Games You've Beat in 2014

[deanb]

Well to answer the second one, I got it pre-ordered for ~£20 (I do carry on suggesting folks follow SavyGamer, he's pretty good with finding weird n niche deals).

 

To answer the rest, not sure I'm of a reviewing mood (never really was, I think I've only two to my name). I'd say you could grab it for £15 and be super comfortable with it as an expandalone, but I'd say it changes up enough while still being familiar enough to pick up and not know how to manipulate it off the bat.

 

Really my only major issue with it is that while they've finally dropped the stupid ass tech...road of previous Civs which could have you researching The Internet before Computers is gone in favour of a tech "web". While it's much more forgiving in what you'd research before others, it requires a filter to properly navigate and still has the issue of having to spend time picking up unrelated techs to get to the next level in the tree. e.g There's Harmony techs in an overall Purity themed research upgrade. Endless Space is definitely my much preferred tech tree so far. Diplomacy in one tech, growth in another, military in another and tech in another. You'd need some overlap or you'd be fucked, but it's pretty well laid out.

 

Oh another remark, but this is one of the biggies on why I need a replay, I felt it moved a lot slower for upgrades and building stuff. Only reason I got an army was I got a load of defactors from other colonies, building upgrades took so long I never had time to churn out units (which only in my civ hit the 3-4 turn mark. I'm used to late game most military units being 1-2 turns across board)

 

edit: Maybe fire some questions over on the Civ BE thread and I (and others, I know at least GOH has it) can answer stuff.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

P4 makes a surprise late entry into the 2014 beaten games list: Wind Waker HD. I got to the bit after the Tower of the Gods several times on the Gamecube version but never motivated to press on, until now. Woohoo. Pretty good Zelda game albeit skews on the easy side.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Finnnallly beat Mass Effect 3. With all of the DLC it took 65 hours. Ending? Well I mean it's light even with the extended cut but I think that's sort of the point. There's only so much you can expand on that without having another fucking game. However, reading the differences between extended cut and original apparently the scenes even leading up to the ending were light... that I'm not down with and can see people getting reasonably mad about. Glad they filled those out more. Considering how huge the series was and its sci-fi basis it would have been impossible to make an ending (in 3 games at least) that felt perfect.

[Strangelove]

The Unfinished Swan. It was pretty cool.

[toxicitizen]

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

 

Well, it took me way longer than it should have but I finally completed the last episode of the story mode. I got started on it right away when I got my copy at the beginning of the month but then I got into that mid-semester rush with tons of work to do and studying for midterms and all that. So, I barely had any time to game the last few weeks and whenever I did manage to sneak in a few hours, I focused on ACIII. I was only able to get back to Ultimax a couple days ago.

 

So, overall the game is massive improvement over the original. The new flowchart structure for the story mode is much more suited to this kind of story. Each episode (one for the P4 cast and one for the P3 cast) follows the entire cast and characters have their own story branches that keep splitting off and re-joining. The story itself is kinda meh but initially it was a blast to play through. Then I completed the P4 episode and unlocked the P3 one...

 

That's where things got a little disappointing. The one thing that bugged me the most about the original was how you had to replay through the same story as every single character and all the different versions contradicted each other. I figured that the new story structure was intended to fix that but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The P3 story contradicts the P4 one in a few big ways and then that other character's episode ends up adding yet another different version of some events. Sigh... you had just the one thing to fix, damnit! There's the true ending that kind of overrides everything but the fact that there even is one makes me wonder why they didn't make an effort to have both episodes complement each other a little better.

 

Oh well, at least the actual gameplay is still fucking fantastic. I haven't spent a lot of time in Golden Arena but what little I've played seemed fun enough to keep me playing for a while. I'm usually pretty stingy when it comes to fighting games but overall I feel like this one was definitely worth the 60 bucks.

[Mister Jack]

Is the Ultimax story mode a continuation of the original one or an updated version of it?

[toxicitizen]

It's a direct sequel, it takes place a couple days later.

 

The original's story mode is also available as DLC but it's unfortunately unchanged. Seems like a wasted opportunity, I would've gladly bought a "fixed" version of it.

[Mister Jack]

I wish those games would come to steam but I know it'll never happen.  I have the first one on PS3, sure, but now that the ps4 is out it's going to be obsolete sooner rather than later.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, normally I'd expect Arc System Works to re-release it down the line and make a PS4 version while they're at it. But, unlike their own IPs like BlazBlue, the original P4A never got any kind update or new version, so I don't really know what to expect with this one. I think it's really Atlus' call in this case.

