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Just finished up Underworld. I enjoyed it. The character speed is much faster, although some animations are kinda funny. The world employed a more naturalistic design, with lots of discovery to figure out where to go. I got stuck a couple times, but that made solving it that much more enjoyable. I think there are way too many hidden pickups in this game, like 30-50 per level, and even in areas where you're just supposed to ride your motorcycle through. You're constantly having to stop, get off, kick an urn, pick up the thing, and get on your bike. It breaks the flow and makes finding them too commonplace. They should've stuck with the Anniversary model of a few extras with more involved ways to get them. Story is still kinda bad, and although there are emotional moments, none of them have a long term impact. It's more an issue of writing than the character herself though.

There was one point in a cutscene I really enjoyed. Minor spoilers I guess.

You meet up with a Lara doppleganger (LD) at one point, and Real Lara (RL) attempts to kill her. Everytime RL lines up a shot the game utilises the same red glow, slow down, and video filters as the quicktime events in the previous two games (there are none in Underworld, although there are a few points time slows down and you have to do an in-world action). Then there's a quick cut and LD is dodging and/or countering RL. I had a laugh thinking that from LD's perspective, she is hitting x to not die, while RL plays the role of a hapless NPC.

Videos:

, Anniversary Example (
).

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Just finished up Underworld. I enjoyed it.

I can't believe it took me three paragraphs before I realized you weren't talking about

.

I thought, "Wait, the Avatar rides a motorcycle in Ultima Underworld? I really should have played more of that game...."

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I thought, "Wait, the Avatar rides a motorcycle in Ultima Underworld? I really should have played more of that game...."

I'm not super familiar with the games, but I think a motorcycle riding avatar is possible. Didn't the early games feature laserguns and spaceships?

Don't look at me like that! I'm sure there was a spaceship! Not crazy!

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I've been playing some Killing Floor, that game is pretty fun, but I guess it'll become different enough once I level up the perks more. I also started a new game plus of Mass Effect that I intend to play chaste, to avoid the inevitable and undeserved cheating backlash from choosing Tali in 2. I'm already enjoying all the different abilities I have to throw around.

Anyhoo, I beat Metro 2033. I liked the stealth focused sections, although they did tend to be hard and poorly checkpointed. I did have some great moments where I was sneaking around to throw a knife at the last patrolling guard, only to have it bounce off a mask, helmet or ammo covered arm. It was a nice touch, despite any frustrations it might have caused. Once stealth devolved into combat however, there was a weird system where if you shot at a dude from the dark, he would return fire before you even hit him. This seemed regardless of the type of weapon. The monsters tended to clip through your body when attacking, which was super awkward to try and shoot them.

I feel like too much of the game had you accompanied with companions that would do all the work. I didn't see the necessity of the silent protagonist either. My least favorite parts would probably be the Library section and the ending chunk. I ended up killing all the enemies in the library, because navigating was too awkward otherwise. This obviously wasn't the intended strategy so I used up most of my ammo. Then before the ending there is no person to buy ammo off of, so I went in with only a few dirty rounds, and a bunch of military rounds that I was used to saving. I wish someone had just said to use them, because they are useless as currency after the Library. I still enjoyed it though.

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My least favorite parts would probably be the Library section and the ending chunk. I ended up killing all the enemies in the library, because navigating was too awkward otherwise. This obviously wasn't the intended strategy...

I agree with you wholeheartedly about this. I tried and retried the damn Librarians with the 'Look them in the eye' strategy only to get my ass kicked every time. I ended up running away to conserve ammo when I finally gave up on trying to stare them down. It would be completely possible if the place had no doors, but alas, that is not the case.

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Alpha Protocol complete. That game is both amazingly intelligent and ambitious, as well as incredibly stupid. I wrote in my Steam recommendation that it is all of the cheesiest scenes from the worst Bond movies, but owns that attitude in a way that I can respect. I stand by that. At the same time, the narrative structure is incredible for how much it lets you do and how many deviations it supports. I feel like I need to replay it but after just finishing a 23 hour playthrough, that will wait for a while. Still, what a great experience. It's $7.50 for another 19 hours on Steam as well, and for that it comes highly recommended. Just be prepared for some of the stupidest and most ham-fisted dialogue ever in addition to a few of the most frustrating boss fights I've ever encountered. It is both terrible and great. For the price, play this game.

