VideoGame_Discussion

Slickriven wrote:

I'm not sure either. Like all of those brutal arcade games of that era, it's that combination of obsession and pattern recognition that gets you through the game, I imagine.

It's a shame. If you play through the console versions, you can power up your character more so that each hit/de-power isn't a practical game-ender. But then you only have five credits to get through everything.

3rd in June and in about 3 days, 37th overall, 2nd on
Hoa

I had started this about 2 months ago when I had a chance to actually play on my X1X as that TV ends up being used by my wife 99% of the time and today I got a chance to resume playing it - I had other chances since but eh the game wasn't that compelling. It's a nice, simple experience, but nothing all that great. Short enough that I wanted to, and did, finish it. I'd have to replay it fully to get 1 achievement and I missed one other. I did take a few mins to seek out the 2nd but just didn't care when I couldn't recall where I needed to go for that so uninstalled and moving on.

OP updated! I've been pretty sluggish on clears lately, since my new job takes a lot of time, and the games I'm currently playing are pretty lengthy. But I'll finish them!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Thanks for sticking with this. How does @Bleed_DukeBlue get the Destroy the Core badge twice - can we earn them twice? Or was it just a typo?

Slickriven wrote:

Thanks for alerting me. The A, C, and X keys on my keyboard are somewhat unresponsive, so copying text occasionally doesn't work. So after I pasted the Destroy the Core badge, it didn't register me copying 2nd Amendment and just pasted the Destroy the Core again. I've fixed it.

I beat Bosconian , as far as I’m concerned.
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My high score was 41390, quit on round 14. It goes up to round 255 before reseting, but no one on this thread will do that. I’ve seen what there is to see, and even repeated a few of the same enemy positions.

I have nostalgic memories of playing Bosconian on my old Plug ‘n’ Play, but it doesn’t hold up as well as I remembered. The main issue is how you reset to the middle of the screen after every death. So you spend a lot of time flying back to the enemy base that killed you, only to die and have to fly back there once again. It gets monotonous quickly.

If they added a mechanic where you could move faster if you weren’t shooting, it might be a bit better. Then there’d be a risk-reward element to it at least. But as it is, eh.

#47: The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales on Xbox Series X. I would like to use this clear (alongside my previous clear of Wordtris) to claim the Brain Teaser badge. Part of the official description of the game includes:

“Solve unconventional puzzles across fiction and reality. Test your ingenuity with unique puzzles that encourage thinking outside the box, as you freely travel between fiction and reality, gathering valuable items to overcome obstacles. Using the mystical power of ink, you can manipulate objects within the books, adding depth to your interactions and unlocking new paths to explore.”

The majority of the game involves solving puzzles.
Usually, I’m not a puzzle fan, but the puzzles were reasonable in this game. I was able to solve all of them without consulting a guide, and the narrative was really interesting. Every now and then, I stumble upon a Game Pass indie that really impresses me, and this (like Immortality, although that game is very different) was one of those times. I mainly played this because it was about the leave Game Pass, and I’m glad I did. One of the most creative storylines I’ve ever seen in a game.

#48 down: Before Your Eyes on PSVR2. Could this count toward the Now You're Playing with Plastic badge? You play it entirely with the headset using eye tracking. (You don't use any controller at all. You just look at things and move your head (for example, you connect a line with your eyes across the pages to turn the page of some piano music), blink (to move forward in time and to activate certain things around the game), and close your eyes (for some scenes to advance while you listen to things happening around you)).

This is a really unique game about a kid in the afterlife preparing for his life to be retold to the gatekeeper to see whether or not he is worthy of going to a great city (with punishment on the horizon for over-embellishing). I wasn't so sure about it at first, but it grew on me, and, by the end, I had a lot of appreciation for it. It's pretty short, and there isn't really any replay value, so I'm not sure how I would feel if I had paid full price for it, but, since I got to play it through PS+ premium, it was well worth the experience. The story is pretty moving, and the way you control things is unlike anything I've experienced. In the same way that Astro's Playroom was a great tech demo for the PS5 controller's haptic feedback, Before Your Eyes is a great tech demo for eye tracking.

