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Just beat Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I actually like the platforming in that game, especially the Assassins' Tombs-like levels, but they really need to tweak the sensitivity in those parts. It's really enjoyable when I can just flow around the room, but it's so incredibly frustrating when I arbitrarily fly off into the middle of the room, nowhere near where I had pushed him to go.

As for the ending...

Inception BRRRWWMMMM

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Oh yeah, I had finished Metal Gear 2 about two months back. It was fun to see how adventure game like it was. An item combination is required for the last boss!

The plot was kind of shallow compared to other Metal Gear games (besides the original), but the gameplay is great. I mean I had to use a guide for some of the classic game type idiocies (like the snake or owl egg choice), but it was a definitive large improvement over the first MSX title. Now I understand where all the music comes from for the later games. It's weird to first hear these songs after they've been remixed and redone so much.

Also the intro movie was very effective. It's too bad the ending scenes couldn't follow suit. I guess this is how games have always been for the most part though, especially old ones.

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Still replaying the Assassin's Creed series, I just finished Bloodlines for PSP. I'm of mixed feelings about this game, especially after playing it a week after finishing a replay of AC1 on 360. Some of the design decisions in this game are arguably better. The game flows much more naturally, story-wise, and is much more varied. Unfortunately, the controls are clunky as all hell, the world is severely under-populated (a city should have more than just guards and 5 pedestrians per district), and everything just feels a bit too janky for its own good. If you took this game and gave it the polish that one of the larger console installments in the series received, it would likely be better than AC1 but not as good as AC2. As it is, it's great for a portable fix, and my affection for the series causes me to view it more favorably than I otherwise would, but it's just not a great game. Oh well. I have one mission left in the campaign of Starcraft 2 now, so that's next on the agenda. Gonna keep plowing my way through my game stack and see what sort of numbers I post at the end of the year. I've been keeping a log. Have you?

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Oh yeah, I had finished Metal Gear 2 about two months back. It was fun to see how adventure game like it was. An item combination is required for the last boss!

The plot was kind of shallow compared to other Metal Gear games (besides the original), but the gameplay is great. I mean I had to use a guide for some of the classic game type idiocies (like the snake or owl egg choice), but it was a definitive large improvement over the first MSX title. Now I understand where all the music comes from for the later games. It's weird to first hear these songs after they've been remixed and redone so much.

Also the intro movie was very effective. It's too bad the ending scenes couldn't follow suit. I guess this is how games have always been for the most part though, especially old ones.

Oh cool. I was going to play through that old game, too. I played through the original some time ago and intended to go forward to MG2 in order to appreciate the whole story, and how the games progressed.

I did make a start at it, but I remember being surprised at how much of a step up, in terms of complexity, the sequel was, and got a bit put off. It's amazing how much of the details of the new games were already present in the 8-bit originals.

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Starcraft 2 is down now. Amazing how poorly balanced the final mission was compared to everything else. After having relatively little difficulty with every mission to that point (playing on Normal)

except for the mission with the advancing fire wall. Fuck that stuff.

I had to try the final mission three times in order to live through it. Even then, It was down to the wire, with the Artifact having about two hits worth of HP left when the timer ran out. This was mostly due to Brood Lords being FUCKING DICKS. I found myself wishing I had taken out the air units rather than the nydus worms, but the nydus worm mission was awesome, so oh well. Still, finished now, and I feel ready for whatever the next installment in the series is going to throw at me.

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I beat the Guild Wars: Prophecies campaign today. Seems odd that I've been putting so much time into a five-year old game, but my girlfriend has always liked the game and I've been a casual player for a couple years now. I've finally taken the time to "beat it" considering the upcoming release of GW2 and some of the new content added to the game to bridge the gap.

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Oh cool. I was going to play through that old game, too. I played through the original some time ago and intended to go forward to MG2 in order to appreciate the whole story, and how the games progressed.

I did make a start at it, but I remember being surprised at how much of a step up, in terms of complexity, the sequel was, and got a bit put off. It's amazing how much of the details of the new games were already present in the 8-bit originals.

Haha, yeah I actually searched for that thread a couple of weeks ago to see everyone's experiences since I'm so late to play these games. I guess I assumed you had finished Metal Gear 2, but I remember you talking about the first one.

