Games You've Beat in 2015

[TheMightyEthan]

I love the little victory dance she does at the end of the levels. Adorable.

[Mal]

Phantom Breaker: Battle Ground

 

I just beat* it with one character. Now 7 more to go and at increasingly higher difficulties that you have to unlock by beating the game at the next one down. This game really needs online co-op. 

 

*I think there might be one last stage or boss?

[toxicitizen]

Resident Evil HD Remaster.

 

Just finished my first run. This was my first time playing the remake and goddamn is it great. The remaster job is a little hit and miss, some areas look really good while others show their age a little bit. There's even a handful of rooms that look so bad they felt kind of out of place. But overall it felt really good to go back to RE's true roots. My completion time was 8 hours according to my clear save but in reality it was over twice that long since it doesn't account for deaths and the occasional lost progress.

 

I was playing as Jill, which is arguably the easier character since she has two more inventory slots and starts with the handgun. But even then, my first evening with the game was pretty brutal. I was trying to be clever and just run past enemies to conserve ammo but I'd always end up getting hit. I burned through all my healing items way too quickly and was kinda fucked, so I started over the next night. My second run went a lot better, I never ran out of ammo and by the end I had a pretty ridiculous stock of herbs and healing sprays.

 

I was also pleasantly surprised by how the game didn't feel dated at all. The ink ribbons did annoy me a little at first and made me miss checkpoints a lot, but it didn't take long for me to learn what kind of progress was and was not worth spending a ribbon on. Also, tank controls are as functional now as they've always been. If you play this and use that abomination of a "modern" control scheme, you are a bad person. I'm talking war criminal bad, here. Just don't do it, it's not okay.

 

Anyway, I have other games to go back to but I enjoyed this one so much that I'm really tempted to just do another run as Chris right away.

Edited January 26, 2015 by FLD

[TheMightyEthan]

I don't mind if they want to use save points like that, but having a limited number of save tokens irritates me.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, I can see why but I was playing on normal (the highest difficulty that's unlocked from the start) and I never had less than 3-4 ribbons at any given time. Honestly, I was probably being a little more stingy with my ribbons than I really needed to. The game gives you plenty of them, you just need to not waste them too much. So I don't think it's that bad in this case.

 

But yeah, I really wouldn't say that the ribbons are a particularly crucial mechanic here. I didn't miss them in the least when RE4 ditched them. From what I understand, Alien: Isolation does saves similarly but without a saving "currency" and that sounds perfectly fine to me. And I could be wrong here but IIRC the saving happens in real-time so you're exposed while doing it and it's actually possible for the alien to find you, which is kind of awesome.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I beat Assassin's Creed 3. Currently it's about 3 hours into the credits showing the over 3 million people that worked on the game across all of Ubisoft's studios.

 

Anyways I thought this was pretty good. I finished it around 92%. Put in a little effort for side stuff but didn't waste a shitload of time. Would not have been fun to do that last part.

 

Some brief thoughts:

 

-This game looked really good. While old timey Boston and New York aren't really interesting cities they really feel more alive on the new engine thanks to animals and kids and just plain more shit on screen. The Frontier and the Homestead are where it really shined.

-While it's still annoying to try and get down on stuff (apparently Unity has a "down" button now rather than a drop button) traversing has gotten a lot better. This is helped greatly by trees, being able to go around pillars, rock climbing, and other things that just make it feels like it just works.

-Combat has improved a lot. Can't counter your way to victory against tough enemies. Though versus weaker enemies you'll still mercilessly slaughter people.

-Modern story is still very WTF but at least there were some fun locations this time.

-Connor's story on the other hand was great and the scope of the game was huge. I wasn't expecting 30 years across two different characters. They also didn't cast the patriots in the best light. Very cool.

-Holy shit that item creation and trading system was bad. Those menus made me basically never use it.

-Homestead on the other hand was great. Fun little missions that helped build up that community feel.

-Boat stuff was awesome. Pretty obvious why they made all of AC4 like that.

 

Overall I liked the experience. Now to wait for AC4 to get cheap. I did buy one of the King Washington DLCs. Time to see if they work standalone since I just jumped straight to third one. Honestly not too interested but it was like $2.50 during a sale so whatever.

 

Update: Gave the 3rd King Washington a solid hour. Holy shit you're in constant level 1 notoriety and there's guards EVERYWHERE. Fuck this noise. I played 2 missions and couldn't handle the anxiety. Goodbye AC3, I won't let that DLC taint my memory of you.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Faiblesse Des Sens

[TheMightyEthan]

@FLD: I just don't like that I have to choose between using a limited resource or losing progress if I suddenly need to stop playing for some reason.

 

@FDS: Yeah, the homestead was awesome, by far the best implementation of the home-base mechanic I've seen. I'm playing Unity right now and it seems to have gone back more to the Ezio-triology style of purchasing shops around the city, with a central building that gets progressively more decked out.

[TheRevanchist]

My son beat his first console game today. The LEGO Movie game. He has played many games, but never completed them. Proud moments, guys. Proud moments.

