Games Beaten 2015

[Ack]

1. Renegade Ops (PC)(Multidirectional Shooter)
2. Borderlands 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
3. Gunpoint (PC)(Puzzle Platformer)
4. Robotrek (SNES)(RPG)
5. The Tick (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Alien vs Predator (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. X-Kaliber 2097 (SNES)(Action Platformer)
8. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)
9. Shadowrun (SNES)(RPG)
10. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
11. The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES)(RPG)
12. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)(Action)
13. A Story About My Uncle (PC)(Platformer)
14. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC)(FPS)
15. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (PC)(FPS)
16. Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
17. Catacomb Abyss (PC)(FPS)
18. Catacomb Armageddon (PC)(FPS)
19. Catacomb Apocalypse (PC)(FPS)
20. The Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
21. Catacomb 3-D (PC)(FPS)
22. EarthBound (SNES)(RPG)
23. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
24. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
25. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (PC)(RPG)
26. The 7th Guest (PC)(Puzzle)
27. Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (PC)(RPG)
28. Loom (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
29. Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)(Action Platformer)
30. System Shock 2 (PC)(Survival Horror FPS)
31. Final Fantasy V (SNES)(RPG)
32. Descent (PC)(FPS)

Six degrees of freedom, baby!

I had an absolute blast playing through Descent for my Summer Games Challenge. It's a challenging game that required I figure out how to best deal with different types of enemy robots(some quite nasty) while dealing with an entire axis that I have never had to spend much time worrying about. What's that axis? The Z-axis! In Descent, you can go forward and back, left and right, or up and down in ways unlike most other FPS. This requires some getting the hang of, and you have a variety of control options and adjustments you can make to help you. Want to use a mouse? A joystick? The keyboard? All are fine. I ended up with a hybrid mouse/keyboard setup that was similar to most modern FPS with WASD. By about level 10, I had finished making my changes and never adjusted again, though I would have appreciated a slightly higher mouse sensitivity. Even at max, I never quite felt as quick as I would like.

The game does help you a little by gently ramping up...at first. The first 7 levels were released as shareware, and they introduce the colored keys one at a time and don't throw too many enemies at you. Once you beat the first boss however...well, it's too late. You've gone down the rabbit hole. Starting on level 8, Descent decides to chew you up and eat you by unveiling one of the nastiest enemies in the game. At this point, the challenge begins. While some levels are considerably easier then others, the game gets tough and stays tough from here on out. The maps are confusing and perfectly utilize the new axis of movement, making your wireframe map crucial but also occasionally difficult to understand. But each new level is a jumble of corridors, massive halls, twisting paths, and wicked surprises.

What I absolutely love is that it really does feel like you're traversing a series of mines, even if each new set of planets doesn't feel unique from each other. All present some new challenge, be it starting in a room with enemy spawners or revealing new arrangements of enemies, or making you whip around corridors into groups of enemies because you need a new key. Eventually I established a pattern for each level: grab the blue key, go in the blue door. Grab the yellow key, go in the yellow door. Grab the red key, go in the red door. Clear out the red area, then go back for the hostages before taking on the power core that must be destroyed in each level. Doing this let me keep the hostages in 25 out of the 26 main levels they appear in. Because it is likely you will die, and if you die while carrying hostages, they die too. You don't want that to happen, because they're worth a fair bit of score, and you want as much score as you can so you have as many extra lives as possible. The other downside to dying is that you lose all of your gear, so I always did my best to fly to a safe place to die there.

There are some tactics I devised to help get through things, namely sticking to corners and trying to ensure that you can duck around to throw off tracking missiles. Enemies are also incapable of opening doors; use this to your advantage to both block their fire and stop their pursuit! But if you want to divide a group, your fire knocks them back, so you can push enemies through doors as well if you desire. And since your shots stun most enemies, shooting the enemy is a great way to stop them from shooting you...most of the time. The missile guys don't always like this, so be careful.

If you like FPS, give Descent a try. I found it quite incredible. You should at least check it out to judge for yourself.

