52 Games. 1 Year. 2018.

[Rhaknar]

Game #49 - Bayonetta
Time: 11 hours

I played this back in the day and I liked it, but I think I liked it even more this time around. Played it on the Switch, and it really is kinda crazy how well this runs and plays on a portable, making it one of the first games that really makes good on what I wanted the Vita to be for example. But that is neither here nor there, the game is of course over the top crazy anime style character action, with fantastic gameplay and ridiculous action and levels. The story is complete nonsensical silliness but I wouldnt want it any other way, what other game do you

Spoiler: ending spoilers

shoot the main bad guy in the face with a goddamn lipstick stick

lol. Super meaty, and with a great way to go about on its difficulty (its not a easy game, but the real challenge comes from getting the best scores in the levels by not using items or continues, so both the casuals like me can still finish it, but the hardcore good players also have something to get out of it), Kamiya made a real classic with this one, and now I'm super excited to play the second (which I never did and now I can). Just pure stupid fun, and highly recomended.

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[CurrY]

My backloggery

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#13 Zombie Desperation (PC)

 

[chasingclouds]

Main Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3027140/

6. Shadow of the Colossus
PS4 - 100% Platinum - 32 hours

Absolutely overwhelmed by how incredible this game is. Every single bit of praise it gets is so well deserved. The music is haunting. The story is emotional. The battles are both exhilarating and melancholy. The world is vast and desolate, and it is all just an incredible experience unlike any other. Most of all I find it amazing that the game was originally on PS2.

 

[saenima]

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

45. Picross e / 8h30 - completed 13.05.18

The first title in this excellent series developed by Jupiter. Apart from Picross 3D, my favorite incarnation in the genre. It's snappy and user friendly, though asking if the player wants help before every single puzzle does get a bit tiresome. Nothing too serious though.


46. Picross e2 / 14h20 - completed 25.05.18

The second title in the series is a meatier offering, with more puzzles and a minor visual upgrade. It introduces micross puzzles, which are larger images segmented into smaller puzzles.


47. Professor Layton and the Curious Village / 12h20 - completed 28.05.18

One of my all time favorite series, despite only having played two of the titles so far, the Layton games ooze joy and charm like few others. This is mainly due to the lovely art and the absolutely fantastic Tomohito Nishiura music. There's a very strong sense of place and atmosphere that is somewhat surprising, bearing in mind this is a DS game after all. The plot is nothing to write home about and quite predictable, but the characters have plenty of personality, with some funny dialogue sprinkled throughout. The menus are just as lovely as in any other Level-5 game. I find those to be one of their strong suits. Well, except for White Knight Chronicles, which was a mess in that regard.

The puzzles, which are the meat of the game, are quite hit or miss depending on personal taste. I can't stand sliding puzzles and i'm not really a fan of maths puzzles either, so i kinda just gave those a couple of minutes before looking up the solutions and moving on. But for the most part, i really liked them and strove to complete all of it. There's also plenty of extra content after finishing the game, from extra puzzles to artwork, character sheets, the soundtrack, etc.

Still a very enjoyable entry. Tackling Pandora's Box next.

 

[Weiss]

33. Ratchet & Clank - 27/05/2018

I remember thinking this game had aged like milk, and it sorta has, but it still has its charms. There's a stronger emphasis on platforming in this game than any other Ratchet game and the cartoony visuals have aged really well. It's just a shame that the lack of strafing and more powerful weapons holds the game back in comparison to even Going Commando.

I really need to stop ditching my PS3s because I never get to play NG+.

 

[Tizoc]

55. Shadow Dancer (Mega Drive)

Short 2D Action game. Boss fights were pretty tough but I enjoyed it overall.

56. Bare Knuckle 3/Streets of Rage 3

Didn't enjoy it as much as the 2nd game, but it's a pretty decent beat'em-up otherwise.

57. RAGE (2011)

Decided to replay this after the announcement of RAGE 2. Still has a cool shotgun and the other weapons are interesting too. Felt a bit too long for my tastes but it's a game with pretty solid mechanics and I look forward to seeing how RAGE 2 improves on it.

 

[InquisitorAles]

Main Post part 2

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54. Watch_Dogs 2 - 40 hours
Okay, controversy time. Despite putting 40 hours in this game and finishing all main and side missions... I don't like Watch_Dogs 2. Like, at all - it's indeed beautiful looking, but inside bland and boring game. It's not about change in tone comparing it to original Watch_Dogs, this game has much bigger, fundamental problems that I just can't stand. Story and characters are a mess, it feels like the game is missing the first 1-2 hours, and the whole plot is just dumb nonsense. There are so many storylines that abruptly end with nothing, like Wrench girlfriend (?), congressman Truss and other characters that were shown only once during the whole story and forgotten once the mission ends. Another very big problem is sub-par missions design, 90% of quests work on the same "drive to the checkpoint, hack something, kill dudes with guns" pattern, sometimes it's JUST driving to the checkpoint and talk to NPC with literally nothing else. There are some memorable moments in the story, like a car with racist AI, but it's a rare exception in the line of boring, repetitive missions. Even characters themselves don't care about the story, at some point (and for some dumb reason) one of the main characters dies, but once the cutscene ends, Marcus and other gang members start to casually chat like nothing happened. And it's not the just main story, for some reasons Ubisoft butchered all awesome side activities from previous WD, like drinking game and augmented reality stuff, and the only thing that is left are boring races and taxi driving missions. Not just that, there is no point in doing those side activities, because balance in this game is completely broken and I had a shitload of money with nothing to spend on, most of the skills are useless as well and I got everything that I need in first 5-10 hours.
Another fundamental problem is how boring and not fun gameplay in this game. The protagonist is very weak and dies in a heartbeat, shooting is not fun, so if you decide to go aggressive way then game becomes a very boring cover-based shooter. Yes, this is not the main focus of this game, but the "hacking" part is not very deep or interesting either, there are not enough options for a stealthy approach and hacking puzzle minigame is overused and just tedious to play. They should've just gotten rid of the shooting part completely and fully focus on hacking, an aggressive path doesn't make sense in the story anyway, but instead of an interesting stealth game, we have not very impressive mix, where both parts lack depth and don't work well together.
To be fair, this game is not a complete disaster. It has some positive moments too, for example devs fixed car physics so now it's fun to just drive around, which is a very nice improvement after that terrible driving in WD1. Also, the city of Watch_Dogs 2 is an impressive achievement, despite the lack of meaningful activities, it's just fun to drive around and explore the world. Graphics are not perfect, but still great and can render some breathtaking vistas, it's also nicely scalable and can offer a decent trade-off between visuals and performance.
But the problem is, once I tried to remember what exactly I liked in Watch_Dogs 2, I realized that most of the time I had fun with this game when I was just driving around and taking screenshots, not when I was actually playing the game. And since graphics are somewhere at the bottom of the list of things I value in games, I simply can't recommend it to anyone. It's not terrible, it's just very disappointing, this game has so much wasted potential and half-baked ideas, like gang wars and world interactivity.

 

[Bosh]

Main Thread

#28: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (3-27-2018) | 10/10 | PS4 | ~ # 35 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 10 | A hell of a ride from start to finish. A game fitting of the Dragon of Dojima's final legacy
Gameplay - 9 | Game bumps the series onto a new engine making the world & fighting even smoother
Sound - 10 | Greatest voice acting I have ever heard in a game. The world immersion for the setting is top.
Story/Online - 10 | Possibly the best story in games. Its depth, characters and topics are unmatched.
Asking Price- 9.67 | Less content than other Yakuza's, more content than most games. Huge lasting appeal

 

[Illusionary]

I knew that I should have reserved a second post! Ah well, my list continues with part two below.

Part one can be found here: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2732807/

30. Iconoclasts (PS4) - 21 May 2018
Beaten on "harder" difficulty will 100% item completion and both optional bosses defeated; 10/11 trophies earned - all except for "challenge mode". Iconoclasts is a side-scrolling action-platformer/'Metroidvania', set in a world overseen by a mysterious, sinister religious authority. Players take control of Robin, a self-taught mechanic following this trade despite a prohibition on her doing so from the religious leaders - and after coming to their attention, the game follows the course of her struggle against the authority, with implications ultimately at a much wider level.

Developed over seven years by a single individual, Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg, the game features stunningly beautiful pixel art, excellent movement mechanics and puzzle design, alongside an interesting story premise. Iconoclasts is, quite simply, an astoundingly enjoyable, high-quality game throughout, up there at the top of its genre alongside Super Metroid and Axiom Verge in my eyes.

31. KNIGHTS (Steam) - 26 May 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all levels beaten. KNIGHTS is a simple but satisfying puzzle game based around the movement patterns of the knight piece in Chess. Each of the game's 82 levels presents the player with a reduced-size chessboard (increasing from 3×3 to 5×5 as you progress) filled with knight pieces, with the objective being to move the pieces to designated spaces of matching colours on the chessboard. When reduced down to its essentials, this is quite a simple task, but the L-shaped movement pattern of the knight is what brings much of the difficulty - this pattern means that it's not usually easy to picture solutions from a simple glance. However, as you become more used to the game, patterns do become easier to spot - and for those who might choose to do so, a mathematical/topological analysis of each puzzle will easily solve them. With a less rigorous approach, there's typically an element of trial-and-error involved, but overall there's enough substance to bring a feeling of satisfaction.

The game is a good length, and beyond the built-in puzzles I have to commend the inclusion of a "daily" mode, presenting 75 new puzzles every day - though once you've completed the initial 82 puzzles, you'll probably find the game starting to exhaust its appeal. One of the achievements presents a further challenge with increased restrictions (not moving pieces of a certain colour) and hints at how more variety could be introduced, but this isn't expanded on any further.

32. Pyre (PS4) - 27 May 2018
Platinum trophy earned. A very different game from Supergiant's previous two releases (Bastion and Transistor), but just as excellent, Pyre is a blend of visual novel and RPG, centred around a sports-style battle system. The game sees the player joining a party of exiles banished to a region known as the 'Downside', seeking to escape from exile through success in competing against other parties in 'rites' that essentially play out as part of a theologically-themed sports tournament.

The overall plot follows the party as they travel through the Downside, presenting players with a series of choices to shape this journey - primarily around which route to follow, with various benefits and hindrances resulting from these choices - alongside the opportunity to interact with both your own party and various others (essentially, competing teams) that inhabit the world. The narrative is compelling, but the real core of the game, however, comes as your party takes part in rites against their competitors. These rites are three-on-three events with many similarities to a basketball match, with each team's aim being to throw an orb into the opposing team's pyre, eventually extinguishing it. Each character has a set of attributes governing their speed, offensive power and the size of their defensive 'aura', alongside a set of unique skills that can be developed as the game progresses and they gain experience, allowing some great scope for customisation - and the rites typically play out as exciting, fast-based encounters. Occasionally, depending on the skills in play this can get a little hard to follow, but for the most part the presentation here is excellent.

Special mention has to go to the soundtrack, which, once again from Supergiant, is very well done, fitting perfectly with and enhancing the game's atmosphere - while being excellent in its own right.

33. Hob (PS4) - 8 June 2018
Platinum trophy earned, including two complete playthroughs (100% collection; minimum collection speedrun with minimal deaths). An action-adventure game in which the player controls a hooded figure as they explore a world filled with mysterious ruins, Hob is primarily focused on exploration and puzzle-solving, though it also has a fairly basic combat element. Without going into too much detail so as to avoid spoilers, I'll say that the way that the world opens up as you explore is unusual and engrossing, and while there's no direct explanation of how the world has reached its current state, the world-building is impressive and engrossing, offering just enough by way of clues while allowing the player's imagination to fill in the blanks.

34. Puzzle Agent (Steam) - 10 June 2018
All puzzles completed, no wrong answers, no hints used. It's been very interesting to see this example of Telltale Games' earlier work! Similar in many ways to the 3DS's Professor Layton series, Puzzle Agent is essentially a series of standalone puzzles tied together with a narrative based on investigation of a missing-person investigation by an agent of an imagined 'puzzle division' of the FBI (which despite some 'dark' themes, is told in a generally light-hearted manner). There's a nice variety to the puzzles, and while none are especially difficult, solving each once always brings a sense of satisfaction.

The game does come across as somewhat unpolished, with simplistic 'cartoon' graphics and low-frame animation, though that may be by design - and ultimately, for both the puzzles that are the game's core and the accompanying story, this was an enjoyable experience.

35. Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness (PS4) - 14 June 2018
100% of trophies earned; completed on Normal, Survivor and Action Hero modes. Somewhat short and limited in scope, and with only minimal story, but the gameplay in what content this first expansion does present is decent enough, especially given its focus on the stealth aspects that are typically among what I enjoy most about recent Far Cry games.

36. Puzzle Agent 2 (Steam) - 15 June 2018
All puzzles completed, including bonus puzzles (34/34), no wrong answers, no hints used. If you enjoyed the original Puzzle Agent, this sequel offers more of the same, but little more. The puzzle count is increased slightly, but it's a bit of a shame that the game doesn't have much ambition to improve or expand on the original version beyond that. Still, despite one notable example of a very US-centric puzzle, the game retains the enjoyable core from the original.

