Games Beaten 2014

[BoneSnapDeez]

I need to get the proper SNES original someday. I only have the Game Boy port.

[J T]

I just finished Gone Home. Wow. I loved this game so much (although it's one of those not really a game, more of an interactive art story kind of things). This was such a personal game, and not just in how the creators told their story in a personal way, but I feel like it hit on so many personal aspects of my own life, which makes me unsure if others will appreciate this game in the same way, but for me personally, I am so glad that a game like this even exists. It takes place in 1995 and you are a girl who has come home from a year long trip to Europe to find her family's new house is empty, so you are rummaging through everything you can find to piece together where they have disappeared to and whether or not they are gone for nefarious reasons. There are so many relics from the mid 90s throughout the house like music magazines with bands from the time, x-files vhs dubs, references to Street Fighter II, and a soundtrack by early riot grrrl bands Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile. Strangely enough, for a little white boy from Utah, I was obsessed with riot grrrl bands back then, going so far as to even write fan mail to Heavens to Betsy (before Corin went on to front Sleater-Kinney) and I still have the handmade postcard they sent back to me, which was the coolest thing ever back then. But its because I had experiences like that this game feels like it was directly targeted for me, even though I am very rarely a target audience for anything, especially anything that wants to make money. I really enjoyed my time with Gone Home and I'm really glad someone made this kind of game. It only lasted a few hours, but I'm sure I'll be thinking of this game for years to come.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2014
Primal Rage - 32X
Golden Axe - Genesis
To the Moon: Holiday Special - PC
Need for Speed: Rivals - PS4
Halo: Spartan Assault - Xbox One
Kolibri - 32X
Motocross Championship - 32X
Shank 2 - PS3
Colassatron: Massive World Threat - iOS
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - PS3
Snafu - Intellivision - Intellivision
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - Wii
Street Fighter vs. Tekken - Vita
Wolf Fang - PS1/Vita
Mirror's Edge - iOS
Infamous: Festival of Blood - PS3
The Last of Us: Left Behind - PS3
Flappy Bird - iOS
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - PS4
Titanfall - Xbox One
Infamous: Second Son - PS4
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
Killzone: Mercenaries - Vita
Shock Troopers - Arcade (PS2)
Borderlands - PC/PS3
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) - Vita
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - PS3
Muramasa Rebirth - Vita
Spyro The Dragon - PS1/Vita
Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - PC
Gears of War: Judgment - 360 *new*

Total: 31

Games Beaten: 2013 2012 2011 2010

Picked this up on the cheap last month in the Gamestop B2G1 sale and glad I did - another enjoyable romp through the Gears world, this time with a slightly more arcade-y feel to it. I played through both campaigns. A worthy addition to the franchise, even if it doesn't tell an overly-compelling story or add anything that's especially new.

I am a little surprised that this is the first 360 game I've beaten this year

[REPO Man]

Just beat Sonic 1 Megamix (version 4.0b, the first after the hack's move to Sega CD) as Sonic, but missed the last emerald.

[Sload Soap]

Homefront(360)

Or "Red Dawn with Koreans" as it should be called. Homefront is essentially a Call of Duty game with the spectacle mostly removed. Barring perhaps two segments, a massive brawl on the Golden Gate bridge and a stealthy trek through redneck country, it's a decidedly average stop and pop style FPS.

Gameplay wise, eh, it's OK. I found the heavier LMG's almost useless from any kind of distance though conversely the sniper rifles are very accurate with very little scope sway. The game also has this weird issue where the world-building interferes with the gameplay as there are entirely too many types of basic rifle knocking about with too many types of ammo. This lead to me constantly changing weapons and couldn't find any gun I specifically liked. It also lead to situations where I had to bum-rush the enemy and hope for the best as I had no ammo for either of the two weapons the player can hold.

There is a tasteless section that draws parallels with the infamous White Phosphorus attack in Spec Ops: The Line. However, whereas Spec Ops used it to unflinchingly show the tragic consequences of modern warfare on innocent bystanders whilst also asking questions about player interactions with violent video-games and foreign intervention in the middle-east, Homefront tactlessly uses it as a set-piece to get the player from one side of a parking lot to the other. In fact, you get an achievement if you let all the soldiers hit by the attack burn to death instead of, as one friendly NPC puts it, "putting them out of their misery".

