Games Beaten 2015

[BogusMeatFactory]

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown represents one of my earliest exposures to PC gaming proper. Although I had my trusty NES console growing up (and much later an SNES that I saved up enough money to purchase myself), I never had my own computer until I entered college. So any exposure I had to PC gaming as a young person came in the form or stolen glimpses at friends' houses coupled with occasional chances at actual play time. As a result, many of these early adventure games like this one still have this mystical quality of 'otherness' for me, as if I'm still an outsider looking in at these incredible yet inaccessible worlds.

So it's with a very odd sense of nostalgia that I'm finally embarking into the King's Quest series, although I suppose it is somewhat interesting in a meta-textual sense that I've opted to play the AGD Interactive fan remake rather than the actual version of Kings Quest I remember seeing as a kid. Meta textual mumbo jumbo aside, I had almost forgotten about this fan effort, and I'm extremely glad I had the spark of memory because this is a beautiful and lovingly rendered tribute to the original.

As far as graphical adventure games go, this is of course one of the progenitors; so while it's clear that they were still figuring out (one might say defining) the way a graphical adventure should work, it's remarkably held up quite well. There are certainly some puzzles that are non sequiturs (the Rumpelstiltskin thing is a bit of a stretch even with the visual clues in place), but most of them can be sussed out with a bit of exploration of surroundings. In terms of gameplay, the interface is fine for what it is, although if gaming forum posts are to be believed, the notorious condor grab is actually a bit harder in the AGDI version of the game.

One rather amazing update in the AGD Interactive version of KQI is that there is full audio voice work for all narration and character dialog. This is one of those features that was really quite amazing at first, but I'm afraid the novelty wore off rather quickly. Despite the fact that AGDI enlisted the vocal talents of Josh Mandel who voiced King Graham in the official release of King's Quest V and VI, I'm afraid most of the voice work here chews up the scenery in glorious fashion … but oh that lush, beautiful scenery. No problem I think to myself, I'll just turn the VO off … and that's where I hit a roadblock. You can turn the VO audio down, but you can't turn it completely off. It's not game ruining, but at a certain point I definitely would have preferred to simply read everything, rather than listen to yet another line of flat lifeless delivery. Still … the graphical overhaul that AGD Interactive has created here is really something marvelous, and IMO it far outweighs any qualms I might have with the voice acting.

I look forward to journeying onward into the world of King's Quest, and I'll definitely be continuing on with the AGD Interactive releases of KQ II and III. I highly recommend these releases for adventure gamers, as well as for those like me who ate just starting the King's Quest series.

This is a very interesting write up. I am actually very interested on your thoughts as you progress through the series and absolutely endorse your decision to play the AGD Interactive versions of the first three. The second game in the series is a HUGE departure story-wise and adds elements that bring together the entire series together. I find it to be an above and beyond improvement over the original. It may share the same setting and overall puzzle arcs, but the execution is different and, like I said, the added story elements improve it greatly. I can not stress how good it is.

The third in the series is more faithful to the original and in all honesty, either can be played. King's Quest III is standalone awesome and well executed, even in its original form and offers a lot of fun and exciting puzzles that were never replicated in the rest of the series.

You will see, if you ever decide to tackle the Perils of Rosella, the more archaic style of story and puzzles that the original series have and will be a good place to make a distinction between AGD and Sierra.

If you end up enjoying the series, I highly recommend going through the Space Quest and Police Quest series for more of a typical Sierra experience, but if you want to really engage yourself in a great series that you will absolutely adore playing through entirely, go for the Quest for Glory series. It is a great adventure/action-RPG mix and carrying your character over into all 5 games is well worth the experience, which is one you could play again and again to experience all the puzzles and various unique story elements that each class provides.

Keep it up and can't wait to hear more of your thoughts!

[Exhuminator]

KQ4, KQ5, and KQ6 are the holy trinity of that series for me. Those games were magic when I was a kid.

[nullPointer]

This is a very interesting write up. I am actually very interested on your thoughts as you progress through the series and absolutely endorse your decision to play the AGD Interactive versions of the first three. The second game in the series is a HUGE departure story-wise and adds elements that bring together the entire series together. I find it to be an above and beyond improvement over the original. It may share the same setting and overall puzzle arcs, but the execution is different and, like I said, the added story elements improve it greatly. I can not stress how good it is.

