Games Beaten 2018

Anything that is gaming related that doesn't fit well anywhere else
MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by MrPopo »

1. Ultima V - PC
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC
7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC
8. Pools of Darkness - PC
9. Gateway to the Savage Frontier - PC
10. Treasures of the Savage Frontier - PC
11. Champions of Krynn - PC
12. Death Knights of Krynn - PC
13. Dark Queen of Krynn - PC
14. Into the Breach - PC
15. Lords of the Realm - PC
16. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - PC
17. Lords of the Realm II - PC
18. The Alliance Alive - 3DS
19. Shattered Steel - PC
20. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - PC
21. Battletech - PC
22. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part I - PC
23. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part II - PC
24. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Switch
25. Pillars of Eternity II - PC
26. Dragon Ball FighterZ - PS4
27. Detroit: Become Human - PC4
28. Call of Duty: United Offensive - PC
29. The Last of Us - PS4
30. The Last of Us: Left Behind - PS4
31. Prey: Mooncrash - PC
32. Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - PS4
33. Resident Evil 7 - PC
34. Resident Evil 7: Not A Hero - PC
35. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War III - PC
36. Overwhelm - PC
37. Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - PC
38. Hard Reset Redux - PC
39. Nier: Automata - PS4
40. Darksiders - PC

I remember this game came out a number of years ago, and seemed super teenage generic, so I passed on it. Then last year (I think it was last year, maybe it was two years ago) they revealed that Darksiders 3 was going to come out, and that actually looked more interesting. So I decided to pick up the two previous games on Steam Sale, and finally got around to beating the first one. And I have to say, my initial impression all those years ago does the game a disservice. The game is actually a concentration of the 90s in one game, for better and for worst.

So the basic plot of the game is that heaven and hell waged war, then humans were created and they went on truce. There were seven seals forged, and they would be broken once humanity was ready for the Armageddon war. At that time, the Four Horsemen would land and fight to maintain balance or something. You play as War, and you get sent out because the battle is joined, but it turns out the seventh seal wasn't actually broken, so now everyone has jumped the gun and humanity is wiped out. You get in trouble and need to clear your name, because someone made you think it was time. So you murder a bunch of demons, find the truth, break the last seal, and now your bros are ready to come down and join you as you kick everyone's ass. I once saw it described as "The Bible by 90s Image Comics" and that's a pretty apt descriptor. Going along with that theme, the character designs are so over the top that even Rob Liefeld is like "dude, tone it down a bit". Everyone has a permanent scowl and frankly, the VAs should be applauded for managing to deliver everything straight. Even Mark Hamill gets in on the action, doing his Joker voice without the levity; just the parts where he was pissed at something.

Gameplay-wise, the game doesn't have a single unique idea. The basic gameplay is Ocarina of Time with God of War combat (complete with orbs when you murder stuff), and then at the end the game introduces a shittier version of Portal. The loop is to go to a dungeon, collect a new item to progress through that dungeon, then use that new item on the boss of that dungeon. And when you use it on the boss it stuns him so you can wail on him with your sword for a while, before he gets up and you repeat. Every dungeon also has a map and a compass (to see the treasure chests) available as pickups, though they have slightly different names. I mean, it is BLATENT. The combat is that sort of combo based God of War style where you can transition between moves, except all your best stuff you already have from the start. And the Portal mechanics can only be activated on certain very specific spots, and rather than being momentum based you have the option of making an exit push you out fast when you first deploy it (and even then, only if the game feels it's necessary for you to have a fast exit there). And the real shame is that the final boss is such a wimp. Whereas Ocarina of Time called on you to use a bunch of your tools to take down Ganon, here you just hit him with your sword a lot, because storywise nothing else can hurt him.

Overall, the game is fairly mediocre. Apparently the second one has some mechanical changes, so maybe that will be more interesting.
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laurenhiya21
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by laurenhiya21 »

Still trying to catch up with my reviews haha...

6/9: Nurse Love Addiction (Vita)

Nurse Love Addiction is one of those games that I went into without knowing a whole lot about it. It was a Limited Run game that I took a chance on, and I think it thankfully paid off. It definitely was not quite what I was expecting, but I’ll get to that in my review.

The game stars Asuka, a girl who decided that she wanted to become a nurse because of some words she had written in a book from her childhood. She heads off to nursing school (along with her sister), and there she meets several potential love interests (her sister, two students, and one teacher) and shenanigans ensue! When I first started the game, I thought that it would mostly be about romancing with the love interests, and while there is a lot of that, the game does have a bit more meat to it than that. For one, the game spends a lot of time with the main character trying to remember her forgotten childhood, which ends up in a direction that I was totally not expecting. Another thing is that, depending on which girl you end up pursuing, the plot can get really weird. There’s never any fourth-wall breaking moments here, but some messed up things can happen in the game, especially in the bad endings. I did enjoy nearly all of the endings though, minus the generic “you didn’t get hitched with anybody” ending. I find that it’s pretty rare that I’ll like all of the endings in a VN, so that was a good surprise.

