Sure, I'll claim a spot.
In 2018 I completed 100 games (had to hurry on those last four when I realized I was close to 100).
Honestly if I set my goal to 50 games but focus on some bigger stuff more often I'd be pretty pleased. I tend to skip the bigger, longer games to crank out a bunch of smaller, indie games. I need to do a better mix.
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Completed list:
1. Timespinner - 01/01/19
- Metroidvania very much in the Symphony of the Night style. It's pretty decent but not amazing. It doesn't really do anything surprising or feel like it has its own identity all that much. The orb stuff (weapons) does allow some creativity and choice but I didn't like how the leveling worked for the character and weapons. I'd put others above it but if you've played many in the "genre" and haven't played this then give it a shot. It does start a bit slow, though.
2. Burly Men at Sea - 01/01/19
- Simple storybook style game. Only took 30 minutes to run through to get one of the endings. Very simple interactions but depending on what you do you get one of twelve endings. Looking at the achievements I apparently got one of the lesser common ending routes. It was fine and I could see going back in to see more paths.
3. Kolumno - 01/01/19
-
bobnowhere recommended this in Discord so I gave it a shot. It's genre would be reaction-based game I guess? It's fun enough and worth the $1 as I was engaged to go through it in one go essentially. Got all the achievements as well in 50 minutes total.
4. Old Man's Journey - 01/02/19
- Bought this at the same time as Burly Men at Sea and kind of just pictured both to be similar. In a way they are in that they're basic games telling simple stories. I preferred Burly Men at Sea for simply being more interesting as I found the puzzles and movement very slow in Old Man's Journey. The only reason I bothered finishing it is I got around halfway through in around 30 minutes the first night I tried it and figured I should just complete it.
5. Mega Man 11 - 01/03/19
- Really solid Mega Man title. I thought the Double Gear system was a great way to make it feel fresh. I kind of wish it had more reasons to use it but then again I'm just picturing mixing Mega Man with some Viewtiful Joe. The levels had a lot of fuckery but the store evens it out with being able to get buffers and extra lives for pits and spikes. After around the third robot master I never got a game over again because of all the store items. Highly recommended for a good time.
6. The Gardens Between - 01/04/19
- I wish I liked this more. It's totally adequate and it does do some creative things with the mechanic. But it's really just a pretty version of scrubbing a timeline back and forth with occasional interaction that then changes that timeline. In doing so you're just trying to get a lit lantern to the end of each level. Too much time is spent watching the characters walk around when you already know the solution. Despite my complaints I did enjoy it some and the look of it is pretty great. Also, a nice bonus that they have an original song at the end that was to my liking.
7. Wunderdoktor - 01/05/19
- There's a #DiscoverIndies thing online that asks you to play an indie game you've never heard of before. I asked for a suggestion in Discord and this was the first that I can't recall ever hearing about before. It was fun, albeit pretty simple. It's a Trauma Center-esque if each patient took 15-30 seconds and you did them fairly rapidly. The wacky illnesses and ways they mix things up keeps it fresh and there's a very slight puzzle element that comes up occasionally to earn achievements. Not a strong recommendation at the regular price but amusing at a sale price.
8. Guacamelee! 2 - 01/06/19
- This is definitely a more-of-the-same sort of sequel. Nothing really feels that different to the point that I couldn't remember what was a new ability sometimes and what was in the prior game. Mostly it just has a lot more chicken playing parts. It's solid but not great. Whatever your feelings were about the first game will be mirrored here.
9. ШП - ShP - 01/06/19
- Barely looked into this before buying and it wasn't quite what I expected. Even figuring out the right menu option to start and of the three puzzles is a bit of a challenge. Everything is purposely obtuse and I don't know if it's by design or bad translation from Russian into English. But I do think it's largely designed that way. I did look up tips on roughly 20% of the game but that was mostly just to get going. It's hard to recommend but if you like to poke and prod things and try to think outside the box maybe give it a shot? Took me a little over an hour to complete the three puzzles with the tips to move me along. But once you understand how the game works you'll probably scoot through it quickly.
10. Shadow of the Colossus Remake - 01/08/19
- Still a fantastic game! I hadn't played it since the original release but I decided I'd play on Hard since I had gone through it before. It did add some frustration but it also made taking them down more exciting. Turns out I really only remembered about half of the colossi and only how to get to like three of them on the map so it felt fairly fresh. The one bummer for me is the only real reason to play on Hard for trophies is a single trophy to beat it in 5:21:28. My final time at the end was 5:22:29. I spent at least 15 combined minutes just playing around on Agro and riding back and forth in an open field trying to see how many hawks would fly around with me. Oh well. There's no chance I'm working on the platinum so it's not a huge deal.
11. Crash Bandicoot from the N. Sane Trilogy - 01/09/19
- It's remarkable how bad of a platformer this first game is. I was told the first aged poorly and the other two are much better so I look forward to digging into those to see how they fare. The feel of movement and hitboxes are simply terrible. I went in thinking it'd be fun to platinum all three games since I love platformers and I always platinum Ratchet games and figured this might be about the same. No chance. I have doubts I'll ever return to this first game.
