Games Beaten : 2011

[dsheinem]

did you like Bully, DSH? I thought that one was good.

didn't play it.

[Balasubbie]

Reviewers fall all over themselves to praise Rockstar's games, but in truth I haven't enjoyed any of their console titles since Vice City. GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption I found to especially bloated and boring.

I will say that I picked up Chinatown Wars recently for the PSP and have found that to be enjoyable so far.

I think you coined it perfect with that. I feel quite similar to a lot of this generation's offerings, be it hardware or software. Especially the PS3 (I own one), it just feels so redundantly decadent. I think that in a lot of circumstances, people feel like they should like a game despite their own tastes.

[SwooshBear]

Total: 18
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Ps3)
Soul Caliber 3 (Ps3)
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Snes)
Warioware, Inc. (Gba)
Half Life 2 Episode 1 (Ps3)
Half Life 2 Episode 2 (Ps3)
Super Mario Land 2 (Gb)
Resident Evil 5 (Ps3)
Radiant (iPod)
Space Invaders Extreme 2 (Ds)
Dark Nebula: Episode 2 (iPod)
Angry Birds (iPod)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Ps3)
Kirby's Dreamland 2 (Gb)
Portal 2 (Ps3)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gc)
Warioware Touched! (Ds)
Scribblenauts (Ds) *NEW*

I absolutely loved this game. The ability to spawn literally anything to reach various objectives was really mind blowing for me. The puzzles were quite hard at times but I eventually pulled though. The only thing I did not like was that some of the stylus controls were a bit unresponsive and inaccurate. I've heard that Super Scribblenauts uses the D-pad to control Maxwell so the sequel should be more enjoyable as the first. I've kinda given up on the Summer Challenge but I should at least beat Resident Evil and Resistance: Retribution soon. Although I haven't touched either since starting A Link to the Past.

[MasonB15]

Batman: Arkham Asylum - PS3
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire - N64
Bulletstorm - 360
Mortal Kombat (new one) - PS3
Uncharted 2: Among Theives - PS3
Demon's Souls - PS3
Duke Nukem Forever - 360
Brutal Legend - 360
Psychonauts - Xbox
Dead Space - 360
inFAMOUS - PS3
Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Genesis
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - N64
Assassin's Creed - 360
Red Dead Redemption - 360
Halo Reach - 360

Just finished playing through the game on co-op on the heroic difficulty. It was pretty fun, although I can have fun with nearly every FPS when played co-op.

And about GTA IV, I played a little bit of it. I'll reserve judgement until I get a little further than a half hour into the game though.

[Ack]

And about GTA IV, I played a little bit of it. I'll reserve judgement until I get a little further than a half hour into the game though.

Well that doesn't sound cryptic. I take it you didn't enjoy your first few minutes?

[MasonB15]

And about GTA IV, I played a little bit of it. I'll reserve judgement until I get a little further than a half hour into the game though.

Well that doesn't sound cryptic. I take it you didn't enjoy your first few minutes?

...or did I? Oh, the suspense!

The only complaint that I have with the game thus far is that the driving controls aren't agreeing with me. I can't do a sharp turn to save my life. Other than that, it doesn't seem that bad. Not the Perfect 10 that many would have you believe, but certainly not a terrible game. I just started playing, though, so I can still be swayed to one side or the other.

[Xeogred]

Seriously give it a little time, it did take me awhile to warm up to the driving mechanics but I ended up liking them a lot eventually. I mean really, it's nowhere near as bad as the first Saints Row, which had portions of you having to drive with one joystick and aim while shooting at things with the other joystick, or something ridiculously broken like that.

That said I do favor Saints Row 2, Vice City, and San Andreas over GTA4, but still thought it was good stuff.

Tackled some new stuff today and wow, what an interesting experience...