My main gripe though is with the plot. The attack on the Golden Gate is a good level and feels like it is building to something and yet it doesn't. It is the last level even though it feels like the end of the second act. It's so abrupt I had to go back and beat it again to make sure that it wasn't a glitch. I've read that the game is supposed to reflect one persons experience through the war, but a stupid gung-ho story about North Korean invading America is not the place to also insert some Terence Malick style elliptical ending. This game was just getting good and it stops. I might have had better things to say if it had three more stages the quality of the Golden Gate assault and a proper ending. As it is, it remains a average shooter with a sleazy and sub-par storyline.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GC)

Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader will always have a place in my heart as being the games I'd show off to my non-Nintendo owning friends to see what they were missing. So I finally got a reasonably priced copy of Rebel Strike and I can safely say I won't be showing it off to anyone.

It's not a terrible game by any means and the presentation is up to Rogue Leader's standards. It's just that everything else done here is done so much better in previous entries. I guess this is because with Rogue Leader, Factor 5 took all the most memorable and spectacular parts of the original trilogy, used them as the framework for the levels and made a visually stunning and challenging game. Then, when it came time to make Rebel Strike they found they'd painted themselves into a corner. Unfortunately, to get out of this corner their answer was to dedicate at least a half of the game to crappy on foot levels with piss poor shooting and jumping mechanics.

The shift in perspective also ruins the spectacle of the previous game. No more attacks on the core as Lando Calrissian, now you get to play as that guy who crashed his A-Wing into the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer! The feeling of actually being in the movies just isn't there to the same degree.

It's a shame because while the ship-to-ship combat remains as fun as it was previously was, there just isn't enough of it compared to the on-foot and swoop bike parts. At least you get a Co-Op version of Rogue Leader and the three Atari Star Wars arcade games as bonuses. It's weird, but the game is actually easier to recommend for its extras than the main game itself. It's a 6/10 game and probably only for die-hard Star Wars or Rogue Squadron fans.

[ninjainspandex]

Its a shame you can't enjoy homefronts multiplayer anymore, it was seriously one of the most enjoyable online experiences. Much more so than COD.

[emwearz]

Its a shame you can't enjoy homefronts multiplayer anymore, it was seriously one of the most enjoyable online experiences. Much more so than COD.

I played it a little, it was way too call of duty for my liking.

[Xeogred]

1. Dead Space 3* + Awakened (PS3)
2. Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD (WiiU)
3. Super Metroid* (WiiU)
4. Binary Domain (PS3)
5. New Super Mario Bros U (WiiU)
6. Silent Hill 4 The Room (PS2)
7. Deus Ex: HR* Director's Cut (WiiU)
8. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
9. Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze (WiiU)
10. Resident Evil 6 (PS3)
11. Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (WiiU)
12. Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
13. Dark Souls (PS3)
14. Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut (PS3)

* = replay

... You just gotta play it.

Terribly amazing and straight up one of the best main characters I've ever seen in a game.

[DocHauser]

1. Battle Bakraid (Normal Course 1CC)
2. LaserReimu (Mild 1CC)
3. Stealth Bastard Deluxe (plus The Teleporter Chambers)
4. Trilby: The Art of Stealth
5. Rogue Legacy
6. 2048
7. Vanguard Princess (Story Mode 1CC)
8. Diehard Dungeon
9. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
10. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
11. Dolphin Red: 2nd Age (Doujin shmup 1CC)
12. Wrath (Doujin shmup 1CC)
13. Corpse party
14. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
15. Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday
16. Motor Raid (Arcade 1CC)

Corpse Party - wouldn't rank it among my favourite horror games. It's effective in places, but you eventually become desensitized to reading graphic descriptions of schoolgirls being butchered. Plus, whatever atmosphere is generated by the horror aspects is fatally undermined by moments like this.

