Games You've Beat in 2016

[Mr. GOH!]

Nice! 

 

I heard that NG+ will allow you to use both Emily's and Corvo's powers on the same run. If so, that's super awesome.

[TheMightyEthan]

That's what I've heard too.  I haven't heard much details, but my assumption is that if you play as e.g. Emily on the first one, then pick Corvo on the second you'll keep Emily's powers and then also be able to get his on top of them.

[TheMightyEthan]

Just finished Hitman.  An extremely excellent game.  I said it in the other thread, but I really love how the whole thing feels more like a giant puzzle than like a stealth game, even though I got it because I love stealth games.  Honestly the best thing I can compare it to isn't even a game, it's that scene in Groundhog Day where he robs the armored car without anyone even noticing him.  Pulling off a good assassination in Hitman feels like that scene.

 

Also, fuck yes, I finally beat FLD's score on a level!  (By more than a token amount)

 

[Thursday Next]

Ah, don't know why I just assumed you were on PC... Anyway, the patch for NG+ is supposedly (according to the official blog as of November 18) coming in December, and they didn't specify a platform, so it should be coming to console too in the near future.

 

Blog post: https://bethesda.net/en/article/6d1WZlmqe4sUmkQEAo2qSe/dishonored-2-play-your-way

 

There was actually a new blog post on the 14th that said the NG+ patch is releasing on the 19th (today) for all platforms:

 

https://bethesda.net/en/article/1xv1an5Nj6qiOigcme0Qso/dishonored-2-update-new-game-plus-mode

 

It's a Christmas Miracle!

[toxicitizen]

Just finished Hitman.  An extremely excellent game.  I said it in the other thread, but I really love how the whole thing feels more like a giant puzzle than like a stealth game, even though I got it because I love stealth games.  Honestly the best thing I can compare it to isn't even a game, it's that scene in Groundhog Day where he robs the armored car without anyone even noticing him.  Pulling off a good assassination in Hitman feels like that scene.

Yeah, that's Hitman in a nutshell. You can totally play it as a stealth/action game (and I kinda do during the experimentation phase), but once you've got your plan figured out it's so much more satisfying to start over and play it all out flawlessly like clockwork. Some of the escalation missions have time limit objectives added on in the final levels and they're usually ridiculously short (like clear the entire mission in 1m30s) but by then you've had so much practice that you pretty much have it down to a science. It sounds like the kind of arbitrary objectives that would be annoying but clearing it with a few seconds to spare is just so insanely satisfying.

 

Also, fuck yes, I finally beat FLD's score on a level!  (By more than a token amount)

 

Well, looks like I need to replay that one!

[TheMightyEthan]

Well, looks like I need to replay that one!

Noooo! You already have 2 levels where you're beating me by comparable amounts!  

[Strangelove]

Rise Of The Tomb Raider.

Did a lot right and a lot wrong.

Batman vision and having to use it to find tree branches and shit really fucked up the game's pacing. They went too far with crafting and gathering items.

The optional tombs were cool. I liked those. The platforming in general is really good. The story isn't great, but it's tons better than the previous game.

 

Oh yeah, the game has lag like a motherfucker. It fucks up the shooting really badly. Had I known this was a known issue then I probably would have waited longer to buy it. I still hope they fix it.

[TheMightyEthan]

What platform did you play it on?  I played it on Xbone and didn't notice any performance issues.

 

*Edit - inb4 someone makes a joke about "Xbone" and "performance issues".

[Strangelove]

What platform did you play it on?  I played it on Xbone and didn't notice any performance issues.

 

*Edit - inb4 someone makes a joke about "Xbone" and "performance issues".

PS4. The funny thing is that the XBO version has even worse lag than the PS4 version supposedly. I guess you just didn't notice it. Lucky you.

[Mr. GOH!]

PC version was excellent, I'm happy to report.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Watch_Dogs 2. Pleasantly surprised me. I admit I only started playing it because of a personal investment (and it was free), but I didn't come into it expecting much. Whether the first game was good or not, I wasn't even interested in it. 2 was a blast.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I really want to play it but am currently tearing my hair out over the end of the first one. Starting to get a bit hacked off by it so may need a palate cleanser when I finally manage to get it done.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I hear the first wasn't very good?

[Mister Jack]

Got the platinum!  I'll go back to it for New Game+ when they add those new scenes they were talking about.

[TheMightyEthan]

I hear the first wasn't very good?

 

The first was good enough for what it was, it just didn't live up to the hype they generated.  If you take it on its own terms it's fun but not mind blowing.

 

I've heard 2 is much better.

[Mr. GOH!]

Watch Dogs 2 is ridiculously better than 1.

[FMW]

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. It's honestly pretty decent. I mean, it's basically a Ratchet and Clank game. Simple mashy action game, go to different themed planets for each level, enemies blow up into buckets of shiny pickups, light 3D platforming, and you get to level up all your flashy guns/attacks. Both are quite easy.

 

I realized that those two franchises scratch the exact same itch for me. Pretty cartoon action games.

 

As for how birth by sleep fits into that space specifically, as long as you skip all the cutscenes it's fantastic. Short playtime to beat it, short upgrade loops, and short levels keep everything compulsively moving forward.

[toxicitizen]

Pony Island. 

 

a.k.a. What the shit did I just play?

