VideoGame_Discussion

Thanks for doing this. Tagged for later.

Can you put the Oculus Quest 2 on my systems list please?

Welcome to 2023! You know the drill by now: Beat games, post about 'em, and I'll update this thread to acknowledge that. I'm SupremeSarna, and I'll be your gamekeeper this year (with one or two pointers from @Slickriven , if he's willing). I'm somewhat new to this gig, so go easy on me for the first little while. But what I lack in longterm experience, I make up for in passion and freetime!

I've made a couple changes here and there that I'll go over right now. The most obvious one is badges--there are a lot more, and several of them follow unique conditions. So if you spend 200 hours beating only two games, play the same experience five times (because the fourth just wasn't enough!), or get the family around your console to play a virtual board game, you may be entitled one of these new beauties! If any badge requirement confuses you, don't hesitate to ask about it.

The way DLC clears work is a bit different this time around. Previously, DLC campaigns all counted as game clears but didn't qualify for badges. This time it's somewhat switched around: DLC campaigns no doubt deserve badges, but the number that you can claim for each game will be limited to one. That makes each game's contents less of a grocery list to chronicle. See the rules section above for a more thorough breakdown.

And lastly, you are no longer REQUIRED to have fun like you were with the previous rule set. That's now simply a recommendation. You won't be disqualified if you feel bored when posting a clear.

If you were in last year's Beat a Game and were dropped here, feel free to message me and I'll return you. Do it in January, preferably.

Here's to a productive, enjoyable 2023!

Thanks for doing this again this year! I can't wait to beat a bunch of games in the next 2 months and then fall off for the rest of the year like every year prior...

No I will finish this time. No new consoles acquired this year so we are still at 33:

Famicom/Disk System -
Nintendo Entertainment System -
Super Nintendo -
Virtual Boy -
Nintendo 64 -
Nintendo GameCube -
Nintendo Wii -
Nintendo Wii U -
Nintendo Switch -
Game Boy -
Game Boy Color -
Game Boy Advance -
Nintendo DS -
Nintendo 3DS -
Sega Genesis -
Sega CD -
Sega Saturn -
Sega Dreamcast -
Game Gear -
PlayStation -
PlayStation 2 -
PlayStation 3 -
PlayStation 4 -
PlayStation 5 -
PlayStation Portable -
PlayStation Vita -
Microsoft Xbox -
Microsoft Xbox 360 -
Microsoft Xbox One -
CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) -
Nuon -
image -
PC / Windows -
Unique Systems Covered: 0/33
Total Games Beaten: 0

@DemonAlcohol Done.

To start us off, I beat Game & Watch Gallery 2 early this morning, putting me one step closer to Makin' Money with Minigames!
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/kI1pS7a.jpg[/imgt]

I foolishly traded away Kirby Air Ride ten years ago and used my store credit to buy four GBC-GBA games. I immediately fell in love with Game & Watch Gallery 3 and just recently warmed up to Donkey Kong Country (GBC), but Game & Watch Gallery 2 was far less impressive. I was happy to play Chef, but none of the other minigames really wowed me. The music and visuals were weak as well, compared against its successor. I don't know why Nintendo refuses to adjust your hit points in Ball after all these decades, but it's still an annoying 1-miss game over.

I just saw the credits for the first time, and that's telling. I doubt I'll come back to G&WG2 over its younger brother.

Clarifying question: If you beat a game that is emulated, e.g., Virtual Console, compilations, etc., which platform does that go toward, the original or the emulator? Note this is different than a port, which clearly should go to the platform on which it was played.

@Yoshi That's your choice, but I usually default to whatever you were playing on. So playing Super Mario World on the Wii VC would be a Wii clear unless you specify that you want it to be an SNES clear.

Thanks for taking over @SupremeSarna - I look forward to just participating this year and doing little to no work maintaining this beast. But if you have questions or need any help hit me up, you helped me out big time last year, so I'd be happy to return the favor! I hope this year goes smoothly for you.

SupremeSarna wrote:
Was Gallery 2 the one with the game where Yoshi eats the cookies, or was that Gallery 3?

nonamesleft wrote:

That was G&WG3. I always loved that minigame, called Egg. Where does he put all those cookies? Yoshi digestion amazes me!

