Games Beaten 2015

[Sarge]

Oh, yeah, MrPopo, I have that second PCGamer disc. It's how I knew about Star Control 2 and Betrayal at Krondor. Good times! Especially the part where I would try to finagle my computer to get enough base memory to run SC2. You had to make sure there were no vestiges of Windows '95 around, or it didn't play nice.

Come to think of it, I had the same issues with Ultima VII. Oh, the days of messing with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files...

That second disc looks even better! Man, wish I'd have found that back in the day.

[Luke]

I miss your games beat list, because I think we like a lot of the same stuff.

Oh, we totally love a lot of the same games.

I'll get 'em next year and keep a tally.

[Czernobog]

First off, to GSZX, if you read this: I didn't have time to respond to your earlier posts about my Half-Life experiences in depth back when you replied, but I did read through them. Hopefully we get more Xen if Valve returns to the Half-Life universe anytime soon! Cool to see someone else who enjoyed the Xen stuff as much as I did!

1. Lighting Returns

I had some problems with FFXIII, but liked it enough overall to beat the game and enjoyed myself. I thought XIII-2 improved massively and actually platinumed the game, which I rarely do, so I was excited to try Lightning Returns.

Lightning Returns is strange. I've never played anything quite like it. Basically, the game starts with a few days left until the end of the world. It takes place 500 years after the end of XIII-2. Lightning has been awoken and apparently been designated as "savior" by Barthandelus, one of the various gods in the XIII lore. She has been giving the task of ferrying souls to a new world. Unfortunately, I found Lightning's constant way of talking about being the savior and brooding one of the most overly dramatic and annoying things ever. The other characters (most of which I didn't ever like to be honest) have made returns as well, because 500 years prior, the final events of XIII-2 caused everyone to stop aging. (They can still die though, and can no longer procreate). Snow has become king of his own party town, which is sort of hilarious. The others are spread around the world, each tending to their own issues. The story does get a little better, but is still often cringe-worthy. One of the saving graces is a little girl who keeps popping up to taunt Lightning and is enjoyably dark and vague to annoy her.

The gameplay is.....different, but addictive. There are encounters with on-screen enemies, but you do not level up by fighting them. Instead, you gain stat bonuses by completing quests throughout the four areas of the game. (Two cities, a desert, and a wildlands area.) Each quest also works to add time to the remaining days (you can get up to thirteen) and there is a clock constantly ticking down. You do have an ability to freeze the clock temporarily using ability points you get from killing monsters. There's no need to rush though, as you can fairly easily complete almost all the quests and still have days remaining. There are a few main quests which can be done in any order, as the game is completely open really early. Fortunately, the quests are fairly varied and some of them are interesting as the whole point is for people's souls to be "saved." There are some crappy fetch quests and tedious things thrown in though. Like finding clocks. Screw the clocks.

The battle system is actually surprisingly fun. It's sort of a mix between the garb system of X-2 and FFXIII's battle system. Most garbs have 1 or 2 unique abilities locked to them, but any open slots can be equipped with any abilities you have obtained throughout the game. You can have 3 garbs equipped at once and switch between them instantly with the shoulder buttons. I ended up having a physical fighter garb, a mage garb, and a buff garb, but also had additional ones for specific encounters. Basically, Lightning is extremely customizable. You can also create additional garb customizations and save them to equip when you want. The stagger bar also returns but has a color changing wavy line effect on the enemies hp bar which I didn't even notice until I had gotten a ways into the game.

Since it's the end of time and everything, you can actually drive nearly every monster in the game to extinction. After killing anywhere from 30 to 150ish(iirc) of a monster type, you get to fight their respective last one (basically a much stronger version of the enemy) and get a powerful accessory. I found playing the exterminator pretty fun. There are also two massively powerful extra bosses, which I attempted but did not beat. Would likely have to do so on a new-game plus.

Overall, an enjoyable game, and I was surprised by how much it was willing to differ from the other games.

