What was the last game you finished?

[vash23n]

The Zelda marathon continues. Just beat Link's Awakening. I played through this faster than any other game. I was just really into it. Plus, since my wife is playing Ocarina of time I have an excuse to play other Zelda games while she plays through that one. So we just sit around for hours playing Zelda - dream come true. This game was pretty neat. I can see that it inspired handheld Zelda games for years to come (I haven't played through the new DS titles, but OOA and OOS, as well as Minish Cap def draw from this game). I played through the DX version, which had color and some secret additions and I really enjoyed it. One annoying thing is that this game was really message heavy. Every time I bumped into a rock it would tell me it was too heavy to lift, even after I got the power bracelets. Very frustrating every time I picked up a piece of power or an acorn and I get the same message. Strangely enough, it didn't continually annoy me with a description of a key every time I picked one of them up.

The bosses were pretty easy, but that was not a bad thing. The dungeons were a bit lengthier than LTTP so getting to the end without immediately being killed was nice. I really enjoyed the final boss. Easy, but such a great variety of shadow bosses combined into one, including throwbacks to LTTP. Well, my completed Zelda game list now reads:

LOZ (kind of, got to Ganon and my game erased so I have to play through again just to beat him), LTTP, LA, OOT, MM, OOA, OOS, WW, MC, TP. Next up is Zelda II and then I will tackle LOZ again. I have to somehow get a hold of the new DS games and also Four Swords Adventures for the GC (I always see it pretty cheap at Game Stop. I have the multiplayer version for the GBA that I plan on checking out for fun, although I hear you can't really play it by yourself. Man this is long, but it is almost 5:30 am and the last time I looked at the clock it was 11 pm.

[Pulsar_t]

Final Fight 3 via emulator: A generic beat'em up with no redeeming features.

Wolfenstein 360: This game has taken me back to the joys and sorrows of 90s linear gaming despite the free roaming element.

[hashiriya1]

Ryu ga Gotoku 3, feck, finally.

I started it like last summer and forgot about it.
Decided to start it back up over the weekend and finally beat it.

[Limewater]

Last night I was playing Contra: The Alien Wars on GB. I had it set to EASY mode since I was struggling with NORMAL (I had admitting that, I NEVER set things to easy mode). Anyway, after I beat the third level boss, the game just reset to the opening credits. But I know there's five levels. Does anyone know if EASY mode only lets you play the first three levels, or did the game just screw up on me?

Yeah, easy mode does that. You have to play on Normal to get all of the levels.

[vash23n]

Finally finished Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Man I am pretty surprised that Zelda remained popular after this game. I guess I can't complain too much, I know there are a lot of people who liked this game, definitely not in the majority. This game started off annoying as it took a while to get the fighting technique down. I realized it wasn't about standing and having an actual sword fight with the enemies, but relying on constant jump attacks. After I got this down, the game was pretty fun for a while. Then, it just got too monotonous and I found myself only playing a few minutes at a time. The next to last boss was pretty difficult and shadow link was kind of cool. I am glad to have played this game and experienced this installment (and to finally have seen the quote "I am error" with my own eyes), but I am very happy to be done.

Legend of Zelda replay up next. Playing it on the Dingoo so I don't lose my game at the very end like last time.

[Gamerforlife]

Finished FF 13

PROS:Best combat system in the series...period. Great soundtrack, gorgeous visuals. Sazh is also a great addition to the FF universe and the best character in the game's story

CONS:Story really gets less and less interesting the farther you get into the game. I feel this is the franchise's biggest flaw right now, lackluster storytelling. I was actually skipping cutscenes towards the end. I just didn't care. And Lightning is one of the lamest protaganists I've ever seen. She brings the whole game down with her cliche personality. Most boring character in the whole game.

Also the game is way too restrictive. I can't believe I had to actually beat the game before I'm even given the option to max out my characters. Ridiculous

Overall, a dissapointment, with the combat system and Sasz being the game's only redeeming qualities.

