Games Beaten 2014

[dsheinem]

I've not played FC3 other than Blood Dragon, but I also think FC2 is a bit of a masterpiece. Here's a good essay explaining why it is better than FC3: http://www.gaminglives.com/2013/01/28/w ... far-cry-3/

That author shares the same thoughts I do actually.

Yeah, I read a few things about Far Cry 3 at release that really bummed me out in terms of what had changed, so I've not played it. The few times I tried, I ran into UPlay problems

In any case, FC2 is a game where its "flaws" do much more to add than detract…it ends up feeling much more visceral and frantic and more appropriate for its setting and narrative than most any game I've played in any genre. It's a near perfect match of storytelling and gameplay, and the "refinements" in FC3 (and what I experienced of them in Blood Dragon) really limit that experience.

[Stark]

I've not played FC3 other than Blood Dragon, but I also think FC2 is a bit of a masterpiece. Here's a good essay explaining why it is better than FC3: http://www.gaminglives.com/2013/01/28/w ... far-cry-3/

Yeah, I read a few things about Far Cry 3 at release that really bummed me out in terms of what had changed, so I've not played it. The few times I tried, I ran into UPlay problems

In any case, FC2 is a game where its "flaws" do much more to add than detract…it ends up feeling much more visceral and frantic and more appropriate for its setting and narrative than most any game I've played in any genre. It's a near perfect match of storytelling and gameplay, and the "refinements" in FC3 (and what I experienced of them in Blood Dragon) really limit that experience.

Clint Hocking is awesome and you'd do well to play any of his games: Splinter Cell, SC: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, or Spider (although I've yet to play this one).

EDIT: Also, thanks for that article, very interesting. If you're interested in what all went into FC2 and it's varying systems and setting tone, listen to this awesome Tone Control interview that Steve Gaynor did with Clint Hocking: https://www.idlethumbs.net/tonecontrol/ ... nt-hocking

[dsheinem]

I've not played FC3 other than Blood Dragon, but I also think FC2 is a bit of a masterpiece. Here's a good essay explaining why it is better than FC3: http://www.gaminglives.com/2013/01/28/w ... far-cry-3/

Yeah, I read a few things about Far Cry 3 at release that really bummed me out in terms of what had changed, so I've not played it. The few times I tried, I ran into UPlay problems

In any case, FC2 is a game where its "flaws" do much more to add than detract…it ends up feeling much more visceral and frantic and more appropriate for its setting and narrative than most any game I've played in any genre. It's a near perfect match of storytelling and gameplay, and the "refinements" in FC3 (and what I experienced of them in Blood Dragon) really limit that experience.

Clint Hocking is awesome and you'd do well to play any of his games: Splinter Cell, SC: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, or Spider (although I've yet to play this one).

EDIT: Also, thanks for that article, very interesting. If you're interested in what all went into FC2 and it's varying systems and setting tone, listen to this awesome Tone Control interview that Steve Gaynor did with Clint Hocking: https://www.idlethumbs.net/tonecontrol/ ... nt-hocking

Cool, didn't know about Spider. Grabbing it now. A few years ago I read a bunch of Clint's writing from his site (Click Nothing), so yeah: he's cool.

[wclem]

#17 Castlevania 4

Got my Retron replaced with a working one and played through this on it. Cannot really add anything to review it that has not been discussed. I will say though that I liked being able to use Save State when I walked away from it. When I was 15 I had the time to play all day long. Now that I am, well lets say, much older, time is not something I have a surplus of anymore. Best reason for the Retron 5, simply the save states. Though I will say, it does improve the look of the games too.

[REPO Man]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition for Super NES (and not the unlicensed Genesis/Mega Drive version ). The game's engine was later retooled and used for the Super NES game Shin Kidō Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel

First on Easy as the Thunder Megazord and then on Hard as the Mega Tigerzord. Zedd and Ooze, the penultimate and final bosses respectively, are fucking cheap bitches! And on Hard Mode they basically spam special moves one right after the other.

Also why can't you play as the Ninja Megazord or Shogun Megazord in the game's story mode? Or have I just not figured it out.

And if you're wondering why I bypassed Normal Mode... at the end of beating Easy Mode it told me to beat Hard Mode to get a code. It basically said to press X, Y+Start at the Player Select in the 2-player mode (known as "Fighting Mode" and while it didn't say so, it let's you play as Ivan Ooze in Fighting Mode.

[Jmustang1968]

1. Ogre Battle - PS1
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
3. The Banner Saga - PC

Been singing the praises for The Banner Saga for awhile now on here and the podcast. I played the press demo a few months ago, which is basically the first few chapters of the game. I finally got back around to playing the full retail release Thursday and I sat through and beat it in one sitting.

I really enjoyed this game. First the art style and graphics are just beautiful. One of the best looking games I have played. I also enjoy the gameplay style. Tactical RPG combat mixed with Oregon Trail or King of Dragon Pass type text adventuring. You basically lead a caravan full of troops and villagers usually escaping from marauding golem like enemies called the dredge or travelling to a city or settlement you are trying to save. The main character branches by chapter and they eventually come together towards the end. During your travels, events pop up that either lead you to a series of dialog options that can have consequences like losing characters, triggering combat, and affecting supplies and morale.

