52 Games Challenge 2018

[kamikazekeeg]

66 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PC 2018) - ENDLESS - I haven't bought a Call of Duty game since the first Black Ops.  The series just went in a direction I didn't like, so I mostly avoided it, once in awhile checking out the betas or free weekends, and promptly realizing why I never play the games anymore.  The only one I have put any time into since then, was Black Ops 3 on PS4, that I only have because it was free through PS+ and I only played the campaign, which I wouldn't recommend.

So how does Call of Duty bring me back? Blackout.  Toss out most everything the series has become...the small maps, annoying killstreaks, bad spawns, fast TTK, and make it almost an entirely different game.  Now there are health mechanics, it's on one big map, the player count is massive, there's vehicles, the TTK is way up due to armor, you scavenge for your weapons and gear.  It's the least CoD thing they've ever done and its so much better for it.  It's the BR game I've been wanting for awhile after feeling burnt out by PUBG and not like Fortnite.  It's snappier, action packed, and I think a pretty well done BR game.  Sure, people say there are too many BR games, but there really aren't.  PUBG and Fortnite are the only two big ones, now Blackout, and the rest are unfinished (Ring of Elysium) or going nowhere (H1Z1).

I don't even know if I'll touch anything else the game has to offer.  Don't want the multiplayer, I might glance at Zombies, but not into wave based modes, and the "Specialist HQ" is a glorified tutorial with small bits of story in it.  I might do those if they give me something to use in Blackout at all.  Can't say I recommend buying BLOPS4 to play just Blackout, I only got it, because I got the game half off with my Best Buy 20% off Gamers Club and a 15 dollar coupon.  So if you can get it for like 30 bucks or less, that's probably the only real good time for it.

[ignition365]

47 games beat, I've got a little less than a month to knock out 5 more games to meet the 52 games.  I didn't honestly expect to get anywhere near that goal since I've been so busy this year, but I'm proud of myself that I managed to get this close.  Smash Ultimate will definitely be one of those numbers, but the game might eat up the rest of the year once it comes out.

[justin8301]

2 more games finished; I'm wrapping up another game here shortly and it will likely be my last for the year.

24. Pokemon: Let's Go Pickachu (Switch) - 12/2/18
25. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GB) - 12/4/18

[shfan]

41] Venetica (360)

Bit of an unexpected bonus, beat this at 11.45pm the day before my wife and I go on holiday, it's also good to have beaten another 360 game, as that collection is largely complete (in terms of which ones I want), so now I'm just chewing through them to see which are keepers and which are trade-in fodder.

This is a double-A action RPG by the makers of The Surge and Lords of the Fallen, set in Venice some centuries ago, some nice supernatural stuff going on, it was a breath of fresh air.

I've got Lego DC Villains on the PS4 to play through, then it'll probably be Remember Me, Infernal or something like that on the 360 again.

[telly]

Game 20 - Secret of Mana (SNESc) – Unknown play time, probably 25ish hours

I thought this game was pretty good! However, I think it does have some glaring flaws that make it far from the masterpiece I was led to believe. It seems like for every piece of the game that I like, there was always something that held it back.

- The gameplay for the most part is fun and engaging, with all the different weapons and spells that also had effects in the overworld. However, there was a lot of jank in the programming. There was plenty of shoddy hit detection, spells not working when selected, and characters getting stuck when trying to follow you. Also, being able to combo/get combed to death in battles felt pretty cheap on both sides. My favorite glitch was during the final boss fight when my mana sword got glitched out of my hand and I had no weapon anymore, even though I still had the sword “equipped”. I had to unequip and reequip it to get it to reappear, so I could finally cast mana sword on it. That was frustrating to try and figure out.

- While the menus were confusing at first, I ended up really liking it. They felt fast and snappy.

- I found the characters for the most part fun and I liked that the main characters talked to each other. However, all the villains were criminally underdeveloped. Every time I faced one I was like “Who are you again???” and after you beat one, you still never get any answers about their backstory or why they were fighting you.

- The overall story is your standard RPG fair, but it had some decent moments and was well put together. However, the writing is awful. I know the game had a very rushed and tumultuous translation and that’s why it’s so bad, but still. It reads like a 5th grader wrote all the text, and the NPCs never say anything of substance to help develop the world.

- I really loved the graphics and art design. I like how the enemies and bosses emote when they get hit, it was cute.

- I’ve played a bit of this game with one other person, and I wish I could play the whole game like that. I bet it would be fun.

- The soundtrack is fantastic, one of the best on the SNES period. However, the sound design is pretty bad. I think they used so many of the SNES’s sound channels for the music that sound effects cut into the music while playing (think like how the music would cut out during attacks in the old school Pokemon games). However, because battles are so chaotic, the music cuts in and out in really random and strange ways, and it totally ruins the music. Even walking up steps or bumping into things in towns would cut the music out.

Back to my list

[justin8301]

Finished up Red Dead Redemption on the 360. that makes 26 games this year, not too bad. I think next year im going for the full 52

[kamikazekeeg]

67 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch 2018) - BEAT - I got all the characters unlocked and I beat World of Light, so that's what I'm counting as completion for this.  Have to say that I feel kinda conflicted on World of Light though.  At it's core, it's just a big collectathon, and while it gets very tedious and most areas aren't interesting or have little effort put into them, the boss fights are good and so is the last boss and there were a lot of times I liked it when I got spirits I wanted.  I just wish they had put even the slightest bit of effort into a story for it beyond the intro.  Feels so half-assed and there's nothing good at the end to cap it off. 

