Games Beaten 2013

[dunpeal2064]

And now I have no excuse and have to start playing Castlevania again

Seriously. I can't believe you were even able to stop playing it. Were you at Death?

Yeah, I was stuck on death. Mostly getting to him with enough health to even make a good attempt. I just finally managed to take him down, but the last stage is no joke. I'm going to keep at it.

[pierrot]

That medusa head corridor is one of the most infuriating things I've ever encountered in a video game. I can't beat Death without holy waters, and getting to him with them in hand is harder than beating dracula, I think.

[dunpeal2064]

Yes, that corridor was driving me mad, its easily the most frustrating section thus far. For some reason I could not beat Death with Holy Water. When I did finally take him down, it was with the shuriken.

Hopefully today I can finally see Dracula.

[FerretGamer]

Cruis'n - Wii

Total: 12

Holy Moley another Wii game!

Cruis'n is not a good racing game by most measures - the graphics are poor, the controls are janky, the AI is questionable, and everything about it feels rushed. That said, the Cruis'n series has long been one of my favorite "stupid arcade racing" series and this game absolutely does it's N64-ported predecessors proud. Ridiculous glitches, no concept of physics, tracks designed to maximize ludicrous jumps, and caricatured versions of famous locales make this one fun to blow through in a few hours, and considering it can be found for under $10, I think a lot of folks here would like it once they switch the control scheme to the d-pad and learn to approach it like the N64 titles.

Kudos to sevin0seven for reminding me to play this one by championing it from time to time. Next up: I should really finish Sonic Colors while I have my Wii setup...

I think you just convinced me to pick this one up too. It wasn't on my list for the Wii but I read a little more about it and apparently it's a port of the Fast and the Furious from the arcades except without the license. Interesting.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2013
Twisted Metal - PS1
Twisted Metal 2 - PS1
Twisted Metal III - PS1
Twisted Metal 4 - PS1
Screaming Mad George's Paranoiascape - PS1
N.O.V.A. - PSP
Jetpack Joyride - Vita
Devil May Cry (2013) - 360
BlazBlu: Continuum Shift Extend - Vita
Fighting Masters - Genesis
Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii
Cruis'n - Wii
Foosball 2012 - Vita *new*
Electronic Table Soccer! - Odyssey2 *new*

Total: 14

Games Beaten: 2012 2011 2010

Foosball 2012 became free for PSN+ members this week, and I turned it on with the idea of trying it out for a few minutes before doing something else. I was surprised to find myself as engrossed as I was for the next few hours, playing the "World Tour" mode through to completion and enjoying every trick shot I could pull off and every beatdown I put on the CPU. Even at its hardesd difficulties, the game was easy - I never lost a match and never won by less than 4 or 5 goals. I really want to see what it is like online - but the servers were empty . That said, this is still certainly the most comprehensive foosball game I have played...but of course the only other one I've encountered is the Odyssey 2's Electronic Table Soccer!

When I first encountered/played Electronic Table Soccer back in early 2010 this is what I wrote when I put it on this list for that year:

I am going to list this because even though "beating the game" only involves besting the PC in a best of 10 match, it took me quite a while to actually do this. A thoroughly challenging game with intuitive controls that mimic the craziness of foosball in real life. Makes me wish there were other, more recent foosball video games.

The video game gods clearly heard my plea That said, after I finished Foosball 2012 I decided to go back and compare it to the 33 year old "classic." You know what? As much as I enjoyed Foosball 2012, I had more fun trying to beat the computer in the hour or so I played ETS! than I had with several hours of playing the new foosball game. The AI is clever, the matches are close if you play well, and the game provokes many loud shouts at the TV throughout. It really is, to my mind, one of if not THE best pre-8bit sports-related video game (a topic that I intend to start a thread about sometime soon...).

In any case, have I exhausted the full swath of foosball related video games in one afternoon, or are there some others I should check out?

[Opa Opa]

1- Gravity Rush - Vita
2- Erst Kerf - PC
3- Resident Evil 6 - PS3
4- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - Vita
5- Battlefield 3 - PS3
6- The Legend of Zelda - 3DS Virtual Console

All right. I FINALLY beat The Legend of Zelda after all these years. I'm not a huge NES guy so playing the 3DS Virtual Console release was fine with me; although, the original 3DS D-pad is probably one of the worst ever created so that was an annoyance...

Anyway. The game was fun. I have to admit that I used a map at the last two dungeons. I was getting tired of bumbling around and just wanted to know the quickest route through the levels.

You know, this game is actually really unimpressive graphically. Was this one of the earlier NES titles? Also, the music, while memorable, definitely could have used some variety. There are like two or three songs in the entire game and another one at the end credits. A few more tracks would've made the game seem a little less monotonous.