SupremeSarna wrote:


I realized something awhile back. In the past, if I started a game, I'd feel compelled to finish it, even if I didn't like it. But then I realized, the point of these things is to have fun. If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it wrong. Nothing wrong with not finishing a book/game/movie if you don't like it. One of the most important things when playing games, imo, is to enjoy yourself.

nonamesleft wrote:

Haha, good philosophy! I've always found the "have fun" rule a bit cheesy whenever I hear someone use it, so I removed it to make room for more vital administrative directives.

Thanks for organizing this! Looking forward to it. That Days Gone By badge is brutal though!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Sign me up. I just cleared God of War for PS4. I absolutely did not enjoy the first 5-6 hours. After that I was pleasantly surprised as mobility increased and fighting became more common and the axe switch mechanic became much less used. I had a great time with it after that. I would have cleared it yesterday but the partying became to heavy so it goes on the 2023 list.

razeak wrote:

Same console list, no updates?

SupremeSarna wrote:
Delete PS2.

Thanks. Commenting to tag myself now so I can come back soon and add God of War Ragnorok soon as I’m almost finished with it.

Thank you Supreme Senpai! I know how much work this is. I promise to have so much fun this year, and beat at least one game for every system I own.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Charging in full steam ahead, I see! Love the enthusiasm! Do you still want Stadia included? I heard it went under.

SupremeSarna wrote:

It shuts down on the 18th. I'm still going to try to beat something before then.

@Renaissance2K @incubus421 Gotcha covered. I'll post about my latest clear in the morning.

I beat Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars yesterday. The game is... ok I guess? It's just more MvDK, the game lacks any personality of its own, and was not very satisfying to beat. The levels were not too difficult, I was able to get gold in all of the levels only replaying 4 or 5 after getting silver. The ending is baron of any excitement, just a still image of Mario and gang with Mario saying "Thank you for playing!".

Overall, if you like the gameplay of the MvDK series, you'll enjoy the levels, but that's all there is to it.

I also really like creating levels but Miiverse is shut down so you can't share them : (

Sign me up

PC
PS4
Switch

@SupremeSarna Thanks for taking this over! Can you remove MAME from my system list?

My goal last year was to beat 20 games. I met that goal by beating 21 games. This year, I dropped it to 15 because I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time on Tears of the Kingdom, I'm working through Pokemon Scarlet right now which is taking a while, AND I'm trying to to fit in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword before TotK, which will take me a while. So I don't think I'll be beating as many games this year.

Got you guys.

Last night I beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3 . Took 105 hours since July, but now it's finally done. Proof:
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Flh7cibaMAU7_eQ?format...[/imgt]

It's a gargantuan RPG that does the series proud, though I liked it a little less than 1 and 2. The cast is likeable and the combat is more digestable than the others. They weren't kidding when they said the theme of the game was life: They explore just about every facet of it, including mortality, what waits after death, fighting to live vs. living to fight, the creation of life (origin), the creation of life (reproduction), what it means to live a good life, nihilism and its rejection, free will and choice, and even more that's spoiler-ish. They did an excellent job following this theme and making an emotionally-captivating experience. Though I was very confused by the end of it.

The music disappointed me, though. Nothing in it is on par with Torigoth (Day) or Gaur Plain from the previous two games (go look those up--they're phenomenal!), and when you're exploring vast landscapes, that can seriously impact the journey. The best I can recall was some neat panpipes in the Fornis Region, which sets a nice atmosphere for the desert but isn't toe-tapping or incredible.

I can tell Monolithsoft learned their mistake from XC2, because the characters and their dialogue/interactions aren't gratuitously fanservicey in this one. It's thankfully more in-line with XC1, just telling a great story and offering a small handful of appealing outfits if you want to play that way. What I'm trying to say is you never wake up to discover an embarrassed, busty woman sleeping next to you, and XC3 is better for it.

That said, I wasn't hit as hard by the characters. They're less relateable since their world operates differently from ours and they only learn about regular human things around the midpoint. I can't spoil the resolution here, but XC2's end hit me harder, and XC1 was mindblowing to high school me altogether. Doesn't help that the final boss of XC3 has five phases, and losing to any of them sends you back to the title screen. That dragged the last two hours down a little.

Great game, highly recommend! Hope the next one they make is fantastic as well, and has sharper music.

Please add me to the list, same systems.

3 days in and I got my first clear... and I played it all in '23
Uncharted Drake's Fortune
via The Nathan Drake Collection
Assuming this goes towards Hyrulian Hero

85% of this game was pretty enjoyable, but the upstream Jet-ski section, the Roman Numerals section and the finale all sort of sucked. The SAS shotgun was way too slow firing for the next to final section. Also I greatly dislike when a game provides you with an NPC to go with you and they follow you around and STOP right in your dang way and won't move - so glad that trait largely went away as devs realized how frustrating that can be since Elena got in my way, including my line of fire sometimes.

