52 Games. 1 Year. 2018.

I'm gonna pop up in here if that's okay! I was on a big trophy kick in the early part of the year, so that's going to show through on my list here.

January
1. Batman - The Telltale Series (PS4)

★★★
Better than I expected. Interesting takes on the characters and while I didn't like the direction they went with everyone, it was still engaging!

2. Coffin Dodgers (PS4)
,
★★
Bland cart racer. Easy trophies, I guess but not really worth playing.

3. Wheels of Aurelia (PS4)

★★★
Interesting narrative choose-your-own-adventure style narrative game all taking place while driving. Not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

4. Adam's Venture: Origins (PS4)

★
Ooof. Could've been okay but it feels like the devs bit off more than they could chew. Some fun puzzles I guess but they were all pretty easy and the voice acting was atrocious.

5. Thimbleweed Park (PS4)

★★★★★
Incredible game. Well-designed puzzles that weren't simple but didn't fall into the impossible logic some point-and-click games do. Fun story, fun writing, and didn't take itself too seriously. I loved it.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy - The Telltale Series (PS4)

★★★
Another decently fun Telltale game. Decent storyline that tended to drag from time to time but for the $7 I paid for it at Target, it was well worth it.

7. Mecho Tales (PS Vita)

★
Awful, awful, awful. Terrible platforming and imprecise shooting mechanics with boring level design. Stay far away.

8. Virginia (PS4)

★★★
Interesting narrative game with no dialog. Another love or hate it game but I enjoyed it for what it was. Plus it's only a couple hours long so it's worth a shot for anyone.

9.Riptide GP2 (PS4)

★★
Eh, bland racing game that has its moments of fun. I'm convinced that the computer cheats too.

10. The Count Lucanor (PS Vita)

★★★
A pixelated horror/puzzle game with a good atmosphere. I enjoyed my time with it but can't give it more stars because of major game crashing and save corrupting bugs.

11. What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)

★★★★
A great narrative/walking sim style game with a strong story, lots of neat little twists and turns and some neat mechanics. Well worth checking out for anyone interested in the genre.

12. The Coma Recut (PS4)

★
I hated this game. Hated hated hated hated it. It's a 2D horror game where you're helpless and being chased. Terrible story and the translation felt weird to me too. Never fun, always frustrating. Avoid like the plague.

February
13. Bleed (PS4)

★★★★
Tons of fun. A low-budget indie run-n-gun game that has almost no downtime and a ton of replay value. The game is short, especially on easier difficulties, but it's ALWAYS fun.

14. Steamworld Dig (PS Vita)

★★★
Neat little game, like a metroidvania mixed with Mr Driller. Not a lot of meat on it but it's fun for the short duration it lasts.

March

15. School Girl Zombie Hunter (PS4)

★★★★
I question my own taste sometimes because I god damn loved this stupid game. It's shallow and shameless but I was never bored while I played it. Some times low-budget garbage hits the spot.

16. Goosebumps: The Game (PS4)

★★★
It is what it is. A simple point-and-click game, almost like a Shadowgate aimed at a younger crowd. Good atmosphere but is pretty obtuse in places.

17. The Little Acre (PS4)

★★★
A beautiful looking but simple adventure game. Easy puzzles but a fun story and great looking hand-drawn art. Pretty short and can be finished in an afternoon,so give it a shot!

18. Fort Defense (PS4)

★★
Really basic tower defense game that tries its damnedest to sell you microtransactions. Bought it on sale, glad I didn't pay much for it.

19. Floor Plan: Hands-On Edition (PSVR)

★★★
Simple little VR puzzle game that takes place in an elevator. It's very charming and has a nice sense of humor. Cheap, short, and sweet.

April

20. Minit (PS4)

★★★★★
Fantastic game! A game that takes inspiration from classic Zelda and throws in a gimmick that only lets you live a minute at a time. Puzzle solving using that minute is implemented wonderfully and never feels annoying or constricting. Brilliant designed all around.

21. Gnog (PSVR)

★★★
Part puzzle, part music box. It's very charming and relaxing and the VR is pretty cool.

22. Dead Secret (PSVR)

★★
I couldn't quite justify giving this a 3 but I enjoyed my time with it. A short little VR adventure game with mystery and horror elements. A little simple but it made me jump a couple times!

May

23. Lara Croft Go (PS4)

★★★
Solid puzzle game. A really nice progression curve. I hated that I had to use the analog stick to move though, caused some issues in places.

24. Blackwood Crossing (PS4)

★★★★
One of my favorites in the narrative adventure/walking sim genre. The graphics are bright and colorful and a nice emotional storyline. Worth playing for sure!

25. Small Radios Big Televisions (PS4)

★★★
Really interesting game that I don't know quite what to call it or describe it. Some will hate it but it's unlike anything I've played.

26. The Park (PS4)

★★★
Another narrative/walking sim game but this has a horror theme. Another one with a good atmosphere. Not sure if it's worth full price but I liked my playthrough.

27. Psychedelia of the Black Butterfly (PS Vita)

★★★
An otome visual novel. Usual fair but it was a fun read. Surprisingly lack of romance for a otome on the main path. I didn't mind but someone might.

28. Headlander (PS4)

★★★
A decent little Metroidvania with the Double Fine style sense of humor. A little boring at parts and the boss fights were never fun but overall it was pretty good!

29. Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (PS4)

★★★
A basic throwback dungeon crawler. I had a lot of fun with it though it was frustrating at times. It never does anything spectacularly but it's completely competent.

30. Slayaway Camp (PS4)

★★
Not for me. It's all sliding puzzles and I hate sliding puzzles. Nice aesthetic though!

June

31. Rock Boshers DX (PS4)

★★★
Nice retro throwback to the microcomputer days. I think I would've liked it better if I didn't go for the trophies since the collectables ended up frustrating me.

32. Overblood (PS1)

★★★
Campy, weird, and interesting, there aren't any other survival horror games quite like it. I'd give it another star if it didn't have the worst boss in the history of gaming.

July

33. Mary-Kate and Ashley: Crush Course (PS1)

★
Oof. I don't know why I decided to play this one. Funky controls, insulting mini games, just awful.

34. Boomerang Kid (NES)

★★★
The most frustrating and tricky platformer I have played on NES but I kept playing. There are only 18 levels to play through but good luck getting through this one! It's fun once you get in the groove though.

35. Dragon Warrior (NES)

★★
Historically important but man oh man what a slog to play through nowadays. I'm working on the second one right now and it's already a major improvement.

36. Rayman Legends (PS4)

★★★★★
I guess I technically finished this months ago but I finally popped the platinum today so I'll count it now. Such an amazing game; I'd easily call it the greatest platformer of all time. I played it for months trying to get that platinum trophy and it never got boring. It was fun the entire time. A charming art style and brilliant level design. Everyone owes it to themselves to play it.

AUGUST

37, Dragon Warrior II (NES)

★★★
Overall, a MUCH better game than the first one. The combat is interesting, the enemies are varied, the world is bigger, it's just overall better. It kind of fell apart for me a bit after finding the boat though. Once that happened, I never felt like I had a clear direction on where to go and had to consult a walkthrough multiple times just to make progress. Still, it's a clear improvement and a sign of growth for the series overall. I'll have to get to the third one eventually!

38. Ninja Golf (Atari 7800)

★★★★
This game is dumb as hell but surprisingly fun. It's a quick playthrough but that's probably for the best. Nine holes of golf and after each swing, you need to fight your way to where the ball landed. Other ninjas and wildlife both try to stop you! If you make it to the green, you have to throw ninja stars at a dragon in a similar way to the Shinobi bonus rounds. It really doesn't make a lot of sense as a whole but I really enjoy it. It never does anything super well but it's charmingly stupid. Atari clearly didn't understand the market anymore at this point but I'm glad they put this out.

39. Knee Deep (PS4)

★★
I wanted to like this game a whole lot more than I did. The idea is great; taking a narrative game in the vein of Telltale's works and framing it like it's a stage play. The developers just couldn't quite pull it off though. The graphics are incredibly ugly, looking like Poser models, but I could live with that if the writing was good. The writing is not good. It takes forever for the plot to go anywhere and when it DOES go somewhere, it goes somewhere really stupid. Like one of the dumbest reveals I've ever seen seen for a plot point. The mechanic of writing reports with each character gets completely dropped halfway through and that was the most interesting thing in this game. To try and create the stage atmosphere, all of the audio has massive echo on it, making things harder to hear. It was just disappointing overall.

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62. Penumbra: Black Plague - 4 hours
Honestly, I expected more from this sequel to Penumbra: Overture. I don't mean this game is bad, but it doesn't feel like any significant progress to the previous game, more like several steps forward and backward, while remaining at the same spot in the end. First of all, I must admit this one was majorly improved in terms of storytelling, the story of Black Plague is interesting or more dynamic right from the start. The protagonist is still mostly silent, but there are more characters this time who would talk with you during your adventures. There are some good ideas and unexpected events as well that can catch you off guard. But at the same time, the gameplay itself didn't improve much and in some ways become even worse. I'm not sure why Frictional games are so obsessed with the concept of "immortal threat", but personally I found all those hide'n'seek moments very dull and not scary at all. For me, it's just an annoying obstacle on my way through the story, just sitting in dark corner and waiting while some disgusting abomination would decide to finally go away is not scary by any definition. And I also think that weapons removal actually hurt the narrative, there's the scene later in the game when you need to pull up the crate, lure mutant under it and then drop this crate on the mutant head. It's really clunky and feels forced overall, especially if you'll try to think about it when you know what exactly happened in this scene. Now imagine how much more impactful and impressive this scene could have been if you killed this mutant by your own hands and not in some out-of-place physics puzzle. Well, I heavily criticized this game now, but as I said, it's still a good game despite its flaws. The story is very good, the dark atmosphere is still in place, and there are plenty of undoubtfully great scenes like a fight with the giant worm (yep, this worm stole the show once again). It could have been better, but it was still worth playing it in my opinion, outside graphics it aged well enough and can give you a few hours of enjoyment.

Main post 1: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2784229/
Main post 2: https://www.resetera.com/posts/5234679/

56. Mega Man 2 / 2h50 completed 30.07.18



Finally played through one of the true classics. And it lives up to its reputation. The only fault that stood out to me were that a few levels felt too short or undercooked, with not much going on in them. But there weren't many of those. The rest of the game is nigh on perfect. Excellent level and enemy design. Fantastic bosses. Tight controls and a more manageable difficulty. Especially after the first game. I am quick saving the shit out of these games though, so there's that.

The music is great as well, i sometimes just sat at the weapon select screen enjoying it. And Mega Man is just adorable in here. So charming. Loved it.


57. Mega Man 3 / 4h20 completed 30.07.18



This game took a turn. I hated it for the better part of an hour, was ready to quit on it and curse whoever ported this. The first couple of levels i went through were bad, the enemies infinitely annoying and the slowdown was killing me. After dying over 20 times to the same enemy because of having to fight it at under 10 fps,i was ready to leave it. But i'm glad i didn't. This game gets so much better after that hump. Not Mega Man 2 good, but almost. It also ended up being an easier game, with energy being given out like candy. The ending also feels rushed. Anyway, that's another done in the series.

2,3,1 so far :)

17. Rivals of Aether (1 hour)
It doesn't have as much to offer content-wise as Smash Bros., but it's got plenty of great ideas of its own, and it plays well.

Full list to date

36. Rayman Legends (PS4)

★★★★★
I guess I technically finished this months ago but I finally popped the platinum today so I'll count it now. Such an amazing game; I'd easily call it the greatest platformer of all time. I played it for months trying to get that platinum trophy and it never got boring. It was fun the entire time. A charming art style and brilliant level design. Everyone owes it to themselves to play it.

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29. Bomb Chicken - [8.5/10] 5 hours, July 16th
Actually one of my favorite games this year so far. The spritework is incredibly animated and expressive. This game is short but it knows its gimmick and does it perfectly without letting itself drag. This game was a breath of fresh air and I adored my time with it, and it's short enough that it's one of those games I would absolutely pick back up to do a quick replay of in the future.

30. Mario Tennis Aces - [7/10] 4 to 5 hours, July 17th
The story mode was decently fun but incredibly short. The story was really stupid, but in an enjoyable way - I unironically love the absolutely dumb DARK TENNIS GOD thing. The gameplay of Aces is fantastic, but as a complete package the game does feel a little bit lacking in content.

31. Mega Man X - 3 hours, July 25th
Just a quick playthrough because I picked up the X Collection. Soon enough I'll get to playing the rest of the series, which I've never touched before. A classic and childhood favorite, it's always nice to revisit this.

32. Hollow Knight - [10/10] 22 hours, July 25th
I'm not actually DONE with Hollow Knight yet, but I did decide to take on the final boss so I could beat it and take a bit of a break from it. An absolutely phenomenal game, one of the greatest Metroidvanias ever made. I'm only about 73% complete so I still have a ton of things left to do and discover.

