52 Games. 1 Year. 2017.

Well, here we are. Thanks to VisceralBowl for keeping this going on the new forum!

I finished this challenge in 2014, 2015 and 2016. It looks increasingly unlikely I'll make it this year, sadly, but just in case:

COMPLETED
1. Inside (PS4, 2016) - 1:43 (+2:04 in 2016) - COMPLETED January 1
It's Limbo, but better. But I didn't fall in love with Limbo, and I didn't fall in love with Inside either.

2. Glittermitten Grove (PC, 2016) - 2:09 (+3:56 in 2016) - COMPLETED January 3
Raise a village of fairies, collect sparkles, make sure your fairies don't [strike]starve[/strike] leave during the winters. Stay in the sunlight or die in the shade.

3. Forza Horizon 3 (PC/XB1, 2016) - 15:15 (+5:58 in 2016) - COMPLETED January 14
When it works (which is most of the time, but never on PC), it's as good as Horizon 2.

4. Verde Station (PC, 2014) - 1:20 - COMPLETED January 14
A short story of a game, about living alone on a space station. It works. Sort of.

5. Paint It Back (PC, 2015) - 55:53 - COMPLETED January 15
Where did the time go? No, seriously, where did my FIFTY HOURS go? If you're looking for a Picross-style puzzle game that will steal hours from you in the blink of an eye, this is your jam.

6. Gravity Rush 2 (PS4, 2017) - 32:58 - COMPLETED January 29
Despite its flaws, Gravity Rush 2 doubles down on the original's charm. A joyous game.

7. Fire Emblem Heroes (Android, 2017) - 20:50 - CONTINUING February 18
It's surprisingly good, but also exactly what you'd expect out of a gacha game: a slow descent into grind.

8. Yakuza 0 (PS4, 2017) - 63:10 - COMPLETED February 19
The best Yakuza game I've ever played, and an early contender for game of the year.

9. Final Fantasy XV (PS4, 2016) - 20:15 (+16:50 in 2016) - COMPLETED February 23
What the hell was that?

10. Yakuza 5 (PS3, 2015) - 69:44 - COMPLETED March 9
Where Yakuza 0 is lean, Yakuza 5 sprawls. The result is a game that tries to do too much, but succeeds at quite a lot regardless.

11. Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (PC, 2017) - 52:15 - COMPLETED March 23
It's not the worst Atelier game I've played, and there's promise here, but Firis is a pretty rough outing for the franchise in a lot of ways.

12. FAST RMX (Switch, 2017) - 2:46 - COMPLETED April 3
I've met Wipeout, and you, sir, are no Wipeout. (I would probably be less snarky about it if it wasn't for the awful AI rubberbanding.)

13. Persona 5 (PS4, 2017) - 108:57 - COMPLETED April 17 / PLATINUM May 5 (186:56)
Persona is back, and it's so good to see it again.

14. Prey (PC, 2017) - 32:49 - COMPLETED May 20
A claustrophobic, intense sci-fi thriller that reinvents the System Shock 2 template for a new generation.

15. Hidden my game by mom! (Android, 2016) - 0:43 - COMPLETED May 25
A bite-sized joke of a game, in a good way.

16. Hidden my game by mom! 2 (Android, 2017) - 0:31 - COMPLETED May 26
Takes the first game and subtly turns it on its head.

17. Nier (360, 2010) - 28:21 - COMPLETED May 30
Very much a game apart from its contemporaries, Nier tells a surprisingly affecting tale of a world in decline and one man's efforts to do what he thinks is right.post[/URL])

18. Formula Fusion (PC, 2017) - 6:48 - COMPLETED June 17
The potential for greatness is here, but Formula Fusion is too beset by bugs and issues to warrant a full recommendation just yet. Still, one of the best Wipeout clones I've played.

19. Wipeout Omega Collection (PS4, 2017) - 26:03 - COMPLETED June 24
The king is back for one last tour.

20. Hexcells (PC, 2014) - 1:51 - COMPLETED June 25
Ever wanted a more complex Minesweeper? This is the game for you.

21. Hexcells Plus (PC, 2014) - 8:50 - COMPLETED July 1
Significantly longer than the original, and significantly more frustrating as well. That's not exactly an endorsement.

22. Hexcells Infinite (PC, 2014) - 7:41 - COMPLETED July 2
One small feature makes Infinite so much better to play than Plus that I feel like you should just skip from Hexcells straight to Infinite.

23. Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC, 2016) - 22:29 - COMPLETED July 15
Takes the formula of the first game, makes subtle improvements, and expands it greatly. Not without its faults, though.

24. Knights (PC, 2016) - 5:06 - COMPLETED July 22
A place for every knight, and each knight in its place: a pleasing puzzle game that often feels like creating order from disorder.

25. Nier Automata (PS4, 2017) - 32:20 - COMPLETED August 10
Halfway through the game, it felt like Automata wouldn't have quite the same impact the original Nier did. This is still true by the end of the game, but it's not because Automata is weaker, but because it has different things to say.

26. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4, 2017) - 10:34 - COMPLETED August 28
Hopefully the beginning of a new set of adventures for Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross.

27. Gravity Rush 2: Another Story - The Ark of Time (PS4, 2017) - 2:11 - COMPLETED August 28
An interesting offshoot of the Gravity Rush series, but not particularly essential.

28. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC, 2014) - 7:54 - COMPLETED September 12
"Better than Ghosts" feels like damning it with faint praise, but Advanced Warfare doesn't do enough interesting things to merit much more.

29. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4, 2017) - 28:10 - COMPLETED September 21
It's probably the weakest modern-era Yakuza game to date, but that's not surprising given that it's a remake of a decade-old game. And even a weak Yakuza game is still pretty good.

30. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PC, 2017) - 14:54 - COMPLETED November 5
Spoiler: killing Nazis still feels great. (full post)

31. Plug & Play (PC, 2015) - 0:14 - COMPLETED November 6
Pull the button. (full post)

32. Wake (PC, 2013) - 0:34 - COMPLETED November 6
An interesting roguelike platformer, but also one that's occasionally frustrating to play for no good reason. (full post)

33. Call of Duty: WWII (PC, 2017) - 7:46 - COMPLETED November 12
A surprisingly meaningful return to the conflict that made Call of Duty. (full post)

34. Critical Mass (PC, 2011) - 1:52 - COMPLETED November 12
Somewhere between Tetris, Bejeweled and a Rubix Cube. A fun puzzle game to unravel, but avoid if you don't like timed challenges. (full post)

35. DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4, 2017) - 39:30 - COMPLETED November 28
A surprising continuation of a series built on constant surprise. (full post)

36. Cosmic DJ (PC, 2014) - 1:47 - COMPLETED December 3
Not so much a game as a simple musical toy. Set your expectations accordingly. (full post)

37. Windosill (PC, 2009) - 0:35 - COMPLETED December 3
A toybox-like puzzle game that's short in length and long on whimsy. (full post)

38. Tengami (PC, 2015) - 1:16 - COMPLETED December 10
Short but gorgeous puzzle game that looks like a pop-up storybook. (full post)

39. AVSEQ (PC, 2012) - 1:35 - COMPLETED December 10
Frustrating for all the wrong reasons, and easy for all the wrong reasons as well. (full post)

40. Shelter (PC, 2013) - 1:06 - COMPLETED December 11
Forms an emotional connection in a shockingly short period of time. (full post)

41. Chains (PC, 2008) - 2:29 - COMPLETED December 15
The breadth of puzzles on display here is amazing for a game so small and so cheap. (full post)

42. A Bird Story (PC, 2014) - 1:27 - COMPLETED December 16
A bit simple, and not quite up to the standard of To the Moon. (full post)

43. The Expendabros (PC, 2014) - 1:05 - COMPLETED December 17
If this is a small taste of the full Broforce, bring it on. (full post)

44. Luxuria Superbia (PC, 2013) - 1:40 - COMPLETED December 18
A very abstract--and somewhat whimsical--game about pleasure. You know, PLEASURE. (full post)

45. Auditorium (PC, 2012) - 4:44 - COMPLETED December 24
Bend light to your will to create music. A neat idea, but gets a little hard to manage by the end. (full post)

46. Back to Bed (PC, 2014) - 1:10 - COMPLETED December 24
A surrealist puzzle game. Short, but about as long as it needed to be. (full post)

47. Pulse (PC, 2015) - 1:42 - COMPLETED December 24
A game about echolocation that doesn't actually require echolocation. (full post)

48. Hidden Folks (PC, 2017) - 5:17 - COMPLETED December 26
A lovingly crafted ode to Where's Waldo that must've been almost as fun to make as it is to play. (full post)

49. Data Jammers: FastForward (PC, 2011) - 0:47 - COMPLETED December 27
A fun arcade experience that's over before you know it. (full post)

50. Flotilla (PC, 2010) - 1:10 - COMPLETED December 28
A twist on the underappreciated Homeworld formula. Over too soon, but leaves a fantastic impression. (full post)

51. I Expect You to Die (PC VR, 2017) - 2:39 - COMPLETED December 29
The first VR game I've ever finished. A fun puzzler with a goofy sense of humour. (full post)

52. What Remains of Edith Finch (PC, 2017) - 2:10 - COMPLETED December 29
It's everything people say it is. Play it. (full post)

CURRENTLY PLAYING
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone (PS4, 2017) - 1:23
Gran Turismo Sport (PS4, 2017) - 4:37
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch, 2017) - 12:12

ON HOLD
Wipeout XL (PS1, 1996) - 2:51
Undertale (PC, 2015) - 1:19
Pocket Card Jockey (3DS, 2016) - 5:18
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4, 2017) - 1:10
Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4, 2017) - 5:38, also FUCK PUYO PUYO TETRIS
Stephen's Sausage Roll (PC, 2016) - 3:24
Persona 3 Portable (PSP, 2010) - 8:10
Mass Effect Andromeda (PC, 2017) - 15:31
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS, 2017) - 5:39
Subnautica (PC, 2014 Early Access) - 7:39
Motorsport Manager (PC, 2016) - 5:48
Ever Oasis (3DS, 2017) - 2:32
Splatoon 2 (Switch, 2017) - 6:44
Everybody's Golf (PS4, 2017) - 1:54
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch, 2017) - 1:38
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (PC, 2017) - 0:19

Great to see this going again!

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This is my main post!

#1 スライムもりもりドラゴンクエスト３大海賊としっぽ団 - Completed 01/08/17

3rd entry in the Slime Mori Mori series, and the sequel to the DS title Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. I picked this up in Dec. 2015 and played through about half of it, decided now would be a good time to finish her off. It's a great game, and in my opinion the best in the series. Shame that the series is probably dead at this point... I'd love a 4th on the Switch, but without a 2nd screen it just wouldn't be the same.

#2 NieR - Completed 1/12/17
#3 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Completed 1/17/17

I probably would've completed NieR last year, but my copy of the game ended up having issues so I had to order a new one. Kinda salty that GameStop had sold me a broken game, but it worked out in the end... probably going to go back and plat the game before Automata hits, I really enjoyed it.

Donkey Kong was good, but I definitely think it has some issues with "Trial and Error" platforming, which is especially annoying for a game with a lives system, even if it's pretty trivial. The soundtrack was ace, however... that goes for both NieR and DK, great soundtracks.

#4 The Talos Principle - Completed 1/22/17

I picked this up during the last steam sale, and after NieR and Donkey Kong I really wanted a more relaxed puzzle game. I really liked it, though I'd definitely say that the game really does start to drag near the end. Still got my money's worth!

#5 Muramasa: Rebirth - Completed 1/29/17
#6 Gravity Rush 2 - Completed 2/5/17

Muramasa: Rebirth dragged on just a little bit in the second story I played, and I decided not to opt for collecting all the demon blades quite yet. It was a great game, with a beautiful aesthetic, but nearing the end I felt the need to move on to my next game.

Gravity Rush 2 was better than the first one, but it did have some problems. The various rift planes in Gravity Rush 2 just weren't as interesting as the ones in the first game I felt, and the story goes completely off the rails near the end, introducing a bunch of characters for the sake of a big epic conclusion. That being said, again, I loved it and it was definitely one of the more interesting gaming experiences I've had, for a variety of reasons.

#7 Nioh - Completed 2/22/17
#8 NieR: Automata - Completed 3/2/17
#9 Super Bomberman R - Completed 3/10/17
#10 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Completed 3/11/17
#11 Ori & the Blind Forest - Completed 3/28/17
#12 Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight - Completed 3/28/17
#13 Catherine - Completed 3/30/17

Nioh - Fantastic game, plenty of content, great combat and (mostly) great level design, but suffers from both re-used areas and enemies. I still really enjoyed it, and it was a pleasure to platinum trophy it.

NieR: Automata - It's already been said many times over, but this game is a work of art. I knew I was going to love it after I pushed myself through NieR earlier (I even imported Automata to play it a few weeks early, as shown by my completion date!), but yeah. Not much to say that hasn't been said. Great combat, FANTASTIC soundtrack, fantastic story (Ending E!), etc.

Super Bomberman R - It's Bomberman. Props to Konami for, as of the time of this post, continuing to support the game with updates and upcoming free DLC. It makes the pricetag easier to justify.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - much like NieR: Automata, not much to say. If you want to hear my thoughts you can read my review.

Ori & the Blind Forest - A little shorter than I expected, but at least the quality was kept up throughout the entire game. Literally the best looking game I've ever played, the artstyle is something else - it feels like I'm playing a painting. Great gameplay too, bash is fun.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight - I didn't have any expectations going in, I literally only bought it for my Xbox since I had $10 left over after buying Subnautica for my friend whom I gameshare with. I had remembered seeing the trailer and it looked nice, so for the price I took a gamble. Nice, clean spritework and animation a great soundtrack, and some great gameplay makes it a really nice Castlevania styled game. It's a testament to how much I liked it that I was able to devour it so quickly even after a Metroidvania romp with Ori.

Catherine - My ex-gf being named Katherine (and even looking like this game's Katherine, to an extent) made this an interesting experience. I LOVE the puzzle gameplay, the artstyle, and the soundtrack. The Cathedral can go choke on it though - AI companions just doesn't work with this game. That's really the only blemish I can find in what I otherwise consider to be one of the crowning jewels in Atlus' library. This was a steal for the $3 I paid for it on Xbox! Kinda glad I also have a physical copy for PS3, since I ended up liking it so much.

#14 Brandish: The Dark Revenant - Completed 4/4/17
#15 Persona 5 - Completed 4/13/17
#16 Kamiko - Completed 4/14/17
#17 Puyo Puyo Tetris - Completed 4/23/17
#18 The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky – the 3rd - Completed 5/6/17

Brandish - I've been sleeping on this one a while, I bought it on launch. Great game! It's pretty different as far as dungeon crawlers go, I'd definitely recommend it to get someone new to the genre acquainted.

Persona 5 - Loved it, I might have to go back to plat trophy it but man would that be a time sink!

Kamiko - This is the definition of short and sweet. I liked it, fun game, worth $5 Carrying keys is kinda annoying.

Puyo Puyo Tetris - Awesome, great, I love it. I was never really into either Puyo Puyo OR Tetris, but I've been having a fantastic time with this. Even after getting my review out I keep coming back to it. It's really at home on the Switch too.

Trails in the Sky - the 3rd - Fantastic send-off for Estelle and co. It feels like Falcom knew that anyone that had invested enough time into the franchise to get this far would have a bond to these characters so they went all the way with their backstories and some really sentimental scenes that truly felt earned. I know folks seem to like SC better for the most part, but this game is easily my favorite of the bunch.

#19 Eiyuu Densetsu: Zero no Kiseki - Completed 6/4/17
#20 ARMS - Completed 6/18/17

Zero no Kiseki - I'm really glad I played this, and I can't wait to get to Ao no Kiseki. I loved this game quite a bit, and it really is a crime this hasn't been officially translated yet. It, and I assume Ao no Kiseki, really deserve to be enjoyed by more people.

ARMS - It took me a while to warm up to it, but I think I might be addicted to this game now. It's simple enough to pick up and play, but also has enough depth that I feel like no two matches are truly the same. Really happy I picked it up!

#21 Implosion: Never Lose Hope – Completed 7/10/17
#22 Abzu – Completed 7/30/17
#23 Jet Set Radio – Completed 8/6/17
#24 Splatoon 2 – Completed 8/15/17

Implosion – I was feeling the itch for a new Switch game! But seriously, I wanted to play something on it before Splatoon hit, and I ended up buying a few indies, this being one. It's pretty good! Not the best game on the Switch by any means, but definitely worth what I paid. A nice little isometric action game, not unlike what you'd see from Platinum Games. Solid play.

Abzu – It was pretty and besides that I don't have too much to say here. It was probably worth playing for the eye candy, at least.

Jet Set Radio – I pretty much tore through this in a few days. I was feeling something 3D platform-y that would still be somewhat short that I could breeze through in a few afternoons. I never played it growing up, but it definitely aged better than I was expecting it to! Solid Tony Hawk-lite mechanics with an awesome soundtrack and a charming setting/artstyle.

Splatoon 2 – I owned Splatoon, but I never really played it much – and I outright never touched the single player. I decided to check it out this time around since the game was sticking with me a lot more this time around, and I've been picking at the single player every now and then popping the Switch out of the dock at my desk and plopping on my couch to play a few levels. I'm glad I did, because the campaign was surprisingly great.

#25 Sonic Mania - Completed 8/19/17
#26 Ys Seven - Completed 8/20/17
#27 Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana – Completed 8/27/17

Sonic Mania - Not much to say here that hasn't already been said. It's a classic 2D Sonic game, and it's fantastic! Glad it turned out well.

Ys Seven - I played through this for review, so if you want some impressions you can find them here. It's a good port, and the game itself holds up well.

Ys VIII - I also played this for review, but I'll just say it was my GOTY last year on Vita and the PS4 version is even better. Shame about the translation though, NISA didn't do a great job on it.

#28 Destiny 2 – Completed 9/8/17
#29 Cuphead – Completed 10/5/17
#30 Chaos;Child – Completed 10/13/17
#31 Titan Souls – Completed 10/13/17

Been a while since the last update! There was a big gap between 28/29, but I've been speeding up lately.

Destiny 2 - I enjoyed what I played before and since, the raid was especially nice. Looking forward to the DLC.

Cuphead - Loved it. It was a nice challenge, and the gameplay was simple and fun. Fantastic artstyle, too.

Chaos;Child - Best VN I've ever read. I'll be coming back to it in the future, for sure. Really dark and disturbing at times.

Titan Souls - Downloaded and played it randomly while at a buds house, on his spare PS4. It was a brisk 2 hour playthrough, and I greatly enjoyed the boss fights.

#32 Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue – Completed 10/20/17
#33 Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection – Completed 10/30/17
#34 Super Mario Odyssey – Completed 11/2/17

Shin Megami Tensei: Synchonicity Prologue - This was a great little distraction, not too long but not too short. I would've actually paid for this, which is always a nice surprise with free games like this.

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection - I have a review up for this, so I'll just say that I found it charming as all hell and I really enjoyed it, even if the gameplay itself wasn't all that deep.

Super Mario Odyssey - The best thing Odyssey does is surprise you, and the latter half of the game is just full of surprises. I LOVED the final segment.

#35 NiGHTS: Into Dreams – Completed 11/3/17
#36 Monster Hunter: Double Cross (Switch) – Completed 9/4/17 (guess)
#37 Fire Emblem Warriors – Completed 11/7/17
#38 Photon Cube – Completed 11/10/7
#39 Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure – Completed 11/11/17
#40 Furi – Completed 11/11/17
#41 DOOM (2016) – Completed 11/15/17
#42 Tomb Raider (2013) – Completed 11/15/17

NiGHTS: Into Dreams - I played through this in one sitting, and I have to say that it was an - interesting? Yeah, I'll say interesting - experience. Fun, shame that the final stage for both characters is the same thing.
Monster Hunter: Double Cross - I reviewed this, so check out the review on RPG Site if you want my in depth thoughts. It's Monster Hunter! Just, not that big of an upgrade to Generations besides being on Switch.

Fire Emblem Warriors - Also reviewed this, but this time on TechRaptor! I liked it, though the campaign was weaker than Hyrule Warriors and the roster, while being larger from the get-go, is nowhere near as good as well.

Photon Cube - I can't say that it's an amazing puzzle game, but I had a good time with it. JP only, and I got it off the Switch eShop a few months back. Around the same time I picked up Implosion, actually.

Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure - I've already played a bunch of other Falcom games this year, and this was kinda sitting in my Steam library just half finished. Probably my least favorite Falcom title so far, but it's still worth a playthrough.

Furi - I had played up until the 3rd boss back when it hit PS+, and I decided to start playing it again after finishing up Gurumin. Probably post-humorously in my top 5 games of last year.

DOOM (2016) - I picked this up a few months back on PC, played the first level, and... kinda let it sit there. I think I've noticed a pattern, here! Great game, but it becomes more linear the further you go, and the latter half of the game is approximately 60% arena fights. Thank god the combat is fun enough to make up for the lack of variety there.

Tomb Raider (2013) - When I first built my gaming computer a few years back, this came with my graphics card. I used it as a benchmark for my rig at the time (it was a good benchmark, at the time), but coming back to finish it 4 years later it doesn't really hold up. It's like drinking flat diet pepsi, except it's not drinking soda but playing an Uncharted clone. Felt like a AAA videogame, which tired me out a bit.

#43 Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – Completed 11/17/17
#44 Rodea: The Sky Soldier – Completed 11/18/17
#45 Pikmin 3 – Completed 11/20/17
#46 Touhou 16: Hidden Star in Four Seasons – Completed 11/20/17
#47 Hue – Completed 11/21/17
#48 Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg – Completed 11/25/17
#49 Senran Kagura: Shinobi Refle – Completed 11/25/17
#50 Horizon: Zero Dawn – Completed 11/30/17
#51 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Completed 12/13/17
#52 Tokyo Xanadu eX+ – Completed 12/31/17

Captain Toad - I originally skipped this when it came out. I thought it was probably a bit too expensive, and now that the Wii U is dead and buried I decided to take a look. It was fun! But I'm definitely glad I waited to play it. If I had bought it full price I'd have been pretty pissed.

Rodea: The Sky Soldier - This was a surprisingly fun romp from the creator of Sonic and NiGHTS. It has quite a few problems (especially at the final boss), but I'm glad I played it. I feel like if you're going to play this, I'd recommend emulating it with a mouse.

Pikmin 3 - I got this with Mario Kart 8 back when there was that promo. I played about halfway through, put it down, and I only really got back to it recently. I think it's either my favorite or least favorite Pikmin, and I'm still not quite sure where I'd put it. It's going to be hard to go back to not always having a map with Pikmin 4!

Touhou 16: Hidden Star in Four Seasons - I've seen Touhou everywhere for years, but I haven't really given it a proper chance. The steam release was a good excuse to finally tackle it, and using my arcade stick was definitely the way to go! I'll be playing more of the series for sure.

Hue - Another game that I played through at a friend's place. This one took 2 sessions, but it was still a pretty quick play. It was fun, but I'm glad I ignored the story. The puzzles were really neat!

Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg - Already not a great game, and the PC version is even harder to recommend. Nonetheless, I went out of my way to beat the PC release since I had it and it was a bit of a novelty.

Senran Kagura: Shinobi Refle - No comment.

Horizon: Zero Dawn - My friend had been bugging me to play this for months and I have to say that with my (somewhat tempered) expectations going in, I had a great time! It'll be interesting to see what the inevitable sequel does. I wonder if it'll be a PS5 title, or PS4, though.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - I've got a review coming for this one, but my basic thoughts are that it's a great game that could've been fantastic with a few changes. It's a *very* flawed game, but man if I don't love it despite that.

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ - This is the definition of an ok game. The combat is fine, not amazing, but fun. The music is good. The graphics are obviously held back by the game's Vita roots. The story borrows a LOT from other Falcom titles. Hell, the game itself is basically an amalgamation of various Falcom tropes, particularly the Trails/Kiseki series. I definitely prefer the normal ending to the True Ending, but it'll be interesting to see where the series goes from the After Story. I imagine the next game will be much better.

Good to see this thread here! :)

2017
January
1. Donkey Kong Country 2 (01-01)
2. Halo 2 (01-02)
3. Halo 3 01-03)
4. Halo 4 (01-04)
5. Halo 3: ODST (01-05)
6. Halo 5: Guardians (01-07)

February
7. Donkey Kong Country (02-26)
8. Dark Souls 3 (02-27)

March
9. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (03-14)
10. NieR: Automata (03-23)
11. Ratchet & Clank (03-28)

April
12. Quantum Break (04-07)

May
13. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (05-04)
14. Titanfall 2 (05-06)
15. Red Dead Revolver (05-25)
16. Snake Pass (05-25)
17. Killzone Mercenary (05-26)

June
18. Thumper (06-02)
19. Resident Evil 4 (06-06)
20. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (06-06)
21. Resident Evil 4: Assignment Ada (06-06)
22. The Evil Within (06-17)
23. The Evil Within: The Assignment (06-18)
24. The Evil Within: The Consequence (06-18)
25. The Evil Within: The Executioner (06-18)
26. Dead Space (06-20)

July
27. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (07-02)
28. Dead Space 2 (07-04)
29. Crash Bandicoot (07-06)
30. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (07-07)
31. Until Dawn (07-09)
32. Crash Bandicoot: Warped (07-12)

August
33. No More Heroes (08-16)
34. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (08-17)
35. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Blade Wolf (08-18)
36. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Jetstream (08-18)
37. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (08-27)

October
38. Star Fox (10-18)

November
39. Super Mario Odyssey (11-23)

I am woefully behind this year but alas there are still 2 more months left to see if i can break the 30 completed games threshold.

2015 was my first year with the challenge and I completed 52 games over 1,893 hours of playtime.
2016 I was close but only completed 50 games over the course of 1,099 hours.

