52 Games Challenge 2021

[kamikazekeeg]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC 2013) - BEAT - Just got through my run through the main original story of FF14, which is basically the Level 1-50 questing.  Kind of a long time coming as I've owned the game for years, but the two separate times I tried, I couldn't get into it.  Dragged way too much for me and couldn't really get far past the early game.  This time though, I found myself a community to get involved in, I sorta had a better grasp of how to start, what to ignore (Just ignore all the basic sidequests, they aren't fun and are mostly unnecessary), and I progressed through pretty nicely as a Lancer/Dragoon.  At this point, there's a lot of stuff you can do and it's very overwhelming, but I managed to figure out a lot of it with guides and some community help. 

As an RPG/general game, it's just alright, it's what you'd expect from an MMO, but I think how it does a lot of stuff, the ease of it, and that its a very forgiving game makes it a nice time.  It's much more about the community, the interaction, I think that's what keeps me involved more as otherwise it's kind of a very dry and stiff RPG compared to what you would see in other RPG games.

I'm switching to Samurai I think for now, see how I like it as I go through Heavensward.

[ignition365]

Main List
Previous List

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.

Dark Souls 3: Fire Fades (X1)
See 52 Game Challenge 2022

SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete (XS)
See 52 Game Challenge 2022

Dark Souls Remastered (X1)
So I've been wanting to play DSR on X1/PS4 to really see the remastered treatment on a proper console, but I just never had the push to do so, and even now I don't, but I am doing it.  The graphics are way better and the framerate is amazing.  It's just fantastic.  Normally when I play Souls games I go for a standard strength build and do heavy weapons and heavy armor and just fat roll all over the place, I'll then throw in some pyromancy/faith for some magic/healing... My new character in DSR on Switch, I went pretty much straight INT so my sword does like 2 dmg on enemies and just isn't feasible, so it makes the game pretty tough, but spell casting is amazing.  So for this build, I'm going to go dex/int so I can play close to normal with weapons, but I'm going to do light armor/light weapons so I can deal some dmg but I'm going to dump into int so I can spell cast too.  I'm hoping it'll be a well rounded character that I can pull myself through the game on my own.  I probably won't finish this as I don't really have the motivation to keep playing, plus both xbox systems are being tied up with Dark Souls 3.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP)
Current Progress: Beginning
I enjoyed the first persona game, but I've read that the rest of the franchise moved away quite a bit in a lot of ways, possibly for the best.  I've been meaning to get into this one to continue my franchise run, but I just hadn't been making time between reading books and playing other handheld games.  I'm not far in this game yet, don't think I've even had a single battle in the hour or so of gameplay I've done.

Halo 2 Anniversary (XSX)
Current Progress: Chapter 6
Have played this game not even slightly before.  Played through bits as Chief, and now I'm playing as the arbiter which is pretty cool.  Great improvement over Halo CE in many aspects, probably mostly in that this is legitimately an X1 game whereas CE was a 360 game.

The Sinking City (PS4)
Current Progress: Lost at Sea - Devil's Teeth
After finishing the Vanishing of Ethan Carter, I was really wanting some Lovecraftian goodness, so I gave this game a go.  Plays super similar to Vanishing of Ethan Carter in a lot of the ways that Ethan Carter has.  Like suspiciously so.  To the point it surprises me that there is no overlap between the games developer wise.  Sort of not enjoying this game for many reasons.  Probably going to be a slow play... could also be temporarily abandoning it today because Xbox's starting a gamerscore challenge.

Kill the Bad Guy (PS4)
Current Progress: Level 25
I'd been interested in this game for years, but never bothered to actually give it a go.  Finally decided to pop it in and give it a try instead of playing Sinking City.  Going in, I expected that I wouldn't beat it right away nor would I beat it this year probably, but I'd give the game a chance and make some progress for when I do finally sit down and beat it.  That said, the controls are pretty frustrating in this game.  X selects objects, [] is used to link/move objects, R2 is used to activate objects, L2 is used to link/move linked objects, can't rotate the camera, zoom is limited, buildings are only see through when you hover over them.  In general I spend more time trying to figure out what buttons to press in what order than actually doing stuff.  Oh and the cursor or whatever you'd call it for linking/moving objects snaps as far as I can tell and it doesn't snap well.  Thinking about it, I might not need to use L2 for moving/linking linked objects, I think maybe L2 is just for snapping to objects when moving/linking, so I can probably do it freehand.  I'll have to give that a try, but that still speaks to how non-functional the snap system is.

