Games Beaten 2016

Post by **alienjesus** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 8:59 am

dsheinem wrote:The sound of a man tooting his own horn:

Nice, I enjoyed your look at it too. I hadn't heard of the game before now, it sounds like something I'd like and my girlfriend would be really into too.

Post by **Ack** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:12 am

1. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)
2. Puzzle Link (NGPC)(Puzzle)
3. Illusion of Gaia (SNES)(RPG)
4. Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War (PC)(Strategy)
5. Shadowrun: Dragonfall (PC)(RPG)
6. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PC)(RPG)
7. Drakkhen (SNES)(RPG)
8. Flight of the Amazon Queen (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
9. Shadowgrounds: Survivor (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
10. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (SNES)(RPG)
11. BioShock (PC)(FPS)
12. Jeopardy! Sports Edition (SNES)(Game Show Sim)
13. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (PC)(FPS)
14. Thief Gold (PC)(Stealth)
15. Call of Duty 2 (PC)(FPS)
16. Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (PC)(RPG)
17. Alone in the Dark (PC)(Survival Horror)
18. Silent Hill (PS1)(Survival Horror)
19. Sanitarium (PC)(Point-and-Click Adventure/Horror)
20. Gauntlet: Slayer Edition(PC)(Hack and Slash)
21. Mortal Kombat 3 (SNES)(Fighting)
22. Ultima II (PC)(RPG)
23. System Shock (PC)(Action RPG)
24. DOOM (PC)(FPS)
25. Soul Blazer (SNES)(RPG)
26. Slave Zero (PC)(Action)

I wanted to like Slave Zero. I really did. It's got the futuristic cyberpunk cityscape I wanted to see, it lets me play as a giant robot who nabs some big firepower, and it has semi-destructible environments. All of this sounds great. Unfortunately it was then completely let down by some terrible design decisions. It's buggy, it's cheap, it relies way too heavily on bullet sponge enemies, and while some of its boss fights are inspired, some are absolutely horrendous.

What do I mean? I mean the game manages to successfully make an artillery cannon feel underpowered. What should be a particularly devastating weapon practically plinks off the armor of enemies. However in certain areas you have to protect certain objects from being destroyed. Use the artillery cannon anywhere in the area and you'll damage what you're supposed to be protecting. Seriously, like shoot the top of the far wall on the opposite side of the room, and the stuff takes damage. Also you can hurt yourself if you're shooting at point blank with it. In fact self-harm regularly happens if you're too close. While I admit this makes some sense when you shoot a rocket or fire off an exploding round and stand next to it, it doesn't make so much sense when you punch an enemy to death and suddenly get hurt when he dies. Yet this happens.

Now there are three classes of weapons: machine gun/artillery, missiles, and energy weapons. The nice thing about missiles is that they are always equipped and fire from a different button, they do a good bit of damage, and they can somehow lock onto targets, though I never understood how they did this. The best class of weapon in the game is the energy weapon by far, which will absolutely wreck enemies. None of these feel underpowered. Unfortunately the devs felt this was too big a boon for the player, so they decided to give it the smallest ammo pool, which you will burn through incredibly fast. One particular beam cannon will empty your full ammo supply in under 3 seconds, while the final energy weapon ticks down your supply while you charge it up until you have nothing left.

Still, if you can get past the awkward issues with weapons, you then get...escort missions, platforming segments where half the enemies can knock you off a ledge with a single hit and may require numerous missiles and shots to kill, and even boss battles where you have to unload on a static target while waves of enemies continuously wash over you. It just isn't fun to play. It starts off well, but by the time you hit level 5 of 14, you start to feel something is amiss, and it just steadily gets worse from there.

That's not to say there aren't good points. While I previously mentioned that some boss battles are simply attrition matches, others involve you fighting giant robots and incorporate platforming, races against time, teleportation, dodging massive energy weapons, and even shooting a giant in the head with whatever you can grab. These are generally pretty interesting, and some are quite inspired. One particular favorite for me involved leaping across skyscrapers while two bosses would dive through the air to shoot at you and disappear into the abyss below. Do enough damage, and the two fused into one and brought down an orbital strike to devastate one of the skyscrapers. Now that was a cool moment. It's just a shame that many of these fall prey to the bullet sponge trap. During one particular fight with a teleporting robo-spider boss that kinda reminded me of that one guy from Gremlins 2, I ran out of ammo and ended up having to jump through the boss' body to melee it to death.

