hard game that like no one can beat without save states, I can't enjoy myself or feel good about my experience with the game unless I'm playing it as closely possible to how it was originally meant to be played. It's mental gymnastics at its finest, but it works for me, ha!

Oh, and I do have Ufouria and that was another game I started to play, but dropped years ago and have been looking to get back into it! But yeah, let me know if you're going to give Bonk another whirl soon and if you have any other questions I'll do my best to help as it's fresh in my head.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Game 2: Akiba's Trip Undead and Undressed (Jan 25th 2015) - PSV
Time Played: 06h16

Awesome game. The gameplay and the premise felt totally fresh to me, the humor was on point and the amount of customizable content for the MC and side character is quite big. Other then that, the game is held back by some big framerate dips and the fact that the game has areas separated by some long loading time (limitation of the Vita I guess). Contrary to what you would expect with the game's premise, they really isn't a lot of fan service, at least for me. I woild recommend it to anyone not turn off by anime artstyle.

16/20

Original Post

 

[Pellegri Testament]

Game #5: Valkyrie Profile 2 1/25/15(25 hrs)
My enjoyment of the gameplay over the story hasn't changed after all these years. This honestly has the definition of cliché story written all over it. That character that just joined you after you saw the enemy not that long ago? I wonder who they are. The twist 2/3rds of the way through the game? You see it from a mile away since the characters that are part of it, make it known almost as soon as you get them, that they have something more to them. People say Shion(in Xenosaga) is the worst main protagonist ever? They have not seen Alicia, the most secluded, "little girl" princess ever.

The best thing about the 1st game was that each of the side characters had their own story to them(even if it was short). That was all thrown away in this game in place of lifeless characters that have little more to them than the bio on their character page. I didn't attempt seraphic gate since this was more of a speedrun of the game, but my main file is right there on it, if I ever wanted to get into it again. Overall the music/zones/combat are all fairly amazing, just they all feel like they're part of a different game, when you compare them to how subpar the story and characters are.

Game #6: To the Moon 1/26/15(2.5 hrs)
This is a game that I keep coming back to every few months or so now, since this was my 4th playthrough of it. Other than there being a little too much comedy between the 2 doctors, I can think of nothing wrong with this game. 2.5-3 hours and I get more out of this game than I do from 30+ hour adventures. Maybe it's because I share certain things with one of the characters in the game and I can see myself reflected in them, but the story has always pulled at me hard. It's one of the most basic looking games I have ever played, yet it makes up what it lacks visually, with feeling and lots of it.

Original Post

 

[entremet]

Original Post

Game 3: Kirby's Triple Deluxe

What a lovely game. Kirby games are always decent, but this one is one of the better traditional ones. The OST really shines here with remixes from classic Kirby games and plenty of original tunes as well. The new gimmick, Supernova, is a fun mechanic and its not overused, keeping it fresh. The game also has a lot of post game content that would keep you busy as well.

 

[maxcriden]

Hey, buddy! You know what's funny, I've had this downloaded for ages on my VC and I remember when I tried to play it initially I was really turned off for whatever reason too. This wasn't a series/game I was exposed to when I was younger, so playing it as an adult without any sort of nostalgia attached was probably (unfairly) working against it. As a side note, I haven't had a lot of time to play games as of late and I won't for the next few months (due to my line of work), but I've been trying to enjoy the little time I have on Saturday evening and Sunday to play games, so these old school games have become sort of a weekend ritual for me as of late.

Hi Yute! Thanks so much for your detailed thoughts and all the info. I'll be eager to hear your thoughts on Ufouria when you get to try it again and I do definitely understand where you're coming from in re: playing the game as it was originally intended. Anyway, glad you had such a ball with it and your positive experience definitely builds up hype for me to give it another go. I'll be sure to let you know if I have any more questions when I do so. Thanks man!

 

[kitzkozan]

Update:

Game 1: Xcom Enemy Within

Game 2: Shadowrun Returns (dead's man switch campaign)

It's pretty barebone and basic compared to Dragonfall, but also short thankfully. A campaign perfectly suited for my challenge lol.

