Games Beaten 2014

[alienjesus]

Having played Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman and Lego Harry Potter with various people at various times, they're basically all the same. In fact, if anything, Lego City Undercover looks to be the most unique one. I probably wouldnt buy it if you wern't a fan of that game - they're pretty repetitive and similar.

[graffix_13]

1. Tearaway- PS Vita (Platinum Trophy)
2. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
3. Resogun- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)
4. Super Stardust Delta- PS Vita
5. Galaga Legions DX- PS3
6. Under Defeat HD- PS3 (Platinum Trophy)
7. Ketsui Extra- PS3
8. Tomb Raider: DE- PS4 (Platinum Trophy)

My first Tomb Raider game, and wow...what a game! I never did play the original back in '96, so better late than never I suppose. Although this version is a 'reboot' I still may go back and play the original. The story for this Tomb Raider was good, the gameplay was fun, and the graphics were outstanding! Really not much I can say bad about the game, other than maybe it was a bit too easy and the MP trophies (but these can be skipped if you don't care about trophies/cheevos). Since techically the game came out in 2013, I'd put this as my #3 best of 2013...just ahead of GTA V.

[Stark]

Yeah the new TR reboot was amazing and kinda came out of left field. I've been tempted to get the DE edition several times, I just have too much other stuff to play and since there is nothing new other than graphics ...

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Hotline Miami (PS3)
2. Boulder Dash XL 3D (3DS)
3. Mirror's Edge (PS3)
4. Orcs & Elves (DS)
5. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
6. Justice League Heroes: The Flash (GBA)
7. Metal Gear (MSX/PS2)
8. Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
9. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
10. Drill Dozer (GBA)

I beat Drill Dozer over the weekend. It is a cute, polished, and unique platformer developed by Game Freak, the team behind Nintendo's Pokemon games. During the game, your character pilots a machine - the titular Drill Dozer - that can drill through a variety of objects whenever you press the R trigger to spin its drill clockwise or the L trigger to spin its drill counter-clockwise. Throughout each stage, you acquire two additional gears that allow you to "shift up" to a higher power level, drill through objects more quickly, and operate the drill for a longer period of time. Finally, the game has a unique rumble feature that provides tactile feedback whenever you operate the drill at different speeds or shift between gears.

The drill mechanic creates some interesting gameplay. For example, many gaps in the game can only be navigated by drilling into a surface and then "reversing out" of the surface very quickly. Likewise, certain projectiles during some of the game's excellent boss fights can only be deflected by spinning the drill one way or another, and navigating certain tunnels in the game requires spinning the drill clockwise to move forward or counter-clockwise to move backwards (or vice-versa). The developers squeezed everything they could out of the drill mechanic, and the game is brimming with challenging platforming puzzles.

Finally, the game looks and sounds great. The graphics reminded me very much of Treasure's delighful 2D platformers on the Sega Genesis and Gameboy Advance, and the music was reminiscent of Capcom's Mega Man games.

That said - and despite the fact the game can be beaten in a couple of hours - the levels drag on a bit too long, and the developers should have focused more on the game's excellent boss fights (i.e., they should have added a lot more of them). The bonus levels are short and very, very challenging, but unlocking all of them would require me to replay the main levels in search of chips (i.e., the game's currency). The game, while fun, is not so much fun that I feel compelled to sink a few hours retracing my steps, but for those of you who enjoy it more than I did, there is certainly plenty to do once you have completed the story.

In sum, I enjoyed the game, and I respect its design immensely. I also consider it to be one of the best original platformers on the Gameboy Advance, and I recommend it - with a few reservations - to anyone who owns that system.

.....

I am still playing through the bonus content in Wario Land: Shake It! and Little Big Planet - both of which are great BTW - so it may be a while before I get to something else on a console. (I am actually enjoying the bonus levels in LittleBigPlanet much more than the story levels.) I do plan to start another portable game soon, however, but I am trying to choose what genre I should tackle next (since I am a bit burnt on 2D platformers at the moment). Any suggestions?

[Fragems]

Games Beaten 2014:

1. GTA V(360)
2. Brothers(PSN)
3. Infamous(PS3)*
4. Infamous 2(PS3)

*=replay

Infamous 2 overall was a solid sequel the graphics and voice acting were top notch and game play was just as enjoyable as the original. Really liked the improvements to the power although I didn't care for how they stripped so many of them from you at the get go. Was especially disappointed at the lack of Thunder and Rocket skills early on. The new powers made up for it though there was a good amount of customization for each skill which gave you options to change the everything from burst pattern, rate of fire, accuracy, and element type. Plus you could swap the majority of your skills rather easily through a quick swap menu. They also greatly improved the maneuverability of Cole by adding enhanced thrusters, special jumps, and even a grapple ability later in game.

The only down side to the game was the lack of bosses. There are really only two big bosses in the game and you will fight them multiple times. Each time is a rather boring experience as well. Sure the enemies are 5-6 stories high but they are so slow that it basically becomes a boring run and gun segment each time they pop up. The game does have a large variety of minibosses but none of them were that amazing and they are used very frequently. Each time one appears it turns into a 3-4 minute affair of hosing them with damage until they die at which point the game pauses so you can watch the same death animation over and over .

Finally the ending was crap. It was a great concept and story wise it is memorable. However the game play sucked the final boss was a complete let down with the more advanced abilities it was probably the easiest fight of the game. In all honesty the first boss which happened about 5 minutes into the game was more challenging then the final battle .

Overall it's worth playing though and I might end up getting a PS4 sooner rather then latter if Second Son goes well.

