Games Beaten 2020
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Great review of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Elkin. I haven't played the game yet, but I'm aware of the main character as I finally saw Into the Spider Verse last year with my cousin and his kids. I'm Puerto Rican and I don't think I've seen a video game protagonist identified specifically as Puerto Rican before (although an earlier example that I missed might be out there), so it's pretty cool to see that representation in a game. Seems like Insomniac did a great job with it. Look forward to checking it out eventually!
Last edited by Note on Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Games Beaten 2020
1. Streets of Rage 2 (GEN)*
2. The Ninja Warriors (SNES) [3x]
3. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
4. Golden Axe (GEN) [3x]*
5. Beyond Oasis (GEN)
6. Super Double Dragon (SNES)*
7. Shenmue II (DC)
8. Shining Force 2 (GEN)*
9. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
10. ActRaiser (SNES)
11. OutRun (GEN)*
12. X-Men 2: Clone Wars (GEN)
13. Captain Commando (SNES)
14. The Pirates of Dark Water (SNES)
15. Final Fight (SNES)
16. Gradius III (SNES)
17. Super R-Type (SNES)
18. U.N. Squadron (SNES)
19. Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
20. Arrow Flash (GEN)
21. Forgotten Worlds (GEN)
22. Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
23. Wonder Boy in Monster World (GEN)
24. Resident Evil 6 (360)
25. Skies of Arcadia (DC)
26. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)
27. Star Fox 64 (N64)*
28. Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES)*
29. Perfect Dark (N64)
30. Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
31. Metal Slug X (PS1)*
32. Left 4 Dead 2 (360)*
33. Yu Yu Hakusho - Makyou Toitsusen (GEN)
34. Left 4 Dead (360)*
35. Metal Slug 3 (PS2)
36. Metal Slug 4 (PS2)
As mentioned in my previous review for Metal Slug 3, I'm a huge fan of the series and finally picked up the Metal Slug Anthology on PS2 about two years ago. Earlier this week I started to play through some of the later games that I missed, and the fourth installment was next in line.
With SNK filing for bankruptcy around the time of Metal Slug 3's release, the continuation of the series was in danger. However, a Korean company titled Mega Enterprise stepped in to develop this title in a collaboration with Noise Factory who produced the music for the previous games. I didn't even realize this title was put together by another developer until after the fact, as it plays and feels the same as the previous entries.
In comparison to the earlier titles, it seemed like this edition had more sections with vehicles, which I totally approve of, as it's a lot of fun to control the various motorbikes, tanks, robots, submarines, cars, the weird but cool walker vehicle, and whatever else gets thrown your way. A new weapon that's included here is the double machine gun, which is awesome and I was always excited to finally find another one while traversing through the stages. Also, there is some pretty fun boss designs in this game -- one of my favorites is the large robot head in one of the later levels.
While Metal Slug 4 doesn't necessarily add any new features, the game is a ton of fun and I really enjoyed playing through it. Anyone that's a fan of run and gun titles should check it out!
2. The Ninja Warriors (SNES) [3x]
3. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
4. Golden Axe (GEN) [3x]*
5. Beyond Oasis (GEN)
6. Super Double Dragon (SNES)*
7. Shenmue II (DC)
8. Shining Force 2 (GEN)*
9. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
10. ActRaiser (SNES)
11. OutRun (GEN)*
12. X-Men 2: Clone Wars (GEN)
13. Captain Commando (SNES)
14. The Pirates of Dark Water (SNES)
15. Final Fight (SNES)
16. Gradius III (SNES)
17. Super R-Type (SNES)
18. U.N. Squadron (SNES)
19. Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
20. Arrow Flash (GEN)
21. Forgotten Worlds (GEN)
22. Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
23. Wonder Boy in Monster World (GEN)
24. Resident Evil 6 (360)
25. Skies of Arcadia (DC)
26. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)
27. Star Fox 64 (N64)*
28. Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES)*
29. Perfect Dark (N64)
30. Resident Evil 2 (PS1)
31. Metal Slug X (PS1)*
32. Left 4 Dead 2 (360)*
33. Yu Yu Hakusho - Makyou Toitsusen (GEN)
34. Left 4 Dead (360)*
35. Metal Slug 3 (PS2)
36. Metal Slug 4 (PS2)
As mentioned in my previous review for Metal Slug 3, I'm a huge fan of the series and finally picked up the Metal Slug Anthology on PS2 about two years ago. Earlier this week I started to play through some of the later games that I missed, and the fourth installment was next in line.
With SNK filing for bankruptcy around the time of Metal Slug 3's release, the continuation of the series was in danger. However, a Korean company titled Mega Enterprise stepped in to develop this title in a collaboration with Noise Factory who produced the music for the previous games. I didn't even realize this title was put together by another developer until after the fact, as it plays and feels the same as the previous entries.
In comparison to the earlier titles, it seemed like this edition had more sections with vehicles, which I totally approve of, as it's a lot of fun to control the various motorbikes, tanks, robots, submarines, cars, the weird but cool walker vehicle, and whatever else gets thrown your way. A new weapon that's included here is the double machine gun, which is awesome and I was always excited to finally find another one while traversing through the stages. Also, there is some pretty fun boss designs in this game -- one of my favorites is the large robot head in one of the later levels.
While Metal Slug 4 doesn't necessarily add any new features, the game is a ton of fun and I really enjoyed playing through it. Anyone that's a fan of run and gun titles should check it out!
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8729
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Jonesville, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Games Beaten in 2020 - 34
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (4 Games Beaten)
34. Simp Slayer Simulator 2K20 - Steam - December 11
This review is dedicated to the memory of BronyCon. May it rest in perspiration and cringe.
Why does this game exist? Seriously, who sat down and thought, "You know what would make a great game? An endless wave shooter where every enemy is a neckbeard with PS2-era character models." If you read my review of The Last of Waifus, then you pretty much know what to expect here. Just replace cute waifus with cringy neckbeards, and that's this game.
Simp Slayer does something better than The Last of Waifus, and it does some things worse. Let's start with what it does better. First off, there are four stages here instead of the one single stage in The Last of Waifus. Each stage unlocks once you hit wave 10 in the previous stage. There are also different types of enemies as opposed to one single generic zombie-looking enemy. You've got your regular neckbeards, and there are a few different models for the regular simp that the game will use. Then you've got some creepy crawling simps that move faster, crawl on the ground like the chick from The Grudge, and do more damage. You've also got fat shirtless simps, e-girls, dudes wearing trilbies that Naruto run, "30 year old wizards" that look unsettling like Klansmen, and a giant fat final boss simp once you hit wave 10 on the last stage. I may be forgetting one or two, but honestly, none of the enemy designs are very good. Lastly, there's a Counter-Strike style money system that gives the mindless slaughter some very vague semblance of purpose (emphasis on "very vague"). When you kill simps, they sometimes drop money. That money can be used on the main menu to buy additional weapons or more ammo. There are six weapons total - pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, and light machine gun.
That's about where the positives end. The gameplay is just as mindless and monotonous as The Last of Waifus, the shooting mechanics feel somehow worse, the weapons are even less interesting, and the whole game can be completed in less than half an hour. It looks like shit and doesn't even run well. Steam told me the game was running at an unbroken 60 fps, but it still felt like it was stuttering, and that's with visuals that would have been right at home on a budget PS2 game. I personally got a good bit of entertainment out of this game, but that's mostly because I love intentionally terrible games, and this game is definitely terrible. It's worse than Apartment 666, and that's one of the worst games I've ever reviewed.