37. Wario Land II (3DS VC/GBC) - 17 June 2018
100% of levels completed, 100% of treasures and map pieces collected, "really final chapter" completed. I loved the original Wario Land when I played upon its original release, but despite that I've never previously played any of its sequels - so I'm finally correcting that via the 3DS Virtual Console. The slow, exploration-heavy style of platforming from the original is very much still on display here, though I didn't find it quite as captivating as I did with the original. Of course, that's probably in large part due to how the genre has evolved in the 20 years since then, rather than being a fault of the game, and I still very much enjoyed the experience.

38. Golf Story (Switch) - 14 June 2018
Story fully completed, all gear collected. I'm not usually a particular fan of golf games, but Golf Story has had enough positive hype behind it for me to want to give it a chance - and I'm very glad that I did. While neither the golf mechanics nor the RPG framework used to drive forward the game are particularly deep, combined with the desire to see through the story the game comes together very strongly. I played through the game wholly with my Switch in docked mode, but I can definitely also agree with the general consensus that the game is very well-suited to portable play. By the end of the game, I was even finding myself starting to question whether I should give 'real life' golf a proper go at some point, which has to be high praise for the game!

39. Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4) - 30 June 2018
Platinum trophy earned. I think that I actually enjoyed this a little more than the original Life Is Strange! While I found that the first episode felt a little too linear (in terms of limited interactivity beyond those elements driving forward the plot), the later two episodes address that; overall the story and development of the relationship between Rachel and Chloe is very engaging, taking a few somewhat unexpected turns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

52. Black Mesa (Steam) - 4 August 2018
All available levels complete (up to and including Lambda Core); all achievements unlocked. A very well-done retelling of the original Half Life, Black Mesa is more than just a simple HD reskinning - changes are made to level layouts and setpiece scenarios, while still capturing the feeling of the original game convincingly. While a major improvement over the original Half Life, graphically Black Mesa is somewhat primitive nowadays - but this doesn't detract much from what is overall a great experience.

At the time of writing, the final area from Half Life - the alien environment of Xen - is missing from Black Mesa, but even without this the game feels a complete experience. I look forward to revisiting it once the Xen chapters finally arrive, which are promised not to be too far away now.

53. The Blackwell Legacy (Steam) - 4 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. My thoughts on the Blackwell series of games, for which this is the first, generally apply across the series as a whole, so I'll capture them here. Each game in this series of point-and-click adventures is fairly short - completion is typically possible in 2-3 hours - but this means that they lend themselves to being seen as individual chapters of a wider story. The games follow Rosangela Blackwell, a spirit medium (or in Blackwell Unbound, her aunt) and her spirit guide, Joey, as they investigate various supernatural mysteries. Each scenario presents an intriguing story that maintains interest throughout, and beyond that, there's an ongoing plot between the games that's especially fascinating to see play out. In contrast to many point-and-click adventures, the primary puzzle-solving tool comes from dialog rather than item manipulation, a mechanic that works very well and suits the detective/investigator role that Rosangela typically takes.

Beyond actually playing the games, it's interesting to see how the game mechanics develop from game to game, as well as gradual improvements in graphical style. These is highlighted further by the inclusion of a commentary mode, a feature now common to games from Wadjet Eye, which brings with it some interesting (and occasionally, amusing) insights to the design and development process - I'd definitely recommend a playthrough in this mode to anyone with an interest in game design

54. Blackwell Unbound (Steam) - 6 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. See The Blackwell Legacy, above.

55. Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS4) - 11 August 2018
All campaign and solo arcade trophies earned; campaign completed (including Resurrection DLC) with all collectibles; all arcade scenarios completed at first tier; not playing multiplayer. There's some great Star Wars fan service here which serves to elevate the game somewhat above others in the FPS genre, even if the plot is somewhat predictable and doesn't make full use of the potential that the focus on the Empire-allied protagonist offers, eventually reaching a clear-cut 'good vs evil' scenario. Standing back from the Star Wars setting, the core gameplay is decent if not outstanding; it's nice to see some added variety beyond the standard FPS stages with flight-based dogfighting sequences which generally work well. Added to the campaign, the inclusion of additional single-player content in the game's 'arcade' mode is welcome, with a number of standalone scenarios focused on a range of established Star Wars heroes - from Luke and Leia to Darth Maul.

56. FRAMED (Switch) - 11 August 2018
Complete playthrough. This puzzle game has a fairly simple yet unusual core mechanic, with each stage presenting a short comic-style series of 'frames' and the aim being to rearrange these to allow the protagonist to reach the end successfully. As a simple example, this might involve moving a panel with a ladder earlier in the series, to allow the avoidance of an obstacle appearing later. The scenarios get gradually more complex as the game progresses, including for example eventually allowing certain frames to be reused and dynamically manipulated as the series plays out.

There's a basic plot linking each scenario together, focusing on allowing the protagonist to escape from pursuing police. Tthis along with a fast-paced soundtrack and superb sense of style - imbued by, among other things, the presentation of characters in silhouette - make the overall experience very compelling. While the individual scenarios fit well to being played in short spurts, it's very easy to find yourself drawn into 'just one more' puzzle! Overall, I had a great time with this game and would recommend it to anyone with any liking at all for puzzle games.

57. Blackwell Convergence (Steam) - 13 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. See The Blackwell Legacy, above.

58. Blackwell Deception (Steam) - 14 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. See The Blackwell Legacy, above.

59. Gorogoa (Switch ) - 15 August 2018
Complete playthrough. A beautiful, exceptionally well-designed puzzle game, and very well-suited to the Switch. Many of the puzzles here are very satisfying to solve, frequently needing a little lateral thinking, but never to such length to make the solutions overly obscure.

60. Blackwell Epiphany (Steam) - 16 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. See The Blackwell Legacy, above.

61. The Norwood Suite (Steam) - 17 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. A surrealist 'walking simulator', with a few very light puzzles and 'fetch quests', The Norwood Suite was an entertaining experience for its 2-3 hour duration. Music is a central theme of the game, so it's fitting that the soundtrack here is a standout feature, and while there's not much long-term replay value here, the ending sequence is unexpected and intriguing enough to invite a second playthrough.

My list continues with part 3 directly below...

 

[Illusionary]

This is part 3 of my list, continued from part 2 directly above.

62. Off-Peak (Steam) - 17 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. After playing through The Norwood Suite, I thought I'd give this earlier game from the same developers a try (it's free, so why not!). It's very much following a similar theme as that later release, but more simplistic, with a surreal atmosphere to the large train station in which it's set - the various exhibits and merchants all at once being mundanely everyday and yet feeling somehow alien. Whilst Off-Peak's direct challenge to the player is to collect all the parts of a train ticket to to allow them to leave the station, the game also leads you to think more about what might lie behind the setting - nothing about this is ever directly answered, but it leaves an impression that keeps this in the mind for some time after its short half-hour play duration.

63. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4) - 20 August 2018
100% in-game completion, on "Do or die!" (hard) difficulty; all collectibles obtained except for a few 'readables'; all trophies obtained except those for higher difficulties, one missable and one glitched. Excellent level design, satisfying combat (especially with its stealth mechanics) and a ridiculous yet entertaining plot - all the ingredients for another great game in the Wolfenstein series, which I very much enjoyed. There's also an impressive amount of background lore throughout the game (from various collectibles, etc.) that helps to flesh out the setting, which is surprising - in a good way! It's just a shame that the Mein Leiben trophy is so unreachable, as I'd otherwise have liked to go after the platinum trophy here.

64. SOMA (Steam) - 25 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Horror games aren't something that I enjoy, so I played through SOMA in 'safe mode', but the sense of tension that it managers to evoke is impressive even then. There's a fascinating sci-fi plot underlying the game, perhaps the game's strongest asset, and the exploration of which keeps the game compelling throughout, even if I found the ending to be a little predictable - but to say much more on that would be to go into spoilers. Suffice to say that there's an impressive amount of detail in the world - scattered notes, computer recordings and of course, the actual environment - that makes everything almost believable as a direction that future society could eventually find itself going towards. The actual gameplay is also strong, with well-designed puzzles and good pacing to encounters, rounding out a very impressive package overall.

65. Gemini Rue (Steam) - 26 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. After enjoying the Blackwell series, I wanted to explore some of developer Wadjet Eye Games' other work, bringing me to Gemini Rue, one of their earlier games. It was great to find the game to be just as enjoyable as I'd hoped! While perhaps not ideally suited to inclusion in a point-and-click adventure, the inclusion of a few other game mechanics such as gunfights make for some interesting diversity. The core puzzle-solving is great, typically being believable and fairly logical, and I really enjoyed the story - without going into specific spoilers, the key revelation towards the end of the game wasn't something that I saw coming, making it all the more captivating in keeping me invested right until the end.

66. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth (Steam) - 30 August 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Historical fiction tends not to be a genre that particularly appeals to be, which makes my great enjoyment of this game, based around the seemingly mundane topic of building a cathedral, all the more impressive. Primarily being a 'point-and-click' adventure game, the game's story is a core part of the game, and it's excellent throughout. This will of course be largely coming from the book on which the game is based (which I've not read), but it's pulled off excellently here, with a cast of believable characters who you really come to empathise with. In terms of puzzles, they're typically fairly rudimentary, but they do the job, with solutions that make sense - something that all too many games in the genre don't manage!

67. Technobabylon (Steam) - 2 September 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Technobablyon is the last of Wadjet Eye's games for me to play out of those that I currently own, and once again it didn't disappoint. With a 'cyberpunk' setting, it's very different from the Blackwell series that I started out with, but no less enjoyable for that. I did find that a few of the puzzle solutions were a little less intuitive than they might have been due to this futuristic setting, but that wasn't a very common issue, and the setting has the benefit of bringing with it a dual-world mechanic - the 'cyberspace'-style 'trance' - which I always enjoy in games. Another enjoyable, though a little less memorable, plot rounds out another positive experience.

68. Year Walk (Steam) - 9 September 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. A rather strange game, Year Walk is a horror-themed first-person adventure game with fairly light puzzles, based around Nordic folklore. The game's excellent when it comes to creating an appropriately creepy atmosphere, through its graphics, sound and the various encounters that you'll proceed through, but I didn't particularly enjoy the gameplay, with the puzzles often not conveyed particularly clearly. I can see how this would appeal quite strongly to some, especially horror fans, but not really a game for me.

69. Guacamelee! 2 (PS4) - 13 September 2018
Platinum trophy earned, including 100% complete playthrough on both normal and hard modes. Guacamelee! 2 is a textbook example of how to do a sequel, taking the positives of the first game and comprehensively building and improving on these. The combination of tight combat in a well-designed 'Metroidvania'-style open-world, with superbly stylistic and colourful graphics comes together fantastically. I'd particularly call out the satisfying platforming mechanics, which make use of fighting moves to aid traversal (e.g., an uppercut can be used to gain height) - the difficulty here is very well-judged and, while there are a few moments of frustration that are inevitable with challenging platforming sequences, the sense of satisfaction that comes as a payoff for eventual success more than makes up for this. Frequent humourous elements and abundant references to other IPs, from LIMBO to God of War and Street Fighter, round out the package - overall, Guacamelee! 2 is superb.

70. Framed 2 (Switch) - 14 September 2018
Complete playthrough. Very similar in approach to the original Framed, this sequel again tasks the player with manipulation of comic-style scenes to allow various protagonists to proceed unharmed through the sequence. Framed 2 builds on this with some more complex scenarios and a wider range of actions depicted in each scene - this can occasionally lead to frustration and resorting to trial-and-error, but such moments are infrequent and overall the Framed 2 is just as satisfying as the first game, while also retaining a superb sense of style throughout.

71. To The Moon (Steam) - 17 September 2018
Complete playthrough. Created with RPG Maker, To The Moon's gameplay mechanics are fairly limited, primarily requiring the collection of various objects throughout a range of scenarios, but that's not the reason to come to this game. Where To The Moon excels is with its interesting narrative premise, based around exploration and manipulation of memories, and tells a touching and engrossing story; to say too much about the specifics of the plot would be a spoiler, but there are some interesting twists and a satisfying ending - it's easily worth playing on this basis alone.

72. Goetia (Switch) - 18 September 2018
Completed with good ending; 100% of codex entries collected. With an appropriately dark and mysterious setting, Goetia puts the player in control of the spirit of a former inhabitant of a now-abandoned mansion and tasks you with exploring the mansion and its surroundings in an attempt to uncover the events that have led it to this state. Although dark in tone and with death as a common theme, Goetia is more atmospheric and somewhat creepy than it is horror, and the game does a good job of capturing this feeling through its story and soundtrack. What may let the game down in the eyes of some is its difficulty - many puzzles have solutions that, while they may make sense in hindsight, are not at all obvious to work out, especially with key items and interactive elements not necessarily being easy to locate. If you're prepared for this difficulty and find the theme interesting, you'll likely enjoy Goetia, but otherwise itI'd suggest being a little wary.

73. A Normal Lost Phone (Steam) - 21 September 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. A Normal Lost Phone, as its name suggests, presents you with an ostensibly normal smartphone that you've found abandoned, tasking you with investigating the story behind the phone's owner through the phone interface and the information stored on it. This comes across as an unusual and well-realised form of story-telling, as you're largely left to uncover the story in a freeform manner, investigating messages and other content in whatever order you choose - albeit some (needed) structure is afforded by gating off certain areas behind access controls/passwords that you'll find from other areas. This open nature results in a satisfying experience and you're drawn into finding out as much as you can about the story... in a way that ultimately feels almost uncomfortably intimate as you discover more. Recommended.