Now on to Remember Me(PS3). Man am I ever loving Playstation Plus the free games are amazing really kicking myself for not getting a membership earlier. Hell I even have all the Vita games that I have been wanting to play even though I don't have a Vita lol.

[isiolia]

1.) Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)
2.) Remember Me (PC)
3.) Mirror's Edge (PC)
4.) Jumping Flash! (PS1)
5.) Run Saber (SNES)
6.) Heavenly Sword (PS3)
7.) X-Blades (360)
8.) Blades of Time (360)
9.) Trapt (PS2)
10.) Hunted: The Demon's Forge (360)
11.) Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
12.) Venetica (PC)
13.) Metal Gear (MSX)
14.) Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX)
15.) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition (PS3)
16.) Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)

Thoughts:

In playing through the Metal Gear games, next up after MGS3 was Portable Ops. Kojima’s involvement in this one is much less , but it has been confirmed as canon.
My expectation was that the game would be VR Mission-ey, breaking down missions into chunks that would be more suited to short play sessions on the PSP. That much is the case, but, Portable Ops also adds a recruitment/squad system that serves to make things a bit more complicated.
I think it works on several levels – it works for the story, it works for incorporating multiplayer, and it (could) work for making bite sized chunks of Metal Gear more interesting. In practice though, the recruiting is tedious, making stocking your various teams a chore. You get four items on a character, I guess to encourage swapping between squad members during missions, but in practice it means needing to swap things around just to pick up random items.

In turn, because of the changes, I think the game lost a lot of the little touches that really make Metal Gear games stand out. Almost none of the clever item use, finding the “right” way to get past bosses, those kinds of things. I think it means to replace that with replaying the game/missions to fill/level up teams, recruiting extra characters, and so on, but those things aren’t that interesting for a simple playthrough.
Another issue that came up with the model they used is keeping the atmosphere and pacing up. On paper, the story and characters are decent, but in practice, you don’t see enough of either. Even the boss fights are fairly mundane, if not just cheap. Apparently someone –really- liked the Volgin fight in MGS3 where he blocks nearly everything…because half the boss battles in Portable Ops are like that.

As annoying as some of the issues are, it can still deliver the compartmentalized MGS experience. When it came out, it likely had little equal on a portable. Now, however, we have Peace Walker, which (so far, I’m maybe 1/3 through it) fixes basically all of the above without just scrapping the whole system. It’s like going from Metal Gear to Metal Gear 2 – same basic concept, far better execution.
In turn, I feel Portable Ops belongs at/near the bottom of the pile for canon games, and it’s easy to see why it got left out of the collections

[Stark]

4. Infamouse 2(PS3)

Is this the Danger Mouse version?

[wclem]

#6 Last of US - Left Behind

Yes I am counting this as a game of its own. I paid for it separately thus it is a game of it won LOL.

I really wanted to comment on it though. I thought it was pretty good, but could have been longer or more informative to the story. Was it enjoyable, yes. Was it worth 15 bucks, well I have two answers for that. Yes and no.

Yes:
It did give some back story and was I felt slightly more intuitive in the challenges set forth to you. It seemed like they refined it a little, let you do things slightly different. I am not saying what on purpose as to not ruin anything for you. Not even spoiler tagging it as those are so damn tempting.

No:
TOO DAMN SHORT - give you more you hairy assed bastards!!! Really my only complaint, I wanted more gameplay and they left a little story out I wanted filled in on.

People who like or do not mind digital and want a Last of Us fix should go and buy it. If you do not like digital or DLC then you should avoid or get it on sale.

[wclem]

4. Infamouse 2(PS3)

Is this the Danger Mouse version?

Best collection DVD ever LOL

[Sload Soap]

Virtua Cop & Virtua Cop 2

More saturn goodness. First time I've ever beat both games back to back and with the "proper" endings by playing the levels in order.

I said in the random thoughts thread that I'd like to smash both the Sonic All Stars racing games together to make one perfect game, and I think the same applies here. I like Virtua Cop's difficulty and find VC2 to be a bit cheap at times, but then VC2 has better graphics and levels with multiple paths. Then again I think VC is the tighter experience, but VC2 is more OTT in that Sega way. I never knew you could fit so many soldiers into a mid-nineties sedan.

That isn't to knock either game though, as each individually is still excellent old school reflex based fun. I love that aesthetic they both hae and you just don't get games like this anymore. Essential Saturn purchases I feel.

Wipeout 64

I was very disappointed by Wipeout Fusion recently so when I saw this cheap I hoped I could recapture the magic of 2097 and Wip3out. I was right, and was pleasantly surprised that rather than being a port of 2097, it is actually its own game in a lot of ways.

The most obvious change is the control which is now strictly analogue. This I like and in combination with the airbrakes placed on the Z and R buttons makes for a very tight control scheme. Each racer gets a different super weapon of varying effectiveness -Qirex's shield is useless, the others are deadly- and there is a pretty demanding challenge mode. It's pretty tough, but fair tough not F-Zero GX's ridiculous story mode tough.

There are a few flaws. The track look new but all aside from the final unlockable are rejigged from the previous two wipeout's. Personally though I think they're just different enough to qualify as new. Obviously the music has taken a hit. I've also heard people say the graphics are inferior to the PS1 2097. I'm not sure about this. W64 runs faster than 2097 I think but there is a decent amount of pop-up and that trademark N64 blur. Regardless, both are visually inferior to Wipeout 3 either way.

Anyway, a great game and definitely different enough from the PS1 and (terrible) saturn versions to justify picking up.