[dhaabi]

33. Kuukiyomi: Consider It || Nintendo Switch || 08.27.21

Drawn in to Kuukiyomi by its short level design, I was interested in how the game would explore its premise of human consideration. Presented with 100 small situations of everyday life, Kuukiyomi blends together oddball Japanese humor and a simple art style that many will appreciate.

Similar to WarioWare titles Kuukiyomi offers nonsensical fun to its players, albeit the fast-paced action of WarioWare has been dialed down a lot for this title. However, the basic level design remains, but in the form of daily life moments that everyone can relate to. At its core, Kuukiyomi offers this proposition: Do you want to be considerate? Or do you not? To advance through each mini-game, there is no right or wrong answer. Simply answers. Will you move slightly so that more room is available for others to sit down while on board a train, or will you force those standing to search for a seat elsewhere? Will you choose to be the target of a stray sidewalk puddle as a car drives over it, or will the water splash the person you're with?

With that said, Kuukiyomi offers a small amount of replay-ability. As each mini-game has numerous different outcomes, it may be worth it to some players to revisit each level. Alongside the traditional "Consider It" mode, there is also an "Inconsiderate" mode. After finishing each of the 100 mini-games, your performance is rated in-full by several different degrees while being dependent on whichever mode has been chosen. At the same time, there is an in-game achievement system which relies on each mini-game being solved with an outcome separate from both considerate and inconsiderate decrees. Most of these outcomes, for me, are certainly unexpected, with all three types of player input being humorous.

However, many people may not appreciate the limited amount of content offered. An entire playthrough of one mode is around 30 minutes. If you're invested in solving what the unexpected outcomes may be, that will take longer, as there is certainly a trial-and-error aspect to it. While the pricing is fairly cheap, it may still be overpriced for some given its total playtime. Nevertheless, I think that Kuukiyomi is still worth trying out, and it seems to be the perfect-sized game to introduce to others if you're together. Additionally, there are two sequels which I may later visit.

[ignition365]

Managed to hit my goal of 104 games a few days ago, sitting at 107 games beat right now.  I'm on a good path to hitting that new goal of 156 games, but I'm sure something will come up and slow me down.

[telly]

Have quite a few games that I've been playing at once. I think in September I will have quite a few to talk about here. Thought I would give a quick update.

- Owlboy (Switch) - Probably about halfway done. Love love love how this game looks and sounds but the gameplay is a little obtuse. Enjoying it so far.

- Super Mario 64 (Switch) - At about 95 stars. A classic game that is still fun despite some gameplay and camera hiccups.

- Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) - World 4. Playing this with my girlfriend. We're enjoying it so far. I find it to be a fun, but relatively unoriginal/unexciting experience personally.

- Magic the Gathering: Shandalar (PC) - Such a fantastic melding of a card game and old-shool PC game. Really enjoying my time with it as someone who knows very little about Magic. I just wish the ante system wasn't a thing.

- Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - World 9. Playing this about once a week. Really should be playing it more often but since it's the summer I've been trying to do other things outside that are active.

I also have maybe a few missions left in Valkyria Chronicles but I haven't gotten around to starting that game up again yet.

[kamikazekeeg]

Dead by Daylight (PC 2016) - ENDLESS - This is one of what I would consider my backlog games, I've owned it since 2019 I think, picked up on a sale, but I recently picked up a bunch of the DLC on another good sale and pushed myself to play the game after watching streamers play it for the past month or two.  I originally played it as Huntress, some survivor, and really didn't like the survivor gameplay.  Still don't think it's particularly great, but I have learned I enjoy Killer.  I feel like I didn't get into the game, a lot because I didn't have a group, but also having "performance anxiety", which is a bit why I don't normally do games like this most of the time, I feel like if I can't be good in either role, that I'm kinda letting other people down.  Survivor just isn't for me unless I was doing it with friends, the gameplay loop is boring, it's why I don't like non-combat horror games like Outlast, Amnesia, etc, but Killer is very active and that's what interests me more.

I pushed past that kind of pointless stress I was feeling, getting a better grasp of things, and I had some fun.  Did some matches as Nemesis that all went pretty well, he's a very slow character, but he's fairly simple to play (despite being marked as "Intermediate" I think, not sure why, his mechanics seem fairly simple), but he's cool to play as.  Also started to get into Trickster, the Korean made character who throws knives and he can be fun just chucking blades lol Not sure how many characters I'll check out, I kinda like the killers who have more range to them I think, less so the movement powers, but I can probably see a handful of characters I'd like to play. 

