Completion Thread 2012: Hai! Dekimashita!

12. Rock of Ages (XBLA) - wrapped this up today. What a truly weird game; from the wacky cut-scenes with historical figures speaking gibberish to the unexpected boss fights. I enjoyed it and it certainly was something different from any other 360 game I've played. One obvious knock against it is that the tower defense portions are not really that important if you simply go fast and smash your opponents' gate as quickly as possible. I still had fun with it though and the story mode does not drag on too long.

Wrapping stuff up in preparation for their impending sequels:

10. Professor Layton and the Last Specter - DS

11. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - DS

Well, I guess M&L is distinct from PM, but still.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

14. Spec Ops: The Line (PC, Suicide Mission)

I'm really glad FirstBlood posted about this previously and then shared that it was on sale for a ridiculous $5.99. It's a fairly standard Gears of War style third person shooter, but the story is fantastic. Unlike most game that let you make moral choices and then feel really confident abut the choice you made, it continues to make you question if you're doing the right thing. There are some really disturbing moments in the game. Some of them caused me to pause to try to consider what should be done. In some of those cases, that delay was a choice in and of itself. I'd definitely buy a sequel... and for a lot more than $5.99.

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Glad you liked it. I'm assuming the delay you're referring to is when dealing with the civilians after the chopper crash. I loved that moment, where I was like "You know what... if the choice is between dying for my crimes and mowing down civilians, I'm going to stand here and get stoned to death." And I did. And then I realized I could get away with firing warning shots which continued that downward spiral of not owning up to anything

One really cool thing that I might not have immediately picked up on if they hadn't mentioned it on Giant Bomb is how the voice acting gradually changes as things get more and more desparate. At the start of the game you reload and it's all "Cover me! Oscar Mike Call of Duty Tangos!" but by the end it's just "FUCKFUCKFUCKMOTHERFUCK".

That sounds pretty great. I'm not a big shooter fan, but it sounds like this has a good single player campaign, and there are far too few of those to be found these days. I may have to hunt it down.

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Originally Posted by GohanX

I may have to hunt it down.

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I hate you so much.

#17.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...8&d=1349791551

I loves me some DD, and while this version plays a bit too fast for my tastes, it's still an excellent port.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I hate you so much.

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Yeah, my PC barely runs Minesweeper these days. I'll have to find a cheap 360 version sometime.

I finished some crappy games. Here they are:

12. Mutant Mudds - 3DS

13. Sound Shapes​ - Vita

39. VF5FS (XBLA) 400/400
I like it enough to still play it more.

40. Trials Evo: OoP (XBLA) 470/500
Great tracks in this one, most a little more challenging but in interesting ways. The BMX bike has it's uses, especially in the few levels designed for it, where coasting and catching huge air feels awesome. Really goes to show the flexibility of their engine with the different stuff they create. The squirrels in this are also much more interesting to find than the base game (for the most part). Nice additions to the heads like the Castle Crashers guy and The Squirrel spice it up a little. The opening theme songs are still my favorite of any game in a long time, maybe ever. I need gold on the 3 Extreme tracks and to wheelie through a long ass part for the final 2 cheevos, both will ensure I continue to play this one for a while.

41. Persona 4 Arena (360) 650/1000
All the single player stuff complete, besides score attack mode. Level 5 is still the highest I've been there, and it's just not enjoyable at all. Will keep it around to play with TNL and the occasional random, but randoms have been pretty spotty in this one.

30.) LittleBigPlanet Vita (Vita, obviously)

Damn near finished the story mode in a single sitting. This is actually the first game in the series I've played, so the design and basic mechanics are new to me. A lot of exceedingly clever ideas plagued by some seriously floaty and imprecise controls. The Vita's features are implemented extremely well (maybe the best I've experienced so far), and the presentation is charming as hell. Slim pickings as far as user-generated content goes, but the game is still very new.

31.) Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (Vita)

I haven't actually seen everything there is to see here, but I'm burned out on it and finished the main quest proper. Not bad as far as ports go, and I appreciate all the PS3 DLC being included straight away.

32.) Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

This is now the third time I've slogged all the way through Tartarus (once through the original, once through FES). It will almost certainly be the last. At the very least, the female main's scenario was just different enough that it held my interest throughout. Still a really fun game, but Persona 4 does everything a bit better.

Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are still the best, though.

33.) Half-Minute Hero (PSP)

Snagged this on the cheap and couldn't put it down once I got into it. I think I finished it in just under a week. Brilliant concept and its affectionate skewering of JRPG clichés was amusing. It was a nice change of pace after the doom and gloom of P3P.

34.) Double Dragon: Neon (XBLA)

I thought this was quite a bit deeper and more varied than many sites gave it credit for. There's a lot more enemy variety than there ever was in earlier games, and the upgrade/tape system is surprisingly flexible. I have my doubts as to whether the reviewers that bitched about the platforming elements ever played the original (does nobody remember that bullshit cave?) Based on the early trailers, I didn't think I was going to have as much fun with this as I ended up having. Amazing soundtrack!

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Originally Posted by Compass

I finished some crappy games. Here they are:

12. Mutant Mudds - 3DS

13. Sound Shapes​ - Vita

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Now I feel sorry for them. I was being contrary. They weren't terrible. Overpriced I think though. And Death Mode is so retarded.

MM has free DLC coming later this month that sounds like it doubles the size of the game.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

Glad you liked it. I'm assuming the delay you're referring to is when dealing with the civilians after the chopper crash. I loved that moment, where I was like "You know what... if the choice is between dying for my crimes and mowing down civilians, I'm going to stand here and get stoned to death." And I did. And then I realized I could get away with firing warning shots which continued that downward spiral of not owning up to anything

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I punched one in the face and they all ran. Parts of that game were REALLY difficult to play through.

Game's right, though. I could've just stopped.