Normally I'm less harsh on games that are intentionally bad whereas Apartment 666 was a game that tried to be serious and just sucked anyway, but Simp Slayer is SO bad that it's almost frustrating. It's a shooter that was probably made in an hour and relies completely on outdated memes and garbled voice clips for its humor. It missed the mark so badly that you'd think it forgot what the mark even was. I can, however, see one instance in which this might be an entertaining time; get three or four of your most easily entertained friends over, get extraordinarily drunk, and then take turns playing this. That's literally the only way I can see this game being actually enjoyable, and even then, it's a long shot.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (4 Games Beaten)
34. Simp Slayer Simulator 2K20 - Steam - December 11
This review is dedicated to the memory of BronyCon. May it rest in perspiration and cringe.
Why does this game exist? Seriously, who sat down and thought, "You know what would make a great game? An endless wave shooter where every enemy is a neckbeard with PS2-era character models." If you read my review of The Last of Waifus, then you pretty much know what to expect here. Just replace cute waifus with cringy neckbeards, and that's this game.
Simp Slayer does something better than The Last of Waifus, and it does some things worse. Let's start with what it does better. First off, there are four stages here instead of the one single stage in The Last of Waifus. Each stage unlocks once you hit wave 10 in the previous stage. There are also different types of enemies as opposed to one single generic zombie-looking enemy. You've got your regular neckbeards, and there are a few different models for the regular simp that the game will use. Then you've got some creepy crawling simps that move faster, crawl on the ground like the chick from The Grudge, and do more damage. You've also got fat shirtless simps, e-girls, dudes wearing trilbies that Naruto run, "30 year old wizards" that look unsettling like Klansmen, and a giant fat final boss simp once you hit wave 10 on the last stage. I may be forgetting one or two, but honestly, none of the enemy designs are very good. Lastly, there's a Counter-Strike style money system that gives the mindless slaughter some very vague semblance of purpose (emphasis on "very vague"). When you kill simps, they sometimes drop money. That money can be used on the main menu to buy additional weapons or more ammo. There are six weapons total - pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, and light machine gun.
That's about where the positives end. The gameplay is just as mindless and monotonous as The Last of Waifus, the shooting mechanics feel somehow worse, the weapons are even less interesting, and the whole game can be completed in less than half an hour. It looks like shit and doesn't even run well. Steam told me the game was running at an unbroken 60 fps, but it still felt like it was stuttering, and that's with visuals that would have been right at home on a budget PS2 game. I personally got a good bit of entertainment out of this game, but that's mostly because I love intentionally terrible games, and this game is definitely terrible. It's worse than Apartment 666, and that's one of the worst games I've ever reviewed.
Normally I'm less harsh on games that are intentionally bad whereas Apartment 666 was a game that tried to be serious and just sucked anyway, but Simp Slayer is SO bad that it's almost frustrating. It's a shooter that was probably made in an hour and relies completely on outdated memes and garbled voice clips for its humor. It missed the mark so badly that you'd think it forgot what the mark even was. I can, however, see one instance in which this might be an entertaining time; get three or four of your most easily entertained friends over, get extraordinarily drunk, and then take turns playing this. That's literally the only way I can see this game being actually enjoyable, and even then, it's a long shot.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
Re: Games Beaten 2020
The First 50:
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
62. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)(RPG)
63. STRAFE (PC)(FPS)
64. Shadow Warrior [2013] (PC)(FPS)
65. Shanghai Mini (NGPC)(Puzzle)
66. Shadowrun: Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
67. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Shadows of Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
68. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (PC)(RPG)
69. Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - The Lovecraft Museum (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
70. The Mummy Demastered (Switch)(Action Adventure)
71. Just Cause 2 (PC)(Action Adventure)
72. Prey (PC)(FPS)
73. Prey: Mooncrash (PC)(FPS)
74. The Signal From Tölva (PC)(FPS)
75. Death Rally (PC)(Racing)
76. Bastion (PC)(RPG)
77. Cosmic Star Heroine (PC)(RPG)
78. Ultimate DOOM (PC)(FPS)
79. DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC)(FPS)
80. DOOM II: No Rest for the Living (PC)(FPS)
81. DOOM 3: The Lost Mission (PC)(FPS)
82. DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (PC)(FPS)
83. DOOM 3 (PC)(FPS)
84. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)(RPG)
85. DOOM: SIGIL (PC)(FPS)
86. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn (PC)(RPG)
Yes, I am continuing on with the Skyrim expansions, and yes, I am playing them out of order. There are two major expansions with new questlines as well as a third, but it only really added some houses to build, so I won't be putting down thoughts about Hearthfire here.
Dragonborn is actually the last of the two major expansions, though it takes place on Solstheim, a location that is near and dear to my heart after the Bloodmoon expansion from Morrowind which also took place there. In Bloodmoon, Solstheim was a Nord-focused area that pulled more from Nordic mythology within the Elder Scrolls universe and involved a lot more of the kinds of things we saw in Skyrim, such as wolves, trolls, spriggans, etc. For its Skyrim version, it now does the opposite, representing more of the landscape, flora, and fauna we saw in Morrowind. This has a mixed effect, because while I like that this is the touchpoint for these two games and regions, it's also not the island I remember. While the snowy northern portions are still there, the lush greenery of the southern half has been covered in thick ash from a volcanic eruption.
That's ok though, as we still get our fair share of Dunmer houses, along with enough throwback material to keep me nostalgic, only now with more quests, new armor materials, new weapons, new monsters, and a Lovecraftian horror world borne from books and filled with several different kind of tentacles, fishmen, and illithid-wannabes. Also, now I get to ride dragons...eventually. Not all of the expansion content is great, but much of what is there is pretty fantastic. There are a lot of quests to discover, a lot of areas to explore both for fun and profit, and a surprising number of randomized encounters which are interesting. There is also a lot not simply flagged with a location marker, such as a northern island dominated by a dragon, as well as some weird oddities like the giant walrus-esque horker king who just wants to fuck you up.
Only quirk of traveling to and from Solstheim is that you can access them via fast travel, but they will initially take you to specific points on the map. You can't simply swap between areas, you must go through a short process involving several loading screens. It gets a little tiring, especially when you haven't yet got a house to serve as your base of operations on Solstheim. Once you do, things aren't so bad, but it still sucks when the odd quest requires you head back to the mainland for something.
Dragonborn offers me an interesting side story and some fun new abilities to play with for Skyrim, but what it really manages to do successfully is remind me of how much I enjoy the interconnected nature of the Elder Scrolls'' continuous world. Learning about events and feats of which I was a critical part while playing a previous game is gratifying, and for me, that's the best part of the experience. I admit that several times I simply walked off to go check if something was still there, and while Skyrim has changed a few things about how the island looks (hey, it's been like a couple thousand years), I was pleased that the big stuff was roughly where I wanted it to be. That made me happier more than anything else. And if you spent a lot of time in the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind, it's probably what you'll love most about Dragonborn too.
