Games Beaten 2014

[Ack]

............I didn't know Evermore had a secret boss. Either I've found it during every playthrough and figured it was a normal boss, or I've never found it.

In Omnitopia, in the control room to turn on the lights in the storage room and greenhouse, there is a set of switches that you can throw. Put in the right combination, and it opens a room where you can fight two portraits in which faces appear. They appear, fire off Flash spells, and hide in the walls. You see one of them much earlier in the game, ordering the Horace clone to get the Diamond Eyes.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ha! Definitely never seen that boss then. Something to look out for when I replay the game next year.

[ninjainspandex]

Just beat God of War again in the HD collection, first beat it when it came out back in 2005 when I was in highschool and recently got the Saga Collection for $10 from black friday. God damn I don't remember it being so brutally hard, I had to change it to easy when I got to the final battle or else I was about to throw my controller through my TV. Now time to play through the only God of War game I haven't played, God of War 2. Came out during that period in my life between 2006 and 2009 when literally the only game I played was World of Warcraft. Hmm should I play it in the HD collection or should I go Au Naturale on the PS2? I would like to experience the PS2s swan song on an actual PS2.

[MrPopo]

I think Secret of Evermore would have been better received with a different title, and maybe replacing the ring menu with some other pause menu for casting alchemy.

[laurenhiya21]

1/6: Dear Esther (Steam)
1/11: Hydrophobia: Prophecy (Steam)
1/14: Spirit Camera: Cursed Memoir (3DS)
1/26: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
2/1: 1,000,000 (Steam)
3/14: Thomas Was Alone (Steam)
3/15: Fairy Bloom Freesia (Steam)
3/22: Suikoden (PS1)
3/25: Wizorb (Steam)
3/28: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (Steam)
3/29: Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
3/30: Chibi-Robo! (GC)
3/31: Luigi's Mansion (GC)
4/13: Deponia (GOG)
4/13: Shatter (Steam)
4/14: Rusty's Real Deal Baseball: Cage Match (3DS)
4/19: Super Mario Sunshine (GC)
4/23: Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia (PS2)
4/25: Freddi Fish 3: Case of the Stolen Conch Shell (PC)
4/26: Frogatto & Friends (Desura)
5/6: Persona 4 (PS2)
5/9: The Last Us (PS3)
5/24: Atelier Ayesha: Alchemist of Dusk (PS3)
5/28: Tobe's Vertical Adventure (Steam)
6/2: Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians (Steam)
6/11: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC)
6/23: Half-Life (Steam)
6/30: Analogue: A Hate Story (Steam)
7/1: Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior (Steam)
7/7: LoZ: Oracle of Ages (3DS VC)
7/7: Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii)
7/13: Ys I (Steam)
7/15: Ys II (Steam)
7/27: Super Mario 64 (Wii VC)
8/19: LoZ: Ocarina of Time (Wii VC)
8/24: Ico (PS2)
12/1: Scribblenauts Unlimited (Steam)
12/6: VVVVVV (GOG)
12/7: Karateka (Steam)
12/11: FEZ (Steam)
12/22: Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS)

This game has taken me so long to beat (been trying to beat it since March but kept on getting distracted until recently)... I have a bunch to say so I'll put it in a spoiler thing.

I'm going to break up what I want to say about Conception II into parts to make it easier for myself ><

Stuff I Liked
The Heroines (or at least, most of them)
Probably my favorite thing about this game! Talking with the different heroines is really refreshing, as most of them feel like they have some depth to them. I could simply say that Serina is a tsundere, but she's the only one I feel like I can do that with. Plus, most of them improve themselves somehow by the end of the game. Only two that don't (which are also my least favorite heroines) are Torri and Chole.

The Combat
I'm not going to go into detail about the combat (I don't understand some of it anyway ._.), but I kind of liked how you could move around the field and you have to be mindful of what kind of attacks the enemies do and where you put your party. There is a problem with it though which I'll explain w/ the stuff I don't like.

Meh stuff
The Story
You are basically the chosen one to eliminate the monsters and stuff. Go beat up those monsters yay. Then there is something about drugs being spread around the school, but it's incredibly obvious who's behind everything almost right as soon as you see them. I don't mind obvious vilians, but not when the main characters are trying to figure who it is when you know right away :l

The Soundtrack
While I kind of liked it at first, it got pretty annoying fairly quickly. There are multiple battle tracks at least which is nice I guess.

Stuff I Didn't Like
Grinding
I really dislike grinding in general (Suikoden is the only exception so far), but here it's pretty bad. You have to do a ton of grinding to be able to defeat anything, and the battles get to feel very long very quickly. Plus you potentially get less exp if you just one shot everything, so that's not really an option (or at least, I don't consider it one).

