52 Games Challenge 2018

[bikingjahuty]

I mentioned this in the 2017 thread, but I will be adding a score to my reviews out of 50-points. I will be rating every game based on Presentation (graphics, art style, visual quality), Sound (fx, soundtrack, voice acting), Gameplay (controls, in-game mechanics, scoring), and Fun (how much I enjoyed playing it). Presentation, Sound, and Gameplay will be mostly objective markers, while fun will be entirely subjective. Likewise, these first three categories will be rated out of 10-points each, while Fun will be rated out of 20, since I believe my personal enjoyment of the game should carry the most weight, but not so much that I can just say a game sucks when it might not.

Here is what each of the scores for Presentation, Sound, and Gameplay mean:

0: Abysmal
1: Terrible with barely any redeemable qualities
2: Very bad, but with some decent qualities
3: Not that great, but decent in some ways
4: Below Average
5: Average
6: Above Average
7: Mostly good, with a few minor, but noticeable flaws
8: Very Good with only a few small flaws
9: Outstanding, with barely any flaws
10: Perfect

For Fun it is a bit harder to say, but essentially anything below a 10 means I didn't like or enjoy playing the game, with 1 being I really hated the game. Likewise anything above 10 would mean that I liked it to some degree with a 20 meaning the game is almost certainly a top 10 game for me.


I thought about including some sort of color coded status on what I was playing, but I've decided to leave this out. Essentially my reviews will be in this format:

#. GAME TITLE (console): Review........... (date beat)[X/50]

Even though it is only  slight change over what I did in 2017, I'm really excited to implement this new system as it will better help me decide which games I enjoy the most from each genre and also help me home in on what games are truly the best, most fun I've ever played.

[ignition365]

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.

55. Moonlighter (NS)
See Game Challenge 2019

56. Pillars of Eternity (X1)
Current Progress: No clue how to track yet
Not entirely certain why I decided to play this.  I've heard nothing about this game really, didn't even really know the genre or mechanics.  But so far the game seems VERY D&D, which is neat.  I'm still learning how everything works in the game, I've yet to figure out how to do sneak attacks or anything, which I feel is very important since my main character is a rogue.

57. We Happy Few (PS4)
Current Progress: Act 1
Not entirely sure how to properly track this game yet, might go by what story quest I'm on.  My wife was very insistent that I play this after finishing DQ Builders... so now I'm playing this.  This game feels too much like a crafting heavy Bioshock game.  Not entirely feeling the game, so it's going to be a pain to finish.

58. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
See Game Challenge 2020

59. Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)
Current Progress: Part 1: Chapter 4
I meant to actually play this after 4 and before 5, but I just jumped straight into 5 after 4.  Oh well, I'm definitely in need of a sort of palette cleanser after playing nothing but Yakuza for the past like year, and this game seems to be giving it to me a little bit while still being productive towards my goal of beating all of the Yakuza games.  Mostly a shooter, kinda poorly thrown together, sorta Resident Evil, sorta 3rd person/1st person shooter.  Basically old Resident Evil minus the tank controls.

60. Just Shapes and Beats (NS)
See Game Challenge 2020

61. Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
See Game Challenge 2019

62. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
See Game Challenge 2021

[bikingjahuty]

I mentioned this in the 2017 thread, but I will be adding a score to my reviews out of 50-points. I will be rating every game based on Presentation (graphics, art style, visual quality), Sound (fx, soundtrack, voice acting), Gameplay (controls, in-game mechanics, scoring), and Fun (how much I enjoyed playing it). Presentation, Sound, and Gameplay will be mostly objective markers, while fun will be entirely subjective. Likewise, these first three categories will be rated out of 10-points each, while Fun will be rated out of 20, since I believe my personal enjoyment of the game should carry the most weight, but not so much that I can just say a game sucks when it might not.

