Post Number 2
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12. Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker - Finished all three chapters on 2/5/15 - Time played ~8 hours 30 minutes on Wii U
This may have been the first Wii U title I picked up around its launch. I've come late to the Wii U, so I'm very much playing catch up. I have barely touched 3D World so I wasn't sure what the Captain Toad levels people referenced, but everyone seemed excited so I bought in.
Aaaaaand I'm glad I did. It's a fun game with a good amount of challenge if you are going for everything - and if it frustrates the hell out of you (like the very last boss fight did with me) it throws you a bone and lets you be invincible. I've got too much shit going on, bashing my head against a wall for the sake of bashing isn't in the cards anymore. I didn't like how you weren't sure what the bonus objective was until you finished the level, it felt more like padding and less like good game design. I spent 5-10 minutes several times scouring a level for a golden mushroom only to find out the bonus objective was something along the lines of "only touch the screen four times" or "don't get damaged". Not the worst game design of all times, but about the only gripe I have about the game.
Looks great BTW. Wii U visuals continue to impress.
13. The Unfinished Swan - Completed All Chapters 2/12/15 - Played ~2.5 hours on Playstation 4
This is one of those games that I had heard about last gen, but not really what it was about, and was kinda intrigued. Obviously not intrigued enough to spend 45 seconds researching what it was actually about, but still intrigued. Anyway, fast forward to recently when it was a PSN flash sale, and I jumped in without any more information.
I'm glad I did, and especially at a $3-4 price range. It was fun, and inventive, but not a whole lot of substance. Some of the different art styes were cool, and I really enjoyed the Journey Easter Egg, but I kept waiting for the payoff and it never came. If you already have this game, or you can get it super cheap than I think you should get it and play it. At $10-15 I don't think it's a good value.
14. Infamous First Light - Finished story and cleared all areas 2/13/15 - Time Played ~4 hours on Playstation 4
I enjoyed Infamous Second Son, and I enjoyed this, but playing this made me enjoy Second Son less. There was too much filler, this was the appropriate amount of stuff to do. Sure, DLC versus main game, free (with PS+) vs $60, but still. I liked what they did with the story, I liked the new powers, I really liked it all.
I especially liked that I had given it this much time. I played Second Son when it launched, so having lots of time to let open world Seattle marinate until I came back was nice. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much if I had just jumped right back into it. I dabbled a bit with the arenas, but I think I'm ultimately not an arena guy. Especially when I'm in the clear the backlog mode that I'm in.
15. Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition - Finished all 5 chapters on Hard on 2/21/15 - Time Played ~20 hours on Playstation 4
I don't care what anybody says, Diablo was made to be played on consoles. I'm sure that its current state on PC is markedly better than it was at launch (I played the better part of a hundred hours at launch getting a monk to 52, wizard to 25, the rest to 10ish), but playing Diablo with a controller is the best.
Playing it coop, and local coop even, is even better. I played essentially the entire thing with my buddy Joe, all local coop. We started split screen, and with this recent sale he picked it up on PSN, and today brought his system over so we were on separate TVs but in the same room. My only gripe with split screen coop is the inability to do item management with both players at the same time, otherwise it is a flawless experience.
I realize that finishing the story isn't really the end, and that the story sucks - but I'm 67 and I'm sure I'll play some more at some point. After spending the better part of 10 hours playing today I'm a little burned out - but I did solo the first 5 bounties, that is GREAT. I really like what they did with that game, that will always stand out as a borderline broken launch game that came back with a vengeance. Good job Blizzard.
16. Assassin's Creed 4: Freedom Cry Finished all story missions on 2/21/15 - Time Played ~5:30 on Playstation 4
What a let down. I had read a number of great things about this game, but I kept getting distracted by how fundamentally broken it is. Probably the jankiest game I've played in the last five years. More crashes, more freezes, more hitches and hang ups than any 5 games combined - and that was in the short time I played it. If it hadn't been its own standalone DLC and had been the full game it would have been unfinishable for me it was so broken.
Then there's the storyline, and using slaves as currency. It seemed heavy handed, then the QTE to free slaves near the end, was not a fan. The game definitely has balance issues, you take out the entire city of slavers and 30 seconds later they are repopulated again. At this point in the year, this is easily my least favorite game I've played, which is a bummer - because I really wanted to like this, and I think they did interesting things with the story, but there was too much they did VERY wrong for a good story to save it.
