Games Beaten 2017

[BogusMeatFactory]

do u guys sleep?

You would be surprised that Elkin goes to sleep at a VERY reasonable time.

[MrPopo]

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC

I've been working on this one off and on since December, and I think it fitting to be finishing it right after I finish Mass Effect Andromeda, considering the Starflight series inspired the Star Control series which went on to inspire the Mass Effect series. You can definitely see the legacy.

Starflight 2 is set 19 years after Starflight 1. It starts with the pathetic Spemin suddenly getting a lot of guns and threatening the world of Arth, which contains the survivors of Earth. This is obviously a Very Bad Thing, so you get tasked to investigate just how the Spemin managed to become a credible threat. You start off in a new region of space that is dominated by a huge nebula in the middle which is inhabited by some very hostile and very non-talkative aliens. Like Starflight 1 there isn't really an immediate goal; rather you need to explore, kit out your ship, and gather clues from the races you encounter.

The biggest change from Starflight 1 is in resource acquisition. Instead of spending your time mining and returning those minerals to the starbase you instead need to engage in trade with other races. The starbase doesn't buy anything, so trade and planet colonization are the only ways to make money. Unfortunately, I found the trade to not actually be all that profitable except in a couple key instances. For the most part my money was made by finding habitable planets for the starbase. That said, my attempts to get trade going did get my ass around the galaxy and encountering the various races that gave me the clues I needed to beat the game.

Speaking of, this game is far more based on getting clues through conversation; there is very little that is found in messages left in ruins on the planet surfaces. They also made some of the races more interesting; one won't talk to you until you've proven your martial worth by killing a bunch of them (which inspired SC2's Thraddash) and another goes through three cycles of who is in charge, with only one of the three actually being able to converse with you. Eventually through your conversations you will piece together enough clues to figure out the chain of items you need to pick up in order to assault the central area of the huge cloud nebula, where an ominous force has been sending out all the hostile ships. This final confrontation also ended up heavily inspiring SC2's Sa-Matra fight, though here it isn't as exciting due to the limitations of the combat engine.

The game still heavily deemphasizes combat; for the most part you should be running from encounters because they aren't worth anything. That said, there's only three intrinsically hostile races, and the third will become non-hostile once you blow up enough and keep your weapons and shields up around them. The game does a better job of having you explore the entire galaxy through its setup; in Starflight 1 I felt like a large portion of the galaxy was worthless and didn't bother exploring. The final revelation of the game isn't quite as interesting as that of Starflight 1's, but it does tie back to something from Starflight 1.

If you liked the first game you'd like this one. But they are very primitive and you better be good at taking notes.

[MrPopo]

do u guys sleep?

You would be surprised that Elkin goes to sleep at a VERY reasonable time.

Elkin and I don't waste time "having significant others and children".

[Exhuminator]

do u guys sleep?

[BoneSnapDeez]

do u guys sleep?

You would be surprised that Elkin goes to sleep at a VERY reasonable time.

Elkin and I don't waste time "having significant others and children".

I dunno, I think Elkin has some significant others...

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm in bed at or very near 10 pm every night, even on weekends. I just have no social life, no romantic relationship, and only one friend in town (and he's usually playing Smash on my Wii U when we hang out).

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 31

January (10 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
9. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. School Girl/Zombie Hunter - PlayStation 4 - January 29

February (12 Games Beaten)

11. Fire Emblem Heroes - Android - February 3
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - Wii U - February 5
13. Dante's Inferno - PlayStation 3 - February 7
14. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS - February 11
15. Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Vita - February 12
16. Sniper Elite 4 - PlayStation 4 - February 17
17. Pony Quest - NES - February 19
18. Halo Wars 2 - Xbox One - February 22
19. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - PlayStation Portable - February 24
20. Hotline Miami - PlayStation 4 - February 26
21. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - Famicom - February 27
22. Bad Dudes - NES - February 28

March (6 Games Beaten)

23. Root Letter - PlayStation 4 - March 2
24. Vroom in the Night Sky - Switch - March 10
25. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch - March 17
26. Super Bomberman R - Switch - March 18
27. Super Mario Run - Android - March 24
28. I Am Setsuna - Switch - March 24

April (3 Games Beaten)

29. Mass Effect: Andromeda - PlayStation 4 - April 1
30. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army - PlayStation 4 - April 2
31. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 - PlayStation 4 - April 2

30. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army - PlayStation 4 - April 2
31. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 - PlayStation 4 - April 2

Review postponed until I finished Nazi Zombie Army 3 since I'm playing on the Zombie Army Trilogy disc on PS4

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm in bed at or very near 10 pm every night, even on weekends.

You posted this at 10:06!!!

[ElkinFencer10]

I said at or very near. I'm also on my phone.

[MrPopo]

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC
23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC

So back in 2013 a small dev in Japan said "you know what, I loved Assault Suit Leynos. We should make one of those." And Armored Hunter Gunhound EX was born on the PSP, then ported to PC, then (somehow) translated to English. And it's a nice little title. Heck, it was good enough that when NCS wanted to remake Assault Suit Leynos for the PS4 they called these guys.

This game is 100% derived from Leynos's DNA, in a good way. You've got your dash, your jump, your primary gun that can be aimed and held in a spot, your secondary weapons, your linear battlefield with a radar to see enemy threats, and your giant bosses. Some of this does get implemented slightly differently; you now switch between two attack configurations, primary and anti air. I'm guessing anti air is a best approximation of what the original Japanese was, as half the weaponry in it is heavy weaponry suited for ground targets. In each configuration you have a primary and secondary fire. Primary config uses a gun and then either melee, shield, or a grenade. Anti air has a direct fire primary and some sort of ammo lobbing secondary. Unlike Leynos, all of your gear has infinite ammo with reloads. One unique thing the game does is in the couple of zero g segments you actually gain full rotational control of your mech. Pushing forward and back will rotate you in that direction around your axis unless you hold the "hold aim" button. In that case you go to the standard series four way movement. It unfortunately doesn't work out as well as it could have but it's a neat idea.

My main complaint is the game is short. Like, five missions about the same length as a standard Leynos mission short, which puts it 2/3 the length of Leynos, which is just on the wrong side of unsatisfying. The main way you'll gain length out of it is to go for the 1cc. Just like Leynos it tends to have some brutal difficulty and one death and you hit the retry screen. I felt like there was a bit more emphasis on memorization and patterns; several sections have instant death pits if you don't know they're coming, and the bosses will either utterly destroy you or be utterly helpless depending on if you know the pattern or not.

Definitely worth getting when it's on sale (which it is right now for another 11 hours), and definitely one to play with a controller.