Games Beaten 2015

[Sarge]

I saw some footage from MKX on a Clueless Gamer segment with Conan O'Brien. I came away absolutely sure it would not be a game I'd want to play. I'm sure it plays just fine, but man, that's just waaaaaay too gruesome for me.

[Ack]

I saw some footage from MKX on a Clueless Gamer segment with Conan O'Brien. I came away absolutely sure it would not be a game I'd want to play. I'm sure it plays just fine, but man, that's just waaaaaay too gruesome for me.

I'm sorry, I just watched this, and I'm laughing my ass off. This is what he's talking about, folks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNpkSyryQz4

[isiolia]

I saw that segment back when it was current-ish. To me, the end result isn't entertaining, it's disturbing.

[bmoc]

I find the violence aspect of the recent Mortal Kombat games to be rather comical because it is so over-the-top. There was a time in my youth that I found such depictions "cool" and "awesome", most likely because they were taboo. Now I just find the type of violence in MK humorous because it is so absurd.

Everyone has their limits when it comes to depictions of gore and violence. And that is all well and good. I can certainly sympathize. I for one am confident that I will never watch The Human Centipede. Just reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia gave me nightmares. (I wouldn't Google it if I were you.) I'm not sure how they have made so many of those films but people have probably said the same thing about the Mortal Kombat games.

On a side note, I forgot to mention that the female characters look less like strippers in MK X. MK9 was pretty bad in that regard. I am happy to see vast improvements on that front.

[MrPopo]

I for one am confident that I will never watch The Human Centipede. Just reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia gave me nightmares. (I wouldn't Google it if I were you.) I'm not sure how they have made so many of those films but people have probably said the same thing about the Mortal Kombat games.

The real nightmare is when you realize that even though no surgery happened the actors still had to do a movie with their mouths right next to someone else's butthole for extended periods. You know that farts were swallowed at some point.

[noiseredux]

The first movie is silly and hilarious.

The second is disgusting.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Those movies are terrible. I hate tryhard "extreme horror." Wait, this is the Games Beaten thread?

[MrPopo]

When you think about it, Centipede is like The Human Centipede; ever notice how all the segments have mouths of their own?

[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)
24. Far Cry 4(PS3)

Far Cry 4

Game play:
If you have played Far Cry 3 this is pretty much the same just with a few bells and whistles added. Basically the game can be broken down into hunting, capping bases/towers, scavenging collectibles, and running missions.Shooting mechanics are pretty solid and there are a nice variety of customizable weapons. The vehicles are about the same I think the only major addition was the Gyrocopter which completely breaks capturing towers since you can just fly around the map landing on the top floor and caping them.

Hunting animals is once again a huge part of the game and is necessary if you want to carry multiple weapons. You will also be collecting plants to create ridicoulusly game changing drugs which can allow you to see/track all enemies in an area, absorb more damage, double weapon damage, and etc.

The fortress/camp capturing missions are insanely easy with the right weapons and become a cake walk late game basically if you don't like stealth. Basically by end game you can just walk in with a grenade launcher or if your into stealth just get a high powered rifle with a silencer and pop everyone off at a distance since they will kill everything but the heavy enemies with a single shot to anywhere in the body.

This time around the "bosses" luckily aren't trippy QTE sequences but most of the time you don't really fight them you just have to infiltrate their facilities and kill them. Out of the four plus main bosses there is only 1 sequence in which you actually fight them head on. The rest were pretty much executions once you got up to them.

As for the new mechanics the only one I cared for was the grappling hook it made platforming a little more interesting but it wasn't very well utilized you are basically restricted to using it in only select areas and you can't use weapons while repeling. Other then that everything felt kind of tacked on. For instance one level in the mountains required you to collect oxygen tanks while you searched for equipment since you were at high altitudes. However that oxygen mechanic was only used once after that 10-15 minute mission it never popped up again. There was a lot of stuff like that which felt like it was just there to add a hint of variety, but wasn't deemed worthy enough to be polished and reused. Another instance is the race/survival vehicle side missions. I got excited when I first saw those because I felt that would be cool to race/evade AI opponents around the map, but you know what they ended up being... boring time trials that didn't even have interesting paths to follow.

There is a whole other side to Far Cry though and that is the co-op/multiplayer, but I never dabbled with that. I felt the game was easy enough with one player and if anything having a second player would be a liability since I prefer to be a little stealthy. There does seem to be a nice variety of player content for this game though so I will definitely have to hop into it sometime since there are player made missions which could easily be way better then what was present in the official game.

Graphics/Atmosphere:
Graphics are pretty good however there is a lot of noticeable pop in when flying/gliding through the air.

As for the setting I didn't really care much for Kyrat it's a very hilly region that doesn't really have much variety to it. There are a few interesting areas such as the shrines but the villages, forts, and etc. all start to blend together. There are a few missions that take you into the mountains but you just get teleported there and you can not revisit the areas on the open world map.


Story:
It would be best summed up with the word "Meh". They intentionally keep things vague for the majority of the story because the whole driving force of the game is trying to figure out your families past and their connections with Pagan(the crazy ruler of the country). The story isn't very well revealed through the missions though and characters will constantly talk to you as if you already have knowledge of everything that happened in the past. The only way to clear shit up is to collect your fathers journals which is kind boring and even though your Mom was a huge part of the conflict you never really get to know her side of the story.

The bosses really don't have very interesting back stories either and I kind of felt indifferent when they eventually got taken out since I only met them in passing a handful of times. The only one that was interesting was Pagan but you only get to know him a little bit because he calls your cell phone between missions on a regular basis to shot the shit with you. By the end Pagan kind of feels like your crazy uncle because he is about the only character in the game that truly seems to care about AJ and yet he wants to kill you at the same time. The ending with Pagan is kind of anticlimactic although I choose a kind of passive one since everything felt kind of pointless.

The factions of the rebels is also kind of a let down you get to choose between a power hungry leader who wants to gain power/wealth through drug trafficking, and a leader who is obsessed with tradition to the point that he treats women like second class citizens. By the end of the campaign it doesn't feel like your choices really had much of an effect either way you go though basically the mission objectives is the only thing that changes depending on who you decide to back.

Conclusion:
It's not a bad game, but it's not a great game either. In my opinion Far Cry 3 was a much more interesting and balanced game. However if you played through 3 and you liked it this is very similar, and as long as you don't mind a poorly laid out story there is a lot of content to be had.

[Flake]

1/3: Super Mario Bros 2: Lost Levels (Luigi Run) (3DS VC/NES)
1/4: Super Mario Bros. (Wii / All-Stars)
1/15: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
1/20: Super Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
1/28: Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
2/15: Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon (3DS)
2/15: Super Mario Land (3DS VC/GB)
2/16: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS VC/GB)
3/3: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (3DS VC/GB)
3/13: Dragon Ball Xenoverse (PS4)
3/23: Metroid Prime (Wii)
4/18: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Wii)

What a weird game. It does a lot of things better than the original Metroid Prime: The narrative is better, the characterization is better, the world building is better, the graphics are better.

And then it's all undone by an absolutely boring game map that requires endless backtracking and a late game 'fetch quest' that completely derails the game's pacing and kills the experience. And don't get me started on the last bosses (plural). I get it - Retro was trying to give the players a challenge. It was challenging but it was not fun.

I am definitely mixed on this game but mostly I am happy to be done with it.