My 2017 contribution:

1. Dead Rising 4 - Xbox One (11 hours) - 1/7/2017
2. Titanfall 2 - Xbox One (50 hours) - 1/12/2017
3. Batman: The Telltale Series - Xbox One (8 hours) - 1/15/2017
4. The Witness - Xbox One (32 hours) - 1/17/2017
5. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - Xbox One (10 hours) - 1/29/2017
6. Civilization VI - PC (35 hours) - 2/5/2017
7. For Honor - Xbox One (10 hours) - 2/19/2017
8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (100 hours) - Switch - 3/27/2017
9. MLB The Show (22 hours) - 4/11/2017
10. Shovel Knight (10 hours) - Switch - 4/15/2017
11. Cities: Skylines (16 hours) - Xbox One - 5/52017
12. What Remains of Edith Finch (3 hours) - PS4 - 5/62017
13. Horizon Zero Dawn (46 hours) - PS4 - 5/29/2017
14. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (8 hours) - Xbox One - 6/4/2017
15. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (15 hours) - Switch - 6/11/2017
16. Dirt 4 (52 hours) - PS4 - 6/24/2017
17. Pyre (14 hours) - PS4 - 7/31/2017
18. Tacoma (3 hours) - Xbox One - 8/6/2017
19. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (8 hours) - PS4 - 8/11/2017
20. Matterfall (7 hours) - PS4 - 8/18/2017
21. Splatoon 2 (15 hours) - Switch - 8/20/2017
22. Madden 18 (33 hours) - PS4 - 9/01/2017
23. Nex Machina (8 hours) - PS4 - 10/07/2017
24. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (10 hours) - PS4 - 10/16/2017
25. Everybody's Golf (13 hours) - PS4 - 10/21/2017
26. Assassin's Creed: Origins (34 hours) - PS4 - 11/27/2017
27. Star Wars Battlefront II (8 hours) - PS4 - 12/3/2017

Thank you so much for bringing this over!! So pumped that I don't have to go all the way to page 7 to find my post now, front page baby!

I made it last year and I'm in for this year as well. I've certainly got the backlog ready to support this kind of a challenge!

1) Catherine - 10 hours - 1/12
Grabbed this for $3 when it was on sale because I remember watching my friend play through it years ago. It was pretty good and I enjoyed the story, but some of the puzzle sections were a little tedious.

2) Gravity Rush Remastered - 10 hours - 1/16
Wow, I was looking forward to playing this game but I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. The characters (especially Kat) were great, the world was a lot of fun, and the gameplay / missions were fantastic! I am so excited to play through the second one now!

3) Monument Valley - 3 hours - 1/21
This had been sitting unfinished on my tablet for many months because I typically don't play mobile games. I had some free time today on a trip and decided to blast through it and it was pretty fun. There are some mind bending puzzles and it's absolutely gorgeous, but the initial experience left a little bit to be desired. However, I then moved on to the bonus sections of the Forgotten Shores and Ida's Dream and they were utterly fantastic. The puzzles were much more fun and interesting and I had a blast with them.

4) Need for Speed (2015) - 17 hours - 1/27
I started playing this game from EA Access a few months ago but I recently felt like diving into another driving game so I jumped back in. At first I wasn't having much fun because the steering and general control felt heavy and unresponsive in the starting car. Once I built up some money though, I was able to upgrade it and then just buy a GTR that I upgraded and used for the duration of the game. I ended up having my blast during my time with the game this week and I even liked the story and live action cut scenes because, while they were goofy and over the top, the characters were generally likable and it added some depth besides the normal, 'go here and do this race or drift'. The different types of events were fun and I enjoyed changing my car's setup for each. I've got to give a special shout out to the drifting in this game which feels sublime when you pull it off well.

5) The Last of Us: Left Behind - 3 hours - 1/29
I beat The Last of Us last year but decided to not go through this DLC right away so that I had some new content for later. It was just as good as I was hoping and while I knew A great piece of DLC that makes me even more excited for the second game to come out.

6) The Division - 31 hours - 2/5
I got this game with several of my friends shortly after launch last year and while I really enjoyed it, we ended up dropping it as a group. I've come back to it a few times since, especially after some of the major updates. I had always planned to come finish it at some point and this was the perfect time because I was able to grind up a bunch of levels on my own with many of the side missions that we had left undone before joining with one of my friends and my roommate to blast through the rest of the story. The plot itself is whatever but the world and atmosphere are top notch. It's one of the prettiest games I've played and it never got old to come out of a building and find yourself in a blinding blizzard. There were some frustrations along the way, mainly because there are so many systems at play with this game and I couldn't be bothered to really learn the intricacies of it all, but I had a great time and will be going back to finish up some of the last missions.

7) Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - 10 hours - 2/7
I may dislike the multiplayer of IW quite a bit, but the campaign was pretty awesome and they really shook up the traditional formula for the better. The game does a great job of making you feel like the captain of a spaceship because you walk to and from your jackal fighter, interact with the crew, and use a star map to choose your next mission (including side missions which were a pleasant addition). There were some really good characters that I was fond of through the campaign which made the final chapter resonate much more than the typical CoD experience. Overall I loved the new structure of the single player experience and I hope Sledgehammer builds on it for their next entry.

8) Fire Emblem Heroes - 10 hours - 2/10
Just beat the main story of Heroes which I've been playing since it came out last week. It's a fun game and I'll give it the fact that it got me into Fire Emblem which means I'll be playing the copy of Awakening that came with my 3DS that I had never touched before. The story is really thin and things get grindy really quick trying to get orbs to get some new characters. I like the squad I built but the fact that orbs are so hard to come by means that players not willing to spend any money will have to wait quite a while in between summons which kind of sucks because if you don't have new characters you like and are incentivized to level up, there's not much to keep you coming back for the time being.

9) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - 8 hours - 2/19
This game was even better than I remembered it being on 360 which is impressive considering it's one of my favorite campaigns of all time. Raven has done an amazing job remastering this game and it looks and plays excellent. Sometimes I'm disappointed when I revisit old games because they either haven't aged well or it doesn't hold up to modern gameplay, but CoD4 once again surpassed all expectations.

10) Far Cry Primal - 15 hours - 2/26
I love the Far Cry games but I was a little hesitant about this one since it took my favorite aspect (all the satisfying guns) and replaced it with bows, spears, and clubs. It took a little while for it to all click for me, but once I started running around like a madman with my two-handed club, knocking rival tribes out with one swing while my sabertooth tiger mauled people, I realized how much fun it was. From riding mammoths to hunting some of the bigger game, Far Cry Primal ended up being a ton of fun.

11) Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - 5 hours - 2/28
I was really in the mood for a FPS after I finished Primal so I decided to play Old Blood which has been in my backlog since I got it and New Order last year. I had forgotten just how good the gunplay in these games are but it is so satisfying to blow through hordes of Nazis and zombies. Some of the stealth sections are a little rigid and end up breaking down into gunfights when someone sees you from 30 feet away but that was fine for the most part. The story definitely wasn't as good as NO, but it was fun nonetheless.

12) Frog Fractions - 1 hour - 3/10
I saw the documentary about this game on NoClip so before I watched I went ahead and played through it. Definitely don't want to spoil anything but I think it's safe to say this game is bonkers and made me laugh out loud several times. Well worth checking out and go in as blind as possible.

13) Deadpool - 7 hours - 3/17
I've been playing a ton of Horizon Zero Dawn, but I needed something kind of mindless to play while I watched the NCAA tournament games so I decided to finish playing Deadpool. The combat was nothing special and got repetitive towards the end but the writing was good and I laughed out loud at quite a few of the bits. There were also some very fun diversions, like 2D side scrolling sections, and these were always a welcome change of pace.

14) Horizon Zero Dawn - 55 hours - 4/6
I've been almost exclusively playing this for the past month and I can say without a doubt that it's my favorite game ever. The world is the best I've ever seen in a game, alive and rich with detail. The enemies are unique, challenging, and generally awe inspiring. Aloy is easily my favorite hero in ages, the gameplay and game systems are so polished and rewarding, and the story is a fantastic sci-fi tale. Everything about this game spoke to me and I tried to make it last as long as I possibly could by doing absolutely everything so that by the time I had finished the final mission and watched the credits roll, I had gotten the platinum. I've been thinking about this game so much in the past few weeks, much more than when I usually play games, and I just know this is going to leave me feeling empty for a while since it's finished now. I'm so excited that Guerrilla is working on DLC for this and hopefully it will be just the beginning of a fantastic franchise.

15) Ryse: Son of Rome - 5 hours - 4/8
After beating Horizon, I wanted to play something much smaller in scope before I jumped into another huge, open world game and since we got Ryse for free with Gold this month, I thought it would be perfect. I really enjoyed the story and some of the supernatural intrigue, Although this was a launch title for the Xbox One, it is still absolutely stunning, only matched by a select few games on consoles. The combat was a ton of fun and although it wasn't exactly deep, I never got tired of it and it was more complex than the QTE's that I thought it was primarily made up of before I started playing. Some of the locals you visit were absolutely gorgeous and overall it was a great experience.

16) Snipperclips - 4 hours - 4/15
I bought this when my friend came to visit for the week and we had an absolute blast with it. There's quite a few different puzzle variants and some of them require some thought to plan out an execute. It's not very long but it's well worth the price.

17) The Unfinished Swan - 2 hours - 4/18
I'm not really sure how I feel about this game. It's definitely beautiful to look at and it really does feel like moving through a storybook, however, some of the gameplay was a little flat and the story didn't really grab me.

18) Batman: The Telltale Series - 9 hours - 4/20
I really enjoyed this series, especially since it had a lot of twists on some of the traditional Batman characters.
19) Forza Horizon 3: Blizzard Mountain - 8 hours - 4/28
This expansion was an absolute blast and it was so much fun to jump back into Horizon 3. Can't wait for the Hot Wheels expansion.

20) Abzu - 2 hours - 5/3
This was a stunningly beautiful game to explore and I'm very glad I played through it, although I wish the story had been a little less nebulous.

21) Halo 3: ODST - 6 hours - 5/13
I've been slowly replaying through the entire Halo franchise through the Master Chief Collection over the past few years and I finally made it up to ODST. This is probably the entry I've spent the least time with since I've only played it through when it first came out, but I enjoyed the change of pace by playing as the ODST squad and didn't even mind not feeling like a super solider all the time. Also, the structure of the story where you walk around New Mombasa finding clues about what happened to your squad before flashing back to see what they did after getting separated was a lot of fun. The only issue I had was that it kind of just ended without a lot of fanfare and it felt abrupt.

22) Gears of War 2 - 10 hours - 5/21
After playing through ODST, I felt like jumping into another 360 shooter and playing Gears 2. I enjoyed it a lot more than the original and they did a great job mixing up some of the locales and not letting you get bored. At some point I'll play through 3 and Judgement as well before getting 4.

23) Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - 6 hours - 6/4
I bought Injustice 2 because of the rave reviews and how much story content is supposed to be in it so I decided I needed to play through the original first. The story was pretty good although the cutscenes left a lot to be desired which isn't surprising considering this game was developed for last gen consoles. The actual battle system was really well done although I didn't even scratch the surface over the course of my short playthrough. Very excited to play the second now.

24) Alien: Isolation - 22 hours - 6/6
This game was such a long and intense experience, especially the last hour and a half which were non-stop and pulse pounding. As good as this game was, and as much as it absolutely nails the aesthetic and dread of the original movie, there were parts of it that were maddeningly frustrating, almost without reason. There was one part where you have to avoid a bunch of androids that I had to start over 10 times, and each time meant several minutes of just getting back to where I was because the save point was so far away. I get that making the save points physical locations that you have to reach builds the tension, and really makes you nervous when it's been a while since you've gotten one, however, making you re-watch entire scripted sequences over and over because there was no save point after them was a drag. Overall this is a really good game that is worth playing through despite its faults.

25) Overwatch - 75 hours - 6/25
The reason my progress in other games has slowed to a crawl is pretty much due to Overwatch. I bought it during the anniversary event and I've been completely hooked on it. I'm almost level 60 and have a good deal of experience across quickplay, competitive, and arcade. I love how it's a completely different game based on which hero you pick and my favorites are Tracer, Sombra, Mercy, D.va, and Ana. I'll continue to play this for quite a while but I figured I'd go ahead and mark it as complete since I've done so much in it.

26) Guacamelee - 6 hours - 7/5
I was in the mood for a Metroidvania style game over the past couple of days so I started Guacamelee which I've had forever. It was an absolute blast and I loved the combat, style, music, and story of the game. It was such a pleasure to play through and I'm glad I finally got around to it.

27) Crash Bandicoot - 7 hours - 7/10
I never even played the Crash games back on PS1 but I was really excited about the N. Sane Trilogy and playing through the game for the first time this way was a treat. There was definitely some jank with the platforming and hitboxes in some parts, but overall it was a very challenging and fun experience. I'm excited to jump into the sequels because it sounds like they have some more variety and a smoother difficulty curve because there were some levels on this one that I got multiple game over screens for due to reasons that felt frustrating. Still overall a very fun game.

28) Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - 12 hours - 7/12
Playing Crash Bandicoot got me itching to go back and finish my playthrough of Jak and Daxter from the HD collection on PS3. I was like 80% through the game which I started several years ago but I never finished it until now. Glad I did and now I can move on to Jak II and Jak 3 which I did play back on the PS2 and I'm excited to revisit.

29) Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels - 8 hours - 7/22
This has to be one of the most fun racing experiences I've ever had. It's an absolute joy to go tearing around the Hot Wheels tracks with all the crazy loops and psychics defying stunts.

30) Spec Ops: The Line - 7 hours - 7/24
I've been wanting to play this for a while based on the positive reception it gets around here so when it went on sale a few weeks ago I picked it up. It was definitely an interesting take on the military shooter and I appreciated how it confronted the player with the consequences of your actions.

31) Doom - 8 hours - 8/15
What an adrenaline rush this game was. Start to finish it was fast paced, brutal, and an absolute blast to play. There were some sections that were frustration, but the core gameplay was rock solid and there were times that I was laughing because of how much fun it was to jump around with a shotgun killing demons.

32) Sunset Overdrive Season pass - 4 hours - 8/20
I played Sunset Overdrive last year and it was one of my favorite games of the generation so I've been looking forward to getting the season pass to give me a reason to jump back in. It was on sale this week so I grabbed it and blasted my way through and it was a ton of fun. The movement system and style of the game is fantastic and I was laughing so hard at some of the DLC.

33) Arms - 10 hours - 9/1
I'm going to go ahead and count this game as beaten since I've finished the Grand Prix with all characters including Max Brass and have played various other modes. It's definitely a fun game, but it feels very bare bones with no story mode and nothing to do besides straight up fights and some mini games.

34) Destiny 2 - 14 hours - 9/19
Although I've completed the story, I'm far from finished with this game. I've certainly got to give it to Bungie, they vastly improved the storytelling, world building, and activities in the sequel. Playing it so far has been a ton of fun and I'm beginning the process now of raising my power level so I can complete some of the more high level end game content.

35) Uncharted - The Lost Legacy - 7 hours - 10/2
This picked right up where Uncharted 4 left off quality wise for me. I absolutely loved my playthrough and the ending set piece was one of the best of the series. Also loved getting more Chloe since I really hated her absence in 4.

36) Mirror's Edge - 4 hours - 10/8
Every year I replay this game since it's one of my favorites of all time and pretty short. Even though it has some issues, it's always a fantastic experience.

37) Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - 6 hours - 10/8
I had heard good things about this DLC shortly after the game came out, but I never got around to playing it until very recently when it went on sale. I had a decent time with it, but it was definitely hard returning to III, not just because it was my least favorite of the AC series, but because there have been so many positive gameplay changes since it came out and it definitely was showing some age.

38) Data Wing - 2 hours - 10/10
This is a fun little mobile game about piloting a piece of data through a phone. It had an excellent story and the gameplay was fantastic.

39) Assassin's Creed Syndicate Season Pass -
6 hours - 10/16
I was waiting to play this until I finished the AC III dlc and have been really looking forward to the Jack the Ripper story especially. Overall the season pass was a lot of fun even though the missions definitely lacked some of the polish of the main game. I was surprised that I enjoyed The Last Majaraja missions even more than the Ripper ones. These have definitely gotten me excited for Origins.

40) Halo Reach - 7 hours - 10/29
I've been doing a slow replay of all the Halo games over the past couple of years and Reach is one that I've only completed at release. The story was pretty decent but I definitely missed the chief and Cortana.

41) Halo 4 - 7 hours - 11/1
Next on my Halo playthrough list was 4. This was actually a brilliant campaign to play through again and I loved the gameplay changes they made like sprinting and some of the new weapons and powers.

42) Animal Crossing Pocket Camp - 30 hours - 12/1
Played the shit out of this for the first two weeks after it released but now I've found the gameplay loop wearing very thin. You basically fish the same two spots, hunt bugs in one, and pick fruit in 3 and then walk around giving stuff to residents. It was fun at first, but now I want a deeper Animal Crossing game.

Glad to see this thread carried over! It's too bad that my previous formatting for posts will be broken now.

Only brought over the game titles and ratings because with thoughts/impressions my post was too big. I'll work something out when next year's challenge starts so I can have a more comprehensive post.

Asterisks after a game title indicates a replay.

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Game 1 - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS) - 5/5 - 15 hours, 33 minutes
Game 2 - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS4) - 3/5 - ~20 hours
Game 3 - Lara Croft GO (PS4) - 3.5/5 - 6 hours
Game 4 - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4) - 2.5/5 - 8 hours
Game 5 - Yakuza 0 (PS4) - 4.5/5 - ~120 hours
Game 6 - Gone Home (PS4) - 4.5/5 - 3 hours, 37 minutes *
Game 7 - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (DS) - 4.5/5 - 15 hours, 29 minutes*
Game 8 - Persona 5 (PS4) - 2.5/5 - 79 hours, 14 minutes
Game 9 - ABZÛ (PS4) - 3/5 - 3 hours, 2 minutes
Game 10 - Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (PS4) - 3/5 - 40 hours, 32 minutes
Game 11 - Dead Rising 3 (PC) - 3/5 - 16 hours, 54 minutes
Game 12 - Silent Hill (PS1) - 4.5/5 - 2 hours, 36 minutes *
Game 13 - Silent Hill 2 (PS2) - 5/5 - 1 hour, 56 minutes *
Game 14 - Silent Hill 3 (PS2) - 4/5 - 1 hour, 21 minutes *
Game 15 - Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2) - 3.5/5 - 5 hours, 10 minutes *
Game 16 - The Shivah (PC) - 4/5 - 1 hour, 30 minutes~ *
Game 17 - Silent Hill: Origins (PSP) - 2/5 - 1 hour, 40 minutes *
Game 18 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PC) - 1.5/5 - 6 hours, 18 minutes
Game 19 - The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (PS4) - 3/5 - 7 hours, 10 minutes
Game 20 - Crash Bandicoot (PS4) - 3/5 - ~7 hours
Game 21 - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS4) - 3.5/5 - ~8 hours
Game 22 - Resident Evil 0 (PC) - 3/5 - ~3 hours, 30 minutes *
Game 23 - Resident Evil (2002) (PC) - 5/5 - 3 hours, 43 minutes *
Game 24 - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS4) - 2/5 - ~7 hours
Game 25 - 1954 Alcatraz (PC) - 3/5 - 6 hours
Game 26 - Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PS1) - 4/5 - 3 hours, 2 minutes *
Game 27 - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA) - 4/5 - 19 hours, 45 minutes
Game 28 - Resident Evil 2 (PS1) - 4.5/5 - 2 hours, 43 minutes *
Game 29 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4) - 4/5 - 39 hours, 40 minutes
Game 30 - Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (PS1) - 4/5 - 3 hours, 42 minutes *
Game 31 - The Legend of Zelda (NES) - 3/5 - 8 hours, 15 minutes
Game 32 - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) - 2/5 - 10 hours, 35 minutes
Game 33 - Resident Evil 5 (PC) - 4/5 - 10 hours~ *
Game 34 - Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS2) - 2/5 - 5 hours, 30 minutes *
Game 35 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) - 3/5 - 9 hours, 12 minutes
Game 36 - Dead Rising 4 (PC) - 1/5 - 7 hours, 9 minutes
Game 37 - Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix (PS4) - 3.5/5 - 35 hours, 30 minutes *
Game 38 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) - 4/5 - 15 hours, 40 minutes
Game 39 - Home (PS4) - 3/5 - 1 hour, 45 minutes
Game 40 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) - 3.5/5 - ~5 hours
Game 41 - Amnesia: the Dark Descent (PS4) - 3.5/5 - ~8 hours
Game 42 - Amnesia: Justine (PS4) - 2.5/5 - ~30 minutes
Game 43 - Amnesia: a Machine for Pigs (PS4) - 2/5 - ~4 hours
Game 44 - Resident Evil: Outbreak (PS2) - 3.5/5 - ~7 hours *
Game 45 - Claire: Extended Cut (PS4) - 3.5/5 - 2 hours, 17 minutes
Game 46 - Condemned: Criminal Origins (PC) - 3.5/5 - 7 hours, 24 minutes *
Game 47 - Resident Evil 4 (PS4) - 2.5/5 - 6 hours, 2 minutes *
Game 48 - Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today (PS4) - 3.5/5 - 2 hours, 23 minutes
Game 49 - Deadlight: Director's Cut (PS4) - 2.5/5 - ~4 hours
Game 50 - Goosebumps: the Game (PS4) - 3/5 - 1 hour, 43 minutes
Game 51 - Jurassic Park: the Game (PS3) - 1.5/5 - ~6 hours
Game 52 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - 2.5/5 - 25 hours, 32 minutes
Game 53 - Alien: Isolation (PS4) - 3/5 - 20 hours~
Game 54 - The Evil Within (PC) - 3.5/5 - 11 hours, 37 minutes *
Game 55 - Dead Space: Extraction (PS3) - 2.5/5 - 6 hours~
Game 56 - Dead Space 2 (PS3) - 3.5/5 - 10 hours~
Game 57 - Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - 1.5/5 - 5 hours~


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Now Playing

Resident Evil 6 (PC) - playing through this with a friend, Leon's campaign is finished, working on Chris' atm.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (3DS) - case 2
Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4) - waiting for ep 3

Glad to see this thread is up! Got my OP right here.

Game 1: Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) - 8 Hrs 35 Mins (12/31/2016)

Game 2: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS) - 25 Hrs 21 Mins (12/31/2016)

Game 3: Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure (3DS) - 16 Hrs 50 Mins (1/3/2017)

Game 4: Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS) - 60 Hrs 31 Mins (1/3/2017)

Game 5: Hotline Miami (PS3/PS4/Vita/PC) - About 6-7 Hrs (1/5/2017)

Game 6: Doom (PS4/XB1/PC) - About 16-18 Hrs (1/13/2017)

Game 7: Ratchet and Clank (PS4) - About 6-7 Hrs (1/22/2017)

Game 8: Yakuza 0 (PS4) - 35 Hrs 31 Mins (2/3/2017)

Game 9: Kirby's Dream Land (GB) - 35 Mins (2/11/2017)

Game 10: Killer Is Dead (PS3/X360/PC) - 7 Hrs 35 Mins (2/28/2017)

Game 11: Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Wii U/3DS/PC/PS4/Vita/XB1/NSW) - 6 Hrs 53 Mins (3/12/2017)

Game 12: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (NSW (for now)) - 6 Hrs 23 Mins (3/16/2017)

Game 13: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth + (PC, NSW) - 1 Hr 32 Mins (3/17/2017)

Game 14: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NSW, Wii U) - About 70 Hrs (3/19/2017)

Game 15: Super Bomberman R (NSW) - About 4-5 Hrs (3/21/2017)

Game 16: Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Wii U/3DS/PC/PS4/Vita/XB1/NSW) - 7 Hrs 26 Mins (3/23/2017)

Game 17: NieR: Automata (PS4/PC) - 14 Hrs 4 Mins (3/23/2017)

Game 18: Rune Factory 4 (3DS) - About 80-90 Hrs (3/25/2017)

Game 19: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons 9 Doors (DS/iOS/PS4/Vita/PC) - About 16 Hrs (3/30/2017)

Game 20: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (3DS/Vita/PS4/PC) - 22 Hrs 46 Mins (4/11/2017)

Game 21: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NSW) - 6 Hrs 28 Mins (4/29/2017)

Game 22: Kamiko (NSW) - 1 Hr 3 Mins (5/1/2017)

Game 23: Persona 5 (PS3/PS4) - 80 Hrs 15 Mins (5/2/2017)

Game 24: Lego City Undercover (Wii U/NSW/PC/PS4/XB1) - 15 Hrs 10 Mins (5/5/2017)

Game 25: Klonoa (Wii) - 6 Hrs 51 Mins (6/20/2017)

Game 26: ARMS (NSW) - About 10 Hrs (6/22/2017)

Game 27: MLB The Show 17 (PS4) - About 50 Hrs (6/22/2017)

Game 28: Puyo Puyo Tetris (NSW/PS4) - About 30 Hrs (7/3/2017)

Game 29: Higurashi When They Cry - Ch. 5 Meakashi (PC) - 8 Hrs 55 Mins (7/9/2017)

Game 30: Implosion: Never Lose Hope (Android, iOS, Switch) - About 8-9 Hrs (7/9/2017)

Game 31: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, 360, PC) - 4 Hrs 35 Mins (7/12/2017)

Game 32: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution (Wii) - 1 Hr 20 Mins (7/16/2017)

Game 33: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PS4/Vita/PC) - About 22-23 Hrs (7/17/2017)

Game 34: Splatoon 2 (NSW) - About 8-9 Hrs (7/28/2017)

Game 35: Crash Bandicoot (PS1/PS4) - About 5-6 Hrs (8/1/2017)

Game 36: Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) - 46 Hrs 13 Mins (8/5/2017)

Game 37: Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition (Wii U) - 3 Hrs 10 Mins (8/19/2017)

Game 38: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS/iOS) - 10 Hrs 3 Mins (8/22/2017)

Game 39: Yakuza: Kiwami (PS4) - 24 Hrs 22 Mins (9/6/2017)

Game 40: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (NSW) - About 30 Hrs (9/9/2017)

Game 41: Muv-Luv Extra (PC) - 11 Hrs 42 Mins (9/20/2017)

Game 42: Muv-Luv Unlimited (PC) - 15 Hrs 28 Mins (9/23/2017)

Game 43: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4, PC, Vita) - About 30-35 Hrs (9/29/2017)

Game 44: Doki Doki Literature Club (PC) - 3 Hrs (10/9/2017)

Game 45: Pokemon Puzzle League (N64, Wii) - About 5 Hrs (10/15/2017)

Game 46: SteamWorld Dig 2 (NSW, PC, PS4, Vita) - 9 Hrs 4 Mins (10/16/2017)

Game 47: South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3, PS4, 360, XB1, PC) - 9 Hrs 29 Mins (10/24/2017)

Game 48: Super Mario Odyssey (NSW) - About 14 Hrs (10/28/2017)

Game 49: Chaos;Child (PS4, Vita) - About 24 Hrs (10/29/2017)

Game 50: Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) - 37 Hrs 46 Mins (11/5/2017)

Game 51: Fire Emblem Warriors (NSW, N3DS) - 10 Hrs 36 Mins (11/18/2017)

Game 52: SteamWorld Heist (Wii U, 3DS, PS4, Vita, XB1, PC, iOS) - 13 Hrs 3 Mins (11/19/2017)

Game 53: Oxenfree (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC, iOS) - About 4-5 Hrs (11/23/2017)

Game 54: Sonic Mania (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - About 8-9 Hrs (11/25/2017)

Game 55: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (NSW) - 80 Hrs 35 Mins (12/9/2017)

Game 56: Battle Chef Brigade (NSW, PC) - About 10 Hrs (12/19/2017)

I was in discord over the weekend saying that I wouldn't have to finish my poorly updated 2017 challenge - glad that the thread returned but now I feel like I have to participate


- place holder -




currently playing:
- puzzle and dragons (ios / day 1399 / doesn't count to total)

- Final Fantasy XV (PS4) 8 hours
- Hyper Light Drifter (steam) 1 hour; started 1/1/17
- Dying light (xbox one - replay/nephew)
- Assault Android Cactus (steam) 1 hour, started 1/1/17
- Watchdogs 2 (xbox one) 7 hours
- Abzu (steam) started 01/03/17
- BOI: rebirth "re"-started 01/04/17
- Yakuza 0 (PS4) 01/24/17
- Technomancer (steam) Started 01/25/17
- VA-11 HALL-A steam started 1/28/17
- Horizon (PS4) started on Release
- Anarchy Online comes to steam started a new toon 03/05/17


Finished:
1) RYB (IOS finished 01/03/17 time 2 hours) rate 3/5
Good: interesting beginning with great puzzle discovery/rules Bad: near the end it becomes tedious because of the addition of a ton of rules without enough levels to enjoy the previous changes and morphs into a weird concentration game rather than a great puzzler.