Did you use maps at all to play the first one? My only problem with the first two Metal Gears is I have to load up a bunch of maps from hint sites with the accepted card keys written on them because I don't like trying every card on every door. Metal Gear 2 compiles them down to three major cards eventually though.

I guess I don't consider it cheating exactly because I had played the NES version of Metal Gear, which is pretty inferior, but it came with a map of all of the areas inside the box, making it much less frustrating to get through.

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Managed to actually finish a game.

Goldeneye 007 for Wii.

Impressive I must say. A really nicely done FPS with slightly annoying QTE moments. I was very highly suspicious towards a remake from the great devil Bobby "Acti-vision" Kotick, but turns out they made a great game after all.

Reimagining things as Daniel Craig feels awesome. He delivers his lines with passion and Judi Dench thrown into the mix doesn't certainly make things bad either.

One big minus is that there is no Sean Bean as Alec "006" Trevelyan, but such is the case when everything has to be reimagined and there is nothing of the original Goldeneye maintained except for the title song and the actual plot device Goldenye. As said the movie's theme song is still there, but "reimagined" with a Pussycat Doll singing it instead of Tina Turner.

Took me about 10 hours to play through the game. It is relatively short and most people propably play through it in 6-8 hours. I always take my time. There was one really annoying scene closer to the end that I propably wasted more than two hours to try to complete, it was a scene were you should propably be really stealthy and just sneak around to get some data stolen and then set off some bombs on a lower level. The levels are broken into parts so even though there is only six "main level locations", the actual amount of levels is around 15 maybe. About three per location.

Have not really played the multiplayer as I'm not interested in that. I wanted to play it for the story, not for the multiplayer. Which is weird propably as most people only know Goldeneye game(s) for the multiplayer.

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Recently finished Deus Ex: Invisible War for the 1st time.

Man, the reputation of that game being terrible is way overblown. It's for the most part pretty great. I mean, I hate the inventory, and the universal ammo was inferior to the old way (but not genuinely bad, just less good), but everything else that made Deus Ex great is there in spades.

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I finished Kirby's Dream Land 2 for like the 15th time (except this time I did the boss rush and bonus mode to perfection), because I was bored and needed to relax.

I think the game is really just merited on nostalgia because it's ridiculously easy until like the last 5%. It seemed awesome when I was younger though. This is not to say it's a bad game, it's just more about having fun than some kind of challenge, I guess almost like all Kirby games (except the non-platformers, all of those seem fucking hard).

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Man, the reputation of that game being terrible is way overblown. It's for the most part pretty great.

Right on. Invisible War's greatest sin was being too "console-ified". But now every game does that!

Did you play as a male or female Alex? I couldn't imagine playing as male simply because the default version of him is so N-SYNC looking.

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Just finished Bionic Commando on the X360, the game is excellent. It starts out pretty slowly with some clunky tutorials, but by the second chapter you are soaring through the air swinging from sky scraper to sky scraper. The voice acting is actually worse than how Remo described it on the podcast but you can skip all the cutscenes to the point where it is bearable.

It is cheap everywhere now and I woudl strongly recommend the game as one fo the few games that understands how to take a 2-D game and make it 3-D.

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I just beat Enslaved. Overall a good game with great acting and decent writing (until the end). The problem is that it was riddled with random difficulty spikes and cheap deaths. For example, the enemies won't attack you during a kill animation, but you can still suffer damage, so the giant laser pointed at you will still kill you. I liked the world, and it was full of lush and fleshed out environments. The combat was just frustrating.

The ending was...not very good I don't think. If the writers were

trying to make some sort of comment on memory and nostalgia and how we should focus our priorities, whatever. It kinda works, but it's overbearing and Trip's 'did I do the right thing?' is stupid.

If they were trying to make a comment on video games, and how the people are sucked into a reality not their own, and being mindless slaves, didn't they choose the wrong format?

Overall I recommend it, it's a fun game, cheap by now, and an original IP (for what it's worth).

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Right on. Invisible War's greatest sin was being too "console-ified". But now every game does that!

Did you play as a male or female Alex? I couldn't imagine playing as male simply because the default version of him is so N-SYNC looking.

Female Alex. The male portrait made me recoil.

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Finished Fallout: New Vegas recently.

Unlike Fallout 3, New Vegas actually had good quests, solid voice acting and writing and interesting locations. I rushed the main story and completed the game in 24 hours. I noticed that there was a lot of good stuff that I didn't see and should check it out later.