Tactics Ogre (SNES)
Ecco the Dolphin CD
Sonic CD (Japanese)
Sonic CD (US)*
Sonic & Knuckles (GEN)*
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC)
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC)
Blaster Master (NES)*
Fallout New Vegas (PC)
Duke Nukem Forever (PC)
Sonic the Hedgehog (SMS)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SMS)
Shatterhand (NES)
Final Fantasy IV (PSP)
Thunder Force III (GEN)
Thunder Spiritis (SNES)*

* = replay

So basically I played Thunder Force III on the Genesis and then then SNES version back to back. I own Thunder Spirits and have beaten it a lot, always been a fan. I've emulated the Genesis version off and on but for some reason never finished it. I recently stumbled upon some of the music again and it totally got me pumped for some Thunder Force...

Playing the back to back blew my mind, because I can probably never go back to Thunder Spirits ever again now. Granted, it has some cool different levels I wish were in the Genesis version, but the Genesis version has more levels (and starts off with a level selection like TFIV), superior music, superior graphics, tougher difficulty, and superior framerate. The SNES version also lacks auto-fire which gets a bit tedious after awihle, but it's funny if you let go of the trigger at just about ANY point, you'll notice the framerate speeds up right away, all the time. Now the Genesis version certainly has some slowdowns as well, but it's not nearly as bad... and there were a few times when the SNES version had random sporadic slowdowns, like during some bosses, so it was just really jumpy and crazy.

tl;dr, once again a Sega port of a shmup beats out the other. Thunder Spirits is still worth playing, but yeah. From here I'll probably just go back to Thunder Force III.

Now next time around, I'll get to the even better version, Thunder Force AC on the Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 for the Saturn, I think it's the arcade version of III. Not sure if there's any extra's, but I've seen videos and the sound is dramatically superior (still has that Genesis omph and all too!), so that'll be fun to hit up. And just like TFIV on the Gold Pack 2, it has NO slowdown... so obviously, that'll make it about 5x tougher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZpGeehryl4

*rocks out*

[J T]

01/16: Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (PC)
02/16: Sanitarium (PC)
03/15: Give Up Robot 2 (Browser)
03/22: Cardboard Box Assembler (Browser)
04/01: King's Guard (Browser)
04/02: Sarah's Run (Browser)
04/13: Peggle Nights (PC)
04/13: Terra: The Legend of the Geochine (PC)
04/16: Genji: Dawn of the Samurai (PS2)
05/05: Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer (PC)
05/11: Chef Boyardee's... Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden (PC)
05/23: Vanguard Princess (PC)
07/10: Jamestown (PC)
07/12: Portal 2 (PC)
07/30: Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It's Just Not Your Story (PC)

I don't care much for social networking. I had a MySpace page that I was obsessive about a few years ago, but when everyone switched to Facebook I was like "meh, I think I'm done with this." So, I'm not sure if this makes me the perfect audience for this visual novel game or not. I found the constant ringing updates from "Amie" (the game's equivalent of Facebook) to be annoying, but I was playing the role of Mr. Rook, who is a teacher that also doesn't seem particularly enthused with the technologies that are an essential part of the lives of his young high school students. I identified with him easily.

Actually, it was the ease at which I could identify with the main character that kept my interest in the story and pulled me through. I had a rough start with the game because I didn't like all the social networking interruptions, but ultimately I came to see this as part of the point of the story. People are constantly distracted by their online interactions to the point of letting it interfere with their in-person interactions; yet it also becomes an essential part of how we communicate. Ultimately, the only thing you control in this "game" is whether you are paying attention to someone in person or online, with a few A-B choice points in between, so the division of attention between the real and online worlds seems central to the game and story both.

After awhile, I got comfortable with the interface and became interested in watching all of the teen melodrama unfold. I appreciated having John Rook's commentary though as a more mature adult and an outsider trying to create some sort of positive influence despite his own shortcomings and trouble relating to the youth.

