Games Beaten 2014

[Opa Opa]

*checks ebay completed listings*

Dang, glad I got the GameCube title for 35 at gamestop.

[Hazerd]

I thought if the world changed colors, that means you have all 96 exits?

When it turns to fall?

No, that just means you've completed the Special World.

I do this really early in the game - as soon as possible (once you get to World 2). I never see the "regular" versions of certain enemies because of this.

Whoa... i never thought of that, i need to do this now...

[BoneSnapDeez]

You're "supposed to" have all the switch palaces completed before the Star World can be completed, but this isn't totally necessary. You just need to pull off a little cape/Yoshi trickery to finish Star World early to get into Special World.

[graffix_13]

1. Tearaway- PS Vita (Platinum Trophy)
2. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
3. Resogun- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
4. Super Stardust Delta- PS Vita
5. Galaga Legions DX- PS3
6. Under Defeat HD- PS3 (Platinum Trophy)
7. Ketsui Extra- PS3
8. Tomb Raider: DE- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
9. DoDonPachi- PS1 (Japanese PSN)
10. Strider- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
11. Demon's Souls- PS3

Demon's Souls- Before I started playing this, I had Batman Arkham Asylum as my 2009 GOTY. Now, it's Demon's Souls. I can't believe I waited so long to play this! I usually avoid RPG's....and not because I don't like playing them. They are just huge timesinks, and with so many games to play I often neglect other games to concentrate on a RPG.

Demon's Souls is notorious for being difficult. And while yes, I did find it hard in places (5-2, PBWT...ugh) it wasn't an 'unfair/cheap' kind of difficult. If you died, it was due so some mistake (or not knowing what was coming up) and you just learned from it. Go SLOW and take your time. This isn't Call of Duty.

While the gameplay and character building was really fun, I think my favorite aspect of the game is the just overall tone and atmosphere. It really helped with the immersion....which it super important for me as a gamer. The setting is dark and dreadful. The story isn't super deep, but there is just enough there for me to enjoy it.

I started NG+, and after beating Phalanx again it didn't take long for the game to remind me it's no joke. I love it.

[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)
9.) Trapt (PS2)
10.) Hunted: The Demon's Forge (360)
11.) Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
12.) Venetica (PC)
13.) Metal Gear (MSX)
14.) Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX)
15.) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition (PS3)
16.) Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)
17.) Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition (PS3)
18.) Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Gamecube)
19.) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD Edition (PS3)
20.) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
21.) Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3)
22.) Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (360)
23.) Halo 2 (XBox)
24.) Halo 3 (360)
25.) Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS3)
26.) Halo Reach (360)
27.) Halo 4 (360)
28.) Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PC)
29.) South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3)

Thoughts

Reaper of Souls

I’ll list this one despite that it’s not really the kind of game that’s “beaten”, and in turn one I’ll likely go back to occasionally.
In any case, Diablo III was the first of the series I’d actually completed a playthrough of. I attribute that more to me than to the quality of the other games – a decade of MMOs had acclimated me to not having save games and such. So while what I was supposed to do is play through the game ~2 more times to cap out levels, then grind out Paragon points and loot…just having beaten Normal once was a step up for me. I am not very good at Diablo.

Sometime between the monk I played at launch and Reaper of Souls, I started on a demon hunter. Played one session or so, left her in the single digit levels, partway through Act I. That was the character I picked back up with, the weekend before launch, because there was a 100% XP bonus going on.
A large part of what I played would really be patch 2.0 or whatever it is. Big changes, removes the auction house, retools loot, I think boosts XP to a degree anyway, changes up the way difficulty is handled, etc. I thought it was a better experience than what I remember. Faster XP is nice either way, and getting almost entirely loot I could potentially use was great.
What I’ve seen online from people who play a lot more Diablo than me seems to be mostly positive as well.