Finally, it's got some bugs. The game was plagued by a resolution problem that forced it into the upper left of my screen, where it refused to budge. I could not adjust video options, and I was also unable to Alt Tab out or anything like that. Twice it crashed to desktop on me. I also would occasionally get stuck on a wall or walk around an obstacle that I would then get stuck in and have to reload an older save. I even managed to look through walls a couple of times, and at one point the game simply stopped showing the visuals of my shots. Enemies still exploded and died, sound effects still played, but I appeared to no longer be firing anything.

In short, I found this game to be a mess. For anything I liked, there would be at least two things I didn't. In the end it just became a chore to play. I drudged onward, but I have no desire to ever go back. I hear the Dreamcast version is even more bug-prone. As much as I wanted to like Slave Zero, I just can't recommend it to any of you.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:46 am

alienjesus wrote:
dsheinem wrote:The sound of a man tooting his own horn:

Nice, I enjoyed your look at it too. I hadn't heard of the game before now, it sounds like something I'd like and my girlfriend would be really into too.

Agreed. Great work, DSH.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 6:36 pm

1. Sly 2 Band of Thieves HD (PS3)
2. Black (Xbox)
3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
4. Super Mario Bros Advance 4: SMB3 E-Reader Levels (WiiUVC)
5. Galerians (PSX)
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (WiiU)
7. TRAG / Hard Edge: Mission of Mercy (PSX)
8. Soul Blade (PSX)
9. Castlevania Circle of the Moon* (WiiUVC)
10. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess* HD (WiiU)
11. Mega Man 9* (PSN)
12. Mega Man 10* (PSN)
13. Dark Souls 3 (NG++) [PLATINUM] (PS4)
14. Mega Man 1* (PS4, MMLC)
15. Mega Man 2* (PS4, MMLC)
16. Mega Man 3* (PS4, MMLC)
17. Mega Man 4* (PS4, MMLC)
18. Mega Man 5* (PS4, MMLC)
19. Mega Man 6* (PS4, MMLC)
20. Doom [PLATINUM] (PS4)
21. Quake (PC)
22. Quake 2* (PC)
23. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)
24. Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon (PC)
25. Quake 2 Mission Pack 1: The Reckoning (PC)
26. Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity (PC)
27. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2: Ground Zero (PC)
28. Quake: Dimensions of the Past (PC)
29. Bayonetta 2 (WiiU)
30. Wolfenstein The Old Blood (PC)
31. Dishonored DLC The Knife of Dunwall (PC)
32. Dishonored DLC The Brigmore Witches (PC)
33. Metro Last Light Redux (PC)
34. Doom 3 BFG Edition* (PC)
35. Metro 2033 Redux (PC)
36. Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil* BFG (PC)
37. Doom 3 The Lost Mission* BFG (PC)
38. Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge (PS3)
39. Ultimate Doom* (PC)
40. Devil's Third (WiiU)
41. SOMA (PC)
42. Doom 2* (PC)
43. Gone Home (PC)
44. Metroid Other M (Wii)
45. Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut* (PC)
46. AM2R: Return of Samus (PC)
47. Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)
48. Metroid Zero Mission* (WiiUVC)
49. Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC)

* replay

Fairly random and pointless.

Post by **Sarge** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 7:43 pm

Worth it for the psycho song.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 8:40 pm

Sarge wrote:Worth it for the psycho song.

"Worth it" is kind of what I mumbled when that happened.

Otherwise yeah, the entire 3 hours I played this I was just thinking "Could have been replaying the main game instead". lol

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:10 pm

Exhuminator wrote:
ElkinFencer10 wrote:That one's going on my Gamecube to-get list, fer sher
PM your address, and I'll send you my mint condition copy for free. It's the least I can do for someone willing to be a history teacher.

Yep, just now seeing this. Definitely managed to miss it earlier. Thanks again, homie! I REALLY appreciate it.

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 85

January (20 Games Beaten)

February (8 Games Beaten)

March (8 Games Beaten)

April (13 Games Beaten)

May (6 Games Beaten)

June (13 Games Beaten)

July (7 Games Beaten)

August (10 Games Beaten)

85. Layers of Fear - Steam - August 18

Layers of Fear is a prime example of the modern horror game. I'm not talking the shitty modern horror games like Resident Evil Shit 6, Five Disappointments Nights at Freddie's, or Silent Hill: Heartbreaking Homecoming. I mean good horror. As third person action has gotten better, it's become harder and harder to make a good third person horror game without having it devolve into a third person shooter with slightly creepy enemies (like the cardinal sin of the series IMO, Resident Evil 5). Layers of Fear, like Until Dawn, proves that what third person shooters were for horror in the 90s and early 2000s, walking simulators are for horror in the 2010s.