The third in the series is more faithful to the original and in all honesty, either can be played. King's Quest III is standalone awesome and well executed, even in its original form and offers a lot of fun and exciting puzzles that were never replicated in the rest of the series.

You will see, if you ever decide to tackle the Perils of Rosella, the more archaic style of story and puzzles that the original series have and will be a good place to make a distinction between AGD and Sierra.

If you end up enjoying the series, I highly recommend going through the Space Quest and Police Quest series for more of a typical Sierra experience, but if you want to really engage yourself in a great series that you will absolutely adore playing through entirely, go for the Quest for Glory series. It is a great adventure/action-RPG mix and carrying your character over into all 5 games is well worth the experience, which is one you could play again and again to experience all the puzzles and various unique story elements that each class provides.

Keep it up and can't wait to hear more of your thoughts!

Thanks man! Yeah I've definitely been in the mood classic adventure gaming lately. In truth I had to talk myself into starting Quake for this months Together Retro. I'm glad that I did, because Quake has been awesome, but yeah I'm also looking forward to delving back into the kingdom of Daventry. As I mentioned in my write up, these games have always seemed a bit ungraspable to me, so it's a treat to finally start unraveling the mystery.

Thanks so much for your insight into the series. It's always great to have a bit of insight going in.

Quest for Glory and Space Quest are definitely in the backlog. Quest for Glory is in my GOG library, and I was hoping that the Space Quest titles would pop up in the GOG Insomnia sale, but alas to no avail. I'm super jacked to see how Quest for Glory plays out over 5 titles with the ability to import saves and whatnot. Should be a blast!

[BogusMeatFactory]

Thanks man! Yeah I've definitely been in the mood classic adventure gaming lately. In truth I had to talk myself into starting Quake for this months Together Retro. I'm glad that I did, because Quake has been awesome, but yeah I'm also looking forward to delving back into the kingdom of Daventry. As I mentioned in my write up, these games have always seemed a bit ungraspable to me, so it's a treat to finally start unraveling the mystery.

Thanks so much for your insight into the series. It's always great to have a bit of insight going in.

Quest for Glory and Space Quest are definitely in the backlog. Quest for Glory is in my GOG library, and I was hoping that the Space Quest titles would pop up in the GOG Insomnia sale, but alas to no avail. I'm super jacked to see how Quest for Glory plays out over 5 titles with the ability to import saves and whatnot. Should be a blast!

I can not stress enough how good the Quest for Glory series is. You will not be disappointed! Good luck man and if I miss a post on your thoughts on these series, just pm me and let me know!

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney (Android) (lawyer strategy) (good game)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) (survival horror cover shooter) (good game)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) (kart racer) (good game)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) (classic JRPG) (amazing game)
5. Gears of War (360) (dudebro cover shooter) (decent game)
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (Tomb Raider with a penis) (decent game)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS) (Id style dungeon crawler) (good game)
8. From The Abyss (DS) (simple action-RPG) (decent game)
9. Army of Two (360) (co-op cover shooter) (decent game)
10. Psychic World (Master System) (sadistic platformer) (subpar game)
11. Endless Ocean: Blue World (Wii) (adventure/simulation) (amazing game)
12. Journey to Silius (NES) (sadistic platformer) (decent game)
13. Sword Master (NES) (hack'n'slash platformer) (subpar game)
14. Project: Snowblind (PC) (thinking man's FPS) (good game)
15. Yakyuuken Part II - Gal's Dungeon (Famicom) (stripping maze puzzle) (decent game)
16. Bishoujo Sexy Derby (Famicom) (stripping horse racing) (terrible game)
17. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC) (amateur hour FPS) (subpar game)

In 2006 Ritual Entertainment attempted a reboot of their original SiN franchise using an episodic format. The studio also utilized Valve's Source engine and Steam digital DRM verification/delivery system in doing so. Ritual Entertainment was the first developer to produce an episodic game via internet delivery without a publisher in this way. The game they produced, SiN Episodes Emergence, deserves a place in history for this one reason. Its inception and delivery was forward thinking indeed. Unfortunately the actual game Ritual produced was anything but forward thinking in inherent design.