Now that I've beaten it I really don't foresee myself going for the second quest. I've had my fill.

[AppleQueso]

That medusa head corridor is one of the most infuriating things I've ever encountered in a video game. I can't beat Death without holy waters, and getting to him with them in hand is harder than beating dracula, I think.

I can get through that corridor pretty easily with the holy waters, assuming I make it there okay.

I use the holy water on Death too. I always feel like a cheapass doing that but oh well.

[dunpeal2064]

1. Mega Man (NES)
2. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
3. Toejam & Earl (GEN)
4. Mortal Kombat (SCD)
5. Rockband (Hard) (360)
6. Mega Man 2 (NES)
7. Metal Storm (NES)
8. Little Samson (NES)
9. Castlevania (NES)

Castlevania: What a great game. I'm ashamed I'd never played this much up until recently. I always thought the controls were too still and the difficulty too high, but I was just being a pussy. Once you get used to the feel of the game, its actually quite a fair challenge. Its damn tough, but victory never feels out of reach... well, almost never. Very glad I decided to come back and try this, and I'll definitely come back to it and see if I can clear the 2nd loop some time in the future.

That medusa head corridor is one of the most infuriating things I've ever encountered in a video game. I can't beat Death without holy waters, and getting to him with them in hand is harder than beating dracula, I think.

I can get through that corridor pretty easily with the holy waters, assuming I make it there okay.

I use the holy water on Death too. I always feel like a cheapass doing that but oh well.

I found the corridor more manageable with Holy Waters (It was still pretty damn frustrating), but I could never get them to work on Death. I'd try to trap him in a corner but would just get hit by a scythe. I ended up using a ton of shurikens, since it would cross the screen twice and clear a lot of the flack, allowing me to dodge and hit him a bit more accurately.



... and now to find another NES game to give a go at. I suppose I could return to Ninja Gaiden...

[BogusMeatFactory]

Games beaten so far this year are as follows.

Shadow of the Colossus - I had played this game on PS2 when it first came out, but had never beaten it, only getting to the 4th Colossus. After completing it now on the PS3 through their HD re-release of it and ICO I am thoroughly primed to play through ICO now (seeing as SoC is a prequel to ICO). I love the atmosphere, the visuals and the soundtrack (and lack thereof at parts) to really heighten the game playing experience. Very few games draw me into a world and this did it with unrelenting force. Loved it.

Bioshock 1 - Another game that I had played a bit before, but only now took the time to complete 100% thanks to an awesome sale on Amazon bundling it, Bioshock and Spec Ops the Line for $10 with steam codes. I couldn't pass that up. After finishing the game, I can safely say I enjoyed it. I have the hardest time playing through horror games for some reason as they really freak me out, whereas movies, literature, haunted houses do absolutely nothing for me. It just seems that horror games fulfill that scare with the interactivity. Story-wise, I enjoyed it immensely. I am a huge fan of Dystopian fiction and the world it created was very very interesting.

Spec Ops: The Line - Just finished this game today and have to say that it was quite the ride. The gameplay is very standard 3rd person shooter, but the visuals, atmosphere and story was very enthralling, although I do feel that the ending was very cliche and somewhat crossed that line into trying too hard to make something, "art." Nevertheless the characters had character, the decisions you made in the game were fast paced and relentless, giving you a very small time to make a choice and really relied on your gut instinct to do what you may think is right, even though every decision was a deep shade of grey. Really worth the deal, even more-so with it bundled with the other games. It was a good step in the right direction in taking an overused modern war setting and injecting it with a strange morality that honestly gave you the chills and brought up very interesting questions rarely seen in videogames.

for those that don't want to read.

Games Beaten

Shadow of the Colossus - (PS3) - YAY!

Bioshock - (PC) - YAY!

Spec Ops: The Line - (PC) - YAY!

[AppleQueso]

1. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD

I guess between all the time I spend on here and working full time I don't have a ton of time to play games, but at least I did something this month.

I definitely enjoyed it. It's nice playing a direct sequel to MGS3 with the cold war setting and whatnot, and continuing the story of Big Boss is probably the best way to keep the franchise going without having to do a reboot, etc. Story gets a little crazy and long winded at times, but hey, it's Metal Gear, you kinda gotta expect that going in.

Didn't care for the weird flash animation looking stuff for the cutscenes, even if it is the always cool Shinkawa/Ashley Wood art.

Some of the control changes were kinda odd (why can't I crawl anymore?) but the game was clearly designed around them so it works well enough I think. Never did get a chance to try out the multiplayer aspect, maybe I'll talk one of my friends into trying some of the extra missions that way later.

Has me really looking forward to MGS Ground Zeroes/MGS5/whatever soon as it's apparently going to be a continuation of this one.