[Gamerforlife]

- Batman Arkham asylum(would've perferred to 100% it but getting the credits to roll is worth it, beat it in less than a day though joker's fight pissed me off...and before anyone says it I'll get back to snes and such when my extensions for my controllers arrive so next up is Arkham city )

Search still not working. Added the stuff I can remember

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance PC
Rogue Legacy Vita
Grid 2 PC
Dirt 3 PC
Splatoon WiiU
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge WiiU


Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition WiiU

With all the talk in the Arkham Knight thread I thought I'd give this version of City a try since it has long been sitting on my shelf with only 20 minutes or so of playtime. I'm actually pretty impressed, and definitely came away from it with the impression that it's probably the best console version of the game.

So, there's all your standard Arkham City fair including the DLC which is still entirely awesome even for a casual Batman fan like myself. The game is named after the new armor you're given for both Batman and Catwoman. The B.A.T system is neat (charges up through regular combat and allows you to unleash critical hits for a short time) and it looks pretty cool, although quite shiny. What's really nice about the WiiU versions is the gamepad specific stuff. It reminds me of Deus Ex in that the gamepad stuff is all implemented thoughtfully and doesn't really feel like it's there just to be a gimmick. It feels cool to mess with their interpretation of the computer Batman has on his arm after seeing him mess with it so much in the other versions but not actually knowing what he's looking at. It takes a tiny bit of getting used to but, before I knew it I was swapping gadgets, hacking nodes (in a far different fashion to the other versions), and gyro aiming baterangs with ease. Voice coms come through the gamepad speakers, and all your character bios, map, upgrades, and data are easily accessible on the gamepad at all times. There's one new gadget in the form of the Sonar which automatically logs Riddler trophies for you so you don't have to scan them all in.

If I have any complaints about this specific version it's the odd framerate issues. It runs fine most of the time, even gliding through the city. What's odd is that, in only some specific instances, the framerate will tank during battle sequences. It was never so bad as to cause me to miss a counter but it was visually jarring many times, especially since the framerate is unlocked and in the indoor sections seems to hover above 30. That said, it's nice that this release has some pretty darn good anti-aliasing and has v-sync permanently enabled. Despite the unlocked framerate, it didn't seem to have the annoying frame-pacing issues that sometimes crop up with that. So the image quality is top notch.

But you know, it's still Arkham City and it's still great. I ended up beating the main story in 3 sittings so I guess that says something. Frankly, it was the perfect place to end the Arkham series in my honest opinion. There are far more stories to be told about the other villains but, perhaps they should have put this particular world to rest, or stuck to doing a few side-story things or prequels instead.

The two best games in the series. It's all downhill from here on out. Origins = recycling, technical issues and stupid multiplayer mode. Knight = Crappy Batmobile + obnoxious tank battles + obnoxious tank stealth sequences + WAY too much Joker + some of the worst boss fights in the entire series (all revolving around Arkham Knight)

Also:

Possibly the worst portrayal of Jason Todd I've ever seen. A massive step down from his character in the movie Under the Red Hood

Reading that post about the Wii U version of Arkham City, I kind of want to try it now. God knows my meager Wii U library could use another addition.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

It's worth a try if you're looking for an excuse to replay the game I'd say. It's pretty easy to find for like ten bucks brand new even.

I think I might even give the New Game Plus mode a try. I wonder how well I could adapt to the combat system without counter indicators.

[Gamerforlife]

Most players never pick up on the fact that you don't need to counter much (if at all) if you make ample use of the redirect move (the move where Batman vaults over an enemy and goes behind him)

It's the bread and butter of high level play.

That said though, I hate how they remove the counter icons. It makes me not want to use counter at all, because it's riskier, and I actually enjoy doing counter attacks from time to time just for the fun of it.