2) No Man's Sky (PS4 finished 01/07/17 time 40 hours) rate 4/5
Good: new patch with base building, really liked the laid back exploration and initial upgrading tracks, Bad after 30 hours the sameness of everything is too obvious

3) COD Infinite Warfare (Xbox one finished 01/08/17 time 5 hours) rate 2/5
Good: Picked it up to play zombies with nephews, they stopped playing Bad not my thing, bullet sponge testosterone romp campaign irked me for some reason.

4) Destiny - the dawning (Xbox one finished? 01/02/17 (01/08/17) time ~500 hours) rate 5/5
Good: Really enjoyed the winter event, I've played with a ton of family and at one point had three generations playing Bad RNG is a cold mistress, I wish matchmaking existed for all content as I never finish nightfalls/raids.

5) Diablo 3 - season 9 (battle.net playing season time 70-80 hours 40-50 to guardian) rate 5/5 (Paragon 741 on 01/24/17)
Good: over 500 hours in diablo 3, it scratches the grind itch and season 9 played DH/UE/GRE build Bad needs qol improvements, needs a meta change can't wait for necro.

6) Victor Van (steam/humble finished? 1/28/17 time 10 - 15 hours) rate 4/5
Good: grind itch satisfied with decent humor and some neat game references, good alternative loot for ARPG Bad very few people actually playing, weird non-predictable difficulty spikes

7) The Tomorrow Children (PS4 finished 01/28/17 time 2-3 hours) rate 1/5
Good: I liked the graphics? Bad this game just didn't click, I hated the soviet WW theme and the npc interaction just bothered the heck out of me.

8) Pony Island (Steam finished 01/28/17 time 2.6 hours) rate 5/5
Good: Not at all what I expected, really liked the game and the "meta" factor Bad some of the platforming was just stupid and almost made be quit before continuing

9) Deus Ex (Steam finished 02/04/17 time 25 hours) rate 2.5/5
Good: I liked the concept, liked some of the augments, the story was interesting Bad This game can't compare to DX:Human Revolution. The character "power" to challenge ratio was garbage. (pass on this one)

10) Dead Rising 4 (xbox one finished/stopped 03/03/17 time 5-7 hours) rate 2/5
Good: I like hordes of zombies in my games Bad pretty much everything else.

11) rive (Steam finished 03/05/17 time 3-5 hours) rate 3/5
Good: twin stick fun, robotron on drugs in space with and without gravity? Bad the game can be brutal at times -or- I'm just getting old.

12) Event (0) (Steam finished 03/14/17 time 3-4 hours) rate 3/5
Good: neat pseudo-AI game with interesting initial story Bad too short, the story falls flat, you realize the AI isn't as good as Zork.

13) Space Run Galaxy (Steam finished 03/18/17 time 1-2 hours) rate 2/5
Good: I liked the construction aspect of the ship Bad this is a tower defense game, it didn't hook me and really felt like a lot of other tower defense games.

14) Renowned Explorers: International Society (Steam finished 04/20/17 time 4-5 hours) rate 4/5
Good: I liked that you could select three explorers and the combat was initially intersting Bad I got bored chasing the research tree and lost interest.

1: Final Fantasy XV - Jan. 7th
Liked the overall journey, but was disappointed in all the cuts.

2: Steins;Gate 0 - Apr. 7th
While it had some really great plot points I think having the routes being pretty separate made a weaker game.

3: Fate/stay night (Fate Route) - March
Due to the length and the fact that they can be played as separate games I'll count them each individually. The dialogue was drawn out and spent too much time with them talking about food, but it picked up a bit towards the end.

4: Battlefield 1943 - July 20th
I'm gonna count this as a completion because I finally played 100 matches and got the last trophy. The game is still pretty populated and I really enjoyed playing a bite-sized BF game when it first game out. Maps were nice too.

5: Fate/stay night (Unlimited Blade Works) - July
I enjoyed this route a lot more for reasons I cannot spoil. I enjoyed the themes more in this one.

6: Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Sept. 25th
The battle system is what held my attention here. I still really like the paradigm shifting. The story was not the greatest but the time paradox endings were a cool addition.

7: Destiny 2 - Sept. 26th
The campaign had a beginning and end but something rubbed me the wrong way about the boss fight being so easy. The PvP meta has gone super stale and the team shooting is getting annoying. The raid is among the weaker ones and I'm surprised how little desire I have to play it.

8. Journey - Oct. 28th
An emotional experience in such a simple game.

9. Life is Strange - Oct. 29th
An exploration of some good themes.

CURRENTLY PLAYING
NieR Automata
Warframe
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Zombies Maps)

COMMENTS
Looks like I'm overall failing for this year. Spent too much time playing PUBG and Destiny.

I haven't participated before, but seeing as how I've already finished over 52 games - thanks to a stint of willful unemployment - I'll post my list here. Playing a lot of indies really pads my list.

I'm still ironing out how I keep my spreadsheet, so I don't have all the details.

Key: GOTY, Top 10, Honorable Mentions

1 One Upon Light - PC
2 Toren - PC - 100%
3 Zenzizenzic - PC
4 StickyBoy: The Curse of Oilytown - PC
5 Empty - PC
6 Rocket League - PS4 - Platinum (+Dropshot DLC)
7 Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - PS4
8 The Deadly Tower of Monsters - PS4
9 NaissanceE - PC
10 Q.U.B.E. - PC
11 Mini Metro - PC
12 Candleman - XB1 - 100% (+Lost Light DLC)
13 Day of the Tentacle Remastered - PS4
14 Journey - PS4 - Replay
15 Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4 - Platinum (+The Frozen Wilds DLC)
16 forma.8 - PS4 - Platinum
17 Shovel Knight - PS4
18 Mekazoo - PS4
19 Rock Band: Rivals - PS4
20 Fragments of Euclid - PC
21 Resogun - PS4 - Replay - Platinum
22 Snake Pass - PS4 - Platinum
23 Typoman: Revised - PC
24 Blackwood Crossing - PS4 - Platinum
25 Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - PS4 - Replay - Platinum
26 Yooka-Laylee - PS4 - Platinum
27 Rise & Shine - XB1
28 Morphopolis - PC
29 What Remains of Edith Finch - PS4 - 100%
30 The Unfinished Swan - PS4 - Replay - 100%
31 Little Nightmares - PS4 (+ The Depths DLC, + The Hideaway DLC)
32 GNOG - PS4- 100%
33 Type:Rider - PS4
34 Tales from the Borderlands - PS4 - Platinum
35 TumbleSeed - PS4
36 OVIVO - PC
37 Spectrum - PC
38 RiME - PS4 - Platinum
39 'Splosion Man - XB1 (Game Pass Trial)
40 Comic Jumper - XB1 (Game Pass Trial)
41 Ms. 'Splosion Man - XB1 (Game Pass Trial)
42 Roundabout - XB1 (Game Pass Trial)
43 Shelter - PC
44 Life is Strange - PS4 - Platinum
45 Nex Machina - PS4 - Platinum
46 Danger Zone - PS4
47 140 - PC
48 Submerged - PS4
49 The Flame in the Flood - PS4 - Platinum
50 Runbow - XB1
51 Pyre - PS4 - Platinum
52 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - PS4 - Platinum
53 Matterfall - PS4
54 Pony Island - PC
55 Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow - Mobile
56 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PS4 - Platinum
57 Aaero - PS4
58 Knack II - PS4 - Platinum
59 Human: Fall Flat - PC
60 Oxenfree - XB1
61 Samorost 3 - PC - 100%
62 Hob - PS4
63 Cuphead - XB1
64 South Park: The Fractured But Whole - PS4
65 The Turing Test - XB1
66 Armikrog. - PC
67 ode - PC
68 Gorogoa - PC
69 Mr. Shifty - PC
70 Perception - PS4
71 Old Man's Journey - PC
72 Super Lucky's Tale - XB1 - 1000 - 6.5 hours

2017 total: 53 games
(*) denotes 1000/1000, 200/200, or platinum trophy attained
(^) denotes that all single player achievements/trophies were unlocked
(#) denotes games that have been finished previously (second playthroughs, achievement runs, etc.) games are only listed once each year, though I may have played them previously. This is geared towards games that were not already beaten this year or had a full second playthrough long after the original. (DMC4, Dead Space 2, etc.)



January:

1. Final Fantasy XV*
2. Nekopara Vol. 2*
3. Not a Hero: Me, Myself, and Bunnylord*
4. Saints Row: Gat out of Hell*
5. Batman - The Telltale Series*
6. Castlevania
7. God of War III Remastered*
8. Journey*
9. Castlevania III
10. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China#*
11. Abzu*
12. Max Payne 3

February:

1. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India*
2. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia*
3. Lara Croft GO*
4. Dark Void Zero
5. FIST of Awesome#
6. Ninja Gaiden
7. Ninja Senki DX

March:

1. Nioh*
2. Tearaway Unfolded*
3. Horizon: Zero Dawn*

April:

1. Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel
2. Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City
3. Nier Automata*

May:

1. Rise & Shine*
2. Icey*
3. Sugar Cube Factory
4. Aragami*
5. Traverser*

June:

1. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight*
2. LOVE
3. SOMA*
4. Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon*
5. Tekken 7*
6. Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt*
7. Borderlands 2#*
8. Party Hard: Dark Castle*

July:

1. Party Hard: High Crimes
2. VVVVVV#
3. Kero Blaster*
4. Knock, Knock*

August:

1. Thimbleweed Park*

September:

1. The Witcher 3*
2. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone*
3. The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine*
4. Deus Ex: The Fall*
5. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite*
6. Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials*

October:

1. Dishonored 2*
2. Cuphead
3. The Evil Within 2*

November:

1. Hellblade*
2. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider*

Here we go!

JANUARY

Game 1: Prince of Persia - 2/5 - 14:18 hours (02/01/2017)

Completed the story, didn't bother getting all 1001 orbs (I'm sitting at 751). The game was a nice relaxing ride, but it gets repetitive very quick. On the technical side of things the cel-shading makes it so that the game holds up to this very day and the musics are very atmospheric and apt for the setting. If we talk about gameplay though, the obstacles and climbable elements are only a dozen different kinds, the enemies are in varied sizes, but pretty much all samey mechanics-wise, the mid-bosses have a little more personality, but nothing memorable. It's basically open-world Prince of Persia, offering you to choose your own way, but making so that every route is basically the same, as the structure of the game gets soon very predictable: get new power, free the four fountains, fight boss, escape boss room, repeat until final confrontation. The fighting is spectacular, but it's basically a bunch of stringed commands alternated with QTEs; speaking of which, the new powers you acquire through the game are a huge let down, being just glorified QTEs themselves. The plot isn't anything special but you do build a cool relationship with Elika throughout the game: she is constantly there for you, you can talk with her and she helps you fight. The ending is pretty abrupt, but also somewhat unexpected.

Game 2: Assault Android Cactus - 3/5 - 3:36 hours (04/01/2017)

Completed the story, tried boss rush and infinity drive, unlocked a bunch of codex entries, artworks and game mods. A psychedelic and frenzied twin stick shooter with a quirky cast of characters. The music has a nice and fitting techno beat, nothing exceptional, but it gets cooler when you unlock the option to have it change rhythm according to how you're performing. The graphics are extremely colourful and solid, as is the framerate: when countless cyber-enemies are on screen and everyone's shooting everywhere, the screen becomes a feast for the eyes. The gameplay is pretty repetitive, but keeps you on the edge thanks to the battery system, which also makes dying harder if you play well: this way the flow and pace of the game are almost never interrupted. The story is a nice addition to contextualize the game, but nothing deeper; though, the character design and variety of playable androids deserve praise. A little known gem.

Game 3: Her Story [with friend] - 4/5 - 5:00 hours (06/01/2017)

Completed her story, then proceeded to get all videos. A wonderfully recounted tale, presented in a pretty innovative format, not only for a game, but for any kind of medium. Having to slowly piece things together, with limited tools at your disposal besides intuition and cleverness, and constantly reworking and reorganising what you think to know about the story is a really one of a kind experience: you actually feel like some sort of detective. The acting is spot on, the search feature and the script work together seamlessly, it's clear the devs put a lot of thought in what and how they were writing: you never feel at a dead-end until you "finish" the main game, always having a bunch of new words to search. The story itself has all the elements needed to keep you waiting for more: death, secrets, mystery, weirdness and love. I've been caught off-guard more than once, and I definitely had many "wow" moments while learning about the main characters, especially early on. The main theme is reflected in all parts of the game and the graphical presentation is aptly coherent with the situation we're put in. The ending leaves some stuff to the interpretation, and I really like that in all sorts of media.

Game 4: Pony Island - 3/5 - 4:24 hours (08/01/2017)

Completed the game and got all tickets, saw the trure ending. A clever meta-game, with arcade and puzzle elements. I loved almost everything about it, from the minimalist but crazy presentation, to the sort of easy but nicely made hacking mini-games, from the accursed and evil atmosphere, to the haunting plot about salvation and damnation. The meta elements are a constant: you are playing a steam game, about a man playing an arcade, Pony Island, which is just a facade for an evil game trying to consume your soul. All these four layers are always present and sometimes they mesh so well that you don't know which layer you're standing in anymore; i.e. think of the man showing a "real" ticket waving his hand in front of the arcade screen, a ticket that you just got by entering fake Pony Island's options through evil Pony Island, while the Steam achievement flashes on your monitor. The only "problem" with the game are some the arcade jump and shoot sessions, which at times stretch for too long and are too punishing, even though they are nothing impossible to conquer with a bit of patience.

Game 5: Not A Hero - 2/5 - 9:30 hours (12/01/2017)

Completed the campaign at the max level, with all objectives and secret doors. The game's a hard action shooter, very focused on its base mechanics. That's one of the main problems: there's not much new to see after the first few levels, and since it's pretty though, you don't feel the urge to see what's next after a while, mostly feeling discouraged. The game pretty much remains the same all along, with very minor tweaks here and there, some of which just end up aggravating the player even more (one hit kill samurai, and ninja): the levels are all samey, the objectives also similar and, again, keep making things too difficult (time limits, no hit clauses, etc.) instead of funnier, the playable characters have several notable differences, but so few of them are actually viable if you want to be good at the game. The story is generic and boring, the cut scenes needlessly verbose and lacking any humour (I skipped a good chunk of them, thing which I basically never do in any game ever), the guy you work for is unsufferable; seems like the game tries to be smart and different with its setting and tone, but pretty much fails, ending up just being nonsensical. Problems aside, when all is said and done, while frustrating, the action in the game does work and feel stylish and cool. Hoped for more.

Game 6: Atum - 1/5 - 10 minutes (16/01/2017)

Completed the first "cycle". More than a game Atum's an artsy experiment, one that uses the interactivity of gaming to make a point about philosophical concepts.The game surely manages to do so, locking you in an endless cycle of interactions between you and yourself, a neverending loop that always brings you back to the starting point: perfect gaming representation of a "Klein Bottle" or of a "Möbius Strip". The gameplay is quite basic and lacking though, like most of the presentation: it's a means to an end, that the developer tries to spruce up with some nicely made interactive 4th wall breaking, so to lessen its dullness. Game's free and short though, I advise to try it.

Game 7: Tessallation - 2/5 - 45 minutes (16/01/2017)

Completed the game, tried the playground mode. A freeware based on a single, albeit interesting, mechanic: rewinding time to create a series of copies of yourself, each used to perform a different action, so as to reach the end of every puzzle room. In fact, it may very well be one of the few games which can be said to employ single player coop, together with Braid and Cursor*10. The peculiar gameplay mechanic is explored in a bunch of different ways, however one can't help but think that in the end the result is quite shallow: you could build many sizable games on this concept alone. The execution also leaves a lot to be desired: the graphics are stylized but still technically unimpressive, plus there are some bugs that hinder the normal progress.


FEBRUARY

Game 8: Elliot Quest - 5/5 - 31:00 hours (02/02/2017)

Completed the game, got the neutral ending, did all the optional bosses and dungeons, collected all items. What a blast to the past! Not unlike Shove Knight before, this indie is a love letter to 8-bit games, both in presentation and content; while Shovel Knight harkens back to action platformers, this little gem does so towards action adventure games. The gameplay offers no explanations whatsoever, aside from some basic commands: you play and learn through your ability and your mistakes. The way the save system works is harsh but fair, you get used to it pretty quickly and it manages to strike a good balance between "having to redo long parts" and "feeling the stakes". When moving Elliot around you feel in control from the get go, but it's only after a few hours, when you get the double jump, that the game truly opens up, both in exploration and combat possibilities. The graphics feature warm, deep colours, the sprites have a distinct and charming look; the game is surprisingly big and long, with heaps of secrets and stuff to collect: every location is beautiful and unique and you never feel bored by the exploration. The sense of adventure and mistery is strong and pushes you to finish the game. Too bad the ending feels rushed and is definitely the low point of the whole game, together with the morality system, which is unneeded and shallow.

Game 9: Lumino City - 2/5 - 5:48 hours (05/02/2017)

Reached the ending. A quirky, puzzle-oriented adventure game, very straightforward, with each area self-contained: perfect for beginners. The selling point of the title is the cardboard setting, which was hand-made, filmed and digitized; this means that everything is in scale and has a coherent placement, so much that you can actually see your route and progress around the city in the panoramic title screen. The plot is barebones and after the initial incident that puts things into motion, doesn't really come into play again until the end. The charm of the game comes from navigating the weird environments, meeting the crazy characters and solving the, albeit mostly easy, puzzles. It's short and to the point, but sometimes frustrating due to the lack of control: you can see it was built for smartphones, as the movement options are very limited and the game oft unresponsive to your clicks.

Game 10: Batman: Arkham Asylum - Game of the Year Edition - 5/5 - 23:00 hours (14/02/2017)

Beaten the game and got back to get all collectibles, finished half the challenges. What a game! Even after all these years this game holds up so damn well. It's also still surprising how it suddenly reached such quality heights after decades of bad to average licensed games as easy cash ins coming from the industry. The intro works wonders to immerse you in the world, then, when you get out from Intensive Treatment and come out to the open area, you're stoked by how ambitious the game is... and it keeps one-upping itself, adding more and more places, enemies, riddles and items as you go on. The level design is on point, with metroidvania elements, the combat can be frustrating but it's a new approach and is cool to watch: when things go your way you really feel like the Batman, too bad for the camera messing things up at times. There's a little bit of everything sprinkled in there, stealth, fighting, action, puzzles, adventure, which makes the package feel complete and hard to put in a set category: just like the big games of yore, this one feels like it's inspired by past works but creates its own rules, the end result being something unique and never seen before. Boss fights are all very different and unpredictable, aside from the final one, which was far too easy and kind of a let down. The writing and voice over is nice, especially Hamill's stellar performance as the joker, the world feels alive and Arkham is context heavy: not one stone positioning is left unexplained: you can actually see the cells of most famous inmates and find what they've left behind in the asylum's halls. I can only wonder what it was like to play such a stunning game when it came out ten years ago.


MARCH

Game 11: Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together! [with friend] - 3/5 - more than 5:00 hours (14/03/2017)

Done all the puzzles in co-op, tried the competitive modes. The game shows much promise but ends up way too short for its own good. The cut and spin mechanics are nice and work well to create countless possible forms, however the game has what I'd call the "Scribblenauts syndrome": once you've found two or three good forms you'll stuck to those and still be able to complete 90% of the puzzles with little hassle. The graphical style and faces of the protagonists are cute and funny, the objectives of the puzzles varied, the charm strong but there's just too little stuff to do, you can finish everything in just a few hours and the puzzles offer no replay value. A good time-waster, but I hope they improve on it and add way more content in the inevitable sequel.

Game 12: Blaster Master Zero - 3/5 - 8:08 hours (19/03/2017)

Completed 100%, haven't tackled the extra mode. This game is an excellent re-imagining of the original Blaster Master, but that's part of what limits it. I'm sure Blaster Master had to be amazing back in the day, in fact it's still a very competent mix of metroid's non-linear structure (albeit not as intricated) and shoot 'em ups; however there have been countless more compelling games in the genre since NES days. Still, the dual-style of gameplay, when you're piloting Sophia and when the pilot's out on his own, adds some needed variety in the game, as do the numerous bosses awaiting at the end of almost all caves. Speaking of the caves, the downgradable blaster, which loses power with each hit you take, is interesting, but not so much its various levels: you can annihilate everything with the max level, and if you lack that you're always going to fall back on the same two or three options. The HD rumble was weird, not sure if I like it yet, very noisy. All in all it was a good timewaster, but I won't remember it fondly.


APRIL

Game 13: Evoland II - 4/5 - 25:45 hours (09/04/2017)

100% the game with every achievement. As a sequel, Evoland II blows the first entry out of the water in terms of scope: while the first one was a nice action adventure Zelda-like, with sprinkles of other genres, this is a full-blown action RPG with a whole card mini-game in it. The game features a time-traveling gimmick and a varying structure: the first half is totally linear and definitely the less interesting one, on the opposite, during the second part the game opens up, world map and all that jazz, letting you choose among many quests. The game is ambitious, the plot sorta clichè but still interesting, there are surprises at each corner thanks to many genre switch-ups, but the length of the adventure does a disservice to the experience, making it go a little stale by the end. The game could've been much better if it adhered more to a personal style, forgoing the countless and tiring pop and game references, which are literally everywhere, and lessening the number of mini-games and genre changes. Still a pretty long and engrossing game.

Game 14: Inside - 5/5 - 6:06 hours (13/04/2017)

Got to the end of the story and found all secret rooms. A huge step up in tone and graphics from Limbo, even though the themes and the way of conveying them are similar. The animations of the boy are top notch, the world sucks you in immediately and never lets you go (I actually had to finish it in one sitting, couldn't stop), the progression in gameplay is nicely paired with a progression in the understanding of the world around you. The OST is unique, thanks to the fact it's been filtered through a human skull (!!), and definitely appropriate for this kind of misterious and low-profile adventure, where you must constantly hide. The game has many layers of interpretation and meaning, from the most face-value ones to deeper themes, and it loves to play with your expectations since the very beginning, as you think you have to flee from somewhere, while you're actually trying to get in. Personally my own favourite interpretation is that the game is an allegory of birth, as opposed to Limbo being an allegory of death, with the sperm (boy) who tries to reach the ovule (inner chamber) to then become a fetus (the amalgamation of bodies) and get out of the womb (light of the day outside).

Game 15: Shovel Knight - Specter of Torment - 4/5 - 7:23 hours (17/04/2017)

Got the credits and all the collectibles, finished a few challenges. Best campaign so far in Shovel Knight from a narrative standpoint, I really felt invested in Specter Knight's story by the end of the game. The game also manages to be a breath of fresh air after the first two campaigns, because it changes the basic structure, from retreading the same overworld, to a more Megaman-like stage choice, while also being a prequel and featuring vastly different levels from those of the first two parts. The gameplay is also my favourite take so far in the series: while Shovel Knight's controls are tight but unforgiving and Plague Knight's are kind of sloppy and less immediate to learn, Specter Knight controls like a charm, and it strikes the perfect balance between being challenging and frustrating. Moreover I appreciate that the levels are a tad shorter and toned down the collectathon that was Plague of Shadows.

Game 16: Shovel Knight - Plague of Shadows - 3/5 - 11:20 hours (17/04/2017)

Reached the ending, got all collectibles. The game is a good follow-up to the original; it's lovely how it tries to reuse what it can, while changing the way you experience it: a true exercise in style from the developer. However I feel as the game retreads too much the same ground, while offering too little new to hold your attention for the whole length of the campaign. The fact that Plague Knight is a much more complicated character than Shovel Knight gameplay-wise doesn't help: you constantly have to mess around in the menus, pausing the action, and still you never feel completely in control of the little guy; even after hours of trial and error, you almost never quite get the results you really want from the alchemical combination. Still the basis for a good game are totally there.

Game 17: Snake Pass - 3/5 - more than 10:00 hours (21/04/2017)

Completed the campaign. The initial impact was bad: the controls are hard to master and the game doesn't do a good enough job explaining how the "grip" ability works; however once I got the "grip" down the game opened up for me, the frustration went out of the window and I breezed through the levels getting all the collectibles in one go. That is until the last level, which features a huge difficulty spike all of a sudden: the way the wind works is simply unfair to you, and for the first time since I mastered the controls I felt the urge to thow the Switch out of the window. The difficulty is also mostly due to the camera-work, which isn't perfect throughout the game, but mostly bearable, until you reach the last world, when every obstacle begins to move around and the camera just keep getting stuck and in the way of what you're trying to do. Speaking of the end-game, it was utterly disappointing: the last world has one less level than the rest, so you don't even realize you're playing the last level until you see the ending sequence. The ending itself was upsetting, during the whole adventure, the game keeps building up to the "big baddy", responsible for what's happening; now I guessed there would be no classic "final boss" in such a game, but still I expected some kind of confrontation, yet nothing: the whole thing resolves in a comic and frankly stupid way. All the levels have the same objectives till the end, so you don't feel any real progression during the campaign, or accomplishment when finishing the game: you get a bunch of skins and the ability to see where the remaining collectibles are (too bad you most likely 100% all the levels, because doing them in more than one go is a pain, due to having to get the three gems every time). The basic idea is genius, but they haven't developed it in enough meaningful ways: they could have done much more with it.

