Games Beaten 2016

[Exhuminator]

Thief Gold

Well considering this is my all time favorite game, I have to chime in on this one.

I've discovered a variety of ways everyone seems to play it.

I preferred to be a murderous ninja. Arrows to the neck, bodies dragged into the dark. There were times I got into some epic sword fighting battles though. Sword fighting takes a lot of practice, but if you get good at it, you too can take down three or four guards at a time with just your sword. However, to get the most out of the game, you should try to be as much a ghost of the shadows as possible. Take all loot, leave no trace.

but the addition of the monstrosities and level designs you will see once magic gets involved / I realized I really liked Thief relatively late in the game, when I found myself in a level packed to the gills with the undead / a moaning Hammerite skeleton / Monkey people, exploding frogs, insect men, flying balls of fire... Heck, the insect men are probably my favorite thing in the game.

I too loved the supernatural elements, and they really took Thief's fun to 11 for me. If you ever play Thief 2, you might find yourself disappointed as I was that all of the monstrosities have been replaced with boring steampunk robots. To be honest, I enjoyed Thief 3 more than 2.

It took me about 19 hours in total

That's... really fast. The original Thief (which doesn't have as many levels as the Gold version) took me almost 30 hours to beat. But I did spend a lot of time just searching every single nook and cranny of all the gargantuan levels. I had time to do such things back then.

what matters is that you just come play this game. Seriously, it's amazing.

This man speaks the truth!

I'm really glad you took the time to play through it Ack. Perhaps if Thief had had a console port, more folks would have played it by now. I don't know. The game is pure genius, brilliant, amazing, and every other hyperbolic phrase I can think of. I'll put it this way... I've played thousands of games but only Thief sits mounted on my dork cave's wall. A constant reminder of how awesome games can be when they truly try.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2016

Spirits of Xanadu - PC
Tales From the Borderlands: Episode 1 - PC
Operation C - Game Boy
That Dragon, Cancer - PC
Contra - NES
Super C - NES
Contra III - The Alien Wars - SNES
Tekken - PS1
The King of Fighters '99 - PS1
Street Fighter Alpha - PS1
Call of Duty: Black Ops III - PS4
Three Fourths Home - PC
Firewatch - PS4
Street Fighter V - PS4
Far Cry: Primal - PS4
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax - PS3
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma EXTEND - Xbox One
Android Assault Cactus - PS4
Table Top Racing - Vita
The Room - iOS
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle - PS3
The Room 2 - iOS
Broforce - PS4
Toybox Turbos - PC
Peggle 2 - PS4
R-Type (R-Type Dimensions) - 360
The Room 3 - iOS
Rampage - SMS
Doom (2016) - PS4
Dungeon Siege III - - 360
Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End - PS4 *new*

Total: 31

Previously: 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Uncharted 4, if it ends the series, is a very solid way to do it and a great way to go out for a marquee PlayStation franchise and its cast. It was gorgeously presented and realized, well directed, well written, well paced, and had a satisfying variety of sometimes challenging gameplay. I'd still rate Uncharted 2 as the better game, but this one is a close second.

[PartridgeSenpai]

It took me about 19 hours in total

That's... really fast. The original Thief (which doesn't have as many levels as the Gold version) took me almost 30 hours to beat. But I did spend a lot of time just searching every single nook and cranny of all the gargantuan levels. I had time to do such things back then.

That is REALLY fast. I imagine you played on the default, normal difficulty yes? I had watched/listened to most of a playthrough by the time I played Thief Gold, so I went though on Expert mode. I don't really know if the difficulty modes change anything about the enemies, but what it does do mostly is just give you more objectives: You HAVE to collect 1,2, or even 3 special loots in like every stage, you HAVE to get a large amount of loot, you HAVE to kill so many Hammerite Horrors (that one was a bitch). So those objectives paired with my insistance on no kills and no sightings made the game take a loooong time. I still enjoyed it a lot though. I'm glad you liked it so much too :3

I've actually never played Thief 3. I own it, but as soon I saw it was 3rd person it instantly turned me off to it. I'm not sure if it'd be more worthwhile playing it on Steam or on Xbox, but I currently own the Steam version. Thief 1 and 2 were just SO designed for PC, I was convinced that nothing nearly as good could be made for a focus split between PC and console :/

Perhaps that doubt is misplaced though.

