Games Beaten 2016

Post by **MrPopo** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 6:38 pm

marurun wrote:The Xbox is more traditionally powerful, being effectively a PC.

This is more true than it is for the later gen stuff that gets written off as "basically PC's". If you've ever opened up an original Xbox you'll see an off-the shelf DVD-ROM and 3.5" HDD inside that have just been minorly tweaked with a hardware recognition bit so that you can't just swap them out with any other parts.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 9:43 pm

The Xbox was called the DirectXbox during development.

Post by **marurun** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 9:49 pm

You know, Ars Technica has a fascinating article where they look at the approach to 3D architecture of the PS2, the GameCube, and the XBox. It's quite fascinating how different the system designs are for each of those 3 systems. The GameCube has the clearest legacy, appearing to be a successor (in terms of overall system design) to the Dreamcast, and the Playstation before it. The PS2 almost has a little in common with the N64 approach. The XBox is exactly what you'd probably have expected to come out of Microsoft. I would argue the PS3 and the Xbox360 actually are a little more alike in design than the units of the previous generation were, with the Wii, of course, largely extending the GC design model.

Post by **Fragems** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 10:09 pm

1. 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors (DS)
2. The Order 1886 (PS4)
3. The Division (PS4)
4. Until Dawn (PS4)
5. The Crew Wild Run Edition (PS4)
6. Mad Max (PS4)
7. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
8. Black Ops III (PS4)
9. The Last of Us Remastered + Left Behind DLC (PS4)
10. Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (XB1)
11. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1)
12. Gone Home (PS4)
13. Life is Strange (XB1)
14. Doom (2016) (PS4)
15. Journey (PS4)
16. Among the Sleep (PS4)

Journey

This was a freebie through PS+ so I finally got around to playing it. The game is pretty basically, but does a really good job with the platforming and art style. The enviornments feels massive and there are many wonderful sites to behold while you flow through the environments with the very well polished platforming. The game also has a very interesting take on co-op allowing for random players to appear in your game and yet permitting no communication aside from the single ping of language/audio that your character uses to activate items in the environment. Even with the lack of communication it is really easy to cooperate with each other and using the musical language allows you to recharge each others flying ability. The game is also very mellow with most of the puzzles being pretty simple and really there are only a handful of enemies to worry about in the entire game. It's also very short so it's worth playing through at least once and there are also tons of collectibles as well as special unlocks for repeated playthroughs giving you a reason to go back and play again later.

Among the Sleep

This game isn't exactly scary as much as it is disturbing. I found the plot to be pretty predictable and navigation was a bit of a pain given the difficulty the character seemed to have with climbing certain objects unless they were approached just right. The atmosphere was pretty intense though and I did find myself hiding under objects even when I didn't need to on more then one occasion :lol:

. There really isn't much of a threat her though since there are tons of hiding spaces and there are both visual and auditory ques whenever the single monster that is following you gets close. Also death only means losing a minute or two of gameplay since there are a ton of check points plus objects in the environment don't reset on death so really. The fact that you are running around as a somewhat uncoordinated baby in first person also adds a unique factor to the game since everything is so large from your perspective. The game does have issues though the graphics are somewhat dated and the frame rate got pretty choppy on a couple occasions nothing super serious but enough to break my immersion. The game is also pretty short coming in at around 3 hours. Overall I think it was pretty interesting for $20($17.50 thanks to the prime preorder deals

) and would say if your into first person horror games this is worth checking out.

I'd also recommend that if you do play it be sure to play the prologue DLC afterwards. It kind of spoils the plot of the main game so I'd definitely say play it after the base game to avoid ruining the story. Almost missed playing it since the game doesn't really tell you it's there since the credits roll after the main game, but I'm glad to have found it. The prologue takes place in another house and features game play that is slightly different from the base game with you rescuing multiple stuffed animals around the house. I really enjoyed it and would rate it as an improved experience over the base game, but I did hit what I'm pretty sure was a bug. I believe there is a monster that is supposed to be stalking around the house but as I rescued the animal I only bumped into it once and it seemed to have been glitched out in a hallway unable to move

.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 10:46 pm

First 50:

51. Akumajō Dracula (Famicom Disk System)
52. Castlevania (NES)
53. Classic NES Series: Castlevania (Game Boy Advance)
54. Guardian Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade)
55. Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVS)
56. Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVS)
57. Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo MVS)
58. Soul of Darkness (DSiWare)
59. Code of Princess (3DS)
60. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
61. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
62. The Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bōken (Famicom Disk System)
63. Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC)
64. Shan Gui (Steam)
65. Space Fury (ColecoVision)
66. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (ColecoVision)
67. Gateway to Apshai (ColecoVision)
68. MURI (Steam)
69. Pink Hour (Steam)
70. Pink Heaven (Steam)

Cave Story is one of the first indie games I recall hearing about. In fact, it's the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase "indie game." This is a bit odd, as I have yet to play it.

