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1/16: Diablo III (PC)
1/19: Picross E (3DS DL)
1/23: Baroque (Wii)
2/5: LocoRoco (PSP)
3/31: Picross e2 (3DS DL)
4/7: Stardew Valley (Steam)
4/8: Voices From the Sea (Steam)
4/10: X-Note (Steam)
4/11: To the Moon (Steam)
4/19: Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (PS3)
4/19: Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match (PS3)
6/19: Steins;Gate (PS3)
7/11: Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U)
7/13: Muramasa Rebirth (Vita)
7/13: Strider 2 (PS1 Classics)
7/16: Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ (Steam)
7/16: Narcissu (Steam)
7/26: Crimzon Clover: World Ignition (GOG)
7/28: LocoRoco 2 (PSP)
7/30: Criminal Girls: Invite Only (Vita)
8/1: Pokemon Art Academy (3DS)
8/5: Gal*Gun: Double Peace (PS4)
8/8: Before the Echo (Steam)
8/9: Ironclad (PC DL)
8/9: Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)
8/14: Super Paper Mario (Wii)
8/15: Metal Slug (Steam)
8/17: Metal Slug 2 (Steam)
8/17: Metal Slug X (Steam)
8/18: Metal Slug 3 (Steam)
8/24: Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon (PS3)
8/25: The Typing of the Dead: Overkill (Steam)
8/28: Hatsune Miku Project Diva f (Vita)
8/31: Fable: The Lost Chapters (PC)

Total: 34 games

Hatsune Miku Project Diva f
Last year, I beat the 2nd Project Diva f game. Now, I finally got a chance to play the first one too! I did originally want the English PS3 version, but it's gotten a little too pricey for my tastes, so I got a much cheaper Japanese Vita copy. Because of that, I didn't do any of the extra things (as my Japanese isn't so great), but that didn't affect my enjoyment of this game in the slightest.

It's pretty much the same game as Project Diva f 2nd (hit the flying buttons in time to the music), except it most of the songs are different. I say mostly because I swear one or two songs are in both versions, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's still just fun as 2nd. I think I might actually like the song list a little better, but I'm not sure of that either haha. What I am sure of, however, is that it's just about as difficult as 2nd. Which means I had to play on Easy again Hopefully I'll get better at it in future play-throughs.

Fable: The Lost Chapters
Fable is an action-RPG that feels like it wants to be a very deep RPG with a lot of different complex things, but still ends up a bit simple.

For starters, there isn't a whole lot to the story. You play as a boy whose village is raided and burned by bandits. A big fancy school called "The Guild", takes you in and trains you in combat. Also turns out you're some sort of Chosen person, destained for great things. Whether that's good or evil is up to you. As you do the story quests to find your sister and avenge your family, you have the option to be good or evil. Whichever alignment you choose to be will affect how certain scenes play out, and what ending you get. Since I only went after the good ending, I'm not sure how different the two sides are, but the good side didn't end up being too interesting. Go find some things, kill the bad guy. There is a twist or two I guess, but they kind of come up completely out of nowhere that they felt a bit forced I guess. That could just be because I've played most of the game before, but I'm not sure.

As for the combat, melee and ranged are pretty simple. You can hit the things, or dodge from other things. As you get exp, you can make yourself be able to hit harder, get away from things faster, or take more damage, but none of the skills you can get really change how you will do melee or ranged attacks. Magic however, has quite a number of different, and mostly useful, spells. Maybe a bit too useful at times, as I only focused on a few spells I really liked, which made it really easy to defeat everything. Magic combined with ranged attacks really made most of the encounters easy, and it made it even easier to keep up my combat multiplier (which gives you more exp to make your skills even better). It did help to have really good armour and weapons for most of the game, but even without those things, combat is generally pretty easy. I doubt most people here will get much challenge out of it unless they do melee only or something.

And as for everything else... There's a bunch of different smaller things, but I don't think a lot of them add too much. There's a few different mini-games of sorts, such as chicken kicking, a card game (I think it's blackjack?) and fist fighting. You can marry someone which does... ??? I didn't marry anyone in this playthrough, since all I recall it doing is someone lives in your house and you can have sex with them. I don't remember that doing much else.

The other big side thing I can think of would be the buying & selling system. Stores will sell items for different prices, and one thing you can do is buy a bunch of an item from one store and sell it to another for a profit. The game will actually tell you if you would be making a profit or a loss which makes it easier. The system is pretty neat, but unfortunately it is easy to exploit it. If you buy all the store has of one item (assuming they have a large amount of that item and you have at least lv 3 in Guile), you can sell all of it right back to the same seller for a profit. Do that a few times, and you can easily get a lot of money.