12. Spyro the Dragon from the Reignited Trilogy - 01/12/19
- Got the platinum trophy in 6:49. Compared to Crash this is an amazing game. It's honestly really basic and feels like a kid friendly platformer. I did some skimming of what's in the next two and it looks like they change things up a bit and add more abilities so hopefully it becomes more interesting? Nothing was ever all that exciting but I enjoy platformers enough that hunting for all the gems kept me going.
13. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - 01/17/19
- After my thoughts above on Crash Bandicoot I was very hesitant but I eventually started this up. It's not bad! Vast improvement on the original game with a better feel of movement and having the slide, slide jump, high jump, and belly flop add some complexity to movement. In comparison I started rushing through the first game getting most crates but not bothered if I missed anything. This time around I got all five colored gems and ended at 23/42 of the bonus gems as I did a bunch of optional stuff as I went through. I don't want to get the relics, otherwise I'd consider getting the platinum.
14. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! - 01/21/19
- An improvement over the first game but somewhat minorly so. I didn't really felt like they took advantage of the new abilities added to the game but having something akin to quests and more creative level design did make it better overall. I'm closing in on the end so now I just need to see what the third game's in both the Crash and Spyro series bring about. Oh, and got the platinum in this game and the first Spyro.
15. Titan Souls - 01/21/19
- Seemingly a combo breaker but I started a new list for myself of a game/games for each month of the year that I'm tasking myself to return to and complete. They're all games that I started, enjoyed, but put down and never finished. Since January was nearly over Titan Souls was the game I put on the list and I'd been thinking about it since going through Shadow of the Colossus. I defeated all 19 titans in around 2:20 with 132 deaths. it was pretty fun but somewhat frustrating, largely because of the relatively slow turn around time when dying and you die frequently.
16. Crash Bandicoot: Warped - 01/22/19
- Probably the best of the Crash trilogy. It was like 40% gimmick levels but honestly that was welcome after going through two other games that had largely the same linear levels that this game also featured. Also the easiest, shown by my 30 lives and no game overs, whereas I died many, many times in the prior two games. But I don't think it's entirely because levels were made to be easier but I think they improved the feel and collision on movement so there were less deaths that felt like it was the game's fault. Though I should note I didn't do as much of the optional stuff as the previous game with only around 20 gems collected. I'm glad to be done with these and ready to move on to something else. Well, after Spyro 3.
17. Spyro: Year of the Dragon - 01/24/19
And now I'm done with my journey through the Crash and Spyro trilogies. I got the platinum in all three Spyro games. It took less time in the third game since it didn't require you to 100% the game like the first two did. In fact you only needed around 2/3 of the game complete to get the last trophy needed for the platinum. I think I'd consider the Spyro games the more advanced of the two as the trilogies progressed with this final game introducing a lot of new stuff and treating it a bit more like a Mario 64. But I may have enjoyed Crash 3 the most out of all six games with its tighter focus per level while still being fairly enjoyable working towards some of the extra goals. Both games had moments of frustration.
18. Crackdown 3 - 02/16/19
I think I'll end up enjoying this more than most people. I loved the first Crackdown, thought the second game was disappointing but alright, and went into this a little hopeful. Ultimately I got what I expected, an updated version of the first Crackdown, or more like what a true sequel to the first game would have felt like if released later in the 360's life. I spent 15 hours getting most the achievements with clearing out all side activities outside of car related stuff and getting all the agility and hidden orbs. I still got around 85% and 51% respectively. And I beat the game on Legendary, which I feel was the right decision. Boss fights were really rough in the latter half but it felt great figuring out ways to get through them, even if I did end up cheesing the last boss completely. Fun game!
19. Yakuza 0 - 02/25/19
As everyone who has tried it knows this is a wonderful game. I got really hooked into it and completed the vast majority of activities. The main thing I didn't complete was mahjong and shogi, though I did learn to play shogi but I didn't get good enough to win for the completion points. I had around 86% complete of the completion list. Even when plowing through the last ten chapters instead of doing CP activities I was constantly sneaking them in and tempted to do more. This has really gotten me anticipating Yakuza Kiwami and the releases that came after. I have both Kiwamis and Yakuza 6 so now it's just deciding when to play them. I have some other backlog goals lined up but I may start Kiwami really soon to at least get through the intro and see the world open up to get an idea what's in the game.
20. Trials Fusion - 02/26/19
This is actually beating the game a second time but I'm counting it. I originally beat it five years ago on PS4 but recently got Fusion with all the DLC on PC. To play all the DLC you have to play up to like 1/3 or 1/2 through the main game so I rushed through that and then just kept going. The trick system is still frustrating and it seems I remember Evolution much better than Fusion since I was looking forward to levels that never showed up. Now I'm really excited to see Rising since reviews are solid.
21. Trials Rising - 02/28/19
Such a tough game to like. It does some things extremely well. I think it has the best set of tracks across the entire series with most having a completely separate theme than the rest (later on there's commonly a second harder level with a similar look to some of the levels). Also, University of Trials is an excellent addition and where I spent around five of the twenty hours I spent with the game. It has definitely helped me improve my skills and thinking about how I control the bikes. But these good parts are balanced by some bad stuff, notably a terrible progression system that typically goes against the main goal of Trials, a garbage soundtrack (muted and put on Spotify very quickly and I never do that), and the most useless loot crates quite possibly ever. Thankfully that also means nobody should ever feel enticed to pay real money to get more of them. Overall I had a lot of fun with the game but also a fair bit of frustration due to the progression system. I really hope for everyone else they end up patching it, especially since the progression and useless loot crates seem to be the complaint everywhere I've looked.
22. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - 03/01/19
This could land a spot on my top ten of the generation. For my particular tastes it does so many things right. Did anyone else get the impression it felt like a stage play in acting and writing? It's like they gave a playwright a video game studio to do their bidding and this was the outcome. My only two complaints, though fairly minor, is combat felt a bit heavy at times, but it's balanced out with the long gaps without combat, and the ending credits track is embarrassingly bad compared to how perfect the rest of the soundtrack is. The sound design overall was superb. A fantastic game all around.
23. Dead or Alive 6 - 03/02/19
Well, I finished the Story Mode and got the credits but there's plenty more to do. Mostly all in the DOA Quest mode but I may hop into more online. My feelings are divided. I like the new fighting systems, the two new fighters, and the DOA Quest stuff is great. But unlocking costumes is kind of shitty, the achievements are worse than the previous game, and considering there's an in-game currency and the costume stuff and you get nothing at all for finishing the story that felt a little underwhelming. I still enjoy the fighting in these games but there's not really enough changed from Last Round to make this game feel necessary.
24. Hollow Knight - 03/03/19
Easily one of the best Metroidvanias if not
the best. Got 84% completion at around 20 hours. Tempted to go back in to dig around for more now that I've skimmed a few guides and have an idea of where to look for some stuff and how to get the true ending. And it appears I haven't even touched any of the DLC content. I assumed I maybe did at least some of it while going through but it seems the trigger for each one is fairly specific. Great game, glad I put it on my backlog list to get myself to return to it. I'll probably hold off returning to clear out more of the content and get the true ending until closer to when the sequel comes out (next year?).
25. Resident Evil 2 - 03/09/19
Dated this for when I finished Claire's A path but I finished Leon's B path the next day. Fantastic game and I expect this will be on most Top Ten lists for the year. I was also pleasantly surprised how much different Leon's B path felt since I've seen some mixed descriptions with some saying it's a different experience and others saying it's barely different. Even when the majority uses the same environment the remixed encounters, item placement, and weapons available really change how I played. But Claire's story was better and she was a more interesting character for that. I'll probably hop back in eventually to check out the Ghost Survivors and the Fourth Survivor stuff.
26. Devil May Cry - 03/11/19
Really only thought I'd play a level or two and then move on since I bought the HD Collection just for DMC 3. But instead I got in the groove and finished it in two sittings (essentially). It hasn't aged the best considering where games in the genre are these days and movement and fighting feel stiff and occasionally frustrating but the game flows quickly so it's easy to keep saying "Just one more level". Even though I had beaten (and somewhat remembered) this game on PS2 it was a good time going through it again.
27. Devil May Cry 2 - 03/13/19
Not a pure shitshow as the internet would have you believe. It's definitely a disappointment in many aspects relative to the first game but in general it's really just an average character action game. I'm a teeny bit curious to try out Lucia but not enough to beat the game as her (and then there's a third character that unlocks, yikes). Most the complaints are valid but ultimately I actually had some fun at times. The large sprawling, ugly levels were probably my main complaint. Glad to be done with it, though.
28. Glass Masquerade 2 - 03/16/19
Pretty decent casual game. I can't recall much about the first game at this point because it kind of blends together but I seem to recall that one was much easier. I expected this to only take a few hours but Steam shows 6 (though I was away for probably thirty minutes so maybe it's closer to 5 hours?). It was meant to be chipped away at between other games but I ended up blowing through the last 20ish puzzles in one go. I might check out some puzzles on hard but not right away.
29. Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition - 03/16/19
This is a much better game than the prior two! I was a little surprised that it still had some stiffness compared to more modern action games as I thought this was where others borrowed from. It's far too easy to get stuck in an animation and hit. Probably means I should be playing more methodically and less button mashing but eh, what are you gonna do? The weapon switching was really nice and allowed me to actually get some S through B style rankings fairly frequently. I will say, as someone that wants all the graphics, I'm happy to finally move out of the PS2 games. I played with Trickster style until I maxed it and then switched over to Royal Guard. I wouldn't mind going back to this game to check out more of what's in there as leveling the styles is really neat.
30. Baba Is You - 03/16/19
Kind of silly to count it beaten but I definitely triggered the ending and got credits and the achievement for beating it. Really bizarre how early its designed to let you beat it as I've only completed like 1/4 of the total puzzles and there's loads more to unlock. But I guess I'm happy I "completed" it already because now I won't feel some sort of pressure to keep moving and I'll just pick away at it off and on between other games. I'd like to unlock everything eventually and get the achievements for completing areas. Unique and fun game that takes a relatively simple concept and really runs with it to make it feel crazy.
31. Devil May Cry 4 - 03/19/19
Easily my favorite of the series so far. And there's so much more to this game if I really wanted to play more with more difficulties and two sets of characters to go through the game with that play different than the two you already use to go through the main story. I did feel it kind of faltered in the last missions as the fights just weren't as fun and they have you go through bosses a third time. Regardless, it played great, I enjoyed both characters, and now I'm even more eager to keep going.