The Lack of Enemy Variety
You see a lot of the same enemies in many dungeons with a slightly different colour scheme and higher stats... This probably shouldn't be bothering me as much as it does, but when I have to grind so much, I would of really appreciated more enemy types.

The Surprise Difficulty Spike
I remember the 3rd last dungeon going well, but then the 2nd last one gets incredibly difficult all of the sudden. That, of course, led to a ton of frustration and even more grinding. What was kind of odd was that the final dungeon was actually easier than the 2nd last one... I really wish they had been switched to be honest :/

So, overall... I really liked the characters, but the grinding pretty much ruined the combat for me. This would of been a bad game imo, but the scenes with the heroines barely pull it up into just a meh game.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Assassin's Creed IV WiiU
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon PC
Splinter Cell: Blacklist WiiU
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut WiiU
Jazzpunk PC
Pikmin 3 WiiU
Call of Duty: Ghosts WiiU
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze WiiU
Tomb Raider (2013) PC
Danganronpa Vita
Far Cry 2 360
The Witcher 2 360
Catherine 360
Injustice: Gods Among Us 360
Gears of War 360
Forza Horizon 360
Portal PC
Portal 2 PC
The Wolf Among Us PC
Analogue: A Hate Story PC
XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC
BioShock PC
BioShock: Infinite PC
Persona 4 Golden Vita
Wolfenstein: The New Order PS4
DriveClub PS4
Sonic CD iOS

Sonic 2 iOS

Alright. I tried. I tried to like it and I don't. In fact I like it less than I remember. Sonic 2 is not the Sonic game for me. Not only is the difficulty inconsistent (way too forgiving until final boss), the level design is bland and the music loops far too much for my liking although many of the tracks are pretty good, and it generally is subpar compared to the rest of the Genesis games in my opinion. In its favor, the game does have a few very pretty locales (Hill Top and Mystic Cave) and it controls well enough. Yet another stellar port job though. The special stages have been given a nice 3D treatment although they seem far harder than they were before. Of course, the game supports saving, wide screen, and even has the incomplete Hidden Palace Zone completed and in the game. I really kind of wish I had kept Sonic 2 as a more fond memory but after being told by numerous people it was the best and I was wrong I had to give it another go. Unfortunately, I'm just going to have to disagree with the majority of people on this one.

[Xeogred]

It's always been my least favorite as well. Actually, probably better than Sonic 3, but yeah.

[Damm64]

1- Metroid Confrontation
2- Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
3- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PS3)
4- Bayonetta (PS3)
5- Doom 1 (Ps3) (BFG Edition)
6- The Last of Us (Ps3)
7- Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3)
8- Resident Evil: Revelations (Ps3)
9- King of Dragons (PSP)
10- Mercs (PSP)
11- Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3)
12- Dead Space (PS3)
13- Thief Gold (PC)
14- Crysis 3 (PS3)
15- Silent Hill Homecoming (Ps3)
16- Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion (3DS)
17- Pokemon Y (3DS)
18- Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)
19- Mario & Luigi: Bower's inside story (DS)
20- Siren: New Translation (PS3)
21- Super Princess Peach (Ds)
22- Warhammer 40.000: Space Marine (Ps3)
23- X-men Origins: Wolverine (PS3)
24- The Darkness (Ps3)
25- Bioshock (PS3)*
26- Metal Gear Rising Revengence (PS3)
27- New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)
28- The Darkness 2 (PS3)
29- Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
30- Shadows of the Danmed (PS3)
31- Alice Madness Returns (PS3)
32- FarCry 3 (PS3)
33- God of War Chains of Olympus(PS3)*
34- God of War Ghost of Sparta (PS3)*

35- Bioshock Infinite (PS3)
36- Portal (PS3)

Infinite

Basically everything that can be said about this game was said, either good or bad. So i'll keep it short i don't think its a awful lame game like other's have stated but i don't think is great either. As much the story is interesting is bad paced, there are many sections where they just throw you waves of regular grunts or make you fight the same enemy multiple times and that makes it feel like the developers were trying to reach certain amount of hours of gameplay to justify the 60$ price. Also elizabeth is not great, everything you could do in the other games is basically her function, you run out of health? Here take this medic kit i pull out of thin air and like i said in the random thoughs thread there's no reason to ever pick other guns that are not the carabine or the shotgun they are super powerfull and the new vigors all work in the same way an are less variety and less interesting the only one i really liked it and was NEW was the water one.

I will say it again i don't think this game is awful but i don't think is that great like everyone has said so far.

Portal

Well this one was a pleasent surprise actually. Played on the orange box for the PS3 this port has some issues but they, sound stopping, sound static and some framerate issues, but still the game is playable and worth it if you dont mind those things.

