Games Beaten 2015

[BoneSnapDeez]

Only other pick I can think of if you are going with the alphabet theme:
http://www.giantbomb.com/armored-encoun ... 3030-8444/

[Sarge]

I forgot that I finished off Monument Valley: The Forgotten Shores a few weeks ago.

Also, For the Frog the Bell Tolls is undoubtedly cool stuff. I played through it as soon as the patch was released, definitely a great experience. As you say, it's more puzzle- than combat-intensive.

[dsheinem]

I've been thinking about doing the challenge, especially since the first couple of years should go quick and I'm a year off from Dave. Any suggestions for 1978-A?

Edit: Looks like Atari Football or Avalanche?

You could fudge it and do Adventure, as there is a lot of dispute about what year that game came out: http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2012/ ... ar-of.html

[noiseredux]

Plus Adventure is pretty awesome.

[Exhuminator]

I forgot that I finished off Monument Valley: The Forgotten Shores a few weeks ago.

I forgot about that! I need to pick that expansion up on my phone. (Last Droid game I bought was this actually.)

[Stark]

I've been thinking about doing the challenge, especially since the first couple of years should go quick and I'm a year off from Dave. Any suggestions for 1978-A?

Edit: Looks like Atari Football or Avalanche?

You could fudge it and do Adventure, as there is a lot of dispute about what year that game came out: http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2012/ ... ar-of.html

Well if nothing else, that article was a great read! I loved Adventure as a kid, would be nice to finish it.

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC
6. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16
7. Unreal - PC
8. Shadowrun - SNES
9. Warcraft III - PC
10. Dungeon Keeper - PC
11. Final Fantasy X-2 HD - PS3
12. Descent - PC
13. Quake Mission Pack 2 - Dissolution of Eternity - PC
14. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2 - Ground Zero - PC
15. Sokobond - PC
16. Hybrid Heaven - N64
17. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
18. Castlevania - NES

I was waiting for the oven to preheat over the weekend (and then for the food to finish baking) so I popped this in to my NES which is in my bedroom, while everything else is in the media room a flight below the kitchen. I had dabbled in this a bit back when our TR was Castlevania but the furthest I ever got was to the mummies. This time I found I had the patience and willingness to use items to first make it to Frankenstein, then midway through Death's level, but I was hitting a real roadblock there. I went and watched the current record on Speed Demos and saw just how critical the holy water was for Death's level (not to mention Death) and decided to push forward tonight. After a few tries I managed to get a good run where I kept the holy water from beginning to end and made Death my bitch. Then it was on to Dracula's level, which took a few tries before I realized that spamming the stopwatch was the way to go. Then came the many many retries against Dracula until I got the timing down for his first form. I spent several continues fruitlessly trying to do a pattern of jump and crouch under the aimed fireballs but I kept getting screwed whenever he would teleport close. Then I had an epiphany and switched it up to the jump over the fireballs and hit strategy. On my best run I only took two hits, which gave me more than enough buffer for his second form with the holy water. Since I started off without the double I wasn't able to keep him stunlocked, but in one moment where he could attack I killed a few fireballs and got a double, and from there he was locked down until I won.

The game is quite tightly designed and you can get a lot if you know the right tools for the job. In that way it reminds me of Final Fantasy V, where many really hard fights become trivial if you know what you're doing. There were definitely a few bullshit deaths, but most of the time I died because I was getting careless.

[Exhuminator]

Congrats on beating Castlevania legit. (Personally I have no problems getting all the way to Dracula's second form. But once the blue demon form appears, it's always a crapshoot whether I'm going to be able to holy water him to death or not.) It's definitely a very tightly designed game that still holds up today.

[Luke]

Good on ya Popo! Castlevania is one of those games you love, and after beating it never want to see again for at least six months.

First Dracula..easy. But you can't take a single hit as...

Second Dracula...bastard.

I say that because most of the game has a specific time pattern to it and that pattern is constant. Crouch, whip, jump, stop, wait, forward, repeat. Then "Second Dracula" comes in out of nowhere, looks like e Wendigo and completely throws you a curveball.

And this should go in the Random Gaming Thoughts Thread, but I'll just post it here: An IRA based GTA game could be brilliant. The story writes itself, and the landscape would be amazing.

[MrPopo]

Second Dracula nailed me the first couple times, but the third time I approached it a little more methodically. Throw holy water, a couple of whips and back off so he doesn't jump in my face, if he hasn't jumped by the time the water is finished throw another and repeat, if he has wait for him to land and water.