Games Beaten 2016

[Exhuminator]

(Also, picking it up for $4.43 was pretty awesome.)

Where? How?

[Sarge]

You should know the answer to that. My favorite store, Dirt Cheap! Love pricing errors there.

[jamesbuc]

Okay, first post here after lurking for ages and time to try and list down completed games. I think I may be missing one or two but given I haven't posted them, they likely were not all that interesting. I'm putting these in no particular order since my memory is shot and I cant really recall even the order of completion.

1. Cubot (Xbox One version)

Cubot is a pretty small and cheap Xbox One title where the object of each stage is to drag all the blocks onto the finish spots. When you move one however, all the rest of the cubes move as well. As the game progresses it starts to throw more into the mix from cubes that move multiple spaces at once, cubes that only move in reverse directions, switches, teleports and more. Its severely lacking in content however though the price thankfully does reflect this. Overall its worth it, if only for some cheap Gamerscore and a easy completion.

2. Child of Light (Xbox One version)

Another game that's rather easily finished is Child of Light, a rather charming RPG from Ubisoft which uses the same graphics engine as Rayman Origins/Legends. Its a rather charming RPG about a young girl who has fallen ill and finds her way into this mysterious land, attempting to get back home to save her father (I'm trying hard not to throw spoilers in here since this game is quite easily spoiled if you talk about the storyline). Overall its fun, charming and worth a playthrough but the lack of difficulty hurts. The weird dialogue where everything has to rhyme is also a bit wonky at times.

3. Toy Story 3 (Xbox 360 version)

Its a tie-in Disney platformer, its easy, its simple, fun enough but also not very memorable and contains at least one weirdly annoying bit (a shoehorned in sneaking level), the toybox mode basically paved the way out for Disney Infinity.

4. Tomb Raider Legend (Xbox 360 version)

The first attempt at a reboot for the series. Plus points: Its fast, got a decent plot, the general gameplay and level designs are smooth and encourage players to explore. Negatives? Far too easy even on Hard (though trying to beat the time trial versions of each level is really hard and often requires no-death runs and expert timing) and you'll often find yourself muttering 'Shut up' at Zip & Alistair as they whitter on and on through the levels.

5. Injustice: Gods Among Us (Ps4 version - Story mode completed and Arcade mode twice)

With a new Ps4 comes me playing through a load of the Plus titles I've grabbed through the time I have had it. The story mode for Injustice is over with quite quickly and is decent enough but does suffer from a few stupid moments, put in there simply to add extra fights. The gameplay itself is pretty good, combos flow nicely and the stage mechanics are fun to play with (you can thankfully turn these off if you find them too gamebreaking). If there is an Injustice 2 though, Netherrealm needs to model the female characters a bit better, several of them look like Drag Race contestants (Raven and Wonder Woman in particular).

6. Never Alone (Ps4 Version - Main game and DLC)

A short platformer game that focuses on the Inuit culture and beliefs. Most of the game is spent switching between two characters, a small girl and a fox, in order to solve various small puzzles around the area with the Girl being able to carry things, throw things and in the DLC, row a boat around. The fox meanwhile can scamper up walls and make Spirits appear. I think most people will likely end up ignoring the various unlockable videos, describing the culture and ways of the Inuit people, which is a bit of a shame as they are very well made. Overall its another fun, charming and short platformer.

7. Virtues Last Reward (Vita)

I played 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors before on the DS and while I did enjoy the puzzling, I hated the repeated playthroughs in order to unlock content. This sequel improves things thanks to the flowchart system, letting you jump around to points quickly. The puzzles are fun but just like the original, the difficulty manages to be a little too random with difficult puzzles making way for some quite simple ones. Thankfully the endgame is suitably chaotic, throwing many twists around and leaving me a little stunned... and sadly also a bit confused, the game not actually saying its ended properly, booting you back to the flowchart menu but with no indication that the real final bonus end was the very end part of the game.

