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CFFJR
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by CFFJR Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:48 am

Exhuminator wrote:Image


I remember playing this game as a kid in the local arcade with my Dad.

I've seriously been trying to find out what it was called for years. My memories were so vague I couldn't find anything solid, and most of my searching led to Sly Spy, which I knew wasn't right.

So thanks for both bringing me way back and proving I'm not crazy for remembering this game.
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REPO Man
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by REPO Man Fri Jun 09, 2017 4:51 am

Castle of Illusion for Xbox 360. Damn, this is pretty short and I got ALL the achievements. But I had fun. Not worth the full $15. Maybe wait until it's on sale? But still glad it came back from being delisted.
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Markies
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Markies Fri Jun 09, 2017 4:29 pm

1. Phantasy Star II (GEN)
2. Guitar Hero (PS2)
3. Adventures of Lolo (NES)
4. Animal Crossing (GCN)
5. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES)
6. Beyond The Beyond (PS1)
7. R.B.I. Baseball (NES)
8. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (PS1)
9. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (GCN)
10. Project Gotham Racing (XBOX)
11. Ristar (GEN)
12. Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)
13. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
14. Pikmin (GCN)
15. Syberia (XBOX)
16. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)
17. Tetris Plus (PS1)
18. Metropolis Street Racer (DC)
19. Darkwing Duck (NES)

20. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (PS2)

I beat Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes on the Sony Playstation 2 this afternoon!

My fighting game enjoyment started with Street Fighter II. Since then, I have been a very loyal Capcom supporter. I have loved their Street Fighter series and I have branched out to their other series' as well. One such series is the Vs. series and I beat the pinnacle of the series in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

I got this game several years ago when the height was at its peak. I was browsing a Gamestop, back when they sold PS2 games and I could not believe that they had a copy. My friend had picked one up months earlier and I realized that I had to have it as well, considering it's rarity. After paying $80 for it, I now had a rather rare PS2 game.

When we started playing MvC2, it was always in multiplayer mode, so this is the first time that I got to play it in single player mode. I always enjoyed the game and I think the best part of the game is the cast of characters.

But, boy is it unbalanced and cheap. I am fairly certain that Ice Man is the most broken fighting game character of all time and I could beat the three stage final boss with just him. Some of the characters don't translate well to the fast paced and frenetic style of the game as my favorite character, Ryu, is just too slow. Some characters are completely useless and must be in just for laughs like Servebot or Roll.

Also, playing against the computer is completely unbalanced as well. Many times, they will just sit there and do absolutely nothing. Other times, especially when their health is near depletion, they will air combo you and utterly destroy you. And the less said about the complete unfairness of the final boss, the better.

I think that is my problem with MvC2. If I nitpick and get frustrated at the little things, then I am missing the big picture. I have realized that MvC2 is just a fun mish mash of characters thrown together in a stew called a fighting game. It's not supposed to be balance. It's just supposed to be fun and fantasy warfare.

Take it at face value and you will enjoy the game. Turn off your brain and wonder who would win in a fight: Cyclops or Ryu?
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Fri Jun 09, 2017 5:12 pm

I only ever play MvC2 at the highest difficulty now. And yeah, the CPU will air combo you to bits. I never have been good at doing the same. Ironically, while MvC2 has a reputation for being more frenetic and rewarding aggressive play, versus the Street Fighter series, I play them in the opposite manner, being much more aggressive in SF and more defensive in MvC.

Definitely not balanced, and I don't think they were particularly trying to. It's fine, there are tons of options, and half the fun is just playing around with all the different characters.

The shotos are actually rather weak in this one. Bad range, and anti-air, at least of the Dragon Punch variety, aren't nearly as effective. Captain Commando, however, has the best anti-air in the game, with his shockwave extending with unlimited vertical range. He's one of my favorite fighters to use.
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Markies Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:00 pm

Sarge wrote:I only ever play MvC2 at the highest difficulty now. And yeah, the CPU will air combo you to bits. I never have been good at doing the same. Ironically, while MvC2 has a reputation for being more frenetic and rewarding aggressive play, versus the Street Fighter series, I play them in the opposite manner, being much more aggressive in SF and more defensive in MvC.