Game 18: The Cave [replay with friend] - 2/5 - 5:30 hours (23/04/2017)

Finished the game a second time with one old and two new characters. On a second playthough the game shows his weak side: you have to redo all the common parts and also redo some specific parts, if you choose a character you already picked (which you'll have to do on your second or third time playing, because they're seven and you got to pick three at a time). The puzzles aren't particularly difficult, but they sometimes work in weird ways (e.g. the recorder), contradicting what you've learnt up to that point. There's also quite a lot backtracking involved and the characters don't exactly move quick. The ending is a huge let-down, the characters aren't developed in game, but just with the static pictures (their memories) you find around. Disappointing, moreso the second time playing through.

Game 19: SteamWorld Heist - 4/5 - 25:00 hours (23/04/2017)

Got max reputation and completed the campaign, missing quite a few hats. The game starts slow and without many strategic options, it also takes a while to really take off, since the first part lasts way too much, becoming pretty monotone, recycling enemies and settings constantly. Another annoying obstacle to one's enjoyment of the adventure is the inventory box system: you can only keep so many items and weapons at once, and you have to sell the rest for money, until you slowly find the means to upgrade the inventory itself; that, paired with the steady arrival of new recruits to your team, makes it so you always feel you don't have enough choice of equipment for your crew. The story is serviceable, the characters are unique both in personality and skills, so that you'll want to use them all and the soundtrack is top notch (thanks to Steam Powered Giraffe); but what really shines is the tactical gameplay: it works flawlessly and you can't stop playing, wishing for one more level after the other.

Game 20: Pirate Pop Plus - 1/5 - 4:06 hours (25/04/2017)

There's actually no ending, but I've invested enough time in it to call it a day; reached level 7, bought all but some faceplates and screens from the in-game shop. It's a different take on the classic Pang, featuring random changes of gravity and the novelty of changing the parts of the virtual handheld used to visualize the game. It's not a bad game, problem is that it's very barebones: the whole game is one screen only, no different stages, no different modes, the characters are basically all the same, no intro, no ending. There's a serious drought of content and the only thingsa you can earn in the game, besides the characters, are cosmetic parts that don't change the gameplay at all. In conclusion the game's simply lacking.

Game 21: Fast RMX - 3/5 - more than 15:00 hours (27/04/2017)

Got 1st ranks on all Subsonic and a few Supersonic cups, conquered Hero mode on Subsonic, beat a bunch of time trials. The first takeaway is that on the big screen the game's amazing to look at, especially at higher speeds, Storm Coast in particular being a sight to behold. The commands are responsive and tight, also thanks to the customization options; the gameplay requires good reflexes more than anything, as there's pretty much no deeper strategy involved: there are no weapons, no tricks, no drifts like in Mario Kart, you just have to get on those boosts and don't crash. The only strategic choice, which is much appreciated and adds a bit of variety to the game, is the need to switch between colours to use boosts and jumps without being slowed down. The game when all is said and done is very enjoyable, but lacks variety or something truly unique, like F-Zero's cutscenes and lore, while instead featuring an incredibly pernicious rubber-banding, which makes truly a hard trial to win the last few cups of every speed class.

Game 22: Jotun - 2/5 - 4:48 hours (28/04/2017)

Reached the ending and very briefly touched on Valhalla mode, found all apples, statues and points of interest. Went in blind expecting a boss rush mode, got an action game with a few puzzles, some battles, lots of walking and just 6 bosses. The game is very pleasing aesthetically, with hand-drawn backgrounds and characters which feature fantastic animations; however after the first hour or so you already got down the structure of the game, that is, from a certain point of view, very repetitive: 5 worlds, each 2 levels featuring a secret apple, 2 divine statues and the rune, which is the main objective. The monotony is mildly alleviated by the levels being pretty unique in what you actually have to do in them, though it's mostly exploring and solving very boring puzzles. The fights with the giants themselves are pretty nice, but sometimes frustrating due to the difficulty and due to the very lackluster combat options. Beautiful but not that fun.

Game 23: Year Walk - 2/5 - 2:12 hours (30/04/2017)

Got both endings. The game is short and to the point, it doesn't offer much of a challenge but some points are rather obtuse because you're never really briefed on what you can and can't do control-wise. The atmosphere is there though, and so is the general creepiness of the theme and of the game itself. The whole secret ending is at times creepy and at times comical... I don't quite understand what tone the writers were going for. A simple but enjoyable game to try once and that's it, I can't see myself ever playing it again.

MAY

Game 24: A Bird Story - 1/5 - 1:13 hours (01/05/2017)

I cried because I'm an emotional dumbass, but the game is really cynical in the way it presents its story. It tries to make you care with cheap tricks, without putting in a real effort: the characters have no depth, the plot is basic and the sequences contrived, as if they were going for some fancy magical realism effect, having you go through weird mash-ups of nature and cityscapes. Actually, it's more like having you watch the character go around, because the game offers almost no interaction and nothing you'll do will ever alter the way the story progresses: the player input is literally unnecessary. Since the writing in To the Moon was pretty bad, this time around they solved the issue by featuring no dialog at all: the characters only "talk" through their actions and through speech bubbles with images inside. This is a story that could have been told through many different mediums, and certainly gaming wasn't the more apt.

Game 25: SUPERHOT - 4/5 - 4:30 hours (03/05/2017)

Finished story mode, put some time in the challenges and other side stuff. The main mechanic has never been seen in such a game, and works wonders, the devsmanaged to introduce things slowly, so that the, albeit short, game never feels stale. The meta narrative approach has been kind of overused at this point, but it does its job still, also you don't necessarily have to meddle with it if you don't want, especially since the levels offer high replayability and you can try different approaches thanks to the numerous challenges. SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!

Game 26: Ronin - 3/5 - 7:00 hours (04/05/2017)

Completed the game with all skill points. I love the premise of the game: a turn-based stealth-action game, not something you see everyday; however this is one of the most passive aggressive games I've ever seen. The game goes great lengths to intentionally annoy you, going as far as saying "hint: the hints cannot be deactivated"... that's funny? No it's not devs, as is not fun to make the game nigh impossible to beat if you invest your skill points unwisely; fortunately that wasn't my case, but I've heard many struggling with that. The game is hard, sometimes borderline unfair, it doesn't do a good job explaining what you can and can't do, a fact that reflects in how the turn-based combat gets needlessly complex: why can't you move but only jump? Why can't you strangle like out of combat? Why can't you get up from ledges? So many differences between the stealth and combat phase are never explained, as is never explained the behaviour of civilians, how enemies reload weapons, what's a lockdown and how does it work, trhe whole part about pausing out of combat , and so on. That's too bad because the art and premise of the game are good, however you can feel the devs half-assed many parts of the game, like the menus, which are completely unresponsive when using a controller, yet very basic and boring, or the story, which is basically a very brief Kill Bill-like afterthought, that they expand upon with a DLC comic. The game needed less edge and more love, still it's enjoyable if you're up to the challenge.

Game 27: Power Hover - 3/5 - 4:18 hours (04/05/2017)

Reached the credits, got all batteries, tried the challenges, haven't perfected the boss stages though. The minimalistic graphics manage not to be monotone or boring, to the opposite of what usually happens, thanks to an art direction which is always on point and varied. The music fits the atmosphere and aesthetic quite nicely. The gameplay is basic but addicting, mainly due to the well balanced difficulty, which never makes the game frustrating to play, also thanks to the rewind and life mechanics, that are well working additions. The controls, which are minimalistic too, can sometimes be not up to par though, mainly when you get on and off rails, and when you loop inside or outside pipes: the way the direction you input changes halfway throws me off every single time.

Game 28: Abzu - 4/5 - 5:36 hours (06/05/2017)

Got to the ending, with all achievements unlocked. This is a very relaxing game, one that doesn't make you feel anxiety, but constant marvel for the underwater world. It's a simple game, with very little to do, but there're lots of little details you can find to pierce the lore together or just to have fun in the ocean, ad just when you finally feel the structure is getting repetitive, the game throws a curveball at you and subverts your expectations for the final three chapters. The graphics are a fantastic artistic showcase of what you can do without going all out in the technical department and the soundtrack features exceptional moody tunes. The ending leaves basically everything up to interpretation, but that's the whole point of the game: to have an immersive sensory experience and get what you want out of it.

Game 29: Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - 2/5 - 3:18 hours (06/05/2017)

100% the game with all achievements. It's basically a little more interactive The Stanley Parable: the humour is the same, the quirkiness of the setting is the same, but there are collectibles along the way to find, even though they're completely optional. It's an interesting meta take on the relationship between user-experience and developer intent in a game, repurposed as a very self-aware stage play. The game is nice and to the point on the first playthrough, but has some replay-value as well, giving you new stuff to do on the following playthroughs, like searching for hidden stuff or listening to weird, fun, in-game recordings. A curious free experiment.

Game 30: Metrico+ - 3/5 - 4:12 hours (10/05/2017)

Finished the main mode, found all collectibles, tried one time trial. Such a weird product: a puzzle platformer that gets inspiration from infographs. The presentation is very cut and clean, the sound department forgettable, the gameplay very confusing at first. However after one initial bad start you get to slowly understand the rules governing this minimalistic world, and you begin to have fun experimenting to find the appropriate solutions, which aren't all that hard once you get into it, aside from a few ending puzzles. The game does a good job to make you understand things without explaining much, and also manages to keep the player's attention by introducing a new main mechanic with each new level. The story is non-existant and the few cutscenes and ending mean little without a context that was never built around the main character. Still a competent pastime.

Game 31: Murdered: Soul Suspect - 4/5 - 11:42 hours (14/05/2017)

Got through the story, got 222/242 collectibles, don't intend to get the rest because one investigation scene got bugged and I can't get a clue, which is a shame, because I really wanted to 100% this one. This is a rough gem, unjustly panned by critics: a PS3-era game with the more conservative and linear structure of PS2 games, which is perfectly fine by me. The story is competent enough to make you care about the ending and the characters are all pretty nice, you can easily get in their shoes; the ending isn't obvious at all, in fact the game tries to deceive you twice, and I was honestly surprised by the last few twists, because I thought I had everything figured out since the beginning. The world is filled with collectibles that add to the lore and backstory of the game and characters, offering a nice reward so that it doesn't feel like a chore to find them: it's genuinely fun. The investigative gameplay is quite shallow, but still passable; however sometimes you get penalized unfairly for your decisions, as the game is very vague about some clues and questions. I liked the ghost part of it all a lot, and the first half of the game in particular is a blast. I recommend it despite the mediocre critic reviews.

Game 32: Psychonauts [replay with friend] - 5/5 - 28:00 hours (16/05/2017)

Completed everything in the game, achievements included. The game's a slow burner, the first level is arguably the less inventive and more boring of the bunch, especially since it's platform-heavy, something in which Psychonauts doesn't shine: the controls aren,'t the most precise ever. After that though, you get quickly engrossed into the whimsical plotline, absurd characters and relaxing camp life, that brings you back to childhood summers. The humour is great, on par with some of Schafer's best works, and there's plenty of it: every time you finish a level there are new convos to be had, new scenes to be seen, new character interaction to be witnessed. The levels themselves are crazy, they manage to keep the basis of the game's gameplay while expanding on it with their unique twist: obstacle course, pinball/racing, shooter, rampage, adventure and so on. Exploring the levels, and the hub in particular, to find the many collectibles is fun, especially thanks to the rank system that rewards you for your efforts with actual gameplay improvements, but they definitely went overboard with the figments. This game holds up, it's a fantastic entry in the 3D action plattformer genre with a great sense of humour.

Game 33: Rive - 3/5 - 4:24 hours (21/05/2017)

Finished the campaign, tried the challenges. First of all the main character is the most unsufferable sod I've ever played, he never shuts up, he's constantly not funny, spouting pop references, boastful and tries to get the world record for fourth wall breaking in a game: it's ironic that the devs put an annoying robot as the foil of the player, yet the main character is even more annoying. Put that blemish aside, the game's got a nice rhythm: you never stop for too long and the shooting never gets boring because it has an amazing feedback and the gameplay keeps changing. The enemies and environments are too much on the samey side though and there's really little reason for the mission based structure in the interconnected locales of the ship, as you are forced to go straight where the game wants anyway, it could have just been a long corridor and nothing would be lost; I appreciate the context provided though. Just don't have the same character in the next game please, or at least have him be quiet.

Game 34: Contradiction: The All-Video Murder Mystery Adventure [with friend] - 4/5 - 13:00 hours (30/05/2017)

Found the culprit! The case presents many interesting threads, developed with care, and the characters are all pretty unique and well characterized (Jenks is amazing), brought to the screen with good, over the top acting. The filming is appropriate and the locales chosen are all beautiful and cozy. The story has a few loose threads in the end, but it's clear the devs are trying to get out a sequel where they'll explain what's missing. The gameplay itself revolves mainly around the titular contradictions, while the exploration and use of items is kept to a minimum and is very simple, as far as the investigative parts go, though, everything works flawlessly and you never feel cheated by the game (aside from the place you have to use the torchlight in: that was bullshit). A nice throwback to the FMV games of yore, with an innovative indie after-taste.


JUNE

Game 35: Mega Man Legends - 5/5 - 13:59 hours (03/06/2017)

Finished the adventure, got all buster parts, special weapons, special items, done all sidequests. This game's such an incredible time capsule: the voice over, the excellent facial animations, the elaborate cut-scenes and the use of cell-shading graphics, while nothing special now, were majestically ahead of their times in 1997 (!!). The game's actually still heaps of fun now, it holds up beautifully: no quest markers, rather short but full of content and certainly not streamlined or straightforward, features a huge interconnected system of dungeons that you access from several above ground entrances, a rudimentary morality system that has you get darker if you do bad things and lighter with good deeds, an arsenal of different weapons that you have to rebuild finding their pieces around and that you can upgrade, a charming cast of characters, a persistent world that you can affect with your decisions and last buy not least mastodontic bosses. A game that has rightly reached cult status.

Game 36: Bayonetta [replay] - 4/5 - 10:?? hours (15/06/2017)

Simply finished the game once more, skipping most of cut-scenes. I re-played the game on the Wi U, while my first playthrough was on PS3, so I definitely felt the improvement in framerate and loading times. The combat, which is a mix of character action (DMC in particular, for obvious reasons) and versus fighting games, feels very deep and rewarding if you master it, however it can sometimes be a little too much all at once, especially due to the many weapons and their combinations. The art direction of the game is insane and the enemy are great design-wise, while a little confusing to read (and in that they feel alien-like as angels should feel), the constant excalations and climaxes are breathtaking and don't leave a momement of boredom, actually sometimes you wish the game was a little less exhausting and more evenly paced. What I definitely and without a doubt dislike about the game are the sudden death QTEs and how they affect the rating you get at the end of the level tremendously in comparison to their actual worth: they are as cheap as they get, often popping up during a cutscene, while you're completely focused on what's happening on screen and don't expect to be forced to intervene. The story is nice but nothing exceptional and surely a tad confusing for the first half. Anyway, the game is as good as I remembered and I must say that the graphics also hold up.

Game 37: Star Fox Guard [with friend] - 3/5 - ??:?? hours (20/06/2017)

Framed the culprit of the attacks and saw the credits, but haven't finished all the extra missions yet. Let's start exactly from that, the way to unlock the extra missions is maddeninig: the game forces you to accumulate minerals to level up and gain access to them, however even after having completed the campaign, having replayed several missions and having fought online I'm still at level 37, meaning that I still have 13 missions! It's preposterous to lock part of the meat of the game behind such requirements, a way to lengthen the playtime artificially which has the opposite effect on me: making me want to stop playing. That aside the game is very fun in little doses, the enemy variety is unexpectedly huge (wish I could say the same about the maps) and the security cam mechanic works flawlessly, highlighting for once the Wii U gamepad features. The missions don't offer much diversity though, even if the extra ones try to shake things off, the main objective always being to destroy all the combat class bots before they hit the base; the bosses are cool but there are only three of them. The online stuff doesn't really offer much, unless you simply like seeing the numbers that identify your rank go up: there are no leaderboards or such as usual per Nintendo. Innovative and unique tower defense that falls short on replayability and has an unlock system that seems to have been thought up for a FTP game.

Game 38: Windosill - 2/5 - 25 minutes (24/06/2017)

Got to the end. You can see this was a mobile game: it's all about that tactile interaction with the weird items and environments, however the impact is a little lost while using a mouse on the computer. More than a game, it's a quirky pastime.

Game 39: klocki - 3/5 - 50 minutes (24/06/2017)

Completed all the puzzles. The game does a good job of slowly but steadily introducing new mechanics till the end, mixing the gameplay constantly. However the vast majority of the puzzles don't involve much of a challenge nor are too original and the game's very short.


JULY

Game 40: Missing Translation - 2/5 - 1:18 hour (04/07/2017)

Finished and got all achievemets. Short freeware puzzle adventure, not really that much content there: three themed series of 25 puzzles each, plus one optional lore-related task. It's a serviceable game to pass an hour without thinking too much, there's a hidden language in the game, but it's not really used for anything but one thing.

Game 41: Metroid: Other M - 3/5 - 13:49 hours (09/07/2017)

100% the game. It's clear the devs wanted to take the cinematic AAA route, problem is the story is unimaginative (it's Alien) and full of holes (who the fuck was the traitor?!), the scripted dialogues are terrible and the dub mediocre: it lacks every single element that would make an AAA cinematic game stand out. Speaking about gameplay, everything's too linear, the first person/third person switch is too cumbersome and not fun, the need of waggling for a task requiring precision such as dodging is bad design, the map is confusing as hell, using only featureless blocks to show rooms and it's different from the mini-map (!!!): a huge step down from the Prime orographic one. That said not everything's bad: the more action oriented gameplay works and searching for hidden stuff is still very fun, also due to the linearity of the quest, the backtracking is kept to a minimum (but they killed speed runs and sequence breaking, which the series is known for), the bosses are fun and in good quantity and the post-game content is also a plus. Presentation is competent but not as inspired as the Prime environments, also there are far too many unskippable cutscenes, oft one after the other. From a lore standpoint this game is basically the assassination of the character of Samus: what was a strong-willed woman, working alone to fight back against unspoken horrors is transformed into a whiny and scared baby, willing to upstand the dumbest of orders (Samus now that our friend has almost been killed you can use the grapple beam, even though you passed in front of several grapple points up to now that I didn't allow you to traverse). Of course painting a deeper character through dialogues and self-reflections should be incentivized: that character however was the opposite of the Samus Aran we'd grown to love, it'd been better if they created a new one and gave her those features. Team Ninja bit off more than they could chew, they tried to make Metroid into something that is not to appease western AAA tastes, and in doing so they strayed too far from the road: this is a good game, just not a good Metroid one.

Game 42: For Frog The Bell Tolls - 2/5 - around 07:00 hours (22/07/2017)

Finished the game. It's a very straightforward experience masked under the hood of a Zelda-like game: the reality is that the game will constantly point you in the direction you have to go and exploration is very limited; still there're secret items scattered around, but again, you'll need to pick them up anyway if you want to proceed and beat the final boss. The story is charmingly simple, nothing is overthought in it, so the game is a rather pleasurable ride, sorta like reading a children's book. Combat is non-existent, once you impact upon an enemy a short brawl cut-scene starts and everything is automatic: victory is pre-determined by some stats that you can upgrade during the game, by finding the aforementioned items. The game is mostly a light adventure until you enter the few dungeons, when it becomes a rather tricky puzzle platformer; the later castle parts are especially difficult, what had been an easy ride transforms into a super challenging platformer with few checkpoints, many possible routes, plenty of deadly pitfalls and traps: a difficulty spike that's hardly justified. The frog and snake transformations you acquire progressing through the game seldom feel rewarding and are mostly a nuisance due to having to constantly switch from a form to another. The adventure is only barely worth it due to the crazy end-boss, interesting scenario and cute world you walk in.

Game 43: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 5/5 - 14:51 hours (22/07/2017)

Reached 200.6% exploration, level 50 Alucard, got best ending. The gameplay is fantastic and responsive, after the initial uneasiness due to the slow pace of the walking, you get accustomed to the game's rhythm and gain lots of traversal options that make the environments really fun to explore. The castle itself is full of peculiar zones with exquisite pre-rendered backgrounds and sprites, sprinkled with some 3D effects that really pop out, making their sporadic apparition really feel magical. The enemy variety is bonkers, the bosses are in great number, the equipment options are incredible; the castle features heaps of hidden rooms and breakable nooks and crannies containing secret items. There are several NPCs in the game with voiced lines and, while the quality of the dub isn't the best, the script never feels silly and is translated with an adequate tone in English; the story links to the other games in the series while mantaining its own personality and being able to stand alone; the multiple endings that you have to uncover yourself by doing certain things are an awesome bonus. Moreover this is the game that keeps on giving: I would've been fine with just the standard castle, but you get a whole other one on top of that (eheh), filled with as many new enemies, traps, items, weapons and memorable bosses! A colossal overhaul of the classic Castlevania formula that offers so much to the player and stands the test of time gracefully.


AUGUST

Game 44: The Unfinished Swan - 3/5 - around 04:00 hours (03/08/2017)

Completed the story, got all achievements. The premise is great, but I'm not sure the devs managed to accomplish enough with it: seems like you could do so much more variations on the theme and keep the game going longer while still staying fresh. In fact each chapter introduces a main variation on the painting theme, but I found the later parts quite weak and hardly connected to the initial "blank canvas" pitch as far as gameplay goes; the first chapter is what I'd liked the whole game to be about. The story is fairytale-like with a way too mysterious and allegoric tone for my liking, I think such a simple game would've been served better by a more to the point story: a simple fable. The unlockables are pretty boring and useless and you have no reason to replay the very short campaign; a few challenges revolving around the number of paintballs you could use to clear a chapter would have done wonders for the game's replay-value. The few puzzles are really easy. Another case of great potential in mechanics kinda wasted on a good game with a very limited scope.

Game 45: Hohokum - 4/5 - more than 07:02 hours (05/08/2017)

Found all the flying serpents and eyes. The art direction and imagination this game has are hard to pass by, it's light hearted and invites you to go where you want and learn your way through various interactions with the goofy world around you. The beings that populate the game, just like the environments, seem to be ripped straight from a Cartoon Network show, the simple act of flying around is lovely, feels good, and always makes you feel in control. The worlds you visit are hit and miss, with some very elaborate ones and others very briefly put together, but all offer different activities and objects to interact with. One blemish is that the undertaking of finding all the collectibles doesn't really reward you with much. In the end though, this is a majestically whimsical game.

Game 46: Overcooked [with friend] - 4/5 - 12:18 hours (13/08/2017)

Got the 3 stars rating on all levels, destroyed the Beast. It's been a while since I've played such a great and fresh co-op game, and I've just played in 2 player mode, I can only wonder how crazy it gets with 4 people. Content and story are the weak points of the game: the plot is nonsensical in a not so funny way, there's a huge hard cut after you beat the final boss with not even a congratulation screen or a brief cut-scene: besides the main cooking gameplay there's really nothing else to look forward in the game. Having said that, the gameplay itself is simple but super addictive: you feel rewarded by properly communicating and coordinating with your partner, yet it's rage inducing when you screw up; the stages feel almost all new thanks to the various mechanics employed that spice up the action, and are all perfectly tailored for the muliplayer experience. The versus mode offers some crazy replayability with a group of friends. This game's like a drug and you won't feel the time flying by while playing it.

Game 47: Rain - 2/5 - around 04:00 hours (14/08/2017)

Reached the credits but didn't bother going back to get the memories, in fact, let's start from that: the game purposefully adds collectibles only after you finish the game, so that you're forced to play it again if you want them. That's really poor design, they did it only to artificially lengthen your playtime and it makes it an hassle to get them. Having them on your first playthrough would have instead broke away from the monotony and dullness of it all: you run from enemies, you scale some generic urban landscape and you solve extremely basic puzzles that wouldn't stump a ten years old and offer no satisfaction. The game's art direction isn't that bad, the constant rain and beautiful piano music do create a nice atmosphere, but it may very well end up getting on your nerves after roaming the same dark places under the rain for hours. The biggest problem of the game is that it literally doesn't really try to do anything new aside from the, admittedly underused, rain gimmick (everything the game does could have been done without it): it's as if the last 15 years hadn't passed and this was a fresh new PS2 game.

Game 48: Stikbold! [with friend] - 3/5 - 03:12 hours (16/08/2017)

Completed the campaign, but haven't cleared all challenges (will go back to them though). The base gameplay works like a charm and makes you feel in control of your actions at all times, hitting someone with a powered shot, or catching a shot mid-air gives you a great sensation, even after having played for a long time. The campaign is very weird from a storyline point of view, but I appreciate all the care that has gone into making you feel part of a coherent world and having a complete story arc, unlike what I lamented was sorely missing in Overcooked. The campaign is also very short and to the point, while featuring continuous varitians on the basic dodgeball premise: each stage is heavily different from the others and there are many bosses. Besides the main game, there are some side activities and mini games worth trying to break the monotony. One thing I didn't appreciate is that the game skimps on teaching you some basic moves, that you have to basically learn yourself through trial and error and by trying to win the side challeges in each stage. A game with some crazy humour, an even more crazy plot and some great action.

Game 49: Rime - 5/5 - around 9:00 hours (18/08/2017)

I "let it go", but I'll be back to get all collectibles and trophies for sure. I was hooked ever since the first reveal trailer, but I started the quest skeptically due to its supposedly troublesome development; the way played on my fears in a surprisingly effective way: as soon as I entered the tower I thought the game was basically done, but it turns out I wasn't even halfway in and there was another huge island to explore! I was amazed at the scope of the exploration: the islands were believable places that felt lived in, with an internal coherence. So I was bummed out when I realized that the other two parts of the game were far less open and featured way less exploration; but that isn't to say I didn't appreciate the different takes of those zones. In fact each part of the game has a striking visual style, invoke different emotions in the player and has a different focus: exploration, stealth, puzzle solving and climbing. The graphics and sound design are excellent, too bad for the framerate issues plaguing some points of the adventure; the song playing through is otherworldly in its beauty. The game lets you walk at your own pace and doesn't hold your hand: you can freely explore and then if you feel inclined you can follow the bread crumbs the devs quietly left, as to continue on the beaten path. The plot is incredibly solid and not pretentious at all, unlike many other similar games; in the end everything is explained and resolved quite nicely in one of the most powerful endings I've ever witnessed in a video game. Even though the game never strays too much from typical puzzles of questionable difficulty and doesn't offer anything you can't find in other games gameplay-wise, the final moments of the game and the emotional impact they had on me is what will stuck with me for the longest time. A poetic adventure, brought to the screen artfully.

