Games Beaten 2017

[Juan Aguacate]

Infamous Second Son



Some spoilers ahead...

So I've played Second Son before, but never really finished it. I played Festival of Blood not long ago, so decided to play Second Son again

I think one of the things working to Festival of Blood's advantage is its brevity. Second Son gets tedious after a while. Some of the side activities are fun initially, like spray painting walls or taking down DUP command centers, but it all gets repetitive and tiresome after awhile. Also, the main story missions aren't anything to write home about and the boss fights are absolutely terrible, some of the worst ones I've seen in a video game. I've seen the first battle against The Beast in Infamous 2, which I plan to play through at some point (along with the first game), and it's more fun and exciting than every single boss fight in Second Son.

Also, neon is like the only good power in the game, at least on a good karma play through. It's fun blasting people's weak points, running at light speed, and karmic streaks seem the most powerful when using neon. I loved activating a District Showdown and just activating a neon karmic streak to kill everything in 5 seconds. Having said all that, I really found it irritating how the main story missions kept forcing me to shift over to smoke powers, which suck. For a game that makes a big deal about Delsin having multiple powers, it's funny how so many missions and boss fights kind of force you to use just one.

Also, I really found it irritating how Delsin is built up to be this bad ass conduit who can absorb other people's powers. Yet it's all a big tease. Eugene does things with his powers that essentially make him a god, yet once Delsin acquires his powers you can't do half of the cool shit Eugene does. Augustine can turn herself in a big, fucking, crab kaiju creature. And once Delsin gets her powers, he does little more than concrete variations on the powers he already has. He sure as hell can't turn into a big, giant, crab kaiju. Also, Delsin takes damage like a bitch. Granted, I was playing on expert difficulty, but man if you sneeze on Delsin he enters near death status and has to run away to auto heal.

Basically, Delsin is one of the lamest super hero characters I've ever played in a game. A far cry from the bad ass feeling you get playing games like Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Arkham Asylum, or Wolverine Origins Uncaged Edition, or the Darkness games.

And he doesn't win points for personality either. In fact, I hate every character in Second Son. When playing Festival of Blood, I found Cole and Zeke to be full of charisma. They are immediately likable. None of the characters in Second Son ever leave an impression like Cole and Zeke do. And Augustine is a bland, boring, one note villain. It's only at the last minute during the final boss battle does the game finally try and give her some depth, but it's too little too late.

Overall, not a great game, but not terrible either. I just can't shake the feeling that the earlier Infamous games are better than this one. And I've seen opinion on various forums that seem to echo that. I kind of want to play them just because Cole and Zeke seem so awesome after playing Festival of Blood. I'll play a whole game with those guys as the leads.

I'll give the game some extra points though for the fun way it uses the dualshock's speakers. I kind of love the cool sound effect when I'm draining a blast shard, and I kind of like the gimmicky shaking of the spray paint can with my controller and its accompanying sound effect. I also like seeing the way the people of Seattle react to me as I'm becoming more and more of a good guy with the game's karma system, and putting my own personal stamp on the city with that banner you get to choose that ends up adorning every billboard in the city is kind of cool. I picked the one with the two hands cradling the city like a divine protector.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2. Gyromite (NES)
3. Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5. Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6. Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)

Yes that's the actual game title. Isn't that glorious? Not sure why it was given that name. Maybe it was intended to be the first entry in a series that never materialized. Maybe it was the first TI-99/4 game developed (1980 is the official release date here, but the title screen gives a copyright of '79). Or perhaps the developers were a bit ignorant and truly believed this was the first video game ever!

In any event, Video Games 1 reminds me of an old Channel F cart, as it's comprised of several minigames. There's no ending scene to be found anywhere here of course, so "beaten" is essentially gonna be synonymous with "longplay."

Upon booting the game you're given the choice between English, French, and German which is humorous given how little text is present. First minigame on deck is called "Pot-Shot" which is sort of like a primitive Duck Hunt. You shoot rabbits, birds, and moose and points are awarded based on how difficult each animal is to hit. The gun most be reloaded (the game pauses) after five shots. The goal is to rack up as many points as possible in two minutes. I kept blasting bunnies. Poor bun-buns.

Next is "Pinball", which as you might expect is..... not a pinball game. More like a Breakout knock-off. Not much to say about this. It's slow, dull, and I couldn't even figure out a way to quit. Had to simply shut off the computer when I was done.

