Games Beaten 2015

[CFFJR]

I can’t blame them entirely though, as this was the mid 90’s and level design for FPS games wasn’t quite at its finest.

I dunno, if you ask me it never got any better than Doom.

[noiseredux]

I can’t blame them entirely though, as this was the mid 90’s and level design for FPS games wasn’t quite at its finest.

I dunno, if you ask me it never got any better than Doom.

Did you play Quake?

[Ack]

Dark Forces –

I have owned Dark Forces since I was a kid and have absolutely adored the series. Having beaten it way back in 1995 as a kid, I felt it necessary to revisit it and see if it still stacks up. Reading Ack’s impressions on it and seeing an irresistible steam sale for it and other great Star Wars games, I decided to pick it up again and give it a shot. In the game you play as Kyle Katarn, a mercenary for hire by the Rebel Alliance to investigate a new Dark Trooper that the Empire has built.

The game is a standard first-person shooter for the time, with a mostly stationary camera akin to Doom or Castle Wolfenstein. What makes the game fun and interesting is how they interpreted the Star Wars universe into an FPS. The missions in the game are simple, usually involving you finding a character, planting bombs or other interesting missions like escaping capture from Jabba the Hutt and rescuing your friend, all the while punching Krayt Dragons! The environments to the games are varied, even though the enemies are not. You mostly fight imperial Storm troopers and officers, with mercenaries from time to time as well as the infamous Dark Troopers. Even though you face off with a lot of the same characters, there is a sense of physicality to their movement and behavior. When shooting an enemy, you really feel like you are hitting them as the reel in pain from the shot. I feel like a lot of modern games don’t really give you that sense of impact that is necessary in FPS and Dark Forces provides that and it is enjoyable.
The level design on the other hand is pretty flawed. There are lots of nooks and crannies that are essential to explore to continue through the map and you can easily miss them, requiring you to use your map obsessively to see what unexplored area was missed. I can’t blame them entirely though, as this was the mid 90’s and level design for FPS games wasn’t quite at its finest.

The reality is, the game is a lot of fun still to this day. Sure sometimes it can be a hassle navigating the labyrinthine passageways, but the environments are cool, the missions are varied and it really was interesting to see how the game progressed. It was well worth playing over again and revisiting!

Damn straight!

[Exhuminator]

The oldest optical disc based game I own is my copy of Dark Forces that I bought from a Walmart in 1995. I distinctly remember installing it from the disc, but then running the game from the harddrive without the disc based OST. Instead I was listening to The Downward Spiral while I played the game through my 486's caddy based CD drive. Halcyon days? I dunno 'bout that. Simpler times indeed though.

Anyway I'm glad to read you guys say the game holds up.

[CFFJR]

I can’t blame them entirely though, as this was the mid 90’s and level design for FPS games wasn’t quite at its finest.

I dunno, if you ask me it never got any better than Doom.

Did you play Quake?

I did. Back when it first came out in fact. Its excellent, and I've been meaning to replay it.

Still prefer Doom though. I was teasing Bogus, but its also true that no shooter has ever dethroned Doom in my mind. Call me biased I suppose.

---

This Dark Forces talk is making me want to try it. There's a tempting bundle on Steam...

[BogusMeatFactory]

I did. Back when it first came out in fact. Its excellent, and I've been meaning to replay it.

Still prefer Doom though. I was teasing Bogus, but its also true that no shooter has ever dethroned Doom in my mind. Call me biased I suppose.

---

This Dark Forces talk is making me want to try it. There's a tempting bundle on Steam...

Oh I am not offended at all! There is a big difference between Doom and Dark Forces in terms of level design. With Doom, you don't spend time scouring for nooks and crannies to get to your goals. The sewer level in Dark Forces is a great example of disorienting level design, numerous switches that change water levels and pitch black corridors. With Doom, you need to sometimes find key cards and reach the destination. Here, keycards are dropped by enemies and the problem is that there are tons of enemies and you can easily miss them. Also the numerous goals can cause some issues. It is that weird puberty of FPS games moving from that pure adrenaline arcade style and the story oriented goal-based levels. The game is still a blast to play and a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but you can clearly see the flaws.

It is still very very interesting to experience. You should try it, because the sequel is great and games like Republic Commando are in that bundle and they are a great gem that people always overlook!

[ExedExes]

as this was the mid 90’s and level design for FPS games wasn’t quite at its finest.

A heck of a lot better than it is now?

I also see you beat Saints Row IV. It's gonna take a lot to pry me off The Third.

[Fragems]

I also see you beat Saints Row IV. It's gonna take a lot to pry me off The Third.

In my opinion III > IV the super powers just kind of broke the game for me and the space sections were horrible . Hell in my opinion the DLC expansion with the super powers in III is better then IV in it's entirety .

[Key-Glyph]

Wow Bogus, "The You Testament" sounds... I don't even know what. Color me creeped and intrigued.

Also, regarding your car crash in GTA being videoed:

How dare he invade my privacy!? I was involved a very serious accident and was vulnerable at that moment!

I lol'd.

[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)(Good)
2. Infamous First Light(PS4)(Good)
3. Drakengard 3(PS3) *Endings 1-4. Ending 5 I watched online due to BS boss.(Good except for the boss of the final alternate branch ending who can go burn in a firey hell )
4. Infamous Second Son(PS4)(Good)
5. Thomas Was Alone(PS4)(Great)
6. Uncharted Drake's Fortune(PS3) *(Good)
7. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves(PS3) *(Great)
8. Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception(PS3) **(Good)
9. Deadpool(PS3)(Great)
10. Red Dead Redemption(360)(Good)
11. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare(360)(Okay)
12. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct(360)(Shit)
13. Fuse(360)(Okay)
14. The Bureau Xcom Declassified(360)(Okay)
15. Asura's Wrath(360)(Great)
16. Beneath a Steel Sky(PC)(Good)
17. Soul Gambler(PC)(Okay)
19. Harvester(PC)(Good, but disturbing)
20. Coma: Mortuary(PC)(Shit)
21. Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure(PC)(Good)
22. Freedom Planet(PC)(Great)
23. Tropico 3 Steam Special Edition(PC)(Great)
24. Far Cry 4(PS3)(Okay kinda meh)
25. Shellshock 2 Blood Trails(360)(Shit)
26. Grand Theft Auto V(PC)(Great)
27. Shadow of Mordor(PS4)(Great)
28. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare(PS4)(Okay)

Kevin Spacey is awesome everything else not so much . The story just kind of feels kind of slapped together and unappealing. The twists are just really predictable and the characters all feel kind of cliche. The mech suit kind of spices things up at first but most of the abilities of which you get 3-4 per mission depending on the preselected load out are pretty generic such as slow-mo, shields, grapple, and double jump. Really this is one entry that I wouldn't mind them scraping, but it pretty much ends with "This isn't the end it's only the beginning." so I guess we will see at least one more.

I definitely think Ghosts and Black Ops II had much more interesting takes on the future.

As for multiplayer I haven't touched it and probably won't. Never been a huge fan of CoD's general audience so unless I have friends playing I usually don't bother with it.