Combat is grid based tactical style, but is fairly unique. The different classes all feel fairly unique from each other. Your HP and your attack power share the same stat, and you also have an armor stat. You can choose to whittle down enemy armor to make them easier to kill, or you can just go for their hp and attack power, but their armor negates how much you can damage. There is also a willpower stat that allows you to do extra damage, move further, or perform special abilities.

I found the story to be compelling while suffering at times due to the branching dialog options. I think some of the drawback with having such a system will be compromising a bit on the overall narrative. I think the balance they strike is a good one however. At times, the impact or consequences of your choices aren't very obvious. There are a few instances where I picked an option and what I anticipated it would do, did not occur. Most of the time this is done well through knowing and anticipating the characters and subtle clues in the text, but there were a few instances where that wasn't the case.

The game does feel like a beginning of a trilogy. So, while it has a definitive end to a story, it feels like a smaller subplot to a bigger story and has several unanswered questions and open plot threads.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Assassin's Creed IV WiiU
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon PC
Splinter Cell: Blacklist WiiU
The Wolf Among Us: Episode 1 PC
The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 PC
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut WiiU
Jazzpunk PC
Pikmin 3 WiiU
Call of Duty: Ghosts WiiU
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze WiiU
Tomb Raider (2013) PC
The Wolf Among Us: Episode 3 PC
Danganronpa Vita
Far Cry 2 360

The Witcher 2 360

I can't believe I put off finishing this game for so long. I love it to death but despite having started it numerous times I always have quit about 3/4 of the way through. It's easily one of the best action-RPGs that has ever been released. While I'm not the biggest fan of what I would consider a pretty traditional western-rpg aesthetic the game is still gorgeous and it's hard to not get completely caught up in the world you're presented with. CD Projekt RED did just a fantastic job with the world building in the game; I love the complex set of moral, political, and social choices you're faced with throughout the game. That sitting on top of a meaty combat system and a rather punishing difficulty level even on normal settings just pushes it to the top for me. I'm typically a mechanics or story focused guy when it comes to games but TW2 balances both in a way that only a few other games come close to.

As far as the path I took on this playthrough (SPOILERS):

Aryan Surrenders > Go With Roche (kill Toredo) > Let Roche Kill Hanselt > Helped Triss

So about that 360 version:

Yeah, you can tell the game was really made for PC. Sometimes the menus feel just a tad clunky. Everything else feels fine. Holds 30 fps solid and only has screen tears when the engine gets taxed. Everything else holds up pretty well though, with the exception of a few special effects that look PS2 level in quality for little reason. You know, those 2D sprite effects? Yeah, there are a few of those. Also aliasing and pop-in. Lots of aliasing and pop-in. It uses some sort of post-process AA but it isn't aggressive at all. That's good in terms of keeping sharpness and texture quality up but the jaggies do get distracting. When stuff does appear though it all looks very nice. The ground scatter is dense and the shadows look pretty good and I'd wager that this game has the best looking character models on the 360. Besides that, I would imagine playing through it on Dark mode would be preferably on the PC due to higher framerate and lower latency.

[noiseredux]

@John: I don't know why but I just couldn't get into Banner Saga. You'd think my love of XCOM would mean I'd adore it. I tried 3 times to get it going, with a new game. Every time I got really bored really quick. Can't really describe it. Just didn't find the controls all that intuitive for some reason, and found the story really slow. Shrug. It's a game I want to like and feel like I should like but just can't seem to like.

you gifted this to me as well didn't you? Making me feel further guilty.

[Jmustang1968]

@John: I don't know why but I just couldn't get into Banner Saga. You'd think my love of XCOM would mean I'd adore it. I tried 3 times to get it going, with a new game. Every time I got really bored really quick. Can't really describe it. Just didn't find the controls all that intuitive for some reason, and found the story really slow. Shrug. It's a game I want to like and feel like I should like but just can't seem to like.

you gifted this to me as well didn't you? Making me feel further guilty.

How far did you get?

I am not really sure how the controls don't work, you just click on the map where you want to move your guys...

You do have to sit sometimes while they are travelling, but perfect time to soak in the view

[Jmustang1968]

1. Ogre Battle - PS1
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
3. The Banner Saga - PC
4. Papers, Please - PC

Well, there appears to be 20 different endings to this. I lost early on my first try and got the 1st bad ending so that didn't count. I then followed up with another playthrough and got one of the 'good endings' it seems, so I will leave it there as a game beaten.

Interesting game. I didn't get into it at first, but kept playing and it became more enjoyable. the gameplay has you playing as an immigration officer for a fascist nation and you check the documentation of arrivals. I believe you are supposed to get emotionally invested in the experience, but I didn't really. I didn't care much for the plight of the people or the character's family. Maybe that is part of the experience, I don't know. I did want to make sure I made enough money and didn't get fined enough so I wouldn't lose family members which would could help cause a game over.

But you basically check immigration documents like passports, IDs, permits etc... Each day the amount of documents progressively gets more complicated. You also have to look out for a most wanted list, search people for drugs and guns, and many other little things. There is also a resistance group that you can choose to assist or thwart.

I got into checking the documents for consistencies, and all of the little 'gotchas' the game tries to throw at you. That part was enjoyable. However, the interface was very annoying. You have a relatively small space to manipulate your documents. You also have a scan tool that is fairly annoying to use, even after you get used to it. It is just frustrating at times and detracts from the experience some.