Games Beaten 2014

[noiseredux]

Ticked: first game beaten of the year was a NGPC game and Ack has nothing to say...

[Wispmage]

Two hours of bliss.

That's nice and all, but this thread is about the games you beat, not your sex life after beating those games.

Or while beating them.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. King of Fighters R-2 (NGPC)

Have been under the weather this weekend. So thought I'd grab a portable game that didn't require much thinking to just plow thru in front of the TV. KOF R2 fit the bill perfectly. Was fun, fast and man... even Pocket Rugal is a dick. Unreal.

I have this game. Is it tough to play with the two-button controls?

[Ack]

Ticked: first game beaten of the year was a NGPC game and Ack has nothing to say...

I own it but haven't played it much yet. Match of the Millennium is really hard to put down. And a good chunk of the cast of FFR2 is present in MotM too.

[noiseredux]

I have this game. Is it tough to play with the two-button controls?

it's like all the Pocket fighting games - you've got a Punch and Kick button. Tapping will be a light attack and holding down will be a hard attack.

[alienjesus]

I didn't like KoF R2 for NGPC much. I played it when everyone else was playing KoF '98 for Together Retro. I though it felt a little slow and clunky for my tastes.

Thats not to say it's bad - it's very good, but it felt a little too much like your conventional Street Fighter style 2d fighter for me. I much prefer Gals Fighter crazy speed and fluid fighting.

[CFFJR]

Two hours of bliss.

That's nice and all, but this thread is about the games you beat, not your sex life after beating those games.

Or while beating them.

That would be quite a trick.

And sorry Ack, I'll try to restrain myself in future posts.

[TSTR]

Oooh, I was waiting for the new year to jump in on this thread! Looking to work on the ol' backlog for 2014. Started off with these two:

1. Dead Pixels (PC) - Run n' Gun w/ RPG Elements
2. Magical Drop V (PC) - Puzzle

Thoughts:

Went into Dead Pixels thinking it was going to be a shallow time waster, but there's actually a good deal of depth to it with three different modes of play, co-op, all the achievements, and just the sheer joy of using the RPG-like store/item system to figure out different ways to kill the living dead. Yeah, it's pixel art, but the character designs are pretty varied, which is good to see. The game is permeated with zombie pop culture references, so that's a neat touch (if you're not burned out on that kind of thing).

Magical Drop is, well, Magical Drop. Come on. Cute + challenging + endless replayability = win. Ran through the story mode with a few different characters on different difficulties. BTW, is it just me, or do the Steam achievements not work properly on this?

[noiseredux]

2. Magical Drop V (PC) - Puzzle[/b]

great, great game. Feel free to ping me on Steam next time you see me on if you feel like playing.

Was it just me, or was the jump to final boss in story mode just insane?

[isiolia]

1.) Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)
2.) Remember Me (PC)
3.) Mirror's Edge (PC)
4.) Jumping Flash! (PS1)
5.) Run Saber (SNES)
6.) Heavenly Sword (PS3)
7.) X-Blades (360)
8.) Blades of Time (360)

Thoughts:

Heavenly Sword
Interestingly, Heavenly Sword was originally intended to be a multi-platform title.. It wound up being one of the earlier PS3 exclusives, despite releasing nearly a year after the console launched.

One of the big draws for the game is supposed to be the level of Hollywood-ness to it. Andy Serkis is credited a bit, Weta digital did work on it, and so on. There’s definitely some solid production, but the tone isn’t consistent, and some of the voice work is so over the top it seems like parody. At the time I’m sure it stood out more.

As a game, there was more variety than I expected. It had the hack and slash combat from the demo, which uses a fairly decent system. My main complaint is that dodging is on the right stick rather than on a button, since it means constant swapping between the two. I also found the single item for health and collectible to be odd, since it seemed to throw off the balance for that in a few cases.

Additionally, there were ample segments involving shooting/throwing, utilizing “aftertouch” - keep holding the button to use (shitty) controls in an attempt to actually hit what you were aiming for. By default, this supports motion control, which I turned off without even trying it - Sixaxis controls sucked in every other PS3 game I’ve tried them in, so I didn’t see the point.
While there were times it was kinda fun, a better aiming system to start with would pretty much negate any need for having the aftertouch controls. I’d half suspect that they were put in purely to highlight the PS3 controller.

The game also incorporates quicktime events, because of course it does. I’m not a fan of QTEs in general (is anyone?), but the ones in Heavenly Sword were infuriating. Very narrow window of time, and it uses some directionals, which it’s fussy about. The saving grace is that there’s no penalty for early input, so if you know the sequence already, you can be jamming the button or holding the direction in advance.