74. Thimbleweed Park (PS4) - 22 September 2018
Platinum trophy earned, including complete playthrough on both casual and hard modes. A delightful throwback to the days of the classic LucasArts-style point-and-click adventure games (which I loved in their time), I thoroughly enjoyed Thimbleweed Park. While the game makes use of an interface very much like the SCUMM system used by those older games, there are intelligent improvements coming from more modern game design - for the most part, puzzle solutions make sense, limiting the extent to which trial-and-error is needed to work out what might have been obscure solutions that older games might expect - and a 'casual mode' and in-game hint system serve to address those situations where you still find yourself stuck.

Of course, LucasArts adventures also typically conveyed a great sense of humour, and Thimbleweed Park doesn't disappoint, with Ron Gilbert back at his best for the game's script. Thimblweed Park's plot starts very much along the lines of the investigation scenario of Twin Peaks, but increasingly diverges with elements of parody as you proceed through the game's nine parts; ultimately, the conclusion isn't an satisfying as it might be, depending on what you might be expecting, but the path that it takes is unusual and interesting as a result.

75. Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story (Steam) - 23 September 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. From the same developers as A Normal Lost Phone, this follow-up works in a similar way, again presenting you with a smartphone interface and a story to uncover about the phone's owner. Again, I enjoyed this fairly freeform investigative gameplay, and Another Lost Phone develops nicely on the earlier game in a number of ways. The underlying story is more involved and has more surrounding detail to discover, there's a greater range of functionality and simulated 'apps' to investigate, and overall just a higher level of polish - overall, another well-realised experience.

76. Celeste (PS4) - 27 September 2018
Platinum trophy earned, including all 200 strawberries and 24 crystal hearts (assist mode not used until B-sides and C-sides). Celeste is a fantastic experience as a platformer - at times brutally difficult, but all the more rewarding for that. The levels are well-designed, with a satisfying ramp-up in difficulty as the game progresses. While essentially linear, the game still achieves a sense of exploration with a few optional or alternative paths through levels, each of which also hides a multitude of secrets - most commonly, floating strawberries that are the game's primary collectibles. Celeste makes it very clear that collecting these is entirely optional, but of course, testing yourself against the challenging platforming scenarios that many of the strawberries present brings some of the greatest moments of elation when you succeed.

Unusually for a platformer, Celeste tells a touching and somewhat profound story, of self-discovery as the protagonist Madeleine attempts to climb Celeste mountain. The game's presentation is excellent, with simple yet effective pixel-art graphics, a memorable soundtrack - and, in a commendable gesture towards accessibility, the inclusion of an 'assist mode' that allows a number of 'cheats' to be enabled, such that anyone should be able to experience the game (though of course, overuse is likely to detract from any sense of achievement that might otherwise be felt). Celeste is certainly going to be a strong contender when it comes to game of the year considerations this year!

77. Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition (PS4) - 28 September 2018
100% of trophies earned. Clearly revolutionary in its time (being a remastered version of the 1991 Amiga release), especially with its very impressive polygonal graphics, nowadays Another World shows its age, with rather clunky controls (while still expecting great precision at times) and very obscure requirements to progress through certain encounters. I'd say that it's still worth playing through Another World, especially if you do so with a guide to alleviate some of the frustration that might otherwise come from getting stuck in places, for the insight that it can bring to the history of the action/platformer genre, but do so in the knowledge that it's very old-school in much of its gameplay.

78. Figment (Steam) - 30 September 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Figment is an enjoyable, fairly lightweight action/adventure, with a beautiful graphical style. Set in the unconscious mind of a person recently involved in a car accident, Figment sees you exploring areas themed around creativity (expect to see gardens, music and similar) and logic (where clockwork mechanics are prevalent), with charming hand-drawn graphics, an impressively dynamic musical score and dialog based around rhyming, frequent puns and, as a stand-out, singing boss enemies! With combat encounters being fairly trivial, gameplay is primarily focused on exploration and puzzle solving, which, while again never really getting difficult, is still generally satisfying, especially with the puzzles fitting in very nicely with the world themes - for example, progression might require planting seeds in the garden areas, or setting up mechanics in those based around clockwork. The simplicity of the game might be a detractor for some people and it's fairly short (perhaps 4-6 hours for an unguided playthrough), but I had a good time with Figment.

79. Bomb Chicken (Switch) - 4 October 2018
Completed with all gems (250/250) collected. Bomb Chicken is an enjoyable puzzle-platformer with an unusual twist - the game sees players taking control of a chicken that, while unable to jump, is capable of laying stacks of bombs with a short fuse, which are key to navigation of its 29 levels. The game starts off fairly straightforwardly, but as it progresses, the level of precision ramps up nicely. Despite a few sequences that can become frustrating, generous checkpointing limits this, and collection of gems scattered about each level, many in well-hidden secret areas, encourages satisfying exploration. With a fun sense of humour playing off its somewhat absurd premise, Bomb Chicken is a very solid overall package (and a nice contrast to Celeste, which I was playing alongside this in large part).

80. Aviary Attorney (Steam) - 7 October 2018
Story completed, including all three end-game branches. An enjoyable visual novel in a Revolutionary France-style setting, Aviary Attorney sees the player guiding its two protagonists through some light puzzle-solving and courtroom-drama scenarios, alongside furtherance of an interesting story through narrative choices. Each scene is illustrated with beautiful hand-drawn art and, while the use of anthropomorphic animals (mostly, but not all, being birds) does nothing much for me, this quirkiness doesn't detract from the game and does at least make it more memorable!

81. Minit (Switch) - 11 October 2018
Normal, Second Run and Mary's Mode all completed with all items collected (110%/112%/110% in-game reported completion). Presenting itself in the style of a simplified 2D The Legend of Zelda game, Minit's core concept limits gameplay to a series of 60-second runs, at the end of which the protagonist dies and respawns. The game therefore centres on how to solve puzzles and progress within this restricted time limit - meaning nothing is ever too complex and a sense of progression comes very naturally, but remaining interesting throughout and only rarely frustrating. Minit ultimately is quite a short game, readily beatable within a couple of hours for a newcomer, but it does allows a degree of replay-value through a more challenging "Second Run" that mixes up the puzzles and drops the time limit per run to 40 seconds; it's also a natural fit for speedrunning (and has a built-in timer to facilitate this).

With a simplistic, pixelised black-and-white presentation, Minit feels reminiscent of the original Gameboy release, Link's Awakening - and with that being one of my earliest favourite games, I quite naturally had great time here.

82. Virginia (Steam) - 13 October 2018
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Achieving BAFTA acclaim for its music, Virginia is a 'walking simulator' game with a few distinctive features. Players take control of an FBI agent investigating a missing person case, but the story develops entirely wordlessly - with resulting both positives and negatives, as while this approach encourages players to think through the story themes in more detail themselves, it also leaves scope for frustration from a lack of detail in some places. Overall, without going into detail, so as to avoid spoilers, while there are some interesting ideas at play here, ultimately the story didn't feel to me to be overly memorable.

Perhaps the other noticeable distinctive point about Virginia is its graphical art style, which takes a somewhat low-fidelity stylised approach, to good effect alongside its award-winning music - though ultimately it couldn't elevate the game above still feeling somewhat unmemorable to me overall.

83. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) - 28 October 2018
Platinum trophy earned. Spider-Man is a hugely enjoyable experience - swinging through a wonderfully-realised New York brings with it an extremely satisfying sense of fluidity of movement, which continues to be seen through into the various combat sequences that the game presents. This combat achieves an impressive feeling of diversity of options despite a simple of easy-to-learn control setup, made all the more engaging by some well-designed combat arenas and optional bonus objectives. It's all held together by an enjoyable story and believable characters (outside of the superpowers!) and relationships, even if some of the more notable plot developments are likely to be fairly predictable to existing Spider-Man fans - as well as being technically very sound throughout.

84. LOOM (Steam) - 29 October 2018
Full playthrough. Seen from a modern point-of-view, LOOM feels (understandably!) rather primitive, but I'm glad to have played it as some insight into some of the earlier roots of the point-and-click adventure genre. The game's use of musical 'spells' to solve puzzles is unique amongst games that I've played and works nicely to expand on the possibility set of actions that are typically found in the genre, even if needing to remember (or take notes of) the spells is a slight annoyance.

85. Pic-a-Pix Deluxe (Switch) - 6 November 2018
All puzzles completed with medals awarded, including both base game puzzles and the bundled "black and white pack". Essentially Picross by another name, there's a good amount of content included in this base package (300 puzzles, with 150 colour and 150 black and white) which will certainly last for a while, and the larger puzzles present a decent challenge. With an accessible interface and a potentially handy error-checking function for those who want to use it, this is a good implementation of the genre.

86. Toki Tori (Switch) - 18 November 2018
All levels completed (normal, hard and bonus). Toki Tori is an enjoyable, very charming side-scrolling puzzle game, tasking players with guiding a (flightless) bird to collect a number of eggs cattered about each level. In a manner somewhat reminiscent of Lemmings, navigation through each level is facilitated through applying a number of abilities (e.g. building bridge segments, moving blocks or short-distance teleportation), each typically with a limited number of uses per level, though here, players have direct control of Toki Tori. The levels start off fairly simple, but towards the end the game presents a decent challenge, as the number of available abilities and the size of the levels increase; it's always satisfying to work out a solution to each level, though I get the feeling that there's usually an intended 'correct' solution in many cases - albeit these do get quite creative in the ability usage that they expect.

Graphics are bright and colourful, conveying everything clearly, with similarly upbeat music - though this can get somewhat repetitive, with a given track being used throughout all levels in each 'world' (there are four main worlds in total). With somewhere around 70 levels in total the game can last a good while, and while there's little replay value once you've beaten all of them, the game's low price makes it a good value prospect too.


A full write-up for my final four games won't fit in this post, so those are included in my December update, here.

87. Delete (Steam) - 17 December 2018
88. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (PS4) - 24 December 2018
89. The Gardens Between (Switch) - 25 December 2018
90. PAN-PAN A tiny big adventure (Switch) - 26 December 2018

 

[LonestarZues]

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

40. Dead Space 2 - Xbox 1 - 5/28 - 11 1/2 hours: I hated the beginning, if I hadn't enjoyed Dead Space so much I would've dropped it. Good thing I didn't as I loved it even more than the first. The game felt harder and the last 2 chapters felt like a long boss fight and I loved it. Really enjoyed Isaac's journey thru the game and will be finishing the trilogy sometime over the summer.

41. Street Fighter - PS4 - 5/29 - 45 minutes: Some might say this is cheating, but a finished game is a finished game. I've never played the original before so I was surprised that you can only use Ryu. Game wasn't that good so good thing it was short. Now comes the rest of the collection.

42. Golden Axe 2 - PS4 - 5/31 - 1 hour: Never played any of the Golden Axe games as a kid and tried all 3 from the Sega collection and 2 was the only one that kept me intrigued enough to finish. Not a great game by any means, but still enjoyable.

43. Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers - PS4 - 5/31 - 8 hours: Beat arcade mode with all 16 fighters. Had never played this version before so decided this would be the one I'll play the arcade mode for the SF2 games.

44. Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness - PS4 - 6/5 - 5 hours: A lot of the improvements from the base game such as the perks weren't present here. It seemed more of a dlc for Far Cry 4 then 5. Still enjoyed it, but seemed like a step back.

 

[saenima]

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

48. Picross e3 / 12h20 - completed 29.05.18

A bit of a step back from the second game. Gone are the micross puzzles, substituted with mega picross puzzles, of which i'm not really a fan. They fundamentally change the way you approach the board, but not in a way that i find interesting. They become more of a spatial guesswork game instead of the clear logic game that picross is. Or maybe i'm just a lazy idiot. This third entry also has less puzzles overall, which is another small negative. Still worth it though, for their low price.

 

[Spyware]

Game #84: State of Decay
Started 16 May 2018 - Beaten 19 May 2018
Verdict: One of the biggest positive surprises in years.

My SO played both the original release and YOSE but when I watched him play I didn't think the game was really my thing. I did add it to the backlog anyway since I am a fan of zombie stuff and I wanted to try it out. Was browsing the library and stumbled upon this one, completely unaware that the sequel was just a week away. Funny coincidence! Got hooked immediately and had such a good time. I am not a picky gamer when it comes to zombies but there are definitely games that I think do the whole zombie thing better than others, and this is one of those. Tension, danger and stress are three words that come to mind when I think about this game. And that doesn't really sounds very good. But it's a kind of "stress" that I enjoy. The game really keeps me on my toes and I love it. Imagine my joy when I realized the sequel was coming just days after I finished this... :D (playing it now and loving it even more)
​

Game #85: The Room
Started ??? 2014 - Completed 20 May 2018
Verdict: Finicky controls hurt the already bland experience.

I had this game for both PC and iOS but I remember absolutely nothing of the PC version. So when browsing through my "gotta clear before I give up this platform" apps, this popped up. I figured I'd "re"play it and get it crossed off on the phone too. Bad idea. I can't imagine it was this frustrating to play on PC! The puzzles were not hard but getting the game to understand what I wanted to click on or move was a pain. I am also not a huge fan of the game in general, it doesn't really tickle my brain the way I want it to. Nah, not a fan.​

Game #86: Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
Started 20 May 2018 - Completed 21 May 2018
Verdict: Sadly quite meh.

Game #87: Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
Started 21 May 2018 - Completed 21 May 2018
Verdict: Worse.