32. DmC: Devil May Cry - 03/24/19
I know this is going to make Devil May Cry fans angry but I think this is my second favorite one so far behind DMC4. Though I must also note that it's much easier than the rest (except DMC2) on the Nephilim difficulty which is the highest unlocked from the start. It's noted as for Devil May Cry veterans but I still rarely died. I really liked that the characters were actually characters this time instead of feeling like cartoonish, flat action stars. The environments could get repetitive at times but also had some real stand-out visuals. The fighting was really fun and combat felt very smooth outside of pressing the wrong button because there is a lot of different button combinations in the game. It was a really good time and I'm glad I went through it!
33. Devil May Cry 5 - 03/30/19
My month of Devil March Cry is over having played through every game in the series in around four weeks (with a few other games mixed in). I thought I was going to get burnout but in the end the variety between games with the improvements and characters kept it feeling fairly fresh. I'm not sure where Devil May Cry 5 stands yet. The variety in the three characters was welcome and it did a good job culminating in some exciting fights. But some levels were far too long and nearly every single level ended in a boss fight and that kind of messed with the pacing the rest of the series had. Great game, though, and Capcom is having a great year already.
34. Yooka-Laylee - 04/07/19
I remember thinking fairly highly of it when I first started it around a year ago. That's one reason it got added to my list of games to complete this year. After returning to it I was able to start seeing all the issues the game has and how it feels fairly sloppy both in control and design. Despite that progression is fairly quick so I kept plowing through it. I finished with the minimum 100 Pagies needed and glad to be done after one of the worst final boss fights in a platformer. It goes on for far too long and has no checkpoint or way to heal. I could go back to clean up some achievements if I wanted to but I don't. I doubt I'll ever touch the game again.
35. A Hat in Time - 04/21/19
Really great 3D platformer. Definitely an improvement compared to Yooka-Laylee in terms of level design and feel of movement. Yet something about the Yooka-Laylee style of pacing is something I prefer a little more. While A Hat in Time often had fairly large levels that would get reused every chapter had a fairly strict set up and it made the game feel much more level based instead of freedom to explore and knock off checklists of stuff. I really enjoy that style of 3D platformer. But regardless, this was very well made and each time I'd get going I'd find myself in a groove and knock out a good chunk of it each time. Not sure if I'll go back for more but I'm curious about the DLC. Time to move on for now.
36. Mortal Kombat 11 - 04/27/19
Considering it complete with story mode completed, one klassic tower, all the tutorials, and some other odds and ends. I'll toy around with the other stuff some more but right now I'm mostly waiting for the next patch that's promised to make the game feel less grindy. Right now it's real bad in that area. The actual fighting is fantastic (though the amount of abilities you can equip really changes the feel of a character) and the story and tutorials are really strong. I like the new characters well enough, too. The best thing it does with the improvements to combat is every character feels fairly good to play, though I still have some favorites. Great game that will only be better (hopefully) with patches.
37. The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game - 04/27/19
I guess I pictured something a bit different from the little chatter I heard and had seen. This is essentially a kid's game with writing I imagine that's similar to stuff like Adventure Time. Everything is silly and whimsical to appeal to kids while still being entertaining to adults. I finished it in 27 minutes as there's not much more than walking, reading, and going through the dialogue options. Also, I picked bird. Don't know if I'll bother with the eventual sequel.
38. Lost in Harmony - 04/28/19
Had the last 2/3 to do but this is a fairly short music/rhythm game so that wasn't much effort to finish as it was only 9 songs to complete to be done. I always appreciate when a music/rhythm game has a story and the levels relate (e.g Gitaroo Man and Parappa series) and this sort of attempts it. It's kind of a mess to play with it occasionally rapidly having you press button combinations together that don't feel natural but ultimately it was interesting and I was compelled to keep moving forward. They did release a free update with a second story that I'll probably get to but for now I'm satisfied finishing the original story.
39. Supraland - 05/01/19
Pretty neat, great game. It's amazing that nearly the entire thing was created by one person. I did generally like the exploring more than the puzzle solving as some of them could be a bit finnicky or relied on finding just the right spot and sometimes the geometry made stuff difficult to find (more than intended in some cases, I believe). But still really neat and a solid 12 hours. I finished it with like 49% complete so there's loads more to find as there are chests scattered around everywhere. But I got what I needed out of it so I won't be worried about being a completionist. Good stuff!
40. 7 Sexy Sins - 05/04/19
High quality game right here! I've had some fun with the mindless Deep Space Waifu series and this seemed to be a horizontal copy of that series. It feels more like it came out prior to those games because it's missing some of the features like varied power ups but the boss fights were much better in this game. And it was actually challenging to complete due to how you unlocked the later levels and those last bosses were actually tough. For around $1.50 I got just about two hours on it so it was worth the price but only if you already own most other shoot-em-ups and don't mind pervy shit.
