Author Topic: 52 Games Challenge 2018  (Read 39767 times)

52 Games Challenge 2018
« on: December 28, 2017, 11:45:35 am »
Back by popular demand is the 52 games challenge for 2018. For those of you not familiar with this challenge it is essentially a way to motivate yourself to reduce your backlog of games and enjoy playing more games throughout the year. There is really no wrong or right way to do this; you can play a game as much or as little as you want until you are satisfied with it enough to put it towards your games played/beat list. You can leave a mini review, a score, or pretty much anything that you want. If you need exampled of what others have done during this challenge refer to last year's challenge in the link below.


https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.0.html


See you all at 52!

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2017, 11:47:11 am »
Met my goal in 2016 and in 2017 of 104 games.  I'm expecting significant changes in my free time, so I'm not particularly aiming for any particular goal.  But if I make it to 52 that will be great.  The past two years were all about backlog and knocking that down and 210 games in 2 years is pretty damned great.  This year is going to be mostly about playing whatever I want to play damning the backlog.  Probably going to replay old games and play longer new games.  I'm not going to explicitly carry over titles from 2016 or 2017 like I did last year.  If I start playing such game again, I'll bring over the info, but I'm not going to clog up my post with that info.

Guide:
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.

2018 X Game Challenge
  • Splatoon (Wii U)
  • Punisher, The (PS2)
  • Legend of Zelda, The: Breath of the Wild (NS)
  • Furi (PS4)
  • Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
  • Gravity Rush 2: Raven's Choice (PS4)
  • Yakuza 0 (PS4)
  • Yakuza 2 (PS2)
  • Yakuza 3 (PS3)
  • Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (NDS)
  • Far Cry 5 (X1)
  • Yakuza 4 (PS3)
  • Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (NS)
  • Gorogoa (NS)
  • Yakuza 5 (PS3)
  • Fallout: New Vegas (X1BC)
  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4)
  • Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (NDS)
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
  • Mega Man X (PS4)
  • Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 (PS4)
  • Mega Man X2 (PS4)
  • Mega Man X3 (PS4)
  • Mega Man X4 (PS4)
  • Among the Sleep (PS4)
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
  • Mega Man X5 (PS4)
  • Lococycle (PC)
  • Mega Man X6 (PS4)
  • Donut County (PS4)
  • Job Simulator (PSVR)
  • Forza Horizon 2 (X1)
  • Forza Horizon 3 (X1)
  • Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS)
  • Yakuza 6 (PS4)
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider (X1)
  • Until Dawn (PS4)
  • Borderlands 2 (X1)
  • Dark Souls Remastered (NS)
  • Opus: The Day We Found Earth (NS)
  • Piczle Lines DX (NS)
  • Florence (Android)
  • Dragon Quest Builders (PS4)
  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)
  • Steamworld Dig 2 (NS)
  • Poi (NS)
  • Wonderboy: Dragon's Trap (NS)
  • Dark Souls (X1BC)
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)
  • Katamari Damacy: Reroll (NS)
  • Picross S (NS)
  • Wolfenstein II (X1)
  • Axiom Verge (NS)
  • Road Redemption (PS4)
  • Moonlighter (NS)
  • Pillars of Eternity (X1)
  • We Happy Few (PS4)
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
  • Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)
  • Just Shapes and Beats (NS)
  • Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
  • Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

In a continued effort to keep track of my favorite games played each year.

Games played that released this year
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)
  • Yakuza 6 (PS4)
  • Dark Souls Remastered (NS)
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider (X1)
  • Far Cry 5 (X1)

Games played NOT released this year
  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4)
  • Yakuza 5 (PS3)
  • Yakuza 0 (PS4)
  • Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
  • Dragon Quest IX (NDS)

Games played overall this year
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)
  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4)
  • Yakuza 5 (PS3)
  • Yakuza 0 (PS4)
  • Yakuza 6 (PS4)

Honorable Mention
  • Donut County (PS4)
  • Dragon Quest VI (NDS)
  • Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
  • Yakuza 3 (PS3)
  • Yakuza 4 (PS3)

Games 1 - 14
Games 15 - 33
Games 34 - 54
Unfinished and abandoned games
Final Stats
« Last Edit: January 02, 2019, 09:12:21 am by ignition365 »


Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2017, 11:47:26 am »
Main List

Guide:
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.

1. Splatoon (Wii U)
I bought this game day 1 years ago when it launched.  I expected to love this game.  I didn't.  I barely cared for it.  The game offered little to no local multiplayer and a stunted story mode.  The games purpose is only to serve an online multiplayer game.  I was disappointed.  Later I found out about Squid Girl and the fact that Nintendo released a Squid Girl outfit in Splatoon.  I wanted the outfit, but I still didn't care enough about the game.  I finally decided to play the game.  I finished story mode, which is easy and boring.  The final boss is actually quite challenging and that was fun, but that was about it.  Decided to play online and actually had quite a bit of fun.  I was playing near midnight on New Years Eve so I was mostly playing with folks on the other side of the world.  I did really well and leveled up enough to go "Order" the Squid girl clothes... but I'm sure when I can finally pay for it, I won't have enough money, so all for nothing apparently.  Went to play online midday the next day and just got absolutely destroyed because I was up against significantly higher level players and my team sucked.  I have no intent of playing again after that.  It was like 76%-13%.  It was a slaughter.  Can only use the outfit in online play anyway, so who cares.  The sequel isn't much better and it doesn't have the Squid Girl stuff, so I'm never going to get that game.
Rating: Solid Pass.  If you enjoy playing online with strangers and investing a lot of time into getting better equipment, then Mildly Recommended.

2. Punisher, The (PS2)
I thought I had beaten this game before, but I don't honestly remember much of it.  The one thing I really recall from this game was a scene on a rooftop where they teach you about interrogations and stuff and you've got a few options of how you kill/interrogate the characters... but now I'm thinking that that was an entirely different game, because I think I recall the game being a brawler or something... maybe I'm thinking of Sleepy Dogs?  Yes, definitely Sleepy Dogs.  I don't know why I put those events together... maybe the environmental events were particularly gruesome.  Didn't manage to finish this game until New Year's Day, but I believe I beat this game in my childhood.  I absolutely don't remember much of anything from this game, but I'm fairly certain I beat it in my youth.  Graphics aren't terrible, controls are suitable, and they even brought on Thomas Jane to reprise his role as the Punisher.  Story is a bit weird.  It feels like it lives in the comic universe, but it takes some events and info from the Thomas Jane movie.  In this Howard Saint's son is Jigsaw instead of the usual Billy Russo Jigsaw, after Punisher left John Saint to die at the end of the Punisher film.  So appears to be a sorta sequel to the film.
Rating: Soft Recommendation.

3. Legend of Zelda, The: Breath of the Wild (NS)
I beat this fabulous game last year, but now I'm finally jumping into the DLC pack 2.  So far I've acquired most of the outfits that were added as part of EX quests.  I think I just need to Royal Guard outfits from the Castle.  Found out about the Horse God, which I never knew about as part of my original playthrough.  That gave me the laugh I needed.
Rating: Highly Recommended.

4. Furi (PS4)
Current Progress: The Song
Technically I beat this game in stopping at The Song and choosing to live out my days with her.  The credits popped, so that's a win.  But I'm going to keep whittling away at this game.  No rating until I'm really done with it.

5. Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
I hadn't really intended to play this yet, but with Sony shutting down the online servers and wanting to unlock all of the costumes, I'm playing this non-stop until the servers go down.  I've got about 400 dusty coins out of the like 6000 I need.  Probably won't make it in time... but I'll try.  Sony pushed back the server shut down until July, so it will be no issue to get to the 6000 tokens I need.  I'm already at like 2200.  Currently sitting at around 5200 Dusty Tokens, so I'm close to where I want to be.  I finished all of the side quests and got the trophy for that.  Haven't done any challenges or any of the mining stuff.  Popped the credits after the last episode, but after the credits it popped up a message saying Final Episode and gave me a new mission.  Started that and am working my way through it at the moment.  This game doesn't feel like it really answered ANY questions left over from the previous game and just added more questions.  A little disappointed in that.  Will be jumping into the Raven's Choice thing after I'm finished.  So the credits popped... but there was a whole 5-6 episodes left in the game.  All apparently post-game content type of thing, but it resolves most of the questions.  VERY PLEASED with how they resolved most things.
Rating: Pretty good, pretty frustrating, but decent story... even though most characters are absolutely deplorable.  Lookin at you Aujean and Eugie.  Dickbags.

6. Gravity Rush 2: Raven's Choice (PS4)
Jumped into this after finishing the main story.  Only thing I knew going into this was that this would kind of answer the questions left about the kids in the Ark after the end of the first game.  Kind of... undoes the entire Ark thing in the first game... spoiler... I guess.  Essentially they don't answer any questions, they just retcon the entire thing.  That's the entire story of this DLC... the game retconning the whole Ark thing.  Kind of disappointing.
Rating: It's short, it's free, might as well do it.

7. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
Taking place what I assume is 17 years before when the first game largely takes place, the first few chapters are very similar world layout wise to Kiwami, so in that sense, nothing too overwhelming.  After that, you take charge of Majima in Sotenbori, so you get a new town to explore, seemingly smaller than Kamurocho.  Story seems to switch back and forth between Kiryu and Majima's stories, presumably the stories will connect at the end and make one cohesive story, even if Kiryu and Majima never actually meet in game.  New characters are shown, and I know nothing of the rest of the franchise, so I don't know if these are characters that you were supposed to have met for the first time in a different entry in the franchise, but I'll just have to see when I jump into 2/Kiwami2.  Unlike Kiwami, abilities are purchased using money, not XP points.  Also, instead of Majima chasing you around, you have some REALLY big dude who destroys you and steals your money.  Temporarily abandoned.  I will try to return to this soon.  I hopped back into this fairly early this year, and I've put in about 150 hours.  Did about everything I'm probably going to bother to do.  I'd go for the platinum, but I missed a lot of missable trophies and I don't know if I could bother to re-play the game on Legendary.  Having played Kiwami and this... and at this point a little bit of 2... I've been told that this game is an absolutely great starting point for the franchise, and if you did like me and played Kiwami and then this, when you hop into 2, you'll likely have forgotten some stuff.  But if you play 1, 2, and then 0, you'll probably get a heavy dose of subtle nods to the franchise.  There is at least 1 reference to 2 in this game.  I definitely firmly agree that it should NOT be 1, 0, and then 2.  I regret having played this way.  But I could definitely see the expectation to be to play 1-5 and then 0.  If I owned 1 and I mean 1, not Kiwami, I'd consider playing through 1 just for fun before starting 2.
Rating: Really good game, absolutely fantastic.  Highly recommended.

8. Yakuza 2 (PS2)
Playing this on PS2 with a component connection on an HDTV.  I'm really hoping there is something I can do about it, but the game has such horrible motion blur.  I'm considering hooking up a PS2 on composite on a CRT and seeing if it still has the motion blur, because it IS bothersome.  Story wise, I'm already hooked.  First thing I'm noticing, and it's terrible, is that you can't pause during cutscenes.  There is an option that you can enable that allows you to skip cutscenes, which is not enabled by default, which is nice, because I'd hate to accidentally skip a cutscene, but I really wish they'd let me pause.  It's very difficult to get 15 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay in, and this is one of those games where you get 15 minutes of straight cutscenes.  This being my first PS2 Yakuza game, I'm not expecting a lot out of it.  Controls are definitely dated, specifically the camera.  The loading between "screens" is a tad annoying, I really don't know how to explain it other than that.  The game kind of behaves like old 2D Zelda games where it has to load each "screen".  Game appears to take place in Sotenbori and Kamurocho just like Yakuza 0, so everything is familiar right after 0... obviously 20-ish years have passed, so there are differences.  Enjoying the game so far, but the controls are definitely making me unwilling to do any side content.  This isn't a big issue given that it is extremely likely that we will see Kiwami 2 stateside at some point this year.  Definitely going to replay 2 through Kiwami 2 when it releases, but I'm intending to get through the franchise by then. Whewiiieee, that ending.  Decent stuff.
Rating: Pretty good, no real reason to recommend it when every game allows you to view the story of the previous titles, especially with Kiwami 2 probably coming stateside.  Soft Recommendation.  After Kiwami 2 comes stateside, solid pass.

