#5 Kingdom Hearts III Remind | 2/1/2020 - 12 hrs | 3/5
As as KH fan since 2002, I enjoyed getting an expanded KH3 story. What I didn't like is that after seeing most of the story, they locked the secret boss and more story behind a boss rush. I probably spent 6 hours total working through the bosses and after the first 11, two more unlocked. I spent 2-3 hours trying to beat them to get to the secret boss but couldn't beat them. When I couldn't even get 1 hit on a boss before I died I just ejected the game and decided I was done and watched the ending on YouTube. I'm playing on normal, am level 99 and have the best weapons... It shouldn't be this hard at this difficulty to beat the bosses. For this reason I rated this a 3/5.
#6 Root Letter: Last Answer | 2/7/2020 - 13 hrs | 4/5
Since Steinsgate got me into VNs 5 years ago, I've tried to play more and more. This was one of the quickest VNs I've played and I really liked that. I enjoyed the story and the mystery in it. Some of the endings were weird as hell, but the true ending was worth it.
Was still a bit high from HL's playthrough and decided to give OF a play, but now am burnt out on First Person view games for the time being XP
I enjoyed the first half of the game more where I would navigate around Black Mesa doing some platforming and traversing through the ruins.
While the 2nd half got too into the shooting with strong enemies, I think it's a very solid expansion although AI companions could've been done better.
7. Super Mario Maker 2 (5+ hours)
It offers some nice twists on traditional 2D Mario gameplay, and it offers generally more refreshing 3D World-inspired levels, but for the most part, it's just plain old 2D Mario with a level editor.
Finally got around to playing this and it's one of those rare cases where something does indeed live up to the hype. Unbelievable presentation, from the graphics to the soundtrack, the animations and just overall polish, the super tight controls and of course, the make-you-want-to-crawl-into-a-hole-and-cry brutal difficulty that games like the Souls series are known for, and like those, extremely satisfying once you beat a boss, Cuphead really is something special and I can't wait to see what these guys make next.
Game #8 - Eqqo
Time: 4 hours
Very cool touch based adventure game that has you guide a blind boy through various puzzles, none of which are ever too complicated (it's originally a iOS/android game) but are satisfying nonetheless. Surprisingly meaty campaign through various temples and ruins, very cool visuals, a cute story that is narrated as you play, just a very enjoyable game overall reminiscent of Ico and other games like that, never overstays it's welcome and is just a enjoyable time all around. It was a nice surprise and something I would easily recommend.
15: Spyro The Dragon. End: 2/8/2020. 6 hours. Liked.
I don't actually have any history with this game, and minimal history with Spyro overall. So I thought I'd correct that. This game starts off simple enough, but ratchets up the difficulty later on (but never gets too hard). Although I hate some of the collectathon elements that feel like they impede your progress to artificially lengthen the game, and the last boss fight is one of my least favorite boss fights in recent memory. Still a mostly enjoyable game. Looking forward to the sequels in the Reignited Trilogy.
Just hit #9. I know many would consider episodic games cheating but ehhh
Feb 9 - Life is Strange 2x03 (Xbox One)
Feb 5 - Life is Strange 2x02 (Xbox One)
Feb 3 - Life is Strange 2x01 (Xbox One)
Jan 21 - Kind Words (PC)
Jan 19 - Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (PSVR)
Jan 13 - The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (PC - Rift)
Jan 13 - Pistol Whip (PC - Rift)
Jan 11 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
Jan 4 - Astral Chain (Switch)
Just hit #9. I know many would consider episodic games cheating but ehhh
Feb 9 - Life is Strange 2x03 (Xbox One)
Feb 5 - Life is Strange 2x02 (Xbox One)
Feb 3 - Life is Strange 2x01 (Xbox One)
Jan 21 - Kind Words (PC)
Jan 19 - Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (PSVR)
Jan 13 - The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (PC - Rift)
Jan 13 - Pistol Whip (PC - Rift)
Jan 11 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
Jan 4 - Astral Chain (Switch)
I love this game. Remedy are easily my favourite developers and this is one of the best games they've ever made. I kind of had an inconsistent time with it because I started it when it was released but my video card died half way through and I had to wait like a month until my PC was returned with it repaired, so by the time I got it back I thought I should just restart the game from the beginning and redoing a lot of it kinda hurt my momentum. But, despite that, it's fantastic. I think I'll like it even more when I do my inevitable replay.
11. Sky Force Anniversary | PC | Completed 05/02/2020 | ★★★
I'm not really that experienced with SHMUPs, and especially not bullet hell SHMUPs, so the rouge-lite element of this was really essential to me sticking with it. It was pretty fun, but the environments got really repetitive and the challenges basically being the same for every single level was pretty boring and didn't cause my to play any differently. I was hoping this would be the game to ease me into the SHMUP genre because I would really like to play more, but I'm not sure if I want to play the sequel or just go and try to find my way in with another series.
12. Kentucky Route Zero | PC | Completed 05/02/2020 | ★★★★★
It's a perfect game.
I played through acts I to IV when IV was release and loved it a lot then, but getting to play the entirety of it now with the interludes built in is just an amazing experience. I can't think of a single way this game could be improved.
13 . Wattam | PC | Completed 06/02/2020 | ★★★★
I really didn't expect the story of Wattam to connect with me as much as it did. The game was always surprising and goof and fun, but I got genuinely invested in this silly world and found the ending to be weirdly touching. I loved this little square man and all of his friends who want nothing more than for him to take off his hat so they can all explode together as friends forever.
This was just a quick replay to get ready for DOOM Eternal next month. I hadn't played through it completely since it was released and it still holds up incredibly well. Maybe the only thing I have to say negative about DOOM in 2020 is that, if you've played it before, it's really hard to recapture that raw excitement and energy that it has the first time. Playing this game in 2016 I remember it being frantic and exciting and explosive from basically the beginning to end but, now that I know how everything works and just the general flow of the game, it feels a lot more mechanical. It's still very, very fun and I hope that Eternal can recapture some of that energy just by the virtue of it being a new experience.
Alright so I usually pick these up and then update it maybe once or twice then drop it, but hopefully this year I'll try to keep it a bit more up to date. What I like the most about this thread is that it gives you a little diary to look back on. Sometimes you kind of forget you've played a game or you played it and can't really remember much of it, that's why it's nice to look back on some years and see what you've played. Having said that, I'm going to 'cheat' a bit this year and include a few games I completed at the end of 2019. I won't count them towards this year though but I want to have them here for archiving purpose. So without further ado let's start with game minus 4!
-4. Pyre (Steam - November 26th 2019 - 22 hours - 7/10 - mostly fun to complete)
Loved the settings, characters and art, Supergiant always manages to make aesthetically pleasing games that are a joy to look at. Also loved the idea of living with your failures and losing a battle doesn't automatically game over you. The gameplay itself isn't anything to write home about though and quickly turns into abusing a certain technique a lot of times. It certainly is interesting though and playing it on the highest difficulty did make me appreciate it a bit more, though the AI loves to abuse certain things too. The characters really did end up stealing the show and I really cared about them enough to feel that bittersweet feeling when you save one of your party members from exile. However, in the end it does rank of my least favourite Supergiant game, but knowing the pedigree of Bastion and Transistor it's only because the previous two games are that good.