(and yeah, I was Castro all the way through)

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In retrospect, I wouldn't even pay 7,50 for it. That game, I wanted to like it, but all I feel is contempt. It's cool how the dialog system influences certain outcomes, but in the end that is only a small part of the game. Most of the time, you're on missions and the gameplay choice you get is stealth or action. The game its shooting mechanics are terrible and playing it stealthily is laborious to say the least.

So it took me about 21 hours to finish. I went with stealth, taking everyone down non-lethally. I told a friend of my frustrations, who then played not worrying about stealth. Took him 14 hours to finish the game. The amount of time I wasted by redoing sections, annoying enemy path memorization AND THAT FUCKING HACKING MINIGAME. If it gave me the ability to quicksave, it would've solved a lot of those frustrations, though in the end it would've been a bandaid on a wound that required stitching.

In closing, fuck that game! Fuck it to hell, clunky piece of shit.

There is my un-recommendation for Alpha Protocol. :mock:

Edit: But then it's weird to say to not play a game because it sucks. You should probably play it anyway... So why not for 7 buck 50?

Edited by PiratePooAndHisBattleship

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I finished Mirror's Edge. Yeah I'm a bit behind.

I was a tiny bit disappointed. I never felt as in control as I would have liked, like I was too clumsy a lot of the time. That goes triple for the combat, which was just horrible.

I think a major setback is the console-cross-hair problem - I'd pull of some amazing evasion and end up behind an enemy, where the disarm is supposed to be automatic - and then it wouldn't work, presumably because my crosshair wasn't in quite the right place. Then I'd get smacked in the face and die. I spent a lot of time replaying the same ten seconds of game, to the point where I just switched the game off a few times (that goddamned Ropeburn guy and his split-second what-is-essentially a QTE!!)

Sigh

The story wasn't exactly mindblowing either. At least it avoided a lot of sci-fi stuffing; it could easily have gone all Fahrenheit shaped. But I didn't really care at all and some things that were meant to be really significant just weren't, like the role of Jack-Knife. I'm sure they could have got a lot more political and/or philosophical than they did.

Still, I think it was a great thing to attempt and more games like it should be made. Just because the execution wasn't perfect should not scare off publishers from trying new things.

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Just completed Grubbins On Ice (CQ DLC).

It's a nice continuation of Costume Quest. It's a 4th level for the 3 level large CQ. The boss battle was a bit of a pain though, had to replay it 4 times.

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In retrospect, I wouldn't even pay 7,50 for it. That game, I wanted to like it, but all I feel is contempt. It's cool how the dialog system influences certain outcomes, but in the end that is only a small part of the game. Most of the time, you're on missions and the gameplay choice you get is stealth or action. The game its shooting mechanics are terrible and playing it stealthily is laborious to say the least.

So it took me about 21 hours to finish. I went with stealth, taking everyone down non-lethally. I told a friend of my frustrations, who then played not worrying about stealth. Took him 14 hours to finish the game. The amount of time I wasted by redoing sections, annoying enemy path memorization AND THAT FUCKING HACKING MINIGAME. If it gave me the ability to quicksave, it would've solved a lot of those frustrations, though in the end it would've been a bandaid on a wound that required stitching.

In closing, fuck that game! Fuck it to hell, clunky piece of shit.

There is my un-recommendation for Alpha Protocol. :mock:

Edit: But then it's weird to say to not play a game because it sucks. You should probably play it anyway... So why not for 7 buck 50?

