Games Beaten 2013

[J T]

R-Type Leo (PC) 1/3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC) 1/5

This is a game that manages to somehow both get more hate than it deserves and more praise than it deserves. On the one hand, it has some very impressive graphics, as evidenced here by some screenshots I took. Even if you're not a fan of realism, this is still rather stylish realism.

The gameplay has its moments. As was the case with the first Modern Warfare, my favorite missions are when you travel with Commander Price on a sniping expedition. These just feel very cool. You walk forward, find your mark, fire, and press forward to the next marks. It feels like a sniper mission should feel. It's sneaky, lethal, and the moments looking down the scope are tense because you don't want to get caught.

Another interesting thing was the final battle, which I can't talk about without spoilers so...

When you fight Shephard, it uses some quicktime kinds of events to really convey a sense of fighting while at the very end of your rope. Using left mouse/right mouse to crawl to a gun, then having it kicked away. Tapping F to pull a knife out of your belly, then having a suddenly slow and loose aiming reticule to throw it. All of these things were really cool for conveying struggle. On the downside though, this felt anticlimactic because a game about shooting skill had a final boss that really didn't require any of that skill.

On the other hand, I don't like a lot of the gameplay for trying too hard to make me feel cool. The gameplay almost feels patronizing to me. When you breech a door and it goes into slow motion so you can shoot out everyone in the room, or when you run in with guns blazing into a giant battlefield shootout where you take more bullets than your enemies, but they fall and you don't... these sort of things might give some people the sense of being an uber war hero, but for me it just highlights that the game designers are holding my hand to boost my self esteem, but aren't actually challenging me. I find myself playing sloppy in this game a lot because it doesn't matter if I play sloppy. I die a lot, but very few deaths happen without hitting another checkpoint, so death doesn't really feel problematic. It's like I can see that the gameplay can be challenging, but I would have to force myself to play by rules such as if I don't pass a mission in 1 life, then I have to restart the mission. I don't care enough to do that, but the checkpoint system, regenerating health, and bullet sponge health all combine to make me a crappy soldier that just runs from point to point to further progress, or who fires from behind cover for 4 seconds, then regenerates health for 10 seconds. You could blame me for not forcing myself to play smarter, but the games rules both allow you to play sloppy, and even encourage it a bit.

As for this story, it was great to play this and Spec Ops: The Line back to back. So many similar things happen in both of those games, but where Call of Duty tries to make it all seem awesome and boost you up as a hero and defender of freedom, Spec Ops: The Line prefers to rub your nose in all the nastiness of war and it kind of hates you for playing a game about it, and it hates itself for being a game. I found it hard to take a lot of the heroics of Call of Duty seriously after just playing Spec Ops because there's an ugly side of all this warfare that CoD presents to you in a way that never really encourages you to think about it or examine your actions. Spec Ops on the other hand wants you to smell your own hypocracy and to see the futility of your actions. Call of Duty thinks you are making history and will one day end up with an installation in a museum for your heroic deeds.

[NihonRobot]

I can't wait, only a couple days to go.

I'm a little bummed I have to get it at Gamestop to get Bayonetta, but I'm going to suck it up and do it anyway.

[dunpeal2064]

1. Mega Man
2. Kirby's Adventure
3. Toejam & Earl

Toejam and Earl: This was actually a 2p random world clear with another retro gaming friend of mine who came over last night. I've played this game since I was a kid, and it is one of my favorite Sega Genesis games. I've played the game many times, but I have never gone all the way through a 2p game in random world, and had both players live to see the end, and I've attempted it at least a dozen times with different people. It was great revisiting this game, hearing those kick-ass beats, trying to gather cash to identify the dreaded "randomizer" and "total bummer" gifts so that we don't end up ruining our own run, having tornados drop you off cliffs or boogiemen scaring you into shark-infested waters... Good times.

[MrHealthy]

I didn't participate in last years thread and my number of games beaten suffered because of it. I beat around 60 in 2010 and another 60 in 2011, but only around 40 in 2012. This year I plan to buy less and play more so I am shooting for a lofty goal of 120 finished games. Crazy I know.

Anyways, I finished the first game of the year:

Hotline Miami (Steam)
This game is fantastic. Its got a great soundtrack, a very unique visual style and great gameplay. Its almost like a puzzle game, with you having to learn the best way through each level. Its just pure fun. My favourite track in the game:
This is also pretty great:

Up Next?
That would be Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning plus the 2 DLC add-ons. I have a rule this year that if I buy a game I play it right away, and I just bought this so starting her up. Might be a slow burn game that takes me all year. We will see. Otherwise, I started McPixel, which shouldn't take to terribly long to beat.

[NihonRobot]

I didn't participate in last years thread and my number of games beaten suffered because of it. I beat around 60 in 2010 and another 60 in 2011, but only around 40 in 2012. This year I plan to buy less and play more so I am shooting for a lofty goal of 120 finished games. Crazy I know.

Anyways, I finished the first game of the year:

Hotline Miami (Steam)
This game is fantastic. Its got a great soundtrack, a very unique visual style and great gameplay. Its almost like a puzzle game, with you having to learn the best way through each level. Its just pure fun. My favourite track in the game:
This is also pretty great:

Up Next?
That would be Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning plus the 2 DLC add-ons. I have a rule this year that if I buy a game I play it right away, and I just bought this so starting her up. Might be a slow burn game that takes me all year. We will see. Otherwise, I started McPixel, which shouldn't take to terribly long to beat.

That is a great game to kick of the year with. Hotline Miami was one of my favorites from last year. I can't really say the same about Amalur, but hopefully you're able to make it through. After playing Darksiders 2 I felt like it accomplished everything Amalur was trying to do and more.