With regard to story and areas, Reaper of Souls doesn’t add a ton. One act, tacked on to the existing four. I wound up getting my copy of the expansion in time to continue my demon hunter playthrough seamlessly through Act V. It’s fairly long, and more varied than prior acts. Boss fights are well done to boot. Just as that (and the Crusader class) it might be a bit light for the MSRP, but there are other elements that I’ve (mostly) yet to mess with too much as they’re designed for higher level XP/farming.

As a game to run through once, like I did back at release, it’s okay. Can be fun, production is high quality, but the narrative isn’t particularly compelling (lore can be, but actual story is pretty meh) and gameplay is repetitive. RoS doesn’t change that. What it, and the patch, do succeed at is making the prospect of coming back to the game to keep XPing and looting a lot more compelling than before.


South Park: The Stick of Truth

I was initially worried about bugs from this when, during one of the tutorials, an event failed to trigger. Multiple times. While turn-based, the combat relies heavily on timed button presses. In general, when your weapon sparkles, hit a button. If someone is attacking you, hit a button to defend. If you defend perfectly, you’ll get a chance to counter-attack.
During the tutorial section for counter-attacking, things just didn’t move forward. My character was sitting there, his opponent bent over, open to counter-attack..but, nothing. Idle animations continued, but buttons didn’t do anything, save for Start, so I could reload the auto-save. After a couple tries, the event to tell me about counter-attacks triggered.

Thankfully, that was the only game-breaking bug I encountered. There were a few icons that were partly or entirely blacked out, I think the music cut off a few times, but nothing that kept me from playing.

Generally speaking though, the game does have performance issues, possibly mitigated on PC. It loads when changing areas, and you change areas quite often. The menu is kind of laggy. Rushing from screen to screen can see frame rate drop.

In all though, the obvious technical issues are overshadowed by the degree of success Obsidian had in making the game look like the show. They captured it perfectly.
Game mechanics are fairly basic, but that’s understandable. It’s also quite easy – can’t say I never got a game over, but I didn’t even try using weapon/armor enhancements until the last couple boss battles. To their credit, it’s a better system than was necessary to build the real meat of the game on top of.

Ostensibly, the point of this game is to indulge in South Park – the actual plot and writing is very well done, and practically indistinguishable from something the show would actually do (though it goes beyond what they could get away with on TV). On top of that, it’s just oozing with references to the show’s past. Then, often more subtle, is parody of video games.

Really enjoyed it as basically an interactive, cohesive season of South Park. Pretty much I’d say if someone likes South Park, and video games, this should be on their list. It’s short, it’s easy, and the technical problems are minor in the grand scheme.

[Gamerforlife]

Not sure why people keep comparing Stick of Truth to a season of the show. It's a short game, there's enough content there for a South Park movie, and that's about it.

[Gamerforlife]

and here's proof:

[isiolia]

Most South Park seasons are 14 episodes, 10 for 2013 and going forward. Episodes are ~21 minutes outside of intro/credits and commercials. So a little shy of 5 hours per, or down to around 3.5 for last year's or upcoming.

The Youtube link you gave shows a little shy of 3 hours, from a game with a 10-15 hour playtime, that has jokes and references all over the place. "Facebook" posts, item descriptions, background animations, all that. In terms of sheer amount of material, I think it's a fair comparison.

[Gamerforlife]

Most South Park seasons are 14 episodes, 10 for 2013 and going forward. Episodes are ~21 minutes outside of intro/credits and commercials. So a little shy of 5 hours per, or down to around 3.5 for last year's or upcoming.

The Youtube link you gave shows a little shy of 3 hours, from a game with a 10-15 hour playtime, that has jokes and references all over the place. "Facebook" posts, item descriptions, background animations, all that. In terms of sheer amount of material, I think it's a fair comparison.

I guess when you put it that way it makes sense

South Park's kind of done everything now hasn't it? TV show, movie, successful video game, can we call it a franchise at this point?

[Violent By Design]

Not sure why people keep comparing Stick of Truth to a season of the show. It's a short game, there's enough content there for a South Park movie, and that's about it.

Without credits it's only a few episodes shorter than a season in terms of time spent.