[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)(Good)
2. Infamous First Light(PS4)(Good)
3. Drakengard 3(PS3) *Endings 1-4. Ending 5 I watched online due to BS boss.(Good except for the boss of the final alternate branch ending who can go burn in a firey hell )
4. Infamous Second Son(PS4)(Good)
5. Thomas Was Alone(PS4)(Great)
6. Uncharted Drake's Fortune(PS3) *(Good)
7. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves(PS3) *(Great)
8. Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception(PS3) **(Good)
9. Deadpool(PS3)(Great)
10. Red Dead Redemption(360)(Good)
11. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare(360)(Okay)
12. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct(360)(Shit)
13. Fuse(360)(Okay)
14. The Bureau Xcom Declassified(360)(Okay)
15. Asura's Wrath(360)(Great)
16. Beneath a Steel Sky(PC)(Good)
17. Soul Gambler(PC)(Okay)
19. Harvester(PC)(Good, but disturbing)
20. Coma: Mortuary(PC)(Shit)
21. Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure(PC)(Good)
22. Freedom Planet(PC)(Great)
23. Tropico 3 Steam Special Edition(PC)(Great)
24. Far Cry 4(PS3)(Okay kinda meh)
25. Shellshock 2 Blood Trails(360)(Shit)
26. Grand Theft Auto V(PC)(Great)
27. Shadow of Mordor(PS4)(Great)
28. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare(PS4)(Okay)
29. Fallout 3(PC)

Haven't been playing much recently finished the main quest of Fallout 3 other day. It's probably about my 3-4th time through the base game. The main quest in terms of story is pretty crappy and feels like a slog, but I thoroughly enjoy them atmosphere and exploring. I still think the best thing about this game is the exploration I especially like the locations that don't have a quest connection but have been designed to tell their own story.

Anyways I'm going to try and blow through the DLC the only one I have ever completed was Operation Anchorage and it sounds like it was the weakest expansion. So glad that the Broken Steel expansion lets you continue playing regardless of your choice at the end of the base game. The fact that you couldn't continue playing after finishing the main quest line always annoyed me.

[GSZX1337]

[quote="GSZX1337"]1) Cannon Spike - Dreamcast
2) I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - PC
3) Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS (as Mighty No. 9)
4) Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X - PSP (Vile Mode)
5) StarCraft - PC
6) Naughty Bear - Xbox 360
7) The Last of Us - PS3
8] Eets (100-percented) - PC

9) Gunpoint - PC

It's rare that a game ends up better than I expected. I played the demo and was fairly impressed by it. I eventually decided to start the game up and play up to where the demo ends, but I ended up beating the game that night when I should've gone to bed. It sucked me in like a high priced whore. The levels are short enough for casual play, but meaty enough to encourage a binge. While the Hyper Trousers gimmick is what initially drew me in, it was the electrical rewiring that kept me engaged. Utilizing the facility's lights, doors, and motion detectors to fuck with and sometimes kill the guards? Good stuff.

Much like the gameplay, the plot was better than I expected. I found the dialogue in the demo to be quite humorous, but it only gets better going into the full game. In addition to being comedic, the plot is actually rather engaging. It's not Game of Thrones or anything, but the conspiracy had me interested throughout the whole campaign.

This game is great, probably the best game I've played or will play all year. Definitely download the demo and try it.

[Sarge]

Finished One Must Fall 2097 on the highest difficulty. Jaguar, Steffan. I played the mess out of that game when I first got my PC.

[Kuruwin]

I been on the slopes during this year so i haven't finished a ton so far. According to backloggery i finished these games this year

Ducktales Remastered (PSN)
Skylanders: Swap Force (PS3)
Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God (PSVita)
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (PS3)
Tiny Troopers (PSN)
Motogp 13 (PSVita)
Danganronpa (PSP)
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PS3)
Final Fantasy: Realm Reborn (PS3)
Final Fantasy 12 (PS2)
Klonoa 2 (PS2)
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The Soulless Army (PS2)
Ace Combat: Distant Thunder (PS2)
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan (PS3)
Project Diva 2nd (PSVita)
Shock Troopers (NG)
Dark Souls 2 (PS3)
One Piece: Pirate Warriors (PS3)
Legend Of Kage 2 (NDS)
Alien Isolation (PS3)
Dino Crisis 2 (PS)
Murasaki Baby (PSVita)
Shinobido 2 (PSVita)
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PSVita)
Danganronpa 2 (PSVita)
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Re Birth (PSVita)
Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA)

[laurenhiya21]