Game 3: Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall

I went on a intense binge gaming of SR in the last few days so might as well knock off another one off my list. This one I had started just in tie for my GOTY list so it's nice to finish it since I will probably replay the campaign with the director's cut (in anticipation of the Hong Kong campaign).

Up next, it's time to finish the Ground Zeroes demo since I'm sure I didn't actually completed it yet and the Wolfenstein campaign. I might also knock off Brothers off the list since it's a short game and you never have enough of those when you need quantity. After that, I'm gonna go on a Platinum binge next month (Bayonetta, Vanquish, Wonderful 101, Metal Gear rising).

 

[Wiseblade]

Original Post

Tomb Raider 2013 (25/01/2015) - Definitely not a bad game, but i have absolutely no desire to go back and get the remaining 35% of the collectibles in the game.

And at this point, I've already matched the number of games I completed in 2014. anything from here on is just a bonus.

 

[Yuterald]

Game 7: SpinMaster - 3 hours - NeoGeo/VC

On such an old school kick. Been playing shit on the VC all afternoon. Neo Geo was a system I never owned as a kid so I missed out on the entire library. Just dipping my feet into what's available on Wii's VC and Spin Master caught my eye. Ran through it like 5 times today, saw all endings, and nearly 1CC'ed in the highest difficulty. Probably the most fun I've had with an arcade game in the longest time. So good.

 

[jnWake]

Main Post

Game #8. Mega Man X2 (SNES VC)
- Time played: 03:42 hours.
- Completion reached: Cleared the game while collecting everything (armor, hearts and Zero parts).

Mega Man X2 is my favourite Mega Man game. The X series took everything that made the classic series good and made it even better! The best thing about the X games, IMO, is the mobility. Climbing walls adds a great dynamic to boss battles, as does dashing and long jumps. Controlling Mega Man X is so good that I have replayed these games many many times.

Regarding MMX2 in particular, the air-dash is a very cool ability and Iike that most of the Mavericks are designed around insects or related stuff. Besides, some of the designs are incredible. Magna Centipede and Crystal Snail in particular are awesome.

Just play this game! And also the original MMX that is damn good too.

 

[Caramello]

Completion Update: Game 4

Luigi's Mansion 2

Duration - 12:20

#Played for a total of 15 hours and 37 minutes (12 hours and 20 minutes in 2015 Completed at 12am on Sunday 25/1/15.) and reached the credits.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Luigi's Mansion 2 is a fun, humorous and clever title with solid game mechanics. While I enjoyed my time with it, I felt that it was impeded by being designed for a handheld system with the mission design limiting the exploration aspect of the game. The

Spoiler

final mansion

was easily the highlight of the game for me and I really hope they build on those ideas in the inevitable sequel.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

Game 7: Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit! (PSN Only / PS Vita) - Hours Played: 7:18 - Finished Jan 25th

This was my first time getting into Senran Kagura (or a rhythm game) ... I have to say I'm positively impressed on both accounts. I essentially finished half of the game (the other half is locked behind DLC that's as pricey as the game itself so I probably won't be getting that in the near future) but I enjoyed it thoroughly. The mixture of intense cooking imagery / rhythm-based gameplay is nonsensical and genius at the same time. The girls have a weird fascination with their cleavage (and food, but I suppose that one was shoehorned in order for this game to have a ridiculous story-based reason for existing...). Also, the rewards for destroying your opponent are amusing, to say the least. Overall though, it's probably the most fun I've had with a game for a while (it's excellent in short bursts). 9/10

This also makes it the first non-platformer game I completed this year.

Original Post

 

[ChanMan]

Sweet thread I really enjoy seeing what a lot of people are playing, keep it up!

 

[Teggy]

Original post

Game 7: LIMBO - 4.5 hours
# Played on MAC, finished 1/26. Very LTTP on this, but it lived up to the hype. Short but sweet, challenging puzzles that weren't repetitive, and a beautiful dark atmosphere mixed with some gruesome humor.