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
62. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)(RPG)
63. STRAFE (PC)(FPS)
64. Shadow Warrior [2013] (PC)(FPS)
65. Shanghai Mini (NGPC)(Puzzle)
66. Shadowrun: Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
67. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Shadows of Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
68. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (PC)(RPG)
69. Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - The Lovecraft Museum (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
70. The Mummy Demastered (Switch)(Action Adventure)
71. Just Cause 2 (PC)(Action Adventure)
72. Prey (PC)(FPS)
73. Prey: Mooncrash (PC)(FPS)
74. The Signal From Tölva (PC)(FPS)
75. Death Rally (PC)(Racing)
76. Bastion (PC)(RPG)
77. Cosmic Star Heroine (PC)(RPG)
78. Ultimate DOOM (PC)(FPS)
79. DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC)(FPS)
80. DOOM II: No Rest for the Living (PC)(FPS)
81. DOOM 3: The Lost Mission (PC)(FPS)
82. DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (PC)(FPS)
83. DOOM 3 (PC)(FPS)
84. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)(RPG)
85. DOOM: SIGIL (PC)(FPS)
86. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn (PC)(RPG)
Yes, I am continuing on with the Skyrim expansions, and yes, I am playing them out of order. There are two major expansions with new questlines as well as a third, but it only really added some houses to build, so I won't be putting down thoughts about Hearthfire here.
Dragonborn is actually the last of the two major expansions, though it takes place on Solstheim, a location that is near and dear to my heart after the Bloodmoon expansion from Morrowind which also took place there. In Bloodmoon, Solstheim was a Nord-focused area that pulled more from Nordic mythology within the Elder Scrolls universe and involved a lot more of the kinds of things we saw in Skyrim, such as wolves, trolls, spriggans, etc. For its Skyrim version, it now does the opposite, representing more of the landscape, flora, and fauna we saw in Morrowind. This has a mixed effect, because while I like that this is the touchpoint for these two games and regions, it's also not the island I remember. While the snowy northern portions are still there, the lush greenery of the southern half has been covered in thick ash from a volcanic eruption.
That's ok though, as we still get our fair share of Dunmer houses, along with enough throwback material to keep me nostalgic, only now with more quests, new armor materials, new weapons, new monsters, and a Lovecraftian horror world borne from books and filled with several different kind of tentacles, fishmen, and illithid-wannabes. Also, now I get to ride dragons...eventually. Not all of the expansion content is great, but much of what is there is pretty fantastic. There are a lot of quests to discover, a lot of areas to explore both for fun and profit, and a surprising number of randomized encounters which are interesting. There is also a lot not simply flagged with a location marker, such as a northern island dominated by a dragon, as well as some weird oddities like the giant walrus-esque horker king who just wants to fuck you up.
Only quirk of traveling to and from Solstheim is that you can access them via fast travel, but they will initially take you to specific points on the map. You can't simply swap between areas, you must go through a short process involving several loading screens. It gets a little tiring, especially when you haven't yet got a house to serve as your base of operations on Solstheim. Once you do, things aren't so bad, but it still sucks when the odd quest requires you head back to the mainland for something.
Dragonborn offers me an interesting side story and some fun new abilities to play with for Skyrim, but what it really manages to do successfully is remind me of how much I enjoy the interconnected nature of the Elder Scrolls'' continuous world. Learning about events and feats of which I was a critical part while playing a previous game is gratifying, and for me, that's the best part of the experience. I admit that several times I simply walked off to go check if something was still there, and while Skyrim has changed a few things about how the island looks (hey, it's been like a couple thousand years), I was pleased that the big stuff was roughly where I wanted it to be. That made me happier more than anything else. And if you spent a lot of time in the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind, it's probably what you'll love most about Dragonborn too.
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12294
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2020
First 70
71. Limbo (Switch)
72. INSIDE (Switch)
73. Electronic Super Joy II (Switch)
74. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
75. Haunted Castle (Arcade)
76. Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis)
77. Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U)
78. Phantasy Star III (Genesis)
79. Kirby’s Blowout Blast (3DS)
80. Eqqo (Switch)
Eqqo is a budget adventure game so forgettable that I literally forgot to write a review after I beat it earlier this month.
In it, you play a blind child who must carry an egg through a temple. You control the child indirectly, and the gameplay is similar to Pac-Man 2 or Wonder Project J. The game is based on Ethiopian folklore/mythology, and the $1 “DLC” goes toward the purchase of a tree: https://www.nakana.io/eqqo-donation. Both of those things are cool, and they are, by far, the best things about the game. Otherwise, the game is just a series of pretty easy touchscreen “puzzles” plagued by a really finicky camera. The game isn’t really bad, but I never felt compelled to pick it up, either. Accordingly, I can’t really recommend it, despite the interesting premise and good use of DLC funds. I did beat it, though, which puts me only three games away from beating every game in my “games not beaten” list before the end of the year.
71. Limbo (Switch)
72. INSIDE (Switch)
73. Electronic Super Joy II (Switch)
74. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
75. Haunted Castle (Arcade)
76. Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis)
77. Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U)
78. Phantasy Star III (Genesis)
79. Kirby’s Blowout Blast (3DS)
80. Eqqo (Switch)
Eqqo is a budget adventure game so forgettable that I literally forgot to write a review after I beat it earlier this month.
In it, you play a blind child who must carry an egg through a temple. You control the child indirectly, and the gameplay is similar to Pac-Man 2 or Wonder Project J. The game is based on Ethiopian folklore/mythology, and the $1 “DLC” goes toward the purchase of a tree: https://www.nakana.io/eqqo-donation. Both of those things are cool, and they are, by far, the best things about the game. Otherwise, the game is just a series of pretty easy touchscreen “puzzles” plagued by a really finicky camera. The game isn’t really bad, but I never felt compelled to pick it up, either. Accordingly, I can’t really recommend it, despite the interesting premise and good use of DLC funds. I did beat it, though, which puts me only three games away from beating every game in my “games not beaten” list before the end of the year.
Last edited by prfsnl_gmr on Sat Dec 26, 2020 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Games Beaten 2020
The First 50:
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
62. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)(RPG)
63. STRAFE (PC)(FPS)
64. Shadow Warrior [2013] (PC)(FPS)
65. Shanghai Mini (NGPC)(Puzzle)
66. Shadowrun: Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
67. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Shadows of Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
68. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (PC)(RPG)
69. Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - The Lovecraft Museum (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
70. The Mummy Demastered (Switch)(Action Adventure)
71. Just Cause 2 (PC)(Action Adventure)
72. Prey (PC)(FPS)
73. Prey: Mooncrash (PC)(FPS)
74. The Signal From Tölva (PC)(FPS)
75. Death Rally (PC)(Racing)
76. Bastion (PC)(RPG)
77. Cosmic Star Heroine (PC)(RPG)
78. Ultimate DOOM (PC)(FPS)
79. DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC)(FPS)
80. DOOM II: No Rest for the Living (PC)(FPS)
81. DOOM 3: The Lost Mission (PC)(FPS)
82. DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (PC)(FPS)
83. DOOM 3 (PC)(FPS)
84. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)(RPG)
85. DOOM: SIGIL (PC)(FPS)
86. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn (PC)(RPG)
87. Final DOOM - TNT: Evilution (PC)(FPS)
Having played through so many DOOM games on the Ultra Violence difficulty, I felt it best to sit down with Final DOOM on UV and see whether I can hack it. Final DOOM is split into two parts, TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, with the latter being more renowned for its difficulty. As of this writing, I'm working my way through Plutonia, but with TNT behind me, I figured it best to sit down and talk about it.
It's important when considering where it falls into the ranks of official DOOM releases that TNT: Evilution was developed by a group of community mapmakers. This group was TeamTNT, made up of members of the DOOM Editing mailing list who chose to band together to create their own projects. The Evilution campaign actually began life as a free campaign put together by this group of mapmakers, only for id software to swoop in a few days before release to acquire it. Two of the members of the team were Dario and Milo Casali, who then went on to develop The Plutonia Experiment.