Completion wise it incites you to use all characters which is nice and playing the game on the highest difficulty did give me a bit more appreciation for the gameplay. You generally get the achievements during normal gameplay. A few annoying ones involved playing the added co-op made against computers with arbitrary rules, which didn't cost too much time fortunately.
-3. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Steam - December 12th 2019 - 14 hours - 8/10 - Lots of fun to complete)
I don't recall why I picked it up, but I'm glad I did. The game is a lot of fun and it hits a great sweetspot with length and replayability, would definitely pick up a sequel if it'd ever gets announced. I enjoyed the mix of Metroidvania and Dark Souls elements. The combat and platforming felt really satisfying too. I enjoyed the cutesy factor of the game too. I first did a normal full completion run and after that basically ticked all the boxes for other runs like no-death, speedrun etc. All in all I think I completed 4 runs all on a different difficulty.
-2. Momodora III (Steam - December 13th 2019 - 2 hours - 4/10 - Boring to complete)
After IV I wanted to try out the other games on Steam, but only III seems to have hit Steam and I was too lazy to try the other ones on Itch.io. Anyway IV is a massive improvement over III, almost every element is improved upon bar cuteness. I stumbled upon a pretty OP item on my first run already and pretty much just quickly went through the game without thinking much. There was no challenge at all and it felt like going through the same motions throughout it all.
-1. Jamestown+ (Steam - December 24th 2019 - 17 hours - 8/10 - A lot of fun to complete and actually doable this time)
After having played the original Jamestown a ton with friends years ago, I was always itching to play the extra content the Playstation 4 version had received. After a long wait they finally released the improved version to Steam and even with a nice hefty discount for owners of the original which I gladly picked up. So yeah it's more Jamestown which is not a bad thing at all, the new levels are great, chaotic and most importantly fun to play. Unfortunately my friends and I don't have as much free time as we used to have so I mostly played everything myself this time and even playing it solo was a lot of fun. The new Steam play together feature did release just at the right time for this game though, I played some games of local co-op online with my friends and it worked really well with two players actually! Add another player and it did struggle to keep up though, but the question is if it was due to play together not gelling well with more than 2 players or my friend's connection
The original game had absolutely impossible achievements which I did not want to burn my hands on at all, but the plus version actually has very doable achievements which are challenging but not too much. I did have to do some achievements over again on a different branch because not everything was working which was a bit annoying but aside from that it was a nice mix of challenge and fun.
1. Castle Crashers (Steam - January 1st - 7 hours - 6,5/10 - Didn't complete)
Me and my gf were looking for something fun to play together and after searching for a bit we decided on trying out Castle Crashers. It was fun but nothing special, I liked the off-beat wacky humor and the crazy scenarios the game would throw at you, but the gameplay itself was a bit boring to me. I get that the point of the game isn't to be overly convoluted or anything but there's so much button mashingI like doing. The game itself at least had a nice sweet spot length of only 7 hours which is the perfect length for this type of game. Long enough to keep me engaged but not too long for me to lose interest.
2. Celeste (Steam - January 5th - 50 hours - 9/10 - Challenging and awesome to complete)
I've always loved difficult platformers but it was quite a while since I last scratched that itch. So during the Steam winter sale I impuls bought the game to see if it would hold up to my favourite instant revive platformer Super Meat Boy. It definitely is up there but I still like Super Meat Boy better (possibly due nostalgia). Great level design, great difficulty curve, great challenges, and most importantly great controls. The game balanced the difficulty of the main story and the additional challenges very well, and the extra challenges were mostly the meat of the game for me. I loved the extra challenges and it seemed like they never stopped coming, finish a level; have a B-Side, finish the B-Sides; have the C-Sides. I really liked the optional movement techniques the game thrown at you to, but please don't do it at the end of a very difficult B-Side with very little margin of error!
3. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Steam - February 9th - 29 hours - 7,5/10 - Pain in the ass to complete)
Na naaaa - na na na na na na - na na naaaa na na na naaaa. When I was younger I loved Katamari Damacy, however I never owned a Playstation 2 so I could never play it myself. I was always able to play the game at a friend's house but aside from the battle mode it's not that much fun to play together. With the release of Reroll I was finally able to play through it all myself! Such a amazing journey this game is with new sprinkled with goofyness and deadpan humor, it's great. I don't know how they did it, but it's just so much FUN to roll around collecting stuff and getting bigger, it's surprising how well they nailed the gameplay loop first try. Everything can be a bit janky sometimes, but that's part of the charm! In order to complete the game you had to collect ALL different rollable items which... was definitely a giant chore and frustrating. Would've liked it more if the completion was a bit more tied to challenges than completing this giant list. The base is there with the game already having a (kind of) rating system of how you've done in the level, but it mostly doesn't do anything aside form a couple occasions.
4. Dicey Dungeons (Steam - March 29th - 81 hours (lots of afking though) - 7/10 - A bit of a chore to complete)
As work was getting really hectic, I wanted to have an easy to pick-up & learn rogue-like that I could play on and off whenever I needed some relaxation. After searching around for a while I stumbled upon Dicey Dungeons. I had heard of it before but never delved deeper in it. What really caught my eye though, was that it was a game by Terry Cavanagh, which other games, VVVVVV and Super Hexagon I really enjoyed. The game really delivered on the easy to pick-up aspect. I think the tutorial took about 5 minutes and all the extra characters were easy to understand as well. It's a very relaxed experience (while it can still be very aggrevating at times, looking at you Witch), no skillful execution required, just trying to get an OP build with a little bit of luck sprinkled in. All of the characters added a unique flair to the game. However some characters could become really annoying in some of the later challenges due to luck starting to play a bigger and bigger aspect. For the later challenges especially the damage aspect could become really annoying where enemies could output an insane amount of damage with some luck while you're trying to get this set-up for a character working because that's the way the character is intended to play. A lot of times what ended up happening was making a deck where, from the start, you could output a lot of damage instead of going for the set-up the character was designed around. There were also a bit too many dungeons you had to go through before being able to tackle the end-boss. I do sound a bit negative about the game but I did really enjoy my time with it. It feels great to get an absolutely OP set-up going and it's fun to think about all the ways you can make that insane build. I did about 1-2 runs every evening after work for the past month which attests to its easy to pick-up & play nature.
5. Animal Crossing (GC - April 9th - about 50 this year, hundreds in my childhood - 8/10)
After buying Animal Crossing: New Horizon... I have to confess that I've played the game only twice. What it mostly did was raising my nostalgia level through the roof, making me dust off the old gamecube and firing up the original. I'm in shock because of the amount of weeds, the villagers are in shock as I am back for the first time in 82 months, Tom Nook is in shock because debt is being paid off again, it was all very shocking to my little village. I really enjoyed it though, at first I wanted to check out the village again before diving into NH again, but... I started getting rid of the weeds, chatting with some villagers, checking the museum and before I knew it I was on the path to finally, after 15 years, pay off all the debt I had. About 2 weeks in I finally managed to do it, I paid off all the debt. It didn't stop there however, I have also been chipping away at getting some of the golden items and filling the entire museum, which is still a project in process. I'm on about day 12 of having the perfect time which means I soon should have a golden axe and I even managed to get the last fossil I had been looking for ages for.
