Games Beaten 2015

[jmbarnes101]

My oldest daughter, 11, just beat Attack of the Friday Monsters: A Tokyo Tale and really enjoyed it. She's playing the post credits game now and continuing to battle others as she really enjoys the monster card game. This game was very short, about 4 hours, but has a nice art style and quality story based gameplay.

[Exhuminator]

January
1. Devil's Attorney (Android) (good game)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) (good game)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) (good game)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) (great game)
5. Gears of War (360) (decent game)

February
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (decent game)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS) (good game)
8. From The Abyss (DS) (decent game)
9. Army of Two (360) (decent game)

Army of Two is about one thing; cover shooting, cover shooting, and definitely cover shooting. If you're into that, you will find this game is extremely adept at that style of combat. The challenging enemy AI is above average, gunplay feels solid, and the controls are simple. The standout feature of Army of Two is its aggro mode in tandem with split-screen co-op; making a mediocre game far more entertaining if played as such. However the threadbare plot, lack luster graphics, and one trick pony gameplay means this is certainly not an army for one.

[noiseredux]

1. Beavis And Butt-Head In Virtual Stupidity (PC)
2. Renegade Ops (PC)
3. Arena Of Octos (Apple II)
4. Beauty And The Beast (Intellivision)
5. Chivalry (Apple II)
6. Donald Duck's Playground (C64)
7. Left 4 Dead (PC)
8. Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
9. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered (PC)
10. Forward To The Sky (PC)

This is a nice little indie game that can be tackled in a sitting. Took me 2 hours. Sort of a mix between 3D Zelda combat and the sort of puzzle/platforming you'd see in a game like Ico. It has a nice fantasy anime look to it. It's nothing amazing or new, but it's certainly a quaint little game. I'd suggest scooping it up on sale sometime anyway.

[emwearz]

Games Beaten 2015

1. New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3DS
2. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - Wii U
3. God of War - PS2
4. Gunman Clive - 3DS
5. Dead Space 3: Awakened (DLC) - PC
6. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - DS
7. Rogue Legacy - PS4
8. Spinmaster - Neo Geo (Via Neo Geo X)
9. The Walking Dead: Season Two - PC
10. Transistor - PS4

Total Games for 2015: 10

Spinmaster - Neo Geo (Via Neo Geo X)
This game is completely awesome, it i like a far more platform centric Metal Slug, I actually played it through back to back it was so good. The first time cost me 9 credits, the second 5. Great game, I highly recommend it to anyone who has never played it.

The Walking Dead: Season Two - PC
I started playing when the episodes first rolled out, then after episode 4 came out I just got bored and was not excited, finally finished it. Best way to sum it up is as that, not exciting. Just a far weaker version of the first game and as it came out the same time as The Wolf Among Us, it really looked weak.

Transistor - PS4
Transistor is by the same studio that brought us Bastion and just like Bastion it has some beautiful visuals and some great narration (this time it is not a straight narrator like the first game). The game is also different, while looking very similar. It is not an action hack and slash like the first (it could be though, but much harder this way) it is much more akin to a strategy RPG, you must use limited actions with your move, when you use them all you have to run around on the fly until your meter fills again.

Great fun, though quite short.

[Exhuminator]

January
1. Devil's Attorney (Android) (good game)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) (good game)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) (good game)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) (great game)
5. Gears of War (360) (decent game)

February
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (decent game)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS) (good game)
8. From The Abyss (DS) (decent game)
9. Army of Two (360) (decent game)
10. Psychic World (Master System) (subpar game)

Psychic World is a very forward thinking platformer held back by archaic difficulty choices. Forward thinking (for its time) in that the protagonist is female and uses psychic powers instead of guns to progress. Said psychic powers are used in multitudes of ways to solves puzzles throughout the game world, leading to a rather unique action platformer indeed. However the designers are quick to kill the player often in ways the player could not predict beforehand, leading to oldschool trial and error gameplay. Unless the player possesses their own ESP powers, it will take super human patience instead to see them through this game's challenging world.

