VideoGame_Discussion

1 more console down, just 1 to go
Alien Hominid for the - is also 6th of Dec, 78th overall

I picked this up a LONG time ago and never really got into it, have had it available for a while but a part of me didn't want to trade/sell and I haven't. When looking for a GC title, I noticed this was pretty short on HL2B so I jumped in. I think I had beat the first 2, maybe 3 levels, but I started over. I wasn't in love with this, too dang much going on on screen at times and terrible controls made this frustrating. I ended up dropping to easy and plowed through all but the final 2 levels across like 3 play sessions before the controller drove me nuts - sorry the GC controller is not great.
I was using the non-default control scheme, but that had the shoot on the L-trigger (which felt backwards) and grenades on R-trigger and you couldn't just hold down the shoot button, so with the spongy triggers on the GC controller I really disliked my time. Before my last session I decided to go back to the original scheme and found it to be a good bit better as you fired with the B button and that was a lot easier to mash for rapidfire. But still the game wasn't great. I did learn to slow myself down a little and took on the next to last level and boss much more effectively. Then the final boss's first 2 phases weren't terrible, but weren't the best. The final phase was a PITA as too often the screen was again too busy with clouds blocking view frequently and the playing field was on fire and rocking back & forth, this game was sensory overload at times. At least the music and hand drawn graphics were pretty good on my 24" Tube. I'm glad it's over, I got credits to roll and the game is available for sale/trade

----- OP updated
We got past 1600 thanks to 20 from WithinTemptation who has beat 15.3% of all the games in this thread... which is absurd. But Sarna is close with 12.5% of the clears.

I beat probably the last game I'll finish this year: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined .
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlGxg2xaUAI4cDS?format...[/imgt]
Beat it in both single- and multi-player. It's a solid little game with nice visuals and good difficulty. Recommend for twinstick shooter fans.

Anyone here heard of Heavenly Guardian? It was a Wii game that reviewers trashed, calling it a pale imitation of Pocky & Rocky. I bought that game for $2 CiB in 2012 (then sold it to my cousin for the same price), and I liked it enough... but now I see what the critics were talking about. If anyone has another copy they're willing to sell me for that same price, hit me up!

@Slickriven Could I bother you to update the OP with this clear, too?

@SupremeSarna

Got my final unique system on the year, is done
7th of Dec and 79th overall
Strikers 1945

I beat this titled game in '20 on the PS1, but for the Saturn 'Strikers 1945 II' is the same game as the PS1 game I beat, so this is a unique title, foolish. It's the same premise though as it's a vertical SHUMP and you can pick from 6 or so WWII era fighters and shoot stuff down. I played on an easier difficulty (of the like 7 available) and used save states to maintain progress mainly between levels before resorting to it in the final boss as getting hit 1 more time required that I restart the level and I didn't want that.
It surely reminded me of the PS1 title I played 2 years ago and I think I'll try to play it on harder difficulty and using a few other planes. I was hoping to do a couple different Saturn games, but emulating that system has become crappy on my older main PC and I haven't moved all of my ROMs to my better gaming PC that I suspect with it's much better CPU/RAM/SSD/GPU should handle the emulation better.

I'm happy to get all 26 systems down as that was some of the original goal of this thread and I've done so now each of the past 3 years I've been participating. I hope I can get at least 1 more game in to hit 80 but we'll see.

I would like to keep going in 2023. Thanks!

Figured I'd take some time to knock out a few smaller titles from my Steam library. Just finished playing through Squidlit.

It's incredibly short. I beat it in around 29 minutes from start to end of credits. It plays a lot like an old GameBoy game, but the music gets obnoxious pretty quickly.

If you're a fan of the original Super Mario Land, I think you can get enjoyment from this. It's on both Switch and PC.