#49 - Bayonetta (360)

Played through twice on normal to get all the hidden shit and powerups, about halfway through hard but there's way too much to play this month to get hung up on this. Incredible action game. Having skipped DMC 2, 3, and 4 this feels like a natural progression for the game type and the unofficial sequel. Definitely will be coming back to this from time to time.

#50 - Lumines: Electronic Symphony (Vita) 100% Trophies

Started off as "oh, it's just Lumines," but eventually got really into it. Pretty easy to dismiss the game unless you go back and try the first or second PSP releases and realize what a big graphical leap it actually is. Let's face it, at least 75% of this shit is music and presentation. Kinda felt a little bare bones without the puzzle modes.

Forza Horizon - Just finished the single player campaign - took about 10 hours, and I've still got a lot of side things to do like street races that I'll probably do, and then there are things like OCD achievements I probably won't.

Finally finished Rage for 360 - well worth the $19.99.

#11 - Diablo III - beat it on normal with a demon hunter. I liked it well enough, I never beat D2 because I found it unengaging but this game has a really decent combat system. I'm really in no rush to play it through again. Especially not on normal with a new character. Maybe after 1.0.5 comes out.

Yakuza: Dead Souls (PS3)

I was harsh on this game in its thread, but that's only because it comes so very close to being good and then falters where it counts. It has its funny moments, it has its poignant moments. But the combat stinks, getting around is a chore, and everything down to liquor descriptions is copypasta from Yakuza 4. That last part is key. Even if I wanted to look past the broken core mechanics, the lack of attention to detail that so charmed in previous titles just isn't here. That's a shame.


Alan Wake (360)

Played the main game and the DLC episodes. Loved everything but the stupid birds.


Infinity Blade II (iOS)

Sometimes more of a good thing makes the good thing not so good. And fuck any game that makes IAP gold more or less a requirement for superior gear. I'm proud to say I didn't bite.


Resonance (PC)

Did you know that personal computers can be used for interactive entertainment? I'm rediscovering that in 2012. Anyways, this is an average at best point-and-click. It shakes things up a little bit with its "memory" system and character swapping. I admire the effort, even if it the execution falls flat at times. It's cheap, though, so if you're a fan of the genre it might be worth your time.


Alan Wake's American Nightmare (360)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I liked it more than the original. I'm a sucker for anything in an American Southwest setting (hello, New Vegas), and it's over before the combat has a chance to feel repetitive.



360
Mass Effect 2
Alan Wake
Alan Wake's American Nightmare

PS3
Journey
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Yakuza: Dead Souls

WII
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Deadly Creatures
Xenoblade Chronicles
Wario Land: Shake It!

3DS
Pushmo
Mutant Mudds
Resident Evil: Revelations
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Mighty Switch Force
Mario Kart 7

DS
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Again
The Legendary Starfy
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Chrono Trigger

iOS
Alphadia
Hector: Badge of Carnage
9mm
Eternal Legacy
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror
Bar Oasis
Grinsia
Infinity Blade II

PSV
Touch My Katamari
Uncharted: Golden Abyss

PSP
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection
Me & My Katamari

GBA
WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgames!

GB/GBC
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Kirby's Dream Land

GG
Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble

GEN
Phantasy Star II
Shining Force II

PC
Dear Esther
Resonance

65. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Vita)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...uperHeroes.png

Craving them Vita games, got this by breaking a 10. It's alright. Mostly for the gf, but why the heck not. Never really been into the LEGO games much (save the two I work) but this one was alright. Some ugly 3DS compressed videos they just slammed to a bigger screen, but the gameplay is the same fare as in every other game. Break things to pieces then, build build build. The character swapping in NG+ is pretty neat. Makes some levels have a 'vania feel to them, save that your skills are just more DC characters.

66. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...fCybertron.png

Beaten on Normal, sided with Optimus (TILL ALL ARE ONE). I liked it. Playing this made me realize how truly spoiled we are to play games that look so magnificent, but because we live in a fast paced digital era, we get wowed by them and forget about them the week after. Solid run and gun mechanics, far more varied locations and types of missions than in War for Cybertron (they did their homework). Not a big fan of playing this multiplayer, but the fact they focused on it at all is commendable. This one's a keeper...

67. - 72 Mega Man 1 through 6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4.../67MegaMan.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...68MegaMan2.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...69MegaMan3.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...70MegaMan4.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...71MegaMan5.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...72MegaMan6.png

Had nothing to do one night and the gf was asleep after we watched some Gamecenter CX, so I got all nostalgic and fired up the Anniversary Collection of the Blue bomber games for PS2 and gave the first one a run. Surprisingly beat it in one sitting (I never did before). Since that night I kept playing through the series until I beat the 6th game and took a little break (the whole NES series took me about a week to storm through. Sadly, playing them back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back makes you see the similarities much more profoundly. The same template of x villain's several bosses to their castle, to several forms of the final hit, to B-level twists that are embarrassing, all for the sake of gameplay over quality of storytelling (which is not the point). Surprisingly, I grew up always adoring 2 the most (as the general public seems to also believe), but after this most recent 8-bit blitz, I find 3 is my favourite by a long shot. Just the right amount of new tricks, bells and whistles and all the bosses are more interesting, even if the original 8 from MM2 are pretty iconic.

That said, I am never doing this shit again. I actually used to dislike the original MM games as a teen because I just never found them that fun. Much bigger fan of the X and Z games. And that's my two cents on this. I might start the MM8 demake some day Looks very accurate.

73. Tekken Tag Tournament 2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ournament2.png

Platinum. 682 matches. Lars and Lili. Unlocked 48 of the 50ish endings. Insanely fun, just, it's a fighter, so your attention span on it can only stay on it for so long. Fantastic soundtrack. Some pretty pretty visuals. Not enough praise for all the animations in this, even if some are re-used things from 3. Perhaps my favourite Tutorial in a fighting game (Practice is pretty swell, too). Overall a lot of love went in this (even the WTF stuff is pretty admirable). Overall great great great. Reached 31st Dan with Lars and called it a day, taking a tiny break.