Game #88: Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
Started 22 May 2018 - Completed 23 May 2018
Verdict: Ugh.

There is no point writing about these separately because they are basically the same game in different wrappings. The first is worth an extra mention tho since I really liked the character and the setting. The others didn't click with me even the little amount that China did. All the games are very slow and a bit too easy so I had a bit of a hard time keeping my focus. I wanted snappy and fast gameplay and got a game, or games I mean, that made me feel like someone had set the speed to 0.75. They had some good to even great moment on the hardest difficulty tho. Some actually intense parts! But that was about it really.​

Game #89: Corpse Party
Started 25 May 2018 - Completed 29 May 2018
Verdict: Freaky and unnerving.

I started this ages ago but I won't count that since I restarted it completely. I apparently got sorta close to the end last time (without finding many wrong ends it seems) but stopped playing at the end of Chapter 4. I really like the majority of the game. I like the different endings, the absolute horribleness of the stuff that happens and just... that feeling of playing something you want to throw out of your hands (I played on PSP) but at the same time want to continue playing to see what happens next. Sadly I am not a fan of the last chapter and how much you have to redo when trying to find the other endings. The true ending didn't give me much but there is another ending to the game that made me really like what it was doing. Very happy I played it and that I got to see all the "enjoyable" endings.​

_

Master Post!

 

[Tizoc]

58. Shinobi III/The Super Shinobi II

Neat 2D Action Platformer. It got difficult in the later stages as is the case with various games from the era, but it was a fun ride overall. Double Jumping is still annoying to do though.

 

[Psychotic_Mantis]

Main Post

29. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - PS3
Completed 5/27/18
Score - 4/10

Been planning on playing through many series like I am doing with Resident Evil. Sonic was one I wanted to go for but knew this game was going to stand in my way. Figured I would knock it out first...not sure if that was a good idea. There were some points that I enjoyed it but the game is constantly fighting against itself. I ignored the princess and other weird crap they did with the story. Silver controlled the best (still not great) and Shadow felt the worst, but the speed sections with Sonic were unbearable and made me question if I would get through this. This was not an easy one but I am glad it's over and I do feel a nice sense of accomplishment. There is a good game buried here but it needed more time in the oven and change in story.

30. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
Completed 5/28/18
Score - 8/10

Needed a reminder of why I would want to play another Sonic game after '06, so I went back to the beginning. I played this a bunch growing up but never actually beat it. Got all 6 Chaos emeralds and beat robotnik. I still LOVE the music from the Genesis games and this one is straight classic. It's slower than I remember, although that may be because I played 2 much more than this one. It also was a lot tougher than I recall. Overall, it was a fun, enjoyable and short. The music will always make me want to give this a replay.

 

[Rhaknar]

Game #50 - Bayonetta 2
Time: 8.5 hours

Amazing sequel to the Platinum classic that surpasses the first game in every way, except for one little problem, one I wish I had known beforehand... on it's regular difficulty (aka "normal"), its MUCH easier than the first game. I didnt die once unlike the first game which I thought was quite challenging even on normal, and that slightly bummed me out on the whole experience, as I didnt want to bump up the difficulty because I kept thinking it would get harder by the enxt level, but it never did (until later in the game when some of the last bosses made me use a lot of items). Also the game felt shorter than the first (as seen by my runtime compared to the original) but that might be tied to the difficulty as I wasnt dying and im not sure if the save time tracks that or not. But, still, that's more of a personal nitpick, one I could have fixed by playing on hard (and highly advise people do, trust me im super casual and even I thought the game was too easy), the rest is just pure Bayonetta bliss, with all the anime-style craziness you expect, a better story than the first game (and one that actually ties nicely to the first one), better weapons, much better graphics, music is still fantastic and gameplay is of coure, Platinum brand goodness. Bayo herself is still one of my favorite characters in years, and I cant wait to see what Platinum does with the third game. Let's rock indeed Bayonetta.

Main Post

 

[PorcoLighto]

Interesting idea, I have wanted to do this for some time, now is a good time as any to start.

1. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
A big disappointment coming from the first one.

2. Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel & The Ringed City
Satisfying end to a great game.

3. Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Great online coop game, with friends or ERA.

4. Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Great RPG with a weak later sections.

5. Assassin's Creed Origins
Best AC, good game, gorgeous world.

6. Far Cry 5
Decent game, pretty world.

7. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Great RPG with great side quest and meh main quests.

8. God of War
Great action, dad of war, game.

9. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Great, emotional, dad of war too, game.

 

[Bosh]

MAIN THREAD

#29: Cuphead (5/29/2018) | 8/10 | Xbox One | ~ 12 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 8 | Creative boss rush game that was fun and challenging.
Gameplay - 9.6 | Boss fights are intense and all look gorgeous. As the fight develop, so does the art.
Sound - 8 | Soundtrack is great, it does blend together though when your focus is on the gameplay.
Story/Online - 7 | Simple story to get you from start to finish.
Asking Price- 8.33 | Tons of bosses, side levels are okay. Don't feel the need to replay once beaten.

 

[Weiss]

34. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - 29/05/2018

Definitely my favourite of the PS2 games, even if UYA improves on the gunplay. It's how amazing how dense with content old PS2 games were allowed to be.

 

[Deleted member 32615]

Update: May 26th, 2018

13. Detroit: Become Human (PS4) (9 Hours) (3/5)
Okay so I know the date is wrong it's just cause I forgot to upload when I beat it. ANYWAY, this game is a weird game. I personally at the start didn't take the writing seriously. Carl was a really edgy old man, Conner was a bumbling idiot (who I enjoyed), but it showed signs, mainly with Kara's story. I wasn't really invested in the story, but one thing I gave the game was that it looked beautiful. If it wasn't for the motion blur, it MIGHT have looked better than God of War. The games writing was 50/50, at points it was great and built tension, other times you had Conner on a building yelling at a deviant "HI DANIEL, IM CONNER" obnoxiously. I went on a violence route, not caring about Markus and making Conner a mission obsessed robot, but I was only focused on Kara's story in a serious manner, big regret because every story effects the other and I got the bad ending for everyone.
Nearly cried, the game was fun, the writing was bad but a fun bad and the story was great.

Main Post

 

[mrpookles]

May update.

Main post.

10. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall (PC) - Completed 3 May (4 hours) - ★★★

I've been sitting on this one for years. It was great to get back to this world, but overall, the DLC was just fine.

11. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches (PC) - Completed 6 May (3 hours) - ★★★

Again, another solid piece of DLC. Finally ready to play Dishonored 2...

12. Dead Rising 3 (PC) - Completed 7 May (2 hours) - ★

I enjoyed the little I played, but I encountered endless crashes while trying to complete an early story mission. Marking it off here, but for fucks sake.

13. Battlefield 1 (PC) - Completed 19 May (26 hours) - ★★★★

Beat the campaign and have played some of the multiplayer. I liked the different little 'War Stories' and how it split things up in the campaign and the multiplayer is a shitload of fun. I'll keep playing it, but marking it off here.

Currently Playing:

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)

 

[Tizoc]

59. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Click to shrink...

I don't normally say this about these ye olde games, but this one was longer than it had any right to be. If the stage count was reduced by at least 1/3 it would've been better.
Still it's a nice little Auto scroller 2D action game. The first stage of a world is a normal action platformer in the vein of Megaman, but you can get power ups that last for like 5-10 seconds that can help in destroying enemies.
The 2nd stage changes it up into a shoot'em-up and ends with a boss battle.
Stages get harder as you progress but I liked the core gameplay idea well enough.

 

[CurrY]

My backloggery

Main Post

#14 God of War (PS4)

 

[Deleted member 1759]

Main Post

#37: The Pillars of the Earth (PC) | 12.0h | May 30 | ★★★★


The Pillars of the Earth is a somewhat unique kind of game. One may compare it to Telltale games but it's quite something different. It's more like a classic point and click adventure with a few QTEs but also without a lot of real puzzles. I'd even say there weren't any puzzles at all when you're used to other Daedalic games. It's all about the story and that's where the game excels even though the pacing can be a bit slow at times. I already knew what it was about since I've read the book and watched the miniseries but the game still managed to keep up the tension and I just wanted to know what will happen next. I love the drawing style and the performance was very consistent overall. Music, sound, and voice acting are very well done as well.

 

[Arcus Felis]

This will be my Main Post for the future updates. I'm joining a little late, so most games will be listed out of order.

1: The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem For Innocence

Platform: PC
Genre: Visual Novel
Status: Completed (May 30)
Playtime: 19 hours (note: The main game, The House in Fata Morgana, took me 51 hours)
Achievements: 100%
Rating: ★★★★☆ (for the record, my rating of the main game would be ★★★★★★ - yes, I break the rating system if I want to!)

A wonderful follow-up to one of my favorite stories. The House in Fata Morgana shook me to the core, flooding me with emotions I wasn't expecting to feel while going in blind. This spin-off shows "that" side of the story, and I wasn't disappointed. The music was stellar, just like in the main game, though I will essentially remember Serie de Fragmentoand Dance and Stamp and Cheer (which is inseparable from the character with which it is associated).

Sadly, I can't comment much without talking about the main game and possibly spoiling both. So I'll refrain from writing too much of my impressions.

I will just say this: give The House in Fata Morgana (the main game) a chance. I sincerely hope your soul will be as touched as mine was.


2: Cat Quest

Platform: Switch
Genre: Action/Adventure
Status: Completed (May)
Playtime: 4 hours~
Achievements: Irrelevant
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Not a bad game per see, but it lacks some "oomph". It is cute and full of cat puns alright, but it is also incredibly repetitive, with a distinct lack of variety in missions (nearly all of them are "go there, kill that, bring X back"). The battle system is not bad, but enemy variety is scarce. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend it, not at full price anyway.


3: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Platform: Switch
Genre: Action/Platform
Status: Completed (May)
Playtime: 4 hours~
Achievements: Irrelevant
Rating: ★★★★☆

Now that's a throwback to old Castlevania titles! Very nicely crafted, with multiple paths to take, multiple endings depending on your playstyle, and a rigid but fun gameplay (you will rage against the new medusa heads though). The soundtrack is also a pleasant surprise, and really captures the retro atmosphere.


4: Hollow Knight

Platform: Switch
Genre: Action/Platform/Exploration (ie. Metroidvania)
Status: Completed (late June)
Playtime: 27 hours, 96% completion rate
Achievements: Almost all
Rating: ★★★★★

This game is easily one of the best Metroidvania game I have ever played (perhaps even the best). It has everything: the wonders of exploring new lands and getting lost, slow but steady improvement of your character, enchanting places, fantastic atmosphere, challenging fights, captivating lore... Everything is meticulously crafted. This is the full package. I urge you to get it.


5: Umineko: When They Cry (Question Arcs)

Platform: PC
Genre: Visual Novel
Status: Completed (07-14-2018)
Playtime: 76 hours
Achievements: 20/22. One achievement remains hidden. Hmmmmmmm...
Rating: ★★★★★ (Final rating pending the completion of Answers Arcs)

After The House of Fata Morgana, I wasn't expecting much from that Visual Novel, as it seemed to be about the same kind of story.
While there are some similarities, let's just say I was wrong.
First, this game is long - extremely long. And it is just the first part of a whole: there is another game, Answers Arcs, that is the direct sequel, and should answer (duh) all the questions raised during that game.
Second, while The House of Fata Morgana led to a penury of handkerchiefs in my place, that game didn't drive me to tears. But it doesn't need to. The stories aren't the same, and Umineko has its own amazing qualities as a mystery novel (with a twist... you shall see for yourself once you begin playing).
Still, there is a "repetitive" aspect to that game, which may bore some players. I certainly was at times. But it turned out OK in the end.
If you decide to play that game, I highly suggest that you download the PS3 patches, that add voice-acting, gorgeous art and cutscenes from the PS3 version of the game (the original art is............ unique).
A word of warning: you will hear a lot of cackling if you download the voices. Like, really, a lot. The first hours were quite disappointing for me too (mainly because I couldn't stand two characters in particular). Mark my words: it gets tremendously better.

 

[Deleted member 401]

12. Super Street Fighter II Turbo (5 hours)
With most fighting games that don't have a story mode, my measure of completion is beating arcade mode or the equivalent with every playable character. In Super Turbo's case, beating it with one character took me nearly six hours. Fuck that, I'm not repeating that for another sixteen characters right now. That's mainly because this game's AI, even on its easiest setting, is ridiculously overpowered. It's only because of save scumming that I managed to finish it. And that's a shame, since the game itself seems to be quite fun.

Full list to date

 

[watdaeff4]

Updated Main Post:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/3590985/

28. Bug Butcher (XB1)
Completed: 4/28/18
Time: 2 hours
Rating: 6/10

Gave this a try from GamePass. Simple shoot-em-up that is basically fun. The last few levels get pretty intense though and pretty damn tough factoring in the time limit.

29. Darkness II (XB1)
Completed: 5/1/18
Time: ~6 hours
Rating 8/10

I never played the first Darkness. Thought this was a fun game, the powers that you can use really help differentiate it from the countless other FPS that came out last gen. For anyone who has this via GwG, I highly recommend.

30. God of War (PS4)
Completed: 5/4/18; Platinum trophy: 5/11/18
Time: ~40 hours?
Rating: 9/10

Great game. Not much to say that hasn't already been discussed on this forum. One of the gen's must play games IMO.

