Games You've Beat in 2015

[toxicitizen]

Resident Evil 5.

 

Still can't see what the problem is with this one. Sure, it's not as good as RE4 but, I mean, very few games are. I still think it's a solid game and a decent RE, much more so than RE6. Although that's not really saying much, I suppose. That being said, I had forgotten just how fucking annoying Sheva is. I mean, holy shit, that stupid bitch just wastes everything. It got to the point where I never let her carry any healing items and specifically made sure to take away any weapon she had that used the same ammo as one of mine.

 

Anyway, I think that's enough Resident Evil for me for a while. After finally playing RE6 last fall, then REHD in January and now Rev 2 and this pretty much back to back, I think I'm getting a little burned out on the series. It was fun getting back into it but I don't think I'll touch it again until the next major release.

 

Also, it's good to finally have most of the main series on Steam properly and free of that garbage GFWL. And if the rumored RE Zero HD Remaster is real, Code Veronica X will pretty much be the last big one that's missing. I'm surprised it wasn't ported right after RE4 last year, to be honest.

Edited March 29, 2015 by FLD

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

>tfw you can't play as a strong black woman until you beat the game once

[Strangelove]

Borderlands The Presequel.

It's Borderlands 2, but not as good. I like the moon mechanics(gliding and buttslamming are now sorely missed in Bordelands 2) and I liked playing as Athena, but the fact that you're on the moon kind of ruined the locations. Compared to the other 2 games, PS lacks variety. It all kind of looks the same. Like the moon. The guns are the same too for the most part, even the laser weapons don't feel too different.

That being said, I like how Handsome Jacksentric the whole thing was. I know hardcore gamers despise the writing and characters in these games, but I like them.

I also like that they added extra dialogue to the characters you play as. They actually have personalities now instead of being mostly blank slates before.

 

Also, the last level is super fucking rad.

[toxicitizen]

>tfw you can't play as a strong black woman until you beat the game once

But if you played as Sheva on a first run then you'd miss out on all the boulder punching! I think Capcom had their priorities straight here.

[TheMightyEthan]

Game of Thrones Episode 3 and Life Is Strange Episode 2. I felt like GoT suffered a little from being a middle entry, but LIS was excellent.

[Thursday Next]

Platinum'ed Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc. Great game. Highly recommended for Vita owners (especially if you are after a bit of Phoenix Wright on your handheld). Going to go back and Platinum the sequel now I think.

[toxicitizen]

How long did it take you? I've wanted to go back and Platinum it for a while but I just don't have the patience to deal with School Mode or whatever the hell it's called. Just seems so tedious.

[toxicitizen]

Alien: Isolation.

 

Holy shit, this game is fucking amazing. I seriously do not get how this one was so divisive. That guy at IGN who gave it 5.9 is a fucking idiot! Also, why did people think it was too long? I mean, considering how the internet likes to lose its fucking shit whenever a game is deemed too short, you'd think a 16 hours game would get some love. The pacing isn't perfect but it's not like it's bad or anything, and the game didn't really overstay its welcome, either.

 

Anyway! With that out of the way, holy fuck did I love the hell out of this game! Not only is it a very effective horror game that had my heart racing pretty much every single time I was in a room with the Xenomorph, it's also an incredibly well-designed one and one in more ways than one. It was kinda surprising when Relic, a studio mostly known for strategy games, released Space Marine and it turned out to be a quite decent third-person action game. But here, what Creative Assembly have managed to put together is downright mind-blowing considering they're mostly known for the Total War series, which as far as I can tell has been kind of hit-and-miss.

 

When Alien: Isolation bills itself as a sequel to Ridley Scott's original 1979 classic, it really means it. The game's sheer dedication to the look and feel of the movie is actually kind of impressive. And it paid off because the retro futuristic style applied to everything looks great. I don't think the game wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good if they had tried to unnecessarily modernize the world design.

 

And this isn't strictly limited to the world design and visuals either, the game is actually shock full of hints and references that I never would've picked up on had I not rewatched the movie right before I started playing it. The soundtrack also feels like it would be right at home in the movie and the sound design is simply fantastic. I played the entire game with headphones and I wouldn't recommend doing it any other way.

 

As for the gameplay, it's actually a pretty solid stealth game, which is admittedly right up my alley. But the way the map is laid out and the levels are designed is very reminiscent of something like System Shock. Sevastopol station is full of corners and rooms to explore and it actually feels like a real place rather than a series of corridors. You'll very often come across doors that are either locked or require new or better equipment to open. Some are places you'll be going to later on but a lot of it is just rooms full of supplies for you to pick up. The game rewards exploration in a very metroidvania way, which I am all about.