What I have played is Pink Hour, and Pink Heaven, two very brief free games by Studio Pixel that seem to have been created to provide a demo and advertisement for another game called Kero Blaster.

Both "Pink" games share the same graphical style and controls. You play as an office lady, who looks more like a pink blob, searching for some lost documents and, later on, a missing shopkeeper. The games controls smoothly; jumping is like that of Mario and there's a short-range projectile weapon. The pixel artwork is absolutely stunning, as is the soundtrack. I guess I could say "mission accomplished" to the developer here, as my experiences with these two have caused me to wishlist Cave Story and Kero Blaster.

Definitely check these out if you love platformers and have a few minutes to spare. And I mean "minutes" literally, as it took me 19 to finish both games.

Post by **isiolia** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 10:33 pm

1. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One)
2. DOAX3 Fortune Edition (PS4)
3. Uncharted 4 (PS4)
4. DOOM (2016) (PC)
5. Halo 5 (Xbox One)
6. Dark Souls (PC)
7. Call of Duty (PC)
8. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
10. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
11. Bloodborne (PS4)
12. SOMA (PC)
13. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4)
14. Dark Souls III (PS4)

Played: 38.5 hours, taking down all bosses plus the usual exploring, farming levels and gear a bit, and trying to do some of the NPC questlines. Left off without starting NG+ since if I feel like doing the DLC I’ll probably not want to make it any harder than it needs to be.

Thoughts:

Post by **Sarge** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:38 pm

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

122) Xenoblade Chronicles X
123) Final Fight (ARC) (via Final Fight: Double Impact)
124) Magic Sword (ARC) (via Final Fight: Double Impact)
125) Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
126) Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
127) X-Men (ARC)
128) Vanguard (ARC)
129) Trio the Punch (ARC)

Today was "play random arcade games" day.

X-Men is first. Pretty sure it's using a modified TMNT engine. It looks alright, but not spectacular for a 1992 arcade game. Probably because it supported two screens and six players in its ultimate form. I remember seeing (and playing!) on that cabinet when I was a kid once, it was darn impressive. Anyway, it's a decent enough Konami brawler, y'all should know what to expect from those.

Vanguard I played just to compare to the 2600 version. I'm not even sure I remember much from that version (still need to drag the 2600 back out to test my cart!), but it definitely shows its age. Impressive, though, that it had horizontal, vertical, and diagonal scrolling. I'm guessing this was a pretty big deal in 1981. I finished one loop, if that's not enough to consider it beaten, someone let me know. I don't know if it actually has a "proper" end.

Trio the Punch is weird. Like, really weird. And a very Japanese weird, as well. It's... well, there's a good writeup on the game over at HG101, and that was probably pinging in my brain when I booted it. I can't say it's good or bad, just strange, and probably worth playing just to see what craziness happens next.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/trioth ... epunch.htm

I also tried to play the arcade version of Trojan, but got interrupted and had to quit. I was having a pretty hard time with it towards the end of my run. I can beat the NES version legit, but this was kicking my butt, as arcade games are wont to do.

Upon booting a bunch of random brawlers, and a couple of my favorite RPG-ish platformers (Cadash and Black Tiger), I was pretty much bored stiff with everything and decided to get a nap.

Post by **elricorico** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 2:01 am

1. SSX 3 (oXbox)
2. Mario Kart DS (NDS)
3. Fairune (Android)
4. Streets of Rage (Gen)
5. Amplitude (PS2)
6. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
7. Crash Team Racing (PS)
8. Enchanted Arms (Xbox360)

9. Spyro the Dragon (PS)

I found the entire PS1 Spyro trilogy all crammed into the case for Spyro 3 at a garage sale early in the summer. I had never played a Spyro game before and after the first few minutes I was very interested in seeing it through. My gaming time has been pretty limited, but tonight I rolled the credits. I didn't get to the full ending as I hadn't gathered 100% of the collectibles, but I don't think I'm likely to go back and pick up everything.