31. Wolfenstein II (XB1)
Completed: 5/14/18
Time: 14 hours
Rating: 8/10

I wasn't the biggest fan of the New Order and was going to skip this all together until I got it for a really good price with the DLC. Man, am I glad I did. It's an incredible game and one of the best FPS campaign's I've played. I skipped most of the side content, but the game play is so good I'll likely go back.

32. Assassin's Creed Origin's DLC: The Hidden Ones and Curse of the Pharoahs (XB1)
Completed: 5/30/18
Time: 17 hours
Rating: 9/10

I'm going to count both of these DLCs as one game for the list as they have some pretty substantial and engaging content IMO. If you liked AC:O, you will like the DLC. It's more of the same in a good way. Both DLC's had good stories by Ubisoft standards., esp for DLC.

Currently Playing:
MLB the Show '18
State of Decay 2

 

[Deleted member 9305]

17. RUINER (Steam, 2018/05/15, 6.2 hours)

There's cyberpunk and then there's RUINER. This twinstick shooter was steeped in all buckets of liquid chrome and neon skies: Shirow, Gibson, Otomo, Sterling, all of them. The presentation, and its art direction, is incredible. The game is a visual feast, highly stylized and with many layers of technical wizardry. The story a matryoshka doll of revelations, well in parameters of the genre's baseline. Interlink. The gameplay splits into 90% twinstick shooter on missions and 10% "adventure" in the city hub. The missions and downtime moments are nicely paced. The fights aren't that varied, but a good weapon selection and XP based skill unlocks do add a bit of variation. Skills can be shuffled around and every player should be able to find a nice match for his/her play style. The music and audio design are also noteworthy. The soundtrack is worthwhile all by itself.

18. Superflight (Steam, 2018/05/20, 2 hours)

You wingsuit through procedural generated alien rock formations for score chasing or just the thrill. High risk maneuvers will earn more points. The sense of speed and danger is omnipresent. There is no story or music, just ambient noise of falling with style. That's not really a negative though, just queue up some music, maybe a podcast and drift away. The fun is endless, but I mark this one as done after 100%ing it. Perfect little time waster for mere 3 coins.

19. Deadpool (Steam, 2018/05/22, 6.8 hours)

The movie Deadpool 2 reminded me, that this game was sitting in my backlog. The third person brawling, shooting were competent and fun. The writing, voice acting and humor were well in line with all things Deadpool: lots of 4th wall breakage, potty jokes, casual sexism and well rounded bad taste. Player's discretion is advised. Not the best game ever, but definitely something for DP fans.

20. Pony Island (Steam, 2018/05/29, 2.7 hours)

Talking too much about this game probably ruins the experience. It's refreshingly fucked up and pretty clever in a grimy and filthy way. Nice trip for people who think they've seen it all.

[index]

 

[Deleted member 1759]

Main Post

#38: Beyond: Two Souls (PS4) | 9.1h | May 31 | ★★★


Entertaining story even though it took some time until it hooked me (first 3h were kinda boring). And since it's an interactive movie, Quantic Dreams did at least the most important part mostly right. But the controls and camera were really annoying at times. Sometimes Jodie just walked stopped walking and turned around or walked in the wrong direction. Still a solid "game".

 

[Bosh]

MAIN THREAD

#30: Metroid Fusion (5/31) | 7/10 | GBA | ~ 5 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 7 | Mixed feelings. While enjoyable, game seemed too obvious/direct.
Gameplay - 8.4 | Mutated particles turning into enemies was interesting. Game has fantastic color.
Sound - 8| While I wasn't a fan of some of the renditions, the tone in Metroid is set by the music very well
Story/Online - 7 | There actually is a story, nothing to write home about.
Asking Price- 6.67 | Disliked the change of being led everywhere. Last 2 hours was better than first 3

 

[Weiss]

35. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 31/05/2018

My Ratchet playthroughs continue with the third game. It definitely has its problems, like the linear levels and lack of platforming, but the gunplay is at the best of the PS2 games and the writing is genuinely hilarious. I still prefer Going Commando over it, and even the original has its perks in comparison.

 

[Fairy Godmother]

Main post.


May 2018:

19. Gears of War 4 (XBO)- 12+ hours. ★★☆☆ It was a decent shooter, but dragged on for too long. The initial enemies were not as fun to fight as the Locusts were in the original games. Some new guns were great additions to the franchise though, but the Lancer still has its place in the game. The story was not something to write home about either. Did not try multiplayer though.

20. Bioshock 2 (XBO)- 15 hours. ★★★★ I loved it. It was a much better game than Infinite. It improved the gameplay of the original Bioshock, but the story was not as good. The last few levels felt like a filler, but I still enjoyed it and went out of my way to collect everything. The X360 port was a mess though, a lot of texture glitches.

21. Yakuza 6 (PS4)- 50 hours. ★★★☆ It is not as good as previous games. Yakuza 5 is still the best game in the franchise for me. You can tell the effort of moving it to a new engine means they had to cut some areas in Kamurocho. Some classic mini-games still remain, but the new ones are only decent. The story did not draw me in as much either. It is a decent conclusion of Kiryu's story though. Good game.

 

[Weiss]

36. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows - 01/06/2018

I used to disregard this game as way too tricky to play, but as I got deeper into it the intricacies really started to click and now it's up there with the main campaign as my favourite piece of Shovel Knight. That it has a genuinely heartfelt and adorable story is just the icing on the cake.

 

[ApexNorth]

53. The Swapper - 22/05/18 - 7H, 34M
A good puzzle game with a interesting story.
54. Just Cause 3 - 24/05/18 - 19H
Just like Just Cause 2 but with more destruction!
55. Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness - 22/05/18 - 15H
The game is incredibly buggy, I had 10+ crashes.
56. RAGE - 18/05/18 - 18H
The game is actually very good however it does become extremely repetitive.

 

[TP17]

1: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
★★★★★★★★★☆

I went in blind and found myself on an absorbing adventure that had me hooked through to completion.

 

[Tizoc]

60. Ziggurat


First Person Shooter with a magic/wizard motif. You play through the Ziggurat which has randomly generated stages and enemies, with the goal being to complete all floors of the ziggurat itself. The gameplay is pretty fast and hectic but I quite enjoyed my time with the game even if I ended up dying dozens of times until I was strong enough to beat it :V

 

[Deleted member 4852]

May

24. Hitman Go - See Lara Croft Go comments.
25. Batman Arkham VR - Really good story and atmosphere. makes me disappointed AAA developers havent embraced VR
26. Splatoon 2 - Great game. Has a surprisingly amazing single player mode.
27. Jotun - Amazing atmosphere and bosses, Highly recommended.

Click to shrink...

May Update.

Splatoon 2 single player content was a blast. The multiplayer was really fun too.

Jotun boss fights were amazing. I really dug the hand drawn visuals.

 

[Illusionary]

Updating for May, during which I've had a fantastic time with some indies, as well as the big-name Far Cry 5...

26. Far Cry 5 (PS4) - 7 May 2018
Platinum trophy; all objectives completed in every region. Contrasting with the level-based structure of most first-person shooter games, Far Cry 5 continues with the series' now well-established outdoor open-world setting. This time around the game is set in the US, specifically rural Montana, seeing the playing cast as a deputy sheriff sent to arrest the leader of a religious cult; of course, these things never go smoothly, and the game then sees the player working to reduce the cult's influence on the region through a wide range of missions and liberating outposts within three key regions, before finally confronting the cult's leader. A wide range of weapons and vehicles are available for use towards this goal, including both aircraft and boats as well as many different land-based vehicles. The setting and premise is very much in keeping with the outlandishness of the previous games, once again pulled off in a very entertaining manner.

The level of detail in the world is very impressive, and as well as the core story missions, a large number of optional missions are scattered throughout the area, alongside other activities such as the new 'prepper stashes' - a range of puzzle and platforming-based scenarios that reward ability points and cash, replacing the towers that had become an established mechanic in previous games - stunt racing, hunting and one of the more enjoyable fishing minigames that I've played recently. Returning from previous games are enemy 'outposts', presenting setpiece combat encounters that can be attempted however the player chooses, be that stealth, direct assault or a mix - personally, I found the ability to use stealth here to be incredibly satisfying, albeit more difficult to pull off successfully than has previously been the case, as the enemies seems a little too sensitive to disturbances. All in all, there's a level of variety here that means that it's hard to get bored at any point.

Gunplay generally feels solid, if not outstanding, and while there's some good opportunity for customisation through silencers, sights and extended magazines (alongside cosmetic enchancements), the game would benefit from more semi-automatic weapons and longer-range sniper rifles. It also takes more to take down many enemies than feels realistic, even on lower difficulty levels, but not enough to detract too much from the overall experience.

As well as the core single-player, the game includes an 'arcade' which is essentially the game's multiplayer component. Arguably this isn't needed here given that this has always been a single-player focused series - a thought that I'd generally lean towards, but with a well-equipped level editor here as well, there's impressive potential to this mode, which also includes additional single-player (and co-op) scenarios.

Overall, I had a great time with Far Cry 5 and I'd have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who enjoys FPS or open-world games.

27. Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch) - 12 May 2018
Story completed; 100% of items/upgrades and collectibles obtained (48/48 heart pieces, 16/16 energy fragments, 20/20 scrolls). More than a little inspired by classic 2D Zelda games, especially A Link to the Past, Blossom Tales does an excellent job of recreating the gameplay and style that makes the Zelda games so great. Both the overworld and dungeons are well-designed and satisfying to explore, though the puzzles and item selection never quite reach the heights of the best of Zelda. At around 10 hours for a first playthrough, the game is a decent length for its price, though with only four full-size dungeons it does feel that it's over all too quickly. Of course, it's perhaps testament to how much I enjoyed my time with the game that it left me wanting more!

28. Seasons after Fall (Steam) - 13 May 2018
Completed with 'true ending'; 100% of achievements unlocked. Visually stunning, Seasons after Fall is an enjoyable puzzle platformer, seeing the player take control of a fox attempting to restore prosperity to a forest. Divided into four main areas - one for each season - the puzzle mechanic centres around switching between seasons, with each bringing changes to certain elements of the game world - for example, a flower that absorbs water as it grows in the summer, allowing deeper parts of a lake below it to be explored - with satisying results, even if complexity is limited.

Although the environment is a single connected world, in my mind it lacks the interconnectedness and extend of upgrades to be considered a true 'Metroidvania'. Despite that, the game still feels like it would benefit from inclusion of a map, or alternatively some clearer direction on where you need to go to progress at times, as it can be quite easy to waste time trying to work out where to go at times and there's no fast-travel mechanic for most of the game. With a bit of effort, though, this can be worked through (and of coruse, guides are out there if you choose to take that approach).

Special mention should be made to both the visuals and music, which are excellent and help to give a cohesive feeling throughout the game, across all four seasons.

29. Stories Untold (Steam) - 16 May 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all episodes completed. While 'horror' themed games don't usually appeal to me, I'd heard enough positive impressions of Stories Untold to give it a try, and am very glad that I did. Perhaps more about tension and suspense than pure horror (there are no real 'jump scares', for example), this is a blend of the adventure and puzzle genres, presented as four distinct episodes. While the puzzles are typically fairly straightforward, the unusual presentation (the first episode begins as a text-adventure, then develops from there) and underlying plot of each episode create an engrossing experience, with an excellent pay-off at the end, tying the various narratives together.

30. Iconoclasts (PS4) - 21 May 2018
Beaten on "harder" difficulty will 100% item completion and both optional bosses defeated; 10/11 trophies earned - all except for "challenge mode". Iconoclasts is a side-scrolling action-platformer/'Metroidvania', set in a world overseen by a mysterious, sinister religious authority. Players take control of Robin, a self-taught mechanic following this trade despite a prohibition on her doing so from the religious leaders - and after coming to their attention, the game follows the course of her struggle against the authority, with implications ultimately at a much wider level.

Developed over seven years by a single individual, Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg, the game features stunningly beautiful pixel art, excellent movement mechanics and puzzle design, alongside an interesting story premise. Iconoclasts is, quite simply, an astoundingly enjoyable, high-quality game throughout, up there at the top of its genre alongside Super Metroid and Axiom Verge in my eyes.

31. KNIGHTS (Steam) - 26 May 2018
100% of achievements unlocked; all levels beaten. KNIGHTS is a simple but satisfying puzzle game based around the movement patterns of the knight piece in Chess. Each of the game's 82 levels presents the player with a reduced-size chessboard (increasing from 3×3 to 5×5 as you progress) filled with knight pieces, with the objective being to move the pieces to designated spaces of matching colours on the chessboard. When reduced down to its essentials, this is quite a simple task, but the L-shaped movement pattern of the knight is what brings much of the difficulty - this pattern means that it's not usually easy to picture solutions from a simple glance. However, as you become more used to the game, patterns do become easier to spot - and for those who might choose to do so, a mathematical/topological analysis of each puzzle will easily solve them. With a less rigorous approach, there's typically an element of trial-and-error involved, but overall there's enough substance to bring a feeling of satisfaction.

The game is a good length, and beyond the built-in puzzles I have to commend the inclusion of a "daily" mode, presenting 75 new puzzles every day - though once you've completed the initial 82 puzzles, you'll probably find the game starting to exhaust its appeal. One of the achievements presents a further challenge with increased restrictions (not moving pieces of a certain colour) and hints at how more variety could be introduced, but this isn't expanded on any further.