Got to 80 and got 2 more personal goals (though I cheated a little by changing 1 slightly).
8th of Dec, 2nd
Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty

So my 2 goals obtained by this were 1st - beat 2+ games on 67% of my consoles (17 needed) 2nd - beat 2+ games from 3x series (I beat 4 in TMNT, 2 Mario and 2 R&C)
The 2nd I tweaked as I had it inverted originally, wanting to beat 3+ games from 2x series and I was there with TMNT, but needed a 3rd from Mario - I was considering playing Super Mario World and bonus being its selection for Frank's GotM, but after an earlier session that frustrated me on my SNES classic I was less keen to play that. I then got my PS3 setup better yesterday by biting the bullet and sticking in the 1TB drive I bought last year for my Slim into this Super-Slim after the Slim died - was annoying since I likely lost some saves as drives are signed/locked to a console and thus it needed formatted - oh well.
I must have started this many moons ago as I recalled some of the first part of the title. Then later on it got really frustrating as I think the controller I was using was finicky, but I also did not like the controls overall. There's a section where you need to walk on a beam that's wide enough for Ratchet (Clank isn't in this game, sadly) but the camera and controls just weren't great and I fell off at least 8 times = instant deaths. After you pass that you need to lower 3 platforms to stand on and I fumbled with that control mechanism, plus Ratchet often wouldn't lock-on to the next platform and lastly a dude is firing at you from the far side and you (or I) couldn't seem to hit him, so it was dodge shots, move up, try and grab next platform, fumble with awkward controls and try to lower platform then retreat to avoid shots or falling off. It was just crazy frustrating for me, such that I took a break. I did switch back to an older controller when I returned and that helped some. Annoyingly I got 2 ctrlrs from a person on here and neither are great, so I'll have to see what I want to do, at least my original one seems good, but I was hoping the 2 others would be better.

R&C: Q4B is a pretty short title and while the story was kinda cool with ye' old pirate's tail, told with plenty of accents and humor, the gameplay felt a little flat. Mild spoilers for a 14 year old ~2+ hr game:

I get that it was a small sort of side-quest and really ought to have been DLC vs. an independent title, but I guess if it was, I wouldn't be looking to claim it as my 80th title.

That might be all from me. With under 48 hrs left in the year, my 2 remaining personal goals won't happen and I've got some things to help family out with tomorrow anyhow. I'm good with missing those goals as they were about my lowest priority ones anyhow. I'm glad to get my PS3 back into use as my goal for '23 is to focus on titles I purchased/acquired for mainly my consoles since the PS2. So DVD/Blu-Ray based consoles and PC.

I doubt I'll beat anything else in those two days, so... December went very fast for me, I don't know why. But I managed to beat 2 games.

AC: Revelations (PS4) At points, this is the best and also the worst title from Ezio's trilogy. Graphics are improved, although they are darker. The map is smaller, which in the end I think enhances the experience. The city feels more condensed. Buying stuff and managing resources felt pointless on this one compared to the previous games. The plot is also weaker, but it doesn't drag as much as the first game or throw you all the craziness of Brotherhood. I liked that it also expands on Altair's character, which I think was never really developed during the first AC. The ending was really awesome and might be one of my favorites from past years.

Biomutant (PS4) This is a weird one. A big world with a lot of characters, but it feels empty most of the time. Quests are repetitive and not that interesting. If you stick to the main missions, it should be over pretty quickly. I took my time with it and got the plat though. Crafting and weapon customization are cool aspects, and you also have a lot of powers and combos to try and learn. Didn't care that much for the plot once all was said and done.

@supremesarna

I'm in for 2023. Although my console list will be drastically downsized. Just the nintendo switch and gba.

SupremeSarna wrote:

@SupremeSarna I'm in for next year. I'll need to update my console list though.

Best1989 wrote:

I'll never forget when Ezio sees Altair...gave me chills! No ending in the AC series hits quite like the ending to Revelations. It's the perfect sendoff for both Ezio and Altair. I think it's my favorite game in the series. Not because it's the best. In fact, it feels more like DLC than a mainline AC game. But that's what I loved so much about it. It's a focused experience and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I really wish we could go back to a time when AC games weren't these needlessly massive 100+ hour games, but I think that ship has sailed, unfortunately.

Apparently Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is going to be a shorter, more focused title (15-20 hours): https://www.pcinvasion.com/assassins-creed-mirage-...

Heavyd814life wrote:

Go ahead and remove me for next year. Just going to track my clears in a text file.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Awesome! I pay so little attention to gaming news these days that I had no idea this was even a thing.

#70 down: Heal on PS4.

I’m mostly working on longer games right now, but I thought I’d finish up one quick one to end the year on an even 70 clears. This is a sad puzzle game about dementia. There’s no other gameplay besides solving puzzles. The story is really minimal, but the ending is kind of touching. Some of the puzzles are cool, but others seem completely random and are annoying. I’m really not a puzzle person though.

