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Dear Esther
Deus Ex Human Revolution + Missing link
Jamestown
Shank
Sonic Generations
Thunderforce III
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Doom (GBA version)
Batman Arkham Asylum
Wolfenstein 3D
Gran Turismo 5
Batman Arkham City
Project Gotham Racing 3
Borderlands
Jet Set Radio HD
Hell Yeah!
Hotline Miami
Saints Row: The Third
New Super Mario Bros. U
Dishonored

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 WiiU edition

Took me 3 tries to get through the arcade mode with no continues on normal difficulty. This is one of the few fighting games that I find myself enjoying a lot. I'm not a huge fan of fighters normally, especially not 3D ones, but this one can stay. I love the modifier key for combos, it allows me to not frustrate myself with button mashing, and since it shows me what the button combo is, it also helps me learn. Jun is by far my favorite character to play so far. I tagged with Roger Jr through my playthrough but he mostly sat there the whole time.

I had a pretty good year for beating games, compared to previous years. Last year I was still finishing up college, but I've been a full-time employee rather than a full-time student and it's worked wonders for my free time!

[January]
1. Ridge Racer 3D -3DS
2. Dead or Alive Dimensions -3DS
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 -Genesis
4. WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ -3DS download

[February]
Nothing!

[March]
5. Gals Fighters -NGPC
6. WipEout 2048 -Vita
7. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 -Vita
8. Rock Band Unplugged -PSP
9. Rock Band 2 -360

[April]
10. Anticipation -NES
11. Duck Hunt -NES
12. Find Mii II -3DS
13. Alpha Protocol -PC
14. Rock Band 3 -DS
15. Monopoly -360
16. R.C. Pro-Am -NES

[May]
17. Pokemon Ruby -DS
18. Pokemon Diamond -DS

[June]
19. Lumines: Electronic Symphony -Vita
20. Audiosurf -ZuneHD
21. Sim City -SNES
22. Mario Paint -SNES
23. Monopoly -SNES
24. Persona 3: FES -PS2
25. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -360
26. Dance Dance Revolution -PS1
27. Dance Dance Revolution Konamix -PS1

[July]
28. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy -3DS
29. Find Mii II Secret Quest -3DS
30. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King -PS2
31. Ms. Pac man -SNES
32. Balloon Fight -3DS download

[August]
33. Pokemon White -DS
34. Gran Turismo 5 -PS3
35. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -360
36. Spy Hunter -NES
37. Kirby's Dream Land -3DS Download
38. Pokemon Conquest
39. Excitebike -NES
40. PSP Revolution -PSP

[September]
41. Advance Wars -GBA
42. Gravity Rush -Vita
43. Advance Wars 2 -GBA
44. Advance Wars: Dual Strike -DS
45. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin -DS
46. The 3rd Birthday -PSP
47. Ice Climber -NES
48. Diablo III -PC
49. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness -PSP
50. Aladdin -SNES
51. Wrecking Crew -NES
52. Kid Icarus: Uprising -3DS
53. Super Marios Bros. -NES
54. Donkey Kong Jr. -3DS Download
55. XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association -Xbox
56. Beatmania -PS2

[October]
57. Hyperdimension Neptunia -PS3
58. Pokemon HeartGold -DS
59. Rock Band -360
60. Metroid -NES
61. Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 -PS3
63. N3: Ninety-Nine Nights -360
64. The Legend of Zelda -NES
65. Learn With Pokemon: Typing Adventure! -DS

[November]
66. Asphalt 7 -Nexus7
67. Phantasy Star Portable -PSP
68. Rad Racer -NES
69. Pokedex 3D -3DS
70. Uncharted: Golden Abyss -Vita
71. Bad Dudes -NES
72. Phantasy Star Portable 2 -PSP
73. Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed -WiiU
74. Metal Gear -NES
75. Mario's Tennis -Virtual Boy
76. Zelda II the Adventure of Link -3DS Download
77. Super Mario Bros. 2 -NES
78. Super Mario Land -Gameboy

[December]
79. Juniper's Knot -PC
80. Persona 4: Golden -Vita
81. Sonic Generation -360
82. Nintendoland -WiiU
83. DJMAX Technika Tune -Vita
84. Hard Drivin' -Genesis
85. Pyongyang Racer -browser(lol)
86. Mortal Kombat -Vita
87. Daytona USA -Saturn
88. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus -PSP
89. Brain Age -DS
90. Super Hang On -Genesis
91. Bloody Roar: Primal Fury -Gamecube


Phew! So many good experiences this year! The best ones for me include:
Persona 3: FES
Persona 4: Golden
DJMAX Technika Tune
Hyperdimension Neptunia 1&2
Dragon Quest VIII

Lowlights includes:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Ninety-Nine Nights
Advance Wars 1,2, and Dual Strike. Days of Ruin I kind of liked though.

