Recently completed video games

[lobotomy42]

Today, I beat No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, which I thought was generally inferior to the original -- except for its soundtrack, which was way, way better. The crazy concept doesn't pack as much punch the second time around, and the ending, in particular, was way more traditional video-gamey and way less meta.

I also recently finished Alpha Protocol. I talked a lot about it in the Alpha Protocol thread, so I won't say any more.

[Nachimir]

I finished Tomb Raider Underworld last week. It was the first time I'd played a Tomb Raider since the very first in 1996, and it seemed like a pretty nice evolution of it. Mainly, in that I didn't get bored and drift away during the last few levels, as with the first. I also liked that the closest things it had to boss battles weren't necessarily paced in the same way and were far more about climbing and the environment than major enemies, even when they were present.

It was kind of like watching a bad film: Acceptable once I'd suspended my disbelief, and enough that I don't want to experience another for a long time.

[Nappi]

Just completed Red Dead Redemption. The ending was somewhat satisfactory; reminded me of

Mafia

. I was a bit surprised about the lack of

looming doom

before the final mission, though. There is something about Rockstar's storytelling that doesn't really do it for me, but I don't quite know what. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the game a lot.

I will probably complete Mass Effect next. I was ready to quit after the exhaustive mission in Noveria, as I thought I had only completed about 10 % of the game, but then I found out there weren't that many story missions left.

[dibs]

I finished Wizardry 8 at last. It came out in 2001, i got it 2002.

Rollocking.

[spindrift]

Recently finished Alpha Protocol. It tried my patience almost to breaking point, but ended up being worth it overall.

[Thompson]

Just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, what an intriguing game.

[Noyb]

Just played through Silent Hill 2 for the first time.

The combat was clunky, the puzzles were Capcomesque, and pretty much every character besides Mary could have used a better voice actor.

Plus, the 360 emulation of the Xbox port had some wonderful glitches such as James emitting light from his rear end, textures randomly turning white, and keypads turning invisible.

But the atmosphere and story? Wow. Just... wow. Took me to a lot of places I never expected to go in a mainstream game, and somehow managed to tell a very personal story about an ordinary, flawed man who's not a guy who saves the world by killing a bunch of dudes.

Are any of the other games in the series worth picking up?

[toblix]

James emitting light from his rear end.

Yeah, he does that.

Silent Hill 2 is both the first and the best SH game I played. There's something uniquely creepy about it the later games (especially the more combat heavy ones) didn't manage to do. Haven't played the last one, though.

[Donk]

Just finished Crysis Warhead, those games are sweet. I was still finding out new stuff with the suit right until the end.

Now playing STALKER Shadows of Chernobyl.

Just got the key from Borov, making my way to the lab.

How far in am I?

[Joflar]

Just finished Crysis Warhead, those games are sweet. I was still finding out new stuff with the suit right until the end.

Now playing STALKER Shadows of Chernobyl.

Just got the key from Borov, making my way to the lab.

How far in am I?

You've got a long way to go, if you open your PDA you can see all the game zones. You'll go through all of them.

[miffy495]

Just put in a little shy of 2 full days worth of hours to finish Dragon Age Origins. You can see my thoughts in that thread, but hell since this is where people laud their accomplishments, I may as well join in.

[Chris]

I finished Alpha Protocol the other day. That was a game that consistently improved pretty much throughout, partially because I seemed to choose my travel locations in increasing quality order, but also because the conversation payoffs become exponentially meaningful as the game progresses.

[JonCole]

I finished Alpha Protocol the other day. That was a game that consistently improved pretty much throughout, partially because I seemed to choose my travel locations in increasing quality order, but also because the conversation payoffs become exponentially meaningful as the game progresses.

I just finished that too and I felt that it consistently improved in a combat sense as well, much as Mass Effect 1 did (IE: The higher your gun stats are, the more accurate/effective they are, and the less dice-roll-y all of that stuff feels like).

[Joflar]

I beat Bioshock 2. Maybe this should go in the Bioshock 2 thread but whatever:shifty:

I performed the Scoops maneuver of turning off all the exploration assists. It made me appreciate the richness of the environments as I hunted them for audio logs and ammo. In my opinion, the thematic elements are very intelligent. The game features a lot of killing but you defeat Sophia Lamb by competing with her ideals instead of using physical force.

The atmosphere is foreboding but its not really a palpable amount of tenseness like in Bioshock 1. Its pretty incongruous to see a dead Splicer pop up and be like "GOT YOU NOW" and then you just kill them instantly with a drill dash. Hypnotize 3 was my favorite plasmid, I got one of the Brute Splicers to follow me around and in a really thick cockney accent he said "Dr. Lamb says I need to embrace the man in the mirror. Sounds faggy to me." Setting up traps was a lot of fun, I liked that gameplay element. I wish I could've paused the game to switch weapons but I got used to it.

I feel like Bioshock 2 got a bad rap for being a sequel but its honestly one of the best games I've played this year. Listening to audio logs and admiring the setting is awesome. It kind of highlights something I didn't like about Mass Effect 2. The combat and noncombat sections didn't form a very cohesive link, it felt disjointed. In Bioshock you can be building up your knowledge of the world and then hear an enemy nearby, and you know that the world exists around you as a very realized setting.