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36. Super Mario Bros. 2 - NES
Completed 7/20/18
Score - 8/10

Still absolutely adore this game. Always used warps as a kid so I made a point to play every single level. I know this was Doki Doki Panic in Japan and the real SMB2 was too tough for us...but this actually wasn't a breeze either. The last few levels are pretty rough and can get confusing. I remembered enough of it from my childhood that I was able to get to Wart and take him down again. Still an incredibly fun and weird gem after all these years.



37. Sonic and the Secret Rings - Wii
Completed 7/29/18
Score - 4/10

I really thought after Sonic 06 that playing every other Sonic game, while not always being the best, would still not be as bad as 06. Eh, I really had issues with this one. It all comes down to the controls and the bizarre, almost auto-run, gameplay. The final two bosses were a complete pain in the ass and only due to the controls of Sonic. It's probably not as bad as 06...but I found it more frustrating. I never want to hear the theme song to this game ever again! Going on another Sonic break.



38. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
Completed 7/30/18
Score - 10/10

Still the greatest! This was my favorite game growing up until Half-Life arrived. This and Super Mario World have always been neck in neck with me and being a favorite. SMW usually won out mostly due to the music but now I am really curious to see how SMW will stack up. I never beat World 6/7 growing up, always used the whistles...so again I played every level this go round. It was a blast and not as bad as I tough as I thought it was as a kid. Perfect amount of challenge, secrets and fun. When I got to Bowser last night and took him down I couldn't stop smiling. Still love this game after all these years, it's perfection.

22. Mega Man 2 [27/7/18 - 27/7/18]

4 hours, 25 mins. 9.5/10

It had been far too long since I'd last played this. Love it to death. Still the best chiptune soundtrack of all time.

23. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [21/7/18 - 31/7/18]

10 hours, 17 mins (plus probably another hour or so of deaths) 9/10

First time playing this! I really enjoyed it. I've played Circle of the Moon and Portrait of Ruin before so I'm not new to the Castlevania series, but this one really does live up to its reputation for being awesome. The game still holds up really well visually - the sprites are gorgeous. And the music is great too. Alucard is really fun to control, and I can tell I haven't even really scratched the surface in that regard.

The only real criticisms I have is that most of the bosses were fairly easy (although the electric one was brutal) and there was some really obtuse things that I needed to do to advance in the game at a few points which were a little too old school cryptic for my modern tastes. But they're relatively minor issues in the grand scheme.

Oh, and despite being very aware of the esteem this game is held in for more than a decade, I somehow managed to avoid So that was a cool surprise.

08 | Vampyr | PC
Time: 30 hours
Score: 7/10

Great atmosphere and voice acting make Vampyr one of the best titles of 2018 so far. The combat is equally enjoyable, if a little simplistic. The game also does a good job of tempting you to stray from the path of the righteous by awarding XP for embracing NPC's so peaceful playthroughs will force you to work with much less XP, making some boss fights very challenging. What I liked less is the dialogue wheel and the lack of control over Jonathan in those dialogue wheels. The dialogue itself ranges from banal to interesting but the biggest issue is that you cannot skip single lines or you will skip the entire part that the NPC is speaking. Very frustrating.

Overall Vampyr is a well executed and original take on both the RPG genre and vampire games though.


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Tantalisingly close to that magical 52 now, I'm up to 51 in total by the end of July:


40. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (PS4) - 1 July 2018
All 'awesome adventures' completed. While its short length means that there's little time to develop in full depth, this provides a touching introduction to the character of Chris and, being clearly intended as something of a teaser for Life Is Strange 2, by its end leaves plenty of interesting questions open as to what we'll see next.


41. What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4) - 1 July 2018
100% of trophies earned. Not my favourite example of the 'walking simulator' genre - that still goes to Tacoma for me - but I can certainly recognise the very high quality of Edith Finch. The variety of scenarios, stories and game mechanics used across the memories of each of the Finch family keep the game interesting throughout, and there's plenty of interesting detail in the main game environment to fill out more detail about the backstory to the family.


42. Mole Mania (3DS VC - GB) - 4 July 2018
100 points on all 7 levels. I became aware of this game via a My Nintendo offer, and after finding from a brief investigation that Shigeru Miyamoto was involved in its development, decided to give the game a try - well, this was a very pleasant surprise! This is a thoroughly charming top-down puzzle game, tasking Monty Mole with navigating through seven levels, each made up of a series of single-room block-pushing and navigation puzzles, but made all the more interesting by the availability of both surface and underground areas to each room. There's a decent but not excessive variety of mechanics at work, and a few secrets scattered around each level to reward exploration. Being a GameBoy game, graphics are simple, but crisp, and there's a catchy soundtrack throughout - overall, a very impressive package!


43. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure (Switch) - 10 July 2018
All story chapters completed, all challenges completed (including 'ultimate' challenges), all collectibles obtained. This is a very full-featured expansion, being about half the length of the base game - while there's only one world, it's split into four parts, with a total of 18 battles (of which four are boss/mini-boss fights), a good number of puzzles (with an overall difficulty level a little higher than the base game), then 12 post-story challenges (and a few 'ultimate challenges' beyond that) and a full suite of collectibles. The new world has just as much non-core detail as those in the base game, if not more, with lots of those small 'scenes' of rabbids in humerous scenarios scattered throughout - and without the reliance on toilet humour that was quite prevalent in the base game. Everything ties together really nicely and feels highly polished - particular mention once again has to go to Grant Kirkhope's fantastic soundtrack, with just the right amount of nostalgia while still feeling fresh.


44. Quell (Steam) - 11 July 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all levels beaten, all crystals collected. A simple but highly polished sliding block puzzle game, with the objective being to collect all of the gems within a 2D grid, navigating around both the basic level geometry and a few hazards/special blocks. Puzzles are generally well-designed, with a few clues in their construction to help you towards working out the 'perfect' (minimum moves) solution, and the game is a good length, comprising 84 puzzles divided into groups of 4. While there are occasional moments of frustration from the trickier puzzles, generally these are short-lived and, alongside a beautiful piano soundtrack, Quell comes together as a nicely relaxing game to play.


45. Poi (Switch) - 15 July 2018
Completed with all medallions, golden gears, fossils, locations and photos collected. All achievements unlocked except for New Game Plus. Inspired by classic 3D platformers of the likes of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, Poi is clearly aiming at a more budget market, with a lack of polish in some area, but despite that it's a charming and enjoyable experience. Across five main stages, the game's core aim is the collection of medals, each presented at the level's start with a brief clue towards finding them - for those familiar with it, this is very similar to the approach of Super Mario 64. Supplementing these core objectives, a nice variety of supplementary collectibles are on offer, discovered in different ways - from coins/gems on open display to buried fossils and often well-hidden golden cogs.

Graphically the game is simplistic, with somewhat blocky environments and simple textures, but this is actually pulled off quite well with bright colours to create a feeling of fun. The game's budget nature is also seen in other ways, with somewhat generous (or perhaps 'poor' if you're feeling less generous!) hitboxes to enemies - at times a little frustrating - but on the whole the platforming gameplay is responsive and fluid. Particularly notable is the inclusion of a set of smaller levels with specific platforming objectives, which are among the game's most enjoyable and satisfying challenges - these serve as a perfect example and reminder of Poi at its most enjoyable.


46. Quell Reflect (Steam) - 15 July 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all levels beaten, all crystals collected. Quell Reflect is a direct follow-up to the original Quell, and as a result this block-sliding puzzle game is very similar in presentation and style to the first game - the polished approach, well-designed puzzles and graceful soundtrack all return. Quell Reflect brings another full set of 84 (new) puzzles, while expanding on the original game with a few new mechanics - primarily, the inclusion of multiple orbs to control simultaneously, adding greatly to the scope of puzzles available, alongside a few additional types of hazard. Ultimately, this is more Quell - it may be a cliche, but it's very true here that if you enjoyed the first game, you'll enjoy this follow-up.


47. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch) - 22 July 2018
100% complete (all gems, bonus achievements and pixel Toads), aside from Mummy-Me Maze Forever. I've previously played through the game on Wii U so this was a replay, but it's been a delight to return to Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker with its re-release on Switch. The game is a perfect example of Nintendo's expertise at environment/puzzle construction and well-judged gameplay - every scenario presents an interesting new challenge and is very satisfying to complete. The newly-added Super Mario Odyssey-themed stages are an excellent addition, being up amongst the most interesting of the game - it's just a shame that they were brought in to replace the Super Mario 3D World stages from the Wii U release, rather than being an addition.


48. Quell Memento (Steam) - 22 July 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all levels beaten, all crystals collected, all time pieces collected.
The third game in the Quell series, Quell Memento offers 144 new puzzles (nearly double the 84 of the two previous games). While Quell Reflect introduced a couple of new puzzle mechanics to the tile-shifting gameplay, Quell Memento expands on this much further, with many more new puzzle type, used both on their own and in combination. As examples of these new mechanics, levels might not require all of the 'light' blocks in a level to be 'turned on' by passing next to them, or feature orbs that emit light rays that need to illuminate certain new crystal types.

The puzzles can get quite challenging at times, and the requirement to solve each once before being able to progress to the next means that from time to time I was reaching for a guide, at least to start me in the right direction - but on the whole the game's pitched about right to give a satisfying experience, with difficulty increasing through each of the nine puzzle sets.

Presentationally, Quell Memento makes some significant improvements over the first two games. There's a light storyline that's developed as you progress through puzzle sets, the interface gets an overall revamp, and there's once again a fittingly relaxing soundtrack throughout.


49. Refunct (Steam) - 22 July 2018
100% of achievements unlocked. Simple and short, but really great fun. Refunct is a first-person platform game, with the primary goal simply being to reach a series of target points in an environment that gradually develops in complexity as you progress, seeing new sets of blocks/pillars rising from the water that surrounds the area. To keep things interesting, there are a few special block types - primarily to give a boosted jump - and a wall-jumping mechanic allowing longer and higher jumps to be achieved. A few collectibles scattered around the environment give a satisfying secondary objective, never being particularly hard to find.

Taking only about 30 minutes to an hour to complete, Refunct is undoubtedly a short experience, but its price takes account of that, and means that the limited gameplay mechanics remain fun and satisfying rather than becoming overly repetitive.


50. Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars (PS4) - 26 July 2018
100% of trophies earned; completed with all collectibles obtained and all sidequests completed. A much lengthier experience than the first DLC, Lost on Mars presents a sizeable new area for players to explore, and an unashamedly ridiculous plot sees the return of Hurk once again (originally introduced in Far Cry 3). Replacing humans, enemies now are various types of aliens, similar in appearance to (very large!) crabs, and the equivalent of outposts now come in a few varieties, tasking players with defending a vulnerable robot, killing a challenging 'queen' alien, or on a few occasions, simply climbing a tower in a similar style to older Far Cry games.

While on the whole I still enjoyed my time with this second DLC, I found the aliens to be a little too 'bullet-spongy' in many cases, even at lower difficulties, and their infinitely-spawning nature could also be frustrating. More positively, there's some nice variety in the types of objective that the game presents, and a few interesting new tools/gadgets to employ.


51. Yoku's Island Express (PS4) - 29 July 2018
Platinum trophy earned, with 100% in-game completion and alternate ending. Pinball and 'Metroidvania' - not exactly a typical pairing, but one that Yoku's Island Express pulls off to superb effect. The game's not without its flaws - at times it's quite easy to feel a little lost, without a clear idea of where to go next, and a few of the pinball scenarios require high levels of precision - but overall its such a joy to play that these detract little from the experience. The game world is charming, beautifully presented (in terms of both graphics and music), controls are tight, and the 'Metroidvania' elements are well-judged and satisfying, expanding the navigation and puzzle-solving opportunities in interesting ways throughout.

Game #120: Pokémon Art Academy
Started 15 Jul. 2018 - Completed 20 Jul. 2018
Verdict: Restrictive lessons, great free paint.




Game #121: Westerado: Double Barreled
Started 22 Jul. 2018 - Beaten 22 Jul. 2018
Verdict: Super fun little gem.




Game #122: Fossil Hunters
Started 28 Jul. 2018 - Completed 31 Jul. 2018
Verdict: Relaxing experience with nice drop-in co-op.


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Master Post!

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Details -

Completed: 5/13
Total Time Spent Playing = 435.5 Hours
Average Time Per Game (including continuing games) = 73 Hours
Most Played Game = PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS (116 Hours)
Most Played Platform (By # of Games) = PC (3 Games)
Most Played Platform (By # of Hours) = PC (276 Hours)

1: Bloodborne - 69 Hours (PS4) - Platinum Trophy

Finished: 07/31/2018
Platinum Acquired: 08/10/2018
In my opinion, Bloodborne is the best that the soulsborne genre has on offer up until now. The heavily steeped risk-reward dynamic of the combat in the genre is brought to a head in this game. The rally system and the lack of any sort of defense mechanics, make the game feel fast, frenetic, and always, constantly, terrifying. Also the story is remarkably gripping for how much in the background it is and the voice acting is legit incredible. I'm sorry it took me so long to finally play this wonderful game.