2. Half-Life

Decided to play through the Half-Life games at long last. The first one was a lot of fun. Certainly dated at this point, but still enjoyable. I wish I had played this when it first came out as I probably wouldn't have played anything that managed to be quite as immersive at the time. It was noticeably more difficult than any modern fps I've played recently. I don't have a lot to say about it, other than the boss was annoying as hell, but Xen was neat. I tried playing through Opposing Force but ran into a glitch quite a ways into the game that would require a complete restart and decided to move onto the other games instead. Still may go back to that and run through Blue Shift as well.

3. Codename Gordon

This is a little 2D action platformer based on Half-Life that was taken off Steam, but you can still get if you Google how to get it in your Steam library. It's very short, but an alright little game. You hit things with a crowbar, then shoot things with the mouse when you pick up a couple guns. Then shoot down a helicopter and it's over. Manages to nail the half-life look with the headcrab zombies and things pretty well though. Even had some manhacks and vents. Good for a half-hour boredom cure.

4. Half Life 2 and the 2 Episodes

This is where I felt that Half-Life started to get interesting. I liked that the story wasn't spoon-fed to you, but you were dropped into the world and got to infer things through what was happening around you. I would have liked to see some more of the Xen enemies from the first game leaked into the world. The physics engine is certainly fun to play with, especially with the gravity gun, but some of the puzzles were a little too focused on it. Some very cool gameplay ideas, especially in episode 2. Every part of each game sort of feels like it's own set-piece. However, some areas do drag on and on. Especially the first boat section. Like the first game, I wish I had played this when it first came out. I imagine it was extremely impressive at the time. It still plays well, but I have a feeling some of it's more groundbreaking aspects are lost on me. I actually enjoyed the first Half-Life quite a bit more. I am a bit curious where they were trying to go with the story however. Maybe they're a bit curious as well.

5. The Last of Us

Let me preface this by saying I love horror games, but usually hate stealth segments. That being said, I found being stealthy the best part of The Last of Us' gameplay. I actually had a lot of fun sneaking around and landing the stealth kills. The gunfight segments mostly felt tedious. Still, this game was more about the story and atmosphere than the gameplay and it delivered. I really liked that the characters felt human. They were flawed and they had believable reasons for being flawed, especially Joel. Many of the environments were fun to explore and picking up the pieces left behind by other people who had once been there was often a highlight. This was especially true in the case of the boat captain who had made a life in the sewers. I know I'm not going into as much detail as I usually try to for my games beaten, but I am awfully tired at the moment.

6. Sleeping Dogs *NEW*

Finally played through Sleeping Dogs since getting it on a Steam sale way back, and I wish I had tried it out sooner. I absolutely had a blast with this one. I'm really fond of these type of games when they know how to limit you're capabilities in the world. (I loved Saints Row III, but IV felt like you had way too much power way too early and felt like I had entered cheat codes). The story may have been cliche but the characters kept it from feeling stale, and I was always itching to do the story missions.

However, the best part of the game was the combat. It was just so damn fun. It's similar to the Batman games with the counter mechanic, but feels smoother. Once you get good at countering, you can feel like a total badass by countering every move and laying waste John Woo style. The driving was also fun with it's drifting mechanic and it was nice being able to lose cops easier than some of the GTA games. There's a ton of side mission things I haven't done much of, but I intend to play some more on my clear file and see what else there is to explore.

[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
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number - PS4
Kung Fu Louie vs. The Martial Art Posse - PC [1989]
Loom - PC [1990]
Metroid II: Return of Samus - GB [1991]
Ninja Commando - - Arcade (MAME) [1992]
Tennis in the Face - Vita
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - PS4
Quake II: The Reckoning - PC
Injustice: Gods Among Us - PS4
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry - PS4
Infamous: First Light - PS4
Race the Sun - PS4
Mad Riders - PS3
Destiny: House of Wolves - PS4
Escape Goat 2 - PS4
Tower of Guns - PS4
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - PC
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars - PS3 *new*
NotGTAV - - PC *new*
Flower - PS4 *new*

Total: 52

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

My game playing time has been severely lacking, but I am starting to make up for it a bit and have some new entries for this list...

What I have been playing a lot of is Rocket League, so along the way I went back to play and beat SARPBC, which I'd never actually played despite it long sitting in my PS3 library. It is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend both it and Rocket League.