74. Resistance: Burning Skies

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rningSkies.png

Platinum. I never played any of these Resistance games before. I don't exactly like the setting and don't find much original of aliens attacking Earth, only in a much older and alternate setting. I see the potential, but it's just not there to me. Picked this up since it was on sale (and I see why now). It isn't terrible. It even looks alright in some spots. Controls are pretty great for a handheld. Mostly wanted to see/feel what an FPS with two sticks felt like. It was this or Unit 21. Can't say either are really my thing. Traded it in moments after finishing it for credit for Adventure Time 3DS.

75. Marvel Super Heroes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...uperHeroes.png

Not much to say here. Nostalgic stuff. Got Marvel vs. Capcom Origins. Love Iron Galaxy. Beat it with all characters. Then played it some more.

76. Ninja Gaiden

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...injaGaiden.png

Beat it in one sitting. I hate birds.

77. Ninja Gaiden II

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...jaGaidenII.png

Was very tempted to just play the Ryukenden series instead, but being hard-headed has its issues. Beat this the next day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andrew

And fuck any game that makes IAP gold more or less a requirement for superior gear.

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Are you talking about the NG+ stuff? I never did that because I first wanted to max out one of every piece of equipment for the stats, but for the normal mode IAPs aren't needed at all. I ended up with pretty much the best of everything just getting the main ending and a little extra grinding.

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Originally Posted by Rocca

I find 3 is my favourite by a long shot.

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Good man. MM3 was always my favorite.

MM3 is bad. The stages are short and the bosses are so much lamer than MM2's. Rush is cool, but he doesn't make the game better.

Your stages are short.

MM3 stages are BORING too.

MM3 is probably the best.

God no. It has the worst bosses of the first 3 games. You people.

Mega Man can go to hell.

I like 2 and 4 more than 3, but 3 isn't bad =[

3 is great, but the part where you have to replay 4 stages with the MM2 bossed can go straight to hell. If there's one thing I hate in game design it's artificially inflating the length of an otherwise good game.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Mega Man can go to hell.

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This

78. Code of Princess

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ofPrincess.png

Animu tits. Beat it with Solange [Knowles], Level 60 something. Liked it a lot more than GHII, that's for sure. Some great moments, hilarious localization, as usual from Atlus. Pretty fluid 3d models prettied up to pass for new age sprites. Combat is not too simple and not exactly very developed either, so it's not too bad. Apparently this is already pretty hard to find, so I'm glad I found it. There are over 50 playable characters, but only 4 selectable from the main quest, which is a bit of a drag. Still, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

31. Holy Diver

http://users.zoominternet.net/~tain/100s/holy_diver.png

Starts off seeming an awful lot like Castlevania (slow character, close-range attacks, gothic castles), but distinguishes itself very quickly as the spells are unlocked. The stages are absolutely brutal, with tons of strict jumps, semi-unpredictable enemies (some of which infinitely spawn), and countless situations to make players constantly make use of their different spells. It might be the toughest infinite continue game I've played on the platform. The bosses are as uneven, difficulty-wise, as many games from this era, but are at least all pretty memorable, and the stages do a lot to stand out in terms of their theme and enemies used. Generally nice visuals (despite the backgrounds being sometimes sparse) and decent music (despite the music resetting every time you change spells). Pretty good game!

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Originally Posted by Tain

31. Holy Diver

. It might be the toughest infinite continue game I've played on the platform. The bosses are as uneven, difficulty-wise, as many games from this era, but are at least all pretty memorable, and the stages do a lot to stand out in terms of their theme and enemies used. Generally nice visuals (despite the backgrounds being sometimes sparse) and decent music (despite the music resetting every time you change spells). Pretty good game!

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Nice! Always glad to read these. Especially HD, I think it is the one of two or three IREM games I haven't played yet.

I haven't played it either, it looks really cool. Maybe I should make a few...

15. Dishonored (PC, Low Chaos)

What an amazing game. I wound up getting both Clean Hands and Ghost/Shadow as well as almost all the other achievements possible with a Low Chaos play through. The one I feel robbed about is the "Mostly Flesh and Steel," which says don't buy any powers or upgrades except for Blink. Apparently Blink II violates this, which definitely should have been more clear. The only other nit pick are the mysterious deaths I bitched about on a couple levels in the game's thread. Everything else was simply incredible. The story was compelling, the stealth gameplay is easily the best of this generation and just puts stuff like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid to shame, and I love the art direction and design with stylized steam punk. I'm sure I'm going to leave something out of this list I shouldn't, but this is right up there with the likes of Bioshock, Uncharted, Gears of War, Skyrim, and the Fallouts in terms of best of the generation. And, perhaps best of all, it kept portables games from having a path to my game of year.

9/10

2012 Totals:
1 3DS, 1 FC, 2 iOS, 4 PC, 1 PS2, 4 PS3, 1 PSV
2 - 6s, 2 - 7s, 4 - 8s, 5 - 9s, 1-10

Nudged out Kid Icarus: Uprising, huh.

You just made my hand hurt from literally painful memories alone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rocca

Especially HD, I think it is the one of two or three IREM games I haven't played yet.

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This reminds me that I've been wanting to sit down and play through Metal Storm since before it came out. I've tried it a couple times but never played past the first level, so maybe I should knock that out and do some HD too.

79. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...oldenCoins.png

Didn't know I bought this on the [Handheld] Virtual Console for 3DS. Welp, guess I'll go through it. Still sweet.

#51 - Escape Plan + Asylum DLC (Vita) 100% Trophies

Really fun and imaginative touch adventure-y type escape the room game. There are still two more DLC packs to buy, but I'll probably wait before I pick that up.