Finally we have the feature presentation: "Doodle." This one's clearly inspired by the arcade game Blockade - or to put things in more familiar terms, it's a "snake" game. This seems like it would be more fun with two players, though a one-player vs. AI option is present. You play as a spider leaving behind webbing as it travels. Touch your own webbing, the other player's webbing, or a wall/obstacle and the other player scores a point. If the bad spider touches something you earn a point. First to ten wins. The computer AI is pretty exploitable. It chases the player and I found it easy to lure bad spider into a corner, quickly change directions, and then trap it. There are several modification options, which is a nice touch. The speed can be altered and several configurations of obstacles are available. One strange thing about this is that compared to most "snake" games you don't move automatically but must continually push on the joystick.

Which reminds me, the TI-99/4A controller is awful. Stiff and unwieldy. Well, Dave, what do you expect - your controller is 35 years old and beat to all hell. Oh but it isn't! I actually went on eBay and purchased a sealed controller after my old one bit the dust. And it still sucks! Having it with the original box makes for a semi-cool collectible, I suppose.

Slightly amusing but blasé overall. Still, not bad for the first video game ever!!!

[BoneSnapDeez]

I never knew a third game existed!

It's fascinating to think I was playing Lolo back when I was 3-4 years old. Love those first two.

This is a series where the Japanese titles different from the American ones. The first Adventures of Lolo is actually like a compilation of previously released Japan-only levels from older games thrown together. HG101 explains it better.

Should I go full-nerd and get the MSX and FDS games?

[Fragems]

1. VVVVVV (Vita)
2. Firewatch (PS4)

Great game with a nice atmosphere and some awesome characters for a game where there are really only two characters and no face to face interaction. Really enjoyed exploring the map even though there wasn't really a ton to do outside of some mini collecting. Think I found 99% of the stuff and the only secret I didn't bother was collecting the books which I figure you could probably drag back to your tower one at a time to put on the bookshelf.

Sadly I was really let down by the ending even though the mystery wraps up in a nice way the relationship between the two characters doesn't really have a satisfying ending. Plus there is really only one ending although there is an alternative ending but it's pretty stupid and doesn't add anything really .

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 8

January (8 Games Beaten)

1. Persona 4 Arena - Playstation 3 - January 1
2. Chrono Trigger - SNES - January 7
3. Ys: The Vanished Omens - Master System - January 8
4. MUSHA - Genesis - January 10
5. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - PlayStation 4 - January 11
6. Ys I - TurboGrafx-CD - January 13
7. Ys II - TurboGrafx-CD - January 14
8. Dragon Quest Builders - PlayStation 4 - January 23

8. Dragon Quest Builders - PlayStation 4 - January 23



Imagine, if you will, Minecraft but a version of Minecraft that isn't totally pointless. Now imagine Dragon Quest but a version of Dragon Quest that lets you build a town and craft your own weapons and armor. That's Dragon Quest Builders. Take Minecraft, make it not look like shit, and add in a reason to play for more than twenty minutes. Boom. Dragon Quest Builders.



Your journey to rebuild the world begins in a quaint little....well, it's not a town, but the ruins of a quaint little town where you build your first house. In this world, houses don't need roofs. Just stack some dirt about six feet high, throw a door and a burning stick in there, and hooray, it's a house - construction standards almost as low as the 1980s. Let me expand a bit on my earlier Minecraft comparison. The construction part - 75% or so of the gameplay - is almost exactly like Minecraft. You punch the ground to get dirt and build shit. The difference between Builders and Minecraft, however, is that there's actually a purpose to Builders. "Oh, but there's the Ender Dragon to beat!" Yeah, shut up, nerd, that's totally optional and wasn't even in the original build. Minecraft is cool, but it's ultimately pointless IMO. Builders gives you an objective, quests, and a long-term goal to achieve. Minecraft gives you misshapen green pigs that hiss and explode. Woopdie-fucking-doo.



I said building is about 75% of the gameplay. What's the other 25%? Well, this is still a Dragon Quest game; you still hit shit with your sword until it dies. And yes, I know Minecraft has combat, but again, it's totally just a side thing that barely even serves a purpose. You literally cannot progress in Dragon Quest without combat. You have waves of enemies to repel, bosses to kill, drops to farm, dragons to kill with giant cannons that blast holes in the floor and trap said dragon just out of his fire breath range. In all seriousness, the combat is very similar to Minecraft. It's not NEARLY as awkward and clunky, but at its core, it's basically the same sort of deal. One thing to note is that this is NOT an RPG. You do not gain experience, your stats do not to up except by making better equipment, and you cannot grind. The only "experience" is gained by your base for building more and better rooms, and the only thing that affects is a few quests and some extra unlockables at the end of each chapter.