6. Resident Evil 3 (PC - April 10th - 29 hours - 8/10 - Joy to complete)
Short but sweet, perfect replayablity. It's not as good as RE2make, but that's partly because 2 was fresh whereas 3 is more of the same with more action sprinkled on top. There's a few subtle differences that end up changing how you play it. Where in 2 it was really powerfull to use the dismembering to the full potential, in this one... the system is really dumbed down and not worth going for dismemberment. In RE2 you aim for any limb, in this one for the head. I really liked the addition of the dodge mechanic, makes the bosses a lot of fun and I wish there were more bosses than just Nemesis variants. Also Carlos's character is great especially in the police station.
The real fun was doing multiple playthroughs and challenge runs. Where the length made the first playthrough a bit shallow (but still enjoyable), for subsequential playthroughs it was the perfect length. I ended up doing 5 runs in total, each run going for a different objective. Fuuuck the final boss on inferno though
7. Overwatch (PC - May 7th - 40 hours - 8/10)
For some reason I wanted to try my hand at competitive again for a season. I hadn't played in a long time so the new role queue was new for me, but since I was basically a healer main anyway I didn't mind (this way there's no pressure to play tank if there's already 2 healers in the group). Aside from that I was basically only still used to playing Lucio and Ana, but my Ana was pretty bad to begin with so I really had to start learning the new healers. Learning the new healers was a bit of a struggle at first, heroes like Moira & Brigitte should've been pretty easy to pick up in theory but I was struggling with them a bit for some reason. In the end it was just a case of getting used to them. However getting used to the new healers got me ranked a whole lot lower than where I was when I stopped playing. I dropped all the way from low diamond to low gold. After hitting my head into a wall and even dropping into silver for a bit things finally started clicking again and I feel like I'm pretty decent at most of the supports again. Now comes the actual hard part though, climbing all the way from silver to diamond again is going to be a massive stuggle. I ended the last season in mid gold after flirting with plat a bit. I didn't expect the game to hook me again like this but I'm having fun trying to climb the ranks again!
8. Pummel Party (PC - April 18th - 5 hours - 5/10)
Due to the COVID epidemic I hadn't hung out with my friends in a long time. After getting some of my friends on Discord we decided it was finally time to play something fun together. We used to play Mario Party quite a bit when still able to meet-up in person so we figured: "hey why not try this Mario Party clone on steam". So yeah we all ended up buying it and played a few games. I have to say I'm not impressed at all at the game, everytime a mini-game pops up (which a lot of times is the same one) everyone immediately groans "oh no not this one". I don't think there's a lot of mini-games we do like and some overstay their welcome way too long. All in all we still had fun with the game of course but it was mostly despite the game not because of the game. We'll probably end up playing it a few more times because the only other game we're playing is Tabletop Simulator and it's a nice change of pace from the more serious board games we play on there.
Despite the popularity of battle royales I hadn't actually played one before I tried out Apex. I have to say that the other ones didn't interest me at all even though I really liked the concept. Apex though seemed like one I would really like having played a lot of Titanfall 1 multiplayer. So my goal was to get at least one victory which I honestly thought was going to be a bigger challenge than it actually was. So after about 10 games I finally managed to clutch out a victory mostly due my teammates carrying me. I was hooked however, the game is really addictive and fun. I tried out a little bit of competitive lately but since the season is ending soon I don't think I'll be trying too hard.
10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (3DS - April 28th - 50 hours - 8/10)
I was too lazy to pick this game up back when it first launced on the 3DS (also in part because it had no physical release). AA5 was really enjoyable but nothing special so I didn't feel the strong urge due to that. However, during a recent sale it was only 5 euro so I basically had no other choice to pick it up. I played AA5 at launch back then, so it was quite a while ago since I played a new Ace Attorney. Playing the game was like catching up with an old friend, it was lovely. Suffice to say, this game had a little bit too much fan service going on with all the returning characters, but I actually didn't mind it at all. It was nice to catch up with the likes of Maya, Larry Butz & Edgeworth. I wish they'd do something more with the characters though, it was too much a rethread of the old games. I want to see them in exciting new situations and not "oh Maya got accused of murder again", "oh Larry is in silly love again". Give me some other stroy beats please! The trials itself (including the DLC one) were solid, seems like they listened to AA5 feedback and made the game more challenging than AA5. Quite some surprising twists yet again (they keept doing it!). But what I liked the most about this game is that it felt more like Apollo's game than AA4 did, our smol boy has grown up ;_;7.
11. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.8 Matsuribayashi (PC - May 25th - 23 hours - 7/10)
After what feels like years of waiting we finally got the conclusion to the Higurashi saga (well at least officially released)! What can I say, from the moment it released to now I've absolutely loved the series, especially the Questions arc. What made Higurashi shine was the horror, mystery & shit escalating and while the Answers arc still has these aspects, it does so in a lot lesser quantity since we're getting the explanation of what happened in the earlier episodes. And for the first time there's even a little bit of gameplay going on! In the end it was nice to get the answers to the mysteries the first 4-5 episode posed and seeing what was and what wasn't a red herring. Loved my time with Higurashi, but I'm glad it's over now. Time to move on to Umineko!
12. Valorant (PC - June 10th - 40 hours - 6/10)
Some of my friends just got a new gaming PC before Valorant released which made our group-size 5, the perfect size for some Valorant since it's free too! Very frustrating going from games like Apex and Overwatch to this, both have similar character specific mechanics, but Valorant is so much different than those two. So I had some trouble getting adjusted to the change of pace. After getting familiar with the game some more it did become more fun, but I feel like it was fun because I played it with a group of friends and not because we enjoyed the game that much. I think I'm just not into the quick reflex-based shooting, I like the more movement/ longer drawn out battles from Apex & Overwatch more. Game is solid and I can see how people enjoy it, just not my kind of game
13. Murder By Numbers (PC - June 14th - 32 hours - 6.5/10)
After playing so many shooters and other higher-paced games I was looking for something a bit more mellowed down and relaxed. I decided to try out Murder By Numbers since I love Picross and it seemed like it was that plus a nice story. Initially I was playing it for the picross, but as time went on and I got to some of the later trials I was enjoying the story more than the picross. At one point the picross puzzles actually became more of a nuisance than something I was looking forward to, which is ironic since at first I wanted to play the game because of the picross and the story was a nice extra bonus. It's just that sometimes you had to do 3-4 quite large picross puzzles almost in succession while there's something really interesting going on in the story and once you have solved all the puzzles you're kinda wondering what was going on in the story again. The story itself was quite nice and wholesome, I enjoyed it. It was a little bit predictable at certain points and a bit cheesy but hey, that sometimes is exactly what a light detective story needs.
14. Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (PC - July 26th - 73 hours - 9/10)
My favourite FROM game, definitely. This game is super tight, the combat goes hard, perfect challenge, interesting story and great locales. I feel like if someone was able to extract from my brain exactly what type of combat I want from a game then this is almost what would be extracted. One main style to play with that has variations to spice it up. Everything seems designed around the combat and because of the fact that there's only one main style to play it feels like the bosses are puzzles to be overcome. Every boss has their own quirks and therefore carefully studied and tackled with the tools you have. I really like the added manouverablity the game provides and because of that even with regular encounters you can choose what you want to do, fight, run, stealth or anything in between. However, I'm not too big a fan of the stealth, it's servicable but a bit dull. What's never a surprise with FROM's Souls(-ish) games is that the locals are amazing and Sekiro is no exception, it's even one of the better ones if not the best. Absolutely loved the environments in the game. I also took a particular liking to the story this time around which normally doesn't really happen to me. Even though I didn't understand anything during my playthrough, I looked up some lore online and it was all super interesting. In the end it took me 4 runs to fully complete the game which did involve quite a bit of grinding in the end, but all in all an amazing experience
15. One Step From Eden (PC - September 15th - 50 hours - 8/10)
As a kid I loved Mega Man Battle Network and played (almost) all of them. So when I saw a trailer for One Step I know I had to play it. I do have to say that what made me love the MMBN games was the whole package and especially the adventure aspect of it. The actual battling is okay, but not the highlight of the show. This game focusses fully on the combat of it though and I can understand why, the game has been made by a small team and making an adventure the scope of MMBN is quite the task.