Date: 6/11
Number: 21
Title: Secret of Monkey Island
Time: n/a
Badge: "Guybrush Threepwood" [Close to the Sun on 1/8 & Secret of Monkey Island 6/11]

I always knew this series had left a nice impression on this style of game and was popular. Point and click just usually aren't my thing. However, I decided to give it a try due to the Retro talk shop thread. It was clever, it was funny. Definitely a few audible chuckles during gameplay. Some of the puzzles were hard to get right, and the bits with no sound/music were unwelcome. How do the sequels stack up to the original?
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Date: 6/11
Number: 22
Title: Bucky O'Hare *Arcade*
Time: n/a
Badge: none yet

As a kid, my local bowling alley had this and Cowboys of Moo Mesa. Due to the nostalgia alone those two Beat Em Ups are my two favorite to this day. Might give Moo Mesa a shot here soon.
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Game #33 of 2024

DOOM 3 VR Edition on

Game #34 of 2024

Spirit of the North on
Too bad it scored just a couple points too high to qualify for You're Winner badge.

Date: 6/15
Number: 23
Title: Streets of Rage 4
Time: n/a
Badge: "Pile Drivin'" [Bucky O'Hare on 6/11 & Streets of Rage 4 6/15]

Thanks for going free on PSN. I actually enjoyed this reboot. The art style and animation encapsulated the 80s nicely. Maybe a tad too easy in story mode by design, but challenge can be had in the other game modes.
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Game #35 of 2024

Among the Sleep on

4th of June, 38th overall, 1st
The Order: 1886

As a PS4 exclusive this was a game I wanted to get and beat even before I even got the console. It then took me a good while to get the console and then a year+ before finally fetching a copy and then maybe another 8 months before I made it my PS4 priority. As you can maybe tell, I didn't ultimately put much of a 'rush' on this but with it being relatively short, I finally wanted to just get this done and the credits are rolling now.
I can see why the game earns its criticisms and some praise. The alternative history, story and inclusion of some characters like Nikola Telsa, plus the Lycan aspect, some cool weapons and the way the game ends were all plusses. The large amount of cutscenes, the short length of actual gameplay, the generally bad 'stealth' section, some just meh gunplay and really underutilized fights against the Lycans were all negatives.
The game also left several wide open possibilities for a sequel that certainly doesn't seem like they'll ever be explored.

Ultimately I'm glad I played it and more happy to knock off my first Sony console title on the year. I had wanted to focus on my more recent consoles like the PS3, PS4, Wii, WiiU and 360 or newer Xboxes, but besides playing several on my XSX, I really haven't touched those others, so getting 1 in finally feels good. I'm now eager to move onto 1 of the following PS4 games: Uncharted 4 (to finish Drake's story), Bloodborne (after enjoying Lies of P, a co-worker strongly suggested this) or revisiting Horizon Zero Dawn to do the Frozen Wilds DLC.

#49 down: Darkwing Duck (NES)- I would like to count this toward the Heavy Machine Gun badge.

This was a somewhat fun (albeit pretty tough) run n' gun where you do a bit of light platforming but mostly just run around shooting stuff. It's pretty quick. The one really frustrating part was the final boss. It took me awhile to figure out what to do, and I died immediately a bunch of times.

#50 down: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES)- I would like to claim the Street Fightin' badge with this and my previous clear of Mortal Kombat 1 on PS5.

I'm not great at fighting games, but the simplicity of this (given the NES controls) was kinda nice. It meant going back to the basics of looking for the right windows to attack and knowing when to defend and dodge. It took some practice, but I got the hang of it eventually.

#51: Ven VR Adventure on PSVR2- This, alongside my previous clear of HappyFunland: Souvenir Edition gets me the Bear & Bird badge.

I've never liked collect-a-thons, and I'm not a big fan of platformers either, but everything is more fun in VR. This is a pretty tough game. Fortunately, you can replay levels to bank more lives (which is helpful given that you die a lot in this game). Your character (who looks kind of like a Great Value Crash Bandicoot) dies if hit a single time. If you fall, you die. If an enemy hits you, you die. If an enemy projectile or a wall spike, or a laser beam, or an axe coming from the wall, or a conveyor belt with moving spikes, or practically anything else around you that looks even remotely threatening touches you, then you die. There are a some really tough platforming sections (such as a part where you're sliding down ice and have to jump at just the right times and in the right places to avoid dying from laser beams set at different heights and angles). There are checkpoints, so that helps, but, at higher difficulties, there are fewer of them (and it also takes more collectibles per extra life). The last boss was pretty tough, so I left the game unfinished and went on vacation. I just got back tonight, and, having thought a bit about a better strategy, beat him on the first try since I came back, so that was nice. Apparently, just over 7% of people who played Ven beat the final boss, so I'm feeling good.