 

But more than anything else, Alien: Isolation a damn fine horror game. After the last few I played, it's good to finally play one that actually scared the shit out of me. I mean, when a game that's all about hiding actually manages to make you feel so unsafe that you go "No, fuck this! I ain't got time to hide, I'm getting the hell outta here!" then clearly it's doing some very, very right. I think it might actually retroactively be my 2014 GOTY. I just loved it that much and I'm kinda kicking myself for waiting this long to play it.

 

Up next: rewatching Aliens and then playing Aliens: Colonial Marines. Because ending things on a high note is overrated.

 

This is going to be awful, isn't it?

[danielpholt]

Alien: Isolation.

 

Holy shit, this game is fucking amazing. I seriously do not get how this one was so divisive. That guy at IGN who gave it 5.9 is a fucking idiot! Also, why did people think it was too long? I mean, considering how the internet likes to lose its fucking shit whenever a game is deemed too short, you'd think a 16 hours game would get some love. The pacing isn't perfect but it's not like it's bad or anything, and the game didn't really overstay its welcome, either.

 

Anyway! With that out of the way, holy fuck did I love the hell out of this game! Not only is it a very effective horror game that had my heart racing pretty much every single time I was in a room with the Xenomorph, it's also an incredibly well-designed one and one in more ways than one. It was kinda surprising when Relic, a studio mostly known for strategy games, released Space Marine and it turned out to be a quite decent third-person action game. But here, what Creative Assembly have managed to put together is downright mind-blowing considering they're mostly known for the Total War series, which as far as I can tell has been kind of hit-and-miss.

 

When Alien: Isolation bills itself as a sequel to Ridley Scott's original 1979 classic, it really means it. The game's sheer dedication to the look and feel of the movie is actually kind of impressive. And it paid off because the retro futuristic style applied to everything looks great. I don't think the game wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good if they had tried to unnecessarily modernize the world design.

 

And this isn't strictly limited to the world design and visuals either, the game is actually shock full of hints and references that I never would've picked up on had I not rewatched the movie right before I started playing it. The soundtrack also feels like it would be right at home in the movie and the sound design is simply fantastic. I played the entire game with headphones and I wouldn't recommend doing it any other way.

 

As for the gameplay, it's actually a pretty solid stealth game, which is admittedly right up my alley. But the way the map is laid out and the levels are designed is very reminiscent of something like System Shock. Sevastopol station is full of corners and rooms to explore and it actually feels like a real place rather than a series of corridors. You'll very often come across doors that are either locked or require new or better equipment to open. Some are places you'll be going to later on but a lot of it is just rooms full of supplies for you to pick up. The game rewards exploration in a very metroidvania way, which I am all about.

 

But more than anything else, Alien: Isolation a damn fine horror game. After the last few I played, it's good to finally play one that actually scared the shit out of me. I mean, when a game that's all about hiding actually manages to make you feel so unsafe that you go "No, fuck this! I ain't got time to hide, I'm getting the hell outta here!" then clearly it's doing some very, very right. I think it might actually retroactively be my 2014 GOTY. I just loved it that much and I'm kinda kicking myself for waiting this long to play it.

 

Up next: rewatching Aliens and then playing Aliens: Colonial Marines. Because ending things on a high note is overrated.

 

This is going to be awful, isn't it?

 

The do a fantastic job of making the game world feel real. Spilled coffee cups, flickering monitors and the like. As for the way the map is laid out, I grew tired of going from one corner of it, only to be told I had to then go all the way back across. 

[toxicitizen]

The do a fantastic job of making the game world feel real. Spilled coffee cups, flickering monitors and the like. As for the way the map is laid out, I grew tired of going from one corner of it, only to be told I had to then go all the way back across.

Yeah, there were a few times where I got my next objective and thought "Oh God DAMN IT! I barely got here alive and now I have to go back?!", but mostly it was because I was dreading going back through an area where I knew the Xenomorph still was. So, I dunno, it was annoying but in a way that worked to the game's advantage for me.

 

That being said, there was one time where an obvious shortcut I had just taken on my way from A to B was suddenly closed off when I had to go back from B to A. That one kinda pissed me off because it meant I had to go all the fucking way around the area and I actually spent a good 30 mins on that one section because I kept getting killed.

 

I got so fed up that I said fuck it and just made a beeline for it. I didn't run (holy shit, never run) but I walked straight there without even trying to hide. And that's when it kinda dawned on me that, because of the way the Xenomorph's movements aren't scripted, just going for it can actually be a valid strategy. It's not always going to work but that time I actually made it without even running into the fucker. From that point on, I was a little more willing to risk going out into the open and it actually made the game more exciting.