Last clear of the year most likely. As I'll be with family tomorrow. Now I can finally put my actual favorite arcade games on my favorite list on this machine, yay!

Metal Slug 5 - MAME/Atgames Cabinet
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I’m so close to beating GOW Ragnorok but it’s not happening. I have 2 New Year’s parties to go to and it’ll have to wait until next year sadly but I was hoping to finish it this year. Those damn side quests are so distracting but fun to undertake.

@Best1989 EDIT - nevermind, I see what happened

Well, I cleared FF7R on . In the nick of time I cleared all my systems. Now on to the DLC then Crisis Core Reunion.

incubus421 wrote:

Please send me your list. Thanks!

Same list for me.

Just managed to finish up my #58 and last for the year Tales of Arise. You can see my progress on my bio page of my GameTZ profile.

https://ibb.co/9w7hRtj

Damn this game is talky.

------ OP update with RVM's and Demon's latest titles.

I also had to tweak the badges listing as we ran out of characters like we did last year. Basically the OP only supports like 64k characters and I had the badges listed effectively twice with some repeated info, so I reduced some redundancy as otherwise the OP's final spoiler and box didn't complete/close properly and the last 3 or so badges were messed up.

Question to the community: How should DLC work in 2023?

As you know, I'm more inclined to accept your clears than reject them--it keeps things more fun when you don't face opposition for every other clear you post. I know that DLC greatly extends game time, and many get their own standalone releases. But then you get cases where the game gets a dozen short campaigns or level packs stapled onto it. It feels redundant to list the same game 12 times under different names, and it inflates the clear count needlessly. But I don't want to discourage players from playing them by essentially making them worthless.

Antipop counted DLCs as their own games but didn't count them for badges. I'm more inclined to do the opposite, counting them for badges but not including them in the games count. I've come up with two possible solutions:

1. Count all DLC as a single game separate from the main game. So as an example, if you beat Destiny 2 and Season of the Haunted, you get 2 clears: Destiny 2 and Destiny 2 DLC. Then if you beat any other Destiny 2 DLC seasons after that, they won't be counted separately. It's up to you to decide when you post about your DLC clear to get the most satisfaction from it.

2. Count DLC as completely separate from the games. It could be listed in a separate section below your console list, and each DLC you beat gets posted. So every season of Destiny 2 could be listed, get you badges, but not inflate your clear count. In this case, you would need to specify when you beat DLC vs a main game.

Those are my ideal options. Which is better?

That's it for 2022. Many, many thanks to @Slickriven for everything they did this year maintaining the thread, creating badges, and dealing with riffraff. This is probably the busiest corner of GameTZ, and it's got to be a ton of work to keep track of everything, especially as more and more people join in. Massive tip of the hat to you, sir. (Or ma'am, I guess... I don't want to assume you're a bro, though maintaining the thread is a massive "Humans Being Bros" act.)

I played through 72 games on 28 of my platforms this year, plus two platforms I don't own. Here's the final list:

- Akumajō Densetsu, Akumajō Dracula, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - Crysis Remastered, Deathsmiles, Gris, Mass Effect 2, Stray, Subsurface Circular, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time via Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection - Alien Soldier, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Robo Aleste, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist - Valis: The Fantasm Soldier - Gradius III, Kirby Super Star, Mega Man 7, Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Mario World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters - Out of this World - NBA Jam: Tournament Edition - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania Chronicles, Rockman Complete Works 2: Dr. Wily No Nazo, Tekken 2 - Banjo-Kazooie, WipEout 64 - Dynamite Cop - GG Aleste - The Castlevania Adventure, Castlevania Legends, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue - Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge via Konami GB Collection Volume 4, TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus - Ultimate Spider-Man - LEGO Rock Band, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack - Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - Street Fighter X Tekken - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up - Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 3D Classics: Kid Icarus, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Ridge Racer 3D, Steel Diver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Freedom Planet - Astro's Playroom, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Diablo II Resurrected - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Brothers Unite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Portal Power - AVICII Invector - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Misc. - E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (Atari 2600), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle for the City (Plug & Play)

At the same time, here's my Wall of Shame of platforms without finished games:

Neo Geo Neo Geo CD Jaguar Saturn Virtual Boy PlayStation 2 PlayStation Vita PlayStation VR

I decided pretty early on in the year that I was going to focus more on playing the games I wanted to play and less on games that I was choosing just because of the platform they were on. With the pandemic over and my schedule back to something that resembles normal, I felt the need to be a little more choosey with what I played. I did manage to knock out a few "low traffic" platforms early in the year - Nintendo 64, 3DO, and 32X all had really early completions - but as the year progressed, the platform challenge took a backseat.