At it's core, that's what Layers of Fear is - a walking sim. There's not combat. There are no enemies. There are no deaths or game over screens. You can "die" in a sense in that you fuck up on a puzzle and get sent back to a "try again" area, but that's about as close as it comes. No, Layers of Fear is about atmosphere and tension, not difficulty through enemy toughness or ammo scarcity like the old Resident Evil and Silent Hill games. Not to say that doing a horror game like that is a bad thing; it's not, and as Dead Space (until 3) proved, it can still work in modern horror games. Layers of Fear really takes advantage of the edge that graphical enhancements (and the brilliant Unity engine) offered by the last 20 years of gaming technology. It's not an exceptionally long game - it took me about 3 hours - so completionists out there don't have a ridiculous task to get all three endings.

The very subtle but very creepy multilayered audio tracks, quietly whispering in the background, is used to GREAT effect in this game, and key to that great effect is in its timing. It's not just constantly there like some try-hard games I've played. It's used in specific instances, and that really maximizes its effect; you don't hear it enough to "get used to it." Jump scares are used in a similar fashion. Jump scares have gotten a bad rap because of how poorly implemented and overused they've gotten in horror games, but Layers of Fear does them right for the most part. They're not used ad nauseam. They're overused just a little - I could start to tell when one was likely about halfway through the game - but while they're frequent enough that you can start to predict them, the execution is still good enough that you're probably going jump even when you know it's coming.

The basic premise of the game is that you're a painter. Over time as you go through the game, you learn that you've fallen from popularity with the public (we're talking Archduchess Cordelia in southern Gallia after she revealed she's a Darksen or the Dixie Chicks in the South after criticizing President Bush level of "fallen from popularity") and that your marriage with your wife is...less than happy.

If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be "mind-fuck." That's basically what it is. It's a complete and total mind-fuck of a game; once it gets going, that train has ZERO brakes. The truly brilliant aspect of the game's pacing is how it paces the insanity of the protagonist. It starts off "Okay, I'm in this creepy house. Things are a bit unsettling." Slowly, it turns to "Huh...That's a little paranormal. But this is a horror game, so that's not out of the ordinary." Next thing you, it's "SWEET BABY CHRIST, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?!?" It's great, trust me.

Now I scare more easily than most guys, and I LOVE being scared (it's why I love horror movies and games), so I'm good at "getting into a game" and letting myself get scared by things that might not otherwise scare me, so it's possible that - like Until Dawn - I'm giving this game's horror elements a little too much credit, but I really did get my money's worth out of this game in the scare department. My roommate can attest - there were not infrequent shrieks coming out of my bedroom when a jump scare got me good. This game isn't going to be for everyone - you have to like walking sims to really enjoy this one - but if you're a fan of atmospheric horror games, I cannot recommend this one highly enough. It's on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One, so chances are, everyone here can play it on one platform or another. I urge you to do so. Learn some art history while you're at it; they actually feature what is probably the most famous painting by Jan van Eyck, the premier Flemish Renaissance painter.

Also, baby dolls are the creepiest fucking things on the planet. I'm thoroughly convinced of this.

Post by **MrPopo** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 1:38 am

First 50:

51. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One
52. AM2R - PC
53. Total Annihilation - PC
54. I Am Setsuna - PS4
55. Planetary Annihilation Titans - PC

I'm calling this one done; I've done a couple of successful galactic wars and at this point it would be just grinding to try and unlock all the starting loadouts which are locked behind the RNG; I have better uses for my time.

Planetary Annihilation is the third game in the TA/SupCom RTS spiritual series. While none of the games are connected story-wise, mechanically each one is a successor to the previous. It still uses the economy of gathering metal from fixed points and building energy generators and an emphasis on gather and collection rates and general army macro. Supreme Commander took Total Annihilation, added a third tech level, a fourth level of a handful of super units, and gave us giant maps where you would zoom out all the way and only see tiny icons for all the units. Planetary Annihilation scales things up by another factor; now you battle within an entire solar system. This unfortunately deemphasizes naval units; due to the planet generation algorithms you rarely find a time where you need the ability to cross water with tough units (whereas air units are fragile).