 

[Wazzy]

I failed last years because I completely burnt myself out from beating too many games at once but since I'll be starting now I should be able to do this years challenge. I'm just going to focus on one game at a time for now so I don't burn myself out like last time.

Game #1: Grand Theft Auto V - 40 hours [Finished]

Game #2: Tales Of Graces f -

Game #3: Pokemon Omega Ruby - 32 hours and 44 minutes [Finished]

Game #4: Persona Q - 14 hours and 33 minutes

Game #5: Fatal Frame II

Game #6: Final Fantasy Record Keeper - 100+

Game #7: One Piece Treasure Cruise - 100+

Game #8: Pokemon Rumble World 3DS - 9 hours

Game #9: Terra Battle - 15 or more hours

 

[Arthea]

main post

my #5 game is Endless Space, I did a run for the Endless day achievement and decided to call it a day. There is still a lot to do in this game, but I'm not sure I'll get back to it ever.

 

[StingX2]

Game Beaten #11: Resogun (PSN) - 3 Hours
(Started 1/24/15 - Finished 1/25/15)
This was a lot of fun for a shmup game. I understand why this game was so beloved on PS4. The wrap around stages are brilliant visually and mechanically. I feel like some of the save human opportunities are weirdly BS though. A few times a human in danger flashed for a second then immediately died before I even saw the glowing enemies on the stage. Still a great game.

OG Post

 

[An-Det]

Finally making my main post for the thread. Syncing posts between this and the monthly one simplifies things.

January: 7 games finished this month, plus some time spent on Lost Odyssey and Persona 4 Golden.

1. Far Cry 1 (pc) - 4 hours (I used God mode and noclip to fly around, cutting down a lot of time)

I liked it in the end, but it hasn't aged as well as the other big 2004 fps's. I tried but the stealth wasn't my cup of tea and the gunplay wasn't great, so I just enabled god mode and went nuts which made the game a lot better.

2. The Walking Dead: Season Two - 8 hours

So damn good. Not as fresh as Season One, but still really solid. I'm curious to see what they'll do for Season Three, given how this has multiple endings.

3. Game Dev Tycoon - 10 hours

I figured this would be a lot shorter than it was, but I was pleasantly surprised by the length and depth of it. I ended up trying to make a bunch of known games throughout the years around when they actually came out (Ninja Gaiden NES, Halo, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and like 4 sequels that all did really well), and having a general knowledge of how things went made things easier in places (like knowing not to support the Dreamcast since it'd be dead soon). I ended up making World of Warcraft and getting it to over 100 million subscribers, made a console that didn't really go anywhere, and made Steam, and then went from a billion dollars to bankrupt from a huge R&D budget on my second console and a few AAA WoW expansions. I loved the experience overall, I completely lost the better part of two days into it.

4. South Park: The Stick of Truth - 29 hours

They fucking nailed the aesthetic of the show, and the humor is straight-up South Park. Tons of references and nods to the show's long history in the quests and dialogue and even more in stuff like billboards and people's closets and background music. and done well enough to not feel like constant fan service. The combat is solid, plenty of options but not overly complex and it totally fits the setting. I've really enjoyed the game, hell I've started a second playthrough to Platinum the game which I rarely do. I was on the fence for getting it during the Winter Sale and I'm totally glad that I did rather than wait for the Summer Sale, the game is really fucking good.

Other: Never did get around to ACU after getting sidetracked. Aside from the below games I'm nearing the end of disc 1 in Lost Odyssey (really enjoying it so far). I also realized after finishing Transformers and Batman in the same month that I've been reliving part of my childhood (since I was a huge Batman and Transformers nut as a kid).

5. Batman: Arkham Origins - 25 hours

Fantastic game. It didn't do anything new or amazing, but it did the Arkham City formula really well. The different voice actors were a bit strange to get used to but this tale of Batman early in his career was awesome. Also the Cold, Cold Heart dlc was a great side mission after the game was done. After I finished the game I went back and watched some gameplay from Asylum and really noticed the difference in the two Batmans shown, well done difference.

6. The Room - 3 hours

Great puzzle game that doesn't overstay itself. Really cool aesthetic and Lovecraftian trappings.

7. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - 8 hours

The story felt a bit more disorganized than the first game, but the gameplay was as solid as before and transforming still feels awesome. Particularly the flying guys, being able to switch at will and navigate the bigger levels is the embodiment of these games and was really fun.



February: I ended up at 5 finished for the month. Besides those, I tried out The Fall (I liked what I played and need to get back to it) and Dying Light (it was alright, but I got bored).

8. Max Payne 3 - 11 hours

I haven't played the first two games (apparently there are some god mode cheats, so I'll do that at some point soon), but I was pretty impressed with this. The gunplay was fantastic, slow-mo dodging and shooting felt really good, and the narrative was well done with all of Max's monologues and insane ramblings. The story itself is kinda irrelevant (though I never really felt lost despite it being the 3rd game), but it's a fun ride. The fluidity between in-game cutscenes and gameplay was nice, and it was nice to see that this was where the GTA 5 reticle change is from (where the symbol quickly changes when you kill a dude). I enjoyed my time with it.

9. Alan Wake + dlc episodes - 20 hours

I loved the story and themes of the game (especially since I was watching Twin Peaks while playing the game). The combat was fine but pretty samey since it's always the same tactics and there are limited weapons. There are loads of places you visit which was great, but the game definitely suffered from pacing issues that made the game drag, particularly in the numerous sections where you fight through seemingly endless woods. The dlc switched the gameplay up a bit (notably with the minefields) which helped. It's worth playing, and I hope Remedy has the opportunity for a true sequel one day.

10. To The Moon - 4 hours

Short and sweet, it's the story of a pair of people using tech to fulfill a dying man's wish to go to the moon. I wont spoil any plot details, but it's well done and worth experiencing. The gameplay is primarily exploration of the environments and a few puzzles, but it's not hard or complex. Movement was awkward since you can't move diagonally (4-way only), but otherwise it's fine. It's not long and the story is touching, definitely check it out. I play to play their follow-up game, A Bird Story soon, as well as the mini episodes that apparently the game has.

11. The Wolf Among Us - 10 hours

In the gameplay style of other recent Telltale game, TWAU tells the story of Fabletown, where fables from children's stories and myths lives. When suddenly there's a murder, it's up to you to figure out what's going on. I loved it, the noir style was awesome and it was fun to play that kind of game in a setting that isn't nearly as bleak as The Walking Dead. Lots of fun.

12. The Order 1886 - 8 hours

The stealth sections blow and

Spoiler

5 chapters of an already short game either have no combat (just moving around) or are only cutscenes

, but I enjoyed it. The combat is decent, visually it's incredible and the audio was some of the best I've heard in a game in a while. The world they've created needs to be fleshed out in a sequel (it's a neat setting). I hope that they get the chance to do a sequel and truly next-level themselves, because it could be something special if they smooth out the roughness. Also no tracking info on collectibles in the menu is criminal.



March: Only 3 games this month. I was all over the place and mostly just killing time until Bloodborne released.

13. LittleBigPlanet 2 - 7 hours

This was really fun, super creative levels and enjoyable platforming. Pretty awful load times and the menus weren't great, but still a fun time. However, I couldn't use my costumes from LBP1 since they were installed to the PS3 rather than registered to my account, so I couldn't play as Screaming Mantis again, so that sucked.

14. Killzone: Shadow Fall - 7 hours

I only played the single player campaign (never cared for KZ multiplayer), and ended up really enjoying it. The open-ended style of some of the levels were a nice departure from series norms, but it lacked some of setpiece moments of the previous games.

15. Battlefield: Hardline - 12 hours

Only the single player again, and I had a blast with it. Sneaking around and taking dudes out silently was a lot of fun, and the combat on hard was pretty balanced (which was something I really liked when I played Battlefield 3 on hard). Not being able to skip most cutscenes really sucked when I was cleaning up on some trophies, but you don't notice that the first time through and there are loads of checkpoints. Pretty fun.


April: 4 games finished this month.