[Thursday Next]

How long did it take you? I've wanted to go back and Platinum it for a while but I just don't have the patience to deal with School Mode or whatever the hell it's called. Just seems so tedious.

 

Not that long really. School mode starts out tedious because your collecting level is so low, but it carries over for NG+ and you can soon get to a point where you've collected and constructed the class project as soon as it is given to you, especially if you invest in the "Tools" early as well to boost collection and reduce energy loss.

 

Then it's just a matter of using free time to 1) Get everyone's back story and 2) Take everyone on trips till their affection is maxed so you can see their school mode ending.

 

Takes a couple of hours or so in front of the TV if you are being maximum efficiency. You also get 200 or so coins per completed run through, so it can help you finish collecting items from the monomonomachine.

[toxicitizen]

Rochard.

 

Eh... it has some interesting stuff in it, I guess? I mean, I liked the space miner theme it had going. But it's just... not very good. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's outright bad, although having physics-based jumping that doesn't allow for precise control on the height of your jump is a goddamned retarded thing to have in a puzzle-platformer, but it is painfully average at best. There's literally tons of better alternatives to play.

 

I only gave it a shot after all this time because it currently has some Playfire Rewards for some of the achievements, and if I didn't know going in that it was very short then I probably would've stopped halfway through. So yeah, unless you'll be making almost a dollar in GMG credit for playing it, I'd say give it a pass. Even then, it might not have been worth it... At least the next one I'll be playing for Playfire Rewards is The Bureau, which I actually do want to play.

Edited April 4, 2015 by FLD

[Mal]

Suikoden

 

Not sure how I feel. I think the battle system is for sure interesting and can lead to great things in Suikoden 2 but the game doesn't explain shit. Maybe everything is in the manual but hell if I knew what rune did what without looking it up. I didn't use much runes or unites until level 30. The story is sort of lacking too. Barely a moment where I thought "this is badass". Music is... alright.

 

Also got to say I don't miss end cards without an end.

[TCP]

Axiom Verge

Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck! ...HOLY FUCK!

 

This game. MAN, THIS. FUCKING. GAME.

Easily my front runner for game of the year. Everything about this game is top notch. The level design? The bosses? The weapons? All excellent. And the music. MY GOD THE MUSIC!!!

Oh, Nintendo doesn't want to make any Metroid games? Fine, one guy on his own just made a better Metroid game than Nintendo has since the SNES. 

Good job Tom Happ, now give us your interpretation of Zelda.

 

tl;dr: IT'S REALLY GOOD, GUYS! 

[toxicitizen]

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

 

It's actually not that bad. Once I managed to get it to stop crashing every 20 mins, it became pretty enjoyable. Having to completely disable PhysX was a huge bummer, though. I was pretty happy to have something more demanding to throw at my new GPU and some of the effects looked great. But yeah, it's a decent game with some genuinely cool ideas in it, including what I thought was actually a pretty clever "player integration" plot twist. Unfortunately, it has a lot working against it, especially if you're a fan of Enemy Unknown.

 

The story is your typical sci-fi shooter fare and the 1960s setting makes for a really cool backdrop for the plot. The gameplay is basically Mass Effect. I'm not even joking, the combat is lifted straight out of ME. It feels and plays the same, right down to the stiff running and cover animations. Also, dialogue wheels. The XCOM base even kinda feels like the Normandy when you're walking around in it between missions. Holy shit, now that I think about it, there's even a stealth loading room where you're stuck in a "scanner" kinda corridor for a few seconds. Overall, it's nothing particularly impressive or interesting but it gets the job done.

 

The main problem is that the story simply doesn't make any sense when you take into account Enemy Unknown. They try to set it up as the origin story of the XCOM program, and I think the ending was implying a more direct prequel connection, which is cool in theory. But here's the thing...

 

The characters keep insisting that "We're keeping all of this under wraps!" and "The public will never find out about any of this!" and I'm like "Are you people fucking high?!" The aliens terraformed entire fucking towns with gigantic machines, put these big-ass towers all over the goddamn place and infected hundreds of people with a black goo virus. Even when taking into account the limited means of communication of the time, the aliens weren't exactly being sneaky here. I do not buy for a fucking second that any of this happened "outside of the public eye". Like, how fucking stupid do you think I am? And let's not even get into how retarded it is that these assholes developed laser and plasma weapons and did a bunch of research on the aliens only to conveniently "forget" about all of it when they come back 50 years later.