Here is what each of the scores for Presentation, Sound, and Gameplay mean:

0: Abysmal
1: Terrible with barely any redeemable qualities
2: Very bad, but with some decent qualities
3: Not that great, but decent in some ways
4: Below Average
5: Average
6: Above Average
7: Mostly good, with a few minor, but noticeable flaws
8: Very Good with only a few small flaws
9: Outstanding, with barely any flaws
10: Perfect

For Fun it is a bit harder to say, but essentially anything below a 10 means I didn't like or enjoy playing the game, with 1 being I really hated the game. Likewise anything above 10 would mean that I liked it to some degree with a 20 meaning the game is almost certainly a top 10 game for me.


I thought about including some sort of color coded status on what I was playing, but I've decided to leave this out. Essentially my reviews will be in this format:

#. GAME TITLE (console): Review........... (date beat)[X/50]

Even though it is only  slight change over what I did in 2017, I'm really excited to implement this new system as it will better help me decide which games I enjoy the most from each genre and also help me home in on what games are truly the best, most fun I've ever played.

Personally, I try to stay away from scores because generally they can be BS.  A game could play well and be fantastic to play and wind up with like a 30 if it isn't pretty or sound awesome, but a game that's just all around mediocre could wind up with the same score.  Even then, a game with great music and art style, usable controls, but no fun will wind up with a higher score than the ugly fun game. *shrug*

I rate my games with essentially a Pass or Recommendation.  Usually I rate them as such: Hard Pass, Soft Pass, Pass w/notes, Recommended w/notes, Mildly Recommended, Highly Recommended.

I've been using this scoring system for the past year with SHMUPS I've played in order to participate in a Best of 20XX SHMUP on another forum and it has been very reliable so far. I have yet to play a game that was overly skewed in one direction over the other given the weight given to each category; a game can be asthetically appealing all around, however if its gameplay is crap it is likely to also effect it's weighted fun rating and drag the overall score down, as it should. Likewise, games that lack in all three objective scales are likely to not score high in  the subjective fun scale either.

Obviously the subjective "Fun" score will vary depending on who is playing the game, but I think that reviews are always subjective to a large degree and fully reflect the bias of the reviewer. Mine will be no different and personally at the end of the day, how enjoyable a game is to play is its most important quality a game can have, hence why it carries double the weight of any of the other aspects of a game.

It all balances out in the overall score which paints an accurate picture of the overall experience I had while playing the game.

[ignition365]

Yeah, man, whatever works for you.  Personally, I can find fun in a lot of things, so even weighing fun heavily, I know I could rate a game I love moderately low.  I pretty much rate a game on fun/enjoyment alone.  I'll make notes if the graphics/music/controls are an issue or a godsend, but those aren't intrinsic to a game being fun/enjoyable in my book... unless that's the point of the game (i.e. Artsy games, music based games, etc.)

Anyhoo, I was going to start building my list and stuff and make notes, but I just don't know if I can bother right now.  Beat my first game for the year shortly after midnight last night.

[Cartagia]

Like so many others, I don't expect to hit 52, but it is a nice fun way to chip away at the backlog, while simultaneously keeping track of what I'm playing.  I've got a couple of different gaming resolutions this year, including using my portable systems more (like playing on my lunch break).  And, a smaller more specific one, I want to beat all of the mainline Mega Man games, and if that goes well, doing the same when the X collection comes out.  I am listing the game, the system it was played on and the status - Beat / Finished, Playing, or Abandoned

1. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (PS4) - Beat
2. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Switch) - Beat
3. Yoshi's New Island (2DS XL) - Beat
4. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) - Beat
4a. Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds (PS4) - Beat
5. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (2DS XL) - Beat
6. Abzu (PS4) - Beat
7. Titanfall 2 (PS4) - Beat
8. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC) - Abandoned
9. Star Wars Battlefront II (XB1) - Beat
10. Mega Man (2DS XL) - Beat
11. Mega Man 2 (2DS XL) - Beat
12. Prey (2017) (XB1) - Beat
13. Mega Man 3 (PS4) - Beat
14. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360) - Beat
15. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PS4) - Beat
16. Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers (PS4) - Beat
17. Dead Space 2 (XB1) - Beat
18. God of War (2018) (PS4) - Platinum
19. Mega Man 4 (PS4) - Beat
20. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) - Beat
21. Dark Souls III: Fire Fades Edition (PS4) - Beat
22. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation (2DS XL) - Beat
23. Mega Man 5 (PS4) - Beat
24. Hollow Knight (Switch) - Completed
25. South Park: The Fractured But Whole (XB1) - Beat
26. Mega Man 6 (PS4) - Beat
27. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1) - Beat
28. Mega Man 7 (PS4) - Beat
29. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (XB1) - Beat
30. Mega Man 8 (PS4) - Beat
31. Mega Man 9 (PS4) - Beat
32. Mega Man 10 (PS4) - Beat
33. Halo 5: Guardians (XB1) - Beat
34. Sonic Mania Plus (Switch) - Beat
35. Borderlands 2 (PS4) - Beat
36. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (PC) - Beat
37. Mega Man 11 - (Switch) Beat
38. Dark Souls: Remastered (Switch) - Beat
39. Red Dead Redemption II (PS4) - Beat
40. Imperialism (PC) - Finished
41. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time (SNES) - Beat
42. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - Beat
43. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) - Beat
44. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard (PS4) - Beat
45. Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation (PC) - Beat
46. Castlevania: Bloodlines (GEN) - Beat

[courtlyhades296]

For this year, I will try to beat 52 Mario World hacks without savestates.

Green=All Exits

Blue=Cleared

1. SMW Christmas Edition (cleared Jan 1 with 22 exits out of 30)



A nice little holiday themed SMW hack. One thing that sets it apart is that the game is in German PAL60. An adventure definitely worth playing in my opinion. If there's one downside, the bosses are overpowered.

2. Kumikyoku (cleared Jan 3 with 1 exit out of 4)



This game is the precursor to all the Automatic Mario levels you see in Mario Maker. Fun to watch, but not fun to play.

3/52: The Shadow Queen Returns (Cleared January 26 with 17 exits)



I played this steaming dog turd because the title intrigued me. Like Super Mario Kollision, the game starts off good but by World 3 turned to shit. The secret exits cannot even be called secrets. The World 3 castle should at least have a Muncher at the start if you kill the Magikoopa you need to proceed. Add to that an underwhelming end of demo boss, and you have a title that needs improvement before another release.

4/52: NSMW2 C3 Demo (Cleared Feb 2)



This game is a much needed improvement after the disaster that is Shadow Queen Returns. Every level felt like an extension of the original Super Mario World. I especially loved the integration of Crash Bandicoot music into the game's levels. I am definitely looking towards playing the full version.

[bikingjahuty]

First review of the year is up on page 1

[ignition365]

Finally started adding stuff.

Have my first 3 game notes up with some notes on the 4th.  Modern games might mostly sit on the wayside until I upgrade my HDTV to a 4K TV.  Just need to pick the right TV.

[realpoketendonl]

And that's the first game for 2018 down!

• The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)

It took me a long time to get through this one. I started in 2015 and dropped it multiple times. Let me tell you right now, it takes a good while to really get into this game. Trust me on these things: Buy the Unite Spring and Unite Guts as soon as you can, and push through a good bit before you judge it. I pushed through a solid 6 hours before I finally felt like the game was starting to pay off, when I got all the Unite Morphs and finally started to really get the hang of it. But once you're through the rocky start, you're left with a very unique and great action game. Even if it's not perfect, I love the Unite mechanic. Being able to morph into different weapons and stringing them together is a ton of fun. It's definitely a unique standout title in the world of action hack-'n-slash games. It's not Platinum's greatest work, but if you push through their talent does shine through. If you're a fan of action games or PlatinumGames and are looking for something new, Wonderful 101 is definitely worth checking out.

Also, sidenote, does anyone have any good recommendations for websites I can post quick reviews like this to? Looking around and I'd be up for anything!

[realpoketendonl]

It forcefully got pushed back to this year, but it's done! Life is Strange: Before the Storm is beaten!

• Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Steam)

I wanted to beat this game back in december, but my laptop died and had to go in for repairs. "Two weeks" they said. Well, three weeks later and they still hadn't even touched it. I just got my money back and ordered a replacement. Let's hope this one does better.