Speaking of endings, there were a few annoying aspects about them. Not really the endings themselves, but how you get to them. Throughout the game, there will be various choices to make in a very typical VN fashion. While some of these choices are pretty clear on which would lead to which route (aka which would lead to which love interest), some of them don’t seem to really make much sense. I wasn’t willing to just guess willy nilly so I ended up using a guide for a majority of the game, but I don’t particularly like guessing in a very romance-driven VN (if it’s a story based one I don’t mind as much). Another thing that I didn’t really like that much is that most of the character’s routes have a TON of shared story within their routes. Thankfully the skip feature is pretty good, but it still takes a while to get though all of the previously read content.

Other than that, there isn’t much else for me to complain about. The music isn’t amazing, but it does its job. The visuals are pretty well done and really nice to look at. Maybe one other thing that was slightly odd about the game is that there seems to be no male characters in the game, but I didn’t really notice that until after I had finished all of the routes. Overall, I’d say that this was a surprisingly good VN. I don’t think that it would become anybody’s top VN any time soon, but if you like a good story with good characters and don’t mind a few strange moments here and there, then Nurse Love Addiction might be a good game for you to try out.
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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by Xeogred »

Yeah, I tried to play Darksiders myself a few years ago and was bored to tears. I still have nightmares of that swinging grab-bat-kill animation, since you kill thousands of them. REAL FUN...
MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by MrPopo »

The bat grab gives me a morbid fascination when there's a pack of them, because you can play "The floor is lava".
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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by Ack »

1. Jungle Book (SNES)(Platformer)
2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)
3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)
4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)
5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)

8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)
9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)

11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)
12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)
14. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - Capcom Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
15. Toonstruck (PC)(Point and Click)
16. Riven (PC)(Point and Click)
17. Dragon Wars (PC)(RPG)
18. Dungeon Hack (PC)(RPG)
19. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (NGPC)(Fighter)
20. Portal 2 (PC)(Puzzle FPS)
21. Goat Simulator: Waste of Space (PC)(Action)
22. Goat Simulator: Payday (PC)(Action)
23. Goat Simulator: MMO Simulator (PC)(Action)

24. Goat Simulator: GoatZ (PC)(Action)
25. Goat Simulator (PC)(Action)
26. Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)(Beat 'Em Up)
27. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PC)(Action Platformer)

28. Deadlight (PC)(Platformer)
28. Antichamber (PC)(Puzzle FPS)
29. S.C.A.R.S. (N64)(Racing)
30. Anvil of Dawn (PC)(RPG)
31. Earth Defense Force 4.1 (PC)(Action)

Do you want to shoot giant bugs?

Do you want to blast alien warships out of the sky?

Do you want to use a giant robot to beat up a giant lizard?

Do you want to do all of this while wandering through destructible environments, listening to the other grunts in your platoon lose all hope or sing songs while swarms of massive ants, spiders, wasps, dragons, killer robots, and alien fighter drones rip them a new one?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Earth Defense Force 4.1 is for you! Just pick one of four classes, select one of the 89 levels, and pick your difficulty, and then go to town! Thrill as you level an unnamed Japanese city that you're supposedly protecting! Watch as the Earth is overrun with alien forces hellbent on conquering our planet! Listen as you are told that over half the Earth's population is wiped out, and areas like Hawaii or Sydney, Australia, have been wiped from the face of the planet.

Yes, the game looks like something from the PS2 days, but that's because if you see a building, you can blow it up! After all, aliens can't level the city if there's not a city to level! And as for sound, who doesn't want to listen to a bunch of goofy-sounding voice actors talk about what they want for dinner, whether they'll get married, and how this whole experience has ruined aliens for them forever.

If you have read to this point, it's time I get serious. Earth Defense Force 4.1 is a simplistic game: play a level, shoot stuff, collect weapons and more health, move to the next level, eventually win. It's formulaic, it's ridiculous and over the top, and it's also quite addictive in the way that a game like Dynasty Warriors is. The game also tracks progress across all difficulty levels and character classes, so you might become extremely good at the basic soldier, the Ranger, but have put no progress into improving the vehicle guy, called an Air Raider. Also, do the math: 89 levels, 5 difficulties, 4 character classes = 1780 levels to get through total. That's a lot of levels. EDF 4.1 is something that you get on discount and play a long time, not because it's visually stunning or mentally stimulating, but because it's good, clean fun with a setting reminiscent of kaiju movies or 1950s B-movie sci-fi from a Japanese perspective. And with so many levels, it's a lot of content to keep coming back to. EDF 4.1 will last you for ages. Heck, I've beaten the game on Normal now with one class, done 50 levels on Easy and 30 on Hard, and I'm not even 10% of the way into the game.

