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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Sun May 19, 2019 7:10 pm

Excellent! <Wyld Stallyns Air Guitar Solo>
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by pook99 Sun May 19, 2019 7:35 pm

1. Kung fu z (android)
2. Celeste
3. Dead Dungeon
4. Defender Faith
5. The Messenger
6. Eroico
7. Awesome Pea
8. Vosaria: lair of the forgotten
9. Vintage Hero
10. God of War (ps4)
11. Legendary Wings (nes)
12. Tiny Toobs Busters hidden treasure (genesis)
13. Johnny Rocket
14. Spider-man (ps4)
15. Ori and the blind forest
16. Rude bear resurrection
17. Shining Force (genesis)
18. Mega Man 5 (game boy)
19. Panzer Dragoon (saturn)
20. Shadow of the Tomb raider
21. The Painters apprentice
22. Tower 57
23. Dragons Lair (switch)
24. City of Heroes (openbor)
25. Callys Cave 4
26. Double Dragon (nes)
27. Duck Souls
28. Jumping joe and friends (switch)
29. Zombie Panic in Wonderland dx (switch)
30. Jackie Chans action kung fu (nes)
31. Strider X (openbor)
32. Daggerhood (switch)
33. Donkey Kong Country 2 (snes)
34. VOID
35. Ravva and the cyclops curse
36. Devil May Cry 5
37. Outrunner 3
38. Way of the passive fist
39. New Super mario bros deluxe(switch)
40. Mechstermination Force (switch)
41. Pewdipie: legend of the brofist
42. Robonauts (switch)
43. Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (3ds)
44. Ikao: lost souls
45. Contra: spirit of war
46. Katana Zero
47. Pixel Devil and the broken cartridge
48. Fate of Nimi (android)
49. Mega Man Powered up (psp)
50. Riddled Corpses EX
51. Mike Tysons Punch Out (nes)
52. Mercenaries Saga: will of the while lions (switch)
53. Martial Masters: new Legend (openbor)
54. Battle Princess Madeline (switch)
55. Contra (nes)
56. Super Punch out (snes)
57. Mega Man 2 (nes)
58. Overdriven: reloaded (switch)
59. Mega Man 3(nes)
60. Bloodstained: curse of the moon
61. Slime adventure
62. Aggelos (switch)
63. Castlevania (nes)


60. Bloodstained: curse of the moon
61. Slime adventure
62. Aggelos (switch)
63. Castlevania (nes)

62. Aggelos

Aggelos is a side scrolling action RPG that is heavily inspired by the wonderboy series and is a perfect example of how to do a retro themed game the right way.

Graphically, this game is a visual treat. The character models are nice, and easily look like they would fit right into a snes/genesis game. There is a large variety of enemies, and the bosses are large, detailed, and really cool looking. It is the kind of game that if you look at a still screen shot it looks like it fit on a 16 bit cart, but there are definitely lots of things that happen in this game that would not be possible on an old console.

The story starts out simple enough. There is an evil knight who is working on opening a door to the world of darkness, letting some evil creatures into the world, and ultimately destroying it. You are a nameless hero who walks out of his house one day and witnesses the princess getting kidnapped by some baddies. Being the righteous person you are, you step in and save the day. The princess waits for you in your house while you clear a path back to the castle and return the princess. Upon doing so, it turns out you have some magical power to assimilate elements, similar to the evil knight, and the king asks you to go on a quest to gather the elements and save the kingdom. As you progress through the story you will learn why you are special and your role in all of this. The story is revealed slowly as you progress, and there is enough story to keep you interested but not enough to get in the way.

Everything about the way this game plays is perfect. Control is tight, the world is the perfect size to give you enough to explore without being too daunting, new moves are unlocked pretty frequently and all of the moves can be used to help you in combat, as well as unlock new areas to traverse. For example, the earth element lets you throw a magic ball in an arc(think the axe from castlevania) but also allows you to turn enemies and certain objects into platforms to reach new areas. The uppercut move functions both as a double jump, and a means of attacking enemies above your head. Every upgrade is multi-faceted which is incredibly cool and I can't think of a game off the top of my head that does such a good job of keeping all your moves relevant throughout the game.

