52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.

Optional Objectives · May 14, 2020

No. 23 - Kirby Star Allies - 4/5

This is a game with a strong identity: it must be maximally cute at all times. It often seems like a greatest-hits remaster of Kirby's Adventure and Kirby 64, which means that it's easy to play, has excellent music (here orchestrated with lead voices of violin and piano), and absurd cosmic boss battles. The final boss, in particular, shows great creativity. I just wish some of its puzzles required a little more thought in how to combine powers and, of course, that there was more of it.

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Malverde · May 15, 2020

With this post I am officially done posting everything I have finished so far. Main Post.

9. Red Bow (Switch) | May | 4/5
Fun and short little game with a nice art style. Story is bleak but I appreciated the options for how to handle any given situation as well as the multiple endings.

10. Neversong (iOS) | May | 5/5
I absolutely love everything about this game. The art style and music do an incredible job of creating a creepy, eery atmosphere that is wonderfully complemented by the hilarious dialogue. A wonderful amalgamation of Edgar Alan Poe, Tim Burton, and Stephen King's It. Hits a wide range of emotions before it is over.

11. Wide Ocean Big Jacket (Switch) | May | 5/5
A wonderful experience that perfectly captures those "golden moments" feelings in life where everything is going just right. You are surrounded by people you care about and everyone is just happy. The world can be a really cynical place but it is these moments that make the rest of the bullshit worth it. And this game is able to encapsulate that wonderfully. As I was playing this I kept bringing myself back to Robert Frost. Yes it is true that "Nothing Gold Can Stay", but that doesn't mean you won't find more gold in the future.

12. Itta (Switch) | May | 5/5
What if Shadow of the Colossus but with guns and it is a bullet hell game? Normally not my cup of tea but I liked the art style, I heard there were accessibility options to lower the difficulty, and 18 bosses didn't seem like too much of a commitment. It starts out tough, but outside of one boss fight, feels fair which has caused me to keep the difficulty unchanged. There is a world to explore and for the most part you can go in whatever order you want. There are also several upgrades to pick up which make the game easier, and once you master the pace of the game it is fun to get in the zone and dodge around hundreds of bullets while feeling in complete control.

13. Heal (iOS) | May | 4/5
Really fun, short puzzle game that does an incredible job at guiding players through a variety of different puzzle types with no instructions or dialogue. The puzzles provide a nice challenge that make you feel smart when you solve them but are never rip your hair out difficult. The story elements are pretty damn light until the very end when it finally clicks and leaves you feeling sad.

14. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch) | May | 5/5
Have played through twice already, both times on hard in coop with my brother. Absolutely love it. Art style is beautiful, soundtrack is fire, and the gameplay is surprisingly varied and deep with none of the enemies feeling busted or "cheap".

15. Gutwhale (PC) | May | 4/5
Super short rougelite where you have a gun that holds exactly one bullet and have to constantly pick that bullet back up to reload. It is a simple concept executed beautifully as you make your way down the intestines of a whale. Levels are randomly generated but there are never very many enemies on screen, although it is still easy to get overwhelmed if you lose track of you bullet. Absolutely loved my time with it although it only took me about 90 minutes to get 100% and see the credits role.

16. Moving Out (Switch) | May | 3/5
This is one I am struggling to wrap my thoughts around. It is like a simplified, less stressful Overcooked. I played through the whole thing in coop. At first, I felt it was too simple and there wasn't enough cooperation. However, eventually the levels start having more heavy items that require two people, as well as smaller trucks with more big items, requiring more creativity when packing, and more obstacles in general. I was a bit more sour on the simplicity at the start but by the end I was really enjoying my time with it. We may go back and try to get gold in all the levels, if that happens I will revisit this review and score.

KtotheRoc · May 15, 2020

40: The Last Of Us: Left Behind. End: 5/14/2020. 2 Hours. Loved.

I've played The Last Of Us before, but I had never played Left Behind. I decided to correct that before I replayed The Last Of Us, and loved it. It gives some good insight into Ellie. I'm ready to return to the original again and prepare myself for the sequel (which should be appearing in a later post of mine in this thread).

InquisitorAles · May 15, 2020

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9. Disco Elysium - 31 hours
Disco Elysium is a role-playing game at it's finest that has an engaging story with well-written characters and a unique world. I spent 30 hours to complete and absolutely loved it, it has so many great ideas and moments. I can't say it's perfect, but if you love story-driven games, don't miss out on Disco Elysium, it's really that great. My full impressions about this game can be found in my video review - https://youtu.be/0DyG-K61FXs

His Majesty · May 15, 2020

10. The Surge 2 - 8/10
As a fan of the first game I was very happy that a sequel was in the making. The Surge 2 improves upon the already satisfying combat of its predecessor. You'll still be chopping limbs all over the place to collect the best armor schematics. It's honestly one of the best systems of loot and crafting I've seen in games and it's implemented extremely well. Once you feel confident of taking on an enemy, you can start targeting his limbs to obtain the armour parts you want. The combat feels better and encourages both aggressive and defensive (parry or dodge) builds. Directional parrying introduces another very welcome strategic element to combat and adds a risk-reward component. Finally Deck13 has clearly listened to player feedback and The Surge 2 features a lot more boss fights than the original, most of which are very enjoyable.

The combat is a big hit and so is the level design. The game still features a lot of useful shortcuts and areas seamlessly go over into one another. Downtown Jericho features as a central open world from which you can reach the other hubs. The game is also more varied than the original, even though the locations remain mostly industrial in nature. You will be exploring city streets, a huge park, a ship redesigned as a suburban neighbourhood and a port. Another criticism the developers have taken to heart and the game doesn't outstay its welcome over the course of its 25 hours or so.

Where the game falls flat is in its writing and storytelling. The game does away with the semi-horror atmosphere of The Surge 1 and opts for a more lighthearted tone. You have a lot of tongue-in-cheek quests mixed with a main quest that is very serious in its tone. This doesn't mesh very well in my opinion. The main quest or the characters in it aren't very interesting either. My favourite (sub)plot was of a group of mercs hunting a mech-dog that was wreaking havoc in the city. But overall the game doesn't really put a lot of effort into fleshing out its characters or making you care about the world you're in.

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 15, 2020

42. Doomsday Deponia (PS4) May 15 6 Hrs ★★
Started off so great with Hayter voicing old Rufus... Then back to normal. Not a good series but the ending was nice. Could just be I'm glad I'm done with the series.

Tizoc · May 15, 2020

77. Ori & The Will of the Wisps

Beautiful game much like its predecessor. The combat was slightly improved here, and the overall platforming and traversal was nice if not frustrating at times. While I had some gripes about certain things in the game, it was an overall fun and solid experience.
A GOTY contender for me for sure~

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 15, 2020

43. Sine Mora Ex (XB1) | 15 May | 3 Hrs ★★★
It was alright. Got it super cheap and very quick. Was not expecting such a dark story with it.

Bradford · May 15, 2020

COMPLETION COUNTER: 33/52

Latest Completion:

33. Alien: Isolation (PC) | 15th May - 26hrs | 8/10 | Played entirely in VR on Nightmare Difficulty with the Unpredictable Alien mod installed.

Alien is without a doubt one of the most mismanaged IPs in the history of human media creation. An arthouse horror flick about a dangerous animal, handed off to become an action flick about bioweapons, Alien has never really had a consistent voice. It is a series beholden to the mistakes of each ensuing entry, often bending over backwards in order to justify or acknowledge canon in a way that often devalues the core themes of the original. This is doubly true for the games, which range from derivative shooters to largely forgettable side scrollers. But then came Alien: Isolation. A true sequel to the original 1979 film and a masterpiece of art direction and stealth gameplay, Alien Isolation is a truly fantastic game that displays a fundamentally powerful understanding of the iconic Xenomorph and the Ridley Scott film and transforms it into an engaging, unrelenting game that earns its keep and more. Alien: Isolation takes place in what is effectively an airport in space, and this mix of industrial and 80s business glamour mix to create a beautiful cacophony of destruction and lost potential. Sevastopol Station is a poorly maintained, run-down spaceport about to close down when the titular Alien arrives, and its derelict halls become a humanistic mirror to the majesty of the Engineer's derelict on LV426. While the game has some minor pace issues, and a lot of somewhat irritating gating, Alien: Isolation has strong level and encounter design paired with one of the greatest hunter AI ever put into a game that come together to form an unforgettable experience.

A fan has patched back in and updated the game's VR support, which I used to play this game in its entirety. It was sublime. If you have a headset and this game, I highly implore you to give it a try.

I am no longer going to be linking to the original post; apologies. It is getting so lengthy that I'd need to keep making new master posts. Instead, please feel free to see all of my reviews in my ongoing Google Sheet tracker.

Tizoc · May 16, 2020

78. Pinstripe

Nice and short 2D platformer adventure game. There are some light puzzles and some nice voice acting too.

Rhaknar · May 16, 2020

Game #37 - Gears of War 3
Time: 10 hours
Rating: ★★★★★

The original Gears trilogy ends with by far the best entry in the series (so far), with a super fun campaign that nails the Gears formula to a T, looking better than ever and finally wrapping up a few plot points. Gameplay is still great and "meaty", the campaign is a nice length, level variety is great (I particularly liked the mad max-y desert level) and it looks fantastic, especially X enhanced at 4K (it really is a testament to the xbox's back compatability tech lately). Just a great cap off to the trilogy and to Marcus Fenix's story that unfortunately was followed up by a sub-standard spin off before continuing in the current generation.