2: Darkest Dungeon - 151 Hours (PC)

Finished: 08/28/2018
This game broke me. It's beautiful, horrifying world gripped me and held me down while its punishing rouge-like set up beat me into the dirt over and over again. I highly recommend this game, if you've got at least 70 hours to blow in the span of a week or two, because this game will not let you go.


3: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - 37 Hours (Switch)

Finished: 09/02/2018
A bit of a mixed bag for me. I think the UI has some significant problems, particularly with the camera. The game does a poor job of surfacing what is possible for the enemies to do on any given turn. That said, although it's a considerable issue, it really is my only issue with the game. Otherwise, the game is very pretty, has some amazingly funny writing, and is overall quite charming. If you enjoy XCOM-like games and you own a Switch, this is a no brainer.


4: Receiver - 9 Hours (PC)

Finished: 09/10/2018
Receiver is a game that wants to make you intimately familiar with a firearm while simultaneously making you afraid of it. Sometimes described as "QWOP for guns," Receiver gives you control and responsibility over every part of the gun and every bullet inside. While this game certainly isn't a looker, as it was made in only 7 days, it does a surprising amount with its limited setting and scope. I highly recommend checking this game out.


5: Horizon Zero Dawn - 53.5 Hours (PS4) - Platinum Trophy

Finished: 09/18/2018
Platinum Acquired: 09/18/2018
Wowee what a phenomenal game. Seriously, one of my favorite games ever. Not only is it one of the most beautiful games ever created, it's got a remarkable story, excellent open world design, fascinating characters, and highly engaging enemies. If you, like me, slept on this game last year because Zelda/the Switch launch overshadowed, rectify the situation and give this game a go.


On Deck: Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)
Continuing Games -

PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS - 116 Hours (2018 Q3), 778 Hours (Lifetime) - (PC)

Totally forgot about this thread and I'm already done XD


2018 in Gaming

Completed:

January

1. Mass Effect (PC) - 9/10 - 13 hours (Jan 2 - Jan 4)
   
   
2. Undertale (Vita) - 8/10 - 4 hours (Jan 4)
   
   
3. Virginia (PS4) - 7/10 - 2 hours (Jan 5)
   
   
4. Tekken 7 (PS4) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Jan 9)
   
   
5. Grim Dawn (PC) - 8/10 - 17 hours (Jan 10)
   
   
6. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) - 8/10 - 18 hours (Jan 11)
   
   
7. Psycho Pass (Vita) - 7/10 - 4 hours (Jan 19)
   
   
8. To the Moon (PC) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Jan 21)
   
   
9. Oxenfree (PC) - 8.5/10 - 3 hours (Jan 24)
   
   
10. Doki Doki Literature Club (PC) - 9/10 - 2 hours (Jan 25)

February

1. Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4) - 9/10 - 10 hours (Feb 1)
   
   
2. Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Feb 1)
   
   
3. Killer is Dead (PC) - 7.5/10 - 6 hours (Feb 3)
   
   
4. Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PS4) - 9/10 - 5 hours (Feb 7)
   
   
5. Life is Strange Before the Storm (PS4) - 6/10 - 9 hours (Feb 9)
   
   
6. Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice (PS4) - 8/10 - 6 hours (Feb 11)
   
   
7. Killzone Mercenary (Vita) - 8.5/10 - 7 hours (Feb 13)
   
   
8. Rock Band 4 Rivals (PS4) - 9/10 - 5 hours (Feb 14)
   
   
9. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) - 8.5/10 - 10 hours (Feb 18)
   
   
10. Bayonetta 2 (Switch) - 9/10 - 7 hours (Feb 24)

March

1. Gears of War 2 (XB1) - 8.5/10 - 7 hours (Mar 1)
   
   
2. Statik (PSVR) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Mar 4)
   
   
3. Night in the Woods (PS4) - 9/10 - 7 hours (Mar 7)
   
   
4. Hidden Agenda (PS4) - 7/10 - 3 hours (Mar 8)
   
   
5. Mafia III Complete Edition (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 40 hours (Mar 13)
   
   
6. Typing of the Dead Overkill (PC) - 7/10 - 5 hours (Mar 14)
   
   
7. Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Curtain Call (3DS) - 9/10 - 3 hours (Mar 18)
   
   
8. Mario Kart Double Dash (NGC) - 8/10 - 2 hours (Mar 21)
   
   
9. Homefront The Revolution Complete Edition (PS4) - 7/10 - 15 hours (Mar 25)
   
   
10. The Evil Within 2 (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 14 hours (Mar 31)

April

1. Sega Bass Fishing (PC) - 8/10 - (Apr 2)
   
   
2. Kingdom New Lands (PC) - 7/10 - 4 hours (Apr 5)
   
   
3. Dishonored 2 (PS4) - 8/10 - 8 hours (Apr 5)
   
   
4. Clustertruck (PC) - 6.5/10 - 4 hours (Apr 7)
   
   
5. Crazy Taxi (PC) - 7/10 - 2 hour (Apr 7)
   
   
6. Dead Rising 3 (XB1) - 8.5/10 - 18 hours (Apr 11)
   
   
7. Twisted Metal Black (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 2 hours (Apr 12)
   
   
8. Nex Machina (PS4) - 9/10 - 2 hours (Apr 17)
   
   
9. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 3 hours (Apr 18)
   
   
10. Batman The Enemy Within (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 12 hours (Apr 18)
    
    
11. God of War (PS4) - 10/10 - 35 hours (Apr 26)
    
    
12. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) - 9/10 - 7 hours (Apr 30)

May

1. Fated (PSVR) - 6/10 - 2 hours (May 8)
   
   
2. Yakuza 6 (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 23 hours (May 18)

June

1. Detroit Become Human (PS4) - 9/10 - 10 hours (Jun 6)
   
   
2. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Jun 10)
   
   
3. Vampyr (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 20 hours (Jun 12)
   
   
4. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC) - 8.5/10 - 4 hours (Jun 14)
   
   
5. Max Payne 2 (PC) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Jun 15)
   
   
6. Orwell (PC) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Jun 17)
   
   
7. Gorogoa (Switch) - 8/10 - 2 hours (Jun 20)
   
   
8. Mario Party The Top 100 (3DS) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Jun 23) [52nd Game]
   
   
9. Elite Beat Agents (DS) - 8.5/10 - 3 hours (Jun 23)
   
   
10. Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains (3DS) - 7/10 - 3 hours (Jun 27)

July

1. Subsurface Circular (Switch) - 7/10 - 2 hours (July 5)
   
   
2. Papers Please (iPad) - 8.5/10 - 4 hours (July 9)
   
   
3. Uncharted The Lost Legacy (PS4) - Platinum - 9/10 - 22 hours (July 14)
   
   
4. Late Shift (PS4) - Platinum - 7/10 - 4 hours (July 14)
   
   
5. Horizon The Frozen Wilds (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 10 hours (July 18)
   
   
6. Shadow of Mordor (PS4) - 8/10 - 12 hours (July 24)
   
   
7. Shadow of War (XB1) - 8.5/10 - 20 hours (July 28)
   
   
8. Forza Horizon 3 (XB1) - 9/10 - 4 hours (July 29)
   
   
9. Prey (2006) (XB1) - 7.5/10 - 6 hours (July 31)

August

1. Splinter Cell Conviction (XB1) - 7.5/10 - 5 hours (Aug 2)
2. Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) (PC) - 8.5/10 - 4 hours (Aug 4)
3. Sam & Max Season 2 (PC) - 8/10 - 6 hours (Aug 4)
4. Guardians of the Galaxy The Telltale Series (PS4) - 7/10 - 10 hours (Aug 6)
5. The Bureau XCOM Declassified (PC) - 7/10 - 8 hours (Aug 8)
6. Fallout 3 GOTY (XB1) - 9/10 - 32 hours (Aug 12)
7. Fallout New Vegas Complete Edition (PC) - 9.5/10 - 30 hours (Aug 19)
8. Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep FM (PS4) - 8/10 - 18 hours (Aug 24)
9. Fable (XB1) - 7/10 - 11 hours (Aug 26)
10. The Last Express (iOS) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Aug 27)
11. Shadow Complex Remastered (XB1) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Aug 31)

September

1. Fable III (XB1) - 7.5/10 - 18 hours (Sept 5)
2. Moss (PSVR) - 8.5/10 - 5 hours (Sept 7)
3. Firewall Zero Hour (PSVR) - 8/10 - 3 hours (Sep 8)
4. Spider-Man (PS4) - 9/10 - 30 hours (Sept 13)
5. Gunjack (PSVR) - 6/10 - 2 hours (Sept 15)
6. Halo 2 (XB1) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Sept 15)
7. Onrush (XB1) - 7.5/10 - 2 hours (Sept 15)
8. Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality (PSVR) - 7.5/10 - 3 hours (Sep 17)
9. Destiny 2 (PS4) - 8/10 - 5 hours (Sept 19)
10. Fire Emblem Fates Revelations (3DS) - 8/10 - 14 hours (Sept 20)
11. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (XB1) - 8/10 - 15 hours (Sept 23)
12. Zone of Enders 2nd Runner MVRS (PSVR/PS4) - 8.5/10 - 5 hours (Sept 25)

October

1. Sparkle 2 (Vita) - 7.5/10 - 4 hours (Oct 6)
2. Mega Man 11 (PS4) - 8/10 - 4 hours (Oct 7)
3. Assassin's Creed Origins - Platinum/Expansions (PS4) - 9/10 - 30 hours (Oct 8)
4. Final Fantasy XV - Episode DLCs (PS4) - 8/10 - 4 hours (Oct 8)
5. Deus Ex Mankind Divided - DLCs (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 4 hours (Oct 9)
6. Forza Horizon 4 (XB1) - 9.5/10 - 7 hours (Oct 13)
7. Call of Duty Black Ops IIII (PS4) - 8.5/10 - 5 hours (Oct 21)
8. Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PSVR) - 9.5/10 - 6 hours (Oct 22)
9. Darksiders (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 12 hours (Oct 22)
10. Flipping Death (PS4) - 7/10 - 6 hours (Oct 24)

November

1. My Hero Academia: One's Justice (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 6 hours (Nov 3)
2. The Inpatient (PSVR) - 7/10 - 2 hours (Nov 10)
3. 2068 Read Only Memories (Vita) - 8.5/10 - 6 hours (Nov 10)
4. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) - 10/10 - 60 hours (Nov 17)
5. Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise (PS4) - 7/10 - 23 hours (Nov 21)
6. Burly Men At Sea (Vita) - 6.5/10 - 3 hours (Nov 21)
7. Hitman Blood Money (XB1) - 8.5/10 - 7 hours (Nov 25)
8. Darksiders 2 (PS4) - 8/10 - 18 hours (Nov 29)

December

1. Darksiders 3 (XB1) - 7/10 - 9 hours (Dec 7)
2. Mass Effect Andromeda (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 33 hours (Dec 12)
3. Marvel Ultimate Alliance (PS4) - 8/10 - 9 hours (Dec 15)
4. Persona 3 Dancing in the Moonlight (PS4) - 8/10 - 8 hours (Dec 16)
5. Wario Ware Gold (3DS) - 8/10 - 2 hours (Dec 23)
6. Shenmue (PS4) - 7/10 - 20 hours (Dec 23)
7. A Way Out (PS4) - 7.5/10 - 6 hours (Dec 26)
8. Bioshock 2 + Minerva's Den (PS4) - 9/10 - 12 hours (Dec 28)
9. Shenmue II (PS4) - 8/10 - 25 hours (Dec 31)

Game #52 - Chasm
Time: 10 hours

Strange game to talk about Chasm, as it's very hard for me to say anything bad about it, and yet I would be hard pressed to recomend it unless you are really jonesing for a "metroidvania". It's very well made and very polished, the combat feels good, the levels are varied and it has all your favorite trappings of the genre, various armor and weapons to get, skills that allow you to reach new zones and backtrack for previously unreachable places, it looks gorgeous and the music and sound in general is quite good. It's just a little bland and very run-of.-the-mill, there is nothing here that hasnt been done a hundred times over especially the last few years.It's big unique feature, that each world is procedurally created, might be neat for people that like to replay games, but as someone that doesnt, its a meaningless feature. Still, it was worth the 15€ and if you are a fan of the genre you should enjoy it, just expect a good solid but unremarkable romp.

Main Post

Challenge complete!

Well, complete on 27/07/18 but I've been a bit slack to show off.

Onwards to a hundred I guess? Amazed I've got through as many titles as I have considering most years I can probably count games I've finished on one hand!

MAIN THREAD


#42: Final Fantasy X (8-1-2018) | 10/10 | Vita | ~ 44 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 10 | Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay - 9 | One of the best RPG fighting mechanics I have ever played. Fantastic start to finish
Sound - 9 | Some of the character voices where hit or miss, but the OST is fantastic
Story/Online - 10 | It is such a deep story, it kept me engrossed all the way.
Asking Price- 9.33 | Its a huge game with well crafted side content.