Sin Episodes Emergence draws obvious inspiration from Valve's Half-Life series, but the inspiration is delivered substandardly. Graphically Emergence looks quite clean, but its locales and enemy designs are utterly banal. Witness such level wonderlands as a warehouse, a sewer, and an office building. Be amazed at the textures of water coolers and rusty pipes. Ninety percent of the enemies you kill will be the same exact grunt mercenary hundreds of times. You will get a total of three weapons; a pistol, a shotgun, and a machine gun. And they are as boring to use as they sound. It will likely take all of 30 minutes playing Emergence before it begins to feel monotonous. Fortunately gunplay is quite tight in Emergence, and is really the only redeeming aspect. The fundamental FPS shooting is indeed solid enough to carry the rest of the mess. Unfortunately this game has a dynamic difficulty adjustment system that punishes you greatly if you actually play it well. The dynamic difficulty was a TERRIBLE idea and I believe added only to artificially lengthen this thankfully brief game.

Ritual Entertainment had high hopes for the SiN series being episodic without a middleman publisher. But it's little wonder that when MumboJumbo bought Ritual they canceled their SiN dreams. With a bad plot, monotonous level design, extremely repetitive gameplay, and practically zero innovation for its genre, SiN Episodes Emergence is quite sinful indeed. However Emergence did introduce many a gamer to the lovely models Cindy Synnett and Bianca Beauchamp, so that counts for something. Even if its method of introducing them was as shallow and base as this crummy shooter itself.

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC
6. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16
7. Unreal - PC
8. Shadowrun - SNES
9. Warcraft III - PC
10. Dungeon Keeper - PC
11. Final Fantasy X-2 HD - PS3
12. Descent - PC
13. Quake Mission Pack 2 - Dissolution of Eternity

I just finished Dissolution of Eternity. I feel like it's a solid addition to what was done in the first mission pack but it suffers a bit from some "fuck you" level design choices.

The pack includes a couple of new enemies, although they are all variations on enemies we've already seen. There's the multi-grenade Ogres which just have a different weapon, the Wraiths which are basically floating Vores that explode when they die, and the Guardians, which are basically Enforcers that fire a three shot spread.

However, there are a ton of boss enemies in this pack. While the original Quake just had the two bosses this pack has one boss at the end of the first episode and five bosses and a pack of minibosses in the second episode. But in terms of uniqueness in how you combat them there are three new bosses. One is a huge version of the Wraith, one is a huge version of the Guardian (the aforementioned two both spawn their smaller copies throughout the fights), and the final boss is a flying dragon who's unfortunately fairly easy to beat if you take your time. Since he has to keep flying in a circle and can't attack behind him you can take potshots when his back is turned and hide when he's active.

The real nice stuff comes in the level designs and the weapons. The first set of levels is nothing too special, but the second act consists of you jumping through time, so you experience a Greco-Roman level, an Egyptian level, an Aztec level, and a Medieval Castle which has a distinct feel from the standard Quake castle. The levels themselves have a nice feel to them, besides a tendency to use monster closets and spawning monsters right behind you/along a path you already cleared.

The new weapons consist of alternate ammo for existing weapons. There are the fire nails, which do 30% more damage and ignore armor (for multiplayer and traps that fire them), the multi grenades, which are a grenade that splits into several a fixed amount of time after launch, the multi rockets, which fires four half-power rockets, and the plasma, which fires a ball of energy that has approximately rocket-style splash damage on impact and also shoots out lightning bolts. It's sort of a poor-man's version of Q2's BFG10k.

This pack was tough, but it does ramp the difficulty up and feels fairer than my current experiences with Q2: Ground Zero.

[elricorico]

1. Fatal Fury (GEN)
2. DuckTales Remastered (WiiU)
3. Final Fantasy IV (PSP)
4. Journey (PS3)

5. The Legend of Zelda - A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

I am not a huge Zelda fan. The only Zelda I've finished before this is A Link to the Past. Its not that I don't like Zelda games, it just seems that they rarely manage to really grab my attention. This one managed.

This game took everything that made A Link to the Past a timeless classic and added the best of what was learned in game design the 20+ years since that game was made. Visually it was pleasant, the gameplay was solid and the pacing was perfect for my tastes.

Where this game really won me over was the puzzles. I was never truly frustrated by a difficult puzzle, and at the same time there was a real sense of satisfaction each time I progressed past something new. Everything was intuitive to some extent, but rarely was the solution to a new challenge truly obvious.

If I have a complaint, it is that most of the game was too easy. Aside from the first boss(where I was still getting a feel for things) and the final battle(which I thought got the difficulty about right) I never felt much in danger of dying.