16. Gears of War: Judgment - 10 hours

I took a few days off of Bloodborne once this hit Games with Gold, since I'd wanted to play it but never got around to buying it. It was solid, if a bit less memorable than the mainline games. Adding optional mutators to the campaign was cool, although it broke up the pacing with the scoring screens. I tried a few of the multiplayer modes but nothing really grabbed me. Not bad.

17. Bloodborne

So fucking good. Loved the changes to the combat and the feel of the world. I plan on returning to take on the Chalice Dungeons in a month or two, to go for the platinum, since that's all that is left.

18. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - 6 hours

For a while I'd wanted to go through the Call of Duty games that I never played (2 years ago and Black Ops in August), so with Bloodborne done and Witcher 3 a month out it was time to start knocking these down. I dont care about the multiplayer, so have only been playing the campaigns. The combat in this was pretty smooth with some pretty cool set pieces, but the characters weren't interesting. Overall not bad.


19. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - 7 hours

BO1 was a Cold War thriller which I had a blast with, whereas BO2 takes place in a future Cold War with some flashback missions to the 80's, overall continuing the story with some characters and ties to the previous game which was great. The variety was pretty good, and it was definitely fun, but moving the setting that really clashed with the previous game (although it makes the BO3 setting make more sense). The strike missions were neat diversions from the main story stuff, and being able to customize loadouts before missions was cool.



May - 8 games

Apparently Gamefly doesn't care so much about your queue order, so I got Ghosts and MW3 before MW2, so those had to wait until May. I didn't feel like I played that much in May, but looking at the numbers I was definitely wrong. In addition to these I also played a bunch of Witcher 3 (it's pretty fucking great) and the two minisodes for To The Moon (both really short, but heartfelt and the second teases nicely where the story will go in the sequel game).

20. Call of Duty; Ghosts - 7 hours

I had a lot of fun with this one. The interaction with the brothers was a neat change in team dynamic, and the gameplay was super fun. The story was kind of silly but it worked well enough. Plus, since I've been playing the previous games on the 360 and this on the PS4, it looked darn good.

21. Pushmo World - 6 hours

Pretty neat puzzle game, great to play while watching a stream or Netflix.

22. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS3) - 59 hours

I originally played Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on the 360 when it first released and loved it so much that I eventually 1k'ed it, so when it hit PS+ I wanted to get around to replaying it and going for the Platinum. Since I already played the game I do similar to Pushmo and play it while watching Netflix to make the time go . Goddamn the combat was as great as I remembered it being. Such a fantastic fucking game. The 360 wasn't great on a technical level (when choosing my original copy I remember the tradeoff being screen tearing vs framerate), but man the framerate on the PS3 can be really rough at times. One can dream of a 60 fps version some day.

23. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 5 hours

Not bad. Some decent moments and some really nice touches (like the red dot sight not working after an EMP). It definitely felt more like later Call of Duty games than Modern Warfare 1.

24. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - 5 hours

It was ok. A decent conclusion to the MW trilogy, but it didn't do anything particularly interesting with the gameplay.

25. Monument Valley + Forgotten Shores dlc - 4 hours

Short and sweet, I really loved this. Similar gameplay to Echochrome (at least from what I remember of the demo of that, though I really want to go back and play it now), and awesome aesthetic and music. Really great design. Hell, I even recomended the game to a coworker a few days ago.

26. Magic 2015 - 8 hours

I got it a few months ago and have put in an hour here, an hour there, so on Friday I sat down and powered through the rest of the single player. Adding full deckbuilding was a step in the right direction, but everything else in the game was a step down from previous years. The UI is awful and the decks are boring to play, even the ones that I made. Of course, I doubt anything would top Magic 2012's UG ramp Kiora deck or 2013's mono-green ramp deck for me, but still. I'm glad they're switching things up with magic Origins and now yet another DOTP given the direction the games have gone.

27. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine - 8 hours

As a casual fan of 40k, this was pretty neat. I predicted the main story beats, and the gameplay got pretty long in the tooth halfway through (

Spoiler

the Chaos enemies showing up helped, but not much

), but it was overall pretty fun. The core gameplay felt like an updated Unreal Championship which I really liked. Shame there probably wont be a sequel, I could see them doing some cool stuff with this as a foundation.