32. Pyre (PS4) - 27 May 2018
Platinum trophy. A very different game from Supergiant's previous two releases (Bastion and Transistor), but just as excellent, Pyre is a blend of visual novel and RPG, centred around a sports-style battle system. The game sees the player joining a party of exiles banished to a region known as the 'Downside', seeking to escape from exile through success in competing against other parties in 'rites' that essentially play out as part of a theologically-themed sports tournament.

The overall plot follows the party as they travel through the Downside, presenting players with a series of choices to shape this journey - primarily around which route to follow, with various benefits and hindrances resulting from these choices - alongside the opportunity to interact with both your own party and various others (essentially, competing teams) that inhabit the world. The narrative is compelling, but the real core of the game, however, comes as your party takes part in rites against their competitors. These rites are three-on-three events with many similarities to a basketball match, with each team's aim being to throw an orb into the opposing team's pyre, eventually extinguishing it. Each character has a set of attributes governing their speed, offensive power and the size of their defensive 'aura', alongside a set of unique skills that can be developed as the game progresses and they gain experience, allowing some great scope for customisation - and the rites typically play out as exciting, fast-based encounters. Occasionally, depending on the skills in play this can get a little hard to follow, but for the most part the presentation here is excellent.

Special mention has to go to the soundtrack, which, once again from Supergiant, is very well done, fitting perfectly with and enhancing the game's atmosphere - while being excellent in its own right.

 

[Bosh]

MAIN THREAD

#31: SuperHot VR (6-3-18) | 8/10 | PSVR | ~ 3 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 8 | Unique idea that makes the player feel like Neo. Each level is intense offering unique design.
Gameplay - 8.6 | Slowy tilting your head to the side as your body leans backwords to dodge bullets is ace.
Sound - 6 | Very minimal. Gunshots, and the odd SUPER...HOT every now and then.
Story/Online - NA | Kill the red people
Asking Price- 9 | Story content plus endless mode leads to a solid package.

 

[Deleted member 43077]

MAIN POST 1

First time posting in this type of thread. Score out of 100 (50 is the middle/mediocre/meh), 100% refers to Achievements/Trophies

Game 1/52: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PC)

If you enjoyed The New Order you are gonna enjoy this for better and for worse its more of the same.

Still a fun world, great visuals and fine characters. This one dives deeper into BJ's story as he reflects upon his experience with his father now that he himself will become a father. Story even though I think its an improvement isn't the reason I continued to play and was just ok/good enough. The action is great and intense, dual wielding shotguns and blasting nazi's in a train is great fun but dont expect anything really extra. Its Wolfenstein 2, more of the (great) stuff.

75/100

Game 2/52: Tacoma (PC)

Unfortunately this game didn't do it for me as much, its just "ok".

The idea of having multiple conversations going on at the same time and either choosing or ignoring some is cool but in gameplay it means having to replay the same area 2-3 extra just so you can see if what they say is interesting or not (sometimes its not :/).
Visuals aren't mind blowing but they weren't supposed to be.

The best part is the overall story. Its the future, a large company controls space tourism and hires contractors to do all the dirty work, unfortunately for the characters we find that makes them very expendable.
When an accident occurs on a space station the crew is given just over a day to find a solution or run out of air.

You the player go into the station trying to find out what happened to the crew and see if they made it out alive against all odds...just be ready to rewind time in a room like 4 times.

65/100

Game 3/52: Call of Duty WWII (PS4)

What to say about this game...If you have played one you have played em all.

Call of Duty WWII takes us back to war time. It consists of a singleplayer campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies mode.

Singleplayer: This is the best part of the game. The story follows a squad as they try to survive the war, one of the most interesting parts and one that differentiates it from World At War (2008) is that one of these characters is Jewish.

The singleplayer tries to battle the idea of doing the right thing for your friends or doing the right thing by the army. This reaches its climax when you strictly disobey orders to try and save your friend that has been taken by the Germans. Later to find out he had spent the remainder of the war in a Jewish concentration camp. The best moments of the campaign aren't ones where you are seeing a train explode and fly over you or when you are giving out airstrikes in a city but when it takes its time slowly walking and reveal a concentration camp as you try to find your brother.

Multiplayer: It has an interesting hub area for you to walk around and purchase microtransactions along with some smaller things. It brings and interesting objective mode but dont expect the excitement or the scale of something similar like Rush in Battlefield. Other than that its just Call of Duty MP

Zombies: Infinity Ward gave us a really cool and original take with the zombies mode the year before so having this take almost the exact opposite approach was kinda disappointing. One of the bigger things they talked about before launch is they wanted to make it scary...what that actually means is having a loud sound play every single time you first see a zombie but other than that its like the Zombies from World at War but with some of the basic advancements seen in the last couple years.

65/100

Game 4/52: Black The Fall (PC)

It had potential but the gameplay and length hurt the experience.

Black The Fall starts you as a worker trying to escape a futuristic factory set in a communism state.
You must solve small puzzles the continue to move and escape the area, but once you believe you are free...they find you. At the end you witness the beginning of a revolution set off (yes) by you.

Thats really all I have to say about it, I was super close to lowering it to a 45 or 50 but there was some puzzles that I thought were neat and the world itself although sometimes plane can be interesting.

60/100

Game 5/52: Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4)

I loved the main story so I hella wanted to play this.

Unlike other entries in this post I will not talk about big moments in the story. When you do play it tho because you should...stay after the credits, if you played the original game especially because you will experience what a spiked bat to the heart feels like.

The visuals are similar to the first game, a little bit better in some areas.

The time gameplay mechanic from the first game does not return but is replaced by a "talk back" mechanic that better suits Chloe.

If you didn't like Chloe from the first game or if you liked the first game and just want more PLAY THIS. Easy Achievement list like the original too

90/100

Game 6/52: DOOM (PC)

Its good.

DOOM gives the series new life in a fun and great way, with 10hr+ demon killing.

Unfortunately its really just that, 10+ fun hours of killing demons because the story is not even bad its completely forgettable and unless this is the only first person shooter you own there is no reason to play it over other games.

The side mode introduced allows players to create custom maps which can be fun, I got to play the first level of Halo in it! but it doesn't really hold anything special. Still good tho.

70/100

Game 7/52: FarCry 5 (PC)

A fun and great entry into the series.

This game is fun, a lot of fun. Even if COOP is ruined by having only the host keep progression (seriously, why not count the mission for the both of us?!!??!)

The visuals are great and actually runs at a native 4K for Xbox One X owners which is awesome.
Gunplay is great like usual and so is the mayhem that happens out of nowhere, my only knocks on the game are having "eh" villains. Nothing continues to touch Vaas in FC3. The setting is also kinda meh in my opinion. Middle of the US is not even close to being as fun and interesting as a tropical island or Mountains in the Himalayas.

Animals also dont really play a role in this game compared to previous ones as crafting is pretty much gone outside of some small items.

The MP mode...its disappointing to say the least.

75/100

Game 8/52: Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC)

A classic with a new coat of paint.

Its Age of Empires. Its a Classic. Why are you still reading this? go get it!!

Age of Empires II and III will be getting Definitive Editions ahead of Age of Empires IV so its looking good for us fans.

90/100

Game 9/52: Super Lucky's Tale (Xbox)

Great for children, ok for everyone else.

Super Lucky's Tale gives us a colourful adventure of our little fox friend and as much as I love him and the colour all the worlds have its hard to suggest this for adults or teens.

If you have a kid or a friend who has one I would recommend this game for them :)

65/100

Game 10/52: PlayerUnkown's Battlegrounds (PC)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. WWCD.

This game CONSUMED me in 2017 and is the reason my backlog doubled that year (im not joking it doubled easily)

Its fun, its tense and boy is it satisfying.

The game can have some bugs for sure, its not that much of a looker and although I didn't experience it much cheaters are a concern. All that? doesn't matter. Its just FUN.

Still receives a good amount of patches adding new weapons, skins, vehicles from time to time and has a test server which is currently focused on adding a smaller jungle map to the rotation making it the 3rd map for the game.

Overall this bad boy won a chicken dinner!

75/100

Game 11/52: Lara Croft GO (PC)

A good distraction with satisfying puzzles and a simplistic look.

This was an interesting game to play. I didn't know what to expect really, but it surprised me.

Its a solid game all around, nothing great but also nothing other than good. If you want a puzzle game on the go I would recommend this for sure, if you are on PC I would recommend picking up the other Tomb Raider games.

70/100

Game 12/52: A Way Out (Xbox)

Fuck the Oscars.

This game was awesome. I dont really want to talk about the story but man was it good.

Please if you dont like EA dont let that stop you from playing this (they dont even make money off of it), you also only need 1 person to have the game! the other can use a free "trial" to play!

The game is a decent length too! I think it lasted 6-8hrs for me to complete it. A very fun game and I sure cant wait to see the next game for the studio. After Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out, consider me a fan.

85/100

Game 13/52: God of War (PS4)

My name on the wall...they called me ____

This game...WOW.

I have no words, the music, story, characters,gameplay is all SPECTACULAR

so why did I give it a 90 and not 100? well 2 reasons.

The enemy variety, for everything it got right this isn't one of them. Its like less than 10 to be honest.

The game and maybe its not its fault doesn't give me a drive to play and experience the side content post story completion, it doesn't seem to be an issue for some but for me I just cant get into it unfortunately. I will still go back and try to get the Platinum trophy. Seriously get this game, its damn good and that's coming from someone who thought God of War 1-3 was mediocre.

90/100

(Update June 3rd, 2018)

Game 14/52: Sprint Vector (PC/Rift)

Gotta go fast!

Sprint Vector is a colourful and fun VR game which puts you against other players as you race across diverse maps, jump, fly and sprint your way to victory. The game is multiplayer focused and I have experienced pretty much everything the game has to offer but with new updates and the fact that its just a multiplayer game it still has good gameplay for me to want to go back.

Its also one hell of a work out. That being said once tired physically or when you have raced and won across the globe the game doesn't have much but replaying those said races with new people until they drop more content. Its fun, its fast and its not for those easily sick.

70/100

Game 15/52: Onward (PC/Rift)

We aint in Kansas anymore soldier!

This game is tense, fun and brings what you want in a modern fps game for VR. Its made by a smaller team so its not the best looking game and it can be a little rough in some areas sometimes but the squad gameplay and just the overall feel of being the boots on the ground is great.

again another multiplayer title, more content does release but this one can be played over and over again.

80/100

Game 16/52: SuperHot VR (PC/Rift)

SUPER. HOT.

Do you want to be John Wick? want to be the star of your on Tom Cruise like fight scene?
Enjoy this fun game now in VR as you kill polygonal red dudes with pistols, shotguns, swords, bottles and anything else you can find. Time moves only when you move so dont be afraid to get fancy ;)

85/100

Game 17/52: Beat Saber (PC/Rift)

I'm one with the beat and the beat is with me.

I'm not really into rhythm/music games but man is this cool. The base game is short that's the only downside but everything is super polished and satisfying giving you enough modes to want to experience all the songs more than once for sure.

The game also has a great modding community already giving you access to almost every song you could possibly want and its super easy to set up giving you many many hours of added enjoyment for free!
More songs and a built in song creation tool is coming in the future but with the community behind this game you wont even notice! easily one of the best VR games, a must own.

90/100

Game 18/52: Robo Recall (PC/Rift)

Total Robo Recall

This game is awesome, it really is. Its just so so good.
The game is visually great, still one of the best looking VR games. The gameplay is rock solid and supports some mods to make the experience a little better.

Unfortunately I myself dont enjoy going back to some of the levels just to try and beat a highscore, that's just not the type of gamer I am.

Overall its a must play for any VR owner, try and get your hands on this.

75/100

Game 19/52: Raw Data (PC/Rift)

Cyberpunk Ninja. What could go wrong?

First off I have to say, this game is one of the coolest ones I have played in VR. From having a bow and arrow, sword, shotgun its all damn cool and the PVP multiplayer makes it all the better when you slice and dice!

The singleplayer is also fun but is limited to the less fun wave killing structure that plagues a lot of the early VR stuff, thankfully its something we are moving away from more and more.

If Cyberpunk Ninja sounds good to you (why wouldn't it?!) then this is a must play. If that isn't something you are big into then a sale is something you should consider.

75/100

Game 20/52: Cities Skylines (PC)

Sim(ulation)City

This is the game you want if you like SimCity. Just get it or dont if that's not your thing. I enjoy em and play from time to time and its good. Sometimes I feel like eventually the city reaches a limit and you cant do anything but see your people die but who knows I may not be that great of a mayor!

75/100

Game 21/52: Monster Hunter World (Xbox)

Thats one ugly mother f*****

This game is pretty cool, the size of everything is just awesome and the hub world is cool and feels way more a live compared to something like Destiny 1/2 Tower.

The game is meant to be played with people so if you are running solo try Xbox LFG, Reddit or Discord.

Overall good game but I just dont have the time to repeat things and dont have a consistent cycle of people playing it to warrant that extra time on it.

70/100

Game 22/52: Hitman (Xbox)

Gun? Knife? What about an explosive rubber duck.

This Hitman was incredible for the most part and im very happy that Hitman 2 AKA Season 2 will be at E3 this year.

The game is made to be replayable and does so by giving the player a nicely sized sandbox to do your killings in.
Locations span from luxury hotels, Militia camps, Dense cities and more.

