Games Beaten 2015

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney (Android) 7/10
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) 8/10
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) 8/10
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) 9/10
5. Gears of War (360) 7/10

Gears Of War is one of the originators of the third person cover shooter genre, and it does so with gusto. Epic Games had already established themselves as masters of frenetic combat with their Unreal Tournament series, so adding cover shooting wasn't much of a stretch. But while Gears Of War has excellent shooter combat, it falters in many other aspects. The storyline feels inconsequential, the OST is generic Hollywood sludge, environments are bland and repetitive, and sometimes the game design is simply not fun (kryll sections and berserker battles instance). However the excellent graphics, fantastic co-op splitscreen, and the sheer bliss of chainsawing enemies in half will keep you going.

[Sarge]

Oh, awesome. Shadow of the Ninja is one of my favorite gems in the NES library. I have managed to beat it legit, and I suspect you could too if you try. It does require a good amount of precision and practice, though.

I completely understand why folks would cotton more to Ninja Gaiden, though, just from an accessibility standpoint. Everything is a lot more immediate, where Shadow has a sort of momentum to it, and not quite the rapid pace.

And Iku Mizutani freakin' rocks. Both this game and Shatterhand have stellar soundtracks. I'd also recommend Dragon Fighter for more Mizutani goodness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsxmthsHbiI

Oh, right, this is an obvious place to post my favorite remix from Shadow of the Ninja. ansgaros from the Dwelling of Duels competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aEo8S8w3o

[J T]

I have played Shatterhand and I like it, but I never beat it. That may need to be my next conquest.

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC

Slightly more than a reskin of the original, but the few interesting things they add are hurt by the problems.

The biggest thing they've added is the melee weapons. They're incredibly useful for the Lobstermen and they're great to use with the MC (renamed psychic powers) due to how low their TU cost is. They've expanded the terror missions to have a wider range (port, island resort, two map cargo ship) and they added the alien artifact site which are a terror mission variant (no civilians, but even worse to ignore or immediately dust off).

But this gets undercut by the terrible way they've cocked up the research tree. You basically have to research all the armors before you can even get the first sub upgrade. And then all the weapons have reduced ammo and they removed auto fire from all the sonic (plasma) weaponry. Fortunately, MC is as overpowered as ever.

Honestly, X-COM UFO Defense is overall better. I'd only recommend this if you want more.

[dsheinem]

Gears Of War

The series basically gets better and better as it goes (though Judgment isn't as good as the main trilogy). If you are on the fence with playing the next two, I think you'd probably like them a good deal.

[Exhuminator]

If you are on the fence with playing the next two, I think you'd probably like them a good deal.

Thanks for the information. I was on the fence to be honest, but if you say the series gets better as it continues, I'll take your word on it. The co-op in this series is pretty good.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep

How the eff is it possible to do this before the end of Jan? Dayamn.

[MrPopo]

I got lucky and captured an early Terrorist which got me midway up the MC branch so I was screening my soldiers from an early point. I also got an early Navigator so I had the 100% detection sonar a few months in. This meant by the time Tasoths started showing up I had a squad immune to mind control and I was able to capture one of them and invest heavily in MC to let the aliens take all the shots for me.

The other thing is that having that 100% detection on subs meant I could focus on shooting down as many as possible. This let me skip doing terror missions; I'd just land and take off immediately so I only take the small score hit from the dead civilians vs. the large score hit from ignoring it entirely. The number of subs shot down outweighed that, thus keeping me in the black. It helped that I had a couple of enemy bases within detection range of my main base, so I could prey upon those large supply ships. I didn't even need to assault many of the downed subs; I stuck to the small ones for Zrbite since I found the supply ships didn't give me Zrbite.

[Stark]

A Wolf Among Us (01/03/15)
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (All courses S ranked on 01/08/15)
Distance (beta 3315, 01/11/15)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge- Director's Cut (01/16/15)
Sega Bass Fishing (01/17/15)
Fairy Bloom Freesia (01/17/15)
BasketBelle (01/18/15)
Tiny & Big: in Grandpa's Leftovers (01/20/15)
Sideway: New York (01/22/15)
Doom 64 EX (01/23/15)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, 01/29/15)

RESPECT.

[Exhuminator]

MrPopo, what version of Terror From The Deep did you play?