June

Nothing! Turns out Witcher 3 is a super fucking long game. I did spent the time to finish the Mass Effect 3 single player dlc, which I had never got around to. It was an awesome weekend spending time with these characters again, and capping it off with the Citadel stuff was perfect.



July - 6 games total, a mix of finishing older stuff, new games, and my Call of Duty run.

28. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - I'm saying 100 hours. My in-game counter said 12 days 5 hours, so it's probably well over that, but impossible to say. I ended up finishing it on July 1st, so here it is.

What a fucking game. Beautiful to look at, loads of little details in the world design (it felt like an actual place) and in stuff like facial expressions, awesome characterization and story. The combat works fine and is definitely a step up from previous games. A shame that the later patches are so good, I would have loved sorting in my inventory. I look forward to replaying it in a year or two once I build a new computer and the dlc is all released, that will be a treat.

29. Batman: Arkham Knight - 40 hours.

Really solid experience, I loved flying around Gotham again. The Batmobile is a bit overused, notably in the main Riddler missions and some side missions, but driving around the city felt pretty good. Gameplay was solid as ever, and I loved the newest inclusions from the lore (like

Spoiler

Professor Pyg and Man Bat

, who I never expected to see in a game). At worst, it felt like more Batman, which is a pretty good thing.

30. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 10 hours

A lot of fun, but I hated having to use the Wiimote like an NES controller. It felt alright in short bursts, but I would have preferred being able to use the Wii Pro controller (if not for the stupid motion controlled-whirling). The game itself is damn good overall.

31. Call of Duty 2 - 8 hours

Next in line for my completely out-of-order Call of Duty series run. Visually it doesn't look great, and the gameplay is solid but dated, feeling from an older time. Put another way, it really feels like an pre-Call of Duty 4 game, which sounds a bit dumb but isn't meant as an insult. It's slower than the later games, putting more emphases on the level design (which felt a lot better and generally more relevant than later games) which helped distinguish it. I really liked it, with my only real complaint being that the weapons didn't really feel fun to use. I had a crazy moment bringing me back when I got to mission that comprised the demo, which I don't think I had experienced since around the launch of the Xbox 360. I couldn't believe it had been nearly 10 years since I had last experienced that.

32. Call of Duty 3 - 8 hours

It's essentially a Call of Duty 2 expansion pack. 2 was more austere with the characters (it focused on the war as a character rather than the people), whereas 3 had a more consistent narrative with characters that were fun enough to listen to their banter for a while (at least that's how it felt compared to 2, playing it a week later). I felt that it switched up the weapon mix enough to keep things interesting, although that may have just been because of how I played 2, but enemies seemed to take way too many bullets to die than before (and since I play the campaigns on easy, this was particularly egregious). The whole thing had a vibe distinct from 2 which helped to keep things going, but overall it was still just "more Call of Duty 2". Only one thing that felt like a step back was the minimap objective pointers. In 2 they were distinctly labeled (A, B, etc), but in 3 they were all generic symbols, and since there were a few missions where you could choose your path and I chose the wrong one by accident, this was a pretty unfortunate thing to not carry over.

33. XCOM: Enemy Unknown - 37 hours

I had a lot more written up, but I'll keep it brief and say this was a fucking fantastic game. Some learning pains early on while I got a feel for the game (like selling materials that I would need later rather than simply wait for the new month to get money), but I loved almost everything about this game. I would just straight in to Enemy Within (which sounds like it has a bunch of solid improvements) if not for the barrage of games about to hit, but I absolutely will play that once things cool down. I wish I had played this sooner.



August - 6 games. On top of these I played a bunch of Persona 4 Golden, but still a ways off from finishing that.


34. Wolfenstein: The New Order - 20 hours

For me, there was a lot of hype coming into this and the game absolutely lived up to it. Given the ex-Starbreeze pedigree of the developers, they had a lot to live up to, and I was very satisfied with the result. It had the right feel for a game from that lineage, and it was super fun and entertaining. The story was well told if a bit irrelevant, but it was such a fun ride.