Game 50: Pink Heaven - 1/5 - 53 minutes (20/08/2017)

Beat hard mode. The buttons you usually press to jump and to shoot are inverted, the fact the game locks you into position when shooting can be useful but is cumbersome and counter-intuitive, the game is either super easy on your first playthrough or super hard on your second playthrough, an NPC comes out to say that the story is non-existent in hard mode... but the same could be said about the standard mode. The game is extremely short and the difficulty in the second playthrough is ramped up artificially, especially since the character controls very badly: why does she slips so much when landing? It's like if she were on ice constantly. Free but still disappointing, a chore to play.

Game 51: King's Quest: Chapter 1 - A Knight to Remember - 3/5 - around 6 hours (23/08/2017)

Became a knight of the crown. Never played the original series (well, I did play KQVII but that's far removed from what's being told here) so it's a pretty fresh experience for me. Graham is a lovable protagonist, funny without ending up as too sarcastic (Guybrush) or annoying (Rufus), one can really empathize with him. The supporting cast of characters is mostly on point and fascinating, even if one-dimensional, the plot is a simple but well-told fairytale lacking any major twists, but the way the narration is chronologically woven is intererstingly unconventional. The graphics are mostly harmonious, but sometimes jarring, as the cartoonish characters, items and effects tend to contrast with the more realistic and generic textures; the sound department is fine, as is the voiceover. From a gameplay perspective I appreciated the (kinda shallow) puzzles, not so much the action elements and I absolutely loathed the QTEs, that in 2017 should really have no more place in action games, let alone in adventures like this. The ending is satisfying in itself, there's no real huge cliffhanger to prompt you to spend on the other chapters and I admire that, even though over the course of the game you make choices that should have consequences in the subsequent iterations, and that intrigues me.

Game 52: Gravity Rush Remastered - 3/5 - around 15:00 hours (26/08/2017)

Got my second Platinum Trophy. There's something magical about this game that I can't quite grasp: the city is open but pretty barren in terms of what you can do, the sky is filled with fog preventing you to see too far, the graphics aren't that impressive, besides the on point art direction, the plot isn't that hot either for a good part of it, the challenges are all pretty similar and the DLC doesn't offer that much in termsof new content. So why did I adore this game beyond its shortcomings? I guess it's the charming soundtrack, the main character, Kat, being so down to Earth (pun intended), likeable and real, the gravity mechanics working as intended and the slow and steady progression throughout the game. The plot itself offer some nice twists and goes into very interesting places... until everything suddenly ends; the campaign definitely seem truncated when things were starting rolling for real, leaving lots and lots of story threads hanging. It's a great "podcast game", can't wait to play the sequel.

Game 53: Game of Thrones - Episode 1: Iron From Ice - 2/5 - around 02:00 hours (27/08/2017)

Made my choices and completed the episode. I appreciated the decision to introduce you and make you play as a new house, relying on famous existing GoT characters only for NPCs interactions and for creating a sort of side story interwoven with the main plot of the TV show and books. Although the story feels a lot like a retread of House Stark and their misadventures: the lord and the firstborn are killed (Ned and Robb), a daughter is in King's Landing (Sansa), the lady of the House is strong-willed (Catelyn), there are two young boys (Bran & Rickon), one son ends up in Essos (Arya) and there's someone who's not quite part of the family yet very loyal to it and gets sent to the Wall (Jon). The choices seemed quite important but I haven't witnessed their repercussions yet, the graphics try to ape impressionist paintings but are quite mediocre and sometimes jarring, especially the characters' models and the robotic animations. Not sure I care about finding out what happens next.


SEPTEMBER

Game 54: Tales from the Borderlands - Episode 1: Zer0 Sum - 3/5 - around 02:00 hours (10/09/2017)

Reached the end and watch the next episode teaser. The game being told from an original perspective, without putting too much weight on the existing lore really eased my entry into the franchise. The cast of characters are lovably despicable, and the plot being a con story gone wrong was exciting. From a technical standpoint, the game features admirable cell-shaded graphics and some good sound design, especially in the last chapter. It definitely interested me more than other Telltale properties I've played so far, the story moved at a cool pace and presented many unresolved hooks that make me willing of playing the full season. It's a different take on Borderlands with less infantile humour.

Game 55: My Nintendo Picross - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 3/5 - 24:49 hours (11/09/2017)

Finished all standard, mega and micross puzzles. It's picross with a Zelda coat of paint, nothing mind-blowing, but the many quality of life tricks the game adds, help staying focused on the core of the game; the mega puzzles add much needed variety, while the micross puzzles are a novelty that wears off quickly. A super addicting game, great to play while listening to something.

Game 56: A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV - 2/5 - around 1:00 hour (12/09/2017)

Got to the end of the campaign, tried the challenges. The fighting is varied enough by itself, and the game brings in more mechanics, moves and enemies with consistency throughout the whole story mode, but the action ends up repetitive anyway. The story is clearly ancillary, as highlighted by the hilariously bad and juvenile writing, justified by the game being a fictitious retelling of events that maybe never truely played out. The dream battle challenges are a cool addition too tackle if you want to get more out of the game. The vintage presentation features amazing pixel art paired with apt modern effects and a subpar environmental design. A surprisingly competent beat 'em up that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Game 57: Samorost 3 - 2/5 - 06:06 hours (15/09/2017)

Finished the adventure, got all sound spirits (and hence all achievements). The hand drawn (?) backgrounds, animals and characters are amazing, as is the musical tone of the journey, with its beautiful violins and flutes. The fact that the developers tried a non-verbal approach with the game is a commendable feat, but shows how important clear communication is: things aren't ever really obvious in this game. The design of the puzzles is a mess, the game fails to cue you in on what you can or can't do, on what goal it expects you to reach and even on what the ultimate motivation for the quest is! In fact more often than not the game feels impenetrable and seems to punish the player with unnecessary backtracking, unskippable traversal scenes, and forcing you to re-do puzzles to move from place to place. Even the hint system is needlessly obtuse, having you do a boring puzzle each time you want to see the solution to a problem, solutions that most times aren't clear themselves! It's a shame that such a charming and atmospheric game is hampered by absurd design choices.

Game 58: Knack II [with friend] - 3/5 - 19:49 hours (19/09/2017)

Got the Platinum and saved humanity. This is a very predictable game, from the super generic art style, to the gameplay that doesn't try to do anything new, passing through the incredibly boring plot with its terrible writing and waste of space characters. Yet, it's a very enjoyable game in co-op, at least until the new stuff keeps coming (which is basically the whole campaign, as the game keeps throwing at you new enemies, powers, secrets and environments up till the very end), and there's lots of playtime to be had: in fact the adventure may be even a tad too long and the last few chapters stretched thin in comparison to the beginning. What the game does right is the sense of scale and size it invokes, especially when Knacks gets very big and fights or (traverses inside) titanic monsters, same can be said about the environments which lack a proper style but make up for it with huge diversity and vastness. The gameplay features God of War light fighting, with some platforming sections thrown in to spice things up; when everything comes together and you've got most of the powers, the combat can shine and offers many approach and strategic options. The plot and Pixar-like characters are easily the worst part of the game, with so many bad lines, stupid scenes, annoying characters and some of the biggest garbage villains ever seen; the fact you commit a mass genocide for half the game without the blink of an eye (or any actual good reason) will forever remain as a testament of the stupidity of it all. Also the final boss is super stupid and completely underwhelming. All in all it's a solid bt mindless co-op adventure you can laugh at with a friend.

Game 59: Tricky Towers - 4/5 - 19:18 hours (20/09/2017)

Completed all the trials, played online versus and local co-op. This is one addictive game and the premise is simple: it's Tetris with physics. Sounds simple enough, but the physics and the fact you actually move the tetraminos half a square per press seriously fucks with your mind, resulting in hilarious errors. The various modes are all really nice and the multiplayer is exciting, also thanks to the crazy and numerous power ups, both defensive and offensive. It's a really basic idea but the game enslaves you to play more and more each time.

Game 60: Soul Axiom - 4/5 - 24:00 hours (22/09/2017)

Got all three endings and all achievements. Quite the mysterious game, you're thown right into the middle of who knows where and you slowly work your way throught puzzles and explorations until you reach the main hub. Once there the game takes a more structured tone, but still offering great choice in the order you wish to do things and great variety in the levels themselves you enter in: each one radically different in theme and mechanics. The different powers offer interesting albeit usually simple puzzles, and again, a great variety of them; the audio is very evocative, with chants and slow music; the graphics aren't anything particularly beautiful geometry-wise, but the environments and lighting are oft used wisely, as to give a nice final result. The atmosphere permeating the adventure is at times scary and in other moments simply dream-like; the plot is willingly obscure for a long time, until you manage to begin to piece things together, but when you do, the endings feel rewarding and offer nice closure to the journey. A rough puzzle adventure with an imperscrutable atmosphere and some nice variety of good-looking environments.


OCTOBER

Game 61: Overlord - 3/5 - 25:46 hours (01/10/2017)

Finished the campaign as a hero, with 0% corruption, conquested the coliseum, fully upgraded the tower. Weird mix of RTS and third person action adventure that doesn't really shine in neither fields: the melee combat is pretty basic, magic can be useful but drains too quickly to be an asset you can rely on, while the manipulation of the horde involves some tactic but the controls for it are very janky. Mastering the RTS controls is crucial to win, but the minion AI is quite glitchy and a good amount of times you'll get angry at your servants for not doing what you want or getting stuck somewhere. The story is hardly interesting, and the characters are a gallery of evil misfits and caricatures, so the adventure feels more goofy than dramatic, even if you decide to commit heinous crimes. There's a nice amount of upgrades for your character and tower to find in a complex interconnected world, plenty of side quests and distractions. The graphics are fable-like but sorta uninspired, the audio is there but you won't even notice it. A deeper combat system and more fleshed out minion system would have made this fresh idea into a far greater game.

Game 62: Flower - 3/5 - around 03:00 hours (07/10/2017)

Made all flower bloom and got all achievements. A game with a weird pacing: it starts as you expect, a relaxing stroll through beautiful fields, flying with motion controls feels natural after about five minutes, you take in the vibrant colours, you feel free to move around, hitting a flower here and there, or trying to bllom them all. Then the game decides it's time to get serious: gimmicky gameplay elements are added in, that simply bog down the laid back experience: wind, ground colouring and finally electricity. At that point the game becomes a more linear obstacle course, with bothersome parts that seem forced. Even though there's a sense of progression due to those new mechanics, which are interlinked with the story the game wants to narrate, the experience gets more frantic and less serene, more like a chore. In the end it's still an aesthetically pleasant, albeit short and weirdly paced, piece of software.

Game 63: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - 4/5 - more than 65:00 hours (22/10/2017)

Completed the quest, beat all non-ultimate challenges, found all treasures, still need to perfect a few stages. Basically XCOM-lite, but with vast movement options that sometimes let you reach the very opposite side of a map, and without as much customization. At the beginning of the quest you don't have as many combat choices, so the first stages can feel a bit dull, but soon you get new characters, moves and weapons; in fact the pace of unlockables is almost perfect, keeping your strategy fresh up till the endgame, when you get the very last character. The humour is always on point, even if on the silly side, the Rabbids are never obnoxious though, and nicely characterized. The presentation is astonishing: an upbeat soundtrack by Kirkhope fused with the power of the proprietary Snowdrop engine, a marvel to play on the Switch. The story missions feel mostly samey but are interpunctuated by explorative phases with plenty of simple puzzles to solve in order to progress; on the other hand the challenges are very diverse in tipology and can get much harder, even with high level characters. The environments mix many stereotypical game settings, and in doing so they create unique and colourful locales to visit. The upgrade system not only works as intended, offering you interesting strategy choices, but lets you go back on what you chose anytrime, so that you can better adapt to every situation. I can only hope that Ubisoft Milan and Nintendo's collaboration will continue, if this is a sample of the results.

Game 64: Fortnite: Battle Royale - 4/5 - xx:00 hours (29/10/2017)

Won in solo mode after many, many matches and a few second places. The time I played through this game has been some of the most tense gaming I've ever done: during the first matches I was constantly on my toes, waiting for someone to pop out and hit me from beind, after a while I got the hang of it and grew in confidence, was able to get in the top 20 easily and on a constant basis. There's nothing else quite like a 100 players battle royale, you get a weird thrill by knowing you only have one chance to win, no respawning, no second lives, but it's the same for everyone else. The gunplay is the biggest gameplay disappointment, more often than not you'd just be shooting point blank and still missing due to the way the game accounts for firing trajectories, the other big disappointment is that in team mode you'll get killed by your random companions more often than not, without any reason. The endgame, though, hiding in bushes and hoping people won't notice you, is some of the most exciting game time I've had this year.


NOVEMBER

Game 65: Super Mario Odyssey - 5/5 - more than 65:00 hours (06/11/2017)

Stopped the wedding and caught 999 moons.

Game 66: Journey - 3/5 - around 04:00 hours (11/11/2017)

Reached the end of the journey, found all glyphs and symbols. My journey through the game has been a tricky, double edged, one. I knew the online twist before starting, so that's a fairly large "wow moment" that's not there while playing; that said, I began my adventure by myself, enjoyed the formidable sceneries, soaked in the cool soundtrack and tried to slowly unravel the meaning of it all. Until I woke up from a cutscene near another player: at first I was thrilled, learning how to communicate and help each other flying, but then the other one went ahead to get the various glyphs, symbols, opening places, giving life to scarfs and so on. I felt outpaced, I felt I wasn't in control of my own game experience anymore: I quit. Got back to the game after more than a week and finished it without encountering anyone else. That's when the co-op clicked with me: since I had removed the weight of not knowing what was ahead, I felt much better about playing with others, helping them along, without doing things in their place, but accompanying them throughout the titular journey, while enjoying their mute company. The ending is also a very interesting part to me: a forever repeated, hopeless but fruitful journey to reach something that you'll never reach, during which you encounter and lose many companions; possibly an allegory of life and the human search for happiness.

Game 67: Cuphead [with friend] - 5/5 - 29:00 hours (18/11/2017)

Beaten the Devil in co-op, bought everything, got all pacifist rankings, got all A or more in the first two isles. Everything about this is so curated and in tune with the aestethic it tries to portray: the Fleischer-like animation is not only of excellent quality, but could easily pass for the real deal; the jazz soundtrack is exceptionally well made, while some of the sound effects, which are still great, could be improved upon. The amazing part is that such attention to detail in the presentation is accompanied by an incredibly fine gameplay: the boss stages are the meat of it all and deservedly so, thanks to the imagination and variety they display, the run and gun and parry levels are a much needed break from the boss fighting. The package is tight and offers plenty of fun both in co-op and single player, just enough content to feel satisfied and not overstay its welcome; the same could be said of the general gemeplay: you lose due to your lack of understanding of the attack patterns or due to your inability to respond on time to a threat. Basically a playable '20s cartoon.

Game 68: Flow - 2/5 - around 01:30 hours (18/11/2017)

Completed all campaigns and got all creatures. The main game mechanic is ridiculously simple, yet addicting, the game feels very barebone, content-wise, but features many ways to replay what's there, thanks to the various creatures you unlock. Nothing to write home about, but a nice time-waster.


DECEMBER

Game 69: Hollow Knight - 5/5 - 44:31 hours (12/12/2017)

Banished the plague from Hollow Nest, got the best ending, 102% completion rate.

Game 70: Doki Doki Literature Club - 4/5 - 03:48 hours (14/12/2017)

Seen the credits, got the bad ending. The first impact with the game is shockingly bad, even for someone who has played visual novels in the past; the most jarring issue is that boredom sets in very quickly and you don't feel invested in anything that goes on the screen. The "intro" or safe part of the story marches on for simply too much time, but when you reach the turning point it becomes impossible to stop playing. That's when the cleverness of the game kicks in, you now begin to care for the characters, for real, but every effort you make gets dismantled by the astute devs, leaving you with the consequences of your actions: there's no saving or loading in real life. At the end there's plenty of experimental stuff, unheard of in a computer game: the things you have to do to get to a better ending are crazy, but by that point you'd do anything to reach it. A free game that trumps many of this year's great games as far as impact and innovation are concerned.

Game 71: Hidden Folks [with friend] - 2/5 - 06:24 hours (16/12/2017)

Found all the folks. An interactive hidden objects game that offers both bite-sized and vast landscapes to roam in search of various people, animals and items. The graphics are very particular in their style, but fall short on repetitiveness, since most characters and props are endlessly copy-pasted between scenarios, the sound design is funny and pushes you to click every single thing to hear what noise it will emit. The lngth of the game is decent but there's little replay value once you've found everything, however the devs seem keen to update with new free areas every few months. A nice Wally wannabe, lacking in charm but not in personality.

Game 72: Gorogoa [with friend] - 4/5 - 03:06 hours (20/12/2017)

Assembled the ending. A game that is literally art, but with innovative mechanics and a story told through gameplay to boost. The dev went on record to say he purposedly made the game on the short side, and I'm inclined to say he chose well, as what's there to play is a blast, making the experience a very dense package that never bores you. Certainly a completly new kind of puzzle game, with reality bending scenes where the creation and reconstruction of context is the most important thing. What amazes me is that on subsequent playthroughs you realize how the placement and connection of everything makes sense: each item and scene was meticulously calculated and has a purpose. The story unfolds in a super labyrinthic yet super clear way: by the end you understand what has happened in the life of the unlucky young boy. The visuals are an outstanding work of design and the journey is sweet to the eyes. A game that invites the use of intuition more than logic, where associations of ideas and flow of consciousness are essentials.

Glad to see this thread here! I love trying every year even though I always fail. I failed miserably this year, too, but still gonna try to update and track my games. Next year will be my year, I can feel it!

Updated: 12/31/2017
I failed again but just want to list what i did accomplish!

26/52


Game #1- Pokemon Moon (3DS) | 1/3/2017 [28 hours 4 mins]


Game #2- Style Savvy: Fashion Forward (3DS) | 1/16/2017 [19 hours 16 mins]


Game #3- Final Fantasy XV (PS4) | 1/24/2017 [33 hours 57 mins]

Game #4- Rusty Lake Hotel (PC) | 1/29/2017 [1 hour 30 mins]


Game #5- Fire Emblem Fate Conquest (3DS) | 2/13/2017 [25 hours]

Game #6- Tales of Berseria (PS4) | 2/14/2017 [49 hours 25 mins]

Game #7- ABZU (PC) | 2/20/2017 [1 hour 48 mins]

Game #8- Norn9: Var Commons (Vita) | 3/7/2017 [N/A]


Game #9- Sakura Spirit (PC) | 3/31/2017 [2 hours 42 mins]

Game #10- Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic (3DS) | 4/2/2017 [7 hours 11 mins]

Game #11- World of Final Fantasy (Vita) | 4/23/2017 [38 hours 47 mins]

Game #12- Super Bomberman R (Switch) | 4/24/2017 [4 hours 10 mins]

Game #13- What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4) | 4/25/2017 [2 hours 15 mins]

Game #14- Nier Automata (PS4) | 5/1/2017 [22 hours 56 mins]

Game #15- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC) | 5/7/2017 [34 hours 27 mins]

Game #16- 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors (Vita) | 5/22/2017 [14 hours 19 mins]

Game #17- Invisible Apartment (iOS) | 5/23/2017 [31 mins]

Game #18- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) | 10/4/2017 [30 hours 43 mins]

Game #19- Miitopia (3DS) | 11/12/2017 [36 hours]

Game #20- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4) | 12/3/2017 [32 hours 37 mins minus the first trial that I forgot to time]

Game #21- Friday the 13th (PC)

Game #22- World of Warcraft (PC)

Game #23- Fire Emblem Heroes (iOS)

Game #24- Final Fantasy XIV (PC)

Game #25- Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PC)

Game #26- Disney Infinity 3.0 (PS4)

Going to give this a try if there's a thread in 2018! Will post the rest of my games I've beaten later.

Claiming a post now. I will post my games list and such tomorrow. I have it all saved somewhere on this laptop.

VisceralBowl do we need to send you a PM for the Hall of Fame again, or are you dropping that?

The journey continues. My thoughts on games from January through September are on some other site.

Games: 114/52

January

1. L.A. Noire: 2016-January 5
2. VA-11 Hall-A: January 6-8
3. DOOM: January 10-15
4. Orwell: January 15-16
5. Sonic Generations 3DS: 2016-January 19
6. Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-: January 24-25
7. Gravity Rush 2: January 20-28
   
   February
8. Folklore: January 29-February 4
9. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: February 4-5
10. No More Heroes: February 7-9
11. Ocarina of Time 3D: Master Quest: 2014-February 12
12. Infamous: February 13-18
13. Darksiders: February 18-23
14. Infamous 2: February 23-26
    
    March
15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: ∞
16. No More Heroes 2: February 26-March 15
17. Nier: Automata: March 17-March 22
18. Sonic Advance: January 17-March 23
    
    April
19. Horizon Zero Dawn: March 25-April 3
20. Persona 5: April 4-21
21. Yooka-Laylee: April 21-26
22. Poi: April 26-28
23. Kathy Rain: April 28-30
    
    May
24. God of War: April 30-May 3
25. God of War II: May 3-5
26. Sonic the Fighters: May 6
27. God of War: Chains of Olympus: May 6-7
28. Sonic R: May 7
29. Escape from Monkey Island: May 7-10
30. God of War: Ghost of Sparta: May 10-11
31. Oxenfree: May 11-13
32. God of War III: May 13-15
33. Papo & Yo: May 15
34. Sonic Heroes: May 15-18
35. Ristar: May 18
36. Shadow the Hedgehog: 2016-May 20
37. EarthBound Beginnings: 2015-May 23
38. Touch My Katamari: May 23-24
39. Sonic Colors: May 24-25
    
    June
40. Darksiders II: May 25-June 1
41. Super Mario Sunshine: June 1-3
42. Sonic Unleashed: June 4-6
43. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS2/GameCube): June 6-8
44. Super Mario Galaxy: June 9-10
45. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PS2/GameCube): June 11-13
46. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona: June 13-19
47. Metroid Prime: June 20-25
48. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PS2/GameCube): June 25-27
    
    July
49. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: June 28-July 4
50. HITMAN: ∞
51. Super Metroid: July 13-15
52. Metroid Fusion: July 17-20
53. 3-D Ultra Minigolf Deluxe: July 20
54. Metroid: Zero Mission: July 20-22
55. Rhythm Thief: July 22-25
56. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: July 25-30
    
    August
57. Knuckles in Sonic 1: August 1
58. Knuckles in Sonic 2: August 1
59. Sonic 3 & Knuckles: August 1-2
60. Sonic Adventure DX: August 3-4
61. Sonic CD: August 4
62. Sonic 3D Blast: August 5
63. Sonic Adventure 2: August 5-7
64. Sonic Chaos: August 7
65. Sonic Spinball: August 8
66. Sonic 1 (GG): August 8
67. Sonic 2 (GG): August 9
68. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: August 9
69. Sonic Triple Trouble: August 10
70. Tails Adventures: August 11-13
71. Sonic Blast: August 13
72. Sonic Labyrinth: August 14
73. Sonic Mania: August 15-17
74. Ys: Memories of Celceta: August 18-24
75. Kamiko: August 26
76. Half-Life 2: August 26-29
77. Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion: August 29-30
78. Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower: August 30-31
    
    September
79. Nancy Drew: The Final Scene: August 31-September 1
80. Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand: September 1
81. Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake: September 1-2
82. Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel: September 2
83. Half-Life 2: Episode One: September 2-3
84. Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island: September 3-4
85. Nancy Drew: Secret of Shadow Ranch: September 4
86. Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor: September 5-6
87. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls: September 6-10
88. Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock: September 10-11
89. Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon: September 11-12
90. Nancy Drew: Danger by Design: September 12-13
91. Nancy Drew: Creature of Kapu Cave: September 13-14
92. Metroid: Samus Returns: September 15-21
93. Nancy Drew: White Wolf of Icicle Creek: September 21-22
94. Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull: September 23
95. Nancy Drew: Phantom of Venice: September 24-25
    
    October
96. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: September 26-October 3
97. A Hat in Time: October 5-7
98. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy: October 7-10
99. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga+Bowser's Minions: October 10-14
100. Half-Life 2: Episode Two: October 14-15
101. Luigi's Mansion: October 16-17
102. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: October 17-21
103. Super Mario 3D Land: 2016-October 26
104. Super Mario Odyssey: ∞
     
     November
105. Shadows of the Damned: November 7-11
106. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (HD): November 15-19
107. Killer is Dead: November 19-22
108. Star Fox Adventures: November 24-27
     
     December
109. Alundra: November 28-December 8
110. The Room Tribute: December 14
111. 3D Dot Game Heroes: December 15-21
112. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): December 21-24
113. Lollipop Chainsaw: December 26-28
114. Guacamelee!: December 29-31

I'm going to post just a list for now, shamelessly copying the format of the first poster.

Game 1 - LIMBO (PC)
Game 2 - Furi (PC)
Game 3 - LOVE (PC)
Game 4 - Pony Island (PC)
Game 5 - Dishonored (PC)
Game 6 - Enter the Gungeon - coop - (PC)
Game 7 - Risk of Rain - coop - (PC)
Game 8 - 20XX - coop- (PC)
Game 9 - Broforce - coop - (PC)
Game 10 - Portal 2 - coop - (PC)
Game 11 - Poi (PC)
Game 12 - Killer Is Dead (PC)
Game 13 - Steamworld Dig (PC)
Game 14 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U) - 79.5h
Game 15 - Steredenn (PC) - 13h
Game 16 - The Blackwell Legacy (PC) - 4.1h
Game 17 - Yooka-Layee (PC) - 19.5h
Game 18 - Dishonored - The Knife of Dunwall (PC) - 9h
Game 19 - Dishonored - The Brigmore Witches (PC) - 5h
Game 20 - Princess Remedy In a World of Hurt (PC) - 1h
Game 21 - INK (PC)
Game 22 - Stephen's Sausage Roll (PC) - 34h
Game 23 - Disney Aladdin (SNES) - 2h
Game 24 - Disney The Lion King (SNES) - 2.5h
Game 25 - Four Sided Fantasy (PC) - 1.5h
Game 26 - Spy Chameleon - RGB Agent - 2h
Game 27 - Paint it Back (PC) - 41h
Game 28 - SteamWorld Heist (PC) - 18h
Game 29 - Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3) - 19h
Game 30 - Path of the Rabbit (PC) - 2h
Game 31 - Perisher (PC) - 2h
Game 32 - Snake Pass (PC) - 5.8h
Game 33 - Ristar (Genesis) - 4.1h
Game 34 - Gunstar Heroes (Genesis) - 2.4h
Game 35 - Beyond Oasis (Genesis) - 5.3h
Game 36 - Vanquish (PC) - 5h
Game 37 - The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis) - 2.5h
Game 38 - Hidden Folks (PC) - 3h
Game 39 - Gunman Clive 2 (PC) - 1.6h
Game 40 - Dynamite Headdy (Genesis) - 6h
Game 41 - Alien Soldier (Genesis) - 5h
Game 42 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) - 2h
Game 43 - Rhythm Heaven Megamix (3DS)
Game 44 - Mighty Gunvolt + DLC (3DS) - 2h
Game 45 - Gargoyle Quest (GB) - 5h
Game 46 - Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (3DS)
Game 47 - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (3DS)
Game 48 - Westerado: Double Barreled (PC) - 2.4h
Game 49 - The Sexy Brutale (PC) - 9h
Game 50 - Necrosphere (PC) - 2h
Game 51 - Death Road to Canada (PC) - 3.3h
Game 52 - Oxenfree (PC) - 4h
Game 53 - Cuphead (PC) - 10.8h
Game 54 - A Hat in Time (PC) - 7h
Game 55 - Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (GBA) - 4.4h
Game 56 - Tiny Barbarian DX (PC) - 12h
Game 57 - The End Is Nigh (PC) - 6.5h
Game 58 - Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Game 59 - Princess Remedy in a Heap of Trouble (PC)
Game 60 - Tower 57 (PC)
Game 61 - Gunpoint (PC)
Game 62 - The Count Lucanor (PC)

---

Now Playing

Hitman
Caveblazers
Darkest Dungeon
Dishonored 2

Mmm... that new thread smell. It's good to be back!