I too played stealth the entire way through the game. I never felt restrained by that once, and any time that something went pear-shaped, I'd just bust out my assault rifle and finish everybody off. I had no problems with the aiming, never bothered to watch an enemy path through all the way a single time before sneaking up and dropping them, and while the hacking was a bit of a pain, I only triggered an alarm on my first ever hack. After that, I got them all first go. The boss fights were fucking terrible, but everything else in the game seemed fine to me. The action mechanics seemed very similar to ME1 to me, which was fine. It's a game in which your ability to shoot becomes less hampered by the mechanics the more you level up your character's ability shoot. Seemed fine to me, especially after leveling up my pistols and assault rifles (never used anything else). In conclusion, none of the things that you mentioned bothered me in the least. Trying to play the game stealthily made it feel like one of the older Splinter Cells, and in that regard I liked it much more than Conviction.

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Just completed Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue. Excellent! Both parts together makes it my GOTY of 2010.

Took me a bit over 11 hours (according to in-game stats) to finish it all. I didn't really like the two quests which required me to re-visit a lot of places in the world just for some tedious tasks.

For some reason I didn't complete the "Mystic Transport - Discover all 44 Teleporting Outhouses" achievement. But I can't figure out why, I've done all quests (even the mysterious ice cave thingy). So I must have overlooked some outhouse. Ah well.

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Oh crap! I finished a game, this is something of an event for me as I get easily bored and generally never finish anything. Yay me! :woohoo:

Metro 2033 was pretty cool I seemed to have blatted through it in about nine hours so I'm not sure I saw all I could have. I think the fact that the game was giving me simulation sickness and the haggard gasmask breathing was pretty close to setting off my Asthma (some kind of psychosomatic empathy for the protagonist maybe?) caused me to rush through places I could have taken my time over.

Over all, an eight out of ten for Metro 2033 from me. Beautiful to look at, engrossing and terrifying to play. Just some dumb AI letting it down a little.

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For some reason I didn't complete the "Mystic Transport - Discover all 44 Teleporting Outhouses" achievement. But I can't figure out why, I've done all quests (even the mysterious ice cave thingy). So I must have overlooked some outhouse. Ah well.

There's a sort-of hidden one. An island called "Hothead Island" isn't marked on the map, but has an outhouse on it. It's in the Southwestern portion of the sea. It's just the developer's logo turned into a land mass, like that DS island in Zelda Phantom Hourglass, but it's probably the outhouse that you're missing.

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sounds probable, I did find the hot cave though

jep, that was it; lame island

Edited by elmuerte

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I just finished up Bully: Scholarship Edition on the PC. That game is weird.

One one hand it does a fairly decent job of creating a idealized high school environment, complete with all the extreme clichés (Greasers? When was the last time that was relevant?). The rockstar formula works really well in a small setting. Things like having to go to your house to save are a lot nicer when it's a short bike ride away, and you don't have to worry about getting killed for accidentally running over a pedestrian. All the classes give you something tangible and rewarding to do in your off-time to give a sense of realism to the world. This is something I felt the phone stuff from GTA4 failed to do. The missions range from high school movie pranks to more extreme stuff like storming a chemical factory or sneaking into an asylum. The stuff on the latter end of the spectrum just comes off as strange, especially in the sense of what a 15 year old kid could accomplish.

This is where the other hand falls. A lot of the rest of this game feels like River City Ransom. You basically go around beating up all the thugs over and over again until they fall in line. The combat isn't terrible, but it's a lot less interesting than pulling pranks, having bike races or doing regular kid stuff. I feel like they chose a protagonist (Jimmy Hopkins) that is too mature and missed out on hilariously awkward teen stuff.

My favorite mission involves Jimmy getting stuff for a date with his Art Teacher, only to realize that she isn't going out with him, but another teacher. It's funny, but in retrospect Jimmy isn't even the type of character to even have a crush like that.

I do like Jimmy's moral compass, and the way his mission choices sometimes follow it, even though most have the reluctant accomplice feel of most Rockstar leads. The ending goes way too far in the violent direction with a final encounter that feels like it came out of a Batman movie. All in all I liked it, and hope Rockstar decides to do another game with a smaller space like this one, and rely more heavily on their ability to create unique mission types outside of just pummeling everyone in sight.