Master Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3243362

58. 1979 Revolution: Black Friday - PS4 - 8/1 - 2 1/2 hours: Have been interested in it since it launch on PC awhile back. I had no idea it was being ported onto consoles until I saw a PS blog post so I scooped it up and am glad I experienced this game. Not much to say without going into spoiler territory, but if you enjoy interactive dramas then try this game out.

59. Dead Space 3 - Xbox 1 - 8/2 - 20 hours: I really enjoyed my time with the game. If I had to rank them right now I would say 1 is still the best followed by 3. There were some changes made to the economy that I didn't like and those co-op only missions are bullshit. With that said the combat felt good and the story put a nice bow on the trilogy.

60. Life is Strange: Before the Storm - PS4 - 8/4 - 11 hours: I loved it more then the main series. Chloe is such a great character and I'm glad we got to explore more of hers and Rachel's story.

July update.

Main post.

16. Assassin's Creed Syndicate (PC) - Completed 5 July (39 hours) - ★★★★

One of the better AC games and a vast improvement on Unity (which I still enjoyed). I mainly played as Evie, but switched to Jacob for the more 'brawler' type missions. Pretty good story, too, but the present day stuff was flat again - it hasn't been good since the Ezio days.

17. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) - Completed 9 July (7 hours) - ★★★★

This could've easily been a full-priced title. Another great entry in the series and Chloe was a great choice for the main character.

Currently Playing

Pillars of Eternity (PC)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)

[Continued From]

27. Mega Man 3 | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.1.18

The leap from Mega Man to Mega Man 2 was so substantial that I couldn't help but hope that Capcom could pull off the same trick twice. Unfortunately, Mega Man 3 is a mixed bag, occasionally improving upon elements from its predecessors but often relying too much on their success. The inclusion of the previous eight Robot Masters is interesting in theory but frustrating in practice, a major spike in difficulty in an otherwise fair and fun experience. It feels as if they forgot to consider Doc Robot's towering hitbox or substantial energy pool and expected players to know Mega Man 2 so well that these would be minor issues at best. The fact that these bosses are placed in watered-down versions of prior levels makes the whole experience feel like a retread. While I applaud the developers for making Yellow Devil Mk. II as entertaining a fight as it looks, it sure doesn't help the feeling that Capcom was reveling too much in the success of prior games.

Proto Man was a welcome inclusion but I do wish they wouldn't always throw him at you at the worst possible time. Couldn't they at least give you a little energy before his battles?

28. Vanquish | PC (7.0/10) - 8.4.18

A friend of mine once told me that Vanquish was Platinum's proto-Metal Gear Rising. I approached that thought with skepticism; the gameplay is so radically different between them, after all. Yet beyond the surface, I began to see the merit in his argument. The wild action sequences and insane, sprawling boss battles are the most immediately similar aspects, but Vanquish's themes and vague political intrigue are also reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising. The problem with Vanquish is that it pales in nearly every way to its successor while suffering more acutely from the same issues. While I thought the space colony was an interesting setting, Vanquish did very little with it beyond a couple interesting railway segments and a short zero-gravity battle. This echoes issues I had with Revengeance's setting, more interesting in theory than in practice.

Despite its flaws, it's hard to deny that Vanquish is really damn fun. Shooting enemies in slow-motion while knee sliding never got old. Campy villains and hammy dialogue do more to enhance the experience than detract from it, though a masterpiece in writing Vanquish is not. It is in every possible way the epitome of a Platinum game.

29. Mega Man 4 | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.7.18

While it's the least memorable Mega Man of the series thus far, it's also the least infuriating. No unexpected difficulty spikes, no impossibly difficult bosses, and only a couple disappearing platform sections that every Mega Man game insists on having. If Mega Man 3 was capitalizing on its growing legacy, Mega Man 4 had become thoroughly self-aware. This is most evident in the level dedicated to Mets, annoying little buggers that somehow managed to become a staple of the franchise through the sheer power of cuteness. I was hoping the charged shot would add more to the Mega Buster, especially given that this was its introductory game, but felt that it did less to mix things up than sliding.

30. Mega Man 5 | PS4 (7.0/10) - 8.8.18

This is the first game in the series where it's genuinely hard for me to understand critical reception for. The leap from the first game to its immediate successor was glaringly obvious, and the decline from Mega Man 2 to Mega Man 3, while slight, was definitely noticeable. Mega Man 4 rightly deserves its place in the middle of the pack. Mega Man 5 is better than fans seem to give it credit for, though, and was the smoothest Mega Man experience so far. Collecting the letters to obtain the secret weapon is a fun and interesting gimmick, few weapons cause the game to slowdown and never as badly as prior entries, levels are well-designed and memorable (Gravity Man and Star Man stand out in particular), and I appreciated Proto Man's starring role as the villain, even if Dr. Wily's twist was all but assured from the get-go. It suffers from the usual Mega Man problems, but at this point I'm comparing apples to apples here and this one is a delicious Granny Smith.

31. Mega Man 6 | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.9.18

Frankly speaking, I would have been more interested in Mega Man 6 if they had doubled down on the world tournament mentioned in the beginning narration. The idea of using Robot Masters from different ends of the earth is interesting but in execution fell flat. Stages like Knight Man's and Yamato Man's are interesting aesthetically, and I wish they had kept the quality consistent throughout the game. Unfortunately... stages like Plant Man's and Centaur Man's felt poorly thought-out, while Flame Man's was downright offensive. The final gauntlets in Dr. Wily-- ahem, Mr. X's fortress are also a bit of a letdown, culminating in an anticlimactic final showdown.

They also nerfed my little robo-bird, which is just a kick in the pants.

32. Assault Suit Leynos | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.13.18

My goal this year has been to catch up on my backlog at least as quickly as I add games to it. Assault Suit Leynos has been on my radar for some time now, but I've decided against buying it in several digital sales. So when I decided to actually buy it this past week I downloaded it to my PS4 immediately and busted through it in one night. The art style holds up well and the gameplay remains tight, if not a little confusing to understand at first. While a couple bosses stood out to me as particularly challenging, the game mostly felt fair and simple... at least, until the final gauntlet, where the game doubled down on its shoot-em-up gameplay. I got distracted when it asked me to continue in that old style arcade way so it pushed me back to the main screen; there was no way I was going to play the entire final stage again just to face one spider tank at the end so I skipped to that part in the stage select screen. I was a little upset that they didn't show me the final cutscene and I didn't receive a trophy despite the fact that I completed every stage in the game, but I was just happy to have finished it.

33. Octopath Traveler | NSW (7.5/10) - 8.16.18

There is a great deal to love about Octopath Traveler. Its concept is simple but executed with near-perfection, each of the eight characters' stories compelling in their own right. While I would have appreciated more interaction between cast members, I recognize that Octopath Traveler is not about the ensemble cast that franchises like Persona rely on. The party system itself exists almost solely for the benefit of the player and a well thought-out combat system that keeps you on your toes. The game's narrative structure can be repetitive, but I was interested enough in the world to give it a pass.

I usually like to keep my reviews spoiler-free, at least for new releases. Unfortunately, I can't really talk about my main gripes with Octopath Traveler without addressing them.


34. Mega Man 7 | PS4 (7.0/10) - 8.18.18

Despite the impressive jump in graphics from one system to the next, Mega Man 7 fits right in with its predecessors. While it took some getting used to before I could handle the increased sprite sizes and the change in hitbox that came with it, I slowly began to appreciate the wider variety of expressions they allowed. Mega Man was even afforded some semblance of a character! The story was as bare-bones as the originals but they did give a little added dialogue to give me a reason to fight, culminating in a scene at the end where Mega Man holds Dr. Wily at gunpoint. I've heard the scene was changed to be darker and edgier in the western release, but honestly?

I'm starting to get pretty sick of Dr. Wily's bullshit too. I hate that stupid invisible flying saucer more with every iteration.

35. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze | Wii U (8.0/10) - 8.21.18

It's been a while since I last played a Donkey Kong game, though I have fond memories of playing Donkey Kong Country on the GameBoy Advance and watching my mom play Donkey Kong 64 on the N64. I'd heard great things about Tropical Freeze, so before I retire my Wii U for a little while I figured I'd get around to playing a few of its greatest hits. Though I was skeptical at first, I slowly began to realize where all the hype had come from. Each level is perfectly crafted to match a unique theme, and even at its gimmickiest it was an excellent ride (literally so in the mineshaft segments). The game can be frustrating at times, and bosses feel like a test of raw endurance, but I rarely felt that I was unfairly punished. Overall it was an excellent experience; I would love to see Retro tackle the third part of the Returns series to test my mettle against King K. Rool and his lackies for a grand showdown.

36. Mega Man 8 | PS4 (6.0/10) - 8.21.18

Jump jump! Slide slide!

Those words would forever haunt me...

Mega Man 8 is an oddball in the series. While it has some of the most frustrating gameplay elements in the series (most memorably its snowboarding sections), it also contains some of the greatest robot master designs and concepts. They rarely go down without a fight, even as you hack away at them with weakness in hand. Instead, you use those weaknesses to punish them and force them to reckon with charged mega buster shots. The game's upgrade system allows you to tweak your play style, even if sped-up charge shots and arrow shot damn near break the game. Gameplay isn't the only aspect that's moved into modernity, however: animated cutscenes make their debut in Mega Man 8, and the laughable quality of the voice acting cannot be understated. This actually isn't something I knock the game for because it's entertaining in its own right, even if it's unintentional. Still, there was little to no integration of the story with the actual gameplay, making it feel more like an afterthought.

37. Mega Man 9 | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.23.18

This game marks a return to form for the Mega Man series, and, well...

...meh?

It's nice to see them remove frivolous gameplay elements added to Mega Man 7 and 8, focusing on creating a leaner, more succinct experience. Unfortunately, they also decided to get rid of charge shots, and, more devastatingly, slides. I know they wanted to bring the game closer to its roots in Mega Man and Mega Man 2, but they threw the baby out with the bathwater in removing the sliding mechanic. The same could be said for the robot masters, who, outside of Splash Woman and Galaxy Man, largely feel like retreads of prior bosses. Say what you want about Mega Man 7 and 8, but there's no denying that their boss designs were a breath of fresh air.

Mega Man 9 is a solid game, but like Mega Man 4 before it, is too reliant on nostalgia.

38. Mega Man 10 | PS4 (6.5/10) - 8.24.18

The final classic Mega Man game. A title it wears proudly on its chest, but one that carries the burden of nine prior games; unfortunately, like its predecessor, it struggles underneath that weight instead of thriving on it. I appreciate the callbacks to prior bosses, even if it felt like they were intentionally torturing me by featuring two of its annoying bosses smushed together. The new bosses and stages were more well-rounded and memorable than Mega Man 9's, but the overuse of minibosses that often neglected to have save points after them (or, more disastrously, only right before them) weighed it down. I will say that its final sequence is my favorite of the franchise, and despite how silly roboenza was as a concept I thought it better matched Mega Man's style and tone than the oddly-morbid concept of robot expiration dates explored in Mega Man 9.

39. Shenmue HD | PS4 (5.0/10) - 8.27.18

If I were to rate Shenmue after playing the first three-quarters of the game, I likely would've rated it lower than I did. That is both a testament to the strength of its final stretch and its meandering, frustrating, and downright boring beginning. I won't deny that Shenmue brought a whole lot to the table (for better or worse depending on your opinion on quick-time events), but its status as a foundation doesn't give it enough credence to save how unentertaining it is to play. Fighting is decently fun-- if not dated-- but you hardly get the chance to engage with it for the first several hours of gameplay. Running around asking NPCs if they've seen this guy or that guy while waiting for their schedules to line up simply isn't what I like to spend my time doing. It may be organic, sure, but that doesn't make it good.

The very last stretch does give me some hope for the sequel, though. It was still more than a little rough, but consistent action and intense drama made Shenmue a lot more appealing.

[Continues Here]

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36) The Walker (PlayStation VR)
Day Finished: 7/28
Score: 5/10

Totally generic wave shooter that doesn't do anything amazing or terrible. Exists.

37) 18 Floors (PlayStation VR)
Day Finished: 7/29
Score: 6/10

This puzzle game would be fantastic if I was actually convinced at any point that it was finished.

38) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch)
Day Finished: 7/31
Score: 10/10

This is easily one of the most delightful games I've ever played. Platforming perfection.

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Game 20: Mega Man X4 (Playstation 4) - August 2, 2018
Score ★★★ 1/2
At first, I wasn't feeling too hot on this one. It felt slower than the SNES games, but over time I started to get the feel for it more. It was challenging, but didn't exactly feel cheap. I just needed to learn enemy and boss patterns, and I actually got better over the course of playing. I played as X first, then as Zero, and it was a good challenging replaying the game as Zero because he basically had no range at first. Always having to get up close made things tricky, but I liked that, because it made things different than just being a different skin.