17. Sunset Overdrive - Finished story on 3/6/15 - Time played ~11 hours on Xbone
This game was a decent sized chunk of why I bought an Xbone, but for some reason didn't dive into it the day the UPS guy dropped the system off. I now see that was a huge mistake.
I honestly think this is the most fun game I've played in the last 20 years of my life. Maybe longer; though I mean that single player. Playing 4 player Super Pole Riders or Kung Foot on Rayman Legends probably takes the cake, the level of hilarity with my friends and I finds new levels. Anyway.
At first the traversal stuff didn't land with me, then I started getting used to it and was like being in college again, and looking at the handrails in my dorms after a 5 hour Tony Hawk session thinking "I could grind that". You have to embrace grinding, bouncing, wall running - all of it. If you stand still, you're dead. If you run on the ground, you're dead. If you aren't always moving in a ridiculous fashion, you're dead. And that's great once you embrace it.
The zany guns were fine, I mostly used the hand cannon and the shotgun, though some of the specialized guns definitely have their place, and I still have ~5 more guns to unlock.
The story was fun, and funny, and I feel like funny is in short supply in games these days. I found myself legitimately laughing at least a dozen times, and when the reference
at the first ending, I fucking lost it. I felt the game was very fair, and I absolutely loved the portals that would materialize underneath you if you fell in a story mission. The final boss fight was a little frustrating at first, but just took me taking a step back and really thinking about how to do this. Though out the game I only died a few times, and until the final mission I thought the checkpointing was done perfectly.
If you have an Xbox One you should play this game. If you don't have an Xbox One, but you are thinking about it, you really should. I'm not a Jet Set Radio guy (never played), and I fell out of love with Tony Hawk in the early 2000's. I don't have any weird nostalgia for Ratchet and Clank either. I guess I'm saying there's nothing in my past that would make me absolutely fucking love it - and I absolutely fucking love it. I'm already coordinating two of my best friends to borrow my Xbone so they an play this game. You should do the same.
18. Forza Horizon 2: Storm Island - Finished Finale on 3/8/15 - Played ~6 hours on Xbone
I have really enjoyed every single Forza property I have touched. I dabbled in 3, did EVERYTHING in 4, most of everything in Horizon, only a bit of 5, and most of Horizon 2. I liked the more open world of FH2 over the original, but a lot of what I didn't love was the offered visibility.
So an expansion based solely around offroad with the addition of crazy storms should not have appealed to me - but it was pretty fun. Introducing rally tires and suspension helped, and bringing a whole new land mass was also nice. Some of the new vehicles were nice as well, though driving a RWD high horsepower heavy car from the 1970's offered was frustrating. Thank god for the rewind function.
I'm kind of glad to have FH2 in my rear view (sorry for that). I'm decently into Forza 5, and swapping back and forth between the two is rough. I know F5 isn't hardcore sim like iRacing, but the differences between F5 and FH2 in handling are stark and vast. You need to drive cleanly in F5 or you're hosed - FH2 is far more ...forgiving. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because I really prefer F5's way of doing things, even though I love open world approach of Horizon.
19. Sniper Elite 3 - Save system glitched near the end of the 5th mission on 3/20/15 - Time Played ~6 hours on Xbone
First time I've had to walk away before actually completing a game. Near the end of the fifth mission there's a somewhat ambiguous section about tracking one of the generals, I had saved directly before, but somehow in failing it decided to auto-save over my one save (yeah I know, I should've used other slots - but I hadn't intended to go back and do things better) so when I load it instantly fails me and puts me back to the load menu. Since I spent 6 hours, and I'm really not enjoying the game all that much, I'm done. Finito.
If I had been enjoying the game more I'd probably think about jumping back in. I don't know if its the over the top graphic x-ray vision (which I only recently figured out you can cancel out of), or the somewhat ambiguous side stuff (still have no idea what a long shot is) but I can see this being the poster child for a second tier game. It's too big to be a true indie, but in scope, scale, and polish it in no way rivals a AAA game. I had major frame rate issues several times, and that was the first time I've seen it so bad on any console since the 360/PS3.