Game #38 - Gears of War Judgement
Time: 9 hours
Rating: ★★★

This was actually better than I thought it would be given the flak it gets, but it's still the weakest entry in the series. The whole thing feels much like a side mission (which it kind of is), the new characters barely get any attention, and the whole thing lacks the polish the original trilogy had I encountered quite a few bugs). Also the control changes seem completely arbitrary and unnecessary. Still, it tries new things which I appreciate, from the way it tells the story from each character's viewpoint, the declassified system which adds modifiers to each little chapter, the wave-defense based sections, it tried to do new and different things and for the most part it suceeded, but overall it's only for those that really need some more Gears in their lives. Solid but ultimately forgetable and unnecessary entry to the series.

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Memory Pak · May 16, 2020

18. Power Stone (2006, PSP) ★★☆☆☆
You know how people say to never meet your idols? Power Stone Collection on PSP is that statement become manifest. The original is one of those elusive DreamCast classics I remember playing with friends in '99. Since there's no real easy ways to play it (or its sequel) besides the PSP Collection, I figured I'd give it a go there.
The port looks sharp, the colours pop, it plays fast, and offers a bunch of unlockables. Yet playing it is an exercise in frustration: the tiny PSP screen does not mesh with any of the camera options, so getting a good read on attack animations becomes tough. Coupled with the absence of a block button and the busy stages with tiny items flying around, the game's speed becomes a disadvantage for only the player. The A.I. in unencumbered by such limitations, resulting in several annoying difficulty spikes. Beating Vagal is really frustrating and had me wasting several continues, while the final boss was an absolute pushover by contrast. These balancing issues are also very evident in the roster; Gunrock just steamrolls everyone, but others struggle to compete.
Lastly, I think the core mechanic of chasing the power crystals here is just... fundamentally broken? The A.I. will always favour hit & run tactics to collect them and unleash super moves. What's the point in having all these combos when you're sprinting towards the Win-The-Match-Gems after every 2nd hit? Really bummed about this one, it's clear Power Stone works much better in multiplayer on a different platform.

19. Power Stone 2 (2006, PSP) ★★★☆☆
Power Stone 2 is a mostly iterative sequel. A few more characters, more items, new stages which now transform during matches... It also adds an adventure mode with selectable paths to make the single player feel a bit more substantive. On the whole I think that, while this one suffers from similar problems as Power Stone 1 on PSP, its problems are less pronounced. The actual power stones themselves spawn much less frequently, and opponents don't always scramble to get them. Combined with the moving stages which force characters in a similar direction, there's less battles of playing keep-away, and you're also less inclined to settle for hit-and-run strategies. Sure, the stages always move in predictable fashion, which does diminish their potential for surprise after a few times... But simultaneously I think it also helps to construct a more unique identity for the series.
Ultimately I think these games don't translate well to the portable format due to long load times and a fundamental camera angle problem, but Power Stone 2 is a much less frustrating affair at least.

Whimsicalish · May 16, 2020

32 | Marie's Room
PC Steam | May 16 | 1.4 hrs | 3/5

Free game on Steam that was short. The game can be played in an hour; there's no save options since it encourages you to play it in one sitting. There's voice acting which is pretty decent for a free game. I do like the art style and "illustrations" that tie into a character's journal/diary. It reminds me of the game, Life is Strange. Marie's Room might have been inspired by that game.

I enjoy these interactive story-telling games. If you have suggestions, I'm up for them.

I do wish there were mouse settings. You could change settings for the audio and graphics. It was odd the mouse sensitivity felt high but nothing to adjust it.

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Malverde · May 17, 2020

And just like that, I am now officially on track to complete this challenge. It is week 20 of 2020 and I have beaten 20 games. :D

Low key it is more than a little embarrassing how many games I have played since the lockdown started, but c'est la vie. Main Post.

17. Legbreaker (PC) | May | 2/5
A puzzle platform where you you need to reach the exit door in a series of rooms. The gimmick is that you jump incredibly high, but after each jump you break one of your legs (so you only get two jumps per level). It starts out fun enough, and I enjoyed the puzzle aspects of trying to figure out how to complete the stages, but what I did not like was that levels started to require more and more precise jumps that were more frustrating than fun. It is super short and free (name your own price) on itch.io so y'all can try it out if you would like: https://almbkn.itch.io/legbreaker

18. SAI (PC) | May | 3/5
Bow and arrows remain one of the most fun video game weapons of all time. I loved the setting and the gameplay, but damn is this game short as hell. It takes less than an hour to complete, but it is fun the whole way through. Also neat is that not only does the game have an environmentalist message, but the developers are donating 80% of the revenue from this game to conservation charities. This is the first game from Studio Mutiny, and they are definitely someone to keep an eye out for in the future.

19. Winding Worlds (PC) | May | 4/5
If I am being completely honest, throughout most of my time playing this game I was sort of whatever about the whole thing. The Nick Jr. art style and babby tier puzzles made me feel like I was playing a game designed for literal children. But then you get to the end and it was like the game just started speaking directly to me. I'm not sure I have ever seen a game pull off an ending this great that retroactively made the whole game better, although your mileage may vary in terms of how much you care. A surprisingly hopeful and heart warming game. That is the extent of what I can say without delving into spoilers, but if you don't mind them, or have already beaten the game, click the spoiler block below.

As someone who has volunteered and worked at several nonprofits, I have seen tons of people who put way too much of themselves into their work. That Winding Worlds is ultimately a story about the importance of self care and not carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders caught me completely off guard but resonated deeply with me. It is a story more people who work in a field where they help others need to experience. In hindsight, I actually appreciate the fact that it looks like a children's game and is incredibly simple because it makes it so much easier to recommend without hesitation.

20. Huntdown (Switch) | May | 5/5
I love love love me some grindhouse, and Huntdown is able to beautifully capture that aesthetic in every way. I played through the whole thing in coop and it was an incredible experience. We played through it on hard and while the game was definetly tough, it was also fair. Deaths (and we died a lot of times) were always the result of player error and encouraged us to always keep trying. Even the toughest encounters never felt hopeless. I also very much appreciated the generous checkpoint system which removed any frustrations from the game, even as we would inch ever closer to a half hour spent on a single stage. And speaking of stages, each stage ends with a completely unique boss fight and they are all incredible.

KtotheRoc · May 17, 2020

41: Super Puyo Puyo 2. End: 5/17/2020. 42 minutes. Liked.

A quick playthrough of this classic puzzle game on Switch Online. I couldn't tell you what the story was about at all. All I know is I got an ending and credits at the end so I'm counting it. I really do enjoy the puzzle game that is Puyo Puyo. I'm less enthused about not being able to understand the story or character interactions.

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 17, 2020

44. Borderlands 3 (XB1) | 17 May | 20ish Hrs ★★★★
Story was garbage. Hated antagonists. But gameplay was fun and got to co op the whole game with my buddy. So overall, a great time.

Whimsicalish · May 18, 2020

33 | Lake of Voices
PC Steam | May 18 | 6 hrs | 5/5

Another freebie visual novel Steam game. Fantasy theme with a slice of horror/thriller and romance. You're trying to survive for a couple of spooky nights with a ragtag group. Your choices count and will come at a price.

I like that some choices are timed and you are encouraged to see what happens when time runs out. The story was enticing to me; it didn't feel rushed or too long. There was world building and it was not fed to you in heavy bouts. They did a great job with the length.

The characters were interesting and I wasn't indifferent to any of them. The voice acting was good for (again) a FREE game. The illustrations - character art, background, and the lighting from their lanterns are beautiful. The mechanics were great and the skip to new interactions was great to find the other endings. Fantastic experience. I'm going to look at more of their work.

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FRANKEINSTEIN · May 18, 2020

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45. Black Ops (XB360) 18 May | 7 Hrs | ★★★★★
Still my favorite CoD. Wasn't a fan of Worthington as an actor till his performance as Mason. Ed Harris and Gary Oldman are perfect as Hudson and Reznov respectively. Villains were pretty 1 note but that's pretty standard for CoD. Such a shame how bad Blops 2 turned out. I might give it another go if I can find a cheap copy. Never bothered with 3 or 4

Optional Objectives · May 18, 2020

No. 24 - Puyo Puyo Tetris - 4/5

An outstanding mix of two great games, with some fun original modes and an emphasis on chains and t-spins. Some of the anime style gets in the way of it being a total smash, and some of the mixed modes could also be a little better. The online scene is dedicated, but it's still vhard to get a match. As far as the multiplayer scene goes, this is another one that definitely needs crossplay. It's too niche a game to have much of a playerbase, otherwise.

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LonestarZues · May 18, 2020

Master Post

Weekly Update 20: Finished 2 games this week and started 2 games as well.

31. Final Fantasy IX - My 4th time through the game and still every bit as good as the 1st time I played it on PS1. One of the things I really enjoy in this game is having Vivi cast a spell on Steiner's sword. There are so many better ways to maximize damage in the game, but that animation never gets old. Also we need more moogles in Final Fantasy games. Stiltzkin always brings a smile to my face when he is on his travels of the world.