#52 - Code of Princess (3DS)

Finished the main game as Solange. This is, like everyone else has said, a Guardian Heroes clone. Tongue-in-cheek dialogue, great art style that is not fully realized in-game, and massive framerate issues. I'd say around $20 would be perfect for this game, so get it when it drops in price but before it disappears.

Dead Rising

I think I'm done with this for a while. Got all of the endings except the one where you let the mall blow up. And I got the saint achievement for saving everyone and ending A for finishing Overtime. I don't know if I really care about surviving 5 or 7 days for those achievements.

DON'T DO IT

The surviving thing is just painful. The boredom got to me at a certain point and I walked out of the safety of the antique store... lost two QTAs in a row and ended up dying literally minutes before the days were up =[

Sounds like you had a good run with the game, though. I loved it!

I kind of wish I hadn't played it! Because it did the whole zombie thing so perfectly, I don't think another zombie game will every really live up to it. Lollipop chainsaw feels like a series of minigames now. And many of the RE games now feel silly.

I wish more games would go for that kind of gameplay. Where you get dumped in an area and have to survive or escape in so much time. And everything else is a sandbox and you can do what you want.

The 53,000 kill achievement felt like a Brock Samson game. Or at least the way I did it, did. I went to the basement with a car and would ram into a large group of zombies and then knock the car into reverse and sling the rear end around in a circle, then jet forward again.

Man, that needs to be a game. Brock Samson escapes the league of calamitous intent.

Just go play DR2 OTR now.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

With AC 3 getting really close, I wanted to be up to date. Took me a few months of stop and start, but I finished the story and messed around with it for a bit longer after that, so I count it as done and I'm moving on. I really liked Brotherhood and while it took awhile for me to get in the groove, this was a good follow up. Puts Altaire and Ezio to rest so the story can move on. Keeps the assassin recruitment and training mini game which I liked, I always liked rolling around town with serious back up. New was the "tower defense" mode for defending your assassin dens. Didn't like it. Don't want to do that shit in a AC game and thankfully I only had to go through it twice (thankfully, it's pretty easy to avoid). I wasn't a fan of the bomb crafting addition, but ended up loving it. You can make different bombs for distraction, kills and cover. You constantly get supplies to build them so you never have to hoard them, just experiment and have fun. My favorite: sticky shrapnel bombs with fuses! Tail a guard, peg him in the back and slink away. Couple seconds later, bodies go flying and no one is alerted to your presence.

It's a solid game, a ton of things to do and collect, good mission variety. High production value all around, still looks really good, great VO and soundtrack. The running controls felt stiffer than I remember from Brotherhood (easy to get caught on stuff) and they STILL haven't made an animation for walking upstairs. Drives me nuts. They make all these crazy detailed animations for fighting and climbing but everyone glides up steps like a ghost.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GohanX

I haven't played it either, it looks really cool. Maybe I should make a few...

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Yes please!

#18.

Great game! I really would like to play this with dual analog and updated visuals. The bosses were really easy though, and the game is kind of short (only 5 stages in all). If Sega's not going to give us a true sequel, then it should remake this one. This is a true Saturn classic that deserves more love.

The replay value is just the collect-a-thon aspect but I would purchase a remake at full price.

Beat doom 3 again. Still the best survival horror game.

27) Deus Ex (PC) - Normal, "The Collapse" ending. Cut off coolant to reactor at Area 51, then mess with switches in the reactor lab to bring it all down

This was a LONG game clocking in at around 21 hours to finish, but it did not seem to "drag on". You're going around the world here- starting off in New York, while ending up in Hong Kong and Paris eventually. What you do (or fail to do) in the game at key points can come back to haunt you later, leading to certain NPCs dying, being pissed off and not giving you helpful items, or even returning to kill you. Melee combat is deeper than Human Revolution's since you don't just use takedowns. It's not "Ohhh-K, press Q and slam this fucker into the flloor- goodnight". The riot prod allows you to go for non-lethal KOs, while there are several deadly weapons like the crowbar and even the Dragon Tooth sword that can kill most enemies in one hit. The latter helped out on stealth kills, and all the other H2H weapons became worthless to me once I got it.

I didn't bother playing pacifist style (Dragon Tooth sword, Assault rifle, and GEP Gun were usually in my arsenal along with an occasional sniper) but the tranquilizer darts were handy at times. Men in Black go KABLAM when killed- good if you have one near some other enemies. If there's a friendly character nearby, that can suck.

The GEP Gun (launcher) isn't a bad weapon, but there was another thing I found it even more useful for: blowing doors to splinters when short on lockpicks. While the hacking just involves waiting a few seconds for the ICE Breaker to do its thing, it's awesome to hijack a security bot and watch it mow down MJ12 troops.

Still a solid FPS title overall, especially with the New Vision upgrade installed to spruce up the majority of textures. I wouldn't mind seeing a remake done with DXHR's engine.

80. Torchlight II

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rchlightII.png

Beaten on Normal. I loved this game. I haven't played a top-down, loot-based action RPG since the very title they molded this from (including staff from the original D2). So much to enjoy. Presentation is a noticeable softening and much more detailed edition of the graphics from the first game. Cartoony/surrealistic WoWish art. Four classes, which may sound little, but they are all interesting enough to try out. I started out as an Engineer and usually around this time of year, I immediately skip to the next game to make good time, but I enjoy this so much, I re-started almost right away to play as a female Embermage (Sorceress) to mix things up.

Character creation now goes the fair amount of choices I expected in the first game (which I haven't finished). Gender, face, hair, eye color, but an assortment of 7-8 different kind of pets, which you can feed food you fish in ponds (the ponds have rarity ranks) to momentarily transform them into beasts, each with their strategic strengths and weaknesses.

