Games Beaten 2014

[prfsnl_gmr]

The Wolf Among Us is an excellent episodic adventure game.

The music and atmosphere in TWAU is amazing. I thought the pacing faltered a bit in the latter episodes.

This both valid praise and valid crticism. The fifth episode was probably my least favorite, and the first and third were probably the best.

[Exhuminator]

Finished Monument Valley over the weekend, 9/10.
http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/

As much an art project as a puzzle game, Monument Valley is a true rarity. Playing this game is like wandering through an M.C. Escher fever dream. The impetus is as simple as maneuvering a lost princess through malleable optical illusions towards an exit. Yet a surreal and hazy plot lies just behind the play. Monument Valley never tells the player exactly what is really going on though. After all, proper art asks the questions but never tells the answers.

[elricorico]

1. Pikmin 3 (WiiU)
2. Kirby's Adventure (WiiU VC)
3. Rayman Legends (WiiU)
4. Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
5. NHL14 (PS3)
6. NES Remix (WiiU)
7. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (WiiU)
8. Portal (PS3)

9. Monument Valley (Android)


This came up as a free download from the Amazon App Store a few days back. I had never heard of it before, but it seemed worth a try.

There is just enough gameplay here to make this a game, but it seems to be more about inspiring emotions and creativity. It is a short game, with very little story, but I found myself really wanting to get back to it every time I had to put it down. None of the puzzles take long to figure out, even the toughest parts were mostly trial and error, but again the gameplay didn't seem to be the focus here.

Possibly the best use of abstract geometry I've seen in a game - I find it hard to imagine how they even came up with some of the levels. Maybe that's why it was so short, designing a level would be a challenge every time.

Fun game and there is DLC out that I'll consider when I figure out how to buy it!

[Damm64]

1- Metroid Confrontation
2- Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
3- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PS3)
4- Bayonetta (PS3)
5- Doom 1 (Ps3) (BFG Edition)
6- The Last of Us (Ps3)
7- Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3)
8- Resident Evil: Revelations (Ps3)
9- King of Dragons (PSP)
10- Mercs (PSP)
11- Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3)
12- Dead Space (PS3)
13- Thief Gold (PC)
14- Crysis 3 (PS3)
15- Silent Hill Homecoming (Ps3)
16- Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion (3DS)
17- Pokemon Y (3DS)
18- Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)
19- Mario & Luigi: Bower's inside story (DS)
20- Siren: New Translation (PS3)
21- Super Princess Peach (Ds)
22- Warhammer 40.000: Space Marine (Ps3)
23- X-men Origins: Wolverine (PS3)
24- The Darkness (Ps3)
25- Bioshock (PS3)*
26- Metal Gear Rising Revengence (PS3)
27- New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)
28- The Darkness 2 (PS3)
29- Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
30- Shadows of the Danmed (PS3)

So quick overview of all to make it short.

NSMB 2: It's fun but really easy, the boss battles are kind of a dissapointment. The new coin rush mode is very good since it adds tension when it cuts the time to just 100, but since the levels must be easy to run on this mode the levels feel boring in the general mode. Still good game, collecting coins against the clock is fun.

Darkness 2: More linear than the first but is far better on everything else, everything i loved about the first is still here, and the combat is far better. Now you can whip your enemies with the tentacles and use the powers at the same, you can only have two now though, weapon carry is limited to 3 weapons (2 single hand weapon, that you can dualwield any time you want, and 1 two hand weapon). You can also collect the relics that are stack up on your house and their description is read for you by the crazy guy, his name escape me now, and it's hilarious. Love the game play it now.

Luigis Mansion Dark Moon: Well i think i would work better as a metroidvania and just put you in each mansion and give the objetives instead of using a level by level design, since with this you're constantly interrupted by "the plot". Good humor and Luigi is the boss.

