Games You've Beat in 2013

[Mr. GOH!]

Arkham Origins. Messy and a retread of City, but it's a good and somewhat fun retread. 6/10. 

 

Rocksteady should do a Long Halloween-type game next and let the team who did origins do a stupid suicide squad game.

[toxicitizen]

There were rumors a while back that Rocksteady's next game would be a Silver Age game that would include members of the Justice League. I'm not sure if that was ever proven to be false, though. All I know for sure is that Kevin Conroy slipped earlier this year at a convention and said he was working with Rocksteady on a game that wasn't Origins.

 

I'm not sure if Long Halloween would work considering it takes place over an entire year. But I definitely think it's time to move away from the whole "longest night in Batman's career" thing. Just do a proper open-world game where the events of the story aren't all taking place over the course of a single night. I don't see why there couldn't be time that passes between some missions.

[Chronixal]

Finished Metal Gear Rising the other evening. Superb game and another great outing from Platinum. Once you get the parrying down, it becomes second nature. It kind of goes all out silly towards the end but still well worth picking up and playing.

[MetalCaveman]

Killzone HD, some levels were really short, it took me less than 4 minutes to complete some of them, but overall it was fun.

[toxicitizen]

Mortal Kombat.

 

Beat the story mode just now. Holy shit, that was a ton of fun. I was super into MK as a kid and, while I hadn't touched the series in years, this one retreads the story from those days so it was quite the nostalgic experience. I had always been kind of fascinated by the lore but it always felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture. MK1 was straightforward enough but 2 got all dark and creepy and Shang Tsung was young for some reason. Then 3 came and suddenly you had robots and Earth was all post-apocalyptic and shit. It was intriguing as hell but I couldn't really understand english back then so what the fuck was actually going on was a mystery. So, yeah, it was really cool to have all of that lore fit into one cohesive story. I love when fighting games have a proper story mode. I mean, Street Fighter IV is great but there's only so many times I can replay through arcade before getting kinda bored with it. Here the story mode kept me busy for 10-12 hours and I'm just getting started with the game.

 

That being said, a few things could be improved in a sequel. Cutscenes: allow me to pause them and skip them. Seriously, how the fuck does such a cutscene-heavy game mode not get such basic features in, what was it, 2011? It's annoying enough if you need to go take a piss or whatever but then if you get stuck and quit from a fight that had a long-ass cutscene before it (basically, almost every time there's a chapter change), then you're forced to rewatch it the next time you play. Some kind of chapter select would've nice too but that's not really a big deal.

 

Oh and fuck Shao Kahn. Fuck that guy right in his fucking eye. He is broken and he cheats and he needs to eat shit. The first couple times, he's not too bad since you're fighting him as Liu Kang and you can play cheap if you want. But the final fight against him was so fucking infuriating! No more Liu Kang and I swear they increased both his damage and defense. And you can't fucking stagger that asshole, so very often your timing will be great but he'll just keep swinging that fucking hammer of his right through your attack. Wasted almost an hour on him last night and ended up having to stop because I had to go to bed. Only took me like 20 mins to finally beat him today but it sucks so much when it's late and you know you're at the end and you wanna finish the game before turning it off but it just won't fucking happen. Kind of anticlimactic to jump back in just for the final fight, it just kinda kills all the tension and build up.

 

But anyway, these complaints about the story mode aside, the gameplay is pretty great. I'll definitely keep playing this one for a while. The Challenge Tower should be me busy for a few more hours. I'll probably give online a shot, too. I fully expect to get my ass handed to me and never touch it again but whatever.

[Strangelove]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut. I liked a lot of the changes, most noticeably The Missing Link being integrated into it. It was long as hell and its kind of bland at the start, but it picks up at the end.
As for the bosses, I beat most of them the same way I did before, by force. Except the last one, switched it up a bit since I committed to hacking more than anything else. But they went all out and added a lot of rooms and options to the bosses.
It was good to revisit this awesome game.

