Games Beaten 2015

by **MrPopo** Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:26 am

First 50:

51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC
52. Starflight - PC
53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast
54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC
55. Super Star Wars - SNES
56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC
57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC
58. The Catacomb - PC
59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS
60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS
61. Catacomb Abyss - PC
62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC
63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC
64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC
65. StarCraft - PC
66. Metal Storm - NES
67. Septerra Core - PC
68. Metal Warriors - SNES
69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES
70. Anachronox - PC
71. Faxanadu - NES
72. Adventures of Lolo - NES
73. Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
74. Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming - PC
75. Mega Man 5 - NES
76. MechWarrior 3 - PC
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
78. Faria - NES
79. Rebel Galaxy - PC
80. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game - NES
81. Grim Fandango - PC
82. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - PC
83. Fallout 4 - PC
84. Bloodrayne - PC
85. Bloodrayne 2 - PC
86. Catacomb Armageddon - PC
87. This Starry Midnight We Make - PC
88. Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut - PC
89. Catacomb Apocalypse - PC
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Tomb Raider Legend - PC
92. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
93. Tomb Raider Anniversary - PC

Anniversary is a remake of the original Tomb Raider on the Legend engine. I found it to be a stronger game than Legend; you spend a lot more time on the platforming and puzzle solving and several of them really require thinking. The game does a good job of ramping up the challenge; you start off with all the time in the world but by the end you need to hit a series of jumps, climbs, and pole vaults one right after the other or you die. There are no human enemies; everything is some kind of creature that has a melee attack (although endgame there are a few enemies with ranged fireballs). This feeds in to a combat system based around enemies enraging. If you do enough damage in a short enough period of time the enemy will flash and charge you; at this point time slows down and you can dodge and them get in an instant kill attack. The bosses are defeated in the same fashion, though the instant-kill is replaced with staggering the boss in some fashion to move the fight forward. Each boss has a different mechanic from the stagger; the T-Rex at the start just runs into stuff and hurts himself while the centaurs get stunned and can have their shields removed (which is necessary to kill them). The final boss even requires you to be specific in how you dodge if you want to make any headway.

The biggest complaint I have is that Lara is too quiet. Legend had the banter with her mission control and the reboot had her doing a lot of internal monologue: she comments a lot on what's going on around her. Lara in Anniversary is almost a blank slate, which is unfortunate. I enjoy her character and it's a real shame that you don't really get to see much of it in this game.

Underworld is next. I probably won't start it until tomorrow, but when I do I'll see if I can knock it out in one day.

by **Markies** Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:56 pm

I beat Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast!

I've had Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore on the PS2 for several years now and I absolutely adore that game. Because of that and wanting to play all games in series', I picked up Dead or Alive 2 on the DreamCast. I think the game runs better on the Dreamcast. It loads once at the beginning and then never does throughout the entire game. It ran so smoothly and the graphics look freaking amazing.

Hardcore had more unlockables and replayability which is sorely missing in the Dreamcast version, but it still is a wonderful game and I absolutely love replaying this game.

by **noiseredux** Sun Dec 06, 2015 6:37 pm

It is bettervon Dreamcast, agreed. Played some last night myself.

by **MrPopo** Sun Dec 06, 2015 9:16 pm

First 50:

51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC
52. Starflight - PC
53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast
54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC
55. Super Star Wars - SNES
56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC
57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC
58. The Catacomb - PC
59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS
60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS
61. Catacomb Abyss - PC
62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC
63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC
64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC
65. StarCraft - PC
66. Metal Storm - NES
67. Septerra Core - PC
68. Metal Warriors - SNES
69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES
70. Anachronox - PC
71. Faxanadu - NES
72. Adventures of Lolo - NES
73. Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
74. Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming - PC
75. Mega Man 5 - NES
76. MechWarrior 3 - PC
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
78. Faria - NES
79. Rebel Galaxy - PC
80. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game - NES
81. Grim Fandango - PC
82. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - PC
83. Fallout 4 - PC
84. Bloodrayne - PC
85. Bloodrayne 2 - PC
86. Catacomb Armageddon - PC
87. This Starry Midnight We Make - PC
88. Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut - PC
89. Catacomb Apocalypse - PC
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Tomb Raider Legend - PC
92. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
93. Tomb Raider Anniversary - PC
94. Tomb Raider Underworld - PC

The final chapter of the Crystal Dynamics trilogy. Underworld wraps up the story points from Legend and Anniversary and ends on a nice conclusion to the arc. There aren't really any leftover plot threads, so while they could have started a new chapter in the series they ended up going for a reboot instead.

The game is sort of a middle ground between Anniversary and Legend in terms of how its set up. You lose mission control but Lara does a lot more talking to herself (taking notes into a Dictaphone). It gives you more context into what you're doing, as several puzzles are based around mythological elements from ancient cultures. There are human enemies but they only show up twice (technically three times, but the third time you have a one hit KO weapon so it doesn't matter what you're facing), and in general combat is deemphasized like Anniversary. It's there, but only to keep you on your toes. The levels are longer and more intricate than Legend but not quite as long as Anniversary, which is good, in my opinion. A few sections of Anniversary felt like they could have done with one puzzle fewer. And finally, there are no bosses. There's a final boss puzzle, if you will, but no enemies with health bars you need to reduce to zero.

The game also starts off and end with scuba sections, which look amazing. It's a real visual treat and the swimming controls work rather well; if you hold forward you move in the direction you point the camera, with the option to use jump and crouch to shift to straight up and down as necessary or to do some fine maneuvering. I definitely appreciate the addition. There's also the return of the motorcycle, but this time it's used to traverse long stretches of terrain and to get over areas you can't cross on foot, rather than Legend's chase with guns sequences.