9. Yakuza 3 (PS3)
Just at the beginning, no real thoughts yet on this game.  Haruka's character model definitely looks different from previous games.  Don't know how many years later this game takes place yet, I'm kind of assuming 2-3 years after Yakuza 2.  Graphics are obviously better than previous titles, but the combat feels less fleshed out.  Too often I'm attacking in no one's direction and all enemies are blocking all the time.  Story feels better than Yakuza 2 though, I care more about the characters and what's going on this time around.  Story seems significantly shorter this time around compared to previous titles, but I feel inclined to do side content, so the game will likely last me longer than 2 did, but probably less than Kiwami 2 will.  I had planned to do a lot of the side content in this game, but I just fell into the story so hard that I beat it.  Game was beat with like 10% completion, which seems super low given that I did do a substantial amount of substories.
Rating: Very good, very emotional story.  Combat and gameplay in general still feels dated and frustrating.

10. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (NDS)
I actually started this game last year, but I guess I didn't write down any notes on it because I knew I wasn't going to beat it last year.  Shame.  Starting this game, I wasn't sure what the theme of the game was, with the previous two games being each character having their own chapters and largely revolving around the protagonists family and bride.  At first, I thought it was a time travel games, going back and forth between two time periods.  Not too much long later I'm corrected.  And then further the game explains more things that I didn't even particularly question or think much about.  I'm relatively enjoying this game.  I don't know if I'm liking it more than 4 or 5.  I'm enjoying it, and I think I like the premise and the characters more than I enjoyed such things in previous titles.  So I was enjoying this game because I have not yet had to level grind... I'm at level 30 and I've yet to have to level grind... it's great... nope... now I need to level grind.  Probably don't need to, but the guide I'm using says he's at level 40... and I'm just like "WTF?!?".  Went and tried to do a fight at its suggestion and got wrecked in 2 turns.  Just absolutely demolished.  Game also never notified me that I maxed out my professions.  I figured it would be 3 stars, then 5, then 10... nope... it's 8 stars.  WTF?  So I did some grinding... like until I hit level 40-41.  Still had trouble with the first fight at the part I'm at.  10 levels over the suggested level in the official strategy guide and still have trouble with the fight.  Now everything is back to easy, I guess it was literally just the fighting the uber killing machines that was just ridiculous.  Wasting my time in the casino trying to earn tokens to get the best equipment.  Sitting at around 400,000 tokens right now.  Probs about 2 weeks later, now I'm sitting around 1.2 million tokens right now.  Probably sufficient enough to buy what I want, but I'm aiming for 1.5 million.  Did a little math and it seems I need 1.5 million for what I want and I'm still sitting at around 1.2 million tokens.  Hit a little over 1.5 million and bought all of the things I wanted to buy, went through the town mine, and now I'm on my way to Gallows Moor.  I was concerned that Mortamor would give me a terrible time because it sounds like he is pretty spammy and heals and revives a lot... but everything timed out pretty damned perfectly.  Doing post battle stuff, the walkthrough I was looking at has some post Mortamor content, so I'll probably do that, but the credits have not popped yet... so still in progress.  Very good experience.  Less grinding required overall.  Best gameplay so far, but least favorite story so far.
Rating: Recommended.

11. Far Cry 5 (X1)
Took most of the afternoon to install the game and system updates.  Had maybe 30 minutes to play before I needed to get to bed for work.  Mildly enjoying it so far.  First game where you seem to be no one in particular, like you definitely are not important in any manner.  Mildly concerning because previous entries have made the game make you as a character important to the plot.  Played this for a bit on X1 and then transitioned to X1X after a couple of days.  Has some graphical issues on X1X that will hopefully get patched pretty quickly.  Only complaint so far about the game has to do with the seemingly infinite spawning of enemies... not just that, but the enemies will spawn ON you.  Planes will fly over head and just circle around you until they see you and then they will never go away.  And they are nigh impossible to shoot down.  I killed about 15 enemies and then turned my back and started getting shot, turned back and there was a truck with a turret on it about 2 feet away from me OUT OF NOWHERE.  Kill a couple guys on the side of the road, well now there are guys and trucks coming out of the woodwork nonstop.  John Seed fight was absolutely frustrating.  Fight is essentially an Ace Combat dogfight.  Guy is an amazing pilot apparently, like balls to the walls amazing.  Fight was so frustratingly difficult and I think highly expected you to dump thousands of dollars into missiles.  Took me 2 hours to fully complete start to finish that John Seed final mission arc.  Absolutely would not recommend that again.  Got really angry with the Faith Seed area.  When she is ready to fight you or whatever, she just takes you, you don't have a choice, the game forces you to do story missions.  Not to get spoilery, but it'll probably happen to you, a quest giver dies during one of the story missions, but it seems like it doesn't auto fail those missions.  I'll update when I'm certain that it doesn't affect 100% completion.  Played on and off over the past few weeks.  My son was born a few weeks ago and just haven't had the time, starting to get the time again.  Finished the story.  Really didn't care for the endings.  I may knock this game down lower on my list for the year down the road, because I really didn't like the endings.  Realized there are no achievements for 100% completion and you really don't get anything for finishing quests, so I've pretty much dropped the game.  Gonna go back to Yakuza 4.
Rating: Really really good, fun, and long game.  Ending ruined everything though.  Play at your own discretion.

12. Yakuza 4 (PS3)
I've not done any research because I like to avoid spoilers, but it sounds like you play each act as a singular character, and then maybe in the final act you can swap around, or maybe you can only swap around in Premium Adventure.  Sounds like Kiryu is the last character you play as to round out and connect up the story.  Enjoying playing at Akiyama so far, and I'm not looking forward to playing as Tanimura, as he seems like bad people, but we'll wait and see.  Definitely looking forward to Saejima and Majima and getting more info that was brought up in Yakuza 0.  I have no doubts that this will be a favorite above 2 and 3, but I doubt I'll like it as much as Kiwami or 0.  Definitely enjoying this game so far.  I really liked Akiyama's character and story.  Taiga Saejima is pretty interesting so far, mostly bogged up in doing his side content at the moment.  Really not looking forward to Tanimura still and it sounds like he doesn't return in 5, so I probably won't like him.  Finally at Tanimura, and just in time for Far Cry 5.  Taking a break from this to enjoy some well earned Far Cry 5.  Boy was Far Cry 5 bad.  Very easily topped by other games.  Anyway, back to Yakuza 4.  Tanimura definitely redeemed himself as a character.  Really enjoyed the story of this game.  Very much looking forward to Yakuza 5.
Rating: Recommended.

13. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (NS)
Finally got my code for this.  Beat it pretty damned quickly, took all of a few hours to get through the 8 or so stages.  Plays just like old school Castlevania games with the twist of having multiple characters and stuff.  Has some replayability in that you can unlock different modes by beating the game in different manners.  Game definitely could've used a topic section or something, because I very quickly forgot the movesets for the various characters and wound up playing without using the special moves for certain characters.
Rating: Good old school Castlevania fun, recommended.

14. Gorogoa (NS)
Played this one at PAX South last year (2017) and really enjoyed it.  So when it finally went on sale during E3 decided to finally buy it, would absolutely love for Iam8bit and Annapurna Interactive to put this out physically, but I doubt they will, but I would double dip for that though.  Relatively short puzzle game, no text or voice, just nice music and little puzzles that kind of tell a story.  I think I missed the story because I was more concerned about the puzzles.  I only played this game in handheld mode using touchscreen, so I can't speak to its docked capabilities.
Rating: Recommended.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2018, 08:24:18 am by ignition365 »


hofoblivion

  • Guest
Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2017, 01:39:36 pm »
My first time participating and I will be shooting for 12 instead of 52.

Games in Progress

1. They are Billions (Steam)
Goal: Unlock all maps and beat the game on the brutal setting.

2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
Goal: To defeat the final boss.

3. Zero Time Dilemma (PS Vita) - Achieved
Goal: Obtain platinum trophy

4. Persona 5 (PS4)
Goal: Obtain platinum trophy

5. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
Goal: Obtain platinum trophy
« Last Edit: February 12, 2018, 01:56:21 pm by hofoblivion »

thewelshman

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2017, 01:41:19 pm »
I said it would be a Gaming Resolution to join in, so let's see if I can keep up with you fine folks.

Games Beaten (16/52):

17. Dragon Quest XI: (PS4) 11/25/2018 - Work became insane! Was able to beat this amazing game, though. A must-play for any Dragon Quest or RPG fan.
16. Virtual Villagers 2: The Lost Children: 8/31/2018 - Work has been demanding and I really haven't wanted to play anything. Great game to put down and check on here and there.
15. Eternal Legacy: (IOS) Completed 7/31/2018 - Decent IOS RPG released in 2010. Luckily beat this right before my son decided to launch my cell into the kitchen floor.
14. Stick Wars: (PC) Completed 7/9/2018 - A surprisingly fun web game that is fairly quick to beat.
13. Warcraft III - Reign Of Chaos: (PC) Completed 7/3/2018 - I forgot how short this game was. The Frozen Throne will follow after a few different genres.
12. XCOM - Enemy Unknown: (PC) Completed 7/3/2018 - One of those games where I'd almost beat it, then would stall over.
11. Trails in the Sky - SC: (PC) Completed 7/2/2018 - Love this series and look forward to playing TiTS 3rd.
10. Final Fantasy II: (IOS) Completed 6/25/2018 - Was pretty enjoyable for the Final Fantasy game people called the bad one until XIII was released.
9. South Park: The Stick of Truth: (PS4) Completed 6/10/2018 - Trophies - 35% - Working on the remain trophies.
8. Game Dev Tycoon: (PC) Completed 6/1/2018 - Achievements - 72% - Working on the remaining achievements.
7. Dragon Quest V: (2DS) Completed 3/09/2018 - Typical Dragon Quest fashion, the end boss was multiple fights with one hit kills, and a pain n the ass.
6. Dragon Quest Heroes: (PS4) Completed 2/23/2018 - Trophies - 62% - Loving this game.
5. Superdimension Neptune vs Sega Hard Girls: (PSVITA) Completed - 1/28/2018 - Trophies 79% (Will snag the remaining while starting the next game.)
4. Psycho Pass: Mandatory Happiness (PSVITA) Completed 1/14/2018 - Trophies 100%
3. Tales of Berseria: (PS4) Completed 1/7/2018 - Trophies - 40%
2. Level 22: (PSVITA) Completed 1/6/2018 - Trophies - 100%
1. Hatoful Boyfriend: (PSVITA) Completed 1/5/2018 - Trophies - 100%


Games in Process (went on hiatus while studying for Security + Certification):
 
Tales from the Borderlands: (PS4)
(July/18) I absolutely love the Telltale games and this is no different. After getting through episode 1, I realized I didn't have the others downloaded. So this one should be completed soon.

Trails in the Sky 3rd: (PC)
After beating SC and getting the leaked patches of Zero, and Azure, I wanted to finish the "Trails in the Sky" trilogy and start on the Crossbell part of the story. I can only hope we get an update on Cold Steel III coming to NA soon.

Vs VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana: (PSVITA)
Mary Skelter just wasn't fun and I love Falcom games. Wonderul game so far. Looking forward to a replay on nightmare mode.


« Last Edit: November 25, 2018, 11:13:56 pm by thewelshman »

azure

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2017, 02:00:46 pm »
Let's see how far I can get in my first year participating!
________________________________________________

Current Ranking: 9/52


Currently Playing







Finished
Fire Emblem Warriors- Fates DLC Pack (Switch) [1/8/2018]
Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- (PS4) [1/21/2018]
Monster Hunter: World (PS4) [2/13/2018]
Digimon Story: Hacker's Memory (PS4) [3/10/2018]
Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4) [3/25/2018]
Yakuza 6 (PS4) [4/30/2018]
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) [5/28/2018]
Panzer Dragoon (Saturn) [6/13/2018]
Bloodborne: The Old Hunters (PS4) [6/23/2018]

« Last Edit: June 23, 2018, 02:21:16 pm by azure »

telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2017, 02:12:40 pm »
Damn, getting the thread on early! That's dedication. I'm in for a 4th year! 2017 was among the lowest years yet, so hopefully I can change that.