35. Ryse: Son of Rome - 8 hours

I expected much worse from Ryse, but it was a competent action game with Batman-style, although the buttons are in the wrong place (leading me to fuck up a lot in the first half of the game when trying to counter stuff). The story was well done but dumb, but as a visual showpiece it definitely lived up to the expectations there.

36. Call of Duty: World at War - 8 hours

Totally a mix of Call of Duty 2/3 world and Modern Warfare pacing, this was a fun ride, diverse and interesting with characters worth a damn. It was also neat to see where the characters from BO1 originated. Treyarch continues to show that they are the best developers of Call of Duty, even back then in the prime of Infinity Ward.

37. Call of Duty; Advanced Warfare - 15 hours

Standard campaign fair, but I played a good chunk of the horde mode online (horde modes being perhaps my favorite multiplayer variant). This was a blast.

38. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes - 3 hours

I played the main mission and one of the side ops. Pretty and it played amazingly well, such a wonderful evolution of the Metal Gear style. Shame that it came at the cost of more traditional cutscenes and storytelling overall, but it was a lot of fun to play.

39: Dear Esther - 2 hours

With the release of their follow-up game, I figured I should finally check this out. The story and narrative was awesome, and wandering the areas was neat since it was all quite nice to look at, but getting around was a pain in the ass with that walking speed until I use sv_cheats to speed that up (the game actually resets your walking speed a lot, so it got annoying having to constantly re-update it, but oh well).


September - 4 games

I also tried playing Mad Max, but I only got an hour in before stopping. I wasn't a fan of the floaty camera and controls at all.

40. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - 20 hours

As is customary, I played through on solo hardcore and then insane co-op. I remembered almost the entire campaign, beat for beat (besides the pc levels), which was more than I expected, but it was still a ton of fun. Plenty of dying on hardcore, while being able to res allies on Insane made that much easier. The only chapter I had some issue with was Comedy of Errors; fuck that theater. I tried out the multiplayer but still didn't like it, but I can't wait to dive into Gears 2/3 horde mode once that hits soon. It was pretty awesome to go through this game again, and I definitely appreciate the more horror aspects of the game more than I used to, so I'm really glad Gears 4 is taking more cues from that.

41. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - 60 hours

What a game. The story is fine but lots of the way things are presented isn't great, but the game absolutely shines with the way it plays and the insane number of options and ways to approach scenarios that completely overshadows the not so great parts of it. As I imagine most people do, I left it running for a while at times for things to finish building so my timer isn't accurate, but I figure 60 is around right.

42. Super Mario Maker - 15 hours

Definitely going to keep playing this for a while, given the nature of the game, but I had to put it somewhere. So many awesome options to create levels, and so many creative levels out there on top of a cool number of premade ones from Nintendo. A fantastic value and so much fun to play, it has really made me appreciate just how good the mechanics of these games are.

43. Splatoon - 15 hours

I've played this off and on since it released since it's stayed in my Wii U (until Mario Maker hit), so I'm finally putting it down. A lot of fun and a very unique shooter, but to me it got a bit old after a while.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Original Post

Completed: 35 hours @ 1/23/15
Thoughts:
This game, while I enjoyed what I played, feels like half a game. The setting and lore is actually pretty neat but unrealized. I liked the characters, but most don't get character development. And the story? Let's just say it would be better if it had no story. It just felt like a waste of time and I rather it just be you and your panopticon fighting other panopticons with monsters in between. The gameplay itself is actually fun. It's like using the 3D Maneuver Gear from Attack on Titan with different weapons and guns. However, while it's possible to complete the story by single-player, the difficulty really spikes up and your AI buddies are little more than cannon fodder. But as I mentioned before, it feels like half a game and there's little variety with the levels and enemy types as well as the loot. But it is a fun co-op game and since day 1 I've been playing co-op with my 2 other friends. I admit that's cheesing it a little bit since the difficulty doesn't really scale with number of players and you automatically complete the story mission if you've done it in multiplayer, but oh well. I've had a blast with co-op. I'm still going to continue to play this from time to time since there's some post-game content. But it just feels like wasted potential especially since a Freedom Wars 2 seems unlikely due to the reception it got in Japan.

