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Games Beaten In 2013!


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36. Quake III Revolution - PS2

 

This game is a lot of fun, the campaign consists of several tiers of multiplayer maps, and different game types, ending eventually with a boss battle! Mindless, run & gun multiplayer action. Loading times SUCK, but hey, I'll live with it for the dualshock controller. The alternatives are the Dreamcast controller & PC, both of which I suck at FPS games on.

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Heavenly Sword (PS3)

 

The graphics are top-notch, the animation is superb, it controls well(even making good use of the sixaxis functions), and aurally it's impressive. However, the gameplay is too shallow, too short (4 hrs.?), and too linear. There's not enough strategy in the combat--at its best, your just breaking simple patterns, but most of the time you're fighting trash mobs, where the combat quickly degenerates into button mashing. There's too much scripting in the boss fights, QTE's often stand in for what should have been fully developed gameplay elements, and on a technical note, the framerate is poor. The story is actually decent, albeit a little overwrought for my tastes.

 

Heavenly Sword is a tasty snack, but it makes for a pretty meager meal. B-

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37. Red Faction: Armageddon - Xbox 360

 

This is a quality game! Lots of fun destruction. Story is awesome too, but could have been a bit more detailed. Pretty short game too, I didn't time it, but I'd say between 10 & 15 hours.

Edited by doomwaves
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38. Hexen - PC

 

Brutal, but awesome! Took me a while to navigate the last couple hubs, but they were worth it. Got a bit stir crazy and took a break during the fifth, but i managed to remember where i had been somehow. When all is said and done, I think Heretic is a better game, but this is still totally worth a play if you have the patience. I intend to play the sequel, but not anytime soon. It seems to be a bit harder even.

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Just finished Interplays "Frankenstein - Through the Eyes of the Monster"... a truly horrible game. I can't remember when I last played through such a pile of trash :lolblue:

 

(Funny technical tidbit: For this game I had to install Quicktime 2(!) on my Windows 7 PC - and it just worked! :o)

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PGA Tour Golf III (Genesis)

 

The graphics are noticeably improved, but somehow the wind is even more erratic than it was in PGA Tour Golf II. If the in-game weather conditions call for blustery winds, I recommend restarting the game until you get more moderate conditions. If you can work around the erratic wind, then this might stand as the greatest golf game ever made. A

 

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)

 

Suffers a bit in its conversion to the Genesis hardware, but this is still one of the best games ever made. My biggest complaint is the sloppy genesis D-pad. I prefer the SNES version of the game primarily for that reason. A-

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27. Escape from Monster Manor (3DO)

 

This spooky clone of Wolfenstein 3-D was released shortly after the 3DO launch, and the rush to get it to market meant that the game suffered in the variety department: over the course of its 12 levels you get just one weapon, only four different monsters, and very little variety of gameplay. But what's there plays very well, has a smooth framerate, and only occasionally gets more frustrating than enjoyable. The soundtrack is very hit or miss, though. B.

 

28. Double Dragon (Genesis)

 

I got this a few years ago and beat it the same day I got it. Last night I pulled it out again for the project over at Sega-16, and was able to beat it on the hardest settings with no trouble. Still a terrible port -- it's way too easy and just feels "off". D-.

 

29. The Addams Family (Genesis)

 

This, on the other hand, is a very fun little technical platformer that does just about everything right. The challenge is real but never frustrating (thanks to passwords and plentiful extra lives), and the stages are smartly designed and full of little secrets and shortcuts. (Each subsection even has its own name, which is a nice touch.)

 

The controls have a mild case of the slipperiness that so often plagues 16-bit platformers, but compared to most of its peers this comes out miles ahead. Oddly, a couple small areas have no music for no apparent reason; wonder why that is? A-.

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39. Vay - Sega CD (played on iOS)

 

Loved this game! Excellent music, decent graphics & cut scenes. Voice acting was very sub par, but it didn't take away from anything. Playing with touch controls was less than awesome, but its pretty easy to get used to.

 

This is a very good way to play a Working Designs classic without owning a Sega CD & without breaking the bank on copy of the game.

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Beyond Oasis (Genesis/360)

 

A good game, but lacking something essential that I can't quite put my finger on. I have no major complaints about the visual presentation. In fact, the graphics are terrific, with outstanding art-direction, huge sprites, quality animations, and skillful usage of the Genesis' relatively limited color palettes. Nevertheless, in a sort of cascading fashion, the threadbare story, the uninspiring level designs, the underwhelming soundtrack, the lackluster puzzles, the linear progression, and the mediocre boss-fights all serve to undermine the experience in a way that makes Beyond Oasis feel like something less than the sum of it's parts. B-

Edited by Christophero Sly
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6. Ultra Vortek - Atari Jaguar

 

Was able to beat it on normal with one credit then got my @$$ handed to me on hard mode.

 

7. MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Titanium Edition) - PC

 

Played the DOS way back in the day, but never got around to the 3D card supported versions. Still like it just as much as I did the first time I played it, but don't equip weapons to your arms they're anyways the first item to blow up.

 

8. MechWarrior 3 - PC

 

Had a hard keeping the game running. It would crash almost after each mission, but it would save my progress in the missions so I could still continue on after a restart of the game. The game itself is ok. Its not bad, but I think I like every other MechWarrior game better then it.

 

9. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete - Sony PlayStation

 

Nice update to the Sega CD version. Was kinda of sad about half though the game when I realize that Luna's Boat Song was in the other game and was one of the reasons I started playing it. Its still a great game worth playing.