[Mal]

Long Live the Queen

 

My magical, knightly princess did it! While she failed to blast the invading fleet to met Dave Jones, she beheaded the bastard invading king with a magical sword. A king in his prime bested by a girl who seen no more than 13 summers. Now I wonder if an infomation, counter-intelligence build will work. She herself will be rather weak but will have great clout... aka (Game of Thrones)

 

 

[TCP]

Dishonored. One last PS3 game before next-gen. I thought it was pretty good, though once I reached the flooded city I was ready for the end.

[MetalCaveman]

Killzone 2, the last part was annoying, specially

Radec since, for whatever reason he has magical powers of teleportation.

Other than that, I liked it.

[toxicitizen]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

 

It was alright. Not exactly a stellar game but definitely a decent one. It's not without issues, though. The gameplay is quite derivative with combat that feels like a cheap version of God of War. The movement controls are kinda bad, too. The way the main character moves and jumps has kind of a weird weight to it and, combined with the fixed camera, you get something that, while otherwise perfectly functional, can make for some very frustrating platforming sections. And considering the amount of platforming this game has, it feels like a rather serious offense to have such terrible controls.

 

I don't really have any major complaints beyond that, though. The story is pretty good, the soundtrack is fantastic and most of the levels have a really epic look to them. It's kinda long for this kind of game (Steam says I took 18 hours to play through it and I spent like 2 hours tops revisiting early levels for collectibles) but it maintains a consistent level of quality throughout so I never felt it overstayed its welcome.

 

I still have the two DLC chapters to play. Hopefully they'll fill in some of the blanks because there's kind of a gigantic gap between the ending and the post-credit scene. I had a detail from the ending accidentally spoiled so, since the event itself was ruined, I was mostly looking forward to seeing how it happened.

 

 

The spoiler was that Gabriel ends up becoming Dracula. Kind of hard to avoid if you watch trailers for Lords of Shadow 2. You play as Dracula in it and it's very clearly the same guy...

 

 

Then the credits rolled and... it never happened. Only in the post-credits scene is it addressed and there's no explanation for it whatsoever. So that seemed kinda weird. I mean, I can kind of infer the gist of it but it still feels like big details are missing. But yeah, I liked it enough that I'll definitely consider getting the sequel for full price at launch. In the meantime, I hope they bring the HD port of Mirror of Fate to PC soon. 

[MetalCaveman]

Killzone 3, my favourite of the 3, looking forward to Shadow Fall whenever I get a PS4

[TheMightyEthan]

 

Goddamn that was awesome.

 

*Edit* - Best shooter I've played in a while.  Campaign, that is, haven't tried multiplayer yet.

Edited November 17, 2013 by TheMightyEthan

[Strangelove]

How long was it?

[TheMightyEthan]

~10-11 hours.

[toxicitizen]

Well, I just played the two Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC chapters. Jesus christ, what the fucking hell...

 

I knew going in that MercurySteam has gone on the record saying it had been a mistake to make the DLC. It was a last minute decision forced on them by Konami higher ups after the game was a surprise hit. They admitted they had to rush it to market, so my expectations weren't exactly high. Right off the bat, the cutscenes were done in the same kind of shitty abstract animation as the DmC DLC. Not off to a great start but hey, looks like I might've been spot on about the DmC one feeling rushed.

 

The first one was kind of alright. A little light on the combat and heavy on puzzles and platforming but I didn't have a problem with that. Overall, not really worth the 10$ it would've cost on its own for the console version but still worth playing. The second one, though. My god, that was the worst fucking piece of shit.

 

I mean, it has some cool moments but it's mostly centered around a boss fight and the actual fight is so fucking terrible. Imagine if the worst designer ever tried to create a Dark Souls-type boss battle and you're halfway there. The boss' attacks do not account for the clunky controls at all. You're also forced to jump to attack it most of the time but there's no way to air-dodge and aerial combos are kinda lacking. You also hit him for what's basically chip damage so not only is it infuriating, it takes fucking forever. This might very well be the worst boss fight I've ever played in my entire life. 

