Recently completed video games

[JonCole]

Maybe I worded it wrong; I don't necessarily want choice in my FPS games. I just either want real choices or no choices rather than a single cheap, fake choice. Especially coming off of CODBLOPS2 last year, which actually managed to do some moderately interesting narrative stuff via choices (some overt, some not).

 

Also yes, it's a buggy mess and I didn't mention that. How many times did I blow up a helicopter and a big chunk of its mechanical corpse suspend in mid-air after a grand explosion? Every time.

[Sno]

I just finished a playthrough of System Shock 2.

Hey, that game's pretty good.

I played on hard, but since it was the first time i had played it in a few years, i stuck with a pretty basic navy-path hacker. I'm thinking about starting up a psi-character, but maybe not right away.

I always really loved the research system in that game, having to check in with supply manifests to see where you need to go for required materials.

The last few levels are still really clunky.

[Erkki]

Finished Goodbye Deponia. I have to agree with John Walker's review on RPS (too lazy to find link) -- Rufus is even more annoying than before (in the first game it was tolerable to me), and there are some things that are really hard not to take as racist and misogynist. Indeed the developers seem to lack taste. But there were some pretty good moments in this one too. Sadly, the game seems to end with another cliffhanger so we can probably expect another one, with possibly an even more annoying Rufus.

[Yasawas]

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - More ideas in 90 minutes than any other game I can think of manages in their duration. Utterly ludicrous levels of creativity on display here and the way it seamlessly switches from "basic" Mario 64esque 3D platforming, to gimmicks based around running about a tiny planet with its own gravitational pull, to a straight 2D segment, to into-the-screen chase sequence never ceases to amaze. Here's my favourite.

 

The truly surprising thing to me based on how long it is (took me 14 hours 20 to see the credits, but there are plenty of stars left to get) is how rarely you do the same thing twice. Each galaxy has its own wee gimmick to it but once you've got the star or two on offer there you're whisked away somewhere entirely different with a new set of rules. There are loads of new power ups, the bosses are actually fun to fight, the controls are perfect and the music is sublime. I'm looking forward to 3D World greatly this Christmas but that it won't be a straight sequel to this in HD is a little disappointing to me now, and I think I've finally been put off ever playing Super Mario 64 again as I've been thinking about for the last 15 years. One of the absolute best things.

[Tanukitsune]

LEGO Marvel Superheroes:

 

Wow, the game is slowing turning into a GTA clone in it's own way, the hub world has become a real living world now. There are so many missions scattered through the city, instead of just breaking a wall to get a brick. It's strange how it never got tedious... The flying races are weird, you can unlock flying vehicles, but you can't use them in flying races, only flying characters, mostly because you must fly through tight tunnels, also they are actually VERY challenging now! I couldn't beat the final ones until I unlocked the Silver Surfer.

 

I love all the minor details, like how the city reacts to each character, if you "steal" a car as a superhero, the citizens seems to be OK with it, but if you use a villains they will cry for help. Also, many citizens seem to have various comments on certain superheroes, sure the "What a silly costume" applies to all, but the more popular ones seem to get personalized comments like "Isn't that Iron-something?"

 

Speaking of popular heroes, you only play as the most popular ones in the main story line, Spiderman, The Avengers, Fantastic Four and The X-Men, with a few scattered Deadpool cameos, speaking of cameos... Stan Lee makes 50 of them as a rescuable character and once you rescue him 50 times you can play as him and he's part Spiderman, part Hulk, 100% EXCELSIOR!

 

It's strange how the game deliberately has more filler than usually and it didn't bother me, in one of the Deadpool missions he even points out how the programmers where out of ideas, so let's punch bad guys for a few minutes, OK? 

 

And speaking of Deadpool, he's the Red Brick guy in this game, now instead of finding them in the hub, you play special hidden missions where they are hidden, you don't even play as Deadpool, he just introduces the levels... (PS: He's voiced by Nolan North)

 

I guess the extra missions and bricks are to compensate for the "short" main story line? As much as I don't mind that this game has 250 golden bricks instead of 200, I sure hope that it doesn't get any higher, or at least that they aren't as "time consuming" as some of them are here.

[Dewar]

I finally got around to completing Costume Quest. It was fun, short, and had some good writting. I found all of the costume pieces except 3 on my own without an FAQ, and all the hide and seek kids except one in the expansion.