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The hand-to-hand combat in Bully feels lifter directly out of Rockstar's The Warriors game, so there's that. That's probably why it has the RCR feel to it, as The Warriors was a brawler through and through.

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Just completed Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue. Excellent! Both parts together makes it my GOTY of 2010.

Took me a bit over 11 hours (according to in-game stats) to finish it all. I didn't really like the two quests which required me to re-visit a lot of places in the world just for some tedious tasks.

For some reason I didn't complete the "Mystic Transport - Discover all 44 Teleporting Outhouses" achievement. But I can't figure out why, I've done all quests (even the mysterious ice cave thingy). So I must have overlooked some outhouse. Ah well.

The two you mean are the learn Japanese one and the costume one for the prostitute right?

Those were both pretty annoying just for being ridiculously not obvious (although I would have done the costume one anyway with my OCD tendencies). I had looked ahead of time as I usually do with trophies or achievements just to save myself the grief. Learning Japanese could have easily have been done without stopping at the boss and turning all the way back around to get a book at the library that only becomes available suddenly at that point. Why not make it available earlier? They could have also lumped up some of the costumes.

Found it strange that two convoluted and weird easter egg type situations were highlighted by trophies. The other situation though where you demolish a path for the train tracks for that trophy was pretty funny to me. Such a long and drawn out cutscene for nothing!

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I finally finished up assasin's creed brotherhood. I just cannot believe how far that series has come, from being tedious, repetative, and just plain not good in the first game, to taking the massive leap in the second game, and turning the weaknesses of the first games into strengths by the the time brotherhood comes around. I enjoyed every minute of the 30+ hours I put into it, and it even contributes to the overall story arch as well, which I'm convinced is among the best in gaming.

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The two you mean are the learn Japanese one and the costume one for the prostitute right?

No I learned Japanese. That one was actually obvious to me. Library with books... some guy speaking Japanese... Must be some book out there. Specially after struggling with with the birthday cake thingy it was a no-brainer for me.

Right now I've got all achievements exchange the costume quest (see what I did there) one.

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Just finished 'Splosion Man. I love the animation and sound design, especially the Donut song.

V_5fwEUJzK0

I really hate the level design. It feels like half of the levels just completely abuse a time pressure mechanic (rising acid floors, dashing giant robots, moving spike walls, etc.), leading to most of the game feeling completely dependent on trial and error. Even though it did enough things right in the aesthetics to make me smile, I was hating the game proper by the end.

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I feel like I'm beating small things and not paying attention...

Some weird thing that Joakim Sandberg made long ago called Dr. Dot was beaten. It was super short, frustrating, yet mildly addictive for an early puzzle game. This is after I gave up trying to beat his released but still abandoned Mina of the Pirates. Both share an early hardness by a punishing designer.

Kirby's Block Ball done in full. I think it was satisfying. As usual it feels good to win in a Breakout game when you are, but is extremely frustrating when you lost control of the ball and it's just kind of doing whatever. There's powers that make it way easier. I guess it's just another nice unrelated sidetrack in the Kirby series. I could imagined enjoying this more if I didn't always feel so pressed for time.

Yoshi's Island (Mario Advance version) was finally finished after chipping away at it for a few months. The game was great for picking up and playing a level and moving on, but the later levels could take an upwards of an hour to get 100%. Especially the secret and extra levels. The game had such an intuitive way of getting me to continue exploring and the bosses and characters were all ridiculously charming. Nothing better than a satisfying boss battle in a platformer. Sooner or later, I guess it'll be time to get on to the next Mario game I missed out on and look seriously out of date for not playing long ago.

And last, out of sort of a bad curiousness, I played Conker's Pocket Tales. I don't really like Rare games outside of Conker's Bad Fur Day, so this one pretty much summed up a lot of the junk that was just unnerving about their sort of design philosophy, even though I know Pocket Tales is probably on a very low rung of their game ladder. There's a bunch of pointless crap to collect that doesn't help much, the game's characters are all upsettingly bland, there's some idiotic health system where you can only get a finite amount of health to refill per game, and there's some needlessly hard and poorly designed minigames that are unanimously required to finish in order to finish the main game. The game was sort of fun eventually though, after mastering the clunky controls and getting past a certain island that was designed by sadists.