I know on a lot of lists this is chosen as the best game for the 3DS, and while I prefer Fire Emblem(because I am a huge SRPG fan), I agree that this game would be a pleasure for nearly anyone.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2015

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - 3DS
A Bird Story - PC
Quake - PC
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - PS4
Quake: Scourge of Armagon - PC
Quake: Dissolution of Eternity - PC
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis - NDS
Painkiller - PC
Gungrave: Overdose - PS2
Adventure -Atari 2600 (PS2)
Auto Racing - Intellivision (PS2) [1979]
Boxing - Atari 2600 (PS2) [1980]
The Count - TI99/4A (emulated) [1981]
Dragonstomper - Atari 2600/Starpath Supercharger (emulated) [1982]
Enduro - Atari 2600 (PS2) [1983]
Diablo III - PS4
Front Line - Atari 2600 (emulated) [1984]
Gertie Goose - The Lost Eggs - C64 (emulated) [1985]
Ocean Commander - Wii
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance - PS2
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PS4
Mortal Kombat: Deception - PS2
The Order: 1886 - PS4
The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo - PC
Grab Them By The Eyes - PC
Growl - PS2/Arcade
Hydlide - NES [1986]
Ikari Warriors - NES [1987]
Jonah Barrington's Squash - C64 (emulated) [1988]
Steel Diver - 3DS
Super Mario 3D World - - Wii U
Quake II - PC *new*

Total: 32

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

Like with Quake earlier this year, I don't think I'd played Quake II through since the 1990s. That was a mistake: the game holds up remarkably well and is a blast to play. There's a beauty to the level design here that just does not exist in the modern single-player FPS scene. It is probably id's magnum opus, and it is truly a shame that they don't make them like this anymore.

Don't get me wrong: I love a lot of modern FPS games that have tremendous single player campaigns (Bioshock, Killzone series, etc.)...but the emphasis on story, continuous worlds, and more natural building architecture really minimizes the kind of "nook and cranny" exploration that makes id's games so great. I also enjoyed the hell out of the dark humor across the various processing plants and torture chambers...

Quake II is, on the whole, perhaps more uneven than Quake. That said, its best levels are better than Quake's and its gameplay trumps the former in every context except for boss fights. I still give it the slight edge over Quake 1, but both are worth playing for anyone who somehow never has or who, like me, hasn't for a very long time.

[GSZX1337]

1) Cannon Spike - Dreamcast

2) I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - PC


I saw a Let's Play of this game years ago and thought it looked great. Naturally, when I saw that it was available on Steam, I snatched it up like... some snatchy thing. Not so naturally, I haven't actually installed or played it until earlier this year. Part of it is my perpetual procrastination sure, but the game's "clique" was another factor. My actual gameplay experience with classic Point & Click Adventures is limited to only Beneath a Steel Sky, but I've seen some gameplay footage and heard from around the 'net that these games aren't newb friendly. I had to consult a guide for Beneath a Steel Sky more than a few times, so I very much expected to get stuck and frustrated a lot. Thankfully, that wasn't the case as I've only had to consult a guide in a few choice spots.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the game itself. Holy shit, talk about a bloated interface. Walk, Look, Talk, Use, Give, Push, Take, and ...Swallow? I can only think of a couple of times the Swallow command was useful, and both of them produced negative consequences. The interface could've used some more streamlining. The graphics are typical 2D DOS sprites and backgrounds. They didn't wow me, but they did look nice and tickle my nostalgia bone. The music was rather nice, and I was happy to see that my Steam copy came with the soundtrack as it went well with the short story.

The gameplay is what made me really love this game. Unlike most other P&Cs, the game is set up in a series of five vignettes with each having several options for completion. Thankfully, they are also short, so having to restart isn't such a big deal. I still kept a large amount of saves, though. The spirit barometer not only dictates which ending you get it, it lends the game replay value. This setup makes the game feel unique and leads to less frustration. I found the game's puzzles logical and quite light on pixel-hunting and other nonsense.

All in all, I think I made a good first choice to kick off my year of RTS, RPG, and Point & Click Adventure games.

[Hobie-wan]

Holy shit, talk about a bloated interface. Walk, Look, Talk, Use, Give, Push, Take, and ...Swallow?

Haha, don't go back and play Maniac Mansion then.