Edited October 31, 2014 by FLDead

[Little Pirate]

Finally beat The Last of Us. I thought maybe I got a sad ending or something... but nope, that was the ending. Gotta add that to the list of games that tugged on my heart strings.

[Nexus]

Finished the main storylines of both Shadow of Mordor and Destiny.

 

I never finish games, so this is quite an achievement.

[TheMightyEthan]

 

Watch Dogs: Bad Blood.  Goddamn.  I liked Watch Dogs the first time through, but going back to it immediately after Shadow of Mordor was almost painful.  Once I readjusted though I enjoyed it well enough.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

so watchdogs was OK was it?  I don't remember anything but people complaining about it.

[TheMightyEthan]

It was a passable open world game, and the hacking made the car chases neat, but that's about it.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

so roughly equivalent of Assassin's Creed 1 to the AC series? Hopefully a decent base to start a new series. If we're lucky they'll alternate an AC and a Watch dogs each year so we don't get too bored of either and they may be less formulaic with a bit of extra brewing time.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, that's a pretty good comparison.

[SomTervo]

I'd argue it was quite a bit better than AC1. AC1 was so, so barebones. Watch Dogs has a lot more going on in it, but is still pretty dull at a fundamental level. Unlike Mordor, which is fun fun fun, fun through-and-through.

 

@Pirate: Last of Us is a masterpiece of masterpieces.  I've never played a game which performed such an in-depth, holistic character study. Games always focus on plot and character development... One of TLoU's main points is that trauma can change someone for good- and they'll never change back.

 

On-topic:

 

A real mess of a game in many ways, but a fucking fun mess of a game. Like one of the better 80s schlock horror movies, eg Evil Dead 2 or Reanimator.

 

The story comes off as a complete mess with stunted characters and an incomprehensible plot - but the ending was curious and suggested some intelligence was in there. So I popped over to the GAF spoiler thread and... Holy fuck.

 

The Evil Within has one of the most ingenious stories of a game I've played in a long time, possibly ever. It's so unique. The more I think about it the better it gets. I guess by definition it's a "bad" story because a story is only as good as its telling- and TEW is pretty badly told. But it's more that it's very selective with plot ordering and it doesn't point out character connections or significant events- once you draw the dots, it's phenomenal. Has some really subtle character work going on in the backdrop. It also out-Inceptions Inception (which I suppose isn't a very hard thing to do.)

Edited November 7, 2014 by kenshi_ryden

[toxicitizen]

Sokobond.

 

I have to say, between Hexcells and now this, I'm really loving this trend of thinky little puzzle games coming out on Steam. The chemistry theme can be a little off-putting at first but you really don't need any knowledge of chemistry to play it, it's nowhere near as complex as something like SpaceChem. But that's not to say it's a walk in the park, either. I completed all of the basic levels like a week ago but after the credits a new batch of levels unlocked and those were pretty damn challenging.

 

There really isn't much else to say about it. If you're familiar with Sokoban, this game clearly draws from it a little. But yeah, if you like puzzle games, it's a damn good one.

[toxicitizen]

Resident Evil 6.

 

Finished the last campaign tonight. Eh, I can honestly say that I did not expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. It's a fucking awful Resident Evil game (and I even kinda want to say a bad game overall) but it's actually pretty damn fun! Ironically enough, I thought the more action-oriented campaigns were the best ones. Leon's was probably the weakest of the bunch (and holy shit lol @ Capcom calling it the "traditional atmospheric" one. Yeaah... no.) but I ended up blasting right through Jake's, Chris' and Ada's campaigns over the week-end. They're much shorter but still, all together that's about two-thirds of a 20+ hours long game. Hard to complain too much when it's that engrossing. But like I said, kind of a bad game. I should expand on that.

 

Say what you will about tank controls and not being able to move and shoot at the same time but at least those controls were fucking tight. Here, the characters move way too fast, the aiming is a bit too floaty and almost everything about the control scheme feels unpolished and "loose". Then there's the story, which is a complete fucking mess. It's enjoyable if you like Resident Evil's trademark cheesiness but I felt like splitting it all up between 4 campaigns did more harm than good. Taken individually, none of the campaigns have a particularly satisfying narrative.

 

And this might seem a bit nitpicky but what is the point of having the campaigns intersect if you're not going to maintain consistency? Like, the first time I played through a certain event I ended up looking forward to experiencing it again from the other character's point of view. Then when I got to that part, it was just... the same. Like, literally the same fucking thing. The perspective wasn't flipped, I just went through the same section of the level and the other guys somehow magically ended up where I should've been. I mean, I get that it was probably easier to make it this way but if you're going to half-ass it then why even bother?