8. One Piece Pirate Warriors (Ps3)

Koei's Warrior spinoffs tend to be a bit weird the first time they are done and the Anime-themed spinoffs tend to get hit with this the worst. Overall One Piece Pirate Warriors is a really fun game, the action as usual with Koei's Warriors series is frantic and full of enemies ready to beat on. Where the disappointment lies is with the lack of content, the Story Mode is easily cleared in a couple of hours or so and the leftover content consists of retreads of Story Mode levels with some random elements pushed in for good measure. The sequel is apparently better so I'm on the lookout for that one next.

9. The Last Door Season Two: Episode One (PC)

A rather spooky pixelly point and click, sold in a season pack but with only one episode currently available, it feels a bit disappointing thanks to the tiny length and the lack of any answers to any questions from the previous game. Frustrating.

10. Adventures of Bertram Fiddle Episode One (PC)

Another episodic point and click and another that disappoints thanks to giving no actual answers for any plot points and being disappointingly easy and short. Its silly nature helps it a little but still. Also frustrating.

11. Party Hard (PC)

A arcade-stealth game where you have to bump off a load of party-goers. Its a fun, if twisted, idea for a game but one that it doesn't totally pull off thanks to a severely weird difficulty level with some providing brutal challenges and others being total cakewalks. It isn't helped by the game not actually providing much help in regards to what said party-goers can see or cannot see or what they consider murder or not murder (for instance they will happily just stand around as you shove a portapotty over on top of somebody but call murder on you if somebody accidentally dies next to you).

12. Capcom Fighting Jam (Ps2 - Arcade mode completed twice)

I saw this a bit ago and thought 'I don't remember this Capcom fighter...' and grabbing it quickly. Turns out there was a good reason most people shouldn't remember this, its just appallingly bad with Capcom at their laziest. A low character count is one thing, a total lack of modes is another, a massive amount of reused character art from multiple games that don't even mesh (Darkstalkers sprites against Red Earth ones) is a third and broken gameplay is another. Overall its just a game to avoid completely since you can get the same experience from messing about with MAME for a day.

13. Under the Skin (Ps2)

Another obscure Capcom title, this one has you in the role of Cosmi, a small alien sent down to Earth to do various challenges (collecting coins in a co-op mode, collecting coins in a vs mode, defeating Resident Evil 3's Nemesis and so on). Its pretty silly, fun for co-op gaming but overall far too short and simple to really spend much time on.

14. Rain (Ps3)

A PsPlus title I had forgotten about, a mix of platforming and stealth, you play a small boy, trying to run after a small girl, all while being hunted down by mysterious creatures. The main gimmick of this game is that everybody, monster and player character are invisible when under cover and can only be seen when muddy or when in the rain (hence the title). Its suitable charming but also quite frantic thanks to how the enemies can sometimes barge through at the most unexpected of moments.

15. Lasercat (PC)

A small indie title that's meant to ape the graphics of old Spectrum titles where you go through a giant castle to find keys. Its charming (I'm sensing a pattern with my gaming picks so far this year..) and again quite short, part of this is down to the teleport system used in the game (which is thankful as the castle is quite large and backtracking through it would be a pain) however less thankful is the quiz questions that pop up on collecting each key which always stay the same for each key on each playthrough/death/failure. Its still nice, fun and has a tiny pricepoint to boot (the Xbox 360 indie games version costs just $1)

[c0wb0y]

I have been all over the board playing several games at once this year. However, I did finally manage to complete a game today.

A Wolf Among Us - PS3
I was previously unfamiliar with the existing Vertigo property, Fables, on which this episodic game is based. I really enjoyed the story in this game. I also really liked the concept of various fables living in a modern day setting somewhere in NY.

It's a noir story with the protagonist, Bigby Wolf (Big B. Wolf!), as sheriff/detective. You encounter a wide variety of fable characters, some are pretty obscure. Many of the characters are suspects, and everybody has a complex history.

Loved:
Mary and Jersey. Holy cow I loved how they manifested their powers on screen. Great design. Creepy. Just right.