[JonCole]

Call of Duty Ghosts

 

More of the same as far as COD campaigns go. Unique stuff - underwater and space combat, which both prove to be somewhat clunky but short sequences that break up the monotony of the regular combat. Vehicular sequences were also not unnecessarily long (double negative, but I'm trying to point out that it's unlike previous COD games where vehicle missions are long and repeated) and fairly easy to beat.

 

The story was about as boilerplate stupid explosion-y as it gets, despite being removed from the MW timeline. I liked that the enemy was not just some unnamed country in the Middle East or China, it was rather a federation of South American, resource-rich states. Unfortunately, their actions were not any different due to the cultural shift away from other games - it really just meant that you were in the jungles outside Caracas rather than the desert outside Kandahar, and the enemy soldiers spoke Spanish instead of Arabic.

 

Nonetheless, I found the story inoffensive which is a step up for an Infinity Ward COD game. Of course, the ending was a big cliffhanger thing and left room in the next game for (endgame and Ghosts 2 spoilers):

 

Your silent protagonist is going to be the bad guy in the next game and you most likely assume the role of your squadmate brother to fight him off in an exercise of horrible familiar betrayal. In all likelihood, your brother will find a moment of sanity and help you kill the actual big bad leftover from Ghosts 1 before killing himself either in suicide or sacrifice, showing an ultimate triumph of family and honor above torture and evil.

 

So yeah, totally middling as I expected. Bought the game mostly for the multiplayer, so I don't particularly feel disappointed. Just too bad that I wasn't impressed especially after BLOPS2, which integrated some degree of choice and managed to mix up the COD formula (if only a little).

[Tanukitsune]

I finished the Angry Video Game Nerd game... I'm not sure why though.

 

It's weird to have him take a dump on his own game and the game is as broken as the games whines about in his shows, but on purpose, sure it's doable, but knowing that's is done on purpose doesn't make it better.

The humor falls flat since it's mostly rehashing jokes from the show and the levels aren't funny themselves...

 

This game kinda sucks, the pixel art isn't "MSPaint edited Megaman sprites" bad, but it's not that good, the music is OK-ish, the gameplay is probably bad on purpose, which doesn't make sense. And it's ridiculously overpriced, I bought it on sale and I still feel like I payed too much for it... Go play Abobo's Adventure instead and Paypal them some money.

[Dewar]

That's the guy who yelled at the Fez guy until he took his ball and went home, right?

[Tanukitsune]

Who the Angry Video Game Nerd? No, the guy who plays him is actually pretty nice, it was some relatively famous troll whose name I can't remember.

 

I just beat Antichamber and it blew my mind, it takes some time to get adjust on how the paths works, but the puzzles were challenging in a way that each puzzle will teach you something to use in the next one.

[Dewar]

Ah, that's The Annoyed Gamer. It's a wierd industry where so many of the famous pundits are famous for being annoyed and angry.

[feelthedarkness]

Is there room for one market in the marketplace? I'm going fully meta as The Entitled Gamer.

[shammack]

The Generally Fairly Even-Tempered But Prone To Occasionally Snapping At Someone And Then Feeling Really Bad About It Gamer

[Tanukitsune]

It's strange too see so many "angry reviewers", it's like "Weird Al" to comedy music, a big chunk of them have "weird", "insane" or some variation in front of their name. 

[Trip Hazard]

The only game I think I've finished this year, besides Arkham Asylum and Arkham City which I was completing for a second time, is Dishonored. It completely sucked me in and was all I would play for about 2 weeks. 

 

I keep meaning to finish Deus Ex: HR, but I think it's really ugly and that puts me off massively. Good game, but.

[Dewar]

Hmm, does the Director's cut edition improve the visuals at all? I seem to remeber reading that somewhere but I can't find a source now.

[youmeyou]

Minerva's Den.

 

It was great to finally play this and see the Hand of Gaynor at work in an earlier project. I had a blast playing through Bioshock 2 and this DLC kind of took all the good stuff and squeezed it into a tighter experience. The new additions to the default toolset made for some super fun combat encounters.

 

My favorite such one was putting a gravity well trap near a spike trap then forgetting about and getting in a fight with a big sister. Out of nowhere an electrified splicer launches from out of nowhere and slams into the big sister, killing her. Took me a second to understand what had happened. So much fun to play through, coupled with a touching narrative about finding closure and moving on.

