Games Beaten 2015

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I know it's supposedly worse than the vanilla PS3 release but not terribly so. I think it's playable enough that if you were fine with the regular version you'll be fine with the DC.

[CFFJR]

Alright, my first games for the year:

1.Alien Isolation - Xbox One
2.Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES*
3.Popful Mail - Sega CD

Alien Isolation

This is seriously incredible. The station is a joy to explore, and surviving the alien is a harrowing experience to say the least. The game did an excellent job of making sure I never felt safe. The alien is bloody relentless in its pursuit.

A little over halfway through the game you get a nice break from the alien in favor of an interesting side plot that ties into everything, but that doesn't mean you're safe.

The visuals are beautiful(others have said it, but I seriously love the retro futuristic look and technology) and the sound design is nothing short of outstanding. Do not play this game on mute, if you're normally inclined to do such things. You'll miss out on so much.

I think its probably the best game of 2014.

Super Mario Bros. 3*

A replay obviously. I've probably beaten this game 300 times at this point in my life.

Anyway, a friend came over for some games and we settled on Mario 3. Had a blast, as always.

Popful Mail

May very well be my new favorite Sega CD game. It can be a bit frustrating sometimes, not because its particularly difficult, but because with the exception of the final armor set, you typically die in about 3 hits. Which would be fine on its own, but there are times when you can get caught on an advancing boss or group of enemies, and because the knockback is ridiculously short, you might find yourself taking a chain of hits and going from full health to dead in a matter of a second.

That's my only gripe though. The game is otherwise fun as all hell. The characters are charming (with one irritating exception, who can still be amusing sometimes), the levels and music get better and better as you progress, the bosses are generally entertaining to fight, and there's a nice balance between the humor and an increasingly dangerous threat. Overall its just an awesome experience.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Glad to see Popful Mail is done! Great game.

[CFFJR]

Yes indeed!

Kinda heartbreaking that they never made a sequel.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yes indeed!

Kinda heartbreaking that they never made a sequel.

Have you played Gurumin on PSP yet? It's another cute whimsical Falcom game with a female lead. Totally different from Popful Mail gameplay-wise though: it's a 3D dungeon crawler with a rotating camera and almost PS1/N64 style graphics. I had fun with it. From what I recall it was <10 hours too, which is always nice.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2015

1. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - 3DS
2. A Bird Story - PC
3. Quake - PC
4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - PS4
5. Quake: Scourge of Armagon - PC *new*
6. Quake: Dissolution of Eternity - PC *new*

Total: 6

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

Even though I am a longtime fan of the Quake series, I had never played any of the official expansion packs for any of the games. This week, I righted that wrong.

I think I preferred the first mission pack to the second, but both were very solid additions to the base game that brought a lot of new ideas and weapons, enemies, etc. to the table. You can tell that these weren't designed by iD as, for the most part, they emphasize exploration and switch hitting over twitch reflexes and item/ammo management. Neither is especially difficult, though each has a section or two that will challenge your Quake prowess. I'd heartily recommend them to anyone who likes Quake and hasn't checked them out - they are each a nicely conceived set of self-contained stories and intriguing levels.

[J T]

Alien Isolation

I am seriously excited to play this based on what you and others have said about it. It sounds more like survival horror than action, and more like the first movie than any other Alien game. I'm definitely playing this one with some good headphones on in the dark.

[laurenhiya21]

1/10: Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP (Steam)

Total: 1 game

Not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't too bad. Most of the puzzles weren't all that interesting and there is a lot of backtracking (especially if you want to do one of the puzzles without cheating or messing with your computer clock), but I really liked the graphics and music. Plus the narrative was pretty interesting, especially closer to the end. If it was much longer I probably wouldn't of liked it much, but since it only took me 3 hours, it was fine.

[BogusMeatFactory]

1/10: Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP (Steam)

Total: 1 game

Not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't too bad. Most of the puzzles weren't all that interesting and there is a lot of backtracking (especially if you want to do one of the puzzles without cheating or messing with your computer clock), but I really liked the graphics and music. Plus the narrative was pretty interesting, especially closer to the end. If it was much longer I probably wouldn't of liked it much, but since it only took me 3 hours, it was fine.

I loved Sword & Sorcery, but you are right, the game was the perfect length. If it were longer, it would have been incredibly dull or redundant. I very much enjoyed the atmosphere it created and felt it was a nice little art piece of a game.

[isiolia]

1.) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PC)
2.) Transistor (PC)
3.) Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death (PC)
4.) Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC)

Thoughts:

Grabbed The New Order from the Steam sale due to seeing it pop up on a number of "best of 2014" lists. I had fun with Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but never bothered with the 2009 one. Of course, we had the original shareware on the ol' 386 back in the day.

Played through once, didn't try the alternate timeline.

It was definitely good, but didn't seem to do a whole lot new or appreciably better than other games. Gameplay is largely solid, with a good feel, but felt inconsistent on occasion. I hated the slide move, since it seemed to require odd timing to nail, and the handful of times it was actually required meant death if you didn't get it the first or second try (and reloading takes an oddly long time).
Stealth, which I usually like to roll with, was only occasionally viable, and distance/angle to aggro seemed to vary. AI patterns didn't allow for much creativity either. Either enemies would home in like magic, or they were not allowed to appear/engage until you moved into an area.

Generally, it's just a very controlled experience, which is fine...I was just hoping for a little more freedom a la Deus Ex or Dishonored. The game teases it, but all the pieces aren't there.

Similarly, narrative was mixed. For as well as characters are established, they largely don't do anything particularly unexpected. A bunch of tragic backstories hanging out to point you at the next objective, or die to add drama. Unless they're Nazis, in which case they're just written as monsters. I felt like there were hints of building something greater into it - commentary on government control, or cultural/media imperialism, extremism/terrorism, etc...but wound up not really seeing it pan out.

The actual plot is fairly by the numbers for Wolfenstein. From what I've read, the ability to go back and choose the other timeline would make a replay more interesting than otherwise. It would have been nice to see more decisions like that come up.

All in all, very solid, entertaining game...just one that I felt hearkened back to early 2000s FPS games more than set a new standard.