Definitely not balanced, and I don't think they were particularly trying to. It's fine, there are tons of options, and half the fun is just playing around with all the different characters.

The shotos are actually rather weak in this one. Bad range, and anti-air, at least of the Dragon Punch variety, aren't nearly as effective. Captain Commando, however, has the best anti-air in the game, with his shockwave extending with unlimited vertical range. He's one of my favorite fighters to use.


Oh yeah, Captain Commando's shockwave is very nice for anti-air. The ability of being able to summon his ninja brothers are also really nice as some of them can combo anti-air attacks, which is also really nice. I played through the game with him and I did really well.

Considering how straight forward and balanced Street Fighter II, where every fight has a legitimate chance, I don't think Capcom wanted that in MvC2. Watching people barrel through the game with Ice Man or Cable alone proves that. It's just simple, crazy fun times.

My friend plays defensively while I play aggressively, so most of the game is me chasing him throughout the entire stage. It's funny, but I'm not an aggressive person in real life and not too much in video games either, but when it comes to fighting games, I am super aggressive and never let up.

It is a great game and fun in spurts or every now and then. It's fun to marvel at the combos and watching really good people at it. It's just a little broken sometimes...
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Sarge Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:09 pm

January:
1) The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC) (8.5) (1/1) (~5.5 hours)
2) ActRaiser (SNES) (8.0) (1/2) (~4 hours)
3) Bonk's Revenge (GB) (6.0) (1/3) (~1 hour)
4) Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (GB) (6.5) (1/3) (~1 hour)
5) Blackwell Legacy (PC) (7.0) (1/5) (2.6 hours)
6) Blackwell Unbound (PC) (7.5) (1/7) (2.2 hours)
7) Blackwell Convergence (PC) (8.0) (1/7) (2.4 hours)
8) Blackwell Deception (PC) (8.0) (1/8) (4.7 hours)
9) Blackwell Epiphany (PC) (9.0) (1/9) (6.5 hours)
10) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) (8.0) (1/22) (~55 hours)
11) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360) (8.0) (1/28) (~.5 hours)
12) Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (SMS) (6.5) (1/31) (~1 hour)

February:
13) Quackshot Starring Donald Duck (GEN) (7.5) (2/7) (~2 hours)
14) Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (8.0) (2/9) (~10 hours)
15) Super C (NES) (9.5) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
16) Contra (NES) (10.0) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
17) Mickey's Dangerous Chase (GB) (6.5) (2/24) (~1 hour)
18) My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS) (8.5) (2/25) (~19 hours)
19) Mega Man 2 (NES) (10.0) (2/28) (~0.8 hours)

March:
20) Final Fantasy XV (PS4) (8.0) (3/2) (~33 hours)
21) Blaster Master Zero (NS) (9.0) (3/10) (~6.5 hours)
22) Espgaluda II Black Label (360) (8.0?) (3/17) (0.5 hours)
23) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS) (9.5) (3/28) (~70+ hours)

April:
24) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PC) (8.5) (4/7) (~5.5 hours)
25) Hyper Light Drifter (PS4) (8.0) (4/9) (~8 hours)
26) Gekido Advance: Kintaro's Revenge (GBA) (7.5) (4/16) (~3 hours)
27) Vanquish (PS3) (8.5) (4/17) (~7 hours)
28) Journey (PS3) (6.0) (4/19) (~2 hours)
29) GunForce (SNES) (4.0) (4/22) (~20 minutes)
30) GunForce 2 (ARC) (7.0) (4/23) (~30 minutes)
31) GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island (ARC) (6.0) (4/23) (~20 minutes)
32) Mighty Final Fight (NES) (8.5) (4/29) (~30 minutes)

