Recently completed video games

[Tanukitsune]

I finally beat Risen 2: Dark Waters, with the DLC included. The DLC was so-so, the costume you get is practically useless a few moments after you can finally use it, the Sky Temple was kinda fun, except the quest then forced me to revisit EVERY island again! The treasure island DLC was good, expect I expected more traps and puzzles.

As for the game? I really liked it! I hate the fact that the game is so stingy with money though, I never though I was rewarded enough for my effort no matter what I did... (So I used a money cheat). The game did seem a bit "dumbed down for console kiddies" and the mini games were dumb, but I felt joy every time I found a message in a bottle with a treasure map and joy when I dug it up.

I chose the voodoo path, which is kinda useless in combat but does open some quests into interesting territory. It's strange that all I can say seems negative, yet I really love the game, the lush vegetation, the lighting in caverns and weather effects... It really created a great atmosphere.

I'd like to see a Risen 3, but... in this world magic is outlawed, I'm not sure how it would be. Are there even any titans left?

[mikemariano]

I beat Shining Force II last night, it only took me 18 years!

You kids today with your XCOMs and your Hardcore permadeaths, I can't stand it!

I own Fire Emblem for the DS, and I much prefer the Shining Force approach. Shining Force drags around a feeble RPG interface that it could probably shed. However, Fire Emblem sheds too much: why can I only shop or talk to villagers during combat?

Now it's on to Phantasy Star IV!

[darthbator]

So I finished XCOM : Enemy Unknown last night on normal-normal. I loved just about every second of it. I love XCOM, I loved the original and I love this new one. I'm not going to go on and on about it since XCOM discussion is kinda the talk of the gaming-centric internet at the moment. I doubt I have many observations about the game that haven't been thoroughly hashed out elsewhere already. All I can say is that I greatly appreciate any game that can communicate an experience/feeling other then entertainment/joy/flow state. XCOM regularly will make your stomach sink or cause you to bite your nails and will occasionally get you screaming obscenities at it. But it's still rewarding and enjoyable enough to always keep you coming back for more.

Just like the original I feel the modern version rides that same line. The only people I would tell to stay away are ardent strategy game haters. I think anyone else should absolutely play this game!

I'd really like to make a run at TL2 next but I don't feel like going that alone. I was sorta hoping we could organize a thumbs group to play a few times a week and truck through that way. Those loot centric ARPGs are just always more fun with more players.

[Tanukitsune]

I just completed the Unfinished Swan, it's no Journey or Flower, but it was like playing a fairy tale book... in which I all cared about was making a big mess with the paint system.

It's pretty charming, you start in a completely white room with not even shadows and you can only see that in front of you with the black paint, as you advance there is some shadows until you reach a kingdom where you get water to make vines grow and then finally a light world and place where the paint balls create blocks. There are some minor physics puzzles and with the balloons and "toys" it seems that this is really a fairy tales that kids would love and adults would enjoy too.

[elmuerte]

Rochard

Picked this up in a bundle I think. It was ok, the game mechanics worked out well. The level design and story were a bit boring. It's like a late 90s platform game, with more modern graphics.

[Frenetic Pony]

Forza Horizon:

So I technically haven't "beat" it yet. But it's driving game, and I've played long enough to get the loop, which is all there ever is to these things. And it's a very pretty, open world driving game that really tries to embrace it's open worldness, and having extra challenges from people on your friends list, which it reminds you of in a direct but non obtrusive way. The driving itself is much more arcadey than Forza, but manages to maintain enough of the physics to make driving different courses and different cars feel very different from each other and still challenging. As opposed to say, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, which kind of felt like you were just driving the same rocket at various speeds. My only complaint is that for a game that says "Forza" it doesn't feel nearly as big as Forza 3, the last Forza I played. While still long and big, this doesn't have the seemingly infinite amount of cars and challenges that could last forever that the traditional Forza series does.

[Sno]

Played a whole bunch of games recently!

To catch up on a couple prior games - I think Borderlands 2 and X-com are both :tup:

I've definitely run into some technical troubles with X-com though, and i've chosen to put the game aside for now. They're relatively small hiccups that would be totally forgiveable if not for the context of an ironman run.

BL2, it's only fair to note, also has some issues. (The main thing is to probably just not play any public co-op games, you're only asking for trouble.)

Dishonored:

I've just finished Dishonored, which i was of on the fence about for most of the game. I don't like their morality system or the way they've balanced their gameplay tools inside of that context, I really think it's problematic and clumsy. The last few levels pushed me over the edge though, i am ultimately okay with Dishonored, it is a pretty fine game.

Liberation Maiden:

So this was Suda 51's contribution to the Guild 01 anthology for the 3DS, games that are being parsed out as individual releases on the eShop for releases outside of Japan. I like it quite a bunch, it's a very distinctive and flashy little shooter. There's a really clumsy final boss though, and only four levels prior to it, and i don't think its design is quite tight enough to encourage a score attack mindset. (The dialogue boxes that constantly pop up do not help.)

Code of Princess:

I also recently played Code of Princess, again on the 3DS. (Notably, it's a spiritual successor to Treasure's Guardian Heroes.) It's a 2d side-scrolling brawler with a nice, flexible combo system and some light character progression stuff happening. There's a lot of content and a lot of characters, an extremely goofy and occasionally pretty funny script, and some fairly extensive online MP features that i haven't tried because nobody is playing this game. It's a real shame, because i'm of the mindset that this is probably one of the better games available on the 3DS. The framerate struggles when the 3D is enabled, but that's the only real issue i see with it.

[Henroid]

I beat Shining Force II last night, it only took me 18 years!

You kids today with your XCOMs and your Hardcore permadeaths, I can't stand it!

I own Fire Emblem for the DS, and I much prefer the Shining Force approach. Shining Force drags around a feeble RPG interface that it could probably shed. However, Fire Emblem sheds too much: why can I only shop or talk to villagers during combat?

Now it's on to Phantasy Star IV!

Shining Force 2 was such a neat game. Its aesthetic is great, love the art direction. You should play the remake of Shining Force 1 they did for the GBA. I endorse it 100%, they really fixed things up right.

Phantasy Star IV is my favorite RPG and I'm biased in every way, but I hope you enjoy it.

[Tanukitsune]

I beat Closure a game that once a flash game and now is a full game, you can tell since it sometimes feels like they are stretching the games' gimmick a bit.

The games gimmick is that the world only exists while it's bathed in light, which included obstacles. Oddly enough, the "worst" part for me was the first world, it seems out of place compared to creepiness of the other worlds.

I also beat the Sleeping Dogs Halloween DLC, which is just like the Red Dead Redemption one, only cheaper and shorter. The whole world is possessed by ghost and the streets is infested by Jiang Shi, Chinese undead creatures, it's a handful of short missions that I beat in less than two hours, but it felt just right for the price.

EDIT: I just found out the DLC is almost twice as expensive now for some reason... I wouldn't recommend it at it's current price.

[Henroid]

Of the many games plaguing my backlog, I finished The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap this past week. I only note this because it was one of the few games in the series I haven't played / beaten. This leaves Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword as the only two. Well, and the CDi monstrosity but we can ignore that. Not sure if I should be proud to have played and beaten a game series with so many entries. Well, actually, I'm sorta lying; I never finished Majora's Mask and probably never will because it is a bad game. But I've seen its entirety played before my eyes.

I really need to hunker down on the Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. But I hate setting goals because I'll get attached to the concept of beating a game just because I said I would. If I beat a game, that's a compliment to the developers that I was intrigued enough to.

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, Tony Tough was awesome. I knew is was an older game, but it's actually an Italian adventure game from the late 90's and I just love the pixel art and detail... Since it was originally in Italian I think some jokes were lost in translation, but it's was pretty good.

My only complaint is that the game get very moon logic-y at the end and you're practically forced to use a walkthrough. Sheesh, and people complain about the honey cat stach puzzle?

[youmeyou]

I just finished a second playthrough of Witcher 2. It boggles my mind how much they put in there that is completely cut off depending on what story decisions you make. For example: In the first playthrough I fought and killed a giant dragon, having sided with the humans. In the second playthrough I sided with the elves and realized the dragon was actually a hot babe that could turn into a dragon who I obviously did not then kill. No clue of that the first time around. I can't decide whether it's a bad move or a good one to necessitate multiple playthroughs in order to get the full experience. Maybe in terms of replayability but really, how many people are as nerdy as I am and will play through a 40 hr campaign again to see all the bits they missed? It's like writing a book knowing your audience is only going to read the beginning and parts of the middle and the end.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Well, pretty much everything in The Witcher is a monster or a hot babe so it's not too much of a stretch to guess that something is both. But yeah that game is nuts for the amount of content you won't see the first time through. Alpha Protocol is similar except you could play it 4 times and still miss stuff.

[youmeyou]

Don't forgot "gross-looking peasant."

[Nappi]

I can't decide whether it's a bad move or a good one to necessitate multiple playthroughs in order to get the full experience. Maybe in terms of replayability but really, how many people are as nerdy as I am and will play through a 40 hr campaign again to see all the bits they missed? It's like writing a book knowing your audience is only going to read the beginning and parts of the middle and the end.

I will replay The Witcher 2 at some point to see the other side of the story, but I definitely had a "full experience" playing through the game only once. Even though I missed roughly one third of game, the campaign was definitely long enough. In fact, I think there was just the right amount of content for one playthrough. I don't mind if the developers decide to go the extra mile when it comes to content, as long as I'm not forced to pay extra.

[youmeyou]

Yeah, I don't think they had to skimp on writing to add all the extra content which makes the feat even more impressive. (not to say the writing was exemplary, merely competent) I also felt like I had a full experience the first time around. I mainly went back so I could play it in ultra on my new 660 ti (still couldn't turn on insano ultrasampling). It's still the best looking PC game I've yet played. And I wanted to try a slightly different skill tree with more emphasis on alchemy and bombs. Besides aard (force push) and quen (the shield), I ignored magic, those two leveled up are pretty much all you need. (though I still played through on normal because certain boss fights are so horribly balanced that I didn't think I'd be able to progress through them on anything more difficult.)

[Nappi]

When was your first playthrough, by the way? I think they patched in more content after the release, but I had already completed the game at that point. Did you notice anything new in the parts of the story that were shared between the two playthroughs?

[youmeyou]

My first playthrough was pre-"enhanced edition" so there are some differences: a starting tutorial level that ultimately throws you in an arena to determine what difficulty level to play on (Modern Warfare style), and some new cinematics, but not too much that stands out. It could also be that so much time has passed that I didn't notice what changed but it all seems fairly similar save for the tutorial level.

[JonCole]

Halo 3 -

Yeah, man. In the run-up to Halo 4, I was going to replay all the Halo games but I frankly found Halo and Halo 2 too tedious to run through completely (might try again with Anniversary Edition). Turns out Halo 3 was the one I really needed to replay, considering I didn't remember ANY of what happened this game. Since I read the books, I had a fair amount of knowledge of the general beats but really no familiarity with the levels or themes. This really surprises me, as I have such stark memories of major scenes in the first two games, down to the exploit on Assault on the Control Room that saves you thirty minutes.

Anyways, I don't care to speculate on why I don't remember much of Halo 3, just want to say that it holds up quite well and does a lot of rad things with the gameplay from the earlier games that's worth reexploring. Heck, I didn't even mind the Flood that much in this one. That's an achievement on its own, really.

[Donk]

Vanquish. Surprisingly fun, on paper it's cover shooter but they manage to rise above it somehow, probably becase it's made in Japan. Balls out action the whole time, never lets up, crazy wtf lol story and characters, huge bosses, mechs, giant robots and the game looks rather nice too. Fun weapons and interesting upgrade mechanics for them.

[Tanukitsune]

Wow.... I'd never thought I'd type these words, but I have to admit that finally a game scared me, not in the jump scare way, not in the "the sound are imagery is unsettling" way, but for the first time ever, I'm scared in the "Um, can I leave the lights on, mummy? Oh, that thing in my room suddenly looks scary. I'mma gonna cover it up!" way... this is coming from the guy who think the critters in Amnesia are cute.

