Games Beaten 2013

[FerretGamer]

Journey is on a list of games (like Shadow of the Colossus) that I wish I had never played... just so I could re-experience playing them for the first time.

I know. It's one of those experiences that will stay with you forever. I am definitely starting Journey over again sooner rather than later.

[noiseredux]

Journey is on a list of games (like Shadow of the Colossus) that I wish I had never played... just so I could re-experience playing them for the first time.

I know. It's one of those experiences that will stay with you forever. I am definitely starting Journey over again sooner rather than later.

the next best thing: find someone else to play it that has no idea what it is, and just sit silently and watch them play through it. I begged my wife to play it a week after I beat it. And I just sat there for two hours watching her. It was just as compelling because you could sense the sort of wonder/amazement/discovery/emotion/etc through somebody else.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2013
Twisted Metal - PS1
Twisted Metal 2 - PS1
Twisted Metal III - PS1
Twisted Metal 4 - PS1 *new*
Screaming Mad George's Paranoiascape - PS1 *new*

Total: 5

2012 Games Beaten
2011 Games Beaten
2010 Games Beaten

Twisted Metal 4 - 989 Studios' second effort - is a mixed bag, It improves the speed and even the graphics of TM3, but the level design is really uninspired and the game is far too easy by previous standards in the series. I was also dismayed to find out that Warthog - usually my favorite chracter (him and Roadkill are usually my go to choices) - had a remote-detonator like device for his special instead of a homing barrage. TM4 is probably my least favorite of the franchise, but I enjoyed it in some respects anyway.

Paranoiascape. Wow. Everyone who has any interest in horror films, bizarre Japanese things, unique gameplay, or "games as art" arguments needs to play this. Ostensibly a first-person pinball game (in which you traverse corridors) featuring surreal landscapes (including what seem to be the insides of decomposing yet functioning bodies) this is one you won't soon forget. My longtime curiosity about this title sparked me to finally burn an ISO, but If anyone has a copy of this for sale at a reasonable price, please let me know. More info here and here.

[Gamerforlife]

Episode 1 was fun. I wasn't expecting a Christmas episode so it felt kind of fresh and I like Xmas themed stuff so I was kind biased towards it right from the get go. It wasn't amazing, not as great as Abe Lincoln Must Die! or Reality 2.0, but enjoyable overall. It opens real strong. Plus, they took the story in a direction I didn't expect and I felt clever when I figured out the friendly demon song puzzle, as well as the trivia game puzzle. I got a chuckle or two at some of the jokes too. The changes to the environment were a nice change being that it's the second season and all, and I liked the new character as well. I feel like you have to deliver when you do a holiday episode of a TV show, and this series is kind of like watching an animated comedy series. I think they delivered. Overall I'd give this one a thumbs up

Episode 2...I hated. Yup, I really, really, REALLY hated it. It wasn't funny and one of the puzzles irritated me so much that I resorted to a faq. That's the second time since I started playing the series that I had to use a faq for a puzzle and I HATE that. It really tarnishes my feelings on an episode when it forces me to use a faq. So I pretty much knew from that point on that nothing was going to make me like this episode. I didn't like the theme. I didn't like the overabundance of celebrity references either. This one felt a tad too high brow for a Sam & Max game. I don't know. I just hate this episode

So yeah, mixed feelings about season 2 so far. Started out good, then got really bad. On a more positive note, it's cool that this season supports widescreen. I was really getting tired of that full screen crap, but I'm playing the GOG PC versions. I heard they got widescreen on Wiiware.

202 is widely considered to be the worst episode altogether.