May or may not get Pinhead who is out next month I think, depends on how much I play, though his gameplay is real interesting, but right now I'm really hoping they can work out a deal for Jason from Friday the 13th.  I know there are still a few things being worked on lawsuit wise, but I've seen companies able to get back to work on products for Jason, so it makes me think there's a chance he could show up to join the likes of Freddy, Myers, Leatherface, and Pinhead for classic horror icons.  He's kind of the only horror character I really like for some reason, I haven't even watched many of his movies, but I just like his look, the mask, it's purely looks over anything lol He's a blunt force and that to me works more than even Michael Myers, mostly due to when Jason is played as absolutely huge, Freddy vs Jason/Jason X style.

[Cartagia]

August Update

Games Beat in August

Shadow of the Colossus (2018) (PS5) - Beat / Aug. 3 - Still a gosh-darned masterpiece.  It's way shorter than I remembered, but the awe and spectacle are definitely still there.

Hollow Knight (PS5) - Beat / Aug. 13 - 112% completion, so the maximum amount.  There's one optional challenge that stopped me from getting the platinum - a nails hard boss gauntlet.  I don't doubt I could beat it, I just didn't want to spend the 2 weeks it would have taken practicing.

Resident Evil Village (PS5) - Beat / Aug. 29 - Ended up loving this way more than I thought I would.  I think RE7 is still probably better game overall, but this was just so much damned fun.  Big recommend all around.

Games Played in August
Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS5) - It's modern CoD.  Plays great, story has the subtlety of a jackhammer.

[telly]

Game 18 - Super Mario 64 (Switch) – 17 Hours

113 Power Stars

Super Mario 64 is a game which needs no introduction. It not only paved the way for 3D platformers as a whole, but also set the standard for level design, controls, and gameplay that would influence the genre for years to come. I had never played it myself, but certainly the game has a significant reputation, and I was excited to see what this game had to offer after so many years.

All of that being said, how does the game hold up 25 years later? I personally really enjoyed my time with Super Mario 64. I found that the controls are still very good after all this time, with the only exception being with getting out of water. The camera, however, definitely leaves a lot to be desired. It felt incredibly clunky, stiff, and awkward to use. Graphically, the game does look a little dated, with most worlds feeling a little emptier than  I would have liked, especially compared to something like Super Mario Sunshine.

I can honestly say that the rest of the game was excellent however. Fantastic levels, secrets, a genius hub-world that connects everything beautifully, great music, there’s really not much to criticize outside of the camera and some minor gameplay hiccups. I also liked how there are more worlds and more actual star missions that you can also do out of order in this game compared to Sunshine, which heavily relies on blue coins to make up for the lack of worlds to explore. On that note, I also liked the power ups a little more in 64, though I don’t think either game’s power ups are particularly memorable.

[dhaabi]

34. Psychonauts || PlayStation 4 || 09.11.21

With the long-awaited Psychonauts 2 finally releasing after many, many years of fans' anticipation, I made the decision to visit the original Psychonauts game. However, this was my third attempt to play through the game to its end, and, I'm glad to say that I did finally manage to finish the story this time.

As an action-adventure platform title, Psychonauts stars young Raz as the game's protagonist as he visits a camp to train budding psychics into a part of the elite force Psychonauts to tackle the world's psychic problems. Despite Raz's short stay at camp, events quickly make a turn from ordinary into anything but, with Raz taking the responsibility to challenge the perils at-hand by entering the minds of others to help them overcome their mental woes. Developed by Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts is full of charm, humor, an interesting premise, and its iconic peculiar art style that will draw in many curious eyes.

That being said, I did not enjoy my time with Psychonauts. Had I played the game much closer to its release in 2005, my opinion may be much different than it is now. But, having played for a third—and final—time, my experience with the game left a bad impression. Leaning heavily into the 3D platformer genre, Psychonauts controls have not aged well by any means. And, with a large amount of items to collect, the game's bad controls dramatically diminish the positives that the game's world and narrative introduces. However, the game's aged controls affect the action segments as well, as the player will encounter many boss segments, with a few in particular being greatly affected by the game's controls. Additionally, the action gameplay, whether it be fighting or simply maneuvering around, suffers from some noticeable lag at times.

Despite owning the game for PlayStation 2, I decided to take play the port to PlayStation 4 out of convenience, and I also figured that collecting trophies would be ideal as well. Despite collecting everything in-game, I am barred from collecting all trophies as it requires to finish an incredibly difficult mini-game. I've spent quite some time with it, and, despite knowing that I'm sure I could beat it with enough time passed, I walked away. Again, the difficulty for this challenge is directly related to the game's controls. The other major negative experience I encountered with the port is with the audio in the final cutscene once the game has been beaten. For me, the audio was extremely muffled as incredibly loud static noises clicked repeatedly. I ended up having to watch the scene online. Even at its end, Psychonauts left a sour taste.

If you're someone who enjoys 3D platformers but doesn't feel the need to collect everything, Psychonauts may still be something to consider playing. While the game has noticeably aged, the charm surrounding its narrative is still present. I'm sure that Psychonauts 2 now is leagues better than the original title. I may try it one day later in life.

[bikingjahuty]

38. Need for Speed Underground 2 (PS2)

I got on a massive 2000s tuner car kick recently and there are few video games that embody this period of time better than the NFSU games. I played the first Underground game several years ago and while I still found it fun, it was really let down by its gameplay and a few minor issues like it's overall bad OST and graphics that made it hard to see where you were going on certain stages. Underground 2 is mostly an improvement across the board, however it still isn't amazing in terms of gameplay, and this becomes most evident the further in the game you get. Sure, the game becomes harder as you progress, but when you need you car to be precise and not act like a rag doll, it finds a way to do this. On top of that some of the drag races were poorly designed with your engine either blowing before the race even ended or the game literally placing an oncoming car in your lane right after the start line. Still, the game isn't terrible despite the gameplay being your biggest obstacle. While I'm not a huge fan of the OST, it was better than the first game, and luckily you can turn it off if you want. The cars sound good and change appropriately with certain mods. Visually the game is about on par with he first game and still suffers from visibility issues depending on what stage you're racing on. My absolute favorite part of this game is definitely how saturated it is in early 2000s tuner culture and just the overall zeitgeist of that time period. I was also a big fan of all the unlockables after most races which mostly included new parts for you car. NFSU2 is definitely better than the first game, but still suffers from a lot of the same issues that really held both games back from being something more iconic and important to the sixth console generation. (9/12/21) [33/50]

[telly]

Game 19 - Magic the Gathering: Shandalar (PC) - 32 Hours

I wasn't able to beat the final boss because my game kept freezing. He has 400 life, so I think the game just isn't able to handle such a long duel. Might keep trying to see if I can actually beat him before it freezes.

One of my favorite types of video games are "card game video games". That is, a video game that emulates a popular trading card game such as Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh!. I've played several of these over the years, but I'd never really gotten into what is the grandfather of all trading card games: Magic the Gathering. I decided that I would start with the 1997 PC game Magic the Gathering: Shandalar because it uses the very first couple of sets of Magic, and seemed like a good place to start as any.

Don't let the age or relative obscurity of this game fool you: MtG Shandalar is easily the best single player experience for any trading card game out there. While other games in this style might have a meager story, or no story to speak of, Shandalar features a richly inhabited world full of towns, shops, quests, dungeons, random encounters, special powers to acquire, secrets, and treasures. The music is fantastic, there's a lot of lore to the world to explore, and the game has an actual narrative that gives meaning to your quest.

In addition to being a great aesthetic experience, Shandalar is also just a good way to play some old-school Magic. Everything flows together really well, with only a couple glitches and hiccups. Deckbuilding is very easy to do, and the AI is challenging and rewarding to face, especially on the harder difficulty settings. It's just a phenomenal experience.

All that being said, there are a couple of things I didn't like. One of which is the ante system. Yes, old school Magic had antes built into it's game design. However, antes are mandatory in this game, and they ramp up the frustration way too much for my liking. No matter how good your deck is built, you can still get flooded out or draw nothing but creatures and lose a duel, especially with the game's very restrictive mulligan rules. And just like that, you permanently lose a card from your deck, of which there may be only one of in the entire game. I'm not ashamed to say that I did some save-scumming when that happened, because I just couldn't be bothered.