NotGTAV is quite cheeky, pretty fun, and surprisingly innovative for the snake genre. Worth a look for anyone, really.

I was showing Flower to a friend and she insisted I play through to the end. Great game is still great.

[Sarge]

Finished Child of Light. It's easily one of my favorite games I've played this year. The exploration is really fun (unlimited flight is cool!), and there's pretty much no padding to be found. Graphically and aurally, it's absolutely beautiful as well. In many ways, it's what, as a kid, I envisioned video games would be in this far-flung future. Highly, highly recommended.

Only a single gripe, and that's that it was a bit easy. Mainly because I was really good at keeping tanked up with sources of healing both in and out of battle. There's a higher difficulty mode, so if I ever get the hankering to play it again, I'll probably do that.

If you poke around and fight most of the enemies and explore, you'll probably end up anywhere between 12-15 hours. I was closer to the latter. I'm still missing a few Stardust and Coffers, but not much.

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Cut the Rope (3DS)
2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
3. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XBOX)
4. Jewel Link Chronicles: Mountains of Madness (NDS)
5. Super Mario 3D World (WIIU)
6. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
7. Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS)
8. Gunman Clive (3DS)
9. Child of Light (WIIU)
10. Gunman Clive 2 (3DS)
11. Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition (WIIU)
12. Shifting World (3DS)
13. VVVVVV (3DS)
14. Mega Man 9 (PS3)
15. Mighty Switch Force 2 (WIIU)
16. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3)
17. Castle Crashers (PS3)
18. Pushmo (3DS)
19. Steamworld Dig (3DS)
20. The Unfinished Swan (PS3)
21. Blaster Master (NES)
22. Samurai Shodown II (NEOGEO/PS2)
23. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (2600)
24. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
25. Shining Force II (GEN)
26. Rayman Legends (WIIU)
27. Gorf (ARCADE)
28. Fairune (3DS)
29. Mighty Gunvolt (3DS)
30. Ikachan (3DS)
31. Block Boy! (3DS)
32. Legend of the Dark Witch (3DS)

Block Boy! is a fun - but not very challenging - puzzle/platformer developed by HAL Labs. It is the second monochrome puzzle/platformer I have completed on the 3DS this year, and it is vastly superior to Shifting World. (Shifting World, for a variety of reasons, is much, much more challenging, however.) In Box Boy!, you play as Qbby, who can replicate himself a limited number of times to create the platforms necessary to navigate the game's many, many levels. If you reach certain points in the game using only a very limited number of boxes - and if you can figure out how to reach them - you can collect one or two crowns in each stage. Collecting the crowns provides you with some additional bonus points that you can use to purchase challenge levels, costumes, hint books, music, and time-attack levels in the game's shop. I used the "rapper" costume through out the game so that Qbby looked like this icon of early 1990s gaming:

The game is crammed with features and levels, and it provides a tremendous amount of content that more than justifies its $5 price tag. Moreover, the game has the level of polish you expect from HAL Labs, and it is nice to see the company making something other than Kirby and Smash Bros. games. (I, for one, would love to see another sequel to the Adventures of Lolo.) That said, the game is very easy, and I was able to obtain a "perfect" score on most of the games levels during my first attempt. Moreover, the first 17 of the games 18 levels introduce new mechanics, and they ended up feeling like a very long tutorial for a very short game. (Thankfully, the game's five "bonus" levels provide a bit more challenge.)

In sum, I enjoyed the game quite a bit; it was full of content; and I thought it was very fun. I only wish it had been a bit more challenging.

.....

Legend of the Dark Witch is a 3DS-exclusive 2D action platformer developed by Flyhigh Works, the team behind Fairune. It is very Japanese, and the "plot" is pretty much non-sensical. (You play as some kind of little girl goddess/witch who is trying to recover missing "syega" crystals or some other such nonsense...) The game plays similarly to Mega Man, and like a classic Mega Man game, it is difficult on the default difficulty setting.