Gameplay is still something I can't stand, it's the reason I did not care for Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Didn't mind it so much in New Vegas until I had to fight tougher enemies, like Deathclaws. I wonder if there's a mod that makes regular weapons more powerful? I'd like to explore wastelands without touching any laser or plasma weapons.

I also completed Bioshock 2 and thought it was amazing. I'm now thinking about replaying the first Bioshock, because I didn't "get" it on my first playthrough. Now I'm really looking forward to Minerva's Den.

Next up: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse and Machinarium. Maybe I'll stop being a wuss and finally finish Amnesia: TDD.

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I've recently launched Plants vs Zombies as part of the operation "Playing all my steam games at least once"; and before I knew it it had devoured 8 hours of my life. I finished the adventure mode and the puzzles, but I still can't decide how good the game actually is. One thing for sure, it really is evily well paced : new elements were being introduced right at the very moment I was considering calling it a night.

The execution is stellar and the gameplay rules combine effortlessly, but somehow, it seems a bit underused : I ended up using only a fraction of the plants (not enough sun) and once I had figured out the winning combination for each setting, I never really had to rethink it thoroughly.

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I like this operation "Playing all my steam games at least once"... it probably deserves a topic of its own, I have plenty of games I haven't touched yet.

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I like this operation "Playing all my steam games at least once"... it probably deserves a topic of its own, I have plenty of games I haven't touched yet.

Yes, there should be a topic for that. I certainly haven't played most of my Steam games.

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That'll do it for Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue. 14 hours of playtime to get every sidequest and achievement done. That game was rad. Essentially the same as the first, but the (MUCH) more varied environments, cooler items, and more interesting (and funny) quests made it a far more enjoyable experience for me. Oddly, given its simultaneous development, it feels like a way better game. I would recommend that anyone interested in Thongs of Virtue play the first game first though, so the full Deathspank experience will run you $30. For me, totally worth it. Now to see if I can finish Alpha Protocol before the year is out to add one last game to my huge "games completed 2010" txt file. I'll post the whole thing here when January hits, lets compare notes.

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That'll do it for Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue. 14 hours of playtime to get every sidequest and achievement done. That game was rad. Essentially the same as the first, but the (MUCH) more varied environments, cooler items, and more interesting (and funny) quests made it a far more enjoyable experience for me. Oddly, given its simultaneous development, it feels like a way better game.

:tup::tup::tup:

I know they quickly tweaked some things following the release of the first (half of) Deathspank game, but I'm not sure how much was changed or made more cohesive besides obvious changes that we as the player can see. The second game feels paced more correctly and very fluid and overlapping tasks that carry you from one part to another very briskly.

I seemed to have spent more time running around and killing the same guys over and over again in the first game.

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As I said in the Tomb Raider thread I've been working my way through the Crystal Dynamics Trilogy, and I finished up Anniversary today.

Legend was a fun platformer, I really enjoyed the more strict elements that force you to perform even more than in Sands of Time. Although it is a huge bummer when Lara fails to jump to a pole because you jumped a bit early, or the thing you thought was a ledge turns out not to be. There were definitely some frustrating moments in both these games, but when it works it works. There was also a small element of finding your way through the level, although the game was very critical path and IIRC never used a hub that you went back to after multiple puzzles. The story was meh. I'm not a fan of the supernatural elements of these types of stories, even though I guess they all have them. I prefer it to be about two rivals racing each other to the prize, rather than fighting an ancient god. I though that exploring the death of Lara's Mom, and the life's work of her father would have more gravitas then it did. There was a nice moment in Nepal (?) where she retrieves a medallion and goes into a reverie, but throughout the rest she's just cracking wise with her side crew. Zip and Alistair were so poorly characterized throughout this game. I guess they're her employees? In London they attempt to humanize them as Zip, Alistair and even Lara start ribbing each other, but it comes out of nowhere. It didn't seem like run of the mill everyday jokes, but rather unearthed bitterness after having to work together for such a long stretch. The combat was pretty bad, just having you hold down attack and repeatedly press jump until everything dies. The motorcycle sections are the worst example of this, where you have even less control over who you auto target, so it's just hold attack and dodge obstacles until you finish the level. They even put in explosive hazards you're supposed to use to kill enemies faster, but there's no way to target them with any consistency. All in all I had a pleasant experience.