I can see the groundwork laid here for what clearly was a top selling and liked series that I'm looking to possibly get the whole way through this year (likely minus the handheld only spinoff).

Finished up my first two clears of the year tonight:

1) High On Life on Xbox Series X (via Game Pass)- I would like to count this toward the 2nd Amendment badge, as it is a first-person shooter.

The gameplay is fine. The shooting gets a little repetitive, but the environments are interesting, and the different guns have neat mechanics. However the real star here are the story and the dialogue. It's profane and over the top, but it's also hilarious and creative. There were a ton of amusing moments (like the commercial with Mothers Against Violence followed by another commercial for Mothers For Violence). I'm not sure I would have thought to play this if it weren't for Game Pass, but I'm glad I did. This was a really fun one.

2) Inscryption on PC (via Epic)- I would like to count this toward the Grown-A** Man badge, as it is a difficult roguelite.

I got this on a sale for just over $5, and it was well worth it. This game is wild. I don't want to spoil anything, but the story takes you for a ride. It's dark and multi-faceted and messes with the line between the game and reality in inventive ways. I'm being deliberately vague, because this is one that really should be experienced without spoilers.

#1 for 2023 is God of War Ragnarok
What a journey. Now to do some post game stuff.

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HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!

Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii U
Nintendo Switch
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
Nintendo 3DS
Sega Genesis
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
PlayStation 2 -
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Microsoft Xbox Series X
NEC TurboGrafx-16 Mini
Astro City Mini
Evercade

No new consoles this time around. Just slightly fancier versions of existing ones (Mega Drive Mini 2 and Evercade EXP).

@sailorneorune
[imgt w=480 h=360]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sh1NTCWHP-4/hqdefault.jpg[/imgt]

I'll add you immediately. Is @benstylus planning to join?

@Yoshi Are you thinking of joining? I'd be happy to admit you!

Games #3 and #4 down for my first badge of the year (Localize Mother 3):

-Master Takahashi's Adventure Island IV (Nintendo Famicom, emulated on PC)

-Jesus: The Terrifying Bio-Monster (Nintendo Famicom, emulated on PC)

I’ll be honest. When I saw this new badge, I almost gave up on badges altogether. I had no idea how I was going to find and beat two Japanese games that had not been officially localized outside of Japan. I don’t know any Japanese, and I’ve never played a Japanese game that wasn’t localized here before. The whole thing seemed daunting. That being said, it wasn’t as tough as I had expected thanks to fan translations. Adventure Island IV doesn’t really require that much translation anyway, but Jesus: The Terrifying Bio-Monster is a walking sim with tons of dialogue, so the fan translation was absolute necessary. Adventure Island was what you would expect— a tough platformer. It was OK but not really my jam. Jesus: The Terrifying Bio-Monster is an odd detectiveish game where you try to figure out what the deal is with a monster on your spaceship. The story was sort of interesting, although it drags a bit. I definitely wouldn’t have played either of these games if not for this thread, so here’s to new experiences!

I’m about to fire up a game I’ve been waiting to play for too long. I finally cancelled my preorder that got delayed all the way to Jan.18th thanks to Target being the worst and picked up Marvel’s Midnight Suns from GameStop on sale (which got it to me today—2 days after ordered it.)

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Our first badge of the year, only 4 days in! Well done. I'm surprised Localize Mother 3 was the the most daunting to you. Days Gone By is by far the most intensive, though playing DLC campaigns and lumping them all together can work to reach that 100-hour mark.

Would you like this counted as a PC clear or a Famicom clear?

Thanks! I guess Famicom clears if you don’t mind either way, as I already had a PC one with Inscryption. That Days Gone By one is legit, but I’ve been playing Breath of the Wild, and that should easily go over 100 hours by the time I finish it, and I have several other long games in my backlog or preordered that I’ve been meaning to get to eventually anyway. It’s a lot, but I think it’ll happen. 100%ing Diablo IV might end up being my other one if it doesn’t get delayed. .

SupremeSarna wrote:

My #1 this year is The Riftbreaker.

https://ibb.co/Zxs5R3Y

I beat Calculator on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqYkRphJFvo

SupremeSarna wrote:

Definitely thinking about it.

LOL @Kommie - thought you were being a smartass at first but ha that video was pretty funny.