 

Pony Island is runner game in which you play a pony jumping over fences. To say anything beyond that would be doing the game a disservice but that's also seriously underselling it. It's one of those "rabbit hole" kinda game in the vein of Frog Fractions where there's more going on than you see on the surface and the appeal comes from discovering just how far it goes.

 

It lasted me a little over two hours and currently costs less than 2 dollars on Steam. Just go buy it. Trust me on this.

[TheMightyEthan]

Halo Wars Definitive Edition.

 

It's a competent port, but that's all it is, a port.  The textures are higher resolution than the original 360 version, but it's just a matter of re-exporting the original textures without compression as opposed to actually creating new assets.  Everything else is identical.  It did run great on my PC though, at 4k, and having just played the much more recent Legacy of the Void I can say visually it compares fairly well.  Gameplay wise it's just the same game as it's always been.  Even though I was playing on PC I still used a controller because I always prefer to play on the TV with a controller if it's a viable option, so I can't say how the PC controls translate.  If I ever try the multiplayer I'll probably use a kb/m just to avoid being at a disadvantage, but for campaign I figure it was designed from the ground up for a controller so I'm not losing anything.

[Strangelove]

Shantae and The Pirate's Curse. Awesome game. Loved the fuck out of it.

 

Shadow Complex. Played it right after Shantae and it fell short for me. It's just not as good.

It's also short as hell. I almost expected a reverse castle situation since it was so shockingly short, but nope.

I thought I was less than halfway through by the time it ended.

I was going to go back to it and collect all the shit because I'm a completionist like that, but the map in that game isn't very useful and there's no fast travel either. The hell with it.

[Mal]

Superhot

 

The story mode is short but what is there is super engaging. Finishing it also unlocks challenges and endless modes which is really the main meat of the game. Seriously, who cares about the story?

[MetalCaveman]

The Witch and the Hundred Knight (PS3 edition, not the Revival edition ). Tried to get all three endings before the end of the year, but fell short of one thanks to a bunch of farming/grinding/annoying stuff.

 

Overall a fun game, the gigacalories thingy can be annoying in some areas, but it ended up being much more tolerable than expected thanks to the pillars which allow you to replenish them with bonus points. Combat is pretty fun with all the weapons you can get, though for the most part I avoided the magic category, as those were too slow to be useful, except for certain enemies which are immune to other types of damage.

 

The tochka stuff is fun, they're things you can summon which have various roles and abilities, some spawn a turret that deals magic damage, others allow you to map an area without consuming gcals, and there's one that allows you to summon mini-knights, tiny little things that attack enemies, not terribly strong, but they can serve as a distraction during boss fights.

 

I actually got it on release day, but stopped playing for a long time for reasons I can't remember. So it was fun getting back into it, having some trouble in the area I was in, only to realize that this was due to me having forgotten to update my equipment, running around with weapons that deal 57 damage points, when you have stuff with 700+ damage in your inventory makes things unnecessarily difficult.

 

The story is... something, it's really weird, with a super dark humour thing going on, it's certainly not for everyone. The endings aren't hard to get as long as you manage your saves, biggest issue is that one requires the killing of three special bosses which can be a pain in the ass, followed by a chapter where all enemies are now much stronger (that's where I'm at right now ).

[Pojodin]

1. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below

2. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (replay)

3. Life Is Strange

4. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

5. Platinum Demo - Final Fantasy XV

6. Salt and Sanctuary

7. Dark Souls 3

8. Dark Souls 2 (NG+ and NG++ for platinum)

9. Uncharted 4

10. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

11. Zero Time Dilemma

12. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP)

13. Persona 2: Innocent Sin

14. Earthbound (replay while in Japan)

15. Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour demo

16. Sigils of Elohim

17. The Talos Principle and Road to Gehenna expansion

18. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

19. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation

20. Paper Mario: Color Splash

Edited January 1, 2017 by Pojodin

[TheMightyEthan]

Here come the stats!
 
I beat 43 games this year, which was a massive increase from last year's 18.
 

 
I thought last year could be explained by some big RPGs slowing me down, but this year I played Persona 3 Portable and TMS#FE, both of which clocked in around 80 hours, so I think it was actually Destiny that explained my poor performance last year.
 
My average time-to-complete was 17.5 hours, with a median of 12.4, so I did have fewer really long games dragging up the average compared to last year.  Although my sample size last year was so small that that may not actually mean anything.
 
PC barely beat out PS4 as my top platform in terms of number of games completed, 17 to 16, but it completed destroyed PS4 for hours played, at 262 vs 166.
 

 

 
Just like last year Vita wins average hours per game, because I only played one game on it and it was a Persona game.  Wii U put in a good showing here, with TMS#FE (also almost a Persona game..) giving it a huge boost.
 

 
I was doing so well on my backlog right up through the middle of December, keeping it in the low single digits, but then Christmas happened...
 

 
On average a game was on my backlog for 140.8 days before being removed (this only counts games I've removed, not games still on there) and I played it for 13.2 hours before finishing it or calling it good.
 
Going into 2017 I have 11 games on my backlog, which is still better than the 19 I had at the beginning of last year.  Though I am very happy that only one game is more than about 6 months old.
 

 
Shadowrun Dragonfall is still left from last year's Secret Santa (Sorry GOH!) and that's definite the next thing on my list to hit after I finish Wolfenstein.

[TCP]