PSN:


Steam:


2015: 111 games completed
2016: 73 games completed
2017: 55 games completed as of 11/19/17

1) Higurashi: When They Cry Episode 1
Platform: PC / Finished 1/1/17 (started in 2016) - 8 hours
The first episode was a horror masterclass. The second episode, not so much. Dropped for now.

2) Letter Quest: Remastered
Platform: PSV / Finished 1/1/17 (started in 2016)
Some annoying balance issues mar this otherwise innocuous Scrabble-esque RPG.

3) Actual Sunlight
Platform: PSV (100% trophies complete) / Finished 1/1/17 - Around 1 hr
Feels like an RPG Maker game, but has some nice themes. Wouldn't have paid money for it.

4) Love
Platform: PC / Finished 1/1/17 - around 1hr 30min
Funky platformer, developed by a Gaffer. Short but fun.

5) Abzu
Platform: PC / Finished 1/1/17 - 1.9 hours as per Steam
Like an underwater, B-team Flower. By Journey's art director?

6) Firewatch
Platform: PC / Finished 1/2/17 - 5.6 hours as per Steam
A "walking simulator" with fantastic atmosphere and a real sense of place. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

7) Poi
Platform: PC - 100% achievements complete, Early Access / Finished 1/8/17 - 5.2 hrs as per Steam
Very competently done Mario 64 clone. Sometimes a little too slavish a tribute, to the point of outright copying.

8) Press X To Not Die
Platform: PC / Finished 2/11/17 - 28 minutes as per Steam
Hilariously cheesy B-movie FMV game. Worth it if you can get it (very) cheap.

9) Arslan: The Warriors of Legend
Platform: PC / Finished 2/12/17 - 8.9 hours as per Steam
Enjoyable for what it is - a cliff's notes retelling of the Arslan legend.

10) Super Bomberman R
Platform: Switch / Finished 3/15/17 - Around 4 hours
Hated this game roundly when I first played it. Subsequent patches have upped FPS to 60 and added a lot of new, free content.

11) Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Platform: Switch / Finished 4/2/17 - Around 65 hours
I'm writing this on the 23rd of November. It's still my Game of the Year.

12) Lego City Undercover
Platform: Switch / Finished 4/15/17 - "Over 15 hours"
A fun fusion of open world gameplay and traditional "Lego" game elements. Has some serious framerate issues.

13) ACA NeoGeo: Rising Star
Platform: Switch / Finished 5/4/17 - Around 30 minutes
Pretty mediocre shmup - I wish I had skipped this, honestly.

14) Streets of Rage 2 3D
Platform: 3DS / Finished 5/20/17 - 1 hour 52 minutes
Still the GOAT Genesis-era sidescrolling beat-em-up. Very well done 3D implementation.

15) Kamiko
Platform: Switch / Finished 5/20/17 - Around 1 hour 30 minutes (1.5pt)
A pretty mediocre top-down action game. Cheap, but you get what you pay for.

16) Skylar and Plux: Adventure on Clover Island
Platform: PC / Finished 6/17/17 - 3.7 hours per Steam (1pt)
God-awful Ratchet and Clank clone on PC. Play only if you're tapped out on platformers.

17) Emily is Away 2
Platform: PC / Finished 6/18/17 - 4.7 hours per Steam (2+pt)
A mildly disappointing sequel to the remarkable first game. Reuses too many themes.

18) Final Fight 2 (VC)
Platform: 3DS /Finished 6/24/17 - 1 hr 47 mins (1+ pt)
Playing Streets of Rage 2 got me in the mood to play this. Easier than I remember!

19) Final Fight 3 (VC)
Platform: 3DS /Finished 6/24/17 - 1 hr 9 mins (1 pt)
This game was easy as shit. Completely average in every way.

20) Mighty Gunvolt Burst
Platform: Switch / Finished 6/24/17 - 2 hrs 54 mins (1 pt)
An excellent Mega Man X clone by Inti Creates. What Mighty No. 9 should have been.

21) Rudymical: Dark Witch Music Episode
Platform: Switch /Finished 6/24/17 - Around 2 hrs (1++ pt)
A rhythm game with little rhythm… or game. One of the worst games I own on the Switch.

22) Witch and Hero
Platform: 3DS / Finished 6/29/17 - 4 hours 6 minutes
I loved Witch and Hero so much! An impressive spin on the usual tower defense formula.

23) Crash Bandicoot 1 (Crash Trilogy)
Platform: PS4 / Finished 7/1/17 - Around 6 1/2 hours
Super tedious by modern standards. If you weren't weaned on the original, start with Crash 2.

24) Persona 5
Platform: PS4 / Finished 7/8/17 - Exactly 99 hours and 57 minutes
Still a decent to good RPG (it's still a Persona game), but fell well short of my expectations.

25) Mortal Kombat X
Platform: PC / Finished 7/14/17 - 6.3 hours as per Steam
Hated the gameplay. Story mode was even less accessible than MKIX. Unlocks were dreck.

26) Witch and Hero II
Platform: 3DS / Finished 7/15/17 - 3 hours 5 minutes (1 pt)
I needed more Witch and Hero. That's exactly what they gave me! So good.

27) LASTFIGHT
Platform: PC / Finished 7/18/17 - 29 minutes as per Steam
Take Power Stone. Make it crappier, French-ier, & way more unbalanced.

28) Ryse: Son of Rome
Platform: PC / Finished 7/19/17 - 6.4 hours as per Steam
A beautiful, if hollow, QTE-filled hand-to-hand combat game. Powered through it so I could recover the hard drive space.

29) Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series
Platform: PC / Finished 7/23/17 - 12.4 hours as per Steam
Better than it's given credit for, but relentlessly depressing. You've been warned.

30) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Platform: 3DS / Finished 8/16/17 - 20 hours 34 minutes (1 pt)
A full replay of the OG PWAA - this got me into visual novel type games. Still very good.

31) Minecraft: Story Mode
Platform: PS4 / Finished 8/19/17 - Around 10 hours
This was so, so bad. It's the game equivalent of eating off brand potato chips.

32) Sine Mora EX
Platform: PC / Finished 8/20/17 - 69 minutes as per Steam
A free re-release for PC owners prompted a replay of this shooter "classic". It's divisive, but I love it.

33) Strikers 1945
Platform: Switch / Finished 8/21/17 - Around 4 hrs (5+ pt, 1CC)
One of the most solid of the Switch's many shmup releases.

34) Hollow Knight
Platform: PC / Finished 8/21/17 - 21 hours and 16 minutes, plus another 3 1/2 hours for a partial run
My new favorite Metroidvania of all time. Yes, it's better than SotN or Harmony of Dissonance.

35) Ironcast
Platform: Switch / Finished 8/27/17 - Around 19 hrs (5+ pt)
A roguelike Puzzle Quest, with equipment and special abilities. It's as good (and as frustrating) as that sounds.

36) Implosion: Never Lose Hope
Platform: Switch / Finished 8/27/17 - Around 4-5hrs (5+ pt, 1CC)
Absolutely terrible isometric character action game. A phone game through and through.

37) Uncharted: Lost Legacy
Platform: PS4 / Finished 9/4/17 - 9 hours, per in game timer
The most solid Uncharted game we've gotten since Among Thieves. Open world bits don't quite work out.

38) Titanfall 2
Platform: PC / Finished 9/10/17 - 8 hours as per Origin
Busted through the single player, and had a blast. Respawn's still got it. Completely ignored the MP.

39) Steamworld Dig 2
Platform: NSW / Finished 9/27/17 - 10 hours, 47 min as per in game timer
Comprehensively upgrades everything about the first game. One of the finest platformers of 2017.

40) A Hat In Time
Platform: PC / Finished 10/15/17 - 8.6 hours as per Steam
Speaking of platformers, this is another good one. Don't let JonTron being a racist prick dissuade you from experiencing this excellent platformer.

41) Flix and Chill
Platform: PC / Finished 10/28/17 - 87 minutes as per Steam
A pretty fun, if simplistic, take on the perils of dating. I am SO glad I am happily married.

42) Super Mario Odyssey
Platform: NSW / Finished 10/31/17 - No idea, beat it in less than a week. Stupid activity log
A glorious return to form, & true sequel to the legendary Super Mario 64. 2017 was a helluva year.

43) Picross E1
Platform: 3DS / Finished 10/31/17 - 7 hours 38 minutes
I have an unhealthy love for Picross – I enjoy picking away at the games a few boards at a time. The 3DS games are best of breed.

44) Vector Strain
Platform: PC / Finished 11/01/17 - 48 minutes as per Steam
This game was so vanilla I literally remember nothing about it, despite beating it less than a month ago.

45) What Remains of Edith Finch
Platform: PC / Finished 11/01/17 - 3 hours as per Steam
A trippy walking sim that chronicles the sad history of the perennially unlucky Finch family… to say more would be an injustice.

46) NieR: Automata + 3C3C1D119440927 DLC
Platform: PC / Finished 11/04/17 - 44 hours as per Steam
There's a lot of repetitiveness and asset reuse, but the glorious animation, combat and story allow Automata to rise above its mid-budget origins to deliver one of the finest games of 2017. Note: The DLC isn't worth the price, avoid at all costs.

47) Virginia
Platform: PC / Finished 11/04/17 - 2.3 hours as per Steam
A strange mystery-based walking simulator with no spoken dialogue at all. Has the biggest mindfuck of an ending I've ever seen.

48) Cuphead
Platform: PC / Finished 11/05/17 - 9.9 hours as per Steam
I thought Crash 1 was the most rage inducing title I'd play this year... I was wrong. Still excellent, but I can't remember the last time I cursed so much at a game.

49) Ittle Dew 2
Platform: NSW / Finished 11/13/17 - 6 hours 2 minutes as per in-game timer
This got an early local release, and I managed to beat it prior to the NA launch. Well-done Zelda clone with some serious loading issues.

50) Super Mario Run
Platform: Android / Finished 11/13/17 - Around 7 hours overall, including many games of Toad Rally
The base Mario Run campaign is a mediocre NSMB title at best. However, taken in the context of Toad Rally's asynchronous multiplayer, it becomes quite fun.

51) Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Platform: PC / Finished 11/15/17 - 33 hours as per Steam
Game has a strong start, but the formula really starts wearing thin towards the end (like most AC games).

52) Splatoon 2
Platform: NSW / Finished 11/17/17 - around 27 hours (and counting)
Took me a while to beat the SP campaign (which is merely decent) because I kept getting sidetracked by the multiplayer (which is fantastic).

53) ARMS
Platform: NSW / Finished 11/18/17 - Around 4 1/2 hours
The worst first party Nintendo title on the Switch. I tried so, so hard to love this, believe me.

54) Batman: The Telltale Series (Season 1)
Platform: PC / Finished 11/19/17 - 9.9 hours as per Steam
As expected, the choices don't matter as much because Batman is such a well-defined character. However, I really enjoyed the story.

55) Rakuen
Platform: PC / Finished 12/2/17 - 10.2 hours as per Steam
One of the finest games I've had the pleasure of playing in 2017. Laura Shigihara's (PVZ) first game, and she knocked it out of the fucking park!

In Progress:

Mirror's Edge Catalyst (Origin) - 8 hours so far
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (Steam) - 2 hours so far
Tales of Berseria (Steam) - 12 hours so far
Yakuza 0 (PS4) - 4 hours so far

1: Virginia (Steam) - 1.5 hours
Really loved the art style, but the constant story cuts and the last third of the story really soured my opinion of the game.

2: God Eater Resurrection (Steam) - Not sure on hours
Well, technically only beat the main story for God Eater 1, haven't finished the extra content added in Resurrection and Burst. God Eater is a really fun Monster Hunter clone, now if only the Steam version had working 4 player coop......

3: Ys 1 (Steam) - 6 hours
Finally beat my first Ys game, despite picking up all the Steam ports Day 1. Interesting game, but the combat and the fact that without a guide I'd never have figured out certain sections means I didn't quite like it as much as I expected. (Side note: There is a bug in the Steam version which causes boss fights to be harder if you have your refresh rate higher than 60hz.)

4: Refunct (Steam) - 20 minutes
A really short but fun first person platforming game.

5: Yakuza 5 (PS3) - 59 hours
A good entry in the Yakuza series, but really suffers from bad story pacing. Every time it felt like the story was starting to ramp up, you switched to a different o-playable character and the story slowed to a crawl until it got interesting again and then you switched again. Surprised this one had that issue, since Yakuza 4 also had multiple characters but I don't remember it having the same story pacing issues. Side note, meant to only do the storyline as I wanted to beat this before Yakuza 0 came out, and instead ended up doing almost all the side content.......

6. Overwatch (PC) - way too much time
Not actually done playing the game, but considering I've put at least 30 hours and we're only 1.5 months into the year, pretty sure this game should be here.

7. Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile) - ???
Pretty fun mobile version of Fire Emblem, just wish the story stuff was actually there outside of maybe 10 lines per chapter. Also after a certain point if you don't have 5 star characters you can't complete some maps.

8. Sniper Elite 3 (PC) - 9 hours
Playing through in coop was fun, but the difficulty spikes were insane and the checkpoint system was terrible.

9. Breath of Death VII (PC) - 4 hours
Small, decent parody of Dragon Quest.

10. ABZU (PC) - ~4 hours
Gorgeous looking game. I'm a real sucker for underwater games.

11. LIT (PC) - 1 hour
Didn't enjoy it that much as a puzzle game.

12. Loot Hero DX (PC) - 2 hour
A very simple side scroller action clicker type game.

13. Tap Heroes (PC) - 6 hours
Clicker game.

14. Plantera (PC) - 6 hours
Clicker game.

15. Nier: Automata (PC) - All main endings 45 hours

16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) - over 40 hours

17. Persona 4 Golden (VITA/Playstation TV) - 102 hours

18. Kamiko (Switch) - 39 minutes (Yamato Route)

19. Heroes of the Storm (PC) - 30 matches

20. Dying Light (PC) - 24.5 hours

21. Magikarp Jump (Android)

22. Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire (Android)

23. Tekken 7 (PS4)

24. Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4)

25. Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PC)

26. Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition (PS4)

27. Splatoon (WiiU)

28. Dead Rising 3 (PC)

29. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

30. Rocket League (PC)

31. Copoka (PC)

32. MANDAGON (PC)

33. What Remains of Edith Finch (PC)

34. Flower (PS4)

35. Destiny 2 (PS4)

36. SteamWorld Dig 2 (PC)

37. Destiny 2: Leviathan Raid (PS4) *for the amount of time I've spent playing and beating this I could have beaten like five other games....

38. Scanner Sombre (PC)

39. The Unfinished Swan (PS4)

40. Destiny 2 (PC)

41. Destiny 2: Leviathan Raid (PC) *too much Destiny.....

42. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

43. Star Wars Battlefront 2 (PS4)

44. A King's Tale: Final Fantsy XV (PS4)

45. INSIDE (PC)

46. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)

47. Destiny 2: Eater of World Raid Lair (PC)

48. Star Wars Battlefront 2: Resurrection (PS4)

49. Let Them Come (PC)

50. Submerged (PC)

51. Cuphead (PC)

52. Pit People (January Early Access content) (PC)

53. Entwined (PS4)

This time it's for real.

2016: 25 Games

January
01. [XB1] Life is Strange - 22:38
02. [X360] Saints Row IV - 22:29
03. [X360] Tron: Evolution - 7:25
04. [PS4] The Order: 1886 - 7:45
05. [PS4] Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness - 18:13
06. [WiiU] Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - 8:33

February
07. [XB1] Super Dungeon Bros - 6:32
08. [X360] Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - 27:10

March
09: [NSW] Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 35:00
10: [XB1] Assassin's Creed Unity - 30:17

April
11: [X360] Lord of the Rings: War in the North - 18:20
12: [XB1] Final Fantasy XV - 45:30
13. [XB1] Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - 5:07

May
14: [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 55:00
15: [XB1] Mass Effect Andromeda - 95:34
16: [PS3] Heavy Rain - 9:40
17: [PS4] Killzone Shadow Fall - 7:25

June
18: [X360] Star Trek - 14:10
19: [PS3] Tales of Xillia - 31:32
20: [PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 - 34:44
21: [PS4] The Last of Us Remastered - 15:30
22: [XB1] Brothers: Tale of Two Sons - 3:08

July
23: [XB1] Halo 5: Guardians - 17:59

August
24: [GCN] Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - 28:54
25: [NSW] Splatoon 2 - 55:00

October
26: [PS4] Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered - 5:14
27: [PS4] Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered - 8:30
28: [PS4] Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered - 7:50
29: [XB1] Oxenfree - 4:00
30: [PS4] Ratchet and Clank - 11:15
31: [SNES] Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 25:00

November
32: [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey - 50:00
33. [3DS] Tales of the Abyss - 37:22
34. [XB1] The Walking Dead: Season One - 16:56
35. [XB1] The Walking Dead: Season Two - 10:28
36. [XB1] Trials Fusion - 8:43
37. [XB1] Tales from the Borderlands - 13:04

December
38. [PS4] Nier: Automata - 21:50
39. [XB1] Star Wars Battlefront 2 - 19:27
40. [MBL] Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - 120:00
41. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts Final Mix - 24:47
42. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories - 25:26

Unfortunate, but i had to delete all the impressions that were posted in the form of links to older posts of mine

1: Final Fantasy Tactics - 40 hours
# I hope this counts cos i started it last year already (obviously). Still a great videogame and one of the best FF's.

2: Yakuza - 10 Hours
# I liked what the game was going for, but the random encounters, the simplisitic combat and the constant searching for your mission goal became pretty tiring.

3: Yakuza 2 - 15 Hours
# A noticable improvement over the first. The ending remindend me a bit of MGS in a away.

4: Yakuza 3 - 15 Hours
# This one i really liked. The combat is so much better. I guess the ending would have been a lot more impactful if i wouldn't have known there are 3 games coming after. Altho the post-credit scene devalued it either way.

5: Yakuza 4 - 20 Hours
# I really liked the Plot of this one. The minigames also were a lot more interesting, altho things like the Dojo Management took to much time. Having to ward through the same three sentence of dialogue every time you make a resting session and suchs felt offensively annoying. Great Game tho.

6: Yakuza 5 - 35 Hours
# The gameplay and minigames are the best one in the franchise, the story in its core is also pretty good but dragged down by a lot of filler like Saejimas dream passages.
My final ranking would be: 4 > 3 > 5 > 2 > 1

7: Detention - 2 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

8: Event 0 - 2 Hours
# The exploration was done better by Gone Home and the going through logfiles was done better by Analogue and Her Story. This game left me with nothing but the feeling that it was 2 hours later than when i started it.

9: Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter - 8 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

10: Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - 20 Hours
# The minigames are somme of the lamest in the series, the combat is as fluid as ever tho.

11: Kingdom Hearts - 0.2 ~ A Fragmentary Passage - 4 Hours
# Not like i ever needed to be sold on KH3, but if i would, this would've done the job.

12: Yakuza 0 - 30 Hours
# Yakuza 4 > Yakuza 3 & 0 > Yakuza 5 > Yakuza 2 > Yakuza 1

13: Resident Evil VII - 8 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

14: Prey - 5 Hours
# I completely forgot how dope it was, especially the beginning. Great game.

15: NIOH - 35 Hours
# What a game. Wouldn't have expected a mix of Souls, Character Action and Diablo to work as well as it does. I liked the game and it's beta's initially but NIOH just got better as time went on. Definitely a game i'm expecting to have in my GOTY list.

16: NieR - Automata 40 - Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

17: Stories Untold - 3.5 Hours
# Unfortunately, i did not like Case 3 and 4 at all. The first two were really great.

18: Torment: Tides of Numenera - 34 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

19: Titanfall 2 - 5 Hours
# The leveldesign was amazing, moving around felt awesome and the story was surprisingly funny as i expected USA USA USA OORAAH Military BS, but the game was also rather short and even on the hardest difficulty far, far, far to easy.

20: Stella Deus - 33 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

21: A Normal Lost Phone - 50 Minutes
# okayish game, great soundtrack

22: Persona 5 - 91 Hours
# What. A. Game.

23: Maize - 3.5 Hours
# i'm A-Maize-d by it's averageness. The story starts of weird and intruiging but doesn't go anywhere but "lol so random xD" humor

24: Bayonetta - 13 Hours
# Still one of the best Action games of last gen

25: What remains of Edith Finch - 2 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

26: Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War III - 15 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

27: Little Nightmares - 2.5 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

28: Prey - 20.5 Hours
# It's really damn good and very worthwhile. The way sidequests are implemented and impact your playthrough throughout the game is very well done. The story takes some time to get going tho, and only the ending really brigns something interesting to the table.

29: Expeditions: Viking - 25 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

30: Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - 40 Hours
Loved the bosses, hated the dungeon designs, all around a good but not great game

31: Mortal Kombat X - 5 Hours
# Surprisingly entertaining singleplayer campaign

32: Vanquish - 7 Hours
# Don't vanquish too often or you go blind. It's very addictive and you might forget how to do the real thing if you vanquish to much

33: Emily is away too - 2.5 Hours
# Evelyn > Emily

34: CrossCells - 1.5 Hours
# Very relaxing puzzle game, tho i still prefer the hexcells trilogy

35: The Fidelio Incident - 1.5 Hours
# The background story part was very intruiging, the actual on the island part not so much

36: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - 7 Hours
# S1 > S3 > S2 > Michonne

37: Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy - 20 Hours
# 100% All three games. Amazing Remake.

38: Little Red Lies - 6 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

39: Get Even - 6 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

40: Final Fantasy XII HD - 40 Hours
# Still one of the greatest JRPG's ever created. The fast forward option is a godsend tho

41: Pyre - 11 Hours
#[LOST IN TRANSLATION]

42: Tacoma - 2.5 Hours
# Eh, as someone who loved GOne Home, this is just okay. Too predictable and basic for a story

43: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - 7 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

44: XCOM2: War of the Chosen - 60 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

45: Steamworld Dig 2 - 6 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

46: Please Knock on my Door - 1.5 Hours
# Well that was dark

47: Danganronpa V3 - 35 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

48: Cuphead - 10 hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

49: Divinity Original Sin 2 - 60 Hours
# The biggest and best RPG made since Witcher 3.

50: The Evil Within 2 - 17 Hours
# [LOST IN TRANSLATION]

51: South Park: The Fractured But Whole - 16 Hours
# The actual combat is much better, however, i enjoyed the first game more as the jokes were funnier

52: Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - 10 Hours
# Impressions here

53: Hand of Fate 2 - 22 Hours
# Still missing 6 Golden tokens, but i think those i'll be getting back to once the endless mode released.
Overall a big improvement on the first ones foundation, although i'm not particularily fond of how linear a few of these challenges were.

54: Kyoei Toshi / A City Shrouded in Shadow - 8 Hours
# It was allright i guess. I loved the setting and the Kaiju, but the actual gameplay was pretty lame, add to that an incredibly horrible framerate.

55: RUINER - 6 Hours
# This game really nails the Cyberpunk AESTHETIC. Gameplay is great as well.

56: Super Mario Odyssey - 15 hours
# I wish the game would have had more challenge during the "story", basically all of it is in the postgame and requires you to reexplore all the worlds, should've done a proper postgame world instead imho.
Outside of that pretty damn fun, tho not my favorite Mario.

57: Mario x Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - 20 hours
# Mario. XCOM. Bless.

58: A Mortician's Tale - 40 minutes
# Far too short to make a lasting impression, i think this game could've had potential if it were longer.

59: Gorogoa - 90 Minutes
# I have NO idea what the story was about, but this is an S-Rank Puzzle game.
Probably the most unqiue one since Antichamber. Absolutely recommended.

60: Subsurface Circular - 80 Minutes
# A neat little adventure. Nicely written.

#1 Wolfenstein: The New Order ★★★★ PS4 - Jan 3rd - 10 hours
Great game to start the year, great narrative and characters, fun dual wielding weapons and a decent length. Played on the 2nd hardest difficulty and didn't have too much trouble so one day I'd like to play it on the hardest mode

#2 Boom Blox ★★★ Wii - Jan 4th - 4 hours
I did all the explore levels and some of the adventures ones but didn't like those as much so I feel I got my fill after what I played. Some very creative and fun physics puzzles but sometimes the controls felt unresponsive and I got bored fairly quickly with adventure mode

#3 Devil May Cry 4 ★★★★ PS3 - Jan 5th - 7 hours
7 hours well spent with DMC4, in fact I enjoyed it so much I played it in 2 sittings. I think it falls below DMC3 because of the backtracking but it's my 2nd favourite, the combat is on another level. Now where's DMC5?

#4 Ratchet and Clank: Nexus ★★★.5 PS3 - Jan 7th - 6.30 hours
Short but good entry in the series, frame rate drops below 30 is disappointing coming off the 60fps games. Got all the collectables, might go back and play it on challenge mode one day and get the platinum.