So, what did I think of it? I quite enjoyed it! It's not as great as the original, but in my opinion it's still a great story well worth going through. I won't say too much about it here, both because I don't want to spoil anything and because I am honestly pretty sick and can't think hard about what to write right now. But if you are even remotely curious about this game, I say it's worth checking out. I do recommend playing the original first if you haven't yet. It's better, and it'll give you a deeper, better and more personal understanding of this one. And if you have played the original, well, let's be real, you've probably already made out whether or not it's worth playing yourself. (and if you haven't, and you enjoyed the original, I say it is).

[kamikazekeeg]

2 - The Evil Within 2 (PC 2017) - 16 HOURS BEAT - This was a great game and is a perfect example of taking what worked in the first game, but making a much better sequel.  I played the first game earlier last year in prep for this one and while it had good ideas, there were a lot of problems and misguided ideas.  Tried too hard to be Resident Evil 4, but didn't have the characters or setting, that is when it wasn't trying to outright rip off RE4.  Taking the gameplay, streamlining it, and putting it into a semi-open world setting actually made this game feel unique.  Story worked pretty well to and it's good having Sebastian as an actual character and not a dense sack of potatoes.  Definitely recommend it if you want a good action survival game

[Warmsignal]

Okay so, this will be my main list I suppose. My goal is not to beat every single game I play, only if it's compelling enough to do so. If I stop playing a game, that doesn't mean that I didn't like it. I just tend to do that. I will however, put several hours into every game that I try. My list will go by game name with platform, status, and personal score. I'll only score them if I felt that I experienced enough of the game to give a score.

My scoring system is basically 1 = terrible, 5 = average, 10 = pure awesomeness.

Status - green means I finished it, blue means I'm currently playing, purple means I've stopped playing, and orange means taking a break but plan to return soon.

1. Yooka-Laylee (PS4) - Hiatus
2. Solar Eclipse (Saturn) - Beat - 7/10
3. High Velocity Mountain Racing Challenge (Saturn) - Playing
4. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) - Playing

[hofoblivion]

-Deleted-

[arkaneer]

Bit late to start as I've only just joined the site, but would like to participate and see how I get on in 2018 

I won't beat every game I play. Skill gets the better of me with some platformers and I have a low terror threshold when it comes to horror games!

1. Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus (PS4): Main Story - 11 hours [12/01/18]
2. Final Fantasy XIV : A Realm Reborn (PS4 & PC): Main Scenario Quest & Class Quest - 76 hours [08/02/18]
3. Dear Esther - Landmark Edition (PS4): Main Story - 2 hours [08/02/18]
4. Monster Hunter: World (PS4): Main Story - 66 hours [10/02/18]
5. Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (PS4): Main Story - 8 hours [14/02/18]
6. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4): Main Story - 7 hours [19/02/18]
7. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4): Main Story - 8 hours [21/02/18]
8. Dragon Quest Builders (PS4): Main Story & Free Play Mode - 45 hours [11/03/18]
9. Silence (PS4): Main Story - 6 hours [16/03/18]
10. Dirt 4 (PS4): Career Mode - 30 hours [20/03/18]
11. What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4): Story - 3 hours [22/03/18]
12. Ni No Kuni 2 (PS4): Story - 50 hours [30/03/18]

[thegouldfish]

Hit 60 games last year so hoping to do similar this year, also hoping to keep up a healthy balance of platforms.


So far this year: 19

Completed in 2018 (but started in 201X):

• Super Frog HD (PC)
• Abuse (PC)
• Castle of Illusion, starting Micky mouse (PC)
• Rocket Knight (PC)

Completed in 2018 (and started in 2018)

• Wonderboy in the dragon trap (Switch)
• Environment Station Alpha (PC)
• Fire And Ice (AMIGA)
• Rodland (AMIGA)
• Outcast: Second Contact (PC)
• Scrap Garden (PC)
• Duke Nukem: Manhatten Project (PC)
• Max (Gameboy)
• Golf Story (Switch)
• Amazing Spiderman 2 (Gameboy)
• Gargoyle's Quest (Gameboy)
• Super Mario land 3: Wario Land (Gameboy)
• Giga Wrecker (PC)
• Wario Land 2 (Gameboy Colour)
• Legend of Zelda: Links awakening DX (Gameboy Colour)