Games Beaten 2016

[Exhuminator]

I'm curious if I will throw in Strife with these once I get to it.

I doubt it.

I do wonder how you'd fair with CyberMage: Darklight Awakening though.

[Ack]

I'll let you know if GOG ever gets it...which considering all of the other stuff Origin Systems developed or published that ended up on GOG, it's surprising to me that it hasn't found its way there yet.

[Exhuminator]

I'll let you know if GOG ever gets it...which considering all of the other stuff Origin Systems developed or published that ended up on GOG, it's surprising to me that it hasn't found its way there yet.

Pretty sure I still have my legit copy bought many years ago. I'll let you know.

[MrPopo]

I'll let you know if GOG ever gets it...which considering all of the other stuff Origin Systems developed or published that ended up on GOG, it's surprising to me that it hasn't found its way there yet.

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

Glad to see you enjoyed SS. Another game I'd recommend to you is Terra Nova, which is also available on GOG. It actually gets teased in the final cutscene of SS that shows the hacker back to his hold tricks; the piece of data he's stealing is a schematic of the power armor from Terra Nova. It also has that control scheme of moving/looking with keyboard, manipulating things with the mouse. It's much closer to a traditional FPS with squad tactics and a variety of mission styles.

I'm not surprised you enjoyed SS2 more, as you're definitely a bigger fan of horror games than I am. I don't really get into horror stuff in general; I end up focusing on the puzzle and exploration aspects of RE rather than the horror elements. I personally felt like SS1 was far more atmospheric and so I ended up preferring it. It's also a technical marvel when you consider when it came out.

I'm super excited about the remake coming from Night Dive. You should check out the demo.

[Ack]

I'll let you know if GOG ever gets it...which considering all of the other stuff Origin Systems developed or published that ended up on GOG, it's surprising to me that it hasn't found its way there yet.

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

Haha, thanks, but I was actually talking about CyberMage. I picked up Strife the instant it hit GOG.

I will have to check out Terra Nova sometime though. I recall you played through it a little while back and praised it highly, and it definitely piqued my interest. I just have so much to play...so much...

Right now it's DOOM. After that, maybe Soul Blazer. After that...who knows?

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 76

January (20 Games Beaten)

1. Shadow Warrior - Playstation 4 - January 1
2. The Order: 1886 - Playstation 4 - January 2
3. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop - Wii - January 3
4. NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits - WiiWare - January 4
5. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - Vita - January 5
6. Shadow the Hedgehog - Gamecube - January 9
7. Fairy Bloom Freeia - Steam - January 10
8. Petit Novel Series: Harvest December - 3DS - January 13
9. Gas Guzzlers Extreme - Steam - January 14
10. Muramasa: The Demon Blade - Wii - January 16
11. Project Zero 2: Wii Edition - Wii - January 19
12. Killzone: Liberation - PSP - January 20
13. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor - Wii - January 20
14. Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii - January 24
15. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love - Wii - January 25
16. Corpse Party - PSP - January 25
17. Freedom Planet - Wii U - January 25
18. Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space - Vita - January 25
19. Silent Hill: Homecoming - Xbox 360 - January 26
20. Life is Strange - Playstation 4 - January 28

February (8 Games Beaten)

21. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows - PSP - February 2
22. Megadimension Neptunia VII - Playstation 4 - February 12
23. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - February 13
24. Corpse Party: Blood Drive - Vita - February 17
25. If My Heart Had Wings - Steam - February 18
26. Missing: An Interactive Thriller - Steam - February 18
27. Her Story - Steam - February 18
28. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS - February 26

March (8 Games Beaten)

29. Saints Row 2 - Steam - March 1
30. Saturday Morning RPG - Playstation 4 - March 3
31. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS - March 6
32. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Wii U - March 8
33. Pokken Tournament - Wii U - March 20
34. Moe Chronicle - Vita - March 22
35. Tom Clancey's The Division - Playstation 4 - March 23
36. Yoshi's New Island - 3DS - March 28

April (13 Games Beaten)

37. Alien Rage - Steam - April 1
38. Alien Breed: Impact - Steam - April 2
39. Alien Breed 2: Assault - Steam - April 3
40. Alien Breed 3: Descent - Steam - April 3
41. Bravely Second: Ballad of the Three Cavaliers - 3DS - April 6
42. Quantum Break - Xbox One - April 7
43. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric - Wii U - April 8
44. Akai Katana - Xbox 360 - April 9
45. Otomedius Excellent - Xbox 360 - April 9
46. Chasing Dead - Wii U - April 10
47. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - 3DS - April 14
48. Ratchet and Clank - Playstation 4 - April 20
49. Starfox Zero - Wii U - April 23