This gathering of what were advanced amateur designers coming together is a key point in understanding how TNT: Evilution works and why it struggles in places. Yes, the mapmakers were all extremely talented, but they also brought diverse views on how to tackle level design, enemy and item placement, and player progress through the level, which I call flow. This means that each new level may have a different feeling and development philosophy from the previous, created a campaign that feels both ambitious and schizophrenic.
As an example, consider MAP05: Hanger and MAP06: Open Season. Hanger involves several corridor fights that lead into a couple of very large rooms. Open Season involves generally larger rooms and few corridors, with a central theme built around a puzzle of starting a reactor. Hanger throws hordes of enemies, predominantly weaker fodder like imps and shotgunners at nearly double the amount of Open Season, which offers up a larger variety of enemy types. These maps were developed by two different designers, Tom Mustaine and Ty Halderman, and as a result, they don't meld together into a cohesive campaign.
I want to point out Ty Halderman's maps specifically because he tended to be experimental, creating large puzzles or offering up armies of weaker foes to wear the player down, and not all of these were effective. In fact, Halderman created some of my favorite and least liked maps of the set. However, his work never got to the craziness that was MAP27: Mount Pain, which holds the most enemies of any official DOOM level ever released.
Unfortunately, the disparity is what gets me the most. No new assets were created for TNT: Evilution, so it all comes down to design, and some devs tried tricks that work, while others put in things which annoy the hell out of me, like mandatory secrets. I loathe mandatory secrets because they can both stump player progress and remove the purpose of something being a secret. Of course, different designers also have different views on things like textures, so there are some levels which look quite nice and some which are bland or even pretty ugly. One texture I've realized I'm really not a fan of is a light gray wall, because it offers basically nothing to look at, and you'll find it overused in several maps.
Complaints about the jarring shifts in design aside, the game does end on a high point, likely in part because the final two levels had a consistent designer, Jimmy Sieben. Jimmy was able to not only meld together the Hell aesthetic but also incorporate a puzzle effectively into the lead up to the final showdown with a re-used Baphomet...and he made it easier to get to the required height to fight Baphomet, making the game end with a much better level than DOOM II's Icon of Sin. Sure, it's MAP30, so you have to get through a lot to get there, but the lead up and then finale work together so well that I was quite happy when I wrapped up.
It's tough to recommend TNT: Evilution because it's so jarring, even to the die hards. Now that I'm a ways into The Plutonia Experiment, I can also say that TNT: Evilution is the weaker half of Final DOOM. I respect it, but I just don't like it the way I enjoy most of the official releases. If you get to this point, well...go back and beat all of DOOM and DOOM II on Ultra Violence, then make sure to hit up the fourth episode in Ultimate DOOM and then SIGIL. Then maybe consider Final DOOM's TNT: Evilution, but don't feel you have to. Because as much as I enjoy DOOM, it feels like a mess. An impressive mess, but still a mess.
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
62. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)(RPG)
63. STRAFE (PC)(FPS)
64. Shadow Warrior [2013] (PC)(FPS)
65. Shanghai Mini (NGPC)(Puzzle)
66. Shadowrun: Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
67. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Shadows of Hong Kong (PC)(RPG)
68. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (PC)(RPG)
69. Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - The Lovecraft Museum (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
70. The Mummy Demastered (Switch)(Action Adventure)
71. Just Cause 2 (PC)(Action Adventure)
72. Prey (PC)(FPS)
73. Prey: Mooncrash (PC)(FPS)
74. The Signal From Tölva (PC)(FPS)
75. Death Rally (PC)(Racing)
76. Bastion (PC)(RPG)
77. Cosmic Star Heroine (PC)(RPG)
78. Ultimate DOOM (PC)(FPS)
79. DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC)(FPS)
80. DOOM II: No Rest for the Living (PC)(FPS)
81. DOOM 3: The Lost Mission (PC)(FPS)
82. DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (PC)(FPS)
83. DOOM 3 (PC)(FPS)
84. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)(RPG)
85. DOOM: SIGIL (PC)(FPS)
86. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn (PC)(RPG)
87. Final DOOM - TNT: Evilution (PC)(FPS)
Having played through so many DOOM games on the Ultra Violence difficulty, I felt it best to sit down with Final DOOM on UV and see whether I can hack it. Final DOOM is split into two parts, TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, with the latter being more renowned for its difficulty. As of this writing, I'm working my way through Plutonia, but with TNT behind me, I figured it best to sit down and talk about it.
It's important when considering where it falls into the ranks of official DOOM releases that TNT: Evilution was developed by a group of community mapmakers. This group was TeamTNT, made up of members of the DOOM Editing mailing list who chose to band together to create their own projects. The Evilution campaign actually began life as a free campaign put together by this group of mapmakers, only for id software to swoop in a few days before release to acquire it. Two of the members of the team were Dario and Milo Casali, who then went on to develop The Plutonia Experiment.
This gathering of what were advanced amateur designers coming together is a key point in understanding how TNT: Evilution works and why it struggles in places. Yes, the mapmakers were all extremely talented, but they also brought diverse views on how to tackle level design, enemy and item placement, and player progress through the level, which I call flow. This means that each new level may have a different feeling and development philosophy from the previous, created a campaign that feels both ambitious and schizophrenic.
As an example, consider MAP05: Hanger and MAP06: Open Season. Hanger involves several corridor fights that lead into a couple of very large rooms. Open Season involves generally larger rooms and few corridors, with a central theme built around a puzzle of starting a reactor. Hanger throws hordes of enemies, predominantly weaker fodder like imps and shotgunners at nearly double the amount of Open Season, which offers up a larger variety of enemy types. These maps were developed by two different designers, Tom Mustaine and Ty Halderman, and as a result, they don't meld together into a cohesive campaign.
I want to point out Ty Halderman's maps specifically because he tended to be experimental, creating large puzzles or offering up armies of weaker foes to wear the player down, and not all of these were effective. In fact, Halderman created some of my favorite and least liked maps of the set. However, his work never got to the craziness that was MAP27: Mount Pain, which holds the most enemies of any official DOOM level ever released.
Unfortunately, the disparity is what gets me the most. No new assets were created for TNT: Evilution, so it all comes down to design, and some devs tried tricks that work, while others put in things which annoy the hell out of me, like mandatory secrets. I loathe mandatory secrets because they can both stump player progress and remove the purpose of something being a secret. Of course, different designers also have different views on things like textures, so there are some levels which look quite nice and some which are bland or even pretty ugly. One texture I've realized I'm really not a fan of is a light gray wall, because it offers basically nothing to look at, and you'll find it overused in several maps.
Complaints about the jarring shifts in design aside, the game does end on a high point, likely in part because the final two levels had a consistent designer, Jimmy Sieben. Jimmy was able to not only meld together the Hell aesthetic but also incorporate a puzzle effectively into the lead up to the final showdown with a re-used Baphomet...and he made it easier to get to the required height to fight Baphomet, making the game end with a much better level than DOOM II's Icon of Sin. Sure, it's MAP30, so you have to get through a lot to get there, but the lead up and then finale work together so well that I was quite happy when I wrapped up.