Compared to the 10-20ish games I beat in 2011, I made a lot of progress. Too bad I also bought ~300 games+ this year, so I'm still behind.

Can I ask why the Advance Wars games were low-lights?

I played the original advance wars and hated it. Trying to go for S ranks was such a pain because of the randomness of the levels

MrHealthy wrote:Can I ask why the Advance Wars games were low-lights?

I think playing all four one right after the other 'warred' him out,

I play them constantly.

But never one right after the other.

The first three are pretty much the same storyline. Days of ruin is slightly more different than the others.

@Pheria: did you beat just the campains or fully 100% on everything?

That would be quite the undertaking.

I just didn't enjoy them. I probably should have worded it differently. They aren't bad games, but ones I didn't enjoy much by the time I had finished. Few games on my list did I 100%, most were just the minimum to get to the credits. Trying to get through most of the backlog first, then come back to the ones I enjoyed the most.

Playing them back to back probably wasn't the best idea either. I think they're deep, unique games.. I Just keep trying to convince myself that I like tactics games, when I don't. The style, tone, and story of Days of Ruin caught my interest a little bit more than the others.

- Fallout 3 (PC)
- Thief Gold (PC)
- Mass Effect 3 (360)
- Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
- Diablo 3 (PC)
- Crysis (360)
- Demon's Souls (PS3)
- Crysis 2 (360)
- Xenoblade (Wii)
- Xenosaga (PS2) (somewhat)
- Xenosaga II (PS2)
- Sonic Generations
- Megaman X (PS2)*
- Megaman X2 (PS2)*
- Megaman X3 (PS2)*
- Megaman X4 (PS2)*
- Megaman X5 (PS2)*
- Megaman X6 (PS2)*
- Halo 4 (360)
- Dishonored (360)
- Megaman (PS2)*
- Megaman 2 (PS2)*
- Megaman 3 (PS2)*
- Thief II: The Metal Age (PC)
- Thief III: Deadly Shadows (PC)

* = replay

Looks like I successfully tackled the Thief series this year. Safe to say the first two are probably some of my new top favorites for sure and ones I'll be revisiting. Up there with Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and Unreal Gold for me. My favorite era of FPS's.

Now TDD was a mixed bag. I've heard people say it's a better sequel to the Thief series than Invisible War was to Deus Ex, with that I'd probably agree somewhat. Still, it definitely went in a direction I didn't like and the story went to crap near the end I thought. Garret remained to be one of the best characters I've seen in games in awhile, and the atmosphere was pretty consistent throughout, levels were always at night (I love that in Deus Ex as well). Unfortunately the engine is a huge issue as well, using the same one as Invisible War. So the maps in the game, were probably literally like a 10th the size of any given map from Thief 1-2. There were definitely some other bugs and chunky stuff off and on, I got stuck hovering in the middle of the air a few times and other oddities popped up sometimes. Visually the engine is pretty good and was especially for its time, had great physics and lighting, but yeah technically it's not that great and it's a real chore to put up with after awhile.

It has a HUB world setup too, whereas T1-T2 were just strictly level based. Sadly I can't say I liked the HUB idea for this series at all, but perhaps it could have been a lot cooler if the engine were better. You ended up having to go back and forth between portions of the HUB and there was a lot of loading screens involved. Definitely got a little old.

Overall, a pretty good game and worth going through, took a good ~15 hours to complete, but I don't think it'll be one I revisit down the road unlike the first two. Gameplay was pretty great once you adapted to the feel of it (in comparison to the first two), but the story is definitely a bit too much as it goes and the engine really holds some potential back.