That's kind of a relief actually. I thought something was wrong with me that I was hating it so much. The whole thing just felt very off to me, from the puzzles to the humor. I couldn't figure out if maybe I had reached a point where maybe my interest in the series had finally waned, or if the episode was just so bad that it was making me feel that way

I can understand why some people didn't like 103. I don't have a strong dislike for it, but the puzzles felt a bit simplistic and the episode felt a bit short. The humor seemed to peter out by the end too. The Yo Mama jokes were a bit lame. Also, the way the fake death scene played out with you know who was really odd. That episode did introduce a great running gag though with the gambler guy. I still chuckle whenever I open the closet in each episode

Reality 2.0 is my fave so far, Abe Lincoln Must Die my second fave, and I think Ice Station Santa is probably the third fave so far. Though Ice Station Santa is sort of a distant third. It was good, but not great. I think Reality 2.0 and Abe Lincoln Must Die show what the series is really capable of when it's at its best. Abe Lincoln Must Die just felt so damn BALLSY to me. I was like, "Oh my god, they went there." And Reality 2.0 was just so SPOT ON with the video game humor. I hate Moia Better Blues. I think the only part of that episode I enjoyed was talking to the computers while Sybil was getting chased around at the very beginning of the episode. I laughed out loud when the arcade machine said, "JESUS LADY CALM DOWN!!!"

[dunpeal2064]

1. Mega Man (NES)
2. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
3. Toejam & Earl (GEN)
4. Mortal Kombat (SCD)

Mortal Kombat: My fighting game series of choice since I was a kid, yet I never had the chance to play the Sega CD port of the first game. I was expecting the better audio, but the game also looks much crisper than the Genesis port. While there is the addition of loading times, they aren't that bad, and maybe it was just me, but the game felt like it played smoother too. I played through as Scorpion, using all 3 credits that the game gives you before the endurance matches. I didn't think I was going to make it! The fight with Sheng Tsung was the only spot where I noticed something a little odd. It takes Sheng Tsung quite some time to transform, and it slows the game to a crawl to do so. Did anyone else that has played this game experience this? The rest of the game runs so smooth, but it would make sense that the game has to load the characters that Tsung is morphing into. Overall, this is the best home conversion of MK that I have played.

[noiseredux]

Mortal Kombat: My fighting game series of choice since I was a kid, yet I never had the chance to play the Sega CD port of the first game. I was expecting the better audio, but the game also looks much crisper than the Genesis port. While there is the addition of loading times, they aren't that bad, and maybe it was just me, but the game felt like it played smoother too. I played through as Scorpion, using all 3 credits that the game gives you before the endurance matches. I didn't think I was going to make it! The fight with Sheng Tsung was the only spot where I noticed something a little odd. It takes Sheng Tsung quite some time to transform, and it slows the game to a crawl to do so. Did anyone else that has played this game experience this? The rest of the game runs so smooth, but it would make sense that the game has to load the characters that Tsung is morphing into. Overall, this is the best home conversion of MK that I have played.

I played this recently too and liked the port way more than I expected. The load times didn't bother me either, though that little pause between endurance enemies was a bit of a WTF moment for sure. I can't answer on Sheng though, as I got beat by Goro and then didn't give it another go. Not sure why, as I was having a lot of fun with the damn game. Maybe I should throw it back in soon just to beat it.

[AppleQueso]

I'm gonna have to definitely check out Paranoiascape, it sounds really cool.

1. Mega Man (NES)
2. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
3. Toejam & Earl (GEN)
4. Mortal Kombat (SCD)

Mortal Kombat: My fighting game series of choice since I was a kid, yet I never had the chance to play the Sega CD port of the first game. I was expecting the better audio, but the game also looks much crisper than the Genesis port. While there is the addition of loading times, they aren't that bad, and maybe it was just me, but the game felt like it played smoother too. I played through as Scorpion, using all 3 credits that the game gives you before the endurance matches. I didn't think I was going to make it! The fight with Sheng Tsung was the only spot where I noticed something a little odd. It takes Sheng Tsung quite some time to transform, and it slows the game to a crawl to do so. Did anyone else that has played this game experience this? The rest of the game runs so smooth, but it would make sense that the game has to load the characters that Tsung is morphing into. Overall, this is the best home conversion of MK that I have played.

If Sheng Tsung is handled in that port at all the same way he's handled in other disc based ports of other games in the franchise, the game slows down because it has to load in the character he's transforming to.