 

Anyway, despite my criticism I actually enjoyed the game a lot and I'm really glad I gave it a shot. It's just really not up to the series' usual level of quality, in terms of both polish and game design. I really fucking hope that RE7 will go back to being a regular one campaign game. This little experiment was fun but it did not work. Not even a little. It's definitely the worst out of all the modern REs (4,5,6 and Revelations). But at least until then, between the HD Remaster of the GCN remake and Revelations 2 looking like it might be decent, it's actually not a bad time to be a Resident Evil fan.

Edited November 10, 2014 by FLD

[SomTervo]

I love Resident Evil 6. It's such a crock of shit. Which I enjoyed every minute of.

[TCP]

The Walking Dead Season Two

So many manly tears.

 

Ended up with my bro Ken (just like Lee, my Clem always had Kenny's back, even when he went a little crazy) and the baby at Wellington. My wife (who watches me play these games) was criticizing that decision in the end, but I think she came around when Kenny went all heroic and asked the Wellington people to take Clem and AJ. Overall I liked this season almost as much as season one, but some things bothered me, like, the fact that everyone had an 11 year old girl do all the tough stuff but I guess that made for a more exciting game.

 

I guess there's 5 different endings, some of them radically different than others, so I wonder where they're going to go from here?

Also: no platinum trophy? C'mon Telltale, c'mon.

Edited November 12, 2014 by The Cowboy Poet

[toxicitizen]

Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways.

 

Does this count? Eh, whatever, who cares. So, playing Ada's campaign in RE6 made me remember that I still needed to do the same thing in RE4. I've played RE4 quite a few times but somehow never touched Separate Ways until now. It was kinda jarring going back to RE4 right after RE6. The old controls were confusing for about 20 seconds but then it was kind of insane how much better in every way RE4 is. And this is only a side campaign that mostly re-uses assets from the main game, there's very little actual new content.

 

I think it goes without saying but RE6 is not a scary game in the least. There's no tension whatsoever at any point in the game, not even during the Nemesis-like bits in Jake's campaign. But there was one moment near the end of Separate Ways where you go through a room from RE4's main campaign. You know the one, a broken staircase at the end and decrepit jail cells on each sides. I knew logically that the regenerator probably wouldn't be there because I didn't have the thermal scope necessary to take it out. But man, I was still nervous as hell making my way through there. It took me no more than 5 mins to clear that room but it was more interesting and memorable than anything in all of RE6's 20+ hours. It just goes to show how a little bit of tension and atmosphere goes a long way when the lack of an enemy was more fun than an entire game's worth of over the top action bullshit.

Edited November 13, 2014 by FLD

[Alex Heat]

I blitzed through a bunch of stuff on my backlog over the last couple weeks.  Yakuza 2 (so I can finally move onto Yakuza 3), Breakdown for the original Xbox, White Knight Chronicles 2, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma (at least, I cleared story mode) and Star Ocean (4): The Last Hope.

 

My self-imposed avoidance of my PS4/Wii U (barring Destiny, since that was a birthday gift from a friend who wanted to co-op) until I finish my backlog of previous generations is certainly working out.

[toxicitizen]

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

 

I mean, I guess? I lucked into a really strong build and beat Mom. I know she's not the true final boss and that the game is only just getting started and all that but you know what, fuck it. I never managed to beat the regular final boss in Spelunky so I'm counting this one. I don't think I ever managed to beat her in the original version of Isaac, so I'm wondering if it was just a really lucky build or if the game overall is easier. It definitely plays a lot better so that probably indirectly helps.

 

Also, it's really nice having the game on Vita but I think I'd rather play it on my PC. :/ I kinda regret not getting it while the loyalty discount was active because, with the introduction of Canadian dollars on Steam, it's 17 bucks right now and there's no way I'm paying that much for it.

 

Oh well, hopefully it'll go on sale during the holidays or whatever.

Edited November 17, 2014 by FLD

[Mister Jack]

As a veteran Isaac player, I can tell you that Rebirth is indeed easier.  I chalk it up to five main reasons:

 

1) There's actually a difficulty setting now.  Normal mode won't spawn champion enemies as often and it's more generous with item spawns.

 

2) Items have better synergy now, which creates the potential for more powerful combos

 

3) No slowdown to mess up your timing.

 

4) The rooms were redesigned to be slightly less random, meaning fewer chances of running into an unbalanced room where it's practically or sometimes literally impossible to avoid taking damage.

 

5) Azazel. 

 

Still, I'm not about to say the game is "easy mode" or casual.  It's still quite a challenge; it's just more fair now.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Mister Jack