There are a ton of things done extremely well with menus, they either picked up from successful game or based on feedback from the first game. Being able to use your pet as an inventory mule, send it off to town to sell items and even request him/her to order you more HP/MP Identity/Warp Scrolls is genius. I love that. Simple clicks to switch tabs between you and your pets inventory are great. Shift+Click to move junk or prized possessions from owner to pet and vice versa. Right-click to auto-swap the currently highlighted inventory item with an equipped one. An auto-organize button to not waste time sorting things every time.

Loot, like most games is classed by font color (orange being the highest) and I found quite a bunch of things during my sole playthrough (took me roughly 15 hours). Some sadly reserved for other classes, but I've yet to check if the stashes in towns can be used to swap items with other owned characters.

Like I said, I picked an Engineer, who is more a crowd-centric tank who can summon bots and turrets to help him. There are skills for both dual-wielded weapons and large cannons. With some pricey mana and hp leaching/regen stones socketted into them, I was pretty much invincible for a good while. Already on my 2nd playthrough, the Embermage is a great deal of fun.

There's also a Fame system for doing good acts, saving people in quarrels with monsters or downing rare beasts yourself. It's like the four bar next to HP/MP and XP. It only raises a title, but its a subtle nuance to make the player feel proud of their accomplishments (in-game and active rewards, very well done).

81. Ikaruga (DC/GC/XBLA)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...gaDCGCXBLA.png

I was rather hesitant adding this, having beaten it before, but I really haven't played it in years and went through it pretty thoroughly over the past few two weeks. A friend of mine had a weird challenge night that we all bring some game to play in front of friends. I picked this and though I was really rusty, I tried to practice myself back up to old stature. I'm weird, so I had fun going through the three owned DC/GC and XBLA versions to see the subtle nuances between each. Beat the game well over 30 times now. Final score was 14'400'000+ points, but just like years ago, everything goes smoothly and one hick-up at the end makes me lose critical amounts of time and lives. It's too bad. Still, I think everyone had a fun time watching. After beating it five or six times last week, I figured that wasn't enough and tried another 20+ times and even tried to Dot Eater a bit (got bored at Chapter 3). Still one of my favourite games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rocca

Some sadly reserved for other classes, but I've yet to check if the stashes in towns can be used to swap items with other owned characters.

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The shared stash can be found right next to your personal stash in town.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rumpy

The shared stash can be found right next to your personal stash in town.

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Thanks!

82. Dishonored

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Dishonored.png

No upgrades, no enhancements, no powers (Save Blink, which I had no choice since its scripted to be given to you) run. Overall, not bad. They do a lot of things very well. The fiction is an alternate 19th Century London (Dunwall) with a mix of a unique Neo-Victorian architecture on key monuments with industrial steampunk machinery. The world has a unique energy dependency on whale oil, which I thought was pretty neat. They got the setting down well, especially with the mention of Dunwall being a lock-down state, making note of a single entity not from there as an Outsider.

Controls, camera and combat is pretty fun. I never really liked melee in 1st person games much, but for what they tried it was pretty good. Blink is extremely well done, giving great feedback on vertical reaches and whether or not you can make it. Even just barely making it is possible by being able to grip ledges.

Can't say I cared much for any of the other powers. When you have blink, you kind of don't need much else if you're crafty enough. I would never really see myself using Summon Rats, really. Shadow Kill is pretty neat but less fun if you're going for a non-lethal stealth run. Which is a shame. The patrols are weird because it seems like they run more on point of interests than actual patrols. Sometimes I would take out a guard and hide him in a spot that was, from my understanding, out of another guards jurisdiction, until he would cross his line and actually investigate my zone, which I thought safe. Worse is that you can takedown one guard and he can be replaced without really understanding why. Also if you hide a body to the other end of the map, behind a crate, nestled between the shadows, a guard could somehow find it. But if I leave a body on top of a crate, the AI won't notice it. Almost as if removing it from the ground makes it invisible. Weird.

Ran into a bunch of bugs, too (Walking into a mansion and 3 NPCs 'Blinking' right in front of me, even though they don't have powers. Susan Sarandon as Granny Rags further makes shit confusing, because she looks better in real life, but is great at doing an old hag's voice. Overall, I think my only gripe is the stealth and maybe lean peaking, because it's a little rough to work with. It starts off quite slow, but ramps up adequately and gets you interested in investing time in it again by the half point. Which isn't perfect, but maybe that's just me.

83. Borderlands 2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rderlands2.png

Level 32 Assassin. Pretty simple yet fun stuff. Huge world full of quests, even if they revolve around the same ideas over and over, the humor thins the issues out. Gun rarity does not equal quality, since I have some blue gear which completely trumps some orange ones...which is still a little weird. Got Scarlett's DLC, but I'm going to take a break with this game since it's going to last me all the way until the last DLC in June 2013.

Journey - I really enjoyed this. Incredibly short but a good use of simplicity in many aspects and excellent sound design. The part in the third chapter or so when sliding for a long time through the desert as the sun was setting was ridiculously gorgeous. I want more.

Do you?

Yes.

I just did a quick run through of Gitaroo Man on normal. Still awesome.

Skyland is safe once again.

32. Dishonored

http://users.zoominternet.net/~tain/100s/dishonored.png

This isn't a very good stealth game, but getting caught and proceeding to tear shit up? A lot of fun. The abilities even seem to facilitate this. I wish I didn't spend so much time trying to be perfectly sneaky early on, as blinking around and suffocating people was pretty slow and dull. Kinda wish I went the high chaos route, too, since the low chaos ending kind of sucked. Really cool final mission leading up to the end, though.

lol rocca, same image

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Originally Posted by Tain

32. Dishonored

http://users.zoominternet.net/~tain/100s/dishonored.png

This isn't a very good stealth game, but getting caught and proceeding to tear shit up? A lot of fun. The abilities even seem to facilitate this. I wish I didn't spend so much time trying to be perfectly sneaky early on, as blinking around and suffocating people was pretty slow and dull. Kinda wish I went the high chaos route, too, since the low chaos ending kind of sucked. Really cool final mission leading up to the end, though.

lol rocca, same image

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Heh. The stealth really was a disappointment. There are no real definitive patrol paths, which breaks the mindset of a player who stands back in the shadows and studies before acting. Here it seems more reactive, which is a shame and not very fun, really. I was playing it stealthy like you until Mission 2 or 3, I realized how unjust it was and went for high chaos. Even the High Chaos ending was pretty bland.