82. Sonic Mania


Replayed this because of the Encore mode, which I'll start later. Main game is good though some stages felt too lengthy for my taste :P

#42 Sacred 2: Gold 6 PC - August 4th - 32 hours
I've had this game for years but always stopped halfway before beating it and I did have to force myself to finish it finally. I like exploring the world, fighting and looting..for 15 hours. Then it gets very repetitive and drawn out. The game is just too big. The map is too big, there's too many enemies, too many boring sidequests (which you better do lest you be underleveled) and its just too long. it gets very tiring and by the end I couldn't wait for it to finish even though I enjoyed the start of the game a fair bit.

Updating for July and a little bit of August

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Main Post 2

July

30: Octogeddon - 9 hours

The designer of the original Plants vs. Zombies's followup project is really admirable in its simplicity. There are only two buttons: rotate left and rotate right, but the game is bursting with variety and never feels boring. It feels closest to a shoot-em-up genre wise, but the variety and customization of all the animal arms your octopus can equip means that you have a great deal of options to deal with enemies many of them don't play anything like a typical side scrolling shooter. Bonus points to the game for having a great sense of humor too.
9/10

31: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure - 8 hours

I loved Kingdom Battle when I played it last year even though it drags a bit in the second half with the lack of variety in enemies and objectives. The Donkey Kong Adventure DLC is more of the same, for better or worse. The new Donkey Kong and Rabbid Cranky Kong movesets are nice, and do change up the gameplay a little bit with the ability to throw objects/allies/enemies and some other new abilities. I still found myself thinking that the new stuff didn't feel very fresh though, and it déjà vu set in fast. It's a great value as far as DLC goes though: lots of new levels, music, characters, areas, etc.
7/10

32: Children of Zodiarcs - 11 hours

On paper this game sounds like a dream come true: a SRPG that uses card decks and dice rolls for combat. The final product is pretty cool too, but it doesn't quite live up to the potential of the idea. You don't have a lot of control over your party composition and each character you quickly discover has a right and wrong way to play, which causes you to streamline decks into the slimmest version possible that will consistently draw the few good cards for each character. As for the combat itself, it's pretty repetitive and you'll definitely find yourself dealing with the same 6-7 enemy types for the entire game without any real need to modify tactics. The story is a bit thin too, but what story there is is surprisingly dark.
7/10

August

33: Chasm - 8 hours

This game has beautiful pixel art which, combined with how fun the Metroidvania genre usually is, makes it look like a no-brainer. I was a bit disappointed with it after playing though. The gimmick of the game is that while the rooms are hand-crafted, they are combined in a way that is procedurally generated so that the map, items, and enemies in your game are unique to you alone. This is only a plus if you plan on replaying the game though, and the trade off is that the game loses the feeling of a carefully crafted map that defines most great games in the genre. The RNG-based item drops also means that your game experience could be super easy or extremely difficult based on your luck (or willingness to grind). The combat is also very repetitive and simplistic and the movement skills feel unresponsive and are a chore to use. On top of that, I hit bugs that caused me to lose 1-2 hours worth of progress twice. This genre has too many amazing games for this one to be worth playing.
6/10

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63. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas 2 - 7 hours
Jesus fucking Christ, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is HOT GARBAGE if you playing it solo. Seriously, it was okay, junky but playable outdated console FPS, but then they suddenly to make it more "cinematic" in Act 6 and all went to shit quickly after this. I have a feeling this game was not QA tested for solo playthrough AT ALL, suddenly your crew is gone and you need to kill thousands of enemies that could easily kill you in few shots even if you equipped in best armor. And what most ridiculous is the fact that you simply CAN'T fully play it by stealth, because in some rooms once you enter enemies immediately spot you and run at you all at once. And just when I thought that they finally come to their sense in Act 7 and stopped doing this Rambo shit in the tactical game with almost instant kills, guess what happened in the final scene. Seriously, what can happen in modern military shooter made by Ubisoft? A FUCKING HELICOPTER BOSS FIGHT. SERIOUSLY?! YOU FUCKING IDIOTS, DID YOU EVEN PLAYED YOUR SHIT BEFORE SHIPPING IT TO MARKET LIKE THIS? I've heard this game is better when you playing it in the co-op, but I'm done with it, fuck it. AI is bad, level design is bad, the movement is bad, Rambo action moments like I've mentioned below is bad, story overall is bad, fucking hell I can't say what was actually good in this game. They've made it very easy to hate this game with passion and completely wipe out any positive impressions about this piece of junk.

STATUS: 25/52

24. Metroid Zero Mission [1/8/18 - 3/8/18]

3 hours, 14 mins. 8/10

First time playing this in over a decade. That's a scary sentence to write. Great game, but the linear 'go here' checkpoints do start to wear after a while. I also don't really like the ending sequence in the mothership. Still, Samus controls wonderfully in this, and I know the game route well enough that the linearity isn't as big of an issue as it would be for a first playthrough.

25. Batman: Arkham Asylum [4/8/18 - 7/8/18]

~11hrs. 8.5/10

Despite being a moderate Batman fan (I love The Animated Series!), I've never gotten around to actually playing any of the Arkham games. I really wanted to rectify that before Spider-Man comes out. It's probably just a weird hangup I have, but it wouldn't feel right to jump into that without having played the last major superhero franchise. I like to see the evolution of similar types of games whenever possible.

The verdict is that I should have played this series sooner! I really enjoyed myself with this one, probably even more than my score would indicate. It's hard to ignore the many issues the game has, though. I actually found most of the individual aspects to be kind of lackluster tbh. The combat is largely uninteresting, and outside of the interview tapes, I didn't find any of the collectables to be worth the effort of tracking down. With the exception of the Scarecrow sequences, the boss battles are all awful, too. Most of them are dull, annoying, repetitive, or all of the above. Even the final boss is still mostly just chucking waves of regular enemies at you again. This is definitely something that I hope improves in the sequels.

So what did I like about the game? Well, I loved the predator rooms for one. It always felt great to just decimate rooms full of people as Batman. And while the combat wasn't particularly engaging, it does do a great job of making you feel powerful. Movement in general is pretty awesome, too. Using the batclaw or the zipline to get around everywhere just feels super cool. More than anything though, is that the general vibe is just so Batman! Exploring Arkham was a blast, and Mark Hamill as The Joker is fucking amazing. His taunts and commentary never got old.

I don't know if I'll have time to get through all four of them before September, but I'm planning on squeezing in Arkham City at least!

61) Devil May Cry 2 - This is without a doubt the most joyless experience I have had in gaming all year. Everything about its presentation, story, level design, gameplay, character development, and so on were abysmal. The game is ugly as hell, plays far worse and more repetitively than the original, and any of the charm present in the first one is completely sucked out of this. I finished the game in just over three hours, which at least was somewhat mercifully short. It felt like 30 hours. I will never, ever play this godforsaken game ever again. I played 10 minutes of Devil May Cry 3 this morning and the first chapter alone was better than anything in this game by far. Don't do this to yourselves.

Main post 1: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2784229/
Main post 2: https://www.resetera.com/posts/5234679/


58. Gears of War 2 / 9h40 completed 07.08.18



A fantastic campaign that builds on the first game and adds a lot of variety throughout most of its run time. It's rare to find two levels where the player is asked to do the exact same thing. Every sequence is designed to offer something new and different, and it mostly works. The exception is a big chunk of the finale, which didn't really work for me. It just becomes too much, even by Gears' standards. Too many turret sequences as well. The music becoming too bombastic towards the end didn't help matters either. Despite this late inconsistency, what comes before it is so good that it can't really be tarnished by it.

The controls are perfectly weighted and the level and encounter design always feel fresh and well thought out. I would put it close to Uncharted 2, one of my favorite linear romps. Only the story and characters fall far behind it. None of it is near any believability or even has much competent writing. I like Baird though. He's better here than in the first game.

Gears 2 was the only one in the series that i had significantly played before, so it's all gonna be fresh going forward.

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39. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - Wii U
Completed 8/3/18
Score - 8/10

It's been said by many people before me...this game just ooozes charm. It was such a fun little game to play through. The majority of it was pretty easy with a few difficult courses thrown into the mix, but it was overall FUN. I really enjoyed my time with it and will continue to go back and earn all of the stars in each course. I hope we get some sort of sequel in the future.



40. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - 3DS
Completed 8/6/18
Score - 8/10

Fun and interesting game. I enjoyed a lot of the RPG mechanics and for the most part had a blast. There were definitely some bosses that gave me trouble...especially the last one. The game kept teasing me with 'easy mode' but I held out. I enjoyed the challenge and most of the game. It did feel long at times but by the end I was smiling. Good stuff!

43. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 07/08/2018

I'm not much of a hardcore FE fan, having only played Awakening, so I gave Birthright a whirl and really liked it despite its atrocious story, and I hear Conquest is even worse in that regard. I'm really not cut out for number crunching, which is why I'm worried about Conquest's higher difficulty.

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#43: Chasm (8-7-2018) | 7/10 | Vita| ~ 9 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 7 | An overall good game that does not excel in anyone area besides art
Gameplay - 8 | While controls are not the best, there is a good amount of enemies and things to discover
Sound - 7 | Not a lot going on here, only a few tracks
Story/Online - 7 | Serviceable, not the key focus. Few moments that are interesting
Asking Price- 8.33 | The game does not feel randomly generated so if you like it, round 2 awaits!

I'll make this my main post. Bit late in the game, but so far in 2018 I've finished:


01 | Vampyr | PC
★★★★
Time: 20 hours

Atmosphere is absolutely fantastic. Nails how you'd expect Victorian London to feel. I also enjoyed the story, and ended up getting the happy ending as I chose not to feed on anyone. I found the combat to be passable, but average, my main gripe with the game was the constant travelling around the map. It was incredibly tedious, and they should have allowed fast travel between the safe houses, but all in all, it is one of my favourite games of the year.


02 | LEGO: Marvel Super Heroes 2 | PC
★★★
Time: 16 hours

Outstayed it's welcome a little, but overall another enjoyable LEGO game with absolutely loads to do in it. The DLC was fun too, if a tad nonsensical. For example the Black Panther level had nothing to do with the film.


03 | South Park: The Fractured but Whole | PC
★★★★
Time: 16 hours

More of the same from Stick of Truth, which is a good thing to me since I loved the first game. The superhero setting is fun, the humour is good, and once again it feels like you're playing an episode of South Park.

04 | Mafia III: Faster, Baby! | PC
★★
Time: 2 hours

Incredibly short DLC, has races and focuses on cars, which isn't the game's main strength to begin with.


05 | Mafia III: Stones Unturned | PC
★★★
Time: 3 hours

Tells us more about Donovan. Decent story, good missions, a tad short but recommended.


06 | Mafia III: Sign of the Times | PC
★★★★
Time: 3 hours

Easily the best of the Mafia 3 DLC. Sign of the times tells the story of a insane cult and a woman who tries to escape their clutches. In it, as Lincoln you'll need to use detective skills, like using black light to find messages. The tension in the game too adds a whole new layer of it, however like the other DLC's it's quite short and only worth it when on sale.


07 | Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition | PC
★★★★
Time: 17 hours

Holy shit. What a game. Combat is amazing, story is strong, Wei is a brilliant protagonist. Breaks my heart we won't get a sequel.


08 | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - System Rift | PC
★★★★
Time: 3 hours

Late to the party with this DLC, but thoroughly enjoyed it. I have the remaining DLCs to finish, but I'll take any more Deus Ex I can get.


09 | Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition | PC
★★★
Time: 15 hours

Good origin story for Lara. The game made me a nervous wreck with my anxiety so played whilst listening to podcasts. Enjoyed the game tbh, and I'll eventually play Rise and Shadow of (When it releases).

Recommended.

10 | Marvel's Spider-Man | PS4
★★★★
Time: 40~ hours

Amazing. Story was fantastic, especially the third act and final boss fight. Very sombre but masterful ending. Enjoyed all the boss fights. Hated the boring forced insta-fail stealth missions they included and the side content was checklist boring stuff, so that's why its 4 rather than 5 stars. All the same, probably my GOTY.

Claiming this as Main Post 3, you can see Main Post 1+2 here.


Game #53 - The Surge
Time: 21 hours

Let me preface this by saying that I happen to be one of the few Lords of the Fallen (Deck 13's previous Souls-like game) fans that I know, as everyone seems to hate that game. Maybe it was a right place right time thing wtih that game, maybe I was just seething for another Souls style experience, I liked it at the time. So I was always curious to give the Surge a try, as I love the genre (can we call it a genre now?) and liked the previous game. Unfortunately, I ended up having the most heated love-hate relationship with a videogame in recent memory. For everything the game did for me to love it, it did three things that made me hate it. I was incredibly frustrated throughout most of my playthrough, which isnt unexpected in these games, except in this game I simp,y was not having any fun. The Surge puts all the difficulty on the trash mobs as opposed to the bosses (which there are only a handful of in the game), so every mob in the game, from the first simple zombie guy you meet to the lumbering atrocities enar the end, everything basically two-shots you, to the point where its just better to just run past everything.Upgrading your armor or using heavier defensive armor makes no difference because you will always be two shot anyway (until you pump your rig full of health upgrades late in the game I guess) so the whole things feels incredibly pointless, you never have a clear sense of progress like you have in the From games. Only by the very end did I finally feel like a badass, and by then the game was over. It's a shame because the combat can be quite good, the upgrade system is fantastic (if pointless), the world design is good but the level design is super confusing as everything looks kind of the same, it tries to tell a story but its complete nonsense and there isnt even much of it, just overall a very frustrating experience for me, not just from a gameplay perspective, but just what it could have been overall. I'm not sure if I'm even looking forward to the sequel now honestly, hopefully they make a more balanced game this time around.