May (6 Games Beaten)

50. Aero Fighters 2 - NeoGeo - May 8
51. Bravely Second: End Layer - 3DS - May 11
52. Uncharted: Golden Abyss - Vita - May 15
53. Doom - Playstation 4 - May 20
54. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Playstation 4 - May 22
55. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan - Playstation 4 - May 25

June (13 Games Beaten)

56. MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies - Vita - June 2
57. Republique - Playstation 4 - June 3
58. Splatterhouse - Playstation 3 - June 4
59. Spec Ops: The Line - Playstation 3 - June 5
60. 1943: Battle of Midway - NES - June 6
61. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - Playstation 4 - June 12
62. Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - SNES - June 13
63. Homefront: The Revolution - Playstation 4 - June 15
64. Gone Home - Playstation 4 - June 15
65. Double Dragon Neon - Playstation 3 - June 16
66. Vanquish - Playstation 3 - June 17
67. Epic Dumpster Bear - Wii U - June 20
68. B3: Game Expo for Bees - Wii U - June 21

July (7 Games Beaten)

69. Raiden V - Xbox One - July 16
70. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - Wii U - July 16
71. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES - Playstation 2 - July 23
72. Lost Sea - Playstation 4 - July 24
73. Far Cry Primal - Playstation 4 - July 27
74. Black - Playstation 2 - July 28
75. Until Dawn - Playstation 4 - July 31

August (1 Game Beaten)

76. Divine Sealing - Mega Drive - August 1

76. Divine Sealing - Mega Drive - August 1


This game came courtesy of Fragems for the Secret Santa, and it feels like it was made specifically for me. There's really not a lot of depth to this game. In terms of core gameplay, it's a shmup, and it's an okay one. It's certainly not as amazing as Blazing Lasers or Truxton, but it's not bad. My only real gripe with it is the first level. It legitimately gives me a headache just playing it. The background is supposed to be water, but it's got columns of what are basically blue arrows going in alternating directions (one goes up, the next goes down, the next goes down) at extremely fast speeds. It's basically a recipe for the perfect epileptic seizure (or, in my case, just a headache).



Now what makes this game more than just an okay shmup and one of my new favorite collection pieces is what happens between each of the five stages - glorious 16-bit space titty! I can't make out much of the story since I can't read moon language, but from what I can gather and infer, you're some hot shot space pilot who keeps getting distress calls from beautiful space babes. When you go save them, they take off all their clothes to reward you. My screenshots don't reflect it (because I don't want the mods coming after my head), but you do get legitimate space titty complete with space nipple.



TITTY ALL DAY EVERY DAY



While the gameplay may be just okay, there is some REALLY impressive parallax scrolling in the game. I'm talking four or five different levels of scroll speeds. It's seriously cool, and it looks fantastic. I have noticed that this game is EXTREMELY hard to find online, and the few listings I saw on eBay are really pricey (hence why IDGAF that I'm fairly certain this copy is a repro), so I'd recommend emulating or Everdriving it, but I DEFINITELY recommending doing one of those two. Just make sure any parents/children/spouses aren't around.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Haha nice job finishing that one.

Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic has the same disorienting water effect in the stages with waterfalls. This was fixed for Super Mario Bros. 2.

[ElkinFencer10]

Truthfully, the first boss was the hardest for me; I couldn't see its attacks because of that water.

[Exhuminator]

Elkin, ya gotta get yer mitts on this shmup:

Steam-Heart's

Play the PC98 original. The ports were censored.

[isiolia]

1. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One)
2. DOAX3 Fortune Edition (PS4)
3. Uncharted 4 (PS4)
4. DOOM (2016) (PC)
5. Halo 5 (Xbox One)
6. Dark Souls (PC)
7. Call of Duty (PC)
8. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
10. King's Field: The Ancient City

Played: 25ish hours according to the save clock, but since that doesn’t count all the retries between saves, the actual count is probably at least a few hours longer than that, if not in the low 30s.
Used a FAQ at times, though typically I was 90% there anyway, and just not catching some subtle graphics difference. HD has spoiled me.

Thoughts: (spoiled for length)

In part, I picked this up due to liking the way that the Soulsborne games tell their stories. Subtle, highly reliant on lore, and open to interpretation. I remember seeing the PSX King’s Field games around the launch for that system, at least in magazines, but I’d never tried playing ‘em. Between Hardcoregaming101’s writeup, and the praise here, this seemed like a good one to try. Both to see where some of the newer design came from, and maybe to be able to experience that kind of storytelling without the high bar placed on combat prowess of the more recent From Software hits.

Plus, I found a reasonably priced copy on Amazon.

First impressions were…not good. The control scheme seems pretty much held over from pre-Dual Shock days. D-Pad and Left Analog do the same thing, and according to the manual, Right Analog “isn’t used”. This is a lie. While R2/L2 are your “look up/down”, their function is duplicated by Right Analog, albeit in reverse up/down (flight sim style) by default. Happily, reversing R2/L2 functionality served to reverse the up/down of Right Analog too. First puzzle solved!
Having a “Classic Layout’ option for masochists, and a “Use the whole controller” option for everyone else would have been nice…but it did come out 15 years ago, and the whole dual analog thing was kind of new. Still, I have to wonder why they’d just opt to make such poor use of the hardware.
Fixing that didn’t fix the actual movement, which isn’t awesome. As mentioned in “currently playing” update, the rotation speed is what really stays annoying. Standard movement could still be a holdover from the PSX games and/or as mentioned in that thread, done to allow for background loading, but there’s little excuse for the rotation.

On a technical level, the seamlessness and perpetuation of the world is a noteworthy thing about this game. Albeit one that only become apparent over time. The only “please wait” times are when saving/loading. I suspect more than a couple hallways are there to intentionally give some time to load the next area, but still. On top of that, KFIV seems to keep fairly precise track of the state of the entire game world. Many enemies don’t respawn, or have fewer spawns when they do, which seem to have individual timers. What really made me notice the saved world state is seeing gold drops I’d neglected to pick up, in areas that I hadn’t been to in hours.
While those things aren’t necessarily novel today, making a point to do stuff like that back when it was new (and on a HDD-less console) would have stood out.
The flip side is that, relative to other, similar games on the shelf at the time of the U.S. release, such as Morrowind or Metroid Prime, KFIV looks and feels dated. That said, per reputation, the game does utilize the dark, generally sparse environments to decent atmospheric effect.
Personally though, I felt like the majority of the game world was just not that interesting. Quite a lot of it is very same-y, stone rooms and corridors (admittedly, "dungeon crawler" is not exactly a genre I play much). The final third or so of the game opens up a bit more, and is a lot more memorable. Had From Software managed to implement things at that level from the get-go, I suspect the game would have gotten a lot more attention.

Like the controller layout, combat is possibly something that coulda-shoulda have been updated better. Not sure, as I haven’t played the previous games, but it just felt half-baked at best. Even per the manual, the point is to run in, attack, and run outside the range of attacks. Exactly how to time that can vary on the enemy, and the weapon, but it tends to fall apart once multiple enemies are there, or they get too fast, or they start with status effects… it ends up serviceable, but not a reason to play the game, and almost never fun.
Arguably, it’s designed that way to manufacture an experience – which I’m inclined to give games credit for doing, when they do it. Largely, I wouldn’t here, despite that it was likely the intent.
On a basic level, it does create a struggle that favors a careful approach and shifting strategy. At least on occasion. Very early on, I started swapping to the pickaxe to kill poison slimes, for example, because the extra range helped in not getting hit by them. At the time, swapping weapons was also needed to break obstacles as well.
Over time, however, it doesn’t pan out. Swapping gear/spells is cumbersome (in an Ocarina of Time Water Temple way), and the way things level up favors your most used items rather than niche ones. Weapon wear is a moot point for a while, with the frequency you find new ones…and even then only goes to 50/100. By the time I realized that, I had nearly beaten the game - and ultimately did - without repairing or upgrading (via the blacksmith) a single item. Weapons do get significantly weaker, but not to the point that you have to repair them. Makes the presence of the system seem unnecessary.

The handful of fights that forced me to rethink strategy beyond running back and forth or circle strafing, basically came down to shoot/cast from outside the boss’s room, or from around a corner. A minor change in range wouldn’t have helped.
Maybe the point was to allow for different builds, but little seemed to change playstyle all that much. At least for weapons and magic. Accessories were a lot better, with only a relative handful in the game, each with a real use (though, it certainly didn’t do the spell library much good to tie a worthwhile MP pool to wearing a specific bracelet).


As for the reason I checked the game out in the first place…it was okay? Story was mostly generic, and the environments largely failed to reinforce it until later in the game. The in-game Journal gets updated from time to time to make sure pieces are put together, or NPCs get a few more lines to say. Mostly, it’s just a matter of trying all the doors and going through the ones that open. That also serves to make it a fairly linear experience, since so much progression is tied to finding the next key or key-like object. Again, the last third or so of the game does start to shine more, but it just takes a while to get there, and then it ends.

I suspect I simply had my expectations set too high. It’s not a bad game, and one that certainly does do some interesting things - especially for the time. However, I got the feeling that a little too much was held over from the PSX games instead of going back to the drawing board.