It'll be interesting to see what Eidos Montreal does with the series. Deus Ex Human Revolution was pretty top notch I thought and the influences (gameplay wise) from Deus Ex were definitely apparent, so hopefully we can say the same about Thief 4. Hopefully they stick to its roots and don't mess things up... your only weapon should be a blackjack and the shadows. I'm not a huge stealth fan, but the Thief games did it right and better than anything else I've played.

Now, I'm definitely looking forward to digging into The Dark Mod.

Games beaten so far:
1. Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again - DSiWare (Gold Star save file)
2. Sonic Generations - PS3
3. Super Mario 3D Land - 3DS (with a five glittering star save file)
4. Starship Defense (All no SOS perfects) - DSiWare
5. Soul of Darkness - DSiWare
6. Mutant Mudds (All crystals and water sprouts) - 3DS Eshop
7. The Simpsons Arcade (US Version) - PS3
8. DodoGo! - DSiWare - (Golden egg on every stage)
9. Mass Effect 2 - 360 (Insanity mode difficulty with Sentinel class)
10. Mass Effect 3 - 360 (Insanity mode with Adept)
11. Final Fantasy XIII-2 - PS3 (Platinum trophy)
12. Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii
13. The Darkness II - Xbox 360
14. Lollipop Chainsaw - PS3 (Platinum trophy) and 360 version (all achievements)
15. Dust: An Elysian Tale - Xbox Live Arcade
16. Cthulu Saves the World - Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Indie Games)
17. Double Dragon Neon - Xbox 360
18. Mark of the Ninja - Xbox 360
19. Journey - PS3
20. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit - PS3 version
21. Fez - Xbox 360
22. Code of Princess - 3DS
23. Sleeping Dogs - 360
24. The Darkness II - Vendetta mode
25. Ratchet and Clank (HD Collection)
26. Ratchet and Clank Going Commando (HD Collection)
27. Gravity Bone - PC
28. Sam & Max Save the World Episode 1 "Culture Shock"
29. Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Sreaming Narwhal
30. Trine - PC
31. Hotline Miami - PC

Dear Esther

Took me a few moments to realize I had beaten this, given the rather unusual way the game ends. I have to give a big thanks to dsheinem for giving me the chance to play this. It reminds me of Journey in that it's a game built around creating a memorable experience that can affect the player in a spiritual or emotional sort of way. Like Journey, it has a bit of an ambiguous story, though this aspect of the game is pushed more to the forefront of the experience than Journey's tale was. In fact, Dear Esther left me with some questions about its story, that has me considering a second playthrough. There's that draw of wanting to put the pieces together and solve the mystery of this tale.

Visually, it's a gorgeous game. It's worth playing just for the environments, and the soundtrack is excellent and mood setting. There are certain...unusual things done with visuals in this game that really draw you into the game and keep your attention. Without spoiling much, the game felt very surreal to me at times, and often very spiritual, mournful, contemplative, desperate, occasionally creepy, and sometimes peaceful. It creates a wide range of feelings as you play through it. That has a lot to do with the way the game smartly uses its visuals, dialog, and music.

People have said this isn't a video game. I think it is. Video games are an interactive experience, and if you were to put the controller down or take your hands away from your mouse and keyboard, you would not experience anything that Dear Esther has to offer. Once you start moving your character around, things start to happen, just like any other game. The fact that Dear Esther doesn't present any difficult challenges to overcome doesn't disqualify it as a game. In fact, it's an experience that could only work in this particular medium, and another great entry into the games as art debate.

Batman Returns - NES

A very underrated game. Tough as nails, but still underrated. In fact, I'd rate the Batman Returns series as:

SNES
NES
SEGA CD
GENESIS

Never played the game gear version and I had NO clue that there was a version on the SMS. I need to find the sms copy, and fast.

Luke wrote:Batman Returns - NES

A very underrated game. Tough as nails, but still underrated. In fact, I'd rate the Batman Returns series as:

SNES
NES
SEGA CD
GENESIS

Never played the game gear version and I had NO clue that there was a version on the SMS. I need to find the sms copy, and fast.

I always thought the Sega CD version was best b/c of the sweet driving sequences. vCan you elaborate a bit on your ranking?

As for me, 80 beaten for 2012 by sometime tomorrow is looking more and more likely