What, I thought Dishonored was thiefsystemshock2deusexhalflife2bestofeverything.

Nah, it's more like Assassin's Creed without the blending and with body dragging and teleportation added.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Nah, it's more like Assassin's Creed

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO /vader

The sword combat and types of assassinations are pretty much exactly the same, the climbing and rooftop hopping is fairly reminiscent though with its own twist, and if you removed all the crowd stealth aspects and just left the binary reaction guards you pretty much have Dishonored. The level design, however, is totally different. They're not exactly alike but it's way closer to AC than anything else you mentioned.

Well, hopefully nobody got it for me for my birthday then. I didn't see any review mention similarities to AC.

Neither did I, but it struck me really hard when I was wandering around town in the second mission and noticed that bystanders and guards acted the same way they do in AC except that there are only like five civilians in town so guards just have instant hate as soon as I got close. Then it dawned on me how similar the combat was with its huge reliance on parry/counterattacking with normal strikes doing very little damage, the crazy powerful but limited gun, and some other stuff I mentioned before. They do feel pretty dissimilar overall so I don't think that your hate of AC will carry over, but the mechanics have a lot of similarities.

Mech is just messing with you.

I don't know about that, I hear Mech is a humorless ass.

Does this mean I need to hire a PR agent to work on my image? I don't have that kind of money.

Do you have doritos and mountain dew?

On occasion.

This page is complete insanity.

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Originally Posted by Tain

This isn't a very good stealth game

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I am glad someone else said this. It isn't. I have shelved it temporarily.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

This page is complete insanity.

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<3 TNL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Compass

MM has free DLC coming later this month that sounds like it doubles the size of the game.

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Whoa, there, Complet. Not quite. The free DLC only adds 20 retro bonus stages. For some reason I thought it also added another 20 regular stages with 100 crystals each.

I don't think I'm going to count it as a game, but I beat the Serious Sam 3 Jewel of the Nile DLC. There are some quieter exploratory moments that you don't really see in the main campaign, but for the most part, the DLC is more of the same. Which is still pretty fun, since SS3 is one of the greatest first person shooters ever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Compass

Whoa, there, Complet. Not quite. The free DLC only adds 20 retro bonus stages. For some reason I thought it also added another 20 regular stages with 100 crystals each.

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The grandma levels are really fucking hard...

Yeah, I'll do one or two and then I have to put it down because I'm irritated. Getting tired of the fall-down-hover-through-spikes-then-shoot-up-at-the-last-second scenario in seemingly every level.

28) Dragon Saber (AC, JPN ver.) 1st credit: 171150 pts/Area 5
1P mode has checkpoints. No cheating was done by using the 2P join-in. A 1CC doesn't look too hard to do eventually.

This is a good sequel to Dragon Spirit, with some cool added weapons (especially the phoenix-shaped energy blast, one of the charge shots). Charge shots are done like Battle Bakraid where you let go of fire for a few moments. Area 2 revisits the fire mountain theme from DS1, but the ground quakes and splits in some places. Mode 7 effects are used well- there's a rotating lava pit that one of the bosses will rise from, and some enemies will scale up from lower levels ala Rayforce if you don't drop a bomb on them first. Area 5 has a speed zone which is challenging but mercifully short. Iron walls in the cavern require you to get into position quickly enough to blow them away. One of the new stage designs has you in the guts of some beast (not unlike Salamander). You start out near the rib cage (careful- the ribs swing up to stab you), while the immune system lays the blitz on with antibodies and killer cells.

Of course, DS2 has another amazing Megaten soundtrack. It mixes hints of DS1's music style with an epic orchestral sound, and the result simply rocks. Zawell's theme is used again for the final boss, but that's fine- it's a classic, and one of my favorite BGM tracks ever. You can even select to use an arranged version of DS1's BGM. The fact that Namco Museum Vol. 6 (Encore) never showed up in the USA deserves a big "Why the hell not?". Rolling Thunder and Dragon Saber would've been recognizable enough to sell that compilation.

#19.

I go through NES Contra at least once a year. It's old school awesomeness that never gets old.

#20.

Panzer Dragoon is still amazing, after all these years. The atmosphere, enemy designs, and the brilliant soundtrack combine to create one of the most unique worlds in gaming. It may be the weaker of the quadrilogy, but it still outshines most other rail shooters out there. Sega really needs to keep this series alive, or at least remaster the Saturn trilogy with new graphics.

My last completed game was September 9? I suck. :(

21) Clan of Champions, on Easy. Review embargoed, I'll have a nice post in the PC Gaming thread later, when I can officially talk about it. I don't normally review (or play, or care about) Easy but I was under the impression I'd just cleared out the first set of levels. Whoops.

-edit- Review embargo over. It's utterly terrible. How on earth can they justify it being $40 on Steam? I was thinking it'd be $10-$20 when I played it, and even that was overpriced.

James

29) Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC) Normal difficulty
Illuminati & Templars defeated. Rejoined Paul & JC at the Statue of Liberty to merge with Helios.

It's about 1/2-1/3 the length of the first DE (9 hours) but still good. IW is somewhat "consolized" compared to the original, with the level size being reduced. Your inventory system is simpler, with all items taking one slot- no more arranging stuff on a grid, and no slot required for weapon mods. Repair/med bots don't have to recharge. The blade isn't as powerful as the Dragon sword but it can still 1HKO light enemies if you hit correctly. Later, I had some sick fun terrorizing heavy armored enemies with a level 3 Spy Drone.