New Games Played in 2018:

1. Metal Slug 2 (PS2)
2. F-Zero (SNESc)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
4. Kirby Superstar (SNESc)
5. Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment (Wii U) 
6. Snipperclips Plus (Switch)

+ New Games Beat in 2018: (Click the link to see each post I made about the game!)    

7. (1). Castlevania: Dracula X (3DS) - 2.15
8. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (3DS) - 3.8
9. Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) - 3.10
10. Metal Slug (PS2) - 3.31
11. (5). Super Mario RPG (SNESc) - 4.20
12. Super Metroid (SNESc) - 4.27
13. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U) - 6.8
14. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2) - 6.26
15. Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts (PS2) - 6.27
16. (10). Mega Man X (SNESc) - 7.20
17. Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship Tournament 2006 (GBA) - 7.30
18. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) - 8.7
19. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U) - 8.14
20. Pokemon: Omega Ruby (3DS) - 9.14
21. (15).EarthBound Beginnings (Wii U) - 9.15
22. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (GBC) - 9.22
23. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNESc) - 10.10
24. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Wii U) - 10.28
25. Katamari Damacy (PS2) - 11.22
26. (20).Secret of Mana (SNESc) - 12.4
27. Far Cry 4 (PS4) - 12.31

Games Replayed in 2018
Pokemon: Crystal Version (3DS) - 4.14
Earthbound (SNESc) - 8.1

Previous Lists
2015 List
2016 List
2017 List

FINAL TOTALS
Total played: 27
Total finished: 23
New games finished: 21

Lowest year yet :'( Ah well, I feel like I played more RPGs and longer games than usual this year. It's also worth mentioning that I also logged about 20 hours into Rogue Galaxy and 40 hours into Final Fantasy X HD
« Last Edit: December 31, 2018, 11:16:33 pm by telly »
Currently Playing:
DOOM (PS4)

My music collection | My Backloggery

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2017, 02:24:50 pm »
Main List

Guide:
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.

15. Yakuza 5 (PS3)
Story seems to have a huge break between the previous entry and this entry.  This one feels a lot like Yakuza 0 in a lot of ways.  So I'm really looking forward to getting further into the game. I've been playing this so slow I don't even know what's going on anymore.  I did all of the taxi side content though.  Game is starting to pick up and get really interesting, villians have revealed themselves it seems and the game is getting good.  I really appreciate that this game shows the side stories icons on the maps, so I know where to go to do them.  No mindless wandering or walkthroughs to find them.  Finished the Saejima part of the game, really good stuff.  Started up the Haruka part, which seems to be a part of the game that is essentially forced mini-games... and tons of rhythm based ones at that.  Now I don't mind that so much, because I like rhythm games, but the fact that every time she sings, she only sings one song... so it gets stupid repetitive.  This is going to definitely affect my ability to recommend this game, since it's forcing on you something so entirely different from what you expect out of a game like this.  So many twists and turns in this game, some things were very expected and some things I completely forgot about or didn't see coming.  Only thing is, and this is a spoiler I guess, but the game doesn't end with Kiryu going to jail and from what I've heard Yakuza 6 starts with Kiryu getting out of jail... maybe I missed something or am entirely mistaken about Yakuza 6.  Regardless, very looking forward to jumping into 6, but I'm gonna start and do Dead Souls first.
Rating: Highly recommended, arguably the best Yakuza game, but be aware that Part 3 is mostly rhythm mini-games.

16. Fallout: New Vegas (X1BC)
Got an Xbox One Elite controller and really wanted to play something to test it out.  Decided to kill two birds with one stone and play Fallout: New Vegas again leveraging the X1BC.  Took a bit of configuration of the controller to get it somewhere good.
Rating: Always recommended.

17. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4)
Decided I really needed a break from Yakuza in general so I went to find a relatively short game I could beat, might even end up doing a handful of short games to really cleanse my palette before jumping back into Yakuza.  Been wanting to play this one for so long and it only takes about 8 hours to beat.  Beat the entire game in one day, which says something when I haven't had a ton of time to play games lately, I imagine I beat it in less than 8 hours, but it's hard to tell.  The permadeath mechanic of the game is just... so amazing and just makes this game so much better.  I played through this game using a pair of bluetooth headphones at the behest of literally every person who recommended the game.  Having beat it entirely that way, I agree, but my second playthrough, I'm gonna play without the headphones and using my soundbar, will report back a comparison tomorrow.
Rating: Absolutely recommended, absolutely dumbfounded that this game doesn't have a physical release.

18. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (NDS)
I've been playing this a bit before even starting to write this up.  I'm enjoying the lack of random battles, makes the game feel smoove.  Just now got to the point where you can make your party members.  So now I'm getting ready to put a party together.  I expect that this game wants me to make multiple party people, but I think I'm just going to stick with my team how it is for the rest of the game.  Seems like when you switch professions, you go back to level 1, which discourages me from changing jobs on anyone.  I'm really not having much to say on this one, it's an okay game, but it's not really grabbing me like previous entries.  Enjoying this one well enough, haven't had to do a ton of grinding to beat bosses, but have been having to do that on occasion.  I'm currently at a point where I have to go out of my way to ditch my party members to continue, very frustrating.  Eventually hit a point where I not only needed to grind a massive amount, but I had to go and do money earning stuff and alchemy stuff to get properly equipped.  Now I have some of the best armor in the game.  Read somewhere that people were having trouble defeating Corvus at level 52 or something, so being level 38, I decided to grind against Liquid Metal Slimes for like a week and now I'm level 52-54 across the board.  Went and started working on the end of the story and realized that I was absolutely destroying everybody and the walkthrough I was using suggested being at least 41-43 for this section... nice.  Fought Corvus... he did pretty well kicking my ass.  So I'm currently doing some of the quests and might switch vocations and level up usable skills for my party.  Also made some Catholicon Rings for my party hoping that'll help stop the snooze/paralysis stuff Corvus does.  Might go and try and alchemize some better armor for the two party members who can't use the Catriopic Armor.
Rating: Recommended.

19. Horizon: Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (PS4)
DLC isn't standalone or separate of the story, but I beat this game last year or the year before, so I'm only doing the DLC.  Took a bit to get back into the controls, and then it took a bit to figure out the weakness/strength system again, and then remembering how strong the spear is in general.  Pretty far in the DLC already, got a few new weapons, fully upgraded them, really just doing the main DLC path right now and stopping to do any side quests as they pop up.  Story is pretty damned good, and if I had played this when I had played the main game, I'm sure a lot of this would've tied into the main story, but I just don't remember a lot from the main story.
Rating: Highly Recommended... same as before.

20. Mega Man X (PS4)
I've already beaten this game, and I wasn't particularly interested in replaying it as I've got this game memorized from beating it so much as a child... but trophies.  Don't know if I had ever obtained the hadoken as a child, wasn't patently aware that you had to get to the ability spot 5 times before it would appear.  Great stuff, only Mega Man X game I've ever really played, hopefully the other X games can live up to this one.  Successfully acquired all trophies for this one.  I went PS4 because it has a physical for both games, and I had heard it plays the best... but it still has considerable slow down.
Rating: Recommended

21. Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 (PS4)
I normally wouldn't consider this its own thing, but with the addition of the X Challenge mode and the pursuing credits for it, I consider this its own thing.  I couldn't find really any information online about the X Challenge mode, since you fight 2 bosses at the same time and it'd be nice to pick out the 3 best weapons rather than guessing.
Rating: Recommended, probably the best way to play the X games.

22. Mega Man X2 (PS4)
I started playing this years ago in an effort to get through the X games, but I don't recall getting very far before either getting frustrated or bored.  I'm enjoying it this time around.  Game still has considerable slow down, very disappointing.  I think it's Wheel Gator's level, but the level shakes profusely so it makes the game look really bad and hard to play.  Definitely agree with the complaints that this game requires the use of the sub-tanks too heavily... however, the final boss fight was moderately pleasant and the entire fight I only used 1 sub-tank and beat it on my first try... so there's that.  Definitely a more enjoyable boss fight than the final boss fight of X1.  Got all of the trophies for this one, nicely headed towards a platinum for the Legacy Collection 1.
Rating: Recommended.

23. Mega Man X3 (PS4)
Started this one last night after finishing up X2.  Kind of displeased that the trophies for this game require playing through this game like 3 or 4 times.  Got my ass handed to me pretty damned hard by Blizzard Buffalo, might've just been tired and frustrated with the idea of the trophies for this game, will jump back into it tonight.  It's a reoccurring thing that when I start dying, it's because I'm tired and just can't be playing this.  Final boss was frustrating and took learning his patterns to beat.
Rating: Recommended

24. Mega Man X4 (PS4)
Writing this one days after finishing the game.  Game played really well, and I really liked the upgrades this time around... especially the Plasma Shot.  Final boss was extremely frustrating for me, but once I figured it out, it wasn't too bad.  I had played the X collection 1 Challenge mode before I played this one, so I was already aware of spoilers for this game, I'll try not to make that same mistake with X collection 2.  And with finishing this one, I earned the platinum trophy for this collection.
Rating: Recommended

25. Among the Sleep (PS4)
I actually started Mega Man X5 before I started this game, but I temporarily abandoned it out of frustration and my wife suggested I finally play this game.  Relatively short game at about 3 hours, and it has no platinum trophy... doesn't even have gold trophies.  Not too complex of a game, I went in thinking it was just a walking simulator and later on realized it wasn't and died quite a few times... some were glitches.  I was already aware of the plot of the game before playing, so it didn't really surprise me.  I do think I would've pieced it together right at the start regardless, but it doesn't matter.  Got to the end and I got all teary eyed anyway.
Rating: Recommended, especially if you have a kid.

26. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
I've already beaten this game, but one of my goals for this year was to finally earn the platinum trophy for this game.  I was pretty close last year when I stopped playing to play something else... as far as I know it was Yakuza that got me to stop playing.  Went and collected all of the invoices, so for the key items trophy I just need to S rank the rest of the story missions.  Currently working on trapping the rest of the animals that I need to trap.  Then I need to complete the mission tasks for all story missions.  This will probably last me a week or two.  I wasn't wrong, lasted me about a week.  I've got like 30-40 missions with tasks that I need to replay to complete the mission tasks trophy.  I've got about 12-15 missions that I need to S Rank.  I mostly worked on completing Mission Tasks and I did maybe 10-15 missions, but that was when it was at like 50 missions that I needed to complete tasks for.  I only worked on the S Rank for one mission, and I felt like I did everything the guide said to do and I got a B.  I'll give this another go next year or later this year.
Rating: Highly recommended

27. Mega Man X5 (PS4)
I looked at the trophies for this game before starting and I was already concerned that it would be too easy to screw up... and I did.  So I need to start over or finish the playthrough heading for the bad ending... which I need to do anyways... but I wanted to earn the good endings first.  So frustrated with the fact that I need to start over already, and my inability to find a really good walkthrough/roadmap, I've abandoned it for now.  Managed to get the RNG for the good ending and now I'm finishing off the Mavericks, only have Burn Dinorex and Spike Rosered left.  Finally "finished" this game.  Boss fights are frustrating, weapon weaknesses for some bosses are utterly useless, some boss fights have instant death mechanics, game uses too much instant death mechanics in general, rng for the shuttle and cannon are stupid, and the game doesn't seem to explain the upgrades and it seems like you can't acquire all upgrades in a single playthrough.  Overall, I deem this the worst X game so far.  My order is same as chronological, 1 is best, 5 is worst.
Rating: Very soft recommendation, but I'd maybe pass.