The name of the game? .... Dark Fall: The Journal an old Macromedia Flash first person adventure game. Why? It was GODDAMN subtle! No jump scares, you just think you hear or see something, but you never get a confirmation. It did have a goody painting growl at me which really ruined the mood for a while, but....

Listen I have the sequel ready to play and.... I kinda don't want to, that's how much it scared me. No game has done this to me before....

(PS: I really hope this isn't because "mah belleh" is filled with crappy Halloween candy. )

[Yasawas]

Silent Hill 2. I don't like the scary things so I never bothered with this at the time but over the years it seems to have become one of those games that everyone speaks of highly and having received it in a cheap bundle of PS2 titles I bought quite recently I decided to man up and give it a go.

It's astounding technically. The use of sound is really well done throughout and graphically it's difficult to believe this game is 11 years old. The grainy effect over everything works in its favour I suppose but the lighting, animation and character design is so good it didn't feel like playing a PS2 game at all, or maybe it's because the last one I'd played was Shadow of Memories which whilst also an enjoyable game is pretty horrific lookin'. The puzzles are a bit more taxing than standard Resident Evil fare and I was pleased I could set the difficulty for those independently of the combat, as I was mainly playing this just to experience it and not to get bogged down on a tough boss fight. I thoroughly enjoyed myself up to about the hospital five hours in.

It was nothing design-wise it really did beyond that that annoyed me (bar one maze section I could've done without) but my aforementioned low tolerance of the horror genre - it was just so relentlessly bleak that I found myself making excuses not to turn it on after a hard day and had to make myself finish it. I really liked a lot of what it was doing though and kind of had to see the end and I'm glad I finally did, I can definitely understand why so many people love it but ultimately not really my thing.

[melmer]

I loved vanquish, but they ruined it with no new game+ mode ( the first time ever I wanted to play a new game+ mode) . I desperately wanted to jump straight back into the game on a harder difficulty mode with all my painstakingly upgrade weapons.... You can't. If you want to level up a gun, you can't use it. So I spent the whole game avoiding using the best/ my favourite weapons for nothing. Gutted. So good though, I'll have to play it again one day

[Sno]

I loved vanquish, but they ruined it with no new game+ mode ( the first time ever I wanted to play a new game+ mode) . I desperately wanted to jump straight back into the game on a harder difficulty mode with all my painstakingly upgrade weapons.... You can't. If you want to level up a gun, you can't use it. So I spent the whole game avoiding using the best/ my favourite weapons for nothing. Gutted. So good though, I'll have to play it again one day

For that reason, i completely hated the upgrade system in Vanquish.

Vanquish is a great game, but that upgrade system is dumb.

[Tanukitsune]

I beat Lucius, which is a weird game, they tried to push it as a horror adventure game, but it's almost like Hitman? It's Omen, the game.

You have to kill people and nobody can suspect you, you have demonic powers that are very limited, nobody can see you use them and there is no liberty in how to kill your victim. The characters AI is terrible, many times I've had to restart a mission because the victim went gaga and took two steps towards it's normal route and two steps towards where you're supposed to kill them.

To make things worse, there are stealth sections, it's the only time you can use the mind wipe power, well, actually you only use in ONE mission which makes it's too easy, yet with it's controls it's still frustrating.

To make things EVEN WORSE, there are combat sections! It's the only time you can use a special attack power, which is so terrible to use with the aiming system. Which is why in the finale you have to fight two enemies at the same time... I only won because the enemy got stuck...

I'd stay away from this, the normal section are kinda fun and interesting, but the action ones are dreadful.

BasketBelle is obviously a basketball based game, but an artsy indie one. It's mostly a puzzle platform game with basketball rules. And the story is about a kid who bonds with her sister through this sport and who is kidnapped by some monsters who you defeat with... magical basketball powers?

Oh and BTW, the rest are the Dark Fall games... aren't scary at all, the second is more like Myst, not only in it's puzzles, but it has too many colorful not scary at all parts and the third has goofy looking ghosts and a dumb plot.