The factions play a greater part. Sometimes, a representative from one of the groups gets annoyed at your assisting their rivals. Get someone really pissed and they can send a task force after you. I like in this one how you don't have to sit in place and wait for the reticle to "zero in". The universal ammo system cuts both ways. You'll have a lot of ammo if you're using the pistol or boltcaster, but the rocket launcher and sniper rifle are expensive to use- depleting a full stock quickly if you whore them out.

DXIW is very different from the first in some ways but still good.

33. Bare Knuckle III

http://users.zoominternet.net/~tain/...nuckle_iii.png

Pretty good. The extra mobility is appreciated and the cast of enemies seems more varied than 2's (or, at least, something is making these stages drag a little less). Branching paths and alternate endings are cool, too. Soundtrack is worse than the second game, though, unfortunately.

Someone should hack sor 2 music into the game.

#9: Black Mesa

I missed out on Half-Life when it was new and only just got into the series recently with Half-Life 2. Because of this I don't have the nostalgia that many people probably do for the game, but I still found it cool to have been able to experience (most of) the events that lead up to the masterpiece that is HL2. And, better, to have been able to do so in all of its updated glory. Of course, now I want to play through what happened next and who knows when the rest is going to come out, but I won't complain because it's impressive that this thing exists at all.

And that Gluon gun is totally bitchin'! :tu:

13. Rayman Origins (360) - great visuals and some interesting music are a nice bonus for this well made platformer. I have not really played much of previous Rayman games but I certainly enjoyed this one. It does start out quite easy but I thought the difficulty ramped up the second half of the game and you can make it more challenging by collecting and going for other goals on each level.

Assassins Creed 3. My first Creed game. It's pretty good. Drags a bit and a little glitchy but pretty damn impressive at times. Glad you can keep playing after the credits roll. Still got throats to slit and boats to sink. 8.5.

42. Borderlands 2 + Pirate's Booty dlc (360) 1125/1125 (1,967th to complete it on TA, out of 48,066 tracked!)

Really enjoyed this game, for lots of reasons. The writing is just great, very entertaining and original and funny, great characters and situations, lots of fun variety to go around. Probably at least a 3rd of the time I spent playing this was spent picking up/looking through/trying out the guns I saw. As someone who loves to pick up loot, this game hit that note perfectly, always keeping me wanting slightly better stuff, knowing it was one more level away or whatever the case may be. Yeah there's a bunch of fetch quest missions, but then there's other interesting things to go do like Shoot That Guy In The Face, or one of the hundreds of side challenges. I really like that the badass points you get from one character give bonuses to all of the characters you create, while still letting you complete each challenge with each character and skyrocket your badass ranks. Pretty sure mine ended at about 10,000 BA points. Had a lvl 50 Assassin (Pineapple), lvl 30 Gunzerker (M.U.D.B.U.T.T.), and a lvl 13 Siren (S.L.U.T.) and Commando (B.A.L.L.S.). May get the mechromancer at some point, but I've already played through the whole story between 3 to 6 times. The DLC came out really fast, but it's of very high quality imo. More fun characters, more enemies and bosses, more loot n weapons. I'm sitting on ~250 Seraph crystals right now, just can't decide if I should spend them or wait, so I'll probably just wait. Next DLC should hopefully raise the level cap and introduce even more new stuff.
Only a couple of things I wasn't that pleased with, for looking so smooth and playing so well I got stuck on the environment A LOT. Just running around outside and some tiny stone jutting out of the ground is enough to randomly stop me in my tracks, usually when I was trying to run from someone who was kicking my ass. Climbing ladders in this game is a fucking joke. If the ladder actually decides to recognize that you're attempting to climb it (about 50/50 here), there's a good chance you'll make it some of the ways up before you get stuck on something imaginary and have to jump off the ladder and try it again for no reason. Sometimes these ladders are above cliffs or dropoffs, so there's a chance you'll have to spend $xxx from respawning as you simply try to climb a damn ladder. That is silly.
Overall it's a pretty great game. I enjoyed it much more than the first, but I never did get past lvl 23 in the first so I'm going to give it a more serious go to see how it really compares. And playing it with friends is just a blast. Definitely recommended, there is some damn fine work done in this game. My last cheevo was Gunzerking for 90 seconds, which also felt pretty damn good while it was happening :)

43. Simpsons Arcade (XBLA) 85/200

I'd play it once more for the achievement of beating it with everyone, but that's a half hour more than I want to play this game again this year. It was on sale and I am done with it for now.

44. Otomedius Excellent (360) 130/1000

Another one that I'm calling done before it's 100%ed. Because I will go back and get the 1000/1000 for this game, eventually (because it's incredibly easy, just stupidly time consuming), but considering how god fucking awful this shinny gleaming turd fest is, I'm done with it for now. It actually makes me mad when I think of this game, it's that frustratingly bad. It's pretty! Oooh! Look at the little girls driving jet-jetskis! Fuck this game. It's a slow, cumbersome slog through totally uninteresting levels, fighting incredibly mundane and repetitive and SIMPLE fucking enemies and bosses, the bullets are tiny and blend into the background constantly making it very tough to keep up with where you are in the sea of tiny bullets and uninteresting enemies and backgrounds, it really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. It's a soul sucking, rape on a disc fiasco that was designed by Satan to pull on the nostalgia strings of silly Gradius fans just long enough to lure them into thinking they were buying something they would like. Unfortunately it's not even as bad as I've described. It's fucking worse.

Nice stuff, man! Looks like you killed Borderlands 2 and even its DLC. I think what I loved most is how many references they make, some that flew completely over my head friends told me and the inverse for them too.