28. Lococycle (PC) (And a mini Steam Link review)
I actually really wanted this for X1, but it never went on sale, but it went dirt cheap on Steam, so I figured I'd grab it.  Honestly, the only reason I wanted this game is solely the fact that Lisa Foiles is the voice of IRIS and she did a cameo in one of the live action sequences.  Honestly I would play/watch anything with Lisa Foiles in it, kind of like Laura Bailey, except that includes live action with Lisa Foiles.  So far, the comedy in this game is pretty bad, like Kung Fu movie bad.  Game play is fairly solid, just wish it had a little Road Rash in it.  A few levels in, it gets Road Rash, where you bash other motorcycles and such, so I'm pleased as punch with this game.  I get a lot of good chuckles out of the fact that there is a giant gap in communication between Pablo and IRIS.  Took the time over the weekend to wire up ethernet up to the room that has my gaming PC, set up my Steam Link and tested it out by finishing up this game.  Initially I had the Steam Link set up for wifi, and that obviously didn't work.  Ethernet should work regardless of internet speed, I figure it should be independent as a LAN function, but I could be mistaken.  Game played pretty well with minimal input lag, I could tell it was there, but I was able to play the game with minimal issues.  Video wise, I did feel like I could see the screen refreshing, like watching an old VHS tape where you can see the rolling scanlines.  I also tested it on Fallout New Vegas for a few minutes and it seemed to work fine.  I think if I had a nicer gaming computer a lot of those issues would go away, but otherwise I think it will be an absolutely usable device to play PC games on my TV and well worth the price at $7.
Rating: Soft Pass, game is good and fun, and I love Lisa Foiles, but the game is fairly repetitive and has little replay value.

29. Mega Man X6 (PS4)
Jumped into this one after the abomination that is X5.  This one has a some of the same mechanics from X5, but less of the RNG garbage.  One of the Armor pieces for one of the armor sets is locked behind RNG, so that sucks, but it's not a one and done you lose kinda thing, you can keep trying.  This game does seem to rely on instant kill stuff more than previous titles.  The nightmare stuff and alternate paths is kind of neat, but it gets annoying.  Trophies have been much easier to acquire this time around, I'm not looking forward to playing X7 knowing that there is a trophy for saving the reploids, and if a reploid gets killed or possessed, you can kiss that trophy goodbye.  I've already had a few reploids go "missing" and I think that's a permanent thing, luckily this game isn't dependent on that stuff.  The final stages of this game as some of the most difficult and just generally annoying stages I've ever dealt with.  Even the bosses are annoying.  After that, I'm glad I'm done with it, this ranks just above X5, but still below X4.
Rating: Soft recommendation.  Level design is unique, but mostly dependent on instant death and just generally being annoying.

30. Donut County (PS4)
This is a weird Katamari like game, made by an indie team, published by Annapurna Interactive.  The devs did have some assistance/input from the creator of the Katamari series, so no surprise.  Story is interesting in a weird Katamari kind of way.  Gameplay is you control a hole that sucks in things and grows as it sucks in things, very Katamari.  Game is extremely short at like 2 hours, and Platinum can be obtained in 1 playthrough.  Very unfortunate that is game is lacking in content or replayability.  I was really hoping for an open world katamari type of deal where you can do a free play and just eat the world.
Rating: Extremely short, but highly recommended.

31. Job Simulator (PSVR)
I've played this game previously quite a bit, but I never actually sat down and beat it.  Decided to finally do so, especially after seeing how easy it is to acquire the platinum trophy.  Took a couple of hours, but 100% completed the game and got the platinum trophy.  Game is relatively boring and loses its charm fairly quickly, especially when you're playing by yourself.  I think a lot of the fun for this game comes from playing it around people and having a good laugh.
Rating: One of the better PSVR games, so recommended, but the cost of entry is a deterrent and the game has little value outside of use at a party or gathering.

32. Forza Horizon 2 (X1)
I don't even recall why I decided to play this.  I think I was asking my wife for suggestions, and initially she suggested Ori and the Blind Forest, and then she kind of relented and suggested Forza Horizon 2.  I had this plan to go and do all of the championships in the game, but after the last set of achievements I earned, I kind of decided to just abandon that idea and move onto Forza Horizon 3.  Played this for a good couple of games and had already beaten this game in previous years.  Finished the Storm Island DLC while I was on this game.  A lot of weird things going on, apparently certain services have been down or experiencing issues on xbox live.  Specifically, downloading DLC, digital titles, title updates, user content, etc... since June 22nd.  Apparently quite a bit in this game relies on this feature.  When you complete a race, it takes a minute or so to populate your money and the money earned, so I guess this information is synced online or something.  Livery and tune ups are obviously user content so that's broken.  Rivals system is broken.
Rating: Recommended, good racing fun.

33. Forza Horizon 3 (X1)
Current Progress: Hot Wheels Expansion
Don't really know how to track this game.  I've completed 3/5 showcase events, so maybe I'm 60% done story wise, but completion wise I'm at like 10%.  It takes a bit getting used to playing a game where you drive on the left side of the road.  This game, so far, feels like it kind of discourages you from buying different cars and trying out different cars, but maybe I'm misunderstanding.  Most races seem to work with whatever car you're driving, unless it's a weird coincidence that I happen to be driving an eligible car randomly.  When you upgrade a festival, it shows you an autoshow screen where the cars are like 5% off and it warns you that the sale ends if you leave the screen... I'm just like... uh 5%, it's okay, if I NEED one of these cars I'll pay full price.  Have yet to need one of those cars yet.  Same issue here that livery and tune ups aren't quite working.  The Auction house is largely broken because of the service issues... but I did manage to acquire the Regalia through the auction house.  Super disappointing that these services are broken and have been broken for the past few months.  Xbox services claim to be back up, but I'm still having the same problems.  Played enough to get the credits to pop, did the Blizzard expansion and am now working on the Hot Wheels expansion.
Rating: Recommended, great racing fun.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2018, 08:58:45 am by ignition365 »


Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2017, 02:51:21 pm »
I guess I'll grab my spot on page 1 too since I don't want to post my games in the thread intro.

1. Raiden V: Director's Cut (PS4): Like some shooters, this game has a bit of an identity crisis at times; it wants to be a more traditional shooter at times like the older Raiden titles, then suddenly, mostly towards the end of the game, it wants to be a bullet hell SHMUP. The game's mechanics don't lend themselves well to the latter sub-genre, however there are some genuinely fun parts in this game despite repetitive enemies, poor pacing, and levels that drag in for far too long. Sadly this one mostly comes off as generic which enough flaws that really prevent it from being any better then that. (1/1/18) [25/50]

2. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn)
: To me the early Virtua Fighter games (pretty much 1-3) are time capsules of nostalgia when Sega was releasing their early 3D titles through the mid to late 90s. I love the graphics, the stages, the music, the characters, all of it; everything about the early Virtua Fighter games just oozes with that 90s Sega nostalgia for me, hence why I keep coming back to these games over and over again. One reason I do not keep coming back however is the imbalanced, inconsistent and super frustrating gameplay which has had me controller rage maybe more than any other game franchise. Virtua Fighter 2 is no exception, and all things considered I still prefer the first Virtua Fighter to this one. (1/11/18) [31/50]

3
. Final Fantasy Dissidia NT (PS4): This game's value will really be dependent on how big of a Final Fantasy fan you are seeing how seeing old and new final fantasy characters is modern gen graphics, great voice acting, and excellent remixes of classic FF tracks are what make this game most appealing. Less appealing are the uninteresting, confusing, and repetitive gameplay and a story mode that makes almost no sense. There are a lot of unlockables that give this game replay value, but you'll find yourself just getting through the actually game part just to see what else you can unlock. Good enough in some ways, but definitely lacking in others. (1/31/18) [28/50]

4. Gun Frontier (PS2)
: I will come right out and say I loved the first 2/3 of this game; it was well balanced, music was catchy, great production and presentation, and aside from a stupid checkpoint reload system which might be my biggest pet peeve in this genre, I was really enjoying this one. And then the final stage happened; combined with the annoying checkpoint system this level was incredibly unfun and a pain to get through mostly because of the lack of balancing in it. I will say however that the final boss in this game is among the most unique and creative I've seen in a shooter. Still, the final portion of this game really drags down an otherwise great game overall. (2/11/18) [27/50]

5. RayStorm (PS2)
: Like its predecessor Layer Section (aka Galactic Attack, aka Ray Force) RayStorm is a very well done shooter with a multilayered shooting mechanic with very good, balance gameplay, and a great soundtrack. However, RayStorm is an inferior game to Layer Section in nearly every way, which is not to say RayStorm is a bad game, but it did have very big shoes to fill. Definitely one of the best shooters I've played, just not nearly as good as the first in this series. (2/11/18) [36/50]

6. RayCrisis (PS1)
: Sadly this series of shooters degrades in quality more and more, with RayCrisis, the third and final game in the Ray series being by far the weakest. Just like how RayStorm was inferior in every way to Layer Section, this game is inferior to RayStorm in every way, resulting in a shooter that falls deep in the category of mediocrity. The game isn't bad in any particular way, it just doesn't do anything particularly well to distinguish it from its predecessors or a lot of other shooters. Definitely not bad, but not great either. (2/11/18) [27/50]

7. Pink Sweets: Ibara Sore Kara (360)
: I've been pretty critical of modern Cave titles, mostly due to the novelty of throwing a huge amount of projectiles at the expense of making the game fair and balanced, but Pink Sweets is a whole other level of game design incompetence that makes it the worst Cave game I've ever played. Your hit box is gigantic and undefinable at times, making much of the game, especially the latter half just terrible. The art style is also very inconsistent, mixing a sort of dreary, bland look with a fun, toyish art style of the bosses and many of the enemy ships. The soundtrack is fairly upbeat and appropriate, but it's nothing special. Overall, this game was one of the worst shooters I've ever played, but at least it was still better than the 1945 series or Xavious *shudders*. (2/18/18) [17/50]

8. Muchi Muchi Pork (360)
: It's too bad the balancing and controls of this game couldn't rub off on other Cave titles or else I might obsess over Cave like so many other fans of SHMUPs do. This game plays wonderfully and has an excellent balance of projectiles and your ability to dodge them throughout the entire game. The game looks great overall and has a very Japanese feel to it in the sense that there are a lot of random, cutesy, and busty elements to it that give it that distinct Japanese asthetic. While there are definitely shooters that are better than it, Muchi Muchi Pork is definitely one worth checking out if you're into games like this. (2/18/18) [35/50]

9. Under Defeat HD (PS3)
: While the controls were a little hard to get used to at first, once I did I really enjoyed this game and found it pretty fun overall. My only faults with the game are it's bland backgrounds and forgettable OST, but other than that I find it hard to fault this game with much. (2/19/18) [36/50]

10. Neo XYX
(Dreamcast): This game was overall very fun and a pretty well balanced shooter despite some of its minor flaws. My biggest complaint about Neo XYX was its over reliance on bombs and collecting bomb power ups to get more bombs. The hand drawn graphics are very cool, but the soundtrack is fairly unremarkable. I really feel like this game was one of those no bullshit shooters that doesn't rely on gameplay gimmicks to set itself apart from other shmups, but then nothing really sets this game apart which also hurts it overall. (2/22/18) [35/50]

11. Fast Striker (Dreamcast)
: Another NG:dev.team game, this one while good in the music and gameplay department mostly is probably one of the most bland, visually unappealing shooters I've ever played. The backgrounds are this dark metallic design that repeats for the whole stage and all the enemies look like generic oval/round ships. Sadly its poor art style really dampens your enjoyment of an otherwise decent shooter. (2/23/18) [28/50]

12. R-Type Delta (PS1)
: This is a game I really, really wanted to like, but sadly there are far too many design and gameplay problems in this game to even make it a passable shooter. The two worst parts about this game are the horrendous checkpoint system which is terrible in every shooter, but this one does it is sections that are just BS to have to replay over and over again. The other big issue with this game is how it maroons you when you die by taking away all your power ups and leaving you without any, making already ridiculously hard sections even more ridiculous. I'm also not a fan of the whole orb blaster that you can place in front of you and behind you, but this is more of a subjective complaint The only positive thing I can say is I'm a fan of the graphics and art direction, although many will probably disagree since they demonstrate the PS1's blocky polygons. (2/24/18) [22/50]

13. Blazing Star (Arcade)
: Blazing Star's best quality is its excellent art direction with it's awesome stage art and enemy design as well (save the final boss who is probably the strangest, most disturbing final boss I've seen in a game). My praise ends there as this game's gameplay is haphazard and mediocre at best; very little thought was put into enemy ship bullet patterns, enemy placement, and stage hazards, which creates an interesting, boring mess of a game at times. (2/24/18) [29/50]

14. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)
: MvC2 is an example of a game that could have only happened in the late 90s when developers could get away with putting so many awesome and interesting characters together in one of the most over the top, fun and addictive fighting games to ever be released. While the intoxicating effect this game once had on me has faded a little, it still stands as one of the best fighting games I've ever played, maybe the greatest. On top of that this game is one of the most nostalgic I can play these days given how much I played this in my youth and also how much it reminds me of gaming during the late 90s and early 2000s. (2/28/18) [43/50]

15. King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match (PS2)
: While I can't say it has the best gameplay for a KOF game, it has one of the best, which combined with amazing 2D sprite graphics, a huge roster of awesome KOF characters, and being one the most essential fighting games ever made makes this game outstanding in nearly every way. (3/1/18) [38/50]

16. King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match (PS2)
: I feel like this game is only a smidge less iconic and enjoyable as 98, but one place it does have 98 beat, which to some might matter the most, is gameplay. The fighting in this game is way more smooth, less clunky and cumbersome, faster, and more balanced. At least for me I still prefer 98 by a hair though just based on how well designed a game it is from a superficial point of view. Still for the competitive scene this one would be prefered, well, at least for most I imagine. (3/1/18) [37/50]

17. Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium (PS2)
: For many reasons this is one of the most memorable fighting games to come out of the late 90s and early 2000s, mostly due to its excellent roster of SNK and Capcom characters which leave little to be desired and some really memorable stages. However, beyond the flash and coolness of having Ryo and Kyo fight each other, the gameplay is nothing to write home about, with most battles either being super easy or really hard with little in between. Funny enough, I find myself wishing I was either playing a straight up Street Fighter or SNK game over this. (3/2/18) [36/50]

18. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
: Final Fantasy VII is a perfect example of why I am replaying my top games of all time, a list that has games that I have not played and/or beat for over a decade, FF7 being one of those games. FF7 was my first real RPG and at the time JRPGs were my favorite thing in the whole world and I literally bought a PS1 just so I could play this game and the other FF titles available on the system. Back in 2000 when I first played and beat FF7 I adored this game, probably because I had never played anything else like it and it left a very big impression on me. It motivated me to play FF8, FF9, and later on the PS2, FFX, all of which I remember enjoying a lot. However, 18-years later and picking up the JRPG that started my interest in the genre, I've been reminded how much my preference in video games have changed since then. Replaying it, I found FF7 to be an incredibly mediocre game for the most part; I'd often find myself interested in the game, followed by me literally having no investment or interest just hours later. FF7 never consistently kept my interest and I found the overall story to be very run of the mill and generic, as well as the characters to be nothing special either, including characters like Cloud and Sephiroth which are idolized for some reason in video game culture as being some of the best RPG characters of all time. I can appreciate why this game was a big deal when it came out and how it did certain things in terms of story, characters and gameplay, but on the whole this game has not aged well in any regard, including my personal opinion of it almost 20-years after originally playing it. I will end this review by saying two things. The first is that I am not into RPGs, especially JRPGs as much as I was when I first played FF7. This no doubt has diminished my enjoyment of this game and had I retained the zeal I once had for the genre I may have been able to appreciate this game's story and tropes more than I did now. The other thing I want to say is that FF7, for better or worse, is no longer a top 10 game for me. Hell it isn't a top 25 game for me. This will perhaps be the most shocking revelation I will have while replaying my favorite games since prior to me replaying it, FF7 was officially my fourth favorite game of all time. Times change, people change, and interests in games and genres change. Maybe I'll replay FF7 in another 20-years and perhaps then I'll have a greater interest in JRPGs like I once did and maybe FF7 will creep back into my top games where it once sat for many years. (3/11/18) [32/50]

19. DOOM (PS4)
: After playing and beating doom back in 2016 when it first came out I was left with a sense absolute amazement and intensity that I've never felt from playing a video game. The amount of adrenaline and dread that goes through you when playing this game is unmatched in my opinion thanks to the amazing graphics and setting, the kick ass metal/industrial soundtrack, and gameplay that is hard to match in any modern FPS. Replaying it again nearly two years later, Doom's insane level of polish is still not lost on me, although I did find myself less apprehensive when about to summon massive amounts of hell spawn towards me at various parts of the game due to being used to it from my first play through. There are also some annoying and frustrating balancing and level design issues that hamper the flow of the combat, but overall it does very little to distract from how high quality this game is. The main reason I am replaying this game is that it is a strong contender to end up in my top games of all time list and at this point I'd be a little surprised if it didn't make the cut. (3/27/18) [46/50]

20. Espgaluda II (360)
: Being a fan of the previous two entries in this series I had high hopes that I'd hold this one in around equal regard, however this below average balancing along with the generic graphics, art design, levels, bosses, and music just left me wondering when it was going to be over while playing this mostly. Not only that, but I feel like it borrowed too heavily from Espgaluda in terms of level and boss design, but still wasn't as good. This one was a bit of a let down in the end. (4/1/18) [26/50]

21. Espgaluda II: Black Label (360)
: This version of Espgaluda II was so radically different in terms of gameplay as well as more visually polished that I felt it was appropriate to review it separately. While it is basically the same game, it has added various mechanics which make the game play very different; when you destroy a ship it also destroys any projectiles they fired often putting more of an emphasis on crowd control over dodging bullets, which you will still be doing plenty of, especially during boss fights. There is also a weird, inconsistent bubble shield mechanic too which allows you to be hit by bullets, just not too many at once, if that makes sense; sometimes I found myself getting hammered and the shield held up, but then a random stray bullet would hit me and cause me damage. As mentioned, the graphics have received a fidelity bump as well making this game prettier, but still nothing amazing. While I'd recommend this version over the basic version, it still is very mediocre and another example why I truly believe Cave is the most overrated SHMUP developer. (4/1/18) [30/50]

22. Mushihimesama Futari (360)
: I knew about this game well before I got heavily into shooters due to it's final boss being referenced on Youtube and social media often as one of the "hardest bosses" of all time. Beyond seeing the endless shower of bullets and pretty, colorful graphics, I wondered if there was a decent shooter behind it all. And yes, yes there is; oh my god there is! Mushihimesama Futari is one of the best shooters I've ever played; it's excellent visuals, cool art style, varied enemy and level design, balanced and fun gameplay, and catchy soundtrack all amount of an excellent game. At first I wondered if I liked it as much as Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou, which I definitely did. Then I compared it to the first Mushihimesama, which I liked way less than Futari. And then I started comparing it to the original Dodonpachi which still stands as my favorite game by Cave and my third favorite Shmup of all time. After a lot of playing these games back and forth, comparing them, I came to the conclusion that I like Dodonpachi just a hair more than Mushihimesama Futari, but just barely. That would officially make Futari my fourth favorite Shmup of all time based off all the other games in the genre I've played. Mushihimesama Futari is the type of shooter I hope I get to play every time I try out a new one, and luckily it delivered beyond my expectations. (4/2/18) [43/50]

23. Half Life 2 + Episode 1 and 2 (PS3)
: This was another game that has sat in my top 10 games of all time for a long time, ever since I first played Half Life 2 on the original XBOX probably back in 2005 or 2006. Because they create a cohesive story that is Half Life 2, I wrap the main game and the two episodic expansions into one game. But anyhow, my thoughts on Half Life 2 after replaying it for the first time since 2010 (I know this because that is what the save data on my PS3 says). The game is perhaps the most immersive and diverse FPS game I've ever played, and tells a very good story with many likable characters. Not only that, but minus a few areas across Half Life 2, the action is non-stop as is what the game has you do to progress, resulting in gameplay that rarely gets stale. While the soundtrack is decent imo, the voice acting and sound design is excellent. By complaints about this game involve certain parts that don't have a good flow to them, hot-scanning enemies, and various platforming and puzzle portions of the game that don't work as well as they should. However these minor flaws are few within a game that is otherwise outstanding from start to finish. I've come to the realize however that I like DOOM on the PS4, just slightly more due to presentation and me enjoying DOOM just a hair more than half life. Regardless, this game still has a very good shot of remaining in my top 10 games of all time when all is said and done. (4/7/18) [44/50]
« Last Edit: April 08, 2018, 03:00:20 pm by bikingjahuty »

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2017, 03:12:57 pm »
2018 Challenge.

1. Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland (GBA) - 1/22
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) - 2/14
3. Final Fantasy X HD remix (Vita and PS4) - 3/29
4. Kirby Star Allies (Switch) - 4/4
5. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) - 5/23
6. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch) - 5/27
7. Super Mario Bros. (NES) - 6/11
8. The Last of Us Remastered + Left Behind DLC (PS4) - 6/25
9. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch) - 6/28
10. Crash Bandicoot (N Sane Trilogy) (Switch) - 7/4
11. Crash Bandicoot 2 (N Sane Trilogy) (Switch) - 7/15
12. God of War 2018 (PS4) - 7/17
13. Crash Bandicoot 3 (N Sane Trilogy) (Switch) - 7/18
14. Sonic Mania Plus (Switch) 7/24
15. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (Switch) - 7/31/18
16. Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition (PS4) - 8/3/18
17. Metroid Zero Mission (GBA) - 8/5/18
18. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PS4) - 8/7/18
19. Drill Dozer (GBA) - 8/10/18
20. Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) - 8/19/18
21. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) - 11/13/18
22. Super Mario Land (GB) - 11/13/18
23. Super Mario Land 2 (GB) - 11/14/18
24. Pokemon: Let's Go Pickachu (Switch) - 12/2/18
25. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GB) - 12/4/18
26. Red Dead Redemption (360) - 12/5/18
« Last Edit: December 09, 2018, 02:27:41 pm by justin8301 »

kevininja

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2017, 03:27:00 pm »
January:
  1. Strikey Sisters (Steam) [1-1]
  2. Party of Sin (Steam) [2-1]
  3. Deadpool (Steam) [2-1]
  4. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Steam) [3-1]
  5. Magicka: Vietnam (Steam) [4-1]
  6. Capsized (Steam) [5-1]
  7. Borderlands (Steam) [10-1]
  8. Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (Steam) [13-1]
  9. Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (Steam) [14-1]
10. Sacred Citadel (Steam) [16-1]
11. Tiny Brains (Steam) [21-1]
12. Polarity (Steam) [22-1]

February:
13. Escape Rosecliff Island (Origin) [4-2]
14. Peggle (Origin) [4-2]
15. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) [11-2]
16. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS) [13-2]
17. Hand of Fate (Steam) [14-2]
18. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (Steam) [18-2]

March:
19. Rise of the Triad (Steam) [7-3]
20. House of 1,000 Doors: Family Secrets (Steam) [13-3]
21. House of 1,000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster (Steam) [14-3]
22. Trials of the Gauntlet (Steam) [18-3]
23. Prey (2006) (Steam) [18-3]
24. The Wolf Among Us (PCDL) [21-3]

April:
25. Agents of Mayhem (PS4) [1-4]
26. Spec Ops: The Line (Steam) [2-4]
27. Death's Hangover (Steam) [4-4]
28. Bot Vice (Steam) [5-4]
29. JYDGE (Steam) [14-4]
30. BRINK (Steam) [15-4]
31. Marie's Room (Steam) [15-4]
32. Battlefield 4 (Origin) [20-4]
33. Battlefield 3 (Origin) [22-4]
34. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Uplay) [25-4]
35. The King of Fighters 2002 (GOG) [25-4]

May:
36. Mad Max (Steam) [5-5]
37. Luxor: The 5th Passage (Steam) [9-5]
38. Monument Valley (Android) [9-5]
39. Until Dawn (PS4) [11-5]
40. Rampage Knights (Steam) [16-5]
41. F.E.A.R. (Steam) [26-5]
42. F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point (Steam) [27-5]
43. F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate (Steam) [27-5]

June:
44. Geometry Wars: Galaxies (DS) [10-6]
45. Torchlight (GOG) [17-6]
46. Investi-Gator 1 + 2 (itch.io) [20-6]
47. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (Steam) [23-6]
48. Mr. Shifty (Steam) [25-6]
49. BlubBlub: Quest of the Blob (Steam) [30-6]

July:
50. Prototype 2 (Steam) [2-7]
51. Prototype (Steam) [6-7]
52. Half-Life (Steam) [9-7]
53. Half-Life: Opposing Force (Steam) [10-7]
54. Half-Life: Blue Shift (Steam) [10-7]
55. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PS4) [20-7]

August:
56. Just Cause 3 (Steam) [2-8]
57. Emily is Away Too (Steam) [4-8]
58. Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress (Steam) [5-8]
59. Just Cause 3: Mech Land Assault (Steam) [5-8]
60. Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You (Steam) [16-8]
61. Cibele (Steam) [17-8]
62. F.E.A.R. 3 (Steam) [22-8]
63. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Steam) [31-8]

September:
64. Shadowrun Returns (Steam) [2-9]
65. Spider-Man (PS4) [17-9]
66. Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (Steam) [22-9]
67. Off-Peak (Steam) [30-9]

October:
68. Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist (Steam) [1-10]
69. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (GOG) [9-10]
70. Heroes of Ruin (3DS) [14-10]
71. Rune Classic (Steam) [21-10]
72. Crypt Shyfter: Frostfall (itch.io) [24-10]
73. Dead Space 3 (Origin) [29-10]

November:
74. Old Man's Journey (Steam) [6-11]
75. Destiny 2 (Battle.net) [9-11]
76. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (Battle.net) [12-11]
77. Minit (Steam) [14-11]
78. Destiny 2: Warmind (Battle.net) [16-11]
79. Destiny 2: Forsaken (Battle.net) [18-11]
80. Sunset Overdrive (Steam) [23-11]

December:
81. The Invisible Hours (Steam) [14-12]
82. High Hell (Steam) [23-12]
83. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Steam) [30-12]
« Last Edit: December 30, 2018, 02:38:50 pm by kevininja »

shfan

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #11 on: December 28, 2017, 03:29:39 pm »
Results for 2018: 44 beaten, 41 tried and discarded.