32. Batman: The Enemy Within - Enjoyed it a lot more then the 1st season. Really loved their take on Joker and while it might be a longshot hopefully we get to see season 3 down the line.

Currently playing:

1. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Still around halfway thru the main story as most of my playtime this week was for doing the side quests.

2. Killzone - Love the world and setting, not so much the gameplay. IIRC from a previous playthrough I should be about halfway thru.

3. The Last of Us - Time for my yearly playthrough and wanted to play it again before the sequel. Currently in Pittsburgh and this game continues to amaze me. Will also be doing a playthrough of Left Behind after I'm done with the campaign.

4. Final Fantasy VII - Decided to play through the original after beating the main game. Not very far into it as I just got to 7th Heaven.

KtotheRoc · May 19, 2020

42: The Last Of Us. End: 5/18/2020. 13 Hours. Mind-Blowing!

And here is that later post I mentioned when I beat Left Behind. I first played this game around the time of its original release, and I decided to do a second playthrough before the release of Part II. It really wasn't necessary as I still remembered almost everything even after all these years, even after all these games. I still think this game is absolutely incredible.

Weiss · May 19, 2020

40. DOOM Eternal - 19/05/2020

It's alright.

Rhaknar · May 19, 2020

Game #39 - Gears of War 4
Time: 9 hours
Rating: ★★★★

I wasn't sure what to expect as I didn't know much about the curren gen Gears, and after a very bland and slow start (that didn't really feel like Gears at all) I was worried the series had lost it's touch, but thankfully everything after Act 2 is fantastic and I had a hell of a time with it, to the point it's probably my favorite Gears after 3 now. Gorgeous visuals (those windflares are really just for showing off huh?), great gameplay as usual with a fantastic addition with the ability to yank enemies from cover and execute them, great set pieces, and a story that re-establishes the mythology for a new set of characters (who are written much more "normal" than the previous Gears meathead squad), a nice lengthy campaign that doesnt overstay it's welcome, and some cool new weapons add up to almost everything I could want from a next gen Gears. Slow start and very bland main character aside (why isnt Kait the MC like she is in 5 is beyond me, she is clearly the focus of the story even in 4), I loved it and am excited to jump on the next one.

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5pectre · May 20, 2020

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25. Toki (Xbox One) | 19th May - 1 hrs | 8/10

I totally forgot that this game was released. I didn't know much about it but I'm a fan of the arcade game and I used to play that a lot BITD.
I was pleasantly surprised as this game plays exactly like the arcade game. Enemy placements and all. The graphics are really good and for once I think they did a good job on the "retro" filters.

It's a missed oppertunity though that they didn't include the original arcade game or gave and option to switch to the old graphics like you can in R-Type Dimensions.

Still very enjoyable and I can see myself coming back and replaying it from time to time.

8/10

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 20, 2020

46. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) 20 May | 10 Hrs | ★★★★
If I did half scores it'd be 3 and a half stars. So I just moved up to 4. Gameplay was fun but some of the humor just didn't land.

KtotheRoc · May 21, 2020

43: Rygar. End: 5/21/2020. 100 minutes. Meh.

This is one of those games that I never beat before. I had no great love for it, but it feels like I can finally close the book on this one. And it feels good. It feels real good.

Rhaknar · May 21, 2020

Game #40 - Gears 5
Time: 10 hours
Rating: ★★★★

I'm a bit torn on this one, as while I appreciate them trying new things, I don't think the new semi-open world structure works well for Gears, at least for me. Gears has always been very cinematic, moment to moment action to me, so making it semi-open world with sidequests and whatnot and less of a focus on set pieces didnt really work, especially not when those two acts are very same-y looking throughout (one is a ice zone, the other a desert zone, and everything is either very blue, or very red), which is a shame because the game looks absolutely amazing otherwise. It's no surprise my favorite two acts were 1 and 4 when the game is basically like a "normal" Gears game. Story wise it also feels very much like the middle chapter in a trilogy for better or worse. Still, it plays great, looks fantastic ike I said, and the new open zones are well made for what they are, so it's still very much worth playing, but I hope they go back to tradional Gears for 6.

Game #41 - Halo Reach
Time: 7 hours
Rating: ★★★★

And we move on to the other big Microsoft shooter franchise, the one that started it all (err for Microsoft I mean), and we're starting with the prequel to do it in chronological order. I've only played half the Halo games and this wasn't one of them, and after getting over the dated graphics (even if its sharp on the XB1X), I ended up absolutely loving it. Halo games are just super fun to me, and Reach has a fantastic campaign with great levels, where you start doing one objective, move on to do something different, have your own little set pieces without actually being the typical cinematic set pieces, the whole thing is just very chaotic and very fun. Story is pretty somber (probably the darkest in the series?), the visuals are actually not bad (especially for a 360 game let's be honest) and the gameplay is fantastic... but there is a huge issue with the game, the soundmix is completely fucked, half the time the game sounds super muffled (known issue it seems) and that unfortunately dragged the experience down for me. The companion AI is also quite buggy, they are useless in combat and often times wouldnt get on my vehicles. I still loved it but can't go the full monty on the score because of the issues.

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Chas Hodges · May 21, 2020

#1-20
#21-40

I feel like I should have beaten more games during lockdown, but still, I guess 27 and counting isn't bad. I've really struggled to maintain focus or motivation on anything since everything closed and my work was moved to my bedroom desk. It is what it is though. 40 down, and so we power on with a new post.

41. Gone Home (Switch) - 22/05/20 - ~3 hours (Credits)

I wanted to play this on the PC, but never had a PC that would run it, even with its low spec requirements. I wanted to play it on the PS4, picked it up in a sale, but opted not to start it as everything I read seemed to suggest the trophies popping up would kinda sour the experience a bit.

Years on I manage to pick up a copy of the game physically for Switch. I had to pay a little over the odds owing to me never actually ordering the game at retail with iam8bit, but, in all honesty, I think it was an experience both worth the wait and the slightly inflated cost.

It's a great, walking sim / narrative puzzle game / thing. Your character arrives home late one night after months travelling. The house is new, as your family moved when you were away. No one appears to be home? Why? Find out by piecing together environmental clues.

The atmosphere is a little creepy, but always intriguing. The main plot seems to revolve around your younger sister, but intertwined are stories about your parents, extended family, and even the previous owners of the house. There are pieces of supplementary story that can be totally missed, and with a guide I'm sure the whole thing can be wrapped up in about 30 minutes, but it doesn't matter. It's an artsy game that explores narrative in a way that is both literary and gamey in equal measure.

Loved it.

42. Color Slasher (PS4) - 24/05/20 - ~4 hours (All Trophies [PSN])

It's just an endless runner. Use either L2 or R2 to slash enemies of appropriate colour, avoid obstacles. That's your lot. It's really buggy and glitchy. Sometimes you character slashes endlessly. Sometimes you lose a life even when you didn't hit an enemy. All trophies are unlocked through cumulative attrition, none of it is skill based.

I had podcasts on in the background as I grinded this out. Not as good as literally any mobile endless runner from ten years ago.

43. Desert Child (PS4) - 24/05/20 - ~5 hours (All Trophies [PSN])

What even if this game, seriously?

It's a racing game. A 2D side scrolling, fast paced racing game. But it's also a weird cyberpunk period piece, set largely in raggedy, colonised Mars. It looks like a PC game from the early 90s. The layouts of the hub cities are deliberately obfuscated to make traversal feel alien for the entire time you play. You do odd jobs like robbing digital banks by driving through vaporwave worlds, and then throw pizzas at people 5 minutes later. The game tracks vehicle damage, but also hunger meaning that between every event you're forced to check out the many food establishments across town.

It's all so odd, so familiar and yet otherworldly. I think I love it?

Bizarrely, the racing itself is pretty shit, and yet that doesn't seem to matter when it builds a coherently incoherently atmosphere this well.

44. Gorogoa (Switch) - 27/05/20 - ~3 hours (Credits)

Wow.

How often does a piece of media make you say wow? A stunning piece of work. An almost wholly unique puzzle game that has you moving panels (think Framed as the easiest point of reference) to solve spatial puzzles (like the environmental puzzles in the Witness I guess?). My comparisons act as a frame of reference, but do not do this game justice at all.

Beautiful art, beautiful story, beautiful game.

45. PictoQuest: The Cursed Grids (Switch) - 28/05/20 - ~16 hours (100%)

It's always nice to have a Picross game on the go. This one mixed light RPG elements (you have health that will get knocked down by the enemies of each grid if you're too slow, and you can buy and use potions to clear certain parts of the puzzle or restore health) to try and keep things fresh, but it is, by and large, just a regular Picross game.

Presentation is decent, and even the 20x20 puzzles played fine in both handheld and docked mode, with no need for zooming or scaling. Puzzles never seemed as hard as some of Jupiter's games, but maybe I'm just getting better at Picross with all my cumulative years of experience?

46. Adam's Venture: Origins (PS4) - 29/05/20 - ~5 hours (All Trophies [PSN])

'Mum, can we have Uncharted?'

'We have Uncharted at home.'

Oh it's a bad game. Inconsistent puzzles, horrible visuals and audio, spotty last-gen design. Really not much positive to say to be honest. Imagine Indiana Jones if it was shit. National Treasure if it was no fun whatsoever. Uncharted if it had no action. Professor Layton if it had no charm or character.