[Sno]

I think Human Revolution really just needs new models for the generic NPC's, because those guys all look really derpy and awful.

The rest of the game is incredibly beautiful.

[Dewar]

Minerva's Den.

 

It was great to finally play this and see the Hand of Gaynor at work in an earlier project. I had a blast playing through Bioshock 2 and this DLC kind of took all the good stuff and squeezed it into a tighter experience. The new additions to the default toolset made for some super fun combat encounters.

 

My favorite such one was putting a gravity well trap near a spike trap then forgetting about and getting in a fight with a big sister. Out of nowhere an electrified splicer launches from out of nowhere and slams into the big sister, killing her. Took me a second to understand what had happened. So much fun to play through, coupled with a touching narrative about finding closure and moving on.

 

I made the mistake of playing Bioshock 2 and Minerva's Den back to back. It kinda ruined the experience of Minerva's Den since I was already tired of the Bioshock 2 gameplay. In many ways, I wish I'd just played Minerva's Den and passed on Bioshock 2 entirely, which is what everyone was tell me I should do. Damn my completionist tendencies.

[posh_somme]

It's strange too see so many "angry reviewers", it's like "Weird Al" to comedy music, a big chunk of them have "weird", "insane" or some variation in front of their name. 

 

[youmeyou]

I made the mistake of playing Bioshock 2 and Minerva's Den back to back. It kinda ruined the experience of Minerva's Den since I was already tired of the Bioshock 2 gameplay. In many ways, I wish I'd just played Minerva's Den and passed on Bioshock 2 entirely, which is what everyone was tell me I should do. Damn my completionist tendencies.

 

Yeah I took a several week break after B2 before trying Minerva's Den. It helped that Battlefield came out during this break.  I can totally see how the immediate repetition of the mechanics could get you down.

[Tanukitsune]

Well, I beat Ridiculous Fishing, the ending was pure FTW and also A Link Between Worlds.

 

I love the new stamina system and that I don't have to searched for bombs and arrows anymore, but I still don't know what to think of the game taking place in the same world as A Link to the Past. While the dungeons are different, some even have the same bosses.

 

The fact that they "broke" what I call "The Zelda formula" by letting you rent every item from pretty close to the start didn't bother me in the end has to speak in the games favor. It doesn't really matter that you can access all the items since every dungeon is usually based on one item only puzzle-wise, so in a way the old Zelda formula still works, I might get all the shiny new toys at once, but with the way the "playgrounds" are designed, it still feels like I'm getting a new "shiny thing" every once in a while.

 

It's also funny to see how the game sometimes seems to use your knowledge of ALttP against your or to your advantage sometimes.

[Ucantalas]

A couple of days ago I finished "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX". Earlier today I completed "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" (original, not the new HD release).

Both games were a lot of fun. I think Wind Waker might be my favorite 3D Zelda game.

[mikemariano]

Congratulations, Ucantalas! Both are amazing games and have some of the best moments of Zelda in the series. (Don't tell anyone I bailed on Wind Waker during the Triforce shard hunt.)

I just finished Back to the Future: The Game. It was a lot of fun! The last two episodes feature Doc deliberately trying to sabotage Marty's mission, which made sense for the story, but brought in a dynamic that was uncomfortable to think about. They're supposed to be a team! The weird, alternate timelines were pretty wild, going as far as to turn Hill Valley into a dystopia and a ghost town. The puzzles were decent, but it was difficult at times to "roleplay" as Marty when stuck in endlessly repeating actions and dialogue in order to find the right path.

Anyway, it's fun and it feels like Back to the Future. It's weird how permanently the DeLorean sound effects are embedded in my brain.

[Tanukitsune]

Huh, Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus was shorter than I thought, I guess that's why it was cheaper.

 

I love most of the new weapons, the Winterizer plays a remix of Jingle Bells, shoots a ray of snowflakes and candy canes and turns enemies into snowmen! The Nightmare Box not only scare enemies so much it hurts them, it also acts as a decoy that even bosses will focus on instead of trying to kill you!

 

The best part? Mr. Zurkon now gets a full family when upgraded! The family that slays together stays together. I'm not kidding, I practically squeed when I saw Mr. Zurkon Jr.

 

It's definitely a fuller Ratchet & Clank experience than Quest for Booty (which actually comes for free with the game).