Hated:
Tell Tale apparently has some performance issues across most of their games. I had to press the PS button as scenes and chapters progressed, just to avoid getting hung up on the loading icon. I lost progress on at least one scene due to a hang. I ended up doing some Playstation DB rebuild advised on the Tell Tale forums. It helped a little. Lots of people seem to see this across the TT games. Pretty unfortunate. The story was engaging enough that I had to power through to get the conclusion. But trust me, any other game and I'd have tossed it aside for good.
I've seen similar, but less severe performance problems on Minecraft Story Mode. I hope to post my completion listing here once Episode 5 is released.

[Exhuminator]

You should know the answer to that. My favorite store, Dirt Cheap! Love pricing errors there.

Hmm, taking advantage of a pricing error is a bit unethical, but I don't blame you in this case.

[Sarge]

You should know the answer to that. My favorite store, Dirt Cheap! Love pricing errors there.

Hmm, taking advantage of a pricing error is a bit unethical, but I don't blame you in this case.

Nah, it's the way that place works. If they put that sticker on it, that's what they sell it for. Sometimes they don't get it right from the warehouse. I've seen the same item differ wildly on the price tag. It's an odd store, I'll give you that much.

The really crazy thing is the big rugs they have in there right now. The price tag on one of them? $24,000. No, seriously. Of course, 80% off, but still. That's $4800 for a rug.

Also, I'll talk about it more tomorrow, but I took down Dela mode. Ohhhhh yeeeeaaaaah.

[Exhuminator]

I took down Dela mode. Ohhhhh yeeeeaaaaah.

Awesome! You sir are the real deal (not that I ever had any doubt).

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Tales from the Borderlands (PC)
Marumasa Rebirth (Vita)
Guilty Gear Xrd Sign (PS3)

A great version of a fantastic fighting game and I'm not just saying that because it's one of the few I can play with any sort of competence.

It does have some minor drawbacks to the PS4 version. Performance can get a little iffy if you don't set the game to prioritize performance in the options menu. For a filthy casual like me, ill take the cool 3D effects since most of the time they don't cause an issue. The character models are also weirdly pixelated - well at least some of them are. Ramlethal looks excellent but some of Chips features for instance, have a lot of aliasing. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that. But ya know, it plays great. The arcade mode is fun and the visual novel story is mildly entertaining and very anime.

I very much look forward to Revelator.

[jamesbuc]

Took me a while to decide if I should include one of these two, more time than it actually took me to finish the game even.

1. Cubot (Xbox One version)
2. Child of Light (Xbox One version)
3. Toy Story 3 (Xbox 360 version)
4. Tomb Raider Legend (Xbox 360 version)
5. Injustice: Gods Among Us (Ps4 version - Story mode completed and Arcade mode twice)
6. Never Alone (Ps4 Version - Main game and DLC)
7. Virtues Last Reward (Vita)
8. One Piece Pirate Warriors (Ps3)
9. The Last Door Season Two: Episode One (PC)
10. Adventures of Bertram Fiddle Episode One (PC)
11. Party Hard (PC)
12. Capcom Fighting Jam (Ps2 - Arcade mode completed twice)
13. Under the Skin (Ps2)
14. Rain (Ps3)
15. Lasercat (PC)


16. Adventure AdLib (PC)

Awful, stupid, short and generally unpleasant.

17. Dogs Life (Ps2)

Bloody weird, a game that has you roaming around various areas, finding different coloured smells in order to unlock minigame and collect bones, more bones equals more unlocks and levels. Its fun though... The ending is weirdly dark for such a light-hearted game.

[Exhuminator]

17. Dogs Life (Ps2)

Bloody weird, a game that has you roaming around various areas, finding different coloured smells in order to unlock minigame and collect bones, more bones equals more unlocks and levels. Its fun though... The ending is weirdly dark for such a light-hearted game.

This is such a cool hidden gem of a game on the system. I admire that you not only played it, but finished it. Here's another hidden gem if you're still in the mood for such PS2 quirkiness: