Recently completed video games

[miffy495]

Just finished my second playthrough of Assassin's Creed 2. The first time I played it was before the DLC came out, and I remember feeling really ripped off that the game jumped from sequence 11 to 14 claiming that 12 and 13 were "corrupted" and couldn't be accessed. Conveniently, they let you pay to repair the sequences and actually play them. Sometime last summer they were on sale for really cheap, so I picked them up then and figured I'd see what they were like next time I went through the story. The verdict? I quite liked them, though I can understand the disappointment that those who paid full price and didn't have them integrated with the story would feel. They were fun little diversions that allowed me to mess around with Da Vinci's flier a bit more and gave me an excuse to go back to Florence for more killing of mans. The story bits were obviously non-essential and the environments were the same, but I got to revisit cool places and extend my playthrough by about 2 hours, so it's not really anything to complain about. Fun, but not worth full price.

The main game, what can I say? It's still AC2. It's really fun, and I find the story to be, if not good, at least weird enough to keep me interested in what they're going to do next. I know it's stupid, but when you tell me that a game is going to go through all kinds of weird alien conspiracies while also involving a fist fight with the pope in the vatican in 1499, I'm willing to at least hear you out. Between this and my replays of AC1 and Bloodlines (PSP) in December, I'm now fully caught up on replaying Assassin's Creed and feel ready for Brotherhood. In fact, I'm typing this as it installs. Yay!

[CaptainFish]

I liked those DLC bits, they had a little bit more difficulty because of the notoriety being defaulted to high, which I enjoyed. I also vaguely remember them needing stealth to a higher degree than most of the regular game. It's been a while. Maybe I'm just thinking of the Bonfire of the Vanities, I played the PC version where both memories were slotted in properly on my first playthrough.

[miffy495]

Oh shit, they added those back in on the PC version? That would have been nice. The whole reason I replayed it on 360 instead of just buying the PC version on Steam last time it was on sale was that I wanted to play my DLC. Yeah, Bonfire had a lot more required stealth bits which I quite enjoyed. The stuff in Forli was much more KILL EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME, and also a lot shorter. Bonfire is definitely the better of the two.

[Chris]

Oh shit, they added those back in on the PC version? That would have been nice. The whole reason I replayed it on 360 instead of just buying the PC version on Steam last time it was on sale was that I wanted to play my DLC. Yeah, Bonfire had a lot more required stealth bits which I quite enjoyed. The stuff in Forli was much more KILL EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME, and also a lot shorter. Bonfire is definitely the better of the two.

As far as I know, they didn't add it "back in" per se, it was just always there in the PC one. It's not DLC, it's just part of the game. When I played it, I didn't even realize I was playing extra content.

[miffy495]

Bastards. I should really have learned by now. When in doubt: PC.

[Tanukitsune]

I beat Silhouette Mirage, a game "treasured" by many and... once again AFTER I beat I find out it's supposed to be ridiculously hard! Although I did only have one continue left when I reached the final boss, so it definitely wasn't an easy game!

If don't know what I'm talking about it's a game from the people who made Ikaruga and Gunstar Heroes and it's basically Gunstar Heroes only weirder and more complex?

[miffy495]

I just beat Kane and Lynch: Dead Men on PC earlier tonight. I gotta say, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It feels dated, but aside from that I found it pretty fun. It wasn't a great game, but it tried some interesting stuff and I bought into the story quite a bit. Maybe part of the problem with it was that it also felt dated back when it came out, but playing it years later totally fixes that problem. I'm now actually kind of excited to jump in and play Dog Days, having also picked it up recently when Steam had it for really cheap. I think the two games cost me a total of $10, so it's money I'm happy to have spent.

[elmuerte]

Darksiders PC: (just barely)

Just finished it, it's between and . I did like the game, and it was fun to play, but there are quite some things that sort of annoyed me. The main gripe is the closed room brawls where you have to fight a couple of waves of enemies. This mechanic is repeated ad nauseam and doesn't really make a lot of sense. But I guess it's the price of being a Zelda like game. The worst closed room fights were two segments of 4 arena fights. Arena segments are the worst part of games, specially when the goal is to stay alive for X minutes. It's lame, unoriginal, and just pointless stretching of game time.

Another annoying part is that bosses are a walk in the park, mini-bosses are a bit more difficult, and the real difficulty is usually in the close room fights. Seriously, the bosses are just large/huge, but very weak.

The world, setting and story are great. Everything does feel "bad ass" like the badass mofo you are.

The music is forgettable, actually quite unnoticeable. And that's a good thing, because the music isn't quite suiting to the rest of the game.

Anyway, if you like Zelda like action/adventure games with a lot more emphasis on fighting, then this game is a recommendation.

You can follow up in the [thread=6527]darksiders thread[/thread]

[syntheticgerbil]

Pajama Sam 3 and Wheelman. Aw, that little Pajamer Sam.

Oh god, Wheelman. I don't even know where to begin. I'm going to let everyone guess for the unlikely (or most likely for me) reason why I'd force myself to play anything like this. Honestly, it was tough to get all trophies and junk, but it was sort of a fun GTA clone for the most part. The story is a laughable and idiotic mess that makes zero sense. Best part is Vin Diesel's studio that is supposed to know this stuff handled the amazing storywork while Midway just did the game. It must be awesome to animate a main character in a game who only has one facial expression: blank.

Best part was the way my frustration dissipated every time I failed a difficult mission on a motorbike since I was congratulated with Vin Diesel flying 100 feet down the street and faceplanting ragdoll style into a building/car/dumpster. I think I eventually just started failing on purpose.

Wheelman does not deserve its own thread, toblix, honestly.

[Kolzig]

Mafia II (PC)

It was good, but nothing like the first one. The city looks amazing. I wrote more on the game's own thread. RPS was very much right in their Wot I Think.

[CaptainFish]

I just finished Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the PC.

Looking at the total package, there's some weird changes over the second game. Investing is hard to keep track of, in service of getting misc items to unlock semi-useful upgrades. Guild Rank encourages you to do a bunch of sometimes tedious tasks to get semi-useful upgrades. "Full synchronization" mission objectives are hit or miss. Sometimes they're well thought out and fit the situation, sometimes they're an extra challenge, and sometimes they're just rote. The core missions are still fun, but I think the larger assassinations are very linear because of the heavy checkpointing. It's stuff like climb over here then go to this vantage point, but you can't skip any of them and go your own way as far as I can tell. While I like the setting, there is a lot less variation than AC2, which made the game feel smaller (I have similar hours played for both though).

In terms of the core gameplay, it still feels the same. I experienced some rage over jumps not going where I want them to go (jumping off a pillar to the ground instead of the next one in a row), horses spawning behind obstacles and getting stuck, and cutscenes occuring while your character is being attacked. I absolutely love running across the rooftops and fighting dudes when it works, but when I get stuck on a thin wall and have to struggle to climb down on the right side I get bummed out. I dunno if this is common, I might be the only one who ever struggles with that stuff.

The assassin recruit stuff is top notch though. It's lots of fun to send them out, and to fight alongside them in battle. I do hope in the future they create a balance between using your abilities and your recruits. I remember a few missions where the path of least resistance is just using your recruits on every enemy, since that doesn't count as being spotted.

The plot arc (or character progression arc) wasn't as strong as 2, it's like an Ocean's 11 of killing some dudes. It's mostly about seeing what steps that process entails and what hitches occur along the way. There's a really dumb point in the ending, but overall it's okay.

Edit: The set piece missions were really good too. Both the prince of persia style ones and the war machine ones.

[mikemariano]

I just completed all of the quests for Fallout 3's Broken Steel.

It was well put together, though I can't imagine how you could play any of the expansion packs without getting this one, too.

The only real achievement I have left is to reach Level 30. However, I'm only at Level 28, and I don't want to embark on the more evil quests (Enslave everyone! Kill innocent ghouls!). But I don't think there are any other quests left.

I guess that means I have to scavenge a lot of scrap metal!

[JonCole]

I actually completed a game, for once! In a bit of a handheld gaming personal renaissance, I tackled M&M Clash of Heroes and really had a blast with it. After about 40 hours of play, I wrung out every bit of goodness that the game had to offer. It's one of those games where the grind of the RPG elements is actually inherently enjoyable due to the satisfaction of combat, rather than burdensome because the grind is necessary to proceed. Not sure if I have it in me to try the HD version when it comes out on XBLA/PSN just because it'll be exactly the same game, but I can't help but think I'd still enjoy it due to the really solid puzzling.

[miffy495]

Yo, I finished Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Thoughts in the thread to keep the 'blix happy. We love you 'blix.

[Kolzig]

Completed BttF: Citizen Brown yesterday.

Thoughts are still short in the game's own thread, but more will be propably written later.

[twmac]

Just finished Knight's Contract.

I have very mixed feelings on this game. On the one hand I enjoyed it immensely for its take on the 'spam buttons' game style of God of War and Devil May Cry, you don't have a health bar but the woman following you does. I also really liked the weird ultra violent take on Ico gameplay (both characters are strongly dependant on each other). The boss fights are extremely tough and you can just sort of muscle through them or discover the combination of magic that takes them out the quickest.

On the other hand I am left scratching my head in regards to who I would recommend this game to.

It seems to be aimed at no one, and there are few I can imagine perservering with some of the frustrating elements, including getting used to the very odd game rhythms the title insists on following.

Didn't start a new thread because this game falls into the same category as Nier, in that it doesn't need a separate thread for no one to comment on it.

[syntheticgerbil]

Somehow finished two about simultaneously here. Jak and Daxter and Professor Layton (first one).

I sort of forgot why I had bought the whole Jak series, but I suspect it was on some kind of Thumbs recommendation and following a designer, as this was before the whole Uncharted is awesome business. Can say the title was as memorable or lived up to the hype I created in my head when seeing commercials back in 2000 and wishing I had a PS2. The level design was delightfully solid, but the characters were all sort of lame and the camera was just atrocious.

Professor Layton turned out to be much better and intriguing than I was suspecting, since I had only heard the puzzles were annoying and disconnecting from the actual game. They sort of are, but I was just foaming at the mouth for the next puzzle while enjoying all the animations and story, so no big deal at all.

[miffy495]

Keeping up with my run of Ubisoft Montreal games, I just finished my third runthrough of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but this time on PS3. I downloaded the HD remake when it came out and had been excited to try it. I'm kind of torn after finishing it though.

On the one hand, it's fucking Sands of Time. After finishing it I just wanted to stand up and start yelling "Fucking video GAMES!" with joy. It's so good, and still is. It shouldn't be too hard to make a case for it as the best overall game of the oughts. On the other hand, the HD remake stuff is pretty fucking lazy. They basically just added some anti-aliasing and fucked up the sound mix. All the models are smoother now, but this really just makes the textures look muddy. Kind of a bummer. The real issue though, is the sound design. For whatever reason, with the volume turned way up and the speech set to way higher than the music or effects, I could still barely hear any of the dialogue between the prince and Farrah. In a story that's so focused on the developing relationship between the two of them, that sucks. Anyone considering playing this, be warned. The game is still one of the best games ever, and no amount of sloppy porting can ruin that, but man do some parts of the port feel absolutely infuriating.

Continuing on, I'm also in the middle of playing the Beyond Good and Evil HD remake on 360 (spoiler alert: It's a way, WAY better port), which is also my first time playing the game. It's great, but as I haven't finished it yet, I'll wait until I'm done to talk.

[JonCole]

Keeping up with my run of Ubisoft Montreal games, I just finished my third runthrough of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but this time on PS3. I downloaded the HD remake when it came out and had been excited to try it. I'm kind of torn after finishing it though.