The world itself is laid out in a way that makes it virtually impossible to get lost, while still providing plenty of nooks and crannies for those who like to explore. There is an overworld map that gives you a general lay of the land, a checkpoint in every area that also serves as means of fast travel, signs scattered about to guide you, and a seer in the main town who tells you exactly where to go if you get lost. Personally, my biggest gripe about metroidvanias is exploring mindlessly when your stuck and excessive backtracking, this game solves these 2 problems perfectly, and there was not a single moment when I was bored or frustrating.

There are also several dungeons in this game, all of them are well designed and tons of fun to play. Similar to the zelda series, you will get an upgrade at the start of the dungeon and then use that upgrade to solve the various puzzles and traps laid out in that level. Every dungeon ends in a boss fight, as mentioned before they are all visually amazing and have several different attack patterns that change as you deal damage to them.

I can't recommend this game highly enough. If you have any interest in the wonderboy series at all then this game is an absolute must play, I have not played the new wonder boy games but I can't imagine them being better than this. Even if you never played wonderboy any fan of action rpg's/metroidvanias will absolutely love this game. The only word of warning I will give is if you choose to play it on the PC, there is no controller support meaning you will need to use a program like joy2key since this is not a game that should be played with a keyboard.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Flake Mon May 20, 2019 8:55 am

January Games:
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Megaman 3 (Switch)
Megaman 4 (Switch)
Megaman 5 (Switch)
Megaman 6 (Switch)
Megaman 7 (Switch)
Megaman 8 (Switch)
Megaman 9 (Switch)
Megaman 10 (Switch)
Kirby's Dreamland (Wii)
Time Spinner (PS4)

February Games:

Megaman Legends (PSTV)
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PSTV)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

March Games:

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Mario Galaxy (Wii)

April

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)

May

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
Castlevania (Switch)
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 (Switch)


It was a busy gaming weekend for the Flake!

Castlevania is still a great game. Castlevania on the Switch feels like a missed opportunity. I get that Konami wasn't going to rebuild the game the way they did with the Dracula X and SotN releases on PS4 (that Sony ponied up a lot of cash for) but it feels like it wouldn't have been too much to ask that the game be optimized a bit. There comes a point where 'faithful to the original' is less of a selling point and more of a liability. The slow down, dropped sprites, etc are a bit much.

That said, it still is a really good game on its own. I still enjoy the music and admire the gameplay as much today (maybe even more) than I did when I was a kid.

Dragonball Xenoverse 2 on Switch is a replay for me but it felt like a brand new game. I played this when this first came out and liked it enough that I retired the PS4 version. Ironically, the changes that were made to frame rate and graphics to get the game running on Switch made it appear more cartoony which in turn appealed to me. So I played through the game (again) and set it aside. Nearly two years, I play the game again and the DLC and patches download....and download...and download.

The devs have been really busy on a title that I would have expected to have been put to bed a LONG time ago. It wasn't even a brand new game when it came to Switch. There's an entire mini game that is like a more enjoyable Dragonball Heroes. There is post-game story content that has all of the characters and storylines from both Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super. There is even (apparently) a brand new post game campaign that I wasn't aware of.

I feel absolutely spoiled by this game. I have no clue how this much post release dev work is turning a profit but I am really happy with it.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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elricorico
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by elricorico Mon May 20, 2019 10:11 am

1. Ni No Kuni 2 (PS4)
2. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
3. Spider-Man (PS4)
4. King of Dragons (PS2)

5. Super Mario Odyssey (NS)


I beat Bowser yesterday to wrap up the main game. I've been playing this only when my youngest daughter could watch, as she really enjoyed it.

There isn't much to say about this game that isn't already covered. It is another great 3D Mario experience, beautiful to play, a pleasure to control and full of fun powers that change the way you get through levels but manage to always feel natural.