Another thing is that the graphics are not too great. Partially it probably hasn't aged well, and partially the characters are just really ugly. Even when I first got the game shortly after release, I thought they were ugly. The environments do the job at least, but I wouldn't say they're particularly great either. I think the Anniversary Edition makes everything look better, but that's just based off of screenshots since I haven't played that version. Clipping happens pretty frequently as well, which was pretty annoying. The voice acting is also very cheesy, but I just found this hilarious.

So in the end, it's pretty simple. I did have fun though, but I think that's partially do to nostalgia, and exploiting the game was a little too much fun. I do think others would have fun with it, but just don't go expecting a particularly great story or deep combat system.

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 90

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (7 Games Beaten)


August (15 Games Beaten)


90. Saints Row IV - PS4 - August 30



Ahh, Saints Row IV. It was okay. I mean, it's a fun game, and a super wacky sandbox kill-em-up. The whole game is a giant parody of Mass Effect, and there are levels parodying Metal Gear Solid, Streets of Rage, and even Combat from the 2600. It felt to me, however, that it lacked the balance that Saints Row 3 had. Saints Row 2 was a funny game, but it left me feeling like it could have been funnier had they played up the wacky elements a little more. Saints Row IV left me feeling like they were trying just a little too hard to make it funny. Saints Row 3 hit that perfect balance IMO.



The basic premise of the game is that after doing all your awesome shit in the third game, you decide to quit being just a gang leader and start killing terrorists and shit. That makes you so popular that you get elected president of the United States. Then aliens attack and destroy the planet. Almost all of the game takes place in a simulation the aliens created that mimics Steelport. That's my biggest gripe with the game - I hated the simulation angle. I think it would have been way better if I were playing as the POTUS running around Washington DC killing aliens and shit (and anyone else who got in my way).



The gameplay itself is the same rock solid Saints Row combat that you've come to expect from the series, but my gripe with it from a gameplay standpoint is that they add super powers - they explain it as just altering your avatar's code in the simulation - and it just breaks the game. You can run faster than cars, completely defeating the purpose of customizing and driving a car. You can jump over almost every building and glide through the air, defeating the purpose of trying to steal aircraft. It's not that they weren't fun, but it felt like just way too much - again, like they were trying too hard to be wacky,



One fantastic thing, however, is that they gave you a lot of options for character creations, as you've seen with my beautiful president (who, btw, was a fat man with a country girl's voice). That's cool, and it's always fun to beat people to death with a giant purple dildo, but it's basically three-quarters of what made the third game good but trying too hard to outdo that. Definitely play it if you're new to the series but like GTA-style games, and if you really like the characters (I love me some Pierce and Shaundi), play it, but if you're just a casual Saints Row player, skip it and stick with the third game.

That just looks awful. Saints Row lost me when they tried too hard to be Crackdown.

Saints Row IV is still a lot of fun. Yeah, it's very over-the-top, but the super powers are really fun to play with. Honestly, the best and worst thing is that vehicles are largely pointless when you have super speed and gliding.

I honestly thought there was only a single Saints Row game.

marurun wrote:Saints Row IV is still a lot of fun. Yeah, it's very over-the-top, but the super powers are really fun to play with. Honestly, the best and worst thing is that vehicles are largely pointless when you have super speed and gliding.

The biggest problems that game has are in its setting and pacing. Literally having the EXACT same map of Steelport in what was supposed to be a new game was pretty freaking lame. They barely try to make it feel different with the couple of alien structures and your old, destroyed hang-outs. Some different city, whether it was some alien metropolis or even just DC, would've made that game a lot more interesting to someone who had already played the third game.

The pacing problem is the one EVERYONE mentions, and rightfully so. The super powers like super-speed and super-jump are given to you wayyyyy too early. It totally defeats the point of the game taking place in Steelport, let alone in what's clearly still the Saints Row III engine. The fact that the city itself wasn't catered around your having super powers really just drives home the fact how poor the pacing is since you're immediately given them. Just one of these problems probably could've been overlooked, but both of them together really sours the experience, and makes Saints Row IV, a game which I like quite a bit due to its writing, much harder to recommend than I'd like it :/

Seeing all of the screenshots is really making me wanna replay either III or IV though. Dang, those games are fun.

The Saint's Row 3 DLC with super powers was just the right length and really used them perfectly. They really shouldn't have tried to expand that concept into a full game though .

The thing that bugs me the most - in addition to the shit pacing - is that they missed a HUGE opportunity by having you play as the POTUS. Who hasn't wanted to be the president and kill Congress? I'm sure the ACTUAL president has on multiple occasions.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:The thing that bugs me the most - in addition to the shit pacing - is that they missed a HUGE opportunity by having you play as the POTUS. Who hasn't wanted to be the president and kill Congress? I'm sure the ACTUAL president has on multiple occasions.

Yield THIS Senator Payne.

I played IV coming off III and I enjoyed them both. I enjoyed them differently, but given how easy it is to get these games with all DLC for cheap, no reason not to own both.