For all my love of the game's story, I'm not the biggest fan of it's overall progression. Essentially, you are fighting against five evil Wizards who each represent one color in Magic. They send their minions to attack towns and you have to defend them before they are taken over. If any one wizard takes over 5 towns, you lose the game. Simple, right? What happens is that these Wizards eventually get more and more frequent with their attacks, so frequent that you won't be able to fend them all off. You are eventually forced to beat them all just to keep yourself from losing your game permanently. Then, when you beat the last Wizard, you are instantly thrust into the final battle, and whether you win or lose, the game quits to the desktop and you're done.

Boiled down, the game basically puts you on a 30 hour clock. You have to beat the game within that time, which means you don't have the luxury of completing your card collection or experimenting with different decks. I found that on the hardest difficulty I had no time to experiment with different strategies because you simply don't have the time to make more than maybe 2 different decks, especially with the aforementioned ante system. It's just a design element that I really wasn't a fan of, since I like to try out lots of different decks and collect as many cards as possible. I was playing on the hardest difficulty though, so maybe it's a little more forgiving if you play on normal. I just wish you could have an endgame state where you can take your time and challenge the final boss whenever you're ready. Alas. Still a really fun game though, definitely recommended.

[ignition365]

I started playing through all of the Mega Man games, so I very quickly managed to hit 131 games beat at this point.  I'm going to easily demolish that new goal of 156 games.  Between the games being short and me being hurt to the point that I really can't do much other than sit around, I've getting through games pretty quickly.  I've still got a bunch more to do, but I probably won't start up Battle Network or Star Force just yet.

So... I'm left with Xtreme 2, Legends 2, Soccer, the Anniversary collection arcade games, the Game Gear and Genesis games, and Street Fighter x Mega Man.  I haven't decided if I'm willing to replay Command Mission.  I recall enjoying the game as a kid, but I also recall the final boss fight being absolute bullshit.

Regardless, very soon I'm probably going to take a break and play TWEWY... but also I need to study for my exam coming up later this month.

[telly]

I've still got a bunch more to do, but I probably won't start up Battle Network or Star Force just yet.

I am *Praying* that Capcom does a Battle Network Collection for the series' 20th anniversary, especially since BN 2 and the Star Force games are pretty pricey right now. 

[kamikazekeeg]

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PC 2015) - BEAT - Definitely enjoying the story more with FF14 now, like ARR was fine, but there was a lot of repetition to it, back to back primal fights and then having to fight them again, and some of the other stuff going on was kinda really basic up till the story right before Heavensward, even doing some emotional beats better than it was done in ARR.  Ishgard is really cool visually along with a number of the locations and dungeons and the realization of who Thordin and the Heavens Ward were at the end was pretty awesome.  With Heavensward I switched to Samurai, which I definitely am liking.  I did pick up Gunbreaker to try, the kit doesn't seem complicated, but not sure if I'm ready for the added responsibility of what Tank entails, so not sure if I'm gonna do Gunbreaker or even Dark Knight, so probably gonna stick with Samurai as the only other DPS that sounded interesting to me is the upcoming Reaper in Endwalker.

[bikingjahuty]

39. Cruis'n Blast (Switch)

The Cruis'n series was my favorite franchise of arcade racers in the 90s. I owned all of them on the N64 growing up, but of course the best times playing this game were when I came across one of the arcade cabinets for USA, World, or Exotica. This series is pretty special to me so when I found out Raw Thrills was porting Blast to the Switch I instantly became hyped! While there are some remnants of the Cruis'n legacy present in Blast, the game mostly just feels like another over the top arcade racing game that you'd have sworn was released in 2001. The graphics, gameplay, and music all feel super late 90s and early 2000s, which in that regard the game absolutely succeeds in being a throwback racer. However, I always felt like the Cruis'n games were just as much about taking in the scenery and going on this adventure than it was about some of its more over the top elements like UFOs and Dinosaurs. Obviously Exotica was all about that sort of stuff, and in a way this game does in a sense feel like a progression of that. However, everything in Blast is thrown at you at breakneck speeds to where you're barely able to really enjoy things like you were in the other Cruis'n games. Don't get me wrong, there are still some really cool set pieces like Dinos, Yetis, UFOs, massive tornados, and other craziness as you're racing, but the gameplay really makes it hard to fully enjoy all this. Overall, Cruis'n Blast is a worthy successor to the Cruis'n franchise even if it does feel like it somewhat lost its way at some point. But those deviations for its roots are definitely welcome ones that make this title certainly stand out from the pack. (9/18/21) [32/50]