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General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on December 25, 2023, 08:06:34 pm

Title: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 25, 2023, 08:06:34 pm
Another year, another 52 games to knock off our backlogs!


In case you've never participated in the 52 Games Challenge, the purpose of this challenge is to reduce your backlog of games by aiming to beat at least one game a week on average, or 52 games in total before the end of the year. Each time you beat a game, you can track it in this thread, and if you feel so inclined you can write a mini review about your experience with the game to share with everyone else. The 52 Games Challenge is super fun, and the one thing I enjoy more than anything on VGcollect these days. It's nice having others to share your journey to 52 games beat and beyond, and at least for me helps me stay motivated throughout the year.


See you at 52 everyone! Good Luck!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 25, 2023, 08:06:40 pm
As stated in my 2024 Gaming Goals post, I plan on trying to play quite a few games from franchises I've never played before, as well as play more games that take more than an hour or two to beat (ie arcade games). I also really want to play a decent amount of games I've beat before, but not for a really long time. I try and avoid creating wishlists for games I want to play during the year, but what the hell. I'm creating a wishlist to for 2024.


COMPLETED

1. Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) (1/1/24) [35/50]
2. Einhander (PS1) (1/1/24) [35/50]
3. California Speed (N64) (1/3/24) [27/50]
4. Stunt Racer 64 (N64) (1/3/24) [23/50]
5. Sonic Wings Special (PS1) (1/4/24) [32/50]
6. Real Bout: Fatal Fury (PS4) (1/16/24) [33/50]
7. Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special (PS4) (1/16/24) [35/50]
8. Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2 (PS4) (1/16/24) [34/50]
9. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3) (1/20/24) [34/50]
10. Virtua Cop (Arcade) (1/21/24) [37/50]
11. The Tick (Genesis) (1/21/24) [22/50]
12. The Punisher (Genesis) (1/21/24) [31/50]
13. Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade) (1/28/24) [35/50]
14. Top Skater (Arcade) (1/31/24) [31/50]
15. Dead or Alive (Arcade) (1/31/24) [33/50]
16. Last Bronx (Arcade) (1/31/24) [28/50]
17. Motor Raid (Arcade) (1/31/24) [35/50]
18. Daytona USA (Arcade) (1/31/24) [36/50]
19. Dynamite Deka 2 (Arcade) (1/31/24) [32/50]
20. Sky Target (Arcade) (2/2/24) [26/50]
21. Sega Water Ski (Arcade) (2/2/24) [32/50]
22. Sonic Championship (Arcade) (2/3/24) [25/50]
23. Detroit Become Human (PS4) (2/26/24) [37/50]
24. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC) (3/28/24) [35/50]
25. Red Dead Redemption (PS3) (4/27/24) [35/50]
26. Breakers Revenge (PS4) (4/29/24) [29/50]
27. Mega Man X2 (PS4) (5/2/24) [33/50]
28. Raiden III (Switch) (5/4/24) [34/50]
29. Raiden V: Director's Cut (PS4) (5/4/24) [20/50]
30. Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) (6/18/24) [36/50]
31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Manhattan Project (NES) (6/20/24) [30/50]
32. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES) (7/7/24) [37/50]
33. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PS1) (8/3/24) [38/50]
34. Mortal Kombat 2 (Arcade) (8/6/24) [30/50]
35. Mortal Kombat Trilogy (PS1) (8/6/24) [34/50]
36. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2) (8/9/24) [33/50]
37. Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA) (8/12/24) [28/50]
38. Sonic Advance 3 (GBA) (8/13/24) [31/50]
39. Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA) (8/14/24) [34/50]
40. Time Crisis 2 (PS2) (8/26/24) [33/50]
41. Time Crisis 3 (PS2) (8/27/24) [34/50]
42. Sonic Rush (DS) (9/1/24) [34/50]
43. Resident Evil 6 (PS4) (9/16/24) [38/50]
44. DOOM 64 (PS4) (9/24/24) [36/50]
45. Tekken 8 (PS5) (9/28/24) [39/50]
46. Perfect Dark (N64) (11/8/24) [35/50]
47. Dr. Mario 64 (N64) (11/8/24) [34/50]
48. Extreme G (N64) (11/10/24) [37/50]
49. Tech Romancer (Dreamcast) (12/1/24) [26/50]
50. Mortal Kombat Gold (Dreamcast) (12/25/24) [32/50]
51. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) (12/27/24) [41/50]
52. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Dreamcast) (12/28/24) [32/50]


ABANDONED

1. Battletoads (Genesis) (1/21/24)
2. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS3) (2/1/24)
3. Earthbound (SNES) (2/24/24)
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan (PS4) (6/21/24)
5. Time Crisis: Crisis Zone (PS2) (8/27/24)
6. The Bouncer (PS2) (12/28/24)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on December 25, 2023, 09:12:13 pm
I hit the half mark for 2023. We'll see how I do in 2024. My starting lineup:

Currently Playing:
Dino Crisis (PSN)

Completed: 17
Sonic Superstars (Switch)
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5)
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5)
Resident Evil 5 (PS4)
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Collection (PS5)
 - Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Genesis)
 - Jurassic Park (Genesis)
Sonic Origins (PS5)
 - Sonic CD (Sega CD)
 - Sonic 2 (Genesis)
Jet Moto (PS1)
Twisted Metal 2 (PS1)
Tomb Raider Legend (PS2)
Dino Crisis (PS1)
Dino Crisis 2 (PS1)
Tomb Raider Underworld (PS2)
Bro Force (PS4)
TMNT Shredder's Revenge (PS4)
Assassins Creed Ezio Trilogy (PS4)
 - Assassins Creed 2 (PS3)

Planning to Play:
Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
 - Uncharted 2 (PS3)
Immortals of Aveum (PS5)
ICO (PS2)
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered (PS5)
 - Tomb Raider (PS1)
 - Tomb Raider 2 (PS1)
 - Tomb Raider 3 (PS1)
Assassins Creed Ezio Trilogy (PS4)
 - Assassins Creed Brotherhood (PS3)
Assassin's Creed III Remastered (PS4)
Onimusha (PSN)
Resident Evil DC (PSN)
Astrobot (PS5)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 25, 2023, 09:15:19 pm
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 25, 2023, 10:27:13 pm
Previous 52 Game Challenges: 2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg174802.html#msg174802), 2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185673.html#msg185673), 2022 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193705.html#msg193705), 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199073.html#msg199073)

01. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204282.html#msg204282) Rusty Lake: Roots || PC || 01.03.24
02. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204304.html#msg204304) Cube Escape: The Cave || PC || 01.07.24
03. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204307.html#msg204307) Flipper Lifter || Playdate || 01.07.24
04. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204343.html#msg204343) Demon Quest '85 || Playdate || 01.11.24
05. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204345.html#msg204345) Rusty Lake Paradise || PC || 01.12.24
06. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204403.html#msg204403) Cube Escape: Paradox || PC || 01.16.24
07. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204454.html#msg204454) Omaze || Playdate || 01.16.24
08. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204530.html#msg204530) Hyper Meteor || Playdate || 01.16.24
09. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204535.html#msg204535) The White Door || PC || 01.20.24
10. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204585.html#msg204585) Samsara Room || PC || 01.24.24
11. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204650.html#msg204650) Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog || PC || 01.30.24
12. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204725.html#msg204725) Silent Hill: The Short Message || PlayStation 5 || 02.07.24
13. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204964.html#msg204964) Tchia || PlayStation 5 || 02.25.24
14. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205000.html#msg205000) Tinykin || PlayStation 5 || 03.06.24
15. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205102.html#msg205102) Greyhill Incident || PlayStation 5 || 03.08.24
16. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205160.html#msg205160) Passage || Browser || 03.22.24
17. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205184.html#msg205184) QWOP || Browser || 03.25.24
18. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205332.html#msg205332) Nanaca Crash!! || Browser || 04.08.24
19. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205393.html#msg205393) Picross e || Nintendo 3DS || 04.19.24
20. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205439.html#msg205439) Tappingo 2 || Nintendo 3DS || 04.25.24
21. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205445.html#msg205445) Don't Look Back || Browser || 05.01.24
22. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205462.html#msg205462) Flow || PlayStation Portable || 05.04.24
23. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205531.html#msg205531) Kids || PC || 05.10.24
24. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205627.html#msg205627) Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly || GameCube || 05.20.24
25. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205894.html#msg205894) Rhythm Heaven Fever || Wii || 06.13.24
26. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206039.html#msg206039) Going Under || Nintendo Switch || 06.30.24
27. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206046.html#msg206046) Silent Hill: Origins || PlayStation 2 || 07.01.24
28. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206134.html#msg206134) Beautiful Katamari || Xbox 360 || 07.10.24
29. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206219.html#msg206219) Star Sled || Playdate || 07.18.24
30. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206223.html#msg206223) Inventory Hero || Playdate || 07.18.24
31. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206271.html#msg206271) A Kappa's Trail || Nintendo DS || 08.05.24
32. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206370.html#msg206370) HarmoKnight || Nintendo 3DS || 08.13.24
33. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206423.html#msg206423) OlliOlli World || PlayStation 5 || 08.18.24
34. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206592.html#msg206592) Soul Fjord || Ouya || 08.27.24
35. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206667.html#msg206667) Yakuza 0 || PlayStation 4 || 08.29.24
36. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206752.html#msg206752) The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me || PlayStation 5 || 09.09.24
37. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206885.html#msg206885) Silent Hill: Homecoming || PlayStation 3 || 09.25.24
38. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206938.html#msg206938) Baths || PC || 09.30.24
39. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207249.html#msg207249) The Contrarian Press || Browser || 11.10.24
40. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207294.html#msg207294) The Children of Clay || PC || 11.10.24
41. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207317.html#msg207317) Creature Packets || PC || 11.15.24
42. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207344.html#msg207344) Only Humans || Browser || 11.16.24
43. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207413.html#msg207413) Please, Touch the Artwork 2 || PC || 11.22.24
44. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207478.html#msg207478) How We Know We're Alive || PC || 11.24.24
45. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207532.html#msg207532) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars || Super Nintendo || 12.05.24
46. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207611.html#msg207611) No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! || PlayStation || 12.09.24
47. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207640.html#msg207640) Pokémon Puzzle League || Nintendo 64 || 12.13.24
48. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207694.html#msg207694) Papers, Please || PlayStation Vita || 12.18.24
49. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207711.html#msg207711) Soupsoup || Mobile || 12.21.24
50. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207794.html#msg207794) Tetris Effect: Connected || PlayStation 4 || 12.27.24
51. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207803.html#msg207803) Milo and the Christmas Gift || PC || 12.29.24
52. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207889.html#msg207889) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword || Wii || 12.31.24
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on December 25, 2023, 11:24:31 pm
Met my goal in 2016 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg105641.html#msg105641), 2017 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg132350.html#msg132350), 2018 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php?topic=8821.msg149004#msg149004), 2019 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162655.html#msg162655), 2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173290.html#msg173290),  2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185665.html#msg185665), 2022 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193710.html#msg193710), and 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199078.html#msg199078); with 2021 being 156 games, 2016/2017/2020/2022/2023 being 104 games, and 2018/2019 being 52 games as the goals.  2015 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,5879.msg103895.html#msg103895) I tracked the info super late and I had another really busy year that year. 

2023 saw me spend a lot of time on PC gaming, both in playing games, using sites like Playtracker, Barter, and Steamgifts to get games to play, and working on backlog group stuff on discord groups.  For some reason it also saw me having a really hard time keeping up with my notes on here, using this site in general, and playing less in general.  2022 my kid didn't even start school until August, 2023 my kid was in school full time and for some reason I guess that's making things harder?  I don't know, maybe it's he's older and can do more of what he wants as opposed to just fudging about like a baby/toddler, maybe it's more of I have a lot less I can play in front of him because he's impressionable now, maybe I just don't have time for it because my kid is a handful.  I don't know.  Right now, I'm a bit burnt out after doing a wild double bingo board challenge in December (which ran through Jan 15th) that ended with me "earning" my final bingos, filling out the board, 14 minutes after the deadline, so it didn't count, which is the kind of strict rigid fuckery I'm not about, but I guess also fuck Marvel's Avengers for having such awful RNG that it took over 100 pulls to get a fucking belt, which you'd think would be like 1/4 odds, because there are four gear types.  Anyway, been buying less and trying to play more, but life is stressful and I haven't really played games to play games since like Robocop, so here's hoping I can mange to do that.

Quote from: Legend
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.

Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/ignition365)
Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/Ignition365)

2024 52 Game Challenge

Top Games played released in 2024

Top Games played NOT released in 2024

Top Games played overall in 2024

Honorable Mention

- Content posts -
Games 1 - 23 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204017.html#msg204017)
Games 23 - 49 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204063.html#msg204063)
Games 50 - 72 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205203.html#msg205203)
Games 73 - 103 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205618.html#msg205618)
Games 104 - 127 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206040.html#msg206040)
Game 128 + Final Stats (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207974.html#msg207974)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on December 25, 2023, 11:24:42 pm
Main List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204016.html#msg204016)

Quote from: Legend
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. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (X1)
Went back to this one again because I needed something I could play in front of my impressionable kid, and this is mostly fine.  I don't remember the grind for level 20 being as annoying in the original, and I certainly don't remember having to play this much online to get all of the achievements.  So I'm not having a terribly good time having to play online, which doesn't earn much xp, or repeatedly playing the same levels over and over to get xp to hit level 20.
Rating: Soft pass

2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5)
Been trying to start this one for a while.  Kept booting it up and never starting.  Did the prologue and just didn't come back... and now here I am, trying to play it, and I even took time off work, which partly was going to be used for this, and with this stupid fucking arctic blast I'm dealing with plumbing shit because I don't know what the fuck to do to not have my pipes burst and shit.  Had someone come out today and they super did a temp job and are coming back in a couple of days to weld on a more "permanent solution", and something, I don't know what the fuck it was, did a loud banging noise for like 7 seconds and we have no clue what it was.  Pipes didn't burst because the water main shows no water usage when I turn off dripping faucets, water was dripping not running, so I wouldn't think water hammering is what's happening, my only thought is now something is fucked up with my water heater.  Anyway, I'm on Chapter 2 or 3, I'm really not sure, I'm doing missions which is interesting, especially in the whole doing side quests when there is an uber urgent main mission awaiting my attention.  Played most of the game doing my own thing and not getting too caught up in the game's systems, but then I started getting towards the harder missions and decided to look stuff up, wound up having to look up how to defeat a bunch of duders because they were invulnerable to physical and magic.  Got all the way to the Minerva fight and was just blown away by how BS that fight is.  It's almost RNG to win, but I guess if your stats are just right you can survive anything once so just gotta play right, once I had my stats right I beat it without issue.  Story didn't really answer any questions but just left more, I will say I'm hyped for Rebirth.  It's kinda weird too, I've never been a FF fan, but my wife has, she made me get Remake day one and she played it like crazy, Rebirth is coming out and she doesn't care but I'm hyped.  We'll maybe see if she changes her mind, but she hasn't been about playing games for years at this point.
Rating: Soft recommendation

3. Pokemon Scarlet (NS)
Needed a day time game to play because my kid is too impressionable and I basically can't play anything with violence at all.  Even pokemon is a problem because it has violence which winds up making my kid start hitting me every time the pokemon do anything.  Anyway, this game is pretty awful, like one of the worst pokemon games ever released.  The game crashed multiple times and so much slowdown so frequently.  Game was nearly unplayable at times in handheld mode.  A lot of, if not all, characters seemed, I don't know how to put it other than they seemed like they weren't designed by the Pokemon team.  The entire game feels like it was developed by a western developer.  Again, I don't know how to put it other than that, it just doesn't have any of the same feel as previous Pokemon games, it feels like Game Freak just handed development over to like a 2nd party US Nintendo studio and just let them run with it.  A bunch of stuff makes no sense too, like Toedscool/Toedscruel, why are these new pokemon and not regional variants, and how are they different from these ancient pokemon that are obviously ancestors to current pokemon.  This entire game feels like a fan hack written by a hormonal teenager obsessed with gen 1.
Rating: Soft pass

4. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
I've had this for a while, but for some reason or another just never got around to it.  I hate that I waited literally months to get around to writing this.  I'm consistently in a slump in keeping up with stuff.  I've got a stack of games to add to VGC/VGPC.  Anyway, I think this game gets some shit because it's not technically main line, but this game is essentially a true Yakuza 7, it continues Kiryu's story after 6 through the events of Yakuza 7.  Plus this game is great.  I also like the traditional Yakuza games over the new RPG style games, not that they are bad, but I enjoy these better.  Tons of content in this one, and honestly probably the easiest platinum in the entire franchise, I don't have the platinum yet, but it won't take but an hour or so to grind out the last trophy or two.  I have to think about 2024 game wise at this point (months later) because this one is definitely on the list if not at the top.
Rating: Solid recommendation

5. Simmiland (PC)
The playtracker mystery game of the season.  Small rant, playtracker moved to 3 month seasons instead of monthly seasons (they may not have called them seasons before) and part of the excuse was that with 3 month seasons the site could afford to spring for better games as the mystery game... this seasons game is a cheap sokpop game, kinda feels like a slap in the face considering, but free is free, so whatever.  Anyway, this is definitely not the type of game I would play on my own, so it is interesting to be pushed outside of my comfort zone.  The game isn't the worst, but again isn't a game I would play on my own.  The systems are a bit convoluted and taking learning, plus the RNG nature of deck based games.  I played some on Steam deck and then realized that I wasn't going to be able to successfully hit my goal for this game without using mouse and keyboard, so I transitioned to playing on PC... or maybe I hooked up my steam deck so I could use a mouse, I don't recall, it's been months.  Anyway, not a great game, but you definitely get your value for a $5 game.
Rating: Soft pass

6. God of War III Remastered (PS4)
I had beaten this years ago when I did my franchise run of the GoW franchise (Still need to buy Ragnarok to keep up) but I rolled a trophy from this game as a personal challenge for playtracker.  Trophy was to collect certain collectibles, but I found out there is a glitch for this game that grants you invincibility so I decided that I'd work on the platinum trophy in the process.  Unfortunately this game has unskippable cutscenes so replaying the game is truly horrendous.  I pretty much stopped playing once I unlocked the trophy that I needed for the challenge, but I'm pretty close to beating the game on Titan difficulty or whatever it was that I had left to unlock so at some point I'll go back and finish up to get that platinum, but for now, it can sit.
Rating: See 52 game challenge 2019 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg165825.html#msg165825) tl;dr Extremely soft recommendation

7. Hidden through Time (PC)
First of many hidden object games played this year.  This one is a fun one on paper, but quickly the levels get real big and unwieldy very quickly.  It's a neat game, but I eventually reached the point that I wasn't going to progress without assistance, and that's not really fun.  I will give the game points that even though it has DLC, the DLC doesn't add achievements that are DLC locked.
Rating: Soft pass

8. Shredders (XS)
I'm surprised that this is the first Game Pass leaving game I played this year.  Not really sure why I decided to play this one other than it looked kind of SSX.  Controls aren't great nor intuitive, but maybe I've just lost my whatever with snowboarding/MX/ATV/etc games or maybe they were simpler back in the PS2 era.  Story is kind of dumb, like really dumb, it has its moments that are amusing, but overall really dumb.  I kind of breezed myself through this game, which was relatively quick, but overall wasn't really enjoyable.  If the game had had accessibility options to simplify the controls a bit more, I would've been able to enjoy the game better, but I spent so much time fighting trying to do flips and spins, which is usually pretty basic in these games.
Rating: Solid pass

9. Bluey: The Videogame (XS)
This hit game pass, which I had already played some on Switch, because I bought it at launch, but decided that earning achievements was a good reason to get me to actually play through the game.  A bit disappointing in that it is an OG bargain game, but the game is playable.  For its target audience, little children, this game is real great, it even has extra content to keep playing and has some level of replayability of the 4 multiplayer games.  But personally, I was hoping for something more akin to Rugrats PSX, but I know that was asking too much, it's just disappointing that such a great show got a phoned in game.  Like extra disappointing is just how poor the graphics are, I mean, they didn't even bother to do anything about looking left and right, it's literally just flipping a sprite, so when Chilli looks the other direction, her spots hop to the other side of her face, it's this kind of laziness that just disappoints me.  Easy 1000 Gamerscore.
Rating: Soft pass

10. Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (GBC)
I actually don't know if I had ever actually played and beat this game before, I spent so much time playing the N64 game, I don't know that I ever actually played through the GBC version.  Mostly played this because I wanted to play something old and kind of mindless, and old puzzle games like this are my bread and butter.  Spent a bit of time on it earning all of the retro achievements for the game.  Not nearly as good as the N64 game, for so many reasons, but I really love Panel de Pon games.
Rating: Solid recommendation

11. Forza Horizon 3 (X1)
I think at this point I had been playing Yakuza 8/FF7R2, but I was being so stressed because my son has been so out of hand, I needed to be playing something relatively mindless, even if not, I have to play games that are safe to play in front of him which pretty much limits me to like puzzle games and racing games, very seldom does anything else fit that isn't problematic (language, any sort of violence, etc)  Anyway, I decided to play this and try to check out things I missed out and the Hot Wheels expansion.  Did about as much as I could given that the game isn't supported anymore... plus this game is notorious for being busted achievement wise, so many achievements are kind of broken due to being dependent on Xbox's busted ass stats functionality that launched around the release of this game, so early players missed out on so many achievements that shouldn't have been missable... myself included.  There is technically a workaround to earn them, but it requires deleting your saved data and starting a new game and essentially re-earning the achievements... just another reason why it fucking sucks that Xbox stores all saves in the cloud where you can't backup your saves yourself.  Very concerning for when Xbox eventually shuts down saves and such because games will literally become unplayable I imagine... but Xbox is 3rd rate, 3rd tier, and not enough vocal users to get shit taken care of.
Rating: Solid recommendation, despite bugs

12. Ravenlok (XS)
Another leaving Game Pass game.  This one has storybook vibes so I figured I could play this one in front of my kid.  Game has obvious parallels with Alice in Wonderland.  Pretty simple repetitive hack and slash gameplay, puzzles are simple enough, story and dialogue is mildly interesting, but all in all, not really special.  Graphics however are voxel, which is one of my least favorite art styles so the game loses points there, in a lot of places it doesn't look too bad because it's high enough quality, but still not preferred.  Easy 1000 Gamerscore though.
Rating: Soft pass

13. Pikuniku (X1)
Started this game years ago, however I have no notes on my original time with the game.  Game was leaving game pass so I made sure to finish up.  It's a game that on paper sounds good and should be enjoyable, but the controls are a tad unintuitive and the game overall isn't the easiest to follow what to do next.  When I had originally played this, I had abandoned it because I didn't know what to do next.  So when I came back to the game this time around, I made sure that I had a guide to follow so I don't waste much time given the time constraint of it leaving Game Pass.
Rating: Soft pass

14. Cataire (PC)
There have actually been a lot of games I've played this year that I haven't marked on here because I only played them long enough to meet some sort of criteria.  This one is one where I only played because I won it as a gift with a condition that I play and earn some achievements (I actually think it wasn't an actual condition for this one due to shenanigans, but I did it anyway).  However this game is literally just Spider Solitaire with nothing else going on for it, so I'm marking it as beat despite there still being achievements left to earn, but nothing really to do with this game.
Rating: Solid pass

15. Balatro (PC)
This game was another game that I won under the condition that I earn some achievements in it.  The achievements in this game are mostly tied to winning, so I consider the game beat given that I succeeded some runs, and honestly once you've done that you get what the game has to offer despite some new cards and rules appearing later on.  All in all, this game is really fun and super addictive, real easy to lose yourself playing this game. Roguelike/deckbuilding poker, so many ways to go with this game, but seriously fun.
Rating: Solid recommendation

16. Liquidum (PC)
I get sent games to review, but they are generally not great games because I'm not a prominent reviewer.  Honestly, I still don't know if I get this game.  It's sort of picross like, but adds other elements which then make the game kind of hard to follow.  One of those puzzle games that tries to reinvent the wheel, starts out innovative and interesting, but then the mechanics get confusing and convoluted... but this game doesn't really punish you for getting things wrong so you can just trial and error fill things out until you're right.
Rating: Hard pass

17. Dice Guess (PC)
LMAO this game, it's literally just hey if the die rolls like this, what number will display... which is a bit flawed in that you can just grab a real D6 and just "roll" the die the way it should and get the answer.  I get what they are going for puzzle wise, but it just doesn't make a ton of sense.
Rating: Hard pass

18. Balance (PC)
I get what they really wanted with this game, trying to make a spin on the 2048 type of games, but this one has one mechanic, no levels or anything so no real replay value and honestly the one mechanic isn't that great.  It really amounts to one of those thought puzzles where there is one answer, why would you resolve the same puzzle over and over once you have the answer... the answer?  You wouldn't.
Rating: Hard pass

19. Fine Sweeper (PC)
Came back to this because I rolled it backlog in playtracker because I wanted puzzle games to play on PC.  Just a minesweeper game with achievements, went through and picked up some of the easier achievements that I missed from my original playthrough of the game.
Rating: See 52 Game Challenge 2017 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg132391.html#msg132391). tl;dr Soft recommendation

20. Wordle 2 (PC)
Another game I rolled in backlog for Playtracker.  Game isn't even mildly wordle, and confusingly seems to have existed before Wordle ever came out which is interesting, because this isn't something that came out to take advantage of the Wordle craze, this existed first.  Anyway, it's a simple scrabble texttwist kind of game where you have the letters and you have to assemble the words.
Rating: Hard pass

21. Fallout 4 (XS)
Game had its next gen update, which I wouldn't normally think anything of, but apparently the next gen update added new quests and made some Creation Club content part of the main game, so I decided I'd jump in with my vanilla save and take part in the new content that I'd never partaken in before.  From what I read it sounds like the content in question is modder content that was created by a modder who is now employed by Bethesda, thus them making it canon content.  Personally, this update doesn't feel very next gen, maybe on PC it'll look improved, but the game didn't feel improved on XS and the creation content at least at launch was broken where some items wouldn't render and just leave the big red triangle meaning models couldn't be loaded and caused some glitching and at least one crash.  From what I've read they've patched it to fix it, but seems a glaring QA issue to me, but who ever accused Bethesda of having QA in general amirite.
Rating: Solid recommendation

22. Forza Horizon 4 (XS)
After doing pretty much all to be done in FH3, I decided to jump into FH4 and work on content I missed in this game.  This lead to me finally starting the LEGO DLC but also I'm doing a lot of the achievements in the main game and working on some Fortune Island content as well as taking part in the festival season content since this game is still being supported actively.  Such a frustrating thing the live content on this game, because there are 74 series (4 seasons each) of content that are just fucking inaccessible because of the time lock nature... it's stupid hopeful thinking, but I'd love for them to unlock it all and remove the time constraints one day when they decide to stop supporting the game, because that is all content that would be great to be able to access especially given that so many cars and content are locked behind the festival series/seasons.
Rating: Solid recommendation (until support ends maybe)

23.Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions (PC)
More stained glass jigsaw puzzle goodness, this one adds a hard difficulty mode with requisite achievements, where hard mode requires you to rotate the pieces and find which way they go as well as where they go.  Surprisingly this game took me less than 28 hours to get through all of the puzzles, even the non-achievement DLC puzzles on hard difficulty.  This is one of those games that honestly on its own is great, but then you add being able to listen to your own music or listen to a tv show, and it just makes for a fantastic chill relaxing evening... until you start seeing stained glass pieces when you close your eyes... that can be miserable.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

Next List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204063.html#msg204063)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 25, 2023, 11:26:07 pm
1 - FlipWitch (PC 2023) - DROPPED
2 - Signalis (PC 2022) - DROPPED
3 - Super Mario RPG (Switch 2023) - PLAYING
4 - Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC (PC 2023) - BEAT
5 - Link's Awakening DX (NSO - Gameboy 1993) - DROPPED
6 - Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5 2023)
7 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC 2014) - BEAT
8 - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (PC 2015) - BEAT
9 - Sons of the Forest (PC 2024) - BEAT
10 - Helldivers 2 (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
11 - Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5 2024) - PLAYING
12 - Grounded (PC 2022) - BEAT
13 - Gooba Ball (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
14 - Dave the Diver (PC 2023) - BEAT
15 - Nightmare Kart (PC 2024) - BEAT
16 - Voices of the Void (PC 2022) - ENDLESS
17 - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5 2024) - BEAT
18 - Still Wakes the Deep (PC 2024) - BEAT
29 - Star Wars: Outlaws (PC 2024) - BEAT
20 - Astro Bot (PS5 2024) - BEAT
21 - Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered (PC 2024) - BEAT
22 - Warhammer 40k: Space Marine (PC 2011) - BEAT
23 - Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero (PC 2024) - DROPPED
24 - Alan Wake 2 (PC 2023) - BEAT
25 - Indigo Park: Chapter 1 (PC 2024) - BEAT
26 - Satisfactory (PC 2024) - BEAT...Mostly
27 - Dying Light 2 (PC 2022) - BEAT
28 - Death Stranding (PC 2020) - BEAT
29 - Dredge (PC 2023) - BEAT
30 - Marvel Rivals (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
31 - Delta Force (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
32 - Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (PC 2024) - BEAT
33 - Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: aliensstudios on December 26, 2023, 01:13:40 am
-
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: snyderec3 on December 26, 2023, 02:11:05 am
1. Borderlands 2 (PC) - Completed Main Story in December 2023, but placing it here as a placeholder as I intend to complete all DLC in 2024
2. Star Trek: Infinite (PC) - 13 Jan 24
3. Crusader Kings III (PC) - 28 Feb 24 - An open-ended game with no win condition, I defined "Beating" it as finally getting the achievement for completing a full playthrough.
4. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - 9 Mar 24
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: vivigamer on December 26, 2023, 07:47:42 am
Completed:
01. Soma (PS4 on PS5) - 15/01/2024
02. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2 on PS4 on PS5) - 18/01/2024
03. Mortal Kombat 9: Komplete Edition (Xbox 360 on Xbox One X) - 20/01/2024
04. Resident Evil Village + Shadow of Rose DLC (PS5) - 23/01/2024
05. Mortal Kombat XL (PS4 on PS5) - 26/01/2024
06. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate + Aftermath DLC (PS5) - 27/01/2024
07. Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5) - 01/02/2024
08. Disney Speed Storm: Season 5 - Let It Go! (PS5) - 08/02/2024
09. Final Fantasy VII Remake + Intermission DLC (PS5) - 29/02/2024 (Platinum)
10. Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly (PS5) - 03/03/2024 (Platinum)
11. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion (PS5) - ??/03/2024
12. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - 15/04/2024
13. South of the Circle (PS5) - 16/04/2024
14. Disney Speed Storm: Season 6 - Under The Sea! (PS5) - 17/04/2024
15. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - 30/04/2024
16. Abzu (PS5) - 01/05/2024
17. We Happy Few + DLC (PS4 on PS5) - 13/05/2024
18. Last Stop (PS5) - 13/05/2024 (Platinum)
19. Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon (PS5) - 27/05/2024
20. Disney Speed Storm: Season 7 - Wreck It Ralph (PS5) - ??/05/2024
21. Little Kitty Big City (Xbox Series X) 21/06/2024
22. Open Roads (Xbox Series X) 22/06/2024
23. Somerville (Xbox Series X) 23/06/2024
24. Mortal Kombat 1 (Xbox Series X) 24/06/2024
25. Gris (Xbox Series X) 25/06/2024
26. Thirsty Suitors (Xbox Series X) 26/06/2024
27. Jusant (Xbox Series X) 28/06/2024
28. Harold Halibut (Xbox Series X) 30/06/2024
29. Dordogne (Xbox Series X) 01/07/2024
30. The Callisto Protocol + Final Transmission DLC (PS5) 15/07/2024
31. Tails of Iron + DLC (PS5) 12/08/2024 (Platinum)
32. Sleeping Dogs + DLC (Xbox Series S) 15/08/2024
33. Resident Evil 4 Remake + Seperate Ways (PS5) 19/08/2024
34. Asura's Wrath + DLC (Xbox 360 on Xbox Series S) 20/08/2024
35. Ghosthunter (PS2 on PS5) 09/09/2024 (Platinum)
36. Yakuza 8: Like A Dragon - Infinite Wealth (PS5) ??/10/2024
37. Medievil (PS4 on PS5) 26/10/2024 (Platinum)
38. Man of Medan (PS5)
39. Little Hope (PS5)
40. Knights and Bikes (Xbox One X) 16/11/2024
41. Life Is Strange: Before The Storm (PS4 on PS5) 05/12/2024
42. Air Twister (PS5)
43. Resident Evil 7 (PS5)
44. Disney Speed Storm: Season 10 (PS5) - Hated it again!

Now Playing:
Life I Strange
Epic Mickey Rebrushed
Ni No Kuni 1
Sonic Superstars
Toem

Backlog:
Ghost Trick
Lost Judgment
Time Hollow
Max Payne

Abandoned:
Disney Speed Storm: Season 8 - Monetization made it unpleasant.
X-Com: Enemy Within - Too little story
Immortals of Aveum - Broken & horrible motion blue made it unbearable!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on December 26, 2023, 10:02:59 am
Quote from: Ignition365's Modified Legend
bold games are games that have been beaten/endless in 2024
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat or have been beat in previous years.
bold games are games that have been abandoned.

From Installed
1. Major League Manager (PC)
2. Pinball FX 2 (Steam)
3. Pinball Arcade (Steam)
4. Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1 (Steam)
5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
6. Fallout: New Vegas (Steam)
7. Bejeweled 3 (Steam)
8. Sid Meier's Civilization V (Steam)
9. Diablo III (Battle.net)
10. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Steam)
11. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Steam)
12. Torchlight II (Steam)
13. Borderlands 2 (Steam)
14. Grand Theft Auto V (PS3)
15. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Steam)
16. Fallout 4 (Steam)
17. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
18. The Simpsons: Hit & Run (PS2)
19. Just Cause 3 (Steam)

From Backlog
1. Victor Vran (Steam)
2. Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition (Steam)
3. Tales From the Borderlands (Steam)
4. Kirby Super Star (SNES)
5. The Sims 4 (Steam)
6. Tetris (NES)
7. Doom 2016 (Steam)
8. Super Mario RPG (SNES)
9. Dragon Age: Origins (Steam)
10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut (Steam)
11. Lego Marvel Superheroes (Steam)
12. Destiny 2 (Steam)
13. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 JP)
14. Minecraft: Nomifactory (PC)
15. Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (Steam)
16. The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis)
17. Ultrakill (Steam)
18. Dragon Age: Inquisition (Steam)
19. Batman Arkham City (PS3)
20. Dragon Age II (Steam)
21. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Steam)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on December 26, 2023, 10:10:02 am
Games Finished in 2024
1. Donut County (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204275.html#msg204275) - 1.3
2. God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204562.html#msg204562) - 1.26
3. Celeste (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204623.html#msg204623) - 1.28
4. Pokémon Violet (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204858.html#msg204858) - 2.18
5. Final Fantasy VI (SNESc) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205049.html#msg205049) - 3.17
6. Doom 1993 (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205198.html#msg205198) - 3.30
7. Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205240.html#msg205240) - 4.4
8. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205449.html#msg205449) - 5.2
9. Alundra (PS1) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205849.html#msg205849) - 6.9
10. Mega Man Battle Network 5 (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205849.html#msg205890) - 6.16
11. Super Paper Mario (Wii) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206031.html#msg206031) - 6.29
12. Super Monkey Ball (GC) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206045.html#msg206045) - 7.4
13. Tunic (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206189.html#msg206189) - 7.21
14. Flashback: The Quest for Identity (SNES) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206353.html#msg206353) - 8.15
15. Moon (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206621.html#msg206621) - 9.1
16. DaGeDar (DS) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206666.html#msg206666) - 9.8
17. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207014.html#msg207014) - 10.9
18. World of Horror (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207042.html#msg207042) - 10.16 
19. Untitled Goose Game (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207179.html#msg207179) - 10.31
20. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207201.html#msg207201) - 11.2
21. Persona 4 Golden (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207250.html#msg207250) - 11.7
22. Pikuniku (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207355.html#msg207355) - 11.18
23. SSX 3 (PS2) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207542.html#msg207542) - 12.8
24. Dredge (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg207867.html#msg207867) - 12.29
 

Additional Games Played in 2024 (endless or not finished yet)
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PS4)
Resident Evil 5 (PS4)
Enter the Gungeon (PS4)
The Last Guardian (PS4)
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise! (Switch)
Stardew Valley (Switch)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (GC)
Towerfall (Switch)
Snipperclips (Switch)


Backlog
This year I'm adding a list of games I plan on playing this year. The big challenge I want to do is try and finish at least one game on one of all my consoles: a "console tour" if you will.

- Celeste (PS4)
- Bloodborne (PS4)
- 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
- Mega Man 6 (PS2)
- Alundra (PS1)
- Tunic (Switch)
- World of Horror (Switch)
- Super Mario Wonder (Switch)
- MMBN 5 and 6, (Switch)
- Pokémon Violet (Switch)
- Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)
- Metroid Fusion (Wii U)
- Mario Advance 4 SMB 3 (Wii U)
- Super Paper Mario (Wii)
- Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (GC)
- Final Fantasy VI (SNESc)
- Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES)
- Flippul (GB)
- Pokemon: Leaf Green Version (GBA)
- Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)

Previous Lists
2015 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,5879.msg104675.html#msg104675) - 27 finished, + 10 played but not finished
2016 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg105642.html#msg105642) - 32 finished, + 16 played but not finished
2017 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg132293.html#msg132293) - 26 finished, + 13 played but not finished
2018 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8821.msg149017.html#msg149017) - 23 finished, + 6 played but not finished
2019 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162665.html#msg162665) - 20 finished, + 9 played but not finished
2020 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173286.html#msg173286) - 45 finished, + 10 played but not finished
2021 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185672.html#msg185672) - 24 finished, + 15 played but not finished
2022 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193725.html#msg193725) - 18 finished, + 11 played but not finished
2023 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199090.html#msg199090) - 24 finished, + 16 played but not finished
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: courtlyhades296 on December 26, 2023, 02:55:56 pm
Rules:
ROM hacks and other unofficial games are allowed, and must have at least 30 minutes of gameplay.
Tool-assisted runs are allowed.
Game Genie is banned.
If I play the same game multiple times in the same year, it must be on a different edition to count for this challenge. Playing the same game on the same system multiple times doesn't count to the challenge.

Playing:
Super Mario RPG [Any%] (SNES Mini)
Kirby's Dream Course {Any%} (SNES Mini)
Tales of Phantasia {Any%} (PC, Emulator with DeJap translation)
Quickie World 2 (PC, Emulator)
Mega Man 10 {Proto Man, Easy} (Wii)
Final Fantasy IV: Ultima {Any%} (PC, Emulator)
Final Fantasy VI {Under Level 30 Achievement} (PC, Emulator)
Super Bomberman R [Veteran Difficulty] (Switch)
Vitality {Any%} (PC, Emulator)
Terranigma (SNES)
Final Fantasy: Dawn Of Souls {Full Bestiary} (GBA)
Final Fantasy II: Dawn of Souls {Full Bestiary} (GBA)
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 {Warpless} (Wii U VC)

Planning to play:

Illusion of Gaia (SNES)
Either Metroid: Dread or Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)
Hades (Switch)
Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

Completed:
1. Super Mario World (SNES Mini) {No Star World} [Finished Jan 1]
Still one of the best games in the franchise. The game has a couple challenging levels, but doesn't reach the difficulty that the Kaizo genre goes to. No wonder this game has over 20,000 ROM hacks, 10,000 custom songs and 300 custom bosses made for it. 37 exits cleared.

2. Super Metroid Route Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {50 Room Challenge} [Finished Jan 6]
A fun way to get better at Super Metroid. The most challenging part of this seed was the final boss and the escape, which caused both of my deaths in this run of the randomizer. Animals saved.

3. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Custom Difficulty} [Finished Jan 7]
An easy to get into randomizer for one of the greatest games of all time. The difficulty can be customized depending on the user's skill level, and it was fun seeing different areas with different palettes. Would recommend this wholeheartedly. 49% of items obtained, animals killed.

4. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Custom Difficulty} [Finished Jan 12]
Every seed of this randomizer is a completely different game. In this seed, Bombs were only obtained after both Kraid and Draygon were defeated, and the Spazer and Space Jump were actually obtained this seed. Finding Phantoon was a bit of a challenge, but when I did, winning the game was quick. I enabled the option to fight Mother Brain 3 this seed, unlike the previous seed. 43% of items obtained, animals saved.

5. Final Fantasy VI (SNES Mini) {Any% No Sketch} [Finished Jan 12]
This game is the highlight of the Final Fantasy franchise. The characters are well-developed, the story is awesome, and Kefka is the single greatest villain in gaming history. The opera scene is one of the best pieces in all of game music, as is Dancing Mad. This is one of the very few games where every song in it is great. While Kefka's Tower is a difficulty spike, it is still such an awesome dungeon. 11 out of 14 characters recruited, 17 out of 26 Espers obtained.

6. #0 Iggy's Castle (PC, Emulator) {All Endings and Achievements} [Finished Jan 13]
A short but creepy hack of Super Mario World. The hardest achievement by far was Elusive, which requires beating a challenging final boss without taking damage once. This is one to add to the spooky season list. Less than a month after full-clearing 1.0, a major update with new endings went into beta testing.

7. Super Mario RPG (PC, Emulator) {Most of the Stuff} [Finished Jan 16]
One of the best RPGs of all time, and the perfect game to start people on JRPGs. The music is incredible, the gameplay is fun, and the limited inventory system meant that it's likely you'll use powerful healing items. The Lazy Shell armor is so broken that even Culex is easy to beat with it equipped, not to mention the rest of the game. I will be adding this to my replay annually list of games.

8. Final Fantasy III PR (Switch) {100% Bestiary} [Finished Jan 17]
Most of the "quality of life features" this port added severely cut down the difficulty of a game infamous for its high difficulty, to the point where I'd recommend downloading the NES version's fan translation and playing that to maintain the FF3J experience. The 4x experience and gold boosts in particular are even more broken than the Vanish-Doom combo and Economizer from FF6. Of the three NES FF games, my favorite is easily FF1. One neat thing the Switch version did was allow you to choose original NES OST and Remastered OST. I played the game with the original soundtrack.

9. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES Mini) {100% Completion} [Finished Jan 22]
While I had beaten this game multiple times before, I had never 100% completed it. This game is one of the greatest games of all time, with incredible music, graphics, and gameplay. Like always, I do Thieves' Town before Skull Woods and Swamp Palace, which gives early Tempered Sword access. The worst part of 100% completion was grinding Rupees for max capacity Arrows and Bombs, but even that took less than 15 minutes. Many of the items are really useful, and there aren't any truly useless items except the Magic Boomerang. I highly recommend this game.

10. Of Jumps and Platforms (PC, Emulator) {All Exits} [Finished Jan 23]
A perfect game for those wishing to get started with more challenging Mario World ROM hacks. The music is awesome, the difficulty was never too punishing while still being challenging, and the custom mechanics are neat. I loved the custom color palettes the game used to give a sense of progression in Mario's journey.

11. Super Metroid (PC, Emulator) {True 100% Completion} [Finished Jan 26]
Still one of the best Metroidvanias, and best games of all time. The gameplay is easy to learn but difficult to master. A lot of this run, I ended up using wall jumps to get to areas early. The graphics are among the best of the SNES, and all of the bosses and minibosses were fought. True Completion requires 100% of items, 100% of map tiles turned pink, Ceres Ridley defeated, All Zebitites defeated, all map rooms visited and the animals to be saved.

12. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode} [Finished Jan 30]
A nice refreshing way to celebrate one of the best games of all time. In this seed, you have to defeat the four mini-bosses. For a lot of the game, I had forgotten that Golden Torizo was right by the ship, and I ended up looking for Tourian thinking it was in there. 46% of items obtained, Animals saved.

13. Super Ghouls N Ghosts (SNES Mini) {Beginner, Tool-Assisted} [Finished Feb 2]
This game is so challenging that even beginner mode required the use of savestates for me to finish. Apart from that, it's a typical Platform Hell game that has great graphics and music for being early in the SNES's life.

14. Contra (NES) {Konami Code} [Finished Feb 13]
A nice place to start on playing the Contra franchise. I loved the gameplay, and the music. It's a shame that this port lacks some of the cool graphical effects of the Famicom version.

15. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode, Custom Difficulty} [Finished Feb 18]
The hardest part of this seed is getting Varia Suit, which requires defeating Metroids with Power Bombs. After that, the major items were easy to find, as were the minibosses and Mother Brain. 26% of items obtained, Animals killed.

16. F-Zero (SNES Mini) {Beginner, Knight/Queen RTA, King Tool-Assisted} [Finished Feb 21]
While the first two leagues are fun to play as well as the practice mode is fun as well, the worst part about this game is the King League's absurdly high level of difficulty, to the point that Super Ghouls N Ghosts was easier. Also, the ending is just as bad as NES Ghostbusters and Mass Effect 3's infamous endings, not even saying congrats for beating such a hard game.

17. Super Metroid Rotation (PC, Emulator) {Any%} [Finished Feb 21]
The one change of rotating the map 90 degrees means that vertical rooms that are hard in vanilla are easy here, while some rooms that are easy become challenging affairs. I love some of the small details and changes that make this hack work, such as entering Maridia through what in vanilla is its exit. The rooms that gave me the most trouble were the metal pirates room and Draygon's room, which caused two of my very few deaths in this playthrough. Being good at walljumps and mid-air morphing is required to beat this game. 77% of items obtained, Animals saved.

18. Antinomia: Final Fantasy VI (PC, Emulator) {Any%} [Finished Mar 13]
The best thing about this ROM hack is the expansion of General Leo's character as a result of his survival. But in order to add him to your party, you have to wait for him at the Floating Continent. I also loved the turntable sidequest that plays beloved songs from FFIV and FFV, giving stat boosts to party members. Apart from that, the Colosseum being controlled duels meant that I was able to get two Growth Eggs and a Celestriad, which made Kefka fall pretty quickly. As a hack that left the gameplay intact but focused much more on adding to the story, I feel it did what the hack set out to do very well. DM me for the patch file if you want to play it. 9 of 14 characters recruited.

19. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) {Any%} [Finished Mar 26]
One of the best Mario games of all time. I loved the level design, the creativity, and the music. I especially loved the capture mechanic, which allows for players to take control of enemies. The graphics are among the best in the franchise's history. So many creative areas in this game really worked. This is a game to buy a Switch for.

20. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode, Custom Difficulty) [Finished Mar 26]
In this seed, Gravity Suit was completely optional, as was Morph Ball Bombs. The last of the four minibosses was two rooms away from Mother Brain. The final boss and the escape was a huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the seed, but it was so satisfying to win. 26% of items obtained, animals saved.

21. Soul Blazer (PC, Emulator) {All Achievements} [Finished Apr 18]
The first of the Quintet Trilogy is a hidden gem. Every amount of progress you make contributes to the game world. The decision to have achievements to beat the bosses without getting hit meant that every boss defeated was so satisfying, especially Deathtoll. Would recommend trying this on emulator before splurging on a cartridge.

22. You Have to Burn the Rope (PC, Flash) [Finished Jun 11]
This is pretty much filler to get to 52 faster. It was the easiest game I've ever beaten.

23. Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) {Four Job Fiesta, Meteor Full Bestiary} [Finished Jun 21]
The Four Job Fiesta is a challenge where you have to play the game with only four randomly chosen jobs. However, it is a charity event and you can donate to change your jobs. This resulted in a team of Blue Mage, Freelancer, Beastmaster and Ninja. This might be in the Top 10 most broken teams possible. Control Glitch meant that I had access to Hermes Sandals before leaving for Galuf's world, and 255 of thrown items Partisan, Masamune and Ragnarok. Combined with selling 251 Hermes Sandals, this team has absolutely zero money problems. In fact, it's so broken a team that Omega, Shinryu and Neo Exdeath all died on the very first try. Now to do the Sealed Temple.

24. Final Fantasy V (SNES) {Four Job Fiesta Typhoon 375} [Finished July 5]
The next run of the Fiesta gave me the team of Black Mage, White Mage, Beastmaster & Knight. Due to playing on Battle Speed 1 Active for the whole time, this run was a very big challenge until I got White Mage, which I absolutely needed to be able to beat the Battle Speed 1 Active Toxx. Unfortunately, Omega and Shinryu live on.

25. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (PC, Steam) {Four Job Fiesta Normal + Fifth Job} [Finished July 21]
The second time I played Pixel Remaster I got a team of Blue Mage, Red Mage, Bard, Dragoon with the Fifth Job being Berserker. This team destroyed Omega, Shinryu and Neo Exdeath even though I skipped three of the four tablets.

26. Yoshi's Story (PC, Emulator) {Any%} [Finished July 23]
I decided to play this game after it opened up SGDQ 2024. While the game is shorter than most Mario games at only 6 levels per playthrough, it makes up for it by the top-notch visual design, one of the best looking games of its era. I recommend this game.

27. 100 Rooms of Enemies: 10th Anniversary Edition {All Exits, Tool-Assisted} (PC, Emulator) [Finished July 29]
After the Nightmare Edition was stuck in development hell for a while, Daizo surprised us all when he did an update to 100 Rooms. Arcade Mode and Do Or Die are in the same ROM, and there's even a secret path that has an alternate Rooms 60-69. Arcade Mode playthrough did the normal route while Do or Die did the alternate route. Nightmare Mode has a demo with 50 rooms in it, and that was challenging, and lost a couple lives even with savestates. Highly recommend.

28. Daughter of Darkness and Light {Any%} (PC, Emulator) [Finished August 17]
This Final Fantasy IV ROM hack is a Role Swap AU that makes Rosa the Dark Knight/Paladin and Cecil the White Mage. Beyond that, it's the same FFIV you know and love with the SFC version's difficulty.

29. LEGO Indiana Jones 2 {100%} (Xbox 360) [Any% finished August 31, 100% September 2]
Still the best LEGO game out there. I especially love the level editor and how it makes Crystal Skull so much better than the film. Willie is actually useful here.

30. Multiple Squaresoft Shuffler {Kill Chaos, Smithy and Neo Exdeath} (Windows 11 Laptop, BizHawk) [September 30]
The games were Final Fantasy (NES), Super Mario RPG (SNES) and Final Fantasy V (GBA). For FFI, I went with a party of 2 Fighters, a Red Mage and a White Mage. For FFV, I decided to do a Four Job Fiesta and got Blue Mage, Berserker, Ranger and Chemist. Mario RPG was a playthrough where I defeated Culex, Jinx and Smithy and got all the hidden chests. This Shuffler was a lot of fun, and Smithy and Neo got defeated extremely close to each other. Omega and Shinryu were also defeated.

31. Super Metroid Map Randomizer {Random Objectives}  (PC, Emulator) [October 16]
Added recently to Map Randomizer was a duo of options called themed areas and Random Objectives. Themed Areas gives all rooms in an area a theme similar to the name of the area. For example, rooms that are in Tourian have Tourian tiles even if located elsewhere in vanilla. Random Objectives can give you any set of four objectives before Mother Brain is unlocked. This seed gave Spore Spawn, Crateria Pirate Room, Metal Pirate Room and Lower Norfair Chozo as the required objectives. Getting to the Chozo required killing Ridley, while Phantoon feel so that Plasma could be acquired. 30% of items collected, animals killed.

32. Chrono Trigger {Reunion Ending} (Windows 11 Laptop, SNES9x on BizHawk) [October 18]
One of the best JRPGs of all time. The music is top notch, the graphics still hold up and the story is incredible. The game has lots of sidequests. Of the Fated Hour sidequests, I did Fiona Forest, Rainbow Shell, Ozzie's Fortress and Masamune Upgrade. The final boss is one of the most challenging that I have ever beaten, and this makes slaying Lavos so satisfying after seeing the ruin he brought the world in a future that was averted. Now to revive Chrono and do the rest of the achievements.

33. Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile {All Achievements} (PC, Emulator) [October 20]
While the story is a nice add-on to Chrono Trigger, this hack is killed by its incompatibility with anything newer than ZSNES in its commonly available patch form. I had to install the bugfix patch and start the game from the beginning to get to the Ocean Palace, this hack's final dungeon. Luckily, this game is around an hour long with all achievements done. Emulation bugs make some of the custom songs ear-grating.

34. Castlevania {Tool-Assisted, Any%} (Switch Castlevania Anniversary Collection) [October 31]
The first game in the series while good has some rough edges. The music is great as is the atmosphere, but the fact that Simon Belmont cannot turn another direction while jumping lead to many cheap death / save state reloads. I would recommend playing with savestates before attempting without them.

35. Spyro: Year of the Dragon {Any%} (PC, Emulator) [December 29]
While this started as 117%, a time crunch to finish this before the end of the Year of the Dragon reduced it to Any%, with full intention to finish the remaining percent in the new year.

Gave up on:

Pokemon Fire Red: Rocket Edition (PC, Emulator)
Has way too much grinding needed to even stand a change against extremely overpowered bosses. Needs major rebalancing before I can play it again.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: moonlightvalkyrie on December 26, 2023, 03:30:33 pm
I am in! I love this challenge, though I have yet to reach the 52 mark. I think 2024 might be the year for me!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: shfan on December 27, 2023, 09:23:22 am
Previous Years

2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199131.html#msg199131) - 37 beaten, 14 tried and discarded
2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185676.html#msg185676) - 18 beaten, 9 tried and discarded
2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173272.html#msg173272) - 33 beaten, 20 tried and discarded
2019 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162658.html#msg162658) - 45 beaten, 34 tried and discarded
2018 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8821.msg149025.html#msg149025) - 44 beaten, 41 tried and discarded
2017 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg147415.html#msg147415) - 37 beaten, 9 tried and discarded
2016 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg132260.html#msg132260) - 21 beaten

Games beaten

01] Geneforge 1 - Mutagen (STM, 2021)  |2 Jan| Remake of a game from 20 years ago, still lo-fi but still delicious and with modern compatibility, nice.
02] FlipWitch - Forbidden Sex Hex (STM, 2023)  |5 Jan| Extremely naughty metroidvania, excellent music and SNES-style graphics, well designed, liked it.
03] We Love Katamari REROLL (STM, 2023)  |10 Jan| Another favourite from wayback re-jigged, had fun. Good start to the year but can't get complacent.
04] Livestream 2: Escape from Togaezuka Happy Place (STM, 2023)  |20 Jan| Adventure/survival horror where cute anime livestreamers get pursued by a crazed orangutan mascot in an abandoned shopping mall.
05] Stasis: Bone Totem (STM, 2023)  |2 Feb| Quantum leap ahead of its predecessor, excellent horror adventure.
06] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NSW, 2022)  |25 Feb| Easy but nonethless another work of art from Nintendo.
07] Rain on Your Parade (STM, 2021)  |5 Mar| Task-based fun mixed with a little sandbox and score attack for flavour, nice.
08] Age of Empires III: DE - The African Royals (STM, 2021)  |8 Mar| Interesting new battles and civs, divisive for the multiplayer crowd but that's not me :)
09] Remothered: Broken Porcelain (STM, 2020)  |12 Mar| Survival horror, a broken mess which I won't be replaying, nonetheless it was an interesting experience.
10] The King of Dragons (STM, 2022)  |15 Mar| Beautiful retro beat 'em up.
11] Wife Quest (STM, 2021)  |18 Mar| Comical grumpy Wonderboy type game, save that husbando!
12] Maneater (STM, 2021)  |27 Mar| Managed to outstay its welcome despite its relatively brief playthrough, these open-world games really do grind my gears, not even being able to scoff screaming hoomans relieved the dullness.
13] Knights of the Round (STM, 2022)  |1 Apr| Another favourite beat 'em up.
14] Earth Defense Force 4.1 Wingdiver the Shooter (STM, 2018)  |10 Apr| Gets a lot of hate but I enjoyed this SHMUP in railshooter clothing, a lot!
15] Dungeons 4 (STM, 2023)  |26 Apr| Pretty samey but nonetheless enjoyed it, a test for my new non-potato PC :D
16] Dungeon Vixens: A Tale of Temptation (STM, 2024)  |29 Apr| Dungeon crawler with bonus monster girls to .. er.. interact with <.< educational.
17] Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (EMU, 1993)  |27 May| One of my all-time favourite arcade games, good to revisit.
18] Donut County (STM, 2018)  |2 Jun| Relaxing inverted Katamari with a cheeky raccoon, not bad.
19] There's No Dinosaurs (STM, 2024)  |8 Jun| Monochrome 'Where's Wally' game where you look for dinosaurs.
20] Fingun (STM, 2022)  |29 Jun| Cheeky boss-rush shmup, fun little game. Now running a full month of games behind 0.0
21] Fearmonium (STM, 2021)  |17 Jul| Extremely high quality indie metroidvania, loved it.
22] Trick & Treat (STM, 2016)  |24 Jul| Fun free download RPG Maker game.
23] Earth Defence Force 6 (STM, 2024)  |14 Aug| Massive, not quite as fun as its predecessor but still very glad to have it and to have played it through, Ranger play-through on normal.
24] Captain Firehawk and the Laser Love Situation (STM, 2024)  |20 Aug| Sexy SHMUP that was indeed both.
25] Geneforge 2 - Infestation (STM, 2024)  |22 Aug| Excellent remake, loved it.
26] Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (EMU, 1993)  |26 Aug| and again, why not? Darn, at the halfway point nearly 3/4 of the way through the year :/
27] Marfusha:Sentinel Girls (STM, 2021)  |3 Sep| Interesting little static shooty-game with anime girls at war.
28] Monster Run: Downfall of the Empire (STM, 2024)  |11 Sep| Kinda beat 'em up monster cat game, very addictive to mow down mobs and knock down defences.
29] The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (STM, 2022)  |13 Sep| Solid, well-voiced retro point 'n click adventure game, enjoyed it very much.
30] Maiden Cops (STM, 2024)  |23 Sep| Streets of Rage 2 with added blocking and all enemies and player characters are monster-girls etc with large.. eyes. That's a yes from me!
31] Book of Demons (STM, 2018)  |28 Sep| Third playthrough, this time with the mage. Beaten with all 3 characters now. Not giving up on hitting 52 this year.
32] Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (NSW, 2023)  |30 Sep| Got to beat this one at last, owned it on Wii for years before picking up the Switch version to be able to play in English.
33] Omusubi (STM, 2024)  |4 Oct| Sad but beautiful dialogue-focused 2D horror game, heavy on the Japanese mythology, love and running away from fleshy monster things.
34] Yokai Art: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (STM, 2022)  |31 Oct| Didn't realize I'd finished this till the achievement popped. Plants Vs Zombies with Japanese mythology and naughty yokai.
35] EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 6 - Additional Mission Pack 1 Lost Days (STM, 2024)  |3 Nov| Short and sour, not a brilliant mission pack at all.
36] Cotton Reboot! (NSW, 2021)  |14 Nov| Nice horizontal shooter.
37] Cotton Fantasy (NSW, 2021)  |15 Nov| OK.
38] Sea of Radiation II (STM, 2024)  |14 Dec| Overhead Feeding Frenzy with mutating sea critters, great fun.

Games Tried/Disliked/Got Rid Of

01] Delivery from the Pain: Survival (STM, 2019) |3 Jan| Zombie survival stealth/base building, not bad but it had shown all its cards within a couple of hours. Apparently a converted mobile game which would explain the limitations.
02] Super Bullet Break (NSW, 2022) |31 May| Ultra-stripped back turn-based RPG combat with deckbuilding. Didn't like it at all.
03] The Knight Witch (NSW, 2022) |31 May| Bullet-hell/SHMUP mixed with metroidvania, hated the character art, hated the 'penned by a 16 year old' dialogue, hated the gameplay. So much yuck.
04] Toki (STM, 2019)  |11 Sep| Seems to be a very faithful remake, looks and plays nice, it's just that I didn't play Toki back in the day and this is just too old skool for me now.
05] Princess Peach: Showtime (NSW, 2024) |7 Oct| Was not expecting to be bailing on a Nintendo game, but this one is unplayable. Constant needless dialogue from identikit NPCs and constant breaks in flow means it feels more like a mini-game grab-bag even within individual stages. Big bad didn't even have any reason to be there except "because". Dreadful!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: undertakerprime on December 27, 2023, 09:26:46 am
Despite not completing my first game last year until February, I ended up blowing past 52. I was almost there in September, so I took it easy the rest of the year. Knocked off a portion of my backlog too, as well as discovering a new appreciation for games I had given up on, like Persona 5 and Hollow Knight. New year is currently also starting slow, with me being addicted to Lies of P, my first Soulslike. We’ll see what happens.

Current backlog:
Persona 5
Tales of Arise
Final Fantasy X-2 Remaster
Panzer Dragoon Remake
Sonic Mania
Salt & Sanctuary
The Last Faith
Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen
Dragon Age Inquisition
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game
Ginga Force
Nier Automata

Currently playing:
Dragon Quest XI S
Batman Arkham Knight Remaster
Dragon Age Inquisition
Ginga Force

1. Lies of P (PS4) 1/31/24
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (via PS4 Batman Arkham Collection) 2/13/24
3. Batman: Arkham City (via PS4 Batman Arkham Collection) 3/1/24
4. Super Street Fighter II (arcade, via PS4 SF Anniversary Collection) 3/24/24
5. Afterimage (PS4) 3/27/24
6. Street Fighter Alpha 2 (arcade, via PS4 SF Anniversary Collection) 3/28/24
7. Samurai Shodown 2019 (PS4) 3/29/24
8. Natsuki Chronicles (PS4) 3/31/24
9. Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) 5/24/24
10. P.O.W. (Arcade, via PS4 SNK 40th Anniversary Collection) 6/20/24
11. P.O.W. (NES, via PS4 SNK 40th Anniversary Collection) 7/8/24
12. Sengoku 3 (Neo Geo, played on PS4) 7/17/24
13. Golden Axe II (Genesis Mini 2) 8/3/24
14. Shadow Dancer (Genesis Mini 2) 8/3/24
15. Eschatos (PS4) 8/6/24
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 12:42:25 pm
Reserved, Giving it another go.

Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 04:03:47 pm
Quote from: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 12:42:25 pm
Reserved, Giving it another go.

Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?

There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice, I usually count games I started in the previous year, but finished in the new if I at the very least put a few hours into the game to finish it.  I did that with God of War: Ragnarok earlier this year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 04:51:02 pm
Quote from: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 04:03:47 pm
There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice

Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 07:55:58 pm
Quote from: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 04:51:02 pm
Quote from: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 04:03:47 pm
There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice

Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol

I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 27, 2023, 08:20:22 pm
Quote from: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 07:55:58 pm
Quote from: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 04:51:02 pm
Quote from: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 04:03:47 pm
There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice

Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol

I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol


LMAO, yep me too
Title: 52 Game Challenge 2024
Post by: ignition365 on December 27, 2023, 10:37:46 pm
Main List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204016.html#msg204016)
Previous List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204017.html#msg204017)

Quote from: Legend
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.

24. Little Kitty, Big City (XS)
I had been very interested in this game, intending on getting it on Steam, but then I found out that it was going to be a day one on XGP game, so day one I downloaded it and played it.  Short experience, quick 1,000 gamerscore, but well worth the time.  Chill experience, decent dialogue, but the game does take a bit of learning of how the game expects you to do certain things, but that only really comes in towards the end or when working on straggler achievements.  Very few technical issues with the game, map definitely could use some work, and some issues with traversal, but all very minor issues... and this was all at launch, I can only imagine the game will get even better.
Rating: Solid recommendation

25. A Castle Full of Cats (PC)
I've been using Playtracker's backlog to roll me some puzzle games, so there will be a lot of puzzle PC games showing up on here I expect.  This is one in a series of cat based hidden object games developed by a small indie team with a passion for cats.  I have no clue if there is any form of order to be played or if the games relate to each other, but you've got a castle and each room has so many cats and undead/ghost cats to find, along with other things to look for/interact with to unlock other rooms to continue the game.  Overall a real good hidden object experience, a step above the basic hidden object games even with its basic design.
Rating: Soft recommendation

26. Wordle 3 (PC)
3rd entry in the Wordle series of games.  More of the exact same gameplay, no new introductions or mechanics, just different words.  I suspect the entire series is this way, not really worth your time.
Rating: Hard pass

27. A Building Full of Cats (PC)
Oh look, another cat game.  I have to imagine, given the smaller scope of this game that this is the first in the series of these cat games.  Overall pretty good, but very basic and doesn't employ much, if any, of the exploration/unlocking of the Castle game.  Still a decent game, but not as good as the Castle game.  I'll give it a soft pass though, because it's short and isn't nearly as good as the other game.
Rating: Soft pass

28. FIND ALL 2: Middle Ages (PC)
I actually really like the concept of the mechanics of this hidden object game.  You start out with 3 types of objects you are looking for, as you find all of an object, the game gives you a new object. (i.e. find birds, find keys, find letters, etc).  So rather than multiple levels, you've got your one level that you spend a lot of time in, really taking in the environment.  The game takes it a step further by sort of interlocking all of the levels together, so as you finish the first level, a gate opens and you can slide the screen over to a new area that is essentially the next level.  Additionally, as you find all of the objects in a specific area, the game lets you know there are no more hidden objects in that area by coloring in that area, so at the end the entire level if fully colored.  All of the mechanics in this game work really well together and make for a great hidden object experience.
Rating: Soft recommendation

29. Another Crab's Treasure (XS)
And.... fuck me, I'm like 20 games behind again... and it sucks because this was a good one and I would've had a lot to write, but I don't remember a ton about the game.  Fantastic souls-like game, great dialogue if not frustrating, gameplay is good when it's not buggy (crashed multiple times for me, and had lots of situations where I had to leverage the in-game "cheats" accessibility options to rectify a bug, and some of the gameplay wasn't the most intuitive so I had a harder time until I figured it out.  Also wildly disappointing that the "Dark Souls" mode they April Fools'd about wasn't real.  All in all, a real good game that hopefully gets better as they do updates.
Rating: Solid recommendation

30. Sonic Superstars (XS)
Continuing my bullshit Sonic franchise run, I played this one.  A pretty by the numbers Sonic 2D game, iirc has the QoL infinite lives, so don't have to get frustrated trying to get through the more convoluted levels or boss fights.  I feel like my experience with this one was pretty good despite itself, but it's still a Sonic game
Rating: Soft recommendation

31. Zodiacats (PC)
Back on my Playtracker backlog dungeon BS.  This is a simple jigsaw puzzle type of game, like those slider puzzles, except you don't slide, you just swap, which makes it infinitely easier.  Enjoyable game, short, easy to just chill and play.
Rating: Soft recommendation

32. Please Don't Touch Anything 3D (PC)
I think more Playtracker backlog dungeon BS.  I played the original back in the day, but didn't do all of the stuff based on my achievement count, so this was enjoyable based on just giving it another go and following a guide.  That said the game has one or two achievements that are just awful because they require you to make 0 mistakes through your entire playthrough, and I'm not about that.  Matter of fact, I need to double check that I have the game marked as a game to essentially never come back to.  Added some new stuff that wasn't in the originally based on it being 3D, some of which was frustrating, but all in all a good time, if not really worth anyone's time though.
Rating: Soft pass

33. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (XS)
First off, I hate that this game isn't Hellblade II: Senua's Saga, real dumb to keep the same alliteration, but change the order.  Anyway, fantastic game, great like the original though the original is definitely a better game for so many reasons.  I do truly hate how far out I write these things these days, though this one specifically I was so excited to play I binged it in a few evenings with the intent of getting through it with minimal interruptions, but it would've been nice to write up my thoughts after I was done instead of months later.  Unfortunately, like the original, the game has no replay value, so while the game is great to playthrough, it doesn't have staying power, and it being on Game Pass will probably ultimately hurt Ninja Theory despite it being a great game.
Rating: Solid recommendation

34. Botany Manor (XS)
I honestly don't know why I decided to play this game other than the fact that I wanted to play something during the day and needed something that I could play in front of my impressionable child... which pretty much leaves me with puzzle games and some racing games.  Game gave me lots of Escape Academy vibes gameplay wise, not plot wise necessarily... so very escape room-esque puzzles.  A fantastic experience and definitely worth the time for a chill escape game-ish type of game.  No timers or threats, just puzzling goodness.
Rating: Solid recommendation

35. Sudocats (PC)
Another playtracker backlog dungeon game.  I love sudoku and cat games are neat... that said, this game doesn't meld with me, I can do numbers, maybe even letters, but images for sudoku just don't work for me, especially when some of the images look similar color-wise/shape-wise/etc.  I powered through this game, but it wasn't really enjoyable, the concept just doesn't work well.
Rating: Hard pass

36. Crime O'Clock (PC)
This one has interested me for so long, because it's a story based hidden object game that has detective elements.  The game is actually quite good, but it's almost too slow of a game and has too much leading with the detective elements... and then the later levels get real convoluted and I wound up using a guide for some bits because even the hint system wasn't very helpful for the difficult to distinguish elements.  Definitely leveraged a guide for the side-content.  The game has tons of gaming pop culture references which varies from neat to wildly annoying.  Story is hit or miss at times and doesn't exactly pay off in any grand way as the story is relatively by the numbers so you figure out what's going on pretty quickly.  I think if the game just didn't waste as much of your time just getting through the game, it would be enough to give it a slight recommendation, but it's just too weighed down to be truly enjoyable.
Rating: Soft pass

37. Kingdom: Classic (PC)
This one is the start of my delve into tons of backlog groups.  Played this one at the behest of a group member based on it being one of their favorite games.  I've overlooked this game a lot over the years but gave it a good try... and honestly it's quite the good game, it just takes quite a bit to learn the little systems of the game and to figure out what's the best plan to get through.  Not sure I'll go back to get quicker runs or anything, but I enjoyed my time with the game.  My first few runs weren't enjoyable and unfortunately I did have to look up guides to figure out how the game works, but once I understand and had a test run to figure things out I was able to get through in a single run once I understood things.  Fun game, but definitely have to knock it points for that complexity.
Rating: Soft pass

38. Cats Organized Neatly (PC)
This is essentially a resident evil inventory management game (a la Save Room) but with oddly shaped cats.  Starts out simple enough, game is chill and enjoyable, but eventually reaches a point that it's actually quite tough to figure out the puzzles.
Rating: Hard pass

39. Hidden Folks (PC)
Another hidden object game.  For the most part this one was good, but once it got to the really large levels it lost its enjoyability.  I love good hidden object games, but I hate having to slide around a big map and look for tiny details.  Game has a lot of interesting mechanics and makes for a real good game and experience, but I wound up having to use a guide to finish out the larger levels because it's just impossible to keep track of everything reasonably.
Rating: Hard pass

40. High on Life (XS)
Game was leaving Game Pass and decided it was time to give the game a go.  I enjoyed the Rick and Morty style of humor back when Rick and Morty was new, but by the end of Season 2 I just kind of grew out of it and just don't enjoy it, both the humor and the randomness of Justin Roiland.  That said, ignoring the awful dialog and stuff, this game does have really solid gameplay.  Had it not been leaving Game Pass, I might have considered spending more time in the game to find all of the stuff, but as it is the game has missable achievements and once I miss a missable achievement, aiming for completion gets thrown out the window.  It's close to a solid recommendation, but honestly, the dialog kind of ruins it.  Though it is funny that they got the rights to some horrible films and you can legitimately sit in your living room and watch full feature length films inside of the game.
Rating: Soft pass

41. Bramble: The Mountain King (XS)
Another game leaving game pass.  This one I considered based on its short playtime and that I kept almost buying a physical copy when it went on sale.  This game was pretty fucking awful.  Just really didn't enjoy my time with the game, and really didn't enjoy the fact that from the start I knew I was going to miss out on an achievement based on needing to get through the game without dying... when I kept dying early on based on stupid tricky stuff that's hard to see and hard to know what to do without trial and error.  Ignoring that, I really didn't enjoy the art style, some gameplay sections reminded me of Little Nightmares (which is a better game, but I still didn't enjoy that game either really), and the story just didn't really click with me, at least not in a good way.  I think I had a lot of thoughts about my son while playing but not in a way that made me really feel connected to the game, if anything it kind of disconnected me from the game.
Rating: Hard pass

42. Starting the Game (PC)
Apparently this game got banned from Steam at some point and to no surprise really, this game is awful in so many ways... and then right at the end there is a button to unlock all achievements based on the achievements not really working consistently, if that tells you anything about the quality of game and developer we're dealing with here.  I've got no real good comments about this game other than it's a busted ass experience and really not worth the time... hence the steam ban.
Rating: Hard pass

43. The Bookwalker (XS)
Another game leaving game pass.  This one looked mildly interesting and the more I delved into the game the more interesting it seemed... so much so that I went out of my way to 100% the game.  I'm still not entirely sure of the premise, but sounds like big deal about original novels being kind of extinct, so all books are written from stripping old books, there's ways to jump into books (the whole premise of the gameplay), and laws regarding such things.  Lots of stuff I didn't quite follow the sci-fi nature of, but sure lets suspend our disbelief.  Game has a turn based RPG style combat but lots of walking around and talking a la classic RPG games.  Lots of good scenarios and dialog going on in this game.  Overall an enjoyable experience.
Rating: Soft recommendation

44. Forza Horizon 2 Presents: Fast & Furious (360)
I had actually started this one way back when it released, but never finished the 360 version of the game.  I'm reminded how limited this game was compared to FH2 overall and if I'm not mistaken, limited compared to the X1 version of this game.  Overall a straight forward enjoyable experience, though I will say it has more content than required for the 100% as the game leverages the same types of content that FH2 has, but none of it is necessary (boards, blueprints, etc).  Unfortunately probably the best F&F game to date.
Rating: Soft recommendation

45. Sokocat - Islands (PC)
Won this one on Steamgifts and decided to play it for some reason... I really don't recall, might have been playtracker backlog dungeon, might have been something else, but it did work for one of the backlog groups requirements for the month so I used it for my goal that month.  Sokoban style game.  Like most puzzle games, starts out easy and nice and enjoyable but quickly devolves into a tough experience.  I love me some good puzzle games, but I don't enjoy puzzle games that get overly complex or hard too quickly or games that overstay their welcome.  It's definitely a personal preference thing.
Rating: Hard pass

46. WWE '12 (360)
I had started a sort of WWE franchise run, mostly just picking up the Smackdown franchise forward hitting the ones I missed and the ones I played on PS2 that I could play on 360.  I stopped at this one because the controls changed or it left the Smackdown branding, I have no clue, but I stopped at this one and had a continuous hard time picking it back up.  I finally rolled it in backlog dungeon and got myself through it, it helps that WWE's product is quite good right now so playing this feels good right now?  I still very much want a WWE game that basically allows you to play through all events of the past 40 years, I get the complexity preventing that from ever happening, but I'd be ecstatic.  The problem I have with this one for instance is that the story mode is A) fictional, and B) takes place over the course of multiple years (where you hit WM32 multiple times) so it doesn't quite hit the same when I look stuff up and find that events, factions, and situations never ever happened... minimally I wish each game had a story mode (secondary) that included all of the storylines of the past year (that includes the folks still on the roster at game's release, sure).  I jumped into '13 for a minute following this one just to check what's what and if it's next for me... it's not, I already did all to do, so next is 2k14 the start of the 2k series.  That all said, the original storylines in this actually are pretty good and the gameplay is still fun.
Rating: Soft recommendation

47. There is No Game: Jam Edition 2015 (PC)
Your basic There is no game experience, is this the original game?  I have no clue, but it's still short and enjoyable.
Rating: Soft recommendation

48. F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch (XS)
Game was leaving game pass and heard good things about it... I'll try and not take it too personally the issues I had with the game, because they were definitely Xbox's fault, not the game itself.  While playing the game, my kid hit the reset button on my modem, so we lost internet for like half an hour.  Since internet was lost, Xbox disconnected and decided to not reconnect at any point, during that time I earned 7 achievements, but it only queued 5 so 2 unmissable story achievements were missed and I beat the game later on and have those two achievements missed.  I kept launching the game hoping it would queue and unlock, but it never happened.  I would've 100%'d this game for sure had it not happened, and I nearly abandoned the game once I realized, but I was like fine I'll ficking finish the game, because maybe it'll queue... again it never did.  Overall a good game though, solid gameplay, would've loved to been able to explore it more, but just couldn't bother knowing I'd have to start 100% over to get the missing achievements.  Art is pretty good, though it is nearly giving me furry vibes, especially with Lady Q and that's a we bit unsettling.  Unfortunately I can't give it the full recommendation because of my experience, but I know it's a good game and I won't "pass" on it because I do understand it deserves better.
Rating: Soft recommendation

49. Cyber Hook (PC)
First in the series of a bunch of PC backlog group games coming.  I can enjoy precision platforming games, but I'll never 100% them because I don't have the patience for it, and this one is one of those horrible precision platform games that doesn't just let you play through the game, it expects you to minimally earn so many stars from beating levels as efficiently as possible.  If the game didn't require the minimum stars I'd probably enjoy it more.  I nearly abandoned the game more than once because of it... but on the other hand, since it's stars and not having to beat every level, I was able to skip one of the worst levels in the game by earning enough stars without beating the level... so it worked out.  Eventually I sort of got gud and learned some tricks to make the levels easier, but hot fuck do you have to 3 star a lot of levels to be able to just beat the game.  Really an awful experience that setup.
Rating: Hard pass

Next List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205203.html#msg205203)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: shfan on December 28, 2023, 02:37:34 pm
Ditto, if I beat it in X year then that's when it's counted, not when the game is started (terrible for half-finishing games).
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 29, 2023, 10:43:20 am
*drops suitcases on lobby floor*

Bellhop! I'm here! Take my bags to my room so I can get ready for the fun!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 30, 2023, 12:02:31 pm
Quote from: justin8301 on December 27, 2023, 12:42:25 pm
Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?

Many here go about this "challenge" a lot differently. Some add any game played to their total count even if it's endless or abandoned, so it may make more sense to base the list's items on when the game was started, rather than ended. Personally speaking, I only add a game once it's been completed while omitting any games which I've stopped playing prematurely, so my criteria is based off of completion date.

Quote from: kamikazekeeg on December 27, 2023, 07:55:58 pm
I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol

I've always treated the event the same way. In recent years, I've wanted to maintain a better memory of certain types of media experienced, which is why I post fairly lengthy thoughts with each game completed. It's definitely less about finishing a determined amount of games and more of a collection of my thoughts. Writing about the experiences also helps me reflect on aspects of the game in ways I ordinarily wouldn't have. If I can actually reach 52 games played or even surpass it, then that's only better.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 01, 2024, 12:58:44 pm
1. Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon

I was playing this on the low immediately after BN3 for some reason. I was warned about this one. Still, no matter how good or bad a game might be, I’m always excited to play something new. That excitement didn’t last long. Someone told me that this is the entry in the series worth avoiding. I should have listened, but no. OCD with numerical order kicked in and off I went into a Battle Network game with a barebones story, a horrible translation, and an unsatisfying loop. I think the highlight was seeing the characters from Boktai. Random, but a nice touch. And to be fair, the various forms (I got water, metal, and junk) were pretty cool for a few battles. Otherwise, it was a mess. From what I can tell, there isn’t any bonus content. I wouldn’t have checked it out but I know that there are a lot of people that enjoy it. Instead, people have to finish the game three full times in order to access everything. And that’s just for one version? Come on. I intend to play a lot of games this year. It’s going to take a real stinker to out-stink this.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 01, 2024, 02:28:18 pm
1. Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5)

I've always been a big Mortal Kombat fan, however, I feel like the series has been the best its ever been since 2011's Mortal Kombat (MK9) when Netherealm Studios chose to heavily invest in MK's story mode while giving the player fun, engaging gameplay. While I will admit that MKX wasn't amazing, and MK11 certainly improved things from its predecessor, I was definitely ready for the story to take a new direction, which is why I was pretty excited when MK1 was announced and it was revealed that it would be resetting the MK timeline from the very beginning. I finally got around to playing MK1, and while the game started out very promising, it really all well apart in the end, at least in terms of story.