 

There was a lot of potential here. If they hadn't felt the need to go all-out action with it, it could've been a really cool smaller, slower X-Files kinda story with more of a thriller/mystery tone to it. That would've been awesome. Making more of an effort to better tie in with Enemy Unknown would've been a good idea, too. Despite being a completely different genre, this could've been a proper chapter in the universe established by Enemy Unknown.

 

Instead, it's this derivative tactical-shooter with a plot that barely makes any effort to not contradict EU. If I had to guess, I'd say they probably had this story planned out long before Firaxis started working on Enemy Unknown and simply didn't feel like putting in the effort to properly tweak it once a real XCOM game was actually happening. Overall, it's a decent game, just not a very good XCOM.

Edited April 9, 2015 by FLD

[Mister Jack]

It's like in Michael Bay's Transformers where Optimus Prime and Megatron are duking it out in downtown Chicago in front of a million people with smartphones, then in Revenge of the Fallen they "covered it up" somehow.  I've decided that anytime that happens it's because the story is secretly a crossover with Men in Black and they have access to a neuralyzer the size of the Chrysler Building.

[deanb]

I think The Bureau would have done better if they'd gone with their original ideas, but instead scrapped the XCOM name n made it its own thing, and just had Enemy Unknown out for the whole XCOM-ness. Instead they tried to stick to the XCOM name and ended up with a really warped and twisted development that really shows in the final product (though I think in general there was some pretty bad stuff going on at 2K cos Bioshock Infinite ended up with similar development hell issues too where much of the game got gutted n changed around by time final product was out.)

 

 

Original game was essentially 50s sci-fi -shock game (no surprise given Bioshock 2 studio)

[TheMightyEthan]

@Jack: Wasn't there an episode of the MiB cartoon where they reveal that the Chrysler building really is a giant neuralizer?

[Mister Jack]

You know what, they did.  I just checked the wiki.  The only difference is that it was the Empire State Building.

[Thursday Next]

You know what, they did.  I just checked the wiki.  The only difference is that it was the Empire State Building.

 

Same thing. That tall building they always use in movies.

[toxicitizen]

I think The Bureau would have done better if they'd gone with their original ideas, but instead scrapped the XCOM name n made it its own thing, and just had Enemy Unknown out for the whole XCOM-ness. Instead they tried to stick to the XCOM name and ended up with a really warped and twisted development that really shows in the final product (though I think in general there was some pretty bad stuff going on at 2K cos Bioshock Infinite ended up with similar development hell issues too where much of the game got gutted n changed around by time final product was out.)

 

 

Original game was essentially 50s sci-fi -shock game (no surprise given Bioshock 2 studio)

Yeah, definitely. The best thing they could've done would've been to strip it of the XCOM name and let it be its own thing. I can understand why they wanted to use the XCOM brand when it was first revealed as an FPS and was the only XCOM project. But after Enemy Unknown became a thing there was no need to slap the name on it anymore.

 

A lot from that video was actually recycled into The Bureau's plot. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I kinda feel like that says a lot about how little they actually gave a shit about the story. They rebuilt the game from the ground up into a different genre but barely tweaked the story.

 

Or shit, maybe I have it backwards. They had their own story and were forced to change genre and make it tie into Enemy Unknown, so they half-assed it. If that's what happened, I kinda feel for the team at 2K Marin. I can imagine how much it would suck to have that happen to a project because of another studio's project.

 

What sucks is, given how secretive the industry tends to be regarding these things, we'll likely never know what truly went down. :/ And I feel like it's a story worth telling, if only as a cautionary "Here's what not to do if you don't want another Thief/The Bureau/Destiny/etc..."

[SomTervo]

 

Fantastic game. One of my all-time favourites. Great graphics and atmosphere, my favourite open world level in a game to-date, excellent gameplay, totally serviceable story, excellent side missions, great combat, stealth and free-running mechanics in an open world, dynamic events in the open world.

 

Also, people really blew out of proportion the final level. It ends with a QTE - but it's still far better than Alien: Isolations or Shadow of Mordor's final moments, and those were critically acclaimed games.

 

The 20 minute level leading up to the final QTE in Dying Light is one of the best levels in the game. It's fantastic.

 

I'm really keen to go back in for joining other people's games in co-op. Glorious co-op game, this.

Edited April 15, 2015 by kenshi_ryden

[toxicitizen]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution + The Missing Link DLC.

 

The Mankind Divided hype got to me and I decided to finally go through with the replay I had been meaning to do for a while. I was initially going to do it with the Director's Cut but at the last minute I decided to stick with vanilla instead and do an achievements clean-up run. That meant playing on the highest difficulty, non-lethally and without any alarms. I'm still not sure where I screwed up on that last one. I was so careful...