It's tough to recommend TNT: Evilution because it's so jarring, even to the die hards. Now that I'm a ways into The Plutonia Experiment, I can also say that TNT: Evilution is the weaker half of Final DOOM. I respect it, but I just don't like it the way I enjoy most of the official releases. If you get to this point, well...go back and beat all of DOOM and DOOM II on Ultra Violence, then make sure to hit up the fourth episode in Ultimate DOOM and then SIGIL. Then maybe consider Final DOOM's TNT: Evilution, but don't feel you have to. Because as much as I enjoy DOOM, it feels like a mess. An impressive mess, but still a mess.
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ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8729
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Jonesville, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Games Beaten in 2020 - 35
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (5 Games Beaten)
35. Gears Tactics - Series X - December 13
Gears Tactics is what I always wanted Gears of War to be - over the top violence against aliens in a turn based strategy format. Honestly, it's what I wish Halo Wars had been. I got this game with my Series X, and I couldn't wait to dig into it. At first I was afraid that this would feel like an afterthought spin-off, and in some ways, it does, but by an large, the production quality here is a lot better than I had expected.
Gears Tactics takes place during the Locust War, falling after Judgement but before the original game in the timeline. Despite that, it's still relevant to recent Gears games as one of the main characters is Gabe Diaz, so we get some backstory on Kait's father. The game follows him and Sid Redburn on a mission from Chairman Prescott to kill a Locust scientist named Ukkon. Along the way, you meet up with a band of civilian survivors led by Mikayla Dorn, the most badass character in the entire Gears universe (other than Cole, of course). You convince/conscript these folks to join you on your mission. Gears Tactics doesn't include a multiplayer mode, and while I think that's a bit of a missed opportunity, the campaign is so much fun and tells such a solid story with such good character development that it really isn't hindered by the lack of multiplayer.
Another aspect helping Tactics feel right at home in the Gears series is that the game's genre really isn't a huge departure despite initial appearances. The developers, Splash Damage, pointed out that there were already a lot of similarities between turn based tactics games and the third person squad based gameplay of the previous six Gears games. Both include squads of two to four characters, both are played from a third person perspective, and both involve controlling different characters at certain points in the game. According to the game's executive producer, they "just took existing Gears and just moved the camera up" and made it turn based. It's a total genre shift for sure, but it doesn't feel quite as radically different as, say, Halo 4 to Halo Wars 2 with the jump from a first person shooter to a real time strategy game (another fantastic game, by the way).
Gears Tactics makes a point of being extremely approachable by offering a variety of difficulty settings. A lot of big Gears fans I know do great with cover based shooters and first person shooters but flounder when it comes to tactics games; for those folks, the lower difficulty settings allow you to experience the story told in Gears Tactics, get some practice and hone your skills, and then up the difficulty when you feel ready. Likewise, if you're confident but find out that the game puts up a bit more of a fight than you expected halfway through, you can just lower the difficulty down a peg to have the game meet you at your skill level instead of wasting time trying to "git gud." After all, most of us are adults; we don't all have time to waste trying to hack away mindlessly at a level repeatedly trying to "git gud."
As I've mentioned, the character development here is rock solid, and a big part of that is the writing and the delivery of the dialogue lines. The sound design overall, really, is great. The chainsaw sounds as meaty as ever, and the explosion sound effects have the same impact to them that you'd expect from games in the series developed by Epic or The Coalition. The only aspect that I really found lacking was the visuals, and even that was only somewhat disappointing. The cutscenes look fantastic. The detail on the character models is every bit as good as I would expect from a game optimized for Series X (although I'll never stop being pissed about the lack of dedicated Series X releases in favor of this "Smart Delivery" garbage). What I feel could have looked better is the actual gameplay. The map details, the enemy designs, and the in-game character models all look good, but they don't really look a whole lot better than Halo Wars 2. Granted, part of that is going to be attributable to how zoomed out the game is when compared to other Gears titles, but even playing on Series X, it felt like I was looking at a game running Xbox One. There are some nice physics touches; when a character runs into a random crate on the map, for example, it goes flying and bouncing for a bit. It doesn't really feel "next gen" to me, though. That makes sense given that it's a last gen game that's just been polished, but with the emphasis they put on "Series X" for the console release, I was just a little bit let down.
Gears Tactics is a fantastic entry for the Gears series and a welcome foray into a new genre. Even on Series X, it doesn't feel all that "next gen" as it runs at the same resolution as One X, the only real difference being 2160p60 vs 2160p30, but the textures don't look any more detailed on Series X. Obviously the loading times are SIGNIFICANTLY improved on Series X thanks to the SSD, but that and the frame rate boost are really the only benefits over the One X; the games look identical. Regardless of platform, though, Gears Tactics is a fantastic game. It's not only a great strategy game, but it's a great Gears game. I strongly recommend fans of either of those things to give this one a shot; it may well be what turns a Gears fan into a tactics fan or what turns a tactics fan into a Gears fan. For folks like me who are already fans of both strategy games and Gears, it's basically a perfect concept, and while the execution may not be totally perfect, it's pretty damn close.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (5 Games Beaten)
35. Gears Tactics - Series X - December 13
Gears Tactics is what I always wanted Gears of War to be - over the top violence against aliens in a turn based strategy format. Honestly, it's what I wish Halo Wars had been. I got this game with my Series X, and I couldn't wait to dig into it. At first I was afraid that this would feel like an afterthought spin-off, and in some ways, it does, but by an large, the production quality here is a lot better than I had expected.
Gears Tactics takes place during the Locust War, falling after Judgement but before the original game in the timeline. Despite that, it's still relevant to recent Gears games as one of the main characters is Gabe Diaz, so we get some backstory on Kait's father. The game follows him and Sid Redburn on a mission from Chairman Prescott to kill a Locust scientist named Ukkon. Along the way, you meet up with a band of civilian survivors led by Mikayla Dorn, the most badass character in the entire Gears universe (other than Cole, of course). You convince/conscript these folks to join you on your mission. Gears Tactics doesn't include a multiplayer mode, and while I think that's a bit of a missed opportunity, the campaign is so much fun and tells such a solid story with such good character development that it really isn't hindered by the lack of multiplayer.
Another aspect helping Tactics feel right at home in the Gears series is that the game's genre really isn't a huge departure despite initial appearances. The developers, Splash Damage, pointed out that there were already a lot of similarities between turn based tactics games and the third person squad based gameplay of the previous six Gears games. Both include squads of two to four characters, both are played from a third person perspective, and both involve controlling different characters at certain points in the game. According to the game's executive producer, they "just took existing Gears and just moved the camera up" and made it turn based. It's a total genre shift for sure, but it doesn't feel quite as radically different as, say, Halo 4 to Halo Wars 2 with the jump from a first person shooter to a real time strategy game (another fantastic game, by the way).
Gears Tactics makes a point of being extremely approachable by offering a variety of difficulty settings. A lot of big Gears fans I know do great with cover based shooters and first person shooters but flounder when it comes to tactics games; for those folks, the lower difficulty settings allow you to experience the story told in Gears Tactics, get some practice and hone your skills, and then up the difficulty when you feel ready. Likewise, if you're confident but find out that the game puts up a bit more of a fight than you expected halfway through, you can just lower the difficulty down a peg to have the game meet you at your skill level instead of wasting time trying to "git gud." After all, most of us are adults; we don't all have time to waste trying to hack away mindlessly at a level repeatedly trying to "git gud."