Ongoing Games:
Fate/Extra - New Game+ Archer/Rin route
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - Storyline Co-op only

 

[Jack Videogames]

34:21h. Completed game with all squadmates including Kasumi and Zaeed, all loyalty missions done and all DLC which I got along with the game during some sale. It was kind of a nice ride, though probing planets was surely boring after a while and combat was sort of a crapshoot, but I liked how the galaxy has evolved since Mass Effect and the direction the story is taking. Definitely pumped for ME3 which is already on my DL queue.

Spoiler

Damn Jack dying during the suicide mission because of her brouhaha with Buckteeth McManjaw.

Updated OP

 

[jiggles]

Hmm, I'm playing Teslagrad. And I've got up to the point you can't continue without getting the hidden collectibles. I don't know if I have it in me. I'm kind of forcing myself to endure it to count for this, and I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't want to stop so close to the end, but this is fucking awful.


EDIT: Fuck it. Platinumed with the aid of a guide.

Original Post

Game 12: Teslagrad

I liked the artwork and animation. And having binary modes to flip-flop between in a puzzle platformer is something I love. But this game was like getting repeatedly punched in the balls over and over again. Utterly unforgiving, Teslagrad gives you no health bar, and makes everything a one-hit kill. It doesn't allow any mistakes, in a physics-based system where things have a tendency to respond in unpredictable ways. Ludicrous. Throw in some trial-and-error bosses, a stingy checkpointing system, and and a finale that forces you to backtrack through the whole game, checking every inch of every room for collectibles that until that point you believed were completely optional. It feels like some elaborate joke and I'm the punchline.
If you like Outland and have complete disregard for your sanity, you will like this

 

[D-X]

6: Ghostbusters - PC 6 hours
A must play for Ghostbusters fans.They did a great job of placing you as the rookie and heading out as a team feels special, if you grew up with the films this one that you will savour every last minute of. Authentic script, authentic voice cast - I guess the closest thing we'll get to Ghostbuster 3 now.

7: Sonic and the Black Knight - Wii 6 hours
A game built around unresponsive controls. I don't think I've sworn at a game so much in years in pure frustration at some of the later levels which demand precision movement you can't possibly achieve through waggle. Later levels are timed which means you'll jump over enemies instead of fighting, you'll soon realise that the whole game would've been much more fun without stopping to fight every 5 seconds.

Original post

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Original Post

Game 2: The Evil Within [PS4] — 15:14:13 (Survival; 120 deaths; Started in 2014) [Finished: January 26th]

This was a fun game, though quite frustrating at points. I liked how the game constantly made the player feel helpless, facing overwhelming odds. Generally, it did a good job of depriving the player of just enough resources that they would frequently think, "Am I going to make it with what I have?" My problem came from times where that balance failed, and where I actually didn't have enough resources to deal with a given situation, leading me to resort to tactics that were surely not intended by the game (i.e. cheesing bosses). There were several times where, lacking any ammunition against a boss, I had to either mess with their A.I. in order to punch them to death (e.g. climbing a ladder, waiting for the boss to climb after me, punching them as they climb up, jump down, wait for them to climb down, punch them, repeat) or at least once where I had to farm for ammo in a weird way that destroyed the pace of the fight. It's good that I felt weak for the most part, and it often felt rewarding to take down bosses when I was constantly scared about the ammo I was using up; it reminded me of taking down some Souls game bosses. But the game could get frustrating because of my constant need for ammo, and also because its trial and error nature (120 deaths in 15 hours... I guess I died 8 times per hour on average). The game ended pretty much how I wanted it to; it was a nice experience overall.

 

[StingX2]

Game Beaten #12 Monopoly Deal (XBLA) - A lot of time
(Started 1/21/15 - Finished 1/26/15)
This game was really fun surprisingly. A trading card game version of Monopoly doesn't sound very appealing but it totally works. Finished the achievement set tonight so marking this as beat.

OG Post