Completed Games Tracker - 2013 Edition

(Spoilers in the whitened-out sections) Just finished Halo 4's campaign on Normal. Can someone explain to me the hate this game gets? My only complaints are that the penultimate section of the campaign kind of drags on a bit (The part directly after you fly the Broadsword while the Didact's ship arrives in Earth's orbit), and that - unless I missed something - there really isn't any backstory given as to just who the Didact is and why he's so evil, though I'm sure that's explained in the novels. Otherwise, I thought it was a fantastic game. I'm also loving the multiplayer so far; it's definitely influenced by Call of Duty, but it's still very much classic Halo.

On to Spartan Ops now!

 

Whoa, been a while since I posted in this. I've built up a bit of a list since the last time I mentioned beating anything.

• McPixel (Steam)
• Tales of Vesperia (PS3)
• Tales of Xillia (PS3)
• Papers, Please (Steam)

McPixel was short and fairly pointless (but a funny idea). ToV was great--sooooo much better than the original 360 version. Xillia was excellent and I clocked 150+ hours before completing it (and will probably go back and play some more soon since they released school DLC costumes n_n;. And Papers, Please is an excellent, excellent game that everyone should play. It's pretty short but there's lots of replayability to get all the endings and it's mostly random.

 

I just wrapped up Metroid Fusion for the first time. That was really dissapointing. People seem to really like it though. Maybe because we were all Metroid starved when that game was originally released? It's very clearly Sakamoto's take on the franchise (like *shudder* Other M) rather than the more Yokoi-centric style of the older games that Retro really captured perfectly with their first two Prime games (which Sakamoto really dislikes, by the way).

The staples of the franchise for me, isolation, exploration, and an organic unfolding overworld were all absent. It was linear with your next objective clearly defined. There were Samus monologues like in Other M (Fusion, in fact, is a sequel to Other M even though it was released before it. So there's lots of mentioning of Samus' relationship with Adam *sigh*). The overworld is divided into sectors and you're granted access to items (or at least told that you should now find one).

It also has a strong battle focus. Which never really was the point of the 2D Metroid games. Enemies take off a lot of damage. Many times, you lose an entire bar of energy in one hit. And it's often very easy to get cornered and hit repeatedly. I entered countless battles where I hit the Game Over screen in a matter of mere seconds. Was not fun.

Go away Sakamoto. I know you have some odd epic storyline for this franchise in your head, but step away please. You don't have the slightest idea what this franchise is about in terms of game design.


That frustration aside, I've been updating my main post throughout the summer. But I haven't been reporting what I've played in a single post. So, a quick run down...

• Assassin's Creed III
• Banjo-Tooie
• Bastion
• Newer Summer Sun
• Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
• Pokemon Throwback Edition
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

 

Beat Pokemon Black 2 yesterday. I went with a themed team (based on Tales of Graces) and it was god-awful because I had two grass types, two dark types, and no electric types and I don't think I've ever played a Pokemon game without an electric type (or even an electric type MOVE) so I was lost the entire time. But I did it!

I'll probably wait quite a while for Pokemon X/Y. :x

 

So... you purposely tried to not enjoy the game?

 

I really, really liked my team even if they were awful... :(

 

Finished the Tomb Raider reboot today. Very good game.

 

Beat Orcs Must Die 2 last night. It was alright. It seemed really unbalanced for single player, though. I probably shouldn't judge it until I play it co-op like I assume it was meant to be played but if it's that hard without a second player, they probably should've just made it co-op only. ~_~

Needless to say I did not enjoy it as much as its predecessor.

 

Dooouble post.

I finally beat Shadow of the Colossus the other night. I had the game way back on PS2 and never got around to it, and then when the HD re-release came out, I picked that up and sat on it for a long time too. I did the first half of it many months ago but my roommates don't like watching this game so I couldn't really play it unless I was alone and I never remembered it or had the motivation. I hated the controls a lot and found them clunky, frustrating, and really unintuitive, so I avoided playing for a long time. I picked it up the other day and beat a few more Colossi and finished it off a few days later. It was really satisfying to finally beat it after so much time but I don't think it's a game I'd ever replay. Gorgeous and crazy impressive for what was originally a PS2 game, but man the controls just did not age well in my opinion.