84. LittleBigPlanet Vita

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...PlanetVita.png

If you have a Vita, I would almost say this is a must-buy. I've never really played the older ones for more than a few minutes and watching an [ex] girlfriend ace the entire game, but this keeps getting branded as the definitive version and with good reason. Great controls, pretty visuals, pretty endearing story (if you're a kid, this must be the most magical thing ever). Stephen Fry's verbose discourses to help you play is awesome, too. Game spells magic. Interesting use of Touch controls, even if they are pretty rough sometimes (as in, you have to drop standard controls to swipe something to make a jump and go back to normal controls.

85. Sleeping Dogs

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...eepingDogs.png

No complaints here. Beat it and plan to go back for some extras. Pretty great sandbox game.

86. ZOE 2: 2nd Runner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...e2ndRunner.png

The lag is not as bad as Internet babies claim. Making an FPS analysis of this game in HD and only using the first level is pretty unfair to the rest of the game. And to be frank, the PS2 edition was not running at a cool locked 60 during the whole game. Having played it 80 times, trust me, it does not. It can even slow to a crawl at 15 to 20 frames at times. This edition however, rather gives a constant 35 and in some moments a spike up to 50. It's really good. Don't know what everyone's whining about. If I can be a diehard fan of this game and not mind it, I don't see most people really having just reasons to avoid it like the plague. Also, the Revengeance demo is on it, which is MGS "I really want the demo and there's some game attached" tradition.

This is why we don't have a what's coming in November thread!

Oh yeah! I'll write that tomorrow morning. :)

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Originally Posted by Rocca

86. ZOE 2: 2nd Runner

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...e2ndRunner.png

The lag is not as bad as Internet babies claim. Making an FPS analysis of this game in HD and only using the first level is pretty unfair to the rest of the game. And to be frank, the PS2 edition was not running at a cool locked 60 during the whole game. Having played it 80 times, trust me, it does not. It can even slow to a crawl at 15 to 20 frames at times. This edition however, rather gives a constant 35 and in some moments a spike up to 50. It's really good. Don't know what everyone's whining about. If I can be a diehard fan of this game and not mind it, I don't see most people really having just reasons to avoid it like the plague. Also, the Revengeance demo is on it, which is MGS "I really want the demo and there's some game attached" tradition.

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Yeah, I figured the PS2 version didn't run perfectly. A lot of commotion without even pitting the 360 version against the PS2 one. Still wouldn't mind the option to turn off AA or something to get full 60, though.

If Rocca says it's good, then it's good. Did you play the PS3 or 360 version? I would prefer PS3 for the controller...

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Originally Posted by Mzo

If Rocca says it's good, then it's good. Did you play the PS3 or 360 version? I would prefer PS3 for the controller...

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I played the PS3 version and also because I preferred the controller. If you really want to know how it handles framerate, the first map used in the analysis (Callisto) has slowdown, but after that it's a mixed bag of "perfectly fine" or "slow, but not the end of the world". Even some stages run blindingly fast. It just matters what's on screen.

And as for ZOE1, which I think few will care about, I played that too and that's even less of a problem, actually running at 60 all the time. World just got riled up because the most hectic map (next to saving the Space Force LEVs against BAHRAM in the desert towards the end) runs slow.

It's fine. :)

He said LBP Vita is good and IDBTN.

He must've been drunk that day.

I've heard LBP Vita is supposed to be really, really good. It wasn't even done by MM.

I kind of hated so much about the first game it's ruined the series for me, but I do love the Vita... hmmm...

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I've heard LBP Vita is supposed to be really, really good. It wasn't even done by MM.

I kind of hated so much about the first game it's ruined the series for me, but I do love the Vita... hmmm...

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It looks and sounds really good. It really nailed the style of the other games.

#12 - Halo: Reach - beat it but I need to get through 2 missions to get it all done on heroic. Pretty good game. The last mission was a pain in the balls, I can say without hesitation I have no interest in beating it on legendary solo. I should be getting CEA soon so I can go right into that game's story. This game had the best art of the series.

Halo 4: Beat it on Heroic solo. Now I'm ready for Legendary Co-Op.

Assassin's Creed III - Almost done with the single-player achievements, just a couple boring things to grind out. ACIII was a step down from Revelations in pretty much every way it could've been. They added a ton of welcome stuff but the story was yet another revenge tale and Conner was just a single-minded fish-out-of-water, so he was pretty boring and his interactions with others was really one-sided. They did a great job of implementing colonial America with the AC gameplay but it's still an inferior location for gameplay and visual design, although I did like how they handled all the famous people.

They removed the cinematic chase sequences from AC:R and replaced them with shitty normal chases that usually had retarded objectives like not touching any civilians. They also removed the bombs from AC:R, which I can understand thematically but nothing is there in its place except the rope dart (which is awesome but not nearly as customizable and versatile). AC3 is also RIDICULOUSLY buggy, to a degree that makes me a little ashamed that I supported this game at launch. Cities have a vanishing bug where sometimes the closer I got to civilians the more of them would disappear, quest markers would sometimes never appear, one time I failed a mission because the two people I was supposed to stay near walked off in opposite directions, and so on. Probably the funniest was where the game had this solemn death sequence for a character followed by a funeral, and immediately following that I walked back into the house where the person lived and they were still hanging out in there and doing chores for the rest of the game. Well done.

That ending was also pretty weak, and wrapped up about as well as every other game in the series. The present-day stuff was actually pretty nice and I wish they had really taken it further, but it's clear this game was a bit of a rush job anyway. Aside from the hunting shit they put like 500% more effort into wrapping up Ezio and Altair than they did into this game, which leaves it to be rather disappointing.

In a more entertaining news, I have a turkey wearing an assassin's hood:

Click for full size


Also:

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1352510705
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1352510705

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Assassin's Creed III - just a couple boring things to grind out

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Almost done running my first marathon, only 26.2 miles to go

I still find myself interested in trying this game. I'd love to see what it's like to run around old-time Boston and I hear the production values are great