On the one hand, it's fucking Sands of Time. After finishing it I just wanted to stand up and start yelling "Fucking video GAMES!" with joy. It's so good, and still is. It shouldn't be too hard to make a case for it as the best overall game of the oughts. On the other hand, the HD remake stuff is pretty fucking lazy. They basically just added some anti-aliasing and fucked up the sound mix. All the models are smoother now, but this really just makes the textures look muddy. Kind of a bummer. The real issue though, is the sound design. For whatever reason, with the volume turned way up and the speech set to way higher than the music or effects, I could still barely hear any of the dialogue between the prince and Farrah. In a story that's so focused on the developing relationship between the two of them, that sucks. Anyone considering playing this, be warned. The game is still one of the best games ever, and no amount of sloppy porting can ruin that, but man do some parts of the port feel absolutely infuriating.

Continuing on, I'm also in the middle of playing the Beyond Good and Evil HD remake on 360 (spoiler alert: It's a way, WAY better port), which is also my first time playing the game. It's great, but as I haven't finished it yet, I'll wait until I'm done to talk.

Good to hear about BG&E... just wanted to make a quick note. It looks like you haven't updated your forum signature in about a billion years, just in case you didn't know.

[thefrozenpoison]

At long last I completed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (I'm never typing that again): Shadow of Chernobyl. I had already played Call of Pripyat to completion, which honestly allowed me to forgive a lot of SoC's shortcomings. Both were played with artistpavel's Complete mods. I felt so immersed in that world, and the outlandish situations that would constantly arise. I'll probably move on to Clear Sky despite it's poor reputation.

[CaptainFish]

I beat Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising yesterday.

It was a ton of fun. Having all my squads at high level from my vanilla run definitely helped. Each squad already had their pertinent abilities. The game did a much better job of incentivizing using other squads and had a more diverse set of mission types. Almost all the Chaos/Redemption objectives made the missions more interesting. There was still the issue of overpowered bosses, but they didn't appear in every mission, and were generally easier to deal with. Also the importance of all your squads surviving was reduced since they removed the extra deployments. Since your rating just provides a bonus XP boost, I didn't feel like losing a squad in the final encounter of each level was a big deal. It was definitely a super-refined DoW2 experience.

I started an Imperial Guard campaign of Retribution, and was kinda bummed out to see that it's skewed toward the multiplayer of Dawn of War II. It's still basically a dungeon map, but you capture buildings from which you can spawn generic squads that actually die and need to be replaced. There was something about the simplicity of just having 4 squads that made the fairly complex systems easy to control. Having to juggle 3 heroes (4 after the 1st mission) as well as dealing with heavy weapon set up, infantry placement, differently equipped squads (flamers/lasguns), and use your hero powers efficiently is kinda tough. This was especially true when you fight the boss in a DoW2 size arena with 7 squads. It seemed like all my generic dudes were just dying as AOEs got put down. It looks like I'll have to learn my lesson and play on normal, but I'll probably play some Chaos Rising and Retribution skirmish just to get used to the way those mechanics work.

I will say that I really enjoyed playing a new faction. Relic did a great job capturing the personality of the Space Marines in 2 (and vanilla 1) and the way they characterize the Imperial Guard is just as good. For example, when you fight the first boss, your main hero suggests that your troops aim low so that he can keep the head of the Tyranid as a trophy.

[miffy495]

Good to hear about BG&E... just wanted to make a quick note. It looks like you haven't updated your forum signature in about a billion years, just in case you didn't know.

True enough. I haven't bothered to change it since about March '09. Does anyone actually pay attention to those things?

[MrHoatzin]

If it is irrelevant, take it off... you're just making us scroll more...

[ThunderPeel2001]

True enough. I haven't bothered to change it since about March '09. Does anyone actually pay attention to those things?

Lol. It's true, yours is particularly out of date. I imagine your DS quite worn by the amount of love it must have received by now!

[Orv]

True enough. I haven't bothered to change it since about March '09. Does anyone actually pay attention to those things?

I've actually culled a couple purchases off "Now Playing" lists, and not been disappointed yet, so I do at least.