[Gamerforlife]

1. Thomas Was Alone - PC
2. Sam & Max Save the World Episode 3 The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball - PC
3. Sam & Max Save the World Episode 104: Abe Lincoln Must Die!

Sam & Max Save the World Episode 105 Reality 2.0
Sam & Max Save the World Episode 106 Bright Side of the Moon

First Season complete

I had a bit of frustration with episode 105, due to a puzzle that I couldn't solve. I later discovered that this was due to a glitch in the game and that I had forgotten to apply the patch that came with the game when I downloaded it from GOG. So I had to play through the episode again from the beginning since the patch wipes out your save, but I didn't mind. This episode was fantastic! It was full of retro gaming humor and had some fun puzzles. Sadly, the season peaks here

Episode 106 sucked. It wasn't as funny as the hilarious two episodes preceding it. The story was ridiculous even by Sam & Max standards and the final "boss fight" was so fucking ridiculous. Not only that, but the puzzle for completing it is IMPOSSIBLE to figure out, which means you'll only pass that part through luck or trial and error. Basically it's once of those keep clicking on every goddamn thing until something happens puzzles. All the other puzzles in this episode made some kind of sense. Either the game gave you a clue or you just had to make creative use of what was in your inventory.

Damn it! Can I ever get through a single PC adventure game series that doesn't have some stupid puzzle in it somewhere that doesn't make sense? It's the bane of this genre. What a disappointment. Such a solid season, and it ended with a whimper. Episode 104 and 105 were tough acts to follow though. Those were the most inspired episodes of the whole season.

[alienjesus]

1. Thomas Was Alone - PC
2. Sam & Max Save the World Episode 3 The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball - PC
3. Sam & Max Save the World Episode 104: Abe Lincoln Must Die!

Sam & Max Save the World Episode 105 Reality 2.0
Sam & Max Save the World Episode 106 Bright Side of the Moon

First Season complete

I had a bit of frustration with episode 105, due to a puzzle that I couldn't solve. I later discovered that this was due to a glitch in the game and that I had forgotten to apply the patch that came with the game when I downloaded it from GOG. So I had to play through the episode again from the beginning since the patch wipes out your save, but I didn't mind. This episode was fantastic! It was full of retro gaming humor and had some fun puzzles. Sadly, the season peaks here

Episode 106 sucked. It wasn't as funny as the hilarious two episodes preceding it. The story was ridiculous even by Sam & Max standards and the final "boss fight" was so fucking ridiculous. Not only that, but the puzzle for completing it is IMPOSSIBLE to figure out, which means you'll only pass that part through luck or trial and error. Basically it's once of those keep clicking on every goddamn thing until something happens puzzles. All the other puzzles in this episode made some kind of sense. Either the game gave you a clue or you just had to make creative use of what was in your inventory.

Damn it! Can I ever get through a single PC adventure game series that doesn't have some stupid puzzle in it somewhere that doesn't make sense? It's the bane of this genre. What a disappointment. Such a solid season, and it ended with a whimper. Episode 104 and 105 were tough acts to follow though. Those were the most inspired episodes of the whole season.

I pretty much agree with your opinion, although I didn't find the final puzzle of 106 to be quite that bad. 104 and 105 were the definite highlights of the season. The totally random boss is pretty true to how Sam and Max is aswell, so it didn't bother me.

Season 2 is certainly weaker, but stick through it - it has it's good moments, particularly Night of the Raving Dead. The final puzzle of season 2 is the weakest in the entire series though imo.

The Devil's Playhouse makes up for Season 2 totally imo - it's awesome. Certainly my favourite season, even if the change to the controls is a little irritating.

[Luke]

1. Batman Genesis
2. Golden Axe Sega CD
3. Streets if Rage Sega CD (I'm keeping the typo)
4. Streets of Rage 2 *new*

I recently stated how easy sor2 is. I understated how easy this game is. It's not a terrible game, but it offers zero Chall-onnge.

Not as polished as sor3, but sor2 is also too polished. Make my dirty and gritty street fighters as dirty and gritty as possible.

[NihonRobot]

1. Liberation Maiden (3DS) - 1/6

I was wrong! This morning I got on a roll with Liberation Maiden and ended up just playing through the whole thing. It's pretty short, but it's also only 8 bucks and a whole hell of a lot of fun. Besides, who could pass up a Suda51/Level-5 co-created game?

[dsheinem]

Twisted Metal - PS1 *new*
Twisted Metal 2 - PS1 *new
Twisted Metal III - PS1 *new*

Total: 3

2012 Games Beaten
2011 Games Beaten
2010 Games Beaten


I received the new Twisted Metal (2012) game for Christmas, but before I fire it up for the first time I want to replay the original games so they are fresh in my mind. TM 1-3 and TM Black are games I played a TON of in college and grad school and I know the maps like the back of my hand, but it has been a considerable amount of time since I have actually played through any them. More than that, it had been a VERY long time since I played the single player campaigns since I more often than not played these with roommates.

I forgot how punishing the difficulty in TM2 can be, how wacky TM1's stories were, and how slow TM3 was comparatively. A decade ago i probably would have argued that each game got a bit better, despite the change to 989 for TM3...but replaying them all again I think I'd say TM2>TM3>TM1. I know that a lot of people hate TM3, but I really like what it added to the formula, the stages are fun, and though it is slow it looks great.

I am actually quite psyched for the next two on the agenda: Twisted Metal 4 (I can't recall ever playing this) and Twisted Metal: Small Brawl (which I have never touched). After that I'll get to Black, Head-On, and Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition before finally trying the newest entry.

Does anyone know if the servers for Black, Head On: ETE, or Head-On (PSP) are still online? I'd love to play a bit with some folks if we can get it up and running...