This game is hard and with hard I mean REALLY HARD, I really like playing hard games though so when I say that this game almost made me quit at the beginning I think it's a testament of how hard it actually is. There have only been a few games I can think of that made me feel like the difficulty level was actually outside of my grasp. The combat is really fun though and because of that I was able to power through the initial insane difficulty curve. There's a lot of content with plenty of characters with completely different playstyles, multiple endings, additional challenges and community mods (which I haven't tried myself but I saw some fun ones online so I might try some out). Even after I got all achievements I still pick the game up from time to time for a few runs because it's just that much fun. I even saw the creator mentioning on twitter that he would love to expand the combat system and make an adventure type game just like MMBN which I would be super down for.
I had been waiting for Hades to get out of Early Access ever since it was announced back in 2018. So when it got the V1.0 release I was in! All three previous Supergiant games have been amazing so there was no doubt in my mind that Hades would be good too. Supergiant delivered once again with a very enjoyable game that overstays its welcome a bit too long and ends up being way too grindy. Of course doing a lot of playthroughs is a big part of rogue-likes, but at about 10 runs in to a 30 run streak it already started feeling like work. I understand that the writing is the highlight and the dynamic conversation trees are an absolute treat, but please don't make me do 50+ runs to showcase it.
As said earlier, the characters are the stars of the show, as with all Supergiant games, and they nailed it again. The combat is a lot of fun too and building an OP build feels really rewarding. All in all I do think this might be my least favourite Supergiant game because the package didn't feel as intricately crafted as the other ones, but that's also a sign of how good the previous ones are. I wonder if there will be more new content coming in the future that is not merely balance like how it has been after V1.0.
17. AI: The Somnium Files (PC - December 18th - 25 hours - 7.5/10)
After the big disappointment that was Zero Time Dilemma, I took a break from Uchikoshi's games. I had noticed that I had grown a bit bitter at the fact that it seems like he's been reusing twists for a long time now. But this month I decided to try my hand at AI: The Somnium Files and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it all things considering. What I loved the most was that the big twist was right there in front of you, but it didn't take until the twist for it to all fit it place. Even though this time it's borrowing things from Remember 11, I feel like it was much more a twist on instead of just literally reusing the same twist. The characters itself were a bit hit or miss for me, where I really enjoyed some and really disliked some others (which you are meant to like). I also really hated the amount of innuendos thrown in the game. It just distracted me from the experience that when you were looking around a room, trying to get a bit of flavour and world-building it just ended up being innuendo after innuendo. All in all the twist really saved it for me, I was okay on it before the twist.
18. Going Under (PC - December 27th - 18 hours - 7/10)
A fun, charming and stylish rogue-lite. Coming from Hades I had a bit of a hard time playing it at first, but that's more of a sign of how great and fluid Hades was. I really liked the structure of the game where you're not redoing the same floors over and over but there's a few "dungeons" to complete. As I've been an intern not that long ago and rolled into the IT world 2 years ago the story subject really spoke to me. I've been through some of the same stuff and thought it was handled well and with a good sense of humor. It served as a good reminder that even though your work environment might be toxic, your collegaes don't need to be.
19. Sea of Thieves (PC - December 31th - 10 hours - 6/10)
I'm honestly not too sure if this game has an ending or not. I don't think it has (in the traditional sense) so I'm going to add it to the list anyway! I've been having fun playing this with friends, but it became boring quick to me. A lot of the same kinds of quest that just become more cumbersome as you gain more affinity to a faction. I've still had a good time though because of my friends and I messing around, but I'm already getting bored by it quite quickly. I do have to say that I've had the most fun when a random event pops up and you really have to work together with the crew to not let the ship sink. I hope things might get a little more fun the more I play and I'm definitely going to give it some more time to prove itself, but for now I think it'll be out of the playing rotation soon.
1. Castle Crashers (PC) | 1st Jan - 7 hours | 3.25/5
2. Celeste (PC) | 5th Jan - 50hrs | 4.5/5
3. Katamari Damacy Reroll (PC) | 9th Feb - 29hrs | 3.75/5
4. Dicey Dungeons (PC) | 29th Mar - 81 hours | 3.5/5
5. Animal Crossing (GC) | 9th Apr - 50 hours | 4/5
6. Resident Evil 3 (PC) | 10th Apr - 29 hours | 4/5
7. Overwatch (PC) | 7th May - 40 hours | 4/5
8. Pummel Party (PC) | April 18th - 5 hours | 2.5/5
9. Apex Legends (PC) | April 27th - 70 hours | 4.25/5
10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (3DS) | April 28th - 50 hours | 4/5
11. Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.8 Matsuribayashi (PC) | May 25th - 23 hours | 3.5/5
12. Valorant (PC) | June 10th - 40 hours | 3/5
13. Murder By Numbers (PC) | June 15th - 32 hours | 3.25/5
14. Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (PC) | July 26th - 73 hours | 4.5/5
15. One Step From Eden (PC) | September 15th - 50 hours | 4/5
16. Hades (PC) | November 12th - 95 hours | 3.75/5)
17. AI: The Somnium Files (PC) | December 18th - 25 hours | 3.75/5
18. Going Under (PC) | December 27th - 18 hours | 3.5/5
19. Sea of Thieves (PC) | December 31st - 10 hours | 3/5
Game #9 - The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
Time: 5 hours
I'm a little let down by this one, I really wanted to love it but in the end it's ok at best and the gorgeous 2D art can't quite make up for the boring gameplay. A cute fairytale-like story of a wolf princess who accidentaly blinds a prince and has to take him to a waitch to heal him, as you guide the prince by his hand Ico style in various 2D levels whilst solving simple puzzles and keeping the prince from danger using your wolf form to kill enemies. The whole thing just feels very slow and shallow, as the level design rarely does anything interesting and when it tries, the awkward controls just don't mesh well with it. The story is quite cute and like I said the visuals are just fantastic, and since it's not very long, that might be enough for you to play this one, but be warned as a game (mechanically or gameplay wise), it's really not very good.
23. GoW: Ultimate Edition - Finally played through the first GOW..all these years later. Thats every game completed now but I am replaying 2/3 as I have forgot some story elements. Enjoyable playthrough, bet it would have been real good in coop. 4/5.
24. The Last Door, Season 2 - Not as enjoyable as the first season for me and the story kinda wandered off a little too much. Still worth a playthrough and love the pixel art. 3/5
25. Maries Room - Have no recollection of where I got this but it was a decent little 30 mins of contained story. Got the Life is Strange vibes sorta. 2/5
Made some decent progress this weekend. Also started up Forza Horizon, Dragon Age: Origins & Gears of War 2 playthroughs as well as making some progress with Valiant Hearts.