#52 down: Metal Slug on PC. This, alongside my previous clear of Darkwing Duck, should get me the Heavy Machine Gun badge.

I never actually played the Metal Slug games, but this came up as a free game via Prime Gaming, so I gave it a shot. It would definitely be tough without the ability to specify how many continues you get. I can see how this would decimate some people's quarters in the arcade. The power-ups are fun, and this reminded me a bit of Contra.

With this down, I've got all of my clears accounted for from the last several days.

Game #36 of 2024

Escape Academy on
If I don't already have the BFFL badge, this will earn it. It can be played single player but my friend and I each only bought it to play in co-op.

#34

Ghostrunner II

For those unfamiliar with the Ghostrunner games, this is probably the most fun you will ever have dying in a video game without getting angry. It’s Mirror’s Edge meets Shadow Warrior with a heavy emphasis on finding your flow and rhythm to make it thru each section in mission based gameplay with super generous checkpoints close to each other that you can sometimes count the seconds apart from each checkpoint on one hand. There’s even mid-checkpoints during boss fights because the developers really respect and value your time and encourage you to succeed at all points in the game. The game isn’t perfect though. The platforming controls do feel a bit wonky at times and sometimes button placement for some of the key platforming maneuvers you have to use takes a bit of training your brain and undergoing a little trial and error to succeed. The combat though is air tight and as crisp as it is precise. Enemies die in 1 hit as do you for the most part unless you apply some perk or upgrade that allows you to take a fatal blow to your stamina bar while you block to allow you to have another chance at survival. Besides a sword you’re equipped with energy sub weapons that recharge on their own such as Shuriken, cloaking and even an energy push like a force push. All can be used in combat and platforming sections to unlock new areas and progress further in each mission. The music too is that catchy future noir cyberpunk techno style beat and it actually helps you navigate some areas that call for timing as you flow into the beat of the tunes. Overall I didn’t think I would enjoy dying and respawning in a game as much as I did with this series and if you’re a fan of challenging yet rewarding gameplay in an environment that favors persistence by inching you closer to your goal the more you wash, rinse and repeat then give this ninja cyberpunk game a go.

I beat three Sherlock Holmes games on Switch: Crimes and Punishments, The Devil's Daughter and The Awakened.

It's been such a busy month, I forgot that I beat Frank's May Game of the Month weeks ago and never bothered to post about it.

Number: 26
Full Title: Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island
Platform Played: Game Boy Advance
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy Advance
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo
Badge: Hop 'n' Bop (already earned)

After years of relative disinterest, I played through Yoshi's Island on the Super Nintendo a few years back for the Retro Talkshop Thread. While I still prefer the vanilla Mario platformers, I give the game a lot of credit for it's art design and attempts to diverge from standard platforming fare.

Arguably more so than some of the other Super Mario Advance ports, Yoshi's Island makes the jump to the Game Boy Advance really well. It gives up some of the really cool Super FX-powered sprite effects (Touch Fuzzy, Get... Mildly Disoriented) but honestly feels a lot smoother than the home console version and has more intuitive controls to boot. The voice samples and other sound effects that were shoe-horned into the title, like so many other first-party ports, aren't nearly as annoying either; probably because Baby Mario escaping was already one of the most ear-gouging sounds in gaming history. A few Yoshi one-liners aren't too bad, by comparison.

With the announcement of the pending expansion, Diablo IV has gone from being the next big game in my queue to being penciled in around its October release, which leaves me with a few months to fill up with plans. After finishing Hey, Pikmin! and Turok for this month's games of the month (neither of which has me enthralled, honestly) I want to take one or two quick detours before jumping back into the original version of Final Fantasy VII. I enjoyed rehashing the first disc so much, I don't think I can wait three years to finish the rest after the Remake trilogy has resolved.

My #41 is Wasteland 3

Game #37 of 2024

DOOM 3 VR Edition's Resurrection of Evil campaign on . I feel there's enough to this campaign that it qualifies as a separate clear.

