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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

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kamikazekeeg:
23 - Dying Light: The Beast (PC 2025) - BEAT - I was a big fan of the first Dying Light, it had a long run of steady content added to the game, a great DLC expansion, they worked on that sucker for years before doing Dying Light 2.  That game had a ton of problems and when I got to it after they cleaned it up, it was just okay, it kinda missed the mark, I felt like they really wanted to make this bigger game, but it just wasn't as good.  The Beast fits in the middle, it's brought back Crane, the scale is smaller, feeling closer to DL1 than DL2 I think for the most part.  I did generally enjoy what I played, but it misses the mark in a few areas.

Dark Zones, which could be very intense in previous games are mostly nothing now.  Day or night, it's the same dozen or so zombies, a couple runners, and a screamer or two, all easy to fight, no variety, all to get one new gear or mod item and farm for supplies.  Vehicles are fine, but they aren't nearly as interesting as the customizable buggy from The Following and it's weird that like a decade plus after the apocalypse, there's just all these clean, nice, trucks strewn about.  The story is serviceable, though I think generally it's pretty basic and the finale is kinda lame for most of it.  Also I don't remember how bad it was in previous games, but constantly getting grabbed in this game is so annoying lol You eventually get something to counter the grab when you hit a level, and you can get out with some consumables, but daggers for some reason use a pretty valuable resource, wiring, which is used in lots of stuff, particularly building mods or upgrade weapons/mods/items, so you don't want to use them just to kill zombie trash all the time.  The grab can also have priority a lot of the time, so even if you are doing a big attack, and I've had hits do this, where it'll connect, show blood, make the sound, and then I'm grabbed.  Very frustrating.

I didn't hate my time, I actually like it being stripped back from DL2, more ambience with not having lots of people surviving around you, there's just things they missed the mark on and not really a 60 dollar price tag game despite being able to possibly get 30 to 40 hours out of it if you did everything.  Kinda just sits between DL1 and DL2 for me and actually got me interested to go back to DL1 to compare them, but maybe a little later as I have another game to play next.

telekill:
With the weekly challenges along with double and triple XP weekends, I went ahead and completed the full 60 levels of the Battlefield 2042 BF6 battlepass. So all BF6 unlocks will be available for me day one.

kashell:
62. Resident Evil 4 Remake - Separate Ways

I mean, after seeing Ada's new look and hearing her new voice, I had to go through her story. Separate Ways was great. Simply take the great gameplay of Leon's campaign and give it to Ada. She has some maneuvers and tricks up her sleeve that separate (heh) her from Leon. And, unlike Leon's side, I never got frustrated with any of the bosses.

bikingjahuty:
99. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)

While I've replayed and beat Ocarina of Time countless times over the past 25+ years, I've only ever beat Majora's Mask a single time. In fact, the last time I beat Majora's Mask was as an angsty middle schooler back when it first came out on the N64. I remember really liking Majora's Mask, albeit not as much as its legendary predecessor. However, after replaying and beating Majora's Mask 25-years later, the fact that I haven't beat this game at least half as many times as I did Ocarina seems completely indefensible on my part.


Majora's Mask is nearly just as good, if not arguably just as good as Ocarina of Time. While its story and scope isn't as epic and grand as Ocarina of Time's, the game's focus on more dark themes such as death, loneliness, and grief absolutely make it just as memorable, if not for different reasons. One might also think the world of Termina is just a rehashed Hyrule. After all, many of the same characters and types of creatures you encounter in Majora's Mask are repurposed in Majora's Mask. However, the way they are repurposed makes them feel entirely fresh and new, while also introducing enough new characters, settings, creatures, dungeons, and mechanics to make a whole new game if Nintendo really wanted to. With all that said, I don't have a single complaint about Majora's Mask's presentation. As much as I love Ocarina of Time, I actually will admit that in some ways Majora's Mask absolutely surpasses it visually, which is saying a lot.


I also can't say a single bad thing about Majora's Mask's audio. In fact, I will say I absolutely prefer it over Ocarina's, which is also a 10/10 from an OST and audio perspective. The Song of Healing, the Observatory music, and the Final Hours theme are some of the greatest pieces of video game music I've ever heard. Koji Kondo is a freakin undisputed genius when it comes to his contributions to some of the best video games ever made and Majora's Mask is no exception. And despite there being no voice acting in this game, sounds and other audio effects you hear all surpass most of what was out there in games that were afforded the benefit of disc based tech, which obviously Majora's Mask was not afforded. Again, the audio is perfect in this game and I'd challenge anyone to say a bad thing about it.