Weekly Update 6 - 3 games finished this week. All 3 amazing games/experiences in their own way.
8. Kentucky Route Zero - If I had two words only to describe this game it be hauntingly beautiful. I'll leave it at that as it's a game better experienced with no knowledge on it.
9. Halo: Reach - Incredible game marred by sound issues. Really loved the characters and is right up there with Halo 2 as my favorite in the series. The last Halo game I hadn't played and now I'm ready for Halo Infinite.
10. Death Stranding - Masterpiece and right up there with Metal Gear Solid as my favorite Kojima game. I'm pretty sure I still would've voted Resident Evil 2 Remake as my GotY, but this would've been a close 2nd. Memorable characters, soundtrack and story.
Currently Playing: Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge - Just got to day 3. Really liking the game thus far and might be the 1st Ninja Gaiden game I ever finish.
Will also be starting the Pillars of Eternity expansion this week before moving onto the 2nd game.
I finally got to play Titanfall 2 and surprise... i really liked. My brother was always giving it his highest praise. For him it's the best FPS campaign of all time and i can see it, but Doom (2016) is still my favorite FPS.
The beginning of Titanfall 2's campaign is not very exciting, other than the excellent movement options it felt very by the numbers. It wasn't until i got to the mission with the training facility that i began to like the game. The creativity of this mission surprised me and won me over. At that point i was really into it. And the mission after that was even better. Not to spoil too much but time travel is involved and the devs did their best to incorporate this mechanic into the gameplay loop and boy did they succeed. No lies told when i say this is one of the best levels of any i game i've ever played.
One of the best things about Titanfall is the mobility you have when outside your Titan. You can wall run and double jump and you feel amazing doing it. The devs really did their best trying to build the levels in a way so you had to make ample use of these two abilities, and they did it in very creative ways. Really i can't praise them enough for this.
The weapons are varied and different enough from each other. Whenever i found a new one for my Titan i was eager to try it out. They have a lot different abilities and they feel very fun to use, most of them anyway. The pilot weapons are more traditional but still felt satisfying.
Another thing that blew me away was how beautiful this game looks. Very often i would just stop in my tracks to marvel at the scenery around me. The skyboxes this game features are goddamn beautiful and i could not stop looking at them.
This game could have overtaken Doom (2016) if it sticked the landing. The last level just didn't compare to what came before. Not that it was bad it just didn't reach the highs of those other levels. One other thing, i would have liked if the pilot and the militia had more personality. I just didn't care for them. Your enemies had much more interesting personalities. BT, your Titan, was great though.
And my first GOTY contender for 2020 is something I had never even heard of until just this week. A fantastic "metroidvania" top to bottom, from the great 2d art, especially animation wise (the monochromatic color pallete might not be for everyone), to the super smooth and fast gameplay, great level design, lengthy story mode, great character design, good weapons to use and progress, just everything you would want from the genre done well. Easily one of my favorites in years, this will be looked as a cult classic down the line, mark my words.
Turned out to be a pretty good Sunday morning cartoon, but an average game.
44. Find The Balance
★★
4hrs
Stack random objects on top of each without things falling over. I found it a solid time waster. Hardly a deep experience, but a game I'd pick-up for short sessions whenever I just wanted to relax.
2020.02.03
45. Limbo
★★★½
5hrs
Had a hell of a time with Limbo! Dark and chilling stealth platformer. Can't wait to try-out Inside from the same studio!
2020.02.04
46. Farm Mystery
★½
1hr 40min
Farm Mystery was a very basic point & click game which just goes overboard with "find the items on the screen" puzzles as a way to stretch-out a game that lack ambition. Became annoyingly repetitive.
2020.02.05
47. Milkmaid of the Milky Way
★★½
2hrs 30min
A game from my native Norway which caught my attention with it's Sierra-like graphics. At first it pretends to be a sort of a farm simulator milking cows, making cheese and that type of thing, but it takes a very different direction than its initial "budeia" approach. Absurd, but fun little point & click adventure.
2020.02.06
48. Disease -Hidden Object-
★★
3hrs
Mainly a "find all the items on the screen" game, but with a darker twist and some odd puzzles thrown in. Tries too hard to be edgy and defused, but manages to camouflage it's basic game mechanism a little bit with its artistic choices.
2020.02.07
49. I and Me
★★½
5hrs
Double-cat puzzles. I'm down for that. Another one of those games that's good for those short sessions when nothing better to do.
2020.02.08
50. Koi DX
★★
2hrs
Fish in a pond. Super relaxing. Almost too lacking as far as game play goes, but it served its purpose well enough for me not to write it off as completely pointless.
2020.02.09
51. Toki Tori 2+: Nintendo Switch Edition
★★★½
22hrs
Enjoyed Toki Tori 2 much more fun than Toki Tori 1. This was more a metroidvania transformation of the original idea, which threw me off a little bit before I started getting the hang of it. Had it's frustrating moments, like the first one, but Toki Tori 2 was a lot more flexible and forgiving with many more ideas thrown in. I probable spent more time than I wanted on it, but I can't deny that I was having a good time with TT2.
2020.02.10
52. What Remains of Edith Finch
★★★★
3hrs
What a story!!! Not much as far as gaming goes, as this is closer to a visual novel than anything else. One that had me and my bonus daughter completely enthralled with mystery and ultimately sadness. An experience that we'll be keeping with us for a long time.
So there you have it. 52 games in 41 days! Okay, so it's mainly tactical picking the short ones in my backlog. Not exactly the most challenging picks either, but I had a good time with most of these and there were quite a few gems among them. And no, the goal is not over 365 games in 2020. Just clearing my backlog of the short ones before I attempt the more time-consuming games. Or should I try.... ;)
16: Devil May Cry V. End: 2/10/2020. 12 Hours. Liked-A-Lot
What began last year in an attempt to close one of my gaming blind spots comes to an end as I finished DMC V. Pretty good game, even if I did have a little trouble at that last boss. I really liked V's gameplay, as I felt it was very different from the usual combat in an action game.
After a 5-ish year break from gaming, on July 10th last year I bought a PS4 Pro and a Switch and started playing again, catching up on playing mainly the critically acclaimed games of this console generation. So my 52 weeks won't be from January 1st to December 31st, but instead from last July to this July.
Here's where I am so far. I bolded my very favorite games:
1. Uncharted 4
2. Uncharted: Lost Legacy
3. Nier: Automata
4. Shadow of the Colossus
5. Yakuza 0
6. The Witcher 3
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8. Persona 5
9. Doom
10. Resident Evil 2
11. Gravity Rush Remastered
12. The Last Guardian
13. Ikaruga
14. Limbo
15. Inside
16. Monster Hunter: World
17. Metal Gear Solid V
18. Horizon: Zero Dawn
19. Spider Man
20. God of War
21. Bloodborne
22. Ratchet and Clank
23. The Last of Us Remastered
24. Tearaway Unfolded
25. Super Mario 3D World (dusted off my old Wii U to play this before selling the console for good)
26. Super Mario Odyssey
27. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
28. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
29. Ori and the Blind Forest
30. Death Stranding
31. Cuphead
32. Celeste
33. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
34. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
35. Super Mario Party
36. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
37. Friday the 13th
38. Fortnite: Battle Royale
I'm about to start Breath of the Wild next.