Game #38 of 2024

DOOM 3 VR Edition's The Lost Mission campaign on . Same as above, separate campaign, separate clear.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
I'm afraid I must disagree. If this campaign is DLC, I'll gladly count it toward a DLC clear. Otherwise, each game only gets counted once regardless of the campaign you experienced.

I didn't realize the rule in the OP about one DLC per game. But this campaign technically wasn't DLC and wasn't made available for purchase on its own. It was scrapped content from the original DOOM 3 that they then wrapped up and made a side-story from it years later and used it as a selling point for DOOM 3 BFG Edition (and later VR Edition), which are the only ways to play it.

edit: The post above the one you quoted, Resurrection of Evil campaign, I know that isn't the one you're questioning, but that one was indeed sold as a separate game back in the day on PC and the OG Xbox, so that one should be able to count as a separate clear.

But this post, The Lost Mission campaign, it feels like it's own little game, but it is basically like Bowser's Fury in Super Mario 3D World Deluxe in that it was a bonus they used as a selling point to get you to re-buy an updated version of a game you may have already played before because there wasn't enough content to it to sell it on its own. Were people able to count Bowser's Fury as a separate clear in here, because it's pretty much the same deal?

Interesting. So I’m playing Terminator Resistance now and there’s 1 campaign DLC called Annihilation Line. If I clear the main and DLC campaign that’ll count as 2 clears then is that how it works?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

The “Bowser’s Fury principle” work as such: If the separate mode was added into an existing work but contains its own separate staff credits (which I think Bowser’s Fury does), then I’ll count it as its own game. So if the mode you’re talking about contains its own staff credits, I’ll count it.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

Yes, if you desire to do it that way. Just be reasonable about it. If you feel the DLC campaign is a decent length to count as it’s own thing, that works.

If the DLC is pitifully short, on the other hand, don’t count it. I bought a single DLC stage in Fire Emblem Awakening, for example, but I can’t in good conscience count that as a separate clear—it’s only gonna be half an hour long on its own, maybe a little longer.

Thanks. The Annihilation campaign says it takes about 5 hours to complete on howlongtobeat.com so that’ll take me a good few days to finish since I only play about an hour or so of gaming a night not on average.

SupremeSarna wrote:


Yeah, the two expansion campaigns each had their own end credits sequence. I didn't actually watch them but I assume the credits differed in The Lost Mission in that it took them 8 years to release this campaign in BFG Edition, so I don't know if a lot of the names from the original DOOM 3 were still with the company by the time they put this out.

As for your following post, what is considered "pitifully short"? The Lost Mission campaign was between 2-2½ hours. If it was any shorter than that I'm not sure it would deserve to be counted.

Date: 6/20
Number: 24
Title: Fire 'N Ice
Time: n/a
Badge: none yet

Really impressed with the difficulty and creativity of most of the levels. The size of the games/content was just about right as well. Probably put a solid 10 hours in to get to the end credits. Easy to see why this game goes for so much these days.
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PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I won’t throw around exact numbers since every game is different. Try to shoot for over an hour for any DLC. I’ll trust your best judgment on this stuff, though—I’m not here to gatekeep your gaming, haha.

I’ve finished the third game in my Fire Emblem journey this year. It’s Fire Emblem Awakening .
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It’s hard to believe now, but when this game released in 2013, it was intended as the final Fire Emblem game. You can see evidence of this all over the game—the game takes place on Archanea and Valentia (now called Ylisse and Valm) from the first two games, Tiki from Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem has grown to adulthood, series-staple Anna is finally a playable unit, you find weapons named after famous characters, etc.

But the game was a humongous success, and ensured the series would see future entries. There’s a good reason for this: A) Nintendo actually bothered to market this one. And B) The game is excellent! I loved the heck out of it when I played it in 2014, but this is my first time revisiting it. Here were my thoughts:

Awakening tells an engaging story with quality visuals and intelligent gameplay. The 3DS touch screen displays information wonderfully, and the fact that you can tap on any concept to get a description (i.e. what the Skill stat means, and how it differs from Speed) really helps. The stereoscopic 3D is also appealing.