Anniversary does a lot of the things in Legend a lot better. The controls feel a little bit more lenient on timing for things like jumping immediately on a swinging pole. This better timing is utilized as a lot of the platforming requires swinging off of a pole that lowers once you're on it, or leaping up from a ledge that does the same. There's still a bit of frustration, especially with jumping away from walls during a wallrun. The camera never really shows you your destination well, and it requires some precision at times. The structure itself is much better, with the short 10 minute or so levels of Legend replaced with four 3-4 part levels that really give the sprawling feel of a ruined temple. Unlike legend there are item collection puzzles, that often result in doing different themed rooms of a hub to proceed. My favorite is the series is Greece, where you must traverse a vertical hub to visit various rooms themed after the gods. Also the larger rooms and areas lead to a bigger need to figure out where you need to go and there is usually a few different ways, so you feel like you're actually exploring a space. Combat is actually a little bit better, with all your enemies being some sort of animal. You shoot them until they rage and charge, at which point it becomes an issue of dodging at the right time and timing your shot for a kill move. You end up doing a lot more than in Legend. There are some major issues with the targeting. In the last level you have to fight enemies on a small ledge with shootable buttons in the background, and there is no reliable way to target the monsters first. The camera is also pretty bad for these sections, forcing itself behind you so you can't really get a sense of how much room you have on either side. I feel like in general this game could do with some God of War or Prince of Persia style pulled back cameras, although that would take away some of the sense of exploration. The story is less prominent in this game, but there is a great moment near the end when

Lara has to kill one of the thugs in her way. It's the first person she has to kill and it upsets her in a big way. Lara has a much cooler, unaffected look in this game and when she gets rattled it's all the more effective. It's a cool idea for her character, but since she already killed hundreds in Legend, it's not a lasting change. By the ending cutscene she's come to terms with her actions.:tdown:

Otherwise the story is pretty lame, she has to find the three pieces of this Scion thing and then supernatural stuff happens. The lack of story cutscenes meant that by the end I had totally forgotten her motivation. I think her father was looking into the artifacts in connection to her mother's disappearance, but it never really comes up past the first couple missions, which start with her father's voice over. Overall, except for the disappointment of the combat heavy last level I had a good time.

Oh another thing, I really enjoy the Croft Manor parts of these games, Anniversary especially. It's just presented as a giant free form puzzle. Even though I never owned Tomb Raider 1, wandering around in the hedge maze is a very strong memory I have connected to the series, and it was cool to revisit it in Anniversary. I kinda wish they would punctuate these games with more mundane exploration areas. Things like the Library scene in that one Indiana Jones adventure game (Fate of Atlantis?). There's something cool about knowing you have complete control of a space, and are free to go back and forth, but you still have clues to find and puzzles to solve. It's also really relaxing.

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ENDLESS WORDS

Holy hell son, that's over 1000 words! For context, I often don't finish reading tweets.

Just finished 'Puzzle Dimension', and it is really good! Levels are secretly three puzzles, including bonus 'touch every square' and 'time attack' objectives. I had some minor complaints, but if you bought that steam pack, you should play it.

Edited by Cult of Jared

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LCATGOL (aka Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light)

I think I never played a game that had crappy controls for all systems. I've played the game on the PC, but also tried the demo on the PS3. On the PC the movement controls are quite a pain for various parts of the game because you can essentially only move in 8 different directions, and sometimes you need to move 33% up and 77% left to make a jump. There was one obstacle course in the game that took me about 20 tries to get past because I kept missing the jump only slightly, or got bumped off for some reason. On the PS3 aiming and firing was a pain.

Overall the game was quite ok. I didn't really like the design decision to make this game just a collection of levels with puzzles and battles. I would have liked it more if the game was a bit more connected as a whole. The game was clearly made for achievement whores because it's impossible to get a 100% of any level in the first try. I didn't really like the music in the game, is was quite disruptive for the overall mood, it was pretty much 100% "battle" music. It would also have been nice if there was some actual exploring going on. All levels were quite straight forward action, puzzle, puzzle, action, action, action, puzzle, etc. Most puzzles were just about not dying. So, it's just (timed) obstacle courses. No real thinking required. Some of the side-tasks did contain puzzles that require some thinking.

Final judgment: :tmeh:

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