I'll go ahead and rip the bandaid right off. MK1's first, second, and third acts are pretty good overall and definitely deliver on creating a new, alternative timeline for the MK characters that we've all grown to know and love. Unfortunately, the game's fourth and final acts introduces something that pretty much killed whatever interest and investment in the story I had and took a hard right turn into absolute ridiculousness. I won't spoil anything, but what i will say is I wish all professional writers would collectively swear off including any sort of multiverse crap in their work. It destroys continuity and removes any stakes or established rules, and pretty much just establishes "anything and everything goes." Some people might enjoy this, but for me it's just lazy and absolutely stupid. MK1 is a victim of modern multiverse think which ruined what was otherwise a great story up until it was introduced. Unsurprisingly, I found the ending of the game completely anticlimactic as a result of this too. For MK2, or whatever they call the next game in the series, I really hope Neatherealm just sticks with a cohesive story with no multiverse or alternate timeline crap and sticks with it. As for the gameplay, it's on par with MK11's albeit with a few new mechanics, most notably the tag assist system which has a second character provide brief assistance to provide an additional attack, set up extended combos, or move cancel. I'm not a fan of this time of mechanic in other fighting games, and I wasn't in MK1. I'd much rather have a fully fleshed out tag team mechanic that allows you to just swap between two fully playable characters. Still, MK1's tag in mechanic does nothing to take away or add to the gameplay, it's just sort of an unnecessary feature that was just sort of there for me. Visually MK1 is pretty amazing looking, and aside from some aspects of the game just not feeling very Mortal Kombatish, the visuals were about as good as they could possibly be. Audio is mostly good, however no really memorable tracks and the occasional spotty voice acting holds MK1 back from being as good as it could have been in that department. Despite my grievances with MK1, I still found it it be an enjoyable, new entry in the MK series. It's just too bad the story really had to shit the bed at the end, which significantly dampened my enjoyment of the game once the end credits rolled. Here's hoping things are fixed or at least greatly improved in the next game. (1/1/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 01, 2024, 10:52:00 pm
2. Einhander (PS1)

I have a long time relationship with Einhander. I first went crazy over wanting this game back in the late 2000s when I was heavily collecting for the PS1 (and a dozen other consoles). When I finally did get a copy, I popped it in my PS1, really excited about all the hype and great things I'd heard about it, except the game ended up being far less enjoyable than I'd been lead to believe. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Einhander, but I have definitely lean more towards it being just alright. I've returned to Einhander at various times over the years, hoping that I will like it more the next time and see what many others see in this game. After beating Einhander again, I am happy to say my opinion of it did improve slightly, but it's still a game I think it heavily overrated within collecting circles.


More than anything, Einhander is a very good looking game. The game's heavily stylized graphics make this one of the best looking games on the PS1 imo, and it definitely escapes being another forgettable, generic SHMUP because of it. The same can be said about the game's OST, which is very catchy and adds to how unique and memorable Einhander is. I have less glowing things to say about Einhander's OST, which while not terrible, but lands pretty firmly into being okay. There are some cool mechanics and parts of the game, however the level design and balancing ranges from meh to bad in half the game. The game gives you swappable weapons which is a nice feature, and tries to align what weapons are best for a given situation before they are needed, but at the same time some of these weapons offer insufficient support to eefectively get past certain parts of the game. On top of that, Einhander uses stage checkpoints instead of the more common respawning instantly right where you just died when you get hit. Essentially you have to replay a specific section of stage all over again when you get hit. It's as annoying as it sounds, at least for me. So yeah, I do like Einhander a tad more than I did the last time I beat it, but it's still not the incredible shmup masterpiece that so many others love to claim this game is. (1/1/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on January 02, 2024, 03:51:25 am
4 - Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC (PC 2023) - BEAT - Meant to play this last year when it released, but finally got around to it and I think it's pretty great.  It's been awhile since I've played the original Separate Ways, but I feel like what they did is better here, much like the main game was.  They took a little bit of Leon's stuff and worked it into this part of the story pretty well and they definitely tried to make her stuff more unique with her grapple hook stuff.  I just had a great time with RE4.  It's definitely a different game, better in many ways, though it is missing that cheesy ass stuff from the first game, but that just means I get two good versions of the game.

The only real complaint I have, that I had before, was that Ada's voice actor is not good.  I was hoping that if she got more to do, since she doesn't say alot in Leon's story, she'd show something more here, but she is just awful.  I think they are trying to play her kinda of "cold and detached", nothing gets to her, she's seen everything and takes no shit, but she just comes off bored and stiff.  It's not a voice direction issue as everyone else in the game is fine or great, but she just doesn't work.  I really hope they are done using her for anything else, just bring back the actress from RE2, she was fine.

Great game though, I'm crossing my fingers that they don't remake RE5 next, that game would only work for me as a top to bottom overhaul, to the point that it's barely recognizable lol Otherwise, just give me a new RE1 remake or something like Code Veronica, which I haven't played before.  Either would be neat.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 02, 2024, 07:53:41 am
2. The Granstream Saga

You know how a lot of folks want remakes for PlayStation classics like Xenogears or Vagrant Story? Well, after playing this, I decided that The Granstream Saga gets my vote. The aforementioned games are much more functional and serviceable than this. The Granstream Saga isn’t bad, but it drops the ball in so many areas that it’s hard not to notice. I love how classic it plays and looks, and of course, I adore the soundtrack and parsing of anime scenes. But there are so many missed opportunities and many areas where QoL features would be helpful. Still, I’m glad that I replayed this. It was nice to stroll down memory lane, revisit the late 90s, and just chill out with a game that could’ve been more. I chose to romance Laramee in the end, for those that were wondering. First time through was Arcia.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 03, 2024, 08:11:03 am
3. Blasphemous II

Real talk. I had every intention of just casually playing this while being away from my other consoles. I had low expectations since the first Blasphemous was a semi-steaming dog pile. The low expectations might have helped, but this has become one of my favorite Metroidvanias. Nothing will outshine Symphony of the Night, but my goodness. This game shines in every department in comparison to the first: gameplay, music, graphics, story, exploration, you name it. I ended up getting both endings, completing the map to 100%, and discovering everything. Well, almost everything. Despite acquiring all beads, cherubs, spells, alters, and key items, the game is stuck at 98%. I’m guessing it’s because I didn’t fully upgrade Veridicto. But, the game said I was maxed out with Martyrdom so who knows. Either way, amazing game that I’m stoked to write about in a review.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on January 03, 2024, 06:59:48 pm
All right! 2024, let's do this! Didn't make a base post to keep track of everything the previous year, so will do that this year! No clue how many games I'll get to, in part because I also want to read a bunch of books again this year (finished 20 books last year, plus another 19 manga/graphic novels/art books). But we'll see, either way I'm excited to see what this year has in store! Highly doubt I'll play all the games I'm adding to the lists below, but good to have some ideas!


Beat:
(Purple = started it last year or earlier)
(Orange = already beat it before)


Want to play from backlog:

Game-related task I want to finish:

Unrelated, but books I have finished thus far: 13 (plus 4 manga)

My final list from 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg204113.html#msg204113) (17 titles beat, 15 of which for the first time)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on January 03, 2024, 07:10:55 pm
And can post about my first beat game of the year right away:

1. Hypnospace Outlaw [Switch]

This is a very unique game. Essentially, you are a moderator on a 90s online forum (GeoCities is the comparisent I hear all the time), except its one you access in your sleep. Your task is to go through all the pages and posts, find problematic content and report it to the higher-ups, while learning about the people on the platform and how it works. And yes: it plays exactly like how browsing through these forums in the 90s would be.

The old internet is recreated beautifully. I'm admittedly from '98 so I experienced the internet from a while later, but even then I can recognise and appreciate a lot of the touches they added. It genuinely feels like browsing through forums sometimes. I did realise I was a bit too dumb for this game though. Especially near the end you really gotta start thinking outside of the box, and I ended up needing a guide a few times to figure out the final parts. But that's a me-thing: I suck at these types of brain-busting-type games.

I gotta admit, while I was really into it at first, once the novelty of the 90's PC OS-setup wore off, it did lose me a little (even though I do appreciate a lot of the details that come later (and thankfully it's not that long, so it doesn't overstay its welcome)). This is still a charming title though, and one of the most unique things I've played in a while. If it sounds interesting to you, do give it a look. This was clearly a passion project and the creators deserve some love for it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 04, 2024, 01:46:37 am
I was having a "I don't know what the hell I feel like playing" kind of night, so I just decided to browse the ROMS on my Everdrive 64, and decided it was going to be an old school racing game night lol.


3. California Speed (N64)

Growing up, California Speed was unfortunately not an arcade machine I came across often. In fact, a local restaurant was the only place I remember consistently having one in the early 2000s, which is where I would play it whenever we'd go there. While my memories on California Speed are fuzzy, I remember it being very fun and memorable, especially parts like when you go into a UFO and also when you're racing inside on a giant computer chip. I've played the N64 port before and remember it being a disappointing imitation of the arcade version, but decided to give it another go for the hell of it.


Indeed, California Speed's N64 port is pretty bad. For one, the technical compromises of this game are on full display with how how crappy the backgrounds and textures look, but more than that is the constant fog you're racing in which really washes out the game, and really distracts from one of the things I love so much about the arcade version. Aside from that, the people that ported this game did a fine enough job imitating the more memorable props and set pieces of each course, which at least reminded me of what game I was playing. The gameplay of California Speed isn't great either, but it's servicable for the most part. The controls are very touchy and squerelly at times, but do a fine enough job in terms of being able to control your vehicle. One other major grip is how this game essentially rubber bands all the other racers to where they always seem to be the same distance in front or behind you, regardless of crashing into something or hitting a wall. This sort of takes away from the fun, but overall I didn't find it too distracting. I saved the best for last, in that California Speed's OST is actually pretty good with some genuinely good tracks. Specifically there was a techno track that was my favorite. One other cool aspect of the sound in this game is that some vehicles sound different than others, making maybe one type of vehicle more desireable than another depending on the player's preferences. California Speed would have been best left as a weekend rental, and even then you're likely get bored with it in an hour or two. Still, the game has its moments depending on what course you select, and also does a decent job at capturing. some of the elements that made the greatly superior arcade game so much fun. Not a terrible game, but one that you'd only want to play if you have a soft sport for the N64 and its library. (1/3/24) [27/50]

4. Stunt Racer 64 (N64)

I jumped into Stunt Racer 64 right after California Speed, and unlike California Speed, I have no nostalgic connection to this game whatsoever. In fact, I didn't even learn about this game's existence until I began collecting. Despite the game's rarity as a result of being a Blockbuster exclusive title, I've actually came across a decent amount of the cart in my game hunting adventures. More recently, I traded my loose cart from my collection for both a CIB Sega Sports Dreamcast and a CIB Saturn console. After playing Stunt Racer 64 for a while, I definitely feel like I got the way better end of that deal.


Stunt Racer 64 is not a very memorable or particularly fun game. The whole "stunt" portion of the game is delegated to 2 or 3 jumps per course, and maybe a loop or wazy road section. However, 80-90% of all the courses are pretty much just standard fair racing tracks, albeit with some sort of theme around some of them. What this means, is you're left feeling like you're just playing another late 90s/early 2000s generic console racing game. One cool thing is you can buy new cars in this game with coins you collect during races, however this provides little incentive to want to keep on playing. Visually, Stunt Racer 64 looks okay for the most part, but there is some noticeable attention to detail on various in game assets. OST on the other hand is actually kind of crappy, and I found the music in Stunt Racer 64 to be unappealing at just downright annoying at times. Overall, Stunt Racer 64 is just another prime example of an overhyped collectors trophy that is worst no more than bragging you own it. Actually playing this game ought to make anyone who actually purchased Stunt Racer 64 for at or near what its currently going for immediately regret it. I feel even better about selling my copy after finally playing it, and realizing it's definitely slower to being a bottom of the barrel N64 Racing game rather than some sort of hidden gem. (1/3/24) [23/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on January 04, 2024, 11:21:41 am
2. Victor Vran
Of course, again a game starting at 2, it will just always happen. This was started in 2023. It is a Diablo Type Game. Like Torchlight it also has guns and "hand cannons" but does not have bows or crossbows. Large amounts of stuff in the environment is destructible and sometimes will drop loot. In the beginning it is just crates but ends up being a ton of things especially when inside houses. It was what you would expect from this type of game, it starts you with a sword and then you can get other melee weapons that behave differently. Then you get a gun and it seems cool but kind of seems useless compared to swords or hammers. There is an update method you get at level 16 that I ended up revolving my life around. There isn't reason to buy much besides potions or cards. I ended up turning into a card collector (weird) and didn't really care about buying or getting anything else.

Around half-way through (maybe earlier) I ended up finding a weapon that was a book. It is a ranged weapon and unlike any other weapon in the game, the primary attack has no cooldown. It isn't exactly instant as you are still limited by the animations but it can end up being the fastest attack in the game, yet not the most damage. So when I was using a vampire card (it gives life steal) it seemed fairly simple to take down enemies but it wasn't as fast. So I said to myself, why wouldn't I just use this the entire game and put lifesteal cards on then I can just tank everything in the game? I did that in Diablo II with an Amazon. It works fine here too except it has no lock-on mechanic for ranged so you have to make sure you are hitting something. This type build I chould sit in a death area and do just enough damage to stay alive. Sometimes I would be taking 1k damage/sec but doing just more than that where standing in some place with an environmental effect didn't mean anything. The only issues then are fields of cold/slow or enemies that have a knock-back or use the Pull skill which will interrupt your attack.

Most of the bosses have phases. An opener, then spawn some helper monsters and will move around. Some of the phases are not good for my build where I just want to stand in one place and hold down shoot. Especially some of the phases with monsters if they happen to spawn in Elementals or the monsters that use Pull. But, in all phases a boss may have, none of them have are invulnerable. Even the ones where the boss will get extra life bars or use life-beam type things (where you are supposed to destroy the extra things first before finishing the boss). So instead of going through the expected progression, with a constant lifesteal action going and you can tank say... whatever is happening in second phase, you can just ignore the other things and hit the boss. If you kill the extra stuff, then he will go into another phase. There were two or three bosses where one of the phases was too overwhelming for me and I repeated the fight until I found an earlier phase that I could tank.

Controls are OK. You can have many different options and I chose the mouse one (like in Diablo) which may not be the most ideal but it was what was most familiar. You can use Shift to stand in place like in D2 as well. Lock-on for range can be finicky. Special ranged powers can miss targets entirely. Camera can be an issue sometimes but it technically has free-look which is bound to wheel so I could look around like in H1Z1. The cut-away on scenery could be confusing at times. The music is nothing to write home about, although there is a DLC with Motorhead that I don't have, that could be interesting.

Doesn't have a Game Over or a New Game+, you can just keep playing after the ending. There is a lot you can do as each area already had challenges to do, and afterwards you get a second page of them, in addition to some new bosses you can kill and new areas you have to unlock. And there are 2 DLC I believe that add things, so you certainly can keep playing this game for a long time.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: koemo1 on January 04, 2024, 11:58:43 am
Reserving a spot!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on January 04, 2024, 04:39:11 pm
Finished my first title for the year!

Golf Story - I've had my eye on this for some time, and it got very cheap on the Switch sometime last year.  It's very funny, has some fun golf mechanics and is just generally fun to pick up and play.  Not terribly long for an RPG (as long as you get a handle on the actual golf mechanics, with me beating the campaign in around 18-20 hours, but there were a few things that were sticking in my craw.  Mainly that there were certain challenges that it forces you to finish out even if it is impossible for you to lose or beat after a round or two.  This was mostly frustrating when I'd screw up something early and had no way of catching up to actual beat the challenge.  Second, while it is short there's not a ton of story here and by the end of the game all I wanted to was just play a few holes, not run back and forth on fetch quests or do the challenges.  But those are minor complaints to what is, all-in-all, a very fun package.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: redblaze57 on January 04, 2024, 06:36:49 pm
1.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Turtles in time (cowabunga collection)(Switch) - Arcade version. overall still a fun game... but I probably won't play again unless I have others around to play with.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 04, 2024, 09:09:15 pm
5. Sonic Wings Special (PS1)

In the later part of the 2010s i had a bit of a SHMUP renaissance. While I've been a fan of the genre since I was a kid, I hadn't played several of some of the very best SHMUPs ever made until around 2015/2016, which kicked of a journey where I played easily over a hundred SHMUPs across many platforms. One of the standouts that I remember thoroughly enjoying was Sonic Wings Special on the Sega Saturn. It's been a good 3 years or so since I last played Sonic Wings Special, and this time I decided to play the PS1 port, which is pretty much the exact same as the Saturn version I'm more accustomed to.


The graphics in SOnic Wings Special, while not the most amazing in the world, are still pretty impressive, as is the overall art design which does enough to make this game not feel like another generic shooter. Gameplay is also great with a few annoying balancing issues and flaws, but overall, it's fun to have so many ships to choose from, and have them all have different attacks and specials too. The boss battles in Sonic Wings Special are beyond epic with a good variety of military and scifi-ish opponents you'll face off with. The OST is pretty good too, with various catchy tracks thrown into the game. While I'm glad I played Sonic Wings Special again, I am a little bummed I felt like I liked this game slightly less than I did the last time I played it. Don't get me wrong, it's still great fun, but just somewhat lacking compared to my older impressions of it. Still, a really fun SHMUP and one I'd definitely recommend anyone who's a fan of the genre play. (1/4/24) [32/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on January 05, 2024, 02:29:51 pm
Game 1 - Donut County (Switch) - 3 Hours

The first game of 2024 has been finished! I found my time with Donut County to be a pretty enjoyable one. It definitely reminds me a lot of Keita Takahashi works that I've played in the past (the Katamari series as well as Wattam), and the fact that both this game and Wattam were published by Annapurna also says something. I found this game to be really funny with adorable graphics, great music, and fun physics-laced gameplay of dropping progressively bigger objects into a giant hole. The game sports a cute little story with some fun characters and I found the writing, while a bit on the immature side, fit the wacky world that you play in.

Like those other games mentioned, I found that Donut County, while a charming experience, to be pretty light on the actual gameplay. It felt most like Wattam where the gameplay really never takes off beyond the most basic level. You're essentially moving a hole under objects sequentially for about 75% of the game with no real challenge or puzzle-solving to make it more engaging. Unlike Katamari, for instance, your hole can move freely about the map so you don't have to worry about size challenges as you accumulate objects. The latter levels do add some needed challenge and variety, but mostly the game just isn't as deep (pun intended) as I would have liked. Most of the levels consist of only one screen and can be beaten in about 10 minutes or less. And with only about 25 levels there isn't much to keep you playing. Regardless, it still was a very cute, endearing, fun experience and I enjoyed my time with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 06, 2024, 05:34:52 pm
01. Rusty Lake: Roots || PC || 01.03.24

(https://i.imgur.com/Dz9wzdw.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/7pgnMqp.jpg)

Leaving the mainline Cube Escape series at its penultimate entry, I had to break to play the next recommended game in the developer's preferred order to play: Rusty Lake: Roots. As another prequel entry, I was curious how it'd compete with the first of its kind and learning its connections to everything else presented so far.

Quickly, it was apparent that Roots is much larger in scope while simultaneously having a higher degree of polish. In short, the game is a much longer and even more narrative-dense experience that's more than twice as long as the longest games before it. Throughout my time playing, it seemed that there was always some strange event occurring in tandem with the series's story.

As the title suggests, this prequel set long ago more than one hundred years than when the present-day games take place. Showing the complicated and twisted connections from past to present, Roots is structured in 33 smaller segments which each take place in a specific moment in time. Instead of one drawn-out event, the narrative is broken into nearly three dozen smaller moments which highlight crucial points throughout history relating to Rusty Lake, the Vanderboom family, and the family's cursed fate. As time moves forward, the branching timeline becomes more elaborate and interconnected through its imagery of a family tree. Advancing through the story one plot point at a time, the player will be given the option to choose which plot points to play first. While all events ultimately need to be completed, the slight deviation from a completely linear experience is welcomed. With each moment of time which serves as a puzzle to solve, an approximate date to when it occurred is shown. However, this is the only time that information can be viewed, so a small but welcoming feature to have been added would simply be to review it. Of course, the family tree itself generally gives a good enough estimate to when events take place, but to be able to review the exact order in which events occur (especially since many coincide with others) would have offered a greater understanding of the story elements.

So, with 33 unique puzzle stages which act as plot points in total, the puzzle design feels a little simplified, at first. Although it's worth mentioning that screens are not static unlike every game up to this point but instead grant the player the capability to span across the environment. At minimum, for those who've played each game before Roots, puzzle design will feel familiar and sometimes reused in some aspects, although not entirely. Be that as it may, I was fine with this small caveat, as I was much more invested in the context behind the overarching narrative. As the game progresses, though, I felt that puzzle difficulty heightened. But, toward the end of the game, a small number of puzzles are quite difficult to comprehend. Since the games feature little text and no straightforward instruction, some puzzles were an actual challenge. For instance, while I ultimately did make sense of the finale's puzzle at first, one last additional aspect appeared which felt tacked on which I failed to comprehend the logic behind its reasoning for the solution. From what I've reason online, I'm far from the only one either. On a high note, though, there is some additional content that's unlocked when revisiting certain stages and complete short post-game puzzles. It was a nice surprise, and the 34th puzzle was a lot of fun to play.

After finishing this lengthy game (compared to all other entries thus far), I was quite impressed, overall. I'm hoping that the crucial details revealed through Roots hold some substantial weight to what's next in the final Cube Escape entry.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 07, 2024, 11:25:13 am
I attended a lovely game night where we enjoyed some more Jackbox Games both new and old.

4. FixyText
The idea is neat, but the execution is slightly frustrating since there is no delete key. It can get chaotic in both a good and bad way when others are texting over each other. I doubt we'll play this again but kudos for trying something new, modern, and relevant.

5. Timejinx
Trivia! And it deals with something I have a knack for: years. You simply select a year in which something occurred. The closer you are, the less points you get. Person with the lowest score wins. Some bonus rounds and moments were tossed in for good measure. I won, so that was extra fun for me.

6. Talking Points
Improv meets a TED Talk. A personal favorite of mine, especially when you're with the right group of likeminded friends that have no qualms getting into the bizarre, the filthy, or a combination of the two.

7. Role Models
This was the most fun  to revisit. You categorize everyone based on a slew of unique themes. It's fun hearing why folks categorize you in certain places. It's even more fun when someone new joins the group because it helps get to know them.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on January 08, 2024, 07:40:01 am
2. Super Mario RPG

A very solid and faithful remake with some fixes in localization, a lot of nice quality of life changes, a pretty good update on the visual style (in gameplay, the cutscenes are more hit and miss).  The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack.  No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies.  A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience,  it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 08, 2024, 12:46:10 pm
02. Cube Escape: The Cave || PC || 01.07.24

(https://i.imgur.com/nP4V1Um.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/wEA85D1.jpg)

To begin, something to correct is that Cube Escape: The Cave is not the final Cube Escape entry as I previously stated. However, is is the final entry in the Cube Escape Collection compilation. Nevertheless, I was quite excited to see what I thought was the concluding entry to this sub-series of escape-the-room style of puzzle games.

As for The Cave's narrative, it concerns the Vanderboom family and their connection to the elixer of life that is the key item causing some members' eternal life, though one which comes at a high cost of others' deaths and sacrifices. In short, it is a cursed path to take for one's selfish gain. Something I've found interesting while playing through the eleven games so far is that the player-character changes. At times, the player acts as the game's central character, often times untold directly, whereas other times you seem to be a presence directly interacting with the environment which influences characters. It is a subtle difference but one which I welcome.

Midway through the game, the player is actually taken to a new room full of its own puzzles and actions to complete, thus dividing the game into two unique sections. In this second half, I truthfully found just about everything to be confusing early on. Full of unexplained numbers, dials, charts, levers, and icons, this section is immediately overwhelming. Because the Cube Escape games generally have pieces of the solution to each puzzle scattered around the entire room, I felt extremely lost without any direction. But, with a little help from a guide every few steps along the way (usually at a step's starting point to give me better direction), I was able to complete each puzzle. Out of every game so far, the end puzzles in The Cave felt most ambiguous. I almost never knew what to do next to begin the puzzle-solving, but once step was overcome, the puzzles themselves were without issue. Something else to briefly mention is that, unlike the previous four or five games, this game didn't force me to use pen and paper. If anything, the most challenging part of the puzzles was the very first step.

At first, I was surprised by the game's "to be continue" screen despite what I (wrongly) thought that The Cave is the final Cube Escape entry. Even if this were true, though, the Cube Escape sub-series exists in the larger Rusty Lake series, so it doesn't matter either way. With the game's ending involving both Dale and Laura, I'm still unsure how they're exactly connected or why Dale is a part of the events at all. Like always, hopefully that information is revealed in time. Or, perhaps I've overlooked some detail.

By this point, I've finished playing through the Cube Escape Collection compilation which compiles the first nine Cube Escape games into one package. Moving forward, I assume that sequel entries will all have a higher level of quality and polish to them, but I'll have to find out for myself in the near future. Something I do know, though, is that the latest (and currently final) Cube Escape entry is a mix of game and short film, so that is something I greatly look forward to once I reach the point to play it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 08, 2024, 12:51:00 pm
Quote from: Cartagia on January 08, 2024, 07:40:01 am
2. Super Mario RPG

The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack.  No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies.  A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience,  it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.

The only real detail I know about the game is that, toward the end, there is a platforming section that I've been told is quite challenging and unforgiving in the original Super Nintendo release. Has the difficulty been altered for that too?

I realized the other day that I actually do have the immediate means to play Super Mario RPG for SNES since I own a SNES Classic Edition. So, I may prioritize playing that sometime this year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 08, 2024, 01:36:33 pm
03. Flipper Lifter || Playdate || 01.07.24

(https://i.imgur.com/H31KTlM.gif)

Not knowing anything about Flipper Lifter prior to playing, I started the game not sure what to expect. After my playthrough, I will say now that it is arguably the Playdate's most arcade-style game yet, of the system's included batch of games.

In short, you as the player control an elevator by exclusively utilizing the system's built-in crank. The gameplay is simple yet quickly becomes challenging, as penguin passengers are needing to be taken to their preferred floor. At the beginning, there is only a small number of floors, with the fewest that some stages offer being two. However, floors are gradually added over time per ten points scored. On my very first playthrough, I managed to drop off 125 passengers while being jostled around up and down fourteen floors which forces the player to micromanage.

Offering only sixty seconds of available time, Flipper Lifter challenges the player to think efficiently. Despite what seems like a short amount of time, additional time is gained to increase the stage's length by unloading passengers, although that time is only a second or two. While passengers will seemingly wait forever to board the elevator, there is only a short amount of time they're willing to wait to exit. If failing to successfully drop off a passenger in time, the elevator temporarily breaks down, costing players valuable time. One detail I particularly thought added to the game's depth is that the elevator's descent is considerably faster than its ascent. So, this requires players to prioritize certain routes to allow one set of passengers to be dropped off first instead of others. At the same time, it is inevitable for the elevator to break down. However, one can utilize this punishment to their advantage, as they can still pick up new passengers to board during that time.

Fortunately, there is a small number of stages to unlock which helps add further depth to the game. Unlocked by the player's cumulative score across all currently available stages, each stage has its own unique layout and gimmicks. These include aspects like multiple elevator shafts, pulley systems, a predator which scares passengers, and more. In general, difficulty increases with each stage unlocked, so gaining high enough scores to unlock the later stages may prove to be difficult to some, but I personally had no issue. I will say that the game's fourth stage of five total is quite challenging.

Overall, Flipper Lifter makes great use of the system's crank on a classic puzzle-action game formula. It's similar to some other arcade-style games from long ago, but the crank definitely sets it apart. It's a welcome addition to the system's library.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on January 08, 2024, 02:53:07 pm
Quote from: dhaabi on January 08, 2024, 12:51:00 pm
Quote from: Cartagia on January 08, 2024, 07:40:01 am
2. Super Mario RPG

The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack.  No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies.  A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience,  it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.

The only real detail I know about the game is that, toward the end, there is a platforming section that I've been told is quite challenging and unforgiving in the original Super Nintendo release. Has the difficulty been altered for that too?

I realized the other day that I actually do have the immediate means to play Super Mario RPG for SNES since I own a SNES Classic Edition. So, I may prioritize playing that sometime this year.

There are some challenge rooms in the second to last dungeon with some (slightly) irritating platforming, but you only have to clear 4 of 6 and only 2 are platforming.  I gave up on the second one because it was reversed controls, but I only tried once.  That's the only thing that I can think of that people might be referring to.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 10, 2024, 10:18:21 am
8. Lord of Arcana

This game is as generic and repetitive as it gets. Take mission. Fight monster. Build better equipment. Repeat. It was ideal for downtime during work or long meetings. I never played a Monster Hunter but I'm guessing that's what this is with a different setting and a horrible control scheme. I still don't know why dodging and locking on an enemy required so much effort. But, it's done. And it was entertaining seeing the QTE finishers since enemies would explode into Vandal Hearts pools of blood. This will likely be the only PSP game I play all year. My PSP's nub is in bad shape and staring at its screen just doesn't do it for me anymore. In other words, I need a new one. I'll always fight for the portable that never stood a chance against the DS.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 11, 2024, 08:34:04 am
9. Star Ocean: The Second Story R

This is a masterclass when it comes to remakes. I have a lot I can't wait to write about when it's review time. One of the things I'm most excited to talk about are all the little things that came together: town/dungeon quick jump, your party members following you, the Bodyguard specialty, ease of manipulating endings, the multi-use item creation, and a bunch more. And just because the credits rolled, it doesn't mean the journey on this file is over. I have a big, ol' Maze of Tribulations to go through. I just made it to the third floor. Then there are some super bosses. There's lots more star ocean-ing ahead.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 12, 2024, 06:12:20 pm
04. Demon Quest '85 || Playdate || 01.11.24

(https://i.imgur.com/7cs3Obx.gif)

As I've now completed my seventh Playdate game in the five weeks I've owned the system, I'm still greatly pleased with how capable this little device is at providing fun experiences across a myriad of genres and themes. Since most games have short playtimes, I've found myself playing all sorts of games that I ordinarily don't play but have enjoyed immensely, and Demon Quest '85 is no exception.

Based on the game's title, Demon Quest '85 could have been a game adopting any number of genres: first-person dungeon crawler, turn-based RPG, action-platformer, puzzle adventure, and so forth. However, what I wasn't expecting was for it to be an open-ended narrative adventure game akin to choose-your-own-adventure novels. The developers themselves are even on record for classifying the game as a visual novel, and I think that there's enough overlap with the genre to even classify it as such too. With all that said, Demon Quest '85 is all about summoning demons as a high school student, taking place in 1985.

With an ancient grimoire in hand outlining the darkest horrors of some of the most dangerous and cursed fiends from hell, you as the player-character gather three friends to spend an afternoon in your musty attic to summon these demons. Over the course of several days, your friends serve as vessels for the demons to communicate through. With the summoning requiring both a party of four and willing participants who meet certain criteria for each specific demon, three of the twelve who accompany you each day present problems for a demon to solve or knowledge for them to impart. And, surprisingly, as more summonings are performed, your influence over hell and its leaders becomes more paramount with increasing concern. Meanwhile, the influence each demon's effects has over your friends becomes either welcomed or worrisome.

To accomplish all of this, there is an involved process to prepare the event. While the hellish text offers a fair amount of overview, the most useful information will be gathered from the demons you summon, which will allow you to call upon the next. In time, you will learn about the demon's interests, what powers they control, their values, and their political alliances. With all this information, you will then need to set the scene: leaving a suitable offering, preparing the preferred musical ambiance, and inviting the correct friends to form a party of the demon's liking. Of the twelve classmates to choose from, there is some challenge, as only short blurbs for both who the student is and what kind of audience the demon demands are available. In truth, this step will likely require some trial-and-error effort, but it is a small puzzle to solve.

Having mentioned the game's genre above, I finished my playthrough surprised at the degree of narrative-branching that's offered. Demons may be summoned in a multitude of ways, largely with the combination of classmates to choose from being varied. Once the summoning is ready, only one of three is then used as the demon's vessel and only one may be influenced. However, whether they actually take that influence is also a presented choice for the player to decide. While human outcomes greatly vary, so do the outcomes for the demons themselves, as how you interact with one directly alters the next summoning. Of course, the game's ending operates is also varied, with my personal choices leading to a more lawful evil conclusion.

Since each demon can only be summoned once, the narrative progresses quickly. Because of that design, Demon Quest '85 offers an impressive amount of replayability which actually seems worth investing in. Once the player knows how to summon each demon, progressing is simple, meaning to play the game from beginning to end can be done quite quickly. Something worth mentioning is that, if one is interested in playing through a number of paths, the system's crank can be used to speedily scroll through dialogue.

In the end, Demon Quest '85 stands as one of my most preferred games bundled with the system, and I can easily find myself revisiting it. While open-ended narrative games generally aren't ones I gravitate toward, the game's short but serviceable length only made the experience more approachable.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 14, 2024, 03:48:33 pm
05. Rusty Lake Paradise || PC || 01.12.24

(https://i.imgur.com/bmpkKyS.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/vCDmABQ.jpg)

Eager to begin the third and final Rusty Lake entry, I was curious to learn just how much there actually is in connection to the Vanderboom family's cursed history and, ultimately, Laura's end fate. After the previous Rusty Lake entry Roots, I wasn't expecting there to be that much more, but I was fortunately mistaken.

Set even further back in the past than what's been shown so far, Paradise takes place in 1796, nearly two hundred years prior to the game's most current events of 1981. With the player assuming the role of a son named Jakob, you return to your island home referred to as Paradise in light of your mother's death. On this small island in the middle of Rusty Lake, only your small family of now six make it their home. Upon your arrival shortly after your mother's death, a series of disasters plague the land and its inhabitants, with each one serving as a plot point which breaks the game into ten chapters. With a high number of plagues taking place, a good variety is introduced as problems to overcome, including water having turned into blood, diseased livestock, and an outbreak of boils.

At first, I believed the puzzles to all be simple, but, in hindsight, I feel as if the game's puzzle designs has a much better gradual increase of difficulty which nearly every other game before it ignores. However, one change I greatly welcomed is that most puzzles are self-contained and not just items interacting with another. There are dozens of small puzzles which come together as one single path to reach the game's ending, and I found them all fun to solve. While a few stumped me, those moments were almost all relating to me overlooking one small detail to inspect or not knowing how a certain item is to be used. After glancing back at all of the game's puzzles in a walkthrough, the percentage of puzzles solved out of total puzzles was perhaps highest for me this time.

Something routinely mentioned throughout the series is how events are interconnected through past, present, and future, and that thought is greatly present in Paradise. Everything, no matter when or where exactly it takes place, seems to be influential over what has happened or will happen. Through the Rusty Lake series, cultish texts and ideologies are read and practiced by patriarchal leaders which dictate that our memories belong to the lake, our past lives must reach some sort of balance with future lives, and there is a chosen one in the midst of it all whose status is reached through enlightenment. What I quickly came to appreciate is that the series excels at presenting strange and unusual, but also grotesque, scenes. In one instance throughout Paradise, the game veers strongly toward body horror.

Even after playing through all three prequel entries, there are narrative details which I don't understand. That said, perhaps the remaining entries can explain some of my misunderstanding. Speculating as to what's to come next, I really don't know what that could be. If the series has an actual ending, I don't know exactly how that will occur or what exactly is needing to be resolved. In truth, I'm quite fine with the idea that each of the remaining entries simply fill in details to expand upon what's revealed so far without some conclusive end. Nevertheless, now I move forward to play the next and final Cube Escape entry.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: moonlightvalkyrie on January 14, 2024, 07:36:40 pm
1. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (PS5)- I have to say that The Devil in Me update they gave to this game doesn't fit well. I still recommend at least a playthrough of this one! I am hoping to finish the Anthology this year!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on January 16, 2024, 07:41:28 am
3. Star Trek: Resurgence (PS5)

I'm a bit conflicted on this one.  The graphics and gameplay would have been outdated 5 years ago, and the branching path narrative is incredibly simple.  Despite that Resurgence might be the most purely Star Trek game to have come out in 30 years.  Moral dilemmas, big sci-fi concepts, cool technobabble.  It's all here.  There are some bits of the writing that don't really make logical sense in a chain of command style outfit like Starfleet, and it just kind of ends leaving a few dangling plot threads.

Overall it's a ok video game, but a very solid Star Trek game.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 17, 2024, 02:04:30 am
I decided to go all in on the Real Bout: Fatal Fury series tonight. I've played 2 of these games before, however, I've never actually played the first RB game prior to tonight, at least not that I remembered. But anyhow, here are my impressions.


6. Real Bout: Fatal Fury (PS4)

Supposedly a lot of people don't like this game. And yeah, I kinda get it, particularly some balancing issues with a few non-boss characters as well as the ring out mechanic, which I thought was kinda fun, but overall I liked this game mostly from a gameplay perspective. I liked it even more from a presentation perspective, as there are cutscenes, the stages look excellent, and the character sprites are all awesome. It does suck that there aren't more stages, but for what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. I don't know, I think this is a pretty fun game in the series, despite openly admitting it has its flaws and you can certainly do better for a Fatal Fury game. (1/16/24) [33/50]

7. Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special (PS4)

It has been a long time since I played the original RB Special, however, more recently I played its updated PS1 port Dominated Mind. While Dominated Mind and the original have very noticeable differences, I still mostly consider these games to be the same entry. However, even though Dominated Mind is supposed to be enhanced, I actually prefer the original if only by a small margin. Both games look excellent, the gameplay is an improvement over the first RB, particularly the balancing and the removal of the out of bounds mechanic, and the OST is still awesome. This was my favorite RB game I played tonight and definitely one of the best games in the franchise. (1/16/24) [35/50]

8. Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2 (PS4)

I had really high hopes for RB2, mostly because I remember thinking it was really fun and also because most people consider RB2 to be the best Fatal Fury game, second only to Mark of the Wolves. While I think it's a fun as hell game, I actually didn't find it as enjoyable as RB Special. My main hangup was the game seemed to veer back into some bad habits with it's balancing. However, it mostly made up for this by having more character, stages, and retaining those excellent visuals. The soundtrack isn[t half bad either. I had fun with RB2, but honestly I felt like RB Special outshined it, if only by a little. (1/16/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 18, 2024, 10:29:34 am
06. Cube Escape: Paradox || PC || 01.16.24

(https://i.imgur.com/BTqOFyu.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/AwdRaem.jpg)

With ten games currently available within the Cube Escape sub-series of games which is set within the larger Rusty Lake universe, I've finally completed them all. Knowing this beforehand, part of me also felt that Cube Escape: Paradox was to offer some finality to the narrative, but I don't think that's the case.

Playing as Dale, you wake up in a small room, trapped by its locked door. He becomes quickly aware that things aren't right, and he knows there's more to his involvement with Laura's death than simply being the detective investigating but doesn't understand how or why. Looking for clues to escape, Dale reads an advert for Rusty Lake where it reads how it's "a place to empty the mind," which allows visitors to "reflect on the past, the present and the future." With that understanding, Dale does explore these moments in time, alongside an additional empty time, a sort of limbo, for the lack of a better term.

Something crucial to mention is how the game is divided into two gameplay chapters and a live-action film adaptation. This cross-media presentation is apparent at the game's menu menu, as it's possible to experience the three in any order. Stated by the developers, there is no structure as to where the game or film should be experienced first, but I opted for what felt like the most logical path, being chapter 1, chapter 2, and the short film. Even within the game itself, though, elements of the film are incorporated into puzzle elements and story, which was achieved effectively at a high quality. Both the film's footage and still photography were utilized, bringing a unique change to the unchanged visual style across the dozen games leading up to Paradox.

Throughout the game, puzzle design has the player gaining certain information, applying it to one of four environments, and repeating that process to reach the end result. It's a fun loop that varies slightly from most games, with the only other game adopting this specific setup being Seasons, the first game in the series. Pen-and-paper was again helpful, and the game regularly has the player discovering one element to the puzzle with one set of items, than using that element toward another puzzle. At times, puzzles become lengthy yet manageable and still fun to solve.

During chapter 1, I didn't use a guide at all. There were a few moments where I was tempted, but I kept dwelling on the puzzle at-hand a little longer to finally deduce the answer. However, as for chapter 2, I found it to be more obtuse for a sizable part of it. There seemed to be a clear spike in puzzle difficulty between the two chapters, but perhaps that's to be expected. That said, as I finished the first chapter, it honestly felt like it could have been a game all on its own with the amount of content it offers, so knowing that a follow-up chapter was still left was great.

Since it's part of the game experience, I will comment on the included short film. Made by the series creators, the film adds an appreciated visual element to the game. While it doesn't offer anything unique such as directly interacting with puzzle elements or the gameplay itself, that there is a condensed and slightly altered form to the story is welcomed. Even more than the games, the film features a shockingly high degree of quality and polish, as acting, screenplay, set design, and editing are much higher than I think anyone was expecting to be.

Finishing chapter 2, an ending is implied, or possibly confirmed, through the final events which show. As with most plot points in the series, what is and isn't is difficult to differentiate. There are still four games remaining in the series for me to experience, but I'm not sure how they connect with everything so far. In all honesty, the series is probably long from being over, which I'm perfectly fine with. It's also worth noting that, since the Rusty Lake franchise is still actively being developed for, additional Cube Escape games could be made. Once the remaining games have been completed and I'm then left with nothing else to play, I'll only be left waiting to see.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: vivigamer on January 18, 2024, 06:27:56 pm
02. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS4 on PS5) - 18/01/2024
This is a really big deal for me as I have never beaten this game before due to rage quitting time and time again! The problem is late-game, enemies start to attack your MP & if you reach 0 MP your character dies... I still hate the concept! But I told myself I need to do this once & for all after being fresh off beat S.O. Second Story R.

So, how was it? Very good! Overall i like the story, I know there is much controversy to a few of the narrative points in this game but I like where it goes. I found the story engaging from start to finish and really valued the games decent production value (For the time).

Combat was a mixed bag, I already mentioned the MP snag but I also had a lot of problem with hit detection - Say if an enemy is getting back from being knocked on the ground it will be invulnerable until it reaches its upright stance. The game also has a bonus bar which you build up from attacking enemies & get bonuses like 300% EXP or 200% Money but sadly once hit can shattered the perk which is infuriating!

The game has one of the most convoluted set of customisation mechanics I've ever seen. In summary you need to recruit NPC's by gathering items for them. Once you have done so they will appear in one of your workshops, there you can form a team to work on Alchemy or Crafting or Cooking etc. BUT you can't even figure out what they're going to make, you have to cycle through a set of cost figures and hope it is what you want - or look up a guide. The game requires very precise combinations to which I had to often look online to figure out for a lot of this - Honestly, I feel like I have been studying a degree with the complexity of all these systems. It's something you have to figure out too or late-game enemies will trash you up!

One thing I have noticed about Star Ocean in general is it's 1-dimensional villains. They often don't get much attention thoughtful the story and the villain in this game was very underwhelming. That said, I did find the cast of characters charming and they're involvement into the on-going narrative relevant - Apart from 1, who I read up you can get earlier but I got him later without a choice and his story didn't make much sense.

The games dungeon areas are very maze like and frustrating. A guide is needed for most of them as it is really easy to get lost. The game also introduces features like breakable walls too so there is a lot going on. I like the games art direction and enjoyed the variety of locations.

Overall I packed a good 70+ hours into the game, there is post game content to dabble with which I may consider if the crafting isn't too much of a time sink. I've beat all S.O. games but The Last Hope now. Time is tight before Final Fantasy VII Rebirth though and I want to replay FF7R beforehand. But despite the problems I had with this game it does offer that true sense of adventure which I love from the genre and I had a lot of fun with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on January 20, 2024, 10:01:48 am
2. Sonic Mania [Switch]

So I've wanted to finish this game for a while, but what pushed me over the edge was my bff giving me this huge Sonic plush, which I love.

(https://i.imgur.com/T4A9CsC.jpeg)

So I took the game back on, and turned out I was on the final zone of my first playthrough, so I could finish it relatively quickly. I know I'm far from done: I didn't even get all the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the true ending. But I played through it once and got credits, so I'mma count it. Also because I'm not sure how quickly I'll jump back in.
It's odd. I like Sonic and his friends a lot as characters. I really enjoy things like Sonic Prime and the second live-action movie. I enjoy the character designs, interactions, all that. But I often just can't seem to get into the games, especially the classic style ones. I can acknowledge all that's good about this game, but it just never clicked for me. Even towards the end I was a little puzzled on what I was doing. I don't know whether there's too much going on for me or whether I can't keep up or whatever, but I dunno. Happy for everyone who loves it, I can acknowledge it's good, but personally, I don't think I'll be picking it up again soon.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 20, 2024, 06:03:12 pm
07. Omaze || Playdate || 01.16.24

(https://i.imgur.com/hZ5mTZk.gif)

Before first loading Omaze to begin playing, I had absolutely no idea what kind of genre the game would be. Its image among the system's library really gives no hints, so I was naturally curious.

As it turns out, Omaze is a logic puzzle game, although it has a elements of of action incorporated into it. In short, you as the player control a dot moving from one circle to the next, hoping to reach your end goal. However, this is obviously easier said than done, as each circle has its own obstacles to overcome in quick succession. While its complexities never become too involved or convoluted, the challenges presented and puzzle designs do gradually increase. Once again, I was pleased with the crank controls.

With that said, the two most basic controls are using the crank to rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise in addition to using the B button to manually cycle through one circle to the next. Along the way, there are openings which form the general pathway, so aligning to those connections will be needed to reach a stage's end goal. That said, I found some stages to offer more than one path to the end, which allows players to decide which sort of obstacles they want to overcome. Of course, obstacles are varied and require different reactionary outputs, so players will naturally opt for one path over another, depending on what is easiest for them.

In time, additional obstacle types are introduced. They range from self-rotating circles to enemy dots which rotate toward the player-controlled dot. Of course, when failing to overcome an obstacle, it results in a stage fail. On their own, puzzle elements are generally simple to overcome, but they will stack together to present a more challenging gameplay experience. Because of this, some moments involving auto-rotation paired with another other obstacle requires focused thinking and quick reactions involving both A and B buttons and the crank. At times, it is very much a challenge because there is little time to react with the player needing to move from button-pressing to crank-rotating. Even when not stacked together in one single circle, the series of obstacles before the player may feature numerous types, one after another, which is evident from the attached screenshot where seven unique obstacles are present.

Because of the screen's size limitations, the playing field can only support fifteen circles to traverse through, so stages are short. However, this isn't a criticism, as stages become tricky to execute as-needed in the moment. As I briefly mentioned before, Omaze is very much a reactionary game which will often require many repeated attempts. Near the beginning, I thought I had reached the game's end after only a short twenty stages. Fortunately, though, there are actually around sixty, as I initially overlooked the game's stage hub screen. Overall, I considered there to be a good balance of difficulty, as an area's first few stages introduce a new obstacle, with the latter ones being more challenging as multiple obstacles are layered. Something I'll also briefly mention is that there's even one puzzle obstacle which requires the crank to be mounted back into the system's crevice, which I found unique and unexpected. Also, what stood out to me the most is the atypical approach to how the system must be held. Instead of the left hand resting on the D-pad, it instead rests on the right side's face buttons while the right hand controls the crank. With the limited amount of system options to work with, I found Omaze to utilize just about everything it could in designing obstacles.

Being one of several of Playdate's pick-up-and-play type games that anyone can boot up with even just a few seconds to spare, Omaze was surprisingly a fun logic game with an emphasis on in-the-moment action. It isn't a game which warrants another playthrough, but it's a fun experience, nonetheless.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 20, 2024, 11:18:29 pm
9. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3)

I'm a fairly big fan of rhythm games and I've had a long standing interest in the Hatsune Miku series of games. I've played Project Diva F before, but aside from playing it for about 30 minutes or so at a time, I never actually beat it. I've also played some version of it in the arcade as well. But I decided to go all the way and unlock every song in the game (at least on Normal mode) and see if this is a series I could get even deeper into.


Your mileage will vary considerably with this game depending on how much you are into Miku and the whole Vocaloid series. I appreciate Hatsune Miku for how Japanese the whole thing is, but as for the music and the whole persona surrounding Miku, I'm not a big fan for the most part. Still, this game has some very catchy tunes, and the gameplay for the most part does a good job at making this a fun, engaging rhythm game. My biggest gripe is some of the songs are bad at keeping a beat consistent with the button prompts required to get a passing score on each song. My other issue is sometimes the button press prompts are very hard to see or track with all the action and other animations occurring in the background during gameplay. But overall, this isn't a huge deal for the most part. Project Diva F also had a crazy amount of unlockables, ranging from songs, outfits for the various Vocaloids, and even food you can feed them. It's wild. I can't say Project Diva F is one of the best Rhythm games I've ever played, but it's still a fun time and a series I'm certainly going to play more of at some point. (1/20/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 21, 2024, 06:24:22 pm
10. Virtua Cop (Arcade)

Between the arcade version and the Saturn port, I've probably beat Virtua Cop a hundred times at this point, but every once and I while I really get the urge to play through it once more, which is precisely what I did this afternoon. Virtua Cop is about as classic of a 90s arcade game as they come. While not very long, the light gun gameplay is still very addictive as you should bad guys popping out of pretty much every place they possibly can. Meanwhile you're picking up more powerful weapons and health items, and also not trying to kill innocent people who just love to step right in your line of fire. The bosses are also pretty fun, although the final boss is a tad on the easy side. Maybe the best thing about Virtua Cop both back in 1994 and today is its amazing presentation. Virtua Cop's OST is legendary, as are its graphics which still retain a distinct charm about them. I'll always love this Sega arcade gem, and I'm certain I'll probably play this game again within the next couple years like I always do. (1/21/24) [37/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 21, 2024, 09:51:31 pm
1. Battletoads (Genesis) - ABANDONED

Like many gamers old enough to remember the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Battletoads has been a continual thorn in my side for decades. In fact, prior to tonight, I'd never made it past the infamous Turbo Tunnels. After beating this section, I felt a brief moment of victory, followed by the crushing realization that it only gets harder the further into the game you go. I got a little further to the part where you have to platform on a bunch of moving snakes, and that part broke me. I've come to terms with the fact that I will likely never beat this game despite having tried since 1992/1993 when I first got this game. This game's reputation as being brutal is well deserved. For what it's worth, it's a fairly fun game to play, and has an amazing OST. I just wish it was slightly easier, as even for an older game, this game is relentless! (1/21/24)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 22, 2024, 12:41:58 am
I feel like I don't play enough pre-5th gen games, so I decided to have a nice Sunday night of Beat Em' Ups, focusing on ones I've never played and seem to get mentioned when the term "hidden gem" comes up. One of the games might be, sort of a hidden gem, while the other was anything but.


11. The Tick (Genesis)

I know the beat em' up genre is not typically known for being the least monotonous genre out there, but this game definitely takes the tedium present in a lot of games from this genre to a whole new level. For one, this is one of the longest beat em' ups I think I've ever played, and to make matters worse, very few stages, enemies, or bosses are at all interesting for fun to fight against. There is some humor in this game, but it literally becomes stale before you even finish the 2nd stage. There are also some really annoying platforming sections throughout the game where you have a bunch of random objects flying out you with almost no time to react. The OST is nothing great either, nor are the sound effects from the Tick or the enemies you fight. This game should be a hard pass for anyone looking for even a decent beat em' up to play. (1/21/24) [22/50]

12. The Punisher (Genesis)

I used to own this game back in the day, and never got around to playing it by the time I sold it off. Fortunately I have it on a Mega SD, and decided to play through it. Much to my surprise, it's actually a pretty fun beat em' up, with a fairly interesting story, cool enemies and bosses, and fairly interesting gameplay. One cool aspect of the Punisher is the ability to shoot enemies during select parts of the game. The enemy AI was also pretty balanced, offering a decent challenge, while avoiding being cheap or annoying. The OST is fairly average, but good, and the visuals are pretty good for the most part. There are certainly other beat em' ups on the Genesis I enjoy more, but for what it is, this game was no slouch. (1/21/24) [31/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 22, 2024, 09:17:56 pm
10. Mega Man X6

My neighborhood was an ice rink over the weekend, so I did replay of this while being at home. I'm not sure why. Maybe so I could make my inevitable replay of X4 all the more sweeter? This game isn't good. It's nowhere near X5 levels, but it's clear the series peaked at X4. Hell, for some it peaked just at X. Yes, there were some good stage tunes and a few neat bosses, but it was just a messy, contrived entry in the series.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 24, 2024, 10:32:57 am
08. Hyper Meteor || Playdate || 01.16.24

(https://i.imgur.com/fSBGxmo.gif)

With a name like Hyper Meteor on a system that has so far offered its players a handful of fun arcade-style games, the title gave some hint as to what kind of genre the game would be. While some may find it to be a clone of the classic Asteroids, it is far from it.

In short, Hyper Meteor is a simple action game which has the player thrusting their spacecraft into meteors and other obstacles in head-on collisions, not by using projectile shots. With space being cramped and full of numerous enemy types, surviving requires a small level of strategic play. For every obstacle, there are two sides: white, which signifies the item's vulnerable points to strike, and black, which signifies its armored points to avoid as they result in losing a life token. As new levels are achieved, new enemy types may spawn with those already unlocked which are unlike the default meteors which are free-floating, non-targeting obstructions. Instead, other obstacles are more like actual enemies. One type actively but slowly drifts toward the player, whereas another shoots projectiles in several directions it faces.

Alongside the basic attack system, there is a heavy emphasis on scoring which determines new stages being achieved in real-time with more difficult encounters yielding higher point totals and the ability to gain additional life tokens upon reaching score milestones. This mechanic is complemented by the game's scoring which leans into its arcade nature through a combo system. In the corner, a gauge is present that refills with each collision but quickly depletes. Naturally, this encourages faster gameplay which rewards risk. Of course, being precise in one's movements are obviously crucial to reach higher scores and longer sessions. To go far, there is a balance needing to be achieved to target the smaller craters which serve as fodder to quickly refill the gauge as they are fully white, meaning they cannot harm the player.

Bearing some similarities to its reference material, Hyper Meteor stands as its own with individuality. Alongside what's been mentioned above, Hyper Meteor's playing field size is quite small, meaning there is not a lot of space to navigate around obstacles. At the same time, player control is not as floaty and and fast-moving as one may expect, which I prefer. Another item worth mentioning is that two different control layouts—either the D-pad or face buttons in pair with the system's crank—are offered which is a welcomed addition.

To my surprise, Hyper Meteor is perhaps my go-to arcade-style game included with the Playdate, as of this writing. With each new attempt, I actually notice my skill improving and the capability to achieve longer runs, which I find myself still greatly motivated to pursue.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 24, 2024, 12:15:55 pm
09. The White Door || PC || 01.20.24

(https://i.imgur.com/CbFdU6e.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/XrtDE0Q.jpg)

With the Rusty Lake franchise having seemingly concluded both the Cube Escape and Rusty Lake sub-series of games, developer Rusty Lake's more recent endeavors have been expanding upon the overarching Rusty Lake narrative through other, slightly different, gameplay and visual types. At least, this is my assumption after having finished The White Door.

Controlling protagonist Robert Hill, players assume the role of someone seemingly new, foreign to the involvement of Dale, Laura, and the larger Vanderboom ancestry. However, that is actually not the case, as Robert has been shown at least on two occasions, although their presence and bearing on the overall narrative at that point was little. Having woken up in a room that's locked from the outside, there is a posted schedule to follow to progress time. As the game's title suggests, a white door is your most obvious obstacle in maintaining your state of being trapped. That said, shortly after starting, it becomes apparent how you're checked in to some sort of mental health facility.

As the schedule implies, you must follow it with each passing day. At certain intervals, usually when the day ends, a short flashback event will appear for the player to control through. As players will come to learn, Robert has connections with the murdered woman, Laura. These flashback sections place a heavy emphasis on story, with progressing through each line of dialogue or action requiring some sort of simple input to maintain player engagement. As the day continues, players will have to pass a series of short objectives such as eating breakfast and simple recreation at night. However, there are also other tasks such as memory tests which are often more like visual tests. Additionally, a staff member appears once a day to check Robert's well-being which often requires the player to recount information from details scattered about the room. Fortunately, the game doesn't force the player to actually recall information, as there are no consequences alongside the player being able to freely move about the room to further investigate specific details.

While playing, it's apparent how The White Door deviates from every single one of the previous Rusty Lake franchise games, which is likely why the game's name formatting omits any formal connection to either aforementioned sub-series. In The White Door, the screen is halved. On the left is a top-down view of the room you're in which allows you to see various items which you may interact with. On the right is an up-close screen showing the items you near which are able to be interacted with. This right side is how the actual interaction is performed, requiring the player to drag and click. At times, more detailed information is also presented on this side which highlights crucial details necessary to progress through the game's puzzle narrative. Unlike every other game so far, items aren't collected. In fact, items don't even interact with another. In truth, the amount of gameplay is perhaps lowest in this entry, as puzzle objectives usually appear as brief interruptions to the relatively fast-moving story. On that note, while the level of narration and storytelling has varied across each Rusty Lake game, The White Door is the most narrative-driven experience so far. After nearly every action being taken, narration follows. In many instances, the action even follows the narration, as if it's guiding players in what to do.

Bolstered by its emphasis on story-telling, The White Door presents a bleak plot about loss, the decline of mental health, and losing what it means to be one's self. By every account, the game is very much a side narrative to the ongoing story, but it's one which offers adequate details to fill in some gaps while remaining true to the dark and disturbing nature the franchise is known for.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on January 24, 2024, 06:06:48 pm
11. Shadow Hearts: From the New World

It's been nearly 20 years since I played this and thought a replay was in order. With the strategy guide in my possession finally, I had every intention of doing everything: side-quests, collectables, etc. Well, that idea got thrown out the window when I reached the halfway point (and the battle track went from epic to awful). This was worse than I remembered. I can see myself going through the original and Covenant in years to come. Maybe there'll come a time when I do another run of Koudelka. This, however, I will never play this game again unless there's a release of the entire Shadow Hearts series on one disc/cart that includes QoL changes, trophies, etc. And knowing how borked Aruze and the Shadow Hearts IP is, that's never going to happen. The game's goofy characters and lack of barely any horror themed atmosphere aren't my biggest issues, although they don't help. It's that the game's poorly balanced to the point that outside grinding is constant necessity. Since battles take too long, doing said grinding takes even more time. Building Stock takes time. Enemies constantly get multiple turns in a row. Maybe they wanted to make things more challenging but this wasn't the right way to do it. When those credits rolled, I returned the disc to the case and the case to the shelf. Out of sight/mind.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on January 25, 2024, 10:02:35 am
6. Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition

Marked this as red, because of some bug or particularities with the game that prevent me from actually completing it. First, this is only the original release of the game and does not include the expansions. My plan was to just complete the campaign options, of which there are seven. There are three you can see from the start and I was able to play and complete the first two. The first campaign was easy. The second was challenging in the third portion and I had to restart it many times. Basically the issue was that I was going too slow. The third one was the same issue in the third segment but I decided to cheat to get past it in the end.

Yet, after beating the first three campaigns, it did not unlock the additional ones. I only got an achievement for the first two, and the third I got the cheating achievement. I come to find out that you need to play all of the campaign options on a single save or else the extra options won't unlock. This isn't an issue I had with the original game (of which I still own and will play again some day on original hardware) because the idea of using multiple saves was not something that had occurred to me back then. I did not know about using multiple saves until well after the youtube era where I watched others use them. I used a 1-2-3 save system and replaced them every time I started a new scenario. I partly blame the game for not having any sort of mention that when you complete a scenario, if you start a new one, it technically doesn't count as a continuation.

As far as it being an HD version, it in itself is fine. It isn't a full upscale as the battles get a border since it uses a grid that is designed for 4:3 displays and they did not add any new tiles for widescreen. The only issues I found was the dispell effect draws on the border and doesn't go away for the entirety of the battle. Other issues is that the sound mutes when you move the mouse cursor past the bounds of the window if you are using windowed or multi-mon. One time I encountered a bug where it played the monster removed sound in the map screen constantly.

I certainly remember this game and also remember *some* of the campaigns. Just the first two. It may be possible I could not beat it originally either and that I had only played the scenarios. Or it is possible that I did not spend that much time with this game. I still do prefer HOMM2 and 4 over this version. I also recall HOMM4 was exceedingly difficult to find in the US because it got short printed and that the only way to find it for a decent price was to import it from UK. It did eventually get a reprint in the US as a budget title that showed up on the Walmart jewel case rack, which was how I finally managed to get it. HOMM2 was one of those situations where I had gotten the demo from the PC Gamer CD and then was able to go out and get the full game later on.

I'll leave it installed because the scenarios can be fun still. We'll see if it manages to stick around.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on January 27, 2024, 07:58:34 am
Game 2 - God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) - 41 Hours

I didn't realize when I started this game that I would have needed to have a minor in Norse studies beforehand ;) Jokes aside, I did enjoy my time playing this game, though as you can probably guess, I didn't really enjoy the story. I knew it was going to be a bad time after I watched the GoW4 recap and still had no idea what was going on in the first game. I dunno, it just never really clicked with me. It was very long, very twisty and convoluted with tons of lore and backstory that the game just assumes you know. And even with all that, I found the story to be boring. It's ultimately a story about not trying to follow a preordained prophecy and then following it after all? That's what I got out of it anyway. I also really didn't like the voice acting, particularly for the older Atreus and Odin. Odin in particular was a very boring and cliche villain. Again, something that I know is well praised about this game, but just didn't connect with me personally.

What did connect with me though was the combat, exploration, and visuals. The game is very beautiful just like the first, and scored masterfully. My favorite moments in this game were just exploring the world, riding in my boat, doing quests as they became open to me and enjoying the game's satisfying combat. Were there a lot of glitches? Yeah. Are there arguably TOO many combat mechanics, weapons, and equipment to manage? Sure. Did I die more times than I thought I should have on normal? You bet. Nonetheless, I didn't want to stop playing purely because I was enjoying the gameplay that much. It was especially nice to be able to visit all of the realms this time around.

Looking back at my previous review of GoW4, I was not surprised to read that I basically have the same thoughts about this game as I did the previous game. Great combat, great visuals, great exploration, kind of a bad story. Not a bad experience though at all.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on January 27, 2024, 08:25:27 am
I won't be doing a blurb for every game completed, but I just finished Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5). Great game. I had been interested in the first for a while, hearing it played like Uncharted and finally it released on PS Plus. Played it and enjoyed it. Then the sequel had a half off during Black Friday that I couldn't pass up.

Game in general starts you with the powers you gained in the first game. Something I'm thankful of as most games just have you start from scratch and it sucks. Without going into too much detail, by the end of the game, Cal is basically a God. I expect with a rumored third game in developement, that they could have him take on Vader and win, but somehow Vader lives for his cannon death in the movies.

Quite a few plot twists in the game that I won't be detailing, but it felt right when the game was about to end, the team decided to extend it a few hours just because. Still good. Looking forward to a third game. If one is made, I expect we won't see it until the end of the PS5 generation.

Starting God of War Ragnarok (PS5).
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 28, 2024, 11:24:03 am
Quote from: telekill on January 27, 2024, 08:25:27 am
I won't be doing a blurb for every game completed, but I just finished Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5). Great game. I had been interested in the first for a while, hearing it played like Uncharted and finally it released on PS Plus. Played it and enjoyed it. Then the sequel had a half off during Black Friday that I couldn't pass up.

Game in general starts you with the powers you gained in the first game. Something I'm thankful of as most games just have you start from scratch and it sucks. Without going into too much detail, by the end of the game, Cal is basically a God. I expect with a rumored third game in developement, that they could have him take on Vader and win, but somehow Vader lives for his cannon death in the movies.

Quite a few plot twists in the game that I won't be detailing, but it felt right when the game was about to end, the team decided to extend it a few hours just because. Still good. Looking forward to a third game. If one is made, I expect we won't see it until the end of the PS5 generation.

Starting God of War Ragnarok (PS5).


I think the third game will take place 5+ years after the events of Survivor, and will revolve around Cal, but place more of an emphasis on Kata (Bode's daughter). I think she will even be a playable character throughout most of the game. I think they will start you off with only a few basic force techniques much like Cal at the beginning of Fallen Order, but then give her a variety of new techniques that even Cal didn't have. At the very least, I feel like half the game will have you play as Kata while the other half will be with Cal. I could even see a situation where you play a third of the game a Cal, a third as Kata, and a third as either Marin (sp?) or some other new character, possibly another apprentice. While Disney has been no stranger to retconning the aspects of Star Wars they still consider canon, considering Cal is nowhere in the original trilogy or any of the canon afterwards, I'm 90% certain they will kill him off by the end of the game. Assuming the game isn't a complete flop or heavily rejected by fans, I can see them handing the torch over to Kata for further sequels. Just my theory, but it seemed like the end of the game was setting the next game up for this potentially.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on January 28, 2024, 06:41:59 pm
10. Samsara Room || PC || 01.24.24

(https://i.imgur.com/PRMHkhr.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/GI4J8X8.jpeg)

With few Rusty Lake games remaining, the next game for me to play is a remake of developer Rusty Lake's very first game created for Flash. As a remake, Samsara Room greatly expands upon its original source material (which I've confirmed after watching another's playthrough of the original 2013 release after my own), although it certainly shares the same foundation.

With the above comment in mind, it wasn't surprising to find out that there are no story elements presented in Samara Room, just as several of the first games in the series proper also omitted. However, this is not to say there isn't a plot, because there certainly is, and it's one that only those having played specific entries in the franchise so far will fully understand. With that said, Samsara Room's subject matter relates to rebirth and enlightenment, which is immediately referenced in the game's title (although I wasn't aware of the term samara's definition until later on.)

Before watching a playthrough of the 2013 game, I had assumed even these details were either updated or added later to grant a better connection between Samara Room and the franchise, but that's actually not the case. At its core, Samara Room shares the exact same visual elements as its source material which also connects to the other Rusty Lake games. So, it was interesting to learn just how much of the Rusty Lake series owes to the developer's very first game. Continuing with similarities, it's clear how the 2013 release served as a stepping stone to the series's first proper game, Cube Escape: Seasons, as the gameplay loop is the exact same. In both games, the single room you're trapped in changes depending on player influence as the main puzzle objective comes closer to be solved. This is only possible because room types can be freely explored once a room's initial puzzles are complemented, at least, until the game's final section. In Samsara Room specifically, the player-character's forum will transform to mimic certain key items, which I found to be a simple yet fun detail corresponding to the game's theme.

All things considered, Samara Room is a game that is best enjoyed when knowing its history. Despite the remake being the developer's sixteenth game, it very much feels like one of their earliest due to a lesser emphasis on story. But, there isn't any question that it's a part of the Rusty Lake franchise, as the game shares themes, genre, and gameplay styles with other entries. Even so, I found myself enjoying the more detailed connections to the ongoing franchise narrative which weren't present in the 2013 release.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 28, 2024, 07:54:05 pm
13. Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade)

What's funny is it wasn't until I started playing Virtua Cop 2 earlier today that I realized I don't even remember the last time I played through it. I'm certain I've beat it at least twice in my life, but honestly the last time I can remember actually getting through all three stages from start to finish may have actually been the early 2000s. I say this, because there is a remarkable amount of content in the game that I'd completely forgotten about. But anyhow, Virtua Cop 2 looks better from a visual presentation standpoint compared to the first game, however it unfortunately lacks in the audio department with the first game having a significantly better OST. Gameplay is pretty standard for a mid 90s lightgun game, and I didn't find it any better or worse than the first game. There seems to be more enemies and stuff going on which is a bonus, but it just feels like the placement of enemies in some sections of the game just felt lacking compared to the original Virtua Cop. Overall, I prefer the first game, but Virtua Cop 2 is definitely no slouch in the fun department as it's a true 90s arcade classic. (1/28/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on January 29, 2024, 07:56:59 am
Quote from: bikingjahuty on January 28, 2024, 11:24:03 am
I think the third game will take place 5+ years after the events of Survivor, and will revolve around Cal, but place more of an emphasis on Kata (Bode's daughter). I think she will even be a playable character throughout most of the game. I think they will start you off with only a few basic force techniques much like Cal at the beginning of Fallen Order, but then give her a variety of new techniques that even Cal didn't have. At the very least, I feel like half the game will have you play as Kata while the other half will be with Cal. I could even see a situation where you play a third of the game a Cal, a third as Kata, and a third as either Marin (sp?) or some other new character, possibly another apprentice. While Disney has been no stranger to retconning the aspects of Star Wars they still consider canon, considering Cal is nowhere in the original trilogy or any of the canon afterwards, I'm 90% certain they will kill him off by the end of the game. Assuming the game isn't a complete flop or heavily rejected by fans, I can see them handing the torch over to Kata for further sequels. Just my theory, but it seemed like the end of the game was setting the next game up for this potentially.

That's definitely a possibility. Cal is almost too powerful at this point. It would make sense for the torch to be passed down.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on January 31, 2024, 10:47:49 am
Game 3 - Celeste (PS4) - 7 Hours

I thought this was a fantastic game. It's polished to a mirror sheen down to the tiniest detail. The controls are astounding and despite it being a very hard game, it never was enough to make me stop playing. There are maybe 5 screens across the whole game that I found were very difficult. The last area in particular goes on a little too long, but otherwise I really enjoyed playing. The smooth gameplay and controls are punctuated by a beautiful soundtrack and a simple yet touching story with some very likeable characters and a great overall message. I'm really glad I got around to playing this.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on January 31, 2024, 09:57:05 pm
7 - Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5 2023) - Free or not, it still took me like an hour to beat I think and turned out to be a decent, creepy experience.  I'm not exactly a big Silent Hill fan, never really played any of the games and the remake for Silent Hill 2 will be my first real go at them, but from what I know of the series, this definitely fits in line with that, very psychologically based, dealing with trauma and such.  It has some PT vibes to it, which I sorta feel like it knows in moments here and there, but it's very much it's own thing as it has a contained narrative.  Worth checking out for some thing dark and creepy being that it's completely free.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on January 31, 2024, 11:31:52 pm
Decided to go all out on a bunch of arcade games tonight. Had a good time! Also, this might be the most games I've beat in a single month since I started doing this challenge.


14. Top Skater (Arcade)

This game is definitely up there when it comes to nostalgic arcade games. I played this game a ton during the late 90s, mostly because every other arcade I went to had one. It was the ultimate way of feeling like a skate boarding prodigy when I was a kid, and that was largely because of the skateboard controller you stood on to steer your character and pull off tricks. Playing it again, Top Skater offers that same level of fun with some cool tricks to pull off, tons of stuff to jump off and grind on, and just overall this game oozes 90s arcade awesomeness. The presentation looks great and really gives me Crazy Taxi vibes, and that's not just the visuals. The OST, while very limited in terms of songs that play, is good ol' fashion punk rock, all by the band Pennywise. One other cool feature is how each of the selectable characters has their own set of tricks they pull off. My biggest gripe with this game is how short it is. Even for an arcade game, Top Skater is woefully lacking in content with just two fairly short stages. It's very easy to play this game for 15-minutes as see all there is for the most part. Because of this, the replayability is heavily compromised, but if you're like me and have great memories of playing this game, you'll have a good time with it every once and a while when you get the urge to play it. (1/31/24) [31/50]

15. Dead or Alive (Arcade)

I was a massive DOA fan in the late 90s thanks to DOA2, and have since played most of its releases over the years. However, one game in the series I'd never played somehow was the first game. I was surprised to find that the gameplay and graphics were a lot closer to DOA2 than I thought they were. While DOA2 is undeniably better in both these regards, the first DOA is still very fun to play, although there are admittedly some really annoying character balancing issues and sometimes pulling off moves can feel stiff and unresponsive. The audio was surprisingly good, although certainly not as good as DOA2. While DOA is far from the best mid 90s 3D fighting game I've played, it ended up being a lot better and more enjoyable that I thought it would be. I can definitely see myself returning to this one in the future. (1/31/24) [33/50]

16. Last Bronx (Arcade)

Last Bronx has been on my backlog for a very long time. It's always a game I've been interesting in playing despite knowing very little about it. Unlike DOA, unfortunately, I was not pleasantly surprised by how fun Last Bronx was, but rather how annoying and clunky it was for the most part. The weapons based combat gave me Soul Calibur vibes, except that game is way more enjoyable than Last Bronx. I literally one a few matches by spamming a single move because trying to play normally resulted in endless block spamming by the opponent and me getting countered over and over again. Of course, when I tried doing the same thing, it never worked for the most part. The OST is also fairly unremarkable, although I'd still say it's slightly above average. The visuals is where I really have to give credit to Last Bronx as it's definitely one of the better looking 3D fighting games of its era. But overall, I didn't really enjoy this game mostly, despite some of its redeeming qualities. (1/31/24) [28/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on February 01, 2024, 12:02:02 am
8 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC 2014) - BEAT - I was gonna end up playing this eventually anyways as I had a mood to replay MGSV from the beginning, but with the announcement of Kojima planning to do a brand new original action espionage game for Sony, I thought I'd dive into something short tonight.  There's technically a lot to do with this short experience, as there's optional missions to do and hard, but I just kinda wanted a refresher on feel and story.  I forgot how good this game looked and it's just real smooth to play.

One annoying thing is that the PC version has kind of a crappy UI, it's not designed for mouse controls very well, but it's not unplayable because of it, it just means that navigating menus can be a little awkward  Can't remember if Phantom Pain improved on this or not, but I got what I wanted out of this and I'll maybe try to get to Phantom Pain sometime this year.  Trying to decided if I want to do this or another playthrough of Death Stranding, but I may do both lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 01, 2024, 12:49:17 am
One more. Yep, this is definitely a monthly record.


17. Motor Raid (Arcade)

A sports bar my dad used to take me to when he wanted to watch a game had this game back in the late 90s. For the longest time I could not remember the name of this game, and searched high and low for it for years. A while back I finally found out the name and I was also surprised to hear it was a Sega game (I thought it was a Namco game for some reason lol). But I got to reintroduce myself to this game tonight and it's actually more enjoyable than I remember! The gameplay is a combo of something like Wipeout, but mix in futuristic motorcycles and weapon wielding riders and you have a formula for a pretty fun game. There are 5 stages and they're all unique, memorable, and for the most part well designed. Things like jumps, stuff going on in the background, and various hazards and obstacles on the course itself make each race exciting and fun to play. There is also a turbo mechanic which adds an extra layer of strategy. And the nof course there's the OST which is so 90s it'll make any 90s kid gush. It certainly filled me with the 90s kid feels. I'm really happy I replayed this game after all these years. It was more fun than it had any reason to be. (1/31/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 01, 2024, 02:05:18 am
Lied, two more before midnight. HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!


18. Daytona USA (Arcade)

Daytona USA is about as iconic of an arcade title as they come. The Dave and Busters I've been going to since I was 9 STILL has several Daytona USA machines connected to one another, and each time I go there, there are still people playing it to this day. While I will fully admit the gameplay of Daytona isn't stellar, the combo of racing your friends, the incredible OST, and graphics that were about as cutting edge as they could get in 1994, this game is about as good as it got for racing games in the early 90s. I adore this game, and it's been a staple of my arcade experience for the majority of my life. (1/31/24) [36/50]

19. Dynamite Deka 2 (Arcade)

Called Dynamite Cop in the west, this game is the sequel to Dynamite Deka, aka Diehard Arcade. Confused? Good! For however over the top Dynamite Deka was, the sequel takes it up like ten notches to create one of the most entertaining beat em ups you'll ever play. There are a ton of objects, weapons, and even enemies you can use as weapons. There are crazy bosses, and one of the ways you know your character's health is they slowly become more and more undressed the more damage they take. Yeah... but other than the fun presentation, the gameplay is pretty good for the most part, the OST is pretty meh, but overall this is a very enjoyable game, albeit not as good or iconic as the first game. (1/31/24) [32/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on February 01, 2024, 11:52:00 am
11. Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog || PC || 01.30.24

(https://i.imgur.com/2tmFZEl.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/a6PfNgR.jpg)

For some time, I've been wanting to play games which make use of 3D physical materials as their art design, specifically from game creator thecatamites. Finally, I went ahead and did that, choosing Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog at random. I'll also note here that, despite the game's title, Murder Dog IV is a standalone entry.

As the title suggests, Murder Dog IV begins at the start of titular Murder Dog's trial for murder. In the game's first moments, it's apparent that Murder Dog is, to no surprise, quite guilty and very well still murderous. Acting as Murder Dog who seems to be without legal representation and therefore defending themself, players are given three actions to perform, three pieces of evidence to examine, three witnesses to call, and a panel of jurors to interact with. Of course, if one is wanting to reach a Not Guilty verdict, it is in their best interest to utilize all these options. However, the option to ignore certain elements or even every element is entirely possible.

Progressing through the short narrative, players will witness the game's over-the-top commentary on the modern justice system. It's never a question as to whether Murder Dog is guilty or innocent, as their bloodlust and ultraviolent actions are merely a click away. But, by gaming the justice system, players have the choice to wrongfully prove Murder Dog's innocence by undermining and even tampering with evidence, vilifying witnesses, and flat-out lying. While Murder Dog can easily go on a rampage to murder everyone, the game's real ending requires using every resource in your favor by supplying believable counterarguments while denying all accusations, in addition to besting witness accounts and testimonies. At its core, Murder Dog IV is a choice-based narrative with varying outcomes through its branching paths. As an example, the vert first choice is to testify as Guilty or Not Guilty, with the former resulting in its own immediate ending. Unexpectedly, the story can be contained fully in the court room and even outside it. One ending specifically mentions it being the "best canonical" ending which aligns to Murder Dog's nature, although it's the least rewarding.

Alongside character dialogue, there is also some sort of narration which serves as commentary to the events unfolding. Ordinarily, dialogue advances by clicking, but sometimes it auto-advances which wasn't pleasing. Similarly, all commentary auto-advances, which was especially irritating. There is often little time given to read it, let alone process it. This detail is upsetting because the game itself is a commentary on the justice system, and the in-game commentary reflects that. So, a sizable portion of the game's message isn't conveniently accessible. Nevertheless, there is fair amount of humor throughout the story, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times during moments which caught me off guard.

Having decided to play the game based on its art design, I was a little disappointed. Offering a simple but fun collage of art through mixed media including paper, modeling clay, found items, and crude digital art, Murder Dog IV reserves its 3D elements exclusively for the one static image of the courtroom's set design, with all other art instead either being photo imagery or digital. Despite its limited use, I still think highly of what little 3D art there is, as I find it interesting in how little there needs to be to communicate a scene. At this point, I'll also briefly mention the game's music, which consists entirely of a looping banjo track which does become repetitive.

In the end, Murder Dog IV offers a highly satirical view on the justice system which translates nicely as a game. I wasn't aware of the game's premise prior to playing, so the humor was an added bonus.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 02, 2024, 12:34:25 am
2. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS3) ABANDONED

Growing up, the first Zone of the Enders was one of my favorite games of all time. I was addicted to its anime aesthetic, insane fast paced gameplay, its soundtrack, and just the fact that it was a mech game immediately attracted me to it. When its sequel came out, The 2nd Runner, I was mostly very excited about it other than finding out it was cell shaded, which at the time I hated that graphics style. Cell shaded graphics aside, the game just didn't leave the same impression on me despite giving me more of the things I loved so much about the first game. I've wanted to go back and replay 2nd Runner for many years at this point, and I finally did, although part of me wishes I hadn't.