If I had to nitpick for flaws I'd say I didnt find the Bowser battle as memorable as others and the way Mario reacts to landing in lava(running around with his pants on fire) kinda annoyed me.

It's a top tier Mario game. I doubt many gamers could truly dislike it.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Mon May 20, 2019 10:26 am

Games Beaten in 2019 So Far - 26
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. Army Men 3D - PlayStation - January 1*
2. Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - NES - January 4
3. Mega Man - NES - January 6
4. Mega Man 2 - NES - January 6
5. Mega Man 3 - NES - January 6
6. Mega Man 4 - NES - January 7
7. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - January 7
8. Mega Man 5 - NES - January 26
9. Just Cause 3 - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. Mega Man 6 - NES - January 27
11. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight - Vita - January 27
12. Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space - PlayStation 2 - January 27


February (2 Games Beaten)
13. Earth Defense Force 5 - PlayStation 4 - February 2
14. Fallout 76 - PlayStation 4 - February 3


March (4 Games Beaten)
15. Octopath Traveler - Switch - March 2
16. Resident Evil 0 - PlayStation 4 - March 9
17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - PlayStation 4 - March 10
18. Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade - Game Boy Advance - March 30


April (3 Games Beaten)
19. Moemon - Game Boy Advance - April 5
20. Yoshi's Crafted World - Switch - April 10
21. Wargroove - Switch - April 26


May (5 Games Beaten)
22. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Switch - May 5
23. Battlefield V - PlayStation 4 - May 9
24. Timespinner - PlayStation 4 - May 12
25. Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain - PlayStation 4 - May 17
26. Shenmue - PlayStation 4 - May 19


26. Shenmue - PlayStation 4 - May 19

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Shenmue is one of those legendary cult classic games that only comes along once in a generation. It is, however, a controversial game among gamers. It's a lot like the Hillary Clinton of Dreamcast games; people pretty much either love it or hate it with very little in-between. It saw a sequel release on Dreamcast, as well (unless you're an uncultured American like me who only had an Xbox release), but it was always intended to be a trilogy. With the untimely demise of the legendary Dreamcast at the hands of the woefully inferior Lamestation 2 (yeah, I said it. Come at me, bro), however, that trilogy would go forever unfinished...or would it? Due for release in late 2019 on PlayStation 4 and Windows, the saga will be brought to a conclusion at long last. In an effort to build some more excitement for the release, Sega released an upscaled HD collection of Shenmue and Shenmue II on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows, giving a new generation of gamers the opportunity to experience this timeless classic.

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Visually, Shenmue is fairly astounding if you consider the specs of the hardware it was designed to run on. The Dreamcast, while a very competent machine, was not a powerhouse especially by today's standards 20 years down the line. Despite that, though, the visuals in the game hold up remarkably well. The HD releases on PS4 and Xbox One especially highlight this since the textures aren't really changed at all. The only real graphical changes made in the rerelease was upping the resolution from 480p to 1080p. The fact that the textures still hold up fairly well with minimal polish is a testament to how well made the game was back during the Dreamcast's lifespan.

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Having played through Shenmue on both Dreamcast and PlayStation 4, I can assure fans that almost nothing is changed in the HD release. The visuals are polished up a bit ("a bit" being the operative phrase), and the content that relied on the online-connected Passport Disc in the Dreamcast original are automatically included, and you naturally don't have breaks for disc changes, but the actual game itself it exactly the same. You play as Ryo Hazuki on his quest to track down the Chinese mobster Lan Di and avenge his father's murder. This first game in the trilogy sees Ryo try to find clues to the identity of his father's killer, uncover the greater plot surrounding his father's death, and secure passage to Hong Kong to confront the wicked Lan Di. To do this, Ryo must gather information in what at the time of Shenmue's original release was hands down the deepest and most detailed open world that had yet appeared in a video game.

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The gameplay consist mostly of walking around the city, talking to NPCs, and gathering clues. You do have a time limit, but it's a LOOOOOONG time limit. Like, the game starts on December 3, and you have until the middle of April to finish before you auto fail. Even in my very first playthrough without a guide, I don't think I took into January. There are a handful of fights in the game, but those are definitely a fairly few and far between affair (until the end of the game, anyway), and I honestly wasn't particularly fond of the fighting. The controls felt stiff and awkward to me, and I ended up having more difficulty with the timing, the positioning, and the overall handling in the fights than I feel like I should have. The part of gameplay that seems most divisive, however, is the forklift section. Towards the end of the game, you get a job at a harbor driving a forklift. Every day during this section of the game follows the same basic format - complete a three lap forklift race, spend your day moving crates with the forklift, then investigate and try to find information about Lan Di. People seem to find the forklift work to be either cathartic and relaxing or painfully and frustratingly boring. I'm the former camp. The forklifts are honestly one of my favorite parts of the game. I can definitely understand how some might end up screaming "GET ON WITH IT" throughout this segment of the game.

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In addition to the actual main game, there are a few minigames that you can play in Shenmue. There are Space Harrier and Outrun machines that you can play, but there's also my personal favorite minigame (and the one that most players tend to hate), ExciteQTE. It's literally just a QTE game where you see how many QTE prompts you can get through without messing up three times. Most people hate QTEs, but for some reason, I've always enjoyed them. I'm not particularly good at them, per se, but something about them always just scratched an itch for me. ExciteQTE does serve an important purpose, though. There aren't too many mandatory QTEs in the game, but there are a few, and they pick up a lot in frequency towards the end of the game. If you're not particularly good at QTEs, then it might be worth playing a few rounds of ExciteQTE to get a feel for the game's QTEs inputs and the timing.

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Shenmue is not a game for everyone. I'd hazard a guess that the majority of gamers won't be particularly ensnared by the game's relatively slow pace and methodical investigation-driven storytelling. It is, however, an absolutely legendary game that is to be respected and revered even if not personally enjoyed. I absolutely love Shenmue and am proud to say that I was one of the Shenmue III backers who helped crashed Kickstarter within five minutes of Sony's announcement several years ago, and I pre-ordered the HD collection of the first two games on PlayStation 4 as soon as it was announced. Very few games, especially at the turn of the century, told stories quite the way that Shenmue does, and while there are certainly aspects of the game that have aged poorly and feel odd and out of place with modern gaming conventions, it's still a game that I have absolutely no problem recommending to people at least to try.
Last edited by ElkinFencer10 on Tue May 21, 2019 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Mon May 20, 2019 4:21 pm

1. Dusk (PC)(FPS)
2. Project: Snowblind (PC)(FPS)
3. Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)(FPS)
4. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
5. Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge (PC)(FPS)
6. Destiny 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
7. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)(FPS/RPG)
8. Destiny 2: Warmind (PC)(FPS/RPG)

9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC)(Rail Shooter)

11. Castle Werewolf (PC)(FPS)
12. Project Warlock (PC)(FPS)
13. Castle Crashers (PC)(Hack and Slash)
14. This Strange Realm of Mine (PC)(FPS)
15. BioShock Remastered (PC)(FPS)
16. BioShock 2 (PC)(FPS)
17. BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (PC)(FPS)

18. Blood (PC)(FPS)
19. Blood: Cryptic Passage (PC)(FPS)
20. Blood: Post Mortem (PC)(FPS)


After wrapping up my run of Blood, I immediately hopped into the two expansions, Cryptic Passage and Post Mortem. I am giving them separate entries, because they have different developers and I experienced them on different difficulties.

Cryptic Passage

Episode 5 of Blood is a different take because it wasn't developed by Monolith. Instead, it was Sunstorm Interactive, the company that handled the likes of the Deer Hunter series until closing its doors in 2003. You might wonder why they chose to do a Blood expansion, but they were actually quite active with Build Engine game expansions, creating them for Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage, and even Shadow Warrior. My personal favorite of their work is the Life's a Beach expansion for DN3D because it made for a massive conversion: guns were turned into toys and water pistols, enemies now had Hawaiian shirts, and level designs were tropical instead of the cityscapes and space stations that the base game tended towards.