PA simplifies the tech tree compared to SupCom. You're back to having two levels of unit factories and then the third level of structures built by the advanced construction vehicles. There is a new class of units which are the orbital units; these live above the planet in orbit and many can transition between bodies in the system, taking the appropriate curved path that sometimes requires a slingshot. The actual planetary systems are frequently impossible to exist in real life, but the focus is on gameplay. Unlike the previous games there are no longer any factions; since you're spending all your time zoomed out anyway the aesthetic differences are unnecessary and I'm guessing they decided the cross planetary action would make it tricky if not futile to properly balance factions against each other.

The giant scale of the game means that the emphasis is even more on giant macro; your factories will quickly produce units and everything tends to be on the fragile end, so swarm tactics are the way to go. Because of how the planets form it's rare for their to be chokepoints, so static defenses are less valuable. This is what causes sea units to be devalued; it's extremely rare where your land units can't just go another way around the planet to get to the enemy base rather than dealing with a body of water. Since land units can be transported between planets but sea units cannot it's rare you want sea units.

My favorite part of the game is definitely the new super weapons designed to decisively end games. Certain moons can have giant rocket boosters attached and then rocketed into another planet; this will blow a very large chunk out of the planet and naturally destroy everything hit (it might even kill everything on the planet; I've never risked it). An intact metal planet is actually an inactive Death Star, and building the necessary structures allows you to turn it back on and vaporize other planets at your leisure. Titan units act like the experimental units of SupCom; they're built directly by upper tier construction vehicles and are hard to bring down while being devastating. And finally you can take advantage of area targeting to blanket an area (or an entire planet) with a series of nuclear strikes to cleanse the land.

The biggest downside of PA is that it doesn't have a proper single player mode. The closest you have is galactic war, which sets up a series of stars in a galaxy that you need to conquer. You start off with a very limited tech tree and gain more tech or bonuses (increased construction speed, faster units, etc) from conquering planets. While there are usually a handful of empty planets that are free tech most of the time you need to fight an opposing commander; basically a series of glorified skirmishes. There are also boss encounters where you have to fight against multiple enemy commanders; defeating these encounters instantly removes that faction from the war, giving you more sites to gain free tech from. The whole thing is heavily based on randomness so you get some replay out of it, and you can unlock different starting loadouts that will change how you approach the early game. After several turns it usually ends up going the same way, but the early can change up.

Post by **Sarge** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:22 am

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

115) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (WII)
116) Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R) (PC)
117) Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (GEN)
118) Streets of Rage (GEN)
119) Technobabylon (PC)
120) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)
121) Batman Returns (NES)

The first game I've beaten on the new TV, ironically. I think the engine is probably a modified TMNT one. It's a pretty decent brawler with a few quirks, and it's pretty dang hard at spots if you're not abusing the slide move. I also apparently forgot how to take out the Penguin's rubber duck-mobile, it took me a bunch of tries at it to get a workable pattern. I used to blast through this game back in the day.

Last battle was actually a bit easier. Just bait him into shooting, use your up-down movement to get close enough to slide attack. Rinse, repeat.

Post by **Markies** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:32 pm

1. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN)
2. Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Eternal Poison (PS2)
4. Dragon Warrior III (NES)
5. Arkanoid: Doh It Again(SNES)
6. Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)
7. Phantasy Star Online (DC)
8. Power Stone (DC)
9. Bare Knuckle 3 (GEN)
10. Thousand Arms (PS1)
11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)
12. Mega Man 5 (NES)
13. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
14. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (XBOX)
15. Mega Man 6 (NES)
16. Metal Saga (PS2)
17. Mafia (XBOX)
18. Parasite Eve (PS1)
19. Shining Force (GEN)
20. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (N64)

I beat San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing on the Nintendo 64 this afternoon!

I used to play this game in the arcades all of the time, so picking up the port was a no brainer for me. I don't know if I would call it a good game, however. It's an arcade port, however they keep much of the cheap parts of the arcade feel in the game. The rubber band effect is in full force. The computer can make perfect tight turns while going much faster than you. Thankfully, you can hit start and restart the entire race from the beginning any time you want, so that makes the game beatable.

The racing is still very intense with very detailed course layouts, giant jumps and unique shortcuts. You have to be on your toes while playing as it is very intense, but the game is still very playable. It's not bad, but not great either.

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