Where Majora's Mask does falter slightly, if only a tiny, tiny bit is its gameplay. The same masterfully crafted gameplay from Ocarina of Time is present in Majora's Mask, but with the added bonus of the mask transformations. These allow you to take the form of other creatures that occupy Termina (and Hyrule) and include a Deku Scrub, Zora, and Goran. Each of these forms comes with its own abilities, mechanics, advantages, and disadvantages. The game fully leans into leveraging their mechanics to make dungeons and other exploration aspects of Majora's Mask to make the game highly enjoyable to play through, as well as distinct enough from its predecessor to make you feel like you're experiencing something new. Unfortunately, while the transformation masks offer a lot of new gameplay mechanics, playing as human link barely bring anything new to the table. The same types of weapons and upgrades are more or less available to Link in Majora's Mask as they were in Ocarina. This can at times make the gameplay as human Link feel a little stale, despite all these elements being implemented very well. However, this sameness with human Link's gameplay isn't why Majora's Mask falls somewhat short of being a 10/10 in terms of gameplay. Rather, it's because of another central mechanic to this game, the three day time cycle.


Majora's Mask is famous, or according to some, infamous for its three day time cycle which forces you to play the game out within the confines of three in game days before the moon comes crashing into Termina, resulting in a game over. An in game day is equal to about 20 minutes, which means you have around an hour to accomplish whatever it is you need to before needing to go back to the start of the first day. You do this by playing the Song of Time which transports you back in time so you can relive out the events of the three day cycle again, Ground Hog Day style. This mechanic was implemented in order to give characters and events their own distinct schedules which force you to do things at specific times and places in order to experience all there is to do in Majora's Mask. I applaud Nintendo for putting a system like this into a Zelda game, and in many ways it makes the game feel very unique and more interesting. However, another condition of you going back in time is losing all your non-key items and your money (assuming you didn't deposit it first). This gets annoying after a while, but maybe not as annoying and kinda tedious as seeing the same events play out the same way all over again, making it appear as though you never actually accomplished anything at all during the last three day cycle you played through. There are other methods of manipulating time, including a song that slows time and also another song that allowed you to jump again in time, but it still doesn't remedy the central issues with this mechanic. Another issue I ran into a few times with the three day cycle is almost running out of time before I was able to do everything I needed to, specifically completing dungeons. And that was with slowed time active. I will say that this time mechanic makes Majora's Mask more interesting and unique than anything else, but it isn't perfect and was the source of enough annoyances for me to make me dock a point off the overall gameplay score for this game.


Before I move onto my final thoughts on Majora's Mask, I wanted to address the 3DS version specifically. My original plan was to replay this game on the N64 as I had originally done back in 2000, however travel and other complications required me to either pick another game to play or play the portable 3DS version. The 3DS version, from everything that I can remember is just as good, if not slightly better than the original. The most obvious difference in this version is the visuals which are way more clear and refined than they were on the N64 back in the day. Also, while the game itself is 99% the same as it was on the N64, seasoned players who have no doubt played and beat the original version of this game way more than me, will undoubtedly notice small changes that have been made to the locations of certain items or characters compared to the first game. None of these impact the game in any really meaningful ways. If anything, they make the game feel a a tad bit more enjoyable by making certain things slightly more intuitive. I'd say nothing is lost by playing the 3DS version and I'd even encourage it if you have to play this game on the go like I did, or just want better visuals than what was offered on the N64.


I've made many comparisons between Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time, and well, I'm about to do so once more. I still stand by Ocarina of Time as being my preferred N64 era Zelda, even when looking at the 3DS remakes as well. I feel like Ocarina is a more iconic game, and undoubtedly was far more groundbreaking when it came out, whereas Majora's Mask took the formula laid out in Ocarina and made many meaningful additions to it. However, another undeniable factor that has me preferring Ocarina over Majora is my own personal nostalgia for the former; beating Ocarina of Time for the first time as a 12 year old kid is up there with some of my most fond gaming memories. And as me beating it yet again earlier this year proved, Ocarina of Time is still very, very special game to me. Still, it cannot be understated how much I also love Majora's Mask and if anything, it's a game I'd like to replay and enjoy maybe just as much as I have Ocarina of Time since the late 90s. (9/29/25) [45/50]

bikingjahuty:
I'm on the cusp of hitting my goal of 100 games beat for the year. With Halloween and spooky game season around the corner, I already know exactly which game will carry the honor of being that 100th game. It's a game I've never actually played before, but it does represent another milestone that I haven't known in 20-years. It'll probably take me the week or slightly more to beat it. Stay tuned ;)

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