47. Ace of Seafood (PS4) - 02/06/20 - ~12 hours (Credits)

What a weird game. Part Ace Combat, part Dynasty Warriors, part 7th Cross Evolution (did anyone play that?).

The first hour I honestly had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to be doing. The english translation from Japanese is, shall we say, wooly at best, and almost nothing is explained. You pick a fish to start (I went with the humble salmon) and are then chucked into the ocean. I eventually learnt that I was supposed to be attacking other creatures (using laser canons, naturally), harvesting their genes and dna to produce your own 6 fish army You then have to terrorise the wider ocean to take control of other reefs and extend your influence.

It plays a bit like a flight sim, with horribly awkward controls, looks about as good as a Dreamcast game, and yet I wasn't able to stop playing it. It seems like its a joke game but its played totally seriously. The difficulty can be brutal and some reef assaults need proper planning - some of the later bosses were beaten more through luck than judgement.

I am one trophy away from beating the game 100% as it were, but it requires taking down the final boss with the weakest team possible. I'd guess that I've had 3 hours of attempts, never lasting more than 10 seconds before the whole team is wiped out, so fuck-it, this is in the done pile for now.

48. Windstorm / Whisper / Ostwind (PS4) - 05/06/20 - ~3 hours (All Trophies [PSN])

Last year I beat Windstorm on the Switch. 100%. I really enjoyed it despites its dreadful performance and muddy visuals. It was an easy going, good time.

What I didn't enjoy, was collecting 119/120 collectables. I don't know if the final one was out there, or had been despawned from the map (glitches ahoy in this game!), but after a few hours fruitless hunting, I said 'good enough' and moved on.

The PS4 version of this equestrian treat has a platinum trophy that doesn't require you to beat the game. Instead, it asks you to find all locations on the map, grab all 120 collectibles, pick up some plants, and run and jump certain distances and amounts. To atone for the final collectible forever missing on my Switch save game, I collected Windstorm's platinum trophy in one setting, with a map on my iPad on my lap. Ticking off each one was pretty satisfying, and the game ran significantly better on the PlayStation. There were still hiccups and stutters all over the place, but it was never as bad as the flick book it could become on Switch.

49. Battle Cars (Evercade) - 06/06/20 - ~4 hours (Credits)

What's this? A new console?

I've been excited about the Evercade for months. A bespoke handheld that plays cartridges which collect together a curated selection of retro games. Most carts include a few headline games (the Namco collection for example has Pac Man, Xevious, Dig Dug, Mappy, etc from the NES), but also a few leftfield choices. Namco published the much maligned Battle Cars on the SNES, a game I'd never heard of let alone played.

It's a clearly F-Zero inspired mode-7 combat racer. It's inspired by the rag-tag aesthetic of Mad Max. It has pretty grating metal music that plays out making the SNES sound chip come across a bit Mega Drive. It's really hard, but allows infinite continues on each stage. There are 8 stages, each with two parts: a cross country point to point track where the aim is to beat a time, and take out as many other drivers as possible; then a head to head race in amongst other traffic across two laps. You can upgrade your vehicle between each event. Some races took a LOT of retries to beat, and a fair bit of luck, but there was definitely scope to be able to take the courses better, and tactically use your weaponry. It's kind of by the numbers, but I felt compelled to really try and best it because of how the limited game selections on each Evercade cart encourages you to actually give games a bit more time than you might otherwise do when you're presented with the ability to emulate a billion games at your leisure.

The handheld feels great, the carts feel premium (colour manuals in each box!), and the whole thing is affordable. Give the machine a look, then give Battle Cars a look. Expect a few more Evercade titles to make this list as time goes on, as the machine has definitely piqued my interest!

50. Little Inferno (Switch) - 07/06/20 - ~5 hours (100%)

I loved Little Inferno on Wii U, and think I loved it even more this second time through. It's part idle game, part toy box (think the items you unlock in something like Warioware Touched or Twisted), part scathing commentary on capitalism, consumerism and individual complacency.

A cutesy exterior, but man it's dark at its core.

Buy shit, burn shit, repeat, repeat, repeat. There are puzzles that come from deciphering clues and then buying and burning specific combinations of items. There are brilliantly written characters. There's jokes for completionists that predate Hestu's turd from Breath of the Wild by almost a decade.

Great game, get it played.

51. Boogerman (Evercade) - 09/06/20 - ~3 hours (Credits)

Try telling my child-self that Boogerman, a game I thought was the funniest thing I had ever seen when I was ten, would get an official licensed cartridge release on a handheld in the year 2020 and I'd have said you were mad. But here we are.

I allowed myself a save state at the start of each level but beat them and all of the bosses legitimately. When you die you get given a password for whichever stage or boss you were on anyway, so I didn't feel this was cheating - just making it slightly less annoying.

It's a good game! Stage design is a little so so, and bosses all follow very similar patterns, but the game itself is decent, the art and music are great. It may be (gross out) style over substance, but honestly, is Earthworm Jim any better? It feels fitting that that game also sits on this same Interplay cart for the Evercade - perhaps I'll get to that one next?

52. Uncraft Me! (XBLIG) - 12/06/20 - ~90mins (Credits)

I really do miss the Wild West days of the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel. The Uncraft Me series was a set of voxel-based, one-hit-kills platformers that rewarded you for each checkpoint you reached by unveiling part of a scantily clad anime illustration. Dumb. But hugely popular because it riffed on the visual style of Minecraft (XBLIG purchasers kryptonite), mentioned crafting in the title (even if it bore no connection to the game itself), and had boobs in it.

Despite the cynical way it was marketed, its a decent game. Punishing difficulty in spots, but with well placed checkpoints. It's better than several games I've beaten this year. I *think* I have some of the other entries on my 360 HDD as well, but I honestly don't know. The 360 dashboard was left in such a state when the Xbox One became the lead platform for Microsoft that it can be very hard to see what you own, especially if you have a digital library of 400+ games.

And that's 52. Three years running, baby.

53. A Short Hike (PC) - 13/06/20 - ~2 hours (Credits)

Why are some indie game so pervasive? I'm not really a PC guy, yet I knew about this game because it made it to mainstream games press coverage, appeared in podcasts I listen to, and now, was earmarked as one of the highlights of the itch.io Racial Equality bundle.

It's a game of great style (low resolution / low poly aesthetic), fantastic writing, and a genuinely surprising ending. It's also a game that's lets you go as deep or as shallow as you like with it. When I reached the credits, I continued my game for another half hour or so, and found a whole bunch more NPCs, post-game conversations that connected back to earlier events, more collectibles, fast travel points, treasure maps, etc, etc. I would love to play this in console and really dig into it properly as my PC setup is less than ideal, but either way, I'm really pleased I managed to give this one a blast.

54. Serre (PC) - 14/06/20 - ~30mins (Credits)

A one and done visual novel. It's twee and sweet and would probably feel pretty cloying if it was much longer than its 30 minute run time. A weird bee alien thing lands in a young woman's greenhouse and they strike up a friendship / romance. That's basically it. There is an undercurrent that suggests the game will explore familial relationships, or human nature, but it's fleeting.

55. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (DC) - 17/06/20 - ~5 hours (All Tapes / Golds)

What a great game.

I started playing the THPS series with 3 on the PS2, and have only ever given the first two games the tiniest sniff over the years as I wrongly believed the lack of manual and revert would harm the core experience.

After grinding (hey hey!) through the career as Tony Hawk, I can say I was bang wrong. It makes the whole game a much more skilful experience. You can't hit scores just by endlessly throwing special manuals on flat in the dying seconds of a run. Grinds aren't the 'gimme' that they became in later games for traversal. Speed is super important, trick length is super important. Proper mastery of spins using the shoulder buttons is super important.

Certain goals were a bit frustrating, but generally, any errors or fuckups in my playthrough were down to me hammering buttons through muscle memory of later games that flatly did not work in THPS1, or just getting sloppy with execution. Lines were fun to find, score challenges were really bloody hard, but always rewarding when beaten.

I'm sure I could knock out a few other careers a lot quicker now that I've learnt the game, but I think this was enough to sate my curiosity until the remake arrives later this year.

30 tapes split across 6 stages, and three competitions. Tight, rewarding design.

56. Adrenaline Rush: Miami Drive (Switch) - 24/06/20 - ~11 hours (100% Unlocks)

An endless runner that I can only imagine was ported from mobile devices. The car auto-accelerates, you buy a coin doubler, the gameplay loop revolves around getting a score, using cash to improve your vehicle and bettering your score ad infinitum.

Utterly mindless. The game is spiced up a little by way of missions - sets of three objectives (takedown x amount of cars, collect x amount of coins, etc) that then pays out a bonus upon completion of the full set. It's a game I found myself returning to for 15 minutes here and there an awful lot despite not really enjoying it that much. Up until very recently, I hadn't seen my girlfriend in person at a distance of less than 2 metres of over 3 months, and this sort of game was perfect for playing unconsciously in the background whilst we chatted on the phone.

57. Inside (PS4) - 25/06/20 - ~4 hours (Credits)

Like Limbo earlier in the year, I coerced my girlfriend to play through Inside with me. It was great to see it through again after beating it for the first time last year. I caught certain things I missed first time around, and could appreciate others that I noticed but didn't really dwell on. This would have been ticked off the list a lot earlier if it wasn't for the pandemic and social distancing. We played through 3/4s of the game just before lock-down, were separated, and only recently were able to reunite by deciding to move in together.