[CorgiShinobi]

Also, tank controls are as functional now as they've always been. If you play this and use that abomination of a "modern" control scheme, you are a bad person. I'm talking war criminal bad, here. Just don't do it, it's not okay.

 

No promises.

 

Never had a PlayStation and I doubt I could have been gifted the game. Never finished the original on my PSP because of, well, the ink ribbon issue and my inherent loathing of losing progress. Thing is, I enjoy the Jill sandwich and I want to eat the whole thing. 

[toxicitizen]

@FLD: I just don't like that I have to choose between using a limited resource or losing progress if I suddenly need to stop playing for some reason.

 

Yeah, I get that. But, for what it's worth, 30 +mins of exploration and puzzle solving can usually be replayed in like 10 mins if not less. It can definitely get a little tedious if you're careless but lost progress doesn't really translate to a constant quantity here, if that makes any sense. I mean, there's a reason the game has multiple speed run trophies, including one that requires you to beat the game in under 3 hours.

 

 

Also, tank controls are as functional now as they've always been. If you play this and use that abomination of a "modern" control scheme, you are a bad person. I'm talking war criminal bad, here. Just don't do it, it's not okay.

 

No promises.

 

Never had a PlayStation and I doubt I could have been gifted the game. Never finished the original on my PSP because of, well, the ink ribbon issue and my inherent loathing of losing progress. Thing is, I enjoy the Jill sandwich and I want to eat the whole thing. 

 

That sounds dirty. The remaster is definitely the way to go if you want to give the game another shot. Tank controls have a slight learning curve at first but once you get over that they just work. The new controls just completely break the game's balance and turn it into a joke. I understand why Capcom felt the need to include them, people love being babies about tank controls. But the new control scheme is horrendous and no one should experience the game this way. As for the the loss of progress, see above.

[Alex Heat]

I understand why Capcom felt the need to include them, people love being babies about tank controls.

 

I'll never understand the babies.  It isn't difficult to grasp that movement is entirely based on the player character's perspective.  Left turns them to their left.  Right turns them to their right.  Up makes them advance.  Down makes them retreat.

 

So whenever I heard someone praise RE4 for 'doing away with the awful controls', it's just like 'are you serious with this shit?'.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Alex Heat

[Thursday Next]

I completed the main story of DanganRonpa 2. It scratched the Phoenix Wright itch I've had since abandoning DS. Still plenty to do with Island mode, Novel mode, etc but it's going to go on the backburner now that I've got Grim Fandanging to do.

[OzuJL]

I finally got around to beating Braid which turned out to be just as entertaining and fascinating as its hype suggested. While I didn't like the world with the time manipulation ring very much, I had a lot of fun with the different mechanics of each world and the soundtrack was quite enthralling.

[Mister Jack]

Beat Grim Fandango for the first time ever.  I had always wanted to play it back in the day but by the time I had a PC that could run it the OS would no longer support it and copies of the game were impossible to get anyway without paying a ridiculous price.  I did have to resort to a walkthrough a couple of times due to a couple of run-ins with glitches or very obtuse puzzles.  Still, fun game with a great story.  I wish they had adapted it into a movie like they were once rumored to be pursuing.  I love the whole Dia de los Muertos aesthetic in general.   

[OzuJL]

I also completed Grim Fandango for the first time last year and I was completely blown away by the story. I didn't find the puzzles to be obtuse, but it was sometimes hard to find all the hotspots because Manny's movement didn't always indicate that there was an object that could be interacted with. Yet even with all these problems and the game breaking glitches I found the story and the world to be interesting enough for me to finish the game really fast. I liked how cleverly they used those timeskips to enrich the storytelling.

By the way, did you play the original or the remastered release?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Life is Strange episode 1. Didn't know much about it going in so didn't really have expectations other than people seemed to like it so it's probably good. I loved it. It all felt very human and real. The thoughts you get to hear from the main character's head are exactly what a 18 year old would be thinking. In general the dialogue was spot-on and not at all awkward. Bonus points for it being the PNW and even including a drawing of the Fremont Troll which I used to live a block away from. Highly recommended for those into decision making, moral choice, dialogue based sort of games like what Telltale has done.

 

My only gripe:

 

They call the stereo a hi-fi. That almost completely ruined my suspension of disbelief. We don't use that term in 'Merika.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I played that Friday and basically completely agree.  From the trailers and stuff I'd been a little worried about the dialog, but apparently basically all the bad parts of it were in the trailers, so like you said for the most part it was great.

[Mister Jack]

I also completed Grim Fandango for the first time last year and I was completely blown away by the story. I didn't find the puzzles to be obtuse, but it was sometimes hard to find all the hotspots because Manny's movement didn't always indicate that there was an object that could be interacted with. Yet even with all these problems and the game breaking glitches I found the story and the world to be interesting enough for me to finish the game really fast. I liked how cleverly they used those timeskips to enrich the storytelling.

 

By the way, did you play the original or the remastered release?

 

The remaster.  I tried to torrent the original once a long time ago (yeah, I know, boooo!) but even then I couldn't really get it working right because my machine was too new.  