First and foremost I get that this is the general favorite when it comes to Zone of the Enders games, and on some level I completely understand why. The game doubles down on that anime vibe I talked about earlier by using actual anime cut scenes, anime avatars for the characters, and the story itself is fairly anime-ish, at least the little of it I was able to follow. On the point of the story not making much sense, I felt like I needed to have watched or read something beforehand to follow what was going on, which is not entirely unfounded as a lot of the lore and back story for this game is mentioned in the anime OVA Idalo. I have seen the OVA, but it's been so long that I barely remember it, and also I'm not going to prep for a game by having to watch an anime too. So yeah, the story is not this game's strong suit, nor is the voice acting and dialogue which is terrible. I got through nearly half the game with the more fleshed out gameplay carrying my interest, however there was one part that nearly broke me, and then another later on that finally did. The game just threw so much at me so fast, and no matter what weapon, sub weapon, or strategy I used, I just couldn't get past it. I tried for hours before I was literally one more failed try from shattering my PS3 controller into a hundred pieces so I shut the game off. I'm all for difficulty in games, but some of the sections of this game are textbook cheap and bullshit to the core. Being someone who plays games to have fun, I've learned to walk away from a game when it's not just that I'm having fun, but I actively feel rage. It's too bad things happened the way they did, because I wanted to re-experience this game and see if maybe I could enjoy it more than the first game despite the massive amount of nostalgia I have for that title. However, despite abandoning 2nd Runner, I can safely say I still don't like it as much as the first game, and in fact, I kinda hate this game to a degree. (2/1/24)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 02, 2024, 11:22:06 am
12. Rondo of Swords - Path A/Good Ending

Getting this ending required a lot of trial and error, and even more patience. These requirements actually apply to just about every aspect of Rondo of Swords. I have never played a strategy-RPG like this. It takes even the most basic concepts, throws them out the window, and says, "Good luck! Figure it out!" There are tutorials built in, and of course the instruction manual breaks things down a bit, but there is nothing that can prepare even a seasoned veteran for Rondo of Swords' antics. I still have no idea what compelled me to play this. The strange thing is that I want to do a replay and see how the story develops in Path B. I'm confident that there will be the same amounts of cursing, griping, "AHH COME ON!"-ing, and what have you. But dammit, the game is addictive as hell. Adorable character sprites and campy voice acting don't hurt matters, either.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: undertakerprime on February 02, 2024, 03:09:09 pm
1. Lies of P (PS4) 1/31/24

Finally beat my first game this year, and whew, was it a doozy.
My very first Soulslike, the aesthetics grabbed me so I bought it on sale just to try the genre….

and I LOVED it.

Couldn’t stop playing. I knew it was supposed to be f’in hard, and it was. But considering it was my first jab at the genre, I didn’t have nearly as much trouble as I anticipated; I’ve seen online comments from people who said they died 100+ times on one boss, and I never came close to that (my most was maybe 20-30 tries on the Nameless Puppet…a few bosses took 5 attempts or fewer). I did make sure to take full advantage of what was available, like throwables and the specter, but I’m not ashamed  ;)
I actually had more trouble with some mid-bosses than the main bosses (that Mad Clown Puppet can GO TO HELL and DIE SLOWLY).
The blade/handle weapon customization system seems so simple, and yet is honestly ingenious in its depth. Wanna stick a giant ax made of puppet limbs to a tiny dagger handle? GO FOR IT  :D

Now, is it the greatest game I’ve ever played? No. But it’s a solid good time, and it’s got me looking at other games in the Soulslike genre to see what might be good. I got my eyes on Bloodborne and Seikiro.

8/10
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 03, 2024, 02:26:44 am
Another Sega arcade night. This time I tried some games outside my comfort zone.


20. Sky Target (Arcade)

I have a very vague memory of playing Sky Target in the arcade, however if I did, I'm honestly not surprised that I forgot about it. Sky Target is essentially the 90s version of After Burner, except it has half the charm, and is not nearly as fun or iconic as that arcade classic. This game looks pretty good in the visuals department, but other than that, there is very little that is remarkable about Sky Target. The gameplay is very bland, generic and borning, and the audio is nothing special either. In fact, the audio can get fairly annoying thanks to an announcer that literally says the same thing every time you lock onto an enemy, which is what you're doing almost constantly while playing. Overall, Sky Target is just a very forgettable, boring game that I can't see myself ever wanting to pick up again. (2/2/24) [26/50]

21. Sega Water Ski (Arcade)

I'd never heard of or played this game until tonight, and while the game is very short and limited on content, it makes up for it with a very catchy OST and the stages are all vibrant, cheerful, and buzzing with a lot of things going on as you play our your water skiing fantasy. The gameplay is very similar to Top Skater, except you're having to ski between markers in the water and you'll have to do tricks of the various jumps in each stage. This all works fairly good, although, it's all to easy, and tricks don't require any real effort, which is kind of a bummer in terms of fun. But as mentioned, the presentation really knocks it out of the park in this game, and Sega Water Ski ended up being my favorite game of the evening because of this. (2/2/24) [32/50]

22. Sonic Championship (Arcade)

The final game I tried out tonight was one I've wanted to check out for a very long time. I never saw this one in the arcades back in the day or since. I pretty much know about Sonic Championship thanks to my love for the Sonic franchise and because the game has become an unfortunate internet curiosity over the years. With no exaggeration, Sonic Championship is one of the worst fighting games I've ever played, at least from a gameplay perspective. The combat is super basic, clunky, and just unpleasant to play all around for the most part. Really, the only redeeming factor in regards to the gameplay is the fact that each of the selectable character as their own moveset, which can make things entertaining to a degree. The presentation, both in terms of audio and visuals is pretty good for the most part, but it's still not enough to make me forget how crappy this game is to play. I couldn't even recommend this one to the most passionate of Sonic fans. (2/3/24) [25/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 03, 2024, 09:51:52 am
13. Silent Hill: A Short Message

If this is the future of Silent Hill, then I'm glad I fell off from the series years ago after Origins and Homecoming. Short Message shined when you were slowly exploring the building and learning about its history. I liked how the series was brought to a modern scale, touching on the Covid-19 pandemic, social media and its issues, and other triggering subjects. Sadly, those shining moments were clouded by these ridiculously frustrating chase sequences. You have to outrun a manifestation of evil that the MC created, but all you have is a smartphone flashlight. Naturally, these areas are messy. Even without those, Silent Hill was always more subtle in delivering its messages and themes. Short Message threw them right in your face, and those trigger warnings occurred frequently enough to break immersion. In the end, I'm glad this was free because I would have felt robbed.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on February 03, 2024, 06:03:51 pm
3. A Mortician's Tale

TW: death

This is MUCH more serious than most messages here, but I think that's the only way I can do this game justice. If this is not something you want to read, feel free to skip this post. But I will say here: I highly recommend giving this game a look.

This is a short game, only taking about an hour to play through, but I've had my eye on it for a while and I'm glad to have now played it. This is a short narrative experience about a mortician. You go through her daily routine of preparing the bodies of people for the funeral service, to help their loved ones say goodbye and offer the deceased a respectful send-off. You do this by reading the emails from your clients and your colleagues, and preparing the bodies of the deceased as to their loved ones' wishes. You go through all the steps to embalm or cremate the person's body, and then attend the service. And that's your work day.

What drew me to this game was its death positive message. In case you don't know, death positivity means (in my words) an acceptance of the concept of death. It means not fearing the concept of death or avoiding it, but viewing it as something to openly talk about. I honestly think this is a wonderful sentiment. Death, however sad, is an inevitable part of life. And I feel that if we were to lift the taboo on talking about it and allow ourselves to better accept the reality of mortality, it could really help us deal with the difficult feelings surrounding passing and grief. Allowing these feelings to exist, rather than surpressing them. Of course this is much easier said than done: I wish I was more death positive than I am. I find it really hard to discuss or think about too. But change is a slow process, and this is exactly why I wanted to play this game.

And the game depicts this subject beautifully. It shows both the good and the bad that happens in this world, deals with both the beauty and pain of memorial services, and it offers a particularly interesting perspective on this from the position of the mortician. As a player you always just want to do whatever you can to be as respectful as possible, and it's nice you can do this for these people. You really feel everything your character and the other characters feel, and the ending did make me tear up.

This is a short but very sweet experience, that I think addresses the topic beautifully. I hope it can lead to conversation between people about this topic, and maybe help some people find a little more peace with death. I highly recommend checking it out. The creators of this game deserve the support.

(Also, technical info: the game is for Windows and macOS, but I played it on Linux Mint with no trouble at all. And tip: I got this from the Racial Justice and Equality charity bundle that was available on itch.io in 2020. So if you bought that, you already have this!)

--

Also also, completely unrelated to the challenge, but I've also already finished 3 books thus far this year! One of which was Disrupting the game by Reggie Fils-Aime, which I highly recommend, especially to Nintendo fans.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 03, 2024, 09:45:48 pm
14. Astro's Playroom - Platinum'd

I've been a fan of the PlayStation since the jump, and this game pays homage to that while also being a super fun, super tight, and super adorable platformer. And it's all free. There were so many trips down memory lane along with a huge number of references to favorite games. The way it all came together in such a unique, polished package that highlights gaming excellence is very impressive for a free game. I'm glad I took a break from the serious and my usual RPG battling to play this. My first platinum trophy of the year!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on February 05, 2024, 10:48:39 am
8. Tales From the Borderlands

First my history and biases. The first Telltale game I played was The Wolf Among Us and then Batman.
My play order of the BL series has been: BL2, BL3, Pre-Sequel, BL1, Tales

So the only other Telltale games I've played were the "detective" types and not the same type as this BL game. Now it is also obvious that this should be played before BL3. I knew Rhys from that game and he was a fine character, and I understood what the easter egg regarding his facial hair was referring to (this TT game). Dealing with fictions out of order are not an issue with me.

However the style of this TT game is not really fun for me to play. On a gameplay level, there is no observable downtime. By that I mean you have to be ready for a QTE at any point. Unlike the other two I've played, there were large portions or areas where you know that you can relax more.

Second issue is the story. You play as two characters, Rhys and a girl. And you do so as a "recollection" because the majority of the actual gameplay happens during flashbacks. And as you are made aware early on, the story you play is what you are telling to your captor in the future, AND that you can tell him things that are false. It means that the story (and thus the entire game that isn't in the present) doesn't actually matter. It is sort of like those new commercials for cell phones where you can use tools to remove people or things from photos and video. Which in reality means that you are able to create records of events that didn't actually happen. So because the game is set up this way, the story becomes worthless and makes no difference what you do because it could just be made up.

Having Jack in the game is not enough to keep me interested. I don't care about any of the characters, except maybe Jack. Not even Rhys. Maybe if I had played it before BL3... Also there is a point in Episode 2 where Jack notices he can physically control Rhys and there is a QTE to prevent him from doing this. And it highlights another issue I have with these games, they may be choose your own adventure but there are still too many limits put in by developers. In this QTE, you can't actually fail. It will stay on the button press screen forever and loop the animation.

I may end up watching an LP just so I can get the story, but there was not enough in the gameplay or story for me to want to do it myself.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 10, 2024, 10:43:42 am
15. Castlevania: Dracula X

My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 10, 2024, 02:24:13 pm
Quote from: kashell on February 10, 2024, 10:43:42 am
15. Castlevania: Dracula X

My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.


I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 10, 2024, 03:14:54 pm
Quote from: bikingjahuty on February 10, 2024, 02:24:13 pm
Quote from: kashell on February 10, 2024, 10:43:42 am
15. Castlevania: Dracula X

My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.


I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.

Yeah, and another perk to it is that it'll make Circle of the Moon (next on my list/in the collection) shine a little brighter.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 11, 2024, 10:06:12 am
16. .hack//Quarantine

I can see why there are a few fans of this series. The characters and story were really something else. I'm going to miss the antics of Kite and his friends. I especially liked Sanjuro. His avatar is a badass samurai. Behind the avatar is a guy in South Dakota with a fascination for the bushido. It was great getting to know him and the rest of the squad. Oh, saving the world both in and out of the game was a nice perk, too. I watched the four Liminality DVDs after the game ended, just to round things out and see if there were any gaps. There weren't. But, it was a nice little side aspect of the universe. On the flipside, I can see why there are more (a lot more) haters. These four games were messy. One of the developers said that they wanted to make the games harder because they thought that's what Americans wanted. They weren't hard; just frustrating. I was in a menu constantly because the AI was dumber in this iteration. And still not having save points in dungeons added the wrong kind of tension. So, I'm glad I went through these four games. I doubt I'll go through them all again, though.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on February 11, 2024, 04:47:16 pm
12. Silent Hill: The Short Message || PlayStation 5 || 02.07.24

(https://i.imgur.com/FQoZAIu.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/IsVcFYq.jpg)

Having properly played through the first four Silent Hill games in 2022, I was anticipating to continue the series at some point by playing its console games in order of release. But, with the release of Silent Hill: The Short Message, I decided to deviate from that plan. Apart from the interactive media project Silent Hill: Ascension debuting in October 2023, The Short Message is the first game proper within the Silent Hill franchise to release since P.T. in 2014. As a fan of the franchise, I was curious how a modernized game from this series would be.

Waking up in an abandoned apartment complex, players act as protagonist Anita, a teenaged girl. While she's physically alone, her smartphone connects her with the outside world, as she frequently receives text messages from two friends, Maya and Amelie, with Anita meaning to meet up with the former. Paired with being in such a derelict environment alongside her mental health issues, Anita has little characterization beyond feeling worthy of her ongoing social ridicule and general trauma while feeling confused. That said, The Short Message focuses more on its themes than characterization, with the latter feeling noticeably underdeveloped. While playing, I felt as if, as Anita, I was walking around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind. Of course, the game's exploration depth is minimal, so there is no moment which the player would become lost or misunderstand how to progress the narrative, but, from Anita's perspective, most of the game's events felt as if they were looping.

Being broad in my descriptions, I found that game's storytelling is too direct with the troubles each character experiences, to the point where the player feels as if they're being patronized. Avoiding subtlety in every way, in-game commentary from both the player and through what's being observed follows obvious visual and written information which either answers or refutes previous ideas, leaving no moment for the player in any way to solve the narrative's questions. While voice acting is fair, dialogue is poor, though that isn't exactly unexpected. As a Silent Hill game, The Short Message struggles to challenge its players in any way, as topics of trauma never go deeper beyond a surface level. Instead, it remains comfortably at the she was sad, but I didn't know type of commentary. While I find nothing wrong with the story itself, its storytelling is a major issue.

Regarding the game's structure, it largely consists of walking through changing environments with a strong narrative focus. In a short section, there is one puzzle, although it's brief and simple. As the game prioritizes narrative over action gameplay, there is a lot of story to experience. Half of the story is divided into in-the-moment instant messaging and FMV flashbacks, whereas the other half relies on more traditional survival horror outlets such as articles and journals which may be inspected. With the former in mind, I found it to be lacking as a substitute for actual in-person conversation.

In certain segments which many would consider the game's actual gameplay, there are chase sequences. During these moments, there is no way to overcome the obstacle aside from running away, while confronting it results in an immediate stage fail. At its core, it is a never-ending chase until the player interacts with certain items, and there is no real strategy involved. At times, these sequences feel too strict and consist of trial-and-error mechanics. They do instill a fair amount of fear for some amount of time, but the player will almost certainly be forced to replay these sequences over and over again which greatly devalues any horror aspect. In many ways, the environment during these sections feels like a maze which is difficult to traverse and only made worse by the little sense of direction while in a panicked state, even when brightness settings are at maximum. While there are survival horror games focused on fleeing, hiding, and avoiding, they simultaneously require some sort of strategy while incorporating stamina, health, and strategy (however effective it may be.) On that note, The Short Message's chase sequences feature none of these elements, resulting in a gameplay loop that is both repetitive and lackluster. With all that said, The Short Message features no combat or resource management as it follows a linear path with some freedom to explore. In terms of The Short Message's genre, I feel firm in classifying is as a horror adventure game like many which have released in recent years and not survival horror.

Generally speaking, The Short Message does a fair job at modernizing the franchise narrative regarding its lore. Canonically, the game takes place in Germany in 2021, and articles specifically mention how psychiatric doctors are noticing a trend being referred to as the Silent Hill Phenomenon that's being experienced more often due to the real-world pandemic. (As an aside, I'll note how this term is quite poor, as it now seems that the town of Silent Hill is now recognized globally as some site of psychological hardship.) With that little we know of upcoming game Silent Hill F, the details presented seem to be lining up for future series entries. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Silent Hill mimicking real-world events, as I prefer games be set with their own conditions and history. Nevertheless, I found plot details concerning COVID-19 and the effects caused by pandemic isolation to be integrated nicely.

In terms of the game's remaining aspects worth mentioning, the sense of atmosphere is presented strongly. This is especially true as the narrative progresses from real world to otherworld. There are also some welcomed references to past Silent Hill titles as well, including 3, 4, and P.T. Although there's only one monster, I found its design to be exceptional, but framerate problems frequently occur at its appearance. With music again done by composer Akira Yamaoka, it's also no surprise that it's deserving of praise. However, my opinion of the game's FMV sequences is opposite. While I have no issue with their inclusion and believe them to add a nice balance to the straightforward gameplay experience, there is a problem with how it's presented. As we know the game is set in Germany, it is troubling that FMV sequences are clearly being spoken in Japanese, which is only made worse that voice language options are only available in English.

There are other elements to consider when debating the game's success such as pricing and length, but, overall, The Short Message hasn't proved to me that the franchise needs a modern revival. With that said, those two other aforementioned factors aren't ones I believe are intrinsic to reviewing a piece of media, meaning that the weaknesses of this game outweigh its strengths. I know that, once the remake for Silent Hill 2 releases, I'll be playing it sooner rather than later. I'm neither skeptical nor energetic for its upcoming release, so I'll remain cautious.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on February 14, 2024, 03:02:25 am
9 - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (PC 2015) - BEAT - Finally done with my second playthrough of the game.  I don't think it holds up as well the second time through compared to what I thought of the experience from back in the day.  I forgot how the game just spoils what shows up in every main mission, that's such a bad idea.  The game being unfinished, missing the final third of its story, you definitely feel by the end of the second part, like I forgot how random and out of place the final mission for the game is and how badly its handled.  I feel like it hurts the big story moment that comes before.

It is interesting re-experiencing this game after having played Death Stranding, how a lot of that game is an extension of what he did with MGSV, the similar execution of an open world you go back and forth through, doing story and side missions.  That being said, where MGSV starts to get very tedious with its side missions, some obnoxious stuff with doing multiple side ops in a row without a convenient fast travel (The game desperately needed the ability to treat the chopper like a fast travel point within the map), I've replayed Death Stranding twice, later this year it'll be three times and I love doing all the side stuff, it's so much more enjoyable.

I still love a lot about the game, it's executed kind of clunky, I feel it would be similar even if the story was completed, but there's still a lot to like with the game and if you wanted to beat the whole game, it's a solid 100+ hours for full completion, so there's still a decent amount of content. 

With the MGS3 remake coming up, and Kojima having a new action espionage game in the works, I've been tempted to check out the MGS Master Collection, re-experience MGS2 and MGS3 and actually beat MGS1, only dabbled with it back in the day, so that might be the plan for this year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 14, 2024, 08:37:47 am
17. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Playing this on the Switch brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad. The good was that it reminded me of when I first got my Game Boy Advance, and the first game to play for it was this. Circle of the Moon was my salvation during a very, VERY long family car trip that same summer. I'm glad I had the foresight to bring all those batteries. But, the bad memories were from the actual playing. DSS was a flop because it was the game's standout feature, yet it relied on luck/RNG. It was cool that this version would at least let you know which enemies had Cards as a drop, but it didn't increase the odds of obtaining a good chunk of them. There was also a crapload of palette swapped monsters and zero connection to any of the Belmonts. I still have no idea who the Baldwins or Nathan Graves are, but I don't care, either. This is another entry I won't be playing for a long time, if ever. However, it really jazzed me up for Harmony of Dissonance.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: moonlightvalkyrie on February 17, 2024, 02:52:28 pm
2. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (Xbox One)- Nothing new to say about this one as I have finished it on other consoles.

3. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS4)- I decided to go back to this one to complete my goal of completing the entire Anthology this year! This is the first game in the anthology and also the shortest game. You can finish a playthrough in one sitting pretty easily if you are not worried about the collectibles. The story revolves around a group of vacationers stumbling upon a discovery of something called Manchurian Gold. In a twist of fate, they are kidnapped by a group of pirates and are led to the gold's location. It turns out the location is on an abandoned World War II ship anchored in the middle of nowhere and the crew is nowhere to be found. The group must find a way to escape while discovering the events of the ghost ship.

Of course, like all the anthology games, you will make choices that will determine their fate. I have to say I do love the game's setting. The ship does have a creepiness to it. However, when the plot twist is revealed...I am not a fan. I was kinda like, "Are you serious?" I can tell you this game is greatly improved with the Devil in Me update. It also has great replayability. There are multiple ways certain scenes can go. I also think it is great that they have both offline and online co-op options. To get 100%, you had to complete an online playthrough. Instead of a game lobby, you can only play with people on your friends list. My best friend joined me on the online playthrough and we were both baffled as we could not talk to each other during the playthrough. (In hindsight I understand why, but I kind of wish they handled it by only cutting off chat during certain parts of the game). I also found it a little weird that the game ultimately decides which character you and your partner are. Luckily the game tells you who your partner plays as. Overall the setting is great and like I said before it has great replayability. However, the game kinda falls apart with the big plot reveal. I also have to say the bonus features are great.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on February 17, 2024, 04:43:52 pm
Quote from: moonlightvalkyrie on February 17, 2024, 02:52:28 pm
3. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS4)

However, when the plot twist is revealed...I am not a fan. I was kinda like, "Are you serious?" [...] However, the game kinda falls apart with the big plot reveal.

Generally speaking, the conclusions for both Man of Medan and Little Hope are the same, but you seem to only take issue with one. Why is that?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 18, 2024, 01:45:23 pm
Yesterday, I had the chance to hit up an arcade with Cartagia. Who, naturally, was quite the cool dude. We were able to finish some classics with our co-op skills!

18. The Punisher
I don't know a thing about The Punisher universe, but this beat 'em up from Capcom was a sleek and stylish one. It only took a couple of tokens a piece to finish, too. The enemy variety got a bit samey but otherwise it was a great game that shows the staying power of the genre.

19. Area 51
I finished this for the first time of my life. Cartagia was the better shot. I was a horrible marksman. And my arm got tired by the time the credits hit. Did those guns get heavier or am I just getting older? Oh well. Solid game. It felt like I was at every bowling alley ever.

20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Was this game always this unfair? Even with some speedrun tips and tricks, this ate the remainder of my tokens right up. It was fun to reminisce and replay this but even with two players surrounding every boss that came our way, they would just do a swing or kick and BOOM! Health gone.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on February 18, 2024, 04:50:02 pm
Quote from: kashell on February 18, 2024, 01:45:23 pm
19. Area 51
I finished this for the first time of my life. Cartagia was the better shot. I was a horrible marksman. And my arm got tired by the time the credits hit. Did those guns get heavier or am I just getting older? Oh well. Solid game. It felt like I was at every bowling alley ever.

Ok, my arms were getting tired too, but I didn't want to say anything!  And, as I mentioned, I played that game a lot, so at a certain point muscle memory just took over.  It was like I could see the code of the matrix.

And, kashell is also a pretty cool dude.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 19, 2024, 09:57:23 am
21. The Last Faith

My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: undertakerprime on February 19, 2024, 07:29:05 pm
Quote from: kashell on February 19, 2024, 09:57:23 am
21. The Last Faith

My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.

I’m kind of in the same boat. I finished Blasphemous 2 and it was excellent, then got The Last Faith, and it’s just OK. Only a few hours in but lost motivation to play it. I’ll get back to it eventually.
The Metroidvania I ended up getting more invested in is Afterimage. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a chance. It’s not perfect, and is VERY exploration-heavy, but it looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and the control is almost as good as SOTN.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on February 20, 2024, 10:42:40 am
9. Fallout: New Vegas
I had previously played this game years ago, back when it came out or at least perhaps when Dead Money was released. When I had built my backlog program, I went and added old games I have played including any on Steam that I still had achievements left to do. I had some already, but some easy ones like reach level 20 were not ones I had gotten yet. Considering how I had already 350 hours into this game back during the XP days must have meant the obvious: that I was using cheats or console commands and achievements were disabled.

These days things are a little better, at least with the Fallout games where mods can be made to not disable achievements, and there was an option for this in NV just like in FO4. However, NMM sometimes does not launch the game properly and I have to check everytime I launch the game to make sure they work. I still do not have the other DLC including the one that lets you play past the end of the game, so this run was just a single main quest option that I'm fairly certain I had not done before and I hadn't.

There were some small issues I had to work around. First was how to destroy the BoS. I already had pickpocketed two of the keycards but I had to wait until I got a Stealthboy to get the last one. And then I was stuck in the bunker and took about 20 save reloads to figure out how to escape. It got real close to a failed run as it would be been better to have 2 stealthboys, but I managed it. And later the end-game for the House questline had to do with the Legate. There are multiple ways to "defeat" the Legate. The offensive one is to use SMG with AP rounds or the AMR, however in my run I only had pistols and LR. I also did not have any decent armor to use and no stimpaks. Another issue in the end is that it will automatically spawn extra enemies if you try to fight the Legate. The other option was to use Speech skill, which is what I did. I had 1 magazine to read and it let me get through all the speech checks, as well as the speech checks against the General of the NCR which talk to just afterwards. If I did not have that one Speech magazine, then it would have been impossible to do that section.

I was slightly disappointed that in the years I have not been playing FNV that the modding community was not as matured as I had hoped. There really isn't anything that interesting when it comes to mods. Perhaps there were mods that were good but are just not on Nexus anymore. Other than reliability patches and a couple replacers, I didn't really use anything that added to the game. Also, I had tried to play FNV a couple of years ago but it wouldn't work. Fortunately, the steps on PCGamingWiki helped me launch the game.

12. Kirby Super Star
I was really looking forward to playing a 190-in-1 bootleg NES game but I could not get it to load in any emulator. I tried 5 of them before I decided to skip it. There were also some other PC games that came up next that I skipped because I am not yet set up to play them. Shiva needs to get checked out, and I need to set up a Windows XP computer. Also my old toy room that I am partially converting into a computer room is not ready, I don't have a chair yet.

I tried out Kirby Super Star on SNES, and it is a nice game. Unfortunately for me, my taste in platformers in way in the toilet and I just "can't be bothad" with them most of the time. Even this one is easy enough and I could have pushed through it. I think that I'd rather just watch people play platformers than actually play them. Of course I give it a shot if I can. The 2nd player mechanic is kind of neat and maybe I could have done more if there was someone else to play with. I did finally try out the USB SNES controller I have, which felt better to use than the 360 controller. But it still feels foreign to me since my experience with SNES is so limited.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 20, 2024, 12:40:33 pm
Quote from: undertakerprime on February 19, 2024, 07:29:05 pm
Quote from: kashell on February 19, 2024, 09:57:23 am
21. The Last Faith

My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.

I’m kind of in the same boat. I finished Blasphemous 2 and it was excellent, then got The Last Faith, and it’s just OK. Only a few hours in but lost motivation to play it. I’ll get back to it eventually.
The Metroidvania I ended up getting more invested in is Afterimage. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a chance. It’s not perfect, and is VERY exploration-heavy, but it looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and the control is almost as good as SOTN.

I'll put Afterimage on my list, thanks. I need a break from Metroidvanias for a minute but will likely go with this one when it's time to start a new one. Moonscars looks too difficult and muddy to be worth trying.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 20, 2024, 02:31:28 pm
22. Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns

Thanks to Rondo of Swords, I decided to return to this. I finished the first Izuna years ago. I stopped somewhere in the middle of Izuna 2. And, after getting my ass handed to me time and time again, I remember why I stopped. This game is too hard for its own good. I may have to renege on my review comment where I said Izuna 2 was easier than the first. Sure, you have the ability to take more than one person in a dungeon, and you retain your levels. But every enemy starting midway through hits like a bus. I tried so many different combinations of gear and talisman to boost my defense but nothing seemed to help. So, the strategy was to just hoard healing items, bumrush through each floor, make it to the best, get the boss into a hallway, and hope and pray for the best. I often forget how brutal rogue-likes are, and this series is no exception. Apparently, there's a bonus dungeon that's 99 floors. Hard. Pass.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on February 21, 2024, 10:30:08 am
13. The Sims 4
It is FTP at base game, I figured I'd give it a shot. It seems fine enough but one thing I noticed fairly early is that perhaps I am not interested in this type of gameplay any longer. I played it the same was as previous games, but there is a lot of sitting around involved. I think that my own personal behaviours have changed since those days and this type of game is not that interesting to me. The game played well enough and did seem to be easier than previous versions. The sound was very low and surround did not work. I ran into a big issue, somehow on my second session the game softlocked and I was not able to do anything. To make things worse, there is no autosave enable or available, so when I reopened I had lost about 3 hours of progress. If the game is that buggy even now, then I'm not going to put time into it.

14. Tetris
It is Tetris on the NES, the official version. I didn't play the Tengen version, I had that as a kid. It is still the same as I remembered. I made it to level 9 on Type A on my first attempt. However there was some input issues with the controller where the D-pad did not function as I would expect and the result was that sometimes I press a direction and nothing happens. I had not experienced that in other games. I then tried a Game Genie code that makes it so the blocks don't fall. It is a neat way to play but you can't do any of the last minute block movements to get into slots because the game did not support moving in two directions at once. Either way, I made it to level 22 with this cheat. Good enough for me.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on February 21, 2024, 06:57:48 pm
I won't count it among my finished games, but I finished the Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Demo. I'll try to avoid spoilers in case someone for some reason still hasn't played the original FFVII and/or some of its spin-offs.

The Nibelheim section was up and down. I appreciated some of Sephiroth's quips to Cloud that were actually meant for someone else. I also liked how the screen would show static and get chopped up when Cloud was trying to remember what happened. The Shinra Manor was spooky. But, when I was actually playing the demo, I was quickly reminded of how exhausting Remake was. I don't know if I have the energy for all this. There is just so much going on in combat that it's hard to keep up. Knowing me, I'd probably want to get all the trophies. This would mean having to play the game on Hard mode. That would also mean going through unskippable areas and cut scenes again. Slow segments like crawling through small areas or scaling walls just pad the length. I didn't play too much of the Junon section. Within the first five minutes there were tutorials out the wazoo, someone named MAI shouting through my controller, and now I can apparently make items? It's a lot. So, yeah. I'm holding off on this one for a long time. I just don't have the energy for all this stuff, and knowing that the game is more "open worldy" is a major turn off.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on February 24, 2024, 09:01:46 am
Game 4: Pokémon Violet (Switch) - 45 hours

Okay, so full disclosure, I haven't played a Pokémon video game on release since Sun. They've just dropped so drastically in quality with the move to the Switch that I never bothered to give them a shot. However, my interest in Pokémon since 2016 has not abated whatsoever. Between Pokémon Go and the trading card game, I've been enjoying Pokémon in honestly a bigger capacity than ever before. I think it's because those aspects really bring out the community power of Pokémon more than the games ever could. It's been such a fantastic experience connecting with other fans of the franchise in new capacities than the video games, and as a result I didn't feel the need to really play the games anymore.

The reason why I ended up playing Pokémon Violet was actually because my wife wanted to play it. She played it for a couple hours when it came out in November of 2022, went through all the initial story beats then gave up and I took up her save file and continued on. And I've been playing it off and on over the past couple of years. That said, my playstyle with it was so fragmented and weird that a lot of the story elements are not really what I'm going to be focusing on.

I did find the story to be mostly... fine? It wasn't anything special. I do like the school-based focus of the story early on, but it's largely split into three smaller storylines and they ranged from pretty enjoyable (Arven) to a total slog (Penny). One of my biggest problems with modern Pokémon is the lack of voiced cutscenes that are presented in-engine with no amount of polish or care put into them. It makes going through the story an absolute chore because they are so lazy and sloppy. There's just no excuse for no voice acting at this point and it would exponentially improve my engagement with the story.

Speaking of lazy, the obvious issues that everyone points to is the game's performance. There are so many issues that persist to this day even with the game's numerous patches. The game has consistent framerate and animation problems, pop-in, low draw distance, clipping issues, crashes, and other blemishes that really take away from the overall experience. Also, no clothing customization options? Why did the game take such a huge step back in that regard? Makes no sense. My third largest gripe with the game pertains to the open world design. I really think it was a mistake not to have level scaling. It meant that my experience playing was a total rubber band. I'd either be getting rocked by high level Pokémon or it was a total cake walk. I was looking for something in between.

But, with all my complaints you might think I'm down on this game. I actually really enjoyed my time playing when I wasn't doing story stuff and was just exploring the open world, catching Pokémon, collecting items and setting up a picnic or two. It's very relaxing in that way. That's why it took me so long to finish the story because all I wanted to do was just explore and take my time. The game has fantastic music and atmosphere in both the wide open expanses and the towns, that can really suck you in. Overall, I like most of the new Pokémon designs. There are some that I don't like but others that I got really attached to. Some of my favorites include Smoliv, Fidough, Bellibolt, Orthworm, and a bunch others. I think one of the strongest aspects of the Sword/Shield era was the Pokémon designs, and this generation is a bit of a step back but still has some really great ones. I really like the concept of future and ancient Pokémon too.

In summary, I find myself in the middle with Violet. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. There's definitely some good bones here that I hope get expanded upon in the future. I don't think it's as bad as people say it is, however.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 24, 2024, 07:20:33 pm
3. Earthbound (SNES) - ABANDONED

Like many collectors, I've known how coveted Earthbound since pretty much as soon as I started trying to acquire the more rarer and sought after retro games out there. Years ago, I finally tracked down a cheap copy of Earthbound, started playing it shortly after, and well, I didn't understand the appeal. I tried again several years later and found it even less appealing. Yet, over time, more and more people kept telling me to stick with it and to try and appreciate it for what it is rather than comparing it to other acclaimed JRPGs of the 90s. Maybe against my better judgement, I tried one last time earlier this month to get into Earthbound, telling myself that I'd stick with it way past when I felt like giving up to see if maybe the game did get better or something later on clicked with me and I'd finally understand why this game is so beloved by retro RPG fans. Well, I did play it considerably longer than I ever had, yet nearly the entire time I felt bored, frustrated, and just underwhelmed as I trudged through the game once more. After 10 hours, I finally hit my breaking point and just couldn't continue playing. I get that Earthbound was very unique for the time in that it didn't use some fantasy or scifi setting like almost all other JRPGs of the time, but even with the more unique, modern setting, quarky characters and dialogue, and all the other aspects that fans of the series love to use as justification of why it's so amazing, I still found the game mediocre at best. Compared to many of its SNES JRPG counterparts, it's lacking in nearly every possible way. And while I'm admittedly not as big of a JRPG fan as I was in the 90s and 2000s, I'm still able to appreciate a good RPG when I see one, and Earthbound is just not one of them. I honestly wanted to love this game like many others, I really did. However, after three failed attempts over the course of a decade, I'm finally ready to admit I don't like Earthbound and never will. I'm happy for everyone who does like this game, whether they played it as a kid in the 90s or even just a year or two ago for the first time, but I will never be one of those people. (2/24/24)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on February 25, 2024, 08:51:51 pm
10 - Sons of the Forest (PC 2024) - BEAT - With the game out of EA, I dove back to see what was added and improved since I originally played it.  It was pretty barebones back then, mostly just the fundamental gameplay, location, and visuals worked out and then some other general features.  I think they overall did a good job, but there's a lot of cut corners here.  The survival aspect of the game is very basic, it really needed a lot more depth, along with needing to drastically overhaul the amount of animals and supplies you can find.  There's a custom game mode difficulty that allows you to change a ton of stuff, but the normal mode should've been way better.  I just don't think it got enough playtesting as I would've made normal have weaker enemies, but harsher supply and animal cut.

The story is there, it's sorta similar to the first one where you get bits here and there, you piece together stuff from the past through notes and such, to figure out what happened, and I think it mostly works, but it's not a strong narrative.  The first game did it a little better as there was more of a drive to it being a father looking for his son, rather than who your character is who just isn't really important to the story.  He's not a no name guy, but it kinda feels that way.

There's other things I could call out here and there, as I think the game needed another few months of cleaning up and a few more additions, but overall I liked it.  There are better survival games out there, but I had enough fun with this one, I just hope they are going to continue adding to the game, give me a reason to go back as there more than a few areas on the map they could add stuff to.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on February 26, 2024, 05:55:38 pm
23. Detroit Become Human (PS4)

This has been another classic backlog game that I've been meaning to play for years and have just never got around to it. I've never played any of Quantic Dream's other games, but Detroit Become Human always stood out as the one I'd be most interesting in given its subject matter and scifi setting. Overall, I really enjoyed "playing" Detroit Become Human and really got into the story and characters particularly. The reason I put the word playing in parentheses is because this is probably one of the least video game-like games I've ever played. For the record, I think the common criticism of calling many modern video games with many cutscenes interactive movies has usually pedantic and ridiculous argument when the cutscenes make up maybe 10% of the overall experience of the game, and there's still engaging gameplay during the other 90% of the time you're playing. However, there is almost no gameplay in Detroit Become Human beyond having your character walk around, QTEs, awkward button presses, and the game's outcome flowchart. If not for the outcome flowchart and how varied and dynamic it is, I'd easily say Detroit Become Human was a straight up interactive movie and not a game. But that last gameplay element really makes this a very fun and unique gaming experience in that you can have a radically different experience with the game depending on various decisions you make throughout the story, even having main characters die earlier on in the game who would have otherwise been around until the very end. It really raises the stakes with the decisions and actions you make, which made this a very fun game a and made for a pretty interesting story. While some of the writing was a bit questionable or even lazy, I found the majority of the game's plot to be good to excellent overall. The characters are what really make this game awesome, and I was deeply invested in seeing certain outcomes with certain characters, and made certain sections of the game very tense in terms of not knowing what would happen to them. The OST is decent, however the voice acting is about as good as it gets, and really helps sell the story. While certainly not a perfect games by any means, I ended up thoroughly enjoying Detroit Become Human and it'll be a game I'll revisit again someday. (2/26/24) [37/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on February 27, 2024, 04:51:59 am
11 - Helldivers 2 (PC 2024) - ENDLESS - Since the battle for democracy is never-ending, I'll count my couple hours into it for now.  I actually tried to play this a week or two ago, but I would have crashes with every mission.  I refunded it and right after I did, they came out with bug fixes.  Was gonna wait for my new PC when I hopefully get it in a month or two to jump back in, but I've seen so much on the game, I really wanted to play.  Seems good now, mostly just done a handful of solo missions to learn the game and haven't had any issues.

Overall this is a very straightforward but fun game that really understand how to create an over the top horde battle experience.  From the chunky weaponry, to the excessively violent warfare, to the very satisfying explosions, all done with the ability to completely annihilate your team if you aren't careful, which is definitely part of the fun.  Its actually a decent time solo, though I will be jumping into randoms eventually since that's such an important part of the experience, which honestly, not something I do often as team heavy games I prefer to have friends to do that with.

The games vibes are fun too, the Paul Verhoeven styled satire slathered over everything, it's pretty funny that the best Starship Troopers game isn't based on that brand.  And with the Automatons as another enemy to fight, it's basically the best Terminator game set in the future war lol

I think this is going to be a pretty solid casual fun game I play when I want something to just go nuts with.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 01, 2024, 02:13:37 pm
23. Etrian Odyssey

I played this as part of the Etrian Odyssey HD Collection on Switch. Full disclosure: I played on the easiest difficulty setting. This was the main reason why I was able to finish it so quickly. I didn't set the game to Picnic because I was worried about a potential challenge. It was because I wanted to see if the game, and the rest of the series in this collection, would be worth my time. The typical dungeon-crawl loop of rough beginnings, resource management, and low funds was in full effect and I didn't want to waste my time going back and forth from the town to the dungeon and back again just to keep pace. Now that I know more about the series and what to expect, I plan to play the next installments on the regular setting. In other words, the series is worth my time. There's great class variety, a pretty HD look, QoL features (which are new to me since this is my first time experiencing the series) and the addictive feeling of "what's over there". One of the biggest surprises was the truth behind the labyrinth. I'm not sure when I'll get to EO2 since Unicorn Overlord is just around the corner, but it's nice knowing that another solid dungeon crawler is waiting for me.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: moonlightvalkyrie on March 03, 2024, 06:53:11 pm
4. Waku Waku Sweets (Switch) - Game #4 of 2024 is done! I finished Waku Waku Sweets for the Switch. A very cutesy cooking game similar to the Cooking Mama series except this deals with sweets and pastries instead of various recipes. I wanted to try a cooking game after the disappointment of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Your goal is simple...to be the best pastry chef and bring happiness to people. The game is divided into three actions which are morning, afternoon, and night actions (night actions are just the main character saying it is time to go to bed. You can do various things such as shopping, working at the shop, cooking at home, completing quests, etc. To rank up, you will need to complete quests to fill the happiness meter. Once filled, you can then compete in a contest to go up a rank. It is not a bad game, but very very repetitive. The recipes are also very repetitive (you will get several kinds of tarts for example and the minigames for tarts are all the same except for the fruit involved). Also, the quests and how the quests work are annoying. There is no set time or day they pop up and there are chances no quests pop up at all. If this happens on Monday, you can do nothing because work is closed on Mondays. So all you can do is go to bed and wake up on Tuesday. That is such a waste. One thing this game does do is that if you talk to a person and you do not have what they want, it will not waste your action. You can go home, cook it, and bring it to the person. The quests vary from the people telling you what they want, to what category they want, to only giving you clues to what they want. It is not a bad game and it could be considered a game you can just relax with. Also, this game can be played either in dock mode or portable mode, so that is a plus for me. Completing this game......was really annoying. I am kind of glad I am done with this one. This one is a meh for me. Not bad, but not good either.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on March 03, 2024, 07:23:49 pm
13. Tchia || PlayStation 5 || 02.25.24

(https://i.imgur.com/45JjIR1.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/90VDU9J.jpeg)

Since I still have access to a large catalog of games with PlayStation Plus's Extra subscription tier, I'm again realizing I should prioritize those selections. Ordinarily, I choose games which are exclusive to digital storefronts, but Tchia caught my attention. Tchia's a game I've been familiar with for some time as Sony heavily marketed it, and it's been a game I've been interested in since watching trailers some time ago.

Taking place in real-world New Caledonia, Tchia is a game fully immersed in the territory's culture. Full of vibrant colors and lush environments, the game emphasizes the people's local languages, music, customs, and laid-back lifestyle alongside the natural wilderness. Controlling titular Tchia, players will travel across the archipelago consisting of two main islands in addition to neighboring, smaller ones by running through its forests and swamps, flying atop mountains, and swimming along the ocean's floor and coral ecosystems. Alongside these modes of transportation, there is also a focus on boat sailing. Apart from basic travel, all sorts of activities including rhythm segments, totem wood carving, and rock balancing help to reinforce the game's setting.

All that said, the sense of peace is never held long, as there is plenty of surrounding danger. In just a few short minutes upon starting the game, players will witness Tchia's father be apprehended and taken away from their tiny island where they live at in solitude together. As players will come to learn, Tchia's background, unbeknownst to her, is one steeped in some sort of magic, as she soon after learns her ability to perform what's called soul jumping, which allows Tchia to possess a number of animals and inanimate objects which grant her unique abilities such as being able to breathe underwater and even explode through combustible properties. Alongside these innate powers, Tchia is also able to command environment affects with her ukulele. For these reasons, Tchia finds herself forced to save her father's life while being introduced to the negative impact done to the land caused by the game's central antagonist, a newly-revived evil god of sorts. Another point I'll briefly mention is that, despite its cartoon-like art style and wholesome themes, Tchia is not afraid to be brutal. People, including children, die. Babies are sacrificed.

On one island, the land is as I previously described: serene and largely untouched by human influence. However, the second island is wrought with destruction, as factories built upon four corner points spew toxic gasses into the air while they're connected by an elaborate pipe system which has ravaged the majority of the island's environment. At the same time, this second island is the home of the aforementioned god, where a central city has been constructed. High-rise buildings tower over the city streets below, with a seemingly never-ending construction site surrounding the immediate area. During one point of the game, Tchia takes on the role of an eco-terrorist as these sites are destroyed, which did leave me feeling unsure of what exactly the game is trying to promote. At no point does Tchia outright say that urban sprawl and deforestation is outright bad, and Tchia herself is never presented as someone who's in-tune with nature. In fact, she never even comments on the impact of these manufactured settings and just targets them. Of course, I understand the developers wanting to showcase their homeland's rich beauty across multiple levels and that is should be acknowledged and respected, but Tchia's involvement relating to nature itself felt out of place. Nevertheless, for what it is, the narrative and the events introduced are engaging while being rooted in New Caledonian culture.

Along Tchia's journey, there is a sense of community shown while traveling throughout the emptiness. Food booths and campsites are present in the darkest patches of land, inviting travelers needing to fill their stomachs and take rest an welcomed opportunity to do so. This is especially true when following the narrative path, as even small settlements may be found. However, when deviating from that path, the game feels lonely and a bit shallow, even. Of course, the majority of the game's environments take place in the wilderness so human interaction is an obvious byproduct of that reality, but the sense of actually being in nature to appreciate its beauty—which I imagine to have been the central focus of the game—doesn't really stand out. Perhaps the biggest reason as to why this is lies in the excessive amount of in-game collectibles. While a minuscule amount of these items are needed to advance the story, the land is absolutely littered with them. At any given moment, there will always be something present: an item to pick up, an activity to do, a puzzle to solve. At no point did I feel like I could simply enjoy the game's natural environments without being distracted. Without the item-collecting emphasis, time could have instead been used to create environments more uniquely interactable or generally more fun to explore. While perhaps this isn't an issue for those strictly following the narrative path, these sites become pinned on the mini-map, which will be absolutely dominated by icons which can't be toggled off, if choosing to ignore the majority of these items. Due to overbearing presence of these elements, the game devolved into a tedious checklist to complete as a way to inflate game time, as the majority of collectibles relate to cosmetic offerings.

Routinely, Tchia is a game which does not respect the player's time. If choosing to fully explore the environment to learn its secrets, players will be forced to travel back-and-forth at great lengths quite often. While there are fast-travel options, getting to those map points still requires a sizable amount of time, especially when considering how vast the open-world environment is paired with Tchia's paltry stamina amount. If needing to travel to anywhere besides the two main islands, several minutes of uninterrupted sailing is required. During these segments, the player is forced to wait with nothing to do or see, as that far-off dot in the distance gradually reveals itself as another area to explore. Again, I understand that the developers are trying to communicate how vast New Caledonia is, but there were many moments that I put down the controller to do something else entirely besides playing the game, effectively breaking my immersion.

One final point worth mentioning is the game's performance quality. At times, there are noticeable and sometimes affecting frame rate dips. During one rhythm section, severe lag was experienced which resulted in a terribly glitchy sound as the cutscene was neared a complete halt. In one moment, the game crashed altogether while swimming undersea. Toward the later hours of my time playing, the soul jumping mechanic wouldn't work at all. I believe this exclusively occurred when possessing birds, meaning I wasn't able to take flight at all. Regularly, music will abruptly stop, even where there is no sounds of nature, leaving the player in total silence.

All things considered, Tchia is a game that was clearly made as a way to express the developers' love for New Caledonia. In many ways, that goal was achieved, but other design decisions seem to counteract that overarching goal in clear contrast. Despite watching plenty of trailers prior to playing, I still wasn't quite sure what to expect. I did find the central gameplay mechanics fun for a casual experience, but the choice for the game to emphasize collectibles felt off-putting and greatly detracted from what could have otherwise been a concise, well-designed experience.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 05, 2024, 10:49:32 am
Another demo down. This one was for Unicorn Overlord. And, what a demo it was. I think I logged six or seven hours in it, which is just bananas for a demo. The amount of narrative covered and the amount of stuff to do in the demo topples regular games. If this is a sign of things to come, then I can see this being a very long game. But, everything presented was epic. I feel like I'm playing a combination of Brigandine, Ogre Battle, Venus and Braves, and Final Fantasy Tactics. There are probably others in there, too. All of it is backed by Vanilla Ware's looks and sounds. My only complaint is that it is tough to play while in handheld mode. I'll still play it that way, but I'm going to try to play it docked when I get it and after I finish P3R.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on March 11, 2024, 11:44:09 am
14. Tinykin || PlayStation 5 || 03.06.24

(https://i.imgur.com/T9aJV71.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/o3qhfal.jpeg)

While I don't quite remember when I first heard about Tinykin prior to its release, I do remember being drawn to its presentation. It's been a game I've been hoping to be released physically on Sony consoles, but that possibility still hasn't come. So, I decided to play it through PlayStation Plus's offerings.

Introducing players to its fun, cartoon-like world, Tinykin begins with an animated short explaining how we as the player-character Milodane begin our journey, interacting with the titular alien-like Tinykin creatures along the way. Having come from a faraway galaxy to learn of his heritage, Milodane travels to the barren Earth after intercepting an old transmission of human origin. Soon after, one of two possibilities are revealed: either Milodane has been shunk to the size of a bug, or, instead, it's shown that Milodane has always been this small size. To my understanding, the details are never outright explained, although I do believe the game later on implies one reason over another. Nevertheless, upon landing on Earth, we enter a house that's expansive and full of life, having since been reclaimed by numerous bug species who have taken each room as their kingdom to call home. Each species has its own culture, including moral values and religious practices, and the game does well at characterizing its communities.

Upon immediately landing, Milodane is introduced to an old moth named Ridmi who warmly welcomes us as they're interested in the odd and unusual. Ridmi soon explains how, for many years, his lifelong goal has been to completing a device originally having belonged to the so-called god the bugs collectively worship named Arwdin, which Ridmi believes has the capability to go "beyond the House." Using the aforementioned Tinykin as tools of sorts which we shepherd around, Milodane sets off to collect needed artifacts to fully construct Ardwin's device. On our own, there is little we're able to explore, but the Tinykin allow us to easily overcome these obstacles. Numerous types of Tinykin exist each with their own unique characteristics, such as being explosive in nature and the ability to conduct electricity.

As previously mentioned, Milodane's journey takes the player all across the house, which is certainly designed for the average-sized human. But, because of our small size, this typical setting becomes anything but, as every nook and cranny throughout this now open-ended space becomes an explorable environment. By normal standards, the house is in total disarray as each room is very much now home to bug civilization, and it's enjoyable to witness the ways in which bugs have adopted human resources to their benefit. In one area, fields of farmland have been constructed out of kitchen sponges, with a waterfall towering from up above upon utilizing the kitchen sink as its source, with the water itself being directed by a pipe system constructed from a series of drinking straws. Seeing these fun and clever ways to build an in-game environment was always enjoyable, and it only takes adjusting the camera slightly or taking one small turn to discover more.

At its core, Tinykin is a 3D platformer which focuses more on environmental puzzle-solving and simple exploration than collecting materials, although the latter is certainly present. In fact, in what is perhaps a bit unexpected for the genre, but there is no combat or major conflict whatsoever. While each stage has its own goal in securing the needed artifact for Ardwin's device, it isn't as simple as finding it. Instead, a series of tasks always stands in the player's way which requires the player to carefully navigate the area which is always complete with hidden interiors such as a crawlspace, a locked refrigerator, and closed dressers and drawers. While discovering all the game's collectibles is far from necessary, doing so will require a thorough eye, as levels are massive alongside the player being given free reign to explore without any set path to follow. In general, accomplishing the main objective is straightforward to do, but the amount of side content distracts the player in a natural way which encourages further exploration.

Knowing what to expect from Tinykin's gameplay, I was not expecting for the game to feature a robust amount of optional dialogue to read from interactable NPCs. In truth, a lot of dialogue adds little to the narrative itself, but it does help bring the world to life, so I always stopped to read what characters offered to say. At the game's conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised at the narrative ending, although I wish preceding details were a little more transparent. Perhaps all the details were there and I was too focused on amassing in-game collectibles and exploring new environments without reading into the game's deeper meaning, though. Paired with the game's writing, Tinykin's art direction is fun and full of colorful, cartoon illustrations. While not novel by any means, its use of 3D environments paired with 2D character art that swivels alongside camera rotation was always a visual treat to see. In a small number of instances, there are even fully animated cartoon sequences which help elevate the expressive characters to being even more so.

To my surprise, Tinykin excels at providing an in-depth experience to the 3D platformer genre, and it would be an excellent introduction to anyone unfamiliar to this type of gameplay. There is a low skill level required, but a fulfilling experience awaits, nonetheless. It isn't overbearing with its collectibles nor do they feel tacked on, and many will naturally gravitate toward experiencing the full exploratory adventure.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 11, 2024, 02:41:20 pm
24. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Soma

Of all the Castlevania games on the Game Boy Advance, this one is objectively the best. There's so much excellence packed in that it's easy to see why the majority of fans have it as their favorite of the three, and a favorite in general. I told myself that I would just make this a casual playthrough and not bother doing everything. Well, that idea got shot to Hell near the end when I kept discovering new things. As a result, I was able to get all of the Souls and most of the rare drops from all the enemies. At this point, I'm good on Metroidvanias for a while. I want to play Harmony of Dissonance with a cleansed palette, and beyond that, I want to eventually give Julius mode in this game a whirl.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 16, 2024, 10:04:49 pm
25. Persona 3 Reload

The first Persona I've ever finished. It's the only one the series I've had any interest in because of its sleek look and interesting themes. For some reason it kept slipping under my radar. While I'm glad I finished it, I'm so glad that it's over. The rigidness of the Social Links, some overly long cut scenes that the FF feature couldn't even help with, and most of the soundtrack were what I'll remember more than the epic story, the cool characters, and the (sometimes) fun combat. I'll always prefer the mainline SMT to this. At some point, I do want to try P5 Royal, but it'll be after a long, long time. This was a long game. If not for Unicorn Overlord being so addictive, I would likely take a massive break from RPGs.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on March 17, 2024, 06:21:58 pm
4. Bayonetta (NSIC Mode) [Switch]

Phew, barely had any time to play lately because I've just moved, but just beat Bayonetta again. I've beaten this game many, MANY times before, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've beaten it on Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty (the hardest difficulty in the game). The fact I've beaten it like over 10 times should tell you how much I love this game tho. Bayonetta 1 and 2 are two of my favourite games of all time, and I cannot recommend them enough. Glad to now finally tick off the top difficulty box too.
Now, just started up BROK the InvestiGator, and enjoyed the first hour. Looking forward to diving into that one more :)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on March 18, 2024, 07:04:04 pm
Game 5 - Final Fantasy VI (SNESc) - 31 Hours

Ah yes, the legendary Final Fantasy 6. I've been meaning to replay FF6 since I first beat the game on the PS1 about 10 years ago. Reason being is that I didn't really care for the game that much the first time around, and recently I've been wondering if I wasn't giving it a fair chance. At the time, my biggest issues with the game stemmed from the game's story. This time through, I definitely enjoyed playing a lot more, so here's a review of the things that improved for me this second time around along with the flaws that I still think are present.

First, the story. My biggest issue with it was really those first 10-15 hours, where the story is kind of cheesy and not that interesting. What I found on this playthrough was that I actually really enjoy the character-specific story threads quite a bit, which really become the focus after the World of Ruin. The stories behind many of the characters, including Locke, Celes, Terra, Setzer, Cyan, and Sabin/Edgar, to name a few, were incredibly compelling. And there are some other standout moments like the opera scene that remain excellent to this day. Funnily enough, those stories are tangential to the main plot (aside from Terra), which is why it just didn't jive with me.

On the topic of characters, let's discuss Kefka. To be honest, I don't agree with the general consensus that he's an excellent villain or even all that great. To be fair, at the time, he was definitely a departure visually from classic video game villains. But his personality and motivations as a deranged nihilistic nutjob with absolutely zero backstory are about as cliche as you can get for an RPG villain. He's definitely evil though, I cannot deny that.

My last piece of criticism extends to the game's translation on the SNES, which is quite rushed and filled with errors. It's understandable given how short a timeframe the game had but it's still not a great translation which not only sours the mood of impactful moments but also is misleading in places. If you look at the translation comparisons that are out there it becomes very clear how many things are wrong in the translations. I know these are largely fixed in later versions of the game.

Now, let me end by remarking on how incredible this game is with it's gameplay, spritework, and music, which are masterful, and ultimately make the game worth your time even in the face of more modern, polished competition. I love the use of expressive spritework for the characters which do an incredible job of making the game come to life. The environments and use of mode 7 are also really fun to watch and a total visual treat. The gameplay, while nothing special, is still incredibly fun to experiment with and master, and there's tons of hidden areas and secrets to explore, particuarly when the game opens up in the latter half of the story. The music is so amazingly good, and is one of Nobuo Uematsu's best with the series. That opening with the lighting and organ gets me every single time I watch it, even after all this time. Simply astounding.

So despite some issues with the storytelling and translations, I found FF6 to be a far more enjoyable experience on my second playthrough. It's not my favorite Final Fantasy game of all time, but I do understand why it's so beloved by so many.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on March 19, 2024, 10:05:05 am
15. Doom (aka Doom 2016)
At first I wasn't sure, but it ended up growing on me. Known for being fast, the action was not as fast as it could have been. Being a Q3 Vogon HQ veteran (although it has been a few years), fast FPS is not a problem, but Doom was not what I would consider to be fast, at least to me. Also the beginning of my playthrough had some hiccups, as I was then using a terribly slow SSD (https://msfn.org/board/topic/186075-ssd-crystaldiskmark-results/), which I had been using for a few months now but when Doom had stuttering is when I realised I really needed to figure out what the bottleneck was. I'll break down this review into sections.

Movement
As I put above, I had expected the game to be faster. Crouch is rarely used and when used is set for toggle instead of hold. I did not see a setting to change this. There is no slide ability. Mantling is ok. Where you can mantle is mostly marked with a green light of some sort except for some secrets. A lot of areas cannot be mantled even if it looks like it should, so finding secrets can be something you just stop doing. It still uses invisible walls. Run by default but can seem slow sometimes. Strafe jumping didn't seem to work and rocket jumping (or plasma walking) do not work either.

Combat
Aim speed is fine but alt-fire ADS is too slow to be useful. Only 2 weapons can use ADS, the machine gun which does not have select fire and the railgun. Both animations are too long for a fast game ADS to be useful. Each weapon has their own crosshair and no crosshair customization options that I saw. Chainsaw to get ammo is a good thing, but I did not use this until the second half of the game because I didn't know. Having separate key for BFG is fine, but you can't get to it using next/prev weapon. Getting locational glory kills was difficult to figure out, still don't have the hang of it. Combat arenas were laid out for you do move around a lot, but I found myself not moving around that much and ended up exploring after combat was over.

Sound
General soundscape was good. Portions really reminded me of the music from the Quake series. All weapon sounds were fine. There is a bass-drop sound effect that plays in the glory kill animation that is too noticable. There doesn't seem to be a large variety of tracks used in the combat portions. Feel like combat music should be louder when it does come on. Idle monster sounds were annoying. You can hear when the low-tier enemies are around (through walls) as an audio cue, but the issue is that it is the same type of sound effect that you hear in all of those zombie video games. So it just made me think there are a bunch of zombies around.

Graphics
Everything was fine in this respect. I really like the Base designs and all of the computer terminals. Screens were clear but no ADS means you can't zoom in and read everything. The presentation was good. Also liked the electricity effect on doors that opened in Hell.

Bugs
Encountered only one that I can recall, being teleported into the ground due to Glory Kill. Also I have a feeling you can die in Glory Kill but didn't get it to happen. I suspect the best way to do it is to GK a cacodemon over a void.

16. Super Mario RPG
I didn't like the movement controls. My options for controller on SNES games is limited. I have an SNES USB controller (https://vgcollect.com/item/129175) but the plastic quality and the feel to the buttons is not good. It feels cheap. So often I will use the Xbox 360 Controller that I normally use. And the issue with that is in the emulator, the buttons are swapped AND I still do not have any automatic understanding of what buttons are which like I used to with the PS2 controller (I've since lost that as well). Couldn't get the timing down for the defend action. The RPG aspect is not strong enough for me to be interested in the game like that, it just seems like a Mario game then. I died against the Hammer Bros at the end of the first "Real" stage and called it a day.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on March 22, 2024, 01:00:37 pm
15. Greyhill Incident || PlayStation 5 || 03.08.24

(https://i.imgur.com/MWoQypq.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/arUsRpb.jpeg)

After some of the trailers were published leading up to the release of Greyhill Incident, it didn't take long for the game to catch my attention as something I'd like to eventually play. I don't claim to be knowledgeable of every game released, but it seems like games centered around alien invaders are few and far between, which was a key reason for why my interest was piqued. As a budget title, I decided to go into this experience blindly without reading anything about the game's reception.

In hindsight, the trailers reveal more about the game beyond the general subject matter and gameplay than I had originally thought, should one analyze it in some depth beyond one passing view and their short runtime. While Greyhill Incident is a survival horror game, the game lacks in a serious tone as the writing mocks alien abduction stories and those who claim being witnesses to alien life landing in rural areas. Of course, some may feel like this sort of attitude is justified to mimic real-world attitudes in what many would claim are nonsensical beliefs, but this is a fictional game that could have chose to deviate from those perspectives instead of reinforcing them. Because of this decision, the game often veers more into comedy than horror, as characters proudly don tin foil hats and actively prepare for the possible threat of an alien invasion, even prior to the game's events. These alien conspiracists boast about how the government is lying about the presence of aliens, which is a clichéd viewpoint. Meanwhile, as the story continues, these same government officials cautiously advise the public with all seriousness to gather as much tin foil as people are able to find to protect themselves from the alien invasion.

Now that the game's atmosphere established, there is little to explain about the story itself. In brief, aliens have landed in a rural community, and the player-character Ryan's son has been beamed into their ship. With some neighborly guidance in mind, Ryan creeps around the farm community to gather supplies while responding to narrative events relating to other characters, as he works toward saving his son. Constantly, it is difficult to comprehend where to go due to low visibility relating to fog. Unfortunately, when raising the game's brightness settings, the environment only worsens with fog density. At one point, Ryan describes a scene as a "UFO parking lot," but the visual scene available to players was instead a huge gray block overtaking most of the screen's space, devoid of any visible characteristics. Alongside general visibility, the lack of variety in environmental detail introduces another problem as players wander about. Each house has a mailbox, so even something as simple as a number or name printed at their side would be a small but welcomed addition. Sometimes, lanterns can be seen faraway in the distance which somewhat help in guiding a player where to go. Still, throughout most of my time playing, the experience mostly felt like a blind journey with many repeated attempts. Needless to say, there is no map system, but the game's small explorable space doesn't warrant one.

Generally, I'm unfamiliar with modern control layouts for first-person games with shooting and sprinting mechanics due to that I seldom play these types of games. Nevertheless, I've been told the controls for Greyhill Incident are poorly implemented, only made worse by players lacking customization options. While exploring, players have access to a dimly lit flashlight that serves almost no purpose in functionality. It offers the most marginal of visual improvements compared to exploring without it, whereas alien scouts are much better able to spot the player as they hide in stealth. Nearly every button relates to one specific item or action, which the game doesn't provide an adequate time preparing the player to utilize prior to the game's action, which will inevitably result in many players' repeated deaths.

As Ryan, the player is vulnerable. Armed with a baseball bat and a handgun which has only about a dozen of bullets available to find throughout the campaign, most confrontation will rely on the former which can only stun enemies. Since Ryan's slow to attack with long pauses between each swing, it's in the player's best interest to sneak to avoid any enemy detection, although this action still works against the player's success. Enemies will see you regardless but only at a closer distance, even when obscured by set pieces like tall patches of grass. Running is also an option, but the player's stamina empties quickly, and more enemies will likely be attracted to the noise. To the player's disadvantage, there is no health system. Instead, once confronted by an enemy, it's likely that the player will die, but it isn't guaranteed. An on-screen prompt will instruction the player to spam the action button, but the event is designed to almost always fail. Once confronted by any more than one enemy at the same time, there is little reason to even prolong the inevitable, as players will be stun locked. Lastly, there are a number oh hiding spots to utilize such as under a bed, inside a vehicle, or even in a barrel, but the player needs to ensure they're far away when taking this action, so hiding is seldom the preferred action due to needed distance paired with limited stamina. Despite these design choices which will result in many repeated player deaths, I think highly of the game's resource management, as there isn't enough ammo to kill each enemy and ammo being difficult to find altogether.

While I take some issue with the writing's tone, another problem is the dialogue itself. For every NPC, dialogue feels rigid and devoid of emotion. In many moments, it sounds as if a majority of the actors are reading their lines without much, if any, context to the narrative, whereas Ryan's voice actor is the one outlier. However, while Ryan does convince players that he understands the significance of the situation, the result is instead on the opposite side of the spectrum. Routinely, he'll scream into the foggy void as his otherworldly pursuers patrol the fields and streets, well within speaking distance, let alone shouting distance. In conversation, the back-and-forth as a result of the vocal performances feels unnatural. Simultaneously, characters repeatedly talk over another as lines overlap. This problem is made worse by subtitles rarely aligning to the dialogue being spoken as it progresses too fast. Related to these issues is that NPCs may only be interacted with once. While there is a brief line of objective on the pause screen, it is vague in guidance and sometimes doesn't update at all. So, should players be unable to comprehend what to do, they're regularly left to wander aimlessly.

For better or for worse, Greyhill Incident offers a middling experience, but it's a game I ultimately don't regret playing despite its issues. Even at a discounted price (or even free, for that matter), it's difficult to recommend to others to try the game unless they're interested in playing it due to its subject matter.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: moonlightvalkyrie on March 24, 2024, 10:49:30 am
5. Dabman: When Haters Dab Back Remastered (PS4)- Curiosity got the best of me on this game. It is a Meme-type game and is a game from 2018. It is a very simple choose-your-path FMV game. I didn't enjoy it at all, but is incredibly short so I got through it. I do not recommend it.

6. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS5)- Not much to say as I did this on PS4, but I was kind of surprised there were as many loading screens as the PS4 version.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on March 24, 2024, 01:22:50 pm
16. Passage || Browser || 03.22.24

(https://i.imgur.com/Hi6cLF2.jpeg)

Passage is a game I've known about for around ten years, and I may have even played through it before. That said, it wasn't a game I had given much focused thought until now. Only after mentioning it in another topic (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12715.msg205099.html#msg205099) did I stop to consider properly engaging with it.

As the title suggests, Passage is a game about the passage of time. As the man, the player will age as they travel from one side of the screen to the other, entirely across a two-dimensional plane with a narrow point-of-view at all times. Looking forward, what lies ahead looks fuzzy, and what may exist below is completely unseen. For most of the game, this isn't immediately recognizable to new players as the man's sprite design incrementally changes, noted by clothing, hair color (and eventually hair loss), player speed, and posture. As the game is played (or even when idling), the player's fixed position creeps along automatically to the right. Simply put, so much of what Passage means greatly depends on one's playthrough. But, at the end no matter what sort of action was taken, all players will die. In that moment, you're now only represented by a gravestone, with the player's trivial score that's been accumulating hanging above as if that's what validates whether one's life was well lived or not. The game's strict five-minute end is unavoidable, no matter which sort of path or paths the player takes.

While an easier, preset path exists at the player's starting position which encourages horizontal travel, players have free control to also explore along the vertical axis, ridden with obstacles barring you from moving onward. Remaining strictly along the starting path, there are no obstacles at all, and the player's journey will arguably be more uneventful when compared to exploring below. It's important to note that the player's score only increases when moving east, although treasures exist throughout the labyrinth to the south. Much can be said about this diverging choice. To me, the game suggests that new experiences are more easily made when not dwelling on the present moment and the intricacies which may accompany it. When venturing downward, the environment remains static, implying you're stuck in one moment of time as you scour all options available to you in search of some reward. While treasure may be found, not all chests offer it. When taking this path, much of your labor yields nothing aside from time taken away from your life. But, when treasure is successfully found, a large score bonus is granted, but these occurrences are momentary and, ultimately, unfulfilling.

This is perhaps the very first choice players are offered, but another is available almost immediately upon starting. A short distance away, a woman stands who, if interacted with, will follow the man for the remainder of the playthrough as their life partner, the two experiencing life together in love. With the two together, the game obviously becomes less about the man and more about the couple. With every movement, the two are bound together. Obviously, there are benefits to finding love, but the game now presents a problem for those wanting to discover what treasures life may offer in any given present moment, down below. While traversal in the south maze is still possible, not every path is now available. There will be moments when treasure is one space away, but the two of you can't reach it. There will be times when the player won't be able to move forward at all in these depths, now being required to retreat above or even backtrack entirely. Unlike before where the man was only responsible for himself, there is now someone else to consider. No longer is he only living for himself. From one perspective, some may argue that Passage implies a life in love prevents an individual from reaping life's greatest rewards. Of course, these rewards are never straightforward in achieving with some work is required, but these offerings are sometimes unable to be reached altogether, even after effort was made. However, from another perspective, there is much to gain even when choosing to constantly move forward, ignoring life's opportunities. Devoid of all obstacles, the environment along the north path is constantly changing, allowing for far more experiences to be made.

With all this said, Passage can be played in a variety of ways (as a pair, one your own, finding love early in life, idling for however long at the game's beginning which may result in finding love later in life, and so forth.) As a short five-minute experience, I played through Passage several times. To my surprise during my first playthrough, I felt something once the characters approached the opposite edge of the screen, slowly aged by time. Nearing the screen's edge but not quite there, your partner abruptly dies. Again, I felt something, much more than before. When the woman dies, life continues on with the man more than capable to move forward, although their speed dramatically decreases as they seemingly struggle with grief. If choosing, a player may even decide to stay nearby the woman's grave, as if the man couldn't overcome this loss.

In truth, there is very little to understand about the game's message, and it's quick to understand the game's symbolism. Because of this, simply reading about the game may make it seem uninteresting, but, when pausing a moment to actually understand the events unfolding while playing, there are plenty of chances to reach some sort of emotional epiphany during the experience. Available to play for free (http://passage.toolness.org), some may find Passage worth experiencing.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on March 28, 2024, 03:14:38 am
24. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC)

I got the itch to play a late 90s/early 2000s FPS game, so I decided to finally beat Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game I have not played since around the time it first came out. A friend of mine was a diehard PC gamer back in high school, and we decided to rent the PS2 port while he spent the weekend at my house. Bar far, he was more into it than I was, but I still enjoyed it for the most part, and to this day the game has an pretty strong air of nostalgia around it for me.


I finally beat Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and while I don't adore this game like many others, I can still appreciate it as a really fun, and somewhat iconic early 2000s PC game. The gameplay has its issues when it comes to certain enemies and bosses being incredibly annoying and even poorly designed, and some weapons having few practical uses, but this doesn't distract too much from what is an otherwise enjoyable game. The visuals are also pretty good, although I feel like by 2001 there were certainly better looking games, FPS and otherwise. Audio is mostly good too, although I found the OST somewhat uninspired and a bit repetitive throughout the game. I also found the bad German accents to be funny and also have that early 2000s video game cheese that I usually really like. Still, I feel like in the grand scheme of things, it was more of a blemish on the audio and doesn't help this game age as well as it otherwise could. I would definitely say that Return to Castle wolfenstein is worth playing, but for me it's a game I likely won't be returning to, at least for a very, very long time. For what it's worth, I did enjoy it for various reasons, especially how much it brought me back to my life back around 2001/2002. (3/28/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: undertakerprime on March 28, 2024, 05:59:43 pm
5. Afterimage (PS4)

Holy crap. Took me over 40 hours to get the good ending in this game. Not because it’s difficult (frankly, it’s on the easy side), but because it’s just so HUGE. By far the biggest world of any Metroidvania I’ve played.

Plus, it has 10 (!!!) endings. And to get the one, canon “good” ending, there’s so many steps I never would have figured it out without looking it up.
Anyway, here’s a rundown for the MV enthusiasts out there:

Pros:
- Absolutely GORGEOUS visuals
- HUGE explorable map
- Tight controls
- Fun combat
- Cool variety of weapons, each with their own advantages and special abilities
- A ton of secrets, things to do, and quests to complete
- Music is good, if unmemorable

Cons:
- Map might be TOO big, game takes too long to complete
- English translation is very iffy. Script desperately needs another pass by a native English speaker
- Story is very hard to follow, partly due to the translation issues mentioned above
- Voice acting is hit-or-miss. Some names and terms aren’t pronounced the same way consistently between characters
- Almost NO guidance (some might consider that a good thing, but IMO a map this big necessitates more guidance)
- Some powers and abilities are barely explained, or not explained at all (for example, the ability to heal yourself through prayer, or how to upgrade weapons)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on March 29, 2024, 08:06:46 pm
17. QWOP || Browser || 03.25.24

(https://i.imgur.com/UunBPFG.jpg)

For many who have had some sort of online presence during the end of the 2000s and into the immediate years following it, the game QWOP will be familiar. It's also a game that I'm sure many of those same people have at least tried (and likely failed) at least once. I know that I'm one of those individuals, but I'm now also one who's completed its challenge.

To be brief, QWOP is a track-and-field game tasking players to reach the end of a 100-meter dash. Its premise is straightforward and simple, although the execution in how it functions is everything but, as the Q and W keys correspond to the movement of each thigh, whereas the O and P keys correspond to each calf. To make any forward movement whatsoever, achieving some sort of rhythmic pattern utilizing each of these four keys must be utilized. Otherwise, the titular runner Qwop will fail. In spite of the game's punishing controls, I reached the game's end after only three attempts, although this accomplishment was achieved with Qwop embarrassingly gliding along the track nearing the splits the entire way.

One thing to address is the game's difficulty: is it actually hard? That answer is yes. However, there is reason for that choice beyond designing it so simply for the sake of it, which is that performing an actual 100-meter dash is difficult. If it isn't immediately recognizable, this logic is the actual point to the game, far greater than its comedic tones. More than likely, a player will take several minutes to reach the goal, calculated by seconds. At the playthrough's end, the final numerical value is dropped, meaning that a time of 200 seconds translates to 20 seconds in-game. So, a player's time to finish could very well be a representation of real-world finishing times accomplished by professional athletes. (For perspective, the current real-world record for completing the 100-meter dash is 9.58 seconds, which would approximately be 96 seconds in-game.)

While playing, players may assume that Qwop is ill-fated to race altogether. After all, he moves like a ragdoll and is susceptible to fall in the most painful and non-lifelike ways. But perhaps we, the player, are simply bad puppeteers. This point goes hand-in-hand with the above comment as the player is likely not a professional racer equipped to speedily trek across 100 meters. Most people probably have little to no concept of the skill, form, and training required to perform such a feat in a competitive setting. So, this idea is replicated in a dramatized yet amusing way through QWOP. Whether a new player believes it or not, Qwop can be controlled with the movement of a real-world racer. Races can be accomplished with fluid motion, long strides, and well-timed jumps. But, for many like myself who manage to reach the sand pit at the path's end—or those who reject the game out of sheer frustration after having only moved mere centimeters forward or, even worse, fall backwards to a negative distance—they will instead resort to fumbling their upright body across the dirt as the only means of traversal.

At the game's start screen prior to player action, some brief introduction to what QWOP is may be read alongside the paraphrased closing quote "Remember, it's not about whether you win or lose." Which, to the game's creator Bennett Foddy, implies that it's giving one's best effort that's most important—not finishing the game. In this instance, instead of clumsily dragging Qwop's legs across the racetrack, would it have been better for me as the player to have studied the game's physics and practiced its controls to better execute them, even at the cost of never crossing the 100-meter mark? In how I'm interpreting creator commentary, yes. In organizing my thoughts, I came across a Reddit AMA from long ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g4lsw/by_request_i_made_the_game_qwop_ama/) which Foddy doubles down on this principle. He states that "you are free to [drag yourself along on one knee.] [..] I recommend you try to have some dignity, though" in addition to "if you're going to cheat at a game, why not just close the window and tell everyone you beat it?" Foddy seems to take the stance that games are designed to challenge their players and that failure only strengthens the experience while simultaneously denouncing the act of bypassing such design choices through exploiting any flaw in the game's mechanics.

In the end, whether I finished QWOP with merit or not means little, at least on an individual level. It gave me something to reflect about in detail, which is all that really matters.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 31, 2024, 10:43:58 am
Quote from: undertakerprime on March 28, 2024, 05:59:43 pm
5. Afterimage (PS4)

Holy crap. Took me over 40 hours to get the good ending in this game. Not because it’s difficult (frankly, it’s on the easy side), but because it’s just so HUGE. By far the biggest world of any Metroidvania I’ve played.

Plus, it has 10 (!!!) endings. And to get the one, canon “good” ending, there’s so many steps I never would have figured it out without looking it up.
Anyway, here’s a rundown for the MV enthusiasts out there:

Pros:
- Absolutely GORGEOUS visuals
- HUGE explorable map
- Tight controls
- Fun combat
- Cool variety of weapons, each with their own advantages and special abilities
- A ton of secrets, things to do, and quests to complete
- Music is good, if unmemorable

Cons:
- Map might be TOO big, game takes too long to complete
- English translation is very iffy. Script desperately needs another pass by a native English speaker
- Story is very hard to follow, partly due to the translation issues mentioned above
- Voice acting is hit-or-miss. Some names and terms aren’t pronounced the same way consistently between characters
- Almost NO guidance (some might consider that a good thing, but IMO a map this big necessitates more guidance)
- Some powers and abilities are barely explained, or not explained at all (for example, the ability to heal yourself through prayer, or how to upgrade weapons)

Thanks for this thorough write-up. I have it in my backlog for when it's time for another Metroidvania.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on March 31, 2024, 05:29:48 pm
I'm back from the Louisville Arcade Expo, and this year's might have been one of the best. It doesn't necessarily get better each year, but it consistently provides a good time. Especially post-pandemic era. I was able to sit down and knock out some excellent games when I wasn't marveling/playing the new pinball machines. Games I won't include as "completed" are Tekken 8, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Super Smash Bros., CarnEvil, The House of the Dead 2, Dragon Masters (another Street Fight II clone from the early 90s), Hatsune Miku Project Diva Future Tone, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting.

26. jubeat
Despite only playing this in arcades, I feel like I've gotten much better at it. The music really consume you, which makes tapping the cubes much easier than other music and rhythm games. This is also the most efficient music game; it doesn't take up too much space so I'm trying to rationalize having one in the house. ...half-joking.

27. Dance Dance Revolution Xtreme
I mean, if there's DDR, then you know good and goddamn well that ya boy is going to dance his ass off. I spent a lot of time with this one.  It was a blast, and proof that muscle memory is indeed a thing. As per usual, 1998 was the song I played the most. It's my favorite DDR song of all time. My DDR tattoo was admired during the process.

28. The Maze of the Kings
This one of the new games I played. It was first released in 2002 but didn't hear of it until now. It's a first person rail shooter that has a rogue-like element. So, the stages you move through and the enemies within are randomized. The gun is shaped like an Anubis head. The early aughts graphics were STRONG in this one, and the game was better for it. I love it when I encounter new things from yesteryear. But, this especially applies to one of my favorite eras of gaming.