It's a fine game, far from great, and since I grabbed it for a song during the xbox sale I don't feel bad about it, but I really don't think I'd recommend it for anyone unless stealth shooting is *really* your thing.
20. CounterSpy - Completed on 3/21/15 - Time Played ~2.5 hours on PS4
I actually bought this at launch, it looked cool, and IIRC there was some sort of deal. I actually really enjoyed it - more on the PS4 than Vita, but it wasn't bad on Vita. But for some reason it really didn't grab me. I played it in late August for a pair of missions, then came back to it seven months later in my quest to defeat my backlog.
It is stylish as all get out, which may sound like a copout generic term, but it really looks great. The art direction, the music, the whole thing works. I really liked the little bit of customization you could do, and I *really* liked how they hid things. It felt like every time I found something hidden I knew I had missed at least two others - and yet I didn't mind that a bit. The 2D shooting was more enjoyable to me than the 2.5D shooting, but I liked what they did. I have a few gripes with how money and upgrades are handled, but largely it was a great game. Considering it has now been free through PS+, if you have it you should give it a shot, it's a fun little game.
21. The Order: 1886 Finished Story on 3/24/15 - Time Played ~6.5 hours on PS4
A buddy of mine let me borrow this and I tore through it. Not because it gripped me, but because I'm going out of town on Thursday and wanted to wrap this up. Man, what a disappointing game. I had pre-ordered this the day I put a deposit on my PS4 - i.e. the night of E3 - and I'm really glad I didn't follow through on that pre-order.
The good - visuals are fantastic. I like the steampunk stuff, I thought the graphics were amazing, the story was...fine. I liked being Galahad, that you had Tesla running around, a bunch of little things. But...this is 2015 and this is a huge first party game, and it does not deliver in that regard.
It feels like playing Gears of War 1 all over again. And I don't mean that in a good way, though GoW was fantastic for its time. Maybe The Order: 1887 will capitalize on what they did well and expand in a new way, but I'm not holding my breath. Jeff Gertstmann's review holds true - rent this game.
22. Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc - Finished all chapters on 4/8/15 - Time played maybe 20ish hours? on Vita
I had heard from a number of places, but probably most prevalently from Patrick Klepek that this game shouldn't be skipped. I picked it up last year and jumped in to find it is a very strange game. However, I 100% finished VLR last year, and found that to be weird as hell and also enjoyable so I figured I'd dabble at some point.
For some reason handheld games have always been second class citizens to me. I don't know why, but they've always felt like a compromise if I am playing them at home where I have a 55" tv with consoles attached to it. As a result, I really didn't get into this until last October when we went to Chicago so I could run the Chicago Marathon. I got through the first chapter, and then it languished until a few weeks ago when I started playing a bit at night as I fell asleep.
It's a game about a high school/prison where the students have to commit a murder, and get away with it, in order to leave. The schools headmaster is a sadistic teddy bear. Probably a *great* thing to play right before falling asleep. Anyway, fast forward to the end of last month when we visited family in Colorado, and I got a few more chapter down.
This was a game that the gameplay irked me, but the story was creative enough I couldn't stop playing. I hated backtracking over and over through the school, and man, if that game isn't hyper Japanese I don't know what is. Also, the trials were on the frustrating side - though I've never been an Ace Attorney guy, so maybe that's what those are like and it is what it is.
Hopefully a few of these are ironed out, because I downloaded Danganronpa 2 a little while back when PSN had it on sale. I don't think I'm jumping right into it as my goto Vita game...but we'll see. I've been playing a lot of Bloodborne, which is why there's such a gap here - but when I wrap that up maybe I'll see what Danganronpa 2 has in store for me. Or maybe I'll finally get back into Fez.
23. Bloodborne Completed New Game on 4/19/15 - Time played ~29 hours on PS4
Well, it's over. The long drought has ended. I bought this game about a week after launch and it has essentially been the only game I've played for the last three weeks. I played an hour of Demon's Souls a while back, and it didn't resonate with me, but so many of the things I've read made me think Bloodborne would be the place to jump into the series - and I'm glad I did because it definitely was.
I completely understand now what people mean when they say that something will click and you'll start getting it. I think it took killing Father Gascoigne, after dying a half dozen times, and literally saying to my buddy "I'm going to bed", only to try him one more time and killing him. After that...I just kept pushing.