Game #54 - World of Warcraft: Legion
Time: a lot

Wasn't sure if I was going to put Legion and BFA as seperate entries, but since I already "finished" the challenge, I feel like it deserves it's own entry. By far my favorite expansion ever, I came back to it strong this year, resubbing on two seperate ocasions for 2 months each time (which is a lot for how I play this game nowadays!), both times I had a ton of fun and felt super productive, as early this year I went around doing all the class mount quests, and recently I resubbed again to unlock the new allied races, and level a few new characetrs with these races (one of which will be my "main" for BFA). As a casual, mostly solo player, Legion made great strides to welcome and reward me for playing it, which is great because I actually like to play wow (at least while im engaged), and the new world quest system giving decent rewards for solo players, the new mythic dungeons being challenging for small groups of friends and the cvarious class overalls focused on the class fantasy relaly made me enjoy playing various characters this time around. This recent resub made me super excited for BFA and I'm sure I'll be deep into it for the next 2 or 3 months, before tapping out again as usual. But hey, that is totally fine for me these days, I go into these expansions fully expecting to only play about 2 months, and if they are good, I will eventually resubg down the line for a few more.


Game #55 - Heroes of the Storm
Time: a lot

And my second annual blizzard entry in these lists, as it's the game I play on and off through the year, so it must always be mentioned. I didnt play as much this year, certainly compared to last year when they introduced 2.0, but it's still one of those games I fall back to when im bored or not necessarely feeling like playing anything in particular. some good heroes introduced this year, including my favorite healer in the game and current main, Deckard Cain, a good new battleground was also introduced and Blizzard continues to improve and support the game (even tho as far as I know it's far from a big earner for them) so I will continue to play it... on and off at least :)


Game #56 - Marvel's Spider-Man
Time: 30+ hours

Well it's official, Insomniac did for Spider-Man what Rocksteady did for Batman. Fantastic game and a compleet franchise maker (and with the sales to back it up thankfully), this is from top to bottom an amazing representation of Spidey, both from a gameplay standpoint, visually and shockingly, story wise. The story is actually really good, surprisingly mature and emotional, it handles multiple villains and retcons (compared to the comics anyway) well aswell, it creates it's own universe while staying very faithful to the source material. Huge game too (if you want it to be) with the usual open world sidequests and activities, made very toreable because the game is just a joy to play. the only downside is, like most people say, the stealth sections. Everytime you step out of Pete's shoes to play another character it's just a mess and not fun in the slightest. I get what Insomniac was going for, but it's the one thing the game doesnt land. Get some guest stars next time if you must change it up during the campaign so you can still maintain the same gameplay (Daredevil anyone?) but no more inane stealth missions please. Anyway, just an absolute joy and easily recomended to anyone.


Game #57 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Time: 113 hours

Building on Origin's RPG mechanics to build what actually feels like an actual action rpg this time, Odyssey completely grabbed me from begining to end. The choice of playable character (is it really a choice tho, let's be honest, Kassandra is too good) is a great addition to the series, and as stated, Kassandra is a fantastic character and easily one of my favorite in any game in years. Great story all around and fantastic, meaningful sidequests that made me want to comb every zone to see mroe of the game, combined with gorgeous visuals (that draw distance is ridiculous) and a new and improved talent system with actual rpg-like skills to unlock and use, making vastly different specs possible, make this not only my favorite Assassin's Creed game ever, but one of my favorite games in years. I won't touch on the dreaded "grinding / microtransaction" issue except to say this: in my day (i'm old damn it!) "grinding" was walking around a field in a jrpg doing random battles for hours to gain levels, doing full fledged zones with fully fledged sidequests, with some of the ebst content in the game isnt grinding, it's "playing the game", so no, the "issue" never affected me. That being said, it IS a giant game, and even for a crazy person like me that did everything, I felt there was too much. Still, when "there's too much of it" is your biggest gripe, that's not necessarely the end of the world. If you liked Origins, it's a complete no brainer. Very high contender for my GOTY, and as a sidenote, Rush Assassination (a skill you can get) probably ruined every other stealth based game for me, certainly every other Assassin's Creed game, I can't imagine not playing with it now :(


Game #58 - World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth
Time: A lot

Coming off a fantastic expansion in Legion, unfortunately BFA couldnt keep the momentum, and in fact it stumbled, a lot. While it's in a better place now, and there are promising changes in 8.1 in the months ahead, the simple fact is it launched in a bad state. Classes felt worse, content felt worse, systems felt worse. The raid is good and I actually raided more than I usually do these days (raided half of the first raid in heroic until my small casual guild quit again lol), but none of the new stuff like Island Expeditions or Warfronts do much to keep me engaged. I've quit for now after playing for about 3 months, and I'm sure ill come back to it soon enough with new patches, but it sure is a far cry from Legion, that's for sure.


Game #59 - Diablo 3 The Eternal Collection
Time: 100 hours+ (season 15)

This was the year I got back hard into Diablo 3 after not paying it for a few years, and all because of the fantastic Switch port. Playing it exclusively on handheld (as I do all my Switch games mind you), I cant believe how good this looks and feels on it. It's one of those cases where it doesnt feel like "a port", it just feels like the game, if that makes sense. I specify season 15, where I mostly played Crusader and Witch Doctor, because this will easily be one of my go-to games next year aswell, where I will play future seasons, so its nice to deferentiate I guess. Anyway, just a fantastic port, 60fps even portable, great controls (actually feels like a new / different game playing with a controller tbh), all the content released on PC, just a overall amazing package. Stealth runner-up for my GOTY list to be honest, and like I said something that will be a part of these yearly lists from now on I think (the number of games I have on these that I go back to every year keeps growing, and speaking of...)


Game #60 - Paladins Champions of the Realm
Time: 40 hours+

And chalk another one up to my growing list of multiplayer games I'll get back to regularly over the year, as I have gotten into Paladins in a semi-big way. I had played it a little bit back in early access years ago, and it seemed ok for a janky "overwatch clone". Fast forward a few years, I decided to try it again and what I found was a content rich, super fun to play, polished..."overwatch clone". I know I know, one can argue that Overwatched cloned TF2, and TF2 had previously cloned whatever, but its hard to deny the similarities. But, I'm an old man, and back in my day, people didnt mind playing Street Fighter 2 and MK and Fatal Fury and World Warriors and whatever else fighting game was out there, so I dont mind playing another hero shooter, especially since I actually dont play Overwatch anymore. Fantastic characters, especially now that they have moved on from the more similar to overwatch heroes, matches are fast and frenetic (and dont take too long which I like), its fun to play especially the healers, it just really clicked with me, so much so that I even bought the champion pack to support the devs (and get all current and future champions of course), even tho the F2P model is actually quite fair and I already had quite a few champions just with the in-game currency. The constant stream of new content (we are about to get a new map and the 40th champion) helps keep it fresh and will make me come back to it next year for sure.


Game #61 - Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
Time: 18 hours

One of my most anticipated games of 2018 from the moment I saw it at E3, Duck Boar X-Com as I like to call it didn't disapoint, but it also didn't exaclty blow me away either. It's good, sometimes great, and I'm glad I got it day one, but it has quite a few things that prevent it from becoming the cult classic it could have been in my opinion. The game is very punishing on the default difficulty ("hard" since there is only normal, hard and very hard) and way too easy (and thus, boring) on easy. So the first few hours of the game are very frustrating, especially since your squad doesnt fully heal between fights or even when you move zones (or go back to the base!), you have to use medkits to heal, which early on with limited resources becomes a huge pain as you constantly walk around on half health. And in a game with percentage-based shots as the genre is known for, that is a very weird system to implement, and encorages save-scumming more than the average x-com style game. But, after getting some more abilities, some more passives from the homebase skill tree, better gear, the game became quite manageable and I couldnt imagine playing it on normal (aka easy). Once you get over the first few frustrating hours, you will find a very well made blend of rpg and xcom game, as you can freely move around real time the zones before you get in combat, cllecting money or loot, there is a cool stealth / ambush mechanic which lets you pick off lone patrols so they dont join in fights later on, good abilities, good characters, gear changes your look and each zone is full of personality. The story is your typical post apocalypse "what happened? who created mutants?" type deal but its serviceable and not why youre here anyway. Lastly, voice acting is quite good and the characters have a lot of little lines between each other as you walk around, and much like the zones themselves, they ooze personality, the whole game's universe is very well crafted. While not without it's share of problems I would easily recomend it for X-Com fans, and I would gladly play more of it, be it a sequel or a much needed expansion pack (since it ends abruptly and on a cliffhanger).


Game #62 - Book of Demons
Time: 14 hours +

What a fantastic little gem this turned out to be. Part Diablo-style dungeon crawler, deck building game, in a papercraft world and a bunch of great systems make this one of my favorite games of the year, and will certainly be in whatever my GOTY list ends up being. Finished the campaign with the default class (warrior) at which point the game opens a freeplay mode to keep leveling and getting more cards, not unlike a diablo-style game would work in the end game (for loot not cards), but I prefer to start over with a new class to see what kind of cards the others get. Very easy to get into and with it's Flexichrome system where you choose the length of your dungeon runs, you can play it for short bursts and still feel like you achieved something. Great art style, very original take on the genre (the game basically works "on rails" like a board game, but still manages to get as chaotic as any in the genre), and good length to the campaign even if you just one-and-done it, I would highly recomend this to fans of dungeon crawling hack and slash games. I hope they make some dlc, be it new zones (there's only 3 zone / acts in the game) or especially classes with new cards.


Game #63 - Lara Croft GO
Time: 3 hours

Bittersweet feelings about this one, as I was absolutely loving it until I turned hard on the game and ended up just dropping it when it came to the bonus chapters. It's a very cool idea and I love the look and style of the game, and like I said I was loving it and having a lot of fun at the start, but near the end of the campaign it just got too hard for me (granted I'm not a puzzle guy and I get easily frustrated when I get stumped) and it just sucked the fun out of it completely. I tried a few of the bonus levels but I just wasnt having fun at all any more and was just doing it "to finish it" but I decided to just drop it instead. Shame, and it's actually made me weary of getting other GO games.


Game #64 - Gris
Time: 4 hours

I was a huge fan of both Journey and abzu so naturally I was very excited to play Gris, and not only did it not disapoint, but I feel it's the strongest of its "genre" and just an amazing game overall, one that I could easily see be my GOTY. An absolute visual masterpiece, with fantastic soundtrack and actual good gameplay that isnt just go from point a to b and look at the pretty scenery, Gris is close to a perfect videogame as I can imagine. Gorgeous, emotional, just a wonderful journey (no pun intended) from start to end, it never overstays its welcome nor does it feel too short for its own good (like Abzu did unfortunately). One of my favorite games in years, everyone should play it, just fantastic.

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Wow it's been a while since I posted here, so, here's what I've been up to the past couple of months!



Didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to this after the announcement, seemed kind of unnecessary. After finishing it, yeah it was kind of unnecessary, but it was still a fun game and not too long. I really liked Chloe in the original game so seeing what led up to her being who she was was quite nice.



Bought this on a whim and god damn am I glad I did. Tightly designed, pure platforming perfection. Bought it thinking it'd be too hard for me and I'd maybe finish the story then use assist mode to polish up the trophy list, but nope. I finished the entire thing all by myself, every c-side was conquered, and boy did that feel good.



Free to download "Chapter 0" for Life Is Strange 2? Yeah I won't say no. This was actually quite fun and it was well done. Explored some powerful themes and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ties into the full game.



Man this was fantastic! This has simply the most engaging turn based battles I've ever experienced. You have a massive variety of options available and you have to make the most of pretty much all of them. Timing all your buffs and debuffs and keeping an eye on when the bosses next attack will strike to try and 'break' them beforehand is so engaging and you really have to stop and think, especially with the end game bosses that really do not hold back!
The game did have some structural problems and could have used a bit more variety and set piece moments, and the world was slightly too linear, but overall it was fantastic and I'm looking forward to an ever better sequel.



In an RPG mood I thought I'd make a dent in a big series I haven't really touched much of, and why not start at the beginning? For how old this game is I was really impressed with what was on offer, boats, airships, class changes and more. Definitely exceeded my expectations.

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08 | Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - System Rift | PC
★★★★
Time: 3 hours

Late to the party with this DLC, but thoroughly enjoyed it. I have the remaining DLCs to finish, but I'll take any more Deus Ex I can get.

44. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - 11/08/2018

cockpits lol

Now that that's out of the way, what a wild ride. I previously played the shitty X360 port, but I made sure to get the patch for the PS3 version and it really doesn't compare. The lightning fast gameplay, while repetitive, is still plenty of fun and adds enough new toys to keep things interesting, culminating in the awesome ability to warp next to enemies and tear them to shreds. The story is unfortunately really boring and poorly translated in a way that isn't cheesy B-movie fun like the first excluding a handful of lines from the hilariously cavalier Dingo, but that's an acceptable loss for gameplay this fun.

I almost wish I didn't have this version just so I'd have an excuse to buy the upcoming PS4 remaster.

83. Grandia 2


Yeeesh that endgame was needlessly looooooong. I feel like the game would've been better if either it was 1/4 shorter or enemies would be taken down faster.
All in all though it is a solid jRPG and it really scratched that classic jRPG itch and reminding me of the good ol' days of jRPGing in my younger years.

84. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

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Finally got around to replaying Sonic 3, and I did it via the Complete fan hack. Still a solid platformer though a tad too longer than I would normally like.

Master Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3243362

61. XCom 2 - PS4 - 8/12 - 45 hours: What a game. I've never played XCom before so this was my intro to the series and wow what have I been missing all these years. Everything about it was so well done. Would've definetly been in the running for my GotY in whatever year this released.

LonestarZues said:

Master Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3243362

61. XCom 2 - PS4 - 8/12 - 45 hours: What a game. I've never played XCom before so this was my intro to the series and wow what have I been missing all these years. Everything about it was so well done. Would've definetly been in the running for my GotY in whatever year this released.

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Check out Phantom Doctrine, mate. Out Tuesday, X-COM kinda game and it's set during the Cold War.

Lashley said:

Check out Phantom Doctrine, mate. Out Tuesday, X-COM kinda game and it's set during the Cold War.

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Thanks for the recommendation. Never heard of the game, but looked it up and was sold on it almost instantly.

LonestarZues said:

Master Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3243362

61. XCom 2 - PS4 - 8/12 - 45 hours: What a game. I've never played XCom before so this was my intro to the series and wow what have I been missing all these years. Everything about it was so well done. Would've definetly been in the running for my GotY in whatever year this released.

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Nice! I look forward to playing this. Have been reading a lot about it lately. Currently crawling through the horrors of my own first XCOM experience, the Long War mod for XCOM: EW. :D

Spyware said:

Nice! I look forward to playing this. Have been reading a lot about it lately. Currently crawling through the horrors of my own first XCOM experience, the Long War mod for XCOM: EW. :D

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Lol I had to restart twice since I messed up so I know all about those horrors. I almost wish I had played XCom EW back when it launched after playing this.

85. The Secret of Monkey Island


Still holds up to this day, but the Sword fighting is the weakest part of the game due to how long it takes to learn all insults.

45. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 13/08/2018

Was this game always so clunky? I think Hollow Knight has spoiled me, because I kind of struggled a lot when it came to motivating myself to keep playing and flat out just used to the Alucard Shield near the end to speed through the Reverse Castle, which incidentally I can't tell if that's the most lazy use of content recycling ever, or actually brilliant.

Still, I do think this is one of the best PS1 games out there, it's just that age and progress may finally be catching up to SotN.

Main Post

Game 10 - Senran Kagura PBS (PS4) 20 hours or so. Anyways I knew what to expect before playing the game. Cheap fun.

Game 11 - Demon's Souls (PS3) Time to die. My first souls game I've completed. Had a BLAST playing through this. May be my GOTY so far. Lets see what the other souls games have to offer. Did a melee build.

In progress:

Currently playing Dark Souls. Sorcerer this time.
then Dark Souls 2
then Bloodborne
then Dark Souls 3

I'm likely to mix it up in between. Definitely won't touch 52 but getting the souls games done this year would be a victory for me.

60!

And thus another new post is born.

Games #1-20
Games #21-40
Games #41-60

61. Rogue Warrior (X360) - Beaten: 14/08/18- Time Taken: ~4 hours (Credits)

Rogue Warrior epitomises so much of what would characterise mid-tier development during the 360/PS3 generation:

It's a cover-based first person shooter. Everything is brown except when it's grey. The game is desperate to come across as mature and edgy but just ends up looking incredibly adolescent. The engine runs like shit, with the framerate chugging like Goldeneye but with none of the charm. The lead character is voiced by Mickey Rourke. There's an online multiplayer mode which I can only assume had no more than a single digit player base at any point in its server's life span.

It's tacky, grubby and borderline offensive. It was however a great window into just how much chaff made its way to consoles during the last generation. Releases like Rogue Warrior were ten-a-penny on the 360, filling fallow periods of the calendar like a contagion.

62. Tetris (PSP) - Beaten: 15/08/18 - Time Taken: ~3 hours (100% Completion / All Feats)

I know that you can't beat Tetris, but EA's surprisingly competent version for PSP Minis included a progress bar that gradually fills as you complete in-game tasks and beat variant modes at their highest level of difficulty so I'm counting it.

I am a huge Tetris fan, and rank this sleek version in my top three of all time, sat behind only Tetris DX and Tetris DS. Using what is now firmly established as Tetris' modern ruleset (near infinite spin, hold piece, ghost tetraminos), EA's take on the puzzle classic introduces 12 variant modes alongside the standard marathon. Some of these variations are cribbed from other team's existing versions, whilst some are (to my knowledge) all new. I particularly enjoyed the Lumines inspired 'Scanner' which also seems to have informed Tetris Effect's focus mode with its 4+ clears, and 'Magnetic', whereby orange pieces and blue pieces are tugged either left and right meaning you need to be tricksy with your placement to lock them in useful positions.

A great package.

63. Parascientific Escape: Cruise in the Distant Seas (3DS) - Beaten: 19/08/18 - Time Taken: ~5 hours (Credits)

999 remains my favourite visual novel, and sits comfortably with Firewatch as one of my favourite narrative experiences in gaming.

The developers of Parascientific Escape were clearly huge fans of 999 also, as the first game in their trilogy at least cribs much of its plot, setting and gameplay wholesale. The game is split between puzzle sections and story sections, although it felt like the skew favoured the puzzle solving over reading; the opposite of the Zero Escape series.

The game was compelling enough, although some solutions to puzzles were a bit too readily telegraphed. I'm looking forward to playing through its sequels though, even if the main feeling I got from playing it was an urge to finish Virtue's Last Reward..

64. Ascent of Kings (3DS) - Beaten: 23/08/18 - Time Taken: ~2 hours (100%)

A really basic exploration platformer. I played through to 100% on two separate occasions, unlocking the credits and then revisiting the game map to find the remaining hidden shrines.

A perfectly adequate game, and another nice little title from Nostatic Software (mainly know for their 'Quiet' series of Dizzy-style adventure games from the XBLA days).

65. Statik (PSVR) - Beaten: 24/08/18 - Time Taken: ~4 hours (All Trophies [PSN])

Probably the best VR game I've played this year.

Every scene involves you manipulating a puzzle box that encompasses your hands entirely by experimenting with all the buttons on the Dualshock controller. This 1:1 projection works so, so well. Every puzzle was fun to work out and the sense of atmosphere and 'being' was incredible throughout. After my first play session I immediately got in touch with a friend to encourage them to buy it - it's that good.

To say much more would spoil the experience. If you have access to PSVR, this is almost as vital as Superhot, Rez Infinite and Thumper.

66. Beasts of Hamelin (3DS - RPG Maker FES) - Beaten: 31/08/18 - Time Taken: ~10 hours (All story and post-game content complete)

I really enjoy classic JRPGs, but seldom have the time or commitment to beat a 40 hour game. Having watched a few videos by DariaPlaysRPGs on YouTube, I saw that the presenter had made their own mini RPG using RPG Maker FES on the 3DS, and thought it might satisfy my desire to play an RPG without robbing me of weeks of my life.

I have no experience with RPG Maker as a platform, so many of the common criticisms that people level at its creations (samey art, formulaic structure, repeating tilesets) were largely lost on me. The game engine functioned well, the dialogue was really well written considering it would have all been entered using a stylus, a letter at a time, and for the most part the difficulty curve was well implemented.

I say 'for the most part', as the game forgoes random encounters for finite battles which means that certain foes can be extremely difficult to fell if the player has not found obscure hidden paths that lead to boosted armour or extra enemies that may just tip your experience into a new level. The final boss in particular was extremely difficult, made more challenging by the game locking you into the encounter. A death usually transports you safely to your 'home', but here time is rewound to allow you to go again even though your supplies are now depleted and there is no recourse to scour the land to level up further. This was probably the only time I got annoyed in my playtime.

After the campaign has been beaten (around 6 hours for me) you unlock a randomly generated post-game dungeon. This is a lot of fun, and allows you to level up your party at will. The issue of course is that your newly buffed characters are useless outside of this procedurally generated gauntlet as their is no more story content available. The final challenge to aim for is accruing 15,000 gold to buy a customisable house for your character. A nice touch, but a bit unnecessary.

A recommended play for sure, though your mileage may vary depending on your previous exposure to RPG Maker FES and its inherent limitations. Search 'Beasts of Hamelin' in the free RPG Maker Player eStore app to download it.

67. Dragon Quest / Warrior (GBC) - Beaten: 05/09/18- Time Taken: ~12 hours (Credits)

My thought process:

"Theatrhythm: Curtain Call is fun, I should grab some DLC as you never know when these things will be delisted. *buys a few tracks*

This reminds me I never beat the original Theatrhythm! *plays an hour or two of the original*

This reminds me there was a Dragon Quest Theatrhythm that was never localised! *immediately buys only UK based copy on eBay*

I really like some of the tracks in DQ Theatrhythm, but I've never really played a DQ game even though I have several sealed DQ games for the DS and 3DS in my draw. *finds means to emulate the Dragon Quest I & II collection on GBC*"

I'M SICK, OK?

Good game though, even if around 8 of the 12 hours of the playthrough were spent mindlessly grinding levels to pass the next phase of enemy gatekeeping.

68. Panzer Dragoon Mini (GG) - Beaten: 09/09/18 - Time Taken: ~45mins (1cc)

A pretty stupid Game Gear remake of the flagship Sega Saturn rail shooter franchise. The game has been reduced to a Space Harrier style faux-3D shooter. It's technically fine, but not particularly impressive, especially after you've played M2's GG ports of Gunstar Heroes, and Dynamite Headdy. There are 5 stages total, with the final stage being a boss rush.

It only took two attempts to beat the game without continuing. My only death came from failing to read the trajectory of the massively oversized projectiles that the bosses shoot.

69. Lumines Remastered (Switch) - Beaten: 15/09/18 - Time Taken: ~30 hours (100%)

Lumines is the best block based puzzle concept since Tetris. It's also the puzzle game I'm best at, with my scores for all modes (on the Switch version of this iteration at least) in the top 200 on the global leaderboards.

What I love, and I'm going to try really hard not to waffle here, is that it sets itself apart from Tetris not just by its aesthetics, but by the way high level play is less about clean organisation and more about pushing and manipulating every drop in order to maximise points scored on each timeline pass.

When you find yourself in the Lumines zone it feels amazing and there are few other games where a run can last over the hour yet feel brisk.

Play it on the Switch. Or the PS4. Or the Xbox One. Or previous versions on the Vita, 360, PS3, PS2 or PSP. Hell, even the semi recent mobile version was decent. Don't miss out.

70. Panic! (MCD) - Beaten: 16/09/18 - Time Taken: ~4 hours (Credits)

As an adolescent kid, a friend and I would make simple games using Klik 'n' Play, then The Games / Factory, then Multimedia Fusion. The games we produced were either crappy platform titles, or point and click-esque nonsense where our main goal was to have every interaction play a silly animation and sound effect, usually referencing incredibly specific in jokes that would have been totally inaccessible to anyone outside of the room the game was made in.

Fast forward almost 30 years and I become aware of Panic! through both HG101's podcast, as well as one of Retropals evening streams. To my utter bemusement, Panic! appeared to be born of a similar concept to the games I was authoring age 12. Esoteric sound and visuals that follow no set theme or genre, labyrinthine layout that requires rote memorisation to progress, and jokes that wear out pretty quickly.

For those unaware, every scene plays out as such: player character enters, player is presented with a ''remote control' featuring between 2 and 10 buttons, player stabs at buttons to either recieve a small animation, piece of audio, progress forward to a new scene, or punishment by being made to return to an earlier location.

For the first hour, progress feels brisk, as statistically you are less likely to double back on yourself. However, there are several loop points where without writing down the choices you have already made, it starts becoming inevitable that you'll keep accidentally revisiting much earlier screens.

The game tracks how many scenes, gags and collectibles (real world monuments that you destroy for some reason?) you've found and during the first chunk it gameplay I'll admit I was tempted to try and grind out a 100% completion. As I entered my third hour of being stuck at an elevator that didn't seem to follow and rhyme or reason, I decided that the credits were probably a more achievable goal.