May:
33) Final Fantasy V (SFC) (6.0) (5/1) (~33 hours)
34) Super Adventure Island (SNES) (7.0) (5/2) (~1 hour)
35) Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES) (7.5) (5/3?) (~30 minutes)
36) Mighty No. 9 (PS4) (5.0) (5/6?) (~5 hours)
37) Contra III: The Alien Wars (Hard) (SNES) (8.5) (5/11) (~1 hour)
38) Operation C (GB) (7.5) (5/22) (~1 hour)

June:
39) Super Dodge Ball (NES) (9.5) (6/1) (~15 minutes)
40) Bare Knuckle III (GEN) (7.5) (6/3) (~1 hour)
41) Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) (9.5) (6/5) (~30 minutes)
42) Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear (GB) (4.0) (6/8) (~1 hour)
43) Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) (3.5) (6/9) (~1 hour)

I'm not sure if Castlevania: The Adventure is better or worse than Fortress of Fear. A 4.0 seems too high, a 3.5 seems too low, and I'm... actually, you know what, let's go with a 3.5. It's honestly not that good. It has a few high points, in that it somewhat apes Castlevania, but it's so sluggish, with some ridiculous trolling in the form of pixel-perfect jumps and auto-scrolling levels, that it's hard to recommend to anyone.

This was supposed to be one of my July challenge games, but honestly, I don't think it's so much hard as it is just cheap. It probably shouldn't have counted as a challenge game in hindsight. :(
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sat Jun 10, 2017 10:53 pm

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
24. Space Megaforce - SNES
25. Persona 5 - PS4
26. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC
27. Cosmic Star Heroine - PC
28. Prey - PC
29. Strafe - PC
30. Mystic Origins - NES
31. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 3DS
32. Ultra Street Fighter II - Switch
33. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - PC

I decided to spend the summer playing the trilogy since the last entry got localized this year. About 30ish hours later I'm finished with the first part. This game took a long time to grow on me; hell, it still hasn't fully grown on me but I'm feeling more bullish about the second based on where the first left me off. So let's get into some details.

Trails in the Sky is a JRPG set in a world undergoing a magitek revolution. About 50 years prior to the game's events an energy known as orbments was discovered and revolutionized the world. These spheres of concentrated energy can be tuned to do pretty much anything as required by the story, so they power lights, elevators, cars, airships, and magic. You spend the game in the small country of Liberl; sandwiched between a large Empire (which had attacked them 10 years ago) and a large Republic with Eastern elements you have a technologically advanced society split up into five regions. You spend the game's five chapters exploring each region, one per chapter. Since this is a world with monsters in it (as any self respecting RPG has) an organization has arisen to help protect the citizenry; the Bracer Guild. Effectively troubleshooters for hire they do things like escort people, hunt down monsters, and locate missing items. Your main characters are Estelle and Joshua, the children of famed Bracer Cassius who are about to start on their journey to become full fledged Bracers themselves.

Now, in terms of mechanics the game has some interesting things going on that get a bit overshadowed by some balance issues. Combat is grid based and turn based with a ticker tape of the turn order on the left. On your turn you can move, attack, use magic, use a technique, or use an item. Moving lets you reposition yourself, which can be critical to get into range (or get out of range). Attack comes with move stapled on, though unlike move you can't choose your exact square; instead you take a shortest path to your target (which again, might not be advantageous). Magic does what it sounds like, and the important thing to note is that all magic has a cast time to it. It does tend to do more damage than a basic attack though. Techniques are unique abilities for each character which might do damage or inflict status effects. Many magics and techniques have an area of effect to them, so battlefield positioning is critical. Finally, there's a system where you gain a resource by dealing and receiving damage. This resource is used for techniques, but it can also be used to cut in line in the turn order and use a special, high damage technique.