Shadows of the Danmed: It's fun but i feel it falls a bit flat since the boss battles go from pretty cool to lame, they're cool looking but fighting them is just standing and shooting and one of them is in a joke level. All the weapon upgrades fall into more damage, faster reload speed, etc and the rest are just given to you with each boss defeated. The Grim reapers are the best bosses. Game ultra linear but the humour and the setting and the good combat compensates this.

[REPO Man]

Nemo for the arcade, via MAME4Droid on Ouya. Used save states, but only so I could continue at a future date.

Also like any arcade game I've played, I've cranked down the difficulty and cranked up the lives per continues. Basically if it made the game easier I did it (unless it gave me an insane number of lives).

[Exhuminator]

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge; 7/10

Crimson Skies: HRTR attempts to be a swash buckling air pirate extravaganza set during the pre-WW2 tensions of the 1930s era. The air pirate aspect is short lived, as soon an insipid plot takes over where you're off to fighting evil Germans 101. Disregarding the crummy plot, the nuts and bolts of Crimson Skies are rather tight. The game's engine runs very well on Xbox with beautiful vistas and well modeled planes. Controls are quite tight making flight and combat a very forgiving affair. Voice acting is above average and the soundtrack is quite appropriate to the era. Unfortunately it isn't long before the repetitiousness of constant aerial dogfighting and turret shooting sets in. Mission designers realized this towards the end of the game, and you will find yourself flying through twisty caves with giant booby traps like something out of Indiana Jones. Of course no one bought Crimson Skies to fly a Tomb Raider plane but that's what happened. Ultimately Crimson Skies starts off with a lot of convincing potential, but soon enough the designers squandered it for the easy and monotonous way out.

[elricorico]

1. Pikmin 3 (WiiU)
2. Kirby's Adventure (WiiU VC)
3. Rayman Legends (WiiU)
4. Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
5. NHL14 (PS3)
6. NES Remix (WiiU)
7. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (WiiU)
8. Portal (PS3)
9. Monument Valley (Android)

10. Fire Emblem:Awakening (3DS)

After having this game in my 3DS for nearly a year it was time to get the credits rolling. This game did everything it could to keep me from finishing, and I mean that in the best way. Getting close to the ending? Every time you turn on the game there are some random battles you could grind - might get some new skills for your characters or maybe someone has fallen behind and could use some easy kills. Oh, now some of your characters are married, better go play the level where their child can be recruited. Now maybe you should grind that new character, he/she is probably going to be really strong. Think its time to slay the last boss? Here's a half dozen more maps to check out. Oh, are many of your characters hitting max level? Why not re-class them and see what other fun you can have?

I have a real soft spot for this style of game; Shining Force 2, Tactics Ogre:The Knight of Lodis and Final Fantasy Tactics would definitely reach the short list if I were to make an all time top ten list. Now I'll need to add this game. Since starting this game I've bought the three other handheld Fire Emblems (and I'd have the disc games if they weren't so damned expensive). I had only dabbled with Fire Emblem on GBA through emulation prior, and now I feel that I must play this series (I won't have time, but I'll likely have one going all the time).

I'll surely play more of this game, there's plenty of content left for me. If you have any interest in this type of game and you haven't tried this yet you are doing yourself a big disservice.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Awakening is an absolutely stellar game. I want a Wii U Fire Emblem more than anything from Nintendo.

[noiseredux]

^you nailed it. And it seems our tastes are pretty similar on strategy games. So with that in mind I must do the broken record thing and ask "have you played XCOM?" Enemy Unknown (& Enemy Within expansion) is a game I've sunk 150+ hrs on and am still not sick of.

[elricorico]

^you nailed it. And it seems our tastes are pretty similar on strategy games. So with that in mind I must do the broken record thing and ask "have you played XCOM?" Enemy Unknown (& Enemy Within expansion) is a game I've sunk 150+ hrs on and am still not sick of.

I have not tried an XCOM game since the original (and I only played that for a few minutes on a friend's computer way back near its release). I'm just a bit of a nerd for the fantasy settings though, so the series has never really grabbed me.