Out of this entire list, I'd say almost every single one was a great game, or at the very least a positive experience. The only one of those 38 I found that I didn't enjoy playing was The Last Guardian, which had me really frustrated with controls and framerate (even on 1080p Pro mode)
Kept putting off my first update but I'd best do one now before I forget about it entirely.
January Update
1. Touhou Luna Nights (PC) | 12th Jan | 5/5
Probably my favourite Metroidvania in recent memory. I found it surprisingly challenging however once you really engage with the games unique mechanic in the form of it's time stop/slow abilities it becomes far more manageable. This difficulty makes the game more engaging but it also made the collection aspect of a Metroidvania far more compelling as simple health and energy pickups actually feel incredibly useful rather than feeling like items on a checklist. With it only clocking in at around 4 hours to complete I think it's well worth a look if you like Metroidvanias at all.
2. Katana Zero (PC) | 13th Jan | 2/5
This ended up being kind of a bummer, especially after it seemed so promising early on. Unfortunately the further I got into the game the more I found myself frustrated with the gameplay and while the narrative was interesting, particularly in how it's conveyed to the player, there's no actual conclusion so even this aspect of the game feel flat.
3. Paratopic (PC) | 13th Jan | 3/5
Clocking in at about an hour Paratopic stitches together a handful of different gameplay sequences alongside some very light narrative in order to create a solid short eerie experience.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch) | 15th Jan | 3/5
Link's Awakening's roots as a Game Boy game ended up being both it's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness for me. I loved how simplistic and hands off the game was, you're quickly let loose in the world and anytime you get new tools it's up to you to figure out how to use them. The problem is that I found the game started to wear out it's welcome towards the end due to it's simplicity and I found myself waiting for it to end in the last few hours. Still, it's nice to have finally finished a Zelda game and hopefully it's the first of many more this year.
5. The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa (PC) | 19th Jan | 5/5
One of my favourite games of last year and one of my favourite indie games ever. The gameplay is an interesting blend of beat em up and life simulator and it's paired with a narrative about a teenager in their final years of Highschool. Through some surprisingly human writing the game just perfectly captures a feeling of melancholy and aimlessness that can be felt at that stage of life and pays everything off with a really satisfying ending that I was left mulling over for days after the credits rolled. The game features zero tutorials and as a result I think a lot of people would bounce off of the game, but as somebody who tends to really enjoy stories that set out to capture mundane I quickly fell in love with Ringo Ishikawa and would easily recommend it to anybody with similar taste.
6. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (PC) | 19th Jan | 4/5
Momodora manages to pretty expertly combine Metroid with some familiar Dark Souls elements to create a satisfying and unique platformer with some really tight gameplay. The game strikes a good balance with it's difficulty, it never becomes frustrating but it's difficult enough to keep you engaged the entire time as a simple mistake can often mean death. The ending is a bit of a flat note to end on but the journey to get there was really fun and I'm interested in checking out the other games in the series at some point this year.
7. Ori and the Blind Forest (PC) | 27th Jan | 3/5
While the visual style is without a doubt incredible and the platforming sequences are fun and often very creative, I felt the combat really held back the game overall. For a portion of the early game the combat feels like a tedious chore that slowed the pace of the game down too much. Thankfully you pretty quickly do become strong enough to negate this, but it still left me with a fairly negative impression of the game for the first hour or so. I also didn't care for the presentation of the games narrative which is probably a bit of an odd complaint for a Metroidvania. There are a few sequences that are wordless and those were actually engaging and at times moving, more of these sequence would have been appreciated over the narrated sequences which were just plodding and unengaging.
Pokemon Emerald is first, which I started up once Crystal was finished. Intending on beating this, just not rushing it as fast so I don't get burn out.
Next two days were a pair of bad Simpsons games I for some reason own. They are not great, but I had to get them back regardless. Probably never will beat either one through.
And today game (10th) is the original Mega Man. I actually beat this one too, which I haven't done in a few years since I dislike revisiting this one to be honest.
11. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake - 11/02/2020
I had a lot of fun for the most part but either the game's design has aged pretty poorly or I'm an overstimulated millennial because a lot of the later dungeons are filled with moon logic puzzles.
Putting an end to my time with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection with another playthrough of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. It's interest that this game became the foundation of the Netflix series. Some of this stuff really is kinda bullshit, though.
No, I'm not going to do another playthrough of Simon's Quest. I don't actually want to suffer, lol.
The first 2 Sacred games were Diablo-like action RPGs, and were well regarded from what I've gathered. Sacred 3 on the other hand is more of a Guantlet-like game; this is the primary reason the game got derided upon release. Doesn't help that the game has NPCs and bosses quipping at you as your progress through levels and there is no way to disable their comments outside of muting the voice volume. Doesn't help that much of the humor just feels dull and uninspired for the most part.
Personally I rather liked the gameplay, and it should've been titled something other than as a sequel to a series of Action RPGs with a large open world that can be explored and progressed through.
See the game uses a level structure, with each level taking about 15-20 minutes to complete. You get gold and EXP as you play which can be used to strengthen your character, as well as learn some additional skills to use. Aside from killing enemy hordes, stages could have hazards that you must avoid as you go through them which add to the challenge.
All in all I think at best, it is a middling game; while I liked the gameplay, it had a few more levels than it should and the gameplay loop got rather droll once you reach the later levels.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend the game outright, if you want more overhead view Hack and Slash action games with local and online co-op, give the game a play, maybe you'll like it, though don't hesistate to mute the voice volume if the NPC's quipping gets on your nerves.
I don't really play a lot of FPS games, but I gave this one a try and enjoyed my time with it. I don't really have much more to say about it, mostly because the game tells you not to say much more about it. 😜
12. A Plague Tale: Innocence (Xbox One) Feb 12 12 Hrs ★★★★★
Absolutely amazing game. Phenomenal voice acting and story. I played it on Gamepass and I might just have to buy it to show some support.
I'm off to a slow start for 2020 but I've been juggling some really long games lately.
1. Atelier Ryza (Switch) 29 hours ★★★★
I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would. I couldn't get into any of the previous games but Ryza just let me do whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted without constantly being hindered by deadlines.
2. Super Mario World (SNES) 4 hours ★★★★★
The quintessential 16-bit platformer, it's probably at least my seventh playthrough but only my third in which I completed all 96 exits.
3. Journey to Silius (NES) 4 hours ★★★
It's a pretty action good game with amazing music. It's sort of a Mega Man meets Contra affair; the weapon variety and energy usage as well as the platforming remind me of Mega Man, however the general action reminds me more of Contra. I would've liked it more if it didn't have cheap traps like when you're jumping down there's a very high change that you're landing on top of an enemy or find yourself amidst a rain of bullets.
4. Lydia (Switch) 1 hour ★★
I respect what the game is trying to do and it looks gorgeous, however the interactions with the NPCs make no sense with regard to the underlying theme. It was worth its price though and certainly it showed me a glimpse of what it's like to be a child who has to deal with adult problems all the time.
5. Fire Emblem Three Houses (Switch) 60 hours★★★★★
Finished the Golden Deer campaign on Normal/Classic. Not sure if it's my favorite FE but it certainly has the best story and characters. I hope to play the other routes some time this year too.