As I've mentioned, the character development here is rock solid, and a big part of that is the writing and the delivery of the dialogue lines. The sound design overall, really, is great. The chainsaw sounds as meaty as ever, and the explosion sound effects have the same impact to them that you'd expect from games in the series developed by Epic or The Coalition. The only aspect that I really found lacking was the visuals, and even that was only somewhat disappointing. The cutscenes look fantastic. The detail on the character models is every bit as good as I would expect from a game optimized for Series X (although I'll never stop being pissed about the lack of dedicated Series X releases in favor of this "Smart Delivery" garbage). What I feel could have looked better is the actual gameplay. The map details, the enemy designs, and the in-game character models all look good, but they don't really look a whole lot better than Halo Wars 2. Granted, part of that is going to be attributable to how zoomed out the game is when compared to other Gears titles, but even playing on Series X, it felt like I was looking at a game running Xbox One. There are some nice physics touches; when a character runs into a random crate on the map, for example, it goes flying and bouncing for a bit. It doesn't really feel "next gen" to me, though. That makes sense given that it's a last gen game that's just been polished, but with the emphasis they put on "Series X" for the console release, I was just a little bit let down.
Gears Tactics is a fantastic entry for the Gears series and a welcome foray into a new genre. Even on Series X, it doesn't feel all that "next gen" as it runs at the same resolution as One X, the only real difference being 2160p60 vs 2160p30, but the textures don't look any more detailed on Series X. Obviously the loading times are SIGNIFICANTLY improved on Series X thanks to the SSD, but that and the frame rate boost are really the only benefits over the One X; the games look identical. Regardless of platform, though, Gears Tactics is a fantastic game. It's not only a great strategy game, but it's a great Gears game. I strongly recommend fans of either of those things to give this one a shot; it may well be what turns a Gears fan into a tactics fan or what turns a tactics fan into a Gears fan. For folks like me who are already fans of both strategy games and Gears, it's basically a perfect concept, and while the execution may not be totally perfect, it's pretty damn close.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
-
PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3056
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
60. Jumping Flash! (PS1)
61. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1)
62. Crash Team Racing (PS1)
63. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS1)
64. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch)
65. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
66. Battle Stadium D.O.N. (GC) *
67. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) *
68. Dracula Densetsu II (GB)
69. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) *
70. Super Mario's Picross (SFC)
71. Castlevania (Famicom)
72. Castlevania (MSX)
73. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
74. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
75. Castlevania III (Famicom)
76. Super Castlevania IV (SFC) *
77. Castlevania: Bloodlines (MD)
78. Kid Dracula (Famicom)
79. Sonic Adventure (DC)
80. Drakengard (PS2)
81. Pole's Big Adventure (WiiWare)
82. Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PC)
83. Mario's Picross (GB)
84. Sonic Heroes (GC)
85. Drakengard 2 (PS2)
86. NeverDead (PS3)
87. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (PS3)
88. Gain Ground (Genesis)
89. Bonanza Bros. (Genesis)
90. Golden Axe Warrior (Master System)
91. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
92. Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2)
93. Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
94. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
95. Mighty Switch Force 2 (3DS)
96. Pushmo World (Wii U)
97. Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U)
98. Stretchmo (3DS)
99. Saru Getchu: Million Monkeys (PS2)
100. Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (PS3)
A little over 60 hours later, my 100th game beaten in 2020 comes to a close. Not to mention this is a game I've owned damn near since I beat Yakuza 2 like four years ago XD. This is one of a handful of games in the Yakuza series that have never come out in English, and given that this one takes place in the early 1600's, there's a lot of vocabulary that is period appropriate. That extra hard vocab kept me away from trying out this game for AGES, but this year I decided that it was finally time to push beyond the third Yakuza game, and I did it. As I mentioned before, it took me a little over 60 hours (although a decent amount of that is idled time, so I'd say probably more like 50-55 hours of actual playing) to do about 90-ish% of the content in the game on hard mode.
Kenzan is based very (and I mean VERY) loosely based on the real life person Miyamoto Musashi, who is a famous historical figure of Japan's warring states period famed for his mastery of fighting with two swords at once. The Kiryu of this story (named Kiryu Kazumanosuke, yes really X3) is the assumed name of Musashi after he's set up to take the fall for an assassination plot to kill one of Ieyasu's adult sons right before the battle at Sekigahara (the final battle that ended the warring states period and unified Japan). He is now living in Gion as a sort of loan shark (he collects money from people who couldn't pay before at the entertainment sorta-brothels), which is the red light district of Kyoto. Gion and the surrounding area play the role of Kamurocho as Kiryu tries to unravel the mystery behind why a girl with links to his past has suddenly showed up and asking him to kill a man.
The story of the game is a HECK of a mixed bag. On a base level, there are a lot of characters effectively pulled from Yakuza 1 and/or 2 and put into a historical garb (like Kiryu's friend Itou), and then there are just plain inserts of classic Yakuza characters like Haruka and Majima. There are also a handful of pretty bad queer-phobic jokes on the worse side of humor, but on the better side of humor are the sort of ahistorical "part of history" stuff like Yakuza Zero has, like how Kiryu helps invent kabuki theater (which was invented around this time, yes, but with an all-female cast, so it makes no sense how Kiryu is allowed to be a part of it XD). That stuff is all more or less part and parcel for what I expected in this game.
The overall narrative is a mess with an awful bow at the end. The game has some really interesting themes it brings up like "escaping being someone defined by violence" or "what it means to live with two identities", and they're introduced really well via the first five or so chapters that are effectively a "how did he get here?" series of connected flashbacks starting before Sekigahara and ending when Kiryu establishes himself at Gion. From there, you have that A plot of Haruka and Kiryu HORRIBLY sidetracked for what is effectively a third of the game as a B plot comes up whose main point seems to be to have Kiryu recreate the climax of Yakuza 2, right down to a 17th century stand in for Daigo Dojima.
The ending especially has genuinely had me puzzling for days as to just why it's there, as it seems like they went out of their way to ruin any good messaging the game had. The game struggles with establishing stakes (everyone in the main cast just seems invincible) and keeping a consistent plot thread (that B plot sidelines stuff REALLY hard but pretends it isn't), but the ending is really what pushed me over the line from viewing the story as just unpolished to straight up not good. It's still got the fun, action movie quality of presentation that Yakuza is always good at, and it at least avoids tumbling head-over-ass into outright nationalist propaganda like something like Ghost of Tsushima does, but it's definitely a very weak follow up to Yakuza 2, and it's not difficult for me to see why people weren't exactly blown away by this game (reviewers derided it as "Yakuza 2.5", as it wasn't a "real" next-gen Yakuza yet) back when it came out.
As far as the world design goes, it's pretty darn solid and has a really nice amount of content (as my 60 hour playtime should be self evident of). The side quests are good fun, and exploring around the content-rich surroundings of Gion are also Yakuza at its finest. I don't usually indulge in the hostess club and gambling stuff in Yakuza, and this game was no different. That stuff just doesn't interest me. The quests on the other hand have some neat spins to them, as there are 100 normal quests (my personal favorites of which were the ones involving helping a foreigner with very bad Japanese) and then there are 20 loan sharking quests and 20 bounties to collect as well. While it doesn't make a toooon of sense how Kiryu can both be a wanted man but also call the police to arrest people, the special conditions on some of them (like, "take them alive" (i.e. use only your fists)) do make them a bit more special, and it all begins to have more and more of that Yakuza-weirdness that the games start to lean into more and more after the first game. That said, there's also a cop who patrols around the streets outside of Gion, and if he sees you, you'll need to run away, and if he catches you, it's a REALLY hard fight you'll almost certainly lose. That cop is awful and it's a terrible mechanic they should feel bad about putting in the game XD.