[Xeogred]

I've actually never played Thief 3. I own it, but as soon I saw it was 3rd person it instantly turned me off to it. I'm not sure if it'd be more worthwhile playing it on Steam or on Xbox, but I currently own the Steam version.

Oh man...... ohhhhhhhhhh man.

I don't know if this is good or bad news, I wonder how long you've held off on Thief 3 because of this... but it's first person too, which is probably the default setting.

Ummmmmmmm. lol?

[insert The More You Know rainbow]

I like Thief 2 a lot more because Thief 3 goes way too far with exposition on the Thieves Guild, ruining a lot of the mystery and all, then the plot just gets terrible near the end. But the gameplay is incredible still and the music is still the same composer. The only downside to both this and Invisible War is that yes, this engine was clearly designed for consoles first and it shows. The maps are very small with loading screens frequently around, and both games are a pain in the ass to get running on Win7 and probably above. Lots of fiddling, widescreen mods, etc, necessary. And then it'll probably still crash on you a bit. I just ordered a brand new copy of Thief 3 on Amazon for the Xbox for $15, so I'll just play that version next time.

[Exhuminator]

Edit: I got ninja'd! Oh well...

as soon I saw it was 3rd person

You can play Thief 3 in first or third person. It's optional and the camera view is switched on the fly with just a key press:



I played Thief 3 entirely in first person.

Pretty sure the GOG version of Thief 3 fixes the Win7 issues.

https://www.gog.com/game/thief_3

[Ack]

I imagine you played on the default, normal difficulty yes?

I did. I had a friend of mine in college who always emphasized that Normal was the intended difficulty for the game and everything above or below that was a modification, so you should play on Normal first. I still usually managed to do what the additional objectives wanted(before I started each level, I'd move through the difficulties to see what additional objectives were included or changed) because I did spend a fair bit of time exploring. I just got really good at running up and knocking folks out. Heck, I even figured out how to duck around folks who had spotted me so I could knock them out. It involves a lot of circle strafing. Occasionally for laughs I'd also step out in front of people to point blank them with the gas arrow. Laughs abound. Or if it was a monster, I'd pull out the sword and wail on them as fast as I could to drop them.

Take those Hammer Haunts that you were talking about. I killed nearly all of them in my run through that level. Heck, I took out two in the library by climbing up to the second floor and using all of my broadhead arrows to drop them. Sure, it took 30 arrows...but it got the job done, and those two were the only ones of their kind wandering that particular area. Whenever I could, I'd establish safe zones to quickly move between areas and stash bodies outside the view of prying eyes.

[Xeogred]

Pretty sure the GOG version of Thief 3 fixes the Win7 issues.

https://www.gog.com/game/thief_3

Ah, go figure. I played GOG versions of 1-2 and then the Steam version of 3.

Still doesn't change the fact that it and IW were clearly designed for the Xbox or something... so I'll check that version out for a replay next time.

My playstyle in these is similar to Ack's. I usually remained in the shadows and would blackjack every single person and then have fun hiding the bodies. I did have fun using water and moss arrows at some points, but otherwise I didn't end up using much of the equipment. I actually think I started using a lot more in 2 though, because some of the big machine patrolling things were annoying.

The detection in the first three feels fine to me. It's Thief 4 where it's dog crap and super annoying, because when you get spotted it's nearly impossible to get away safely. May as well reload, cause that's fun? "Don't get spotted", yeah well if only the mechanics were half as good as the originals and Dishonored...

I'll have to replay Gold someday on the higher difficulties. The funny thing is I maybe did half of the additional missions or had enough gold to get through every stage regardless, since I took my time and usually found most of the secrets. It was so fun collecting everything possible and clearing out the whole stage. Blackjacking everyone included of course!