Games beaten

01] Resident Evil 6 (PS4) A decent romp - I was always fairly meh about this, but actually, as an action game judged on its own merits, it's pretty good!
02] House of Wolves (Flash) Basic 2D RTS game on Armor Games, killed in one go, enjoyed playing a different sort of game.
03] Sentry Knight 2 (Flash) Sort of like tower defence but with you doing the aiming, again it was nice to have a change, need to beat some backlogged games though.
04] Ys VIII (PS4) Prey (2017) and BioShock 1 & 2 are the only games I've enjoyed as much as this over the past 2 console generations. Bravo!
05] Hotel Mogul (PC) Casual game, property flipping time management, not too bad but goes on a bit daft at the end - gave up on trying to expert score each level.
06] Zombie Army Trilogy (PS4) Spin-off from the Sniper Elite series, featuring nazi zombies, really enjoyed it actually, despite being multiplayer-focused.
07] 50 Cent: Bulletproof (360) Perfectly solid 3rd person shooter, gets more fun at the end when you unlock powerful guns.
08] School Girl / Zombie Hunter (PS4) Really enjoyed this, Onechanbara with guns.
09] Gardenscapes (PC) Casual game, hidden object, no puzzles in this one but it was still nicely presented and proved a good break from action games.
10] 99 Vidas (PS4) Nice little pixel-art beat 'em up, heavy on homage to Streets of Rage, really enjoyed playing this.
11] Splatterhouse (360) Awesome, gory, nasty goodness. Loved it.
12] Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (360) Bog standard shooty-runner, it was still good to play through something I couldn't get my head around back in the day.
13] BioShock Infinite (PS4) Perhaps slightly better than I remember, the ending's still dreadful and it drags on the last quarter.
14] BioShock (PS4) Yep, still in my top 3 of all time (along with BioShock 2, treat them as one game).
15] BioShock 2 (PS4) Great as always.
16] Caladrius Blaze (PS4) Decent little shmup with bonus boobage, hurrah!
17] Garden Defense (PC) Excellent little tower defense game from back in the day, love it!
18] Peggle (PC) Fine, a little random for my liking, well presented though.
19] Pang Adventures (PS4) Classic arcade gaming, also the first time I've really felt like a Limited Run game was really worth grabbing, happy with it.
20] Finders Keepers (PC) Really fun casual game where you fish for gems and other items from a boat at the top of the screen with a swaying hook that you fire.
21] Nightmare Adventures: The Witch's Prison (PC) Thought this was a hidden object game, turns out it's a casual adventure/puzzle game with light HO elements, very atmospheric.
22] Lego Jurassic World (PS4) The best Lego game I've played by a mile, really enjoyed it.
23] Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (PS4) Metroidvania goodness, delicious.
24] Dark Souls: Remastered (PS4) Finally put a tough old beast out to pasture in its newest form, thoroughly enjoyed it.
25] This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4) |1 July| Another replay, but no regrets, this is one of my favourite games.
26] This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4) |7 July| Oh, OK, here we go again :D
27] Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault (PS4) |16 July| A bit of a slog towards the end, but it's done.
28] Kero Blaster (PS4) |17 July| Gorgeous nu-retro Mega Man clone from the creators of Cave Story, another Limited Run gem.
29] Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. (3DS) |20 July| It's taken me more than a year to finally finish the last part of this game, long time coming!
30] This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4) |23 July| and again, just love this well-crafted indie game, superb. Need to try some different ones now tho.
31] Ghost Blade HD (PS4) |28 July| Beaten on easy only, perfectly OK but nothing spectacular, generic bullet hell game.
32] The Organ Trail (PS4) |31 July| Not dreadful, but disappointingly limited, there's very little 'game' here. Still, it was worth a go.
33] Raw Danger! (PS2) |16 Aug| At last, the drought has ended, this was a real departure in terms of gameplay and theme, a welcome diversion.
34] Shikhondo: Soul Eater (PS4) |24 Aug| Excellent shooter, I need to get a move on though, falling behind.
35] Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (PS4) |2 Sep| Gorgeous metroidvania, loved it, well and truly behind now though, bugger!
36] Mount & Blade: Warband (PS4) |9 Oct| Replay of another old favourite to get me back into gaming after a shocking month.
37] Metal Max Xeno (PS4) |15 Oct| Old fashioned, low budget, very limited in terms of character development.. yet strangely addictive.
38] Rabi Ribi (PS4) |19 Oct| Sublime metroidvania with a bullet hell twist. Beautiful.
39] Dead Island (360) |11 Nov| Dry toast open world game, basically a collection of fetch quests and escort missions to rush through, still now it's done.
40] Tornado Outbreak (360) |18 Nov| Katamari with a twist, not bad.
41] Venetica (360) |5 Dec| Action RPG from the makers of The Surge and Lords of the Fallen, really enjoyed the different setting.
42] Megatagmension Blanc Vs. Zombies (Vita) |9 Dec| Odd entry in the series, action game from Tamsoft.
43] Soldner X2 (Vita) |10 Dec| Superb horizontal shmup.
44] Lego DC Supervillains (PS4) |19 Dec| Another good lego game.

Games Tried/Disliked/Got Rid Of

01] The Count Lucanor (PS4) Love this game! It's totally broken though - won't save properly, keeps shutting down and then corrupting the save files. Absolutely gutted.
02] Claire (PS4) Another game I was enjoying very much, the save file changed difficulty then it kept crashing my PS4 - seriously, product testing!?
03] The Coma: Recut (PS4) Third time unlucky! Another budget survival horror, this one isn't broken like the others but the frustration factor is ramped to stop you beating it. Bleh.
04] Reus (PS4) Not a bad game, but far too reliant on memorizing upgrade trees and resource values rather than anything else, not my style at all.
05] The Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1 (PS3) Bought for Tokyo Jungle, which turned out to be very limited, repetitive and ultimately joyless, nuh-uh.
06] Vesta (PS4) Action puzzle game, playable enough, but once the levels get tricky it starts to feel repetitive and it hasn't kept my attention.
07] Caveman Warriors (PS4) Slightly clunky Joe and Mac clone with flash-game graphics, can't bring myself to play it again. Need to watch it with these 'limited' games, many of them are certainly limited!
08] Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4) Shonky mess, dreadful animation, a few good ideas and some genuine sense of scale, but the togetherness of previous entries is gone and age-old problems remain. Nope.
09] Fairytale Fights (360) Repetitive, dull and a pig to control. I just don't have it in me to persevere with below-average games like this any more, too many gems to play! Bye-bye.
10] Nights of Azure (PS4) Nah, tried going back to this after getting halfway and stopping - it's just too barebones, it's more like single-A rather than double-A and just doesn't have enough content to keep it interesting.
11] Vampyr (PS4) Overall a very good game and one I enjoyed playing through, but a few game design faults/choices at the endgame totally put me off it, traded-in.
12] Cake Mania: To the Max! (PC) Enjoyed it for awhile, suddenly there was a difficulty spike before the halfway point and it drained all the fun out of it.
13] The Girl and the Robot (PS4) Single-A budget game, ropey controls, no exploration, just an ultra-budget Ico (which I hated). Came across a cheap boss mid-game and had enough.
14] Terraria (PS4) Spent God-knows how many hours playing this over the years, but I've come to the conclusion that these building games just don't have any pay-off.
15] Spongebob Squarepants: Frantic Fry Cook (DS) Cooking Mama clone, however some of the mini games seem broken and a sudden massive difficulty spike put me off, nuh-uh.
16] AereA (PS4) Inoffensive but crudely put together, as later stages get more complicated it just becomes drudgery. Simply can't tolerate games like this now.
17] Natural Doctrine (PS4) Designed to be extremely irritating - succeeded. Natural dogshit.
18] Draglade (DS) Bizarre cross between pokemon and street fighter, couldn't get my head around it, far too much mundane NPC chatter and wandering around for me.
19] One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (PS4) I was quite enjoying it, then accidentally erased my save (somehow!?) after nearly beating it, not something I want to replay, au revoir!
20] Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard (PS4) Pikmin clone which commits 2 cardinal sins: dodgy controls and overpowered enemies used to try and disguise short length. No no.
21] Zenith (PS4) Laugh out loud funny, but the game is clunky as all hell and the first boss stopped me in my tracks. No thanks, don't mind a fair thing but not this.
22] Vampires VS Zombies (PC) Farm Frenzy clone, don't like this sort of game, everything has to be done 'just so' to pass each level, far too scripted for my liking.
23] The Order 1886 (PS4) Bored me silly before even starting the game proper. Not only no, but hell no.
24] Agony (PS4) Yet another technically deficient double-A game, shonky as hell, can't even be bothered with it.
25] Mafia III (PS4) Love the story and characters, but this kind of open-world crime game just doesn't keep my attention, getting rid of both Mafias I have.
26] Lost in Blue 3 (DS) Like a list of chores in video game form. Manages to make a lost island adventure a grindingly dull experience, got rid of all 3 for the DS.
27] God Eater 2: Rage Burst (PS4) Nah, playable enough, but like Minecraft type games these chop-monsters for two hours games are just grinds without a payoff, inferior to Freedom Wars.
28] Assault Suit Leynos (PS4) Godawful controls turned me straight off this mech-based side-scroller, no thank you!
29] Vampire Hunter D (PS1) Resident Evil-style tank controls in an action game? Ouch! Fiddly and repetitive - enemies respawn every time you re-enter a room, it's just a badly dated sub-par RE clone.
30] Anima: Gate of Memories (PS4) Ugh, no. Garbage voice acting, shonky environments, sub-PS2 era action-choppy gameplay. No no no, get in that trade-in pile.
31] 2Dark (PS4) Buggy/broken anyway, but coming up against bog standard enemies who have a HUGE advantage in combat and can track my escape from screens away felt unfair rather than challenging.
32] Lumo (PS4) Not a bad game at all, a love letter to ZX Spectrum isometric games like Head Over Heels, but the viewing angle is weird and it gets very frustrating, not my cup of tea.
33] Stoneloops of Jurassica (PC) Marble-popper, it's OK, but not a patch on Zuma and TBH when you've got the best, why bother with 'meh'?
34] Darwinia (PC) Dodgy AI towards the endgame killed what was otherwise a great game, a real pity.
35] Metal Heart: Replicant Rampage (PC) Broken, stuttery mess. The game itself seems playable enough, when it works, but will it hell stay stable. That's the trouble with PC games..
36] Under Defeat (360) Vertical shmup, hated the rotation of the aircraft and struggled against seemingly endless missiles, couldn't play it.
37] Battle Fantasia (360) Hated the characters and gameplay, lasted minutes before I started playing through one of my old favourites.
38] La Mulana EX (Vita) I'm in no position to judge this game beyond saying that it's not for me, it didn't click.
39] Bomberman: Act Zero (360) Good grief, it's not the visuals which are the problem, there's just no point to it, its offline mode just drags and drags.
40] Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (PS4) Fiddly and floaty, two qualities I do not like in tough platformers, couldn't be bothered with it.
41] Desert Law (PC) More compatability problems, but the game itself is very basic and isn't fun or compelling in any way.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2018, 05:57:35 pm by shfan »