When you start the game, you can choose which of the game's six levels you want to play first, and you acquire the boss's weapon when you complete the stage. Moreover, each boss is weak to another boss's weapon; so, the game is much easier once you determine the correct "order" for tacking the game's stages. The game also has a very unique power-up system that combines RPG grinding and leveling with Gradius's level-based power-up system. Specifically, your character acquires "tres" (i.e., experience points) as she defeats enemies in each stage. Stronger enemies provide more "tres" and they respawn off screen after a few seconds. You "spend" your "tres" at the stage select screen to acquire permanent upgrades to your character's abilities, but a meter also builds at the bottom of the screen as you acquire "tres" in each level. Once the meter builds to a certain point, you can obtain a temporary "power up" to your characer's speed, power, defense, etc., and these temporary power ups are critical to completing the game. (Like Gradius, all of the game's bosses can be defeated without these temporary power ups, but having them helps a lot.) Finally, the "tres" meter also depletes every time your character is hit, and every time you use one of the weapons you acquired from a boss. Accordingly, both evasion and skilful management of the "tres" meter are critical to success.

Moreover, there are two crystals hidden in each stage that permanently increase the number of times you can temporarily increase your character's statistics using the "tres" meter. Accordingly - and while the game could be beaten without powering up your character at all - players who find the game incredibly difficult (like me) can "grind" their character up to the point necessary to defeat the (incredibly difficult) final boss. (Like a Mega Man game, there are two "boss" stages after the first six.)

Finally, completing the game - and accomplishing certain in game feats - provides you with crystals that you can use to unlock additional features. (The impatient can also bet these crystals in the game's really neat five-card draw mini-game to unlock the bonus features.) Beating the game also unlocks "lunatic" difficuly and allows you to play as another character (who plays a lot liek Zero to the main character's Mega Man).

The game's primary drawback however, is its incredibly bland level design. Unlike a Mega Man game, Legend of the Dark Witch's levels are unvaried, uninteresting, and generally unchallenging. (The boss fights, in contrast, are intense and difficult.) This fact holds the game back considerably, and until the very end, I was not sure I cared much for the game. After beating it (and unlocking all of the cool extra features), however, I appreciated it a bit more, and I hope that the developer plans a sequel. (It also helps that the game concludes with an insane boss rush that highlights all of its best features. Despite dozens of attempts, I never got bored with it.) The sprite work in the game is also gorgeous, and I really think that if the developer had paid more attention to level design Legend of the Dark Witch could have been one of the 3DS's best eshop titles.

As it is, the game certainly justifies its $3 price tag. (It took me nearly 5 hours to beat the game, and I could easily spend 5-10 hours more "completing" the game.) I therefore recommend it to anyone looking for an inexpensive and unique (if a bit derivative) offering on Nintendo's handheld.

Child of Light

I played through this game with my daughter earlier this year, and I loved it. You experience mirrors my own, and I also recommend this game very highly. (The WiiU version is also on sale for $3.75 on the Nintendo eShop right now; so, there really is no excuse for missing it.)

[KayJay]

Guys.....I did it....I beat Mega Man X.....

I've been trying to beat this game since i was 12, and i finally did it. I swear, i am still shaking a little. I am so overwhelmed with a feeling of accomplishment...


This game is spectacular.

[Exhuminator]

This game is spectacular.

Yes it is. Congratulations! Now go play the Zero series for a breezy good time.

[Sarge]

Sweet! Good job beating it. I remember coming so close to finishing it when I spent the night with a friend, but ran out of time right when I'd made it to Sigma. Ah well.

It is the best SNES one, for sure.

I "beat" King of Fighters XIII in arcade mode, and by that, I mean I ended up resorting to the service menu on the last two fights. I almost had the penultimate boss down on the second go, and got fumble fingers and couldn't pull my supers. Ugh.

Of course, I thought that was the last boss. Then I get another one. Said "screw it" at that point and just got it over with. I like the artwork in the KoF games, but there's still something a little off when I play them. I think SNK's best work was probably Mark of the Wolves, at least in terms of traditional fighters.

[KayJay]

This game is spectacular.

Yes it is. Congratulations! Now go play the Zero series for a breezy good time.

Yeah, I own the Zero collection.

It's....pretty tough, to say the least. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of it, although it's still pretty good.

@Sarge, thanks dude! Yeah, i do like it more than the other snes ones. I own the MMX collection, so I've got to try all of the games. My favorites are X1, & X4.