[Gamerforlife]

1. Thomas Was Alone - PC
2. Sam & Max Save the World - The whole season
3. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space - Episodes 201-202

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space - Episodes 203-205

I finished the whole season now, posted my thoughts on the first two episodes in previous posts

I really enjoyed episode 203, Night of the Raving Dead. I liked the supernatural theme. If 201 was the Christmas episode, this almost felt like a Halloween episode. I got a lot of good laughs after the first big plot twist

when they became zombies and couldn't communicate with other characters.

and I always got a kick out of seeing

Sam & Max getting down on the dance floor.

I loved the new character,

the Frankenstein monster

For some odd reason though, this game crashed CONSTANTLY on my laptop, which was driving me crazy and almost took away my enjoyment of the episode. This is the first episode I had trouble running on my laptop. I made the decision to play the remaining episodes on my newer, desktop PC and haven't had any issues since. The bigger screen and higher res made them more enjoyable too

Episodes 204 and 205 were a little uneven. There were great moments, and others that I didn't like so much. Overall, I liked them, but I was starting to feel like someone needed to look at these episodes and realize that certain things should have been left on the cutting room floor so to speak. The writing didn't always feel as tight and polished as it should be and some of the comedy fell flat. At times, things felt more weird than funny and I think that Sybil, Bosco, and

Lincoln

became less likable characters in the tail end of this season(though I starting disliking

Lincoln

back in episode 202). I'm actually grateful for the new characters in

male Stinky, female Stinky, and the monster

as Bosco,

Lincoln

and Sybil are starting to feel stale. I would like to see more of

Flint, and I still enjoy the computers and the rat guy.

Okay, enough with the spoiler tags. I think the next season could benefit from new characters and new villains as there is a bit too much character recycling going on in season 2.

The puzzle designs were fine though. They've been a bit more complex this season I think, but I've kind of found my groove with them. I got stuck on some for a long time, only to realize that the answer was staring me in the face the whole time. There's a real cleverness to some of season 2's puzzles and you have to REALLY pay attention to your environment as that's sometimes where the clues are and you need a keen memory for some of the things that people say and do as well. I didn't like the puzzles in episode 202 though, but I just hated that episode in general, low point of the season there. My favorite episodes were 201 and 203, a.k.a. Sam & Max Ice Station Santa and Sam & Max Night of the Raving Dead. Probably more so the latter than the former.

Season 2 is certainly weaker, but stick through it - it has it's good moments, particularly Night of the Raving Dead. The final puzzle of season 2 is the weakest in the entire series though imo.

I think there is a bit too much going on story wise in season 2, which hurt it a bit. Also, some characters were starting to feel overused (Sybil and Bosco). I would like to see some of the new season 2 characters utilized a bit more in season 3. Some new villains would be nice too,

instead of repackaging old characters as villains which seems to be the Sam & Max formula. I'm not too fond of that

Lastly, I'm a bit tired of the mini-game driving sequences. They are pointless and I don't care about decals.

The final puzzle of season 2 was the most complex "boss fight" of the series so far. I figured it out quickly though because I had started getting into the habit of right clicking on inventory items in episode 204 and

right clicking on the Stinky's Baby book item sort of gave away the puzzle solution for me as I probably wouldn't have figured it out otherwise. I think they may have relied a bit too much on continuity memory here too as it seems they wanted players to remember the birthday cake thing from season 1's American Idol parody, which I did right after hearing the item description for Stinky's Baby book.

[flex wood]

Assassins Creed 3-Ps3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution-Ps3
Dishonored-Ps3

Batman: Arkham City-Ps3
I didn't really play that much of Asylum so I didn't really know what to think going into this. I expected the game to have more of an open world but the city felt very small and almost claustrophobic. It was fun, but I think I may have been playing it wrong. I didn't really seem to get the hang of the stealth until the last mission or two of the game. I think I'll replay this again later in the year and spend more time with it, I just feel like I just blew through the game.

[Cronozilla]

I replayed Adventure Time until the end ... encountered the same bug, but it wasn't as extreme (less ice pieces automatically hit me) and I finished it up. I think I'm going to get a replacement from D3, I haven't heard of anyone else having this issue.

I also finished up Scribblenauts Unlimited.

That's it so far.