6. Vice: Project Doom (NES/Switch) ? hours ★★★
I can pretty much repeat what I wrote for Journey to Silius, however I found Vice: Project Doom to be significantly better. I really like the changes in gameplay (racing, shooting) and prefer the laser whip over a gun. It looks absolutely stunning too.
12. Dreams (PS4) - Art's Dream Campaign. The "campaign" is barely 2 hours long but I really enjoyed it. It definitely left me wanting more, but at least the game has virtually infinite possibilities from this point. Rating the campaign on its own merits, it's a 7.5/10.
Feb 12 - Dreams (PS4)
Feb 12 - Life is Strange 2x05 (Xbox One)
Feb 10 - Life is Strange 2x04 (Xbox One)
Feb 9 - Life is Strange 2x03 (Xbox One)
Feb 5 - Life is Strange 2x02 (Xbox One)
Feb 3 - Life is Strange 2x01 (Xbox One)
Jan 21 - Kind Words (PC) - got every sticker
Jan 19 - Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (PSVR)
Jan 13 - The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (PC - Rift)
Jan 13 - Pistol Whip (PC - Rift)
Jan 11 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
Jan 4 - Astral Chain (Switch)
#7 Ico | 2/9/2020 - 7 hrs | 4/5
I dug deep into my backlog for this one, turning in my PS3 for the first time in years. It was worth it. I can only imagine how amazing this was on the PS2 when it originally came out. Even though it is 19 years old (10 years for remaster?), it still is a joy to play and look at. The puzzles were great (except for the damn water wheel) and it was a nice change of pace.
9. Devil May Cry4 (10 hours)
Not a bad game by any stretch, but I didn't like it quite as much as 1 or 3. It drags in the first half and Nero just isn't as fun to play as as Dante.
Nonagrams and Pictograms are like crack to me. This was a nongram with an RPG theme surrounding it.
Each grid you fill up would involve a 'battle' with an enemy. As you complete a line on the grid correctly, you damage this enemy. Over time a bar fills up, being its attack bar and when it is full that enemy will attack you. In such grids, you have 3~6 hit points (which can be increased up to 5~10) and must complete the picture while defeating the enemy monster.
For the most part the game isn't too difficult far as the given pictures are, although the game tends to reveal if you completed a line if you fill up a square by mistake which was annoying a bit to me since I am used to such games not being too generous with such an action, but it did at least let me clear some of the harder picture battles faster.
If you need more Pictograms in your life, give this game a play, but be advised that the English localization is really lacking and has many translation errors.
35. Sacred Citadel
A beat'em-up game set in the Sacred series universe. Pretty decent game overall, thought stages tend to be rather lengthy for 20 mins. what with enemy variety being rather limited. The main game consists of 4 'Acts' each with 5 stages in them, and the game lets you choose from 4 classes: Warrior, Ranger/Archer, Mage and Shaman. As you defeat enemies you get EXP which level you up until Lvl. 40, getting 2 AP each level, which you can put towards increasing any of 4 stats (each stat can be maxed out at 40 AP, but since you only get 78 AP, one needs to decide on the best way to assign them though based on character types, it isn't that complex).
The game allows up to 3 player co-op and can be beaten in about 6 or so hours. The game wasn't too difficult though some enemy types were a little annoying to deal with at times.
A pretty decent game overall and mixes lite RPG elements and the beat'em-up genre commendably IMO.
Nonagrams and Pictograms are like crack to me. This was a nongram with an RPG theme surrounding it.
Each grid you fill up would involve a 'battle' with an enemy. As you complete a line on the grid correctly, you damage this enemy. Over time a bar fills up, being its attack bar and when it is full that enemy will attack you. In such grids, you have 3~6 hit points (which can be increased up to 5~10) and must complete the picture while defeating the enemy monster.
For the most part the game isn't too difficult far as the given pictures are, although the game tends to reveal if you completed a line if you fill up a square by mistake which was annoying a bit to me since I am used to such games not being too generous with such an action, but it did at least let me clear some of the harder picture battles faster.
If you need more Pictograms in your life, give this game a play, but be advised that the English localization is really lacking and has many translation errors.
Tizoc - what platform did you play this on? I saw it one day advertised on iOS and I was going to get it but didn't see any reviews since it was new. Wondering if it's worth picking up.
Tizoc - what platform did you play this on? I saw it one day advertised on iOS and I was going to get it but didn't see any reviews since it was new. Wondering if it's worth picking up.
Tizoc - what platform did you play this on? I saw it one day advertised on iOS and I was going to get it but didn't see any reviews since it was new. Wondering if it's worth picking up.
A ridiculously fun puzzle platformer with gorgeous pixel art. Its only major flaw is a lack of conveyance: Wario has a health bar in this one unlike other games in the series, and it's hard to immediately tell what enemy will hurt you or will transform you into a helpful form to progress. Otherwise it's great and bursting with personality and decidedly bizarre humour, more in line with Earthbound than Mario, which I loved.
Not a very lengthy DLC, but it can help one reach max level for their character(s). Thankfully one stage was rather easy and quick to finish and the final stage was a boss fight that is actually more nasty than any of the main 4 boss fights in the game XD. It didn't change things up a lot but would be of interest to completionists.
4. GRIS - Finished on 01/02/2020 Time: 4 or 5 hours
A game with wonderful artstyle. It is like wandering through a sureal painting. The gameplay is really flat but it is a beautiful game. It has absolutely no replay value besides the collectibles. But I won't come back for them.
5. Firewatch - Finished on 14/02/2020 Time: 5 hours
An interesting story but boy the performance on the base PS4 is really shitty. I had constant stutters throughout the whole game. I only made it through because I knew that it is a short game and I wanted to reach the conclusion of the story. This is on the same level as Darksiders 3 on PS4. Avoid it on this system. The story is really interesting but the technical difficulties made it hard for me to go through that game.
6. Resident Evil 2 Remake - Finished on 11/02/2020 Time: ~15 hours for both campaigns
I really liked that one. The police station oozes atmosphere and the bonus modes provide funny challenges. And Mr X scares the shit out of me. Really good game which convinced me to get the RE3 Remake.
Coming up: Currently going through Bloodstained and still playing RE2 Remake for trophys / better clear times.
Finished Uncharted 1 & 2, currently playing Uncharted 3. Uncharted 1 was a bit rough, but 2 drastically improved upon 1. I really enjoyed my time with Uncharted 2. Planning to finish enderal and Uncharted 3 next week, while waiting for Nioh and FF7 remake.
19: Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Cindered Shadows. End: 2/14/2020. 6 Hours. Loved.
I asked a few people if Cindered Shadows should count or not, and people indicated that it should. Feels weird that I spent about 140 hours last year doing all of the campaigns and that only counted as one game, but I do this side story in about 6 and it counts just as much, but such is the 52 game challenge, lol.
#6 Dead Rising 2: Off The Record 7.0 PC - 12 hours
Having played but not finished DR2 years ago, thought I'd give this second version of it a go. And it's fun, but not as good as the original DR, I thought the map design was a step down and maybe just because I knew what to do more this time but i didn't feel the tension as I did during DR1 when I had to plan my route to get everything done in time, here it felt pretty smooth sailing.