[miffy495]

And that'll do it for Modern Warfare 2, which I did the last two acts of in 2 sittings. I don't really know what to say about it. Exhilarating but empty, maybe? It held my attention really well, got the adrenaline going pretty consistently, and had a pretty intense endgame, but the whole thing felt hollow compared to CoD4. Still, I enjoyed it. For a game I didn't pay for (last christmas), I can't really complain. I was only really beating it so I could free up the space on the HDD my laptop uses for Steam games, but it was still a pretty fun few hours while it lasted. I assume that if this kind of game held any multiplayer appeal for me, it would be a mainstay on my hard drive.

Now, on to Dragon Age: Awakenings!

[Redbliss]

I just beat Halo Wars and I thought it was a pretty good game. I dont know much about strategy games and what makes each one good, but HW's campaign was put together nicely. Also, the skirmish mode can be a lot of fun. Hopefully I get around to playing the game again, but it is definitely good enough to warrant multiple playthroughs. I would definitely suggest the game for anyone that is in to strategy games and/or Halo. Very fun experience.

[syntheticgerbil]

I guess I beat Infamous about two weeks ago and have been slowly going through it on hard mode as evil since then, but there's not much to say even to trash the game.

This game is just completely and exactly what I think of when I think of mediocre. Sucks there's another one coming out, and I like the Sly Cooper games so much.

[Garden Ninja]

I just beat A Boy and His Blob for Wii. I thought it was really good. Not sure who they made it for though. I think it was marketed as a casual game (probably partly because of the art style), but some of the later levels are pretty damn hard.

The gameplay is wonderful old school platforming. Combine that with the hand painted art style, and it reminded me of SNES-era platformers.

I definitely suggest trying it out if you have a Wii.

[Sombre]

Put a bow on Mario Galaxy 2. Inferior to the original, but still good, and here's why.

The initial whimsy of Mario Galaxy was enough to carry the game on it's own. Seeing Mario in an entirely new scenario and set of places was great. Add to this the incredible music, lush visuals and great pacing, and it was a neat game.

Mario Galaxy 2 had all these...but that's it. Nothing felt particularly...new. Now don't get me wrong, it's still an amazing game, and I really liked it. But it didn't really give me that same euphoric feeling that SMG did. Combine that with the fact that it really did drag at the end, in regards to once you had to get to the last 3/4 galaxys, it really did feel like I was being forced back into extremely tough purple star/speedruns/clone runs. Still a great game, and infintely repeatable, but if you really enjoyed SMG for the reasons I mentioned, you might prefer to stick with your memories of that.

[syntheticgerbil]

I just beat A Boy and His Blob for Wii. I thought it was really good. Not sure who they made it for though. I think it was marketed as a casual game (probably partly because of the art style), but some of the later levels are pretty damn hard.

I'm curious as who the audience is myself. I guess it ultimately doesn't matter, because it's a good game, but I sort of knew the levels would get increasingly harder as I played.

For the record though, I still haven't beat it yet. I've been playing it really slow, but have been enjoying it when I do. I'm on the third world, but so far, the puzzles and my ability to solve them started getting a little tough at the end of world two. This could also be because I'm playing all the unlockable levels and getting all of the treasure chests as I go along.

Also, a quick question: Do you know what the unlockable snowglobe is for in the bedroom? It makes the blob glow and it carries it over to the levels, but is there a reason for it? Does it help me find another secret?

[Garden Ninja]

<snip>

Also, a quick question: Do you know what the unlockable snowglobe is for in the bedroom? It makes the blob glow and it carries it over to the levels, but is there a reason for it? Does it help me find another secret?

Not sure. I collected most of the treasure but didn't do any of the challenge rooms yet. The one challenge room I did try was balls hards, so with that and the size of my backlog right now, I just wanted to finish the main game and send it back to GameFly. Once I clear a few of the longer games I'll probably buy it and do the challenge rooms.

You know those couple of levels that take place in the dark, and the only light source is the Blob? I did read that one of the unlockables makes every level like that. Maybe the globe is something similar...?

[Chris]

Just completed Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Steam clocked me at 7 hours.

Appropriately enough, it's basically a more forgettable The Sands of Time. I never really got tired of running on walls and jumping around, and the level design was fantastic with respect to the acrobatic stuff. I'm glad I played it. It's not going to stick with me like TSOT did, though.

[Sully907]

I still need to find some time to finish PixelJunk Shooter. I'm not very far in. I finished Red Dead Redemption as well, fantastic ending.

[Orv]

After 3 and almost a half years, 45 hours on my Steam version, at least 100 on my D2D copy, and a good 2-- on my disk, I've completed Oblivion.

I mean, completed. Every dungeon is cleared of both badies and loot (there is not a single, non-respawning piece of equipment, miscelany or what-have-you, ANYWHERE)

All the DLC is completed to the utmost possibility.

My character is utterly maxed.

I have a Global Thermonuclear War spell. (Max range, max damage in all three wheels of pain, etc)

I have every piece of every armor set in various places about the world. (Mostly DLC houses) I have at least four sets of Imperial Guard armor, because of various calamities that have occured. (Miscasting my Tac-Nuke being one. Woops, sorry Chorrol.)

Everything possible has been visited.

All quests are complete.

The Second Coming of Christ has occurred. (I make it a point to drop by the Arena every three or four days. )

I'm sorely tempted to mod in quests and such, but I fear any additional mods will obliterate my computer on start-up.

It is with heavy heart that I back-up my save and uninstall Oblivion.

*Taps plays in the background as the Adoring Fan is punted from a mountain*

[elmuerte]

only 150+ hours?

That doesn't sound much for doing everything in the game