Spyro has held up very well and is well worth trying out for anyone that likes the early 3D platformers. It suffers a little from limited camera control, but it really doesn't hold back the overall enjoyment of the game. I didn't particularly find the bosses all that inspired, but otherwise it was a fun game to experience.

Its also not terribly challenging, which I was pleased with, as I could make progress despite my lack of game time. The flying levels were the exception, I didn't beat all of them and the couple I did beat took a lot of repetition. I enjoyed it enough that I look forward to cracking into the next game at some point in the not-to-distant future.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 12:37 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2016 Beaten List
1-50

51. Axiom Verge (Wii U)

Popo Sensei was prostelyzing about this game a month or so ago, and that got me hella hyped to try it. As luck would have it, it came out on Wii U a few weeks ago, so I picked it up immediately, and then finally got to playing it over the last few days. My hype and excitment was very well warranted! For reference, my ending stats were: Difficulty: Normal, Time: 8:25:40, Items: 78%, Map: 94%, Death Count: 10.

I'm kind of in two minds about the combat. On one hand, there are SO many different guns you can find (like 30+, but good luck finding them all), and I found them at such a rate that it seemed to compliment the difficulty curve quite nicely. There were a good few I never used and didn't really like, but there were like 10+ guns that had quite a bit of use by the end of the game (I found like 17 of 'em). On the other hand though, I really didn't feel the bosses were that great. A good portion of them felt more like environmental puzzles than bosses, per se, and without something like a Castevania-style backdash or melee weapon, a lot of them just felt like a trick of finding the blind-spot in their line of fire (basically every enemy uses guns) where you could still hit them. Though, I suppose, in a game with so many different types of guns, it would be difficult to make bosses that synergize really well with all of them, but a necessary evil is still an evil.

Continuing on that, the controls are great. They really utilize all of the buttons on the controller (this is the first Wii U game I've seen to actually use the R3 L3 buttons, which I wasn't even sure it had) to make you feel like you have all of your powers at your disposal all the time. The curve on when you get powers is also very good, and the game is very consistent at that "teaching you without telling you"-style that the Metroid games are so good at. Relating back to the combat, the only gripe I have is with the short-range teleport/dash you get. You have to double tap the direction you're moving in to use it, and because you're using a projectile weapon, this makes it very difficult to use the dash to any calculated effect while you're in combat. I tried quite a bit in the last half of the game to find a method to the madness of that dash, but I feel it was just far more considered a platforming and exploration tool than a combat device.

Speaking of exploration, this game is soooo good at it. There are quite a few different sub-areas on the main, large map, with tons of hidden guns and power-ups squirreled away everywhere for you to find. There are even whole sub-dungeons hidden away in some places that guard some killer gun (I think there's one for all 8 main areas, but I only found 2), but those are really well hidden. You can also put two check marks on each main area's map to mark points you want to go back to, and they even stay there between play sessions! *cough* Castlevania *cough*. I'm not sure it's really the kind of "isolating" thing that someone like Exhumy Sensei likes in his Metroidvanias, though, because you have a fairly Metroid Fusion-esque story going on.

I won't say too much about the story, other than that it's well written, and surprisingly engaging for a Metroid-type game. You do have a voice that regularly communicates with you though, in a very Metroid Fusion-esque fashion, so this isn't a 0% narrative/dialogue thing like Super Metroid or Zero Mission. I really liked it though. The character dynamics are interesting though, and had a fairly System Shock-ish feel to them, which is the last I'll comment as to avoid spoilings.

Verdict: Highly recommended. This is one of the best Metroid-vania games ever. It's up there with Order of Ecclesia and Super Metroid/Zero Mission as top of the top of the crop. If you like Metroidvanias at all, you will thoroughly be delighted by Axiom Verge.

Side Note: The Wii U port is great, and I never had any problems with it other than some slight framerate dips when entering 1 or 2 larger rooms.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 12:46 pm

Those extra dungeons you're talking about, there are five of them spread through the game. There's a bunch of places where they can spawn; it's random where each one is. The contents themselves are also randomly generated. There are always two easy, two medium, and one hard. The hard has one of three awesome weapons in it. The whole thing is an homage to the "secret worlds" of the original Metroid, where you started walking through garbage memory that's not actually part of the map.

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