The magic is fueled through a materia-esque system. Each character has an equip screen with six slots in it that are connected by lines. You can insert quartz orbs into these slots, and each quartz gives one or more of a particular color of energy. Basic spells only require one unit of energy while more advanced require several and frequently multiple types of energy. All quartz on a particular line have their energies summed up to give you a final profile of what spells you can use. This, naturally, makes some setups better than others; one character has all six in a single unbroken line while another has three lines coming off of a single central slot, with the other lines having two, two, and one quartz in them. The latter character is much less able to get high level magic as a result. This is the first of the game's balance problems; by mid game you will stop using basic attacks entirely because magic hits more enemies at a time and for more damage than a basic attack, but someone with a quartz grid like I described is only suited for basic attacks.

The second major balance problem is that the magic itself is not very well balanced. A spell can be single target, aoe enemy targeted, or aoe ground targeted. The latter is far better than the other two due to how enemies tend to move around, so those spells are automatically more appealing. But even ignoring that part, a large portion of the spell list is overcosted and underdamaging. I found Fire magic to be entirely worthless, while Earth was only worth using for an overpowered support ability that lets me give my team a single use damage shield (which trivialized the last boss's nasty attacks). There's not enough pulling you to explore the variety in the system.

But the gameplay balance issues aren't nearly as bad as the script issues. Put simply, you could cut the game's script in half without losing any important content. Anything that could be said in an SNES Final Fantasy game in a single dialog box gets done in four here. The game does lots of character building, but you could still excise a huge amount without losing any of that character building; it ends up being a bunch of either reinforcing things you already knew from hours ago about a character's personality or dialog of "I'm also part of this conversation!"

The other part that bothered me about the story, which was probably a consequence of the above, is that the game serves as a prologue for the main story that's going to be told in the next game. The first three chapters are already very filler-feeling; you get one or two quick hints as to the main plot but otherwise it's all just "look at the young Bracers grow". Then in chapter four the main plot finally starts to show itself; you could consider the first three chapters to be the opening of Final Fantasy VI until Locke saves Terra in the army battle. The fourth chapter is sort of like when Terra and Locke get to Figaro Castle. But at least now you've got an idea of there being a big bad and a proper sinister plot, and not just some incidents local to an area. The fifth chapter brings the plot you've seen to a conclusion, but immediately goes "but this was just a prologue to the REAL evil scheme". Compare to Golden Sun, another well known JRPG that has its story split between two games. In Golden Sun you know the villains' plan and you keep trying to stop them (though always too late). Then in Golden Sun 2 you learn more details about the plan and realize that maybe it wasn't quite as evil as you thought; it was just being handled in a not-nice way. But the main plot is there from the get-go. Not so here.

And it was these issues that really made me struggle to play more than a little at a time. The first half of the game's combat was really a slog because it took so long without any real tactical depth, but then midway through I got sufficient AOE that it took a 180 and became far too easy; I ended up dodging around every single random encounter in the second half of the game and never felt underleveled (except against that Penguin boss with his massive self heal, but I think that was just a shitty balance job). But on top of that was the fact that I knew I'd get into a ton of dialog for every five minutes of gameplay. Now, I'm not opposed to a dialog heavy game; look at my review of Torment: Tides of Numenera. But the problem here is the dialog is just so needlessly padded.

So there you go; not the greatest start to the trilogy. But I can't say I hated it. So I'm going to pick up game two and see how things go from there. The way things were starting to pick up at the end of this game I have hopes for game two; I don't expect them to really fix the padded dialog but at least I'll be driving towards that main plot, rather than the faffing about that comprised much of the first game (and that makes padded dialog feel so much worse).
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BogusMeatFactory
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BogusMeatFactory Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:29 pm

1. Captain Toad (WiiU)
2. Lost: Via Domus (PS3)

3. Modnation Racers (PS3)
4. Tron: Evolution (PS3)
5. Dead Rising (PC)
6. Fire Emblem Heroes (Android)

7. Yoshi’s Wooly World (Wii U)
8. Stanley Parable (PC)

9. Lone Wolf: Flight From the Dark (Android)
10. Lone Wolf: Fire on the Water (Android)
11. Lone Wolf: The Caverns of Kalte (Android)