I kind of want to say I probably only put in about 20 hours myself. Not sure though. I usually only did one mission a day and sometimes took breaks, because I took my time with them and remember some levels taking like 2 hours or more.

The last level in Thief 2 may as well be 30 hours though. Can't wait to see what Ack thinks of that if he gets to it.

[PartridgeSenpai]

The main thing wrong with Thief 4 is that it exists in a world where Dishonored came out like a year before it, and does everything it wanted to do much better Xp

The local resale store does have Thief 3 for Xbox, so perhaps I shall pick it up sometime if you say it really feels like it was meant for console. Kinda sad they dropped the art style though. The few cut-scenes in Thief Gold with real people and stuff animated over it looks SO cool.

[Markies]

1. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN)
2. Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Eternal Poison (PS2)
4. Dragon Warrior III (NES)
5. Arkanoid: Doh It Again(SNES)
6. Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)
7. Phantasy Star Online (DC)
8. Power Stone (DC)
9. Bare Knuckle 3 (GEN)
10. Thousand Arms (PS1)
11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)
12. Mega Man 5 (NES)

I beat Mega Man 5 on the Nintendo Entertainment System tonight!

Unfortunately, I don't know if I have much to say about this one. All in all, it's kind of a boring Mega Man game if you compare it to others in the series.

However, if you compare it to other NES games, it's unbelievable. The controls are top notch and pin point perfect. The music is nice and catchy. The graphics are so big, bright and colorful. I love some of the changes in the formula especially Gravity's Man Stage with its flipping of the gravity. The difficulty is also perfect as it is tone down a notch with many E-Tanks and 1ups. The story is interesting and the game moves along at a brisk pace.

This is another fine Mega Man game and one of the better games on the system. I always love playing Mega Man games and this is another great one!

[Exhuminator]

Games Ex has beaten in 2016:

1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs|360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10
4. Sleepings Dogs: NiNP DLC|360|2012|action adventure|1h 22m|5/10
5. Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS|GB|1992|shmup|33m|8/10
6. Vattle Giuce|GB|1991|shmup|45m|5/10
7. MechWarrior 2 (Clan Wolf)|PS1|1997|mech sim|2h 35m|7/10
8. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault|GB|1992|shmup|27m|8/10
9. SolarStriker|GB|1990|shmup|23m|7/10
10. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|45m|6/10
11. Dead or Alive (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|23m|5/10
12. Asuka 120% Burning Festival Final (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|26m|8/10
13. Soul Blade (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|18m|9/10
14. Trax|GB|1991|shmup|23m|7/10
15. Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1995|fighter|36m|5/10
16. Warpath: Jurassic Park (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|17m|4/10
17. Psychic Force (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|22m|7/10
18. Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|27m|7/10
19. Advanced V.G. 2 (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|15m|8/10
20. StarHawk|GB|1993|shmup|1h 15m|4/10
21. Nemesis|GB|1990|shmup|28m|7/10
22. Cardinal Syn (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|54m|7/10
23. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|15m|7/10
24. Street Fighter EX 2 Plus (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|22m|8/10
25. Battle Unit Zeoth|GB|1991|shmup|24m|6/10
26. Soul Calibur IV (Arcade Mode)|360|2008|fighter|12m|9/10
27. Mercenary Force|GB|1990|shmup|54m|5/10
28. Battle Arena Toshinden (Story Mode)|GB|1996|fighter|12m|8/10
29. Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams (Arcade Mode)|GBC|1999|fighter|10m|7/10
30. SD Hiryu No Ken EX (Story Mode)|GBC|1999|fighter|24m|7/10
31. Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|8m|6/10
32. Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Revival (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2001|fighter|10m|7/10
33. Dual Blades (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|23m|4/10
34. Gradius Galaxies|GBA|2001|shmup|1hr 24m|8/10
35. Tekken Advance (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|15m|7/10
36. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|22m|7/10
37. Black Belt Challenge (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|8m|4/10
38. Iridion II|GBA|2003|shmup|58m|9/10
39. King's Field III|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|25h|9/10
40. Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel|360|2013|cover shooter|7h 54m|7/10
41. Panzer Dragoon|Saturn|1995|rail shooter|55m|7/10
42. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei|Saturn|1996|rail shooter|1h 25m|8/10
43. Kirby Air Ride|GameCube|2003|kart racer|45m|6/10
44. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!|GameCube|2003|kart racer|35m|8/10
45. Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (Arcade Mode)|GameCube|2002|fighter|35m|8/10
46. XG3: Extreme G Racing|GameCube|2001|racer|1h 35m|7/10
47. Mario Kart 7|3DS|2011|kart racer|1h 54m|9/10
48. Code of Princess|3DS|2012|beat 'em up|4h 25m|7/10
49. Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy|3DS|2011|flight sim|3h 42m|7/10
50. Crimson Shroud|3DS|2012|JRPG|6h 55m|7/10
51. Gunman Clive|3DS|2013|platformer|54m|7/10
52. Gunman Clive 2|3DS|2015|platformer|1h 30m|7/10
53. Attack of the Friday Monsters!|3DS|2013|adventure|3h 2m|8/10
54. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception|PSP|2006|flight combat|2h 25m|8/10
55. Ace Combat: Joint Assault|PSP|2010|flight combat|6h 26m|4/10
56. Nayuta: Endless Trails|PSP|2012|action-RPG|16h 03m|8/10
57. Alpha Protocol|360|2010|action-RPG|12h 20m|5/10
58. Makai-Mura Gaiden: The Demon Darkness|Game Boy|1993|action-adventure|6h|7/10
59. Hangman|Atari 2600|1978|puzzle|15m|8/10
60. Beneath Apple Manor|Apple II|1978|roguelike|2h 28m|9/10
61. Rusty|PC-9801|1993|platformer|3h 46m|7/10
62. Night Slave|PC-9801|1996|mech shooter|2h 37m|8/10
63. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut|360|2013|action-RPG|31h 15m|6/10
64. Target Earth|Genesis|1990|mech shooter|49m|7/10
65. Assault Suits Valken|SNES|1992|mech shooter|1h 23m|8/10
66. Everblue|PS2|2001|scuba adventure-RPG|12h 38m|7/10
67. Shadow Tower|PS1|1998|dungeon crawler|14h 51m|7/10
68. Shovel Knight|3DS|2015|platformer|6h 47m|8/10
69. Earth Defense Force 2025|360|2014|3rd person shooter|20h 38m|7/10

70. FRAMED|Android|2014|puzzle|1h 35m|7/10

Back in 2014 Hideo Kojima sent out a tweet saying FRAMED was his game of the year.* It's a mobile game so some found that surprising. I bought and downloaded it, and then forgot about it. Well, recently I remembered I had it, and bothered to play through it over a couple of sessions. It's a short puzzle game, didn't take long.



In FRAMED you play as a variety of characters trying to deliver a briefcase. Cops are always chasing you and trying to catch you. This action happens in sequential cutscenes. To avoid the cops, you have to swap around cutscene panels to change the order of events. It's pretty simple to understand. Eventually figuring out the right order of events becomes challenging though, due to the ability to rotate panels, and swap them around in real time and stuff.



There's some kind of noir plot going on in FRAMED, though I really didn't understand exactly what it was. The game repeats after you finish it, with some changes made here and there to the puzzles and cutscenes. I think Loveshack wanted you to beat the game twice to actually figure out the story. Sorry Loveshack, your game's cute but it's not cute enough to play through twice. Maybe if there was a fast forward button or something.



With pleasant and stylish graphics, an excellent jazzy OST, and fairly innovative gameplay**, FRAMED is certainly a high water mark for mobile gaming of its year. It creates an experience that works well with touch screen gaming. With a clearer and more engaging plot, I might have been as hooked as Kojima was. But after a while it just got to be a repetitive rat race. FRAMED is a one trick pony that's fun to ride initially, but you'll likely be tired of its one little trick before the ride is over.


*Kojima called the developer "Liveshack" but the dev's name is actually "Loveshack".

**Other games have used this trick before. Check out ROOMS: the main building on Wii and DS for example.