Finally, the game demonstrates that all these ancient cultures didn't survive because they spent all their wealth on insane stone mechanical boondoggles that manage to last through the millennia. The third area is holy shit.

Not sure why Exhuminator didn't care for the game; he must be a little dead inside or something.

by **Exhuminator** Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:18 pm

MrPopo wrote:Not sure why Exhuminator didn't care for the game; he must be a little dead inside or something.

I found the review I wrote for why I quit playing it back in a Games NOT Beaten thread:

But that's just me, the game's got its fans.

The last "Tomb Raider" game I played that I really enjoyed was Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. You might enjoy it. But I beat it co-op and the co-op aspect is what made it so much fun for me.

Also you are a MACHINE Popo.

by **BoneSnapDeez** Mon Dec 07, 2015 12:16 am

I have never played a good Tomb Raider game.

But I also enjoy games that look like this

so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

by **MrPopo** Mon Dec 07, 2015 12:42 am

The camera screwed me once or twice, but otherwise I didn't have problems with the controls nor the puzzles. There were even a couple that took a minute to figure out, but when I did it was one of those good lightbulb moments. They usually involved the grapple line that they added a bunch of functionality to.

But yeah, I'm a man on a mission. I'm halfway through the Zerg campaign of Brood War from earlier this year; I figure I can knock that off in the next couple evenings. Then I'm going to do my best to knock out Bloodlines. If I'm good I'll do that Friday night (busy Wednesday and Thursday). Then I'll have four more to go to hit 100 by the end of the year with almost three full weeks available.

by **dsheinem** Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:55 am

So I am trying to get back up on that horse...

I haven't stopped playing games entirely over the past few months, but I haven't really been able to list a game on this thread since mid-September. That game, Destiny's "The Taken King" expansion basically continued to take up the vast majority of my gaming time until the end of October. I wouldn't say I completely took November off from gaming, but I really played very little of anything last month :shock:

This month, I am hoping to make up for that delay by churning out some titles on the quick. In addition to some shorter games, I also hope to get through at least a few of the bigger releases for the year so that I have some sense of a "top 5 of 2015" list by the end of the year. I also need a bit more retro on the list, so hopefully I can squeeze a couple of older games in too...

Games Beaten 2015
First 50 of the year:

NotGTAV - - PC
Flower - PS4
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture- PS4
Towerfall - PS4
Cyberbots - PS1
Battletoads (Arcade) - Xbox One
Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast and Furious - Xbox One
Gunman Clive 2 - 3DS
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions - Vita
Rocket League - PS4
Far Cry 4 - PS4
Her Story - PC
Destiny: The Taken King - PS4
Retro City Rampage - Vita *new*
Ultraflow - iOS *new*
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - Vita *new*

Total: 66

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

Retro City Rampage never clicked when I first tried it back when it came out, but this time it did and I moved through it in a few settings. The humor often misses, the game steeply scales in difficulty at the end, and the soundtrack is overrated...but the controls feel spot on and the game feels at home on the handheld. All in all I enjoyed my time with it and am interested in the team's upcoming sequel.

Ultraflow is a really beautiful example of minimalist game design done right. If you enjoy monochrome puzzle games or games that feel native to touch controls but haven't checked it out, I think it is worth your time.

I am sure many of you believe that there is a special section of hell designed for people like me who prefer Sony's Smash Bros. rip-off to the real deal, but I can now say that I enjoy PS All Stars on both the PS3 AND on the Vita more than I have ever enjoyed any previous version of Smash Bros. That said, I do have the new 3DS and Wii U Smash Bros games on the agenda for this month, so I will have to see if Nintendo has "caught up" :twisted:

.

by **fastbilly1** Mon Dec 07, 2015 12:26 pm

Loom

Way back in 1995 I borrowed a copy of the Loom from one of my cousins in one of the epic Lucasarts Adventure multipacks. While I enjoyed playing it, I never did beat it (Monkey Island was also in the pack). Well yesterday my wife was off with her mother and I was laid out with a pinched nerve in my back, so when I tired of Warlords Battlecry 3, I loaded up Loom. Three hours later, I closed Loom. I had vague memories of getting out of the first area but got stuck because I realized I needed a pad and paper for the chords. So I fired up a guide that had all the variants of chords listed and went with that. I did not open a guide, just powered through. There is one thing that allows you to go into a Lucasarts adventure with untamed bravado - they will not let you get in an unwinnable situation, so I just powered through the world like I was on a unguided tour and it was awesome.

Loom is such a unique game. I am not super musically inclined - despite having been a sound engineer chords are a mystery to me, but the chords are also color coded in game (funny enough, like a harp) so the game is easily playable by anyone. It uses standard Lucasarts Adventure game logic but no inventory. Sadly it is not as good as the other Lucasarts adventure titles. It was supposed to be part of a trilogy, has a couple parts that have a decent bit of backtracking (it needs the fast travel to edge of map that they introduced in The Dig), and the stark change of gameplay from the other SCUMM titles it is noticeably boggier as a title. Thats not to say it is not a great game, a bad Lucasarts SCUMM game is still a masterpiece, just slightly flawed.

I recommend everyone giving it a go, it is a great way to spend an evening.

by **Sarge** Mon Dec 07, 2015 12:28 pm

I enjoyed Underworld, but there was some real engine jankiness going on under the hood. I had several times where she would literally glitch herself off a handhold. Most of the experience was fine, and I enjoyed it, but the technical problems were really a bummer.

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