The combat is VERY much Yakuza 2 but with a new twists: swords! Now, of course there's the "Kiryu Kazuma has never killed anyone" jokes, and that's soooorta in play here. It is absolutely hilarious with the apparently non-lethal viciousness that some of your heat actions with the swords can pull off. You effectively have five fighting styles (unarmed, katana, short katana, big sword/club, and dual-swords) of which you can have 4 of equipped at a time. Getting a shiny new sword is always fun, and even though I found that normal katana (high offense) and dual-blades (a defensive stance, believe it or not) were my two favorites, getting new heat actions and messing around with the other weapons are always nice, and the combat is as reliably a fun time as it is in any other Yakuza game. The only thing I'm a little unsure of (at least I don't remember if it was so present in Yakuza 1 and 2) is how easy it felt it was to get knocked down and just really bullied by dudes charging up sword attacks. Part of that certainly may be down to playing on hard mode (which I still don't think is terribly difficult, but a more fun challenge than normal), but it was something minorly annoying for the encounters with loads of dudes to fight against.
The presentation is pretty good but certainly hasn't aged well. This is a relatively early PS3 game having come out in 2008 (so it also has no trophies, which is weird to get used to), and while the main characters look quite nice, the contrast with the lower detailed models makes the game have quite an uncanny look to it at times during certain in-game cutscenes. There's also not a ton of music, and while the special tracks for certain fights and longer scenes are great, the normal battle music is something I really started to tune out pretty quickly. It's nothing special, but it's nothing great either, and while 1600's Kyoto does look pretty, it's not quite the hustle and bustle of 2000's Kamurocho.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Part of me does wanna not recommend this, but I really can't say that I didn't enjoy a majority of my time with this game. The story is very irritating in retrospect, especially the ending, but I enjoyed my time going through it, and I enjoyed the large amount of time just playing the game. That's why I put so much time into it. I understand most people reading this likely won't be in a position to play the game themselves unless it gets some kind of Kiwami-esque remake, but there are SO many other Yakuza games on the PS3 that you're really better off playing one of them. That said, if you DO feel the need (and have the ability) to play Yakuza Kenzan, it will likely be an underwhelming time, but it is certainly still an enjoyable game.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
60. Jumping Flash! (PS1)
61. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1)
62. Crash Team Racing (PS1)
63. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS1)
64. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch)
65. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
66. Battle Stadium D.O.N. (GC) *
67. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) *
68. Dracula Densetsu II (GB)
69. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) *
70. Super Mario's Picross (SFC)
71. Castlevania (Famicom)
72. Castlevania (MSX)
73. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
74. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
75. Castlevania III (Famicom)
76. Super Castlevania IV (SFC) *
77. Castlevania: Bloodlines (MD)
78. Kid Dracula (Famicom)
79. Sonic Adventure (DC)
80. Drakengard (PS2)
81. Pole's Big Adventure (WiiWare)
82. Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PC)
83. Mario's Picross (GB)
84. Sonic Heroes (GC)
85. Drakengard 2 (PS2)
86. NeverDead (PS3)
87. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (PS3)
88. Gain Ground (Genesis)
89. Bonanza Bros. (Genesis)
90. Golden Axe Warrior (Master System)
91. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
92. Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2)
93. Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
94. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
95. Mighty Switch Force 2 (3DS)
96. Pushmo World (Wii U)
97. Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U)
98. Stretchmo (3DS)
99. Saru Getchu: Million Monkeys (PS2)
100. Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! (PS3)
A little over 60 hours later, my 100th game beaten in 2020 comes to a close. Not to mention this is a game I've owned damn near since I beat Yakuza 2 like four years ago XD. This is one of a handful of games in the Yakuza series that have never come out in English, and given that this one takes place in the early 1600's, there's a lot of vocabulary that is period appropriate. That extra hard vocab kept me away from trying out this game for AGES, but this year I decided that it was finally time to push beyond the third Yakuza game, and I did it. As I mentioned before, it took me a little over 60 hours (although a decent amount of that is idled time, so I'd say probably more like 50-55 hours of actual playing) to do about 90-ish% of the content in the game on hard mode.
Kenzan is based very (and I mean VERY) loosely based on the real life person Miyamoto Musashi, who is a famous historical figure of Japan's warring states period famed for his mastery of fighting with two swords at once. The Kiryu of this story (named Kiryu Kazumanosuke, yes really X3) is the assumed name of Musashi after he's set up to take the fall for an assassination plot to kill one of Ieyasu's adult sons right before the battle at Sekigahara (the final battle that ended the warring states period and unified Japan). He is now living in Gion as a sort of loan shark (he collects money from people who couldn't pay before at the entertainment sorta-brothels), which is the red light district of Kyoto. Gion and the surrounding area play the role of Kamurocho as Kiryu tries to unravel the mystery behind why a girl with links to his past has suddenly showed up and asking him to kill a man.
The story of the game is a HECK of a mixed bag. On a base level, there are a lot of characters effectively pulled from Yakuza 1 and/or 2 and put into a historical garb (like Kiryu's friend Itou), and then there are just plain inserts of classic Yakuza characters like Haruka and Majima. There are also a handful of pretty bad queer-phobic jokes on the worse side of humor, but on the better side of humor are the sort of ahistorical "part of history" stuff like Yakuza Zero has, like how Kiryu helps invent kabuki theater (which was invented around this time, yes, but with an all-female cast, so it makes no sense how Kiryu is allowed to be a part of it XD). That stuff is all more or less part and parcel for what I expected in this game.
The overall narrative is a mess with an awful bow at the end. The game has some really interesting themes it brings up like "escaping being someone defined by violence" or "what it means to live with two identities", and they're introduced really well via the first five or so chapters that are effectively a "how did he get here?" series of connected flashbacks starting before Sekigahara and ending when Kiryu establishes himself at Gion. From there, you have that A plot of Haruka and Kiryu HORRIBLY sidetracked for what is effectively a third of the game as a B plot comes up whose main point seems to be to have Kiryu recreate the climax of Yakuza 2, right down to a 17th century stand in for Daigo Dojima.
The ending especially has genuinely had me puzzling for days as to just why it's there, as it seems like they went out of their way to ruin any good messaging the game had. The game struggles with establishing stakes (everyone in the main cast just seems invincible) and keeping a consistent plot thread (that B plot sidelines stuff REALLY hard but pretends it isn't), but the ending is really what pushed me over the line from viewing the story as just unpolished to straight up not good. It's still got the fun, action movie quality of presentation that Yakuza is always good at, and it at least avoids tumbling head-over-ass into outright nationalist propaganda like something like Ghost of Tsushima does, but it's definitely a very weak follow up to Yakuza 2, and it's not difficult for me to see why people weren't exactly blown away by this game (reviewers derided it as "Yakuza 2.5", as it wasn't a "real" next-gen Yakuza yet) back when it came out.
As far as the world design goes, it's pretty darn solid and has a really nice amount of content (as my 60 hour playtime should be self evident of). The side quests are good fun, and exploring around the content-rich surroundings of Gion are also Yakuza at its finest. I don't usually indulge in the hostess club and gambling stuff in Yakuza, and this game was no different. That stuff just doesn't interest me. The quests on the other hand have some neat spins to them, as there are 100 normal quests (my personal favorites of which were the ones involving helping a foreigner with very bad Japanese) and then there are 20 loan sharking quests and 20 bounties to collect as well. While it doesn't make a toooon of sense how Kiryu can both be a wanted man but also call the police to arrest people, the special conditions on some of them (like, "take them alive" (i.e. use only your fists)) do make them a bit more special, and it all begins to have more and more of that Yakuza-weirdness that the games start to lean into more and more after the first game. That said, there's also a cop who patrols around the streets outside of Gion, and if he sees you, you'll need to run away, and if he catches you, it's a REALLY hard fight you'll almost certainly lose. That cop is awful and it's a terrible mechanic they should feel bad about putting in the game XD.