 

I got everything but Foxiest of the Hounds, which is the no alarm achievement. I have like a couple manual saves I made at various points throughout the game but without knowing for sure where I screwed up I'm really hesitant to start over from either of them. For all I know, I might've done something wrong in the fucking tutorial mission.

 

Same thing happened with Missing Link, too. It wasn't planned ahead of time but when I got to the part where it takes place, I said fuck it, quit out the main game and reinstalled it. Spent 6 hours replaying it only to not get the Factory Zero achievement, which is for not using any Praxis, weapons or explosives at all. Again, not sure where I went wrong. But at least Missing Link is short enough that I was able to do quick speedrun of it in like an hour and a half to get it. I'm not sure I have the willpower to go through the entirety of HR again right away. I mean, even a speed run ignoring all the side-quests is gonna be at least a 10+ hours time investment...

 

But anyway, Human Revolution hasn't aged very well visually. It looks much worse than I remembered. Some of the character textures are downright awful and the conversation animations can look really awkward at times. And my main criticism of the game stands, not enough conspiracy in that shit! There's more talk about the Illuminati than I remembered but it's still nowhere near the level of the original.

 

Deus Ex was pretty much The X-Files with a Matrix coat of paint. It had aliens and MiBs and even fucking El Chupacabra. I mean, the final level was Area 51, for fuck's sake. It doesn't get any more classic conspiracy than that. I really hope Mankind Divided brings some of that back.

[IDDQD]

But anyway, Human Revolution hasn't aged very well visually. It looks much worse than I remembered. Some of the character textures are downright awful and the conversation animations can look really awkward at times. And my main criticism of the game stands, not enough conspiracy in that shit! There's more talk about the Illuminati than I remembered but it's still nowhere near the level of the original.

 

From what I remember Human Revolution didn't look so hot even at launch. Shame you went with vanilla game, because I've also just finished the Director's Cut and I think it they smoothed out some rough edges here and there. I was worried when they announced that they will tone down the orange tint, since it made half of HR's atmosphere, but it actually looks better now.

 

Deus Ex was pretty much The X-Files with a Matrix coat of paint. It had aliens and MiBs and even fucking El Chupacabra. I mean, the final level was Area 51, for fuck's sake. It doesn't get any more classic conspiracy than that. I really hope Mankind Divided brings some of that back.

Yeah, I also thought about the absence of any satisfying conspiracy theory when playing HR, because right before I started playing it I've finished DX1 first. Though to be honest, if they would have went full retard with them in HR (I mean the aliens, the MiBs, chupacabras and all that jazz) I don't think it would fit with the overall tone, which was more dramatic and character driven than the first game.

 

On an urelated note - when I was playing DX1 now, I felt like part of its charm came from the sheer insanity of the plot and late 90's-early 2000's pop culture references that you bump into every two seconds. Aside of course from the awesome soundtrack. Oh the nostalgia...

[toxicitizen]

From what I remember Human Revolution didn't look so hot even at launch.

Yeah, that's most likely the case. I simply didn't remember it being this bad.

 

Shame you went with vanilla game, because I've also just finished the Director's Cut and I think it they smoothed out some rough edges here and there.

Mind elaborating on that?

 

I've heard a lot of complaints that the DC actually looks worse in many ways and reintroduced some bugs, like they built it using an older, unpatched build of the original game. The main draw was the "fixed" boss fights but I looked it up out of curiosity and turns out it's only a little bit of optional hacking throw in there for some reason.

 

I was worried when they announced that they will tone down the orange tint, since it made half of HR's atmosphere, but it actually looks better now.

I'll wait until I see actual gameplay to comment on how Mankind Divided looks, but on a more general note I really wish people would stop complaining about color filters. I seriously don't get how games are supposed to look "so much better" without them, like so many people insist.

 

A color filter can give a game a really unique visual identity when used properly (like in DXHR) but, as it tends to do with everything, the internet just goes full retard and indiscriminately shits on the entire concept without any consideration to how well it was actually used. Same thing with lens flare and chromatic aberrations. Both effects can add something when used properly, but as soon as they're there some people will just complain no matter what.

 

I don't want devs to hold back their artistic vision to cater to graphics snobs, those assholes can usually mod that shit out anyway. Besides, I'm not convinced a perfectly clean picture looks necessarily better. Imperfections like chromatic aberration can actually help add a subtle illusion of photorealism to it. I mean, I never really noticed it in Alien: Isolation unless I was actively looking for it, but I thought the game looked better for its inclusion.