41. Patent9 - 05/05/19
Took around 2:06 to complete including replaying scenes to get all achievements. I'm a fast reader so my time is shorter than the average. It tells a decently interesting story for a visual novel as there doesn't feel like there's a ton of fluff. It goes for a noir sort of thing with all the characters and settings largely being real photos and actors. It kind of gets wrapped up in its own nonsense but since it moved quickly I stayed engaged. Not a strong recommendation but it was nice for something different.
42. Grim Dawn - 05/08/19
Completed on Veteran difficulty in Steam time says 34:48, but I expect it's closer to 30-32 due to leaving it running while doing other things. It's a decent game. Maybe even good. But not great. The whole time I played I kept thinking about how Diablo III does every thing better. Towards the end when risk of dying was greater and I was pushing through optional, hard content the game finally felt like there was more intensity but still my only active abilities my build had were two buffs so they weren't all that exciting. And that's kind of the main issue. The gear loop looks like it does everything right but it's just kind of boring. I still had a good enough time that I'll look at finishing up the DLC but that's a ton of content so I'll spread that out a bit more. And instead maybe start Diablo III over.
43. Subsurface Circular - 05/09/19
Quite short, only took me 94 minutes. Hopped back in and finished up all the achievements with 5-10 more minutes. I love robots and AI stuff so I was into the story and where things went which also made it a bit too easy for me to pick my ending choice. Also, thought the developer did a neat Steam trick because the word "Wibble" came up as a choice for a password in the game. Turns out that's the regular option for everyone. Definitely made me stop and think when I saw it trying to think where I use Wibble on Steam. I'm looking forward to checking out the second game in the series but I'll probably hold off until a little later.
44. Swag and Sorcery - 05/14/19
Finished the main stuff at 13 hours. Unlocks an endless mode with plenty of achievements left but I'm done. It's not that great of a game with some real bad balance around grinding but since it's such a passive game I watched stuff and worked while playing. From the Punch Club developers which also had some bad grindy issues so it seems they didn't really learn their lesson. But at a certain point you largely can become impossible to lose so then it's just running the dungeons 50+ times each to finish it up. Not strongly recommended unless you really want something fairly mindless to grind away and just like numbers going up.
45. Quarantine Circular - 05/14/19
Finished in 90 minutes with not the ending I had in mind as I misjudged what one of my actions would do. This and Subsurface Circular are vaguely in the same universe but are just short stories that are largely just visual novels in gameplay with some puzzle bits to sort out. Of the two I actually liked this one more than Subsurface despite Subsurface focusing on robots and I sure do love robots. I just thought the storytelling and the story itself were much better in this one. It had less fluff but felt like some of the choices mattered much more. Which is true considering there's like ten possible endings vs the prior game having two based off of a binary choice at the very end. Cool stuff and I wish they put out more of these (except now they're doing the John Wick game).
46. Deep Space Waifu: World - 05/17/19
Only took 70 minutes. Actually felt a bit simpler compared to the past one or two. Still just a dumb guilty pleasure since they're just fairly simple pervy shoot-em-ups but there's something about them that's just fun to play. With the silly, perv writing between levels it now just feels like a raunchy comedy at this point. Anyhow, all caught up on this amazing series now.
47. Need For Speed (2015) - 05/18/19
Completed in around 15:05. Better than I expected but deserving of criticism. A fairly solid 7 out of 10. It has a decent feel to it and generally drifting around everything is good fun but the camera is too low, the world is kindly poorly designed and fairly boring, and the map/checkpoint system is frustrating. But the general driving was fun enough that I really had no issues going through the game and had a good time doing so with only a few events that felt like huge difficulty spikes. It does a better job than the Forza Horizon series in making me want to keep going due to story and unlock stuff as you go through it but that's about the only area where it improves upon that series.
48. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst - 05/25/19
I’d place my enjoyment of this prequel right around what I felt for the first game. In some ways I even liked it better. Due to the open world nature between all the mission specific level design the pacing could be a bit off whereas the first game it was always cool to see what the next area would be. I also wasn’t into escaping from security in the open world areas. But overall I thought it played well, combat was improved, and it did have some really cool sequences and areas to get through. I played around 75% of the game without runner vision and I highly recommend it, but it did feel like it was designed for it as a few times I simply couldn’t figure out where to go for a while until I noticed some geometry that blended in too much. Good stuff and glad I got around to it.
49. Need For Speed: Payback - 05/27/19
Finished the story in 14 hours. This is a bit longer than average, I'm assuming, because I rarely used fast travel. I had a great time driving around in the environment and work on collectibles and the other activities (speed traps, jumps, etc.). This was a much better game than the FMV Need For Speed before it. I may poke through reviews to see what their complaints were because I just had a great time going through the story and zipping around the world. It wasn't perfect but I found it myself more invested than I have with the last couple Forza Horizon games. Those games do allow more freedom in driving everywhere but I simply had a better time in Payback. Oh, but I did mute the soundtrack and play my own music. Far too few songs and variety for a game of this length.
50. Fe - 05/31/19
Decent little platformer adventure thing. Loads of extra stuff to find if you're really into it but the path through the story is fairly linear in terms of pushing you to each next open section of the world. Controlled well and the stealth stuff is quite basic and usually frustration free. There's tons of stuff tucked away that require later abilities so it's almost better to just plow through the story and get all the songs so you can then clean things up. I mostly just plowed through it and only collected 22 of 75 crystals, 11 of the story orbs, and something like 91/150 wall panel things. It's just a low impact game that doesn't really stand out but also is fairly relaxing and a breeze.
51. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End - 06/10/19
Completed on Hard in 16:57. Collected around 2/3 of the collectibles. Great game! Should really come as no surprise. As is usual with the series some of the later combat sequences were too frequent or felt never ending. And likely since I played on Hard there were a handful of encounters that were really annoying. That last fight, oof. But overall it did a great job tying everything together. Really not sure if I want to hop into Lost Legacy directly after or mix in one or two other things to reset myself. And I’ll probably just stick to Normal difficulty this time.
52. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - 06/15/19
Finished on its default difficulty in 6:17. A bit shorter than I had expected, but I didn't spend a lot of time in the optional, open areas. In many ways I liked this game more than Uncharted 4 with more interesting areas, less frustrating combat sections, and just a more interesting setting (Indian stuff is more interesting than pirate stuff). I wouldn't mind if they did another one with Chloe and Nadine as they were a good duo. And everyone talked about Lara and Kassandra's muscles but Nadine needs some love! Good time all around and glad I went back to finally play it.
53. Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! - 06/15/19
I'm considering this complete as it's a bit nebulous when a music/rhythm game is complete. Most in the genre that play credits do it after you've gone through each song once (either has a song list or a story mode that takes you through them). So I played through every song (75 songs including my two DLC) and also completed songs on multiple difficulties to get the 100 total clear trophy. That doesn't include replaying a song on the same difficulty which I did to complete the Bingo cards, too. Have 35 completed cards. It's a fun game and kind of relaxing only really needing to hit two buttons (four total when you have the large notes for bonus points). Decent song selection and the Bingo cards and ranked play give a good reason to keep playing beyond where I've stopped for now. Going to estimate I spent around six hours total doing everything so far.
54. Tetris Effect - 06/16/19
Spent around three hours going through most all the modes. I only skipped the series of relax modes that take you through three sets of levels with no risk of game overs. It's just more Tetris. And that's kind of the whole game and why I'm surprised people went so crazy for it. I finished the Journey mode and I thought it did more to mix things up and make it interesting. Other than being somewhat unpredictable your first time as levels speed up and slow down it's exactly what you would expect from any other Tetris release. It'll be something I'll load up periodically to maybe play through a mode once or go through a set of levels but I've already hit my limit after going through each mode. I did get an SS rank on one of the modes so I guess that's cool.
55. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - 06/20/19
Took around 14:55 to get 99.6% complete. Rather great game that's a lot of fun but also lacks a lot of polish and kind of just feels like a mash up of all the handheld Igavanias. Not that that's bad but just how it felt. I completed the vast majority of things such as all quests and completing a lot of the compendium stuff, or whatever it's called. I went back to get 100% and my timer is at 15:10 (which also included some other cleanup and item collection in the process). I won't bother with the completionist achievements right now but I'm not too far from having every shard. Anyhow, a good time!
56. Gato Robato - 06/22/19
100% in 2:36. It's totally fine and competent but it feels quite simple and lacks anything that makes it all that interesting. It's still fun and made well enough but for a bite-sized Metroidvania I think Super Skelemania is a better choice. I did enjoy all the different palette options and there were two or so things to collect that took actual thought/skill and wasn't just a matter of going back through an area again and blowing open a wall to go through.
57. Horizon Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds - 06/28/19
Took around 14 hours with me completing most everything the expansion offers and exploring the map thoroughly. All collectibles picked up and if I spent another couple hours on it I could clean up the last errands I have left. Horizon has continually been the game I point out as possibly my favorite of this generation and after getting back into the groove after an hour this expansion didn't change my mind. I just really enjoy the combat, it still looks quite great, and the setting and story are fantastic. I look forward to an eventual sequel because I'd love to see what they could do with building on top of what they created.
58. Plug & Play - 06/28/19
A whole eight minutes to complete. Glad I got it in a bundle instead of impulse purchased like I nearly did many times. It's less a game and more an interactive toy (think Windosill) with art that reminds me of George Plympton mixed with Don Hertzfeldt. There's likely a deeper meaning of happiness, light and dark, and sexuality, but it was mostly just amusing seeing the silly art and how things interact. Worth checking out if you don't mind paying for a small experience that feels like it's something you'd see on an iPad at an art museum.
59. KIDS - 06/28/19
This lasted nineteen minutes. From the same creators of Plug & Play. The animation of the art was better and with it being more than double the length it provides plenty to do, but I didn't really grasp as much of what the symbolism was aiming for. Conformance and group herding? It's more repetitive than Plug & Play and despite the better animation of the people the actual visuals weren't nearly as interesting. If the shorter experience for the same price doesn't bother you I'd suggest picking Plug & Play between the two if you only played one.
60. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - 7th Umbral Era - 07/10/19
Finished the original portion of the story with a level 50 bard in 59:20. Mostly plowed through from around level 20 onwards to focusing on story quests while also finishing the hunter log and all the bard quests. Oh, and ran every dungeon at least once. There's something about the game that makes me want to keep playing but I can acknowledge that it's not the best MMORPG or anything. Combat is kind of slow but it does improve towards the end (and should keep getting more interesting). The quest design is
real rough, too. But the story and characters are good stuff. And I want to see more. I'm hoping to see improvements as I get into the expansions but don't really know if there will be many (though I've heard it does get much better).
