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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Xeogred Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:41 pm

How tough was Max Payne? Seemed really hard from the little I played of it back in the day. I might grab 1-2 for the Xbox sometime soon myself.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Markies Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:54 pm

Xeogred wrote:How tough was Max Payne? Seemed really hard from the little I played of it back in the day. I might grab 1-2 for the Xbox sometime soon myself.


I played it on the Easy/Normal setting and it wasn't too tough.

I played it several years ago and couldn't do anything. However, I was quickly able to get the controls down and was only frustrated in very few spots. It's a dual stick shooter in the end.

Later settings would probably be really hard, but I had no problem with it and I'm not a big shooter guy. It's like $5 right now and only about 10 hours at the most and not really difficult at all. I'd recommend it for some good violent fun!
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Sarge Fri Jan 08, 2016 12:21 am

Fascinating, because Sly 2 is my absolute favorite in the series. Loved the first game, too, but it's a completely different animal (no pun intended). I can certainly see where certain structural changes might affect one's enjoyment.

I also enjoyed Sly 4, even if it was Sanzaru and not Sucker Punch developing. It's Sly 3 that most disappointed me, and even that, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the HD versions some day.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by MrPopo Fri Jan 08, 2016 3:41 am

1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Yoshi's Story - N64
4. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC

This is the first expansion for Neverwinter Nights. It starts with a level 1 charater and has you go through two chapters plus an interlude (which is really the same length as the chapters). I'd say that the gameplay is better than the base campaign of Neverwinter Nights; it feels more like a normal CRPG campaign you might encounter. But you still run into the major flaws of the Neverwinter Nights engine. The maps are terribly blocky, which isn't too bad in caves or other interior areas but looks utterly awful when you're outside and exploring the hills of the first chapter. Also, you still only have your one hireling which makes enemy CC incredibly brutal. The final boss I had to just reload saves over and over until I both resisted her fear aura AND didn't get her to use paralyze on me.

I'm probably going to hold off on doing Hordes of the Underdark for a while.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by PartridgeSenpai Fri Jan 08, 2016 7:24 am

MrPopo wrote:1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC

This is the first expansion for Neverwinter Nights. It starts with a level 1 charater and has you go through two chapters plus an interlude (which is really the same length as the chapters). I'd say that the gameplay is better than the base campaign of Neverwinter Nights; it feels more like a normal CRPG campaign you might encounter. But you still run into the major flaws of the Neverwinter Nights engine. The maps are terribly blocky, which isn't too bad in caves or other interior areas but looks utterly awful when you're outside and exploring the hills of the first chapter. Also, you still only have your one hireling which makes enemy CC incredibly brutal. The final boss I had to just reload saves over and over until I both resisted her fear aura AND didn't get her to use paralyze on me.

I'm probably going to hold off on doing Hordes of the Underdark for a while.


I'm of the opinion that Shadows of Underentide, and even more-so with Hordes of the Underdark, that the expansions are far, FAR better games than the original Neverwinter Nights. You even get TWO whole companions whose equipment and tactics you can modify in Hordes of the Underdark!

EDIT: Neverwinter Nights 2 on the other hand has the opposite phenomenon I'd say, where the expansions just get progressively more terribly balanced and written as they go on compared to the great original game. To the point where I'd say Storm of Zephir is only worth playing in case you just REALLY feel the urge to play through a campaign in that engine with an Icewind Dale-style completely self-made team. First expansion and base game have great writing and mechanics though. Heavily recommended: It's like Neverwinter Nights 1 with Baulder's Gate-style "actually having a party to control" rather than the stupid virtually solo-run they have you do in Neverwinter 1.
Last edited by PartridgeSenpai on Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Exhuminator Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:07 am

Xeogred wrote:How tough was Max Payne?

I beat that one many many years ago on PC, and I don't recall it being difficult. (Well, other than the annoying screaming baby maze, but that's not the core gameplay.) Granted I was using a mouse to aim, but being able to slow down time really curbs the difficulty regardless.
PLAY KING'S FIELD.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Forlorn Drifter Fri Jan 08, 2016 8:15 pm

1. Cubivore-GCN

A dinky little game. Decent for a bit of fun, but not exactly a game you'll be playing all the dang time. The ending is a little dull and blunt for my liking, but can't expect much. Overall, a meh game that I mostly still own because of the rarity.

EDIT: added console.
Last edited by Forlorn Drifter on Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by PartridgeSenpai Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:43 pm

SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash 2: Expanded Edition

I loved the original game to death, so I had no qualms forking out the $80 for this fairly rare Japanese-exclusive sequel to one of my favorite portable games ever, and MAN did it deliver. On the mechanics side, a lot of the really overpowered cards got nerfed (though not all. Akuma is still hella OP), and the AI was made much much better and given interesting decks, so there's actually variety in the harder opponents other than just the randomness of their big decks with good cards. The new card type Reactions also add a much needed level of depth, and especially against the harder computers it's really hard to get into a swing that they just can't knock you out of like it used to be.

On the aesthetic side, to their credit, ALL of the original 200+ character cards were given new art, but DAMN is the new art ugly. Maybe it's just me, but there were maybe only a couple dozen cards at most where I said "wow, that's actually quite an improvement on the old art style." On the plus side though, there's only one version of this game, so you dont' need to faff around with trading/giving or anything to get all of the cards like you did in the first game(s).