29. Invasion - The Abductors
Just like The Maze of the Kings, this is another first person rail shooter I never heard of until now. And just like the above, it was released during that special period of gaming (1999) where 3D was the new big to-do. I went in with the lowest of expectations, but had such a good time that I ended up finishing it. There was a surprising amount of sleekness and polish to it that made it stand out from other games around the time like House of the Dead or CarnEvil. I would definitely sink quarters into this if I saw it outside of a free-to-play arcade.

30. Chunithm
It's like Guitar Hero, but with piano keys and a massive selection of J-Pop. Yet another game I never heard of. I think. There's a chance I played this last year but I've slept since then. This one was intense. The keys range in sizes, so the more difficult songs have smaller keys. There's also holding the keys, removing them at the right time, moving them across the keyboard, and elevating your hands at just the right angle. The music is intense and upbeat, and the way it all comes together with the keyboard is a musical masterpiece. Yet another one I hope to see outside a convention and in an arcade.

31. Rock Band
Normally, I wouldn't count Rock Band "completed" for something like this. But, I played A TON of this. Usually, I took vocals and would "sing" (see what I did there) while others played the instruments. It was a blast because it allowed me to meet and connect with other con-goers. Games and music are two things that tend to bring people from all walks of life together. Rock Band combines them in a solid way.

32. Music Gun Gun 2
I'm saving the best for last. Another game I never heard of until now. A shooting/rhythm game in all the best ways possible. Colorful graphics. A ton of music. Easy to pick up gameplay that is, naturally, close to impossible to master. Two-player options. Etc. In terms of gaming at the expo, this was the highlight. My favorite song to play was Cruel Angel's Thesis. All of the games above are fun, but this one is the one that would warrant a drive across state lines to play it. I hope to play this again in the near future, and I really hope this game comes back next year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on April 01, 2024, 10:11:55 am
Game 6 - Doom 1993 (PS4) - 13 Hours

I can finally say that I've finished the original Doom, a game that is obviously a cultural and technological touchstone for video games as a whole. My experience with this flavor of FPS is admittedly a little weak. The closest contemporaries I've finished to Doom are Half-Life and Perfect Dark, so I don't have a lot of the contextual knowledge about this game when it came out, nor have I played Doom's immediate successors like Quake, Hexen, Duke Nukem, or Unreal Tournament, nor its predecessor Wolfenstein. I will say that it's a total blast to play, and it's easy to see why this game made such an impact at the time. I would say the game still holds up in many respects. The gameplay is fast and responsive, the hit detection, while biased, favors the fast-paced action. The levels are challenging with loads of secrets to uncover, and the weapons are all satisfying to use. The game's art style is really cool, and at times creepy and suspenseful. I really liked the challenge the game offers. When you die, you lose all your weapons, but you have unlimited lives and it's pretty easy to find all of the weapons you lost in each level.

There are some elements that felt outdated. Several levels were quite labyrinthian which led to long stretches where I didn't know where to go, effectively killing the pacing. In addition, some of the latter levels require running over platforms which made me wish that I had a jump button. Lastly, I was very disappointed with the overall score past the first episode (Knee Deep in the Dead). That episode has incredible music which is always highlighted in any retrospective review of the game. However, the other episodes rely mostly on atmospheric subdued tracks which just aren't as interesting. I wanted it to be rocking the whole way through.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on April 02, 2024, 10:36:21 am
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Quote from: Legend
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.

50. Arietta of Spirits (PC)
Another backlog group game.  This game is Zelda-like but much smaller scale, less items to deal with, and a very child friendly story.  A lovely game to be able to play in front of my son because the story and everything is fine enough for him... that said, I don't think I played it in front of him for very long.  All in all, a really good zelda like game, I don't think the game really had any puzzles, so mostly just exploration and combat with some quick boss fights here and there.  Unfortunately the game has a difficulty based achievement that you can't even get on your first playthrough because you have to unlock the difficulty mode, so this isn't a game that I'll 100% complete, but did literally everything else.  Won't ever be a fan of difficulty based achievements.  Story is quite good, interesting characters and plot, though the ending was a bit of a letdown and vaguely hints at a sequel.
Rating: Soft recommendation

51. Beacon Pines (PC)
Another backlog group game.  Unfortunately these backlog groups are PC only so I'm really skipping out on my console gaming time... still sitting on FF7R2 for months.  Anyway, I thought for a fraction of a second about playing this in front of my kid, but just knew there was no way this game wasn't going to have inappropriate situations and language... and I wasn't wrong.  Not a fan of the art style... especially the furry vibes it gives, nothing personal, just not my bag art style wise.  Anyway that aside, the game is actually quite great, fantastic story telling, fantastic gameplay mechanics and play loop.  I'll just say that I have some major spoiler related issues with the ending.  I try to do spoiler free reviews and comments here and SMF here on VGC doesn't support spoiler statements so I can't even black out my spoilers easily... though I really do want to rant about this game.  Suffice it to say while the ending isn't awful, I was unhappy with the ending... I felt it could have resolved some things it chose not to resolve.  The game very much did give Night in the Woods vibes so I'm going to really try to get my wife to play through the game at some point so at least I have someone to talk to about this game's ending.
Rating: Soft recommendation

52. 100 Hidden snails 2 (PC)
Another Playtracker backlog dungeon roll.  Just another find the hidden animal game, really nothing to say about it, short game can be beat in 10 minutes, but still enjoyable.
Rating: Soft pass

53. Dave the Diver (PC)
Another backlog group game, the only game in the very long category.  What a wonderful game though, I don't want to say I slept on it or whatever, but I think I only added it to my wishlist because it seemed so popular and then a duder gifted it to me.  This game has so much great stuff going for it, but I feel like my feelings towards the gameplay loop of this game boils down to the same thoughts I have about Moonlighter.  You do the roguelike gameplay loop for supplies and then you go run your shop between runs.  Sure mechanics, goals, etc. are different, but it boils down to the same concept... which is actually enjoyable and refreshing.  The free Dredge and Godzilla content are also really good and worth grabbing and playing.  The game has tons of content and there are more things to do in the game than required so even once you beat it and 100% the achievements you could really keep going because there is just so much content in the game.
Rating: Solid recommendation

54. Loading Screen simulator (PC)
I think this was a backlog dungeon game, game seemed quick enough so I plowed through it... it's awful and definitely not worth the time.  It's a clicker game, but you can speed up everything by just tabbing and holding the enter key... thankfully.
Rating: Hard pass

55. Hell Pie (PC)
Another backlog group game.  3D platformer collectathon... but definitely not child friendly.  Really graphic for being cartoony and kind of vulgar and whatnot.  All in all though, a really solid collectathon game, my main complaint would be the pacing is kind of awful for some stuff.  You can easily get more skill points than you can use, especially if going for all of the achievements, so the game could've paced the skill tree or added more skills and one of the achievements required you to get so much more money than what would naturally come your way, so I wound up grinding for 2 hours after beating the game and doing everything... easily rectified by making some outfits cheaper so you don't need to grind an additional 20-30k monies.  Like I said though, the game play loop is pretty solid, though the art style, humor, and concepts don't really click well with me personally, but I'm not into gore and whatnot.
Rating: Soft recommendation

56. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux (PC)
Another backlog group game.  Originally this was supposed to be the reboot but I had it swapped because I really wanted to play through the original first.  Anyway, plays a ton like old Duke Nukem/Doom games, duh doy.  Glitchy at moments, annoying controls and whatnot.  Super fucking racist and such, but that's how the game was I guess?  Not sure it's a game worth playing, but honestly I kind of expect the reboot to be just as offensive.  Really seems like these types of devs almost go out of their way to be awful.  Can't think of specific examples, but the controversies crop up now and then.
Rating: Soft pass

57. Evoland (PC)
Man have I been interested in these games since they first came out but just never got around to playing them... well backlog group picked the collection for me so I played through both games.  This one is much shorter, presumably an extended game jam experience, still a good game, but real short at like 4 hours to 100% complete.  The concepts it explores is great and nothing sticks around too long because the game is so short.  Very much not a full experience, so I'm glad they bundled both in one collection.  I feel like the story was also non-existent in this one.  Definitely recommend giving this a go before Evoland 2, no direct connection or anything, just I feel like it really helps put you in the right headset for Evoland 2.
Rating: Soft recommendation

58. Evoland 2 (PC)
This one however, is a full fledged experience, fully fleshed out, tons of content to explore and really gives you a full game experience.  It does a lot of the same stuff from the first game, but better designed as best I can put it.  Definitely gives me Dragon Quest vibes, I don't know if for any good reason, but I'd definitely say it's a game to be enjoyed by fans of Dragon Quest/Chrono Trigger (I understand they are the same art style, but that's not what I'm getting at, just really enjoyable classic JRPG games)  Game had some frustrating moments and confusing paths and stuff, but all in all a really enjoyable experience well worth playing.
Rating: Solid recommendation

59. 100 Asian cats (PC)
Another backlog dungeon game, but not the same dev as the 100 hidden games, plays well enough, no real issues there, but definitely not the same quality as the 100 hidden games.
Rating: Hard pass

60. Looking for Aliens (PC)
Originally a game I won in a giveaway with the condition of playing the game and earning a few achievements, but then it matched criteria for a backlog group, so I decided I'd finish the game... plus I think I might have rolled it in backlog dungeon.  I couldn't be arsed to follow the story after a while and just skipped the level cutscenes.  Like a lot of these hidden object games, I have the problem that the idea is novel, but without a guide you're just going to spend so much time staring at the screen trying to figure out stuff that the experience becomes painful.  Smaller levels are great, but when you get into the real big levels it's just an exercise in futility.  Great game with great hiding places and such, but I know I relied on a guide for lots of stuff because it just got real bad with the real big levels.
Rating: Soft pass

61. Alpaca Stacka (PC)
This one fit a backlog group's criteria and I knew I couldn't use it for other backlog groups because it is so short, and I think it might be a profile limited game so can't get it in backlog dungeon either, so it worked out.  Real small game, maybe 10 minutes long, just run around a small island and collect... birds?... and bring them back to their mom.  Real quick and easy game, but it is free, so hard to complain.  It's novel to check out, but won't really enrich your life having played it... so I don't know... I guess I have to go with Soft pass on it despite it not being bad, it's free and short.
Rating: Soft pass

62. Arena Renovation (PC)
Another backlog dungeon game, I had started this game a while back... not sure if I had a reason other than to play a simulator game... game starts out slow and can be a bit painful, but once you get some of the upgrades unlocked you can just churn through the game relatively fast... that said some of the later stadiums are ridiculously huge.  Some of the tools don't work great... looking at you power washer tool, and some of the game's design seems to be for the purpose of making the game take longer which isn't cool... and then frustratingly stuff doesn't pay well enough at all and some of the achievements require too much grinding, so much so that I gave up and said it wasn't worth my time to aim for the 100%.  I might go back to it, especially if they patch it and make it less awful to get the last few, but for now, can't be bothered.
Rating: Soft pass

63. Emily is Away (PC)
Oh man, this game is kind of the reason I decided to pop on here to get back to writing up blurbs about my experiences.  I think I rolled this game in dungeon and played it, really short, maybe an hour or so, choices don't really seem to change anything and you always get a not great ending, but that's life sometimes right?  Anyway, the game made me think about my early 00s years of talking with friends on IM... I think specifically it made me think of two girls I used to talk to quite a bit in high school, coincidentally they both have the same name (not emily).  And anyway, I was in a situation where my Micro SD card in my phone was dying so I finally started transferring to a newer bigger card and realized I couldn't find some music I've been wanting so I dug out old hard drives and found my old HDD backups which had my trillian data on it which contains logs of like every conversation I ever had on IM from like 2005-2009... I should've had some logs from college too, but I know I swapped computers, reformatted drives, I might not have backed up stuff at some point... anyway, having already been thinking about this stuff I started reading through old logs from these girls, really putting me in a fucked up nostalgia mindset and stuff.  Obviously I had feelings for these two girls, but like I said put me in a weird spiral.  One girl was murdered by her husband when she decided to leave him, this was almost 10 years ago, devastating stuff, can't imagine what their kids went and go through on the daily because of that.  She was a dear friend and I always loved her.  The other girl, we had a conversation post high school about how we had a crush on each other in high school (this was probably 2010 or so because I don't have that log) but timing just didn't work out because she had a boyfriend in highschool (who dumped her at graduation because he wanted to play the field) and by the time this conversation happened I was in a long term relationship and we were going to different colleges in different cities, so like obviously nothing was going to come of that.  But I think that probably was around the time I stopped using Trillian and IM and just completely lost contact with her.  Did what I feel is the creepy thing, and tried to look her up, relatively common name, but I remembered what she was going to college for and just added that career field to the search, 1st result.  No social media or anything, but living life you know, it's good knowing a friend you lost contact with followed through with their plans and made their way through life.  It's a weird feeling yearning to reconnect and catch up, but like for no reason other than like nostalgia... which made me think about other friends from high school that I lost contact with and makes me want to reach out and see what's up and how things are, but like how do you start up those conversations without the awkwardness in general, but the potential for "Oh hey, let's hang out" or something.  I care, I do, but I am also aware of life and I certainly don't think I'd have time to meet with people and reconnect and can't imagine other people have the time either... makes me regret a little bit just not keeping up with people in general.  It's crazy how a game can make you feel... because fuck this game messed me up... presumably unintentionally.
Rating: soft pass

64. Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island (PC)
Decided to join another backlog activity thing, but this one dedicated solely to games released in humble bundles monthly/choice offerings.  Picked this one first because it was short and I've been interested.  It's such a dorky and wholesome game, super short at like an hour long, so again doesn't fit other groups, but works for this.  Honestly, I'm glad the console release is a collection of all of the games so far, because this one game is too short, but all 3 together makes for a more acceptable price point.  I almost wish I had played the game in front of my kid, though I doubt he would've cared.
Rating: soft recommendation.

65. Emily is Away Too (PC)
Okay now this is the game that really had me sit down and start writing.  This game hit me so hard, it's got so many different endings and your choices really do matter, but unlike the first game, there are actually good endings to be had and stuff.  That said this game hit me so fucking hard while I was already fucked up from my nostalgia driven spiral, thinking about shit that never was and could've been and whatnot.  I managed to play and get such a fucking satisfying ending, but just really fucked me up even more.  To kind of piggy back off the last one, nothing really doing about how I feel, I don't have much regrets, but knowing the stuff I know now, and even not knowing what I know now, looking back at logs, it was obvious these girls were interested in me, but my total lack of like internal self-esteem had me being like there's no way they are interested, so like just be a good friend, so it definitely puts me in the spiral of what could've been.  Really trying not to dwell but this game made it harder... and I still need to play the third game in the series.  It's nice to day dream, but it's like not productive.
Rating: soft recommendation, much better than the first game.

66. PowerWash Simulator (XS)
A game I keep coming back to when I've got not much better to do.  I like the added free content, I hate that only paid content gets achievements.  I hate that the paid content has achievements, ruins my 100% and I have no interest in buying DLC for a game I don't own.  Ran through the early content updates and the Tomb Raider DLC and started up the FF7 DLC.  Tomb Raider DLC was interesting, a little weird that there was a button for something in a level but I couldn't figure out what the button did.  Also weird that FF7 acknowledges the elevator in Seventh Heaven, but you can't actually activate it and clean below... would've been neat.
Rating: soft recommendation See 52 Game Challenge 2022 for more notes (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193710.html#msg193710)

67. Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (PC)
Played this one shortly after the previous one, long time ago at this point lol. Another walk around and collect items and talk to people.  Honestly a really chill experience, really enjoy these games and look forward to the 3rd entry hitting a bundle or humble choice so I can play it.  Game is real short, was on game pass, is no longer, is cheap, and can be gotten for cheap in bundles.  I will say you probably won't enjoy it if you don't enjoy the humor the game presents, but I enjoy the humor.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

68. A Juggler's Tale (PC)
I don't remember why I played this game, I really don't, it ticked a box for sure, just don't remember what box I was ticking at the time.  Fairly simple side scrolling platformer game.  Story is alright, don't really remember much of it to be honest.  Gave me Little nightmares vibes but less creepy for sure.  The puppet strings make for an interesting puzzle mechanic and spoilers towards the end make the game a bit more interesting.  Game is short, quick 100% at under 3 hours, but definitely felt longer if you get what I mean.  Not exactly my type of game, but was a well enough experience.
Rating: Soft pass.

69. Loddlenaut (PC)
I am realizing while yes I played a lot of PC games this year, they were mostly driven by ticking boxes.  Meeting requirements in various giveaway groups and whatnot.  Glad to be playing the games, no regrets, but it is definitely driving and steering what I'm playing.  I really like collectathon games and I expected an underwater game to be awful, as they usually are, but this game was a breath of fresh air.  The only complaint I can think of was the few achievements that required you to breed very specific things that were time consuming, but like in the end that's what achievements are about, doing the things.  Relatively chill cozy clean up collectathon type of game, really enjoyable experience.
Rating: Soft recommendation

70. 198X (PC)
The concept interested me of a game that has you playing various arcade games, but at this point this concept has been played to death among the various releases of the concept.  This one infuriated me with its lack of QoL features and awful achievements.  I think it glitched more than once and I didn't enjoy most of the games.  Again, the concept is great, but the execution is absolutely awful.  Game also could've used a bit more in the "story" outside of the arcade games.  All in all, not really worth the time to play.
Rating: Hard pass

71. 100 hidden eternals (PC)
Another 100 hidden game, really not much to say other than it's a quick 10 minute game looking for little people hiding about.
Rating: Soft pass

72. 100 hidden cats 2 (PC)
I tend to play these when Playtracker rolls them for me in backlog dungeon, and I happened to roll them back to back apparently.  Just another 100 hidden game where you look for cats.  Really simple, really quick.
Rating: Soft pass

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Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 04, 2024, 09:22:19 am
33. Unicorn Overlord

I'm calling it right here, right now. This is my game of the year. I realize that Emerald SaGa and the next Mana are coming up, but this was gaming excellence in every sense. It combined the best of so many classics, poured over new features, had such a memorable cast despite its massive size, and looked/sounded beautiful from start to end. Vanilla Ware really stepped up with this one. I'm stoked to get a review going so I can continue to gush about it. It's officially made my top ten - something I never expected a modern game to do.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on April 05, 2024, 09:28:25 am
Game 7 - Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - 53 Hours

Final game stats
Time spent exercising: 25 hours
Calories burned: 9663
Miles run: 49
Ring presses: 12432

I first started this game as part of an exercise routine in February of 2021, meaning this has probably been the longest time it's taken for me to finish a single player campaign. There were a couple reasons for this. The first is that when I started playing, I lived on the ground floor of an apartment and was free to jump, move around, and run in place as I saw fit. Since then I've been in a couple much older houses with basements and old wood floors. I'm an average size person, but I just didn't feel comfortable jumping on our floors for extended periods of time like that.

So, I tried playing the game in silent mode, which was downright awful. Instead of running in place, you have to do squats to move your character forward. It was like... tripling the effort required for maybe half as much actual progress. So I then played in undocked mode for the remaining time in my basement, which was also not a great experience. The screen is so tiny that you can't see any objects in the levels and you have to squat down and squint at the screen to see any of the text. So my own personal play environment definitely was part of the reason why it took so long to finish. I also had consistent issues with the leg strap not registering certain exercises like high knee lifts, wide squats, mountain climbers, leg lifts and other exercises. Maybe it was my height, I'm not sure.

The other factor was that the game kind of runs out of ideas after approximately 30 hours of gameplay. The game just makes the existing exercies/courses longer in duration as a way to increase the challenge. All in all, it got very repetitive after that 30 hour mark, and I didn't really feel motivated to keep playing. I would rather use our exercise bike or go outside. I also did every single stage on each level and set the game to finish all exercise sets even if enemies are defeated partway through, which increased the time it took to finish the game.

So all that being said, you might think that I was down on this game, but I actually think it's a lot of fun and a great way to get some routine exercise. It has just the right amount of story and mechanics built around the idea of exercise that come together nicely. I think using the ring-con was a lot of fun, and there are lots of different exercises that you can try out until you find the routine that works for you, along with a fun collection of minigames. The graphics and music are also very pleasant, leading to an overall enjoyable experience, the issues I mentioned notwithstanding. I will probably come back to do a new game plus with this game at some point, but for now I think I'm going to try one of the fitness boxing games on the Switch because I've really enjoyed exercising with video games and I want to keep that going.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on April 05, 2024, 10:14:04 am
Quote from: telly on April 05, 2024, 09:28:25 am
Game 7 - Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - 53 Hours

The other factor was that the game kind of runs out of ideas after approximately 30 hours of gameplay. The game just makes the existing exercies/courses longer in duration as a way to increase the challenge.

I agree with this opinion, but I also believe that the same can be said of any exercise routine. After a certain point, you simply go through the motions which isn't very exciting in itself, slowing adding more reps and sets as muscle is built. Easily, the game's biggest motivators for continued play is the inclusion of titles to earn alongside being able to compare your personal data with friends' data, with the former being the main reason I played the game for a lengthy amount of time (without checking, I think somewhere between 120-150 hours.) The game also offers a rhythm mode and maybe even other types of alternative forms of exercise, but I never did explore those options.

It's doubtful that I'll ever go back to Ring Fit Adventure since I was playing during the height of the pandemic while staying indoors. Maybe one day, though.

If I'm remembering correctly, my least favorite exercises were overhead presses (specifically when being tasked to perform them in quick succession) and seated forward presses. Meanwhile, my favorite exercises were planks and mountain climbers. These two, to me, felt most substantial toward actually feeling active. Did you have any particular exercises you enjoyed or disliked?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on April 05, 2024, 10:24:12 am
Quote from: dhaabi on April 05, 2024, 10:14:04 am
I agree with this opinion, but I also believe that the same can be said of any exercise routine. After a certain point, you simply go through the motions which isn't very exciting in itself, slowing adding more reps and sets as muscle is built. Easily, the game's biggest motivators for continued play is the inclusion of titles to earn alongside being able to compare your personal data with friends' data, with the former being the main reason I played the game for a lengthy amount of time (without checking, I think somewhere between 120-150 hours.) The game also offers a rhythm mode and maybe even other types of alternative forms of exercise, but I never did explore those options.

It's doubtful that I'll ever go back to Ring Fit Adventure since I was playing during the height of the pandemic while staying indoors. Maybe one day, though.

If I'm remembering correctly, my least favorite exercises were overhead presses (specifically when being tasked to perform them in quick succession) and seated forward presses. Meanwhile, my favorite exercises were planks and mountain climbers. These two, to me, felt most substantial toward actually feeling active. Did you have any particular exercises you enjoyed or disliked?

I adopted a mixture of some intense and some lighter workouts throughout my time playing. I don't have any particular favorites, I was mostly looking at damage/types/number of targets. but the ones that I did frequently were thigh press, leg raise, mountain climbers, thigh twist, bow pull, ring raise combo, and squats (not wide squat/overhead squat because those never worked for me). I liked the yoga poses too.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 08, 2024, 10:00:48 am
I got about three to four hours in the demo for SaGa Emerald Beyond. Maybe less. Like any game, even one in my favorite series, I kept my expectations low. But, yikes. This was not a good demo. If it's indicative of what's to come then I'm bummed.

I played on Switch, so I was forced to select Ameya. The overall controls and schematics were clunky. Inputting selections for menus had delays whether docked or handheld. For those that play on other consoles it might be different. Exploration was fine. Combat? Not so much. Either I missed something during the influx of tutorials, or combat is truly that random. Basically, both sides might act twice, or interrupt one another, or do other bizarre things that didn't make a lick of sense.

Finally, the game was ugly. At least Scarlet Grace had some polish.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 12, 2024, 09:34:02 pm
34. Star Ocean: The Second Story R - Rena

Rena's journey is finished. The final party was Claude, Ashton, Dias and Precis. I got the Rena x Precis ending, which was kind of dull given Precis' usual chipper attitude. I did a fair amount of scene skipping since a lot of the narrative is old-hat, and since I like Claude more than Rena. But, this was still a fun file in an already fun game. So, with the platinum trophy acquired, now what? I know for a fact that there will come a time when I get that urge to do yet another replay. This game has that kind of staying power and draw. The QoL features added make it so much easier and accessible to jump into a replay, too. A new game with Claude where I can have both Noel and Chisato in the group is next on my list. But, that won't be for a while.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 15, 2024, 09:15:22 am
35. Samba de Amigo: Party Central

After clearing all songs on Normal, a few on Hard and Very Hard, and doing some of the stuff on Streamigo, I figure that I can count this as finished. I remember seeing the original game once at an anime convention years ago during the Dreamcast's heyday. It looked fun, but other games looked more fun so I didn't bother waiting in line to try it. So, this was my first time experiencing anything related to the world of Samba de Amigo. Like any motion-based rhythm game, this one has the usual good and bad. The good is the great selection of music (some of the tunes made it onto my gym playlist), a ton of ways to customize your amigo, and just an overall "fun" feeling when you vibe to the music. The bad is that things can get really distracting and the Wii-like motion controls. That last part is why I preferred to play with a controller. It didn't have that same maraca-feeling, but at least the timing was more precise. Both controller and joy-con have their issues, but it doesn't stop the overall package from being fun. I recommend it to music fans those looking to kill some time with a friend or by themself.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on April 15, 2024, 02:03:06 pm
18. Nanaca Crash!! || Browser || 04.08.24

(https://i.imgur.com/Wu7IhiH.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/gElfkRY.jpeg)

While browsing through game titles for 3DS, I just so happened to be reminded of the browser game Nanaca Crash!! that I was introduced to nearly twenty years ago. Knowing its arcade-like qualities, I decided to revisit it.

Throughout the game, you play as the unsuspecting victim of a bike crash named Taichi. Instead of merely falling to the ground, he's instead hilariously projected into the skies, dozens of meters high above everything else. Along the horizontal path he flies across, Taichi's accident worsens as passerby continue the barrage of physical encounters, therefore prolonging Taichi's safe landing. With each kick and punch Taichi is dealt, the velocity dramatically increases and is maintained by continued pummels.

In the screen's corner, a box shows which NPCs offer Special attacks that rely on speedy player reaction to initiate. To be expected, they're each with their own unique animations which add another element of fun to the game's premise and notably more powerful than basic attacks. As Taichi speeds along past everyone in a randomized loop, Special encounters blink on and off, so timing is involved which players can manipulate to a degree.. Interestingly, only the women NPCs are a threat to Taichi; while the men act as an obstacle too, they instead will either slow down or sharply alter Taichi's angle of movement. However, one woman NPC is worth noting, as she will grasp Taichi during encounters, thus saving him from his prolonged disaster. Ordinarily, this is the sequence, but the same NPC also deals the most powerful attack once encountered when their Special move is active.

Despite what it may seem, there is a strategic element to the game's arcade-style gameplay. Alongside the game's introduce which begins with the player controlling the initial crash's velocity, two types of bike crashes may be summoned at any point—even in mid-air—which grants greater success to a longer run. Obviously, these summons are integral to prolonging each game, as players can manipulate whether Taichi slows down to a complete halt once their velocity has dwindled or instead choosing to avoid or encounter certain NPCs.

Even though there isn't a lot of depth to Nanaca Crash!!, I've always considered it to be a fun game for its ridiculous premise alone. I'm sure that, as the years go on, it'll be a game I return to after being randomly reminded of it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on April 18, 2024, 01:30:59 am
13 - Grounded (PC 2022) - BEAT - Been a few since I beat something, FF7 is on hold at the moment, but had a real mood to jump back into this game after seeing it's possible final update happening, which added a bunch more cool stuff.  I had a save that was most of the way done, but I still put in like 10 hours in the past couple days to beat the game, though I'm gonna beat the Wasp Queen soon so I can do New Game + and experience that new content, but I still love this game.  This is my 2nd or third time beating it, I forget, but it's so good.  I think at this point it's my favorite survival game.  It was this and Subnautica up there, but I just like so much about this game and it's been great to see all the content they've continued to add. 

I hope it gets a sequel someday, I'd love to have something that has you maybe dealing with multiple area types, so not just a backyard, but maybe like a house location too, there's just a lot that can be done with a "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" situation.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on April 19, 2024, 08:25:06 am
Finally beat FF7 Rebirth (PS5). That marks my 3rd game completed this year. I won't go into details of the story, but I enjoyed it and look forward to the third and final entry in the Remake.

I opted to try out Fallout 4 which thankfully was a PS Plus title last year that I had claimed. I'm also playing Helldivers 2 (can't really beat this can you?), God of War R (PS5) and going to replay RE5 (PS4).
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 20, 2024, 10:09:39 am
I finished The Rising Tide in Final Fantasy XVI. I'm hoping that this is the last DLC. While it was more interesting than Echoes of the Fallen, it was more of the same stuff that the game has become infamous for. New Eikon skills and abilities were appreciated, and the story about Leviathan was done very well. Mysidia was absolutely gorgeous and the new tracks hit. Sadly, the second group of abilities you get are too little, too late because by the time you get them, the entire game will have already be completed by people like myself that started the game on day one. Ultimately, there was nothing transformative about this DLC. Once again, most of the time is spent in combat fighting enemies with inflated HP. The party AI seemed a bit more helpful this time around but it's really hard to say since Clive is constantly having to dodge and counter, giving little time to see what's going on around him. And then, there's the final battle against Leviathan. Eikon battles were already problematic, but this one just amplified it turning FFXVI into a full-on third-person shooter. Even if you disregard the time limit midway through the fight, all of the nonsense and cinematography going on turned the game into a button mashing snooze fest.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 21, 2024, 08:28:29 am
36. Klonoa: Empire of Dreams

Another week of meetings and demos where I don't have to do too much means more time to get into some portable fun. I did a replay of one of my favorite characters: Klonoa. Empire of Dreams on the Game Boy Advance is definitely one of the easier titles in terms of action games, but Klonoa is so damn cute that it doesn't matter. Some of the stages are more challenging due to their puzzle-like layout than the enemies. It was fun to revisit this.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on April 21, 2024, 09:33:02 am
5. Princess Peach: Showtime! [Switch]

Fifth game down. What can I say? I like cutesy girly stuff. I know reviewing this game is always gonna sound a little petty because it's so clearly aimed at little kids, but I'll still try to give my two cents. I thought it was decent. It was cute, some of the gameplay styles were fun enough. But I wouldn't call it amazing. I mainly felt like it could be fairly restrictive sometimes. I'm talking not even letting you jump over a ledge but forcing you to walk down the stairs type stuff. And I know it's a kids game, but kids can handle freedom and control in games. Also, to throw in the classic: it's 2024, where is the voice acting?
Arlo actually did a review of it on YouTube I pretty much entirely agree with. Recommend that one.
I still think it's enjoyable enough, and if you have a kid who loves princess Peach, I think it's worth it on sale. But unless you're a Peach fan yourself, you're not missing much.

So that's 5 games beaten. Not a huge number yet, but to add to that, I've also already read 7 books this year. So I'd say in terms of finishing media in general I'm doing decently!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on April 23, 2024, 11:24:17 am
19. Picross e || Nintendo 3DS || 04.19.24

(https://i.imgur.com/AzADvZL.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/OfU5Dig.jpeg)

As Nintendo's 3DS and Wii U online servers shut down about two weeks ago, the opportunity presented itself for someone to mod my 3DS. Seeing as the systems aren't supported anymore, I decided to take up the offer. While browsing the full catalog of games before me, I eyed the Picross series while realizing it's a line of games I've somehow evaded all these years. Moments later, I began playing Picross e.

Known properly as a nonogram puzzle, picross (short for picture crossword) is a type of logic puzzle that tasks players to fill in a grid based on the outside numbers along the X and Y axes which will, once solved, reveal a picture image. At the game's beginning, difficulty is naturally low with grid size being only 5x5 that accomplishes in teaching the fundamentals of the system. This tutorial section does not last long, though, as the game's difficulty progression feels natural when playing in stage order as players learn and are forced to think in new ways to solve for possibilities. I mention this because, at any point, players are freely able to select any of the game's 150 stages which increase in grid size to 15x15.

When solving individual spaces, players have two options: either to mark it as part of the puzzle or as white space. Of course, determining which action to take is dependent on the information across the X and Y axes which indicates both how many blocks are in a row or column and how many are in a sequence. So, for example, if a row is labeled as 3 1 2, then this translates that, beginning at some point across the row, there is a sequence of three marked spaces, at least one unmarked space, one marked space, at least one unmarked space, and finally two marked spaces. Using the each and every row in conjunction with each and every column is paramount to solving each puzzle, which becomes much easier said than done in later stages. Generally, stages begin slowly as there are a lot of possibilities to remove as they're determined to be impossible, but once a fair amount of information has been revealed, players should be able to advance with definitive choices being made speedily.

Throughout each stage, in-game hint systems are also available which are, in general, small but valuable support elements to both hasten puzzle-solving and aid in challenging moments. With the hint system toggled on, the game indicates which rows and columns provide a logical means for players to deduce the answer with the existing grid information. As more actions are taken, hints for specific rows and columns routinely toggle on and off, allowing for players to seek information somewhere else. However, just because a row or column becomes fully grayed out as sections are completed does not mean they are correct; instead, this means that only a specific row or column has had their puzzle requirements answered (e.g. 3 1 2.) So, should players make a mistake, there will inevitably be a moment (often nearing the puzzle's conclusion) when the realization that an error has been made. During my playthrough, I allowed for the hint system to remain on, although it is automatically toggled off once every five stages.

Continuing through Picross e in its intended stage order while having finished both Easy and Normal sections, I wasn't sure what the game's third section Free exactly meant. Eventually, I realized that there are two different gameplay modes available. In brief, the standard mode faults a player with a time penalty once an incorrect action has been made. Because of this, players will immediately have the correct answer available to them. Meanwhile, Free mode removes this penalty altogether which leaves the player believing each and every action they take is correct, up until the point they realize an error has been made. Initially, I found myself more favorable to Free mode, but some puzzles in this mode became quite challenging. Without that immediate feedback, I often found myself reaching a point in the puzzle's completion where an error (possibly numerous errors) could be anywhere in the grid, meaning I determined it easier to fully restart the stage. On average, I spent about 17-20 minutes for each 15x15 puzzle, so about that much time was lost each and every time time I noticed an error was made. While 15x15 isn't necessarily large as nonogram puzzles can be much larger, I still realized just how much there is to analyze all at once, even though I considered myself to be taking actions with careful consideration.

Apart from the game's puzzle mechanics, the use of a timer encourages replayability, although I was not interested in besting my own scores. Alongside simple record-beating, solved puzzles will degrade from full color to grayscale once the hour threshold has been crossed, so poor puzzle-solving encourages faster playthroughs as well, so as to reveal the picture in color. One other aspect worth mentioning is the game's use of music. Unfortunately, there are only two tracks available, one of which is only used on the main menu screen. So, for numerous hours, only one track accompanies the actual puzzle-solving.

After years of not really knowing what Picross is, I'm glad to have finally completed the first game in the e series, which there are a total of nine. While I'm not wanting to play through these games one after the other, I know I will, at some point, return to play more.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on April 23, 2024, 05:25:45 pm
6. Super Metroid [SNES / Nintendo Switch Online]

Finally finished my first full playthrough of Super Metroid. It almost felt weird I had never played more than the start of this game before, considering I'm a pretty big Metroid fan and I've beaten every other 2D Metroid game that came after it. But the previous times I played it, I could just never get into it. Maybe it's just that me and my tastes and skills have changed over the years that now it did grab me.

I'm sure it won't be a shocker when I say the game is great. There's something so enthralling about exploring these worlds, feeling how Samus grows more powerful throughout her journey, finding new things wherever you go, it's like you're always lost while never being lost at the same time. The spritework and audio in this game is incredible too. It without a doubt deserves the praise it gets and still stands as a fantastic title today.

However, I will say it's not my favourite in the series. Some small parts either haven't aged well or were always kinda meh (I don't know, I'm 25). I found myself fighting with the controls in a couple of scenarios, especially when it came to the Space Jump and ESPECIALLY the wall jump. That move just does not work right and it's pretty maddening. And I know this is a staple of old games, but that doesn't make it go away: there were some points where I did feel the secrets you needed to figure out to progress were downright unfair. One that stuck with me was when you get the X-ray visor to spot invisible passageways, but then later they add other invisible passageways which just don't show up for some reason. How the hell are you supposed to figure that out? So yes, I did need a guide a few times.

Overall though, the game still is fantastic and well worth of the praise it gets. Not my favourite 2D Metroid (Dread is up there, and I need to replay Fusion but I remember loving that), but a fantastic game I'm glad to have finished. And just really glad to have no finished all 2D Metroids (well, except for the NES and Game Boy games, but I've heard even Metroid fans won't judge you for skipping them).
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 27, 2024, 10:33:36 am
37. Soul Hackers 2 - Beyond the Infinite Ending

I had way more fun with this than I thought I would. It was more SMT than Persona, but still had the few tidbits of Persona that I enjoyed. Toss in a futuristic, hyper neon Japan backdrop and a groovy soundtrack, and boom. A solid game that I'll definitely play again for the platinum. My biggest issue is that New Game Plus doesn't carry over the Soul Matrix Levels. That means having to go through each one again while building them up to 200. It's not a major con, but it's what's causing me to take a break from the game instead of jumping right back in. The FF feature will definitely be used to the fullest on that journey. It's weird because nearly everything else seemed to carry over, so why not the Soul Matrix levels? Either way, great game and one I'll get to back later (much later, likely) this year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on April 27, 2024, 09:50:05 pm
25. Red Dead Redemption (PS3)

I completely slept on RDR1 when it first came out, mostly because of its wild west theme which is something I'm generally not too interested in. It wasn't until my wife bought RDR2 that I jumped into the series, and despite my lack of interest in westerns, RDR2 ended up being not only one of the best games I've ever played, but also a game that changed my perspectives on various things. It was one of the few games that had a lasting impact on my personal life, which is something I can say about very few games I've ever played. So of course this reignited my interest in RDR1 despite it being over a decade old by the time I played RDR2. Playing RDR1 kept on getting bumped back over and over again, until recently I was watching several unrelated youtube videos and two different channels made the bold statement that they thought RDR1 was the superior game in many ways. This immediately caught my interest and inspired my enough to finally pick up RDR1 and see if it actually was better than the sequel, or at least just as good.


While RDR1 is a pretty good game, it in no way compared to RDR2 in almost any way. While definitely impressive for a game released in 2010, RDR1 falls short in every possible category you can judge a game by. Visually, the game looks pretty good most of the time, however I wished that the game made better use of its vast open world map and filled it with more interesting events, places, missions, and various other things that turned something like the untamed west into something way more intriguing and engaging.Character models were a mixed back, but mostly good, as were locations like towns and natural land marks. Audio was also a mixed, but mostly good bag; some of the voice acting is top notch, while other characters almost sound like they paid a Rockstar intern to record the lines. Sound effects were great, and the music felt mostly appropriate and certainly helped enhance the experience of whatever it was you're doing. The gameplay was probably the weakest part of RDR1. While it wasn't awful or anything like that, it certainly reminded me more of a PS2 era GTA game, then something closer to GTA5, or hell, even GTA4 which was released before RDR1. It just felt very clunky and lacked a lot of variety and depth I was hoping for; there were way too many missions that were beyond tedious and mundane, or just felt like rehashed versions of missions i'd already completed 2 or 3 times already. Still, with all my gripes, the gameplay certainly worked for the most part creating a pretty good experience overall. The story left a lot to be desired too, especially comparted to how insanely good it was in RDR2. The characters; motives, interactions, and dialogue was pretty good for the most part, but wasn't as fleshed out as it maybe could have been. Again, GTA4 is a great example of how this could have been accomplished, but it just wasn't there like I was hoping. By no means was the story or writing not great, because it was, it just could have been better. I really enjoyed RDR1 overall, but sadly, playing RDR2 first almost ruined this game for me, and that's not even because it's a way older game at this point. I'd still recommend playing it, if for nothing else than a good supplement to the events of RDR2. (4/27/24) [35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on April 28, 2024, 09:01:16 am
Baldur's Gate 3 has finally let me out of it's strangle hold.  Just an utterly phenomenal game that has almost too many options and features.  That coupled with my severe case of completion-itis meant that I was playing this for almost 2 months.  The writing is terrific, and the voice actors really just crush it.  Between this and Divinity: Original Sin 2 I can't think of any RPG series that offers such a complete cornucopia of options.  I'll be marinating in it for a while, and I'm already tempting into making a new character.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on April 29, 2024, 10:59:43 am
38. Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge - Shizumaru

I feel like it's important to take a break from Soul Hackers 2 since I want the platinum but don't want to get too burnt out on things. So, I'm playing shorter games in the interim. Up first is a game from my favorite fighting series: Samurai Shodown. The fourth entry isn't my favorite but it's one of the most polished. I got a game over and a bad ending when I played as Basara, but managed to get through the entire game with my homie Shizumaru. The translation is terribly funny, and I'm still not sure how to do the C+D combo. But, this is a gorgeous 2D fighter that is tight on controls and characters. I definitely recommend it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on April 29, 2024, 11:31:53 pm
26. Breakers Revenge (PS4)

I played the first Breakers game on the Dreamcast after finding out it was a port of a pretty obscure Neo Geo fighting game from the mid 90s. I did find some redeemable qualities while playing Breakers, overall though, it left a very bland taste in my mouth overall and mostly felt like another forgettable off brand 90s tournament fighter that was trying to be Street Fighter 2 or King of Fighters so badly, but fell short. Unfortunately, the same can be said about its sequel, Breakers Revenge. What surprised me most is that Breakers Revenge came out in 1998 despite looking like a game from the early 90s. In fact, I'd say overall it looks worse than the CPS1 version of Street Fighter 2. With that said, the sprites and character animations are still pretty good, however most of the stages are bland, generic, and forgettable. Speaking of bland and generic, these same adjectives can be applied to Breaker's pretty small cast of playable characters too. The audio, while someone pleasing, isn't really that memorable either. Gameplay is decent overall, however some annoying balancing issues and fairly shallow mechanics make this just as generic as the rest of the game. I really was hoping Breakers Revenge would somehow surprise me as a hidden gem on the Neo Geo, but unofortunately it ended up being about what I expected; a justifiably forgotten obscurity from the 1990s tournament fighter craze that most people forgot, and even more people never realized existed at all. (4/29/24) [29/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on May 01, 2024, 11:06:09 am
20. Tappingo 2 || Nintendo 3DS || 04.25.24

(https://i.imgur.com/hBN5NrF.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/9oDgc0N.jpg)

Having played and enjoyed the debut entry around ten years ago, I was curious to see if Tappingo 2 would leave the same kind of positive impression on me. At the same time, I was wanting to know if the gameplay would vary any in this sequel entry or if, instead, it would be more like an expansion to the first game.

In short, Tappingo 2 is a puzzle game which players are tasked to create an image—usually some sort of ordinary item—by moving blocks in a certain order. For each selectable block, a number printed on it indicates how many spaces it needs to expand outward, acting like a tape measure of sorts. Obviously designed for a dual-screen system, the game utilizes the bottom screen for player action whereas the top screen shows the puzzle being solved in real time, which is a small inclusion to help elevate the game beyond its straightforward gameplay. I'll also note here that the game requires precise movements best accomplished with the stylus. I can't imagine successfully progressing through the game without it.

To the game's advantage, gameplay is simple to understand once actually playing through a stage or two. The game's biggest puzzle elements come from blocks requiring to be moved in a specific series of steps. Otherwise, the path of adjacent blocks will either be barred from reaching their intended destination or, oppositely, overreach which disrupts the path of neighboring blocks. Generally working from side to side or corner to corner, I found it generally easy to visualize the steps needed to take for sections of the puzzle, although stage difficulty does increase once puzzle design relies more on color gradients and puzzle size becomes larger. Easily, mistakes can be made resulting in block paths needed to be retracted, which will inevitably cause neighboring chains to alter as well. At this point, the player will be forced to retract numerous blocks to then find another means to complete the puzzle. Fortunately, there isn't any major penalty for making an incorrect move despite the later minor inconvenience of needing to retract a small section of blocks. When a mistake is made, the game's puzzle system efficiently communicates when a certain action is incorrect in real time.

Accompanying the gameplay, stages are also timed to track how quickly puzzles can be solved. I suppose this aspect is a neat novelty which I can see more being utilized to compete with another player more so than besting one's personal records. While the game's stage count of 104 puzzles may sound high, it isn't really. On average, I'd estimate that I completed the first half of stages in 90-120 seconds per puzzle, whereas the second half of stages was around 3-4 minutes.

While offering a degree of fun, Tappingo 2 does become repetitive and a bit tedious given how many stages there are with little variety. One may assume that puzzle artwork matters little, but it's more than one would think. For instance, there are a total of about ten puzzles which the layout is a circle, resulting in the same types of block patterns to solve. In my observations, puzzles with unique layouts require different manners of thinking for specific sections. Additionally, the gameplay never evolves past what was introduced in the debut entry, and there is only one game mode. Only the most basic of features are offered, such as pause and restart. Something else worth mentioning is the lack of music. Across 104 stages, only four or five tracks exist. I suppose this is a suitable amount for a low-budget game, but tracks can't be individually selected. Instead, the only way to cycle through them is to reset the stage.

Compared to other logic puzzle games, Tappingo 2 is much more casual with its easy-to-pick-up qualities. Instead of forcing players to think critically, it feels more like a means to relax, although some degree of focused thought is obviously required to progress. If I'm being honest, I remember enjoying the debut entry much more than the sequel.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on May 02, 2024, 08:25:50 am
39. R-Type Final

I finished this game on the easiest setting appropriately named Baby. I'm not a shmup person in the slightest, but as always, I think it's important to get out of your comfort zone and play something different. Also, it further helped cleanse the palette before getting into my second file of Soul Hackers 2. I had no idea that R-Type had such a long history starting all the way back in 1987. At some point, I'd like learn more about the series. In terms of this one on the PlayStation 2, it was a lot of fun despite my lack of skill. There was a ton of variety in terms of ships, enemies, levels, weapons, and secrets. Outside of some slowdown the game still looked and played smoothly. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on May 02, 2024, 07:11:48 pm
21. Don't Look Back || Browser || 05.01.24

(https://i.imgur.com/yNdDJsj.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/oegM4b4.jpeg)

Wanting to play more games like Passage (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205160.html#msg205160), I soon became introduced to Don't Look Back. I don't think I knew about Don't Look Back until this point, but I am familiar with its creator, Terry Cavanagh, so I had certain expectations prior to playing given Cavanagh's development history. To many, Don't Look Back is also recognized as an art game.

As a game of about 20-30 minutes in length, Don't Look Back succeeds as a narrative-driven action-plaformer, albeit one omitting dialogue. At its core, the game is built with a room-based level design emphasizing a touch of difficulty, although such difficulty ultimately isn't too concerning as failing results in an immediate retry with no progress lost. Still, despite the consequences being minimal, the game introduces an appropriate amount of challenge. Moving room to room, players will likely be taken by surprise each time some new type of obstacle to overcome or avoid appears. In these moments, the game necessitates quick reaction and tight movements. For many if not all of these encounters, player action beyond running is not a requirement, as enemies may be avoided through successful, well-timed platforming. However, I'm not sure if there is any incentive to adopt such play style. Nevertheless, some rooms seemed intentionally designed for the player to avoid danger instead of vanquishing it.

Regarding narrative, it concerns death, the loss of a loved one, and the inability to accept the situation. In fact everything about Don't Look Back alludes to the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. With that understanding, it's important to mention that, throughout the game's first half, the player is permitted to look back behind them and even backtrack to previous rooms. But, until a room's enemies are defeated, they will all continue to respawn. That said, the player is not only discouraged from looking back in the second half but also unable to, as an immediate fail state occurs. Fortunately, only platforming sequences are present during this shift.

By the game's mid-point, I imagine that most players will assume how the game concludes, or at least have a faint idea, and especially so if they're aware of the source material being referenced. I certainly had my expectations, anyway. However, when I reached the game's conclusion, it felt as if the game had subverted that expectation to take on another layer of meaning. While the ending written is an interesting twist, it unfortunately doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation. Although, perhaps that level of thought isn't necessary, as the end development is enough of a revelation on its own.

Apart from gameplay and narrative, the game's presentation utilizes a minimal art style employing large pixels, empty environments, and a selective color palette of four colors. While graphics are paired with a single looping track, the music actually doesn't grow tiresome and complements the game's other elements.

In the end, Don't Look Back offers a demanding experience which doesn't overstay its welcome. Like how other games of its kind are created to evoke a certain feeling or thought, Don't Look Back also achieves this, and rather abruptly too. Here, the finality presented offers only a moment to analyze in the context of the events before it, whereas other games often force the player to think critically throughout most of the events and action. However, this isn't necessarily a critique, as there is still a fair amount to deconstruct. Also, whether one's read any of the translations and interpretations of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice matters little, although I think being aware of the tale prior to playing will enhance the adventure.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on May 02, 2024, 11:18:01 pm
27. Mega Man X2 (PS4)

I've decided to branch out beyond the Mega Man X games I grew up with and played around the time they first came out. Aside from X on the SNES, I never played X2 or X3; I returned to the series for X4, but was so underwhelmed by X5 that I would drop the series once again. I need to replay X4 and X5 since it's been probably around 2 decades since i last played them, but for now X is my baseline for all the sequels that would follow.


X2 is a pretty good game for the most part, however I found it inferior to the original X in neraly every way. Mostly everything is slightly worse, but that's not to say X2 isn't a good time, because it is...mostly. The level design, the boss design and mechanics, as well as the power ups you receive by beating them just feel under developed and at times even poorly designed. I also found Mega Man's upgrades like the heart and health containers to be a lot more obscure and difficult to obtain for the most part. I thought the inclusion of the X Hunters was pretty cool, but I still prefer how you obtain Mega Man's suit upgrades more in X. The audio in X2 is pretty awesome, and while I disagree that it's as good as X's, it's still pretty rockin and one of the better ones I've heard on the SNES, which is saying quite a bit. While I certainly don't like X2 as much as X, it was still worthwhile to finally play it, and I'm curious to see how it stacks up against the later titles in the X series, especially X3 which seems to be the game that fights for X2 for second place when it comes to the best Mega Man X game on the SNES lol. (5/2/24) [33/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on May 03, 2024, 09:28:10 am
Game 8 - 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) - 17 Hours

I found this game to be a very charming experience. It's a simple classic take on a Zelda-style adventure game but with some modern ideas under the hood. The most striking is the 3D pixel look which is very unique visually, even though it felt more like a gimmick to me. I think where this game really stands out is your 3D sword that you can suspend in midair and increase it's length and width to cover more of the screen. It's honestly really interesting to use and separates the gameplay from Zelda just a touch.

Other than that, it's essentially the same. You do have an expansive world to explore with plenty of secrets and side quests to indulge in. There's also a huge collection of minigames to try out and they're actually pretty fun! I think the dungeons were kind of tedious and a little boring though. The game doesn't really throw much at you that's super interesting. There's also very little puzzle solving - everything is either communicated directly to you by your fairy friend or you have a magic spell that will straight up tell you the solution.

Lastly, this game had a lot of charm to it that I really appreciated. As a total throwback to classic games, the game sports a very "retro" style to it with a lot of hidden secrets and 4th wall-breaking dialogue. This also comes through in the music which is very retro, but is a little inconsistent - some of it is great, but a few songs are really bad - the fire temple in particular was awful.

Other than that I had a good time playing - on to the next stop on the console tour, the PS1 with another Zelda-style game - Alundra!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on May 04, 2024, 01:38:36 pm
28. Raiden III (Switch)

I've mentioned this often when discussing my history with the SHMUP genre, but the Raiden series is was initially got me interested in the genre way back in the 90s. Since then, I've played and beat every Raiden game, including the spinoffs, except for what many consider to be one of the best games in the series, Raiden III. I will say, me not beating Raiden 3 until today was not due to lack of trying, but rather bad luck. I've owned Raiden III on the PS2 for probably 15 years, however I found out years ago my copy did not work. I then bought another copy, didn't play it for years, and then when I tried to play it, it didn't work either! Finally, i ended up picking up the Switch release and finally got to jump into this cool SHMUP.


Raiden III has surprisingly balanced, and well designed gameplay. My only major gripe is the movement speed of your ship which feels way to slow given what the game typiically throws at you. Still, with enough planning and good reflexes you can dodge most of what this game has to throw at you. Visually, Raiden III is pretty good looking and even has a somewhat cinematic quality to it at times. However, given that it's in full 3D, it did make me lament how amazing the 2D sprites looked in the older titles. Still, for a 3D SHMUP, this game looks great; the stages are interesting and cool, the bosses look epic and unique, and everything else is also visually pleasing for the most part. The audio is probably Raiden III's greatest asset, as there was almost not a single bad or forgettable track in the entire game. It certainly holds the distinction of having one of the best OST's in the series, that's for sure. I'm glad I finally got around to playing Raiden III and seeing what all the fuss was about with it. (5/4/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on May 04, 2024, 03:49:25 pm
Quote from: telly on May 03, 2024, 09:28:10 am
Game 8 - 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) - 17 Hours

I found this game to be a very charming experience. It's a simple classic take on a Zelda-style adventure game but with some modern ideas under the hood. The most striking is the 3D pixel look which is very unique visually, even though it felt more like a gimmick to me. I think where this game really stands out is your 3D sword that you can suspend in midair and increase it's length and width to cover more of the screen. It's honestly really interesting to use and separates the gameplay from Zelda just a touch.

Other than that, it's essentially the same. You do have an expansive world to explore with plenty of secrets and side quests to indulge in. There's also a huge collection of minigames to try out and they're actually pretty fun! I think the dungeons were kind of tedious and a little boring though. The game doesn't really throw much at you that's super interesting. There's also very little puzzle solving - everything is either communicated directly to you by your fairy friend or you have a magic spell that will straight up tell you the solution.

Lastly, this game had a lot of charm to it that I really appreciated. As a total throwback to classic games, the game sports a very "retro" style to it with a lot of hidden secrets and 4th wall-breaking dialogue. This also comes through in the music which is very retro, but is a little inconsistent - some of it is great, but a few songs are really bad - the fire temple in particular was awful.

Other than that I had a good time playing - on to the next stop on the console tour, the PS1 with another Zelda-style game - Alundra!

I really wanted to love that game, it's so cool, but the hardcore depth of field visuals killed it for me, it's like the extreme version of what was done with the Link's Awakening remake, another one I didn't like.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on May 04, 2024, 10:59:58 pm
29. Raiden V: Director's Cut (PS4)

I played Raiden V years ago around the time it first came out, and while I remember not liking it, I almost regret replaying it because I like it even less than I did. Raiden V may be one of the worst SHMUPs I've ever played. From a presentation standpoint it looks worse than the two games that proceeded it. On top of that, some of the levels make it hard to see the projectiles flying at you, creating an unfair situation that is squarly the game's fault. The OST is decent, however the chatter of various characters that accompany you throughout the game never shut up and create this constant chatter that drowns out what is otherwise a decent OST. I cannot stress how annoying these NPC character's chatter is as they are talking for 95% of the time you are playing. It would be one thing if they were actually saying anything interesting, but they're not and it just sounds like they're mumbling half the time. Other than that, the gameplay is okay, but often comes across as sloppy and poorly planned out. There is an additional fire mode called the Cheer system, but it amounts to little more than an alternative bomb attack that you can only use under certain circumstances. Raiden V is absolutely a stain on this franchise and I game I will remember never to return to. (5/4/24) [20/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on May 05, 2024, 05:38:00 pm
22. Flow || PlayStation Portable || 05.04.24

(https://i.imgur.com/lMyWCIk.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/rY1AwcM.jpg)

Being familiar with thatgamecompany's works, I've never before set out to play through their first title, Flow. Long ago, though, I do believe I had tried out the Flash version, but not at any noteworthy length. So, my time playing the game now felt quite new still.

As a simulation game, Flow has players assume the role of a microorganism consuming all other life in its vicinity, allowing it to grow exponentially in size and capability. While only having one specific organism available at the game's beginning, players will eventually unlock a total of five different lifeforms, each with their own play style. Despite the subtle changes each playthrough brings, the objective remains the same: become the top of the food chain by growing and evolving to the point where you reproduce by laying an egg, resulting in stage completion. Once an egg is laid, it is hatched upon being selected at the main hub area, which is when it then becomes the vessel you control in a new life as a new playthrough.

Regarding stage design, each stage is comprised of sixteen layered levels, which the player is freely able to ascend and descend to any freely. Across each level, other organisms to consume exist in addition to non-living cells which either restore health or help bring forth evolution. As players progress deeper and deeper one layer at a time, enemies will frequently become hostile, although many are non-confrontational and largely serve as fodder. To overcome predators, players must navigate strategically to consume them one health segment at a time. Of course, these enemies behave similarly; once the player's health has been depleted, they are sent upward one layer, so the penalty for death is minimal.

However, there is no requirement for the player to behave as a predator. Instead of consuming life, players may instead descend to the lowest layer where the current playthrough will end. Of course, such a play style may be difficult in levels which enemy hostility is high, and, naturally, avoids most of the game's in-game systems and gameplay mechanics. With that said, I didn't take the time to properly understand the evolution system and how it relates to player health, but I'm sure there is some balance of the two. Instead, I merely consumed all cells in any order as I neared them, which didn't cause me any concern.

Like later game soundtracks from thatgamecompany, Flow's music offers calming ambiance, but I seldom had the chance to properly listen to it. The reason for such is due to the constant barrage of interactive noises which serve as an audio feedback to life consumed. In deeper levels where cells move about by the dozens, there is little opportunity to avoid them even if wanting to, so the soundtrack becomes a distant sound. Since there are no in-game menus, audio control is not available. Having played the first half of the game with headphones, I found this issue quite bothersome.

Overall, Flow is a relaxing game which allows players to experience what's been created without much consequence. There is simplicity to it which allows for a certain element beauty to come forth, no different than later works made by the team.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on May 06, 2024, 10:07:43 am
17. Dragon Age: Origins
Time played was 44 hours, and I had started this over a month ago but I had taken some breaks. I was super hooked on Heroes of Might & Magic III that I was spending big hours on playing that. I had to get to a point where I basically had run out of things to do with that because I kept going back to it. I'm still not going to bother with the campaigns but I had put in 381 hours since the beginning of the year or whenever I had put that on my list.

Back to DAO, it is a fine game. Has too much lore and I just am not that into delving into game lore like I did in Morrowind. Even when Skyrim came out I didn't care about reading the books like the previous games. So the codex was something I'd only look at when I needed a break. Nice to see the choices matter type in this game. Moreso that it can effect your party. I didn't look into spoilers because in general I did not run into many situations where I didn't know what to do next. Like I killed Wynne in the mage tower and didn't know until later she could have been recruited. I never ran into Zevran that I am aware of. Some in-game choices can make a party member rebel such as some choice I made where the chantry rogue decided to side with an enemy in a dungeon. Or when I spare Loghain and Alistair decided to just leave.

Issue with the ability for party members to rebel is that you get to gear them, so if that happens they are going to be using good items. The Chantry girl didn't have anything good yet but Alistair did. I always had in the back of my mind to try to bribe Alistair with gifts because I wasn't sure if I could beat him in a fight. Until I got to a point where I knew he couldn't beat me is when I stopped caring whether he liked me or not.

Sound and music was fine. Story was fine. The only big issue with story was the ending where it said someone had died but I never did the quest to kill them. I only played the Origins part and have not yet done the additional content that comes with the remaster or whatever, including the expansion pack. It did get me to watch that Dragon Age BD I've had for awhile and it makes me a bit more interested in the other games.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on May 06, 2024, 01:02:47 pm
Quote from: kamikazekeeg on May 04, 2024, 03:49:25 pm
I really wanted to love that game, it's so cool, but the hardcore depth of field visuals killed it for me, it's like the extreme version of what was done with the Link's Awakening remake, another one I didn't like.

Yes I didn't mention it but there were some issues with the visuals. Part of it was that when moving down the screen you can't see what's in front of you so sometimes you just run into enemies. Also the water effects were really weird and blinding upon loading a level.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on May 08, 2024, 08:17:15 am
I finished the remaster of Advance Wars.  Pretty mixed feelings on this.  The tone is pretty bizarre with how light and fluffy it is even though it is very specifically about urban warfare and a lot of death.  It also has an intense difficulty spike at the end of the game which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't really easy up to that point.  I do generally like gameplay, though - aside from the fog of war mechanics.l, which I really didn't care for.  Fog of war makes sense in games like this, but it's not implemented  super well because moving and attacking aren't separate actions.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on May 08, 2024, 08:21:02 am
40. Soul Hackers 2 - Paradise Lost Ending

Along with going through New Game Plus and getting the true ending, I was also able to get the platinum trophy. All demons in the compendium have been fused or summoned. All of the teammates had their soul levels at 200. All Soul Matrices have been explored. Everything else fell into place in the first playthrough. This was a very fun game. I enjoyed it way more than Persona 3. The main SMT series will always be my favorite, but Soul Hackers deserves some flowers. I liked its neon and techno vibe, the characters were relatable and likable, and the game didn't outstay its welcome. Doing everything took a good 60 hours across two files. There isn't too much else to say that hasn't been said from my previous post about it. I'll just end this update by recommending it to RPG fans.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on May 12, 2024, 01:49:53 pm
23. Kids || PC || 05.10.24

(https://i.imgur.com/StH1RXn.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/vsl0nvg.jpg)

Nearly six years ago, I remember first watching the teaser trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYYreB14508) for Kids and having my attention immediately grabbed. Despite it being a short experience and one which I've had available to me for about four years, I'm only just now properly playing it.

Self-described in succinct ways such as it's "a game about crowds" and "the psychology of the group," Kids presents its audience a strange series of screens with nondescript cartoon persons—I suppose the titular kids—interacting with another as a crowd. In some ways, Kids blends the puzzle game genre with interaction animation, as its development grapples with the connection between game and short film. Like those short descriptions imply, the project demonstrates what a crowd is and the various events which often surround them, whether they be positive or negative. As the player, it is not necessarily about our controlling or even guiding them but instead witnessing what happens through our brief engagement which serves as a catalyst for some sort of event, whether it affect two or two hundred.

At times, these faceless figures you dictate are few in number, but other times you will see their presence grow into the hundreds. Then, the screen becomes a sea of figures who, on their own, represent nothing, but, as a collective, are perplexing to understand what they are exactly based on their actions and reactions. In some situations, crowds demonstrate groupthink as they stand motionlessly, awaiting for any one of their neighbors to act of their own free will first, so that they themselves know what to do. However, other situations are the inverse. During these moments, we instead see crowds disrupt to devolve into minor conflict, as they react in clear opposition to someone's initial action, perhaps thinking they know best. No matter the scene, all kids must agree to progress.

Through its simple yet effective visual design, the project's presentation is often hypnotic as patterns seemingly unfold, greatly evident once a proper crowd is a part of the scenario at-hand. This is especially the case because, until the player understand what sort of action is necessary to progress, the game runs on loops. Additionally, great use of contrast is employed through its binary color system, as new screens may appear suddenly and shift from black to white. I'll also mention that I surprised to hear voice acting, however minimal it may be. In each of these scenes, the simple dialogue complements the on-screen action, perfectly demonstrating what it's like to be in a group. At the same time, the project's use of music sung by a boy's choir is haunting as it amplifies the empty void these characters reside in.

Ultimately, Kids is a project up for audience interpretation, which was an intentional design choice. I don't necessarily think there is one explicit takeaway to be gained from the experience, but clearly there is some sort of commentary on groupthink and the dissonance or harmony it may bring. Nevertheless, Kids offers an alluring experience to the introspective, which I'm glad to have played. Like I mentioned above, Kids is short, about 15–30 minutes. I know several here have access to it through a massive itch.io games bundle from years ago, so I'd suggest for any one with immediate access to it who are curious to try it for themselves.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on May 14, 2024, 08:00:24 pm
7. Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx [Switch]

Hold your horses, got a lot of thoughts on this one.

I got this game because it was on a huge sale (with my gold coins I got it for 3 bucks), and I really like the animated series it's based on. This game does not do it justice though. I knew it looked bad, and yeah, it was kinda bad.

The game’s biggest problem is just how monotenous it can be. The level design and platforming are basic and dull. Combat is basic and repetitive, with only like 1 or 2 enemy types with different skins (excluding bosses). Combat doesn’t feel good either. There’s barely any sense of impact, some sound effects are outright missing, your movement and actions all feel a little slow, but worst of all: it downright feels unresponsive sometimes. You will get through the earlier levels effortlessly with button mashing. Their idea of making levels more difficult though, is to just throw more enemies at you. And at that point I sometimes found it hard to get through, in no small part because I was fighting the controls when I wanted to dodge. You also can’t control the camera, and in some points the angles it chooses cause real problems. I know this is a kids game and I don’t expect Bayonetta here, but I doubt this could even hold the interest of kids for long, or it would frustrate them to the point of quitting.

The combat is broken up by sections where you go around and talk to your friends as a civilian. This feels almost unfinished. The controls can be straight-up broken sometimes here: whenever you leave a menu you can get stuck spinning on your axis, and it frequently takes me two or three tries to simply talk to someone. I’ve also seen layering issues, with text boxes being covered up by other elements. On top of that, I’ve even managed to trigger dialogue out of order, simply by walking into a location as the wrong character. This could’ve been interesting, and it is admittedly neat to see the characters from the show in any form, but at any point it’s either dull, broken or feels pointless.

Visually the game looks pretty bad too. On top of the basic level design, the models and character renders look rushed, with very awkward facial expressions and basic problems like odd hair colours in dark lighting. A shame, especially because I feel like Miraculous’s visual style should not be that hard to adapt faithfully into a game.

The performance is really bad too. I played the Switch version, but this is nowhere near pushing the limits of the platform. But still, the load screens take long enough for me to almost write this paragraph. The framerate frequently dipped into what felt like less than 10 fps. It would stutter noticeably whenever you trigger a change, like a cutscene or written dialogue, with the transition always looking sloppy.

And then there’s the glitches. I encountered a few, including one which could’ve locked me out of finishing the quest if I hadn’t figured out how to undo it. Good luck if you’re little kid with that problem.

I also need to mention the voice acting. There is voice acting during the action parts by the original voice actors, which is good, but they’re only oneliners and parts of the dialogue. No grunts during attacks or when you get hit or anything like that. How do you forget to add attack grunts? On top of that, most of the dialogue between characters is text only. That is hard to excuse in a game based on an animated series. It really should be fully voiced. Also, there’s a distracting amount of typos in the dialogue.

It’s a real shame. A Miraculous action game could be amazing. The series has a lot of creative fight scenes, moves, choreography, enemies, and abilities. There’s so much potential. But this game does not live up to that. I enjoyed it slightly, but that's solely because it looks like a show I like. I picked it up for 3 bucks. If you have a kid that really loves Miraculous and really wants this, I say it’s worth that much. But otherwise, just skip it. You can do a lot better elsewhere.


So that's 7 games beaten thus far, six of which for the first time. Also finished 8 books thus far this year. Decent progress! In terms of games, I did also abandon BROK the InvestiGator. A shame, I was really charmed by its world and characters, but the combat just wasn't clicking for me, and I found out the game has a lot of different endings, which is something I just hate in games. No idea what I'll play next, but thinking Star Fox Zero or The Big Wave or something. We'll see!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on May 19, 2024, 08:18:21 pm
8. Star Fox Zero

Unf, god this game.

I know it has a bad reputation, but I wanted to play it for myself. And for a decent part of the game, I'll say I didn't think it was bad. The controls didn't have to be the way they are, but they worked fine for me. Occasionally I would forget I had two screens and mess up because of it, but other times I did find myself looking between both screens decently naturally. And in all-range mode (full free flight mode), I even found it useful in a few cases, to be able to look around my surroundings on one screen while keeping aim on the other. But a lot of the game is pretty basic in its level design, and towards the end you start to figure out why. I don't know whether it's the controls or whether it's poor boss design, but towards the end the game genuinely got on my nerves. That final boss especially frustrated me so much it almost made me want to quit the game entirely. I did defeat it in a not-crazy amount of attempts, but in that fight I felt I just wanted to be done with the game, which is not a good feeling. And that's not even getting into stuff like how bland the game looks, how little content there is, how insanely clunky the walker is, etc. I'll give the game some leadway, maybe I just don't click with the genre either (I prefer faster paced action games) and maybe with more playtime the controls will click better, but I don't feel a desire to replay the game and find out. Try it if you're already curious, but otherwise I think it's perfectly OK to skip it.

(And the worst part is: I thought I lost my disc, so I bought it again, but then I found the original disc. So now this game is on my shelf twice.)

So that's 8 games beat (and 9 books read) thus far this year. Got another short indie game on my radar, but also planning to play Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door when that comes out on Switch.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on May 20, 2024, 11:11:32 pm
Main List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204016.html#msg204016)
Previous List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205203.html#msg205203)

Quote from: Legend
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.

73. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)
It irks me a little that my wife was so excited for Remake, made me get it day one, and she played and beat it within a week or so, but this time around, I was the one who wanted the game day one, played it at release (really slowly apparently) and she just had zero interest this time around, still hasn't given any effort to consider playing the game.  Life sucks.  Anyway, despite the numerous complaints I've seen recently, absolutely gorgeous game, nice long play time, great story and gameplay.  Without spoiling much hopefully, I was hoping this game would take a divergence from the original, and while maybe it did a little, it functionally did not.  I'm glad to hear they aren't considering any DLC for the game so they can get Part 3 out sooner than later... but I did think the idea of Intermission was good despite the having to pay separately and everything.  Anyway, my big excitement for this game was the idea that it might diverge from the original and be an alternate reality or something, but I'm disappointed that despite the hinting and leading, that they didn't.  I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that maybe they'll do something in Part 3, but I was wildly disappointed with the tail end of the game.  I think this game would've rated higher for me if I hadn't had such high expectations which really sucks, because I was never a fan of FF in general nor have any nostalgia for FF7 either.  I'll still give it a recommendation, but I'm disappointed and it's probably not even going to be on my top list for the year if I ever get around to updating it.
Rating: Soft recommendation

74. WWE 2K14 (360)
Unfortunately it's been so long since I played this that I don't know that I can write coherently about it, especially when I had played this game originally years ago I'm pretty sure, just hadn't finished stuff up.  Did a lot of gaps in the story mode and the undertaker streak stuff and then the wwe universe/solo play stuff.  And extra unfortunately I played a lot of the 2K games this year so it's all going to be a bit of a blur thinking back on it.
Rating: Soft pass

75. Atomic Heart (XS)
I started this game when it first released, but something happened and I abandoned it fairly quickly.  It's got a very bioshock feel in lots of ways, but even coming back to it I never quite got into the game enough to truly explore the world and I think I was aware that there were tons of missable stuff so I really couldn't be bothered to do a lot when I already missed so much.  I think I recall having an issue with the game where the enemies were so complicated to defeat in a lot of situations and running out of ammo constantly it became more of a chore than enjoyment.
Rating: Soft pass

76. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NS)
My kid started getting into playing games this year and this was one of the games we got him to play.  Setting him up with his own island and joining his island and showing him my island.  Eventually I went and bought a second copy of the game so we could visit each others islands and play together.  This lasted for a week or so where we were playing daily, and it was in August iirc so it had the fireworks on the weekend which was neat.
Rating: Solid recommendation

77. Praey for the Gods (PC)
I had been so interested in this game for so long, and I don't believe it ever got a physical release on console, not sure if it even got a digital release and I'm not going to check at this point lol.  Anyway, I don't remember what finally pushed me to play this game, might have been one of my steam groups, I'm thinking so.  The game wasn't the worst but it had a lot that held it back, especially the lack of fast travel and the need to go all over the place for lots of the content.  I just remember being constantly frustrated with this game and I really didn't want to spend more time on it than necessary, but I did push myself to beat the game.  I think after I beat it I might have done a little bit more, but it was mostly me just trying to get myself to give it a second chance, but I just really didn't enjoy this game.
Rating: Soft pass

78. Sudoku Universe (PC)
Just a sudoku game, no story, no shtick, just sudoku.  Honestly not worth your time when you could probably find a sudoku game for free or worth paying money.  It's a perfectly fine sudoku game, but just not worthwhile, even for someone who enjoys sudoku.
Rating: Solid pass

79. Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate (PC)
I'm pretty sure I played this as a Choice monthly thing that I take part in.  I did a single run to get an ending despite being pretty sure it being a roguelike game that the content comes from beating it over and over with different variants and whatnot, and while I enjoyed the game well enough, the difficulty that comes with these roguelike games does tend to deter me especially when it doesn't have accessibility features or a gameplay loop that is truly enjoyable.  This game wasn't unenjoyable, but it didn't grab me like I had hoped it would.
Rating: Soft pass

80. Acceleration of SUGURI 2 (PC)
Definitely played this because it was a choice game... and boy did I fusking hate this game.  The controls were unintuitive and the combat was non-sensical... but I was committed to beating this game and getting the achievement for beating it.  I beat it on EASY not knowing that wouldn't earn me an achievement, so I powered through playing on NORMAL to get the achievement for beating the game, but it did require me to watch youtube videos and to scour the internet for any form of a guide to explain how the game played and how to beat the enemies... and in the end I still don't fusking know what you're supposed to do or how I managed to beat it and I'm glad to never go back to this game, definitely not a game for me.
Rating: Solid pass

81. Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (PC)
A short point and click puzzle game, it's listed as adventure but it's not an adventure style point and click game, but if anything kind of like escape games where you interact with the room you're in, but very muted in comparison.  Quite a short game at probably just around 2 hours, plus it's got an extra mode where you play from another characters perspective.  The story in the game is quite good and helps with the monotony of the game.  Very enjoyable even considering the short length.
Rating: Soft recommendation

82. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
Oh boy, this is going to be tough to write about given how large of a game this is and how long ago it was that I played the game.  Game is basically double was Y7 was given you've got both the original city from Y7 and Hawaii, plus double the playable characters.  Just kind of all in all a great sequel to Y7, really improves so much on the formula provided by the previous game.  I'll still state that I prefer the beat em up Yakuza games to these RPG style Yakuza games, but it plays so well and provides everything in a great manner and does a better job sending on Kiryu than Y6 or even Y7 attempted to.  I do dislike the whole story of Ichiban and Saeko, I feel like it was very forced and I honestly don't see it.  I think Ichiban had a better relationship with Chitose, despite everything, but also I see that not working given the great age gap, but I just felt like it was unnecessary, but idk.  It took me a bit to enjoy the game at first because there were just so many unlikeable new characters that I just couldn't see myself forgiving any of them for being such shitheels, but I guess I got over it because I wound up really enjoying the characters and everything.  Really look forward to what comes next.
Rating: Solid recommendation

83. Blacktail (PC)
I don't know why but this game gave me Eastshade vibes, and I fusking hated that game.  This game was okay but I just really didn't enjoy it, can't quite put my finger on what about it was so unenjoyable, but I just couldn't be bothered to do a lot of the side content or exploration.  I've been playing a lot of games like that lately, and part of it I'm sure is a certain lack of enjoyment in life in general so I can't quite enjoy some of the things I really should be able to enjoy... but I really didn't enjoy this game.
Rating: Soft pass

84. Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter (PC)
I added the dinosaur hunter part to not confuse this with the 360 era reboot game.  I never played this game for the N64 really as a kid, but I expected it to be Doom/Duke Nukem level quality, and I don't know why I expected such quality from Acclaim of all companies, but this game wasn't really enjoyable.  I think I spent a ton of time trying to find ammo, but I might be mixing up other games, but I didn't really enjoy this say compared to Doom 64 or other era games that got remasters/remakes.  I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed the game as a kid either, but I didn't enjoy it here either.  I'm still going to try to power through Turok 2 and get Turok 3 eventually and hopefully they'll do Rage Wars so I can play the whole original series on PC, but the reboot and Evolutions will have to be original systems.
Rating: Soft pass

85. Scanner Sombre (PC)
A choice game and one of my PoP games, I actually got this from choice myself way back in the day and I had always been interested in playing the game, but just never had the motivation, especially since the game lacks achievements... but this was the motivation I needed to get through the game.  Anyway, the game is played where you're basically blind, I think the story is you are deep af underground and there is no light, so you use this scanner to light up the world, it's a real neat concept and I considered wasting a fusk ton of time meticulously lighting up everything to build a functionally visible world... and I almost wish I had a little bit because after you beat the game and get your way out of the cavern/chasm/whatever the end credits shows you the entire map lit up as you lit it up, makes for a real cool visual.  Really enjoyed the game conceptually, even if it was a bit of a pain in the arse and was a bit lacking in the story department.  I do wish the game had a couple of achievements though
Rating: Soft recommendation.