 

 

10. Dragon Force - Sega Saturn

 

A Casual Look At.. by Austin got me to break out my copy a take a try at it. Then I got a little obsessed with it a spend a few too many hours in one day playing it. The game is great and really annoy at the same time. The timed rounds and the retreating and then re-attacking would get on my last nerve in the parts of the game that I was trying to move my troops around the map. It was still fun and a neat little game to play.

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System Shock 2 (Mac)

 

It's hard to fairly evaluate SS2. At the time of its release many elements of its gameplay were novel and pioneering in an FPS, no doubt. Fifteen years on, however, many of those elements, or at least their implementations, feel downright archaic.

 

Then or now, it's hard to characterize the combat in this game as anything other than awful. Enemy AI is dreadful. The mechanics of melee combat are laughably clunky and combat with projectile weapons is the most simplistic I've ever experienced in an FPS. The cybernetic upgrades and psi powers add some depth to the game, but ultimately that depth is illusory because there's only a single linear path through the game. The game's attempts at puzzle-platforming are horrendous. Thankfully these instances are few and far between. The plot is interesting in its premise, but the writing, script, and voice acting are all mediocre. Progression through the game is built upon the often wearisome framework of "encounter blocked path, traverse level(s) to find "key" that unblocks this path, backtrack to blocked path and open". For the most part, this works fine, but there are a few examples in the game where the required backtracking is simply tedium, serving no real purpose.

 

By and large, SS2 is a game of atmosphere and immersion, with the principal draw being a sense of exploration and discovery. That's a big hook for me, and the fact that the game mostly gets this element right helps it to overcome many of its flaws. The game is probably best played on the higher difficulties, were a sense of resource constraint adds a sense of meaningful tension to the experience.

 

My experience with SS2 was also colored by the fact that I had previously played Bioshock. I nearly quit playing SS2 about three hours in out of a sense of deja-vu. It's not enough to say that Bioshock is the "spiritual successor" to System Shock 2. Bioshock is System Shock 2 re-imaged. The details are altered, but the plot structure and gameplay are virtually identical.

 

Keeping in mind that had I played SS2 fifteen years ago its impact upon me would have been greater, I give the game a B.

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During the past week I played through Street Fighter Alpha (PS2 Anthology) with all 13 characters :)

 

Capcom games beaten in 2013: Knights of the Round, The King of Dragons, Breath of Fire II, Mega Man X2, Captain Commando, Tower of Doom, Shadow Over Mystara & Street Fighter Alpha

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30. Toys (Genesis)

 

Another "re-beat" for the Sega-16 project. I still think this game had a lot of potential, though the end result is only middling. C.

 

31. Chuck Rock (Genesis)

 

The Sega CD version was a little better, but either way I find the game abrasive and not very fun. D+.

 

32. ATP Tour Championship Tennis (Genesis)

 

I'll hold off on grading this for now since I have a review planned for Sega-16, but suffice it to say that it's a well-intentioned title that plays reasonably well but is way too long.

 

33. Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest (Genesis)

 

Probably a little better than the other Chester Cheetah game on Genesis, not that that's saying much. D+.

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Alan Wake's American Nightmare (360)

 

I'm a huge fan of the original Alan Wake; I consider it to be one of the best games I've ever played. Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a completely disappointing sequel. Evidently, the developers of AWAN had no understanding of what made the original game a success. The writing is marginal at best, the story is impenetrably convoluted, the level design is simply a recycling of the same three areas over and over, and the voice acting made me wince on multiple occasions. Though to be fair, there probably isn't much an actor can do when reading from such a lousy script. Most inexcusable, however, is the fact that AWAN jettisons the wonderful atmosphere of genuine suspense that characterized the original game and replaces it with over-the-top gunplay. Armed with combat shotguns and submachine guns, and with ammunition dumps and weapon lockers littering the repetitive levels, Alan Wake is transformed into some kind of paranormal Rambo. Generic and predictable third-person shooting and repetitive fetch-quests are about the only things AWAN has to offer. As such, AWAN probably qualifies as an average experience, but I don't really care whether the game is good or bad. I simply can't make peace with what I see as a complete misappropriation of the original game's assets. C-

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During the past week I played through Final Fight 3 (Virtual Console) with all 4 characters on the 'extreme' difficulty level :)

 

Sidenote: Once you've experienced a Classic Controller Pro you can't go back to the original one...

 

Capcom games beaten in 2013: Knights of the Round, The King of Dragons, Breath of Fire II, Mega Man X2, Captain Commando, Tower of Doom, Shadow Over Mystara, Street Fighter Alpha & Final Fight 3

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I Am Alive (360)

 

I Am Alive received very mixed reviews, with some outlets, like IGN, dismissing the game outright. Based on those reviews, I thought I was taking a big chance on I Am Alive. I wasn't. I Am Alive is outstanding. It's a compact masterpiece of brooding atmosphere and unrivaled tension, and its innovative mechanics redefine acrobatic platforming and close quarter conflict. I Am Alive requires the kind of strategy, awareness, planning, and execution that makes Brain-dead spectacles like Uncharted feel downright lame in comparison. I Am Alive isn't a difficult game, but it doesn't hold your hand, it doesn't play itself for you, and it absolutely doesn't reward failure. I could nitpick some technical and design shortcomings, but nothing that would diminish the core experience. Easy A

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I beat The Longest Journey over the weekend. I had to cheat a little, though. I still don't get the logic behind the Mearum shrine puzzle.

 

Even though I found the game a little frustrating at times, I loved it. The characters had distinct personalities, and I very much cared about them, which isn't often the case with video games.

 

 

In fact, when I had to call Crow to help with the final trial before entering the Guardian's tower, I was thrilled, because I loved him so much as a character.

 

 

I've started Dreamfall and . . . I'm a little worried. The sense of humor from The Longest Journey seems to be missing so far. Hopefully, that changes once I get further into the game.

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