I really liked this game a lot because the story was captivating and uniquely told. It deals with many issues that aren't often tackled in video games: social technologies, privacy, identity development, queer youth, sexuality, suicide, anime culture, and potentially inappropriate teacher/student relationships. The whole thing was fascinating. The only downside (without spoiling anything) was that the ending threw me for a loop. The events lacked believability and the message of it all came across as too heavy handed for my tastes, despite providing some interesting food for thought. Still, it was definitely a wortwhile game and I'm feeling kind of sad that I don't get to check in on the lives of these kids anymore. You know it's a good story when you want the characters to live on after you've reached the ending.


If anyone else is interested in playing this game, it's a free download which you can get here:
http://www.scoutshonour.com/donttakeitp ... yourstory/
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts if you play it.

[Gamerforlife]

Games Beaten:
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the DS
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for the PS3
Sonic 4: Episode 1 for the PS3
Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee for the original Xbox
Portal 2(PS3)
Flower(Playstation Network)
Darksiders (PS3)
Alice Madness Returns(Xbox 360)
The Dishwasher Vampire Smiles(Xbox 360)
Heavy Rain (PS 3)
Plants vs Zombies Game of the Year - PC Steam version

Outland - PS 3

This was a pretty awesome game. It's sort of like the original 2d Prince of Persia in how you move around. It's a pretty challenging platformer, but never gets frustrating as there are lots of checkpoints and you have a health bar that can be refilled or increased. The combat is surprisingly fun since there is a decent variety of enemies and you acquire new combat moves and powers as you progress through the game. Plus, there are a few other fun ways to defeat enemies besides just whittling away at their health. One look at the list of trophies and achievements will reveal them to you. The polarity aspect of the game is a mix of Silhouette Mirage and Ikaruga. It's like Silhouette Mirage in that you can't hurt enemies unless you are the right color and it's like Ikaruga in that you have to constantly switch colors while navigating past the large number of projectiles the game throws at you. There's a lot of timing and pattern memorization in this game if you want to get past all of those blue and red projectiles you'll encounter throughout the game

The game also has hidden upgrades, collectibles and money if you go off the beaten path and you can backtrack to previous areas and access new locations with newly acquired abilities like Metroid. I read one review that complained about the backtracking. You can teleport between areas so I don't get what the big deal is. Reviewers are such weak sauce whiners. The game is mostly linear though, with a bunch of lights always guiding you in the right direction and a map system to help you even further

There's awesome boss fights. It's very old school in that they *gasp* actually have patterns, unlike a lot of modern games where bosses just attack randomly, which always annoys me, especially since many designers don't know how to telegraph attacks properly. With pattern based bosses, you never have to worry about telegraphing. The boss fights in Outland usually consist of more than one stage too, getting tougher as you whittle down their health. There are a few interesting sub bosses too, though they all end up becoming regular enemies.

The game has some co-op stages you can unlock too, but I haven't tried any of them

The music is good and the game has an interesting art style.

It's a very solid game but it has a few minor flaws. The game is kind of cheap and irritating during some parts, where it'll throw something at you giving you little time to react properly, or make you jump down somewhere without letting you see what's below you. The game's pretty fair for the most part though and worse case scenario is that you take some damage when the game throws something at you you're not prepared for. There are NO instant deaths in this game, which is nice, and any part you struggle with is usually just a matter of trial and error or recognizing a pattern that you didn't notice before. There is some skill and timing required to get through some parts of the game though, but nothing that should trouble an experienced gamer who has played lots of 2D platformers. The toughest part of the game is the polarity switching because it may take a while to get your brain used to it, especially if you've never played Silhouette Mirage or Ikaruga. The game makes you multi-task sometimes too where you'll have to do platforming and combat all while staying focused enough to know when to switch colors while you're doing all this. One annoying thing about the game though is that there are no checkpoints during boss fights. Not as big deal as some professional reviewers have made it out to be though as none of the boss fights, aside from maybe the final one, are excruciatingly hard and you have enough health to get away with screwing up a bit

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I just beat Mario Galaxy. It was amazing.