71. Marvel Puzzle Quest (Mobile) - Beaten: 20/09/18 - Time Taken: ~50+ hours (Prologue clear)

A great iteration of Puzzle Quest that has clear lineage from Challenge of the Warlords whilst fitting comfortably into a daily play F2P mobile title. The game is remarkably generous in its content, and across the nearly 6 months I played I only stumped up £7.99 at the height of my play for a hefty character and currency pack that sped up early game progress and added a decent amount of variety to play options and tactical approaches.

When the game launched, what is now termed the prologue was the total sum of its content. Just shy of 70 story missions that involve all sorts of cross franchise Avengers style nonsense that I tried to keep up with for the first chapter before growing pretty bored.

In the current build of the game at least, each of these nodes can be beaten 5 times each for stackable rewards: currency, character tokens, health packs, etc. I made it my goal (long after the daily check in addiction had worn off) that maxing out my rewards across the prologue would constitute the game being beaten. As live content refreshes (and repeats) constantly, and new characters and level caps are introduced pretty frequently, this seemed a sensible end point as the grind of the game itself had grown a bit tired for me.

I have no real record of accurate time played for MPQ but know that I've recieved 90 odd daily login bonuses, and played it for upwards of one to two hours a day for the first month before relegating it to my 20 minute commute to and from work.

72. Dragon Warrior (NES) - Beaten: 29/09/18 - Time Taken: ~30 hours (All Achievements [RA])

I loved the GBC remake, but as soon as I saw footage of the NES original with its ridiculous early English localisation I wanted to give it a play.

Fast forward nearly 30 hours of grinding and my character is max level, and I'm going out of my way to explore the extremeties of the NES ROM in order to collect RetroAchievements.

It's a great, streamlined RPG, and although the GBC is a much more enjoyable gameplay experience (not having to select an option from a menu to use stairs, and vastly rebalanced XP and gold drops are massively appreciated) I enjoyed my time with the NES version much more. People have suggested the SNES remake offers the best of both worlds, but I'm not going to beat the same game three times in one year, am I?

Am I?

73. Color a Dinosaur (NES) - Beaten: 05/10/18 - Time Taken: ~20mins (All Achievements [RA])

Why was this developed? Or released?

74. Plants Vs Zombies (NES) - Beaten: 06/10/18 - Time Taken: ~3 hours (All Achievements [RA])

A weird bootleg port of PvZ that originated on multi-game pirate carts in China and Famiclone plug and play consoles. This sort of deep cut is my JAM.

The port plays terribly. Plant selection has been cut down massively, as has the enemy roster. The basic gameplay loop is mostly in tact though: manage your offensive and defensive plants to prevent the enemy swarm from traversing right to left.

The achievement list on RetroAchievements looked straight forward - beat all five stages perfectly. This is MUCH easier said than done though as the RNG that drives enemy lane choice and sun production sometimes means the stage becomes unwinnable just a few moments in. Additionally, coding errors mean that the game will sometimes freeze outright, sometimes reset mid-stage, and occasionally spawn too many sprites which appears to impact collision accuracy.

An interesting curio, though not a title I could in good conscience recommend.

75. Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4) - Beaten: 07/10/18 - Time Taken: ~12 hours (Episode 1-3, plus 'Farewell' episode)

I really wanted to dislike this season, really I did.

Ashley Burch being on strike and Dontnod stating they didn't wish to revisit the characters only to have Square Enix just farm out the license to Deck Nine with another voice actor playing Chloe rubbed me up the wrong way from its first announcement.

But. BUT. There is so much this prequel season gets right. Chloe's character is fleshed out tremendously. Rihanna DeVries actually gives her a level of sincerity that I don't think Burch nailed in the game's original run. The move away from the magical realism of the original grounds the characters, and the storyline offers colour and detail to a lot of the supplementary players in Arcadia Bay very well.

Oh, and the bonus "Farewell" episode is devastating.

76. Clockwork Knight (SAT) - Beaten: 22/10/18 - Time Taken: ~3 hours (100%, no continues)

I owned both Clockwork Knight and its sequel back in the heady days of the Sega Saturn, yet never beat either title despite being pretty into platform games at the time. A childhood friend recently mentioned the series which sparked a desire to go back and see if I could actually beat them. I remember hearing that the original in particular was very short, something which no doubt would have annoyed a purchaser in the mid-90s, but was a real boon in 2018 when I am time poor!

As the difficulty didn't appear to be too bad, I decided I wanted to beat the game without continues, something made even simpler by the end of level bonus, and the gambling mini game in between each world both giving opportunities to stock up. On my first attempt through the game I was bested by the boss in world 3, but after a kip, I returned the next day and beat the whole thing pretty comfortably. Even after taking quite a few deaths in the final stage and the double boss finisher, I till ended the run with 8 lives.

Overall, a charming, if mostly unremarkable 2.5D platform game.

77. Bomber Raid (SMS) - Beaten: 22/10/18 - Time Taken: ~6 hours (Credits)

I have a very soft spot for Bomber Raid - the first traditional vertical shmup I ever played, for the very first console I ever owned. It's a game I continually revisit, not necessarily because it's good, just because I have such warm nostalgia for it.

There are five stages, 4 of which I could beat comfortably as a kid. The fifth, I'm not sure I had ever seen prior to the hours I put in this year to finally 'beat' it. I say beat, but I did cheat a bit, making my way to the final stage without taking a hit, then using a save state at the start of mission 5 to prevent death making progress impossible.

In classic shmup fashion, the late game makes very little allowances for a ship that may have lost its power ups, and as such death means almost instantly failure as the damage you are able to deal as well as you manoeuvrability are sythed away to nothing: although I had the best intentions to beat the title legit, after my 50th failed run I just wanted to see the end. Restarting after each failure from the mission start felt like a good compromise to allay the games mid-80s challenge with modern accessibility.

78. Baku Baku Animal (SAT) - Beaten: 23/10/18 - Time Taken: ~60mins (Normal Route, Credits)

I'm a big fan of block based puzzle games, but have always struggled to get 'good' at games like Puyo Puyo, Super Puzzle Fighter, and by proxy, Baku Baku Animal.

My brain seems to thrive on the split second decision making of games like Tetris and Lumines where success is about being a reactionary player: of course there is planning involved in managing your stack, but the majority of what I would call the 'game' is in responding quickly and aptly to each drop.

Games like Baku Baku instead ask you to set up large chains - something which I can manage at low speeds and against simple AI opponents, but fall apart hopelessly when the game speeds up, and you have constant garbage drops to contend with. Although I still enjoy titles like this, much of my success comes from attrition. Baku Baku Animal in particular is very generous, offering unlimited continues and even allowing you to keep your score rather than having it reset upon a fail state.

79. Zone of the Enders HD (PS3) - Beaten: 27/10/18 - Time Taken: ~6 hours (Credits)

The PSVR compatible version of ZoE2 recently dropped to a stupidly low sub-£10 price, but it felt weird jumping into the series having never played the original.

Queue a mad dash around my local area to find a copy of the game for either PS3, 360 or even PS2. PS3 won out, though from what I gather online, the first title actually looks and plays worst on my chosen platform. Without wanting to dwell too much, the framerate is ropey as all hell, with some in-engine cutscenes and battles in particular dropping to single digits. I know Bluepoint were drafted in to fix the HD version of the sequel, but the original sadly went untouched and really suffers in comparison.

The game itself though is pretty cool: a mech action / almost-RPG that forgoes the usual heft and clunk of Armored Core et al, and instead focuses on zippy anime-influenced combat. The controls are a real mixed bag to begin with, but an hour or so in and movement feels natural, with the ADHD camera work actually really heightening the excitement of each encounter, no matter how inconsequential. The gameplay loop of the game's progression is less cool, with a lot of backtracking thrown in to pad out the game's sleight length.

Looking forward to giving its sequel a play, as it seems to be revered much more highly. I'm just hoping the lock on combat doesn't turn my stomach too much in VR.

NOW PLAYING / STILL PLAYING

Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
Chaos Rings (Vita)
Pinball Arcade (PS4)
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch)

Main post 1: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2784229/
Main post 2: https://www.resetera.com/posts/5234679/

59. Splinter Cell: Double Agent / 16h20 completed 14.08.18



Double Agent has probably become my favorite Splinter Cell. It's jankier than earlier games and has plenty of annoying bugs. It's level design and soundtrack are inferior to Chaos Theory. The ending is underwhelming, all things considered. Nevertheless, what it has going for it is quite awesome and i was left wanting for more. I made a thread about it before i was completely finished (that got zero replies lol), so i'll just transcribe the OP here:

Due to the two great things that are Xbox BC and all three last gen Splinter Cell games being on it, i finally got an easy way to play them. I had played the original trilogy and loved every game in it, even Pandora Tomorrow, but for several reasons, i've never played past them.

Even after hearing that the PS3/360 version of Double Agent was the inferior one, i jumped in anyway, and well, it's still a really good game. Although the engine and gameplay are markedly inferior to what the series was at around Chaos Theory, a lot of the surrounding systems and design decisions more than make up for it. Namely, the undercover agent angle that permeates the entire plot and mission structure. For those unfamiliar with the game, our character Sam Fisher infiltrates a homegrown terrorist group. Undercover, the player must enact this group's commands, which vary from assassinating an innocent victim as initiation into the group to bombing a cruise ship. What makes it interesting though is that there are often alternate objectives given by the NSA, which sometimes conflict with the terrorist objectives, which you mostly have to achieve concurrently while hiding what you're doing from the terrorist group. There are also missions that take place at the group's headquarters, throughout which you slowly build a case against them, through deception and manipulation. It's this push and pull between two groups with which you're trying to build trust with that gives the game its edge. And there are some very interesting decisions to be made. Somewhat late game spoiler:

Spoiler

After the cruise mission, you have a choice to make, either blow the ship up and mess your standing with the NSA, or jam the signal and take the failure as a mark against you regarding the terrorist's trust towards you. But, more interestingly, there is a third way. You can frame one of the terrorists, with whom you were developing a connection with, to take the blame for you, the trade off being that her death will be on your hands.

It's a magnificent structure that only falters at times by not being more in depth. But what's there is sometimes exhilarating.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

It's a flawed game for sure, but so, so interesting.

Here's another update!

#37 Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide – Completed 7/29/18
#38 BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle – Completed 8/2/18
#39 Civilization V: Gods and Kings – Completed 8/11/18
#40 Umineko: Answers Arc – Completed 8/14/18

Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide - Finally finished a game with friends, since they moved to PC! Took us long enough. Wasn't a huge fan of this one, but they were.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - The story mode for this one was shorter than the others, and the singleplayer content is pretty lacking. Still an entertaining story, but good thing I play fighting games to, uh, play fighting games.

Civilization V: Gods and Kings - This was one of the first games I bought during a steam sale, when I first built my original gaming PC. I finally finished a game, I enjoyed it but I might wait to get Brave New World before tackling it again.

Umineko: Answer Arcs. I made a LTTP for this one. I'm still not sure if I should've separated both halves. I know that's how they released, but they really are two halves of the same story. Either way - what a fantastic story. Definitely up there with my favorites.

STATUS: 28/52

28. Batman: Arkham City [11/8/18 - 15/8/18]

~26 hours. Story done, all upgrades, all side missions completed. Just need to finish off the trial rooms and Riddler Trophies.

So I played Arkham Asylum for the first time last week, and thought it was pretty good. Solid 8/10. I figured I should jump straight into Arkham City, because I'd like to get through as many of the Batman games as possible before Spider-Man comes out. I don't want it to end up outshining them so much that they seem rough in comparison.

Let's just say that I don't think that's going to be a problem anymore. This was an incredible game. It takes the solid foundation of Asylum, and just improves upon it in every single way. The combat feels so much better, and all of the new moves added some much needed depth. I found the Riddler trophies to be more enjoyable to collect this time around, and they really encouraged exploring the city. Most importantly – the bosses are actually good! No more constant stream of Titans or boring shitshows like the Croc and Joker fights of the first game. Most of the bosses and setpieces here were pretty enjoyable, and a couple were downright awesome.

And then there's the city. Dear god the city. It never felt too big, and always felt handcrafted. I loved this open world. Rocksteady basically took my favourite thing from Asylum - the predator rooms - and incorporated that into the world itself. This game is a fucking Batman simulator. Gliding from rooftop to rooftop or divebombing into groups of thugs never got old. And all of the side missions were surprisingly good. They were integrated in a way that made exploration feel worth it, and never felt just like a checklist of things to do.

I don't have much in the way of real complaints. I guess it was annoying how multiple streams of dialogue could play over one another, but I learned how to deal with that pretty quickly. Some of the boss fights and setpieces were a little too straightforward as well, and I did have a few janky moments where Batman stuck to things. Nothing major in the grand scheme. So…yeah - as I said, I was worried that Spider-Man would end up making these games feel worse by comparison. Now I feel the opposite! I have no idea how Spidey will be able to hold a candle to Arkham City!

10/10. Easily one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time.