12. Lone Wolf: The Chasm of Doom (Android)
13. Lone Wolf: Shadow on the Sand (Android)
14. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)

15. LoneWolf: Kingdoms of Terror(Android)
16. Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties (PC)

17. King’s Quest IV (PC)
18. Shovel Knight (PC)

19. The 7th Guest (PC)
20. 1, 2, Switch! (Switch)

21. The Longet Journey (PC)
22. Plague Knight (Switch)
23. Steamworld Dig (Wii U)

24. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (PC)
25. Dragon Quest VIII (3DS)

26. Shovel Knight: Specter Of Torment (Switch)
27. Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch)

28. Mega Man 2 (NES Classic)
29. Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon (PC)


Mega Man 2 - So the summer games challenge has put me in a position where I needed to complete tons of essential NES games that I missed in childhood, thanks in part to the NES Classic. So one of the first that I fired up was Mega Man 2 and I have to say....holy crap what an easy game! The game was beaten within 2 play sessions, only using one save state to save my spot for the second play session and at no point in time using it because of an unwanted death.

The robot bosses were all beaten with just a plain old buster and had no need to use any of the specialized weapons (although they were used in the boss rush at the end with some experimentation). I did not look up an optimized path for this and played completely cold turkey.

The only difficult moment for me was found within Dr. Wiley's Castle in the second to last stage, the one with the boss that required you to use the Crash Bomber weapon to defeat them. You have to be insanely efficient in taking those machines out and was pretty challenging. Also that level had the invisible holes in the floor that were a nuisance. Outside of that, the final final boss was challenging, but I was able to get past him after a couple attempts.

The game is a ton of fun though! Loved it!

Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon - So many adventure game aficionados talk up Under a Killing Moon as one of the best FMV adventure games out there. After beating it, I can safely say that it was a ton of fun. The game is part of the Tex Murphy franchise, an adventure game series that puts you in the shoes of the P.I. Tex Murphy as you work on cases in a post apocalyptic San Francisco future.

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In this game, you are embroiled in mystery as a death cult attempts to wipe out all life on the planet and you have to stop them! The game features fully explorable 3D environments and scour to find items of necessity. Actors are done entirely with full motion video and the acting is cheesy and ham-fisted, but fun!

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The gripes I have with the game are minor, with only one major complaint. Most adventure games of time relied heavily on pixel hunting for items of interest to solve puzzles and this game is no different. The problem here is that, sometimes the environment can be a part of the problem. One particular instance left me screwed and had to revert to a much older game file because I did not float higher into the air and look down at an environment to find a watch sitting on a fireplace mantel. You can't see it at ground level, even though you can see on top of the mantel. You can not progress in the game unless you do so. To make matters worse, there is no in game hint that you would need it, or have need to search for a particular item in that environment. It was just sitting there arbitrarily.

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In the end though, the game was refreshing and fun. The freakish setting, odd cast of characters and witty dialog mixed with the cheesy performances add to the charm that makes the game such a cult hit. They use dialog in fun and exciting ways that make your choices actual puzzles to gain information. It even has Margot Kidder, the woman who played Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies... and she is INEBRIATED! She is almost incomprehensible and overly medicated. It is... special!
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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:34 pm

Bogus, what difficulty were you playing Mega Man 2 on? The US release added an easier difficulty and called it "Normal", while "Hard" is the original JP release difficulty.
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BogusMeatFactory
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BogusMeatFactory Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:39 pm

MrPopo wrote:Bogus, what difficulty were you playing Mega Man 2 on? The US release added an easier difficulty and called it "Normal", while "Hard" is the original JP release difficulty.


I played it on normal...and yeah...it was insanely easy.
Ack wrote:I don't know, chief, the haunting feeling of lust I feel whenever I look at your avatar makes me think it's real.

-I am the idiot that likes to have fun and be happy.
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