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #12 on: December 28, 2017, 06:23:16 pm »
I'll reserve a spot here... though I likely won't hit 52 since I tend to do RPGs that take anywhere from 20-60 hours (if not more... I'm staring at you Disgaea) - if you see a game you're interested in, I'll include a super-short review at the bottom, and if I've recorded it I'll give a link (and note what kind of footage it is so you know if there will be spoilers or not, or if you can just glimpse in and be fine)

Completed
1 - Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (PC, 2000/2001) [I beat this multiple times a year lol]
2 - Lost Dimension (PC Port, 2017) [One Run-through, not complete unlock, makes me want to try the original PS3 version though]
3 - Phantom Signal ( PC, Jan 2018 ) [Still Buggy, but was able to finish it with 1.03 patch]
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -

In-Progress
- Cosmic Star Heroine ( PC, 2017 )
- SMT: Persona ( PSP Port, 2009 ) [ Playing via PSTV, some crashes, but overall stable enough to play w/ regular saving]
- Grim Dawn (PC, 2016)
- Hard West (PC, 2015) [ Finishing Up what I started last year ]
- Tactics Ogre ( PSX, 1998 ) [US version, doing original PSX version, since PSP version changed a lot]
- Lost Sphear (PC, 2018)

Coming Soon
- Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GCN, 2004)



Thoughts on Completed Games (super short versions, I save the longer stuff for when I do reviews lol):

I hate point systems, but they're the easiest way to quickly convey my overall feeling on a title - 10 is "I love this game", 1 is "I hate this game" in the most extreme fashions... Reason I hate point systems though is that they don't accurately reflect good vs bad or overall value gained from a title (more than a few games I'd give a 5/10 for, but I fully enjoyed far more time in than they cost). Generally speaking though, to break a 5, it has to have SOME redeeming values... you won't see me giving many 9s or 10s... since those would have to be life altering games for me ;).

Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (Casual Playthroughs - Season 3 "Stupid Builds")
Pretty much the gold standard for aRPGs despite being released just shy of 20 years ago, there are of course areas it could improve. It only looks slightly dated (good for a game of its age), the gameplay is solid, but the stamina mechanic is just an irritant - actually hope they give it the same treatment they gave Starcraft. (7/10, well made, repetitive though )

Lost Dimension (Not Recorded - yet)
The Dialogue is the definition of cringeworthy, but the gameplay concept is great if only implemented in a rudimentary fashion. The highlight is the vision system to pick up and remove (or keep... depending on the ending you want) traitors. The combat is one of a few variants of sRPG that were floating around in the PS2 era, this one most resembling Phantom Brave (point movement with a circular range area of effect - as opposed to the more traditional square or hex systems).  (5/10, super interesting concepts, with "meh" execution )

Phantom Signal (Casual Walkthrough)
Bog standard space tower defense, has some annoying bugs (most notably missing skill points on some missions, and serious issues with energy routing for the defensive nodes). If it wasn't for the bugs, it'd be a fun 2-6 hour romp in unpathed tower defense, even though its very predictable (there's very little RNG involved, and only a handful of "trigger" situations that cause enemy spawns) (4/10, would be higher, but dem bugs)

Hard West (Casual Playthrough)
Weirdly compared to a Lovecraftian Western take on XCom usually... though I think that's just because people see grid-strategy and go "Xcom weee" - The main weakness of the game is also oddly its biggest strength, and that's just how disjointed it feels at times - each 'story' of the campaign has different mechanics, which makes them feel a bit isolated in terms of gameplay (though the story does connect fairly well if you go through all the campaigns). I feel this is also its greatest strength, with each story being so different, you can't really rest on your laurels and go Point A to Point B without thinking about how you go about it (because it can have a significant impact on the one constant: the combat). Once you figure out the combat exploits, the game becomes significantly easier (hit % is actually based on luck, a resource that you can gain/drain - 0 luck, means you're going to get hit... even with a rando potshot off the bucket and the water pump around 3 corners and through a wall). (6/10, could use some tightening up, but definitely worth at least one playthrough)

Cosmic Star Heroine (Blind Playthrough)
- Still In Progress, no comments yet -

Lost Sphear (Blind Playthrough)
- Still In Progress, no comments yet -
« Last Edit: February 10, 2018, 07:20:09 pm by alzorath »

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #13 on: December 28, 2017, 06:31:51 pm »
Definitely doing this this year too! Last year was my first year participating and I went a little bit overboard with 134 games beaten (a lot of fighting games boosted that number haha).
I'm rating the games based on my personal thoughts only, so a game may be rated higher than a game that is technically better if I liked it more.

Last Year : https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg149108.html#msg149108

1. Red Dead Redemption [20/20] - Xbox 360 -
+
- Incredible graphics. This game was so ahead of it's time! The weather is so realistic done, all the lighting effects, the sun, the storms... This game definitely has the prettiest and most realistic sky I've ever seen in a video game! The horses are also stunningly animated! To this day I still think this is one of the most stunning game made thanks to it's attention to details and realistic atmosphere.
- Amazing characters. John Marston is a really charismatic protagonist, he's a bad man turned hero who you can't help but love! The "main missions" characters are also all really interesting, a good mix between funny (West Dickens, Seth...) and serious characters (Luisa, Landon...). Even the strangers are pretty memorable which is pretty rare usually! I also love how all the female characters are strong women who don't need a man to handle their business (I guess except Luisa but her situation was different, plus she still proved herself as a really brave character.).
- A great story, while not the most original, all the diverse missions and charismatic characters make it really interesting!
- Good side missions, I completed 18 out of the 19 strangers missions (fuck the 5 beavers) and I definitely recommended doing them because they're very interesting, well written and some of them are pretty hilarious!
- Incredible voice acting! Rockstar is known for quality voice acting and this game is no exception! Even the least important characters have a great voice over!
- A lot of activities! I loved playing roll the dice and doing nightwatch jobs! There also a huge amount of non scripted scenes that can happen anywhere on the map, I think after about 22 hours of playing I had about 150 unscripted scenes.
- A breath taking open world! Every part of the map is just so stunning! It's divided into 3 main part, the first being the typical Cowboy setting with ranchs and more average quality type of locations, the second being Mexico, and the third being the more evolved and modern part of the world, consisting of Blackwater, Martson's farm and a lot of mountains full of snow!
- An amazing soundtrack. Each region has different background musics depending on where you are. It adds a lot to the immersion and makes you truly feel like you're in the game!
-
- The only negative point of the game is that there aren't more missions with Harold Macdougal, other than that I consider the game to be perfect!

2. The Technomancer [17/20] - Xbox One -
+
- A nice story with a few good plot twists! A lot of side quests too, and while I haven't done a lot of them (focused mostly on the main quests), the ones I did were pretty interesting.
- An early 2000 late 90's RPG game vibe that I really liked, the monotone voices added something unique to the game, kinda like the bad English does in Shenmue.
- Really pretty environnements, especially the Slums and Noctis! A lot of attention to details! The characters looked pretty good too, epsecially Zacariah (or at least the one I made lol).
- A cool fighting system, I know it's been criticized but I personally really enjoyed it!
- An overall really good quality game, especially knowing that it was made by a pretty small team (16 people I think), a nice hidden gem to have.
-
- A pretty basic "create a character" system, you can only choose a face, hair and eye color. No face tuning, facial hair, height or even the possibility to play as a female character. There is a lot a choice between skin colors tho which was pretty cool.
- Characters lack some depth, I feel like they had great ideas for each of them but most of them ended up being pretty basic. Dandolo and Scott were my favorite, but I think I mostly liked Dandolo because he was a less interesting Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition lol.
- The ennemies are fuckin strong, it shouldn't take me 20 hit to kill them and only 4 hit for them to kill me (not talking about bosses).

3. Street Fighter Ex 3 [16/20] - Playstation 2 -
+
- A really good roster, only missing Allen but other than that it's probably the best from the 3 games.
- Good gameplay that has been polished a lot since the second game. The animations are more fluid and detailed.
- Really good music, probably my favorite thing about the EX games!
- A lot of hidden characters!
-
- While it's the best roster from the 3 games, I think it's definitely thanks to Arika's character! I wish they would've added some Street Fighter characters from the Alpha serie and the third game.
- Graphically a bit behind when you compare it to Tekken Tag 1, Dead or Alive 2 or Virtua Fighter 4 (games that came out around the same time). Especially the stages, which could've been a lot more unique and interesting.

4. The King of Fighters 98' [19/20] - Arcade -
+
- An amazing roster with a lot of added characters! I'm so happy they finally brought back the American team! Takuma and Rugal are also amazing additions!
- Great gameplay with more fluid animations.
- Cool stages, while not my favorites, I definitely loved the Train Yard and Japanese night street ones!
- Good music, KOF always delivers when it comes to soundtrack imo.
-
- Not necessarily a big difference when it comes to graphics compared to the previous games.

5. Hidden Agenda [18/20] - Playstation 4 -
+
- Stunning graphics, the details on the characters are really impressive. The game is made of cut scenes only but it still remains beautiful to look at!
- A great story, with a few good plot twists!
- Great characters, especially Felicity and Becky!
- A lot of suspense, I kept waiting for someone to be attacked or betrayed or whatever XD
- Choices that really feel like they matter! It makes me want to play the game again to see all the endings, even tho i'm ok with the one I got (none of the good people died, but Becky is suspected).
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- Plot twists that you can see from miles away! I knew who the killer was the second as I saw him and the bottles/drugging was way to obvious.
- Why the app? Like it's totally useless and doesn't add anything that couldn't have been added to the game! A controller would've been way less messy to use.
- A bit to short, I finished the game in about 1h30 and the ending felt really rushed, so a good 3-4 hours would've made the game a lot better imo.

6. NBA Playgrounds [18/20] - Xbox One -
+
- Fun graphics, the players look hilarious tbh, and I thought the courts looked pretty cool!
- A great roster of player, they even included some of the Seattle Supersonics! I'm glad they included legends too and not only the current players.
- Fun gameplay, it's pretty easy to get used to and each player feels different while playing (I mean obviously lol).
- Cool way to unlock players, it reminded me of when I used to collect cards in school and it honestly just makes the game more fun to play!
-
- AI can be a bit to overpowered, it's almost impossible to steal a ball.
- Blocking and stealing is really hard, it's either I didn't get something or i'm just shit at the game lol.

7. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered [20/20] - Playstation 4 -
+
- Stunning graphics! The PS3 version was already ahead of it's time but this Remastered version truly changed the whole game! Probably my favorite remaster with Gears of War 1!
- A really interesting story! I love everything that's about treasure hunting, and while the theme can get boring they managed to make a really captivating adventure story. The dialogues are funny and the connection between the characters is what makes this game so good.
- Amazing characters! I mean Nathan Drake is probably the most iconic character of the seventh generation, he's funny, lovable, charismatic... he basically has everything a perfect hero needs! But he's not the only one, Elena is also an amazing love interest for Nathan, she's funny, brave and can hold her own very well. Also Sully, he might not have been as present in this game as he is in the later one but his humor still left a big impact on the game!
- Great gameplay! Naughty Dog excel when it comes to gameplay! The platforming part of the game are by far the best imo.
-
/

8. Mass Effect Andromeda [20/20] - Xbox One -
+
- Amazing characters! Being a big fan of the Mass Effect trilogy and having heard how ass this game was, I was honestly pretty scared of starting, but the characters are honestly the best thing about this game! Comparing them to the ones from the MA trilogy is stupid because they're completely different type of characters, the trilogy had professionals and mostly adults with a lot of experience, here most of the characters are young and new which is imo what made this crew really great. I didn't want something similar to the previous crew because nothing will ever top that, so giving us something different, more fresh and young was the best option imo. I loved everyone but my favorite was by far Jaal, he was the most interesting and well thought character from the game, and his romance was really adorable. Ryder is also an excellent protagonist, completely different from Shepard who was a professional and serious soldier, here we have a young inexperienced guy who tries to fill the place his dad left. Ryder is really funny and while totally new to everything still managed to make things work.
- A lot of interesting missions! The main quest was really enjoyable but I definitely recommend doing the side quests too, especially the loyalty ones. I completed all the loyalty missions, all the Heleus assignments (except one that I just didn't one to do because I was about to finish the game lol) and some tasks (pretty boring tho). Heleus assignments are great to find out more about the different planets and the overall context of the game!
- The Angara race! Such a cool addition to the mass effect universe! It was a really smart move to add a totally new race imo!
- Some stunning environnements! The Nexus, Aya, Voeld and that floating planet that I can't remember the name of look absolutely stunning!
- You can finally jump XD! Small detail but I always wondered why Shepard couldn't jump lol.
- SPOILER! A great ending where no one dies lol, Mass Effect 3's ending left me in tears no knowing what would happen after the end so having a "perfect ending" for Andromeda was totally cool with me lol.
-
- Some graphical inequalities. The game overall is really pretty however some details really throw of the whole thing. My biggest issue was the lighting on the characters face, especially humans, my Ryder could look absolutely bomb one minute and trash af the next minute. My second biggest issue was the draw distance of the freaking plants, might not seem like a big thing but when plants pop out of fine air in a huge ass desert it's kinda weird lol.

9. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare [20/20] - Playstation 3 -
+
- Very different atmosphere from the main game's! It's mostly nighttime during the whole game, and the new weather and skies really make the game look totally different!
- Great missions with the main and some secondary characters! West Dickens got the most missions which i'm not mad about at all cause he's by far the funniest character imo!
- The badass nun and the plot twist at the end! I was screaming when John came back lol.
- The new horses, I saw a horse with flames or some weird shit around him but I didn't catch him because I liked my current horse but I did get and Undead horse when my previous one died which was pretty funny and unexpected!
-
- They killed off Macdougal before he even got a mission I was so mad lol.

10. NBA 2K18 [20/20] - Xbox One -
+
- A HUGE roster, the best from any 2K with the addition of all the all-time teams! The main reason why I like 2K is because I can play with the past player so this new addition was my favorite part of the game!
- The game is really immersive, the attention to details to make everything look like a real game is really impressive!
- The addition of the neighborhood in MyCareer. Yes it's ass, but it's a huge step toward making sports game more than just sports games! I wish it was better made but I still appreciate the effort to make something completely new! I also liked the park, not the best from any 2K but it's nice.
- Great gameplay. It's really realistic and the animations are stunning!
- A lot of different modes, you honestly can't get bored playing this game because there is just so many things to do.
-
- You have to pay for everything! It's IMPOSSIBLE to not pay real money if you want to have fun online. It's way to hard to grind your myplayer up to a decent player. Also paying for the haircuts? fuck outta here with that bullshit.
- The annoying ass cutscenes! I appreciate the effort to make the game more alive with the inclusions of characters but they all look like parodies and honestly sound dumb af. I only liked Bryan and he's the one you see the least. Having to go through all these UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes before playing a game, going to your mycourt, going to the fuckin barber... is a pain in the ass.
- Graphically, while stunning, it's not really a big change compared to last year.
- The trash ass character customization. I mean at least there is one, but what happened to the old one? I was mad that 2k17 reused 16's character creation well fuck that if it's to give us one that is worse I'd rather have the old one back.

11. The King of Fighters 99' [20/20] - Arcade -
+
- Beautiful graphics! For the first time I truly saw a big difference between this game and the previous one! The stages are so much more alive with all the weather effects and the animation are way more fluid!
- Better gameplay. Gameplay has also been improved with the inclusion of striker characters.
- Cool new characters. While this isn't my favorite roster, I do like most of the new fighters.
-
-  A lot of teams missing and some big names like Geese aren't there.

12. Ultra Street Fighter IV [20/20] - Playstation 3 -
+
- Stunning graphics! A perfect mix of 2D and 3D. The fighters looks amazing and so do the stages.
- One of the best roster. While a few characters I love are missing, I think this is one of the best mix of fighters. Also in this Ultra version you have Poison and Hugo who are two of my all time favorite Capcom characters.
- Good gameplay. Definitely easier to pick up than the previous ones imo. The animations are fluid and the overall game is just really fun to play with.
-
- Should've been the first game and not an "updated" version since there it's only 5 characters and a few stages added. Could've been just DLCs for the first game.

13. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition [17/20] - Playstation 1 -
+
- Detailed characters, a lot of PS1 fighting games have their fighters looking like a piece of cube but this game has some surprisingly good looking characters! Stages are ass tho.
- Fast gameplay, it truly feels like Fatal Fury game, contrary to the EX game from Street Fighter that felt like a totally different game serie.
- Good music!
-
- A bit hard to get into, there is a weird 1 second difference between the moment you touch a button and when the animation starts.
- As I said, the stages are pretty boring and uninspiring.

14. Assassin's Creed [20/20] - Playstation 3 -
+
- Stunning graphics! Even today the game still hold ups well. The attention to details is mind blowing tbh. The cities are also full of pedestrians, making them feel truly alive. The animations are also really well made and super precise, like Altair is really holding on to something when he's climbing and actually puts his hands where there is something.
- Revolutionary gameplay! Playing this after having played some of the later game made me realize how much the gameplay has been improved but still, this is the first game, the one that started the whole yamakazi running on the house gameplay still and it's just as fun. Altair is definitely the slowest assassin tho lol.
- A good story, while it might take a while to get into it, the ending is amazing (not the actual non existent ending tho lol).
- Good music and voice acting.
-
- The hordes of enemies trying to kill every 3 seconds is EXTREMELY annoying. The missions aren't that hard but the fucking guard make them sometime impossible to complete. You'll spend more time running of the guard or killing them than actually doing the missions.
- The missions are really repetitive since you basically have to do the same thing over and over again 9 times.
- Some lagging which is understandable with all the pedestrians however the freezing is really annoying, at first I thought it was my game because I bought it used but I red online that it's the actual game's fault and not the disc. It's really annoying since you have to start the game again.
- A pretty boring Altair, Desmond is much more interesting even tho he appears a lot less.
- No subtitles, which made it sometime hard to follow the story, especially for me who plays during night and who often relies on subtitles to follow dialogues since I don't always hear them clearly.

15. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered [20/20] - Playstation 4 -
+
- Stunning graphics! This game was already beautiful on PS3 but this remaster version just make it even better. All the details and lighting effect make the game really special.
- Amazing story! The first game had a really fun story but this is another level good. The action is so intense in this game, Nathan climbing the train is one of my favorite game beginning ever! Plus all the betrayal and love story make the story even more fun.
- The characters. Uncharted's biggest asset is definitely it's characters! Nathan, Sully and Elena are amazing and the addition of Chloe made the crew even better!
- Amazing voice acting! The uncharted serie has one of the best voice acting I've seen in video games tbh.
- Great gameplay! I'm glad they added more climbing this time biggest it's definitely the funnest part of the game imo.
- Amazing music!
-
/


« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 02:30:56 pm by chrismb »

indenton

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2018
« Reply #14 on: December 28, 2017, 08:22:05 pm »
Games Finished / Beaten

Luigi's Mansion - One of my favourite Super Mario Spin-offs, the drastically direct style and theme across Nintendo games as a whole makes this interesting enough to try out, I've played and beaten this game on an annual basis.  While I usually notice more blemishes each time, the amazing game feel and intuitive control scheme make it a perfectly enjoyable (albeit quite short) romp. 

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Hard Core Mode (NS) - The transforming returns after being notably absent from 'Pirate's Curse'.  I prefer these hand drawn characters over the previous pixel sprites, characters details aren't crushed anymore.  The controls are responsive, though there's a bias towards the monkey, the other transformations don't have nearly as much versatility.  When playing on Hard Core mode, (I have beaten it before so yes, I did enjoy this game) there's quite a difficulty spike because you start the game with very little health and half of the enemies will be able to one-shot you.  Checkpointing is far more frequent than in Pirate's Curse and exiting level and returning to levels is hassle free, once you get your hands on some key abilities.  One of the criticisms I've heard for this game is the absence of a level map, which I didn't need myself. 

Pikmin 2 (GC) - While leveraging the very feeling of dread from it predecessors due to the lack of a day limit, the improved Pikmin AI, more prevalent Pikmin strengths and weaknesses as well as incentive to protect certain Pikmin types makes tactical approach just as important as it was during our first visit to PNF-404.  Surrounding monsters are more bizarre and intimidating than before. 

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box

Super Mario Odyssey - What a delightful Mario game to have on the equally delightful platform.  Nintendo once again proving that 3D platformers can be tightly crafted and polished experiences.  All of these transformations presenting you with bizarre and elaborate platforming set-ups.  It steps away from Galaxy (lots of smaller levels with stars to collect & recycling themes occasionally, more often in Galaxy 2) but instead looking back to Super Mario 64 (Larger worlds with a variety of tasks and areas to explore). 

Spyro: Year of the Dragon - This is the Spyro game I played as a kid, so it set the bar once I had the chance to play the prior 2 games, I believe this is the superior game.  The worlds are far more varied in its visual & audio styling, Spyro's platforming feels a bit more tight and rewarding.  The boss battles got some well needed attention, more consistent, better designed & music tracks for an actual fight. 

Rayman Legends (PS4) - Previously finished this on Wii U.  One of the most entertaining games I've played without a single line of dialogue, no extensive story because who cares.  The platforming feels like a natural evolution of Rayman 2.  Plenty of levels, remixed levels (Invasion), the music levels are really fun, costumes and recolours for characters and the Back to Origins levels really help build up the value for money (Not a shred of DLC, everyone gets everything!).  Strangely enough I think the Wii U version was a little bit more enjoyable, because the Murfy levels were reduced down to just a button press on PS4. 

Beyond: Two Souls [PS4] - Free through PS Plus so not much investment in this one, I am not a fan of these cinematic experiences and it has more action sequences than I remember in Heavy Rain, instead it just makes me realise how bad all this 'realism' makes the game feel, always got to have the awkward nude scenes.  I like the idea of a spirit of some kind anchored to a human through there life.  I don't like it jumped all over Jodie lifetime.  I'll finish this before I unistall this, could do with the extra disc space anyway. 

Final Fantasy XV (PS4) - First FF game I've finished and yeah I know it's still action oriented at its core, I still believe it's justified since it does it well and it's not pretending to be more traditional than it is.  The story gets a bit hazy at times, but it didn't leave me as hopelessly alone as FF XIII did with the beginning moments of the game.  The party characters are likable, and at least they're not the ones rattling off all this backstory nonsense.  The whole adventure being framed as a long road trip was also a cool idea.

Ratchet & Clank (PS2) - Now despite being a little rough around the edges as an action game, it's still an enjoyable run, the weapons design in the first installment are much more grounded but you can see the budding of some of Insomniac's more wacky inventions.  Because weapons don't level up and increase in power or versatility, that means that all the weapons can be potent from the moment you acquire them till the very end.  I love the premise of Ratchet & Clank, it's concise enough that it's straightforward for a younger audience, but has the undertones and commentary of a idolized superhero becomes a corrupt businessman while a new hero duo is invented, keeping an older audience engaged with the story. 

Megaman X (Legacy Collection (NS) - I did fall back on a couple walkthroughs, but nothing that spoiled the challenge for me at least.  I love how a good handful of the bosses will still pose a threat even when you use the weaknesses.  It's a really good feeling when you take each one down because X feels more agile than his original incarnation, but boss attack patterns have been adjusted accordingly. The moment I landed that final hit on Sigma I got that excited rush that I would get when I beat any game as a child, because I finally conquered the game after several hours, I hadn't felt that in a while but I'm thankful Megaman X1 delivered.  Bring on X2!!

Picross S -

Kemono Friends Picross -
« Last Edit: January 03, 2019, 07:35:09 pm by indenton »