All in all, it’s a fairly short game, with a decent amount of variety, and fairly high production values. So, despite minor annoyances, it was enjoyable. Had I bought a PS3 to play it in 2007...I would likely not be as satisfied.


X-Blades
Originally released for the PC in Russia as Oniblade, X-Blades got ported and exported a couple years later. It features Ayumi, a treasure hunter who possesses about as much common sense as she does clothing. Cutscenes feature cel shading to make things look like anime (eh), with the actual gameplay seemingly using the same models with different shading. Voice acting is terrible, subtitles are oddly small, and the menu looks like they copied the buttons from Blazblue.

It’s fairly weak, but, also fairly sparse. So, still the potential for a gameplay-heavy title.

Initially, it seemed to hold some promise. The feel of the game is less like most hack and slash games, and more along the lines of an arena shooter. It’s fast, and usually runs very smooth...though it seems to lack any kind of frame limiter, so it seems to run a little too fast if there’s not much on screen.
The environments also can look decent, if lacking in subtlety. Lots of contrasty environments featuring sunsets and the like.

Each level is fairly small, and the majority of them consist of a bar at the bottom right representing the health of a boss or enemy type that needs to get reduced to nothing, then everything else cleared, to finish the level. For non-bosses, it may wind up being several bars representing waves of mobs. In either case, until the bar is depleted, there are usually other mob types that continue to respawn.
So, those sections of games where you’re being harassed by endless waves of enemies while you try to whittle down your real objective? That’s...most of this game.

Great combat could still save it. X-Blades does not have great combat. There’s melee, there’s shooting, and there’s magic. Magic uses the rage meter, which builds ridiculously fast via melee, and more slowly from other means.
Targeting isn’t done well, and dodging can only be done when locked on, making actual evasion in combat very difficult. When viable (and it’s often viable) the most effective strategy seemed to be alternating a few melee strikes with an AoE magic attack, which generally stun in some way. Except that there are usually air based mobs too, which likely won’t be hit, and will do a damaging attack if too many are allowed to spawn at one time. Still, I spent a lot of time watching Ayumi slo-mo leap into the air and crash down.

There are only a few enemy types, with most bosses simply being scaled up versions of normal mobs. Halfway through the game, the levels themselves start getting reused. Save for, perhaps, a few of the boss fights that do encourage/require some semblance of a strategy (and still wind up taking too long due to limited attack windows), the most of the game alternates between cheap and tedious.
About the only reason it’s playable is that the souls you collect, in addition to buying magic and upgrades, can also buy HP items at any time. Almost necessary due to drawn out battles and HP items not respawning like other items do.

The best I can really say about X-Blades is that it stops short of being broken to the point of unplayable. It functions (well, other than the couple times it crashed), if only because you can use tactics nearly as cheap as what the game throws at you. There’s little reason to play it, outside of a desire to appreciate better done games.

Incidentally...

Blades of Time
While, I’m sure, there was also an increase in budget and staff over X-Blades, this spiritual successor/reimagining of that game is a significant improvement. It still features Ayumi, with melee, and shooting, and magic, hunting treasure. Said magic bears similarity to what was in the first game. The plot bears some surface resemblance as well, but incorporates more.

Past that, Gaijin Entertainment must have taken very nearly every criticism leveled at X-Blades to heart.
Combat is good. Not transcendent, but good - though it’s probably lacking in the complexity and resultant potential for mastery that’d appeal to more ardent fans of the genre. There’s a dash button. There’s an over-the-shoulder view (and zoom) for shooting. HP recovery is balanced fairly well, with HP charges generated to hold in reserve.
Additionally, as per the title, Ayumi can reverse time, and previous actions are echoed, something that can usually be used in combat (and occasionally, needs to be).

Progression is more logical, if linear. It's structured, and moves (with a consistent framerate) much more like other games of its type. The game follows Ayumi through a number of diverse environments, each hosting enemies that are logical, if not unique for the region. In addition, there are unique elements to some of the areas, and in general very little is reused all that much.

The story is serviceable, but again not a heavy focus.That said, it’s probably the main thing that’d hold this back from “hidden gem” status. That, and largely failing to achieve much in terms of atmosphere. That's about all something like Alice: Madness Returns has over it.
In the end, it’s a fairly good looking (if a bit too contrasty and saturated) game that’s at least competent, it not a little above average. I liked it though. Could do far worse from the bargain bin.