Finished Any Games Lately?

Asura's Wrath is in the books. I'm really having a hard time judging its merits. The best I can come up with is this: it works a lot better as a work of art than as a video game.

The narrative and visuals are kind of amazing. The gameplay often felt like a chore. The overall product is weakened by the fact that the real ending is a $7 piece of DLC. The DLC is worth that, because it is nutball, but there are blatant hooks in the main game for it, and it just kind of comes off as scummy. I was willing to pay for it because I got the retail disc for so cheap ($10), but it hurts the chances of me actually recommending this to someone.

That's four games down in January for me - Corpse Party, Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, and Asura's Wrath. If I keep up this pace... well, the pile should be nervous.

I'm picking up a PS3 on Sunday and starting Ni No Kuni. Likely clocking in at 40+ hours, it's not the kind of game I would enjoy playing exclusively, so I need to pick something else to accompany it. Devil May Cry is recent, but it might be ZombiU's turn. I'll think about it tomorrow. The agenda for now is finishing up the Felicia Day DLC in Dragon Age 2.

Finished Penny Arcade - On The Rain Slick Precipice Of Darkness episode 3 today. I much prefer the style of this game to the first too, I find I don't really get into JRPG style games with very active combat systems. Ep 3 has a fantastic combat system, I loved the way all party members start each first with 0MP and generate it throughout the fight, this really allowed for using skills all the time rather than always feeling like you need to save your MP for major fights. Items worked on a similar system where rather than having a inventory of say 50 potions you have say 5 potions per fight, meaning you can use your items in any random encounter without feeling like they were wasted because you will still have the same amount available in the next battle. The slider showing how close each character was to their next turn, and the ability to interrupt opponents also added to the combat system.

Outside of combat unfortunately the game was a bit lacking, the story is very shallow, the locations visited are a bit hit and miss, as is the comedy (I enjoy PA but I'm not a huge fan so I'm sure I missed many of the jokes) and the characters are very one dimensional with virtually no development. Unfortunately even to good combat suffers a bit as fairly early in the game you get the four party members and all the character classes you keep through the whole game, so I quickly found a set-up that worked and more or less did the same thing in combat for the whole second half of the game. The is compounded by combat seemingly getting easier as the game progresses, with the exception of one of the final bosses I didn't die in the second half of the game after dying a number of times early on.

Overall I enjoyed the game as it was fairly short and was easy to pick-up and play a few rounds on the ipad, that said unless they make some changes i don't think I would purchase episode 4 on release.

Last night I "finished" Middle Manager of Justice for iOS. I finished the final area, but you can keep playing and there are two more areas that are "coming soon." I wish there was some indication that the plot part was complete. It was free, but I did pay for the money doubler, which put the game on a quicker pace. Overall a good time waster that would suck me in for hours late at night.

I knocked out 2 games this weekend: Dishonored and The Walking Dead. Both were top-notch, but The Walking Dead is going to stick with me a while. So well crafted. And I'm looking forward to the Dishonored DLC about Daud.

I've still got Fallout: New Vegas to complete. 3 DLCs to go, plus the main storyline is almost done. Then there's Cook, Serve, Delicious!, a great, frenetic time-waster. I still want to dig into another heavy duty game. Maybe it will be Arkham City, or ME3, or maybe XCOM. I'm home sick today, so there's opportunity to check a few of them out.

Oh, and Latrine - for finishing Super Hexagon - RESPECT. I think I've managed to last 10 seconds, if that, in the first round.

Just played through the Batman AC Harley Quinn DLC. Been wanting to check it out. It was decent, but nothing special, aside from having the chance to enter the Arkhamverse again. I may go back and try the challenge rooms again, if I can find time.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Second playthrough of Mass Effect is in the books. All squad members survived. Ready to take on 3!

Can you suggest any good strategy guides/builds?

Played through To the Moon today. Some really good moments, good writing, and small, unfortunate bugs. Just under 5 hours for me.

Finished off Kentucky Route Zero on Friday. It was short, but I loved every single moment of it

Natus wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

Second playthrough of Mass Effect is in the books. All squad members survived. Ready to take on 3!

Can you suggest any good strategy guides/builds?

Well, the Mass Effect Wikia site had plenty of info. Some guides there are very thorough on how things carry over from one game to the other. The Bioware forums also have a very detailed series of threads with all the variables and the math of the game broken down in flowcharts and the like.

It really depends on what sort of guide you're looking for or what you want to achieve in how you play the game.

Try here first:

masseffect.wikia.com

Hope that helps!

Putting Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in the books. I loved the American West Coast setting, and the game ran beautifully on mah macbook. Had a great time with Burnout: Paradise back in '08, but this was my first NFS title.

Rubber-banding is heavily used, but I think to pretty good effect. It meant that I could relax for the first 10 miles of a 12 mile race, knowing that my performance was key in those last two miles. If I crashed, NBD.

The last racing game I played before this was Dirt 3 (on easy...), so it took me awhile to realize I basically never had to let off the gas. That was weird. But ultimately more fun, I think.

It felt like a mobile title in terms of playing momentum. I could play it in short bursts; after a few races I found I lacked any desire to keep at it. Cars unlock CONSTANTLY (and I could care less), so you're pretty much always eating carrots (I'd rather eat kale). The only other carrot being finishing the game? Which I realized was not being pushed in any way by Criterion. The menu setup also felt too static. It was just a map with some lists on it. I never felt excited about choosing the next race.

So, yeah. I quit while I was still enjoying the game. It was fun! Just built in such a way that didn't suit me - rewards I didn't care about, focus on MP score-chasing.

Finished up ZombiU just now. I got the "bad ending". The game doesn't give you the option to go back and try for a better ending but even if it did, yeah not doing that bullsh*t, totally unfair last sequence again just to get a slightly different bit of CG.