My only complaint is that 2 of the locations weren't that much fun for me compared to the rest of the game but its still overall a great package. The game also has the choice of running at 4K/30 or enabling a performance mode on Xbox One X which is great. I cant wait until Season 2 begins hopefully later this year.

80/100

Game 23/52: Forza Horizon 3 (Xbox)

Vroom Vroom.

3rd game in this series and it just gets better, more open, more beautiful and more polished.
Not much to say, this is more of an arcade like game if you are only familiar with the other Forza series "Forza Motorsport"
although that's probably obvious from the box art.
Its great and the Hot Wheels DLC is awesome!

80/100

Game 24/52: Sea of Thieves (Xbox)

The Pirate Life.

This game...I know some may think "80?! but it had no content!" I know, it was light on "things to do" but I have been following the game since it was but a mere rumor I have played over 300hrs from the very first alpha back in 2016 to before release and I still play it.

The game has been always about YOUR story and YOUR adventure, something that in my experience it did really well.

Sea of Thieves has given me the most fun in gaming since Halo 3 its just so good. With the weekly/biweekly campaigns starting with the release of The Hungering Deep and them adding a 4th team to the rotation I have faith they will continue to give me these great experiences. The game isnt for everyone, and the only reason I dont have it as a 90 or higher is because for as much as I love the game I know it released with a solid base but that was it in terms of "things to do" it also has a horrible grind to Pirate Legend although that has been fixed ever so slightly with higher leveled voyages consistently dropping higher leveled loot.
10/10 for not having Rare stuck with Kinect anymore by the way, im more excited for the studios future like never before.

80/100

Game 25/52: Dark Souls Remastered (Xbox)

Praise The Sun!

A Classic. Dark Souls Remastered (The Dark Souls of remasters) gives us locked 60fps on all platforms (minus switch) with increased resolutions, new lighting (which can be great in some areas, meh in others) and multiplayer that actually works.

The rest has been left pretty much the same so dont expect new content or a Scholar of the First Sin style remix. The remaster also includes the DLC from the first game.

Prepare to die again and again and again but you will love every second of it. Now we wait because... Shadows Die Twice.

85/100

Game 26/52: Assassin's Creed Origins (Xbox)

I am not a Medjay. I am a Hidden One.

~33hrs played

WOW. After pushing back the series release a full year I hoped that it would come back strong and different and man did it deliver.

As part of the leaked "Empire" trilogy Assassin's Creed Origins tells the story of how the brotherhood was born.
Bayek and Aya search for those that took the life of their son and in doing so are taken on an adventure across Egypt.

The game introduces RPG elements brand new to the series including skill trees, levels, more in-depth gear and more while also delivering a fun story, with a cool cast of original and historical characters.
The game also has a great photo mode and gives the player the ability to choose difficulty, I experienced the game on Hard from start to finish and would recommend that to most people.

This doesn't eliminate growing pains. The game suffers a little too much from forcing the player on doing side missions they may not be interested in because newer main story quests go higher and higher in level requirement and although you can gladly start them it can prove to be incredibly difficult with your lowered level.

Overall its not only a great entry into the series but its a fantastic turning point for the franchise as it continues to evolve into a fully fledged RPG with Assassin's Creed Odyssey taking even more strides to adding deeper RPG elements.

Egypt has fallen. Greece also. And Rome will fall too. All will fall to the creed.

85/100

Game 27/52: State of Decay 2 (Xbox)

More Decay Too

This game aint bad, but it isn't great either. The worst part about it is how similar it is the original game that released at the end of the 360's lifespan. The original had a certain charm that this loses completely as its the second outing with way more of a push before release.

If you never played the original this is a game you should probably keep an eye out for, if you have spent a good amount of time in the original however getting this for cheap or just getting it due to your Xbox Gamepass subscription is the way to go.

Survive, build your base, make relationships with characters in the world and finally play with your friends. Just dont go alone because if you die that death is perma.

65/100

Game 28/52: Monument Valley (Mobile)

Simple Valley

This may be the only mobile game I have on this list. Its just something I dont play on for multiple reasons. This game was free for a period of time and I have about an hour to Uni so I thought eh what the hell.

The game doesn't really tell you much but it really doesn't need to as its a very very simple game. You tap where you want to move and try to walk on a block on the map, that's basically it.

The best part of the game was easily the way the levels looked, some were very colourful and unique. The puzzles were ok, they were either long and tedious or just short, this isnt a Portal clearly.

With that the character has a revelation at the end but its something you can see coming pretty early on.

Overall a decent game. Short and a nice time waster is what I would call it.

65/100

Game 29/52: Persona 5 (PS4)

I never saw it coming.

I am not one for turn based combat. In fact this will probably be one of the only games in all my posts here that has that. I DO NOT LIKE THEM.

With that said, Persona 5 had fun and stylish combat which didn't really mind me grinding the extra hour to prepare for a boss.

Fun characters, AMAZING soundtrack and beautiful visuals (tied for 1st with Cuphead in 2017 if you ask me)

The only real downside is that it suffers from stuffing a lot of unneeded content. You may be asking what the hell I mean by that but its just that the low points in the story are in no way needed for the most part. Hours of time spent are kinda meaningless in the story and it could have been shortened a bit for a more compact and evenly balanced experience.

Its just awesome and glad I had the chance to play it. Now I wait for Persona 5 Golden or Persona 6 in like 10 years.

90/100

Game 30/52: Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)

Spectacular Spiderman

I LOVE this game, everything about it is pretty much perfect and the issues I do have with it (ok side missions, sneaking sections with other characters) didnt take away from the experience and it didnt stop me getting the platinum shortly after release.

Spider-Man takes everything good about Sunset Overdrive and everything cool about the Batman Arkham series and delivers a fun, unique adventure featuring the web head, his friends and some of his most famous villains.

Its a must play and a must own. A contender for GOTY for sure.

I look forward to the DLC Spidey.

95/100

Game 31/52: Uncharted: Lost Legacy (PS4)

A short but enjoyable ride.

Lost Legacy brings back Chloe (yay!) and Nadine (...oh) and together they go on quick journey for great train sequences, a helicopter ride and great scenery.

I have 2 main issues with the game.

Nadine continues to be a pain to have in the uncharted games, I never liked her in Uncharted 4 and I only slightly started to feel differently right at the end of the game.

Secondly even though the side story has some fun moments it feels just like that, a side story. No real tense moments wondering if Chloe was going to die or if Nadine and ____ were going to bite a bullet instead it felt like more Uncharted 4 (not a bad thing, 4 is my favourite) but with less character and love.

I feel like im staying too much in the negative but that's because the rest is a good game, and I spent plenty of time in photo mode just looking at this beautiful game.

70/100

Game 32/52: Half-Life (PC)

Old.

These two next entries will probably give me some backlash if anyone bothered to read these (I write em mainly for myself tbh)

Half Life and its sequel which I will talk about next are held in such high regard that I just felt I had to go back and experience them.

Now I never played them near release so this is me as a fresh mind going into it in 2018. This game feels, looks and plays old but it does have a charm that pushes it past something mediocre for me.

I don't know if I would recommend this game to someone new like me but im glad I have it under my belt now and don't feel left out when people talk about Half Life

60/100

Game 33/52: Half-Life 2 (PC)

A slightly better life.

So, Half Life 2...iv heard so much about you and iv heard for years how people would die for a sequel to you.

My experience like the one with the first game was someone new, just coming off the original. The boost in visuals was great but for 2018 can look a little rough, what blew me away the most is how many characters I know from playing Garry's Mod. I always knew that game took things from HL2 but seeing them animated and voiced was just strange and neat to me.

The gameplay improved, and so did the puzzles but it still feels outdated. This one would have been interesting to play at the time of release but like the original im just glad I know what people are talking about regarding Half Life 2.

65/100

Game 34/52: Middle Earth: Shadow of War (Xbox)

War...War never changes.

So this game I was interested in but since I thought the original was at most good/great I cant say I was that excited.

The game like the first is good, the characters are better and more fleshed out and the combat continues to be fun BUT at a certain point it becomes super repetitive.

Its worth a pic up if you enjoyed the first one and/or it sees a big discount on price. Thankfully I rented it instead of buying.

kinda negative but I still think its good and the time that I did spend was positive. Siege battles are dope.

75/100

Game 35/52: Super Mario Bros. (Switch)

Wahoo!

Just like Half-Life these next two are from the perspective of playing them in 2018 NOT when they were first released.


I had played it many times but never actually completed it and since the Switch version via Nintendo Online had save states I decided to have a quick run of it. Completed and done with, I dont really see myself coming back any time soon.
(maybe if I ever get to play it with a nes controller)

its solid.

70/100

Game 36/52: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Switch)

More Mario

Its more mario and builds on the world presented in Super Mario Bros.

Its good and better than the original, I find it uglier tho.




75/100

Game 37/52: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Xbox)

Become the Tomb Raider

This game is awesome.

I dont 100% games that often but this game had me do it, the characters are better the tombs are WAY better and the story is much better than in the two previous entries of this trilogy.

Ending the trilogy at a high point, just hope its not too long until we see her again. Eidos should be the one to continue the series for sure.

Play it. its great.

85/100

MAIN POST 2

Working On:
Conker Live and Reloaded
Shadow of the Colossus
..and so much fucking more :P (September and October is going to be brutal)

 

[Weiss]

37. Banjo-Tooie - 04/06/2018

Why do people say this game sucks? It totally doesn't. For sure there's some bloat (Grunty Industries) but the huge worlds are fun to explore and it has tons of gameplay variety. What kind of complaint is "too long" anyway?

 

[Deleted member 43077]

What kind of complaint is "too long" anyway?

Click to shrink...

depends, some games get the pace ruined completely because they are too long or they just repeat shit or have you do stupid things to fill time.

BT is dope tho.

 

[Lightningboalt]

Original Post



20. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze - 8 hours, May 12th
Played through that new Funky Mode. Game is just as incredible as I remembered it. Best 2D platformer, honestly. And now that I have it on the go, it'll be all too easy for me to replay it even more.

21. God of War - [9.5/10] 35ish hours, May 21st
Fairly easily my top game of the year thus far, although that's sort of an unfair metric considering thus far in terms of strictly 100% new releases, I've only played this, Bloodstained, Detective Pikachu, Kirby Star Allies, and a tiny bit of Monster Hunter World. I think God of War has a few major issues, ranging from generally poor and repetitive boss fights (shoutouts to Baldur and Modi/Magni for being great. Wasn't a fan of the dragon) to some particularly grindy and not particularly gripping optional content (ravens and the optional realms, and frankly I found the majority of valkyries to fall under this too), but the majority of the experience is still an exceptional game that lives up to the extreme praise it has received. God of War is a joy to explore, and in many ways it reminds me of a traditional style Zelda game with its general ethos on designing dungeons and puzzles. Worlds of this size and depth (not overwhelmingly large, intricately crafted rather than needlessly open, and packed to the brim with worthwhile content and great design) are something we need far more of in gaming, and I really respect how it told a personal story and left it at that - obviously there's a sequel hook, obviously there are ties to previous lore, but the game works incredibly well as a standalone work. For reference - this was my first God of War game. I imagine this will absolutely be near the top of my GOTY list come the end of the year.

22. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - [8/10] about 2 hours, May 25th
Castlevania 3 is one of my favorite Castlevania entries; Curse of the Moon captured everything I love about that game and put it in a worthy and refreshing successor game. Miriam was the most fun character of the set to me so I look forward to her turn as the main character in Ritual of the Night, but the whole cast was diverse and fun to play too. The short burst arcadey feel and the fact that it allows for and encourages multiple varied playthroughs will have me replaying this quite a bit.

23. Dark Souls Remastered - 10ish hours, May 28th
I think this is my 7th playthrough of Dark Souls? Had fun doing a quick short-burst playthrough on a rented copy over a weekend. Made my character Eliwood from Fire Emblem, ran around using an Estoc and generally just seeing how quickly I could get through the game after two years or so since my last playthrough. If nothing else, the increased stability and performance was very welcome.

24. Life is Strange: Before the Storm - [8/10] about 10 hours, June 5th
I questioned if this game was necessary, but after having played it over the weekend... no games are necessary, but I'm glad this one exists. It was fun to revisit Arcadia Bay, and while this game didn't feel as intricately interwoven as its predecessor, it still had a lot of the same charm and satisfying character development. I do feel a bunch of the extended cast felt... lacking, and I generally didn't care as much to interact with everyone in the same way I did Life is Strange. I think a lot of my issues would be solved if they gave this game one more episode to breathe a little, and no I don't think the bonus one satisfies that - I didn't need more Max, she had her story, I wanted more Chloe and Rachel. In some ways I preferred the first game, but in other ways I preferred this one. Honestly though, I'm just happy that a prequel I worried would be unnecessary made itself feel so worthwhile.