It was a real treat to be able to experience its ending again, even if in this weird global circumstance.

58. The Simpsons Arcade Game (Arcade) - 27/06/20 - ~40mins (Credits)

I've mentioned before that I'm part of a podcast project that details myself and two friend's top 100 games of all time, one entry at a time, week by week. This week is was our 33rd favourite games. Because of vivid childhood memories, mine was The Simpsons Arcade. I hadn't played the game since its shock re-release on the 360/PS3 years back, so thought it would be wise to run through it again to freshen my memory before writing my show notes.

It took quite a bit of credit feeding in MAME to get through, but it was still a great experience. Listen to the episode HERE if you're interested in hearing much deeper thoughts!

59. Super Oath-Nanj World [Super Mario Maker 2] (Switch) - 01/07/20 - ~20 hours (100%)

One of the friends I record my podcast with made it his mission during lockdown to create an entire Super World in Mario Maker 2. This is that world. 30 stages set across 6 worlds. I recorded all of my progress, and an edited version of this will eventually make its way online. Needless to say, I found some of it quite tough.

Technically, I beat the game 2 and a half times over. One and a half as a play tester, allowing Jonathan the creator to go back and make tweaks for playability / fairness / challenge, and once as a start to finish run. I beat it with a starting tally of 99 lives, making good progress for the most part until losing nearly 30 lives on one checkpoint in 5-5.

Overall, great fun, even if the odd part made me want to throw my pad out the window. I am not a good 2D Mario player.

Watch my entire miserable run here.

60. Donut County (Switch) - 02/07/20 - ~3 hours (100%)

Annnnd sixty.

This is the third Annapurna / iam8bit physically published game I've beaten this year after Gorogoa and Gone Home. All 3 are truly outstanding indie games.

Donut County takes the premise of something like Katamari and twists it - you're an ever growing hole sucking up the objects of the world instead of an ever enlarging sticky gobstopper physically growing as your absorb the mass around you. It feels really contemporary with its snappy writing. The dialogue in the game is really nicely written and delivered, very conversational - not unlike A Short Hike which I played a few weeks ago. The art is clean and stylised meaning it won't really age, and the short run time is perfect for a lazy afternoon or evening, and probably something I'll return to in the future because its not too taxing, and crucially, just really fun.

Lovely game.

#61-80

NOW PLAYING
Tetris 99 (Switch)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

Lobotomaxx · May 21, 2020

19/52.

Bioshock Remastered | Steam | 4/5 | 17 hours

Explore a maniacs' underwater utopia. I had previously played this game briefly on both the Xbox 360 and on the PC when it came out, but not more than a couple of hours. I liked it back then but would always get distracted by something else, something shiny. I'm not a big horror fan and this game isn't that, but there were tense moments. There was one jump scare that made me jump a little but other than that there is just a lot of random voices and footsteps. I didn't use a lot of the weapons but appreciated having them when I eventually ran out of ammo for the one's I did like using.

I didn't care for basically the last chapter which was escorting a Little Sister through a level so she could ram needles into corpses. She would walk slow and then stand in front of me and stop moving which meant that I couldn't move because she had collision and I would spin around stuck on her trying to get free. I have never played Bioshock 2 and thought that there is a lot more of this type of mission in that game, so I guess we'll see. I will eventually get to 2 and Infinite soon.

Main Post

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 21, 2020

47. Sunset Overdrive: Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines and Mooil Rig (XB1) 21 May | 3 Hrs | ★★★
I was ready for this to be over. Dlc adds nothing to the ending of vanilla game. So I guess that was for a possible sequel instead.

Optional Objectives · May 21, 2020

No. 25 - Muramasa Rebirth

Muramasa looks great, and the hack n' slash moves of both characters are enjoyable. The music is also excellent, and seems to be underappreciated. The presentation of both stories is solid, and Muramasa stands as the rare game with two full A/B stories. With that said, there could be more enemy and screen variety.

No. 26 - Helltaker

A fun little puzzle game with a fairly difficult active final boss. Goofy demons (and one angel), too.

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Snowfruit · May 22, 2020

main post

15. Helltaker (PC) 1 hour, May 17
Got drawn in by this game's art and it was free on steam so why not try it out.
There's some challenging puzzles at times and the music was great. The whole plot/story is whatever but it's fun overall.

16. Nioh 2 (PS4) 122 hours, May 21
Massive improvement over the first game. I probably finished this at like 60 hours but still kept playing until I got the platinum trophy. You get to create your own character with some great customization and also mess with a bunch of different builds and weapons. There's so much replayability here and I'm definitely coming back for the DLC.
Best combat in a souls-like game hands down.

17. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) 240 hours, May 22
First time playing an Animal Crossing game and I became hopelessly addicted. It's a shame because ultimately that ended up burning me out on the game. I'd love to continue to furnish my island but I'm probably done for now.
If Nintendo ever decides to fix the hassle that is the online play for this game then I could see myself coming back and spending even more time here.

CrazyAznKT · May 22, 2020

I find it hilarious that I consistently make my first update on May 22nd, I swear I'm not doing it on purpose! I actually came up with this new design on the first of January and have just been super busy with crunch at work!

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January 2020
01. Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch) | 16th Jan - 12hrs | 5/5

I love this game, it was a fantastic followup to to SteamWorld Dig 2! I really enjoy how much bigger this world is compared to the first one and would gladly play a third SteamWorld Dig game but I completely understand and appreciate them changing their formula so often. I've taken a bit of a break but I'm looking forward to Heist and Quest!

02. PictoQuest (Switch) | 17th Jan - 9hrs | 3/5

I was really craving Picross and got desperate. PictoQuest is okay, a bit short and doesn't have all the QoL features I'm used to from the Jupiter Picross games but the world map and timed aspect of fighting off monsters was neat.

03. Roombo (Switch) | 17th Jan - 2hrs | 1/5

Look. I saw it on Game Grumps in the background and it was like $1. Boy did I not enjoy this game, but that's also fine because it was short. I skipped the challenge missions but during the main campaign, it didn't feel like it did much to make the formula more difficult

04. Horizon Zero Dawn: Frozen Wilds (PS4) | 19th Jan - 20hrs | 5/5

I beat this before the last mission of the main campaign because it felt more canon that way so I'll do more general impressions later. I really enjoyed this expansion, the story didn't feel entirely throwaway and it expanded more of the worldbuilding and lore. The new machines were a real challenge after getting so good at fighting the main campaign's enemies so often. I'm not sure how many people have only played the main game and still haven't played the DLC but I highly recommend it.

05. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) | 19th Jan - 65hrs | 5/5

I can't believe it took me so long to get to this game! I can't even blame Breath of the Wild on this because I didn't own a Switch at launch. The game truly makes you think in ways that are new while still using familiar third person shooter mechanics. It scratches that itch I used to get from Assassin's Creed games by doing everything on the map, but it was just below my point of exhaustion. I didn't think I would be into this game's world at all for the longest time but the mystery of the past of the world really hooked me in the more I played. As much as I think there's a place for console exclusives, I'm also glad more people will be able to play this when it comes out on PC.

06. Lego Builder's Journey (iOS) | 27th Jan - 2hrs | 4/5

So I finally took a dive and started the Apple Arcade service, juuuust before I got bogged down by work and bigger games again. There's still many games I started but haven't finished - I really appreciate Apple's initiative to fund such bespoke games because it's been a while since I've been interested in any mobile games. Anyways, Lego: Builder's Journey was a really charming experience, it's fairly intuitive but didn't offer much of a challenge. The story that plays out really made me smile and it's pretty short so check it out if you have Apple Arcade!

07. LIT (iOS) | 27th Jan - 2hrs | 3/5

As I was browsing games to play on Apple Arcade, I went through a couple dev's iOS store backlogs and saw this game made by Wayforward that I thought was only ever release on the Wii? This one's also pretty short but did challenge me a bit in that time. I don't hate it but I can't really recommend it either.

February 2020
08. Assemble with Care (iOS) | 14th Feb - 2hrs | 5/5

By far one of my favorite mobile experiences in recent memory, and it's perfectly fitting that it came from the developers, Ustwo, who created the Monument Valley games! The game is fully voice acted and backed by relaxing music. The characters it follows have satisfying character arcs in the short amount of time you spend with the game and the simple act of repairing various items is also very relaxing. I just love experiences like this.

March 2020
09. Batman Arkham Knight (PS4) | 20th Mar - 30hrs | 5/5

A part of the reason I have such a massive gap in my completions is because I got the KHIII DLC and those end game boss fights are legitimately difficult! I was also doing a massive amount of overtime at work in February. Anyways, I started Arkham Knight back up because I wanted an easy game I could play at the end of the day and there were still a lot of side objectives that I hadn't touched in this game for some reason - I really don't get it, I started this game in like 2015 when I first got a PS4, I'm usually a completionist! This game was just as fun as I had remembered, I actually miss the flow of this kind of combat, Assassin's Creed did it for a while but it doesn't do this anymore! Cleaned up everything but the Riddler stuff.