86. 100 hidden hares (PC)
Another 100 hidden game, I enjoy them despite them only being like 10 minute long games and achievement spam at that, but I tend to only play these when they pop up in PT backlog dungeon, but still rather enjoyable simple HOG
Rating: Soft pass

87. Rock Band 4 (X1)
Some company released a new guitar and I preordered it as soon as I could, so as soon as it arrived in the mail I went on Xbox and bought Rock Band 4 digitally and loaded up all of my DLC from the RB1/RB2 era and scraped together download codes for some of the other DLCs and such.  Game had a lot of issues compared to my RB1/RB2 days where we played without HDMI, because there is a noticeable lag with these and the latency seems to swing back and forth causing me to have to recalibrate frequently, but the game offers no way of recalibrating mid set or mid song, which is annoying af.
Rating: Soft recommendation

88. Tunic (XSX)
I beat this years ago, but decided to hop back into it to finish up the last few achievements that I was missing.  Still an amazing game, if not difficult af.
Rating: Solid recommendation

89. Pathologic 2 (PC)
I really hate that I played this game out of order, but at least I really didn't enjoy this game.  The more I read about the game the less I'm thrilled about it, it's original or the upcoming sequel.  The game is designed to be difficult, hard to survive, and meant to make you make awful choices and realize that there are really no right or good answers because the world fusking sucks.  But this game's balance of drinking water, eating food, being a decent person, staying healthy, etc, on top of the world falling apart, stuff getting worse, and people dying all around, all while everyone in the town hating you for leaving town years prior.  Great conceptually, but kind of not fun, but also designed to not be fun and be depressing.
Rating: Solid pass

90. Saint Kotar (PC)
Oh look, another depressing game.  a tale of a Croatian myth/folktale, not sure.  Story was quite difficult to follow so even thinking back on it I'm having a tough time remembering what the game was about.  The game is a fairly standard point and click adventure game, but with tons of messed up characters and plotlines and a wild story.  Game is fairly long with like 15-20 hours of story to be told.  Honestly, quite good game, but I think it's a bit held back by the storytelling and dialogue.
Rating: Soft recommendation

91. Vampire Survivors (XS)
Gonna be honest, I don't remember playing this this year, but I probably played it to earn a specific achievement or I was doing Game Pass achievement stuff.  I'll try and add a link to my previous review, but it's a great game that spawned a genre
Rating: Solid recommendation

92. Dicey Dungeons (XS)
Tried again to get through this game before it left game pass, but I think I didn't manage to do it, which sucks, but I'll get it on PC eventually I guess, or maybe it'll come back to game pass and I'll give it another go.  I consider it beat because I had several successful runs despite not getting the true ending.
Rating: Soft recommendation

93. WWE 2K15 (X1)
Another one that I don't really remember, I've been wanting to get through all of the WWE (and wrestling games in general) games, so as playtracker's backlog dungeon rolls me WWE games, I sit down and try to churn through as many, if not all of the non-online, achievements as I can before I move on to the next entry.  Definitely a step down, but I'm also aware that as the games go on they seem to get worse.  While 14 was okay or pretty good, this one was a step down and as they progress they continue to dwindle, especially in their shitty attempts to make the game worse so you have to pay for microtransactions to make the game almost as good as the previous entry... it's horse shit.
Rating: Soft pass

94. 100 hidden birds (PC)
Another 100 hidden game for backlog dungeon, not much to say.
Rating: Soft pass

95. 100 hidden dogs (PC)
And another 100 hidden game for backlog dungeon, really not much to add.
Rating: Soft pass

96. missed messages. (PC)
Really short visual novel style game.  We're talking like 10 minutes long or something, but you play through 3 times or so to get the true ending or something.  Real interesting story, super depressing and stuff, but pretty good nonetheless.  That said, it is real short but the game is free so worth the short play.
Rating: Soft recommendation

97. WWE 2K16 (X1)
I think this is the one where earning points for MyCareer is such a fusking grind, so much to the point that I abandoned it because it literally would've taken a ton of time to get through all the requirements.  It pretty much required that you pay for the kickstart pack that gets you started at lvl 90 instead of like lvl 50.  Like I said, they get worse as the years go by.  That said I started playing 17 after I abandoned this and iirc it earns points a bit faster, but I'm still in on it so I'll have more to say when I get to that one.
Rating: Solid pass

98. Metro 2033 Redux (PC)
I played this game way back in the day on 360 and it was time to replay the game thanks for PoP and again I don't think I really enjoy this game.  Not that I made notes about it the last time I played, but I never played Last Light because my recollection of this game wasn't great, but I decided I'd give it another go because I want to try and play Last Light and Exodus at some point and it'd be good to refresh the story.  I think I kind of breezed through it because I wasn't enjoying it, I tried to collect collectibles and do the side content, but at some point I was aware that I missed a bunch of missable stuff and knew I wasn't going to 100% the game, plus 100% probably required playing through the game multiple times, so I was like forget it, I'll just push through and get it done.
Rating: Soft pass

99. Need for Speed: Most Wanted [2012] (360)
I recall playing this at Gamestop expo back in 2012 being so excited, like even considering not playing the demo because I knew I was going to get the game day one, but I decided to play anyway.  I kicked ass and finished the race 1st... but when the leaderboard or whatever came up I was in last place because the game doesn't care if you win a race, it's all about your most wanted score and since I worried about racing instead of chaos I was the least wanted.  Really soured me so I decided not to buy it day one, grateful for that I guess.  Eventually bought the game and started playing it and my recollection was that I abandoned the game early on so I had a lot to do, but when I hopped on to play this time around I realized that I was nearly done with the game, so didn't have much else to do, but decided to check out all of the content that I had because I had bought the season pass for the game well after abandoning the game.  A lot of conceptual similarities to Hot Pursuit gameplay wise, honestly a kind of fun game, but same as always with this era with games having achievements locked behind online and dead servers.
Rating: Soft pass

100. Dread X Collection: Carthanc (PC)
Oh no, this whole collection of games, I'm not going to remember which game is which without looking it up.  Time to look it up.  Ok, so this was the one where you're in this egyptian looking cavern on some planet and you go through different areas to collect parts of an artifact, meanwhile aliens are chasing you down because they don't like that you've touched their stuff.  Pretty standard stuff, except it hits a point where you're doing platforming and it's frustrating because you're also being chased by the aliens and they are insane fast trying to murder you.
Rating: Soft pass

101. Dread X Collection: The Pay is Nice (PC)
Not a lot to this one other than it constantly justifying the horrors by saying the pay is nice.  Of course I think that's part of the thing that the character enjoys what he's doing and the pay is nice.
Rating: Soft pass

102. Dread X Collection: Mr. Bucket Told me to (PC)
This one took me a couple of playthroughs because I didn't quite get it I guess.  It's a survival game where you're standed on a deserted island and have to sacrifice what few belongings you have at the behest of mr. bucket.  Eventually mr bucket evicts you from the island... the end.
Rating: Soft pass

103. Dread X Collection: Summer Night (PC)
Just a little game and watch style game with horror connotations.  Interesting but overall boring.
Rating: Solid pass

Next List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206040.html#msg206040)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on May 21, 2024, 03:50:13 pm
24. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly || GameCube || 05.20.24

(https://i.imgur.com/QNKUjZS.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/8qAPTL7.jpeg)

Despite having already played Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly long ago around the time of its release but for PlayStation 2, I couldn't remember much about the game, so I had been contemplating revisiting it for some time. Of course, this is in spite of the reception the game's garnered for being one of the worst installments in the franchise. However, since I didn't remember much about the game before playing now, I couldn't remember on my own if that reputation is valid or not, but I didn't necessarily remember having a bad time with it before.

As the fourth main entry to the series but the first to not be developed by creators Insomniac Games, Enter the Dragonfly will be familiar—in fact, far more than familiar—to those who've played previous games. Like games before it, Enter the Dragonfly is a 3D platformer with an emphasis on collecting items. Acting as the titular character Spyro, players are introduced to a scenario that's a near copy of the preceding game's story: in short, to round up a large group of dragonflies which the villain-character Ripto threatens to use as a powerful resource for their own purposes. Unfortunately, this is the only narrative device present this time, which results in story that's largely undeveloped and, ultimately, unoriginal. Nevertheless, along Spyro's journey which mimics his previous ones, the dragon ventures across a variety of worlds to gain back what's been lost, which inevitably also leads to saving the people within these worlds from Ripto's forces.

Be that as it may, I doubt the majority of those playing any games in the Spyro franchise do so for the narrative foremost. So, this leads us next to gameplay which is no different than the story regarding its lackluster quality. With each sequel entry building off the first game's core mechanics of charging at enemies, blowing flame breath, and gliding, the fourth entry offers little that's new. In fact, the only new mechanic is that Spyro can now evoke several different breath types to attack enemies. While this may have been an interesting mechanic, it is mostly unimportant, as there are only about three enemy types among the thirty or so which require a specific breath attack to defeat them. As for Spyro's other abilities which have been gained over the course of the series, they appear only once in brief moments, if at all.

While the initial trilogy of games were never groundbreaking in terms of gameplay, they did offer some variety through their use of mini-games and simple puzzles. Regarding the former, they're also present in Enter the Dragonfly and are mediocre at best. But, the latter are entirely absent for this entry. So, these two aspects lead to a game with middling level design, as other gameplay elements are instead used to fill in the void. As a series focused on collecting and exploration, these two elements always felt balanced in that the game instilled the desire for players to explore to seek out hidden treasures and secrets. But, now collectibles feel littered about stages with very little to discover as the natural progression to most stages is straightforward and linear.

To make design decisions worse is the game's performance which is, by all accounts, bad. In fact, there is an entire inventory of quality issues and bugs which make an average experience sometimes aggravating. These range problems range from camera control, draw distance loading, frame rate, and control inputs not registering. Generally, I am not someone who obsesses over high quality for some of these matters, but, when the quality reaches so low a point that basic gameplay is negatively impacted, it does become a major detractor.  Of the multitude of issues, the one I took fault with the most was the game's low frame rate, simply because it affects other aspects. For instance, items are mostly gathered from Spyro's companion Sparx, but this basic mechanic seldom operates correctly. As a result, Spyro is forced to walk around so as not to overload the game, which is the exact opposite to Spyro's horns-first while charging attitude. And, even when walking, the game regularly struggles as quick or sharp movements are made.

Lastly, I will mention two other design decisions which felt like little forethought for how they operate was given, only because they made my playthrough much more irritating. The first of these issues related to world portals, which naturally transport Spyro from one area to another, including areas where mini-games take place. Throughout any given stage, there are at least three portals, and little differentiation between them. This may not be such an issue on its own, but the stage layout often has the proposed end of a stage actually not be at the end. Instead, other collectibles and even additional areas almost always exist past the exit portal. So, I found myself charging through the stage exit portal thinking it was a mini-game portal a total of four times, which lead me to backtrack through the entire stage upon re-entering. The second issue is similar to the first, as it also relates to stage movement. On the pause menu, players can access a journal of sorts which details each stage's progress. In backing out of this menu altogether, the game recognizes two buttons as the cancel action. However, only on the page which serves as a table of contents does one of these two cancel action button option serve another purpose: warping to another stage. So, also for a total of four separate instances, I found myself only trying to exit this menu to instead be taken away elsewhere.

From what I've read, the consensus is that either both the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of Enter the Dragonfly are on par with another on the low end of the spectrum or that the latter port is notably worse. Whichever the case, my experience playing the game this time was unpleasant. The departure of Insomniac Games developing the franchise clearly shows with the final product, as there's a considerable amount of polish needed to bring the game's quality up to a higher standard which players may find fun. As a result, there really is nothing redeemable about Enter the Dragonfly within the context of other entries within the series, meaning there is little reason for anyone interested in the franchise to seek it out.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on May 22, 2024, 09:45:56 am
41. Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity - B Ending

This is the first game that's part of the Skautfold: Bloody Pack. This was an impulse buy in the most major way. No research, no word of mouth, no nothing. I just saw the cover art and thought it looked cool. The price was nice, too: two games in one pack. I'm glad collections of games are becoming more and more popular. Anyways, Shrouded of Sanity can best be described as Souls-like (sigh) mixed with Castlevania mixed with Mega Man. You play as a corpse brought back to life that needs to put a stop to a deadly fog that's covered old-timey London. Said fog has turned the workers of the palace into bloodthirsty beasts. Stopping the fog requires you to kill four boss enemies in any order and then the big-bad king. It's gothic horror setting and zippy combat give nods to Bloodborne. I finished the game in about two hours. The game is tough, but as always, it's doable with enough patience. I'm glad I picked up this pack on a whim.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on May 24, 2024, 09:11:57 am
42. Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity - A Ending

I ran through this game again, knowing what and what not to do in order to get the best/true ending. Usurper takes place after this ending so I'm geared up to begin that whenever the time comes. What a surprise this game was. I was initially turned off by it being ANOTHER Souls-like but there was a lot more to it. I'm a sucker for the creepy and atmospheric settings so that was able to outweigh my misgivings. If anyone is looking for something quick, challenging, and imaginative then I recommend this.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on May 27, 2024, 08:37:24 pm
9. Metroid II: Return of Samus

So I'll be honest, the main reason I wanted to play through this game, is just because I was planning to put up a Metroid II poster I got from My Nintendo, and it felt weird to hang up a poster of a game I hadn't beaten yet. I know that even Metroid fans often say they skipped this one and that it's OK to do so. Not because it's bad at all, moreso because it's a game that really shows its age. And yeah, it kinda does.

I'll be honest: I played this on Nintendo Switch Online, and I played through the entire game using an online map and save states. And I have no shame in admitting that. In case you don't know, this game does not have any sort of map at all, and I have absolutely no clue how people were expected to play through this without one. It was definitely a limitation of the hardware, I get that, but that doesn't change how difficult it is to keep track of where you are and where important things are or could be without a map to check. It sometimes felt difficult in kinda stupid ways too. I'm talking having to backtrack for 8 minutes(!) for a weapon recharge (plus 8 minutes back to where you were), or letting me enter the final boss fight while it would be impossible for me to defeat it because I started the fight with 2 missiles less than it would take to kill it (seriously). Also, the game is so zoomed in that getting hit by stuff off screen, especially when traversing downward, is very common.

It's not all bad though, far from it. The scope of the world is genuinely impressive for Game Boy. The sound design, spritework and some of the music is fantastic, and the running-and-gunning feels pretty good too. This is not a bad game by any means, it's just a clearly dated one.

Most Metroid fans won't blame you for skipping both the first game and this one, and while I haven't seriously played the original yet, I agree on this one. It deserves to be remembered and is worth trying if you're curious, but I would not say it's required playing.

Poster looks great though.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0ybP1LrF/posters.jpg)

Now onto Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on May 28, 2024, 10:08:58 am
18. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut
Playing this was really strange for me. Except for the opening area (Sarif lab and Detroit hub) I had no recollection of this game. I remembered the UI and some of the characters, but basically none of the levels, the story, the interactions. Strange considering that Steam says I played the original game for 30+ hours. Even the ending seemed alien to me, for I thought that the original game ended with killing a bunch of people like setting off a nuke or something. Also I will say the ending cutscenes were not really expected and weren't really endings. No video showing the choice and the response/future events type thing and instead it was just Adam talking about his feelings over archival footage.

No technical issues with the game except one time. There was one instance where a sound effect got stuck and looped. It was a low frequency sound so it wasn't distracting, but when this happened I heard no dialog. So I may have missed about an hour's worth of audio from either the communicator, environmental audio (people talking in other rooms) or talking to NPCs. Cutscenes played fine and other game sounds including guns worked. It did eventually get to a point where an in-engine cutscene needed to play and the game crashed.

Like the original, I can't see how it would be possible to do a no-alarms run, or perhaps even a no kill run. Maybe it can be done on New Game+ since you can keep your praxis and probably use the stealth options better.

19. Lego Marvel Superheroes
This looked interesting to me, at least these modern Lego storytelling games alltogether such as the Star Wars version, from watching some videos. I tried it out but it really was not something I could get into. The controls were weird. The tutorial messages were too big on the screen, showed too much info too fast and made the controls appear generally confusing. I don't mind a game of this perspective, but I really don't care for having to use fighting game combo system to do things. There was a QTE very early and it was not at all satisfying. Knowing I was just going to be frustrated by these things, I decided to uninstall.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: shfan on May 28, 2024, 03:45:00 pm
Yesterday I played through Cadillacs and Dinosaurs with my 5 year old son, taking it in turns to play. It was a little emotional because it's a game my Dad took me to play at the arcades back in the day, felt odd playing it through with my own youngster. I've deliberately avoided getting SHfan Jr. interested in video games, others have done so, so it's a great feeling that I can start to introduce him to games I love which might interest him. Now I know how you gaming dads and mums feel :D
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on May 28, 2024, 04:44:25 pm
Star Wars Jedi - Survivor is a better game than the first in almost every way.  It is still a little janky in a couple of places (mostly some collision detection and a couple of cutscene graphics), but it plays better, runs better, and has more fun exploration.  The main hub is great, but I kinda wish they either set everything around that area, or made at least one of the more story driven areas a bit bigger / more explorable.  It has way better, more varied, and more meaningful side activities, which was very welcome, since that was one of the bigger issues with the first game.

All that said, though, while the story has better individual plot elements it isn't paced super great, and the whole second act doesn't work for me narratively.  It rights itself immediately in the third act, and completely knocks that part of the story out of the park, but I spent a big chunk of the game thinking "Oh, this story kind of sucks."  I think if they had shortened the length of the second act and used that time to further flesh out the back end of the game it would be way better.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on May 29, 2024, 10:49:55 pm
14 - Gooba Ball (PC 2024) - ENDLESS - This one was an easy game to add, it's short, endless, it's a Suika Game copy, but it's a game dedicated to the 1st year anniversary for the Vtuber group VCHIBAN, and it's just a goofy little freebie game.  Put 2 hours into it, probably will play it more, basically if you can't pick up Suika Game on Switch, just grab it for free on Steam through Gooba Ball.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on May 30, 2024, 09:51:46 am
43. Tales of Eternia

This was a journey. To date, I've played through this five times. It's easy to forget how far the series has come since 2000. I want to talk about the bad, which isn't that bad given the game's history. First, the controls aren't as tight as I remember. I played on my PlayStation 3, which might have had something to do with what seemed like a slight delay. In a game where combat requires you to be up close and super personal with the enemy, that caused a lot of frustration. Speaking of combat, it's a shame that the game basically forces you to make Reid your main. Yes, he's the main character and has the most abilities but playing as Farah provided its own level of fun. That said, both Reid and Farah don't come into their own until you're passed the halfway point. Combat remains slightly cumbersome before that. It doesn't help that most of the enemies are small.

Taking it a step further, to get the most out of Farah, you have to really dedicate time to fight a certain number of battles (300!) with her and use her moves one too many times. I tried my hardest to stick with her for the entire journey but Reid's combos just flowed better. There's also a lack of a grade shop, a lack of new game plus, a lack of a warning that says "saving over this cleared file will start you over", tedious cooking, and close to zero story inclusion for Max and Chat. The lack of a new game plus is the biggest hit because there's some neat stuff that can only be unlocked on a clear file, but doing so means starting from ground zero.

All that to say, the game is still a solid entry in the series. The game still looks amazing. The art style is just *chef's kiss*. Mutsumi Inomata (RIP) toned down her character designs and the game is better as a result of it. Sakuraba's musical style is in full effect, too. The adage of "third time's a charm" really rings true. Funnily enough, this was my third game in the series, too. Tales of Eternia provided a lot of firsts for the series: cooking (it's still tedious, but man it's helpful), manual mode, spells that don't freeze the combat, Mystic Artes, combination skills, cameo fights, and probably more that I'm missing. It's easy to sink a good 40 to 50 hours in every playthrough. Once you get to a certain point, combat becomes fluid and addictive. I'd spend a good hour or so just running around a dungeon trying different set ups to see what did and didn't work. I remember the first time I played this I wandered into a hidden dungeon all on my own pre-GameFAQs. I felt damn proud of myself for doing so.

I still stand by the fact that this is the best entry in the series to start with. Others will recommend Symphonia. That's a fine choice, but to really see where the series got some good bedrock for what's to come, then I say Eternia. This is also the game that would benefit most from some sort of reimagining. There's a lot of potential here to fix the above mentioned flaws and make something even more epic.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on May 30, 2024, 05:02:35 pm
15 - Dave the Diver (PC 2023) - BEAT - What an absolutely charming game.  I initially got into the game because I liked the art style, there was a Godzilla crossover, and I have that soft spot/spook spot for underwater stuff, so the general idea of diving into deep waters and hunting for fish seemed neat.  I wasn't expecting to like the more "management" side of things as you are getting fish to run a sushi shop, but it's all fairly straightforward and doesn't get tedious or boring.

I think what this game does best is variety.  There's always some silly little new minigame, a boss fight with a crazy creature that is different from the last one, there's always new fish and new areas to gather in, and while it has combat and such, it's still a pretty casual game I feel, like it's not Stardew Valley casual, but it's somewhere between something like that and say a survival game like Subnautica.

The games story and characters are really nice, and it's just a fun game.  It's kinda that perfect game where you can just jump in whenever, do a dive, hunt for specific fish you want, trying to get the best quality meals and make money for upgrades and expansions, and then come back later. I still have more to do also with the post-game.  The DLC they have that's for free right now are pretty light, something for the boat game Dredge and something for Godzilla, but they are very additions, don't think of them like expansions, though Dredge might be one that offers something more to the actual game, compared to the Godzilla one, which I would say is mostly glorified cosmetic DLC, but it's free, so zero real complaints. 

I have no actual major complaints for the game either.  There are a few elements of jank here and there with movement and aiming, and I think some of the boss fights are a little clunky, but I enjoyed myself, I kept wanting to progress to see where things went, what new areas there were, and what new fish I'd come up against.  Big recommend here.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on June 01, 2024, 02:06:00 pm
16 - Nightmare Kart (PC 2024) - BEAT - More low poly, retro throwback love.  Been waiting on this for abit, took longer than expected due to the dev having to rebrand everything after Sony told her she couldn't put out a game with Bloodborne branding.  What we get a Bloodborn-enough kart racer that is pretty fun.  Lots of love to the aesthetics and music, and it's all for free.  The only real complaint is that the AI is pretty bad.  They were only a challenge at the final race level because they would otherwise get stuck on the map.  Still love it though, the music is so goofy, in that it's like classic PS1/N64 era racing music, but in a gothic horror setting lol

There are multiple runs in the campaign required to unlock everything I believe, NG+ style, but gonna wait on that for when it finally releases on Steam to make updating easier as otherwise it's currently available on itch.io.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on June 06, 2024, 06:10:27 pm
10. Dr. Trolley's Problem

This is an indie game from itch.io, that I got with one of those massive bundles for charity, The idea is very simple: it's just a long list of trolley problems. You know, two tracks, different people on each track, a trolley is coming, decide whether or not to change its track.The big appeal is that after every problem, you then get statistics of what other players did. Sounds like it could be pretty interesting. I like the idea, as like a little distraction.

However, the game has a flaw and it's a big one. The text explaining the statistics very often seemed to be flat-out wrong. I feel like on half of the levels it either didn't match up with the diagram above it, or it didn't match what the level was like. That means it was often very unclear what other players actually did. That kind of breaks one of the main points of the game, which is a real shame. I don't know whether this is an inherent problem with the game or a bug. I did encounter multiple bugs like the pause menu not working, inputs not working anymore after tabbing in and out of the game, a few levels softlocking, and at some points for no reason a horde of clowns kept spawning in every level (no, really). But with PC games you never know whether that's the game's fault or the PC's, and I'm playing on Linux through Lutris on top of that so that may have something to do with it too, I don't know.

A few of the trolley problems did admittedly make me laugh though. And the 2020 and 2022 levels were clearly the creator stepping aside from the game's original concept to let out his frustrations with the state of the world, which some people may be put off by but I honestly found relatable. But yeah, the wrong text and bugs are a big problem.

Again though, I got it in a massive bundle with all proceeds going to charity, so I can't be too critical of it. Massive props to the creator for helping to support charity in that way. Personally though, while this game was cute to check out, I think you aren't missing out on anything by skipping it. (Glad to have supported charity though. I believe there are charity bundles on itch.io often, so do keep an eye out for that!)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on June 07, 2024, 08:38:11 am
7. Sonic CD (Sega CD) - Went back through Sonic Origins Collection version to get my Sonic CD file completed with all the unlocks such as DA Garden and Visual Studio. Had to beat all levels in Time Attack and get them below something obscure like 25:40-something. Managed 25:10 and called it good.


8. Jet Moto (PS1/PSN) - Had a blast replaying the first Jet Moto. I unlocked all the tracks and platinumed it. Enjoyed having the added trophy support with the PSN version. It amazes me how few people have managed to unlock some of these trophies. Platinumes are rare, obviously, but even completing a race on the second grouping of tracks was only about 8%. I've always liked seeing the percentages of how many have unlocked certain trophies, but in this case, the majority of people that would have accomplished these tasks did so on the original PS1 game when there was no trophy support. I'd be curious to see a percentage that included the original release, but of course, everything was still offline and never tracked then. So that will never happen.


9. Twisted Metal 2 (PS1/PSN) - Having enjoyed Jet Moto, I went back and bought the PSN version of Twisted Metal 2 for the trophy support. I still have the disc, but went specifically for the trophies and the ability to play couch coop with brother via share play. Gotta lova some of the new connectivity options in the updated systems. Even the kids are enjoying the old classic so long as I put God Mode on. lol.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on June 10, 2024, 04:26:00 pm
Game 9 - Alundra (PS1) - 31 Hours

This has always been one of my most wanted games on my wishlist when I created my profile on this site, and I can finally say that I've finished it. This game actually wasn't that enjoyable for me, which was honestly perplexing. There are a lot of things here that I really love, but the things that I didn't enjoy really got under my skin more than most games for some reason.

First let's talk about what I really loved. The game boasts a gorgeous pixel aesthetic with wonderful animations and very fluid controls. You are dropped within an expansive island to explore with plenty of secrets to uncover as you obtain more items during your journey. The story I found to be particularly touching. Not super complicated, but deep enough to keep me engaged and invested. The story is accentuated by some really great characters and honestly very impressive translations for how old the game is. The music is quite excellent, though there isn't enough music to support the such a long game. You'll be hearing the same track repeated 50 times over as you try to navigate what's honestly a very challenging game.

And that’s my biggest issue with the game, though isn't so much the controls or combat difficulty, but the level design. In fact, the game showers you with copious amounts of healing items and spells, and so I didn’t actually die all that much during my playthrough. No, instead the frustration lies with the forced 2D/3D perspective which completely messes with your sense of distance and depth, combined with some incredibly difficult jumps. It's difficult to describe if you haven't played it before. For example, you might be jumping across platforms from the top of the screen down, and you think a subsequent platform located below you on the screen is reachable but it’s in fact ABOVE you in 3D Space. Same thing when jumping from left to right; you don't know if the platform is above or below you in 3D space and therefore unreachable, or if your timing is wrong and is in fact level with the platform you are on. The game is also not consistent with what you can jump onto/over and what you can’t. It reminded me of the frustrating platforming elements in Super Mario RPG, times like, 1000. There's also some old school “where do I go moments” that tend to frustrate me (hint, talk to all the villagers if you’re stuck and then things happen!)

Considering the frustrations that I just mentioned, I unfortunately found this game to be a more difficult experience than a fun one, and I was honestly glad when it was over. That's not to say that this game doesn't have anything to offer or isn’t worth your time checking it out.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on June 10, 2024, 05:05:52 pm
I got 100% in Blasphemous 2 last week.  Terrific Metroidvania.  Definitely superior to the first game, which I did like, but found clunky and awkward in some places.  The sequel had better combat and exploration, and more fun collectibles.  Big hearty recommend if this is a genre you like.  Shout out to Kashell for convincing me to pick it up when it was on sale.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a decent walking simulator with awful dialogue and not great actual gameplay sections.  Dug the vibe, didn't care for the majority of the rest of it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 11, 2024, 09:05:15 am
Quote from: Cartagia on June 10, 2024, 05:05:52 pm
I got 100% in Blasphemous 2 last week.  Terrific Metroidvania.  Definitely superior to the first game, which I did like, but found clunky and awkward in some places.  The sequel had better combat and exploration, and more fun collectibles.  Big hearty recommend if this is a genre you like.  Shout out to Kashell for convincing me to pick it up when it was on sale.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a decent walking simulator with awful dialogue and not great actual gameplay sections.  Dug the vibe, didn't care for the majority of the rest of it.

I'm so glad you liked it!

Agreed on The Short Message. I liked how modern day stuff (smart phones, social media, COVID) somehow got implemented in the Silent Hill universe but the game was so unfun to play. I'm glad it was free - even then it was still too much.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 12, 2024, 09:32:20 pm
44. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2

I'm not sure what it was that compelled me to get back into this series. I know I liked the first Swordcraft Story (and could have sworn I wrote a review for it!), but that was over a decade ago. Twin Age was a bit more recent, but not by much. Regardless, I'm glad I returned to Lyndbaum. Swordcraft Story 2 feels like a mostly solid follow-up from the first game. The themes and narrative are a bit more mature. There are some good and not-so-good additions that I'll talk about in a review. One thing that really baffled me was the lack of suspend feature. The first game had this, so why did it go away in the second. There's something called Anywhere Diaries that let you make a hard save, but for a game that is meant for quick romps having an item on hand isn't a good look. All that to say I think I prefer the first game over the second, but the second is still fun.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 15, 2024, 04:02:19 pm
45. Skautfold: Usurper - A Ending

This is the second game in the Bloody Pack. This game is a Metroidvania. I use that term in the most liberal sense. Two crucial things were missing from this game to be considered part of that sub-genre. The first was a fast-travel feature. There were warp points that would send you back to the main area where you could do things like buy spells or re-spec your character, but that was it. This was a real nuisance because the interconnected world didn't feel very connected at all. Which, brings me to the second issue: the map. You can pull up a map, but unlike 99.99% of the Metroidvanias in existence, the map just showed an overall layout of the entire game. There was no way to tell where you actually were or how to get where you need to go. I need a word stronger than "useless" to explain just how bad that thing was. It's a shame that these two major issues, as well as some other minor ones, weren't looked at. This is because the game's setting, character art, and massive weapon supply are what captivated me. Sprinkle a ridiculous final boss (the only time I died in the game) that looks like something a five year old would draw when asked, "Draw a monster" and the game ended up being...I'm not sure. I need to think about this one before sitting down to review it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on June 15, 2024, 10:17:44 pm
17 - Voices of the Void (PC 2022) - ENDLESS - Going to kinda end my time with the game here, as I don't think the game technically has an "end" and it is still a work in progress.  I kinda hit a point where I felt a little burnt out and not enough was happening to keep me engaged, though there's a decent amount to the game and a lot of weird things that can still happen as a lot of it happens due to the days as they progress.  I got up to Day 17, which was like...10 hours of playtime at the least, maybe more, I got super absorbed into it the past like 2 days lol The game can apparently have stuff lasting up past Day 40, so you can make this one long game experience.

The game itself is really interesting as the basic gimmick is you are sent to run a radar facility that sends pings into space, records what comes back, process it, and then ship out your results while also keeping the facility running properly.  It's one of those games that is partially survival (Food and sleep mechanics), partially management/busywork, with some fairly in depth mechanics.  It has a steep learning curve, but once you figure out the tech stuff, which you will in the first few hours, it gets very easy after that, which is kinda what lead to the burnout as signal hunting gets very repetitive.  There's also a lot of weird, odd, creepy, things that can happen, and I like that, it's not a jumpscare rollercoaster, it knows how to build tension and spread things out.  It's also abit playful as it's not too serious with what is going on.

It's unfinished, still being worked on I believe, but it's an interesting game.  I don't know if I could outright recommend it as you gotta be the type of person for a very long, involved, game, that has a lot of busywork, and it is a tad jank, enjoyable so sometimes, but I'll maybe come back to the game later on after a 1.0 state.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on June 17, 2024, 02:38:58 pm
Game 10: Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Protoman (Switch) - 22 Hours

Only one more game to go on the Legacy Collection and I will be finished with it! Let's dive into Battle Network 5, one of the two Battle Network games I enjoyed when I was a kid. Like all BN games after 3, there isn't a whole lot that's changed in terms of the gameplay (with one huge exception). There have been some tweaks and small visual improvements, and some rebalances to gameplay, with the biggest edition being DarkChips which provide an interesting twist to your folder building (I didn't use them in this playthrough). Otherwise it's pretty much all the same stuff under the hood, which is fine by me. These games are like comfort food for me that I can kind of go through on autopilot especially since I know more about the "meta" of this game's chip selection than the other entries. The story isn't anything special, as always, though I do like that we learn a bit more about the history of the net and the backstories of Wily and Lan's family lineages. Although, it was really dumb how your dad and friends are kidnapped for like 4 days in the story and your mom's like totally cool with it.

Anyway, the biggest change in this game from it's predecessors is the addition of some light tactical gameplay very similar to something like Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle. I absolutely love these sections. Not only does it mix up the gameplay a bit but you're pushed to delete viruses in one round in order to do well, which was a fun challenge to test myself with. The Navis that make up your team are all really interesting and you develop more of a bond with them than really any other group of side characters in the previous games. Compared to Team Colonel, I do feel like Team Protoman has a better "team" overall, particularly because Protoman is way more of a familiar face. Overall, a fantastic addition.

I think my main complaint is the holding back of the upgraded chips that come from viruses until you do some really obscure sidequesting to make them appear. Otherwise, viruses will continue to get stronger but will only give you the most basic version of their chip. It's a really strange gameplay decision and it confused me to no end as a kid.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on June 17, 2024, 04:28:41 pm
25. Rhythm Heaven Fever || Wii || 06.13.24

(https://i.imgur.com/EJGjWZ8.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/1hmgyju.jpeg)

About ten years ago, I was first introduced to the Rhythm Heaven series while playing the first entry released outside of Japan, and my time playing through it was memorable and well-enjoyed. So, as I began to play Rhythm Heaven Fever all these years later, my expectations were high.

In short, Rhythm Heaven Fever is a collection of simple rhythm action sequences framed in odd situational circumstances, such as one stage which has the player repeatedly kicking sports balls away from a pair of weasels to impress your love interest and another about answering interview questions as a wrestler by flexing your muscles. No matter the context, players are tasked with timely button presses. At most, two buttons are utilized in each stage, but the majority require just one. Should a stage require two, these buttons exist on opposite sides of the Wii Remote, so performing these actions in quick succession is easy. However, despite stage and rhythm design often being straightforward, mastering the game's difficulty will prove to be a challenge for the average player.

Across each stage, the player is tasked with responding in a variety of ways, including call-and-repeat, reaction, and strictly adhering to the time measure. Each style offers its own difficulty, such as the complementing visual cues being obscured, the offbeat being introduced unexpectedly, or the audio being removed altogether. For some segments of stages, discerning the rhythm is difficult. Only after numerous attempts to perfect those segments did they begin to become ingrained in my understanding in knowing how to respond. A helpful inclusion the game offers is that, for each stage, a practice mode is available in explaining to players what sort of rhythm is to be expected.

Unlike some rhythm games, Rhythm Heaven Fever does not fail players to poor performance on a whim but instead assigns a ranking grade at the end. At the same time, simple feedback is also given, although I imagine most players will know what sort of sections did they act poorly. Perhaps my only complaint with the game relies on how receiving the Superb rating, which is the best under normal circumstances. For two or three stages, the Superb rating may only be earned when successfully acting upon one singular action at the stage end. So, no matter how competent the player was prior to that final action, that Superb ranking can't be gained should an error be made in that final moment. For my playthrough, this affected me several times, which was quite upsetting.

About once every five stage attempts, the stage select screen will prompt players to perfect a specific stage, allowing for collectibles to be unlocked. During these moments, the player is given three attempts to accomplish this feat. To me, this inclusion offers a welcoming way to pad out game time in an optional way that's enticing. That said, I stopped playing once I received Superb ranking for all fifty stages, with seventeen being Perfect. While I wish achieving Perfect could be possible at any given moment, the spontaneity the system utilizes instead prohibits players from replaying stages endlessly to achieve that goal.

Of the fifty stages which are divided into ten sections, ten are referred to as Remix Stages. As one may suspect, each of these stages presents a unique challenge in combining elements of each stage comprising its section, therefore creating a new song with its own rhythm. For the final stage of the game, Remix 10 comprises segments of all 28 formal stages and two additional smaller ones. Usually, there are three score states: Superb, OK, and Try Again, with the former two allowing the player to advance the game. However, the OK rank is absent from Remix 10, so only the slightest amount of errors may be made across its four-minute song. The stage was incredibly difficult, with it taking me about ten full attempts at succeeding it. It's also worth mentioning that, after the seven set of stages are completed, the game's credits appear. The remaining three sets of stages revisit previous ones with new arrangements and a spike in difficulty. Additionally, a higher threshold for succeeding is implemented, meaning fewer mistakes can be made. During this final section of the game, I greatly enjoyed my time playing, as the rhythm was much more complex and engaging.

To be brief, Rhythm Heaven Fever is a fantastic entry in the series that's proven to be near flawless so far, and it's one that I think many who are fond of the genre will appreciate. Hopefully sooner than later, I'd like to play the most recent entry in the series, Rhythm Heaven Megamix.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on June 18, 2024, 03:38:31 pm
11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door [Switch]

Finally got to play this game now that it's been rereleased on Switch, and I gotta say, this game is truly deserving of all of the praise it gets.

I've only played the original Paper Mario and Super Paper Mario before, and even though it's been MANY years since my last playthroughs, I remember loving both and both leaving a strong impression on me. And TTYD definitely accomplishes the same. The characters, the world, the plot, the humour, gosh it's all so good! Both charming and quirky as hell, and really distinct and memorable. It's a game I just wanted to keep on going and going with. I even found myself actively going for sidequests, which for me - especially in an RPG - says a lot. I even went for - and beat - the Pit of 100 Trials immediately after the final boss just because I still wanted to play a little more.

This game is genuinely a masterpiece and I'm so glad to have finally played it. Highly, HIGHLY recommended!


12. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog [PC]

The murder mystery visual novel released for free on April Fools' Day last year. I finally played it, and you know what? I genuinely liked it. It reads just like a well-written wholesome self-insert fanfiction, and I mean that in the best way. But what really caught me off guard is how legitimately funny the game is. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. There is no challenge to it at all, but I can excuse that for a game that's clearly just trying to be a fun and funny side thing. Not to mention, again, it's free. I think if you like the Sonic characters, or if you are somewhat in touch with the fanbase or its type of culture, you will find some enjoyment in this. Heck, it's only like 2 hours long anyway.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on June 19, 2024, 01:16:05 am
30. Streets of Rage 4 (PS4)

Being a Sega kid back in the early and mid 90s, I grew up with Streets of Rage 1 and 2, which in my book are still two of the best beat em' ups from that era. Years ago when I heard they were making a Streets of Rage 4 I was pretty excited, although for whatever reason it took me until last year to finally pick this game up on the PS4. I was feeling like playing a modern beat em up (originally was going to play TMNT Mutants in Manhattan, but of course it had to be the first PS4 game I've ever encountered that wouldn't work), and this game certainly fit the bill.


Streets of Rage 4 was surprisingly able to win me over to the point where I definitely like it more than the two aforementioned Streets of Rage games on the Genesis, which is definitely saying a lot. BTW, I've never played Street of Rage 3, although it's another game on the long backlog to play. But anyhow, the gameplay just felt a lot more balanced and fare compared to Streets of Rage 1 and 2, and also the boss fights were a lot more interesting and fun for the most part. A few very annoying sections, as well as the stage hazards in several stages being extremely annoying at times prevented this game from being awesome in the gameplay department, but for what it was, it was overall an improvement on the older games. A felt someone mixed on the visuals of Streets of Rage 4 at first, however there is so much enemy, boss, and variety in the stages that I definitely felt like it was a standout game visually. I also enjoyed the cool comic like scenes between levels in the story mode which really helped flesh things out even more. And then finally the OST was pretty great; it may have no been as iconic and catchy as the OST in the first two games, but it still had some excellent tracks and it deserves credit for that. I figured I'd like Streets of Rage 4, however I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. It's not going to set the world on fire and it doesn't compare to a few other modern beat em' ups I've played, but for what it is, it's a pretty damn good game. (6/18/24) [36/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 20, 2024, 08:42:25 am
46. X-Men Arcade Game - Nightcrawler

It was my 40th a few days ago and this 1-Up cabinet was my big gift from the hubs. I finally broke in my new toy, and with my homie: Nightcrawler. He has always been my favorite character. I think he was my first X-Men figure, so there's a bit of history there. I find his mutant power to be the most entertaining. It was a lot of fun just spamming it near the end and watching the boss gauntlet fall to their knees. His jumpy-jumpy-jump on downed enemies is still a riot. I have no idea why the live movies turned him into some bible thumper but eh. The way I see it, that's a different universe than the one the game takes place in.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on June 20, 2024, 06:49:34 pm
13. Fat Bear Week

Another game from itch.io that I found in one of my 1000+ games charity bundles, but I just found out you can download it for free anyway. The object of the game is really simple: you're a bear, eat as much as you can before the time runs out. As soon as you get a little fat you roll around like a ball, so it becomes kind of Katamari-esque. The bears are absolutely adorable chonkers. I just wanna hug them! I did have a few technical problems though. I couldn't get it to run on Linux through Wine or Proton (which I don't fault the game for, to be clear), so I got out my old Windows 10 laptop, but there I encountered a bug that wouldn't let me jump after I got fat and started rolling. At some point it fixed itself, I don't know why or how, but that made everything significantly more doable. I 100% completed the game, but there's also only 3 levels, so that shouldn't take you very long. Can I really fault a completely free indie game for any of this though? No, I can't. That'd just be petty. It's a cute little game that'll bring a smile to your face if you've got 15 minutes to kill, and I'm sure children will adore it. It's free anyway, so what do you got to lose? I say give it a look, and give the creators some love! Here's the link: https://teamfatbears.itch.io/fatbearweek (https://teamfatbears.itch.io/fatbearweek).
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on June 22, 2024, 07:42:44 pm
[This can be deleted]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on June 23, 2024, 11:22:41 pm
14. Lula 3D [PC]

Lula 3D is a 2005 adventure game. It's also rated AO (or for my fellow Europeans: VERY 18+), so I won't go into too much detail. I will say this: gameplay-wise it's dull and (if you don't abuse a guide) insanely tedious, but I was just playing this to get a laugh out of it. And a few times, I did get a laugh out of it (be it intentional or not). But many other times I was just kinda bored, and a few early sections in particular were shockingly drab and depressing for the tone the game sets out with. Also, in the final sections of the game I got a few random voice clips in German, the game's original language, which tells me the publishers weren't expecting many people to actually beat this. (Still not the oddest bug I've encountered this year tho: that honour still goes to the random hordes of clowns in Dr. Trolley's Problem.) I recommend the brutalmoose video on this game on YouTube (if you're over 18), but unless you're morbidly curious or really enjoy really odd games like me, don't even bother playing this. But hey, a game beaten is a game beaten.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 24, 2024, 10:06:16 am
47. X-Men Arcade Game - Dazzler

Oh, Dazzler. Dazzler, Dazzler, Dazzler. Other than Cyclops, she's not as fun to play. I will say that she has a fun outfit that screams the early 90s. So there's that. It's easy to be reminded of why no one ever played as her. Her mutant power just isn't as useful as the others. Her power can be useful if timed right, but this is an arcade game where you're button mashing your way to victory. Ain't nobody got time for strategy. Still, it was my first time playing her through to the end. So, yay?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on June 25, 2024, 03:07:52 am
18 - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5 2024) - BEAT - Gonna be honest about this, but I was kinda disappointed with this DLC.  I think it leans way too far into the worst aspects of Elden Ring and gave me a DLC experience that might be one where I don't like fighting any of the bosses.  The Shadow Blessing mechanic adds an insane challenge to this game it didn't need, the map is far too massive, so much of it empty and while visually cool, is a chore to explore with often little to find, and what is found, barely worthwhile.  There's some annoyances with the camera in certain fights and while this doesn't affect me personally, apparently the PC version has performance issues.

I know people will play this, with no hit runs, using a banana, while blindfolded, but that's not me.  This DLC is specifically made for like the top 15% most hardcore of the playerbase and kinda no one else it feels like.  I've played all their other games and their DLC and never had this rough of a time, it's wild lol It makes me so desperate for them to not do Elden Ring 2 next, I need things scaled back down like with DS3 and BB.

*EDIT* Random note to add, but I almost rage quit the DLC for good at the final boss, because I thought it was too insane, until I was reminded reading something to not use summons, which jacks up the bosses health lol Completely forgot that was a thing.  Just use a Mimic if you need help in any of the fights.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on June 25, 2024, 08:39:37 am
(https://www.gamevicio.com/static/imagens_up/big/58/dino-crisis-2-ganha-introducao-recriada-com-ajuda-de-ai-e-parece-incrivel-em-8k-057409.webp)

11 - Dino Crisis 2 (PS1) -- After all these years, Dino Crisis 2 still remains an incredibly fun game. The story could definitely use some expansion and tweaking, but the gameplay and presentation are spot on. Primary enemies need a bit more variation as well as you'll be killing hordes of velociraptors and oviraptors with the occasionall smattering of different dinos in the mix. The ability to run and shoot was a step above Resident Evil. The locations are far better and more varried in the second game over the first, but again, warrants expansion.

One of my favorite areas was the underwater lab where you take on small crocodile sized mososaurs. The feel of a gravity difference was spot on and the underwater wave effect for the visuals was well executed.

Recharge, shop and save stations were well done and welcome. Unlike Resident Evil, no need to worry about storage outside of health items.

The occasional run and gun is separated out with the occasional drive and shoot. Jeeps, tanks and boats all play a role in this game, though you're on rails generally.

The game took me about 3 1/2 hrs to beat on normal.

I can only hope that Capcom one day remakes the first, sees success and remakes the second. If they were to remake even just the first and release an outrageous collector's edition with Regina statue, I may actually be tempted.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on June 26, 2024, 12:28:50 pm
15. A Snake's Tale [PC (Linux) / itch.io]

Continuing our trail through small indie games I got in charity bundles on itch.io, we have A Snake's Tale (which I keep mistyping as Tail, but no, it's Tale). This is a puzzle game with snakes on a grid, that you have to move around to get your snake to the goal. It's kind of like that physical puzzle game Rush Hour, which I played a lot as a kid, only the cars are longer and can bend. It's a cute idea. The game has a decent amount of levels, and different snakes with different gimmicks to spice stuff up from time to time. I found it to be a relaxing game to quickly spend a few minutes in. Most of the game is not too hard: with enough fidgeting you'll beat most levels eventually. I do have to admit though that the final puzzle was too much for me and I needed a little help to get started. But oh well. Either way, it's a cute game. Worth at least a look.
Also: it has a native Linux version, which I massively appreciate. Always gotta shout that out.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on June 27, 2024, 02:58:55 pm
48. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

Before playing this, I gave Hundred Heroes a test run on Switch. It wasn't good because the load times were too much to deal with. So, I decided to swap it for the PlayStation 5 version. In the interim, I figured it would be good to play Rising so that I could get some more insight on the story and get some additional bonuses for when I restart. Rising itself was fine. It's a 2.5D action-RPG that, at first, reminded me of Valkyrie Profile. Once that veneer wore off, it was just another palette cleanser of a game that was easy to finish. There was plenty of clunking and junking, but nothing I couldn't handle. The platinum required less outside farming than I thought would be necessary. CJ, Isha, and Garoo ended up becoming a likable trio that I look forward to seeing down the road. Best of all, the loading times were non-existent. I hope that carries over into the main campaign, too.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on June 30, 2024, 09:49:34 am
(https://imgs.search.brave.com/CTfCos8DjgpJ-p_PgP81YQJxpIi53x4p7ZLdytHvRic/rs:fit:860:0:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFn/ZXMubGF1bmNoYm94/LWFwcC5jb20vNzJm/YTFhMmUtYzdiMS00/ZGY1LWIyZWMtOWM2/MDM0MGQ1YjNmLmpw/Zw)

12. Dino Crisis (PS1) -- After having a blast with the second game, I decided to go back to the first and give it another go as it had been quite a few years. I'm always talking this series up so I thought it'd be interesting to see how the game has held up. Well, it was still a blast, but not nearly as fun as the second game.

The sequel has far more emphasis on action with running and gunning. There's no shortage of ammo as you can refill at nearly any time with shop/save stations throughout the game. With the first, it's far more like Resident Evil where you have to figure out codes... a lot of codes. Many puzzles were duplicated, especially the DDK discs that needed two of each kind as well as the ID cards. Now, from a laboratory standpoint, this makes perfect sense for 1990's security, but it does tend to get a bit old in the last half of the game. Sure, there are a couple puzzles to do in the second game as well, but the first has far more of them.

What the first game does better is choices of action between Rick and Gail. You'll be asked to side with one of them a handful of times throughout the game with different scenarios adding quite a bit of replayability. This is also where a total of 3 different endings comes in. Want to unlock everything? You have to replay the game 3x getting all three endings on the same save file. Classic Shinji Mikami... emulating RE1 and 2 pretty well.

That said, I preferred the more action oriented gun-fest of the second. Both games are fun in their own way, but it was definitely the second game where Dino Crisis moved more into it's own thing instead of being a mix of Resident Evil and Jurassic Park.

Fingers crossed that Capcom moves forward with giving both games the Remake treatment. Time will tell... but if it doesn't happen... I can always revisit the classic PS1 games on disc.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on July 01, 2024, 04:12:08 pm
Game 11 - Super Paper Mario (wii) - 18 Hours

First, there a lot of clashing opinions about this game on the internet. I went into it thinking that this game was kind of misunderstood, and I honestly wanted to give it a fair shot. Unfortunately, I really didn't end up liking this game very much. Thinking back I actually enjoyed Color Splash more and I critiqued that game extensively.

There are some elements in this game that do retain the Paper Mario feel, particularly the characters and dialogue. Several of the games worlds are downright brilliant. I loved the nerd and caveman levels in particular. Some of the puzzles were really fun to solve, and I liked the main hub town which has a lot of secrets and collectables to uncover. Lastly, there were a few levels where I did enjoy the gameplay, particularly in Chapter 7. Other than those things, I think that's where my praise ends for this game.

Super Paper Mario was the first in what has been a longstanding attempt to remove the RPG components from the series as much as possible, a trend that continues even with the new releases. At it's core, the main reason why I don't like this game is that it attempts to combine the RPG foundation of Paper Mario with a platformer, and as a result it doesn't succeed very well in either. From an RPG side, well frankly the game isn't much of an RPG at all anymore. There are no badges or choices to make upon leveling up like in previous games, which was very dissapointing. The game is a linear set of levels with no interconnected word. Other than the main hub town, there are very little holdovers from the game's RPG origins. I wouldn't mind it so much if the platforming were fun, but this game plays like an watered down, clunky, and awkward version of regular Mario. Part of it is that the power-ups remain shackled to an RPG design and they're some of the worst in the series. Most powerups just heal you or give you exp/money. The only ones that really "power" you up is the 8-bit Mario, which was clunky and awkward, and the Star, which mainly used for setpieces with a lot of enemies and don't feel very organic. The main gameplay/upgrade change are the Pixls and that you can play as Peach, Bowser and Luigi. I don't know if there is another Mario game where that happens, which was cool, but I wish there was more story between the 4 characters. The Pixls are fun, but between 8 of them and 4 story characters you have to do a lot of changing between all of them to make it through the game which was a little tedious after a while.

On the topic of gampeplay, the 3D aspect of this game really perplexes me. I don't know why they thought restricting the game to 2D and then acting like the 3D change is this huge thing because if you look at any other game in the series.... they all operate on the same 3D plane. It's just the camera angles that are making the big difference in how you experience all the levels. Not to mention that every 3D space you enter is essentially a long corridor without anything truly interesting. The 3D is really just a modality to introduce puzzles like hiding pipes, ledges or platforms and it felt very superficial. I also dispised the timer for using 3D mode, it was so annoying that I would just let Mario take damage so I could keep exploring the world in 3D. There's no really gameplay reason why that timer exists. And coming from Alundra the problems of trying to hit enemies in 3D space was very all to fresh in my mind.

Lastly, the character design is also some of the worst I've ever seen in a Mario game. Most of the NPCs are indescribable cardboard cutouts made up of the strangest shapes imaginable and they look amaturish while clashing with the generally nice environmental design. It's like truly baffling, a couple of characters nonwithstanding.

I'm sad that Super Paper Mario was not a very enjoyable experience for me, although it was a pretty easy game to play through. I just need to play Sticker Star and Origami King next!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on July 03, 2024, 06:17:03 pm
26. Going Under || Nintendo Switch || 06.30.24

(https://i.imgur.com/GWgT0Xv.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/p3z3G2r.jpeg)

Looking back, I can't quite say why exactly I was drawn to Going Under which led me to purchase it a few years ago, but I suppose that's what will happen when so much time passes before playing it. Despite that, I was looking forward to the experience ahead. Unfortunately, my time playing was one of the rare instances of myself taking an extended break before completing the game (around 18 months), and it's been bothering me this entire time to pick up where I left off. Finally, I did that.

Upon starting, players are introduced to the player-character Jackie, the newly-hired but unpaid intern to one of many startup companies that's a part of the larger umbrella corporation Cubicle that places a major emphasis on AI, named Fizzle. Seemingly brought on to the team without purpose, Jackie is formally assigned to clear the neighboring dungeons created from other startups that have failed. At the same time, Jackie becomes a general assistant of sorts to all other Fizzle employees holding formal positions, therefore adding to her demanding workload. As a recent college graduate who's unfamiliar with professional settings, Jackie simply goes along with the odd tasks she's asked to complete, assuming that this sort of expectation is fine and shouldn't be questioned.

Throughout the course of her internship, Jackie must overcome three failed startup companies which are relevant to the real-world tech industry. I generally shy away from divulging more information when providing an overview, but I'll expand upon this time what sort of environments which players should expect. The first of three companies glorifies worker exploitation with the "side gig" form of employment many young people in the modern era find themselves working, comparable to a mix of real-world Amazon and Fiverr. Meanwhile, the second is a clear representation of Tinder and similar dating apps. Lastly, the third mocks any and all of the countless cryptocurrencies available on the market. Each of these three dungeons has their own unique design and enemy variety that stand out in fun and entertaining ways.

In just about every part of its presentation, Going Under approaches modern day office work for millennials and older Gen Z by poking fun at how trivial, unrewarding, and demeaning jobs can be. The most obvious indicator of this stance, and to my welcomed surprise, is the writing which contrasts self-defeating attitudes from those at the bottom to superfluous and self-gratifying corporate speak and buzzwords spouting from those above. While the game's writing offers plenty of laughs, it was its art style and set pieces which made a fun game even more so. Utilizing a popular visual design choice in the years leading up to its release, Going Under features characters who have colorful but unreal skin tones such as blue and orange while simultaneously having exaggerated proportions and geometric body shapes presented in a cartoon style. For anyone acquainted with popular tech industries or even certain marketing campaigns on a basic level, this sort of visual style should be familiar while feeling stale and overused.

Moreover, characters are funny while being written as caricatures full of modern workers tropes. More detailed character portraits accompany dialogue which are energetic, and the dialogue box itself is expressed as SMS messaging. Fizzle's office which acts as the hub area exemplifies the ethos of certain startup companies with its open spaces and modern architecture, complete with a playground slide to emphasize how fun they are and that work can be fun too. Contrasting to Fizzle which hasn't gone under, the failed corporations below serving as dungeons still rely on these principles but further reiterates a feeling of being captive to one's job. For example, seemingly positive motivational posters may be plastered on walls while leaky ceilings drip water onto contract workers who are physically represented by overworked monsters.

With all this said, I've yet to comment on gameplay itself. At its core, Going Under is a randomized dungeon crawler highlighting difficulty and the to-be expected repeated attempts to overcome stages. While navigating these environments, Jackie accrues two types of currency and skill experience based on which skills she's unlocked for the current run. All three elements aid Jackie as she overcomes each dungeon's three floors and final boss. For each dungeon, rooms and random alongside the enemies within them and the weapons and skills being available. I found there to be a good balance of traditional dungeon-type weapons and nontraditional ones, such as a greatsword or spear contrasting more novel weapon choices including monitors and wastebaskets. Even funnier items like potted succulents, ping pong paddles, and yoga balls may be used which reinforce the game's commentary on how certain companies either promote an alternative work environment or simply don't have a professional grasp on how to function by exceeding the budget on unnecessary purchases. Before, I mentioned how Jackie becomes the unofficial office assistant to everyone while completing the tasks they ask of her. This sort of activity relates to character growth as it enables the ability to assign a specific employee as a mentor which grants unique abilities that provide a stronger opportunity to complete dungeons.

Related to gameplay, something the game makes apparent to players is its difficulty. While the total number of dungeons is low, players will inevitably fail repeatedly in their attempts to reach and defeat the boss. Because of the game's randomized dungeon creation, the very nature of each attempt requires both skill and chance. From the game's start-up screen, difficulty options are available which I admittedly did use for two specific roadblocks I faced which had me spending hours trying to make any sort of progress without luck. That said, the game has also received several updates over the course of its development to make an already challenging game even more demanding. Personally, that sort of elevated challenge doesn't interest me, so I didn't explore it; but, I know it to have been well-received from other players looking for that extra difficulty.

In the end, a lot of amusement was brought to me while playing Going Under, but a lot of frustration did as well. I don't usually opt to play these sorts of games with randomized level structure, and I may not have even known about it prior to playing. Nevertheless, I think the game's execution in just about every way is strong, but it certainly won't be a game for everyone. Although, the aforementioned difficulty settings do allow for a much more manageable experience, should one choose to use them.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on July 03, 2024, 10:36:50 pm
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Quote from: Legend
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.

104. Dread X Collection: Don't Go Out (PC)
Oh boy, I didn't enjoy this one and I didn't quite get how you're supposed to survive, but I eventually popped into the house with a couple of survivors and just moved in a back and forth pattern so the guy was always diagonal to me so he couldn't ever get me, and that's how I lived to morning.  Kinda dumb and didn't enjoy this one.
Rating: Solid pass

105. Dread X Collection: Outsiders (PC)
I really enjoyed this one, despite having to play through it like 5 times to beat it, going around the house doing escape room stuff trying to get into the safe room in the basement... on a timer where something will murder you if you don't get it all done in time.  This is probably the most impressive and fun game in this collection.
Rating: Soft recommendation

106. Dread X Collection: Hand of Doom (PC)
This one was kind of cool if not weird that it's just you throwing gang signs to cast spells, I think I recalled enjoying this one as well, but I'm not sure I entirely remember it unfortunately, but it does make me think of games like King's Field and such despite being a completely different combat style
Rating: Soft recommendation

107. Dread X Collection: Shatter (PC)
This one was weird, just walking around and talking to people until eventually you please the giant fly in the sky.  Don't really remember much else other than that, don't even remember it being very horror so much as just fusking weird.
Rating: Soft pass

108. Dread X Collection: The Pony Factory (PC)
This one was closer to a traditional FPS game with survival horror elements, lots of enemies and such, relatively enjoyed this one minus the level based nature, never been a fan of level based stuff just deters me, don't know why.  Get through all the levels and then you've got to go and backtrack and go back the way you came to leave.
Rating: Soft pass

109. Dread X Collection: Rotgut (PC)
This one was buggy af, didn't fully understand what's to be done here except head in a direction.  Spooky stuff for sure, but nonsense really.
Rating: Solid pass

110. WWF Betrayal (GBC)
Ah yes, onto beating games just to fill out years on my game by year chart.  Crappy game boy beat em up game starring a few wwe superstars.  Couple of boss fights against other wwe superstars.  Kind of a shitty beat em up if I may say so, but also really short at like 4 levels with a plot line fitting WWE, also shitty
Rating: Solid pass

111. Disney's Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise (PSX)
Simple little platformer, reminds me of Crash Bandicoot, honestly, for a licensed game, it's quite good.  I probably didn't 100% the game, because I was just trying to hurry up and beat the game, but it was quite enjoyable... though the game is level based so it took me a bit to get through.  I'll always talk about it, something about finishing a level, it takes a lot of effort to get myself to click to start the next level, it's a natural stopping point and makes me want to be done.
Rating: Soft recommendation

112. Spy Muppets: License to Croak (GBA)
An absolutely awful licensed game.  This one sucked real bad, it's short, but it was buggy af and I think I missed a bunch of achievements that shouldn't have been missable, which could maybe be on the achievement designer, but who knows.  Game is essentially a series of mini-games with a little bit of story exposition in between.  It's interesting for Muppets fans, but I don't even know at that point it's even worthwhile.
Rating: Solid pass

113. 100 hidden cats (PC)
Another 100 hidden game.  I keep playing these and I will almost always not have much to say as they are all basically the same game.  That said, there are only so many of these so eventually I'll run out of these to write nothing about.
Rating: Soft pass

114. Need for Speed: Heat (X1)
Need for Speed: Rivals and on I constantly have this issue where I know I want to play the game eventually, but the lack of a pause button deters me so much.  This one has a pause button again, which is nice, but the game is still pretty buggy and slow and to be quite honest, the AI for the cops is fusking brutally unfair.  I get the design, don't get too big for your britches.  If you stick around too long, you will lose, because the cop cars are indestructable and basically one shot you at higher levels, makes no sense, but they just slap you around and you will lose.  I really wanted to work on the rest of the non-online achievements for the game, but so many of them are dependent on you doing a lot of high risk pursuit stuff and it's honestly just a fusking pain to get where it needs to be and if you make one mistake, you've got to start over... and in my case, I didn't even make a mistake, the game crashed and of course it doesn't autosave your heat or anything so I had to start over the pursuit process of building up to heat level 5 which takes like a half hour.  It's just a slog, I gave up at that point.  I'm going to try again eventually hopefully, but who knows.
Rating: Soft pass

115. Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc (GBA)
Decent enough mash up of feature sets, you've got puzzle/stealth levels with Lilo, action shooter levels with Stitch, and some sort of Super Mario Kart esque levels.  Game definitely sticks around a bit too long and the Lilo levels can get convoluted and difficult to understand what you're supposed to do, but not an absolutely awful game to be fair.  Still don't know that I'd recommend it though.
Rating: Soft pass

116. Perfect Dark Zero (360)
A lot of these tail end games are just filling out years for my game by year thing, but this is one that I knew I wouldn't necessarily enjoy, but I've been meaning to play since like 2008.  I played it a bit back in 2008, but I just absolutely hated that essentially I was going to finish this game having earned like 2 achievements because the achievements written for this game are relatively awful and unforgiving.  All said though, the story wasn't the worst, the gameplay was slightly lower than serviceable, definitely a let down from Perfect Dark 64, but what can you do when all the original team left part way through the development of Perfect Dark 64.  I will say I enjoyed my time well enough despite it being a level based slog, but the game is relatively short.  Would've enjoyed it more had I not been going through health issues while playing.
Rating: Soft pass

117. Feeding Frenzy (360)
I thought I had beaten this game years ago, but apparently I hadn't.  If I recall correctly this game is sort of rogue in that you have to start from the beginning every time you lose, but this time around I had no trouble sticking around and beating the game despite my recollection being that it was difficult enough that I wound up losing and having to start over pretty quickly, but maybe just a git gud moment.  Anyway, simple PopCap casual puzzle gameplay type stuff, enjoyable enough, will probably play Feeding Frenzy 2 next year, especially to fill out years as needed for my goals.
Rating: Soft pass

118. Elements of Destruction (360)
I'd been interested in this game for a long time, senseless destruction is a key part of finding a mindless game to destress so I had always been interested in this game hoping it'd fill that need.  Bought it years ago and only played it a little bit but I think I hadn't ever gotten into it.  I needed a game for a given year and this game filled a spot so I finally pushed myself to play it.  It's actually quite fun despite having a few BS achievements and some of the gameplay mechanics in the later levels can be infuriating.  All in all, the game doesn't really sate that need for mindless destruction because of the timer and honestly it's pretty easy to die and lose.  It's part of why I have potential thoughts about games like Superman, despite Superman being a good guy and probably being unable to cause destruction.  I'd want a game where it has purpose of some kind, but you're near invulnerable and just cause senseless destruction.  Like an evil Superman game.  Anyway, this game isn't the worst, but probably not worth the time as it doesn't really scratch any particular itch.
Rating: Soft pass

119. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360)
I've been interested in this game since it originally released, but I just never got around to playing it.  Very quickly did I see the parallels with Dragon Ball, which makes sense given both are based on the Journey to the west story (Monkey).  This game really made me want to watch Dragon Ball and buy the English translation (Monkey) of the book.  I'm pleased that Trip is voiced by Lindsey Shaw instead of Laura Bailey, really feels like a game Laura Bailey would've wound up voicing, and Lindsey Shaw does a real good job with this, wish she did more voice acting in games.  Definitely has that 360 era feel and design, but the game plays well and is lots of fun.  I think I only got frustrated when you got to Piggsy's area and the major boss in Piggsy's area, but all in all it was a real good and real fun game, just wish it had a better chapter select where you could easily go back and get missing collectibles, because it sounds like the chapter select wasn't great.  Considered buying the Piggsy DLC, because it has achievements, but I really didn't like the Piggsy character and I wasn't 100%ing the game anyway.  If I ever get the game on Steam, I'll probably give it another shot, because to be fair, I was dealing with health issues while playing the game, so I really couldn't enjoy the game as much as I probably would have.
Rating: Soft recommendation

120. Yaris (360)
Again I needed a game from a year and I was surprised to see that I had never sat down and beat this game.  Game was delisted like 15 years ago, but I grabbed it before it delisted so I have access to it. Though I've read some stuff about the game that basically you can still download and play the game since it was always free and doesn't require a license, but doesn't matter for me so I don't have to try the shenanigans.  Game is awful tbh.  The logic in the game is kind of broken, the laps are long and tedious, and there actually is a stupid level of strategy + trial and error a la old school games, but you can break the logic by hiding off the side of the screen, which is what I wound up doing to get through the game... and then even then by the time you beat the game you probably haven't earned enough credits to buy a single upgraded car, I get designing it that way so you'll play it longer or spend time in multiplayer, but it just makes the game awful in the long run.
Rating: Hard pass

121. Velvet Assassin (360)
Another game that needed to fill a year and I had again been interested in this game for a long time.  I'm pretty sure this is my own copy, but I recall my nephew getting a copy of this for christmas from my stupid older brother, and getting excited because he thought that meant he was getting an Xbox 360, but he didn't get a 360, I think to this day he still doesn't have a 360 and afaik he stepdad sold his copy at the flea market since he couldn't play it anyway.  Shit is fucked up.  Anyway, this game is basically a level based stealth kill game, kind of retroactively reminds me of Aragami, probably just as broken and jank too.  Anyway, this game was very enjoyable up until the final fight of the game, which required you to fight, with limited ammo, out of stealth, which you didn't do the entire game, and your character by design is weak/fragile and is supposed to fight in the shadows using stealth.... so the final fight of the game was infuriating and I had to basically hide in a corner and try to essentially spawn kill enemies as they rounded a corner before they could mow me down, had that final fight been better I'd be able to give it a solid recommendation, but even the stealth sections before the final fight were pretty awful as well, but I guess they were sort of preparing you to deal with non-stealth combat for the final fight, but the AI is stupid broken for non-stealth because they'll snipe you with an assault rifle from outside of the FOV the 360 is capable of drawing, so you don't even know where you're being shot from.
Rating: Soft recommendation

122. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
I got like all of the 2024 first party Nintendo games for like $20-30 each on Amazon and paid for them with credit I had built up over the year, which was nice, and with that I pushed myself to pick a game to start and this was the obvious choice as I want to play all the Zelda games and I hadn't played this one yet.  I still have a bunch of the older/side games to play.  Memes online led me to believe there would be a lot of throwing tables at enemies, which isn't even something you can do, which was pretty disappointing, but this game is real fun to play and there are endless ways to solves the "puzzles" of the game.  I put puzzles in quotes because even the combat is a puzzle when you can't really defend yourself and have to rely on what objects you can spawn.  I don't think I did everything there is to do in the game, but I did spend a lot of time doing side content in the game because the game was that enjoyable, and flipping the script and having Zelda save Link is a nice touch to change things up.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

123. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
I had started this game years ago on Xbox One, but I don't think I got very far and I had this game picked for me for one of my backlog groups.  I considered not playing the game at all, but I was like you know what, let's get all these backlog games played that were picked for me.  Game plays a lot like Batman Arkham combat wise which is pretty easy to follow and has a nice flow, add in some Assassin's Creed style parkour climbing stuff, RPG mechanics, and exploration/collectibles and this game is an absolute pleasure to play.  I wanted to spend more time in the game collecting all of the collectibles and doing side content and DLC, but I really needed to jump into the last game on my list before the end of the year, so at some point I'll need to jump back into this one.  I'm looking forward to playing the next game, but I'm concerned that it changes the paradigm and that it might not be as enjoyable.  I hope I'm wrong.
Rating: Solid recommendation

124. Blasphemous (PC)
I kept putting this game off for years because I was expecting a souls-like experience like Salt and Sacrifice and I really didn't enjoy Salt and Sacrifice and abandoned that game, I need to go back to it, but it did get abandoned.  This game however is a tough and gritty metroidvania with RPG elements, it definitely has some Souls inspiration, but it doesn't have the lose your souls stuff which makes the game a lot more forgiving in some ways.  I really enjoyed this game and look forward to getting and playing the sequel eventually, but again I didn't do all of the exploration in the game despite attempting to because I think I reached a point where I knew I wasn't going to 100% the game so I might as well just cut my losses and just go beat the boss.  It does seem like the game does let you pick up where you left off and you can keep playing without having to start over, but I think the game does have quite a bit of missable content that I missed out on, so I'd have to start over anyway, plus the game has requirements for harder modes and such for 100% so I'm not planning on doing that.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

125. Cats Hidden in Maple Hollow (PC)
100 hidden cats esque game, I say that knowing this game has 102 achievements, 100 cats and 2 non-cat achievements.  Anyway, this game was real enjoyable and was difficult enough that I think it took me a bit longer than the 100 hidden games, but weren't as difficult or unmanageable as the larger hidden object games.
Rating: Soft recommendation

LIFE RANT
I probably have more retro games to add on here, but these are the ones I know that we played through all there was to do.  My kid had this little burst where he wanted to play old games like Pac-Man and Dig-Dug, so I grabbed the Atari Collection and we played a couple of games on there.  My kid has been going through medicine changes and his whole personality changes pretty widely depending on what medicine he is on.  One had him super interested in Super Mario Bros.  One had him super interested in Pac-Man.  One had him super interested in Minecraft.  Like right now, he'll play Minecraft, but has no interest in Pac-Man.  I'd say we're trying to figure it out, but at this point we're just trying to get him back to an okay point and we'll just work with what we can, otherwise he's going into a day program at a mental health facility... this kind of stress (and I've got a bunch of different ones) is probably the big part of why I'm not doing good keeping this stuff up to date, I've basically disappeared from the forum here, disappeared from the discord I run, and have lost a lot of interest in stuff.  I should probably turn this paragraph into a rant section instead of about the game.

126. Human Cannonball (NS)
Anyway, rant over and now I'll talk about this game.  Basically you've got a cannon, the game tells you the wind speed and you've got to pick the angle at which you fire the cannon and hope your dude lands in the safety basket.  If he misses it makes a humorous sound effect, which did make me chuckle a bunch.  Real basic game, has settings to add obstacles and whatnot.
Rating: Hard pass

127. Basic Math (NS)
My kid insisted that we play this because he's back to being all about math.  It's got settings to do different kinds and levels of math.  Eventually my kid realized that if you enter the wrong answer the game corrects you and moves on to the next question, so he stopped answering the questions and kept hitting submit so the game would display the answer and move on... the problem is the game doesn't really convey it well, but it scores you so he kept getting 0s out of 10 and I'm like you lose... but he still wants to play the game anyway.
Rating: Hard pass

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Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on July 05, 2024, 09:31:28 am
Game 12 - Super Monkey Ball (GC) - 6 Hours

I love this franchise, it's so simple yet so addicting and fun. I counted this game as beat after I finished all of the beginner, advanced and expert stages. At first, it seemed to me like expert was going to be near impossible to finish, but with enough practice you kind of get in this zen state and levels that were really hard at first become a breeze later on. It's really interesting to witness. The other thing is that if you play the game enough, you'll eventually unlock unlimited continues so then it just becomes a matter of time until you can brute force your way through everything. That's what kind of happened to me on my first completion run of expert as at the time I had only gotten to floor 43 once.

Floor 36 - first continue
Floor 41 - second continue
Floor 42 - third continue
Floor 45 - fourth and fifth continue
Floor 48 - sixth and seventh continue
Floor 50 - eighth continue

I mentioned this when I reviewed the second game, but my biggest problems is that there's no camera control. You'd think the c-stick could have been used for the camera or at least a button that centers it behind your monkey. It makes some of the levels a lot harder than they needed to be. That's the only negative thing I have to say, the game is a great source of fun, both for single player and for parties.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on July 05, 2024, 10:25:17 am
27. Silent Hill: Origins || PlayStation 2 || 07.01.24

(https://i.imgur.com/MX2VRkk.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/DFascg6.jpeg)

After having finished the original numbered titles of the Silent Hill franchise at the very end of 2022, I wasn't exactly sure when I'd be picking up where I left off with the next entry Silent Hill: Origins. Prior to playing, I knew that this entry marks a major deviation from what many fans of the series deem good, but I didn't know for what reasons and began playing without any opinions clouding my own judgment.

As the title name implies, Origins is a prequel to the debut Silent Hill meant to provide additional details to the events pertaining to the town of Silent Hill and Alessa. However, little is actually explored in how this entry's protagonist Travis connects to the story. This isn't to say that the events of Silent Hill aren't mentioned—because they certainly are—but instead that the central focus revolves around Travis's own past and traumatic experiences. At the same time, it's worth noting that the details of pre-established lore isn't strictly adhered to as some of its finer points have been altered. However, this may potentially be the fault of a third-party studio being the ones to develop the a game in the series for the first time and not fully grasping the plot. Whichever the case, there isn't really anything new Origins offers with its narrative relating to previous games, with it instead feeling like an attempt to recapture the success of the original entry to middling success. Again, Travis's own story is the game's highlight, but it is far more transparent than anything presented so far, with its big reveal being almost immediately able to be deduced once introduced.With that said, Travis doesn't seem outwardly bothered by the past he now faces while instead just going through the motions of finding a way out of Silent Hill.

Be that as it may, Origins does convey mood and atmosphere alongside exploration and puzzle-solving effectively. To clarify, nearly every staple element such as paths and entryways being obstructed, an off-putting cast appearing unexpectedly, the traversal from the fog world to the other world, and cryptic puzzles solved through collecting notes are all present. But, one major difference which Origins introduces is how exploration is accomplished. Before, player-characters have no control when they're taken from the fog world to other world, but Travis is fully capable of freely moving between the two through mirrors. While I think the mechanic is implemented well, it does negate the horror setting and fear instilled onto players, similar to my opinion of Silent Hill 4: The Room's traversal means but worsened. Nevertheless, key items in one world will be needed in the other, meaning there is more depth to puzzle-solving and player discovery and a fair balance between both sections of the game.

However, what isn't balanced is the weapon system, as hordes of monsters needing to be felled stand in Travis's way. Unlike in previous games which feature a small total number of melee weapons which remain constant in players' inventory, a large portion of combat in Origins revolves around weapon durability. To me, it seems as if the developers were wanting to instill a sense of desperation as weapons will routinely break, but this presumed sense of fear quickly diminished as I amassed a large arsenal of weapons ranging from hammers to portable TVs that allowed me to carefully consider my fighting play style in the presence of specific enemies. By the game's end, I had used and broke plenty of melee weapons but around forty still remained, so I never felt unprepared for combat or needing that I had to evade it. Disregarding weapons themselves, Travis is more than capable of using his bare fists to pummel enemies which I made liberal use of against lesser monsters. When you can punch a monster to death without much resistance, the fear meant to be conveyed becomes nearly unachievable.

On the topic of combat itself, the next major difference Origins provides are QTE sequences which some enemies trigger. For certain types of enemies, they utilize grapple attacks which the player must counteract by either quick, precise button inputs or fast-paced button-mashing. While this sort of action gameplay has aged poorly in more recent years, I myself didn't find it out-of-place as it matches the more aggressive play style Travis brings. From my assessment, enemies aren't difficult to kill and seem easier then in previous entries, but the more irritating grapple system helps balance this problem. Resulting from the grapple system, it is also easy for enemies to bombard the player in groups and especially so when in tight quarters. So, while enemies on a general level pose no considerable challenge on their own, several different situations make them a threat. However, on that note, boss segments come across as elementary, as players only need to circle around them while shooting a ranged weapon, which the game provides more than enough ammunition as melee combat will likely regularly be utilized. So, generally, I never felt incapable of fighting or outright vulnerable but instead empowered at times, largely due to the combat and aforementioned weapon systems. There is still a finite number of resources, though, so some level of item management should be employed.

With both exploration and combat alike, the game's camera system and visuals cannot be ignored. Throughout the game, a third-person camera perspective dictates our movement, but it isn't a camera which follows alongside the player's movement. Instead, viewing angles must be adjusted at the push of a button so players can properly view what's ahead of them. At first, it seems like a mediocre system but still one that's manageable. But, players will quickly find fault with it considering how Origins heavily relies on changing fixed camera angles similar to the debut entry. As a result, players will inevitably continue their movement and veer into the wrong (and often opposite) direction. Naturally, this sort of system creates aggravating enemy encounters which constantly forced me to reorient myself. Of course, this system is only made worse because, unlike in Silent Hill, these sorts of abrupt viewing angles aren't utilized with tact or in innovative ways which reveal information; instead, they're used simply for the sake of it. Simultaneously, Origins is perhaps the darkest game I've ever played, and there are no brightness options to remedy this. When exploring environments without enemies around, I felt forced to spam the action button in the hopes of discovering usable items. Regularly, this means that the item discovery prompt will be skipped over quickly which forces the player to open their menu to deduce what was collected.

To quickly round off my thoughts, Akira Yamaoka reprises their role as the game's composer, and I found both music and sound to be on par with the work of previous entries. One track in particular I remember being so absolutely terrifying to the point that I stayed still during its harsh, jarring highs and only moved onward during moments of rest. Concerning the game's visuals, little can be said due to how dark everything is. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the game's FMV sequences—especially the ones nearing the game's conclusion.

On its own, Origins provides an adequate survival horror experience with its balance of somber themes and competent gameplay. But, when analyzing the game within the context of those preceding it, it becomes more difficult to judge its quality. Some fans of the series may find fault with some of the game's liberties it takes, but I ultimately found them done sufficiently. Regardless, I finished my playthrough feeling satisfied overall, although the game's visual performance significantly worsened my time playing.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on July 07, 2024, 10:49:28 am
16. Metroid: Samus Returns (Second playthrough)
17. Metroid Fusion (Second playthrough)

I've already beaten both of these games once before, but for both of them that was almost 7 years ago. Now that I've beaten all 2D Metroid games (except for the original but I think I can be excused for that) and now that my tastes have changed, I wanted to replay these games to see how I feel about them now, and to figure out what my favourite 2D Metroids are.

Samus Returns still holds up great. The world still draws me in, and is a blast to navigate. I always feel like I'm making progress. The Melee counter, which was introduced here, still feels good. Not as smooth as the one in Dread, but it still feels good to pull off. The game is never too cryptic either thanks to the Scan Pulse, which reveals hidden passageways. A fantastic addition as far as I'm concerned. The storytelling is great: Samus comes across as powerful and no-nonsense, and it's impressive how much is conveyed without a single word of dialogue or text. And the automatic checkpoints are MASSIVELY appreciated too. Really saves a lot of annoying retreading before bosses. It's also one of the rare games where I actively find myself turning the 3D on, simply because it looks great. At most it got a bit tedious in a few places, but that may also just be my own impatience. It was a great introduction to 2D Metroid, and I still love it.

Fusion though...what the hell happened here? This was my second 2D Metroid ever and I remember loving it. But this playthrough was just not that great for me. None of the Metroid games have ever given me feelings of "oh that's bullshit!" as strongly and as often as this one. Despite what everyone says about progression being linear, which is true, it pulls cryptic stuff sometimes which is on par if not much worse than Super Metroid. But on top of that, it often just felt unfair to me. Some of the bosses and segments are brutal, and while in the other Metroid games they almost always felt fair and I felt I had powered up enough naturally that I could handle them (or it would let me heal reasonably nearby), this game sometimes felt like it was just being unreasonable. It's a shame. I was expecting this game to score high because I vividly remember how enthralled I was by its setting and setup, and I kind of thought my over-reliance on a guide and possible difficulty were because of my inexperience with the genre 7 years ago. But no. Granted, I'm typing this right after re-beating it so I might cool on it later (edit: I have a little, yeah, and I still really appreciate its setting and vibe), but I legitimately feel like this game just has issues in its design. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game, you will never hear me say it's bad. But in the 2D Metroid lineage, despite how much I love its setting and story, it scores low for me.

Which is a good segue to what I wanted to make after re-beating these: my definitive personal 2D Metroid tier list (at least as of now):

Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on July 07, 2024, 06:41:19 pm
18. Gunman Clive [3DS]

I've just been in the mood for short, neat games lately. Was looking through my 3DS collection and realised I had not beaten Gunman Clive yet. A little embarrassing, considering this single playthrough only took me an hour, but hey, beat it now.

I remember this game being talked about a lot during the hayday of the 3DS as a really good, short run-'n-gun platformer, impressively developed by just one guy. And looking at it 12 years after release, that all still holds true. I think it's fair to say indie games have come a long way since then, but Gunman Clive is still quality. It feels great to play. The controls are buttery smooth. I personally really don't care for anything western at all, but the art style is still nice and wholly unique. I had fun with it. I've only done one playthrough so far, but there's 3 playable characters, and I may come back to do another run with another character sometime in the future.

Unfortunately the 3DS eShop is now down of course, but the game is still available on Steam or in the HD Collection with the sequel on Switch and PS4. It's dirt cheap too: 5 bucks for the HD Collection, or 2 bucks for the first game on its own on Steam. Not on sale: that's the regular price. And at that price? I say go for it!

---EDIT---

19. K3 en de vrolijke noten [DS]

Figured I'd add this in an edit to this post as to not clog up this thread. With that said....

(https://romspure.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/K3-en-de-Vrolijke-Noten.jpg)

....hear me out.