EDIT:There are some truly ridiculous game mechanics in this game too, like how weaknesses are a joke. An enemy can be weak to fire and you would still have to hit it with fifty fire spells to kill it. This is due to the game's over reliance on the stagger system, meaning every enemy has ridiculous defense until you stagger it. Then there is the joke ranking system which PENALIZES you for having a strong weapon equipped. Some truly IDIOTIC design choices in this game

[vash23n]

Finally finished Legend of Zelda first and second quest. It was not as bad as I thought having to replay the first quest. I love this game. I agree, someone said it, that this is one of the harder Zelda games - maybe the hardest if you don't count the second. I love how when I start off, Link can barely kill an Octorok. Having not played it in a long time, I really felt like Link would have felt if real being new to the warrior thing. Having to get used to the controls and the game was tough at first. The game progresses very smoothly as you get further in. Link gains more strength and the game becomes easier to play. I see, now, how many say the newer Zelda games are much easier as Link can pretty much master swordfighting from the beginning or after taking some simple lessons. You really have to learn how to be a hero in this first game. I still love both old and new games, however, so I am not ragging on the new ones. The second quest was a bitch - I thought I hated Darknuts, but the red bubbles are just torturous.

[OldSchool_Boy]

Legend of Dragoon-Final playing time from my calculations is 35 hours.

[Ack]

Medal Of Honor: Airborne, on the PC

I actually beat this last year originally, but didn't take the time to go back and collect all the skill jumps and medals. So after reformatting my computer, I figured I'd reinstall it and give it another go. I'm glad I did, the game was infinitly more stable this time through, though even on the lowest settings it still lags, especially in the third level. The technical requirements are actually lower than what I have, but from reading up on the problem, apparently the game just doesn't like newer computers. Which is a real shame, because it was a nice, fresh take on a stale FPS subset, World War II.

Medal Of Honor: Airborne sets you in the place of Boyd Travers, an everyman with little character beyond however you play him. Seriously, he's pretty much just a name for them to call you by, a player's placeholder if you will. But Travers has gotten himself into the Airborne, and he's about to see combat. It is WWII, so the weapons are authentic, the enemies are Italians and Nazis, and the levels are based on actual operations in the war, such as Market Garden or Varsity. Hell, even the last level which seems wholly unrealistic is actually based on something the Nazis built, the Gefechtsturm, or G-Tower. In the game it's just referred to as the Flaktürme. I've never seen these in any WWII shooter before, so it made for an interesting new level for me.

But MOH:Airborne's most original take is definitely how you enter combat. Levels present objectives in a mix of open-endedness and linearity, as in you can handle any of the objectives in the order you wish. Instead of straight levels, you have areas you fight where you must handle your mission, and to better facilitate this, you can start the level in any location as long as you land there.

That's right, land there. Each level starts with you jumping from an airplane and parachuting down into combat, be it in a safe zone with equipment and NPCs, a rooftop so you can lay down sniper fire, or a trench loaded with enemies...which isn't a very good idea. And if you refuse to jump, the next man will throw you out of the plane, which will cause you to tumble, open your chute late, and have less time to figure out where you want to land. It's a nice touch, though almost every level has your plane getting messed up in some way, to the point it gets old...until the last level where your plane tears apart and...oh Hell, go play it.

After that, take on the objectives however you like, and take any gun you want, you get to pick your equipment at the start of the level if you've found it, with a couple of exceptions for heavy explosives and one hidden gun. While most of the objectives simply require you to shoot or blow something up, it allows you the freedom to go about it in different ways. You're also not the only man on the field, as other paratroopers are landing and fighting around you. So get stuck somewhere and move away to do something else, then come back and discover your boys have pushed the enemy line back quite a bit. It's just too bad they don't handle objectives themselves.

Hell, if there's anything wrong with the game, it's that there are only six levels. And though there's a leveling system for weapons based on kills, there's thirty skill jumps hidden throughout the game, and the player can go for unlockable medals and bonus videos...there's really nothing else to do. There's also no LAN multiplayer, which is the biggest disappointment in the game for me. To play multiplayer, you have to log into EA's servers for online only. That seriously limits me looking into it because I despise EA's server system and would much rather do LAN play anyway.

Either way, it's a good game, though at times the attitude comes off a bit sappy to me. Then again, it IS the Medal Of Honor series. Either way, it gave me some changes to the same-old same-old WWII shooter, and for that I thank it.

[Dakinggamer87]

Dante's Inferno on PS3