I didn't kill all of the optional bosses, and I didn't mess with the chalice dungeons. While I enjoyed the game, after ~20 hours I was about ready to be done with it. The lack of pausing isn't helpful as a dad to a little one, and the whole "everything can always kill you if you aren't paying attention" meant I had to be on my game, and not tired when I played. But, I knew if I dabbled in other stuff I likely wouldn't ever come back, and I wanted to this one.
I started with the saw cleaver, and I finished with the saw cleaver. I tried the axe, cane, kirkhammer, and Ludwigs Holy Blade - and none of them felt right. The saw cleaver was the perfect balance of quick and hard, and it did the knock back enough. Same with the blunderbuss. Really just worked for me. Though, I don't feel bad I never tried new stuff, just kinda weird I started with the last weapons I used.
I did a fair bit of coop in the last third of the game. My buddy (who earlier on I played while he did and we'd just voice chat) and I played in each other's game, primarily with him in mine because he's single and has more downtime, so he's always been a few bosses ahead of me. As a result, there were a pair of bosses that he was my counterpart for the entire run up to them - which was a nice change of pace.
I really think this is a great place to jump into the series if you have not already - but I can also see people who aren't interested still won't be interested.
24. Mario Kart 8 Finished Grand Prix, unlocked all drivers 4/23/15 - Time Played 12 hours on Wii U
So much was great and awful about this game. Absolutely stunning visuals that never got old. I thought the track designs were fun and almost whimsical at times, with the changing gravity being a cool touch. I thought battle was a steaming pile of shit. I thought multiplayer hurting the frame rate was pretty weak. And I ultimately got really sick of leading for 98% of the race only to finish 6th.
I know it's *the* cart racer that had the wonky items, but when I'm in first place I get a coin, banana peel, or maybe a green shell - and when the computer is he gets some great items. That's some grade A bullshit, and I'm fresh from Bloodborne. Which I guess illustrates how ultimately fair Bloodborne is - it just asks that you learn and play better. MK8 just wants you to keep going over and over, and eventually you won't get nuked with a blue shell 20 yards from the finish line.
I think the main reason I'm so sour on the game is battle mode. I loved battle mode on previous versions of the game. I played so much battle mode on the N64 version, we broke controllers in the dorm from doing so. This isn't battle mode. This is what happens when a person, who has played battle mode, does drugs for the first time, and in the middle of it describes to someone with a learning disability what battle mode is, but there's an interpreter in the way who's in the middle of his first day on the job. Something got lost in the translation, and that really sucks. Play it if you are a kart racing aficionado, but otherwise you can pass. Unless you like to look at things that look pretty...because it sure is.
25. Super Mario 3D World - Completed main levels on 5/3/15 - Time Played ~10 hours on Wii U
I bought this game when I bought my Wii U, and I dabbled a bit right away solo, and with friends. With friends was both great, and fucking frustrating. So many wasted lives, so many wasted power ups, so many almost punchings - but that was part of the great.
Playing it solo I decided to go for stars, but not kill myself for stars. Turns out, that was the right way to go - I had all the stars I needed to unlock stuff until the final Bowser/Mouser level and then I only had to get 5 more to get to 170. Interestingly enough, I died 113 times - and I would guess more than half of those were in the first 3 worlds which I played with two friends.
Anyway, onto the game. Absolutely gorgeous. The art style is nostalgic but modern, and done so well. I liked the little stuff you could do in the map. Kinda felt like a true version of the shit kids lied about in the Mario 3 map. The levels had a great variation to them, and while I enjoyed most of them, I didn't enjoy them enough to get going with the bonus levels. Part of that is I'd like to get some more of these games off of my list.
I also really liked the cat suit - I didn't use it nearly as much as I should have, but I liked it. Though, it made the raccoon suit feel stupid and I don't know why, maybe because I never flew with the raccoon suit, and that was always my favorite part of that in that past.
The camera bugged me at times. I didn't like not being able to always change it, and especially in that final tower climb, but that's a pretty minor nitpick. I really liked the invincibility star you could get if you kept dying. Very clear they wanted you to enjoy this game - and I did.
If you are in your upper 20's to 30's and played Nintendo games growing up, you should play this. It's a lot of fun, and you should dabble with friends. You may lose those friends, but it would probably be worth it.