Writing-wise, Awakening is pretty good. It was localized by the company 8-4, which does brilliant work. This one’s no exception. If I have any criticisms, the tone is pretty wonky in the first few chapters (zombies emerge from a portal and the forest you’re fighting in catches ablaze, and then it cuts to some shameless guy hitting on a woman and getting kicked in the face—out of place comedy is rampant at first). Awakening is also light on the political banter that was common in the 2000s FE games, with this one feeling more like an adventure than a proper war.

The game is broken up into three arcs: Plegia, Valm, and Grima. Plegia is the most memorable, with a lot of intrigue and drama, and plenty of pathos. Valm is a bit shorter and weaker, with the small amount of Pathos present being for side characters who aren’t overly important to the main trio. Then the story concludes with the powerful Grima arc, which has a fair bit of filler but makes up for it with crazy plot twists and a grand finale. Great stuff overall.

Then there’s the combat updates. Awakening added marriage and child-bearing to the series. If two characters, man and woman, fight together long enough, they can get hitched, and their future child comes back in time (for plot reasons) to to join your army. You even unlock challenging bonus stages this way. This is a great reward, as it lets you play matchmaker with a slew of memorable characters. The child even inherits the parents’ skills, so you can consider that in your pairups. It’s funny: If you pair up very specific characters, you can actually get your avatar’s child to marry her uncle. Oops, forgot about THAT oversight!

I played this on Classic Hard Mode, and I gotta say, it’s quite a challenge. I died from a critical hit in the tutorial stage, which isn’t supposed to happen. Stage 5 is the make-or-break stage; if you can beat it, you just might stand a chance against the rest of the trials. After many tries and restarts (permadeath is a mechanic in Classic mode), I did it. Some of these stages can be grueling at this difficulty, with reinforcements showing on the map and then acting that same turn—so I hope you were psychic and knew to move your vulnerable units out of the way first. But with each loss I grew stronger. And I cut down Grima with the Alm’s Blade weapon I found in the early game—a keen fan might say that weapon had unfinished business with the dragon.

The last thing to mention is that Awakening had extra content added to it thought 3DS SpotPass. As the Internet is now officially disconnected, I couldn’t access those stages. Worse, players have reported their save data with the SpotPassed characters corrupting itself. So I was paranoid about trying to hack the files to add the stages back.

While Awakening isn’t the absolute masterpiece I thought it was a decade ago, it’s still a sweet ride that does the series proud. And it put some hair on my chest, which I’ll need for Radiant Dawn this November. I’d rank my FE games this from best to worst: Blazing Blade > Awakening > Engage.

I start Sacred Stone in July. I know very little about that game, so so hope it’s worthy.

Game #39 of 2024

Papetura on

After some delay, I've updated the OP. @Bleed_DukeBlue is getting dangerously lose to overtaking my clear count! I'd better beat something soon to make sure he doesn't.

Game #40 of 2024

Paratopic on

Thanks! I'm not sure about the next clear, as I've been mostly working on a longer game, but we'll see =). Also, I think I should be at 19 badges now:

1) 2nd Amendment
Robocop: Rogue City
Hubris

2) All Aces
Hand of Fate
Hand of Fate 2

3) Bear & Bird
HappyFunland: Souvenir Edition
Ven VR Adventure

4) BFFL
Dead Island 2 DLC
Legendary Tales

5) Bo Knows
Golfie
Creed: Rise to Glory

6) Brain Teaser
Wordtris
The Bookkeeper: Thief of Tales

7) Days Gone By
Assassin's Creed: Mirage
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

8) Bye Bye
Beyond Eyes
Fuser

9) Destroy the Core
Dexed
DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace

10) Grown-Ass Man
Skylanders: Superchargers
Ziggurat II

11) Guybrush Threepwood
A Chair in a Room
Unearthing Mars

12) Heavy Machine Gun
Darkwing Duck
Metal Slug

13) Hop 'n' Bop
FoxyLand
FoxyLand 2

14) Hyrulian Hero
Yakuza 0
Ancient Dungeon

15) Pile Drivin'
Young Souls
X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse

16) Quarter Muncher
Bust-A-Move
Centipede

17) Street Fightin'
Mortal Kombat 1
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters

18) Vault Boy
West of Loathing
West of Loathing: Reckonin' at Gun Manor (DLC)

19) You're Winner
Adam's Venture: Origins
Fated: The Silent Oath

SupremeSarna wrote: