Games Beaten 2015

[MrPopo]

Did you ever use the rocket launcher?

Is that question for me? Rocket launcher?

Yup, it's a question for you. Equip bombs in one hand and arrows in the other, then hit A+B.

[Sarge]

Did you ever use the rocket launcher?

Is that question for me? Rocket launcher?

Yup, it's a question for you. Equip bombs in one hand and arrows in the other, then hit A+B.

Oh, yeah, right! I didn't use that this run, but I have in the past. It's a cool trick for sure!

Seriously, though, the Boomerang is insanely powerful. It doesn't work on everything, but it works on enough to make a lot of the game a cakewalk. Not that it doesn't get that way anyway... or that just may be all that prior experience speaking. Especially against the last boss run, I still absolutely decimated that battle.

EDIT: Wow, that is some incredibly stilted dialogue in that RS3 patch. I think I might hold off for a better version or something. There's apparently a completed Spanish translation, and maybe someone will use that for a better version. Or clean up that other one.

EDIT 2: Drats, forgot that the very best ending in LA was tied to not dying. Oh well. As already mentioned, I've done it before, and that's what YouTube is for. I think the original form of that ending was better, I didn't think it was necessary to make it so explicit that (not sure why I should spoiler this, but I will)

the seagull it shows at the end is Marin.

[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)
2. Infamous First Light(PS4)
3. Drakengard 3(PS3) *Endings 1-4. Ending 5 I watched online due to BS boss.
4. Infamous Second Son(PS4)
5. Thomas Was Alone(PS4)
6. Uncharted Drake's Fortune(PS3) *
7. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves(PS3) *
8. Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception(PS3) *
9. Deadpool(PS3)
10. Red Dead Redemption(360)
11. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare(360)
12. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct(360)
13. Fuse(360)
14. The Bureau Xcom Declassified(360)
15. Asura's Wrath(360)
16. Beneath a Steel Sky(PC)
17. Soul Gambler(PC)
19. Harvester(PC)
20. Coma: Mortuary(PC)
21. Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure(PC)
22. Freedom Planet(PC)
23. Tropico 3 Steam Special Edition(PC)

Tropico 3

Gameplay:
If you are into Sim City you might like this game. It's a nice twist on the land management style of game. The game mainly focuses around three things creating a strong economy, keeping the population happy, keeping the cold war super powers happy, and if you feel like it feeding your "Cookie Jar"(Swiss Bank Account). There are multiple modes to play but I stuck exclusively to Campaign which had around 15-20 island scenarios with a variety of goals. As far as challenge goes I found the majority of these islands to be rather easy after getting the hang of things learning to utilize the Almanac stats is extremely important and makes life much easier once you figure out what to watch for. The real fun comes when you start playing with the edicts which can be real game changers whether you need to swing an election in your favor or just keep your islanders from stabbing you in the back. There are around 30 edicts all of which are fun to toy with you can rule with a iron fist developing a secret police force to silence any who oppose you or be as liberal as they come giving out free housing, the right to gay marriage, and etc. Altogether it is a nice play ground of features to play with and I had a lot of fun toying with the system.

Graphics/Atmosphere:
Graphically this game doesn't look to bad the islands look great and the buildings have a nice amount of detail. The islands themselves are also very nicely laid out and look great. The music and radio hosts also add a lot of life to the island although after a while things do start to get repetitive the main theme song is burned into my memory now . Another nice touch is the citizens actually have some Spanish voice overs when selected even though they are very limited.

Story:
I really enjoyed how each island in the campaign had it's own little running story it usually wasn't much, but it added character to the goals. It was also funny whenever the game threw a curve ball at you in the form of ongoing events on the island whether it be a Presidente Clone Factory, USSR Listening Device in your behind, or a For Profit Prophet . Also really enjoyed the loyalist and rebel radio hosts narrating certain events even though it did get repetitive after a while. It's also nice that every citizen has a chat panel which shows you their thoughts / conversations which while mostly relegated to their needs are occasionally interesting.