MGS: Peace Walker - easily one of my favourite PSP games, and it's a huge improvement over Portable Ops. I've beat the main story and a bunch of post-endgame missions (plus unlocked the Monster Hunter bosses). There is actually so much stuff to do after the main campaign that it's actually starting to drag on a bit, so I reckon I'll leave it for now and revisit it another time. Kojima is still a bit dodgy when it comes to the female characters, but I guess that isn't going to change anytime soon... The only real negative gameplay-wise would be the QTEs during some of the cutscenes, particularly any that require button-mashing. It's not good game-design, stop it!

Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday - 3rd-person action game, complete with cover-based shooting, turret sections and bits where you control helicopters. You can see why fans of the previous games in the series weren't entirely happy with this (I've played PE2, never got round to playing the original).

The game itself is alright. It has a reputation for being tough, but it's not that bad, really. The difficulty arises more from fiddly game mechanics rather than genuine challenge (though there are several higher levels of difficulty, which I don't think I'll be bothering with). It's a Square game, so there are some stupendous-looking cut-scenes, though the story itself is almost incomprehensible. Here's a digest I found on the interweb by a user on Neogaf. Brace yourself, it's nuts:

The game stars Aya Brea, a superwoman who enjoys extended youth despite being a 30+ year old cop and has superpowers thanks to her magical mitochondria. Unfortunately, mitochondria does not come up once in this game, so you just kind of have to infer it/played prior games in the series.

So now you have Aya Brea fighting tentacle monsters that can warp through space and time called "The Twisted." They seem to pour out of a gigantic organic tower that spontaneously erupted in NYC called "Babel." Naturally, some government team recruits Aya Brea and forms the "Counter Twisted Investigation" (consisting of Aya, a jiving black dude named Cray, a woman named Gabrielle, her guide named Hyde, and a computer hacker named Blank) to fight them, led by some FBI dickhead that doesn't trust Aya due to her powers. However, instead of fighting them conventionally, the government somehow builds the "Overdive" System, a computer program that sends Aya's consciousness back in time in order to possess random members of the National Guard in order to fight the Twisted that way. Whenever Aya possesses someone, it only appears to be Aya for gameplay purposes; to everyone else, it's just the same military dude. This "send Aya back in time" plan never works.

After a spectacular failure of her first mission, she returns to the present time and learns that her dickhead FBI boss disappeared, somehow. Her guide, Hyde, is still alive and tells Aya to go back in the past again to fight more Twisted. During this mission, it is revealed through a flashback that Gabrielle actually died a few months ago. Aya does so, fails again, and comes back to the present to find out that Cray was killed offscreen three days prior, and Aya needs to go back in time to save Cray. Also, dickhead FBI Boss is alive again and threatens to kill Aya because her powers are dangerous. Hyde talks him down and convinces Aya to go back in time to save Cray. Oh yeah, Gabrielle is alive again. Aya does not sweat the details, nor does the game really explain or hint why she's alive.

Aya goes back in time three days to help out a random SWAT team and to save Cray somehow. Gabrielle is still alive and decides to be Aya's guide. Aya gets as far as destroying the Babel, but it turns out that there are multiple Babels that house a big shitload of Twisted tentacle monsters. In the present, dickhead FBI boss uses sleeping gas to knock out the team because... he wanted to send Aya to her death for... reasons. Also, Gabrielle turns into a Twisted and Aya is forced to kill her. In present day, Gabrielle wakes up, and is about to kill FBI boss, but she suddenly vanishes because Aya killed her three days prior when she turned into a Twisted. Man, what can Aya possibly do when considering that FBI boss is about to get his way and remove his most feared obstacle to [insert goal here], Aya Brea!?

... Aya travels back to the present and Cray (who is alive again despite how Aya did nothing to really save him) informs Aya that FBI Boss suddenly disappeared and Aya can do whatever the fuck she wants. That's all the explanation you get; he's just gone from the story after this point. The datalog implies that he was literally kidnapped by Russians. At this point, Hyde tells Aya to go overdive into a National Guard team that attacked Babel last and Cray has a hissy fit because of the idea of using Aya for warfare (?!). She attacks the Babel and there is a very bizarre subplot of past-Cray killing the National Guard team, impersonating the Captain, and threatening to kill Aya so he can be with his daughter again or some shit. Past-Cray tells Aya to look for her sister Eve, who Aya doesn't really remember. Past-Cray merges with the Babel and dies, and Present Cray disappears.

And then, suddenly a timeskip occurs. Aya is now rooming with a Parasite Eve 1 character, Maeda! Too bad he is a complete and total creeper and borderline predator. Oh yeah, Aya's team was wiped out off-screen when Aya got done with that Past-Cray/Present-Cray nonsense by Kyle, the Parasite Eve 2 equivalent of Carlos from Resident Evil 3. Kyle now has superpowers for some reason. Aya goes off and hijacks a random National Guard member (Maeda has an Overdive system of his own set up in his apartment living room somehow), fights Kyle (who turns into a super-twisted called a "High One"), and all Babels across NYC merged into one massive structure called the Grand Babel.

In the Grand Babel, it is revealed that the true villain all along was Hyde! He manipulated Aya to fight and kill the Twisted just so that the Babels would eventually merge or something, which would create the Grand Babel (which is actually an Overdive System itself, somehow), just so he could go back to a place called "Time Zero." Hyde is also a "High One" Twisted too. Aya beats Hyde, and follows him back into Time Zero, who Hyde boasts as the "birthplace of the Twisted."

It turns out that Time Zero is actually point where Aya was going to marry Kyle. But that was cut short when a random SWAT Team busts in and kills both Aya and Kyle. But remember Eve? Yeah, Eve (the same Eve from Parasite Eve 2, who was actually a child clone of Aya who was designed to control humans who mutated into grotesque forms due to out of control, artificial mitochondria) was also in attendance. Due to the shock of seeing Aya die, Eve spontaneously got the power to Overdive; she Overdived into Aya, which in turn shattered Aya's soul. The fragments of Aya's shattered soul created the Twisted tentacle monsters which could travel time and space (and killed humans indiscriminately). Also, Hyde, Cray, and Gabrielle just happened to be at this wedding despite how Aya did not really know any of them yet. Because they were there, the shattered fragments of Aya's soul turned them into High One Twisted! So you were not playing as Aya all along, but her underage adopted clone sister in a 30 year old's body. Eve/Aya fights and beats Hyde, and Eve/Aya gets the chance to travel back to the start of Time Zero!

So the SWAT comes in, shoots up Aya, but before the SWAT can kill Eve, Aya gets up and headshots every single SWAT guy in the room. Aya gets up just fine despite being riddled with bullets (and there is no explanation for this). Instead of simply just taking Aya to a hospital, Aya says that she needs to be killed by Eve anyway. To this day, like the SWAT Team appearing out of nowhere with no explanation (some people speculate that Hyde overdived into himself in the past in order to arrange the sequence of events that would turn himself into a High One), people still do not know why Aya even needs to die at this point when considering that Aya is still alive, thus there's no danger of Eve forcibly overdiving into Aya's body. Eve and Aya switch bodies and Eve (in Aya's body) shoots Aya (in Eve's body). Thus, the twisted are never formed and an underaged Eve (in Aya's body) marries Kyle in Aya's place. Huh.

Motor Raid - After a bit of discussion about Zero Gunner over on the shmups board, I ended up going back to a few other games on the Nebula Model 2 emulator. This one's pretty cool; a Wipeout/F-Zero-esque racer which is pretty short (a single credit consists of 3 stages and takes under 5 minutes to beat) but quite addictive. I've beaten it with a C-Rank and an A-Rank, still got that S-Rank to aim for. The only awkward bit about the emulation is that turbo requires a double-tap of the accelerator, and it doesn't work if you have it mapped to a button, you need to assign it to an analogue stick. It's not perfect, but the game is still beatable.

http://youtu.be/D_U08ujoSC8

[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 (Platinum Trophy)
12. Shadow of the Colossus- PS2
13. Guacamelee!- PS Vita (Platinum Trophy)
14. God Hand- PS2
15. Outlast- PS4
16. Octodad: Dadliest Catch- PS4

Octodad- Probably the oddest game I've ever played, but I enjoyed it. The controls could be frustrating at times, but that was the challenge of the game. Sometimes oddball games like this are a nice change of pace and I enjoyed this game for that.