The story is fairly simple. It's an alternate universe branching off from the first Dragon Quest. When the hero gets to the Dragonlord in the first game, he's presented with a choice to side with him or stick with your plan to kill him and save the world. In the actual game, it doesn't matter what you pick; you always save the world. Builders takes place several hundred years after this fateful encounter when the hero chooses to join the Dragonlord, ensuring that the world will be plunged into darkness. To prevent humanity from being able to resist him, the Dragonlord takes from humans their ability to build and create. They can have ideas, but some bullshit plot device magic keeps them from actually making anything. I guess they just graze on all fours like cattle since they can't even do so much as cook since that counts as creating.



Along comes the legendary Builder, sent by the goddess to restore light to various parts of the world and teach humans how to build again, laying the foundations for the hero who will eventually destroy the Dragonlord (and not fuck it up this time). You are not that hero. That's made very clear. Like two dozen times. You know when someone tells you that you're NOT supposed to do something over and over and over again at seemingly random times and they're really trying to get you to do that thing? Yeah, that's basically your interactions with the goddess throughout this entire game. I mean, did anyone really expect to play a Dragon Quest game and NOT kill some horrible tyrant monster and save the world?



The game is broken into four chapters, each in a different part of the realm. Each chapter is a self-contained unit. Your items do not carry over. Your equipment does not carry over. The recipes you learned do not carry over. You HP boosts - the only "stat" in the game that isn't dependent on equipment - does not carry over. Nothing you built or did carries over. Here's where I started to take issue with the game. On the one hand, these are perfect "stopping points" if you want to take a break. Other than "kill Dragonlord, save world," there's no plot that you need to remember because each chapter is its own quest. Every chapter has a "main" villain you must defeat to restore light to that part of the world, and every chapter has its own cast of characters with side quests for you to do that lead up to that main showdown. On the other hand, even if you try to rush through, you'll inevitably spend enough time building up a great base that you're loath to just abandon everything and start over with literally nothing but the clothes on your back. I've seen people online say that it's great for keeping the game fresh, but it really burned me, and that one aspect made the game wear out its welcome REALLY quickly. By the end of chapter 2, I was ready to call it quits, but I really wanted to finish it, especially since you unlock stuff for the free mode by completing each chapter as well as various optional challenges in each chapter.



Now for those of you who say "BUT I LIKE SPENDING DOZENS OF HOURS ON A POINTLESS GAME LIKE MINECRAFT WITH NO OBJECTIVE OR STORYLINE WHATSOEVER," Dragon Quest Builders has you covered, but you'll have to put on your big boy/girl britches and actually play a real game first. Builders has a mode called Terra Incognita which is essentially your free build mode like Minecraft. The catch is that you don't unlock it until you finish Chapter 1, and you have to finish the other chapters to unlock more islands to visit (which means more resources) and more recipes to build in Terra Incognita. Being burnt out on the game, I won't be visiting Terra Incognita for a while, but because I think Dragon Quest Builders is a superior game to Minecraft in every way (well, except one), I'll definitely revisit the game at some point for some free stress relief building. That one single way Minecraft wins out? Multiplayer. You can upload certain parts of your creations in Terra Incognita to an online server and download other people's creations, but there's not true multiplayer. You can't enter each others worlds online and build, and there's no local multiplayer whatsoever. That's really the only way this game is inferior to Minecraft. Square Enix has said that they're considering adding in local and/or online multiplayer should they decide to make a Dragon Quest Builders II, and that would make it better than Minecraft in LITERALLY every way, but until then, only 99% of the game is better. #Fuckthe1%



All in all, Dragon Quest Builders is a great game. The storyline, while nothing you won't be able to piece together from the first five minutes, gives the game a purpose, and the options and relative freedom to build let you make this Dragon Quest really feel personalized. Having each room and its decorations add to your base's points and overall level gives you an incentive to expand and spruce up instead of just "LET'S MAKE A SLAVE SHIP WITH 30 BEDS SO WE CAN ALL SLEEP AND CATCH PLAGUE." The combat is definitely not the game's strong point, but once you get a feel for the timing of enemy attack and get used to the necessary hit-and-run tactics, it's totally doable and not a pain or anything. It does, admittedly, get REALLY old having to restart from nothing every chapter, and that was such a detriment in my eyes that I really struggled with what rating to give this game. I don't do half points, but I was really torn between a 3 and a 4, but in the end, I decided to err on the side of a higher score because the Terra Incognita does do something to make up for that aspect. If you're into "creation" games, I definitely recommend this, but if you don't like those games, pass on this even unless you're Dragon Quest superfan #1 or something.