1/10: Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP (Steam)
1/10: Rusty's Real Deal Baseball: Bat & Switch (3DS DL)
1/11: Time Fcuk (Steam)
1/11: Coil (Steam)
1/17: Portal 2 (Steam)
1/31: Tales of Xillia (PS3) (re-beat 3/31)
2/12: Tokyo Jungle (PSN)
2/22: LoZ: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (3DS DL)
4/25: Stanley Parable (Steam)
4/28: BattleBlock Theatre (Steam)
5/3: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
5/9: Excite Truck (Wii)
5/14: Elebits (Wii)
5/26: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS)
6/9: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSN)
6/11: Tappingo (3DS DL)
6/15: Galaga Legions DX (PSN)
6/22: Eversion (Steam)
6/25: Hatoful Boyfriend (GOG)
6/30: Silent Hill (PS1)
7/1: SteamWorld Dig (Steam)

Total: 21 games

SteamWorld Dig wasn't bad... It's a simple little indie game where you dig underground to get ores and gems. You also defeat enemies but it's supposed to be focused on the digging (because it was your grandpa's mine or something? Not really sure why).

While I really liked digging around and collecting all the things, the combat was kind of eh. There tended to be a lot of enemies about, and while they start out being easy to deal with (just hit with your pickaxe a few times), once they start throwing explosives around, they become really annoying and hard to deal with. I mostly didn't really like that you pretty much HAD to buy explosives to deal with these, which would mean less money for me to spend on upgrades. Plus these guys tended to mess up the terrain a lot, which forced me to self-destruct a few times just to return to the surface. I think I also had a lot of trouble with these because the jumping is pretty floaty. I didn't realize this until the final boss though, which unfortunately involved a lot of jumping around.

So I guess I was a bit disappointed with this game. I probably wouldn't say it was bad... just a game that fell a little bit short for me.

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney (Android | 2012 | strategy) (7/10)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360 | 2009 | action adventure) (8/10)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360 | 2010 | kart racer) (8/10)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2 | 2005 | JRPG) (9/10)
5. Gears of War (360 | 2006 | cover shooter) (6/10)
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita | 2012 | action adventure) (7/10)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS | 2007 | dungeon crawler) (7/10)
8. From The Abyss (DS | 2008 | action-RPG) (5/10)
9. Army of Two (360 | 2008 | cover shooter) (7/10)
10. Psychic World (Master System | 1991 | platformer) (4/10)
11. Endless Ocean: Blue World (Wii | 2010 | adventure / diving sim) (9/10)
12. Journey to Silius (NES | 1990 | platformer) (6/10)
13. Sword Master (NES | 1992 | platformer) (3/10)
14. Project: Snowblind (PC | 2005 | FPS) (7/10)
15. Yakyuuken Part II - Gal's Dungeon (Famicom | 1989 | maze / puzzle) (5/10)
16. Bishoujo Sexy Derby (Famicom | 1988 | horse racing) (2/10)
17. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC | 2006 | FPS) (5/10)
18. Seirei Gari (AKA Ghost Hunter) (NES | 1989 | puzzle / adventure) (4/10)
19. The Guardian Legend (NES | 1989 | action-RPG / shmup) (9/10)
20. Prey (PC | 2006 | FPS) (7/10)
21. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC | 1993 | action-RPG) (4/10)
22. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube | 2001 | combat flight sim) (3/10)
23. Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (SFC | 1995 | action-RPG) (7/10)
24. Bonk's Adventure (TurboGrafx-16 | 1990 | platformer) (6/10)
25. Lost Kingdoms (GameCube | 2002 | CCG-action-RPG) (8/10)
26. Bonk's Revenge (TurboGrafx-16 | 1991 | platformer) (6/10)
27. Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx-16 | 1989 | shmup) (7/10)
28. Heatseeker (PS2 | 2007 | arcade flight combat) (7/10)
29. Castlevania: The Adventure (Game Boy | 1989 | platformer) (3/10)
30. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy | 1991 | platformer) (7/10)
31. Castlevania Legends (Game Boy | 1998 | platformer) (5/10)
32. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy | 1994 | platformer) 7/10
33. Bonk's Adventure (Game Boy | 1992 | platformer) 7/10
34. Brandish: The Dark Revenant [Ares mode] (PSP | 2009 | dungeon crawler) 9/10
35. Castlevania Special: I'm Kid Dracula (Famicom | 1990 | platformer) 7/10
34. Brandish: The Dark Revenant [Dela mode] (PSP | 2009 | dungeon crawler) 8/10
35. Soul Calibur V (360 | 2012 | fighter) 7/10
36. No More Heroes (Wii | 2008 | action adventure) 7/10
37. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis | 1994 | platformer) 7/10
38. Bionic Commando (360 | 2009 | action adventure) 8/10
39. Vanquish (PS3 | 2010 | cover shooter) 9/10[/b]
40. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3 | 2007 | cover shooter) 7/10
41. King's Field II (PS1 | 1995 | dungeon crawler) 7/10
42. Trauma Center: Under The Knife 2 (DS | 2008 | surgery sim) 7/10

Trauma Center: Under The Knife 2 (TC:UTK2) is a direct sequel to the original Trauma Center: Under The Knife. That means what you get here is a hybrid of a visual novel and surgery simulation. However the surgery being simulated here is done so in a very abstract fashion, and is hardly a realistic portrayal of actual surgery. (Not in the same league as say The Software Toolworks' 1988 innovative Life & Death here.) Actually only about 25% of the surgeries in this game concern real life medical issues. About 75% of the surgeries focus on eradicating mutant viruses called GUILT. These "surgeries" feel more like a real time strategy game combined with a strange space shooter. Unfortunately at this point in the series, Atlus had still not realized that Trauma Center is far more entertaining when you're doing believable surgery situations, much more so than when you're playing Space Invaders against GUILT.

Being a sequel, TC:UTK2 has some evolutions over TC:UTK. The character portrait graphics are much improved, although they lack animation. The interface is much more polished, and the 3D surgery parts are more elaborate. The soundtrack in TC:UTK2 is extremely good, as Atlus chose to wisely outsource to Basiscape for the OST. The plot is more complex in TC:UTK2 than TC:UTK, but that's not really a good thing. Part of the issue there is the translation is very wooden, it lacks personality and charm. Also characters tend to drone on and on a bit longer than they should, when the player simply wants to move on to the next surgery, and stop reading about multi-layered medical conspiracy theories. Indeed the conspiracies are the star of the show during the visual novel parts, as characters are hardly fleshed out or given any real depth.

A lot of critics took issue with the original TC:UTK because it was an extremely challenging game. Especially the final boss battle in TC:UTK caused many a reviewer to close their DS in shame. In response to that, TC:UTK2 now has difficulty levels. Any mission can be played at any difficulty level at any time. Because of this factor, a lot of reviewers claimed TC:UTK2 is an easier game than TC:UTK. Even going so far as to say the final boss battle in TC:UTK2 is easier than TC:UTK's. The truth is, if you actually play TC:UTK2 on Normal difficulty, it is actually sometimes more difficult than TC:UTK was. Especially TC:UTK2's final boss on Normal is far, far more difficult than the last boss of TC:UTK. However, if you play TC:UTK2 on Easy, yeah, it's a breeze to beat. Which leads me to believe quite a few critics were playing this game on easy. Personally I have beat TC:UTK and TC:UTK2 on Normal, and I think that TC:UTK2 holds its own in the challenge department unless you wuss out and go the Easy route. For true masochists, once you beat TC:UTK2, the game unlocks special challenges called EXTREME. I don't hate myself enough to mess with those missions, but they exist if you do.

Ultimately TC:UTK2 feels like a polished up retread of the same ground that TC:UTK already trail-blazed. If you are looking for more of the exact same, just with a prettier sheen, you'll find it in TC:UTK2. However if you're looking for actual innovation, or a story that's fun to watch, check out Trauma Team on Wii. Trauma Team is the apex of this series and is an amazing game. That said, TC:UTK2 is a pretty good game for your DS, provided you have some stylus skill and like to read medical drama jargon. The Trauma Center games on DS are certainly some of the most challenging games you can play on the system. And TC:UTK2 continued use of the DS in a creative way. It may be a little fainter, but we still have a pulse here doctor.

Let's see...

Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Trauma Center: New Blood
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
Trauma Team

All I have left to finish is Second Opinion and I will have the whole series beat.