Overall it was a really fun sim style game which was very relaxing to play through. I'm really surprised to see that I sunk 63 hours into this campaign and I still have the Absolute Power expansion to play through although I might just skip it and try out 4.

Definitely well worth the $2.99 I paid for it .

http://www.bundlestars.com/all-bundles/reboot-bundle-4/

[Ack]

Not gonna add it again to my list, but I just beat Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II again on a dark side run. It's kind of funny to me how the game changes depending on your powers. For the light side, since it was my first time playing, I took things slowly and used my Force Heal a lot. The game took longer, and the second to last boss fight was pretty difficult, but I could break away to heal and protect myself, so the final boss, Jerec, went down with relatively fuss.

For my dark side run, I flew through the final levels with ease but couldn't heal, so it was more a slapdash effort to murder everyone I met and keep going while only grabbing the items I needed. Force Throw made the second to last boss fight ridiculously easy. I spammed it, and the hopping Twi'lek went down in less than a minute. But Jerec? Oh no, he beat the snot out of me. There is apparently nothing to throw in the final boss fight, and my Destruction ability had such a long cooldown that it only got a little use. I ran out of healing supplies and had to rely on explosives from afar and pray he didn't get lucky with his Force Lightning and stay so close he didn't use his Destruction ability. Also, I noticed during this fight that Jerec can block while meditating. I don't recall him doing that at all during my light side run.

In the end, I won, and now a new Sith Lord sits on the throne of the Empire. Me. Made it, Ma. Top of the world.

[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 - PC
14. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2 - Ground Zero - PC
15. Sokobond - PC
16. Hybrid Heaven - N64
17. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
18. Castlevania - NES
19. Super Castlevania IV - SNES
20. Castlevania III - NES

This has been a real journey, and I'm so glad the game has a password system instead of requiring me to beat it in one sitting. I did the Sypha path and I'm glad I did, not just because of the stages but because she's so effective against several of the later bosses including Dracula.

This game ended up being Castlevania: The Lost Levels. Interestingly I found it got easier when I started adopting some of the speed running techniques to power through sections rather than trying to take it slow and getting murdered for it.

Unlike the other two CV games I beat this one is very unforgiving when you lose to Dracula. If you have lives left you start at the beginning of the previous section and have to fight through a few enemies and some jumps. If you game over you restart the stage. The previous two games I played let you infinitely continue from Drac's stairs. Fortunately, I think this Dracula incarnation is easier than the other two (at least if you have Sypha), as you can kill his first form before he does anything, his second form you need to turn in your Castlevania cart if you even take damage against it, and his third form is more an exercise in patience than skillful gameplay.

I think I'm going to take a break from Castlevania games for now.

[Sarge]

Castlevania III gets a lot tougher if you go for solo runs, particularly with Alucard. Also, you can't actually beat one of the forms (the second?) with him in the US version.

Good job finishing it! I've never actually done a Sypha run, as weird as that sounds. I probably should.

[MrPopo]

I'd guess it's Drac's second form Alucard can't beat, since I'm guessing his shots can't hit the central face.

My understanding is that Sypha's route is the easier route, and her spells are awesome. Flame hits extremely hard and has a wider hitbox than you might think (watch a speedrun and you can see that she can take down Dracula first form before he gets a chance to do damage to you), her Ice lets you one-shot every enemy in the game and for the more advanced opens up skips, and Lightning is really nice for keeping enemies off of you, plus it also hits very hard.

[Sarge]

Yeah, you're definitely making me want to make a run at it. I've always heard about it, but I guess Sypha just really is that powerful. For the record, it was solo Alucard and Trevor runs that I made. I usually use Grant in normal plays. So next time I boot it up, I'm definitely going Sypha!

[MrPopo]

At some point I'm going to want to do a run through Alucard's path, though I think I'm going to use Grant as my partner. I messed around a bit with the "start with a partner" passwords and Alucard just handles too weird for my tastes.

[Sarge]

Alucard is weird to use. He handles pretty stiffly, but the bat transformation is awesome. His attack power is legit terrible, though. If you're doing a solo run, the Doppleganger fight is the worst. Your enemy is the timer in that fight, honestly.