Overall, this was a flawd game that was clearly working within some tight time and budget constraints but I loved it. Scary, hard (two things I don't like) and yet the way it used the GamePad was absolutely fantastic and it was dripping with atmosphere. This is a truly unique experience that could only have been done on the Wii U and really shows the system's potential. If you've got a Wii U, I highly recommend at least renting this game or trying to find it cheap. I'd written it off as soon as it was announced but as someone who normally hates games like this, I really liked it for whatever that's worth.

Wrapped up Hotline Miami today. Very odd, but very fun.

Dishonored is just about done (I think)... really haven't enjoyed it as much as others, and can't quite put my finger on why.

Dark Souls is down! No real interest in doing a new game+, but a tempted to go back and either finish it with a caster character or to see how much faster I could beat it now that I know what I'm doing. The pile is huge, but somehow Dark Souls keeps calling...

So I think I'm done with FTL. I could still play it, and I'll definitely come back to it over and over again, but I feel like I've cracked the code on that game, and I'm pretty much finding different ways to repeat the same game. Loved every minute of it. I'm thinking I will write a story for GWJ's call for writers based around the story generator that is FTL. Up next, SPAZ, and finally finishing Skyrim. And more Mass Effect 3 goodness.

Budo wrote:

So I think I'm done with FTL. I could still play it, and I'll definitely come back to it over and over again, but I feel like I've cracked the code on that game, and I'm pretty much finding different ways to repeat the same game. Loved every minute of it. I'm thinking I will write a story for GWJ's call for writers based around the story generator that is FTL.

Ooooh, I would definitely enjoy reading that!!

Since I last posted at the beginning of the month, I've finished a couple, mostly some small games like Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, Flight Control HD (okay, you can never "finish" that one, but I'm done with it), and Fairway Solitaire.

Friends and I finished Dead Island. Not sure how that got Game of the Year, when it came out.

Aristophan wrote:

Last night I "finished" Middle Manager of Justice for iOS. I finished the final area, but you can keep playing and there are two more areas that are "coming soon." I wish there was some indication that the plot part was complete. It was free, but I did pay for the money doubler, which put the game on a quicker pace. Overall a good time waster that would suck me in for hours late at night.

Guess what showed up with an update today?

I just finished Spec Ops: The Line. "Enjoyable", "entertainment" and "game" are all words I don't want to use to describe it. The best word I can find is a "lesson". Finishing it, I didn't feel sad, angry or even shocked. It's more a feeling of emptiness, a kind if fissure. A fissure that will rightfully affect the experiences I will have with violence-focused games like this in the future. Should high schools ever get to the point of teaching lessons through interactive experiences, this game should be on the curriculum.
That said, it surprises me that GWJ doesn't have a catch-all for this. GWJers are typically all over games like this (rightfully so).

PS: Playing 3rd person shooters on the PC always makes me realize how much I suck at playing the on consoles, yet that's where 90% of them end up. I would long have played finished Uncharted 2 on the PC. But his way, Uncharted 1 scared me off by been my first console shooting experience ever - and a horrible one at that (even on easy difficulty).

Eleima wrote:
Budo wrote:

So I think I'm done with FTL. I could still play it, and I'll definitely come back to it over and over again, but I feel like I've cracked the code on that game, and I'm pretty much finding different ways to repeat the same game. Loved every minute of it. I'm thinking I will write a story for GWJ's call for writers based around the story generator that is FTL.

Ooooh, I would definitely enjoy reading that!!

It's in, so we'll see!

Finished Trine2. Just need to play the DLC.

stevenmack wrote:

Finished 10,000,000 with a final score of 14664350

I shall now uninstall it with haste, lest it consume the very last shreds of sanity I cling to...

I'm currently on a business trip and loaded this up a few days ago on my iPad. My current high score is 6096338, but I'm worried it's screwing up my eye sight as I end up staring at the iPad for so long. I look up after a session and can't focus in the distance.

Louis

elgee74 wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

Finished 10,000,000 with a final score of 14664350

I shall now uninstall it with haste, lest it consume the very last shreds of sanity I cling to...

I'm currently on a business trip and loaded this up a few days ago on my iPad. My current high score is 6096338, but I'm worried it's screwing up my eye sight as I end up staring at the iPad for so long. I look up after a session and can't focus in the distance.

Louis

Ok, while you were all sleeping in North America, I finished it. I'm done as well.

Louis

Assassin's Creed Threeeeeeeeeeee

It's been quite a run. Nothing but AC for two months.

Wrapped up the Light World of Super Meat Boy and I don't know that I'm going to play through the Dark World.

Loved the game, though, as it was all about mastery and overcoming obstacles with a given set of tools.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 which brings my first Lego game set to a close. I really liked the art style and humor and I'm glad I picked these up on a lark.

I finished 40k space marine today. I had a really good time with that game. So much so that I am now reading the 40k novels and am starting to play Dawn of War 1.

I also finished Diablo on Inferno...so, there's that too.

Next, I'll finish the campaign in RUSE and I still have to polish off the Starcraft 2 campaign before the expansion comes out in March.

Bye bye, Don't Starve! Don't know if you count beat a game still in beta, but if so then I'm definitely through all the content.

I finished Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! on the 3DS earlier today. It was a short diversion with nice visuals and enough funny moments to keep me interested for a few hours. If it was any longer than that, I probably wouldn't have stuck around as I did not find the actual gameplay to be interesting at all.

Finished Dishonored. I have a real love-hate relationship with that game. Fun but sometimes annoying gameplay, and beautiful but sometimes atrocious graphics.

Credits roll on Antichamber. It was worth the wait. Go forth and play.

I finally finished the Starcraft 2 campaign in preparation for the upcoming expansion. Next, on to finish RUSE.