[Juan Aguacate]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle - PS4



For the first three chapters, this game is a joy to play. It has great combat, a diverse enemy selection, decent boss fights, fun megazord sequences, a nice leveling and upgrade system, and does a good job catering to one's nostalgia for the original Power Rangers show as well as one's desire for a good, old fashioned, beat 'em up.

Unfortunately, chapter 3 is like a turning point because after that the game becomes a total cheese fest with obnoxious level designs and increasingly annoying enemy combinations. By the time you reach the game's final chapter, you start to get really, really fed up with what I consider to be the game's biggest flaw, the fucking obnoxious amount of invincibility states and iframes that enemies in this game have. A typical battle at this point in the game goes like this:

"Okay, let me attack the bull. Oh wait, he's invincible until he does his charge attack. Let me attack the banshee bitch. Oh wait, she's invincible until she does her stupid projectile attack. Let me attack sword and shield guy. Oh wait, I can't do any damage to him until I break his shield. Let me attack the tengu. Oh wait, he blocks every single thing you do until you guard break him. I'll attack sword guy. Oh wait, I have to wait until he drops his guard by doing his obnoxious multi-slash attack. Sigh. Is there any fucking enemy on the screen right now that I can actually hurt in any way, shape, or form right now!!!!"

You know, A King's Tale Final Fantasy XV is designed like this. And I've praised that game for having a diverse number of enemies that all require different strategies to take down. Difference is, that game gives you some tools you can use when you just want to say, "Fuck your defenses, I'm killing you now and you're gonna like it". Those tools are limit breaks, partner assists, and powerful magic. You know sometimes a player just gets sick of an enemy's bullshit and just wants to hit the "fuck you" button and move on. In Streets of Rage it was the cop car. In other beat 'em ups, it might be a powerful attack you can unleash when you fill up a super meter, or a 360 screen clearing attack that uses up a bit of your health, or those bad ass magic attacks in Golden Axe. This power rangers game is desperately in need of something like that, because even with a max level ranger you feel like in impotent little wimp when surrounded by a bunch of enemies with invincibility states all ganging up on you.

But hey, about 50% of the game is actually fun, up until the point when the devs decide to start showing you what assholes they are. Oh, and lord Zed is a cheap prick of a final boss with attacks that have so much range trying to not get hit just becomes an exercise in frustration.

[TSTR]

Ah, that sounds wack with the difficulty spike. I had higher hopes. Maybe if it hits bargain bin prices when it comes to PC, I'll check it.

[SpikeSlania]

One of the games I beat this year which is Final Fantasy 15. I ended up platniuming it and then selling it. The game play and side quests were amazing in the first half of the game. But then after chapter 8 it took a major drop. I might pick it up again later at a cheap price once Square adds all the new free updates updating the story and stuff later and try it again to see if it improved at all. Otherwise you will find some gaps in the story that you can guess will end up being the character dlc, which is something I hate when a game removes stuff for dlc.

The other game I beat this year was King of Fighters XIV. I only beat it with one Team though. I ended up selling it as well. The game felt alot slower then KoF XIII, which I found out why they slowed it down when I tried Multiplayer. They added a Max system which speeds up your character. I liked the teams they added to the game and some returns of old favorites. But in the end I rather be mediocre in Blazblue instead of learning the new Max system But as a plus for XIV is the network mode I never felt any lag in the few online matches I tried when compared to KoF XIII, so the network definitely was improved.

[Raz]

1. Dragon Quest Builders (PS4)
2. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS)
3. Wild Guns: Reloaded (PS4)
4. World Heroes (SNES)

Picked this up last Saturday and decided to go through it as a break from Arkanoid: Doh It Again. It's a SNES port of a Neo Geo fighting game. It has a "SFII ripoff" vibe coming from it, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. The biggest difference here from SFII is the "Deathmatch" mode where you fight on stages with environmental hazards like electric fences and landmines. I just did an arcade run as Jeanne on normal mode, nothing special. Maybe I'll go get the other Neo Geo SNES ports out there of course nobody ported Neo Turf Masters over.

[marurun]

The SNES Neo Geo ports are a mixed bag. Some are good, some are not particularly. And different companies did different ports, so make sure you read up a little before you dive in.