The original games' Pokemon-style top-down area map-system with overworld has been completely scrapped in favor of just an overworld with rigid roads you walk around to an area where you just meet the 'dualist,' although that's just story mode. No longer do you have to run around all over the place to fight a specific opponent, as you can just battle anyone you've already beaten from the Free Battle mode in the main menu, which is nice, although it takes some getting used to considering how much I liked the old area-maps.

THEN, on top of that, after you beat story mode, ALL of the AI opponents you unlocked to play in free-battle mode get new decks. Much MUCH better decks, so that's another 20 decks to fight against/muck around against trying to get the rest of the cards.

I have a very hard time recommending this game to someone who knows both nothing about the first game or any Japanese, because it IS a card game and is therefore a very text-heavy game. If you've played the first game, the card-battling UI is more or less exactly the same, so you can just let your muscle memory guide you, and even though some cards have new abilities, most of them aren't that difficult to just guess/trial and error your way into seeing how they work. But anyway, if you love TCG's and don't mind playing against the AI, I'd certainly give the first game a look while Neo Geo Pockets are still cheap. Never know when they'll skyrocket like the Turbografx did a few years back O.o

EDIT: After some more faffing, I've discovered something. Everyone in Free Battle mode does have new decks, but what I thought were their deck themes are actually the rewards you get for beating them, so say if you know you're missing a Street Fighter or Samurai Showdown character card you're missing, you can fight a specific character for a much higher chance of getting that guy the next time you beat them. Very nice.
Last edited by PartridgeSenpai on Sat Jan 09, 2016 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by noiseredux Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:56 pm

Nice review. I love the original games.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by MrPopo Sat Jan 09, 2016 1:50 pm

1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Yoshi's Story - N64
4. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC
5. Forsaken 64 - N64

One of the few six degrees of freedom games, Forsaken came out a few years after Descent and was clearly inspired by what Descent did. But the game actually manages to do a lot of its own stuff and comes off as a distinct game rather than just a Descent clone. Also, Duke Nukem does the narration, which is always awesome.

The basic story of the game is that Earth's defense AI went batty and went on a rampage and humans fled to the stars. Now people, including your character, head back to try and destroy the defense AI. You pretty much forget about most of it a couple of levels in, though it does get mentioned in the level briefings. The levels themselves have a lot more variety of objectives compared to Descent. Descent was all about finding the keys to get to the boss core, blow it up, and escape. Forsaken requires you to sometimes destroy all enemies, sometimes you have to acquire an item in the level, there's an escort mission, a couple of defense missions, and a bunch of boss preview missions. These missions consist of fighting a boss, but when the boss gets low a beacon will spawn and you need to collect it and survive the onslaught of new enemies for one minute. These five boss previews then turn into the boss rush at the end; at the point where you would normally unlock the beacon you instead move the boss into his "go to the death trap" pattern, and you have to activate the death trap to kill the boss.

Several of the weapons are inspired by Descent. Your base weapon is a standard cannon. You have a machine gun that is high damage but fires slow shots with poor accuracy, so it's best for point blank. There's a chargeable gun that does a lot of damage when fully charged as well as an instant hit beam laser that has an overheat mechanic (though it's incredibly generous). Finally, there's a reflecting shot that has a very smart reflection; it seems the deflection angle is always calculated to aim at a nearby enemy, which makes it very useful for doing corner attacks and dealing with evasive enemies. All of these weapons are powered up by a universal power pod system, where you start with one and can collect two more. There are also a variety of secondary weapons; dumbfire missiles, homing missiles, giant nuke, rapid fire missiles, impact mines, mines that shoot missiles at nearby targets, and a homing missile that doesn't do much damage but forces enemies to drop their powerups if they're a biker (enemy PC) or spawn some powerups if they're a normal enemy. Finally, you can collect up to four orbital guns that fire when you fire your primary weapon and add a good deal of additional damage. These orbital guns seem to have only a limited number of shots to them, though there's no indication of what that might be.

Unlike Descent you start every level fresh. The nice thing is that you don't end up hording the good missiles because you lose them at the end of the level anyway. The annoying thing is this means the very first thing you need to do is find the first power pod of the level. Your weapons are extremely weak without that first power pod. Most of the time it's right near where you spawn, but sometimes you need to fly past a few enemies which can be a bit harrowing when you're flying blind into hostile territory hoping to find a way to do damage. This also means the final boss is a right bastard, as he spams the homing missile that makes you drop your powerups (including power pods) and that homing missile has a really tight turning radius. You tend to get caught into a cycle of getting hit, trying to collect your powerups and immediately getting hit again.

The biggest thing that was frustrating is the game doesn't give you the option of saving after every level. Instead, certain levels give you a save option after you finish. You do have the ability to replay missions, so you CAN save after every level, but it forces you to replay a level to do so. And none of the levels that let you save are especially quick to beat. The game also features a lives system and those lives don't regenerate after each stage. This ends up being the real difficulty in getting through the game unless you're willing to abuse the fact that the first stage in the hard path has two lives available that are both pretty easy to get; you run into the level, grab both, lose (as it has an defend objective) and you net one life.

Oh, I guess that bears mentioning. The very first level of the game is your difficulty selector. If you finish in longer than 2:40 you go on the easy path, between 2:40 and 1:40 you go on the medium path, and less than 1:40 you go on the hard path (which has the final boss of the game). At the end of the easy and medium path the game tells you how to unlock the next path up and mentions a few levels you want to be aware of, and from a story perspective you want to play through all of easy, then all of medium, then all of hard, as they all build to the final confrontations of hard.
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