So K3 is a Belgian pop group. They've been around for over 25 years (with a handful of member switches), and in Belgium and the Netherlands they're well known for their upbeat bubbly pop music. I'm a fan of theirs, but while anyone can enjoy their music, as a group they're mainly marketed towards children. And you know it, when you're marketed to children in the mid to late 2000s, you're getting a DS game. (Even for K3 though, their look on this box art is pretty over the top).

Which leads me to K3 en de vrolijke noten, which translates to K3 and the cheerful musical notes (Yes I know if you enter it into a translator app it can also say "K3 and the cheerful nuts", I'm sorry, nut and musical note are the same word in Dutch, I can't help it). I just wanted to play it out of curiosity, and I had it anyway. For a K3 DS shovelware game this exceeded my expectations, but that's only because my expectations were so low they were buried next to prehistoric fossils (I swear, some of the other games based on licenses owned by Studio 100, which also owns K3, have been some of the worst games I've ever played on DS and Wii). This is a minigame collection, though it is tied together with a story (which means I could and did beat it). The minigames here are basic stuff you'd expect like dressup and tile matching, but at least it functions. Inbetween the minigames though, there's also three overworlds to explore. Sure they're completely empty with nothing to find, but it's something? The music is midi versions of some of their songs, which at least isn't awful because their music is good, but it just makes me wish I was listening to their music (and even then, the songs they chose aren't the best in their repertoir). And one nitpick: in some music games they have low-poly 3D models of K3 dancing to the song, but the routine doesn't match the song until the final minigame. Yes I'm gonna be petty like that. I finished this game, I earned it.

So yeah, this should shock no one, but it's shovelware and you shouldn't play it. It's not the worst I've ever played, it might entertain little kids who like K3 for a half hour, but they deserve better. Give them a real game and put on some K3 music. Hell, I say check out one of their more recent songs (featuring the newer members) yourself. You'll get endlessly more enjoyment out of it (and I stand by a lot of their music being legitimately good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZWV6SjzO0  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZWV6SjzO0)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on July 07, 2024, 07:38:28 pm
32. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)

With the news of Donkey Kong Country Returns headed to the Switch, I decided it was time I tackle the one classic DKC game I've never beat before playing its two more modern sequels. To be clear, I've played DKC3 several times, however I've never played it for more than a couple of hours. I remember seeing this game advertised all over the place, so it's a mystery why I didn't get ultra hyped for it back in 1996. I must have been so into the N64 that it completely overshadowed one of my favorite game franchises as a kid, I'm not sure what else prevented me from beating it for almost 30-years lol.


But anyhow, DKC3's gameplay, sound, and presentation are almost as good as its predecessors. Keyword, almost. The variety and theming of enemies, levels and bosses is great, but not at the same level of DKC, and especially not as good as DKC2. The audio was also lacking noticeably, no doubt because David Wise was not involved in it. However, for what it's worth, DKC3 still has a beter OST than easily 95% of all the games of this generation regardless, which is saying something. From a gameplay perspective, everything works as it did in the previous two games, however the design of certain stages and bosses, combined with some rather gimmicky mechanics like sucking up water in the elephant's trunk and spraying it seemed superfluous and really didn't make the game anymore fun. In fact, I kind of just found these tacked on mecahnics more of an annoyance than anything. Despite this, I still really enjoyed playing DKC3 which overall had tight, well balanced controls and gameplay. The final thing I wanted to say about this game, and perhaps by biggest issue is this games lack of an identity compared to the previous two entries. Both DKC and DKC2 felt memorable and distinct with their own style and feel, whereas DKC3 seems like a thrown together greatest hits at times, that lacks a lot of the same memorable bosses, stages, and other settings that really solidified the first two DKC games as timeless masterpieces. DKC3 just seems like a sequel that was pushed out to sell a few more SNES consoles at the very tail end of its life, except everyone had moved on at that point. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed DKC3, however it's without a doubt my least favorite of the classic trilogy. (7/7/24) [37/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on July 07, 2024, 07:53:55 pm
Well that's a 52 Games Challenge first for me; I forgot to include a game I beat and write a mini-review on it. Well here it is lol.


31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES)

Not having an NES growing up, I was forced to play Nintendo's first console at friends' and relatives' houses as a kid, however two of my favorite games to play that seemingly every person I knew with an NES had was TMNT2 and TMNT3. For whatever reason, I remember playing TMNT3 way more than the second game, so it certainly had more of a sentimental feeling about it than the much more loved second game.


As a pretty old beat em up, TMNT3 is a pretty good time overall despite suffering from an issue that most other beat em ups have, especially from around that time period. The game is incredibly monotonous with its two button control scheme and essentially killing the same enemy types with slight variations over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. The bosses are definitely a step up over the second game in my opinion, and given when the game came out this almost feels like an NES port of Turtles in Time in some ways. Still, saying TMNT 3 and Turtles in Time are comparable outside of licensing is doing Turtles in Time a huge disservice. The music is pretty catchy in this game, and I thought the levels and cutscenes were also pretty cool. Still, the game just cannot escape the tedium of its genre no matter how much I enjoy beat em ups, and just feels like it drags on forever. There are also some incredibly annoying sections, bosses, and enemies at certain parts that also had me rolling my eyes more than once. Overall though, this game is still fun to play once in a while, if nothing else than to remind me how much I loved the Turtles back in the day and made me wish I had an NES growing up. (6/20/24) [30/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on July 08, 2024, 10:30:40 am
49. Robotron 2084

While driving home from the in-laws, we stopped at a rest area just outside Atlanta. Across the street was a Pizza Hut that had an arcade cab of Robotron 2084. I had to play it. I haven't played it in years. So, while the hubs ordered and tended to our pup, I was playing the robo-hell outta this one. I worked up a sweat moving those joysticks, so I counted it as my workout for the day. It was a good way to end a rather blah July 4th weekend.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on July 08, 2024, 12:51:51 pm
Quote from: kashell on July 08, 2024, 10:30:40 am
49. Robotron 2084

While driving home from the in-laws, we stopped at a rest area just outside Atlanta. Across the street was a Pizza Hut that had an arcade cab of Robotron 2084. I had to play it. I haven't played it in years. So, while the hubs ordered and tended to our pup, I was playing the robo-hell outta this one. I worked up a sweat moving those joysticks, so I counted it as my workout for the day. It was a good way to end a rather blah July 4th weekend.


Some of the few remaining Pizza Hut sit down restaurants that still remain are typically time capsules. I went to one about 5 years ago that looked the same as it probably did in 1985. Unfortunately the one I went to didn't have any arcades, but it still had the little area where they likely once did. It was mostly a bunch of capsule toy and sticker machines in that spot. Still, it was a really cool experience knowing they never tried to modernize their restaurants; you can essentially pretend its the 80s or 90s if you visit one :p
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on July 09, 2024, 05:51:35 pm
13. Tomb Raider Underworld (PS2)

(https://imgs.search.brave.com/KtccESDSDC3N1-uMpvLi9QUatbSuN6WindqqOauyeGI/rs:fit:860:0:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly93YWxs/cGFwZXJjYXZlLmNv/bS93cC93cDEwMDEx/MzA4LmpwZw)

Ok... I ended up picking up the PS2 version of the game as I no longer have my PS3 and this game isn't available on modern or even last gen systems. I remember playing and enjoying the PS3 game a heck of a lot more than this "replay" of the PS2 version. Did some searching and apparently the PS2 version has severely cut content, not just in textures but also animations and portions of levels. It was also released 5 months after the other versions so that the developer could demake the game well enough to make it playable. Sadly... it's just passable.

Lara was often not responding to commands which I felt was odd as I had just replayed the PS2 game, Legend, without any problems. I wasn't upset about the lack of graphical quality because I was playing it on the PS2. I'm not expecting HD textures or anything. That said, the game felt hollow in comparison to what I recall the PS3 game feeling and definitely hollow in comparison to Legend. Most the puzzles had the lock and then the puzzle or key item a stone's throw away giving little to no challenge to the puzzles. Corridors in nearly every level were overly long and there was often a push to have her ride her motorcycle in order to pass areas.

Another oddity was the transitions from one section in a level to another. It was so bad that it was jarring at times. You would get to watch a cutscene and Lara would end up nowhere near where the cutscene left her off at, even if she was supposed to be in the same room. In the PS3 game, one of the first levels has you dive off your boat and swim about 250 feet down to where you're supposed to explore. In the PS2 version, you auto-start at the bottom and are not able to surface.

The hardest part of the game was judging where Lara would land when you made a jump and often, there was no way to know as the game would attempt to auto correct at times, making her blink from one space to the next. I took it as a feature instead of a bug.

The one thing that remained mostly consistent to the PS3 version was the story, which was the reason I replayed it after Legend to begin with. Glad I got this for cheap because had I bought this in early 2009 when it released for $50, I'd have been pretty mad. Putting the PS2 specific version of this game only a hair's breadth above the PS2's TR Angel of Darkness, which I consider the worst in the series due to controls, gameplay mechanics, level design and the horrible amount of glitches.

Glad it's over.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on July 11, 2024, 07:18:26 pm
20. Sonic Colours [Wii]

Widely considered one of the best 3D Sonic games from what I've heard. I've had this game for years, played like an hour of it years ago, but finally did a full playthrough now. Of the original Wii version, not the disastrous re-release.

I enjoyed my time with it! Admittedly though, I only genuinely got into it towards the back half of the game (not counting some bad levels in that half). It just took me a good while before the game clicked with me I guess. I feel like some of its timing is off  and odd compared to other games in general, and I had to adjust. On top of that, I ironically started enjoying it more once I stopped trying to rush through levels and took my time more instead.

I don't know what it is. I really like the Sonic characters and their vibes, but for some reason I just always have a tough time clicking with the Sonic games. Old or new. This game too. There's a lot that's great about it. The music is fantastic (Reach For The Stars, Aquarium Park Act 1 and Planet Wisp Act 1 slay hard). The visuals can be stunning at times. I feel like they're being held back by, ironically, the muted colour scheme, because with brighter colours this could be one of the most visually impressive games on the system. I tend to really enjoy the Sonic characters (though I gotta admit I didn't like the overly childish humour and dialogue in this game). And I think the setting of an interstellar amusement park is brilliant. But for some reason the gameplay just doesn't click with me. I don't know. If you like Sonic and enjoyed games like Generations I'd say it's worth checking out. Just because I don't click with a game doesn't mean its bad. But while I'm glad to have finished it, I don't see myself picking it back up anytime soon.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on July 14, 2024, 03:25:08 pm
50. Mega Man 5

I needed a quick break from my current RPG. And what better way to do so than with my home-boy, Mega Man? I think this is the Mega Man I've played the least number of times. It's either this, 4, or 7. Either way, it was fun to revisit this (and abusive the hell out of save states) because the controls are still tight, the music still hits, and it was fun seeing the new look of the charged Mega Buster. I kind of want to play one of my favorites such as 3 or 8, but SMTV:V continues to pull me in.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on July 15, 2024, 05:46:16 pm
28. Beautiful Katamari || Xbox 360 || 07.10.24

(https://i.imgur.com/2lqcYQY.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/C96B5RO.jpeg)

Having owned Beautiful Katamari for a decade now and even having the capability to play it for a few years at this point, it was never a game I had played despite being a fan of the series. But, after recently acquiring an Xbox One X for free, I decided that was going to change as this circumstance seemed like the best time for me to try out the system.

In truth, there has been little evolution within the series in its twenty years, meaning every entry adopts the same basic action-puzzle gameplay model. Despite this, the Katamari franchise has grown in popularity to the point where most would recognize it on some level even without having played an entry, although some may still be unfamiliar with what sort of qualities the series has. For the unaware, each game has players roll a the titular katamari, a round ball of varying size, with the goal of rolling up just about anything and everything the player can imagine to enlarge it. Built with layers upon layers of scattered junk that's littered about a bustling world that's soon wreaked havoc upon, the katamari can consume every item that's modeled in the game. Over time, players will advance from one size increment to the next which grants the ability to explore other locations. At first, players begin small and with complementing small goals, slowly increasing in size to enable them to move from one room to the next. But, not long after, goals to complete become so grand in scale and are, quite literally, out-of-this-world.

Generally, stage goals directly relate to the katamari's size, but this isn't always the only objective to clear. In addition to size, players are also regularly tasked to roll up specific kinds of items such as plants or playthings. This sort of additional challenge is not new to the series, but I remember it being introduced considerably later in other entries, whereas it's introduced in Beautiful Katamari in the second stage. While playing, I thought about this decision from a new player's perspective, and it seemed as if the focus this early on should still be on growing acquainted with the controls while simply collecting any items in a player's path to reach the size requirement. Nevertheless, the stages which do task players to collect certain item types feel, at times, obscured, as the scoring system isn't explained at all while, at the same time, not even a basic counter to tally relevant item total is present.

Once the game's progressed some to the point which players are tasked to reach around 5m in diameter, the rush of excitement in trying to absorb anything in sight which looks like a target—and often succeeding without fail—is almost constant. If able to complete a stage with a perfect score, players are rewarded with the ability to play again without a time limit. While that chaotic elation is still present to a degree, I find myself instead much more relaxed, as all the time is now available to carefully and methodically trod across environments while hoping to collect new items and reach new heights.

Across the game's campaign, players may find themselves failing, which I did once. And, even when completing the stage's requirement, the game is not afraid to convey how unimpressive scores may be and even ridicule them. Despite how dismissive the game's tone often is, this is by no means a critique, as it's upsetting in a humorous way which succeeds in making players feel compelled to do better. Throughout subsequent stage attempts, I noticed that players do not always spawn in the same starting location. While I can't say for certain previous games employed this detail, I found it to be effective, as players are forced to discover the optimal path to capitalize on their limited time. Conversely, something else worth mentioning is that the katamari players have last built will always replace the previous one, even when its score is lower. Furthermore, there is no means to view past scores, despite there to be what seems an option to do so. Also, I will briefly mention that this entry is the first to introduce DLC. Ultimately, this inclusion is displeasing, as even stages themselves are behind a paywall.

Alongside the actual stages, players will also navigate a hub world of sorts which I have divided opinions about. Foremost, traveling across it to accomplish any action is slow, and selecting a different player-character is a cumbersome process as they freely move about. Several times, the game doesn't always show or announce where a new stage appears, or if it appears at all. Should players want to play an assortment of stages consecutively, there is no convenient means to do so. Some sort of level select menu would mitigate this issue, but it's obvious that this mechanic would trivialize the casual sense of exploration that's ultimately present. However, one aspect which irritates me is that there is no menu or accessible means to view a summary of stage scores and key item collectibles which are still missing. Instead, players are forced to travel from one stage to the next to receive such information. Despite these issues, the interactivity the hub world offers is fun and definitely maintains the game's charm.

Overall, Beautiful Katamari introduces little that's new or changed, but I think that's generally fine. Unlike other entries, Beautiful Katamari offers a much straightforward gameplay progression, meaning unique stages which other games are known to have are almost entirely lacking. There are arguments for how this may be good or bad, but I think a repercussion to consider because of it is that the game's personality diminishes some. While my time playing was exclusive to the game's single-player mode, my understanding is that its multiplayer modes, both local and online, are quite successful, with the latter supporting four players and a variety of mini-games. In the end, I was always going to love my time playing a new Katamari game should the core mechanics still exist.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on July 16, 2024, 10:47:51 am
51. Kirby Star Stacker

I can't believe that I took so long to play anything related to Kirby this year. Once again, I needed something quick. I didn't want to replay one of Kirby's recent adventures. I didn't want to play the original Dream Land, either. So, I figured a few levels of a puzzle game would do nicely. Star Stacker is one of those hidden gems of a puzzle game that follows the age old trend of easy to learn yet hard to master. I played it on my GBA SP so seeing a black and white game was a bit jarring at first. It was fun for what it was, but I'm going to try to get a more proper Kirby game in the books this year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on July 16, 2024, 08:14:33 pm
21. Project Rub

A launch title for the DS, also known as Feel the Magic: XY/XX in the US, which I refuse to call it because that sounds even sleazier than "Project Rub" does. I've always been curious about what the heck this game is. In case you don't know it, here's the box art:

(https://images.nintendolife.com/f48cbbe2d47d7/project-rub-cover.cover_large.jpg)

And while that cover art is attention-grabbing enough, what stood out to me even more was that this was published by Sega and even developed by Sonic Team, of all people. So yeah, I had to try it.

I went in with zero knowledge about this game, apart from the box art you see here. I was expecting some sleazy game where you use the touch screen to massage women or something. Imagine my surprise when I found a minigame collection that's actually rather charming. You play as a guy who has a crush on a woman and wants to impress her. He does so by joining an eccentric street performance group, who do wacky over-the-top-stuff in wacky ways. You, of course, partake in the activities via minigames.

The minigames are actually pretty good! There's a good amount of them, and each one feels unique. Combined with the wacky tone, it actually reminded me a lot of WarioWare, if the microgames were a little longer and expanded on a tiny bit. You play the majority of them with the touch screen, and a couple with the microphone (this is a DS launch title after all).

The touch screen games worked flawlessly. The games are quick and snappy, and while none are very deep, some can get pretty engaging. The microphone ones became a bit of an issue though, because today I was playing on a train, which meant I obviously couldn't be loud and the microphone got confused from the constant noise the train was making. I ended up cheating it a bit by using the microphone in my headphone wires (which yes, does work on the DS), and blowing softly into that, which did work, but still tired me out a bit because my lungs can't deal with extended air blowing like that super well. The touch screen games were usually great fun though, which makes up for a lot.

The minigames are backed up by the plot, which are told through little comics with goofy sound effects. The game has quite a fun style, with faceless characters surrounded by bright colours getting into ridiculous situations, and working their way out of them in weird ways. I love how the men of the street performance group shout "Rub it!" to kick off every minigame, accompanied by the chorus in the soundtrack going "dahdahdahdahdahdahdahdah". Apparently one of the creators of this game previously worked on Space Channel 5, and its influence really shows.

This game is a silly, goofy, fun time! It's like a WarioWare with a more adult target audience. If anything I don't understand why they went with this title and this box art. I mean, I do, of course, but I honestly find it pretty misleading, and I think the game may get unfairly overlooked because of it. There is only one minigame which I'd say somewhat matches the box art, and even then it's fairly tame. The rest of it is just goofy slapstick, or on occasion even a little bit wholesome. Either that or I'm just completely oblivious to 2005 sexual innuendos, who knows.

I highly recommend you give this one a shot! One tip though: play on a non-XL DS model. These minigames were designed with the original DS's screen size in mind, and some minigames require you to swip across the whole screen very quickly. When I switched from my New 3DS XL to my old DSi, some minigames got significantly easier.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on July 17, 2024, 12:01:28 pm
52. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

It feels correct that I hit the 52nd game with such an epic RPG. I finally made it to the end after nearly 90 hours on the Canon of Vengeance route. Other than some navigation issues in the Taito and Shinjuku areas, this game was miles ahead of the original - which was a great game in its own right. The new content makes it feel like two-games-in-one. No matter which path is taken, there are tons of new demons, great QoL improvements, different language options, and probably more things I'm not thinking of. I'm really excited to get a review going for this game. Between this and Unicorn Overlord, I'm going to have a hard time picking a favorite new release of the year.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on July 21, 2024, 08:18:41 am
Game 13 - Tunic (Switch) - 21 Hours

Heavy spoilers ahead! Truly, if you have any interest in playing this game, I would take a look at a spoiler-free review first.

Difficulty in video games can come across in a couple different flavors. One is through the gameplay, and the other comes from puzzles, problem solving, or just figuring out where to go. On the surface, Tunic looks relatively superficial, but in fact this game is very hardcore both in terms of combat and puzzle difficulty. My review of this game is going to primarily focused on the difficulty level and how it related to my experience playing.

But first, I want to talk about of my less complicated thoughts. The game is absolutely gorgeous, and I loved the use of isometric 3D environments and the way they are used to hide passageways and secrets, adding a unique puzzle-solving layer. There are in fact very few physical barriers to your progression, it's only based on your knowledge that you've accumulated through experimentation or reading the manual. Dovetailing with this is the use of a detailed manual which you collect pages for over the course of the game. Although written almost entirely in another language, this manual provides you with (for the most part) all the controls, maps, story, lore and worldbuilding you will ever need. This is the main selling point of Tunic, and I absolutely loved it. It gives the game a palpable air of mystery, and creates the perfect environment for organic puzzle solving that rides the line perfectly between giving you all the necessary information you need to play without telling you directly. It ties in beautifully with a complex story that feels very much inspired by the likes of Dark Souls. The music is masterful and perfectly encapsulates the soul of exploring a ruined world where mysteries abound at every turn. It's just a very well-designed game that's polished to a mirror sheen. The only gameplay issues I had was a bit of slowdown when things got busy with enemies.

I had two different experiences trying to obtain both endings in the game. Ending A I found to be an absolute joy to play. I had a read a lot of people were having trouble with the game's difficulty but I rarely had any problems with the combat and didn't need to look up any of the puzzle solutions online to achieve the first ending. The only segment that was really challenging was the boss rush at the bottom of the Cathedral.

Ending B was where my experience playing took on a slightly different tune. At first, it felt like the first ending. Figuring out that each page of the manual holds larger secrets under the surface was an absolutely joy to uncover and I felt like a complete genius. The final Golden Path puzzle I solved mostly on my own which was one of the best feelings I've ever had playing a  game. However, this is where the manual starts withholding some of the information from the player, and some of the details I did need to look up. I despise not knowing what to do in a game, and this feeling definitely crept in during the final few hours I was playing. Particularly that cross-dashes in the Golden Path mean you hit that directional button on the d-pad twice, and the flowers/candles/tiles trick for getting some of the fairies. I do not believe this information is presented in the game and I reviewed the entire translated manual and all the dialogue from the ghost foxes.

If you're interested in playing Tunic, I would encourage you to think about your personal tolerance level for difficulty. This game may be an experience that you find very engaging and rewarding, and at the same time it drive you absolutely crazy and I wouldn't fault you if you felt that way. Few games that I've played have really set me back and think about my experiences and tastes as a gamer quite like Tunic has. At least it's been a very long time. I think overall this game is phenomenal, and might be my favorite game that I've played this year, despite my qualms with how the game's end stage content is presented. An absolute gem of an experience.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on July 22, 2024, 09:26:52 am
53. Slave Zero X

All that stuff I said about the game being awesome in the playthrough topic? Forget I wrote that. After my last post about the game, the gameplay took such a massive plummet it made my head spin. This was the WORST game I've played this year. Review below. If I recommended the game to you, then ignore said recommendation. Save your money and time and sanity.

http://kashelltriumph.com/slave-zero-x/ (http://kashelltriumph.com/slave-zero-x/)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on July 23, 2024, 10:42:28 pm
Marvel Rivals - (PC 2024) - PLAYING[/b] - Put a couple hours into the new playtest and gotta say, it's pretty solid.  I haven't really played one of these hero shooter games like this since Overwatch, back when there was 2 tanks, which shows how long ago that was lol Marvel Rivals is just straight up the same exact sorta game, but I think it does a lot of fun stuff to set itself apart. 

The art style is gorgeous, stylized without going too far, great designs, a nice clean polish to everything, a lot of the UI is just flexing it's quality.  Gameplay is all that you expect, though it doesn't seem as strict about the class setup as I think Overwatch is now, like you can have 2 tank types if you can make it work.  A neat feature that I'm curious if it'll be a restrictive idea later on as people figure out everything, but Team Abilities is a cool gimmick where if you pick a character, someone can pick a certain character that compliments that one, and doing that gives the pairing (Or in the case of Peni, Venom, Spider-Man, a triple), and get a special ability.  It's a neat idea to try and get characters to pair up abit.

Character wise there's a cool spread, I like that while they have a lot of what you'd expect, there's others they chose clearly for kind of a different playstyle, like instead of getting Wolverine out in the first go, there's Magik for her melee action.  I think I've figured out almost a full spread of characters I like for most positions, I can't say I like flying characters a ton, they are so slow, but currently it's Punisher for his damage dealing, great on defense modes, can switch to close or long range, functionally the Soldier 76 of the group.  Magik is my melee, she's straightforward with her gimmick being a short range teleport that allows her to do different strikes, it felt good getting in with her compared to like Spider-Man or Black Panther.  My healer is Luna Snow, she's an original character for the game I think, but she reminds me of Zenyatta, long range attacks, almost a similar fire rate, but she has to direct fire heal, thoughc an off-side heal with a guard ability to.

Haven't worked out a tank yet, only played Hulk which I was abit mixed on, but I'll have to spend time on that.

Overall, maybe just because it's a new game, but I feel like the game is trying to be less sweaty than Overwatch, which is a positive.  Game is nice.  As long as it doesn't turn out to be egregious like Overwatch is with its microtransaction stuff, it could be a good time.

((EDIT)) Not counting this one as even though I put like 15 hours into it, it's not released, so not gonna count it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on July 27, 2024, 06:18:49 pm
29. Star Sled || Playdate || 07.18.24

(https://i.imgur.com/ey5wo3i.gif)

Wanting to space out my time using the Playdate, I hadn't used it in about six months which felt like a sizable break. So, as travel plans approached, I knew I'd be holding onto the handheld for a few days in my pocket. With a small backlog of games available to me, Star Sled was next on my play list.

Like many of the system's games before it which I've beaten, Star Sled is an action game greatly capitalizing on the crank. In short, the player is tasked with controlling a spacecraft—the titular Star Sled—with the goal of collecting flashing glints known as Sparks, the galaxy's primary source of energy. In order to accomplish such goal, the player must fully encircle each as a "laser lariat" follows our path, one which proves as the only means to capture these resources. On its own, the Star Sled moves forward across the vast space at a constant rate, while the player controls its directional movements, so the game's controls are straightforward. However, such objective is easier said than done, as a variety of objectives stand in the player's path.

As players work toward this goal, players will encounter all sorts of environmental obstructions such as lasers, patrolling sentries, and targeting drones which all must be avoided. Regarding sentries, they are initially non-hostile, but there are means to trigger them which will promptly result in failure due to their swift speed. Meanwhile, drones are focused on attacking the Star Sled meaning they are a constant threat, but their speed is only just unmatched to the player's, so all sorts of maneuvering is required to survive. While these obstacles may sound somewhat easy to overcome, there is a strict time limit for each stage, so acting and reacting speedily, alongside performing tight loops, is necessary.

With that said, Star Sled adopts an arcade-like level design that prioritizes agile play that yields higher scores. Throughout each stage, a finite time meter depletes, so some sort of urgency is ever-present. As the game progresses, each mission introduces a new mechanic such as boost and warp which must be utilized to clear stage goals. So, while the core objective remains constant, the means to achieve it are slightly different for each section. Because of these regular changes, gameplay never dwindled causing boredom.

Throughout the game, players will navigate the open space but also through gigantic space systems characterized by their compacted corridors. Even here, Sparks must be reclaimed which often proves difficult to do, given the limited space available to operate the Star Sled. In these areas, acceleration boosts thrust the player to even faster speeds, but the game translates which direction to move toward with arrows lighting the way. To a degree, these sections offered more of a challenge than the expansive space fields, as numerous obstacles combine together which must be overcome. Still, repeated failures present an appropriate amount of tensity which will motivate players to succeed.

After completing the game's stages which comprise the main campaign, additional Mystery stages can also be unlocked by revisiting certain sectors to discover secrets. But, even after looking for answers online to know which sectors to visit, I've not been able to find what I'm needing to discover aside from the first which is nearly unavoidable. Nevertheless, even without these few added stages to play, the game's length felt appropriate.

In the end, Star Sled is yet another arcade-like action game which I find well-suited for the system. While I find it less enticing to pick up and play than some of the system's other included games, I can certainly imagine other players doing so to best their scores. Unfortunately, perhaps the game's biggest weakness is the lack of a leaderboard system, but that isn't a feature that personally interests me.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on July 28, 2024, 03:39:57 pm
30. Inventory Hero || Playdate || 07.18.24

(https://i.imgur.com/N8X20aU.gif)

Becoming acquainted again with the Playdate, I was eager to begin the next game. At this point, I'll mention how I've at least tried every included game as they originally became available to me but haven't all been completed for various reasons. So, the game I stuck with next was Inventory Hero.

While rummaging through the player's inventory may sound tedious, Inventory Hero surprisingly makes it a challenge that's fun. While the game is a RPG of sorts, the actual battle system runs automatically, thus leaving players to screen supplies with the rapid influx of item drops. At the screen's bottom half, the player's limited inventory slots and current equipment menus are shown, which there are six of each. As battles ensue, items will constantly be collected and assigned to the first free inventory slot. So, moving the cursor back-and-forth on a moment's whim to complete an action is necessary, as plenty of items are junk or simply not needed in the upcoming or immediate moment. Over time once battle speed escalates, decision-making becomes much easier and spontaneous, and it's nearly impossible to avoid some sort of mistake at least once throughout a playthrough. In short, this sort of RNG makes each new session entertaining, as the player has all sorts of items types with their own varying stats being used and eventually replaced across a short duration.

Of course, being in constant battle means equipment durability and effectiveness will dwindle. So, players must carefully consider when to use or relinquish items. Should a seventh item be collected in the six-item inventory, an item at random is discarded. Naturally, as the player-character levels up, the items available become much stronger, although weaker items still remain as possible drops. At some point, an additional system relating to equipment types is also introduced without explanation, which grants stat boosts when replacing a piece of equipment with a certain type with the same one. Although, in truth, this mechanic is something I don't fully understand, as I was always much too focused on the more basic actions needed.

Additionally, the battle system evolves by introducing new mechanics, such as having to acquire certain items to defeat a specific foe or even acquire items which must be combined with another. There are even items such as mushrooms with varying effects which quickly transform other inventory items into mushrooms as well. So, in a moment's breath, the player must decide whether to use or drop an item. All the while, the limited inventory remains and never grows larger, so there is plenty to juggle around. Once a certain point of the game is reached, I found myself dropping items far more often than using them, alongside consuming health whether I needed to or not. Also, since equipment degrades over time and sometimes at alarming rates, holding onto a certain piece of equipment without equipping becomes something to consider, but new item drops prevent this sort of hoarding near impossible.

Ultimately, Inventory Hero is all about considerations and possibilities at its beginning, although that focus eventually is lost as only spontaneity remains. At a certain point, battle speed simply moves too fast for the player to register what's happening with each action taking place, and eventually it's too late as the game over screen appears. If it's not clear yet, players should not feel attachment to the items they acquire, as they're meant to be used. By all accounts, their presence is fleeting and usefulness is momentary. More impressive equipment certainly has more durability, thus allowing more time to collect replacement gear, but mistakes will inevitably happen throughout the turbulence. During those moments, the player will panic while waiting for anything marginally better to appear, as late-game battles wipe out the player-character in one attack should stats reach low enough.

Every twenty levels, a major boss battle takes place with the enemy needing to be defeated in an unconventional way. However, there are only three encounters, and once level 60 is past,then the games continues on loop indefinitely until game over. Unfortunately, the game doesn't efficiently communicate that the game has been completed after this encounter. While a screen showing the section's area name does reappear, I initially understood this to mean that it was continuing as a more expanded stage with another boss milestone to appear at level 80 or even 100. Before looking online for an answer, I assumed that the final boss required reaching level 100, but I was wrong. For reference, my best playthrough so far had my reaching level 89. Nevertheless, even after getting to the post-game content (so to speak), I've enjoyed starting new playthroughs since they're quick. I haven't timed my time playing, but I believe a successful run takes approximately 25–30 minutes.

Since I begin each Playdate game blind, I never really know what to expect from them. Fortunately, I was exceptionally pleased with Inventory Hero, as its breakneck, arcade-like system comes across as much more novel than other games with that sort of play progression.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 03, 2024, 07:11:20 pm
54. Etrian Odyssey II

The second game in the Switch collection. More of the same, but with some different classes and a new setting. Instead of heading down, we headed up. And up. And up. I had to bring the difficulty to the easiest level at certain points because the high encounter rate tended to surprise me with new, powerful enemies. But, the game helped scratch that itch to dungeon crawl. I'll hold off for a while before playing EOIII.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 04, 2024, 12:29:44 am
33. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PS1)

Having been an RE fan for about 25 years, it was to my great shame that I'd never actually beat the original game that started it all back in 1996. I'd certainly played it a handful of times, and ironically REmake is one of my favorite games of all time, but for whatever reason I never made time to beat the original game until this past week.


The original RE still holds up surprising well all these years later. Sure, it has some gameplay annoyances like the static camera, some spongy enemies, and of course the infamous tank controls, but overall none of these things were enough to prevent me from having a good time. In fact, the main issue I had while playing RE had nothing to do with the game, but rather one of my 25+ year old PS1 memory card decided to shit the bed while playing. I was just barely able to get it working long enough to transfer my save files to another memory card, but that up at least an hour i'd have otherwise spent playing the game. But anyhow, other than that the game still is fairly creepy despite it's now heavily dated 3D visuals. The design of puzzles, rooms and areas, and some of the bosses are definitely on the more simplistic side compared to what we'd get in later entires, but honestly I didn't find this to be an issue for the most part. The infamous voice acting definitely falls into that's so bad it's goo category most of the time, and the game's OST is appropriate, albeit not super memorable. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this nearly 30-year old game and how I'd say with a completely straight face that's it's still better than a good chunk of RE games released after it, yes, even some of the mainline games. (8/3/24) [38/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on August 06, 2024, 08:20:49 am
Finished Lunacid, which is a incredible love letter to old style first-person dungeon crawlers - specifically the PS1 and the King's Field games.  Perfectly stylized with killer atmosphere and an amazing soundtrack.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on August 06, 2024, 10:18:50 am
31. A Kappa's Trail || Nintendo DS || 08.05.24

(https://i.imgur.com/VUUV8kM.jpeg)

Having what I assume to be the full Nintendo 3DS and DSiWare libraries available to me, I began browsing curated lists of the best DSiWare games to see what interested me. After installing ten or so, I decided on a whim to try A Kappa's Trail, which has little online presence despite the praise it received at the time of its release.

For those unfamiliar, A Kappa's Trail is an action-puzzle game requiring patience, time management, and strategy to guide a kappa from stage start to finish. In each stage, the player must maneuver across narrow paths while avoiding obstacles and enemies along the way. Shortly after each stage begins, a boss enemy of sorts in the form of a demon hand slowly closes the gap between you and it as the player navigates the trail. Should this enemy reach you, or directly cross paths with you at all, the player will immediately fail. Alongside this imminent danger, stage obstacles such as the stage's brightness dimming to eventually become pitch-black force the player to monitor yet another hazard that overlaps the existing dangers. Near the game's end, moving platforms are introduced which do not automatically move the player, meaning players can easily fall to their deaths should they not be careful.

However, it is not merely about getting from point A to point B, as environmental obstacles such as gaps require the use of mini kappas which are hidden all throughout the stage. Six types of mini kappas exist each with their only ability, such as linking together to create a makeshift walkway or even damaging enemies. With this in mind, there are numerous meandering paths to entice players to explore what's available to them. At times, exploration may only yield coins which serve as the game's currency or less important kappas to collect, but it serves as a means for players who want to fully complete a stage, though there seems to be no greater incentive to do so beyond self-interest. Apart from the stage summary screen, this sort of achievement only inflates the game's challenge even more as some side paths are much more difficult to traverse, so I found little reason to go through these extra trials.

Capitalizing on the system's novelties, player movement is not utilized by the D-pad or some other button input but instead by moving the stylus across the touch screen. To move, the stylus must be dragged from the titular kappa to your intended destination guides them along a strict route which can only be adjusted by an overwriting manual stop or by outlining a new path starting from the kappa. Meanwhile, dragging the stylus from anywhere else controls the camera, which is crucial to handle to survey one's surroundings which constantly shifts. Overall, the game's controls are fluid, and my faults never seemed like they weren't a cause by my own action or inaction, but I did on numerous occasions overwrite my projected path straight into a damaging obstacle. At times, the surface area available to players is small while the looming hand encroaches, so these kinds of mistakes never felt completely unavoidable.

Throughout the campaign, the game's aforementioned currency will be collected which can purchase access to a variety of mini-games and items which serve as additional stage credits, but it was an aspect I completely ignored until reaching the final two stages. As the kappa's starting health is limited to three hearts only, it becomes easy to fail during the endgame. So, as I fumbled through multiple attempts at making any noteworthy progress in a stage, I amassed a small fortune which enabled me to stockpile additional credits. During this time, I was searching online for answers about the stage I had trouble with and realized that maximum health can be upgraded by discovering secret paths, but it didn't seem worthwhile at this point. With that said, unless either of these two tools are taken advantage of, I can't imagine any casual player to be able to finish the game. So, that they exist is greatly appreciated, as I may not have completed the game otherwise.

Needless to say, A Kappa's Trail is frustrating, and the game doesn't hesitate at introducing its difficulty. At times, playing was even stressful, and I considered more than once whether to keep playing. Nevertheless, the game offers a respectable degree of challenge that I think many who are fond of early era, arcade-like games requiring credits will enjoy. Still, that numerous articles mention that the game is one of best across the DSiWare catalog is surprising, as I wouldn't consider it to be approachable to most.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 06, 2024, 09:36:54 pm
34. Mortal Kombat 2 (Arcade)

While I was fully aware of what a phenomenon the first Mortal Kombat game was when it first came out, it was actually MK2 that I felt like I was there from day one and rode the hype train for a while for that game until MK3 came out a few years later. Ironically I was forbidden from owning or playing Mortal Kombat games until the mid 90s thanks to my parents buying into the whole violent video game media frenzy of the early 90s. Luckily, I still got to play MK2 quite a bit at friend's houses as well as my local arcade. Replaying MK2 now is definitely a hit of nostalgia, as well as a noticeably improved experience over the first game. However, there are still quite a few things about MK2 that have not aged the best, mainly its very unbalanced and fairly basic gameplay. I have also never been a fan of block receiving its own button rather than just pressing back and auto blocking. While I do have to commend MK2 for introducing Animalities and Babailities, the special moves are still fairly limited and for the most part kind of annoying to pull off. The MK series was still somewhat gimmicky at this point still which means you're pretty much playing this for the cool, super 1990s stop motion graphics and the gore. Despite all this, I still enjoy MK2 quite a bit, but there are now much, much better games in the franchise to play. (8/6/24) [30/50]

35. Mortal Kombat Trilogy (PS1)

With how much I've played MK Trilogy over the years, I'm actually a bit shocked this is my first time reviewing it. MK Trilogy was probably my most hyped MK game ever when it first came out in 1996. While I could have bought or rented the N64 version back in the day, the fact that it didn't have all the characters that the PS1 and Saturn versions had was enough gor me to hold off on playing it until I was able to play one of those two versions. MK Trilogy is essentially the culmination of everything good about classic MK rolled up into a single game. It has every character, every stage, and most of the music, but luckily it uses the significantly refined gameplay of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which while not perfect is a huge leap forward from MK1 and MK2. Visually, it looked about as close to the arcade games as you could get on a 5th gen console. This is ironic since MK Trilogy was never made into an Arcade game, but the character and stages from previous games that were are still represented in Trilogy. To this day, Trilogy is still one of my favorite MK games, and at the very least my favorite classic MK game. (8/6/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 10, 2024, 02:13:35 am
36. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)

I generally consider myself to be a big Virtua Fighter fan, however the series kind of got away from me after 3 came out in the late 90s, and it took me a very long time before I ever tried its sequel 4. I haven't played 4 or its updated version, Evolution, in a very long time and I figured it was about time I reviewed it.


VF4 Evolution is a very well made fighting game from a gameplay and mechanics standpoint. Like with most VF games, I do my best to learn the moveset of a specific character and utilize it in a way that makes me a better and better player as I sink more time into the game. While Evolution did keep my interest for quite a while, it also reminded me that I'd have to sink hundreds of hours minimum to do more than just soak my feet in the water. Still, even at a beginners level this is a solid fighting game with very few flaws from a gameplay perspective. However, where it somewhat lacks is in other areas like its presentation and audio. Neither are terrible or even bad, but the graphics do look a little meh for a 2003 PS2 game. The audio, which is something I generally really enjoy in VF games was also nothing special, but again, not bad either. VF4 Evolution is definitely one of the better entries in the series I've played, but still lacks what makes many of the other entries in the series so special. I'd still definitely recommend it though. (8/9/24) [33/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 12, 2024, 11:53:57 pm
37. Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA)

It's been a long, long time since I last played the original Gunstar Heroes, however the impression it left on me was that it was a pretty good 16-bit action game overall with some minor annoyances here and there. Going into Gunstar Super heroes I expected things to be more or less the same, however I was unfortunately left with a much more frustrating, poorly designed, and annoying experience overall. Gunstar Super Heroes is certainly not without it's positives such as its cool, polished sprite based graphics on the GBA and the music is pretty good overall too. Even the action gameplay is pretty impressive and there are plentiful cool, over the top bosses to fight throughout the game. Unfortunately, many of these boss battles just feel poorly designed and frustrating, but that's not this game's biggest flaw. There are checkpoints throughout each stage and if you die after one of them, you will always reload with the same health that you did prior to dying. The only way to regain some of your health potentially is to redo the stage from a previous checkpoint and hope you retain more of your HP next time. I feel like it would have made more sense to start out with all your HP after reloading the checkpoint, or at least be given some sort of health item that allows you to have a fighting chance. However, there is an even bigger design flaw in this game. When you die, which you will a lot, you get kicked out of the game, reload to the Sega and Treasure logo that shows up when you first start the game, and then have to go through every menu back into the stage you were just playing. This got real old, real fast to the point where I just wanted to jump back into where I was, but instead had to do all the menues again, listen to the same cutscenes again, and view any scripted sequences that may have occured since my last checkpoint. This last point in particular kinda ruins the experience of this game and I'm not sure how this got past testing since the original Gunstar Heroes doesn't possess this. I'd definitely recommend sticking with the original game on the Genesis. (8/12/24) [28/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 13, 2024, 02:31:19 am
38. Sonic Advance 3 (GBA)

Last year I beat Sonic Advance 1 and 2, and overall enjoyed both games (1 definitely more than 2), however neither game was able to fill the shoes of pretty much any of the classic mainline Sonic games. I wasn't able to get around to placing Sonic Advance 3, which is the one I was hoping would be at least as good as some of the mainline Genesis Sonic games. Unfortunately it was not as good as those either, however I will say that I liked Advance 3 just a hair more than the first Sonic Advance title, making it the best of the trilogy in my book. Audio and visual presentation is pretty good in Sonic Advance 3, although I'd hardly call either of these attributes memorable or amazing by any means. The gameplay of Sonic Advance 3, while better than both previous games, was still not the greatest with some very poorly laid out stage areas, some very poorly conceived bosses, and once again the random bottomless pits make their return, albeit toned down from Advance 2. Still, I managed to enjoy this game more than dislike it as I got theough each zone. The later zones turn up the poor design and cheapness to the point where you'll question whether or not you want to beat the game, however in the end I'm glad I did. Not a masterpiece or even a must play game necessarily, but certainly one worth checking out if you consider yourself a Sonic fan. (8/13/24) [31/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 14, 2024, 01:06:13 pm
39. Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA)

If you can't tell from my previous two reviews and this one, I'm all about the GBA right now. I'm also away from home for about a week so its been a good opportunity to catch up on some handheld games I've been holding off on playing for a while.


Playing Mario Kart Super Circuit is a reminder of how I wish I would have played the GBA more often when it was the current Nintendo handheld. I owned one back in the early 2000s, so did my little brother, but aside from a handful of games I never played it as much as I wish I would have. I've gone back and replayed many of the classics on that system, but knowing how much more I would have appreciated them back in 2001 or 2004 does make me feel a bit bummed out. But anyhow, at least I'm diving into them now and enjoying them!


Mario Kart Super Circuit feels like a much prettier, slightly more refined version of the original Mario Kart on the SNES. The game makes good use of the GBA's amazing, vibrant color pallet to create some cool looking and memorable stages. The character sprites and other details are also way sharper, more detailed, and just better looking overall than anything on the SNES too. The gameplay is mostly carried over from the original Mario Kart, albeit with improvements like certain items that were never in the SNES Mario Kart game. One thing I will give the SNES game more credit for in the gameplay department than Super Circuit is I feel like the courses will designed a little better overall. However, I feel like the top 4 Super Circuit tracks are better than anything in the original game, so there's that. Finally, the audio is pretty good, but nothing as memorable as what's found in Mario Kart 64 or DS. Still, a solid OST overall, and just the sound design in general is what you'd want in a Mario Kart game. There are certainly better games in the Mario Kart franchise, but Super Circuit is still a great time to be had. (8/14/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 15, 2024, 07:50:45 am
Quote from: bikingjahuty on August 10, 2024, 02:13:35 am
36. Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)

Snip.

Man, that game brings memories. I remember getting it at a Best Buy while I was mid-Soul Calibur II. The two fighters were so, so different from each other but somehow I adapted to both playstyles.

That judo fighter (Goh?) was my favorite.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 15, 2024, 07:53:47 am
55. Mega Man 3

When you can't sleep at night, you don't drink chamomile tea or count sheep. No, you play a classic. Another very, very special game to me that I grew up with, Mega Man 3 is able to take me back as soon as the introduction starts playing. It's also still one of the more challenging games because there is no "perfect route" for getting through each RM. But, I did my usual: Hard Man > Top Man > Shadow Man > Spark Man > Magnet Man > Gemini Man > Snake Man > Needle Man. Super fun and easy for the muscle memory to kick back into gear.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 15, 2024, 08:01:02 am
56. Stranger of Sword City: Revisited - Neutral Ending/Anna

Finally, after three tries (one on Vita and two on this version) I have finished Stranger of Sword City. Out of all of the Experience Inc. games I've played, this one is the most challenging from start to end. Even on Easy mode. I'm convinced that Normal mode = hard, Easy mode = normal, and the mode easier than that (I think Beginner) = easy. The game never pulled any punches due to enemies that have the RNG to instantly kill your teammates and permadeath. Tack on very, very expensive revival/recovery fees, slow level building, brutal bosses, and probably more that I'm not thinking of an you've got the formula for this dungeon crawler. That said, looking back, I had a really great time with it. Aspects of horror (an Experience Inc. staple) seeped into every corner of this game. There was also a really awesome job system with so many ways to make your team shine. So, despite all of the cursing and frustration (trust me, there was a lot) I still recommend it to fans of dungeon crawlers. I'm going to go through as much post-game content as possible to get another ending as I gather my thoughts for a proper review.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 16, 2024, 02:36:23 pm
57. Stranger of Sword City: Revisited - Light Ending

I finished the first of four bonus dungeons. This one set me on the light path. Which, sadly, wasn't very "light" after all was said and done. However, our stat caps have increased so now I can continue building up my team. Almost done with all of the cross-classing, too!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on August 17, 2024, 01:27:24 pm
Game 14 - Flashback: The Quest for Identity (SNES) - 9 hours

I had always heard of the game Flashback but decided to randomly buy it store the other day. I had no knowledge of this game going in and I thought it was going to be pretty bad. I was pleasantly surprised; this game's pretty decent! The game is set in a very cool if cliched cyberpunk apocalyptic setting with impressive graphics and environments featuring smooth rotoscoped animation. The game features an impressive number of cutscenes and dialogue that adds to a cinematic experience alongside some great incidental music and sound effects to punctuate key moments. The gameplay and controls are pretty frustrating, but once you get the hang of it it's essentially a case of trial and error until you memorize how to navigate each of the levels. Pro tip: look up the controls in a manual because some of the controls are a little too obscure for you to figure out naturally.

I found the game's difficulty to be pretty reasonable overall. It's definitely hard, but you have unlimited continues, checkpoints, and plenty of reusable health refill stations which made the game a lot more forgiving. I think my biggest complaints were the amount of slowdown when the game has more than 1 thing on the screen (so pretty much all the time), and some issues with hit detection when you're very close to enemies. So in summary I wasn't expecting much from this game but I did enjoy my time with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 17, 2024, 02:38:08 pm
58. Stranger of Sword City: Revisited - Dark Ending

I won't spoil anything, but this ending might be my favorite. Or, maybe I have a high appreciate for it because of the effort it took to get here. After the light ending, enemies increased by 10 levels. That's the bad news. The good news is that all of the new bonus areas were loaded with treasures that let my team catch up quickly. Now, with my vanguard row being able to dual-wield 2H weapons, we're able to massacre everything. It's so satisfying. It's crazy to think how we were barely surviving when the game first started.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 17, 2024, 05:53:56 pm
59. Stranger of Sword City: Revisited - Neutral Ending/Kyo

One more for the road. Everything except a boss rush/gauntlet has been finished. I'm sad to say goodbye to this strong team of dungeon travelers I created, but I think it's time to move on to lighter stuff before Visions of Mana's release. Kyo's bonus scene was surprising. I still can't stand the mother-effer.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on August 18, 2024, 12:55:36 pm
32. HarmoKnight || Nintendo 3DS || 08.13.24

(https://i.imgur.com/JXCJ27E.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/5V5na5r.jpeg)

More than a decade ago back when HarmoKnight released, I was aware of it and considered purchasing it from the eShop since I found myself playing a lot of rhythm games at the time. Probably because of its steep price at the time, that never happened. But, all these years later with the means to play it, I finally decided to do that.

As alluded to above, HarmoKnight is a rhythm game that emphasizes player action as the player-character auto-runs along toward the end goal. Generally, gameplay is simple as players will mostly attack enemies and evade hazards in rhythm, although other additional, yet far less prominent, player controls are required to utilize throughout certain game segments. At certain points, the stage tempo can also fluctuate, which provided its own unique challenge. In brief, players must collect music notes scattered throughout each stage, which they're the only factor to determine their score. Unlike most other rhythm games, the amount of mistakes a player can make is numbered, as player health is limited. While health can periodically be regained by performing optional actions, recovery is not always available, so performing well is further incentivized in this title to prevent failing a stage completely. Something else I'll briefly mention now is that, along the path, empty spaces must be jumped over to prevent an immediate stage failure.

While most stages simply require the player to reach the end goal along one fixed route which I'll refer to travel stages, there are often numerous branching paths. When the path branches, there is a preferred direction to make as there will be notes to collect, whereas the alternative often doesn't with instead additional obstacles to avoid. Sometimes, the amount of time to react to these split paths is minimal, so obviously players must be alert at all times for the various possibilities unfolding through each stage. While a majority of the game either provides just the right degree of challenge or even no challenge for most competent players of rhythm games, late game difficulty certainly increases. So, taking advantage of every note to collect while avoiding further dangers should always be the player's priority.

In addition to travel stages, other stage designs such as battle stages and mine cart riding stages exist. While the latter functions the same as travel stages, the former implement a call-and-repeat format. While boss encounter stages do provide some variety throughout a playthrough, I can't quite say I particularly enjoyed them. They serve their purpose and function well enough, but they could be improved. For many of these stages, long introductions take place both before and often in-between player action. Of course, this makes them more theatrical as video animation plays in the background and the song does continue to play, but they often considerably inflate the stage length. This may seem like a minor inconvenience, but, for those focused on gaining the highest score rank, the feature becomes an annoyance. Something also worth mentioning is that boss stages must be performed without any error at all to achieve the highest rank. At times, there may be only be a total of 25 points in a stage, meaning 25 player actions, but later boss stages are drawn out for several minutes and are much more demanding of the player with, of course, increased difficulty.

During travel stages, players will mostly attack enemies and avoid obstacles to collect music notes, but the game introduces other means to do so, as well. First, optional percussion plants may appear which can be struck, which I found natural to do as they flow along with the song's tempo. But, secondly, the game also introduces charge attacks which result in two notes to collect. Of course, these sorts of optional actions make it easier to achieve the best rank, or even a passing rank. I personally didn't utilize charged attacks, as I found them difficult to assess the timing required for them, and they
cannot be performed against every enemy as it will result in being damaged. Nevertheless, charged attacks are an appreciated risk-reward system to be implemented. I initially wasn't set on achieving the highest rank for each stage, but it didn't seem that difficult to do after a certain point, so I tried my best. But, in the end, I only performed 56/59 well enough for the best rank, as it felt like the game wasn't always respecting the player's time. With that said, achieving the best rank unlocks a higher difficulty for that stage marked by increased tempo, although there seems to be no reward for completing these challenges, apart from their enjoyment of the challenge itself.

In truth, I first considered HarmoKnight to be quite lackluster, although it eventually did gain my interest as it became more demanding of the player, once past its first few sections. Still, it is far from a perfect game, and I've wondered how much better it'd be should certain changes have been made. Even still, I had fun while playing, and especially so during the final post-game section.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on August 19, 2024, 10:58:26 am
20. Destiny 2

I decided to mark this as Endless. It isn't beaten but a lot of the remaining main quests are locked behind DLC I don't own. And I can't say for sure whether or not I beat the non-DLC MQ because the way the story is presented is disjointed. I have also read that a lot of the original content has been removed from the game. It does have a way to play some of the highlights but you would really need to dig for that and there isn't any real progression along those lines once you get out of the tutorial missions. The problem becomes that after the tutorial section, every time you launch the game it automatically puts you into the first "free" quest of the DLCs in the order they came out. So you run into parts of the story that you wouldn't have gotten to yet, such as "returning" characters from previous quests you haven't done. What's worse is that I started playing a week before The Final Shape DLC, and that ends up being the culmination of the main story of the game. There was a lot of hype about The Witness and when other players finally defeated him, it plays a congradulation cutscene as if you were actually involved with that. And afterwards, once the Seasons started, you can go about and do whatever you want, but the individual planet characters have dialog that takes place in various parts of the story. Such as on Europa or on Mars, the characters will talk like how The Witness is some mysterious figure. So the story doesn't actually update everywhere with each of these DLCs.

The interface is quite daunting at the start as it reminds me of one of those free mobile games with the million different menus. I got used to it eventually and how to do quests. Aside from quests there are other things you can do, things that let you progress to getting titles or medals. And you can claim XP or get rewards for doing those but it is not always known where those are. Other interface quirks are instances where you have a tutorial section in a quest where you get a new power, or a new item and you have to do something with it, a blue info box shows up on the bottom of the screen and doesn't go away until you complete the action it wants you to do. In some instances what it wants you to do it not possible. Such as one where I was supposed to upgrade a particular armor piece that I had gotten... BUT I had destroyed it before exiting the inventory and that box appeared. So that box was on the screen the entirety of that game session. Other issues with the interface is that a lot of things appear in the middle of the screen and can be distracting if in combat. One is when you level up the season pass.

For the gameplay itself, some things take some getting used to. There is still even one skill I never use (the dodge skill) except by accident. The gunplay is decent enough and the game has crit spots on enemies but they aren't marked. Usually it is just going to be the head but on some enemies it isn't. The PvE sections are my favorite. Gambit it interesting. The actual PVP is not good in my opinion and I've already written about it. It has all the hallmarks of a mode type added after the fact and not in the core design. The big issue is players can become invisible. Enemies in Pve can be invisible also but the monsters do not have the ability to one-shot the player when in this state. There are a decent amount of platforming puzzles that can be found in missions, which are usually doable and not annoying. There are some where you have to do them while surrounded by enemies and these are impossible for me. There was one without enemies that was in a weapon quest that I just couldn't get down so I gave up on that.

Despite being F2P it probably is a good thing to say that you really can't do a whole lot on the free only version. You run out of things you can do quite quickly. Also for some things I do not think you can really limit yourself to playing once a week, especially if a special event is happening. So with the current event, there is no real way I would be able to complete the basic tier in time, maybe even if I had been able to play every day. Some of these limited time quests (even the Season Pass) only seem possible to complete if you are playing big hours a week. Even when I was playing it (almost) every day, at 20 hours a week I was not close to being on pace for Season 1 of the Season Pass.

Overall I'd say it is a good game. It looks really good in places too.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on August 20, 2024, 01:11:21 pm
33. OlliOlli World || PlayStation 5 || 08.18.24

(https://i.imgur.com/2pKZzI4.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/6cBPtWz.jpeg)

On a whim, I began playing OlliOlli World shortly after it was available to redeem as a monthly PlayStation Plus title last year. Near the end of my playthrough, I stopped playing for some reason despite the fun I was having, and I only recently returned to it to finish its campaign.

To be brief, OlliOlli World revolves around a group of skaters scouting for potential candidates who exude enough skill to replace the current skate wizard who's retiring. As the player, you are that candidate. In order to prove your skateboarding prowess, you must travel with the group all throughout the world of Radlandia to meet all five skate gods. Skating along each stage, players perform in a bright and unusual world that's unique and full of life. Across many stages, background characters to move about simply existing in the world in the far distance, although there are numerous instances where they're integrated within the main stage design as they act impressed to executed tricks.

As a 2D skateboarding game, there is only one straightforward objective: skate through each stage to reach the end. While there are additional challenges to clear and scores to best, these aspects are wholly optional, so it's an approachable game for anyone interested despite the difficulty that is present for those who seek it. With that said, there is a high degree of replayability within the main narrative that's offered which few would ignore altogether. Various systems combine to achieve this, including the game's scoring system, leaderboards, challenges, and open-ended design. At all times, an animated and varied level design consisting of ramps, rails, stairs, inclines, moving platforms, a sense of verticality, and interweaving foreground and background paths is present which never disappoint in maintaining player interest.

To overcome these obstacles, a robust trick catalog is at the player's disposal, with nearly every move revolves around the left analog stick in combination with face buttons or D-pad input. As more trick types were periodically introduced throughout the narrative's tutorial stages, I found it difficult to omit that new aspect from my ever-increasing combo sizes. In most regards, that is a good outcome, but the challenges in late-game areas become painfully difficult to achieve (literally.) So, as a result, players must find some balance to the game's risk-reward system by knowing when it's ideal to end a combo to increase momentum, as speed will naturally lessen if choosing to overexert grind and grind-switch actions to inflate the combo meter, which is easy to exploit to both the player's advantage and disadvantage. Unfortunately, these challenges are often unreasonable to overcome without displaying near-perfect performance. Obviously, repeated attempt after attempt is necessary to build that natural reaction which is paramount to learn, but there were certain sections where I spent an hour or two trying to clear one objective alone. Prior to post-game content, I had been able to fully complete the game's first three sections, but section four introduces a sharp difficulty spike, barring me and most others from accomplishing everything. In early stages, practice is needed to overcome objectives. But, in late game, practice is needed to simply clear a stage. As alluded to before, there were often times late in my playthrough where one or both wrists would cramp, forcing me to retire that play session.

Given the nature of the game, there were so many times which frustration set in due to continuously failing runs. It is inevitable for players to get so far in a stage only to fail during one segment. Then, the player will never get as far as they previously had. Although the checkpoint system significantly lessens failures, the combo meter is reset, so players focused on scores or clearing certain objectives will fully restart the stage, anyway. Nevertheless, the game is a perfect example of drawing out a player's desire just one more attempt mindset. And, in despite of the game's balance issues past a certain point, I always enjoyed my time playing.

I'll briefly mention the game's music at this point, because the soundtrack offers a wonderful selection of laid-back ambient tracks to offset player irritation caused by the hundreds, if not thousands, wipeouts they'll endure. Also worth pointing out is the game's entire presentation that has so much personality while always feeling confident in the atmosphere it wants to convey. Just like the trick catalog, a comprehensive avatar creation tool is available; it was fun to unlock new options after besting challenges to try out varying character looks. On a general level, its cartoon style greatly complements the game's mood.

Upon retiring OlliOlli World, I'm left feeling relieved, as it required both a test of patience and skill but were obstacles I thoroughly enjoyed. There is a mountain of content to tackle, should the player want a challenge. Although, I wish the spike in difficulty was only slightly dulled. I welcome adversity, but the current level is reserved for only masters of the game who've sacrificed their wrists.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 22, 2024, 07:52:27 am
60. Mega Man 2

The cultural reset of it all! I still like other games in the series more than this one, but MM2 is still fun and important. This week has been busy with work and life outside work, so quick games like this are just what I needed. Plus, it's been fun to relisten to all the killer tracks. Metal Man's stage still (as the kids say) slaps.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 22, 2024, 03:53:28 pm
61. Mega Man X2

I think I'm going to start calling this Mega Man X-oskeleton. Five of the eight Mavericks (Crystal Snail, Wire Sponge, Magna Centipede, Bubble Crab and Morph Moth) are cold blooded exoskeleton wearers. This has always been my least favorite of the X games aside from X7. There aren't moments where I look back and say, "That was so cool when [blank] happened in Mega Man X2." Most of the enemies are lame. Agile, Violin and Serges are all equally lame. Sigma has the least intimidating appearance this go-around. I guess some of the powers are neat. A bubble barrier is fun; it gives old-school RPG. Oh well. I said I wanted to clear quicker games while I waited for Visions of Mana and that's what I'm doing.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on August 26, 2024, 03:31:11 am
19 - Still Wakes the Deep (PC 2024) - BEAT - Needed something to give the new PC abit of a go, built a new system, realized my cooling wasn't satisfactory, had to get a new case and bigger radiator, doing all good now.  Not that this was some huge resource hog of a game, but get to max it out, running it for a handful of hours, of which this is a fairly short game, but quite decent, good visuals.  I'm not huge into the non-action horror games, but every so often a games setting has a big appeal to me, so much like SOMA did some years ago, you put a creepy horror game on an oil rig, and I'm on board.

This studio is pretty familiar to this sorta game, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Dear Esther, walking sim games with interactions and a story.  I dig this setting not just with being on an oil rig, but it's set in the 1970's with a fully Scottish crew, makes it a very unique feeling setting because of that.  Definitely had to put those subtitles on, as the accents and phrases are THICK lol Story is overall very solid, great acting, it's not a game I would do a big recommend of just because it's quite short with not a lot of replay value that I know of (I think I beat this in like 4 to 5 hours), I ended up playing it with Game Pass, but if you can get it for under 20 bucks and you are into these sorta games, big on story, not much gameplay depth, then go for it, it's a solid bit of creepy.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 26, 2024, 09:36:37 am
62. Cosmic Fantasy

If I see the credits roll in a game, then I count it as finished. If that means seeing said credits in a roundabout way, then so be it. All that to say that I "finished" the first game in the Cosmic Fantasy Collection. Cosmic Fantasy was not good. I can't give it too much grace for being a game from 1990 because I'm pretty sure other RPGs of that era had spells/items that actually worked. Other games of that era allowed party members to trade items back and forth. The list goes on. I'll definitely give it kudos for having those awesome animated and fully-voiced movies. But, that's where my praise ends. Cosmic Fantasy 2 is supposedly better but that isn't saying much.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 27, 2024, 01:01:31 am
40. Time Crisis 2 (PS2)

While I'm not as crazy about the Time Crisis series as some nostalgic 90s arcade goers, it's still an important series to me no less. While I did play many of the Time Crisis games in the arcade back in the day, I actually had the most exposure to them with their home console ports. Other than Time Crisis 3, the other game in the series I spent the most time with at home was Time Crisis 2.


While it is probably lacking in some way I'm not aware of, Time Crisis 2 on the PS2 is essentially arcade perfect in my book, as I can't distinguish any difference between the two versions. Of course, the PS2 version lacks the peddle to go back and forth with cover, instead using a button on the Guncon 2 controller instead. This does take away from the engagement to a degree, but otherwise I have no complaints with the PS2 port. The gameplay is very fast paced and fun, however it does suffer from a bit of arcade cheapness involving sometimes getting hit when your taking cover, and then other times not. On top of that, it gets annoying when you think you're in the all clear and you get merced by a bullet that comes your way the instant you come out of cover. It sucks. The game is also very, very short, but I feel like I can't necessarily complian about this since most light gun games are very short, bite sized experiences. Visually, the game still looks great despite originally coming out in 1997. There are plenty of cool effects like explosions, chase sequences, dynamic and destructable stage elements, and a variety of other floursihes that make this game pretty pleasing to the eyes. Finally, the audio is also pretty good with a decent OST and some actually good voice acting, even though the dialogue is very cheesy. Time Crisis 2 may be the most classic and beloved in the series and it's easy to see why while playing through it again over 25-years after I first played it in the arcades. (8/26/24) [33/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 27, 2024, 09:02:24 am
63. Mega Man X3

Golly-gee, I love this game so. I know that the first X is considered the best of the games on the SNES but I'll always give that accolade to X3. X is awesome. X3 is awesome-r. I love the heavier rock soundtrack, the multiple endings, the different boss fights you can unlock, and the power-ups are so varied. I had a lot of fun replaying this one, as always. I should get another run of X in at some point.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on August 28, 2024, 01:38:43 am
One game abandoned, One game complete today.


5. Time Crisis: Crisis Zone (PS2) - ABANDONED

For the record, I remember playing Crisis Zone in the arcade way back in the day and really liking it, especially due to all the environmental destruction and the use of full auto weapons all the time. However, while I do enjoy the arcade version of this game, the PS2 version is a whole other story. More or less, the aspect of why I really disliked the PS2 version and inevitably dropped it is due to the entire screen looking like a dense fog storm rolled in every time you come up from cover to fire your gun. It was beyond destracting, annoying and also impaired my ability to see certain enemies, especially if they're far away. At first, I thought there was something wrong with my PS2 or maybe the game until I read that the fog (which is supposed to be smoke), was added to the PS2 port in order to make the game work despite the technical limitations of the PS2. Honestly, I'd rather have the PS2 version just not exist given how much that fog effect ruins the game almost entirely. I played most of the first stage before I just couldn't do it anymore and turned it off.


41. Time Crisis 3 (PS2)

Now onto a GOOD PS2 port! While Time Crisis 3 more or less carries over the same tried and true cover mechanic the series is so well known for, it was the game that pioneered weapon swapping in order to better deal with specific situation, enemies, or bosses. This mechanic definitely makes 3 a much more fun and engaging experience than its predecessors. On top of that, the action seemed to be kicked up even more, with some very cool set pieces that unfold while you're blasting through stages. Audio wise the game is on par with the previous entires, and there is a lot to be said about the cheesy as hell dialogue and cutscenes. Overall, this is definitely an improvement over 2 despite not being as iconic I suppose. (8/27/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on August 30, 2024, 01:35:58 pm
64. Cotton Reboot - Cotton

Well then. This was a surprise. Cotton actually made a cameo in a game I completed earlier this year: Rondo of Swords. She was probably the strongest magic user in the group. I wasn't sure if that was because she was a secret character or because that's how she was in her games. I'm guessing it's a bit of both because this girl was zapping, burning, and crushing all sorts of things while atop her broomstick, looking adorable. The term "cute 'em up" is apt here. This was one of the most colorful and addictive games I played. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on August 31, 2024, 09:41:50 pm
Ended up liking Super Mario Bros. Wonder enough to get 100% completion, so I definitely liked it more than the "New" games.  It got better as it went along, but the difficulty curve was way too shallow.  It starts out far too easy and never gets particularly difficult, even in the challenge worlds (which is why I decided to get 100% - I knew I could do it relatively easily).  I don't know what it is,but it just felt like there was a spark missing. Overall I'd recommend it, but I'd say it's just a pretty good game, and not a great one.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on September 01, 2024, 05:33:36 pm
42. Sonic Rush (DS)

I'll definitely add this game to the list of Sonic titles I unfortunately overlooked back when they first came out. In my defense, however, in 2005 when Sonic Rush came out, I was probably the least into video games I'd ever been. Between around 2004 and 2006 I barely played video games and overall just wasn't that interested in them. I actually didn't even get a DS until around 2009 or so. But I digress.


Sonic Rush is the best handheld Dimps Sonic game I've played so far. While I mildly enjoyed the three Sonic Advance games on the GBA, I actually really liked this one and found myself having a lot of fun with it. Visually, the stages, 3D elements, characters, and overall presentation are pretty good. The OST is a mixed bag for me despite learning Sonic Rush's soundtrack is typically considered one of the better ones. I sort of disagree with this as there were several tracks that kinda got on my nerves, but I will say that it fit the theme of this game well, so I'll give it that. Gameplaywise, Sonic Rush is pretty good for the most part, but with some issues and annoyances. For starters, the implemntation of both screens being used at times made some of the platform sections more difficult because there is a weird blind spot between the upper and lower screen that occasionally made me misjudge my jump and where I was going. On top of that, the Zone layouts are a mixed bag with some being some of the better Sonic zones I've ever played, but others being pretty annoying. And it wouldn't be a Dimps Sonic game without countless bottomless pits, especially the final two stages. Despite these gripes, however, I really enjoyed Sonic Rush as it proved to be an overlooked gem and actually one of the better Sonic games I've probably ever played. (9/1/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on September 02, 2024, 01:34:40 pm
34. Soul Fjord || Ouya || 08.27.24

(https://i.imgur.com/K4zx8Xa.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/mvgh3FA.jpeg)

The year is 2024, and I feel as if I am perhaps one of dozens, at most, to setup their Ouya system and actually complete a game. After discovering how simple it is to sideload games onto the system, I decided to play Soul Fjord since it's one of the few remaining exclusives not ported to other platforms. In the end, though, I didn't even need to do anything to access the game, since I already had it downloaded, considering it was always available as a free download.

As for the game itself, Soul Fjord has a lot of personality. Players assume the role of Magnus Jones, a funk warrior who's fallen in battle. Rightfully recognized for their valor, Jones is resurrected so that he's able to enjoy the everlasting entertainment and freedom that Club Valhalla offers. But, at the club entrance, Magus is purposely denied entrance by the door attendant and promptly thrown far into the depths below. Now, Jones is on a journey of revenge as he climbs the tree of Yggdrasil. In short, Soul Fjord is a bizarre blend of Norse mythology and 1970s funk, although there's even more to divulge. Parallel to the plot, gameplay consists of the dungeon crawler and rhythm genres colliding, which is as unique as it sounds.

On the climb back to Club Valhalla, Jones navigates through procedurally generated dungeon floors with interconnected rooms that are simple in design with a few forked paths along the way. In each room, various enemies lie in wait, each with their own types of attacks: melee, long-range, status-inflicting, or DOT. To my surprise, enemy attacks deal high damage too—upwards of 50% of the player's max health, even. On their own, enemies are generally not much of an issue, but they're typically encountered in groups of two or more. Alongside the player's attacks which prevent enemy action, there is also a block action to mitigate damage, but I didn't utilize the function. Running away is always a fine tactic, as it will usually divide enemies away from each other.

However, it is the player's combat itself which is the main gameplay focus. At all times, beats move along a visual metronome of sorts at the bottom of the screen which provides players the rhythm needed to perform successful actions. While players can instead choose to ignore this aspect altogether, attacks will be significantly weakened. So, with that said, players must perform various button combos in rhythm as they're shown on screen, which grants real-time action. Considering the game's size, there is a large assortment of weapons available, each with their own combo prompts to perform. Additionally, each weapon offers to combos, relating to light and heavy attacks. Something else I suppose I'll mention now is how rhythm and action complement each other. To me, they really didn't, as the game's music isn't in-sync with the metronome. Individually, all three elements are successful, but they leave much more to be desired when together.

At the same time, Soul Fjord is a game with permadeath mechanics. Upon death, all of the player's progress is lost, although there are opportunities to preserve certain equipment. As it stands, this sort of gameplay gimmick seems odd to incorporate, as the game isn't overly difficult or long, and it can most certainly be finished on the first attempt, as I had done with my playthrough. However, a higher difficulty mode does become available once completing the game, so perhaps it's better utilized there. Nevertheless, the idea that all my progress could be lost was always at the back of my mind, so a level of tension was always present. While it may seem like I'm implying the game is easy (which it is), death is certainly still possible. I came close on two or three occasions, but I successfully avoided it. In total, there are nine stages to complete which are comprised of three sections. Advancing from one section to another introduces a large jump in difficulty that requires players to further prioritize equipment and items, and it is in these moments that I imagine more careless players will perish.

With its strange mix of genres and themes, Soul Fjord absolutely stands out from other titles available for Ouya. While it's no secret the Ouya was a failed system, this doesn't mean Soul Fjord is some system seller either, but it does offer an enjoyable exploration into the sort of experiences that can be made when developers think creatively.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on September 02, 2024, 03:58:30 pm
I know it's still very early September, but I've been putting a lot of thought into what games I'm going to playing leading up to Halloween. Like many, October is a month I typically spend playing horror themed games, or games that have a more spooky aesthetic to them. I usually start playing games like this in September since there doesn't seem to be any shortage of games that meet these criteria. Here is my play wishlist until October 31st.


1. Silent Hill (PS1) - I played this game years before and thought it was pretty good, althought it's no SH2 in book. I want to give it another go and see if maybe like like it better the next time around.


2. Resident Evil 6 (PS4) - I've never played RE6 and am curious to see if it's as bad as many say it is. After playing RE5 late last year, I'd be surprised if I liked it less than that game.


3. Resident Evil 0 (PS4) - I haven't played this game in at least a decade, but remember enjoying it quite a bit. I originally played it on the Gamecube back when it first came out and remember liking it a lot. That's why it surprises me that so many people consider this to be one of the weaker RE games now. I'm looking forward to playing it again and seeing if it is in fact weaker than I remember.


4. Little Nightmares (PS4) - My wife played this game and the sequel a few years ago and I remember thinking they looked really interesting and fun. I'm looking forward to playing them myself


5. Castlevania Rondo of Blood (PS4) - I've played Dracula X on the SNES, which was alright, but to my understanding the original PCE Rondo of Blood is a significantly better game. Seeing how much I love Symphony of the Night, I'm really looking forward to trying this one out.


6. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64) - I've been meaning to replay this game for the better part of 20-years now. I acgually haven't beat MM since it first came out in the early 2000s. It always had a bit of a fall-ish feeling to it, and the mask mechanic obvious reminds me of Halloween. I really hope I get around to playing this one.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 03, 2024, 08:42:48 am
65. Cosmic Fantasy 2

The good news: you can walk in eight directions instead of four, the anime movies are crisper, and the graphics are slightly better. The bad news: everything else. At the time of their initial releases, both Cosmic Fantasy 2 and the first game were attempts to keep pace with other heavy hitters like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star. They have the look but not the feel. Cosmic Fantasy 2 just isn't fun to play. There's a lot wrong that I'll probably gripe about in a review. Did Working Design's published version receive any acclaim? Were these games well-received in Japan? I have no idea. All I know is that I'm done with this series. I'm still glad I gave it a chance but lessons learned. If LRG does another collection then I'm ignoring it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on September 04, 2024, 01:36:34 pm
Game 15 - Moon (Switch) - 26 Hours

Something about video game design that I've always been really interested in is the use of violence and conflict. The vast majority of video games, even something tame like Mario, rely at least somewhat on violence as part of the experience. As a result, I've been more drawn to games that are designed with a non-violent approach. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad about a violent video game - I enjoy them as much as the next person. I just think that in general, video games tend to lean more towards violence because it's the easiest way to present a challenge or obstacle for the player. It's why I think games can be a turn off for a lot of people where other forms of media are not restricted in this way.

It's for this reason why I found Moon to be an incredibly interesting game that I still don't think gets enough attention, despite it's established cult following. It is most known for it's subversion of tropes frequently present in RPGs. When you play an RPG, you're often murdering creatures indiscriminately. You barge into people's homes and take all their stuff. It's only about what makes me better in terms of stats and experience points. Moon asks the question if maybe what you do in an RPG isn't ethical, and places you in the position of a boy stuck in the video game world that he ravaged as the player, who is now tasked with rectifying all the destruction he previously caused. Through playing the game I considered if what I did as a video game player was really worth all those experience points. That stray dog that you scare off and almost kill is actually pretty cool in the end and you can actually teach him tricks. That monster you almost destroyed was actually someone else's pet. So your goal is to revive all the animals that you previously killed and befriend all the villagers, with the overarching goal of collecting love rather than levels. It was so refreshing to play a game that explores some different ideas about the relationship between you as a player and the game itself.

I also absolutely loved the game's visuals and music. While this may not be all that exciting to some, something about this game's look just clicked with me. It's a mixture of 2D sprites and claymation figures on pre-rendered backgrounds and I think it looks so good. The soundtrack is simply divine, featuring an eclectic variety of music ranging from Debussy to hard rock, blues, techno, 90s-era rap, shamisen, pop, and so much more. The game's overall scenarios also reminded me a lot of the quirkiness seen in Earthbound. Each character and animal has their own unique little personalities and idiosyncrasies that you need to uncover in order to obtain love, and it was such a charming and humorous experience trying to collect as much love as possible.

While Moon is billed as an anti-RPG, this is really only referring to the story. Gameplay wise it's just a puzzle game with no real RPG holdovers. It's a puzzle game mostly about trial and error, where you acquire a multitude of different items that you can use to help explore the world and rescue all the animals. The gameplay to me felt very much like Shenmue in the sense that the game operates on a day/night 7 day week cycle and you have to be in certain places to trigger events and progress in the story. So like Shenmue, there's a lot of wondering around and waiting for things to happen which can get very tedious. There are a collection of different mini-games that do break up some of that monotony however.

No, my biggest complaint about Moon is the game's ending. To summarize, basically the game cannot be truly finished until you recognize that the only way to truly obtain love is to go outside and stop playing the game. While this is a nice sentiment, it completely goes against what I thought was the overall message of the game. It felt like a slap in the face "gotcha" moment where the game told me that none of the actions you make in a video game actually matter, when the whole point is to imagine a "what if" scenario where your actions in a video game do matter and have consequences. It creates so many plot holes and inconsistencies in the story, and given the existence of an unused, much darker ending that better fits with the game's message and ties together the story better, I was very disappointed in how it was handled.

All that said, I still think this game is excellent, one of the most memorable games I've played in a long time. If you're at all interested in Japanese games that are quirky, different and off the beaten path, definitely give Moon a shot. Particularly if you like RPGs.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 05, 2024, 03:38:53 pm
Someone else that played Moon! Nice work, Telly. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 05, 2024, 03:39:07 pm
66. Time Hollow

I feel like this game was one, massive wasted opportunity. Or maybe, this would have been better as an anime or movie. The actual gameplay isn't bad, but it's really tedious. The story never goes anywhere despite it being a time-traveling murder mystery sent in the present era. The problem solving is simply done with trial and error and/or saving and reloading. Just so much stuff that didn't get towards half of the potential promised by the game's concept. It makes the six or so hours of game time feel longer. At least the anime movies are gorgeous. I can't recall the last DS/3DS game I played that had them. Maybe Sands of Destruction?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on September 08, 2024, 11:10:46 am
Quote from: bikingjahuty on September 02, 2024, 03:58:30 pm
4. Little Nightmares (PS4) - My wife played this game and the sequel a few years ago and I remember thinking they looked really interesting and fun. I'm looking forward to playing them myself

If you do end up playing and enjoying Little Nightmares, be sure to add Reanimal to your radar. Tarsier Studios, the original developers of Little Nightmares, never had the IP rights to the franchise as it's instead owned by Bandai Namco. So, when they were purchased by Embracer Group, this led them to create what, to me, seems like an even more horror-focused platforming adventure title. The trailer for Reanimal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUymvhAXOnM) brings a lot of anticipation.

Quote from: telly on September 04, 2024, 01:36:34 pm
Game 15 - Moon (Switch) - 26 Hours

All that said, I still think this game is excellent, one of the most memorable games I've played in a long time. If you're at all interested in Japanese games that are quirky, different and off the beaten path, definitely give Moon a shot. Particularly if you like RPGs.

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure has been something I've wanted to play since learning about it well over a decade at this point, and especially so considering the developers involved. Since I own a copy of the game now, hopefully I get around to playing it much sooner than later. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on September 09, 2024, 11:51:44 am
Game 16 - DaGeDar (DS) - 5 Hours

Someone randomly gave me this game and I needed a DS game to play anyway so tada! A review of DaGeDar. I know nothing about this line of toys but apparently there's a racing game about them. I thought this game was going to be trash, but it turned out better than I expected. At it's core, it's a fun 2D racing game with a good consistent speed. It's reminiscent of F-Zero with the bouncing around the track and use of speed boosts. There are 33 courses which are open ended encouraging you to experiment and find shortcuts. It's fun trying to collect all of the different racers too, which you can obtain from finishing the campaign, time attack rounds, or by finding collectables in each stage.