 

Actually, one puzzle is particular I thought of as obtuse was the ticket printer one for exactly the reason you just said.  You have to get clues by looking at certain things in the environment, but it isn't always obvious what exactly Manny is looking at or that there are even other things he CAN look at.  I had to break down and cheat for that one because apparently there's a clue you read off a plaque I didn't even know existed.

Edited February 1, 2015 by Mister Jack

[toxicitizen]

Grim Fandango Remastered.

 

Well, I'm really glad I've finally had the chance to play this classic. Definitely deserving of the praise. The characters, story, world and even voice acting are all incredible. Really glad I picked it up.

 

I mentioned adventure game logic a couple days ago but fortunately only the second "chapter" of the game suffered from it. I probably just suck at adventure games but I ended up having to look up maybe half a dozen solutions for that part alone, more than I did for all the other sections of the game put together. Once I was past that part, though, I was able to finish the game without any issues. I ended up powering through the second half of the game last night, not stopping until I finished it at almost 5 AM.

 

If Schafer's other old adventure games are all as good as this, I hope they remaster more of them. I know Day of the Tentacle is confirmed but, personally, I'm really more interested in Full Throttle. I'm also really excited to play Broken Age now, but I'm still waiting for Act 2 to drop on that one.

[TCP]

I beat Guacamelee on PS4 this evening. Man, what a game. Great art, great music, great humour, great level design and gameplay.

[Thursday Next]

One of the few games where I did all the seemingly impossible challengey bits and unlocked the OP chicken costume.

[toxicitizen]

Life is Strange - Episode 1.

 

I'm really glad I picked it up. It was a bit more uneventful than I expected but the characters were interesting and I'm really curious to see where the story is going, especially considering that what I thought was the premise of the entire game turned out to just be the opening scene. I fucking love going into games blind, I don't get to do it often enough.

 

The only negative thing I can say about it is that there are a few really cringe-worthy lines in there. Most of the dialogue was fine but every now and then someone said something that just took me out of it. It's really not a big deal, though, just a little off-putting.

 

I'm also glad to see Telltale finally getting some competition in this genre. They really need to stop licensing every damn IP under the sun and take some time to develop a new engine. Their current one is kinda shit and getting a bit old at this point.

Edited February 6, 2015 by FLD

[danielpholt]

Life is Strange - Episode 1.

 

I'm really glad I picked it up. It was a bit more uneventful than I expected but the characters were interesting and I'm really curious to see where the story is going, especially considering that what I thought was the premise of the entire game turned out to just be the opening scene. I fucking love going into games blind, I don't get to do it often enough.

 

The only negative thing I can say about it is that there are a few really cringe-worthy lines in there. Most of the dialogue was fine but every now and then someone said something that just took me out of it. It's really not a big deal, though, just a little off-putting.

 

I'm also glad to see Telltale finally getting some competition in this genre. They really need to stop licensing every damn IP under the sun and take some time to develop a new engine. Their current one is kinda shit and getting a bit old at this point.

 

 

But Money, bags and bags of money. People can't get enough. 

[OzuJL]

Valiant Hearts: The Great War was not so great. While I think that way too many games these days have poorly made open worlds and that I want more games with solid linear storylines, Valiant Hearts felt too linear. It feels like you are just aboard a train rushing to its destination regardless of what you do. Partly this is due to the fact that this is a side-scrolling game with heavily restricted movemement and without anything to "discover" - there is nothing superfluous in the game. All of the background story and historical trivia are dumped into a separate menu and all you can do is complete the actions the game forces you to do.

The puzzles are simple to the point of feeling unnecessary and a great deal of them are basically quick time events, which goes to show how simplified the gameplay is (which also feels rather repetitive since the game lasts well over 7 hours). There are some gameplay elements that are a lot of fun (like the old school chase sequences tuned to classical music), but for the most part you need to deal with "puzzle solving" by repeating similar patterns and following unclear instructions (it takes some time to get used to how each mechanism works because the instructions for keys do not always notify how you are supposed to use them).

 

In addition to the mixed gameplay, the game's style and writing do not always match up that well. The heavy and tragic anti-war message of the game is often forgotten thanks to the very cartoonish visual style and outlandish action spectacles that makes the game's atmosphere much more light-hearted even when it shouldn't be. The most jarring element of the story is a recurring enemy general who is more diabolical than a bunch of cheesy superhero villain put together. The fight with him ends up being mostly handled in cutscenes and pure quick time event sequences, which is another problem of the game: the gameplay hardly ever advances the plot, but instead feels like a separate entity from the story that is mostly advanced in cutscenes and quick time event sequences. Add to that a bunch of fake deaths and an ending that overlasts its welcome and you get a pretty confusing gaming experience in terms of storytelling.

 

As much as I can complain about Valiant Hearts, it was nevertheless an enjoyable game. I loved its haunting soundtrack (which ended up being the only effective storytelling device) and the game looked nice for the most part even if the style didn't always fit to the story the makers were trying to portray. Knowing that Ubisoft was responsible for the game, it feels like a businessman's attempt to get some money out of the indie game market by dumping a game with awfully simplified gameplay, endearing visual style and forcedly sentimental story.

Edited February 6, 2015 by OzuJL

[TCP]

Game of Thrones: Episode 2 - It continues to be Telltale's best series.