10. Batman Arkham Knight Season Pass (PS4) | 21st Mar - 10hrs | 4/5

Onto the DLC! I felt I had to include this because I usually do for DLC, but all the packs were so small on their own and also interacted with different parts of the packs that were integrated into the main campaign and AHHHH. More of the same, I wish the Arkham episodes stuff was longer. You can finish most of them in like half an hour which then unlocks a new set of side objectives in the main game. The only substantial one was Batwoman's and even that was pretty short. I don't get why they made so many playable characters and didn't do much interesting stuff with them. Overall I feel like it's worth it but as they were releasing, they took so long for so little that it soured my experience until I finally decided to tackle them now.

11. Super Smash Bros Ultimate + Fighter Pass 1 (Switch) | 27th Mar - 80hrs | 5/5

I missed out on Smash a lot growing up, but I appreciate this game for the amount of work put into this game. It's truly a spectacle to behold in gaming, even if you don't enjoy these game. I even love every single DLC character that was released! It just took me a while to check out Byleth... I really don't see the followup to this coming anywhere near it and I almost feel like the series would need to be rebooted. The only real complaint I have of this game is the netcode. I'm looking forward to season 2, but let Sakurai sleep!

12. Katana ZERO (Switch) | 30th Mar - 6hrs | 5/5

As much as I enjoyed Ape Out, I felt like this game is a much closer spiritual brethren to Hotline Miami - the manic energy to every small room, the lo fi aesthetic, the heartbeat paced music, the untrustworthy narrator, all of it just brings back that experience except in a playstyle I'm much more attuned to. Definitely one of my favorite indie game experiences in recent years.

13. Kero Blaster (Switch) | 31st Mar - 3hrs | 3/5

I'm pretty on the fence with this game. A several people told me to play it and that they enjoyed it a lot, but I wasn't extremely impressed by it. It was solid, but it didn't offer much of a challenge. I will say I enjoyed the different weapons though. I hear the alternate campaigns really change the game and increase the difficulty but I don't have the drive to keep playing that much more this, sadly. Still enjoyed it more than Mega Man V though!

April 2020
14. Sayonara Wild Hearts (iOS) | 1st Apr - 3hrs | 3/5

Another disappointing game. Blasphemy! I really enjoy the music, I get that that's largely why people were so impressed by this game. Maybe it's because I was playing it on mobile, but I constantly felt like I was fighting with the controls, so I never felt like I was in touch with the music of the game as I would with other music games. In terms of gameplay, it's just a runner. That's it, a decent runner.

15. Mega Man 5 (PS4) | 2nd Apr - 3hrs | 3/5

Ohhh boyyy, you can really feel the creative burnout with this one! There's still bosses and stages and music I like from this one, but there's way more duds than I was used to. This really deflated my intents to play VI. I'll still get to it, just not too soon? I'll be able to get to X soon too though!

16. Animal Crossing New Horizons (Switch) | 13th Apr - 110hrs | 5/5

This game really took over my life. I even bought a second Switch so that I could play other games while Animal Crossing was open so I could let people on my island for various things or if I was travelling. As much as I enjoy this game, there's so many small QoL stuff missing and even worse is the online experience. I just don't understand why I have to watch people landing on islands ever, almost every game for the past two decades has made joining rooms seamless! This is my first Animal Crossing, I'm lucky to have many real life friends and friends of friends that also got this game but I can very easily see this being a worse experience if you don't have friends or even have to share your Switch. There's just too much back and forth to go into for this game but I overall enjoy it and am still going strong on it.

17. Control (PS4) | 23rd Apr - 26hrs | 5/5

Sleeper hit of 2019! This is my among my favorite AAA game in recent years, it really took me by surprise. This is the first game I've played on the PS4 that feels like it would benefit from being a next gen title - there were so many particle effects and there were many times where textures just wouldn't load, it was a very bizarre contrast. As cliche as it sounds, I was obsessed with the environmental story telling - I would spend massive amounts of time just reading the various documents I've picked up, and I even spent time making sure I got every document even though there were no trophies for it.

18. Control: The Foundation (PS4) | 24th Apr - 8hrs | 5/5

I feel like I might have a bit more of a positive impression from this DLC since I played it right after the main campaign instead of waiting months for it to come out. The critiques of the cavernous setting being much more drab than the main campaign are very valid, but I was still riding the high of the whole experience. I further appreciate the environmental storytelling in the DLC and what it reveals about earlier Directors of the Bureau of Control.

19. Resident Evil 3 (2020) (PS4) | 26th Apr - 10hrs | 5/5

The heavy hitters keep coming! This game got a lot of criticism for being short but I still enjoyed it. I didn't play the original so I don't know what's been cut, but the pacing felt fine to my virgin eyes. I will say that playing this right after RE1 and RE2 remakes, not having a slightly different second campaign to play through the game again with more skill does feel weird. I'll probably revisit this at some point, but the series playthrough must continue! Code Veronica is next and tank controls are going to be a struggle.

20. Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind (PS4) | 27th Apr - 20 hrs | 5/5

I love this DLC more than the main game. This is everything I want from Kingdom Hearts and I realize I'm in the minority as a Kingdom Hearts diehard becuase I'm into the insane story and high level gameplay. This DLC gave me so much more of all the other characters I've grown close to that felt somewhat ignored in the main game and I'm so glad I finally got to play as Kairi! It doesn't entirely save how badly she was utilized in the main game but I'll sadly take the crumbs I get. The Data Battles took me so long and I had to take so many breaks away from this before I could beat them all on Proud. Truly, I feel that they are on par with the KH2 Data Battles despite the combat system not being as strong in the main game. I still haven't gone through Critical or done the EZ or Pro codes, and I especially still haven't beaten the secret boss, but I really enjoy what I got out of this.

May 2020
21. Streets of Rage 4 (PS4) | 1st May - 4hrs | 4/5

So this is my first Streets of Rage game - I feel there's several things from later beat 'em ups I enjoy such as blocking and character progression systems, but I understand why things like that would be left out to keep the core of the series. I needed a lot of help from a friend to beat the game, but I had a lot of fun with the art and music of this game. All the characters were fun to play and I started having to get much smarter with the game as it went on.

22. Link's Awakening (Switch) | 2nd May - 20hrs | 4/5

As I slowly make my way through the Zelda franchise, I'm actually a bit disappointed with Link's Awakening. This may be the easiest Zelda I've ever played and it easily has the least amount of world gimmicks and all of the specials items are things I've seen before in other Zelda games. I legitimately feel that I had a better experience playing the more archaic feeling Oracles games. Regardless, I still enjoyed what the game offered and it was an absolute treat to experience.

That ending's a bit fucked up though huh?

23. Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto (PS4) | 5th May - 3hrs | 3/5

I've put off this DLC for long enough, I wanted to get through the single player FFXV DLC before I started FFVII Remake because I know it iterates on FFXV and I know it would be difficult to go back. This DLC was not that enjoyable and was oddly linear. The gunplay just isn't that interesting. But it was great to get more Aranea, one of FFXV's many brutally underused assets. I've already forgotten what the impact of this DLC was.

24. Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis (PS4) | 5th May - 3hrs | 4/5

What an improvement! There's actual diversity in the combat with this that was engaging, perhaps even more than playing as Noctis in the main game. The rooftop grappling was a nice addition to the FFXV format. I also appreciate the extra effort put into offering alternate endings which they didn't have to do at all. This really elevated Ignis as my favorite of the crew.

25. Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn (PS4) | 6th May - 4hrs | 4/5

This is good but I'm also divided on it. Ardyn is so strong that the combat is almost trivial. If enemies sneak up on you, you can take them out immediately. If you're going head to head with enemies, they can hardly touch you. The movement options of flying up to ledges and across rooftops was really fun and made me want a new inFamous game. Story was kind of already known but boy is that upcoming book of cancelled story content going to be an odd experience.

26. Astral Chain (Switch) | 9th May - 32hrs | 5/5

I can't believe it took me so long to get through this game. My biggest complaint of this game is the over-abundance of side quests that ruin the pacing of the game. This lives in that space of Platinum doing weird, different combat systems that are really satisfying once you're able to wrap your ahead around the things it asks of you and I grew to love it.

PHEW, that was a lot of typing. Thanks for sticking with me, I'll see you next update and I hope I stay on pace to hit 52 despite my busier schedule!

Malverde · May 23, 2020

Optional Objectives said:
No. 26 - Helltaker

Snowfruit said:
15. Helltaker (PC) 1 hour, May 17
Got drawn in by this game's art and it was free on steam so why not try it out.
There's some challenging puzzles at times and the music was great. The whole plot/story is whatever but it's fun overall.

Just checked this out thanks to the two of you. I enjoyed it.

Optional Objectives · May 23, 2020

DarthOrange said:
Just checked this out thanks to the two of you. I enjoyed it.

Yeah, it's a fun little game that doesn't overstay its welcome. And it's hard to beat its price of $free.99.

Tizoc · May 23, 2020

79. Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light

An isometric action adventure game with some puzzles tossed in the mix. The game's combat or shooting is of the twin stick variety and is pretty simple to pick up and play. What I liked most was the platforming and puzzles while the combat was passable at best.
Quite enjoyed my time with it but it does have some dull environments to explore through.

FRANKEINSTEIN · May 23, 2020

48. Battlefield: Hardline (PS4) 23 May | 7 Hrs | ★★
Another game I've owned for years but never got around to playing. It's not good. It takes every bad trope from cop shows/movies and uses them all. The shooting was ok but I expected more from a Battlefield game.

rahji · May 23, 2020

10. Overcooked 2 - Finished on 13/04/2020 Time: about 10 hours

We enjoyed the sequel already and this game was just more from the same with different spices. Not that it is bad but they didn't change or add fundamental mechanics. I liked it a lot.