 

I'm all for a challenge but this was just downright unpleasant. After 40 mins, I was getting furious and dropped the difficulty all the way down because I just wanted to get it the fuck over with already. And even then it was a gigantic pain in the ass. It still took forever and the only reason I managed to beat it at all was because his damage had been significantly reduced and my health bar was getting refilled every single time I died, even after reaching a new checkpoint. Talk about needlessly ending the game on a sour note. Then, the last cutscene was done in the same shitty animation, as if to spit in the wound one final time. Ugh. At least they filled in the blanks I mentioned in my last post, I guess... 

Edited November 18, 2013 by FLD

[Mister Jack]

 

I must download the soundtrack.

[toxicitizen]

Played through Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1 tonight.

 

It's... more Bioshock. There really isn't much else to say about it. Same old subpar shooting with a cool story. Without all the hype I had going into the main game, I found myself to be a bit less forgiving of the shooting but I still liked it a lot. Looking forward to Episode 2.

[Mal]

The last fight can be such a joke. If you played Infinite, then you'll know why if you use the thing.

[CorgiShinobi]

I played on Hard and it was actually hard compared to the difficulty in Infinite's main game. I lost half my money at times because there was always a gang of Splicers. I really enjoyed the Range Radar, though I didn't care for the new Plasmid (though I wanted to given its history). That final fight was different and I began goofing up, but seriously I kinda hated how there were enemies that could freeze/stun you in place. With how the combat works, you're pretty much dead if you stay still no matter the difficulty.

 

 

You know, I'd like to see a Big Daddy vs. Handyman. You got to bring in an Mechanized Patriot, but it doesn't last too long if the Big Daddy gets to it.

 

Edited November 19, 2013 by Atomsk88

[toxicitizen]

I also played on hard and thought it was about on par with the main game. Maybe I died a bit more than I had to because I never bought any upgrades but the final fight didn't give me any trouble. Not sure what Mal is referring to that makes it a joke, though.

 

Also, what new plasmid?

[CorgiShinobi]

Well, it's kinda funny because technically Old Man Winter is like Winter Blast, the ice Plasmid from BioShock 1 and 2. However, it's a "drinkable" Plasmid because

 

 

(I guess I missed this audio log) Yi Suchong, the scientist from 1 and 2, and now Burial at Sea who developed Plasmids, noticed Jeremiah Fink stealing his creation. Of course, Fink also improved on the creation by making them drinkable, which in turn Suchong stole back. Seems he presented the idea to Andrew Ryan and received high praises. Reading up on this, seems he also stole Gear from Fink as well (which gives us a canon reason why we have it now).

 

 

Technically there was always an icon for it because it was suppose to be a Vigor in Infinite, just was never used. A fan on the 2K forums present a poster he made for the Vigor, which you can see in the DLC.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, I looked it up after replying. I guess I didn't realize it was new because there was an ice plasmid in the original. So it didn't exactly seem all that new. I'd forgotten there wasn't one in Infinite, though.

[Strangelove]

Assassin's Creed 4. Awesome game and I gotta say, I really liked the story. Simple and straightforward. The present day stuff was pretty interesting too. Im curious as to where that's all going. I hope we get another Edward game though, like we got with Ezio.

[Hot Heart]

Sleeping Dogs. It was good. End review.

[Vecha]

Just beat Killzone as well.

Really enjoyed it. Though...the ride was not smooth. Many parts that just irritated the hell out of me.

The best level was probably the...second? When you are in the forest? Loved it. 
 

I'd give it..maybe a high 7 near 8 out of 10. Not that numbers really matter.

Great launch game. A lot better than Kameo/PDZ and maybe even Resistance in my opinion.