61. Dishonored - 07/13/19
Finished on Hard in 15:42 without killing anyone and getting spotted only once in the first mission before I realized there was an achievement for it. Even though I couldn't get the achievement I played to not get caught and not kill anyone through the rest. For some reason I didn't get the achievement for not killing anyone but I checked each level's stats and all have it checked showing I didn't kill anyone. Well, fuck. Anyhow, fantastic game and especially for the time it came out this was a real standout. It's still fun to play now! I did feel a little limited not killing since that removes half the abilities and most the weapons but that seems like it would have been way too easy. Also, the voice cast has Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher, Chloe Grace Moretz, Brad Dourif, and more? How did that happen?
62a. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall - 07/14/19
Good DLC! Finished in 5:54 on the hardest difficulty. I complained a bit last night that the AI was a little buggy and that continued for the most part. But a fine follow up to the main game and it seems the The Brigmore Witches continues this story so curious to see where it goes. I got through collecting everything, not getting spotted, and somehow having one kill. I have no idea where it happened but I'm assuming somehow someone I knocked out must have ragdolled over the edge high up when I didn't notice and died from the fall. That's annoying! Anyhow, solid stuff all around and the three levels were nicely sprawling and allowed plenty of freedom in execution.
62b. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches - 07/15/19
On the hardest difficulty, not spotted, no kills in 6:06. Combining this with The Knife of Dunwall as it's really just part one and part two as the save continues and it finished the story. With a fairly comparable length to the main game I'd say the main game was an overall better experience but if this had released without the main game to compare it to it would still be regarded fairly well. I really enjoyed how this tied together to the events of the original game, too. Great DLC and now I'm ready to see how things change in Dishonored 2.
63. Dishonored 2 - 07/20/19
Completed on hard difficulty with no kills and no detection in 27:40. That also includes collecting everything (except all coins). Played through as Emily and mostly entirely relied on the blink move and domino. I would have used some of the other stuff more, like mesmerize, except it used more mana than I wanted. Fantastic game. It never really felt like it dragged and I genuinely had a great time going around collecting everything. For me it's a 10/10 game.
64. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - 07/24/19
Completed in 10:23 on hard with no detections but killing just about everyone that's an enemy. I made it a point to try not to kill any NPCs (though a couple got caught in explosions). And with that I'm done with all the Dishonored games. Fantastic series! A shame I don't believe Dishonored 2 and this sold as well as they should have since I don't expect we'll be seeing more of them. I'm sure they could find a way to make the story continue but this does really tie everything up at this point. This was probably my least favorite game in the series but I'd still give it an 8/10 so it's not bad, just below the others. I will admit that despite loving all the games I'm ready to play other stuff.
65. Wolfenstein: Youngblood - 07/28/19
Finished in 9:40 with around 50% side missions complete. Played about half the story with random co-op partners with more positive than negative experiences. Had a fun time outside of the last boss that felt like bullshit with an annoying checkpoint for when you die. For a budget side game I liked what this game did and had a great time just being a fast paced action title. The game isn't without faults but it's easy to look past them and just have fun. The story makes me real curious what they'll do with the next title in the main series.
66. Touhou Luna Nights - 07/29/19
Finished in 3:54 getting just the main ending for beating the last boss. I'm aware there's an extra area after beating it with an optional boss but I really had to push myself to finish the game that I'm not going to bother doing extra shit. Why do so many people like this game? Touhou fans? It's
barely a Metroidvania, too, and I see it called that. The environments are extremely bland and it's not interesting to explore (what little there is), the attack/mana/graze system is infuriating, and there's far too much just sitting and waiting for meters to fill or going in and out of rooms to graze an enemy near the entrance just so you can fight. I got far enough when I really started questioning if I should continue that I just pushed through it but glad to be done.
67. Wandersong - 08/01/19
Completed in 9:12. A really great game but also a tough recommendation. It ultimately feels like an adventure game as there's
loads of dialogue and it's all done fairly well. There's also plenty of platforming and some fun stuff done with the music wheel but ultimately that part of the game feels much more simple and more just a means to mix things up between story segments. Really enjoyable and the writing is really what had me hooked and kept me going. Also, maybe has one of my favorite music-based endings with how everything comes together. Good stuff!
68. 1 Screen Platformer - 08/02/19
In 29 minutes I completed the game on normal with all four characters and ran through one of the character's hard modes. Since the map doesn't change per character I have no reason to bother with the other characters. And there's two bugged achievements. If they fix those maybe I'll finish runs with the other three on hard just to get all achievements. I think it was like $0.50 and for around half an hour of entertainment it's worth it. And it was a nice throwback to the Xbox Live Arcade Platformance series.
69. Overchunked - 08/03/19
Counting this as completed as I got every achievement in 95 minutes. It's just a score attack style game but since I got the max score achievement that's good enough for me. It's not a particular great score attack game but I put on music and it was kind of nice to just zone out and aim for the score achievements. This goes on sale frequently for under a dollar and it's
fine but there's honestly more entertaining options around the same price.