[isiolia]

1.) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PC)
2.) Transistor (PC)
3.) Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death (PC)
4.) Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC)
5.) The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)
6.) Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC)
7.) Guilty Gear Xrd Sign (PS4)

(Cleared arcade mode with standard cast, which netted the trophy for clearing it and unlocked all the videos. Watched story mode, did some tutorial/challenge stuff)

Thoughts:

Outside of getting access to the IP back, the big success seems to be in establishing a solid foundation for future entries. We've seen plenty of 2.5D fighters, but this is the first I've seen that looks near spot-on like HD sprites - until it shifts perspective. The look is right, the feel is right, and all on the Unreal engine to boot.

A likely common complaint though, is the lack of characters, especially when a lot of the not-yet-included are series staples, and two of the new characters are DLC (granted, one would have been "free" had I bought the game a couple weeks sooner). Given how Arc has handled those in the past, they'll likely be standard inclusions on the next release, but still. Only one of my regularly used characters made the cut this time.

The story mode also feels somewhat sparse. While it certainly runs on long enough, the only interaction is stopping every so often to let you save your progress. Basically, it's a several hour long cutscene, where previous ones (like those in the Blazblue series) take on more of a visual novel format with per-character paths and choices. Also, it picks up from Guilty Gear 2, which I haven't played

I don't doubt future entries will be increasingly packed with options and goodies, since that's what prior Guilty Gear and Blazblue games have done (or what, say, KoF XII to XIII did). Would have been nice if it was a teensy bit more robust out of the gate though.

[Ack]

1. Renegade Ops (PC)(Multidirectional Shooter)
2. Borderlands 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
3. Gunpoint (PC)(Puzzle Platformer)
4. Robotrek (SNES)(RPG)
5. The Tick (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Alien vs Predator (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. X-Kaliber 2097 (SNES)(Action Platformer)
8. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)

As per tradition, I beat Metal Slug at least once a year, but usually several times. I finally sat down(or stood up I should say) and played through it in 2015 in two player with a buddy of mine from college. 8 credits total spent. I've done better but am out of practice.

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Cut the Rope (3DS)
2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
3. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XBOX)
4. Jewel Link Chronicles: Mountains of Madness (NDS)
5. Super Mario 3D World (WIIU)
6. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)

Mario Kart 7 is a Mario Kart game through-and-through. It is very fun and very addictive. (I meant to stop once I placed first in all of the 150CC circuits, but after I accomplished that goal, I just had to improve my rankings in every cup and finish first in all of the mirror mode cups.) Moreover, it utilizes the 3DS's 3D effect very well, and the game look great. The music is also very catchy, and both the new and returning tracks are great. (Rainbow Road (SNES) is my personal favorite.) That said, the new gameplay features do not add much, and the game does not stray from the standard Mario Kart formula in any way. Accordingly, and while I enjoyed the game quite a bit, it did not blow me away like some of the better entries in the series.

[dsheinem]

7.) Guilty Gear Xrd Sign (PS4)

(Cleared arcade mode with standard cast, which netted the trophy for clearing it and unlocked all the videos. Watched story mode, did some tutorial/challenge stuff)

Thoughts:

I am working my way through this one but your thoughts largely reflect my own. I only picked it up because it was $24 in a recent flash sale, otherwise I'd feel more than a bit burned by the obvious small cast of characters and the wide room for expansion in the inevitable sequel. All of that is not to take away at all from the base game, which is certainly of a very high quality and a ton of fun.

I suppose any hopes of old sticks working via updated drivers and so on are quickly fading. Guess I need a new arcade stick for my PS4

[BoneSnapDeez]

As per tradition, I beat Metal Slug at least once a year, but usually several times. I finally sat down(or stood up I should say) and played through it in 2015 in two player with a buddy of mine from college. 8 credits total spent. I've done better but am out of practice.

Nice work.

I actually have managed to 1CC it. It is traditionally thought of as being the "easiest" game in the series tho, right?

btw how are you playing this MVS game? I didn't even know you were into MVS.