#7 Steamworld Dig 2 8.5 Switch - 7 hours
I really enjoyed the first game and this was more of the same, just improved. The new art style is gorgeous and the loop is satisfying and addictive
#8 System Shock 2 8.5 PC - 11 hours
Having given up on the original game (it seemed cool but just a bit outdated for me to finish) I moved on to the second game and yeah, this is more like it. This one doesn't really feel its age. Dripping in atmosphere but the real terror was how often I was low on ammo and med packs. The level design is great with a load of items and audio logs to find, and I actually enjoyed the audio logs quite a lot and they are usually something I'm not that keen on ..Just a very impressive game for 1999. It's also hard as shit. The only real drawbacks for me was just some of the backtracking and the last couple of levels aren't quite up to scratch.
#9 Shenmue PS4 5.5 - 16 hours
Does some very impressive things for when it came out, like the attention to detail and atmosphere are really great, the awful voice acting is quite charming..but there is a lot of really boring game in here. Making you wait for sooo long with hardly anything to do (there's only so many times you can go to the dojo or arcade). There is just so much down time in every single day of the game. I know it's a game about taking it slow and smelling the roses but there just weren't enough roses. Also putting FIVE days of forklift one after the other is cruel. Why not spread them out? I didn't even hate them individually but it becomes so boring. Then of course once you find the next story segment after work you have to wait ages before you can go home! By the end I was starting to lose it but I pushed on. The game has it's charms but yeesh
...and yet..once I finished it, I kind of missed it..I just wish it was a bit more balanced, an option to skip waiting would have improved things a lot, though I do think the second half of the game was straight up worse than the first.
#10 F.E.A.R. 3 PC 6.0 - 3:30 hours
I kind of expected this to be trash but it's not really. A FEAR game in name only, the story and attempt at being scary are laughable but sometimes I just want to play a dumb shooter for a few hours and this scratched that itch. The gunplay is quite satisfying although there aren't many interesting weapons and it has the boring 2 weapon limit. There also some cheap enemies and artifical difficulty.
First off, I am in love with the art style in this game. The character and monster designs are crafted with care. Gorgeous illustrations throughout the game and the expressions add charm. The sound is great; close to fully voice acted? All the voices sounded amazing. The music was great and upbeat.
The story does take a turn in the second (?) chapter which thankfully keeps the game from getting too stagnant. It was odd switching perspectives toward the end of the game. It felt unnecessary, like padding to make the game seem longer. It didn't really anything new during that chapter. It would have been better to either focus on the main character or add more to that other perspective earlier in the game.
26. Sky Force Anniversary - Not as good as Reloaded but still enjoyable. Didn't feel like as much of a grind with this one and only took a few hours. Felt like the outcome of levels was more based on skill and not stats/upgrades like in Reloaded. 3/5
27. Gears of War 2 - Still continuing my playthrough of these and I genuinely do love the story along with the Peek N' Shoot action. 4/5
28. The Enthralling Realms - Absolute rip off of Tolkiens story telling world mixed with a jewel matching game. Decent enough but way too short. 2/5.
Started Gears of War 3 after finishing 2 and made some good progress with Typing of the Dead. Will probably do a couple of hours of GoW3 and Valiant Hearts tonight.
This would be my first Zeboyd game and I was quite impressed with how they handled the typical jRPG turn based combat mechanic. It takes around 6 to 8 hours to complete the main game, and is a nice 'comfort food' for those that like the typical Turn Based jRPG combat system. I personally wasn't impressed with the PA style humor nor the needlessly stretched out attempt at prose writing, although the enemy descriptions had some nice humor to them.
It's not a very pricey game but I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than the first 2 games that I don't think aged well due to the slow pace of the combat.
04. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014, Wii U) ★★★★☆
Tropical Freeze is a near-perfect game. The developers at Retro Studios have basically set the new gold standard for 2D platformers, as far as I'm concerned. Gone are the days of unconnected levels; every level features the next one(s) in the background, and they're all lined up to tell a story. This is best seen in the Jungle World, which starts with bouncy fruits, moves to conveyor levels where the fruits are diced, has a water stage in the fruit pulp & juice, an ice level where the juice is turned into ice lollies, and culminates in a boss fight initiated because DK ruins a polar bear's popsicle. Is this a high bar for storytelling? No, but it's an effective way to string funny cut-scenes and gameplay together to deliver the best DK cartoon in existence.
The presentation is top-notch across the board, Tropical Freeze looks gorgeous and achieves comedy with ease. It's especially elevated by an unbelievably strong soundtrack; David Wise has turned in career-best work. There's so much good music here they can waste their best song (Busted Bayou) on a bonus level many players will never see. Even the track when booting from the Wii U menu is a jam!
So why no perfect score? For as much as DKCTF does right, I think it intentionally limits its accessibility a bit too much. Make no mistake, Tropical Freeze really earns its reputation as a difficult platformer. There are just no easy levels here, none. Even the first one would be challenging to a novice, and the 6th world contains some really difficult ones. Add to this the trademark Retro Studios bossfights (a.k.a. way too long & no checkpoints), the antiquated Lives system resulting in loadtimes every time you bungle a jump and careen down a pit... It's easy to become frustrated with yourself. I just bought 99 lives to avoid ever running into a Game Over, but towards the end I was still losing ~8 lives per level despite the generous amounts you win back.
The partner characters also feel unbalanced. Dixie is so obviously the best character, there's really no point in using Diddy except during the 2 levels the game forces you to use him. Cranky meanwhile plays like a less intuitive Shovel Knight, and only really shines during a few bossfights. The re-release on Switch fixes some of these issues (loadtimes presumably, and Funky Kong serves as a defacto easy mode there), so that might be the way to go if you can. Terrific game, and very satisfying to beat, but I worry its difficulty will put many players off.
05. Bayonetta 2 (2014, Wii U) ★★★★★
If video games really are about creating power fantasies, Bayonetta 2 would logically be the best game ever. Where Hollywood blockbusters build up years of cross-overs before confronting the universe-ending bad guy, Bayonetta 2 has you laying waste to several of those calamities even before the title drops.
"Laying waste" feels accurate here, because Bayonetta is ludicrously powerful. She's always portrayed as a very capable character, and playing as her demonstrates why: you effortlessly pull off last-minute slow-mo dodges, switch your weapons mid-combo, and summon ancient evils to devour your foes, all at blistering speeds. Controls are always smooth, fast & precise, even when you're literally kicking in the gates of Hell. Besides combat you don't really do much in Bayo 2. There's light exploration of many varied locales (Heaven, Hell, Italian cities, innards of massive creatures), but this is a beat-em-up at its core, and that's where the game excels.
The rest of the time you're watching cut-scenes. The story here is more focused and less nonsensical than in the predecessor, with an exuberant finale. Yes, you'll still roll your eyes in sync with Bayonetta whenever one of her various useless male co-stars tries to show off, but it kinda works to have these buffoons (Luka chiefly) serve as foils for the highly competent Bayonetta. That said, some scenes live in that uncomfortable grey area where you're no longer sure if they're parodying stereotypes, or just reinforcing them (see Rodin, and anything related to the sexualisation of Bayonetta herself). I think PlatinumGames tries to coast on irony and self-awareness (see also MadWorld), but at some point these things just become patterns, rather than meaningful critiques. My thoughts on these aspects aren't fully formed yet.
Overall though, Bayonetta 2 pushes the series to even greater heights. The controls feel smoother than ever, the combat is a delightful ballet of bullets and bad guys, the soundtrack is sick, and Bayonetta herself is a funny, likable lead character you'll easily root for.