Plus, the game does get steadily more ridiculous, both in the foes you face and in the weapons you'll obtain. I recently found a grenade launcher that shoots a sticky bomb which ignites in a geyser of fire. Quite literally, a geyser, with force behind it. You can use it to set traps for enemies, but I get much more entertainment out of firing at an enemy and then watching as the flame geyser operates like a jet engine and launches them into the air. Now that's entertainment.
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by Flake »

January:

Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSi ware)

February:

Roundabout (PS4)
Pocket Fighter (PSX)
Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
Batman Arkham VR(PSVR)

March:

Gundam Versus (PS4)

April:

Batman: The Enemy Within (PS4)
Megaman 9 (PS4)
Megaman 10 (PS4)

May:

The Legend of Zelda: BotW (Switch)
Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS4)
Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA/WiiU)

June:

Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams (Switch)
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS4)
Ikaruga (Switch)
Batman: Tell Tale Series (Switch)
Gunbird (Switch)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Switch)
Caladrius Blaze (PS4)

July:

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD (PS3)
Street Fighter (PS4)
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (PS4)


Revisiting old favorites in new wrappers this month! Not a lot to say about these games since they are so well known. A Haiku for each about how I felt, then:

Metal Gear Solid 3:
My despair at Trump
Solace in fighting Russians
Throwing poison scorpions

Street Fighter:
First time to play it
Since once at Taco Bueno
Back in '94[/b]

Street Fighter II: World Warriors
Not bad, truthfully
Slow movement, hard blows
Sagat is bullshit
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by prfsnl_gmr »

I like your reviews.
They are all elegant poems.
Let’s bring back that thread!
dsheinem
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by dsheinem »

Games Beaten 2018
The first 50:
Darkwing Duck - NES (PS4)
DuckTales - NES (PS4)
DuckTales 2 - NES (PS4)
Talespin - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES (PS4)
Scarecrow - PS1 (Vita)
The Heart of Dark - PS1 (Vita)
Justice - PS1 (Vita)
Caligo - PC
Tomb Raider (2013) - X1
Nephise Begins - PC
Diablo III: The Darkening of Tristam - PC
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - X1
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - SNES
Forza Horizon 3 - X1/ PC
Elbub - PC
Tekken 4 -PS2
Injustice 2 -PS4
Apollo 11 VR - PSVR
Star Wars Battlefront II -PS4
Unearthing Mars - PSVR
Jenny of the Prairie - C64
Part Time UFO - iOS
Marvel vs Capcom Infinite - PS4
War of the Monsters -PS2
Far Cry 5 - PS4
Uncharted: Lost Legacy - PS4
Soul Calibur 2 - GCN
God of War (2018) - PS4
Orcs and Elves - NDS
Tekken 7 - PS4
House of the Dead 4 Special - PS3
S.A.R. (Search and Rescue) - PS3
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR - PSVR
Time Crisis: Razing Storm - PS3
Time Crisis IV - PS3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - PS4
Dodonpachi Saidaioujou - 360
Ketsui Kizuna Shigokutachi Extra - PS3
Bad Dudes - Arcade (Wii)
Crude Buster - Arcade (Wii)
Wizard Fire - Arcade (Wii)
Heavy Barrel - Arcade (Wii)
The Bouncer - PS2
Thor: God of Thunder - NDS
Destiny 2: Warmind - PS4
King Oddball - PS4
High Hell - PC
Postal Redux - PC

Super Night Riders - PC
Slap City - PC
Ultraflow - iOS
Grim Dawn - PC
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - PC *new*

Total: 55


Previously: 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

I thought that this was one of the weaker entries in the series and in the recent run of Bethesda-published classic iD revamps. It doubles down on a lot of what made the previous game in the series an interesting (and fun) reboot, but there was far too much story in this one for my taste - I don't play Wolfenstein games for 10 minute cutscenes and annoying missions where I have to run around a hub base to grab a trinket...to advance a NPC character's development...to watch another cutscene...to finally get into a mission where I get to shoot Nazis. Though the story's presence is too overstated, it is nonetheless interesting enough and has its fair share of awesome and/or WTF moments, and the gunplay is not too far off of the previous game...but the map design is largely built around a stealth system that doesn't work very well, enemy AI is lacking, and the boss fights aren't especially memorable compared to those in previous Wolfenstein games (the final boss "fight" is barely even a QTE). I am glad I played it, but I can't recommend it as easily as I can the other more recent iD reboot titles (The New Order, The Old Blood, Doom, Doom VFR, etc.).
Last edited by dsheinem on Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Flake
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by Flake »

prfsnl_gmr wrote:I like your reviews.
They are all elegant poems.
Let’s bring back that thread!


To that fun format
I am planning a return
Thanks for the Feedback!

- no but seriously, I forgot how much fun it is to try and encompass a game experience into 5x7x5. I also miss an even older thread I did forever ago where you would recount the plot or point of a game in the most literal way possible.

Like Super Metroid: Space bondsman goes off on her own to murder a planet of kidnappers and save a baby. Fails to save baby.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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Re: Games Beaten 2018

Post by Forlorn Drifter »

@dsh,

I haven't played TNC yet, but I've been put off by most of the reviews I read on it. Mostly stuff like the weird ups and downs in difficulty, and stealth not working as well (none of the reviews I read pegged down why though). Any thoughts on that? You mentioned stealth, I just want to get a bit more in depth on that.
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