Unfortunately while this game is fun, it's not the deepest experience. There is no interaction with the other racer (there's only one) so you're really just going against the clock regardless of whether you pick time attack or the main campaign. Speaking of the campaign, there are three divisions based on difficulty but all the tracks are the same in each one. It's just your opponent that gets harder. So I had already seen all of the game's content just by finishing the Novice division. You'll also see all of the features of a given track in the first race, meaning there aren't any surprise twists as you finish each cup. Lastly, although it's fun to collect the different racers, you can't customize your racer at all and they all just end up being blurry and indistinguishable on screen anyway.

DaGeDar was ultimately a pretty superficial racing game but there was enough there that I did enjoy my time playing and thankfully it didn't outstay it's welcome.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on September 09, 2024, 04:31:27 pm
35. Yakuza 0 || PlayStation 4 || 08.29.24

(https://i.imgur.com/utcI8JA.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/kXNGs8x.jpeg)

It had been a short while since I'd last played through a Yakuza title, so I knew it was time to revisit the franchise. For a lot of reasons, I was excited to play Yakuza 0, the entry that's often credited for popularizing the series outside of Japan.

To begin, I must first mention the order of games as they're intended to be played. Despite Yakuza 0 releasing as the sixth entry in the series, a large number of fans recommend to play it first, as it exists as a prequel. However, I feel adamant about prioritizing games being played in the order of their release, and the Yakuza franchise is no different, although later entries Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2 serve as fine substitutions as remakes for the original two entries, should someone want to prioritize playing them instead. The reason for these contrasting opinions largely exists because of the aforementioned remakes, as they contain some added content with references to Yakuza 0. At the same time, though, all sorts of references to later events are also present through the prequel entry, so the argument for playing it first isn't really sound for that reason alone. Another aspect to consider is observing each of the two protagonists, Kiryu and Majima, nearly two decades before they're first seen during the events of the debut entry. As Yakuza is a narrative-driven franchise reliant on the characterization of its large cast, the first five entries provide players with an extensive amount of time in knowing its characters and the relationships they hold. So, to prioritize the prequel first forgoes this context altogether, meaning there's no impact to impart onto those new to the series when these aspects are subverted when peering into the past.

Since the game serves as a prequel, it's amusing to see franchise protagonist Kiryu young and fresh without influence, as he isn't even a yakuza member for a large portion of the game's events. In fact, he's much less refined and quick to confrontation with a hotheaded attitude which may shock series veterans, although he still maintains upstanding morals even so long ago. Similarly, delving more into Majima's past to see more reasons as to why he scorns the yakuza is just as compelling, with he too being temporarily exiled as a member during this time. As the conflict unfolded, I found the internal politics they're forced to overcome as less of a threat on a general level as issues relate to lower ranking officials who lack the sheer power of authority later antagonists harbor, although this is sound logic when considering the position both characters are in. With that said, I felt as if the plot wasn't as layered as it's shown it can be when compared to previous entries, as it's fairly straightforward while largely omitting twists and turns.

Having already been mentioned, Yakuza 0 is now the third entry which divides gameplay among multiple characters, albeit only two this time. Overall, there is a satisfying back and forth between Kiryu and Majima, in terms of dividing the narrative. Considering the number of player-characters, the story offers a much more focused progression than the previous two entries, which was welcoming to see. Like with Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5, how these two seemingly distinct stories come together isn't apparent, which makes for a fun reveal by the time they do collide. On that matter, though, the game's two protagonists only meet at the game's closing scene, with no interaction between the two shared before then. Nevertheless, how the two are brought together in a clash against the game's antagonists from two different perspectives is rewarding. In fact, I found it to actually drag on considerably with a lot of repeated dialogue and pauses, as the divide between story and gameplay is not balanced.

Relating to combat itself is the game's leveling mechanics which places an emphasis on money. In brief, stat progression managed through an open-ended skill tree system. With this system, players who are wanting to prioritize certain fighting styles or character build are given some freedom to explore that possibility, though casual players strictly adhering to the main narrative will likely be barred from advancing far due to how pricey certain ability upgrades become. Nevertheless, for most players, the system accomplishes what it sets out to do. Throughout the game, money is liberally rewarded to players from all sorts of means, though the skill tree's inevitable taxing fees won't likely be paid for through combat alone, as fights yield little profit. Instead, excessive gains are almost all collected through the game's two major side ventures: real estate and cabaret club management. Of course, these minigames are fun, but they also force players to interact with side features to enhance character growth, which is irritating, as combat-focused games generally rely on some sort of experience system instead to progress. Be that as it may, Yakuza 0 succeeds at promoting players to explore and interact with its world through its aptly named Completion Point system. With this system, players accrue points to spend on other general gameplay benefits, such as being able to secure more money through various means.

Regarding gameplay, Yakuza 0 is the first game proper in the series that introduces a variety of fighting styles for players to seamlessly shift to and from throughout combat, which is likely a design decision made after building different styles for each character in previous entries. In general, the system is entertaining while providing some needed variety during action segments. Yet, in spite of this variety, it also feels a bit limited in scope as individual styles on their own lack depth, although that seems like an unavoidable trade-off given that there are now three initial styles per character. While players will likely prefer one style over another, there is some strategy involved, as certain enemies will be much easier to defeat with a specific move set.

Apart from plot and gameplay, there is the game's setting. Throughout this prequel entry, the story takes place in the middle of Japan's economic bubble in 1988 which pervades nearly every facet of the game with its super inflated economics. With five prior entries each set in their contemporary time, going back in time nearly 25 years to see a familiar place be vastly different is such a visual treat. All sorts of fun aspects are present throughout the game's two cities which come together almost as a character itself, ranging from disco and breakdancing to broad-shouldered suits and telephone clubs. I think there is a lot of fondness of this specific time period in Japan whether experienced personally or not, and the game excels at capturing this moment in time completed by Yakuza's outlandish attitude.

Ultimately, I greatly enjoyed Yakuza 0, though for its systems, mechanics, and setting instead of narrative. After completing my playthrough, it doesn't come as a surprise why this is regarded as the fanbase's favorite's entry, although I still enjoy Yakuza Kiwami 2 most.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on September 12, 2024, 11:31:57 pm
20 - Star Wars: Outlaws (PC 2024) - BEAT - I was cautiously hopeful for this game, as it's the type of Star Wars game I've wanted for many years now.  It's not about any of the expected Star Wars fan favorite characters, it's grounded gameplay without all the Force/Jedi stuff, and it's open world.  I think the game nails most of that pretty well.  Got the right tone, the characters are good, they nailed the setting.  You feel like you are in Star Wars.  Kay Vess is a fun lead, the crew you build up that'll lead to an eventual heist I liked, Nix and ND-5 are bro's, that's all great stuff.

Where the game falters is in it's gameplay and bugginess.  Gameplay leans heavy into the stealth aspects, you can duke it out in missions that don't require stealth, but you are a thief, stealth is preferred.  Combat is fine, Kay is equipped with a multi-blaster weapon, but I really would've liked to instead have the options of like caring whatever pistol I wanted and then a rifle on the back.  I don't need her to be the Doom Slayer and go Rambo on everyone, but little blaster that doubles as a tool is kinda blah.  She can pick up blasters off the ground, but they have ammo and will run out.  She also has one of those powerup attacks, lets her auto target in slow-mo, basically Cassidy's ultimate from Overwatch.  This is actually the only thing that can be used while on Speeder, because for some reason, you can't ride and shoot normally for some reason.  They have the camera put to the tight turns, but you don't need the tight turns with mouse.  It makes me think they just ran out of time for Speed combat, so you just get quick boosts of adrenaline and you spam her auto-attack. 

Enemy AI is not great, it's functional, but bland, most AI doesn't do much other than go into cover or push forward.  Death Troopers actually feel like they have something to go on, but you are rarely fighting them.  Space combat is basic too, it's not bad, but it's fine. 

Lots of bugs too, mostly visual glitches, it gets bed on Tattoine where there's lots of lights flickering and on the swamp planet, the main town ground would get super weird.  This can be sorta fixed by turning on Ray Tracing, but RT tanks the frames, so I didn't like to use.  I feel like it got a smidge better with the update the other day, but not much.  There's also lots of goofy bugs I saw ND-5 twice in a cutscene, lots of weird stuff with him in general, not much gamebreaking, but I think this game needed another 6 months of polish and beefing up aspects of the game.

The open world is simple, but solid, like I know people want to rag on it for being another Ubisoft open world game, which it is, and normally that would be bad, but I think it's like OLD Ubisoft open world games, like Far Cry 3, AC: Black Flag sorta Ubisoft era.  There's no levels to grind, you aren't having to climb towers constantly, you get these nice hand made areas to explore, there's 3 land open world zones and I think 3 space zones to explore, so there's just enough to do with feeling abhorrently huge, there's lots of clothing to find that offers bonuses, but I just dressed in whatever looked good as you don't need to wear it for the stats.  I beat the game and did a bunch of side stuff like maxing out two of the gangs rep in 25 hours.  I assume it's about 40 to 50 for completion sake, which is very reasonable nowadays.

So it's that split, where they nailed everything they need for the story, setting, and characters, but the game itself is mixed.  It's probably not far off from what Jedi Fallen Order was like, where they did a lot right, but it had jank and slop that kinda undercut stuff.  Can't compare it to Jedi Survivor yet as I haven't played it, but will soon.  I would say if you are a Star Wars fan and you want something dealing with the underworld, no Jedi, this game is decent, I'd just wait a little while for it to patch itself up and go down in price.  I'm hoping it gets a sequel, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't though, as I think there's so much room for improvement and I really want to see where else they go with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on September 16, 2024, 12:01:13 pm
36. The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me || PlayStation 5 || 09.09.24

(https://i.imgur.com/BNY13wM.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/wxypZJ2.jpeg)

After nearly three years since I've played an entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology series, I finally picked it back up by playing the final title in what's referred to as the first season: The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. I was a little surprised at how much time had past between then and now, so I was curious at how much, if at all, my opinions about the franchise altogether had changed during this span.

To set the scene, the events of The Devil in Me surround a struggling film documentary crew comprised of its failing owner and amateur crew members. On paper, the dynamic between the cast's five playable characters seems appealing: a bumbling boss who earns little respect, a recently-ended relationship, a budding relationship, and a bitter rivalry. Of course, these dynamics also coincide with the individual issues each character faces. However, the success of the game's writing—arguably its most important aspect—is questionable, although I'll later delve more into those thoughts. Nevertheless, the game's cast finds themselves being invited under mysterious circumstances to a remote location perfect for the subject matter of their recent project, that being a recreation of a 19ᵗʰ century hotel that was the site of America's first serial killer. Hours into their stay, it's quickly made apparent that their host is a killer set on murdering them in a twisted way, made possible by the building's technical modifications including sliding doors, animatronic mannequins, and life-threatening traps that can only be overcome with a calm and methodical mind or, often when multiple people are caught, through self-preservation.

Like with the previous games, this latest installment is a choice-driven branching narrative experience which leads to a high number of possibilities and warrants multiple playthroughs with its cause-and-effect system. Though traditional action-oriented gameplay is limited, a variety of QTE prompts appear throughout the story alongside general navigation, including ones which require precision aiming, breath control, hiding, and general action responses. Additionally, basic modes of exploration exist such as crouching, climbing, balancing, and shimmying across narrow pathways, although they're not particularly implemented in any interesting way. Regarding hiding which is new to this title, these moments came across as if the player is meant to fail them, as there is little time to scout the surroundings, which was most evident in one instance in particular. At the same time, only four of these prompts appeared in my playthrough with a lot of time between them, so I never became adept at them as I forgot the controls and would fiddle with the controller in a panic. Perhaps that's fine as it probably better mimics a real life scenario, though.

Alongside the aforementioned mechanics, the game's most novel use of varied gameplay lies in unique character actions. These skills, so to speak, largely relate to each character's role as a crew member. So, for instance, one character can control a sound mic to hear distant noises while another has the ability to fix broken fuse boxes, and these abilities are available to help progress the story, although a lot of their use is optional, as they're tools to use to help reward player curiosity. However, being tasked to use these actions even when prompted is not always obvious, and the novelty of some wears off quick. Overall, I think the idea of this kind of system is worth further exploring in later titles, as it wasn't implemented well during its debut. Since players are forced to control one specific character during each event, there isn't any puzzle-solving relating to them, or party management, or even the opportunity to be barred from certain interactions. And while these ideas may not be well-suited for the series, I think it's worth considering those options, as it seems the series is moving in the direction of being more action-oriented, although the degree of it remains to be seen.

Going back to the topic of the game's writing, I admittedly found it subpar, which is a shame considering the type of story-focused experience The Devil in Me is. While the five playable characters are written with promising character relationships, there is little character interaction which offers the opportunity to witness them or have them change. In general, even, there is little time devoted to players, as they seem more focused than ever in this installment to escape the perils before them. Where it matters most, characters seldom talk to another. But, oppositely, I repeatedly encounters moments where I'd be tasked to read important found documents as one character with the other talking extensively, as to interrupt my action. While ultimately inconsequential, it was annoying. Apart from the characters themselves, though, some segments felt boring, for lack of a better term. At times, the player is tasked to simply move from one room to another with no consequence, sometimes made worse by elementary puzzle design and extremely dim-lit environments. For most of these instances, I found them to be unnecessary. Overall, it took a long time for the narrative to gain my interest as the beginning chapters are slow even once the threat's been known. But, perhaps there's only so much to offer players as they run from a killer before it outstays its welcome.

As with most things, horror is subjective. With that said, there are a lot of creepy, unsettling set pieces to encounter which complement the game's serial killer theme, but none which instilled any sense of fear or disgust in me. For me, the same can be doubly said of the actual killer, however silent and pursuing they may be, although perhaps that's because it felt like I had very few direct confrontations with them in my playthrough. More so than in any previous entry that I remember, there is a high number of jumpscares to startle players. During every moment that I was taken aback, it was a result of some jumpscare, which always felt like a cheap thrill as it's not reliant on the mood or subject matter itself.

Across the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology, entries are known to have quick development times which often leads to a long list of issues. In my playthrogh, the most notable problem was an audio glitch that left me confused, as I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not for some time. Something else was on-screen UI that would vanish at times, and there was an instance or two of visual hiccups. Parts of the game certainly need more work on a general level, though, as menu UI needs improvement alongside the game's character AI. Altogether, though, these issues were nothing major—certainly nothing game-breaking, at the very least.

In my playthrough, not everyone survived. I had considered to start a second playthrough right away, because I am curious in how different scenarios may play out, but I decided not to, for now. Ultimately, The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series I'm still fond of playing, and I'm hoping that the second season to be introduced in the coming year is made with higher standards. As a concluding thought, there is a lot to consider when determining if an entry is best or worst across certain parameters in the context of its contemporaries. While I can't objectively say The Devil in Me is the worst in the series, it's certainly not the best.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on September 17, 2024, 12:55:42 am
43. Resident Evil 6 (PS4)

Ever since RE6 came out in the early 2010s, all I ever heard was how terrible it is and how it was the absolute worst mainline RE game. Going into playing RE6 for the first time myself, this popular opinion helped set my expectations very low to the point where I wondered if I'd even finish the game with tales of how bad it was. After finishing RE6, however, I not only can't fathom why people hated this game so much, but also I'm left surprised by how much I liked it.


RE6 is the most Resident Evil-ish feeling game since RE Code Veronica, which definitely lends itself to why I enjoyed it so much. When it comes to presentation, RE is almost as good as it gets for a late release PS3 game. It's hard not to compare it to The Last of Us since they cameo out the same year, and while TLOU has RE6 beat in terms of graphics, detail, art, and sound, RE6 isn't too far off in terms of quality. There are a lot of interesting, cool settings in RE6 as you literally are going all over the world in the game's four campaigns and fighting a wide variety of diverse bosses. Speaking of bosses, RE6 has probably some of my favorite bosses, not just in terms of design, but also in terms of how you fight them. One minute you are taking one down on the back of a truck rigged up with machine guns, and the next the boss is literally all around you like you're fighting the blob or something. It's super cool and definitely added significantly to my enjoyment throughout the game. As mentioned, there are four campaigns, which have you playing as one of two unique characters for that campaign. By far, my favorite was the Leon/Helena campaign, mostly because of how much it reminded me of classic RE games. Meanwhile, Chris' campaign felt like a much more enjoyable version of RE5. The Jake/Sherry campaign was probably my least favorite due to too much overlap with the Chris/Piers campaign, and neither Sherry or Jake doing much for me as characters. The Ada campaign felt like it was all over the place and had some very high highs for me, but several pretty low lows. Overall, the gameplay was definitely decent, but also wasn't anything special. There were also a few noticable blemishes that did impact my enjoyment of the game, mostly some very annoying sections, a somewhat broken cover system, poor hit detection at times during melee combat, and a few bosses and enemies that were just sort of cheap and poorly designed. Sadly, the gameplay is the weakest part of RE6, but overall it still worked and was enjoyable for the most part. One final gripe I had about RE6 has to do with both how long it was, but also it's tendency to have you retread the same areas and sections of the game due to overlap in the character's campaign stories. As a result, you'll be fighting certain bosses more than once, going through certain sections or areas with multiple characters, and just overall it made me wish Capcom had done a better job as trimming some of the fat off this game. There's no reason this game couldn't have been a 12-15 hour game, instead of a 20-hour one, but for the most part, it wasn't that big of an issue.


RE6 is probably one of the biggest and best gamoing surprises I've had in a while. While the game is no masterpiece and is very far removed from the survival horror roots of the first few games, it is still a fin, entertaining game in its own right. I feel like one of the most common criticisms of RE6 is that it felt to much like an over the top action game and less like an RE game. By that same logic, those people should have hated both RE4 and RE5. Obviously very few people dislike RE4, and RE5 seems to be going through some sort of internet revisionism as of late where people act like it's a much better game than it really is. Regardless, all I know is that you should never take what the internet says at face value and instead form your own opinion on games, movies, or whatever. I have with RE6, and honestly its one of the better RE games I've ever played, mainline titles or otherwise. (9/16/24) [38/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on September 19, 2024, 11:32:47 pm
22 - Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered (PC 2024) - BEAT - Wasn't planning to get this so soon, but my impatience for a zombie game, even one I played in the past got the better of me.  Overall I thought this was a decent time, I can't outright compare everything to the original, I haven't played it in years, but this is a proper remaster, it's basically the same story and content, but with overhauled visuals, new and more voice acting, and improved gameplay.  Everything has been polished up, survivors got a huge improvement, while still very much being a product of that 7th gen gaming era.  That's a "for better or worse" sorta deal really, because I think the game could've benefited from the Resident Evil remake treatment more than just a straight, prettier, remaster.  Have the mall be seamless, improve the gameplay, overhaul the boss fights, and more features and content...but that's also a much more expensive game and I'm guessing the idea was to do something relatively lower budget to kinda bring back Dead Rising in a smaller way, test the waters again.

One thing I forgot was how bad the games final act is lol It's a big swerve to action with bullet sponge enemies and while you do get generally proper aim controls, you still hold still to shoot which is a little obnoxious.  A few bugs that could be looked at have to do with zombie/cultist spawns feeling very clumpy at times, it feels like zombies grab you more often when they shouldn't, zombies will sometimes just de-spawn, like if there was a group behind you and you go into certain stores, you can turned and see nothing there, just de-rendering entirely.  Something that could be overhauled abit is difficulty, because the original at times could be very frustrating, a lot of that due to how clunky of a game it could be, but now you level fast, you get so much PP and it's a little much.  Not that you can't die from bosses or get hurt, but they could have slowed that down abit.

I had a good time, I even didn't mind the timer this time, which was a general annoyance for me back in the day as I don't like being pushed to accomplish goals, I want to explore and do things at my own pace.  I might do some infinity mode for abit, but I wouldn't mind them doing this to Dead Rising 2, perhaps remaster that, maybe do abit more with it, and then maybe that could lead to a new DR game, like ignore DR3 and DR4 and do something more in the style of DR2.  I think that would be cool.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on September 21, 2024, 11:09:38 pm
23 - Warhammer 40k: Space Marine (PC 2011) - BEAT - With the sequel out, I had sorta realized I never played the original fully, only a few hours back in the day for whatever reason, so figured why not, I'll pay through it first before I see about getting the sequel eventually.  I've always had a passing interesting in Warhammer 40k, the hardcore, edgy, grimdark, scifi with cool dudes and ladies in armor does a lot for me, but never a hobby I got into as it's a very costly and involved one lol

I think this game is totally fine.  At the time, it was made with the Gears of War trend in mind, big chunky men with big weaponry and violent melee action running into battle arenas and down corridors.  They thankfully were smart enough to not make it a cover shooter, because that's not the Space Marine's style, but it's functionally just Gears of War.  I think it's abit of a bland take on it thoug.  Aesthetically it gets most of what you need, but I don't know, something about the weaponry isn't as satisfying as I think it could've been, I think they also spend too much time on the grab kills, it's like Doom Eternal where you need to stun and then kill an enemy to get health back and some take forever.

I think it holds up well enough for being a nearly 13 year old game too.  I did mod it, but for only one single reason, I wanted a helmet on Titus lol It's the coolest part of the Space Marine's look and the whole squad goes without them, but there's an easy mod that just gives him one, even gets bloody like the rest of him, though there's no voice changer unfortunately, but it was like the one nitpick I had at the start.

Overall, it's fine, I wouldn't say go out of the way to play it unless you are just a big W40k fan that someone never played it, the story probably doesn't matter much to the sequel other than a little element involving Captain Titus's unusual resistance to the Warp/Chaos, so other than that, the sequel is probably it's own thing otherwise especially since I think it takes place like 200 years after the original from something I saw lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on September 24, 2024, 02:59:35 am
44. DOOM 64 (PS4)

My first birthday after getting a Nintendo 64 for Christmas, my mom allowed me to buy two N64 games from Sears. The two games I picked were Cruisn' USA and Doom 64. I was familiar with the Doom franchise at the time due to its reputation in the early and mid 90s, and also renting the SNES port a few years prior. I was very excited to finally own a Doom game, however my 10-year old self was not ready for how atmospheric and spooky this game was. I legit dreaded playing due to how much the amazing sound design and very creepy ambiance freaked me out. The other part of Doom 64 I wasn't prepared for was just how challenging this game is, often for all the wrong reasons. Doom 64 has some of the worst level design in the franchise. While some levels are fun and well made, I'd say half the stages have unintuitive level design, tons of back tracking to find out what some random switch did, and mechanics that are only used a couple of times throughout the entire game that you're not even even thinking about when you need to use them. I had to refer to walkthroughs on literally half the stages, at least, after aimlessly trying to figure out what I needed to do next for 20+ minutes. It really impacted the pacing of this game as well as my overall enjoyment at times. Still, despite his fairly big gripe, the game is still pretty damn fun and I though the art design, as well as how cool many of the stages looked really lent itself to me enjoying myself and blowing through this game in just a couple of days. However, playing it now, I 100% get why I never made it past the single digits in terms of stages and ended up eventually trading it in for something else. As for Doom games, its fairly mid, but still worst playing through at least once. (9/24/24) [36/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 24, 2024, 08:34:39 am
67. P.N. 03

I stopped by a buddy's house over the weekend to chill and he was popping in random games to make sure they worked. One of them was this. We ended up finishing it. Obviously, this one worked. This game epitomizes Capcom in the aughts. It's ridiculous in both good and bad ways. It's a very clean, sleek looking game with one of the silliest main characters ever. She has like ten lines in the story but it's hard not to love her as she taps her toes to some song in her head. Also, the game was short so that's a major win in my book.

68. Visions of Mana - platinum'd

The third, major new game for me this year and another winner. I'll be doing post-game content and saving most of my praise for a review. But for now, I have to say this was a blast. So much personality, so much high fantasy that the series is known for, and so many options with making your favorite team. I think for now my only complaint is that the jump button is also the examine button. The game can't keep up with some of the quickness so I'd end up jumping instead of talking to someone. Funny at first. Annoying not long after.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 25, 2024, 03:07:56 pm
70. Emio: The Smiling Man

While visiting family, I stopped by a GameStop near their place and picked this up. I thought it would be a good way to gear up for the sp00py gaming season. The game was a point and click, visual novel detective game with clean visuals and easy to use interfaces. It also had a groovy soundtrack. Unfortunately, it's a slow burn. Even for a game like this. The first chapter really gets you in the mood to solve the case. Things don't really become interesting until the ninth or tenth chapter. The game has twelve chapters in total. So, yeah. It was kind of a snooze fest for the majority of the time. I still plan on keeping the game. Said trip was one of the most impactful ones so this will act as a souvenir for that.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 25, 2024, 03:15:50 pm
71. Emio: The Smiling Man - Minoru

A bonus story that sums up everything that goes on with some of the key players before the story begins in earnest and fills in all of the gaps from the main story. This was a nice bonus to a rather blah game. I really appreciated that the second half of it was done with some gorgeous, high-quality anime. If you do play Emio: The Smiling Man, I'd say it's worth it to see things through to completion so you can enjoy this bonus material.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on September 28, 2024, 04:39:43 pm
45. Tekken 8 (PS5)

I've wanted to play Tekken 8 since it came out several months ago, but thanks to a very thoughtful anniversary present from my wife, I can now play it and see if it's as good as it looks. I'm very happy to say that it is just as good as it looks, if not a little better than that. Tekken 8 shines in the department you'd most want it to, and that's its very tight, very well crafted gameplay. Everything is fairly easy and accessible in terms of controls and being able to execute some of the games more technical moves, however at the same time you know you're only scratching the surface when pulling off wicked combos and other special moves. The rage gauge makes its return from the previous game, but also has a heat gage which is sort of a less powerful rage gauge that allows you to punish your opponent when used, and also grants you special moves you can only use while it's active. Balancing of characters seems pretty good, with no single character seeming way better than the others, although like all fighting games, i'm sure there are several competitive favorites. But at least from my casual, ammetuer perspective, everything felt very well crafted by the devs and it all translates into one of the best gameplay experiences of any Tekken game I've ever played. The presentation is also very good, although it's far from being my favorite Tekken game from a visuals or aesthetics standpoint. There are some unique stage destruction effects, as well as secret areas that are only unlocked by slamming your opponent against the ground or a specific wall to unlock them. The OST is very Tekkeny, with some very high energy techno tracks, but a few others too that provide a nice change. Like the visuals, it's not my favorite Tekken from an OST perspective, but it's definitely an above average audio experience overall. If I was ranking Tekken 8 compared to all the other Tekken games, I'd place it only behind the original Tag Tournament as well as 5. Other than that, it's the best modern Tekken I've played, mostly due to how amazing its gameplay is. (9/28/24) [39/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on September 29, 2024, 12:04:09 pm
22. Meteos

When it comes to "beating" a game, I'm always confused as to what to do with short games with multiple endings. One playthrough gets me the credits. Does that mean I beat it? Or do I need to get all the endings before I can say I beat it? Ah screw it, I got five out of twelve endings thus far (which also means I got 5 credits sequences), and getting the rest just means playing almost the exact same campaign modes 7 more times. I may sometime soon, but I think it's fair to say I know what the game is about and call it beat.

Meteos is a really fun and heavily underappreciated puzzle game for the DS. It's a "matching blocks"-type game, where you move blocks vertically to create a match, which launches those blocks and the ones on top of it towards the top of the screen. It's a brilliant twist on the matching blocks-style gameplay, making you play in multiple smaller playing fields as you launch segments and think ahead in how to chain more together. It's addicting, keeps things varied with different block styles and physics for them, and it's very fun to play! I do hope this and the Disney spin-off for the DS won't stay as the only times we see this franchise. It's a unique and underappreciated gem - especially considering it comes from the mind of Masahiro Sakurai, of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. fame. It deserves more love. Glad to have played it, and I will definitely play it some more after this!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on September 29, 2024, 01:53:59 pm
37. Silent Hill: Homecoming || PlayStation 3 || 09.25.24

(https://i.imgur.com/1ouw97q.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/NC83kdx.jpeg)

While I continue to play through the Silent Hill franchise, Silent Hill: Homecoming was the next entry for me to experience. At this point in the series, there is much fan discussion regarding which entry is the worst, and it's always a toss-up between three or four titles with Homecoming always being one of the least popular ones mentioned. Nevertheless, I didn't know the exact reasons for why that is, so I began with few expectations for me to gain my own opinion.

In its first moments, the game introduces an intense position that the protagonist Alex Shepherd finds themselves in, as he's tied down to a gurney in a derelict hospital, now frightened with confusion after having witnessed horrific scenes in other rooms. During this sequence—and for the remaining duration of the game—the player's main goal is to find Alex's younger brother, Josh. For a majority of the plot, there is little progression, and it is only in the game's final sections does the narrative unfold greatly. With that said, the plot is straightforward and revisits common themes established in previous titles, namely psychological horror and family. The game's title reflects such themes: returning home to a broken family, a town you never quite felt welcome in, the presumed duty of parent and child, and reclaiming what's been lost, be it physical or otherwise.

Despite the game's thematic similarities to previous titles, its gameplay turns away from what's been previously established to a considerable degree. Immediately after players assume control, it's been abundantly clear that there's a heavy emphasis on action-focused combat while mentioning combo chains, even. To be upfront, there is a lot to comment on about the game's battle mechanics, although I'll maintain some level of brevity yet mention now that they come together in a way which makes Homecoming feel like a total outlier. In short, combat is exhaustively irritating in how it controls, leading for many encounters which should be relatively effortless anything but. New to the series, two defensive commands have been implemented: ducking and dodge rolling. Both are ineffective (especially the latter), and I found simply running away from enemies far more practical to avoid taking damage. Additionally, players even have the opportunity to counterattack when dodge inputs are timed correctly, but I don't think I was ever able to complete this action. Like in the previous title, QTE sequences return which I found to diminish combat. More than ever before, the camera perspective feels more personal, leading for enemy encounters to be much more confrontational, which is a change I welcome. The camera position for melee attacks is closer than in previous titles while still a fair distance away, although it's moved close in at a proper over-the-shoulder view when readying ranged weapons.

As I found myself facing more enemy encounters, they began to feel considerably unfair due to how effective combat and movement is. Of course, some of my problems may have been attributed to my skill level, but there were many instances where I was either stun locked or backed into a corner, unable to do anything in response while my health drained. During these moments, the game felt frustratingly and needlessly difficult. Generally in more modern games after a milestone, there is some sort of respite, allowing for resource replenishment or a chance to save progress. However, this game often does not provide these moments, thereby forcing players who are already struggling to continue to do so under dire circumstances. Instead, two minor forms of help is offered upon the player's death, being some health recovery and restarting at the last major checkpoint. I can't outright fault the game for this decision, as players aren't left entirely deprived, but it came across as something negative due to the previously mentioned poorly-implemented controls. After a series of mishaps largely resulting from the game's faults, I found myself being in the most disadvantaged position I've ever been in while playing a survival horror game, with a visibly empty health bar and no usable resources. In this moment, it was quite stressful to get through for someone who's still growing used to the genre, but I continued to advance somehow while slowly regaining items. Overwhelmingly, players should not reach this sort of position due to the game's optimization, so I felt quite accomplished in being able to clear this segment after several attempts.

At this point, I'll go through several of the game's miscellaneous design elements. While I've already mentioned that QTE sequences are built into combat, they're also implemented while exploring the environment. While its effectiveness is altogether minor, there are certain roadblocks to be found as players progress, with some being optional or needing to be revisited at a later time. To overcome these barriers, a specific weapon type must be used to gain access. Over time, this sort of gameplay becomes an afterthought as players will inevitably collect each weapon as well as forgoing the sense of needing to retread explored ground, but early instances reward a player's curiosity. Alongside QTEs which still feel unfamiliar to the series, decision-making prompts seldom appear during dialogue. In only three instances does a player's choice matter as they effect the game's conclusion, with the remaining moments having no impact on the narrative or situation outcome. Traditionally, Silent Hill is a series known for its multiple endings with outcomes regularly feeling arbitrary to those unfamiliar to the requirements to unlock each one, so the clear-cut choice-based system is objectively much simpler. After some reflection, my takeaway is that the choice-based system in Homecoming is far less successful, as it abandons the idea of rewarding players who play with different play styles or as an incentive to begin a subsequent playthrough with a different focus in mind. Lastly, puzzle elements are another key feature of the franchise. While they're still present, many—especially in the game's first half—are lackluster without much effort put into their design, although the overall quality does improve as the game progresses.

Serving as the sixth mainline title, Silent Hill: Homecoming relinquishes much of what defines each game as a proper entry in the franchise. With a greater emphasis on action and more upfront scares that have far less nuance and emotional impact, Homecoming exists as a horror game that begins to feel foreign to the series. Even without acknowledging its predecessors, Homecoming is fine, though it's still not anywhere close to being remarkable, and perhaps its greatest strengths lie in its plot. Since the original four title released with groundbreaking ideas and themes and with great execution, that anything lesser is presented—even when mediocre and not outright terrible—will make it seem like the game's an unforgivable disaster, though Homecoming could be far, far worse.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on September 29, 2024, 05:23:34 pm
Finally got around to Shadow of the Erdtree and while I definitely agree with criticisms about the final boss, I gotta say, I thought it was a pretty great distilled FromSoft Souls experience.  I personally didn't find it particularly difficult, aside from the final boss, and while I think the Scadutree Blessing system is an elegant way to balance the DLC without trivializing the base game.  Unfortunately, I also see them being frustrating to collect on potential replays.  Otherwise, I dug the world, lore and (relative) simplicity of the quests.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on September 30, 2024, 03:56:42 pm
72. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Julius

Wellp, that's that. I wasn't even trying to speedrun or anything. Since there wasn't any incentive to kill regular enemies unless they were blocking my path, I just zoomed through the castle. Julius moves at lightning speed so that helped, too. I thought his moves would grow tired but they didn't. I didn't get 100% castle completion but I had a lot of fun going through most of it with such a badass Belmont.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on September 30, 2024, 09:23:41 pm
I heard Haunted Castle Revisited was pretty short, so I decided to knock that out as a quick palette cleanser.  It's leagues better than the original version of the game, but it's still not great.  Source material you can only do so much with.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on October 04, 2024, 08:50:30 pm
38. Baths || PC || 09.30.24

(https://i.imgur.com/24FXRYb.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/nWCBXiS.jpeg)

Unexpectedly, I found myself playing a game called Baths (https://orino.itch.io/baths) from a genre I've not ever really connected with nor ever really feel compelled to play—visual novel. However, there is good reason for that, and that's because I'm close friends with one of the creators. As a short experience built for this year's Spooktober Visual Novel Jam event (https://itch.io/jam/spooktober-2024), Baths is also a project I had some small level of involvement in, as I did provide writing feedback during its development that did result in some minor changes, though none relating to narrative events or the overarching plot. On a first playthrough, most players will find themselves reaching one of the game's endings in about fifteen minutes, so its length is welcoming to those, like myself, wanting to read something brief yet competent.

While reading, the unsettling characterization and grotesque imagery through written description often leave the player unnerved with aversion. Not knowing the full plot details—if there are more, even—I'm left wanting to know more about what's alluded to or mentioned but not expanded upon, namely one character's absence and how exactly players are intended to regard one major element beyond its initial shock value. There is a clear reveal in one of the game's endings that's perfectly revolting that's even more effective as players will likely reach a premature conclusion about it that's wrong. Somewhat unfortunately, the full story relies on the players reaching all three endings, but I find that to be more practical for this type of storytelling. It may sound inconvenient, but the engine's built-in skip feature remedies this, as it allows players to skip past dialogue that's been seen before.

With three endings, the horror conveyed in each feel vastly distinct from another, as violence, suspense, and disgust are the lasting emotions players will feel. To reach a specific ending, a point-based system reliant on trust was built that's an interesting concept but one which doesn't reach its full potential due to the limited choice outcomes. Additional endings would greatly expand upon such system, although I don't think the plot necessarily warrants them, nor do I think there is any intention on implementing such changes. Nevertheless, what's available is adequate, though the system is really just a branching path.

Apart from story, visuals have a textured, pixelated sort of design that vastly sets the game apart from its contemporaries, including the other game jam submissions that I've glanced at while hoping to discover something else rewarding. A fair amount of art is taken from free assets, but this isn't problematic nor apparent, and the 3D models themselves are utilized nicely for 2D backgrounds. Oppositely, sounds complement the visual storytelling highly. Soft drones accomplish several tasks, including decompressing tension, sheltering from danger, and establishing a luring air of anxiety. Meanwhile, heavy, discordant wails may be heard in harsh juxtaposition.

As a game requiring little time to reach its conclusion, Baths is one I genuinely do believe achieves its storytelling through its more subtle, tension-building style of horror. Not all questions the player will inevitably have are answered, though this mystery allows for their interpretation that only adds to the unpleasant ambience. I may sound biased in these takeaway thoughts, but I do think that, for the scope of this project and for the limited time window it had for development, it offers a worthwhile, heightened reading experience.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on October 06, 2024, 05:43:26 pm
23. Tomb Raider (2013)

Just got a Steam Deck, so wanted to play something on it. And Tomb Raider 2013 seemed like a good choice. This is actually the first Tomb Raider game I've ever played. Excited to have finally played a game in the series, but that also means I can only judge this on its own merit, so that's what I'll do. (potential spoilers)

I quite enjoyed it! I really love how cinematic it felt. I think the exploring parts around the island are fantastic. It feels empowering and immersive. You really feel the sense of height and the speed or force you're putting into things. I also liked stealthing around and taking care of enemies sneakily. And I quite liked Lara's depiction as a character here. I can't compare it to the classic Tomb Raider games, but I definitely grew fond of this version of her.

I will say though, there were also some bits that got under my skin a bit. One thing is the combat. Don't get me wrong, it's fun enough to play, but at times it also got annoying, particularly when I was repeatedly forced into large fights. There were multiple parts where I was shooting horde after horde after horde of boring screaming American men. It sometimes made me feel like I was playing any random war shooter, which aren't games I enjoy. I guess it stuck out to me extra because it's not what I was expecting of this game, and not what I enjoyed the most about it either. I know Lara Croft is typically a dual gun-wielding badass, but this game looked like it'd be more of an exploration and survivalist-focused ordeal. And it didn't feel like a narrative fit either. Weren't we on this mystical ancient island, meant to be unknown or lost? How are there literally hundreds of hundreds of men on here - all in the same cult no less?

But despite those annoyances, I really enjoyed my time with this game. I'd like to check out the sequels too someday. And the pre-reboot Tomb Raider games for that matter. But first: Metroid Prime 2 and Solatorobo.

Also sidenote, it ran almost flawlessly on the Steam Deck. I like this little device a lot! Hoping that with this I'll play through a lot more of my Steam / PC library.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 06, 2024, 06:10:12 pm
73. Tokoyo: The Tower of Perpetuity

I...guess I can consider this beaten? It's a rogue-like tower climber that (I think) takes place in the Tohou Universe. Or maybe it features characters from it? I dunno. It's definitely got its charms. And it definitely has its audience. But, after making it as far as I did after a few hours, I just found myself kind of bored. I don't play games online and this one really wants you to do just that. Oh well. As always, it's good to step out of my comfort zone with something different.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 07, 2024, 10:05:02 am
74. Ikai

Spooktober continues with a platinum trophy for Ikai. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would since it was in a first-person perspective. There was only one instance where the camera made me dizzy. Ancient Japan with plenty of folklore, Shintoism, and all the atmosphere that comes with that? Yeah, I had to play it. While the game was quick, it's one of those games that requires a guide in order to get everything out of it. Some of the puzzles needed some additional guidance, too. Otherwise, fun little palette cleanser of a game that's perfect for the season.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on October 11, 2024, 03:32:49 pm
Game 17: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS) - 37 Hours

I’m really torn on this game. It has a lot about it that I really enjoyed but overall I found this game a bit more frustrating than anything. Which is surprising to me because I know this game is beloved by many.

I think my favorite aspects of the game is the premise and atmosphere. Creating a Zelda game without the typical series tropes like rescuing the princess from Ganon is interesting. The 3-day time loop creates some interesting puzzle-solving scenarios similar to Ocarina of Time was quite enjoyable. I really enjoyed the ambiance of Clock Town which creates a feeling of loneliness and foreboding with the impending destruction of the world. It’s a fun hub world to explore with some really interesting characters and storylines to uncover that often revolves around death or other mature themes. And because everything you do in 3 days is reset each time you wind the clock back, it makes you feel hopelessness and despair because nothing you do for anybody in the game ultimately lasts. At its best, it also adds some nice tension to the game.

It’s unfortunate that none of your main gear is any different than Ocarina of Time, which makes exploring dungeons lose a lot of the excitement. But this is made up for with the masks that you can collect, which provide a lot of unique effects and it’s fun to collect them all. The game has a lot of interesting sidequests which are fun to explore, and it has a great notebook that keeps track of everything for you, though I did use the notes function extensively on my 3DS to denote quests that your notebook wasn’t adding.

Where I found this game to falter was the gameplay, music, and overall story. First, the gameplay. This game was very frustrating to control because of wonky jumping physics and collision detection and a very difficult to manage camera. The little c-stick nub helps, but really pales in comparison to a second control stick. I constantly had trouble locking on to enemies because I couldn’t move the camera correctly or your fairy just wouldn’t cooperate with you.

I found that the 3-day time limit caused a lot of frustration for me. Setting aside all of the weird inconsistencies in how time is managed in the game, this mechanic hampers your gameplay experience in two ways – the first is that you can’t take your time exploring or jump around to different quests or activities because all your progress resets. The second is that because this game is cryptic and requires trial and error, you often have to replay storylines or progress through a dungeon two, sometimes three times just to get back to where you were previously. It creates a lot of tedium, and I would say that a good 15 hours of this game was just repeating things I already knew how to do. The game gives you a way to slow the clock down but I feel like it should have just been that long from the start.

What particularly annoyed me was losing all your consumable items when you reset the clock. There is no functional reason why this needs to happen other than annoy the player. You get to keep all the important gear like your hookshot and bottles, why not make everything just carry over? Every time I reset the cycle, I had to make a field trip to cut some grass outside Clock Town just to restock my bombs and arrows and you need to do that like 30+ times. I also never used any of my bottles because anything you add to them is drained away when the clock resets.

Lastly, I just didn’t find the story to be that interesting even with the great initial setup. Skull Kid is just a stereotypical villain who wants to destroy the world because he found the mask and was lonely. No real deep storytelling, and the three main stories to me weren’t that impactful either. The music, other than a few standout tracks, I actually found it to be kind of boring, which was surprising to me. When you consider how many NPCs, enemies, and environments are lifted from Ocarina of Time, I felt like a lot of the game was a little more phoned in than I expected. I came away from this experience ultimately feeling a little let down by Majora's Mask, which was the same feeling I had when I first played Ocarina of Time 3D. I don't know, these games just don't resonate with me like they do for a lot of people.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on October 13, 2024, 08:16:26 am
Beat Dracula in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia this morning.  It's got some of the strongest combat and story in any of the Iga-vanias, but it also still has their biggest weakness - all of the needed grinding for levels and drops.  It does make some of the more overpowered builds a bit more obvious, thankful and those are what I used on the last two bosses because I really didn't want to grind out more levels are quests to be able to buy the best consumables.  It also has my least favorite map of probably any of these games, since it has an overworked and hub levels.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on October 14, 2024, 02:01:29 am
24 - Alan Wake 2 (PC 2023) - BEAT - Been meaning to play this for awhile, bought it half off awhile back but waited for my new PC so I could properly enjoy it and I'm glad I did, the game looks really good.  I love the mixture of live action and game visuals as they blend it all really well.  I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of the original, it was fine, some interesting story ideas, kinda middling action to it.  Then Control came out and I was in love with that, because that took the specific event of Alan Wake and said "Oh, this isn't some one-off thing, the world is filled with all these weird, supernatural, things".  A cross of X-Files and Warehouse 13, the sorta stuff we see in SCP related media, I love that so much and is why I loved the spinoff.  This game is still very much an Alan Wake game, but with a dabbling of elements introduced in Control.

I have no real serious negatives, there was a constant bug, where the transition cutscenes between locations that have dialogue going on, the audio would always get lagged out, which was annoying.  I also don't think the combat is very good here.  It's functional, much like the first was, but when you start needing to fight more than one or dealing with the more challenging boss fights, that I feel the slow movement and piddly dodge mechanic is kinda weak.  It's very similar to the RE Remakes in execution, but I felt like things worked better there than here.

Overall a very solid, creepy game, just enough to explore and do while not being an overbearing open world type experience, I like being able to piece the story together and see it physically pieced together in Saga's Mind Place as pictures connected by string, it's not something I feel I've seen a game do before so if you want to at the end.  Forgot a plot point? It's right there and there's a lot to remember.  I can't say I understand all the of the story, there's some things that happened that I'm not sure if I'm supposed to fully understand by the end or if they are cliffhangers for an Alan Wake 3.  We'll see I guess.

Also, Old Gods of Asgard are great, both musical sequences with them were fun lol I loved the Herald of Darkness song, listened to it multiple times, seen the video, seen it done love at the Game Awards, and I like that it's just a completely random inclusion.  The humor of the game was great.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on October 15, 2024, 01:19:48 am
25 - Indigo Park: Chapter 1 (PC 2024) - BEAT - I'm not normally into the mascot horror genre, it's a lot of slop, but I like the idea behind it when it feels like they put some real work into the concept and it's not some cheap cash-in deal like that Garten of Ban Ban.  This one drew me in as I saw some tiktok's of it and it stood out for having some real good art to it and voice work and gotta say that aspect is great.  It's both good and kinda not great visually, the quality of the game in the open courtyard shows some odd visual stuff to me, but all of the drawn art is really good.  All distinct characters, voice work, and having Rambly be this AI character on a screen that can interact works well as a guide character and there's some genuine humor going on in parts.

It fails abit from a gameplay perspective, you don't do a lot, this first part, being only an hour long at most and no gameplay hook, it's just a walking sim game, there's no mechanics like the hand pack in Poppy's Playtime or a gameplay loop like FNAF, even Garten of BanBan has that drone thing, as bad as it looks.  It feels less like a "part" and more of a tech demo, proof of concept sorta thing, which is fine.  It's free, so I can't complain at all, but hopefully future parts having something to actually do in it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 15, 2024, 08:31:07 am
75. Samurai Shodown III - Amakusa

There's just something about this entry in the series. All games have their ups and downs, but III seems to have more downs. And yet I never grow tired of it. It's one of those games that instantly warps me back to childhood. I went through the game as Amakusa. His epicene beauty and mannerisms were ahead of their time (I said what I said) and he had a really unique set of moves. I still prefer other characters, but playing as "bosses" has a unique appeal.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 16, 2024, 03:47:10 pm
76. Samurai Shodown III - Rimururu

While playing as Amakusa was fun for being able to play as a boss, going through the game that debuted Nakaruru's sister hit differently. I remember the first time I saw her in the arcades. I was well into my "I love shojo anime era" and then, my favorite fighting series introduces this girl with a magical ice gem. It's serendipity. Rimu-chan isn't my favorite anymore but she's still a special character on the roster and in the franchise as a whole. She's an adorable girl that stands tiny/tall among big, burly dudes.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on October 17, 2024, 12:57:55 pm
Game 18 - World of Horror (Switch) - 5 Hours

This is a game that you can "beat" relatively quickly but will keep you coming back to replay it afterwards. I was able to complete the first three scenarios on the start up screen at least once, and then I messed around a bit more trying to see what else I could uncover.

What really made me want to play this roguelike text-based adventure game was the striking visual design - an intentional retro and disturbing 1-bit artstyle with heavy inspiration from Junji Ito and Lovecraft. It immediately draws you in with an incredibly engaging atmosphere, great music and writing, and really interesting and horrifying themes and story elements, not to mention some truly disturbing monsters. A lot of the game's fear is based on your imagination however since so much of the game is presented in text, which allows you to fill in the gaps more and creates a more engaging experience. The game's roguelike foundations mean that every playthrough is different with different stories to explore and new events and characters to meet and engage with. It makes you want to keep playing to see new endings, monsters, or other content, and the incredibly atmosphere and spectacle is what makes the game stick with you after you turn it off. Overall, it was very entertaining, and I could definitely see myself picking this up again later to try another run.

There were some things that I found a little annoying. Some of the menu options don't allow you to go back once you've made a selection which was perplexing. Also, unlike other roguelikes that I've played, any given run lives and dies on pure RNG, with skill checks and hitting attacks making your experience feel great or miserable. Even if you min/max to play to your strengths it still feels like the game can body you with just bad luck which can get frustrating after a while.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 22, 2024, 12:39:40 pm
77. Atelier Marie Remake

In some ways, it felt surreal to playing this despite it being a full-on remake. I remember sitting in a free period in high school, looking at RPGs on a site that never made it across the pond. Atelier Marie was one of them. It had adorable sprites, great artwork, and item creation. Item creation?! What kind of RPG in the 90s lets you make items?! It's crazy to think how far the series has come since then. Crazier that Marie got a remake. But, despite the game being easy and on the short side, it just reiterated that I might have outgrown the Atelier series. It was repetitive and kind. Just kind of "there". I had a feeling that might have been the case since I didn't care for the game with the twins (Lydie and Someone) or Lulua. Oh well. Marie graduated at the top of her class and all is right in the world.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 23, 2024, 10:20:58 am
78. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

This was a blast of a replay; perfect for October. My OCD didn't get kick in as bad as I thought. I'm still missing some weapons and some Innocent Devil evolutions. But. I got 100% map completion, managed to steal from Death (quite a feat) and finished the game without much difficulty thanks to all of the other material farming I did. The game still plays brilliantly other than a shaky camera and one of the most annoying stealing methods I've ever seen. The silly camp and fun with the story still hits. Crispin Freeman as Hector is just *chef's kiss*. In the recent Netflix animation, Hector's story is a lot different. I like his journey in the game much more. He's a great dude.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on October 26, 2024, 10:57:08 am
79. The Quarry

A group playthrough where I took the lead and others that played it for the first time watched. My choices resulted in most of the campers surviving, and all of the family members getting slaughtered. Compared to Until Dawn, I think I like Until Dawn a bit more for its more brisk pace and story. But, this game was still very fun and interesting. A little loquacious at times (specifically that old broad between chapters) but I had a lot of fun playing through this and making choices that were unique to those that were watching me play.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on November 01, 2024, 12:43:35 pm
Game 19 - Untitled Goose Game (Switch) - 4 Hours

What a charming well-designed game. I wish there was more of it, but what is there is simple and excellent. It's a game that mixes comedic physics-based puzzles with a sprinkle of stealth and ultimately leads to a wholly entertaining and humorous experience. Certainly the game's objectives lead to some very funny moments but there's a lot of organic fun to be had as well as you interact with all the items and humans around you. There's also an incredible level of polish and attention to detail in the sound design, visuals and music, way more than what you would expect from a simple "meme" game. Great experience!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on November 01, 2024, 11:51:34 pm
26 - Satisfactory (PC 2024) - BEAT...Mostly - I'm cheating on this one slightly, as I'm dropping the game at the very end of the last phase, because I'm burnt out trying to get the parts I need.  It's not really a situation of like "Oh it's too hard", it's simply the volume of parts I need to craft is so high that unless I double or triple my output in numerous ways, it'll take me another...10 hours, probably more of just waiting to get what I need.  I can't do it any longer, I've been feeling the burnout since like Phase 4 and this is too much lol

It's a shame because this is a really good game, it's horrifically addictive, I've put nearly a 100 hours into the game, I'd get on and lose hours trying to build new parts, fashion a new manufacturing area dedicated to a certain product, working on transferring things around either by extremely long conveyors or a train system.  There's tons of option for how you want to handle things and I think the game up to like...late Phase 3, early Phase 4 is quite good. 

The problem is that by that point you realize you aren't getting new gear options, that exploring the map is getting very repetitive and what there is to find is kinda limited.  The game I think is the weakest in that aspect because I think there should have been a lot more creatures, enemy types, threats, and things to craft for your character to use.  I know it's a factory building game first, it's not Subnautica or something, but I think there was room to build on for sure to give you something to do while you wait for stuff to manufacture.

I do love how free the manufacturing is, you can design your factory eyes however clearn or messy as you.  Conveyors go through floors and machines to connect, creating spaghetti like amalgamations, founds and parts will hang in the air with no gravity, it's goofy, but nice to not have to worry about that sort of stuff.

I highly recommend the game, but if you aren't someone willing to dedicate the hours for the factory grind, it might feel like too much later on.  I might come back someday if they do some notable updates, perhaps try for aesthetics more than I would efficiancy, but I gotta tap out, I put enough hours into this game, and thats fine lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on November 02, 2024, 11:02:04 pm
24. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Started this one this summer, kind of lost touch with it as my work picked back up (this isn't exactly a pick-up-and-play game), and now beat it (the Wii version in Metroid Prime Trilogy specifically). And to be honest? I mean, I can't say it isn't good, but I didn't get nearly as much into it as Metroid Prime Remastered.

I know needing to figure out where to go is a core staple of the Metroid series, but I'm sorry, I sometimes found it too difficult here. I don't remember struggling nearly this much in the original Prime. Maybe it was because of my growing impatience too, but I had to consult a guide so many times (MASSIVE shoutout to StrategyWiki btw, incredibly helpful). I'll be honest: when I got to the Sky Temple Keys fetch quest, I did the entire thing with a guide, just because I did not feel like scouring the whole map for 9 more collectibles and I just wanted to finish this game and move on to the next. I honestly don't know what else to say about it right now, I'm tired, so I'm just gonna keep this one short.

Still working on beating Sonic Lost World and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, and planning on picking up something on my Steam Deck after that (maybe Devil May Cry 5 or Dynasty Warriors 8 or something). We'll see.

--UPDATE--

25. Sonic Lost World

That's another one beat. I wanted to play a short pick-up-and-play game on my new Steam Deck. I've had Sonic Lost World for ages, but never played it. I do know it has very mixed reception though, which got me curious to try it. And yeah, I can see why. There are fun moments in here, some levels were highlights. The game also looks great, very bright and colourful, even if the design aesthetics are a bit generic. But for every great level, there are multiple levels which I would say are just all right. And there's some real frustration in here too for me, particularly with how poorly the game explains some of the mechanics and what it expects you to do with bosses. I've had to look up exactly how to beat a boss online, which for a Sonic game especially is not good. Overall I'd say it's good, but it's not a must-play.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on November 04, 2024, 08:43:08 am
Game 20 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Switch) - 7 Hours

A really great horror game that provides the perfect sense of atmosphere and dread. I loved this game's imagery, music, story, and themes which call back to classic gothic horror franchises like Dracula. The game's flavor of horror is my favorite, focusing more on subtlety and tension rather than outright jumpscares. However, once you realize the main monster appears at scripted times throughout the game, it becomes far less scary than if you had more organic encounters with it. I had one time where the monster just spawned right in front of me and killed me so that was fun.

The other aspect of this game that I'm really torn on was the physics based puzzles and gameplay. It is unintentionally hilarious to me that you can pick up books, bottles, rocks and chairs and throw them all over the place. Definitely snuffs out any of the fear the game was trying to build in you. At the same time, it was just so damn amusing that I enjoyed it regardless. Lastly, the ending was pretty anticlimactic given how cryptic the story was during most of the game. 

Despite all the issues I've laid out, I thought this game was excellent, very entertaining, and I'm looking forward to playing the others some day.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 08, 2024, 09:03:25 am
80. Captain America and The Avengers - Iron Man

This was one of the games included in the X-Men arcade cabinet. I never finished it before. By my estimate, I would have spent about 10 dollars in quarters because enemies were everywhere. It was cool learning the names of some older Marvel heroes and villains.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on November 08, 2024, 12:09:14 pm
46. Perfect Dark (N64)

It's funny how different your opinion on specific games can change over several decades. It's always nice when that opinion approves over when you initially played a game 10 or 20 years ago, however it can go the other way too. In the case of Perfect Dark on the N64, it's unfortunately the latter for me. I used to adore Perfect Dark growing up; I'd spend hours on the campaign, getting three stars on every weapon in the shooting range, and setting up multiplayer bot matches. It was a blast. However, over the years, I've come more and more to prefer Goldeneye 007 when it comes to Rare's iconic FPS games on the N64. I still enjoy Perfect Dark, just not as much as I used to. There's nothing necessarily wrong with Perfect Dark, in fact, it's superior to Goldeneye in many ways. However, the places where Goldeneye excels over Perfect Dark, mainly its OST, stage design, and story are enough to make me like that game a fair amount more. I still love the scifi setting of Perfect Dark, however I just don't find its somewhat shlocky characters and writing to be as appealing. As mentioned, the stage design isn't as good in Perfect Dark overall. Some stages, particularly some of the earlier stages are definitely on par with Goldeneye, however the stages start to get more and more annoying, poorly laid out, and just frustrating overall. Again, I don't dislike Perfect Dark, it just makes me want to play Goldeneye instead when I play it these days. It definitely makes me feel a bit sad how I don't adore this game like I used to, but for what it's worth, I actually found myself enjoying it more this time around than the last time I tried playing it about 5 years ago or so. Maybe someday, it'll flip again and be my favorite Rare FPS, who knows lol. (11/8/24) (35/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on November 08, 2024, 07:14:17 pm
Quote from: kashell on November 08, 2024, 09:03:25 am
80. Captain America and The Avengers - Iron Man

This was one of the games included in the X-Men arcade cabinet. I never finished it before. By my estimate, I would have spent about 10 dollars in quarters because enemies were everywhere. It was cool learning the names of some older Marvel heroes and villains.

I had the SNES version of this.  It was next to impossible.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on November 08, 2024, 10:22:38 pm
47. Dr. Mario 64 (N64)

Aside from a handful of isolated times growing up, I never played Dr. Mario on the NES for the most part, but when I did, I found myself a pretty big fan of it. Really, the most time I've spent with this game was actually its N64 port. Yes, I consider Dr. Mario 64 more or less a remade port of the priginal since it is essentially the same game with a few extra modes and better graphics. That isn't saying much since this game is played entirely in 2D like the original. For this reason, visually the game does nothing to impress fore the most part. Likewise, its OST is fairly catchy, but in my opinion, nothing special. The real bread and butter of this game is its gameplay, which can become pretty addicting, albeit fairly easy. I intended to play this game just until my wife was finished making dinner, but after I took a break to eat, I just wanted to go back and play some more. I played for probably 4 hours total until I began to go cross eyed while playing. This is definitely one of the more fun puzzle games on the N64. (11/8/24) [34/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on November 09, 2024, 11:42:56 pm
27 - Dying Light 2 (PC 2022) - BEAT - Finally got around to this game.  It had a rough launch both in optimization and content, took awhile to get a lot of updates and I think overall it's in a decent place right now.  I liked the original game quite a lot, it was fairly stand out I think, though nowadays, so many games have big movement mechanics and a lot of what Dying Light 2 isn't as good as them.  General climbing and parkour is totally fine, but it takes awhile before you feel like you are really enjoying it as you need to up your Parkour skills.  On the other hand, some stuff has a weird delay to it, it's not snappy, like the drop kick or slide, it's obnoxious because of that at times.

Combat works, but not sure I'd say it's as good as Dead Island 2.  It's also quite easy on normal depending on what you fight.  I leveled up fairly fast and had good strong weapons and it got to a point that I think the weapon I had beaten the game with, I had on me for like...hours, probably 5+ hours despite getting lots of other weapons I just didn't need which isn't the best for a looter game.  I also kinda hated the whole clothing system thing, like you can sorta pick a "class", focusing on clothes that offer certain bonuses towards a playstyle, but honestly don't feel like it was worthwhile, but maybe that was just me.  I think I remember to check what clothes I could upgrade every like 5 hours when I remembered lol

Story is solid, Aiden is a good character, Jonah Scott is great as him, particularly Scott and Rosario Dawson as Lawan are the highlight characters, with a few other standouts, but at the same time, there was some kinda weak voice acting direction for others, like sidequest types, it was more noticeable in the early game than later for some reason.  You can make story choices that I think affects the general plot, or at least who you involve yourself with to get to the next part of the story, but I'm not sure on that.

Overall, decent time, it has some issues here and there, but I would recommend it if you are someone who likes a solid open world action game to roam around in.  I think I'd say I liked Dead Island 2 more, even if it's more scaled down than Dying Light 2, but I remember having more fun with that, but this isn't bad at all.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on November 10, 2024, 10:07:24 pm
48. Extreme G (N64)

I don't like to throw around the term "hidden gem" very often because of how overused and cliche its become when it comes to talking about retro games. However, I feel like Extreme G is a textbook hidden gem for the most part. While the game did get several sequels, meaning it at least sold well enough to warrant these, it seems to get left out when discussing the best racing games not just on the N64, but of that entire generation of gaming. I haven't played Extreme G in a long, long time. However, I go way back with this game, having received it for Xmas in 1997. I thoroughly enjoyed unlocking all the stages and vehicles, as well as playing some of the other modes beyond just the race mode. However, it's been at least 25-years since I last played Extreme G so I was a bit worried I'd find the game not a interesting or fun as I once did. Luckily that was not the case.


Extreme G is a very impressive game in that it shows off very cool, dynamic visuals all while maintaining a pretty high, consistent frame rate. There are so many N64 games that shit the bed when it comes to FPS, especially when there's a lot more action going on. With how chaotic this game can become and also how fast the obstacles and turns ahead come at you, you'd think this game would frequently stutter, but it holds its own almost through every stage, which there are quite a few. All of the stages have this awesome futuristic look to them which perfectly nails the aesthetic the game is going for. As for as track design, some are far better than others, but overall they're all pretty good. While racing through each stage, you'll be able to pick up power ups to use against your opponents similar to Mario Kart, and also regenerate your shields and laser gun you can use when you don't have a picked up weapon equipped. There are also a lot of branching paths in each stage which make them fresh and dynamic as you race through each one. I'm just blown away by how enjoyable and good this game still is. It's far from perfect, but for what it is, it's a very enjoyable late 90s racing game experience and one I'd highly recommend to someone looking for something in the genre a bit more fun and different. (11/10/24) [37/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 11, 2024, 02:48:10 pm
39. The Contrarian Press || Browser || 11.10.24

(https://i.imgur.com/Ko371Dy.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/Z4WUFhV.jpeg)

While watching a video highlighting some of the top-rated games from a specific game jam, The Contrarian Press caught my attention. A lot of interesting ideas can be explored through short development time, so I was curious to see how well its gimmick was actually implemented.

In short, The Contrarian Press is a puzzle game of sorts which tasks players with censoring newspaper headlines to spread propaganda throughout fictional country Wyzkonzyn that's experiencing wartime turmoil. It's a simple job to complete, though how it's completed is dependent on the player. Players can either reinforce nationalism among readers or bolster foreign support, though a third choice which draws out the game's humor and absurdity is also an option.

For each article, publication notes along the gutter help guide players to alter headlines in the particular way to accomplish the paper's own nationalist agenda. However, players can decide whether or not to follow them or only to follow them when they see fit. The option to rewrite headlines before committing to them is available as well, so being able to explore what sort of outlandish editing options are recognized is fun even during a single playthrough. With that said, though, there are multiple endings to reach, which I found worth seeing, considering the game's short length of a few minutes. The game's itch.io page also provides a short walkthrough to reach its three endings, though I don't think players will find it difficult to obtain them naturally.

At times, the player is limited in what sort of censorship changes can be made, even when following the game's rule that only two sections of text at most may be altered. Of course, headlines need to be coherent, but the game will sometimes respond that it doesn't know what to do with that sort of proposed headline. Naturally, this is an effect from the game's short development time, though there are still more than enough possibilities to discover. On that note, headlines aren't the only thing that's made, as creative collage illustrations appear to complement each article. The walkthrough mentions how each headline prompt has 4–6 outcomes, each with their own art. This aspect in particular made altering headlines again and again amusing.

Despite its straightforward execution as a single-screen game that pans across the interface, The Contrarian Press offers a considerable amount of fun throughout its short experience. There isn't any way to fail the game no matter which ending is received. In the end, players acting as the newly-hired editor are always the winner.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on November 11, 2024, 05:07:59 pm
Game 21 - Persona 4 Golden (Switch) - 68 Hours

If you had asked me 10 years ago which Persona game was the best, I would have easily said Persona 4. Nowadays, this game has been greatly overshadowed by Persona 5, which is unfortunately better in almost every way. Combat, dialogue, story, music, menus, exploration, social links, dungeon exploration, pretty much everything. And a lot of this I don't personally feel can be attributed to the fact that Persona 4 is older. I do think that what this game has over 5, is a more relatable setting since it takes place in a smaller town. And I do think the cast of characters is more grounded and enjoyable to be around. Other than that, I was constantly wishing that many of the features in 5 were available in this game, and that definitely lessened the experience.

Another point in P4's favor is that it's half as long as P5, but the game still felt really rough with the pacing. There are hours upon hours with nothing happening in the story and no need to engage in combat which are such a slog. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't believe that the Persona games are deep enough to support over 70 hours of runtime, particularly with the social aspects. On the topic of the story, I just don't find it that enjoyable. The game is so obsessed with implementing as many plot twists with regards to the murder mystery as possible that the narrative is totally lost as a result. And the stakes/setup with the main protagonist and overall story just aren't as good as with Persona 5.

I did enjoy most of the added content from Golden, particularly the adjusted gameplay mechanics. Most of it isn't super extensive, but it did give this playthrough some additional things to experience given I had already beaten the game before, which was nice.

In summary, going back to Persona 4 after 5 was a honestly pretty rough experience, and even the quality of life improvements and added content from Golden didn't help. I still think it's a good game, but my opinion of it has diminished significantly. If you're looking to get into the series I would definitely give 5 a shot first.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 13, 2024, 09:48:13 am
Quote from: telly on November 11, 2024, 05:07:59 pm
Persona 4 Golden (Switch) - 68 Hours

In summary, going back to Persona 4 after 5 was a honestly pretty rough experience, and even the quality of life improvements and added content from Golden didn't help. I still think it's a good game, but my opinion of it has diminished significantly. If you're looking to get into the series I would definitely give 5 a shot first.

I'm curious how well Persona 5 will maintain its reputation once the inevitable sixth entry releases. If the series continues to improve upon each previous game, then that's only a good thing. Has Metaphor: ReFantazio or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 caught your attention?
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 14, 2024, 11:30:37 am
40. The Children of Clay || PC || 11.10.24

(https://i.imgur.com/0dPq7lh.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/BMI2doq.jpeg)

Unexpectedly, I came across the short horror game The Children of Clay that's being promoted on itch.io's homepage that caught my attention. There's seldom much information available to really know if these types of indie game jam projects are worthwhile or not beforehand, so I kept my expectations to a minimum.

In short, players are tasked with inspecting a historical clay figure that's best described as ominous in the hopes of discovering what it is and why exactly it exists. Certain parts of this process involve directly interacting with it, although a short supply of tools is available to assist. Apart from the figure itself, the player can refer to historic journals for information-gathering which I found simple in execution yet still engaging as keywords must be typed into a field to progress the story. Other tools like a magnifying glass and compass are also present, though they're less interactive and function as expected. The game presents everything in the context of Hungarian mythologies and supernatural phenomena which also sets it apart to some degree from other games with similar subject matter.

Despite its single-screen presentation which may seem limited at first, it offers everything a player would want in this sort of compressed experience. The aspect I was most curious about is the game's use of stop-motion animation which is, admittedly, also simple and straightforward, but still welcoming to see as the clay figure is an interesting item altogether. With that said, the figure can be rotated fully in 90° intervals while serving as the main centerpiece of attention. Even though there are only four sides to inspect, it may seem like there isn't much content, but I actually did get stumped for a few minutes as I wasn't aware of the input needed on my behalf. As a horror experience, it is limited and subtle while focusing more on presentation and ambiance.

Generally, The Children of Clay is light on horror and much more puzzle-focused, although I actually preferred that balance. Ideally, I'd prefer for there to be more to navigate and deduce, but these sorts of games are almost always brief experiences. For what the game offers, it's a worthwhile experience, and I enjoyed its ending that's delivered in a satisfyingly foreboding manner.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on November 14, 2024, 01:54:42 pm
Quote from: dhaabi on November 13, 2024, 09:48:13 am
Quote from: telly on November 11, 2024, 05:07:59 pm
Persona 4 Golden (Switch) - 68 Hours

In summary, going back to Persona 4 after 5 was a honestly pretty rough experience, and even the quality of life improvements and added content from Golden didn't help. I still think it's a good game, but my opinion of it has diminished significantly. If you're looking to get into the series I would definitely give 5 a shot first.

I'm curious how well Persona 5 will maintain its reputation once the inevitable sixth entry releases. If the series continues to improve upon each previous game, then that's only a good thing. Has Metaphor: ReFantazio or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 caught your attention?

Yes I've heard a lot about them and my friends have been playing them quite a bit! I'm intending to check them out! :D
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on November 14, 2024, 06:02:18 pm
Quote from: telly on November 11, 2024, 05:07:59 pm
Another point in P4's favor is that it's half as long as P5, but the game still felt really rough with the pacing. There are hours upon hours with nothing happening in the story and no need to engage in combat which are such a slog. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't believe that the Persona games are deep enough to support over 70 hours of runtime, particularly with the social aspects. On the topic of the story, I just don't find it that enjoyable.

That is what stopped me from getting further into Persona 5.  Visually, musically, lots of cool stuff going on, story was interesting, I was enjoying myself enough, but I got somewhere into the 20 to 30 hour range and I was kinda feeling the grind, seeing what I was going to be doing for the rest of the game, and then I went to see what the general base time to beat it, and it said around a 100 hours on average and that was just too much for me to see continuing on.  I'll dump dozens to hundreds of hours into a game if I'm enjoying the gameplay loop enough, but if it's not pulling me in hard enough, I just won't continue on.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 16, 2024, 07:52:14 pm
41. Creature Packets || PC || 11.15.24

(https://i.imgur.com/ImZeGQF.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/aY3oEhf.jpeg)

Still browsing itch.io for games which seem worthwhile to play, I found interest in Creature Packets that's tagged as horror. After glancing over the plentiful amount of positive feedback it's received, I figured I'd try it out.

Like the other recent games I've played, Creature Packets offers a strange premise where players assume the role of an employee fulfilling orders that are created from ready-made food packets. Packets are obtained from an out-of-place vending machine in a lab-type setting where they're then blended together to form new packet types and then microwaved individually to create various live creatures including aphids, butterflies, and scorpions. It's a bizarre premise yet is one that's never explained in-game or questioned by the player-character. Nevertheless, there is a three-strike system present which results in a game over, though I imagine most players would have to willfully fail by shipping incomplete or incorrect orders in order to trigger such event.

Once a new packet type is created, it becomes a permanent option in the vending machine to select. Additionally, there isn't any reason for the player to waste time with trial-and-error experiments as recipe pages are pinned on the wall. While these aspects prevent a lot of tediousness, the game loop itself is still monotonous. In a few words, players must find the correct recipe, order the required packets, combine them to create a new packet type, order more packets to active, then complete the order once all parts are accounted for. It's a straightforward chain of events that never feels rewarding. Once the initial awe over what this sort of reality even is has passed, there is nothing else to keep the player engaged. As such, there is no strategy, problem-solving, or time management involved which severely minimizes the game's appeal and would have greatly benefited it.

Both endings—game complete and game failure—are lackluster and underdeveloped, though I can't fault the game too much as it was made in a few days. Still, players never learn the details regarding what we're doing exactly and for what purpose. For a game advertised as horror, I was expected something more aligned to the tone. In regards to the game's horror elements, the atmosphere is off-putting and perhaps creepy to some as the game takes place in a dimly-lit, backrooms-type break-room complemented by ambient sounds, but I'd argue that there's never anything even subjectively scary.

Ultimately, Creature Packets is a game that isn't developed beyond the outlandish idea that prepackaged meal packets can become creatures in some elementary school-type science experiment. I don't find fault with peculiar ideas being explored, but it's disappointing when the execution is so poor that everything becomes a chore. I'm genuinely confused at the positive reception it's garnered.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on November 17, 2024, 11:10:29 pm
28 - Death Stranding (PC 2020) - BEAT - It's not often I can track how many times I've beat a game, but currently this is the 4th time for this game and I'm still loving it.  I beat it when it first released on console, and then I doubled-dipped on the PC version.  Then when the Director's Cut came out on PS5, I beat that, and then just now, finally got around to grabbing the Director's Cut on PC, as I had some extra credit saved on Epic and with another deal for the upgrade, I practically got it free.

This game is still in my Top 20 of all times games, but is also one of the few games I can say I'd not recommend to most people.  It's one of those games where if you can't get into the gameplay loop, you will not have fun.  It's a game so focused on it's "realism", the idea of all these mechanics built into delivering items, a lot of not action going on, and I can see that as being very boring to folks, I remember a number of people originally didn't get to Episode 3, which is the ACTUAL main game, the previous area you start in being more of a warmup, but 2/3rds of the game is spent there.  It's a game where if someone says they hate it, I perfectly understand why, but for me, I just get addicted to the gameplay loop so much, I'll lose hours doing side deliveries to try and get S ranks, to build the roads, to eventually building zip line paths, all while getting into this weird ass story going on that I would have trouble explaining to people lol

There's very little I dislike about the game, anything I do have is very small and nitpicky, mostly just clunky elements to the gameplay here and there that are hopefully improved on in the sequel.

I'm even more excited for the sequel than I was before, this playthrough reminded me so much of what I love about the game and it was already one of my most anticipated games of next year alongside Monster Hunter Wilds and I really hope it can continue to be just this amazingly unique experience that no other game does.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 18, 2024, 07:52:46 am
81. Super Mario Party Jamboree

I had a friend visiting from out of town. I picked up this to help pass some time between hangs and work. This is actually the second time I ever played a Mario Party. The first time was on the Wii, which I didn't like one bit. I went into this thinking that it's going to be more of the same: a cheating computer and a slow gameplay loop. I was right, but it was still fun. We went through three of the four boards and played a ton of mini-games. Most of them were in enjoyable. In fact, my biggest gripe with the game was the influx of tutorials that couldn't be skipped. Seeing Toad's annoying face every three seconds explaining how video games work was not grand.

Quote from: Cartagia on November 08, 2024, 07:14:17 pm
Quote from: kashell on November 08, 2024, 09:03:25 am
80. Captain America and The Avengers - Iron Man

This was one of the games included in the X-Men arcade cabinet. I never finished it before. By my estimate, I would have spent about 10 dollars in quarters because enemies were everywhere. It was cool learning the names of some older Marvel heroes and villains.

I had the SNES version of this.  It was next to impossible.

That tracks. I'm guessing the SNES version had limited continues, too.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on November 18, 2024, 11:24:01 am
Beat the remake of Dead Space this morning.  It feels the way I remember the original Dead Space playing, but other than the graphical overhaul, I don't think there was much of a reason for it to exist.  It's still nice and spooky, etc, but it didn't really change anything gameplaywise (that I recall) aside from the asteroid section and maybe a couple of puzzles.  It did make the story a bit more clear, giving Isaac a bit more agency (and actual lines!), but it's still a bit silly.  If you've never played the original, this is the way to experience it for sure, but it just didn't do quite enough to distinguish itself or justify its existence.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 18, 2024, 12:57:40 pm
42. Only Humans || Browser || 11.16.24

(https://i.imgur.com/EicKEaY.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/f3sixVX.jpeg)

Being advertised as a "tiny horror CAPTCHA game," Only Humans immediately caught my attention. I was quite curious how something so seemingly mundane and irritating as CAPTCHA prompts can be turned into a horror experience.

Like every CAPTCHA prompt, users are tasked with solving a series of simple tests to prove they are human. Test types vary, but Only Humans focuses specifically on visual prompts which requires users to select the correct image or images. As one would expect, the tests are normal at first but slowly become off-putting. Shortly after, individual slides may blink or prompts may slightly alter themselves, and the tests grow from ordinary to concerning. Once something objectively more unnerving becomes introduced, what's being presented quickly devolves into being more sinister. Something beyond the prompt seems to be controlling it while simultaneously guiding the player down a predetermined path without escape. At no point can the player willfully defy what they're tasked with, meaning there is only one solution and ending to achieve.

The screen shakes, panels disappear from one thing to another, and images animate themselves while seeming possessed. Even the prompts themselves taunt the player. Imagery increasingly becomes dark which is made more apparent through the game's deliberate use of AI-generated images which have been modified. At the time of the game's release, generative AI images were widely recognized as menacing and just skewed enough from reality to be disturbing. The developer's choice to take advantage of this aspect highly works in the game's favor. A small section of Only Humans is even dedicated to audio CAPTCHA prompts which is jarring—especially so if electing this alternative test type before trying anything else that's more clearly revealed through visual prompts.

Upon reaching the game's ending, I'm not sure exactly what the meaning behind the CAPTCHA is, although perhaps that's irrelevant. While progressing, players can fail prompts without game failure which was a little disappointing to see. Instead, the correct images to select become highlighted after several failed attempts to signal how to advance the specific prompt. Additionally, a dedicated button is present that highlights which specific images to select, which some players may find useful. Apart from the short audio section that's entirely optional, no audio is present throughout the game. While the visuals do enough at establishing horror, some kind of ambient sounds would have reinforced the game's message.

While its length is only a few minutes long, Only Humans offers brief but thrilling experience. I'd be curious to see how the developer takes their approach to horror in an expanded project, as I found their use of suspense commendable.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on November 19, 2024, 03:32:22 pm
Game 22 - Pikuniku (Switch) - 4 Hours

Such a charming and silly game. Not super long or deep, but presents a fun light puzzle-platformer with hilarious writing and tone overlaid over a story with just the right amount of seriousness. The graphics, music and controls remind me a lot of LocoRoco with the goofy physics and joyful music. There are a handful of more difficult platforming challenges but overall it's pretty simple. Just a solid overall game that I really enjoyed.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 20, 2024, 10:15:02 am
82. Metaphor: ReFantazio - Bad Ending

I guess I technically beat this, but it was with a bad and underwhelming ending. So, I won't give my thoughts or spill tea on it just yet. I guess it's cool that there were multiple endings, though. The real ending should be happening later today or tomorrow.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on November 21, 2024, 08:25:24 pm
26. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter

I've been curious about this game for a while. I'll be honest, that was in part just because it's one of the more rare and valuable DS games. I somehow managed to snag it complete in box for just 50 bucks though, and after that I of course had to play it too. And I'll be damned, I'm impressed. This game is fantastic!

Solatorobo is what I think I'd call an action RPG. First of all: its size and scope is legitimately impressive for the DS, with multiple large sculpted worlds, creative tricks for impressive animations, and multiple playstyles with decent depth. This is on par if not above some of the highest quality titles I've played on the system. The creators really put their all into it.

The game has a ton of variety. While the regular combat takes up a good part of the game, the quests are allover the place. You go from combat to doing other tasks with your robot to open-arena flying to flying on rails to walking around and talking to people. It switches up constantly, and impressively remains almost constantly engaging. The game is divided up into two campaigns, and while I admit I started to find the game a tad bit monotonous for a tiny bit towards the end of the first campaign, all throughout the second campaign especially I was totally hooked.

Combat is solid and good fun. You control your robot in 3D space, and use it to pick up and throw enemies. It's impressively unique, very smooth to control, and slamming enemies feels really good. I'll be honest though, especially in the first half of the game it's very largely a button masher. If you can mash A, you'll get through without ever breaking a sweat. At times the enemies are laughable. But in the second half of the game, it gets a lot more engaging, because your combat skills get expanded with extra options. It's genuinely satisfying and fun. It honestly makes me wish we had an expanded version of this combat system with more options at your disposal on a more powerful system, because what's here is unlike anything I've played before.