The combat is VERY much Yakuza 2 but with a new twists: swords! Now, of course there's the "Kiryu Kazuma has never killed anyone" jokes, and that's soooorta in play here. It is absolutely hilarious with the apparently non-lethal viciousness that some of your heat actions with the swords can pull off. You effectively have five fighting styles (unarmed, katana, short katana, big sword/club, and dual-swords) of which you can have 4 of equipped at a time. Getting a shiny new sword is always fun, and even though I found that normal katana (high offense) and dual-blades (a defensive stance, believe it or not) were my two favorites, getting new heat actions and messing around with the other weapons are always nice, and the combat is as reliably a fun time as it is in any other Yakuza game. The only thing I'm a little unsure of (at least I don't remember if it was so present in Yakuza 1 and 2) is how easy it felt it was to get knocked down and just really bullied by dudes charging up sword attacks. Part of that certainly may be down to playing on hard mode (which I still don't think is terribly difficult, but a more fun challenge than normal), but it was something minorly annoying for the encounters with loads of dudes to fight against.
The presentation is pretty good but certainly hasn't aged well. This is a relatively early PS3 game having come out in 2008 (so it also has no trophies, which is weird to get used to), and while the main characters look quite nice, the contrast with the lower detailed models makes the game have quite an uncanny look to it at times during certain in-game cutscenes. There's also not a ton of music, and while the special tracks for certain fights and longer scenes are great, the normal battle music is something I really started to tune out pretty quickly. It's nothing special, but it's nothing great either, and while 1600's Kyoto does look pretty, it's not quite the hustle and bustle of 2000's Kamurocho.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Part of me does wanna not recommend this, but I really can't say that I didn't enjoy a majority of my time with this game. The story is very irritating in retrospect, especially the ending, but I enjoyed my time going through it, and I enjoyed the large amount of time just playing the game. That's why I put so much time into it. I understand most people reading this likely won't be in a position to play the game themselves unless it gets some kind of Kiwami-esque remake, but there are SO many other Yakuza games on the PS3 that you're really better off playing one of them. That said, if you DO feel the need (and have the ability) to play Yakuza Kenzan, it will likely be an underwhelming time, but it is certainly still an enjoyable game.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2020
Games Beaten in 2020 - 36
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (6 Games Beaten)
36. Blood and Bacon - Steam - December 14
Ack said I should review Blood and Bacon, so I did.
Blood and Bacon is another dumb Steam indie game, but unlike The Last of Waifus and Simp Slayer Simulator 2K20, this one is legitimately good. It's not amazing, but it's a solidly fun game. It's only a dollar, supports up to six players, and has over a hundred levels full of achievements and secrets to find. This is in a whole different tier from most of the Steam indie crap I play.
Blood and Bacon is extremely simple. You work a farmer who's pinned to a barn wall by a pitchfork yet never bleeds to death, and every day, you take side arm and a main weapon and slaughter the hordes of demon pigs infesting the far. Do this 101 times. Every level is a bit tougher than the last, every ten levels is a boss, and there are the occasional "revenge" levels where you have infinite ammo to slaughter tons of evil pigs. There are a few "explore the tunnels" levels where you can explore tunnels beneath the farms after killing the pigs and find some secrets. They've added some stuff over time since the release, so it's a surprisingly fleshed out and content-rich game for the price point.
The visuals don't look great, and the sound design is solidly so-so, but for a dollar, you can't reasonably expect too too much. You've got six main weapons and four side arms you can choose from. There are characters to unlock as well as some cheats that can be activated from the pause menu and secrets that can be activated from the main menu. I haven't had a chance to play it online with anyone, but with how much fun it is to play solo, I can only imagine this would be a blast to play online with some friends.
Blood and Bacon is a pretty shallow game with no real story, one character, and a huge helping of "wash, rinse, repeat" gameplay, but it also proves that those things don't necessarily make a game bad. When coupled with the absurd premise and literal Dollar Tree price tag, it's actually a pretty damn good game for what you get and what you pay. I've sunk about three hours into the game, and I feel like getting three hours of entertainment out of a dollar is more than getting my money's worth. Hell, I get less entertainment time for fifteen times that price if I go see a movie at a theater. Breath of the Wild gave me thirty times as many hours of entertainment but for sixty times the price. That may be a bit of an apples and oranges comparison (okay, not may be; it definitely is), but when you look at it that way, this game is fantastic for its $0.99 price tag. It may not be an amazing game, but it's definitely a good one, and for a dollar, that's really all you need.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
Sometime in the Dark Ages of My Life Between May and October in No Particular Order (6 Games Beaten)
November (4 Games Beaten)
December (6 Games Beaten)
36. Blood and Bacon - Steam - December 14
Ack said I should review Blood and Bacon, so I did.
Blood and Bacon is another dumb Steam indie game, but unlike The Last of Waifus and Simp Slayer Simulator 2K20, this one is legitimately good. It's not amazing, but it's a solidly fun game. It's only a dollar, supports up to six players, and has over a hundred levels full of achievements and secrets to find. This is in a whole different tier from most of the Steam indie crap I play.
Blood and Bacon is extremely simple. You work a farmer who's pinned to a barn wall by a pitchfork yet never bleeds to death, and every day, you take side arm and a main weapon and slaughter the hordes of demon pigs infesting the far. Do this 101 times. Every level is a bit tougher than the last, every ten levels is a boss, and there are the occasional "revenge" levels where you have infinite ammo to slaughter tons of evil pigs. There are a few "explore the tunnels" levels where you can explore tunnels beneath the farms after killing the pigs and find some secrets. They've added some stuff over time since the release, so it's a surprisingly fleshed out and content-rich game for the price point.
The visuals don't look great, and the sound design is solidly so-so, but for a dollar, you can't reasonably expect too too much. You've got six main weapons and four side arms you can choose from. There are characters to unlock as well as some cheats that can be activated from the pause menu and secrets that can be activated from the main menu. I haven't had a chance to play it online with anyone, but with how much fun it is to play solo, I can only imagine this would be a blast to play online with some friends.
Blood and Bacon is a pretty shallow game with no real story, one character, and a huge helping of "wash, rinse, repeat" gameplay, but it also proves that those things don't necessarily make a game bad. When coupled with the absurd premise and literal Dollar Tree price tag, it's actually a pretty damn good game for what you get and what you pay. I've sunk about three hours into the game, and I feel like getting three hours of entertainment out of a dollar is more than getting my money's worth. Hell, I get less entertainment time for fifteen times that price if I go see a movie at a theater. Breath of the Wild gave me thirty times as many hours of entertainment but for sixty times the price. That may be a bit of an apples and oranges comparison (okay, not may be; it definitely is), but when you look at it that way, this game is fantastic for its $0.99 price tag. It may not be an amazing game, but it's definitely a good one, and for a dollar, that's really all you need.
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TheSSNintendo
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Re: Games Beaten 2020
Add Gears of War 4 to the list. Finished it up this afternoon, and I plan on playing through the campaign again to get all the collectibles that I missed.