70. Do Not Feed the Monkeys - 08/04/19
Finished in 3:03 with the Enlightened Ending. And 15 minutes of that time was me restarting after getting a good grasp of how the game played. It's weird addicting but also kind of fiddly and frustrating at times. And I guess I expected the ending to be better but whatever. Neat game that is actually more of a detective style game than I had expected. If you like games with fake OSes and use the game's systems to figure out story stuff (similar to the Orwell games). Just add in more time management and minimal life sim elements.
71. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - 08/04/19
Finished with 100% completion in-game and all achievements in 3:54. Fun adventure/visual novel sort of thing. The first three stories were amusing with some good humor because of all the ridiculous different endings. Most the game is clicking things in the environment with light dialogue and a smattering of choices to be made. Finding the right path to the true ending is the fun part. The last story was pure visual novel with just loads of writing and only a small amount of choices. Anyhow, silly game but despite the rough translation the humor is what helped keep me going.
72. Rose of Winter - 08/04/19
Finished both the good and bad paths for the Fae storyline in 46 minutes. There's no true ending to work towards so I'm not sure if I'll bother checking out the other paths. What's better than making out and having sex with a little man that's six inches tall? Just a real quick visual novel from the folks that did Ghosts of Miami, which was ultimately much more interesting in the time I spent with that. The only reason I may go through the other paths is for the achievements but the setup and obvious payoff for the other paths doesn't really feel like it'll be worth it.
73. Yakuza Kiwami - 08/08/19
Completed on normal in 17:18 with Majima rank E and 35.94% completion points. I did a smattering of extra stuff but largely I was rushing through the game since I spent so much time on Yakuza 0 earlier this year. Kiwami is still a solid game but I'd say 0 was overall better in most ways. One thing I did like more in Kiwami was how boss characters would power up and you had to have the matching style and heat to stop them. Added a small layer of strategy from zero. But ultimately, in terms of design and content, 0 felt like a successor to this game (for good reasons, of course).
74. Prey - 08/13/19
Finished on hard in 29:44 with only human powers and no human kills. Fantastic game! Arkane is easily one of my favorite developers after going through all the Dishonored games and now Prey. Prey is a really complete experience with it feeling well designed and incredibly dense. If I had to make any sort of complaint it would have been nice if a few more characters were fleshed out more but I really didn't even think about that while playing and it's more just fishing for ways it could have been different. Oh, and fuck the Nightmare. Anyhow, great game and I'm looking forward to checking out Mooncrash for something different in the same world.
75. Prey Mooncrash - 08/18/19
Finished in 12:57 with all contracts complete. A couple spots that required in the mid-to-late game was a little annoying but ultimately a really good game that was a smart compliment to the main game. It's more combat focused and fast paced which was interesting and I got to sample more typhon powers. Completing all the unique stories and then the final run to get all five characters to escape in a single cycle was fun to work out. Probably one of my favorite expansions/DLCs for a game.
76. Recore - 08/31/19
Finished in 8:40. Went from me having a fairly good time with some occasional frustrations and complaints and then the last dungeon came along. Oh man, fuck that. And this is after all the great changes made with the Definitive Edition. I can’t even imagine playing through it before that. I would have given it a 7 up to that point but now it’s like a 5 out of 10 and I never want to touch it again. Thankfully that last dungeon got easier around halfway through and I was able to blaze through the last half. Some solid ideas if they somehow made a Recore 2 with a bunch of sequel refinements it could be a really great time. But ultimately this felt like what I’d expect a (higher budget) Xbox Live Arcade game would be like for the current generation.
77. Ghosts of Miami - 09/01/19
Was surprised I got the ending when I did since I thought there were five cases but there were only four. Finished in 4:06 which included playing cases multiple times until I found the right paths and options to close the case. Got the romance ending with Tala and the story ending with Lucho. There may be something like a true ending but it's kind of unclear in the achievements and it seems I'd have to unlock every romance option which largely means replaying every level with every path and it's not the friendliest game in tracking all that. I liked the writing and tone but not the best VN. Relies on trial and error occasionally, replaying cases isn't as quick as I'd like, and since you pick which locations to search when the game does a bad job adapting. I'd meet a character in one location and have a whole scene to run into them again and the game not recognize we had met so we act like complete strangers that go through introductions and nonsense again. It's still decent and a nice change of story/tone from other VNs but it's not without problems.
78. Gears of War 4 - 09/05/19
Finished in 9:41 with 29/50 collectibles. Played on Hardcore with the first two acts solo and the last three acts in co-op with
bbq of doom. It was a pretty good time! Nothing amazing, and I imagine improved by being in co-op, as these games tend to. A few areas of frustration, and a computer issue with Nvidia drivers (I think that was the case?) that made it so textures would get progressively more crazy the longer a game session went, but otherwise I had fun in what was otherwise Yet Another Gears of War. It didn't really feel like it did much new and I expected way more weather stuff. Instead the reliance on horde mode sections felt a little like filler to get the game out and mechanically nothing really changed. The one-off things did add some nice variety but it was just a solid shooter and a nice return after having not played the series since Gears of War 3. And now a new one awaits!