11. The Last Guardian - Finished on 18/04/2020 Time: about 10- 15 hours

I liked the Ueda games so far so I had to play this game and it delivered for me. The connection between the boy and Trico was really well told in this story. The game has some minor technical difficulties but the story is one for the ages. Oh, and I quite like the architecture of Ueda.

12. Knack 2 - Finished on 24/04/2020 Time: about 15 hours

Got it from the stay at home and play promotion. We played it in coop only and it was fun. To break it down, it is old school god of war for children. It does nothing radical new, but it is entertaining especially when you can combo with your partner.

13. Final Fantasy 7 Remake - Finished on 19/05/2020 Time: 41 hours

I really liked it. The combat is great, the story is a lot to swallow and it is so beautiful to look at! This is so good it will be a contender for my game of the year. I missed a world map in this game though because every main line final fantasy had that in some kind of form.

14. The Last of Us Remastered - Finished on 23/05/2020 Time: about 10 hours

I had to replay in preparation for part 2. The first time I thought it was a good game but nothing more. This time it had much more effect on me. The AI is still clever and the dialogue in this game is still great. It definitly passed the test of time.

15. The Last of Us Remastered - Left Behind - Finished on 23/05/2020 Time: about 1.5 hours

Neat little story DLC which explains a lot of context about the characters. I really liked the play segment with Riley.

Coming up: Journey? Or I will wait for Part II.

Optional Objectives · May 23, 2020

No. 27 - Absolver

Absolver is a very focused game. That focus is on more strategic hand-to-hand combat, and in that regard this is a very good game, too. But it is also a limited game, with almost nothing in the way of music, dialog, characters, or narrative. I enjoyed how it looked - there was a lot more variety in lighting and design than I initially expected - and it works as a showcase for its main system. As a game from a small developer, it's impressive that Absolver has the PvE, PvP, and co-op that it does. I just wish there had been a little more to it.

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KtotheRoc · May 23, 2020

44: Wild Guns. End: 5/23/2020. 1 Hour. Liked.

Sometimes I just enjoy playing a game because it's not too complicated, it's a game someone can just jump right into, and it's just fun. That's this game IMO.

Tizoc · May 24, 2020

Original post

80. Serious Sam HD

In the late 2000s, first person shooters and first person view action games, strayed away from how Doom played; instead of dozens of enemies rushing around you, you had to maneuver around a handful of tough enemies and take them down.
Serious Sam decided to go back to that gameplay aspect of Doom but crank it up to...11,000. The result is a first person shooter that has dozens upon dozens of enemies rushing around and you waste them with more bullets and ammunition than the US military could ever produce.
While the game started out fine, by the last 1/3, it got dull and the lengthy stages with all the enemies really brought the game down for me, especially that a game can only shower me with a wave of 100 enemies for so long before its appeal wears off.
I see where its fame or infamy comes from but it would've been better had it been shorter.

Bradford · May 24, 2020

COMPLETION COUNTER: 34/52

Latest Completion:

34. Underhero (PC) | 24th May - 12hrs | 3/10
Underhero is a creatively bankrupt game, one that lacks an identity of its own due to being a pastiche of other, better games, assembled under the guise of subversion. Underhero's story is one you've seen before, told in infinitely more nuanced and interesting ways, with less reliance on exposition dumps. It is off-brand, an in-house variant that tries to hide behind a cheeky aesthetic and the perceived charm of its characters while meekly apeing those that came before it. It is rife with thoughtless design; take Underhero's pay-to-save system, a concept that is interesting in theory, but is circumvented by the game giving you both more than enough coins to nullify the consequence of choosing to pay for the save stations, as well as the checkpoint markers that save the game littered around each area. Underhero is tedium, often tasking the player with backtracking through cleared areas just to pick up items or talk with NPCs that were clearly important the first time through, but that the game did not want to let you pick up lest it respect your time. Underhero depicts a certain kind of disrespect to not only its players, but the titles it apes. It features a battle system inspired by Paper Mario and Mother 3, that largely fails to unify the two systems into a whole due to an unrelentingly slow and ponderous stamina system. The game wants you to time attacks to hit with the beat of the music, but even with a character leveled up by beating all enemies and collecting all stamina upgrades, the bar fills so ponderously that it is difficult to justify anything more than a 2-3 hit combo, lest you tire yourself out (which happens under 3 stamina, rather than 0) and lose your ability to dodge. The game is inconsistent in how it signals the player's options as well -- giving you access to a parry and a special rhythm based super attack, but constantly throwing enemies and situations at you where you cannot utilize either. The game is also plagued by technical issues, from its inability to choose a resolution while in windowed mode, to its frequent glitches and visual bugs ranging from enemies not reacting in combat to whole maps disappearing in a way that requires the player to enter and exit the room for the map to correctly spawn. Other design incompetencies, like the way that the game transitions screens, often in strange ways -- crossing the line of action, creating seemingly non-euclidean spaces -- creates an experience that is not only disorienting, but irritating. Underhero takes a million ideas from other things and, like its villain, tries to stitch them together into a whole. Unfortunately, it's a patchwork, doomed to fail.

I am no longer going to be linking to the original post; apologies. It is getting so lengthy that I'd need to keep making new master posts. Instead, please feel free to see all of my reviews in my ongoing Google Sheet tracker.

Optional Objectives · May 24, 2020

No. 28 - Axiom Verge

This is another one, like Matterfall and the Momohime route of Muramasa, that I had almost finished but had walked away from on the final boss. But it just took a few tries after pulling out the ol' Vita to see the ending and credits. I just had to really give up on the idea that I should be playing with more movement and interesting weapons and go for big damage.

Axiom Verge doesn't do much to differentiate itself from being a straight-up Metroid homage, but that just means its a solid game. The soundtrack is thumping, some of the pixel art is good (especially for backgrounds, on larger scales), and the requisite interaction between items and the map is interesting enough. Enemy variety and behavior is a bit lacking. For all the weapons to be found, few are particularly effective. That's also down to everything being a bit of a bullet sponge.

Come to think of it, that sponginess and the problem of having interesting bit ineffective weapons are linked together. If it didn't take so many shots to down everything, maybe I would have been able to experiment with more of the inventory. Alternately, enemies could have different kinds of armor and types that would require the player to experiment. Here's hoping for more thoughtful enemy design in the sequel.

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LonestarZues · May 24, 2020

Master Post

Weekly Update 21: Great week for completions as I finished 5 games this week.

33. Fractured Minds - I had no idea what this was, but saw it came to Game Pass so downloaded it and 20 minutes later I'm done with it. Easy 1000/1000 for anybody interested in that.

34. The Last of Us - Yearly playthrough of my favorite game. Love everything about it from the story, characters, combat all the way to the music. Hype is on overdrive for the sequel.

35. Killzone - Doing a trilogy replay this year and this game has one of the best opening cinematic scenes and I never tire of watching it. The voice acting is really good for a PS2 game and the world is one of my favorites for a FPS franchise. The controls are not good and I'm thankful that modern shooters don't use this layout anymore. More color would've also helped this game and looking forward to playing 2 and 3 sometime this year.

36. The Last of Us: Left Behind - One of the best dlc's for any game. Can't say to much about the story without spoilers, but I'll say I wish we would've seen more of the dynamic between the main characters. With that the wait for The Last of Us Part II becomes excruciatingly longer. 4 more weeks.

37. Florence - Cute little interactive adventure/story game. I feel most people can relate to this game and it definitely bought back memories of my childhood and lost loves.

Currently Playing:

1. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Really enjoying the story and I'm about 3/4 of the way thru it. Should be done with the game this coming week.

2. Alan Wake - Saw that it was on Game Pass so decided to start it and just finished Episode 3. Another game that I should finish this week.

3. Final Fantasy VII - Doing a replay of it and will be a slow burn. Finished the whole of Midgard and currently making my way to Junon.

Bradford · May 24, 2020

COMPLETION COUNTER: 35/52

Latest Completion:

35. Beckett (PC) | 24th May - 1.5hrs | 4/10
Beckett is less a surrealist noir than it is a kafkaesque experiment in perspective. Everything is memory, and what is memory if not filtered through the lens of experience. Essentially a pared down point and click adventure paired with a Visual Novella, Beckett explores mental health through a thick layer of grime and nihilism. Ultimately, what you get out of Beckett comes from what you put into it; some may love its laborious prose, others may find it taxing. What little Beckett has to say on its own is said well, an interesting examination of a strange place, with an unapologetic, if overwrought, focus on the bad rather than the good, the pain that overwrites all other feelings. In the end, as Peregrine states: There is no meaning to all this besides the meaning you give it.

I am no longer going to be linking to the original post; apologies. It is getting so lengthy that I'd need to keep making new master posts. Instead, please feel free to see all of my reviews in my ongoing Google Sheet tracker.

Lobotomaxx · May 24, 2020

20/52

Bioshock 2 Remastered | Steam | 4/5 | 12 hours

This game was pretty alright too. I was a little nervous because the escort missions from Bioshock were my least favorite part of the game, but in this one they weren't really escort missions and more protect the NPC sort of things. In this game you play as an obsolete Big Daddy model while trying to get back to the Little Sister you were bonded to. A lot of the story is told through audio logs you can pick up and other people telling you what to do.

The hacking minigame also changed in this game compared to the first one and I liked it a little better. Later in the game you had to be so precise to get credit that would make hacking a little frustrating. I give my definite recommends if you've never played these games. Tense, atmospheric shooters where I can shoot a man with my fire hand while grinding him up with a giant drill, what more could I want?

21/52

Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den | Steam | 4/5 | 3 hours

This is more Bioshock! There were a couple new enemy types, a new weapon and a couple new plasmids to mess around with. There was also an end boss (or boss in general) which vanilla Bioshock 2 didn't have at all. The story was pretty good if not a little predictable. This came with the Remastered edition but probably is worth 8 or 10 bucks.

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FRANKEINSTEIN · May 24, 2020

49. Onimusha: Warlords (XB1) 24 May | 4 Hrs | ★★★
Never played anything from the Onimusha series. Gameplay feels very dated and the VO was terrible. But once I got used to the old school camera I enjoyed it. Helps that only a 4 hour game.

Whimsicalish · May 25, 2020

34 | Sheltered
PC Steam | May 25 | 22 hrs | 4/5

I played this game MUCH longer than I first thought. I think I got this in a Humble Bundle? I don't normally play survival games so I am surprised how long I stuck with it. I had one playthrough and got all the achievements.

Your goal is to survive the apocalypse in your bunker. You have to manage your food, water, stress, and health. The air can kill you; wear your gasmasks. The wildlife can kill you; watch out for those teeth and claws. People can kill you....and they will try.

Travel to locations to gather supplies and build your new home. You can trade with NCPs or kill them to loot. I was pretty passive and non-aggressive with other survivors; I ran from most fights, ha. In the hours I put into the game, there really was only two things that was negative. I sent a party out in my revived RV caravan and they died...so I lost my RV in the wilderness. I read you could get a side quest to retrieve it but I never saw it after about 8 hours of playing. It was VERY disappointing to lose the RV since I spent the majority of the game to build it. Second, there are times when your bunker gets attacked and I find it odd you can't fight the intruders off. You can only hide or place traps. Strange that my character would just hide somewhere when they have a shotgun with ammo in the bunker with them.

It was a good overall experience. I did enjoy playing it and again, I don't normally play a lot of survival games.

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newmoneytrash · May 25, 2020

Master Post

Update #010

43. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance | PC | Completed 12/05/2020 | ★★

There was a point midway though this game where I was really, really high on it. The creativity of Murderworld and the Diablo-ness of Mephisto's Realm was a lot of fun, but after that it just felt so much like the same thing over and over. It really feels like Gun or American Wasteland, those Activision games that feel trapped in some void between the original Xbox and PS2 and the 360 and PS3. I was really hoping that this would scratch a Marvel Heroes itch that I've had since that game shut down, but it didn't really. I know a lot of people say that this is the high point of the series which, if that's true, maybe playing through all of these games is going to be a long and fruitless endeavor.

44. Dead Space | PC | Completed 17/05/2020 | ★★★★★

I really think that Dead Space stands along side Resident Evil 4 as just a perfect survival horror game. It's really easy to be reductive of Dead Space and say that it's just Alien + Event Horizon, but they do such a good job of world building and creating a universe that doesn't just feel real, but feels unique while treading in pretty familiar water. The only real complaints I have about this game are the mouse and keyboard controls on PC. The mouse input is notoriously bad and even when modded to change to raw mouse input it still never feels right. It also suffers from a pretty underwhelming final boss fight, but I think underwhelming boss fights are just a staple of the genre. The art and level design still hold up phenomenally well for a twelve year old game, so much that it feels like it has barely aged at all.

45. Dead Space: Extraction | Playstation 3 (RPCS3) | Completed 19/05/2020 | ★★

I didn't like this game very much, but it is because this was probably the worst circumstance in which I could have played it. While going back through the Dead Space franchise I've also been reading and watching all of the additional material that was released. Before Extraction there is a comic book and an animated movie that serve as prequels to the original game and this was the third prequel story in a row that I have experienced and I'm just kind of burned out on this one very specific point in time in this universe. It's also a light gun game that I played with a controller which is never going to be a fun time. Maybe in other circumstances with the right controls I would have had a better time, but as it stands this was just kind of a bummer.

46. Dead Space: Ignition | Playstation 3 (RPCS3) | Completed 19/05/2020 | ★★

This was less a video game and more an animated comic book with a bunch of hacking mini games. Like literally the only gameplay is three different hacking puzzles that increase in difficulty. They're mostly boring, but there is one kind of racing one that is actually pretty fun, which is really the only redeeming factor of a pretty boring and super short game. I've found going through all of this Dead Space stuff that isn't just the three main games that the tone of the story is all over the place. If you saw the story of this game without any other context it wouldn't really convey how dark and serious the Dead Space universe actually is. Outside of the first game and the pretty good comic series that lead up to it's release, I've found all of this extra stuff around it to be super underwhelming.

47. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 | PC | Completed 22/05/2020 | ★★★

I have a lot of misgivings about this game compared to it's predecessor. I think there are a lot of things that it actively does worse, but I still enjoyed it a lot more. The first game ended on kind of a cliffhanger which is just thrown out here. I had some optional dialogue with Thor that just said "oh yeah we dealt with that, don't worry about it". If anything it would have been better to just not address it at all. I think the environments that you visit in this game are so much more boring than they were in the first game. The first game is colourful and almost always different and has some real high points by sending you to such contrasting locations. Every location in 2 feels the same. It also feels less like a dungeon crawler than the first game did. Ultimate Alliance 1 really feels like it's reaching to be Diablo-like and, while it might have been the intention to do the same here, this feels much more linear and focused, more an action game than an action RPG. I also really, really don't like the Civil War storyline and thing it's very boring so reliving that in video game form was just not that compelling to me. The mutant nanomachine virus thing felt anticlimactic as the conclusion to the slapped together war story and the game kind of just... ends with everyone pretty much back where they were when it all started. Despite all of this I still think I had more fun playing this than I did the first. The game looks a lot better and the presentation of it's story, especially the prerendered cut scenes, are incredibly stylish and really hold up. Even though the actual level design is less inspired the art design of the world and characters feels overall a lot more consistent. It's stupider in a way even though it tries very hard to be a lot more serious in it's subject matter, and it's not as over the top goofy or fun, so I can't really explain *why* I think this is better, I just do.

48. Jackass: The Game | Playstation 2 | Completed 23/05/2020 | ★★★

I've had this game just stuck in my head for so long that I had to play through it again. It's just a mini-game collection build around the premise that you're shooting scenes for a season worth of TV. The mini-games are spotty in quality, and at best they are just serviceable, but the thing that I have always really liked about this game is how it really understood the spirit and the energy of Jackass. It uses the video game medium to take the vibe of the show and blow it out to crazy, cartoonish proportions while still maintaining the innocent fun that is integral to what makes Jackass work. A lot of other shows and movies that came out around and after Jackass' success totally misunderstood that, and often times they just felt mean or gross without ever feeling fun. This is a game that views Jackass through the Looney Tunes prism that it was intended. It's not a good game by any means, but it does a lot more than I think anyone can reasonably expect from a Jackass video game adaptation.

49. Maneater | PC | Completed 25/05/2020 | ★★★★★

I played 10 hours of this in two days, 100% the entire game, which is something I *never* do. I understand people's complaints around the game being repetitive and one note (which it kind of is), but I just found the simplicity to be so much fun. It reminded me a lot of Journey to the Savage Planet, a small, pretty tight experience that just tries to do one thing and does it well. I liked Maneater a lot more than I did Savage Planet, mostly because the moment to moment action was so much more satisfying. The shark controls and just act of chewing up people in truly violent ways is so much fun. A really great B-tier game in an era where those just don't really exist any more.

Tambini · May 25, 2020

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#26 Half Life 2: Episode 1 PC (Replay) 8.0 - 3 hours
Episode 1 has some really good combat encounters but it's just a bit too short with not much exploration making it the weakest of the 3 HL2 games, but still a great game

#27 Half Life 2: Episode 2 PC (Replay) 9.0 - 5 hours
Episode 2 is an fantastic game, really memorable all the way through, great combat encounters, level design and story. I look forward to Episode 3, coming Christmas 2007

#28 Legend of Grimrock II PC 8.5 - 20 hours
This is such a well designed game and better than the (also great) original. The graphics are a big step up from the first and it can look really nice at times, and the move to a more open world is a decision that absolutley pays off with tons of secrets to find. Only real downside was some of the later puzzles can be a bit obtuse but there are a lot of great ones too.

#29 Crypt of the Serpent King PS4 2.0 - 90 minutes
You know that game that looks shite but is only 99p so why not give it a go? Because it's shite that's why

#30 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary PC (Replay) 8.0 - 8 hours
Halo holds up pretty well, the enemies are fun to fight with good AI and it has some of the most memorable FPS levels of all time. But it also has some pretty crappy levels, mainly in the second half where you do a lot of backtracking. This has all been said before and my opinion on the game pretty much is the same as when I first played it like 12 years ago. Played on Heroic difficulty as I did Halo Reach PC and it really is a better game than on normal mode this way.

52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

terminus est

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

User requested ban

One Winged Slayer

Teyvat Traveler

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

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terminus est