Focusing on the top end of my backlog meant I found the time to finish Mass Effect 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, two beloved games that I'd unfairly left unfinished for years and years. Those weren't the only dusty backlog occupants that were conquered this year, though. Many other games from my youth that I dabbled in but couldn't manage to finish - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Gradius III, and WipEout 64 - finally found closure, as well as some more recent titles.

Like last year's deep dives into Mortal Kombat and Guitar Hero, I hooked up my scuba gear and plunged into a few more franchises this year, though 2022 was more about barely touched series than long beloved ones. I finished all three Kid Icarus titles, deeply appreciating Kid Icarus: Uprising for its intense combat and varied level design. For the Retro Talkshop Thread's Halloween extravaganza, I played ten Castlevania games, including - finally! - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and surprise standout Castlevania Chronicles. But the biggest franchise explosion of the year, inspired by Frank's Game of the Month thread, would have to be the twenty-two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games that I played throughout the year, including twenty during the Turtles month itself. Konami's classic entries in the series remain some of the best, though my happiest conclusion from the endeavor is learning that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is every bit as awesome as hyped.

This was also a big year (well, for me, at least) for my YouTube channel. This year, I broke 100 subscribers and released my second video to break 1000 views, along with over forty others, most of which were longplays. I discovered that longplay videos - even for really long games like Mass Effect 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, and others - are much easier to edit and assemble if I work with the footage shortly after the play session, which greatly streamlined my pipeline. I capped off the year with a new 30-Day VGM Challenge playlist, though my annual Year in Review video is running way behind because a smattering of December illnesses as well as the usual holiday mayhem.

Probably the most surprising signal this year was that I didn't play a Final Fantasy game at all, which hasn't happened in years. Maybe this for the best as 2023 is shaping up to be a ridiculous gaming year for me personally with drops like Final Fantasy XVI, Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, and possibly even Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, not to mention Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, which has yet to be touched. All this, plus Tekken 8, Diablo IV, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and whatever other surprises the industry throws at us.

Many of those games are going to be priorities in 2023, as well as completing unfinished games that I started this year and continuing to slowly chip away at my physical collection. And maybe, hopefully, I'll find a moment to play a few of this year's neglected platforms.

See you in 2023!

Thanks @Renaissance2K - it was a lot of work and I'm happy to be passing the mantle to @SupremeSarna and will add that he was a huge help to me since September and I'm confident he'll do a solid job in '23.
I enjoyed reading about most folks clears and seeing what people play. There were some aspects that were less enjoyable, but overall it was a good run for me - in hindsight I think dumping the badges all together and possibly not counting beating the same title and DLC on different systems might have reduced some frustrations, but meh it was generally enjoyable.

After beating 200 games myself across the past 2 years and 266 going back a 3rd year, I'm thinking I will be changing up my focus as well. I collected a lot of especially PS3/4 physical titles in the past 2+ years, but I beat a pathetic 10 total games for the 3/4 (and 1 got counted twice - once for each side of the MK vs. DC story) in those 3 years. So I will be focused on beating 5 games for each system in '23 as well as I want to beat 5 WiiU (also got a good number of them after getting the system this year) and in general focus on my DVD based and newer systems. If I can get 10 PS3/4 games beat I'll feel better about that backlog, but I know darn well that GP will keep me playing Xbox games, and with a newer Gaming PC I've got lots of games to play there, plus I enjoy participating in your RTT and Frank's GotM clubs, so who knows what next December will have me reflecting on.
I FOR SURE want to play a LOT less Horizon 5... 225+ hours played was a bit much, but it's quick & easy pick-up accessibility thanks to Quick Resume caused me to keep going back to it over and over and over.

One last clear. I need to do a master playthrough so it could be my first clear next year as well.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

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Thanks @Slickriven for all the work you put in to running this. Sorry for making things difficult on you at times.