Now the game itself really feel like a experiment, as far as i know there's no first person platform with portal mechanics like this one. It's really short but i like it that way it dosen't overstay it's welcome and the chance of scenarios from the nice white controlled lab to the rusty side of the building is great and i really like the narrative not being untrusive at all since lot's of clues or tiny histories can be found written on walls while you play the game.

Now i need to get portal 2.

[TSTR]

1. Dead Pixels (PC)
2. Magical Drop V (PC)
3. Reaching Out (Android)
4. Nanolife (Android)
5. Darius Burst (PSP)
6. Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (PSP)
8. Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
9. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition (PS3)
10. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
11. Persona 4 (PS2)
12. Final Fantasy (PSP)
13. Gun-Nac (NES via Wii)
14. The Stanley Parable (PC)
15. Imscared (PC)
16. Escape Goat (PC)
17. Darkstalkers Resurrection (PS3)
18. The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (PC)
19. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1 via PC)
20. Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis via PSP)
21. Sigils of Elohim (PC)
22. Blades of Steel (NES via PSP)
23. Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
24. The Wolf Among Us (PC)

Me and the lady plowed through this in a couple days. Never played a Telltale game before, but I definitely want to play more after this (especially considering I already have The Walking Dead). Hell of a story, engaging characters, and oozing with neon-noir style. Gets you in the gut and the brain, it does.

Maybe I'll get another game finished before the year is out here so I can hit an even 25. That'd be nice.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Assassin's Creed IV WiiU
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon PC
Splinter Cell: Blacklist WiiU
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut WiiU
Jazzpunk PC
Pikmin 3 WiiU
Call of Duty: Ghosts WiiU
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze WiiU
Tomb Raider (2013) PC
Danganronpa Vita
Far Cry 2 360
The Witcher 2 360
Catherine 360
Injustice: Gods Among Us 360
Gears of War 360
Forza Horizon 360
Portal PC
Portal 2 PC
The Wolf Among Us PC
Analogue: A Hate Story PC
XCOM: Enemy Unknown PC
BioShock PC
BioShock: Infinite PC
Persona 4 Golden Vita
Wolfenstein: The New Order PS4
DriveClub PS4
Sonic CD iOS
Sonic 2 iOS

Jurassic Park: The Game PC

I'll be the first to admit I have grown fond of quick-time filled narrative based "games". No they aren't typical of what we expect in this form of media but I enjoy them anyways. Many point to Jurassic Park: The Game as one of the poorer examples of this sort of game and in many many ways they are completely in their right to point to it as that. However, I found it to be a highly enjoyable experience despite the flaws and I think fans of Heavy Rain and TellTale's other stuff will probably enjoy it. You definitely need to go into it with the mindset that you're on a roller coaster ride and you're expected to press buttons fast and not much else. You will probably get eaten a lot and you will probably get frustrated when the game slows the pace down for the few normal TellTale style puzzles in the game. In the end though, it's a fun ride through Jurassic Park, especially for the paltry 7 bucks I paid for it, even if the story drops the ball pretty badly in the final moments.

Now then. Despite the fact that I disagree with many and like this game and think it's good let us just go over some things that are definitely poor and definitely ruin the experience for a lot of people and are definite objective problems. The sound mixing is poor. Each episode was directed by a different person and as such all feel substantially different. The game freezed at least 5 times. The animation is bad even for a TellTale game. Sometimes the animations appear to run at like 15FPS even though the game is running at 60. Sometimes the audio disappears for no reason. Scene transitions are about as smooth as the N64 era poly count on many models. Did I mention the sound mixing? I can't hear this guy but the music is too loud to keep my headphones on. Why does this animation just stop halfway through? That raptors foot just clipped through the ground. That tree is made of cardboard. Why does this scene sound like it was recorded with my laptop mic in an uninsulated basement? Why can't I click on this clearly visible icon until I position the camera just right?

It's absolutely frustrating then, that the core story remains largely well done and that the scene plans are good. It's infuriating to see the love of Jurassic Park that is clearly in this game but not quite realized. There's a journal and it is just filled with accurate JP lore. References to Woo, the amphibian DNA, why the raptors are 3 times too large. There's so much love for the books and the movies here. The game feels unfinished and rushed and it's really a shame because the core story here is still a magical TellTale experience right up to the last hour or so. Still, if you can look past the frankly glaring technical issues and limited scope it really is a fun 6 hour romp.

Look at it this way, it's the closest you'll get to the same feeling of the original movie and it's probably way better than that new film featuring Godzilla, domesticated raptors, and Chris Pratt that's coming out next year.