Cryptic Passage doesn't really convert much of anything; level design isn't as tight as the original release, though the levels are still a lot of fun. The humor isn't as present either, making it much more horror-themed. That said, it's still got its fair share of references, including a secret level based on the Boggy Creek franchise. I gotta give them points for obscurity, and in truth it's probably my favorite secret level in the entire Blood series.

The plot focuses on Caleb searching for some kind of mystic scroll, which doesn't make much sense. What does walking murder incarnate need a scroll for? But hey, it continues the trend of levels flowing together, and it has one of the most nail-biting platforming sections of the whole franchise, so props to that. The final level is also a nasty run of multiple bosses, so get ready for an asskicking, either yours or theirs. Cryptic Passage likely won't blow anyone away, but it's an interesting curiosity in both the Blood series and in Sunstorm Interactive's creative career.

Post Mortem

Here we go, back to Monolith developing for their own. Post Mortem was the final episode, with a story focused on Caleb mopping up the remains of the cult as they attempt to train new Chosen to lead their forces. As the player, you'll go through a city, into ruins, and finally to the hidden temple where the new leaders are training, where you will be forced to exterminate the three recruits and prove just who the most bad ass is of them all. Since it's Monolith at the helm, it's back to the same level design that made the original four episodes so great, and due to a particular achievement, I had to up the difficulty, so my perception of how tough this one is perhaps a little off.

To upgrade the experience, Monolith did add some new content, including a few new enemies. These guys include cultists that throw dynamite, cultists with Tesla cannons, and some acid and fire spitting flowers, not to mention a new kind of boss that can do unblockable area damage. The greatest new enemy though is a straight up Army of Darkness reference: if you shatter a mirror on accident, a troupe of mini-Calebs come out and chase after you. Groovy.

With these two done, I've officially knocked out Blood in its entirety. That feels pretty good, and it made the next FPS I then played way easier. Project Warlock has added a Hard Mode to give a step between Normal and Hardcore. I beat it for a victory lap. Blood on Well Done is way harder.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by MrPopo Mon May 20, 2019 4:55 pm

I actually gave up on Well Done difficulty because the cultists were just reacting far too quickly with hitscan weapons. Maybe it gets better once you have more than just the shotgun and the flare gun but I went down to Pink in the Middle and have been having an appropriately challenging experience. It's that combination of hitscan, high damage on hitscan, and super fast reaction time that makes Well Done, to me, hard for the wrong reasons.
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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Mon May 20, 2019 6:03 pm

MrPopo wrote:I actually gave up on Well Done difficulty because the cultists were just reacting far too quickly with hitscan weapons. Maybe it gets better once you have more than just the shotgun and the flare gun but I went down to Pink in the Middle and have been having an appropriately challenging experience. It's that combination of hitscan, high damage on hitscan, and super fast reaction time that makes Well Done, to me, hard for the wrong reasons.


It's actually not quite as bad in the final episode because the two new cultist types don't have hitscan weapons. That said, Blood is known for requiring memorizing enemy locations on higher difficulties because of its cheap enemies and high damage. One missed guy can knock off chunks of health, and some enemies can straight up one-shot you.

I beat most episodes on Lightly Broiled, which is apparently the recommended "Normal" difficulty from what I've read. There were apparently also some bizarre glitches with the enemy damage on higher difficulties where they could fluctuate depending on whether you were loading a saved game. Also, keep in mind that the first episode is considered the hardest in the whole game because you get your weapons much slower.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by MrPopo Mon May 20, 2019 7:12 pm

Sorry, yeah, it was Lightly Broiled I gave up on. Whatever the middle of the five was. Honestly, if they gave me a hitscan non-shotgun weapon early then it'd be better.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Mon May 20, 2019 8:08 pm

Sorry, man. The best I can tell you is to get good with dynamite and use its secondary fire often when unsure of what is around a corner. Also, the flaregun will one shot cultists on low difficulties, you just have to duck around corners quickly. Expect to get your ass kicked while you do it; Blood is punishing, but worth the pain.
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