The characters and story are really good too. Especially in the second campaign, I was completely hooked. There's a surprising amount of lore and worldbuilding here, supported by strong characters and an engaging plot. It really draws you in. This world is captivating and speaks to your imagination. I will say there is a LOT of text and dialogue. It feels like you spend over half of your time reading. But with the solid writing and tight storytelling, I honestly didn't even mind. Never did I find a character annoying.

The game is not difficult at all. I got through most of the game completely ignoring the upgrades I could give my robot, and even towards the end I never really struggled. But low difficulty is not a bad thing at all if the game is engaging and fun, and this one definitely is.

If I had to criticise the game, I can think of three things. One, I don't like how they sometimes outright halt your progress and force you to complete sidequests before you can continue the story. It feels arbitrary, and while the sidequests are fun, they grind the plot to a halt. That could've been worked in a little better. I didn't love the music either, but that's no dealbreaker. The third thing though, there are two very brief moments in the game that really stuck out to me like a sore thumb, and I feel like I have to mention it (CW: inappropriate conduct. If you don't want to read this, skip to the next paragraph) (also spoilers). There's a main character who's hundreds of years old but is stated to look like a kid (yeah, they pull that trick). And while most of the game she's just treated as a good friend with at best completely sfw romantic undertones, there are two really out-of-nowhere scenes where, in a first person perspective, the protagonist opens a shower curtain and she's there, wrapped in a towel. It feels gross and inappropriate, and I have NO idea why it's there. I had honestly already forgotten about it until I started writing this, but it's a real shame, because it's completely unnecessary and I can see some people getting turned away from this game just because of these few seconds alone (and I can't blame them, that'd be fair). It honestly makes me feel a little weird to talk about how fantastic the game is otherwise (but just look at large review sites too, it really is!). I try to view it as some of the inappropriate stuff with Misty in the early Japanese Pokémon anime and manga, or like the suggestive stuff in Totally Spies. It's bad, it shouldn't be ignored, but you can look past it and still enjoy everything else that's there.

But yeah, apart from that, if you can look past that, the game is fantastic, and I highly recommend it. I think I can genuinely say it's one of the best games on the system. I know it's really hard to get a hold of nowadays, but if you have a way to play it, it's totally worth it.

(Also one final thing: yes, it's apparently part of a series, but that's not indicated anywhere in the game and I didn't even know that until I already started playing. You don't need to play the other games at all to understand this game though: it works perfectly on its own.)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 22, 2024, 12:09:22 pm
Quote from: realpoketendonl on November 21, 2024, 08:25:24 pm
(Also one final thing: yes, it's apparently part of a series, but that's not indicated anywhere in the game and I didn't even know that until I already started playing. You don't need to play the other games at all to understand this game though: it works perfectly on its own.)

Waffle from Tail Concerto (and maybe some of the characters) make cameos, but you're correct. There's no need to play other games in the series to enjoy Red the Hunter. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it. It was a fun game.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 22, 2024, 01:42:57 pm
83. Metaphor: ReFantazio

What. A. Game. It's crazy that I didn't pay this game much attention until after it was released. It's hard for me to think of a negative critique. Maybe some of the dialogue being too wordy? Even that's a stretch. The game really was just that good. Trying to summarize it all here is an undertaking because the game itself is an undertaking. Maybe it'd be more accurate to call it a "fundertaking" because the game never stopped being fun. I'll do a replay at some point due to a trophy but for now I'm going to focus on getting a review going and playing something else that's lighter.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 23, 2024, 09:39:37 am
84. Divine Dynamo Flamefrit

I said I wanted to polish off something light, and this was certainly that. Less than two hours. It's a top-down, 2D action inspired both by 90s anime (which I adore) and classic Zelda. I guess Inti Creates had a video of it for an April Fool's joke, but the fans were curious and they ended up making an actual game. That's pretty cool. I only paid a couple of bucks for it so I don't feel totally robbed but maybe one or two more areas would have been fine. Oh well, I had a lot of fun with it.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on November 24, 2024, 02:53:41 pm
43. Please, Touch the Artwork 2 || PC || 11.22.24

(https://i.imgur.com/XlLRhhS.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/FYNXJGQ.jpeg)

By chance, I came across Please, Touch the Artwork 2 and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's a hidden object puzzle game. Despite being titled as a sequel, I'm unsure of its connection to the developer's previous game as they neither share the same genre nor art style.

Throughout the game, players assume the role of some traveling skeleton roaming the set of real-life historical paintings to locate specific items that are being tasked to find. Instead of single-screen gameplay or gameplay that involves constant camera panning, players instead navigate a 2D, interconnected environment that's divided as a series of paintings. Constantly, the nameless player-character weaves in-and-out of the foreground and background as if they're a part of the painting and not some foreign entity. Despite the environment being a painting, elements (most often live subjects) are animated which makes exploring dynamic and engaging. More often than not, these animated pieces obscure hidden objects. The game isn't interactive, meaning all its information to find is present without player action needing to be taken, aside from obvious secondary puzzles that generally reveal more of the painting environment which I'll later detail.

As the game progresses, several sets of items will often be needed to find at once across a series of rooms. Of course, the player walks around to inspect their surroundings, so that the player-character's body instructs the field is a small but welcomed detail and was one that sometimes kept me from finding what was needed. Eventually, some hidden objects become expertly hidden in plain view. The game's distinctive art style makes the task challenging, as its layered colors and brush strokes create a complex field to navigate. While the field itself is comprised of real-life historical artwork, hidden objects and other miscellaneous set pieces are fully integrated as additions layered above the original piece while disappearing once found. However, an in-game hint system that's always turned on exists. A light bulb shines if an object to find is present in the current room, though players must manually select the icon to know where it's located specifically. At first, I had ignored this UI element until I became unable to find an item, but once I knew how the system worked, I found it to be more preferable to players to have the ability to toggle the system instead of being forced to ignore it.

Alongside the hidden object gameplay, a reoccurring side objective involves repairing a painting's frame which comes in the form of another puzzle. In short, players must connect all paths together without retracing any pieces. In one section, a spot the difference type puzzle is introduced which I enjoyed as well. Lastly, a call-and-repeat type section requiring the player to player a specific series of piano keys is present. Generally, none of the puzzle designs are difficult while the smaller sections introduce varied gameplay that's effective at preventing the player to become bored. As one final aspect to mention, there is a morbid tone sprinkled throughout the narrative that adds to the game's eccentric nature.

By all accounts, Please, Touch the Artwork 2 is far better than it should be. That it's a free game is somewhat perplexing as it's presented and executed with high quality. Compared to other games within the genre that I've played, it easily bests them all.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on November 30, 2024, 06:21:36 pm
Thanks to the Marvel vs. Capcom Collection on Switch, I was able to complete some fighters for the first time.

85. X-Men Children of the Atom - Silver Samurai

He's always been my favorite character in this game because he looked cool and because I had his trading card. That's it. I know next to nothing about this guy. The game hasn't aged too well but it's still playable. It showed what was coming up in future installments. Speaking of...

86. X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Ken/Sabretooth

Why did I pair these two together? I have no clue. Ken has always been my favorite SF character. Sabretooth has always been...there? I remember him being a total dirtbag with way too much power and time in the 90's cartoon. Maybe the combination of the two was to show that opposites can attract and work together? Either way, fun times finishing this for the first time ever.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 01, 2024, 03:40:22 pm
44. How We Know We're Alive || PC || 11.24.24

(https://i.imgur.com/fdXNjtS.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/z42OJgJ.jpeg)

Thinking back, I'm not exactly sure when How We Know We're Alive was added to my library, but I think I may have noticed it as a suggested title from another store listing page which is unusual since I generally ignore that information. Nevertheless, I was curious to see what kind of narrative the game presents.

As an adventure game, How We Know We're Alive is a straightforward experience which emphasizes its mature writing more than other traditional gameplay elements. While playing, players assume the role of Sara, an adult around the age of thirty who's abandoned her rural hometown in Sweden—including her friends and family remaining—for the city to pursue her career. But, after all these years later, she's come back for a brief visit. Generally, the only interactivity lies in walking across a 2D plane with the choice to inspect certain environmental set pieces for commentary. Otherwise, there are a handful of scripted moments to advance the plot. During conversation, there are a few opportunities to select dialogue options for character- and story-building moments, though I'm not sure how much—if at all—they influence the overall narrative, let alone individual encounters. Regardless, that sort of open-ended structure isn't always necessary to tell a story worth sharing, and I think that's true of this game.

Without divulging much of the story, in some small way, it can be described as a mystery, albeit one that isn't expressed reliably through the protagonist. It's a mystery in trying to figure out who a person is—or was, rather. Perhaps it's a mystery, though perhaps it's just a series of unfortunate events. However, more than mystery, themes of interpersonal relationships is greatly explored. The business of adult life. The ever-growing distance between two people as time moves forward. One-sided relationships and a lot of victim-blaming, even. Regret is felt. Mistakes are made. Opportunities are missed, and expectations are ruined.

Aside from its writing, the game's art utilizes a nice-looking pixel style. It omits the finer details such as people lacking facial features, yet it's still able to present an emotional experience as its writing lacks up it. As far as tone, I found it successfully implemented. Throughout most of the game, rains constantly falls during the night. Bright lights from the town's main street businesses shine, even consuming the rain-spattered sidewalks and streets. The brevity of Sara's experience feels reinforced, as it seems as if this is the only moment of time she has available to make this trip.

In the end, How We Know We're Alive presents a thoughtful narrative that's worth experiencing, and perhaps particularly for those who've left a previous life for another, so to speak. Also, I haven't engaged with much storytelling where the protagonist can be regarded as the antihero—and especially so in writing that's more grounded in real-life experiences—so that sort of novelty was engaging.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 01, 2024, 07:15:56 pm
Finished the story of Dave the Diver this morning and liked it quite a bit.  The core gameplay loop is fun and very addictive.  Lots of fun side activities, and cool cosmetic and functional rewards for all the additional content (even if some of it is underwhelming l, like Godzilla DLC).  Like Stardew Valley I had to choose a stopping goal or I would put 100-200 hours in, easy.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 01, 2024, 10:09:22 pm
49. Tech Romancer (Dreamcast)

I'm in the middle of a much longer game, but in order to take a break I decided to play something short and for a console that has been woefully neglected by me this past year, the Dreamcast. Tech Romancer was one of those must have games I feverishly pursued when I was in the middle of collecting for the Dreamcast back in the 2010s. My then girlfriend, now wife bought me it for my birthday one year and aside from dabbling in it a few times over the years, I've never actually sunk any considerable time into this arcade port. Well, that changed tonight and the results have unfortunately been disappointing.


Tech Romancer is one of the more shallow, mindless fighting games I can remember playing in recent years. There is essentially no depth, strategy, or fluidity to the gameplay at all. You simply just bludgeon your opponent with a series of attacked faster than they are doing it to you to win. There is also a fairly inconsequential power up system where you can level up your attack, defense, and abilities by picking up power ups that are dropped after attacking your opponent or destroying something like a building in the stage you're fighting in. The game just felt mindless and boring, with the only saving grace being the period appropriate 3D visuals which look pretty good. The OST, voice acting, and sound effects are not bad, but they're not that great either. There are much, much, MUCH better fighting games on the Dreamcast, 3D or otherwise that are more worth your time than Tech Romancer. Really, Tech Romancer is little more than a collectors item as a somewhat rare Dreamcast title, as well as a obscure mech fighting game from a period where few of those existed outside Japan. (12/1/24) [26/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 02, 2024, 09:43:04 pm
87. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven

This year has been a disaster politically but incredible for gamers. Especially RPG fans. This revamped version of what is considered the best in the series is another notch on that bedpost. To start, the new look and enhanced soundtrack fit perfectly. I think for the first time since the series began, Tomomi Kobayashi's artwork is actually used for the in game graphics. Or at least, it's inspired by it. There's no sketch animation or deformed figures. Avalon looks how it should on a modern console. Speaking of modern, the new additions make this one of the more user friendly entries. It's still challenging as hell, but at least there's not as much "Where the heck do I go now?" happening. I think my biggest complaint is with the combat. It's a blast, but enemies are EVERYWHERE. Sometimes, you just want a break. Having an option to turn off encounters just to explore in peace would have been nice. But, otherwise, solid game. I can't wait to get a review up for it!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 03, 2024, 07:41:57 pm
29 - Dredge (PC 2023) - BEAT - Gotta love casual and lightly creepy indie games.  This reminds me a lot of Dave the Diver, get fish, upgrade your gear, follow through a story, nothing too crazy or challenging, but overall nice.  I actually experienced some elements of Dredge in Dave the Diver with a collab DLC they did that made a ton of sense to do.

Basically you are a guy on a boat that goes around catching fish to sell, making money, gathering scrap, upgrading your boat to get better gear, all while there's this creepy thing happening in the area that you need to solve the mystery of.  There's not much challenge to the game, you can certainly get hurt (Hull gets damage which causes gear to break and become unusable or damage and ruin fish/items, losing them in the process, though you can get it repaired at shipyards.  Very solid length, doesn't overstay it's welcome and while there's two DLC expansions, I think I'll save those till next year.

Overall had a good time, I do like Dave the Diver alot more if I had to pick as they are very similar ideas, just different executions of it, and there's just a lot more variety to do in that game compared to Dredge.  I do recommend Dredge though, solid time, been meaning to play it since last year, but Twitch came through with the rare free game I actually want to play.  I get so many free games from different platforms and almost never play any of them lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 03, 2024, 10:50:20 pm
20 - Astro Bot (PS5 2024) - BEAT - Didn't realize I was right at the end of this game too lol Overall I think this is a pretty solid experience, it's kinda funny how it still feels like a tech demo, despite being a full length game, because a lot of the game is just like, "Here, looks at all these pretty visuals and physics items".  Not saying that in a bad way, but the game really loves showing that sort of stuff just for the heck of it.

I don't think I would put this game over something like a Super Mario Odyssey, but I had some good fun with it, no real complaints, they tried to have a lot of gadget variety and some of the bosses were pretty fun.  I feel like the only weak point I have is that there's so much just "REMEMBER THIS CHARACTER?!" and that can be nice in its own way, but I would've loved more of a focus on  outright Sony history characters, more levels built around them and their kits. 

We do get stuff like that with God of War, Horizon, Uncharted, Ape Escape, and there might have been one other I'm forgetting, but I personally would've loved way more of that.  Give me a Crash Bandicoot level, Jak & Daxter, Twisted Metal, whatever, that's more fun than having 100+ cameos.  There was a comment I saw that kinda hit it on the nose, where all these characters are treated more like "parade floats" than truly celebrating their history, which isn't terrible and I don't mean all this in a negative way also.

Good bit of fun though, I didn't 100%, might go back and finish up  the levels, I'm probably like 80 to 85% complete if I had to get, but I'll do that on my own time.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 06, 2024, 12:24:33 am
30 - Marvel Rivals (PC 2024) - ENDLESS - Put a couple hours into this and yeah I'm loving it still.  The beta was fun and this is just that but with more content and heroes.  I kinda stopped participating in the hero shooter genre for awhile now, but this brings me back to the days of early Overwatch more, abit more chaotic, doesn't seem like you need to be as strict with your character loadout, it's fun. 

Love the art style so much, so many characters look amazing.  Squirrel Girl is turning into a bit of a favorite so far to me, mostly because she gives off Demoman from TF2 vibes, which I enjoyed, just sorta lobbing nuts at people to pester the crap out of them.  Simple, but fun.  Really need to try out the rest of the new characters, but there's so many lol I've tried Captain America who is okay, didn't get enough time with Black Widow, but she could be good for the long distance action I get in the mood for unless Hawkeye turns out to be fun, though I feel like her melee is garbage, maybe that's just me, seemed like it did so little damage other than using her spinning kick to knock people away.  Hoping Wolverine is good as I want another charge melee character to play alongside Magika.  Hoping it's kind of a more enjoyable version of Black Panther, who I didn't gel with in the beta.

Definitely going to be into this for awhile which is nice, felt like I've been struggling to find a multiplayer game to get into for awhile now other than just casually playing Fortnite.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 08, 2024, 01:19:05 am
31 - Delta Force (PC 2024) - ENDLESS - It's kinda funny that two games released this week (DF is technically in beta still, but it's basically feature complete other than the campaign coming out next month) that I think are great examples of how to do a clone/knockoff game and how not to do one.  Marvel Rivals took it's concept and just layered it with sick art and visual flair, and offered it into a package that I think is meant to be abit more chaotic and free than what Overwatch is like these days.  Delta Force takes Battlefield 2042, the worst Battlefield, puts it into a F2P model and kinda does everything in a way that is lesser than the current state of BF2042.

It's all very functional and plays well enough, but I can't think of anything more positive to say about it and the whole time I mostly just wish I was playing a Battlefield game, even going back to BF2042, which I stopped playing months ago.  This is just the most bland take on a Battlefield styled game and after 11 hours, I'm already bored with it.  The Operators aren't good, the maps don't interest with only Threshold being decent to me, and content is pretty light.  I also don't care about the extraction game mode or the upcoming campaign.

I'm cool with a knockoff/clone if it does something unique or interesting, but I'm gonna stick with Marvel Rivals, a game in a genre I don't even particularly love, while dropping Delta Force, a game in a genre I do love, because it's just got boring real quick.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on December 08, 2024, 04:57:03 am
27. Do I Pass? (Game Boy Homebrew / itch)

This is a homebrew game, made for a game jam, available for free on itch (https://taylormccue.itch.io/do-i-pass) and also included in a bundle for charity. So I just can't be harsh to it. With all of those factors in mind, it's sweet and a good effort.

The game is about a trans woman who's worried whether she passes. In case you don't know: passing is for a trans person to be seen by others as the gender they identify with, without people noticing they're trans. So in this game's example: whether the other people on the bus see the protagonist as just "a girl", and not "a trans girl". Not all trans people attribute equal importance or value to passing, but it's definitely a common thing to think about and be aware of. As a trans person myself, I of course can relate. I wouldn't say I was super touched by this game, but I can see in the comments on itch that others were, which is lovely. The game is very short: getting all three endings only took me about 15 minutes. I can't say it really left a lasting impact on me, but with what I said earlier, how can I not say to at least check the creator out? I see she's made some other games (http://taylormccue.itch.io/) too, I may check those out too at a later date.


Also sidenote on the challenge: I've recently picked up Atari 50 and I've been playing the games in it. Quite fun, but I don't think I can count most of the games in there for this challenge (I mean, a round of Asteroids, Centipede or flipping Pong doesn't count, right?). Still, playing all these games from way before my 1998-ass time is very fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to games I can add, like Adventure or the Swordquest games.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 08, 2024, 01:32:35 pm
45. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars || Super Nintendo || 12.05.24

(https://i.imgur.com/G8rue4S.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/iPR5T05.jpeg)

Realizing some time ago that I should make use of my Super NES Classic Edition unit, I decided it would be the best immediate means for me to experience a game from the Super Nintendo's library. Despite not being someone who'd necessarily identify themselves as a fan of the Mario franchise, I've been wanting to play through Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for many years. Finally, I did just that.

To begin, Super Mario RPG is a game that I think everyone of all ages can appreciate. Like the Super Mario series proper, its story is straightforward, and for some time, it follows the formulaic narrative that Princess Peach must be saved. However, certain aspects within the story and its characters are subverted, including Princess Peach herself and Bowser who both ally themselves with Mario as supporting cast members and battle allies. Adopting Nintendo's family-friendly direction, the game's tone is lighthearted and comedic as well, and very little seems to be taken seriously despite the severe problems at hand which result in the capability for people's wishes to be granted becoming jeopardized. While much of the game's attitude is dictated by story, just as much is influenced by sprite design and expressive animations. In short, though, players acting as Mario must stop an invading evil from the land.

However, much of what else defines the game turns away from series entries before it. Exploration adopts a 3D isometric landscape that feels quite odd for the series, although I imagine that was its goal—to elevate the franchise with new types of gameplay and turn away from pre-established tropes. Despite the game's presentation, though, the most important aspect of what defines Super Mario remains present: platforming. Additionally, as its title implies, Super Mario RPG is a turn-based RPG with a three party member battle system. Much—though not all—of the system is simple. More often than not, I found myself employing the same two battle tactics nearly every battle which was dependent on whether the encounter was a basic field enemy or a boss. Over time, battles do become increasingly more involved, although I wouldn't say that they become more difficult. In fact, I would argue that the game's beginning hours will challenge players more than its ending ones on account of in-game currency which seldom becomes an issue alongside the game's fast travel system that ensures that players maintain the best consumable inventory items, in the event they're needed at all.

Although the game's RPG systems are elementary, the element of timing mechanics does provide battles depth. At certain moments, physical attacks from both party members and enemies can be strengthened or weakened, and it's entirely reliant on timed player input. While it may seem like a small inclusion, it grants players an easier means to overcome enemy encounters which, at times, feel lengthy and a bit monotonous. At the same time, battle items referred to as bonus flowers randomly appear to give acting characters benefits. These include more obvious additions such as heightened stats but also preventing consumable items to be depleted and the ability to act out a second turn. Apart from battles, the leveling system itself is neither so straightforward. As each party members gains enough battle experience to level up, they're not just awarded with default stat gains. An element of stat customization is also present, granting players the opportunity to apply a small stat increase to one specific stat type. Over time, these stats do make a difference in battle, so the ability for players to influence characters builds to adopt specific play styles is welcoming.

To my surprise, there is far more content than I imagined the game to have had with lots of secrets and side objectives to seek out. Some of this content is simple to find, though much of it requires active observation and backtracking, which I think suits players who find themselves invested in the game's world. Initially, I had high hopes for unique battles, though only one instance stands out that is pictured above. Such instance occurs fairly early into the narrative, but nothing else captivated my interest beyond it in the same way that forces players to strategize differently.

Ultimately, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars holds up quite well. I'm glad I decided to play the original game instead of last year's remake, especially on account that the differences from what I've read are largely quality-of-life updates which affect aspects that never bothered me anyway.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on December 09, 2024, 08:52:59 am
Game 23 - SSX 3 (PS2) - 7 Hours

I counted this game as finished when I obtained at least a bronze medal in racing, freestyle and freeride on all tracks on all three peaks (i.e., a checkmark by all of them). My completion ended up being 64%.

I miss games like these. They just don't make good arcade extreme sports games like Tony Hawk and SSX of decades ago. This is a game that I've had since I was kid and always had fond memories of, but never set out to actually finish. Since I needed to play something on the PS2 this year I thought this would be a great way to return to the game.

SSX 3 is such a fun game. Incredible gameplay, and controls with so many fun tracks to explore and pick over. The deep trick system rewards skill and knowledge of each course and it was fun to try aspects of the game I hadn't done that much previously, like the challenges. There's a great selection of music available topped off with a really entertaining radio DJ which adds a lot of atmosphere to the game. The atmosphere overall is very slick, cool and just. .. fun! In addition, the game is very well optimized to cut down on loading times, meaning you can take long 30 minute runs down the entire mountain without ever needing to load on top of a very smooth consistent framerate. Add in different unlocks, collectible, cheat codes and other goodies to obtain, it makes for a very satisfying overall experience.

Once you get to the 3rd peak the game does get a little loose with the track design and can through you out of bounds more often than what was my fault, but other than that I have a really hard time finding negative things to say. It's just a very solid game.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on December 09, 2024, 10:21:31 am
17. Ultrakill (Steam)
This is a real neat game but it has its gimmicks. Not only fast paced FPS with a variety of weapons but there are parkour and platforming features. And unfortunately these movement features is why I had to abandon the game. It is too bad because I got through level 7 in one sitting. The pistol that can spin around was my favorite weapon of the whole game and I was trying to use it most of the time. The exception was for bosses and some enemies where it was better to use the minigun that had no cooldown.

I hit my first brick wall about half-way through when dealing with an enemy that could instakill you from anywhere on the map. It was quite frustrating to figure them out. They looked like a box with a crown or something and they would put a circle symbol on the ground you were standing on and then you'd die. What I did not know is that it was possible to escape it as there was a few seconds where this targetting thing wouldn't follow you. Then it became manageable. The other thing about that enemy was that it could kill you even if you were in the air so it did seem impossible.

In 7-2 there is a section where you have to do a grapple puzzle and it was too much for me. You hit the yellow grapple and it would open a door for a few seconds, and you had to go through 3 doors then look up to hit a blue grapple point. You get no momentum when using the yellow points, so you had to use wall jumps to move through the doors. Unlike other areas that use the grapple points, the "death" floor in this corridor is very close to the grapples and there is not a tall ceiling so you have to be perfect to make it through the corridor. I was able to get past the doors but then you have literally like a second to look up and shoot the blue grapple and if you miss then you have to start over. It was not worth my time to do this type of forced platforming sequence.

I did like how you interact with the computer at the beginning and the menu animations. I would take a break and just listen to the music the computer made.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 09, 2024, 05:13:02 pm
88. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I'm horrible at this game. At least, that's what I thought until I played a TON of it over the weekend and had a blast. Will I purchase it? No. But, I won't be using the qualifier "Yeah, I'll play but you'll kick my ass because I'm horrible at it." It was a lot of fun. More fun than I remember, which I think was during the 3DS era. I never played it on Wii or Wii U. So, it's nice to see that this classic series is still going strong.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on December 10, 2024, 09:40:57 pm
28. Devil May Cry 5

As a self-proclaimed hack-'n-slash fan and massive Bayonetta fan, it almost felt weird I never properly played through a Devil May Cry game before. But I got a Steam Deck a while back and Devil May Cry 5 has been in my Steam account for a while, so I figured it was high time to go for it. Just finished my first playthrough (Devil Hunter difficulty) and damn, this game is indeed fantastic! Really enjoyed my time with it.

Combat is smooth and satisfying, with so many options I think it would feel awesome to master, without ever feeling needlessly overwhelming. I also totally get why people like Dante. He's cool! Granted, I still feel like I'm not great at the game, and I barely beat any missions without buying my way through some deaths, but I think that's fairly normal for your first playthrough of a new hack-and-slash series. I'm sure I'll get better if I replay the game, and I'm confident I'd enjoy the upped challenge the newly unlocked higher difficulty levels will bring. (One tip from me though: pick Devil Hunter difficulty for your first playthrough. I initally picked the other difficulty, Human, and after two missions I restarted because it was just too easy. And you can't change difficulty whenever you want: you have to start over. So keep that in mind).

I don't think I'll start another playthrough right away, but damn, even as I'm typing this I honestly do want to jump back in. Maybe I'll find myself picking it up for a quick mission here and there. Definitely top 5 best games I've played this year, maybe top 3.

For now though, I think my end-of-year goal would be to also beat Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and maybe one of the Swordquest games in Atari 50.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 11, 2024, 12:04:35 pm
Idk how you guys do this.  I grinded and put some big hours into some games this year.  But here is my full list which hit only 27.  However I did 100 percent many games including astro bot which took many weeks.  Mario Odyssey as well.  Thanks for hosting this. Ive always been interested but never played.  Next year ill follow along.


List of games beaten in 2024

1. Killer Frequency

2. Guitar Hero 5

3. Astro Bot (Platty)

4. Guitar Hero Metallica

5. Resident Evil 2 (True ending)

6. MLB The Show 24 (Platty)

7. Road 96 (Platty)

8. Gran Turismo 7 (Main story)

9. Firewatch

10. Absolute Drift Zen (Platty)

11. Walking Dead S1 (platty)

12. Guitar Hero Van Halen

13. Beatles Rockband

14. Dead Island Definitive (with gf coop)

15. Shaq Fu A Legend Reborn

16. Shredders Revenge (with gf coop)

17. GTA Vice City Definitive (Full ending)

18. Streets of Rage 4

19. Telling Lies (platty)

20. Ninja Turtles In Time Konami Arcade

21. Far Cry 5

22. CTR Nitro Fueled

23. Human Fall Flat (platty)

24. Superliminal

25. Luigis Mansion 3

26. Super Mario Odyssey (Dark side of the moon)

27. Hue

Close But Not Beat

1. Michael Jackson Moonwalker for Sega Genesis

2. Donkey Kong Country for SNES

3. Need for Speed Unbound PS5


Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bizzgeburt on December 11, 2024, 01:35:37 pm
Quote from: marvelvscapcom2 on December 11, 2024, 12:04:35 pm
Close But Not Beat

1. Michael Jackson Moonwalker for Sega Genesis

That darn breakdancing zombie bosses, huh?  ;D had me quit it too
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 12, 2024, 11:48:34 am
I beat the Resident Evil 4 remake this morning, and while it is probably objectively a better game than the original RE4, it still felt a little redundant.  This is because while there are a lot of QoL improvements and some better story beats it is still not all that different than the OG.  Compare that to REmake2 which is an entirely new experience.  It's a weird feeling because it is a really great game, but it was always going to have an awfully high bar to clear.  Much like the Dead Space remake, if you are going to play it the new one is the way to go, but I personally am still going to give the edge to the originals.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 12, 2024, 08:22:57 pm
46. No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! || PlayStation || 12.09.24

(https://i.imgur.com/UTnkWk6.jpeg)

At times, I'm reminded of just how long certain titles have been a part of my gaming backlog, and it was readily made apparent when I took No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! off from its shelf. Inside, the receipt of my purchase dated from June 2015 was still there. I'm glad to finally have gotten around to playing it.

As its name alludes, No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! features the titular Mr. Domino on what is, to some degree, his destructive path as an anthropomorphic domino in causing mayhem with inanimate dominoes. In short, players must traverse a field of obstacles within a certain time limit (that's irritatingly kept hidden from the player) to create a path of dominoes which must then be knocked over to trigger a chain of events caused by the placement of a domino on one specific tile. Along the track, several lanes are present which the player follows and constantly weaves back-and-forth from one to another, but that's much easier said than done. While working toward this goal, players encounter other tiles with varying effects which may be interacted with and likely will be on many occasions by accident. In a time-sensitize game like this, of course there are tiles which influence speed, but there are also ones which restore stamina which is most useful as Mr. Domino will revert back to the still domino he once was when his energy runs out. In a way, the game could be described as puzzle-like, but it's generally characterized by its action gameplay.

And it's through the game's action-focused gameplay where its arcade influences in the form of its scoring system become apparent. While each stage's goal is to simply trigger each event, the ability for one chain reaction to lead into another through careful placement of dominoes makes accomplishing this task much more fun to reach. However, it's not an easy feat to accomplish, but it's something those interested in the scoreboard will want to invest in, as more events chained together yield a higher score through the game's combo multiplier. In truth, though, reaching the skill level to simply clear certain stages was a major challenge for me. Most notably, this was a problem in two stages. The most difficulty I experienced was in the second stage where I was still trying to understand the game's controls and what was even being tasked to do alongside the sixth and final stage which must be performed with near perfection in order to succeed at a minimum. Between these two stages, there were probably forty total attempts to advance.

Needless to say, attempting to finish No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! requires a lot of trial-and-error patience. A large reason for this lies in the game's isometric view alongside its constant positioning rotation as the path before you curves and veers into other directions which will almost always be the main reason for failing a stage. But players can afford to fail some as each playthrough awards them five retry credits to be used. At first, I thought that maybe I'd raise my skill level to accomplish this, but the difficulty starts high and only rises. So, I resorted to loading my previous save file each and every time I failed. There are six stages to complete and only five credits, so there are only just enough to complete the game using this method since saving the game requires a credit being used. By no means is this the intended way to play nor a convenient one, but it was the only possibility I had to reach the game's end. At this point, I feel confident to say that No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! was one of the most difficult games I've finished which completely blindsided me. Before playing, I wasn't aware of the challenge it presents, but it's something I'm now well aware of through others' comments on gameplay videos and not just my own impressions.

Besides gameplay, presentation is always worth highlighting. As I've mentioned after having played other games, I find myself drawn to games which require players to navigate human-sizes environments from the perspective of someone much smaller. It's an element present in only some of the game's level, though, but it's still a game design I appreciated. Additionally, the game is explicitly Japanese in how quirky it is, both its world design to overall concept. This is greatly exemplified in one stage where Mr. Domino terrorizes a Japanese family, complete with ojiisan.

Like I mentioned above, I was fully unaware of how difficult No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! is, but I think this provided me with a more rewarding and memorable experience. More often than not, competing the game was much more about developing the right skill set that's reliant on quick response time and less about solving what's next to do. A more puzzle-inspired gameplay loop may have possibly been more successful, but I still enjoyed my time playing.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 14, 2024, 01:38:16 pm
47. Pokémon Puzzle League || Nintendo 64 || 12.13.24

(https://i.imgur.com/UfuH4vR.jpeg)

Having been gifted Pokémon Puzzle League over ten years ago, finally taking the time to play through its campaign mode was way past due. I thought I had never gotten around to playing the game at all, but I actually had some sort of save data already present on the cartridge. I suppose I have a vague memory of playing the game previously, but I don't think I actually finished it.

To be brief, Pokémon Puzzle League is a simple match-three tile puzzle game that's been redesigned with a Pokémon theme for its Western audience. As one should expect, players are tasked with moving a tower of blocks around the playing field as they gradually rise with reaching the top edge resulting in stage failure. However, players are limited by only being able to move blocks horizontally with another block or even with an empty space which may cause it to fall. When three or more matching tiles are formed in a straight line, they then disappear which allows the game to continue indefinitely. Similar to other games like it, the game's major focus revolves around challenging an opponent with challenges ending once one person reaches the top. As combos are formed in quick succession to create chain and also based on how impressive in number each combo is, series of dummy blocks fall onto the opponent's side to better cause them to fail but can be removed.

Even after viewing the tutorial which explains how to create combo chains, I wasn't really able to form them with intent. At least, I don't think I was based on the game's audio cues which the tutorial teaches. Instead, actions taken generally resulted in combos being separated from another that prevented more damage to my opponents. I'm not exactly sure why this was the case, as I was acting as quickly as the game allowed me. Instead of granting me mobility to move the cursor, I instead was locked to my position as the game briefly paused while the combo's action performed. Nevertheless, it wasn't always an issue, and perhaps it was just an issue where I wasn't understanding when exactly blocks can be moved to form chains. Meanwhile, one of three Pokémon is selected by each player before battles. Playing as series protagonist Ash, the player's options all vary in battle type, although I don't know how—if at all—this influences battle mechanics as I saw no difference when I knew I was at either a type advantage or disadvantage based on my knowledge of the franchise.

Apart from the campaign modes which offer both 1-player and 2-player options, various others are available including practice, endless, time trial, and puzzle modes, and I took the time to experience them all. Additionally, certain modes can be played in either 2D or 3D, though I greatly preferred the former. My favorite gameplay offering was the puzzle mode which tasks players to solve preset puzzle boards within a certain amount of turns. From what I noticed, each stage has only one solution regarding the order of moves players must make. I took the time to solve the first set of puzzles which consists of thirty, but I decided to retire after learning there were 260 in total to solve. It's a fun inclusion for the game but ultimately not one I felt willing to complete. For the first set alone, I spent around an hour solving them.

In addition to actual gameplay, Pokémon Puzzle League's presentation is fine. There is some basic voice work, animations, and expected elementary narrative that complements everything else which is fine and adds enough to the experience. Like the mainline games and anime, players must battle gym leaders to acquire all eight badges in order to finish the campaign mode. However, other modes have their own stories and events to play through, which were added details I thought added a lot to separate each mode from another.

All things considered, Pokémon Puzzle League is actually a fun game and one that doesn't require being a fan of the franchise to enjoy. On some level, a part of me would like to return to the game in order to go through the puzzle mode challenges, so maybe I'll do that someday.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 16, 2024, 07:39:26 am
89. Metaphor: ReFantazio - Platinum

After nearly 90 hours of dialogue, combat, and menus, Metaphor is fully finished. What a game. Longtime RPG fan or not, I think most folks will find something to enjoy here.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 16, 2024, 10:00:13 pm
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero - It *looks* incredible, and the movement and combat are mostly really fun. I'm not a fan of how slow a couple of the traversal powers are, and I'm not the biggest fan of having to go back to the same stages over and over.  I think the game just isn't quite big enough and the travel options aren't great.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telekill on December 18, 2024, 09:14:45 am
Calling it as I don't see myself having enough time to complete anymore games this year. Just got done replaying AC2 and it was a blast in comparison to modern AC games. I'll attempt to participate again next year, but expect previous generations to dominate the numbers again. Here's my final list of completed games for 2024:

Completed: 17
Sonic Superstars (Switch)
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5)
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5)
Resident Evil 5 (PS4)
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Collection (PS5)
 - Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Genesis)
 - Jurassic Park (Genesis)
Sonic Origins (PS5)
 - Sonic CD (Sega CD)
 - Sonic 2 (Genesis)
Jet Moto (PS1)
Twisted Metal 2 (PS1)
Tomb Raider Legend (PS2)
Dino Crisis (PS1)
Dino Crisis 2 (PS1)
Tomb Raider Underworld (PS2)
Bro Force (PS4)
TMNT Shredder's Revenge (PS4)
Assassins Creed Ezio Trilogy (PS4)
 - Assassins Creed 2 (PS3)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: realpoketendonl on December 18, 2024, 07:43:03 pm
29. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

I didn’t feel too compelled to play it when it came out last year, but for some reason I really got a hankering for it recently. So bought it, beaten it, and yup, it’s great! Probably not too surprising, it’s a 2D Mario game, of course it’s good, but still.

Right off the bat, I gotta say I really liked that I could essentially turn it into Super Daisy Wonder, and I played the whole game as her. She’s one of my favourite Mario characters, and it was really fun to finally see her in a main series game.

The level design, new enemies and visuals are all great, and I like the new power-ups a lot too. And the Wonder effects are really fun. I found myself looking forward to what they would do in each level. The whole game is really easy, I never struggled once (helped a lot by how insanely easy it is to get 1-Ups), but it’s fun!

The game isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but it’s comfortable. As a Nintendo and Mario fan who grew up on New Super Mario Bros., it felt comforting and like I’ve never been away. The game oozes charm too. I frequently got a big smile on my face when the game pulled something unexpected and creative, and it even made me laugh a few times.

I already have every Wonder Seed in every world, except the Special world. And I may go back to try and 100% complete the game at some point. Wasn’t expecting that itch, and the fact the game is so easy helps, but still!

At the end of the day, it’s a 2D Mario platformer. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking here, because it isn’t. But it’s a really well-designed, bright, charming and welcoming game, and sometimes that’s just what you need.


So that's 29 games (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204242.html#msg204242) thus far. I may try to knock out some more small games before the end of the year, been wanting to try a Swordquest game for example, but even if I beat nothing else this year, I’m satisfied with that number!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on December 19, 2024, 09:07:44 am
Well, I seem to be chilling right at my average again for number of games finished this year. I don't anticipate finishing Eiyuden Chronicles before 2025 even though I'm about halfway done. Will have to make a summary post soon!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 19, 2024, 03:28:04 pm
I need to beat 3 more games before I reach 52, and I'll be damned if this is the first year I don't make it. My life has seemingly been constantly busy since the beginning of November, but with a decent amount of time off in the last few weeks of the year, I'm going to hit 52 come hell or high water. I'm in the middle of two games right now, one of which I definitely intend to beat this year. The other will likely be an early 2025 completion for me. There are a few shorter games in my backlog that I've been meaning to play too so yeah, 52 games should hopefully be in the bag with maybe a game or two more beyond that. What a year though...
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 19, 2024, 09:29:36 pm
Knocked out another short one for the end of the year.  Alan Wake's American Nightmare has most of the best elements of the original Alan Wake distilled down into a super optimal side-story, and makes strides towards what Remedy ended up making in Control.  Not perfect, but a fun gameplay loop and reality bending narrative that felt the perfect length for a smaller more direct story.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 20, 2024, 11:42:39 am
48. Papers, Please || PlayStation Vita || 12.18.24

(https://i.imgur.com/gJLIlzs.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/EwMMqrv.jpeg)

After reading reception about Papers, Please, I knew it was a game that I'd like to someday experience. Eventually, I was able to secure a physical copy of the game through Limited Run Games years ago before they began their open preorder system. I've had my copy for quite some time now, so I'm glad to finally take the time to play it.

At its core, Papers, Please is a simulation game with overt political themes which has the player being forced to work as a newly-assigned immigration officer at their country's border. With each shift, players are tasked with acting in accordance to regulations, cross-referencing various documents, and generally ensuring the safety of the unnamed protagonist's country of Arstotzka by vetting everyone seeking to enter from the various neighboring countries and districts. In order to achieve these goals, the player must inspect passport details to ensure they're correct in correspondence to another alongside the information found on other required materials. Since the player's daily wages are dependent on how many people are processed, there is a huge incentive to move along quickly but still slow enough to avoid mistakes. Such mistakes first result in warnings, but those then become citations with fines. And while memorizing certain rules and document formats may seem simple enough, it's not. Guidelines are constantly being created, revised, or even removed, so the one job of border security becomes a constant act of juggling all sorts of changing information.

Of course, since there are so many rules to remember and documents to inspect for just one encounter, there was always some brief anxiety I felt relating to whether I correctly followed the guidelines or not. From there, some small degree of frustration would set in if I overlooked some small detail. This isn't to suggest that players must remember everything that's explained, though. Instead, an always-updating rule book is available and is simple enough to sift through, although the stress of remembering what all to verify and cross-reference still remains. At the same time, the game offers players some moments of reprieve, as the protagonist's shift only starts once the player calls the first traveler to the window. So during this time, players can familiarize themselves with rules, which is especially helpful if certain ones are regularly being overlooked or are in relation to others.

However, the protagonist's home land of Arstotzka and the general region is not friendly. People determined to immigrate lie. Bribery is a regular occurrence (which players can choose whether or not to accept.) Terrorism is commonplace, and at one point, the player is encouraged to minimize the threat, so to speak, after being access to a gun. In nearly every encounter, that these people are pursuing the chance for a better life is reminded. But tough decisions must be made. If there is outdated or conflicting information, though—no matter how genuine or desperate the person across from you may seem—I chose to deny them for my playthrough. Operating in a totalitarian state, there are obvious repercussions to actions taken, and the protagonist has their own self and family to support. After each day, wages, bills, and other miscellaneous finances are totaled, and there is often little, if any, savings. There were many days where I couldn't afford to pay for heat and medicine; in the end, all but one of my family members died. To my surprise, there are all sorts of possible endings to achieve which are dependent on the moral choices players make. But nothing in this game can be argued as black or white, and the reasons for choosing any one action seem boundless.

On some level, Papers, Please is one of the more stressful games I've played, although that may be better described as it being a game which demands the player's full attention. While I am curious of other endings, I'm not really interested in playing through the game again—especially not anytime soon. As I've suggested, it's not particularly a simple game, and a lot of people probably wouldn't consider it a fun one either based on the premise alone, but it's not one that was made with that idea in mind. Obviously, the in-game border depicted mimics what could be or even is like for real people, and the game exceeds at portraying that idea.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 20, 2024, 03:02:55 pm
Quote from: bizzgeburt on December 11, 2024, 01:35:37 pm
Quote from: marvelvscapcom2 on December 11, 2024, 12:04:35 pm
Close But Not Beat

1. Michael Jackson Moonwalker for Sega Genesis

That darn breakdancing zombie bosses, huh?  ;D had me quit it too

Dont ya know it lol  ;D.   Towards the end it basically feels like the devs just kept right clicking copy and paste on enemy sprites until they got bored.  But its such a glorious game. Wish I could beat it. Maybe ill try again tonight.

__________________________________________

29. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (Platty)


One of the greatest Video games ive played in the definiton of all a game should be. Great development. Great weapons. And some of the best graphics to date.


I also realize that while I will most likely only beat 30 to 32 games this year.  A good handful of those were platinums on collectathons that added maybe x3 to the playthrough. So im actually really proud to hit 30.



UPDATE


30.  Need For Speed Unbound (Challenging difficulty setting)  - Game was a beauty. Its everything you expect in a need for speed. And based on how inconsistent that franchise is and how odd they can wander into lanes they domt belong.  Saying its true to its identity is a massive compliment. Its easily top 5 NFS for me all time. The delivery missions are a big thrill. 92.5/100
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 21, 2024, 07:58:28 pm
90. Mega Man X

91. Mega Man X4 - Zero

Two plane rides. Two games done during both of them. Not much to say about these classics. I played them both on the Switch. I may go through X4 again with X, but we'll see.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 22, 2024, 06:06:35 pm
49. Soupsoup || Mobile || 12.21.24

(https://i.imgur.com/wTVXduo.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/045jLlr.jpeg)

While wanting to play another hidden object game for mobile to pass idle time, I found myself attracted to Soupsoup. Admittedly, the bulk of my playing experience was during the springtime of this year, but I did revisit it shortly before collecting my thoughts.

Generally, Soupsoup adheres to the basics of the hidden object puzzle genre without deviating much, which means that players must fully rely on a careful eye to study the game's complex and often chaotic environments. To help provide some sort of direction, descriptions which add context and clues as to where the object to find may be are present. To a degree, these hints do help, but there are a majority which provide no benefit and instead are only commentary for the illustrated scene. Puzzles are designed by various creators, so how a creator decides to write their object description differs for better or for worse. With a detailed game like this being built for smaller screens, the ability to zoom in and out in addition to changing screen orientation is also available, but the ability to enlarge the preview image of the hidden objects themselves can't which often made looking for them much more difficult. And while the majority of hidden objects are aimlessly scattered throughout the illustration, a fair number of them are only revealed after interacting with the environment. There's no indication as to whether objects are actually embedded into the image or need to be added, so fully solving certain puzzles was more difficult than it should have been. Something else I'll briefly mention here is that it's irritating how the hidden object column resets its position every time an object is found, so the player is forced to cycle back through to where they previously were to know what to find next.

As mentioned above, stages are incredibly varied in design and art style as a result of all sorts of artists being involved. To me, this is the game's biggest strength as most puzzles felt unique from one another. And because of this, certain puzzles are designed to more difficult as a direct result of art styles. Subtle animations are employed in various places in a majority of puzzles, including objects that have already been identified too. Across the game's many stages, certain artists will be repeatedly featured, but very few feel similar to each other. A small yet thoughtful aspect added is the decision to credit each artist with their name and social links on the stage select screen which will direct players to their webpage.

Being a free game with free weekly updates, Soupsoup focuses on the amount of stages more than the amount of objects to find, although I suppose that's relative to other hidden object games I've played before. Stages of the game are divided into sections from the main menu, with 23 sections in total (at the time of this writing) which average around twelve puzzle stages in each. So, needless to say, there is a lot of content available since most puzzles average around 25 objects to find. It's also worth mentioning that the game grants players freedom the access to solve puzzles in whichever order they'd like to, for the most part. Of course, the game's objective is to build long-term player engagement rather than providing a game with an ending. In a way this model is nice, but my preferences don't involve prioritizing any one game for an indefinite amount of time.

After counting just now, I completed exactly one hundred stages before abandoning Soupsoup. At the time I stopped playing earlier this year, I was at about the halfway point to completing the available stages, but that's certainly not the case anymore. I've thought about maybe coming back to the game to play through one or two stages sporadically, but I ultimately decided not to since I know I'd become too focused on it again.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 22, 2024, 08:31:14 pm
32 - Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (PC 2024) - BEAT - Random pick up but the sale going made it worthwhile enough to pick up at the moment as just something small to jump into.  Loved the idea of this when I first saw it, which is someone taking the idea of the awful CD-I Legend of Zelda games, Faces of Evil/Wand of Gamelon, and making a game that embraces goofy style and gameplay, but make it playable and fun.  And they nailed it.  It has silly, over-expressive, pixel art (I think they found a fun cheat too by using 3D models with a pixelated outline for some scenes, which was probably very time saving), a light-hearted and goofy tone, and gameplay that mimics what was trying to be done, but platforming is tight, action is responsive, and it's not super unforgiving challenge wise.

I think the only real negative I have is that most bosses are way too easy.  A couple have decent, basic ideas, but can get you if you aren't careful, while others are complete push overs.  I think the last boss is actually the easiest in the game.  I'm kinda unsure if that was meant to purposefully anti-climatic or not, but I was kinda prepping for a big fight that utilized everything I earned, but you just don't lol

Other than that, the game is great, I love this idea of taking something bad and making an original game out of that is actually good.  I'm positive I saw something similar to NES Zelda 2 being made, but I'd love to see it happen more often as it's a great way to pay homage to the old games, but it's not just rehashing already great games that have been done a ton of times already.  We already got enough games that are retro throwbacks to Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, Mario, Ninja Gaiden, etc...
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: Cartagia on December 23, 2024, 02:39:28 pm
Probably my last title of the year, I hadn't played Vampire Survivors since spring of 2022.  Finally got all the DLC in one go with the Winter Sale, and I just have to say: it's the perfect Steam Deck game.

I've put in at least a dozen hours since Friday.  So many cool new levels, characters, powers, etc.

Maybe the best value per dollar I've ever seen at MSRP.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 23, 2024, 06:08:59 pm
Quote from: Cartagia on December 23, 2024, 02:39:28 pm
Probably my last title of the year, I hadn't played Vampire Survivors since spring of 2022.  Finally got all the DLC in one go with the Winter Sale, and I just have to say: it's the perfect Steam Deck game.

I've put in at least a dozen hours since Friday.  So many cool new levels, characters, powers, etc.

Maybe the best value per dollar I've ever seen at MSRP.

I've put nearly 100 hours into the game since I bought before it's 1.0 release, and I think I've spent maybe 10 bucks in total for the game and all of its DLC since release...maybe up to 15 at the top, full price, it's a wildly high value per dollar lol It's such a goofy game, because it's almost not a game, but it's just so weirdly satisfying to run a level or two.  I think the Castlevania DLC in particular is their best yet.

If you like that and want something similar eventually, Holocure is free on Steam, it's basically the same game, but with anime/vtuber girls, but it's just as good.  And that's "free" as in it's a fangame and they are purely doing it for fun, not F2P with microtransactions lol
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 24, 2024, 09:21:57 pm
31. Guitar Hero Smash Hits.   - I know these may seem corny for a list like this but they on average take 10+ hours to complete. And a game is a game lol. 

I cant wait till next years 52 game challenge. Idk why I slept on this so long. I guess I never considered myself much of a game logger. But It really does help complete games and stay focused on doing so rather than bouncing from title to title. 

Working on Gris now.  Colorful game. Pretty soothing. I
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bizzgeburt on December 25, 2024, 08:35:57 am
I didn't manage to play through even anything near to 52 games, but here's this year's finished-list:

Sega Game Gear:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Highscore: 278.580)
- Sonic Triple Trouble (Highscore: 209.600)
- Space Harrier (Highscore: 5.255.050)
- Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe

GameBoy Color:
- Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Highscore: 414.050)

Game Boy Advance:
- Disney's Treasure Planet
- Yoshi's Island Super Mario Advance 3 (SMB-Highscore: 103.110)
- SpongeBob Squarepants and Friends in Freeze Frame Frenzy
- SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle of Bikini Bottom
- Spyro Adventure

Super Nintendo:
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Harvest Moon

N64:
- Yoshi's Story

PlayStation:
- Final Fantasy Origins (Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II both finished in easy- AND normal mode)

PlayStation 2:
- Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

PlayStation 4 digital:
- Nobody Saves the World

This only sums up to 16 games finished in 2024 ... but one of them was a long one, so I can call it a year. Playing 2 Final Fantasy titles 2 times each ate up weeks if not months  8)
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 25, 2024, 09:34:25 am
92. Rockman X 4 - X

The Mega Man X Legacy Collection allows you to switch between the English and Japanese versions. For fun, I switched to Japanese. It helped remind me how much I've been slacking with my studies. Ugh. Otherwise, super fun as always. I like how all of the Maverick bosses have little quips they say before the fights begin. I tried a new boss order, too. Frost Walrus ended up being the final one I went after despite him being one of the easiest.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kamikazekeeg on December 25, 2024, 11:04:03 pm
33 - Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania/Operation Guns (PC 2024) - Gonna count this as I did feel like I put more hours into this than the others and actually I could count Operation Guns also that released earlier this year, which was a Contra DLC, but Ode to Castlevania added a lot.  It only has one map, similar to the Among Us one, but it adds a ton of characters and new weapons.  The ending and how it adds so many characters and weapons, makes me almost feel like this could be the last DLC for Vampire Survivors, which would make sense, as this game started out as a clear homage to Castlevania, and here they are, collab'ing with the original, they've come full circle.  They even had voice acting, recreating a new version of the beginning scene in Symphony of the Night with Richter and Dracula.  Might just be reading too much into it and they could just make DLC for a long time after this, but this would be a great note to end on.

It also has this big round up ending to it, and then when you beat the game, they are just "Here's these sick new characters and weapons", like a teaser roll, maybe hinting at new DLC, but then they just give them to you, nearly a dozen new characters on top of the dozen they added with the DLC, it's pretty great.  The level for the DLC is great, being Dracula's Castle and having lots of bosses to fight throughout, even changing from a top down setup, to something like standard Castlevania in 2 spots of the castle with the ability to jump.  It's a little awkward, but nice to see at least.

I put a good handful of hours into this DLC, most DLC's have probably 5+ hours of gameplay depending on what you want to count as having completed it, though I think this DLC might be the only one with a proper end credits? I don't remember getting one from the Contra DLC or Among Us, or previous ones, but I could be wrong there.  Vampire Survivors is the perfect chill game for me, it has little actual gameplay, it's just movement and flashing pixels, but it can be addictive unlocking everything and getting through levels in the 30 minute chunks if you go through the whole level.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 26, 2024, 01:19:23 am
50. Mortal Kombat Gold (Dreamcast)

Aside from playing it here and there for a few minutes over the years, most of my exposure to MK4 was not the enhanced version on the Dreamcast, but the vanilla version in the arcade and on the N64. I have fond memories of playing this game at an old shopping mall arcade I used to go to as a kid, and which has been gone for the better part of 20-years now. I also vividly remember renting MK4 on the N64 as a kid with one of my friends. We more or less made it out mission to see all the fatalities this game had to offer, and I remember pulling off my first MK fatality in this game. If memory serves me right, we had a pretty good time otherwise with this game as well. So now, years later playing MK Gold, which is more or less MK4 with more characters, stages, and slightly better visuals, I can definitely see why I enjoyed this game as a kid, but also why it's garnered a pretty negative reputation over the years as well.


First off, the game plays pretty good overall. I didn't have any major gripes with the controls or fluidity of the combat. Special moves feel easier to pull off, and the inclusion of weapons and stage objects to fight with definitely add a fun element to the gameplay. Unfortunately, the difficulty balancing feels all over the place and in all honesty I don't see how this game really pushes the needle forward at all for the series. This becomes a problem when despite the new 3D visuals which every franchise seemed to be trying out in the late 90s, the game actually looks worse than most of its predecessors that used sprites and digitized character animation. MK Gold just lacks so much of that charm and specialness that most of the previous 2D games possessed. The OST is pretty good for the most part as it uses remixes of various old tracks, but also adds some decent new ones. Overall, I did enjoy playing MK Gold, but honestly it's a title I probably wouldn't play again unless I just wanted a quick hit of nostalgia, or just to see how the series improved with the later games, or how amazing it was with the titles that came before. MK4 and MK Gold just feel experimental and not that remarkable overall, which is probably why most gamers have long forgotten about it and why it's more or less been allowed to fade into obscurity. (12/25/24) [32/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 26, 2024, 02:43:31 pm
32. Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury (NS)

Forgot I had beaten this one earlier in the year. One of my favorite 3D marios. And the switch added a lot of quality of life improvements. I enjoyed it.


Because ive.started hogwarts legacy now. I wll probably end at 32. I dont see hogwarts being beaten by 2025.  Happy new year folks
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 27, 2024, 06:27:53 pm
51. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

There are few better examples of a backlog game for me than DKCR. Being a huge fan of the SNES DKC trilogy, especially the first two, this game has been on my radar to play ever since it came out in 2010. With the announcement of DKCR being ported over to the Switch, it was enough of a push for me to finally throw this game in and see if it holds its own against its predecessors. I am very happy to say that it absolutely does, and then some!


DKCR does an amazing job of recreating the excellent platforming experience of the older DKC games, while also paying tribute to those older titles, while also being very original and unique on its own to set itself apart. I guess theme-wise it's most similar to the first DKC, but that's not to say it's just a remake of that game, far from it. There are no kremlins or King K Rule, but rather you have weird Tiki instrument monsters that mind control the inhabitants of Donkey Kong's island and pit them against you. There are 9 areas that consist of 7 or 8 stages, and each stage remarkably feels unique and special compared to any others you've played so far, or any that you will play later on. It's really remarkable how much love and detail Retro Studios put into this game to make it feel distinct and fresh throughout. That includes each boss battle which are all very unique in terms of the enemies you fight, how they are defeated, and what sort of new attacks they will throw at you as you get closer and closer to defeating them. This is all beautifully complimented by extra tight, very well crafted gameplay which in some has the original RARE DKC games beat. That's not to say this game is perfect in every way because it does have a few issues and gripes that really hold it back from being the masterpiece it almost is. For one, there are some very annoying stages throughout the game that have a few parts that just feel tedious, annoying, and will almost assuredly kill you if you didn't know they were coming beforehand. Luckily the game is pretty liberal with in stage checkpoints, meaning you shouldn't have to backtrack too much when you die from some cheap platform or enemy placement. The OST, while good, also leaves a little to be desired. For one, it leans heavily on the first DKC's soundtracks by remixing some of its more iconic tracks, and the original tracks while good, don't come close to being as good as David Wise's iconic score in DKC and DKC2. Another minor gripe I have is there are no water levels in DKCR, which some might see as a huge plus, but personally the DKC and DKC2 water levels are some of my favorites and most memorable. As mentioned, these are all relatively minor complaints in what is otherwise a rock solid, incredibly fun experience that I cannot praise highly enough. Unless there is some unexpected surprise from one of the shorter games I intend on playing between not and New Year's Eve, DKCR will go down as the best game I played all year, and one I'm very happy to finally clear from my backlog! (12/27/24) [41/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 28, 2024, 03:11:06 pm
I was trying to post a list of all the things I've finished and dropped but it wouldn't let me. Oh well. Great year for gaming!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 28, 2024, 03:32:36 pm
Quote from: kashell on December 28, 2024, 03:11:06 pm
I was trying to post a list of all the things I've finished and dropped but it wouldn't let me. Oh well. Great year for gaming!


Heck yeah it was! And next year will be even better, at least for me. I had a ton of stuff (mostly good) going on in 2024 and it really got in the way of me engaging more with video gaming and beating more games than I did. I'm actually going to go for triple digit games beat next year, which would be a personal record for me. I'd have to go back and look, but a few years ago I think I got up into the 80s, so 100 isn't too much of a stretch.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: kashell on December 28, 2024, 06:17:35 pm
Quote from: bikingjahuty on December 28, 2024, 03:32:36 pm
Quote from: kashell on December 28, 2024, 03:11:06 pm
I was trying to post a list of all the things I've finished and dropped but it wouldn't let me. Oh well. Great year for gaming!


Heck yeah it was! And next year will be even better, at least for me. I had a ton of stuff (mostly good) going on in 2024 and it really got in the way of me engaging more with video gaming and beating more games than I did. I'm actually going to go for triple digit games beat next year, which would be a personal record for me. I'd have to go back and look, but a few years ago I think I got up into the 80s, so 100 isn't too much of a stretch.

Triple digits...dang. That would be awesome.

I have a few days left in the year. Maybe I can knock out some smaller titles. We'll see!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 28, 2024, 09:07:08 pm
50. Tetris Effect: Connected || PlayStation 4 || 12.27.24

(https://i.imgur.com/Bt407hL.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/WmxC871.jpeg)

For as long as I've known about it, Tetris Effect: Connected has been a game I've been wanting to play. While I'm not particularly skilled at Tetris, it's a game I always enjoy playing, so I've been curious what all this modern adaptation offers.

Although the game has a surplus of gameplay modes, I'll first be focusing its main campaign named Journey Mode that's comprised of 27 stages. And, for anyone somehow unfamiliar to Tetris, it's a puzzle game that has players strategically place falling tetrominos onto a playfield to complete rows which are then removed. In many versions, Tetris is a never-ending game, though Journey Mode has a definitive end as stages require a set number of lines to be formed. While there are 27 stages, they are divided into seven sections; once one stage is completed in a section, the player automatically advances to the next with the current score and playfield being retained. Since stages are grouped together, there is a clear developer intention for players to advance through them altogether in one session without failure, though this is challenging to accomplish. If failing, the current stage restarts with the score being reset, so there is some penalty but nothing that casual players should be concerned about. Additionally, stages can be freely selected from the level select screen at any point, so there is no need to play through the campaign all at once. So, because of these reasons (especially the former), I feel as if much of the game's goal at having stages connect with another seamlessly is lost, as being able to clear through four or five stages without fail is something I doubt many players will be able to do.

At the same time, other modes and gameplay mechanics are present which set Tetris Effect: Connected apart with the simple game it draws from. Of the latter, the game's main gimmick is the Zone Mode. Over time, a meter will rise which players can then use once full at their digression. During its short activation period, time will temporarily halt as players continue making actions, but cleared lines are instead moved to the bottom of the screen instead of being removed. If skillful, the main benefit to this mechanic is to accrue as many completed lines as possible for a large point bonus. However, I imagine most players will instead use it as a last resort tool to overcome more challenging, high-speed sections by quickly downsizing the playfield as it's overwhelmed by a tower of blocks approaching the ceiling. Meanwhile, all sorts of various gameplay modes are present that all provide a different type of objective. For example, All Clear mode requires solving preset puzzles that must be solved in a limited number of turns using specific blocks. Another is Mystery mode, which tasks players to clear a certain number of lines while random effects such as a reversed playfield appearing or the block-drop preview  being removed which periodically interfere the player's performance. However, not all of these modes are skill based, as a number of them focus on relaxation and casual play. This is also without mentioning any of the game's multiplayer offerings which I've not yet explored.

Beyond gameplay, there is a major emphasis on synesthesia which is expected as Tetsuya Mizuguchi is a part of the game's development. In Journey Mode, stages have their own music that's fluid with level progression and sometimes even responsive to individual player actions. Corresponding to each stage's music, visual and sound design relating to action effects are also present, so the way each stage is differentiated through presentation is both memorable and successful. To a degree, this implementation is accomplished, though it's mostly evident through Journey Mode as the speed of falling tetrominos will slow and hasten to the song's tempo and ambiance. With that said, I think balancing gameplay with the idea of a more ingrained system of synesthesia is quite bold. Personally, I don't think the game's music, visuals, or VR capabilities really elevated the original Tetris experience into something new, or at least to the level of ambition that I had hoped the game would achieve. Perhaps I just haven't connected enough with the game yet.

All things considered, Tetris Effect: Connected is an ambitious game that largely succeeds in its goals to elevate classic Tetris into something greater. I may be revisiting it every so often in the hopes of better connecting with it, as I think it's a game that warrants repeated play sessions over a greater span of time than what I've so far dedicated for my playthrough.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 28, 2024, 11:47:13 pm
6. The Bouncer (PS2)

Vivigamer mentioned this game in another thread and I suddenly became inspired to replay this game after last playing it 23-years ago when it first came out. I rented this game back in 2001 at Blockbuster after getting hyped for the game on account I was a big FF and Square fan at the time. I don't remember beating the game when I rented it despite its very short length, but I figured maybe I got busy or something else came up. Now I remember the reason I didn't beat it was because this game is pretty bad for the most part.


There are some redeeming qualities in the Bouncer, mostly the ultra late 90s/early 2000s Squaresoft style the main characters are designed in, and also that ultra cozy early 2000s, 6th gen console vibes that give me the warm fuzzies whenever I play a game that has that. The OST is pretty good for the most part too. I also thought it was a cool idea having the three characters be selectable during each playable part of the game, which changes dialogue and how certain parts of the game play out. And finally, it's shallow RPG skill leveling system is a fairly cool system to include in a beat em' up, especially around this time when there wasn't anything else like it. My praise really does stop there as this is one of the most boring, clunky, and poorly designed beat em' ups I've ever played. The combat just feels sloppy and slow, while constantly getting kicked out to the main menu and having to reload my save file every time I die got really annoying, real fast. I also really hated how stop and go the game is where you play for a minute or two, watch a 2 to 5 minute cutscene, play for another few minutes, rinse and repeat. Did I mention there are loading screens and manuals saves between all these? I got to a particularly frustrating part where you have to escort a girl out of the bad guy's headquarters where I kept dying. I wasn't really having any fun before that so I finally just said screw it and gave up out of annoyance and boredom. Even the two hours it takes to do a single playthrough of this game was asking too much from me. This time, I plan on leaving The Bouncer in my past. (12/28/24) - ABANDONED
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 29, 2024, 12:32:33 am
With 3 days to spare, I finally reached the coveted 52 games mark! I have no idea if I'll be able to complete anymore games this year, but even if I don't that's okay. I decided I'm aiming for 100 games beat next year which means I'll have plenty of time to play more next year. But anyhow, I ended up picking a quick one after abandoning The Bouncer.


52. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Dreamcast)

I am not at all familiar with the Jojo series, however what drew me to one of its fighting games was a) it was made by Capcom during the mid to late 90s prime, and b) it's on the Dreamcast. I got this game for Christmas years ago when I was heavily into Dreamcast collecting and aside from dabbling in it for about 15 minutes when I first received it, I've never actually played through it. After doing just that tonight, I have to say this game has a lot going for it, but also lacks in the one place fighting games live or die by, it's gameplay. The presentation looks great; the sprites and backgrounds are very stylized and are animated wonderfully like most 2D Capcom fighting games of this time. I definitely got Street Fighter Alpha or Darkstalkers vibes from the visuals in this game. The same can be said about the audio which also felt spot for a late 90s Capcom fighting game. The presentation alone carried my interest the most since the gameplay is pretty...meh. There are some decent qualities to the gameplay including how smooth and fluid the controls are as well as the somewhat cool ability to summon a persona like creature (can't remember the name the game uses) that fights alongside your character and also acts as the element of each character that performs their special moves. However, there seems to be little in the way of balancing between characters and the difficulty is all over the place depending on who you're fighting. Some characters actually feel completely useless to play as, which is never a good sign for a fighting game. While not completely terrible, it is this games biggest flaw and probably why this game has been lost to obscurity despite the Jojo series having a surge in popularity in recent years. Even among old school fighting game fans, this one is never brought up. So yeah, your mileage will vary depending on how much of a Jojo fan you are, how much you love 90s Capcom fighting games, and probably how much you enjoy the Dreamcast's library of arcade ports. (12/28/24) [32/50]
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 29, 2024, 02:26:50 pm
Quote from: bikingjahuty on December 29, 2024, 12:32:33 am
With 3 days to spare, I finally reached the coveted 52 games mark! I have no idea if I'll be able to complete anymore games this year, but even if I don't that's okay. I decided I'm aiming for 100 games beat next year which means I'll have plenty of time to play more next year. But anyhow, I ended up picking a quick one after abandoning The Bouncer.


[L(12/28/24) [32/50]

Yayy Congrats on 52!  And happy new year to all if I dont beat any new games or see this thread.

 I feel the same way that im trying to save beaten games for glorious 2025. I feel with 2025 being a more ambitious year for my backlog too. I feel stupid that ive been on this forum for a while and always seen this challenge. And kinda just missed it. But now I been wanting to review more, catelog more and beat more games. This is the place to be :)   


Whats funny is the other day I was questioning if 100 is even possible. An average of 1 game about every 3.5 days for an entire year. Certainly not by me lol. I look forward to seeing you pull it off. You got this.  Happy gaming everyone. 


My intent in 2025 is to hit 52 games. And 1750 trophies. 
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 29, 2024, 02:57:41 pm
51. Milo and the Christmas Gift || PC || 12.29.24

(https://i.imgur.com/71bZBfs.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/k1v6Qsa.jpeg)

Unexpectedly, I decided to play Milo and the Christmas Gift after realizing it's a free project published by Second Maze, a side venture from the Rusty Lake team. I knew very little before beginning my playthrough aside from what type of game it is, so my expectations were low, though I did take note of its positive review scores.

To first provide context, Milo and the Christmas Gift is a spin-off story to the creator's previous game Milo and the Magpies, though it's not required to play beforehand. In brief, Christmas Gift is a short point-and-click adventure puzzle experience about a newly-acquired pet rabbit named Toby who's gone missing. With passing curiosity, the other family pet, the titular car Milo, follows Toby while interacting with the environment in subtle ways. However, the player doesn't really control either of the two animals but instead serves as the force behind all actions, whether they be the animals' or the environment's.

Early on, puzzles did not feel explained and seemed obtuse. There are only so many environment set pieces to interact with at any given time, so that I was quickly stumped left me feeling slightly irritated. Though it wasn't mentioned, I thought for some time that maybe different items needed to be interacted with simultaneously or even one after another like some sort of chain reaction. However, this wasn't the case. Instead, the game's first puzzle doesn't even across as a puzzle at all. This issue was at its worst during this time and did get better as the game progressed, though there were still small segments which felt underdeveloped regarding puzzle translation.

This also extends to what all may be interacted with on a general level too. While some items come across as key interactables, others certainly do not. Only after scouring the page with the cursor moving at all times across all corners can all interactables be discovered, because several aren't obvious. And even when an interaction is obvious, there were several instances that eluded me as to how players would think on their own that this is the action to take. More often than not, I found myself brute forcing to find the solution through acts of sporadic clicking.

Meanwhile, all of the game's visuals are beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, and it's evident through all their details. Particularly, background environments are visually appealing. At the same time, some playful animations are present through animal movement—movement that's mostly evident through the interactions between Milo and Toby. In truth, the game's visuals are the game's most commendable strengths.

In the end, Milo and the Christmas Gift is generally okay and inoffensive given that it's free to experience. Still, there is a lot of room for improvement regarding puzzle design and event sequences which was disappointing to discover, given the game's focus on point-and-click gameplay.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: tripredacus on December 30, 2024, 10:34:38 am
21. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Steam)

Easily beat this in just a couple of hours. Interesting that most of my memories of this game must have been with one of the sequels. I haven't played this in a long time since I had lent out my PS2 copy over a decade ago and I did not get it back. I'm pretty sure I rebought it since then (besides this PC version) but hadn't replayed it. I am not even sure the original save is still on my memory card.

Only two nitpicks about the game. First, the game defaults to 1024x768 resolution when it launches and you do not get any option to change the resolution or anything else until you get past the tutorial level and onto the planet interface. So in the first level it plays in windowed and is small but I guess it depends on what resolution you are using.

The second is less about the game specifically and more about the controller. By default it wants you to use the keyboard, that I didn't try. I do use the Xbox 360 wired controller normally. In my previous experience I've only played the Katamari games on PS2 and PS3 and the thumbsticks are in a different position on those controllers. The only real issue is the speed burst option which did not work for me. It could be because of my controller, as I know that there is some drift in one of the thumbsticks that shows up in another game. I do have another controller I can try. Basically what happens is that the action gets cancelled. Having the speed boost function is really important and it may be required to 100% the game.

Since achivements are present, it gives more perspective to what you can do in the game that I did not fully realise with the PS2 versions. In the PS2 version I know it has a list of all the things you can roll up and that you can somehow try to get everything. I remember spending a bit of time trying to get the missing items but back then there wasn't any sort of reference list to how to get them. That is changed now since it is on Steam. So it seems the only way to 100% the game is not only to find all of the items, but also to complete the constellations. Of that, the hardest is always going to be the cow and bear levels, where the game ends if you roll up one of those animals or an object marked as one of those. The cow one is insidious because there is a small cow statue or toy that is right in front of you, where you can end the level in 3 seconds but really what you are supposed to do is try to avoid those items as long as possible.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 30, 2024, 10:47:41 am
Yep, 52 is where the needle stops this year. As I've stated in various posts, next year I plan on trying to reach 100 games beat and am already in the process of beating my first game of 2025. It was an excellent, albeit, frustrating year for trying to complete 52 games, but luckily I was able to accomplish it. With no foreseeable obstacles next year, hitting 52 should be a breeze, but the jury is still out on making it to 100. Fingers crossed!
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: telly on December 31, 2024, 03:49:24 pm
Game 24 - Dredge (Switch) - 9 Hours

I breezed through this game very quickly during the holidays. Absolutely stellar fishing game with excellent gameplay and graphics, and interesting story, tons of secrets and areas to explore, well-written characters, I really don't have anything negative to say. I got the bad ending but might go back into the game to explore more of the game and maybe try for the better ending.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: dhaabi on December 31, 2024, 06:48:43 pm
52. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword || Wii || 12.31.24

(https://i.imgur.com/X9ZxN3h.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/9W3vBKn.jpeg)

After nearly four years since I've last visited The Legend of Zelda series, I finally began a playthrough of another entry. Out of all the mainline Zelda titles I'm familiar with, I chose what's arguably the most different, that being The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Understood to be the earliest entry in the Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword was interesting to play for the chance to understand the series lore alone. In short, and just like with many other series titles, the player-character protagonist Link must destroy an evil from overtaking the world by reclaiming various powers and tools, including the Master Sword and the Triforce. However, it's a far more convoluted practice with many steps involved to accomplish. In fact, the game opens up and continued onward when I thought the playthrough was nearing its end but actually had only completed about one-third of the story. Needless to say, the game was far longer than I had anticipated it to be since I'm generally aware of the length of other series titles. Nevertheless, the playthrough didn't overstay its welcome since so many narrative events followed one after another without losing momentum.

On that note, dungeon layouts, locale exploration, puzzle design, and sequencing within each section of the game is high quality. Toward that one-third mark, I was a little surprised by how the game was only going to introduce three major areas to explore. Instead of many regions to explore, the game instead employs use of backtracking through previous areas to discover new areas after acquiring new tools and abilities. So, while there are only three regions, there are more like ten proper dungeons to overcome which all feel unique from another. Of these, my favorite section of the game—though still annoying on some level—strips Link of all of his equipment and forces the player to stealth through the area to regain it, piece by piece. At the same time, there is also a day and night system which determines in-game events and encounters within the hub area. Periodically as the narrative progresses, side quests become available often in the form of townspeople requests. It always seemed like there was something else to do beyond the main story objective.

But as I mentioned above, Skyward Sword varies from all other entries in the franchise by capitalizing the Wii's motion capabilities. As a result of the game's motion controls, combat feels fluid—arguably too fluid and haphazardly, actually. While playing, I generally reached a point of frustration when play sessions became too lengthy, though I can't say outright that's it's a fault of the game but, rather, from myself hurrying too much. As enemy patterns become more complex, combat requires more patience and strategy to strike through their defenses. Of course, there certainly were times of difficulty in getting specific attack movements to register. Also, for about the first half of my playthrough, I quickly began experiencing wrist pain in both hands as a result of hasty movement. So, a lot of my playtime during the early game was segmented into much shorter play sessions than I'd have liked. After a few days away from the game, though, that sort of pain subsided altogether, which I'm thankful for.

Of course, even besides the divisive motion mechanics, Skyward Sword is far from a perfect game, though much of my critiques are more like annoyances. Accompanying Link, a tutorial-like companion named Fi is also a part of the adventure, and I found them to be generally irritating. While other Zelda games have this sort of role filled, Fi's appearance is far more egregious than I what I remember other games having. At any given time and with high frequency, Fi appears to provide hint alerts and general narrative interruptions to simplify what's immediately already been stated. It's a lot of hand-holding dialogue that gave me the impression that the developers had little faith in players discovering what all the game introduces on their own. On a more surface level, nearly all of Fi's dialogue is an analysis of some kind or something that mentions probability, and it only reaffirmed their featureless expressions and behavior to be likened to what I regularly thought of as a modern AI assistant. Apart from Fi, it did not take long for me to be disappointed by how the screen's overrun with UI elements. Though as my playthrough neared its end, they fell into the background. One final thing worth mentioning is the frequency of item prompts and description windows screens appearing. While it makes sense for some sort of item prompt to appear when new items are discovered, they appear each time an item is collected when moving from one area to the next. Out of everything, this was the one constant annoyance regularly taking place, and one that so easily could have been avoided.

Despite its longer playtime, Skyward Sword kept me fully engaged from beginning to end. Were the motion controls absent, I think many would think more highly of it, although I think they're implemented well enough and succeed in setting the game apart from previous titles. Also, it was interesting to think about the sort of feedback Nintendo received from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and how they applied it to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that emphasizes self-discovery.
Title: Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!
Post by: ignition365 on January 04, 2025, 11:57:15 am
lmao I feel bad bumping this but I ran out of usable posts for myself to make my notes, so there will be this updated post with notes and my final stats hopefully at some point today.

Main List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204016.html#msg204016)
Previous List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg206040.html#msg206040)

Quote from: Legend
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.


128. Thirty-One 3D Premium (PC)
Final game for the year.  I started a couple of curator accounts on Steam for various things and occasionally I'll get stuff from developers/publisher to play and review and this was one that I reached out to the developer to request and they actually sent me a couple of steam keys for their games, so I might giveaway the extra keys at some point.  Anyway, 31 is a card game that my family played a lot when family would gather in my childhood, so I was bit hyped to give this a go because I have fond memories of the game.  That said, this game is a different variant on 31.  I did think to myself maybe we played with a variant, but I went and searched the internet and our way to play was pretty standard and this game's style I couldn't find listed in any variants I read about.  I didn't really enjoy this variant given that you have only the cards dealt to everyone plus 3, so you have a very finite list of possibilities, which does make for quicker game, because you can choose to end the round as soon as you notice someone swap suits, but that also makes the game lose a lot of its charm because the game ends as soon as someone notices that someone changed suits.
Rating: Hard pass


Final Stats

Top Games played released in 2024

Top Games played NOT released in 2024

Top Games played overall in 2024

Console breakdown
Platform      Count
PC         77
XS         19
360         10
X1         7
NS         5
PS5         4
GBA         2
GBC         2
PS4         1
PSX         1

Platform with the Most Beat Games: PC had a small lead last year, PC fucking demolished this year eating up more than all other platforms combined.  Holy cow.

Platform with the most unfinished titles: Again I didn't really keep track of abandoned games like last year, I really need to make an effort of keeping track of that somehow... but I think PC probably wins that, as I actually did real good finishing up console games that I started this year.  I think I only had 1 tracked unfinished game this year despite playing a lot of games that I didn't track at all.

Current v. Retro v. Mobile/Handheld v. PC v Arcade: 36 - 11 - 4 - 77 - N/A.  Again PC dominated, didn't do any Arcade this year, and only a few handheld games.  Console total wasn't awful, kinda respectable, but much lower than historic.

Game that ate up the most time: Real hard to tell, because year end reviews didn't share hours across the board and I had some inflated times with Forza Horizon 3/4 and some PC games... I'd guess Infinite Wealth or FF7R2 probably win that given how many months it took me to beat each, though I was sprinkling my playtime... so maybe Forza Horizon is legit?

Quickest game beat: Another 100 hidden game.


Game per year list
2024 Balatro
2023 Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
2022 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
2021 Arietta of Spirits
2020 Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
2019 Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions
2018 Simmiland
2017 Hidden Folks
2016 Forza Horizon 3
2015 God of War 3 Remastered
2014 WWE 2K15
2013 Shadow Warrior Classic Redux
2012 Need for Speed: Most Wanted
2011 WWE '12
2010 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
2009 Velvet Assassin
2008 Elements of Destruction
2007 Yaris
2006 Feeding Frenzy
2005 Perfect Dark Zero
2004 Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc
2003 Spy Muppets: License to Croak
2002 Lilo & Stitch
2001 WWF Betrayal
2000 Pokemon Puzzle Challenge