#5 Mario Kart 7 ★★★★ 3DS - Jan 9th - 9 hours
All cups won but I'll still keep playing every now and then, great entry in the series, always had a preference for handheld Mario Kart

#6 Metroid Prime 2: Echoes ★★★★ Wii - Jan 10th - 12 hours
This one took a while to get through, doesn't quite live up to MP1 but still a great game, biggest problems were just the annoyances such as the dark world, the enemies taking a long time to kill and the ammo system. The backtracking wasn't as fun as the first game either, some areas were real slogs to get through. I'll be honest I used a walkthrough for many parts in 2nd half of the game to stop myself getting lost and annoyed and overall I enjoyed it that way. Don't want to sound like I didn't like it, I liked it a lot! Have to say as a GC game it looks better than a lot of Wii games too

#7 Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction ★★★.5 Xbox - Jan 12th - 6.30 hours
GTA clone with the chaos turned up to 11. I totally used cheats to make this one more fun and more managable, it gets seriously hard later on! Did the main missions without messing around in the map too much, blowing stuff up is fun but it gets old

#8 Star Fox Command ★★★ DS - Jan 13th - 2.30hrs
This game is fun once you get a hang on the controls but it only takes 90 mins to beat, there are mulitple endings but the mission structure is very repetitive so I stopped after my 2nd ending

#9 Gears of War 3 ★★★★ Xbox 360 - Jan 15th - 7 hours
Really enjoyed this one, appreciated the brighter colour pallet and locations and the combat feels tighter than before. Also it's a real looker for a 360 game.

#10 Gravity Rush Remastered ★★★★ PS4 - Jan 16th - 13 hours
Bought this after playing the sequels demo and liked it enough to get the platinum trophy!

#11 Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb ★★★ Xbox - Jan 17th - 6 hours
This game has some good ideas but is let down by the stiff controls and the framerate. The hand to hand combat is actually quite good, I like disarming people with the whip but towards the end of the game it gives you a load of ammo and encourages you just to shoot everyone. There is one tank boss right near the end of the game that is one of the most frustrating levels I've ever played

#12 Spyro Enter the Dragonfly ★★★ PS2 - Jan 18th - 4 hours
Again there is a fairly decent game hidden under the low framerate and glitches. The levels are massive but often feel empty and the difference breath powers are pretty much pointless as you use fire through 95% of the game. Obviously needed more time in the oven but it's as much a spyro game as year of the dragon which I don't care for that much.

#13 Dead Rising ★★★.5 Xbox 360 - Jan 23rd - 20 hours
Dead Rising took a while to get into, it has a really high learning curve when you first start but once you figure it out it's not too bad. The survivor AI seriously sucks and makes it a pain in the arse rescuing more than 1 person at a time. My first playthrough I focused on getting as many survivors as I could, then my 2nd I beat all the cases and overtime mode. It's an ambitious game for the time and I liked it but I don't wanna see another zombie for a while.

#14 Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith ★★.5 Xbox - Jan 24th - 3.30 hours
Incredibly average action game, less than 4 hours to beat and definitely not as good as I remember it 12 years ago lol. Gets slightly better towards the end when you get more powerful but still zzzz

#15 Lego The Lord of The Rings ★★★.5 PS3 - Jan 25th - 7 hours
Enjoyable yet a little simple, if I didn't love LOTR maybe I would have liked it less but worth a playthrough for fans, big game with loads of collectables. Having the OST means this also has the best music of any game.

#16 Ratchet: Gladiator ★★★★ PS2 - Jan 27th - 6.30 hours
For some reason I never played this game even being a big R&C fan, maybe because none of the other spin offs are that great but this is the real deal, shooting things in R&C games is always fun and wow forced vehicle sections that don't completely suck!

#17 Rayman 3D ★★★★ 3DS - Jan 27th - 6.30 hours
Based on the best version of Rayman 2 (Dreamcast) but can't quite handle it at a good framerate, it's still one of my favourite games of all time and as I'm able to play this one on the bus, I can look over the less than great performance.

#18 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ★★★.5 PS3 - Jan 30th - 6.30 hours
It's alright

#19 Spider-Man ★★ Xbox - Jan 29th - 2.30 hours
It's shit

#20 Resident Evil ★★★.5 PS1 - Feb 1st - 5.30 Hours
Hard but enjoyable, can't say I liked the saving system or small inventory but I get why it's like that. I prefer Silent Hill on the PS1 but I'll try RE2 sometime

#21 Heavenly Sword ★★★.5 PS3 - Feb 3rd - 5.30 hours
Pretty good although they really should have prioritised a stable framerate over graphics..I never beat this when I played it like 9 years ago because the final boss was too hard, well it's still hard but I got it eventually. Nice seeing Andy Serkis in a game.

#22 Far Cry 2 ★★★★ PC - Feb 8th - 10 hours
Love this game despite the flaws, though its certainly not one you can replay often

#23 Dante's Inferno ★★★.5 Xbox 360 Feb 8th - 6 hours
I can't believe Sony let a God of War game on the Xbox 360! Pretty good aside from the zero innovation and slightly shallow combat.

#24 Assassin's Creed Revelations ★★★ PS3 - Feb 12th - 7.30 hours
I liked the dungeon bits and the Altair levels, everything else was whatever

#25 Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex ★★★ Xbox - Feb 14th - 4 hours
Same reason why I'm not a big fan of Crash 3, too many vehicle levels and gimmicks. The hit detection sucks as do the bosses. The few normal platforming levels are decent but look empty. Game looks quite good on the Xbox

#26 Haze ★★.5 PS3 - Feb 17th - 5 hours
I'm trying to think of some memorable moments from Haze but my memory is a little.....foggy.
Has some parts that are genuinely fun, then long stretches devoid of any fun at all.

#27 God of War ★★★★★ PS3 - Feb 20th - 5 hours
One of my favourite games of all time, I know it like the back of my hand

#28 Spec Ops: The Line ★★★.5 PS3 - Feb 25th - 6 hours
Competent shooter with a good story, it does fall short of greatness due to lack of originality in the gameplay but it's worth checking out

#29 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD ★★★★ Wii U - March 1st - 14 hours
Wanted to give this another playthrough before BOTW, was rushing through the main quest at first before I realised all the side stuff you have to do to beat the game anyway!

#30 Crysis 2 ★★★ Xbox 360 - March 3rd - 6 hours
Killed a few hours, and a few brain cells. Not as good as the first one but the aliens fights are better at least. Just pretty boring whenever you're not shooting something.

#31 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ★★★★★ Wii U - March 17th - 62 hours
Finally another update. Whew what a game, it's been a long time since a game made me play nothing but it for a whole 2 weeks. It's quicker to mention the few things I didn't like such as the rain being annoying, poor framerate and the map being sliiightly too big with a lot of big areas with hardly anything there, other than that, loved it

#32 The Evil Within ★★★.5 PS4 - March 20th - 9 hours
Was pretty unimpressed with the first few hours but it picked up and I enjoyed it overall

#33 Spongebob Squarepants - Battle for Bikini Bottom ★★★.5 Xbox - March 25th - 6 hours
Decent Mario 64 clone, looks and plays very well, nearly all the real voice actors apart from Mr Krabs who sounds fucking terrible lol

#34 Half-Life ★★★★ PC - March 2th - 5 hours
Still as good as ever, still don't like Xen and still have trouble going down ladders

#35 Onimusha 3 ★★★★ PS2 - March 30th - 7 hours
This game has Jean Reno, that's all. All 3 of these games were excellent, the series needs to make a comeback.

#36 Halo: Reach ★★★.5 Xbox 360 - March 30th - 5 hours
It was decent, if you've played any of the others you've pretty much played this. The Halo games don't do that much for me but they are more fun in co-op

#37 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings ★★★.5 Xbox 360 - April 3rd - 16 hours
I liked the story n all that but the combat didn't click for me at all. Encountered a few bugs which made me revert to older saves

#38 Splinter Cell Conviction ★★★★ Xbox 360 - April 4th - 4.30 hours
This was really fun, doesn't compare to the old Splinter Cell games stealth wise but as its own thing I had a blast. It's too short and easy on Normal difficulty though

#39 Shadow Complex Remastered ★★★★ PS4 - April 8th - 5 hours
Very good Metroidvania, ended a bit abruptbly as I beat the final boss while I was still looking for key parts without realising it was the final boss lol. I thought I needed those key parts to beat the game!

#40 New Super Mario Bros ★★★.5 DS - April 20th - 4.30 hours
Bah Bah

#41 Final Fantasy XV ★★★.5 PS4 - April 20th - 28.30 hours
So close to giving this a higher score but the 2nd half of the game was a bit of a turd, I liked the open world stuff a lot even if I did get a bit burnt out by doing so many sidequests. The story is wack but I liked the 4 characters and the combat was the main thing that kept me going.

#42 Bioshock Infinite ★★★ PS3 - April 24th - 7 hours
It was okay, the combat encounters felt like a step down from the other games with big wide areas that encourage you to snipe from a distance. Elizabeth aside from giving you ammo might as well not exist, which she doesn't according to the enemies who ignore her completely. Skyhooks were cool.

#43 Dark Souls III ★★★★ PS4 - April 28th - 20 hours
Excellent as you except from Dark Souls but definitley shorter than I expected, did all the optional bosses and never had much trouble aside from the NK. Maybe the pacing was a bit off as it didn't seem to have a clear mid point like the others.

#44 X-Men Origins: Wolverine ★★★.5 - Xbox 360 - May 4th - 7 hours
One of the good movie based games of last gen, doesn't hold back with the violence. Tearing guys to shreds is fun but the pacing is a little off in the middle and it outstays its welcome slightly.

#45 Sly Cooper HD ★★★.5 - PS3 - May 4th - 4 hours
Loved the presentation and the style, didn't love the dodgy hit dectection or the minigames. If you don't go for 100% you can beat it in one sitting too. Did enough for me to check out the sequel though.

#46 Catherine ★★★.5 PS3 - May 12th - 12 hours
Interesting game with a pretty enjoyable story (that goes a bit batshit in the final act) I'm pretty rubbish at the puzzles so I played on Easy but I do like the gameplay. I had a bit of a Tetris Effect where I saw Catherine-like puzzles in a real dream I had, not unlike the plot :S

#47 Nier ★★★ Xbox 360 - May 12th - 16 hours
This...is a weird one. On my first playthrough I sort of enjoyed it, the characters were fairly good and I was interested to see where it was going but the gameplay was meh. I knew that you were supposed to play it twice to get the whole experience but during the 2nd playthrough I was getting sick of the boring gameplay and just rushed through, the new added scenes were interesting but I honestly expected the game to change more in the 2nd playthrough the way people talked about it. I ended up watching endings 3 and 4 on YouTube. The story got very melodramatic too. I liked the soundtrack.

#48 The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning ★★★ PS2 - May 18th - 5 hours
I remember really wanting this game when it came out, didn't really miss much. Presentation is quite good, having Elijah Woods and Gary Oldman is pretty cool but the game is repetitive as fuck, just spamming the same moves over and over.

#49 Rune ★★★★ PC - May 18th - 5 hours
Aw yea this game is cool. I had it on PS2 years ago but I think that version was a bit shitty. PC version seems much better. The game is atmospheric as fuck, you chop heads off like there's no tomorrow and you can eat lizards. Nuff said

#50 Titan Quest ★★★.5 - PC - May 25th - 19 hours
Good dungeon crawler, played it on and off for years but never finished it, it does go on a bit and by the final part I was ready for it to end

#51 Resident Evil 2 ★★★★ - PS1 - May 25th - 7 hours
Builds on all the good points from the first game and adds more fun. Pacing is excellent, you're never too far away from an item box and great replay value with all the different playthroughs, I did Leon A and Claire B.

#52 Titanfall 2 ★★★★ - Xbox One - May 28th - 6 hours
One of the best shooter campaigns of recent years, pacing is good, titan fights are fun and there's that one level that just elevates the whole experience. I just wish it wasn't so short.

#53 Call of Duty Ghosts ★★.5 - PS3 - June 3rd - 5 hours
As far as COD campaigns go, this was pretty bad. Quite ugly and boring.

#54 Darksiders ★★★.5 PS3 - June 8th - 12 hours
Decent Zelda clone, got a bit sick of the last dungeon and the combat, spamming the same moves over and over. Lacked originality when it came to gameplay and items and such

#55 Dragon Age: Origins ★★★★ PS3 - June 17th - 28 hours
Decided to replay this, not perfect but the good outweighs the bad. I only find the combat bearable playing as a mage. Fuck the Deep Roads.

#56 Pokemon Black Version ★★★★ DS - June 25th - 44 hours
I really like gen 5, its much faster than 4, the story line is pretty good and there's a lot of fun post game content to do

#57 Super Metroid ★★★★ SNES - July 2nd - 8 hours
Great game, excellent level design other than a few parts later on that were difficult to figure out. Controls are a little iffy in some regards but overall a game everybody should play.

#58 Far Cry 4 ★★★ PS4 - July 18th - 14 hours
Starts off alright but quickly gets boring. Took me months to finish because I could only stand to play a short amount at a time.

#59 Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars ★★★★ 3DS - July 18th - 22 hours
Really underrated strategy game, story and graphics are dull but what counts is excellent.

#60 Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure ★★★.5 DS - July 26th - 15 hours
Oozes charm and has a lot of good ideas but the more you play the less good it gets. Levels start to get too long and the difficulty spikes towards the end, sort of outstays its welcome.

#61 Super Mario 64 DS ★★★★ DS - July 29th - 12 hours
Controls let it down a bit but playing on 3ds is a bit nicer on the thumb. Otherwise a classic game and playing as Luigi is great

#62 Final Fantasy XII The Zodaic Age ★★★★ PS4 - July 31st - 40 hours
Really good remaster, the x2 speed is a lifesaver for grinding. With JRPGs I sort of zone out of the story around half way as the story starts getting a bit shit

#63 Escape Plan ★★★ PS4 - August 3rd - 2.30 hours
Some interesting puzzles and nice presentation but really short and easy

#64 Valiant Hearts The Great War ★★★★ PS4 - August 7th - 5 hours
Beautiful presentation and a moving story, it's pretty unchallenging but I never lost interest in the gameplay

#65 God of War II ★★★★★ PS3 - August 17th - 8 hours
Probably the best God of War game but the main 3 are all so close

#66 God of War: Chains of Olympus ★★★★ PS3 - August 21st - 7 hours
Played the shit out of this on the PSP, first time playing it in HD. It holds up, for a PSP game its fantastic but my god is it short. Just over 3 hours. Played through the challenges and then hard mode after to get the platinum

#67 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue ★★★★ PS1 - August 26th - 4 hours
NEED SOME COINS HERE BUZZ!
Played the hell out of this game as a kid but could never beat it, well it's pretty easy so I guess I sucked. Great levels, tight controls, kick ass soundtrack

#68 Half-Life: Opposing Force ★★★.5 PC - August 26th - 3.30 hours
This game is hard but fun hard. Cool selection of weapons but it was over way too quick

#69 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ★★★★.5 PS4 - September 1st - 35 hours
Always a blast to play this, got the platinum trophy which wasn't too difficult

#70 Deathspank ★★★.5 PS3 - September 4th - 6.30 hours
Bought this years ago when it came out but hardly touched it til now, good little ARPG, funny dialogue, some light puzzle solving and addictive gameplay, too short though even to get 100%

#71 Hotline Miami ★★★.5 PC - September 8th - 2.30 hours
Stylish and fun while it lasts, some levels towards the end felt like easiest way was to lure all the guys into one corridor and shoot them which felt a bit wrong. The game wouldn't feel nearly as good if the restarts weren't instantaneous so points for that.

#72 Pokemon Red ★★★★.5 3DS - September 8th - 19 hours
Nice replaying this without having to dish out a catridge with a dogdy battery slot. Played it so many times I have to go with weird teams so it doesn't get boring

#73 Bayonetta ★★★★.5 Wii U - September 26th - 22 hours
Played it a few times before but never went past normal mode so this time I played it twice to beat it on hard and the game gets even better on hard mode with the new enemy placements and such. Felt more appreciation for the game after. Couldn't do much in infinite climax tho

#74 Dark Souls ★★★★.5 PS3 - October 4th - 40 hours
Another replay, twice actually. First run I went for the big butchers knife which was fun, first time doing the DLC too which I was pretty over levelled for. Then I went for a magic build which I'd never done before, lots of grinding but once you get the stuff you need, its OP as hell

#75 Demon's Souls ★★★★.5 PS3 - October 7th - 10 hours
It's hard to decide whether demon's or dark souls is better but I think I lean slightly towards Demon's. Dark has higher highs but lower lows, the art direction and level design is slightly better in DeS, I find the bosses easier but the levels harder too.

#76 Everybody's Tennis ★★★★ PSP - October 20th - 11 hours
Pretty great tennis game with rpg elements, just when the game is getting too easy they put you against a boss who you have to change up your playstyle to beat

#77 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis ★★★★ PS1 - October 21st - 5 hours
Almost as good as the 2nd one though I liked having 2 characters in that one. Still good stuff.

#78 Silent Hill: Shattered Memories ★★★★ Wii - October 30th - 5.30 hours
Interesting game with a fair few flaws but the stuff it does good, it does very good. Good story, really nice lighting for a wii game and clever use of the wii remote.

#79 Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles ★★★★ PSP - November 5th - 3 hours
Classic Castlevania gameplay with a rockin soundtrack. The 30fps is a little jarring though

#80 Dementium II ★★★.5 DS - November 7th - 3 hours
Pretty much all my complaints about the first game (lack of variety, annoying sounds, copy pasted levels, bad save system) have been improved here making it much more enjoyable, however it's still incredibly short and the ending is one of the worst I have ever seen

#81 Super Mario Sunshine ★★★★ Gamecube - November 16th - 10 hours
Only 3D Mario I've never played before Odyssey. The controls in this game are pretty much perfect, I love traversing the levels but there's a lot of frustrating bits and the blue coins feel rushed. Overall it's a lot of fun.

#82 God of War: Ghost of Sparta ★★★★.5 - PS3 - December 21st - 7 hours
Haven't played since it came out on PSP, man this game is legit. Looks incredible for a PSP remaster, longer and better than CoO in every way. Another easy platinum but a lot of fun getting it

#83 Orcs Must Die! ★★★.5 PC - December 23rd - 8.30 hours
Very fast and challenging, testing all the different trap combinations is fun

#84 Castlevania Symphony of the Night ★★★★.5 PlayStation - December 28th - 7.30 hours
I like to replay this around Christmas and with that, looks like I'm done for this year.

Reserved post, got to finish 70 games (couldn't update my list before the thread got closed) last year. I really doubt I'll be able to top that in 2017 but I hope to take part in the challenge either way. Have fun everyone!

EDIT: Sorry for the lack of impressions but I'm in a hurry at the moment.

Games beat - 60 out of 52

1) Severed (PSV) - 4*
2) Bastion (PS4/PSV) - 4*
3) Hatsune Miku Future Tone (PS4) - 4*
4) Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (PSV) - 3.5*
5) Guacamelee (PSV) - 4*
6) Nihilumbra (PSV) - 3*
7) Quest of Dungeons (PS4) - 3*
8) Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PS4/PSV) - 3.5*
9) Far Cry Primal (PS4) - 3.5*
10) Batman Telltale Series (PS4) - 3*
11) Dark Souls 3 (PS4) - 5*
12) Resogun (PSV) - 3.5*
13) Not a Hero (PS4) - 3.5*
14) Steamworld Dig (PS4) - 3.5*
15) Torquel (PS4/PSV) - 3*
16) The Walking Dead S1 (PS4) - 3.5*
17) Ray Gigant (PSV) - 3.5*
18) Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PSV) - 4*
19) VVVVVV (PSV) - 3.5*
20) Lumo (PS4/PSV) - 2.5*
21) Disc Jam (PS4) - 3*
22) Shantae and the 1/2 Genie Hero (PS4) - 4*
23) Escape Plan (PS4/PSV) - 3*
24) Tetris Ultimate (PSV) - 3*
25) Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4) - 4*
26) Ghost Blade HD (PS4) - 4.5*
27) TheSilverCase (PS4) - 4*
28) Bridge Constructor (PS4/PSV) - 2.5*
29) Jak The Precursor Legacy (PSV) - 3* (I'd give it a 4* if it wasn't for the technical issues)
30) Pacman Championship Edition 2 (PS4) - 3.5*
31) Flinthook (PS4) - 4*
32) Motorstorm RC (PSV) - 3*
33) Assault Suit Leynos (PS4) - 3.5*
34) Birthdays: The Beggining (PS4) -3.5*
35) Sly Racoon (PSV) - 4*
36) Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment (PS4) - 4.5*
37) Kung Fury: Street Rage (PSV) - 3*
38) SUPERBEAT XONiC (PS4) - 4.5*
39) Black & White Bushido (PS4) - 2.5*
40) Portal Knights (PS4) - 3*
41) Type Rider (PSV) - 4*
42) Danger Zone (PS4) - 3*
43) Star Ocean V: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) - 3*
44) Heavy Rain (PS4) - 3*
45) Titan Souls (PS4/PSV) - 3.5*
46) Spy Chameleon (PS4/PSV) - 3.5*
47) Nier Automata (PS4) - 4.5*
48) Downwell (PS4/PSV) - 4*
49) Unbox: Newbie's Adventure (PS4) - 3*
50) Crash Bandicoot 1 Remaster (PS4) - 3.5*
51) Senran Kagura Estival Versus (PSV) - 3*
52) Bleed (PS4) - 3*
53) Redout (PS4) - 4*
54) Save the Ninja Clan (PS4) - 2.5*
55) We Are Doomed (PS4) - 3.5*
56) Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4/PSV) - 2*
57) It's Spring Again (PSV) - 1.5*
58) INK (PS4) - 3.5*
59) Lost Dimension (PSV) - 3.5*
60) Expand (PS4) - 4*

In 2014 I finished 28 games.
In 2015 I finished 25 games
In 2016 I finished 40 games.

Game 01: Invisible, Inc # It's great.
Game 02: Resident Evil Zero Remaster # It's okay.
Game 03: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt # Hell of a game, leaving the DLC for later.
Game 04: Atelier Sophie # It's neat.
Game 05: Atelier Firis # It's not as neat.
Game 06: Type:Rider # Eh.
Game 07: Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake # Neat!
Game 08: Dark Souls III: The Ringed City DLC # The boss fights are great, can't say the same about the rest.
Game 09: SteamWorld Dig # Pretty great.
Game 10: Duck Tales # Woo-o.
Game 11: Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers # No case too big no case too small.
Game 12: Transistor # A bit up its own ass to be honest.
Game 13: TaleSpin # I didn't know it was this bad.
Game 14: Alice: Madness Returns # It's close to being a good game.
Game 15: Ys I # Glory to the bump system.
Game 16: CrossCells # It's not as enjoyable as previous cells games.
Game 17: Hexcells # Still very good.
Game 18: Hexcells Plus # Still very good.
Game 19: Ys II # BUMP.
Game 20: Hexcells Infinite # Still very good.
Game 21: SquareCells # I don't enjoy it as much as Hexcells.
Game 22: Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride # Those objects were very hidden.
Game 23: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap # Awesome.
Game 24: Snake Pass # It's delightful, except that the 3 last levels are just mean.
Game 25: Hyper Light Drifter # Pretty good.
Game 26: Deep Space Waifu # Striking commentary.
Game 27: Pictopix # It's okay. Not as good as Paint it Back.
Game 28: Assassin's Creed Unity # It looks gorgeous.
Game 29: Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry # Very good.
Game 30: Doki Doki Literature Club! # It's clever I guess.
Game 31: Assassin's Creed Rogue # Creatively bankrupt.
Game 32: Elliot Quest # It's pretty good, though has some mean design decisions. (Oct 30, 2017)
Game 33: Assassin's Creed Syndicate + DLC # It's good but the DLC felt unpolished. (Nov 28, 2017)
Game 34: Super Mario World # Great. (Nov 29, 2017)
Game 35: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen # It's great. (Dec 8, 2017)
Game 36: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds # It's okay I guess. (Dec 31, 2017)

Retired
The Marvellous Miss Take, it's fun at first but the way they ramp up the difficulty feels real rotten and turns the game from fun to frustrating very fast.

Reserving a post here. Will copy my list later.

# of games finished in 2016: 92

Currently playing:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Skyrim

GAMES FINISHED


1) Actual Sunlight - Tiny, depressing game that came with PS+ that I started and finished over my lunch break. Cast a pall over the rest of my day with its bleak, poignant tale.

2) Watch_Dogs - Decided to give this one a go since it was $11 on PSN and I absolutely love Watch_Dogs 2. The extremely low expectations I had for this game did it a lot of good as I ended up having a great time with it. Far from a perfect game and certainly not as mirthful or polished as the sequel, but all the same I enjoyed my time. Hope that the poor commercial performance of W_D2 doesn't stop this series from getting a third game.

3) Mega Man Mobile - A friend gifted this to me on the App Store as a goof. Well the joke is on him because I finished it. Absolutely horrendous version of a classic game. I hated it.

4) Mega Man 2 Mobile - After showing my friend that I beat Mega Man Mobile he immediately gifted me a copy of Mega Man 2 Mobile. It was really a bad and unpleasant experience due to the touch controls and the abysmal framerate. Really hope he does not gift me a copy of Mega Man 3 Mobile.

5) Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - I swore off this series after feeling badly burned by 3 at the Wii U launch. This game is much, much better than 3 and I'm glad I saw it through to to the end because at various times I was definitely having fun. Gameplay is still pretty basic and repetitive and I have never cared so little about a game's story, but overall there was a lot to like (especially with the PS4 Pro patch). Will probably never play a game in this series again and assuredly nothing prior to Syndicate.

6) Mega Man 3 Mobile - Unfortunately after finishing Mega Man 2 Mobile, my friend sent me Mega Man 3 Mobile. I was not surprised to find that this is a very bad port of one of my favorite games. My friend has since sent me Mega Man 4 Mobile.

7) Mega Man 4 Mobile - This is probably my least favorite of the NES Mega Man games but it's not at all bad. I am getting used to the control schemes of these games on mobile but I'm still not happy.

8) Mega Man 5 Mobile - I really like how varied the stages are in this one. Pretty cool Mega Man game even if by this point the formula needed a rest.

9) Mega Man 6 Mobile - Wow I still just love this game. It may be my favorite of the Classic series, actually. It's a bit on the easy side by the Rush power-ups are so cool and I think the level design is unique with the split paths.

10) Mega Man X (iOS) - Bad version of my favorite game ever. Can't recommend it to anyone :(

11) Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge - Surprisingly solid for the first Game Boy game in the franchise. I never played these ones so I'm excited to keep at them while I take breaks from the intensity of Resident Evil 7.

12) Mega Man II - Another game I heard was bad that I rather enjoyed. Again, solid for a Game Boy game and I'm glad I've started chipping away at these oldies.

13) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - Totally blew me away. The VR stuff made me too nauseous to play through that way, unfortunately, but the game itself is a masterpiece. Totally different gameplay wise and yet it felt like a total return to form. Amazing game and for certain an early GOTY contender.

14) Mega Man III - These Game Boy Mega Man games seem to keep getting better and better! Really liked this one a great deal and I think they have started to gain their own identity rather than feel like cheaper portable versions around here.

15) Mega Man IV - Wow! This game really does stand on its own. I've heard that V is even better so excited to try that, but IV is a legitimately great Mega Man game and I'm so happy I finally gave these old grey games a shot :)

16) Mega Man V - Amazing game. Up there with the bes tin the classic series for sure. So original and fun.

17) Mega Man Xtreme - Not bad for what it is, basically a mash-up demake of Mega Man X1 and X2. Wouldn't go back to it but it's nice to finish off every portable 2D action based Mega Man.

18) Mega Man Xtreme 2 - Also quite flawed, but had some fun aspects and felt a bit better overall than did Xtreme 1. Good replayability, too!

19) Mega Man Maverick Hunter X - Totally great remake of Mega Man X with some things much better (additional voice acting is killer, soundtrack sounds good, nice remix of power-up locations, final Sigma stages totally different) and some things a bit worse (don't like the art style in this nearly as much as 16-bit).

20) Nioh - Man this game really is exceptional. Not sure if I like it quite as well as I do any of the 5 Soulsborne games, but if that series is taking a hiatus then this is a very welcome addition to the genre. It gets a bit repetitive towards the latter half and almost invariably requires a grind, but it's almost assuredly going to be in my top 10 at the end of the year.

21) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment - Wow! This might be the best Shovel Knight campaign yet. The mechanics are so tight and unique. Haven't played a platformer that demands so much while remaining so enjoyable in a long time. Phenomenal work by YCG!

22) Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together! - Finished this with my girlfriend and it was the first time we have ever completed a game in co-op together. Sometimes it is frustrating, but getting through each puzzle brought us a lot of laughs and good times. Great game.

23) Blaster Master Zero - Can't believe this game is only $10. I got so much value out of it and it was a welcome surprise to me just a week after the Switch launch. I'm a big fan and I will definitely replay it again sometime since I got the 'bad' ending on the first run. Oh well!

24) The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ - WOW! Isaac is a total blast on Switch and I've already put over 30 hours into it. Got really sucked into it and often thought "ok just one more run before homework/dinner/bed." Amazing game.

25) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Potentially the best game of my life. Put in 60 hours and haven't seen nearly all it has to offer.

26) Graceful Explosion Machine - Simple, elegant, and attractive. Really fun game to play in short sessions and definitely recommended for the price.

27) Snake Pass - Bizarre mechanics that are super unique and charming. Makes for one of the better platformers I've tried in a while. Didn't go for 100% completion because that seemed tedious and unnecessary, but I feel I got my money worth.

28) Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - Great art and music design and yet it feels like a relic since it's a very faithful recreation of a very old game. Still, I think it was a good time for me but I'd be hesitant to recommend it to just anyone since it is difficult and obtuse.

29) Kamiko - Definitely worth $5. Short and sweet.

30) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Had fun getting golds in all 200cc and playing some online battle mode

31) Nier: Automata - Best game I've played in years!

32) Puyo Puyo Tetris - Surprised at how much I loved this. Main adventure mode is super hard, but they let you pass the worst parts if you keep failing like I did.

33) Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City - After a rocky start it became one of my favorite pieces of DLC ever.

34) Super Bomberman R - Enjoyed playing through the main campaign co-op with my girlfriend and I hope I get chances to play it more online and with friends!

35) FAST RMX - Awesome F-Zerolike. Very difficult, but also beautiful and satisfying.

36) 1-2-Switch - I've played almost all the minigames. Does that count? Anyway I got this as a gift and I wouldn't recommend paying for it.

37) Horizon Zero Dawn - Wasn't as enamored with this one as the critical consensus indicated I would be, but it has a lot of good things going for it. Great story, fully fleshed-out protagonist, beautiful graphics, and nice gameplay mechanics. At this point it's probably not the game and probably more my feeling fatigued by open worlds.

38) Ultra Street Fighter II : The Final Challengers - Way of the Hado mode is garbage. Original game still very fun!

39) ARMS - I love this game! They have a really nice foundation to work from and I hope they're generous with DLC and new modes.

40) Mighty Gunvolt Burst - Finished it once with Gunvolt and I'll play through again with Beck. Not amazing, but it somewhat scratches the Mega Man itch. Actually gets better the more and more you put into it!

41) Yakuza 0 - This is my first taste of the series and I walked away very happy with it. Brilliant story and very deep characters. Lots to love here and I think I may come back for more when Kiwami hits.

42) Cave Story + - Still a classic! I'll replay this again with the updates later this summer.

43) Monument Valley 2 - Perfect game for a long flight. I loved it!

44) Mighty Gunvolt Burst - Second playthrough with Beck :)

45) Prey - Really wasn't feeling the game for the first half...so I restarted it from the beginning and did things differently. Fell in love! One of my favorite games of the year.

46) Crash Bandicoot 1 Remastered - Wow. Holy shit. This game is so much harder than I remember it being as a kid. Still really strong overall but I would never go back to some of these levels to 100% it.

47) Crash Bandicoot 2 Remastered - A much more reasonable game than the first in terms of difficulty but less satisfying in several ways. Rather fun all things considered but again I have no desire to return to it. Eager to see what I think of 3, which I never played.

48) Crash Bandicoot 3 Remastered - Secretly the best game in the series and by far the least frustrating. Had a really good time with everything but the motorcycle levels.

49) Castlevania - Going back to play several of these games just because I love the series so much. This is a bona fide classic.

50) Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - Played through the original version on the 3DS eShop instead of the redacted version. It's not as good without those QoL changes, but overall I still find it to be a really cool if flawed sequel. Does a lot of things right and a lot of things clumsily simply because they were novel.

51) Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - This game has aged beautifully but it is also achingly hard even with save scumming. Probably going to replay it right away because there are so many paths and a host of different playable characters like Sypha, Alucard, and Grant (who maybe will show up in Castlevania season 2?).

52) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - one of the few Castlevania games I had never played up to this point. Clearly a highlight of the franchise and a nearly perfect game. Could have done without the magic seal drawing.

53) Mega Man 7 - Going through the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 games in release order and of course started with 7. It is so good! I love how colorful and chunky everything is and I could do without how insanely difficult the final Wily battle is. Still, a very underappreciated game that I'm glad is getting a second lease on life.

54) Mega Man 8 - I think this might be my least favorite of the Classic Mega Man games but it's really not at all bad. Unfortunately it has a couple moments that I dread so much that it sours me from wanting to revisit it with any regularity (jump jump slide slide).

55) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - OK well I guess this is the pinnacle of Casltevania games (classic, Metroidvania, or 3D). It's nearly perfect in every respect. Great challenge. Cool, minimalistic story. Beautiful art and music. Wonderful balance of larger levels with secrets and more linear stuff. It's amazing and a new favorite for me.

56) Splatoon 2 - Really decent single-player that felt like a tutorial for the most part but still offered some good challenge and fun bosses. I managed to collect all the scrolls and sardinium so now I'll finally play some multiplayer!

57) Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes - I gave this a shot back when it first came out and I hated it, but it's the only Zelda I've never beaten so I thought I would give it another chance. Turns out I actually like it quite a bit but I wish I could have played through with friends instead of mostly solo with some randoms online. Definitely in the bottom tier of the Zelda series but I no longer hate it like I once did so that feels nice!

58) Mega Man 9 - I hadn't played this game since its original release nearly a decade ago. Since it's come out, I have played through almost every Mega Man game (all of Classic series including the Game Boy games, X series, Zero series, ZX series, and Legends series) and honestly I think this may be the best one of the Classic games. It surpasses 2 and 3 for me which says a lot. I'll be playing 10 next and I remember it being a slight step down but I'm still looking forward to revisiting that one.

59) Castlevania: The Adventure - Only picked this up on 3DS so I could continue my quest to finish all of the 15 canonical Castlevania games. This is without a doubt the worst of them all but it's not so terrible in its original context. I remember having fun with it as a kid and I kinda liked the first two stages of the game but the final two are a huge pain in the ass. Still, I was able to complete the whole thing in a lunch break so it wasn't too bad an experience. I've heard that the sequel, Belmont's Revenge, is a stronger game so I'll give that a whirl sometime soon.

60) Mega Man 10 - Not quite the triumph that I feel 9 was after revisiting it, but still a strong entry that I think is roughly around the middle of the pack as far as Classic Mega Man games go. I definitely prefer this to 8, 4, and 1 but I don't like it as well as I do 9, 3 , 2, or 6.

61) Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - Sooooo much more fun than The Adventure. Really impressive for a Game Boy title and a satisfying and challenging Castlevania that is nearly as good as its console counterparts. Really enjoyed this game and certainly something I would recommend to fans of the classic style.

62) Sonic Mania - the best Sonic game I've ever played. Replaying now with Knuckles. It's amazing. Firstly playthrough was a classic Sonic & Tails combo that felt great.

63) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - now my favorite Uncharted game. Gorgeous and heartfelt and unlike 4 doesn't overstay its welcome.

64) Azure Striker Gunvolt - didn't quite scratch the itch of Mega Man X but an enjoyable game nevertheless. Hope that I enjoy the second game more.

65) Destiny 2 - I'll be playing more of this to be sure, but I loved the main campaign and got my character to level 20 so for me that at least counts as "finishing" the game if nothing else. Not a GOTY contender for me but probably top 10 material.

66) Knack 2 - Friend got this for me as a gift due to the Knack meme. I ended up thinking that it's a really good game overall and clearly a huge improvement over the first. I'm still not sure exactly why this game exists or who it's for, but it's certainly above average if in many ways unspectacular.

67) Metroid: Samus Returns - Well somehow MercurySteam managed to make the best 2D Metroid game. I am absolutely stunned at how great this is. GOTY is gonna be a real battle this year!

68) Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 - Got back to this one after taking a break from the triple GOTY contenders that were Destiny 2/Knack 2/Metroid: Samus Returns. It's certainly a more fun and focused game than I felt the first one was, but didn't change things as much as I would have hoped. There should have been QOL improvements from the 3DS to the Switch for sure, although the game looks good and plays well. Regardless, the ASG series is nice but I prefer the Mega Man games that Inti made (Zero, ZX) to say nothing of the X series. Oh well.

69) Star Fox 2 - This is one of my favorite series and I can say that I greatly enjoyed playing through an official version of Star Fox 2 after so, so many years. The complete version is an improvement on the betas that have been floating around for so long and since it's only about a 30 minute game once you know what you're doing it has a lot of replayability. Not a perfect game but surely a really fun one and I'm glad it's out there for people to enjoy.

70) Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Although I was initially charmed by the game, I started to grow weary around world 3. My weariness persisted until the end of world 3 wherein I began enjoying the final few hours as much as I did the start of the game. Fun, challenging, and took me about 25 hours playing somewhat thoroughly. Could see myself returning but not right away.

71) Sonic Mania - 2nd playthrough this time with Knuckles! It's a totally different experience. Grabbed all 7 chaos emeralds this time too.

72) Sonic Mania - 3rd and probably final playthrough with Tails on his own. I have come to really love this game. Got all the chaos emeralds early on and finally got all of the medals for Blue Sphere so I think this would be considered a 100% playthrough :)

73) Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - There was a lot to enjoy about this game for sure. The orcs are the biggest highlight by far as they have great writing and personality and are fun to recruit. Still for all the good it felt like a ton of filler and a very boring open world. Good game, but won't come near my top 10 of 2017 list. Not even close.

74) Golf Story - Can't recommend this game highly enough. Matches the simplicity of the original Mario Golf GBC RPG with an awesomely fun adventure and a few new tweaks to make it captivating. A big success story for a new studio and I can't wait to see what they come up with next. It's tremendous.

75) Super Mario Odyssey - Really surprised that I'm already finished with the main story and I haven't even had the game a full week! However, I know that in reality I have barely scratched the surface and I'm going to be playing it for many months to come to track down every single moon. No reason not to--it's great! Easily top 10 GOTY material.

76) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - One of my deepest held beliefs is that Nazis all deserve to die, so I found this game to be immensely satisfying and difficult. I definitely struggled with the difficulty at times, but the moment to moment gameplay remained a pleasure. One of the best single player FPS campaigns I've played in some time and basically up there with DOOM. Bethesda is on fire.

77) Mega Man X4 - Did a 100% playthrough with X just to see if anything could dethrone X1 as my favorite action platformer of all time. Well X4 comes close but I think it's still just the second best Mega Man X game with X2 and X5 following closely behind.

78) Steamworld Dig 2 - Great little game on Switch! Had a lot of fun with it and I could see myself returning to 100% at some point but for right now as I have bigger fish to fry.

79) Horizon Zero Dawn (NG+): The Frozen Wilds - Playing through the game for a second time taught me all the things I did wrong originally and how to love it. The Frozen Wilds DLC was an excellent experience and built on the base game perfectly. It was very challenging and beautiful and somehow the gameplay finally clicked with me and became a big highlight of the year. May end up making my top 10 depending on how well I like the final few new games I'll be playing before 2017 closes out.

80) The Evil Within 2 - Dear God I had no expectation that this game would be as incredible as it is. For a mostly open-world game the pacing is near flawless. The scares are real and it feels like a combination of Resident Evil 4 and The Last of Us that is as good as both of those are. Nice characters and set-pieces, great atmosphere, fun gunplay and stealth, and just a brilliant experience all around. This is shooting directly to my top 10 games of the year. Easily.

81) Super Mario Odyssey (100% completion of all 999 moons and collectibles and Portrait Bowser defeated) - Loved the game so much that I just had to see and collect everything it had to offer. Definitely a modern day classic and will be extremely high up on my GOTY list. Delightful time from front to back.

82) Cuphead - took me just a few hours so I don't really see what the hype about the difficulty was. Great and beautiful little game and surely ambitious for what it is, but it's not quite GOTY material.

83) Assassin's Creed: Origins - if you told me a year ago that one of my favorite games of 2017 would be an Assassin's Creed game I would have laughed in your face. Yet here we are. Origins is the best the series has ever been. Bayek and Aya are wonderful protagonists, the open-world is phenomenal, and the missions all feel meaningful and satisfying. Origins is outstanding.

84) Blaster Master Zero - went back for the true ending and it was worth it. I am so impressed by Inti Creates!

85) Fortnite - played the Battle Royale several times. Never played a game like this before and I doubt I'll play PUBG anytime soon so this is a great substitute at a great price.

86) Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - What a powerful game. Senua is a tragic character moving through a beautiful and depressing world. It is so well written and really picks up in the second half. Less combat and fewer puzzles would have actually made this a better game since they felt like padding. Other than that, it's excellent and moving.

87) Rocket League - Keeps being great on Switch!

88) Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - it's more of the same great Dishonored with an awesome character, cool powers, and a quick but satisfying campaign.

89) HQ Live - the largest multiplayer game I play every day, sometimes twice. I've put in enough time to feel like I've legitimately "finished" it. Great game that changes the way I think about mobile gaming.

90) Resident Evil 7: Not A Hero - Pretty good and full featured DLC for one of my favorite games of the year and at a price that owners can afford. I like it!

91) You Have 293 Keys - it felt good when we finally found the right key.

92) Moirai - Very weird and short indie game that is unfortunately no longer playable. Glad we went through it while it was still active because it stuck with me.

93) Versus Super Mario Bros. - Finally we get one of my favorite NES games on the Switch! Probably didn't have the patience for it without savestates but even without them it wouldn't have been unbearable minus a level or two near the end. The classic holds up and I am proud that it was the game that broke my record of 92 from last year. I will never attempt to outdo this number again. Until maaaaaaybe retirement.

94) Oxenfree - really well told 2D walking simulator. Could certainly see myself replaying to do things differently. Minor performance issues on Switch but overall really solid. And this is the last game I'll finish for the year! My new record is The Unbreakable (for me) 94. Great year for games.

It's good to be back everyone! Anyway, time to move my post over here!

My Backloggery

1. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
[Finished 18/01/17]

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2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
[Finished 27/01/17]

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3. Fire Emblem Heroes
[Finished 07/02/17]

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4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
[Finished 22/02/17]

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5. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
[Finished 24/02/17]

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6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
[Finished 30/03/17]

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7. inFAMOUS First Light
[Finished 31/03/17]

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8. Sound Shapes
[Finished 08/04/17]

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9. Persona 5
[Finished 30/04/17]

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10. Flower
[Finished 06/05/17]

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11. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
[Finished 31/05/17]

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12. Severed
[Finished 03/06/17]

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13. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
[Finished 12/06/17]

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14. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
[Finished 04/07/17]

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15. Mighty Gunvolt Burst
[Finished 07/07/17]

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16. Overwatch
[Finished 19/07/17]

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17. Darksiders
[Finished 26/07/17]

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18. Horizon: Zero Dawn
[Finished 27/07/17]

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19. Splatoon 2
[Finished 12/08/17]

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20. Hollow Knight
[Finished 19/08/17]

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21. Sonic Mania
[Finished 22/08/17]

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22. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
[Finished 26/08/17]

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23. Fossil Echo
[Finished 27/08/17]

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24. Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition
[Finished 08/09/17]

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25. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
[Finished 12/09/17]

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26. Metroid: Samus Returns
[Finished 16/09/17]

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27. Knack 2
[Finished 24/09/17]

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28. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
[Finished 27/09/17]

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29. Star Fox
[Finished 02/10/17]

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30. Golf Story
[Finished 03/10/17]

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31. Bye-Bye BoxBoy!
[Finished 07/10/17]

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32. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
[Finished 11/10/17]

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33. Donkey Kong Country
[Finished 14/10/17]

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34. Cosmic Star Heroine
[Finished 14/10/17]

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35. Super Castlevania IV
[Finished 18/10/17]

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36. Cuphead
[Finished 24/10/17]

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37. Super Mario Odyssey
[Finished 28/10/17]

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38. Yono and the Celestial Elephants
[Finished 03/11/17]

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39. Wolfenstein: The New Order
[Finished 12/11/17]

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40. Ittle Dew 2+
[Finished 16/11/17]

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41. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
[Finished 26/11/17]

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42. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
[Finished 28/11/17]

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43. Rocket League
[Finished 06/12/17]

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44. Xenoblade Chronicles 2
[Finished 11/12/17]

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45. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: The Champions' Ballad
[Finished 17/12/17]

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46. Gorogoa
[Finished 17/12/17]

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Was bummed when I thought this challenge was over! Reserving my slot! I'm at 36 games so far. Good luck on finishing strong fam.

1. Kero Blaster | January 1st | 3 hours | Score: 9/10
I need to replay this game, but it's still technically beaten. I really want to experience the next difficulties.

2. Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight | January 2nd | 4 hours | Score: 8/10
Great experience, easily replayable. The visuals are stunning. I wasn't expecting it to be as difficult as it was at the beginning of the game. Though once I got used to the game, it became very predictable but remained rewarding nonetheless.

3. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC | January 23rd | 64:04 hours | Score: 8/10

4. Fire Emblem: Heroes | February 16th | Score: 8/10
Completed all story chapters on all three difficulties.

5. Tales of Berseria | February 23rd | 92 Hours (lot of afk so not sure tbh) | Score: 8/10

6. Final Fantasy X|V: Heavensward
Cleared Heavensward Post Game Main Scenario

7. Overwatch | Constantly playing

8. NieR: Automata | March 21st | 46:19:06 | Score: 10/10

9. Gravity Rush REMASTERED | March 26th | 09:00:00 | Score: 8/10

10. Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- | March 27th | 12:00:00 | Score: 7/10
Honestly, if I hadn't skipped the story it would have been like a 5.

11. Turtles in Time | March 28th | 00:25:09 | Score: 10/10
Timeless.

12. Super Mario Run | March 31st | 00:00:00 | Score: 7.5/10
It's solid, and I'm still going to play more of it. But I feel like I prefer other runners to it. I guess my main issue with it is that lack of randomization outside of mixing maps around. Other then that, it's worth the money, and I'm enjoying it quite well.

13. Super Bomberman R | April 1st | 00:04:00 | Score: 6/10
It's fun, but there are some visual issues with the aesthetic of this game (in-game). Love the cute art style, simple story is fun, I enjoyed that. Gameplay is classic and while I did enjoy it, certain visual elements lead to confusion. Also boss fights can be awkward. Nonetheless I enjoyed the game and will still play it on the go and when I feel like playing Bomberman, but it definitely has issues.

14. Luigi's Mansion Arcade | April 8th | 00:30:00 | Score: 8/10
I spent like 10 bucks, it counts. A really fun arcade shooter that feels unique due to the vacuum mechanic. Played the game with a friend and had a blast.

15. Persona 5 | June 6th | 147:24 | Score: 8.5/10

16. FINAL FANTASY X|V: Stormblood | June 25th | Score: 9.5/10
Cleared the Main Scenario for the expansion.

17. Fate Grand Order 1.0 Story | 6.5/10

18. Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle ( Completed All Current Story Quests) | 7/10

19. Sonic After the Sequel | August 13th | 1:20ish | 7.5/10
Sonic Mania hype! I never got to finishing this game years ago when it was released and finally got around to it. I think some of the zones aren't as good as the first game (Before the Sequel) but nonetheless I enjoyed the experience overall. Mid to end game I started to really enjoy the zones.

20. Sonic Mania | August 19th | 10/10

21. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia | September 27th | 40:00 | 9/10

22. Cuphead | October 3rd | 04:00: | 10/10

23. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds | 7.5/10 | 35 hours (And still playing)

24. Fortnite | 8/10 | 15 hours (And still playing)

25. FINAL FANTASY XI | 9/10 | 75 hours (And still playing)

26. Super Mario 64 | 7/10 | 5 hours or so
Never been that fond of SM64. Had fun playing Co-op.

27. GUNDAM VERSUS | 7/10

28. Black Desert Online

29. Heroes of the Storm

30. Super Mario 3D Land

31. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

32. Digimon Links - Completed all current main quests.

33. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

34. Wario Land II

35. Wario Land 3

36. Virtual Boy Wario Land

37. Fire Emblem Warriors

38. Super Mario Odyssey

39. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A fragmentary passage-

40. Metal Slug

41. Metal Slug X

42. Metal Slug 3

43. Gravity Rush 2

44. Gravity Rush 2: Raven's Choice

45. Sonic Forces: Episode Shadow

46. Sonic Forces

47. Fight 'N Rage

48. Doki Doki Literature Club

49. Sonic Lost World

50. Xenoblade Chronicles

51. Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void

52. Vanquish

So happy this is still going!

Made sure to back up all my posts from the old place onto Google Docs! I won't post them all in one go, but I will post my OP from then.

Backloggery|HowLongtoBeat|Backlog Blitz main post

January:


Game One
Call of Duty - Modern Warfare Remastered (PlayStation 4) - January 7
★★★★★ (5)


Game Two
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PlayStation 4) - January 9
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25)


Game Three
Firewatch (PlayStation 4) - January 10
★★★ 1/2 (3.5)

February


Game Four
FIFA 17 [The Journey mode] (Xbox One) - February 4
★★★ 1/4 (3.25)


Game Five
Gears of War (Xbox One) - February 7
★★★ 1/4 (3.25)


Game Six
Forza Horizon 3 (Xbox One) - February 9
★★★★1/2 (4.5)


March


Game Seven
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch) - March 14
★★★★★ (5)


Game Eight
Nier Automata (PlayStation 4) - March 28
★★★★★ (5)

April


Game Nine
What Remains of Edith Finch (PlayStation 4) - April 27
★★★★ (4)

May


Game Ten
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch) - May 2
★★★★ (4)


Game Eleven
Forza Horizon 3: Blizzard Mountain (Xbox One) - May 8
★★★ 1/2 (3.5)


Game Twelve
Ratchet & Clank (PlayStation 4) - May 13
★★★ (3)


Game Thirteen
For Honor (Xbox One) - May 15
★★ 1/2 (2.5)

June


Game Fourteen
Tekken 7 (PlayStation 4) - June 6
★★ 3/4 (2.75)

July


Game Fifteen
Nex Machina (PlayStation 4) - July 1
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Sixteen
Portal (PC) - July 8
★★★★ 1/2 (4.5)


Game Seventeen
SUPERHOT (PlayStation 4) - (July 31)
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25)

August


Game Eighteen
Horizon Zero Dawn (PlayStation 4) - August 6
★★★★★ (5)


Game Nineteen
Watch Dogs 2 (PlayStation 4) - August 9
★★★★ (4)


Game Twenty
Far Cry 4 (PlayStation 4) - August 10
★★★★ (4)


Game Twenty One
ABZU (PlayStation 4) - August 11
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Twenty Two
Virginia (PlayStation 4) - August 11
★★★ (3)


Game Twenty Three
Valiant Hearts: The Forgotten War (PlayStation 4) - August 11
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Twenty Four
Oxenfree (PlayStation 4) - August 12
★★★★ 1/2 (4.5)


Game Twenty Five
Transistor (PlayStation 4) - August 16
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Twenty Six
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry (PlayStation 4) - August 16
★★ 1/4 (2.25)


Game Twenty Seven
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PlayStation 4) - August 24
★★★★ 3/4 (4.75)


Game Twenty Eight
Gravity Rush Remastered (PlayStation 4) - August 28
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Twenty Nine
Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode One, Awake (PlayStation 4) - August 31
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25)

September

N/A

October


Game Thirty
Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode Two, Brave New World (PlayStation 4) - October 19
★★★★ (4)


Game Thirty One
A Mortician's Tale (PC) - October 21
★★★★ (4)


Game Thirty Two
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PC) - November 6
★★★★ 1/2 (4.5)


Game Thirty Three
Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds (PlayStation 4) - November 11
★★★★ 3/4 (4.75)


Game Thirty Four
Subsurface Circular (PC) - November 15
★★★ 1/4 (3.25)


Game Thirty Five
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch) - November 16
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25)


Game Thirty Six
Tacoma (PC) - November 16
★★★ 3/4 (3.75)


Game Thirty Seven
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (PC) - November 17
★★★ (3)

December


Game Thirty Eight
Persona 5 (PlayStation 4) - December 2
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25)


Game Thirty Nine
Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode Three, Hell is Empty (PlayStation 4) - December 19
★★★★ 1/4 (4.25) (Full series score: ★★★★ 1/4 (4.25))

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Final tally: 39 games finished, thirteen short of the target. But considering I didn't think I'd get as far in as no more than ten at least, this is still brilliant! So well done me! Here's to 2018! :D