The funny thing about the game is, out of OCD, I played both the regular Game Boy and Game Boy Color versions on the same cart, and they are nearly separate games. The level layouts are in many cases completely different, many enemies are added in the Color version while missing some at the same time, many secrets are discovered in different manners, and nearly all of the sliding block puzzles are no longer the same. The Color version is also immensely easier than the Game Boy version. The asshole island with minigame hell has a lot of things to soften the blow of forced terrible minigames like a more idiotic CPU to compete against as well as different controls on two of them.

My theory is that the regular Game Boy version was ready to ship long ago, even before the Game Boy Color's premiere, as all of this stuff is based on the original happy and bright game that Bad Fur Day game from, but that a Color version was asked for and tweaked at the same time (someone probably revamping many of the serious design flaws). Guess it ended up more of an interesting precursor to the big Conker game than I originally thought.

Chipping away at a few other games simultaneously when I have time otherwise.

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Yoshi's Island DS - I had high hopes for this game when I first started it, several months later after chipping away, I have beat it; however, there's no way I would ever complete this. This game is much harder and much more chaotic then the SNES counter-part. There's really just too much there to get 100%. I also don't like the switching of babies. It was cool for a bit of variance, but when they make you need to play a level 100 times to get 100% because of baby-specific puzzles or secrets/coins/mini-games it's really hard.

Donkey Kong Country Returns - This game pains me so much. The visuals, the level design, and art is just so beautiful and rivals anything on any other platform in terms of beauty/dynamics. BUT! Why did Retro have to map the stupidest controls. Why do I have to waggle to do such a context and action-focused movement such as the roll? There's huge issues with it, but I eventually got used to randomly dying sometimes by waggling the wrong way, or it not triggering properly. It's also hard as shit (starts around World 4), which I can forgive as well since it genuinely made me better at the game eventually.

Tetris Attack (SNES) - My favourite Tetris game of all time, even though I'm not that great at it. It's been seeing a lot of play around my house lately with my friends competing in versus. I beat the single-player versus mode on medium, and working my way through the stage select mode (which is insanely hard).

Lazy Brain Games - Basically played/beat everything from Lazy Brain Games (http://lazybraingames.wordpress.com/) including getting #1 for Cyborg Virus leaderboard! These are fun 1-level retro style proof of concept games that are enjoyable for about a half hour each.

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I've been playing the games I've gotten from the Steam sales... XP

Archon: It's like chess, only with dragons, unicorns and wizards, so it's awesome! And it has a story mode! The combat is action based, but the AI of the opponent isn't that clever so it's not that hard...

Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time: Your typical physics based puzzle with time rewinding. In this case it's vehicle based, which was already done (better) in Bob Came in Pieces and since it's a port of a Wii game it controls... not that good? It's also kinda buggy... Sometimes when I remind time my character is still dead and my machine is still broken...

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Yoshi's Island DS - I had high hopes for this game when I first started it, several months later after chipping away, I have beat it; however, there's no way I would ever complete this. This game is much harder and much more chaotic then the SNES counter-part. There's really just too much there to get 100%. I also don't like the switching of babies. It was cool for a bit of variance, but when they make you need to play a level 100 times to get 100% because of baby-specific puzzles or secrets/coins/mini-games it's really hard.

Don't feel bad, Drath; you're exactly right about this. I 100%-ed the original Yoshi's Island , but didn't bother playing the DS version to perfection. I can live with that; it was still a fun game.

And the phrase "baby-specific puzzles" should apply to more games.

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One of the last things I did in 2010 was beat Mass Effect 2 on Insanity, thereby completing every achievement the game has to offer. That's quite enough Mass Effect for me until the next game comes out.

And, er, instead of playing games I've purchased and haven't played, like Sam & Max Season Two, Metroid Prime Trilogy, or the Fallout 3 DLC, I instead went to Gamestop and bought Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and Bully.

My mission is to complete all of these games before Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes out.

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