 

[InquisitorAles]

Main Post part 2

-------


55. Overclocked: A History of Violence - 6 hours
Another game that was looking interesting at first glance but turned out to be a clunky mess. The idea and premise are great, you're playing as psychiatrist who needs to talk with 5 patients who were found went crazy in different parts of New York under similar circumstances. Soon after your investigation starts, it becomes obvious that all those people went from the same place, and you discovering truth piece by piece in reverse order, from the moment they've escaped and to the day when all starts. To add more drama, the protagonist also has some uncontrollable rage issues and problems with his wife who live in different town and want to divorce.
This could have been a great noir-style thriller, but unfortunately, design flaws and numerous plot holes ruined whole experience to me. This game is such a mixed bag, it did some things right, like showing points of interest by pressing spacebar or almost instant loads between locations - but at the same time there's no journal or at least task list, and sometimes it's really hard to understand what exactly game wants from you. The main part of Overclocked gameplay is an interrogation of patients by playing audio clips from your talks with other patients, but the problem is the whole process is very linear and you always need to remember who was interrogated already and which audiolog, from specific cell, date and part of the day you need to play - and you'll have dozens of those clips just after the first day of investigation, hence all 5 days. With lack of hints, it's getting really frustrating to come back to the game and try to remember where exactly you stopped during your previous session, especially if you haven't played it for few days. Unless you'll use a walkthrough, Overclocked quickly turns to the boring guessing game.
It's not just that, there's plenty of weird design choices outside interrogations. Overclocked has a very weird logic, at the first day protagonist said he needs to call detective, but refuses to do it in the hospital because he wanted "privacy". So, I went to the last point where he was fine with making private calls - to his room in the hotel. But when I called detective, he didn't respond and I stuck, having no idea what I should do next. Turned out I should have called him not from my room, but at the hospital entrance - which is dumb because there was a guard nearby - and only then detective suddenly decided to answer on my calls. Also, protagonist LOVES to refuse to sleep at the end of the day, motivating this simply because "Not yet".
A good story could have saved this game even despite all problems and design flaws, but it has some major problems as well. My main gripe is about the whole personal drama that happens in the life of the protagonist, he looks and acts perfectly sane most of the time, but everyone around always yelling at him and proposing medical treatment, which obviously driving him nuts. When a drunk guy suddenly put the gun to his head, it's perfectly fine, but once protagonist disarmed him and aimed gun at that guy, everyone starts to yell at him and say that "he losing it". Characters (including the protagonist) sometimes doing really dumb shit for no reason, I mean what will you do when your bank account suddenly become frozen and you won't have a cash to pay for your room in the hotel? Of course, you would act like any sane person - you'll come to work like nothing happened and ignore the issue for few days... Wait, what? Seriously? Maybe that's how devs tried to show that protagonist is really "losing it", but it's not insanity, it's just lack of brains!
Well, to be fair there are some nice plot twists - but that's not enough to make a competent story. Once you starting to put all pieces of the puzzle together, the whole plot is falling apart. Overclocked didn't bother to explain a lot of important parts of the story, for example, why all patients went crazy after escape from the facility and forgot everything - during the first day of the investigation it was clear that all patients escaped in pretty much sane condition. Well, apparently evil dudes somehow found them, brainwashed them, and for some reasons let them out - and by doing that, they've brought attention to their work, which was supposed to be secret. Whatever...
After all, Overclocked is not COMPLETELY terrible. If you're hardcore adventure games fan, then I can see you having some fun with it, but everyone else? Nah, just forget about it

 

[FallenGrace]

Been a while since I updated:

10: Wonderboy in Monster World - PS3 (April 4th, - 100% trophies, 10 hours)
# Pretty good game, I like the art and design of a lot of it making you explore with new abilities to find where to go. The last two levels are however a product of the era it was made and are awful. The last boss is especially cheap and horrific in design just bouncing me to my death. Hated it. 6/10

11: Yonder The Cloud Catcher Chronicles - PS4 (April 17th, - Platinum, 30 hours)
# Imagine an open world RPG with no combat. Imagine the quests in it to all be fetch quests of the dullest variety with no story worth a fart. Imagine an adventure game that is no fun to explore, imagine minecraft without the creativity of building, imagine Stardew Valley with all the depth and fun removed, and imagine all the characters looking like they were made from playmobil parts and that's Yonder. It's a jack of all trades, master of none game if I ever played one. It's not terrible so to speak it's just an empty experience. 3/10

12: Metal Slug 3 - PS4 (April 25th, - 100% trophies, 4 hours)
# Shot through this in a couple of hours then another couple of play through to mop up the trophies. Just as fun as I remember it when I played it in arcades with friends like 16 years ago. 8.5/10

13: A Way Out - PS4 (April 28th - Platinum, 10 hours)
# I Was enjoying it a fair bit up until the last, didn't enjoy the ending sequence at all. Real shame. It has some pretty cool ideas for the co-op system but a lot of the other aspects are a little loose in execution with some controls and story. Glad I played it though and there is one sequence I thought was especially awesome. 6.5/10

14: Pillars of Eternity - PS4 (May 9th, 130 hours)
# Finished this with the White March DLC. Great game, really enjoyed the writing and exploration elements especially. It was an engrossing experience that reminded me of Baldurs Gate. Wouldn't be an Obsidian game without technical problems though. One character has a companion that after battles would freeze so I couldn't get out of battle mode forcing me to reload. I also had some crashing moving between areas and the load times and frequency were just ludicrous. That said it didn't hold back how much I liked it though I'm glad to be moving on. 8/10

15: Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ - PS4 (May 29th - Platinum, 134 hours)
# Finished this, the epilogue and the after story, then replayed it quickly on new game + on Calamity and Insanity difficulties/mode. I enjoyed it a lot despite its flaws. The characters and npcs are what really drive it with some good voice acting and I think the localisation by Aksys was really good. Some cliches, bland dungeons and meh combat are the weak points but they don't hold it back from being fun. 8/10

16: Alien Storm - PS4 Sega Megadrive Collection (June 3rd, 1 hour)
# Always liked this game but could never beat it. I only got to mission 5 as my best solo but the new collection allows me to rewind time so I can cheat to actually beat it! XD It took me about an hour. A good game overall but a lack of enemy variety and too hard, a product of the arcade era. 6.5/10

17: Streets of Rage - PS4 Sega Megadrive Collection (June 3rd, 1.5 hours)
# One of my favorite games going but on this collection (not Streets of Rage fault but this particular version) seems to suffer from input lag as well as sound and music glitches.What can be said about Streets of Rage? The music is amazing, the art is wonderfully 80's and it's just great fun, just don't play this version if you have access elsewhere, it just doesn't feel right for lack of a better word.
Streets of Rage - 9/10
This version - 7.5/10

 

[LonestarZues]

Been a while since I updated:

16: Alien Storm - PS4 Sega Megadrive Collection (April 3rd, 1 hour)
# Always liked this game but could never beat it. I only got to mission 5 as my best solo but the new collection allows me to rewind time so I can cheat to actually beat it! XD It took me about an hour. A good game overall but a lack of enemy variety and too hard, a product of the arcade era. 6.5/10

17: Streets of Rage - PS4 Sega Megadrive Collection (April 3rd, 1.5 hours)
# One of my favorite games going but on this collection (not Streets of Rage fault but this particular version) seems to suffer from input lag as well as sound and music glitches.What can be said about Streets of Rage? The music is amazing, the art is wonderfully 80's and it's just great fun, just don't play this version if you have access elsewhere, it just doesn't feel right for lack of a better word.
Streets of Rage - 9/10
This version - 7.5/10

Click to shrink...

Did you mean June 3rd?

Also it's a bummer to hear about the glitches in Streets of Rage as that's the only game I didn't beat back in the day from the series. Will stay play it and replay the other 2 games though.

 

[Deleted member 1265]

28/52 games completed

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Game 25 – Tomb Raider II (PC) – 11 hours, 45 minutes – 4/5

I actually think I've mildly underrated this one in the past. Yes, the human combat is a bit excessive and grows old after a few levels but wow are the highs here really high. Short of the heart attack factor personally, the shipwreck levels are breathtaking and probably my favorite individual block of Tomb Raider levels. The Deck in particular is incredible. Remove one of or combine the two offshore rig levels into one and there would be no flat out bad levels in the bunch.

I would give anything to have a new indie release with the gameplay stylings of these games (grid based platforming).

Game 26 – Tomb Raider II: The Golden Mask (PC) – 4 hours, 3 minutes – 4/5

Now this is more like it as far as expansions go in this series. I'm under the impression that these were made by b-teams at Core at the time but it truly doesn't show. Some of my issues with TR2 carry over (the human combat can still be Excessive) but when this is good, wow is it good. I especially appreciate the string of the last 3 levels (the 2 main ones and the bonus level in Vegas). There's some really interesting stuff done here aesthetically and Vegas has this really wild/incoherent level design that lives up to the levels own name (Nightmare in Vegas). If you're a fan of these games and have access to a PC it's def worth a try to get them working. The first two at least aren't too difficult.

Game 27 – Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (PC) – 25 hours, 6 minutes – 4.5/5

This one was absolutely incredible. Everything from the level design to the aesthetics and score were right up my alley so this was a treat on all levels nearly from start to finish. Things did falter mildly in the last three levels/areas but when I say falter I mean stumble a bit from the rest of the game that is consistently 5/5 material. I'd still take those last bits over most other games.

There's so many options here from both a role playing and a gameplay standpoint that I can't wait to come back to this and see how different things can turn out. Will definitely be giving the rest of the franchise a go soon.

Game 28 – Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (SNES) – 1 hour, 28 minutes – 2/5

Played this one on the Wii U eshop after previously owning but never finishing as a child. There's really not much to this game. The point and click gameplay is charming enough but there's a lot of repetitive animations that can't be skipped which add padding to a game that's already really short. Some of pac-man's animations are absolutely iconic so I guess it's a net positive as to the existence of this game?

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 43077]

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(Update June 3rd, 2018)

Game 14/52: Sprint Vector (PC/Rift)

Gotta go fast!

Sprint Vector is a colourful and fun VR game which puts you against other players as you race across diverse maps, jump, fly and sprint your way to victory. The game is multiplayer focused and I have experienced pretty much everything the game has to offer but with new updates and the fact that its just a multiplayer game it still has good gameplay for me to want to go back.

Its also one hell of a work out. That being said once tired physically or when you have raced and won across the globe the game doesn't have much but replaying those said races with new people until they drop more content. Its fun, its fast and its not for those easily sick.

70/100

Game 15/52: Onward (PC/Rift)

We aint in Kansas anymore soldier!

This game is tense, fun and brings what you want in a modern fps game for VR. Its made by a smaller team so its not the best looking game and it can be a little rough in some areas sometimes but the squad gameplay and just the overall feel of being the boots on the ground is great.

again another multiplayer title, more content does release but this one can be played over and over again.

80/100

Game 16/52: SuperHot VR (PC/Rift)

SUPER. HOT.

Do you want to be John Wick? want to be the star of your on Tom Cruise like fight scene?
Enjoy this fun game now in VR as you kill polygonal red dudes with pistols, shotguns, swords, bottles and anything else you can find. Time moves only when you move so dont be afraid to get fancy ;)

85/100

Game 17/52: Beat Saber (PC/Rift)

I'm one with the beat and the beat is with me.

I'm not really into rhythm/music games but man is this cool. The base game is short that's the only downside but everything is super polished and satisfying giving you enough modes to want to experience all the songs more than once for sure.

The game also has a great modding community already giving you access to almost every song you could possibly want and its super easy to set up giving you many many hours of added enjoyment for free!
More songs and a built in song creation tool is coming in the future but with the community behind this game you wont even notice! easily one of the best VR games, a must own.

90/100

Game 18/52: Robo Recall (PC/Rift)

Total Robo Recall

This game is awesome, it really is. Its just so so good.
The game is visually great, still one of the best looking VR games. The gameplay is rock solid and supports some mods to make the experience a little better.

Unfortunately I myself dont enjoy going back to some of the levels just to try and beat a highscore, that's just not the type of gamer I am.

Overall its a must play for any VR owner, try and get your hands on this.

75/100

Game 19/52: Raw Data (PC/Rift)

Cyberpunk Ninja. What could go wrong?

First off I have to say, this game is one of the coolest ones I have played in VR. From having a bow and arrow, sword, shotgun its all damn cool and the PVP multiplayer makes it all the better when you slice and dice!

The singleplayer is also fun but is limited to the less fun wave killing structure that plagues a lot of the early VR stuff, thankfully its something we are moving away from more and more.

If Cyberpunk Ninja sounds good to you (why wouldn't it?!) then this is a must play. If that isn't something you are big into then a sale is something you should consider.

75/100

Game 20/52: Cities Skylines (PC)

Sim(ulation)City

This is the game you want if you like SimCity. Just get it or dont if that's not your thing. I enjoy em and play from time to time and its good. Sometimes I feel like eventually the city reaches a limit and you cant do anything but see your people die but who knows I may not be that great of a mayor!

75/100

 

[FallenGrace]

Did you mean June 3rd?

Also it's a bummer to hear about the glitches in Streets of Rage as that's the only game I didn't beat back in the day from the series. Will stay play it and replay the other 2 games though.

Click to shrink...

Ack! I did! Will edit later! Thanks.

It's still perfectly playable and a great game, it just doesn't respond as well as it should. I have yet to try the others so not sure what they're like. The collection seems like a mixed bag from what I've tried, the online is almost completely unplayable.

 

[Bosh]

MAIN THREAD

#32: Sunset Overdrive (6-5-2018) | 8/10 | Xbox One| ~ 9 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 8 | A game self aware of itself, presenting fun above all else
Gameplay - 9 | Smooth over the top gameplay was a joy start to finish. Weapons are awesome & unique.
Sound - 8 | Not a huge punk fan, but the soundtrack fits the game perfectly. Voice acting fairly good.
Story/Online - 8 | Its silly, both missions & voice acting but its comical and keeps you coming back.
Asking Price- 8.33 | Big city, plenty of story/side mission content as well as some collectibles to find