Overall, I do really like the game though.  I have never gotten big into Smash, just didn't own it during the Melee and Brawl years and only played it at parties on Wii U, but I've put over 20 hours into World of Light, I'll probably casually try out the Classic Modes, and I'll possibly do some more online.  I'm not a big fighting game fan, so I'm not gonna play this tons, but it's a good game.

Oh and unlocking characters was dumb.  It's okay in some situations if it's just a few or special ones, but not for 60+ characters and a number of the fights were pretty tough.  I know they literally just updated this, but the whole way of unlocking them is dumb and I've seen casual players complain about the unlocking in general, because a lot of people just wanted to get together with friends to play all the characters they've hyped up this year, but couldn't, because they were locked behind modes or just required you to play a bunch or cheese the system to get them.

[bikingjahuty]

So a funny thing happened recently. I picked up Smash Ultimate at launch and have been playing it more or less anytime I am not working or doing something else necessary. After putting around 40-hours into it and unlocking all the characters and about 500 Spirits I can say without a doubt that Smash Ultimate is my favorite fighting game of all time. I left a review on page 18 with my other reviews, but mostly because it now holds the title of best fighting game I've ever played, it has bumped Marvel vs Capcom 2 from my top 10 games of all time. With that, another one of my long standing games from my youth has been removed in favor of a new title. Nintendo is just killing it this generation!


1. Shenmue and Shenmue II (PS4)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
4. Doom (PS4)
5. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Switch)
6. Half Life 2 (PS3)
7. Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
8. Resident Evil (PS4)
9. Super Mario 64 (N64)
10. Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)

[ignition365]

Beat games 51 and 52 over the weekend.  I had no expectation to make this goal this year with life going on, but I managed to make it to 52.  Decided that my last game played for the year should be a game that I have 0 expectations to beat before the end of the year...

So I started up Pillars of Eternity... has a pretty steep learning curve, but I'm mostly liking it so far.  I know that I don't quite understand the mechanics.

[Cartagia]

Looks like I'm going to fall a little short.  I'm currently sitting at 42.  I could probably force myself to sit down and knock a bunch of shorter titles, but then I would just be putting extra stress on myself for no reason, so I'll probably pick up something with a little more heft to it to end out the year.  I've not opened my Secret Santa gifts, but I've got a pretty good inclination as to what is in there, so one of those will probably get started soon.

I'll probably cap out around 44 or 45.  It's that damned RDR2.  I was doing so good, until I spent pretty much all of November playing that one game.

[telly]

Will probably end up at around 24 games depending how long it takes me to beat Far Cry 4. May try to finish up Rogue Galaxy over the winter holiday but that's probably the only other potential game that I could beat before the end of the year.

[telly]

Game 19 - Katamari Damacy (PS2) - 9 hours

Kept this game a secret because I played through the game to test it at first.

+ This game is so much fun. It's so unique and fun to play, the soundtrack is great, and there are a ton of fun levels, collectables and secret tasks that you have to do in the game. It has a lot of that Japanese charm and culture in it which is fun to experience as well.

- I think the only thing I would have liked to see was a little more variety in the missions. I feel like the expanded upon this better in the sequels. That's about it though.


Back to my list

[bikingjahuty]

Game 19 - Katamari Damacy (PS2) - 9 hours

Kept this game a secret because I played through the game to test it at first.

+ This game is so much fun. It's so unique and fun to play, the soundtrack is great, and there are a ton of fun levels, collectables and secret tasks that you have to do in the game. It has a lot of that Japanese charm and culture in it which is fun to experience as well.

- I think the only thing I would have liked to see was a little more variety in the missions. I feel like the expanded upon this better in the sequels. That's about it though.


Back to my list

the first time I ever played this game, well actually We <3 Katamari, was at a coworker's apartment after work one night back in probably 2005. I knew nothing about this game or what to expect, but I became addicted and my coworker and I ended up playing it until like 5am while listening to Japanese metal music. I became a big fan of the series after that and also it's a pretty good memory

[mizzach86]

Got some time off from work to pound out a few more games before the year's over!

20.   Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Nintendo upped the challenge with this game compared to the first Galaxy, which I particularly like. I think I like the first one better for its soundtrack and the worlds you visit, but I do love the challenge this second game offers. This was another fun one to go back to after a long time away.

21.   Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
Funny story with this game, I actually played through this in 2017, but I was looking at a guide for it and learned there is a final level that appears after you get 5 stars on your save file that I never played. So I went back and truly completed this one and that last level was a real troll. To give you an idea I started playing it with 411 lives and had about 350 by the time I beat it with both Mario and Luigi.

Anyway, I love this game even compared to others in the Super Mario series. I really like the 2.5D setting for Mario and want to see more games like this and 3D World in the future. There’s also a lot of levels to play, especially post game. I highly recommend this one.

[kamikazekeeg]

68 - Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS4 2017) - BEAT - Going back to this series after not playing it since the PS2 days, I think all of my nostalgia for the series is more with KH2, because man KH1 is a slog.  Clunky combat, boring mostly small levels, and a mixed bag of boss fights that range from being pretty alright, to downright awful.  I really wasn't expecting to be so underwhelmed by this one, though thankfully it didn't take me more than like 22 hours to get through it, especially pushing my way through the freaking 4 Ansem fights right at the end.  I did not want to grind out like another 5 levels or so to beef myself up along with farming enemies to get stuff for synthesizing the endgame gear.  I hate that kind of grinding.

I have heard that KH2 cleans up the combat and such, so I am a little more hopeful for that after this as it needs to be better if I'm gonna play a game that is supposed to be longer than the first.   Hoping to enjoy that more as I want to be more hyped for KH3.  I think it looks great, and I like the idea of KH in general, but returning to the previous two games is more about getting the story down so that I have a better connection with the story of KH3.

That said, I do love me Cloud's design in this lol