@WithinTemptation How was Kena, was it good on the PS4? I have been interested in it, but felt like maybe I should wait for it on the PS5, but if you didn't really feel like that was necessary, maybe I'll seek out a copy for my PS4.
And you were fine, you just beat a LOT of friggin games... I ran some stats for most participants and your 247 clears was an average of 20.58 games per month and a near unreal 4.75 games per week... a full 2/3rds of a game beat every day... which feels 1 part impossible and the other impressive. It just gave me and Sarna a LOT of work to do recording them all.
I guess I'm glad you didn't beat 3 more since I wouldn't have a clue as to what badge to give out that's better than - I didn't think 200 was really possible, but you crushed that and @SupremeSarna got there too - blows my mind a little.

Slickriven wrote:

Kena was OK. I really enjoyed the story and the visuals are great. The platforming can be annoying at times as she refuses to grab the ledge half the time. The fighting in the game is just OK. Too many moves you are locked into so if you dont really pay attention you will get punished. Not really a big deal on "story" difficulty, but if you even bump that up one difficulty it makes a big difference. Master difficulty is absolutely insane, one of the most brutal spikes in difficulty I've ever seen. Souls games are a walk in the park compared to master difficulty in this. You MUST master parry/dodge/dash. They did add NG+ so at least you can carry your skills over....however NG+ is master difficulty AND adds allot more enemies and the boss fights are all changes up adding annoying stuff like coving them in fire. Having said all that I'd still recommend the game, the story is great and the gameplay is good enough to keep you playing. I'd recommend just playing on "story" difficulty for the most enjoyable experience. I played it on PS5 so not sure if that changes performance. It ran really smooth until the end of the game when you have all the village unlocked. When I was running around backtracking for things I missed it would feel like you run into a wall. There is no loading screen/icons but basically the game will just make you walk into a wall while it loads the next area. Was really only noticeable while going for collectibles, didnt see it but a few times while playing through the story.

As far as clears allot of my clears are quick/easy games. I'm not playing a ton of 40+ hour games. Some games where its on 2 platforms I'll literally play them at the same time side by side. It works well on games like Heal, Distraint, really any puzzle game. What I like to do is take on some longer games like Godzilla and in between game sessions beat a few quick/easy games so I feel like I'm making progress.

Thanks for the feedback on Kena @WithinTemptation I might seek out a copy and play on 'story' then. You have it noted as PS4, did you want it as 5?

Slickriven wrote:

I played the PS4 version on PS5. Some PS4 games play better, some play the same. The game has received allot of updates and quality of life changes since release, so I'm sure it will be fine on actual PS4 hardware. If you really need to know I can load it up on a PS4.

@Slickriven I just noticed Kena PS4/PS5 is only $17.99 on PSN right now for PS+ members.

Thanks for all your efforts this year, @Slickriven ! I'll do you proud in 2023.

Thanks @WithinTemptation about Kena, I'm good on checking on the PS4.
I'm sure you'll do great @SupremeSarna in 23, looking forward to it.

Slickriven wrote:

If you do buy it I'd recommend you dont upgrade anything until you get the bow. Then get at least the first 2 bow upgrades, all 4 rot upgrades and all of the bomb upgrades. Then the staff and finally the shield (pretty useless on story difficulty). You have a limited amount of karma and the bow/focus is really good. You dont really need to upgrade it to 6 shots, even at 4 (default) I never felt like I was waiting for them to regen except when I was doing the optional trials.

That quiz was pretty fun, a cool little bonus to round out the year. Some of those questions were pretty hard, thanks for that, Strickriven!

DragonmasterDX wrote:

That was all me, lol. Happy to help this community!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Oh sorry Sarna, thanks my man. It was great remembering the games I played in 2022!

DragonmasterDX wrote:

That quick was ALL Sarna... no sTrickriven anywhere... who's that?

--------- This thread is more/less over now.

I do appreciate so many of you who participated and led us to hit an insane 1618 games completed. If you squeezed anymore in before the end of the year, please post them and I'll update the OP.
In case you're not aware, @SupremeSarna has taken over the mantle, bless him, for 2023 and here's the thread: https://gametz.com/VideoGame_Discussion/beat-game-...
I hope all of you will join up and support him as he runs things a little different. I think most realize how much work is involved in running this for little to no glory and I'm looking forward to his take on this now pretty long running idea here on GTZ.

Cheers to 2023 and thanks again for a record breaking 2022!