Beaten in 2018...

[AceAerosmith]

OK, I finally finished a game this year.

1.Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18

[jb143]

Sure, I can start.

One that's been on my list to play for a looooong time that I just beat last night was Metroid II: Return of Samus(original gameboy version). I had wanted this game ever since I was a kid. I even remember trying to collect kool-aid points to get itLOL but it's one I never acquired. At first I started playing it along side the AM2R remake (which I snagged a while back before it got pulled). I would try to catch up in that game to where I got to in the GB version to more or less do a side by side comparison and so I would have a map. That got old fast though and I don't think I went more than the first couple of Metroids. It's an awesome remake though so I'm sure I'll play through it at some point(If it's even finished. I don't remember if it ever was). I have not played the 3DS version for comparison though.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28

The first month of the year is almost over, but I managed to squeeze in my first game beaten for the year. Man, I did not expect to be playing this for a whole month. It's surprisingly lengthy for an RPG of this era, especially on Game Boy. I was a bit annoyed with the final segment. The dungeon called "Final Dungeon" is pretty misleading. All the endless staircases and the maze at the bottom is every bit as much of a "dungeon" as any other. It's even more of a pain with how it's impossible to run from almost every battle, the mid-bosses are annoying with how the number of enemies is random, and the constant screen shaking was driving me nuts. The final boss also felt like nothing special. But a few quibbles with that last part aside, it was a solid, fun RPG. I think I like the story and setting of the first game better, though FFL2 is at a disadvantage there since it's basically rehashing the concept of the first game. But everything else about the sequel is expanded and more polished. It'll be interesting to play the third since I hear it's more like another Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (which I actually really like) than a SaGa, but I'll save that for a later point in time.

[jb143]

I've been on a GB/GBC kick lately. Since my last post I've beaten Super Mario Land 1 and 2; and while I haven't beaten part II yet which is included on the Gameboy Color cart, I did just beat DejaVu. It's another one that has been on my list for a while but never gotten around to playing it. It reminded me a lot of the non-courtroom parts of the Ace Attorney games. It was just hard enough that I'd get stuck from time to time trying to figure out what to do next, but never too hard that I felt the need to look up any of the solutions. Just play it a little more until the solution clicks.

I also beat Lego Batman playing it with my kid but I'm not sure how you decide if you've actually finished it or not since there is so much you can go back and do in those games.

[WulfeLuer]

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Did a good few more things this go around, managed to uncover where all the high-end spells were, did a few more of the side stuff. The final boss was still one of the crazier things I've dealt with, with a surprise difficulty spike right before the end.

Congrats to Aussie for a victory over FF Legends 2. That was my first RPG way back in the day, and I still can't claim to have beaten it without cheating (Arsenal is EVIL). That will be definitely be on my radar to see if I actually learned anything over 20-odd years of RPG obsession. But I think first, Lavos beckons.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7

Man, this winter has been brutal, and I can't wait for it to be over. Even though I don't have kids, work from home, and got a flu shot, I've somehow gotten sick twice now in the span of just over a month, this second time with the flu. I hadn't even fully gotten over the lingering cough from the previous cold (and I may have had an ear infection or something after the cold because I was really dizzy for a good week there). And all this has really screwed up all my gaming plans. Harvest Moon 64 still sits untouched since December. If more time had passed between these illnesses, I would've been happy to start up Final Fantasy Legend III, but I only just finished the previous FFL after starting that when the cold hit me. So instead, I started up DKC3, since it was already in the case and would offer a change of pace from just finishing an RPG. The first day the flu hit me, I was too knocked out to do anything, but I was doing better enough yesterday to start playing, and I got the credits roll this afternoon. I think I have 5-some hours on the clock, though I left it idle plenty. The funny thing is that I bought this port primarily because of the new Dave Wise soundtrack, but in the end, I think I still prefer the original soundtrack, though neither is anything remarkable. The new area Pacifica didn't seem as well designed as the original stages either. Though it kind of threw me for a loop how they put the old sea urchin boss in there and then added a new weird boss where the sea urchin was. Anyway, I'm gonna keep playing and work toward collecting everything.

[gbpxl]

I finally beat Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for Xbox, 100% completion. Man did it get old after 4-5 times through. The new levels, characters, cheat codes, kept me going though.

[Cornelius]

1. Bayonetta (WiiU) - 03.03

I finished the story, anyway. I'm not near good enough at this type of game to unlock everything 100%. I don't quite know what to make of the over-the-top sexualization. I've got to believe that it is deliberately satirizing itself and being playful, but I definitely wouldn't let my kids watch me play. Hell, I'd probably blush and have to stop if my wife was watching! As much as I'd like to, I can't quite get past the objectification and teenage-boy fantasy aspect.

[gbpxl]

1. Bayonetta (WiiU) - 03.03

I finished the story, anyway. I'm not near good enough at this type of game to unlock everything 100%. I don't quite know what to make of the over-the-top sexualization. I've got to believe that it is deliberately satirizing itself and being playful, but I definitely wouldn't let my kids watch me play. Hell, I'd probably blush and have to stop if my wife was watching! As much as I'd like to, I can't quite get past the objectification and teenage-boy fantasy aspect.

as is the case with most games wherein one plays as a female character (outside of Metroid.) Sex sells. Developers' livelihoods depend on it. They could make a statement and make a game where one plays a female character that is fully clothed and people who dislike objectification of women would be buying it, but would that make up for the millions of teenage boys and young men who don't want to buy a game where the woman isn't half-naked? Probably not. It'd probably be a poor seller and could put the company's stock in jeopardy.

I could be wrong and there could be millions of people who are clamoring for a video game with a self-respecting female character but just knowing the kind of people who are driving the electronic entertainment industry, I can't see it being a hot seller.

I remember back in the day the magazines talking about how many people were writing asking for nude codes for Tomb Raider. I'm sure the number of those letters far outnumbered the number of letters that complained about too much skin (again, could be wrong. just a wild guess though)

[Cornelius]

as is the case with most games wherein one plays as a female character (outside of Metroid.) Sex sells. Developers' livelihoods depend on it. They could make a statement and make a game where one plays a female character that is fully clothed and people who dislike objectification of women would be buying it, but would that make up for the millions of teenage boys and young men who don't want to buy a game where the woman isn't half-naked? Probably not. It'd probably be a poor seller and could put the company's stock in jeopardy.

I could be wrong and there could be millions of people who are clamoring for a video game with a self-respecting female character but just knowing the kind of people who are driving the electronic entertainment industry, I can't see it being a hot seller.

I remember back in the day the magazines talking about how many people were writing asking for nude codes for Tomb Raider. I'm sure the number of those letters far outnumbered the number of letters that complained about too much skin (again, could be wrong. just a wild guess though)

Tomb Raider is an interesting example to bring up, because in the last couple installments it has backed off quite a bit from the hyper sexualization prevalent in the earlier games. I feel like Bayonetta is different from those early Tomb Raider games, and I think it may come down to the self-satirizing. It is a dangerous thing to do, but if I imagine myself as a woman playing these games, I could see laughing at the silliness of Bayonetta and having a good time, but being more indignant with (earlier) Lara Croft... "they expect us to believe she could do that while wearing that?!?" Maybe that's just wishful thinking from my male brain.

[jb143]

1. Metroid II: Return of Samus
2. Super Mario Land 1
3. Super Mario Land 2
4. Lego Batman (Wii)
5. DejaVu I & II (gbc)

Finally beat DejaVu part II. It was pretty smooth sailing until the very end. I wasn't figuring out exactly what they wanted me to do and I stopped playing it for a while. I think I like it better than the first one though. At least story wise. I think I'm off the Game Boy kick now and not sure where I'll pick up next.

So many games...so little time.

[WulfeLuer]

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)

Symphony is just as fun as ever, with the only real gripes being little story in the second castle compared to the first, and a dearth of soundtrack variety for the same (it would not have killed them to re-use Wandering Ghosts and The Tragic Prince). Rogue Galaxy is still a decent RPG romp, with some awesome characters and nifty combat mechanics, but the story could have been handled better. I also remembered the hard way that this game has a habit of knocking you on your butt if your stop paying attention.

[WulfeLuer]

Unexpected double post, I can't be the only guy beating anything right now...

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
4. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)

Curse was a very welcome surprise, since Lament of Innocence (AKA Belmont Blond Moment) left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I had heard that Curse and Lament were all too similar. While the case for that can be made, I hold the opinion that Curse is the game Lament was the prototype for. A lot of the basic mechanics and concepts for Curse were in Lament, but the addition of multiple weapon categories (plus different types within each category), a meaningful experience/level system taking advantage of the monster harvesting, a meaningful equipment and crafting progression (coupled with material drops), wonky--but fun--stealing make for a much better experience (especially for an incorrigible RPG nut like me). Throw in the dumb-on-paper but actually pretty awesome Innocent Devil companion system (huzzah, gothic grimdark Pokémon) and you've got a wonderful little 15-20 hour romp.

[Emperor Megas]

as is the case with most games wherein one plays as a female character (outside of Metroid.) Sex sells. Developers' livelihoods depend on it. They could make a statement and make a game where one plays a female character that is fully clothed and people who dislike objectification of women would be buying it, but would that make up for the millions of teenage boys and young men who don't want to buy a game where the woman isn't half-naked? Probably not. It'd probably be a poor seller and could put the company's stock in jeopardy.

I could be wrong and there could be millions of people who are clamoring for a video game with a self-respecting female character but just knowing the kind of people who are driving the electronic entertainment industry, I can't see it being a hot seller.
)Could it be a matter of games that have hyper sexualized women tend stand out and get noticed more? By their nature I imagine they would after all. I've been gaming my whole life and not very many of the games I play with female protagonists are over-sexualized (I don't think so anyway), not that I would mind at all if they were (as I rather appreciate that sort of thing, honestly).

I mean, I don't go looking for either types of characters since my taste is fairly broad, but I tend to encounter more Heather Masons, Jill Valentines and Chun Lis, than Bayonettas, B2s, and Ivys. I suppose YMMV, depending on the games you play, but I don't think that a more conservatively dressed/mannered female character would translate to poor sales. Games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and (modern) Tomb Raider games sell pretty well, I think.

I'm not naive in that I don't realize that sex sells, but when you're dealing in fantasy themes especially, style is a pretty big draw, and celebrating extremes like power and sexuality plays well into these sorts of games. It's not unlike the hulking, over-the-top masculine characters in gritty war games.

Granted, you also get boulder punching, He-man'esque Chris Redfields, and flirty, China Dress in the field wearing Ada Wongs in series' that barely benefit from over-the-top (normal) characters, but in general I think there's a very healthy variety of female and male characters in gaming that don't fall into either extreme categories and still sell decently.

[Emperor Megas]

I think the only game I ended this year was Nier: Automata, and my goodness, what an AMAZING game. This was a once or twice in a console generation sort of experience for me. I can't say enough good things about this title. I loved the last Nier, like a LOT, but I only played though it once (so far). I've played through Nier Automata like 5 times now.

I also ended Zelda: Breath of the Wild recently, but I think it was before the New Year. I honestly don't remember now, but I think it was more than a couple month ago, so I doubt it was this year.

My gaming took a considerable drop off after celerystalker left, as most of the games I played last year were Game Completion Challenge picks. I plan on getting back in soon though. I've got my gameroom a lot more organized now and am getting more play focused (rather than just collect/acquire focused).

Since I loved Nier and Nier Automata so much, I've decided to go back into the series and finally play the Drakengard games to see where it all started and how the series has evolved. I'm almost finished with the first Drakengard game and what a terrible, boring, uninteresting, horrible controlling experience it is. I REALLY hope 2 and 3 are better, because this game is absolute shit.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18

[Cornelius]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18

What did you think of Heavenly Sword? I really enjoyed it, and some of the stages I thought were just fantastic. Mostly the Kat(?) ones (once I learned you can turn off the motion controls).

[AceAerosmith]

What did you think of Heavenly Sword? I really enjoyed it, and some of the stages I thought were just fantastic. Mostly the Kat(?) ones (once I learned you can turn off the motion controls).

I liked it. I thought using the Six-Axis controller to control the flight of arrows/cannonballs was fun. It did make it challenging. It looked good considering it was an early title. I wouldn't take the time to play it again but there were levels worth playing again - mostly the cannonball levels.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14

It took me practically a full year in real life to clear the 2 and 1/4 in-game years to get to the evaluation and credits roll, but I finally finished off Harvest Moon 64. That probably makes it sound like I didn't like the game much, but it was just life getting in the way that had me dropping it for months at a time. I actually enjoyed it a lot and am already looking forward to replaying it someday to pursue a different bachelorette and do everything much better (I didn't even get a baby born before the ending). Unlike in the SNES Harvest Moon, I could keep playing this file, but I've already long ago missed the chance to get a "perfect" file, so I'm just calling it quits here.

I've also just now realized I've really fallen behind where I'd like to be in terms of how many games I complete this year. Hopefully I can pick up the pace and finish off some others that are close to the end and some shorter ones.

[WulfeLuer]

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
4. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
5. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS3)

DD is still an absolutely amazing game. I admit the story between the first five minutes and fighting Grigori is mostly meh (baby's first D&D campaign) but the combat and loot harvesting is so much fun that you don't really care pretty quickly.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18

It took probably a good 10 or so hours extra to get the platinum trophy, but I finally polished the Secret of Mana remake off as well. Of course, the bug that makes the music cut out sometimes had to happen in the middle of the credits sequence, haha. Oh well, no biggie. On that note, a couple of the game's songs from near the end of the game are among my favorites, but I was a bit meh on the arrangements. That said, I really enjoyed overall hearing new takes on the soundtrack. Same goes for experiencing the game in 3D and with voice acting and so on. A lot of people have dumped on the remake for a variety of reasons, but I more or less enjoyed it just as much as I did the multiple times I've played through the SNES original.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19

After sinking 30-some hours into Secret of Mana and who knows how much into Harvest Moon 64, I wanted to play through something short, and I had been meaning to play Home, since I had heard it was common to beat the game in less than 2 hours. The game even recommends setting an hour and a half aside and playing through the whole thing beginning to end in one sitting when you start. I didn't do it all in one go, nor did I keep track of my time, but true enough, it had to have been under 2 hours. For a horror game, it's actually kind of relaxing. I liked it better than Lone Survivor, the other horror game Limited Run Games made physical copies of that I've played through. No clunky combat, stealth, and maps, Tamagotchi-esque whining, or excessively limited visibility here. Story-wise, it was a bit similar in some ways and has the same sort of "leave everything up in the air" unsatisfying ending. If I'm trying to figure out a mystery, I want to know if I'm right or not, or be surprised by an explanation I didn't predict. I don't want everything to be left open to interpretation such that any conclusion can be valid. But that complaining aside, it was a decent way to spend part of my afternoon today.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18
9. Killzone:Shadow Fall (PS4) 07/23/18

[gbpxl]

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)

Symphony is just as fun as ever, with the only real gripes being little story in the second castle compared to the first, and a dearth of soundtrack variety for the same (it would not have killed them to re-use Wandering Ghosts and The Tragic Prince). Rogue Galaxy is still a decent RPG romp, with some awesome characters and nifty combat mechanics, but the story could have been handled better. I also remembered the hard way that this game has a habit of knocking you on your butt if your stop paying attention.

Symphony of the Night for me is the pinnacle of gaming and I don't know if anything else touches it besides Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The inverted castle was interesting but you can tell they were just trying to squeeze as much into the disc as they possibly could. The boss battles in the 2nd half were more memorable than in the 1st half, though.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29

It's always nice to revisit an old favorite. :) Like usual, I beat the game in just over 5 hours. I wasted some time trying to relearn the final area and boss, though. Now I just need to do a Solatorobo replay one of these days. Maybe I'll do that when the next Little Tail Bronx game is close to coming out, which is supposedly happening in 2019.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29
7. Disney's The Jungle Book (SNES) 8/6

The 8th level was so irritating that I entertained the idea of quitting this game, but I was getting so close to beating King Louie that I just couldn't give up. I persevered through that and then blew through the rest of the game with relative ease. Good riddance, I suppose. I've definitely played worse platformers, but there's not much going for this game either. It's basically everything that's bad about Virgin's Disney games. No saves, no passwords, sloppy controls, cheap hits, etc. The only saving grace is that some of their games are pretty easy, so you can look past the flaws when you're not staying on any individual stage for long. Here, not so much. It's a pretty damn tough at parts, and I hear it's much more difficult than the other Jungle Book games Virgin released, not that I would know. I feel like all Virgin cared about is that their games looked and moved pretty authentic to the sources, with good gameplay being an afterthought. Some of Capcom's Disney games may have not been quite as flashy, but I'll take theirs over Virgin's any day.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29
7. Disney's The Jungle Book (SNES) 8/6
8. Breath of Fire (GBA) 8/13

I started this Breath of Fire file near the end of 2013, and here I am finishing it off in 2018. It's almost kind of comical how little I had left when I dropped it. Granted, if I hadn't looked up a few things in an FAQ, goodness knows how long I would've spent trying to figure everything out on my own. I ended up getting the bad ending, even though I do have the ultimate dragon form necessary for the good ending (which, again, I never would've found without an FAQ since it's in an old dungeon I have no recollection of). The game doesn't even tell you to use that form until it's already too late (it was greyed out in the menu at that point), so it seems like they want you to get the bad ending first. It's kind of annoying having to go through the final dungeon all over again, but I'll give it a go tomorrow.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29
7. Disney's The Jungle Book (SNES) 8/6
8. Breath of Fire (GBA) 8/13
9. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA) 8/22

There's no in-game clock for this game, but it felt a good bit longer than I was expecting, at least to get 100%. Getting that last 10% or so probably took longer than it took to get twice as much before that. Anyway, boy, that was a lot of boss fights at the end, and that was a boneheaded idea to layer the credits over the final fight. I still don't know what was up with that. I don't know if that fight was just for fun or if you actually have to do well to earn the ending past the credits. In case of the latter, I gave it my all, so the credits were just a distraction, which is a shame because, maybe it's just me, but I actually like reading credits. Fun game overall, though. I can see why they haven't returned to this Metroid-style Kirby concept, since its execution has some flaws, but I like when they try new things with the Kirby IP.

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29
7. Disney's The Jungle Book (SNES) 8/6
8. Breath of Fire (GBA) 8/13
9. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA) 8/22
10. Nightshade (PC) 9/8

I haven't had much time for gaming these last couple weeks, but I've been trying to squeeze in Nightshade whenever I could, since the story was only getting more and more intense as it went along. I don't know if I'm crazy about the plot twist at the end, but I do like how it throws you for a loop if you expect it to be like how real history turned out (since there are some characters who are based on actual Japanese historical figures). But that aside, Choujirou's got an excellent route, even despite my initial impressions of him seeming kind of bland as a character. And truth be told, I wouldn't say the route was excellent because of his relationship with the protagonist. There really wasn't much romance in general. Most of the route focused on the overarching plot, and it was great. I got the Happy Ending, so I'll go through his route again, since I'm still missing a CG, which I assume is for a bad ending. I'm excited to then start up a different route and see if it mirrors Choujirou's route or if the others go in entirely different directions.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18
9. Killzone:Shadow Fall (PS4) 07/23/18
10. The Shadow Complex (XBLA) 09/21/18
11. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) 09/29/18

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18
9. Killzone:Shadow Fall (PS4) 07/23/18
10. The Shadow Complex (XBLA) 09/21/18
11. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) 09/29/18
12. Dead Rising 3 (XB1) 10/07/18
13. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (XB1) 10/15/18
14. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1) 10/29/18

[Aussie2B]

1. Final Fantasy Legend II (GB) 1/28
2. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 2/7
3. Harvest Moon 64 (N64) 6/14
4. Secret of Mana (Vita) 7/18
5. Home (Vita) 7/19
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 7/29
7. Disney's The Jungle Book (SNES) 8/6
8. Breath of Fire (GBA) 8/13
9. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA) 8/22
10. Nightshade (PC) 9/8
11. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PlayStation via Vita PSOne Classics) 10/30

Well, Tron Bonne wasn't quite what I was expecting in a number of ways. For a game that's supposedly really short, I ended up sinking 25 hours into it. But I should've known, considering I put way more time into both Mega Man Legends games than what people claim is the average completion time for those. The optional stuff really adds up in these games. I was also expecting to enjoy it more. I'd say it was still a good experience overall, but definitely not on the level of the Mega Man Legends games. There's just way too many frustrating things about it. Honestly, you could nix most of the gameplay and make it mostly a story-focused game, and I'd probably enjoy it more. The setting and characters are what really make this game. It's certainly not an exceptional story or anything, but I find myself frequently smiling and chuckling at how cute and funny the characters are. I usually don't even like Japanese games dubbed, but in this franchise, the cheesy Saturday morning cartoon-style acting really works for it. Even though I didn't end this spinoff series on the highest note, I'm still a little sad that I've now finished all three games and have nothing new to look forward to. It still stings that Mega Man Legends 3 was canned.

[SeverThe7th]

Not much activity here it seems.

These are the only ones i can remember from this year.

1. Baldurs Gate II (PC)
2. Popful Mail (Sega CD)
3. Secret of Mana Remake (Steam)
4. Monster World IV (Genesis)
5. Crystal Warriors (Game Gear)

[WulfeLuer]

You'll never be rid of me!

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
4. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
5. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS3)
6. Tales of the Abyss (PS2)

Took long enough, didn't it? Anyway, I feel much better about this one than I did the first go around. I guess I was just feeling ornery about the whole thing last time. The combat seemed to be much more fun, and I didn't get spanked like a redheaded stepchild (oh the irony) every other random encounter, and the sephiroth dungeons are still something a bit different visually. On the other hand, the 'nature' dungeons and overworld map were pretty pedestrian, plus the sorcerer's ring and other puzzle elements just didn't really gel outside of two late-game optional seqences. Overall still a blast to play, and a breath of fresh air from the howling pack of Final Fantasy clones of the era.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18
9. Killzone:Shadow Fall (PS4) 07/23/18
10. The Shadow Complex (XBLA) 09/21/18
11. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) 09/29/18
12. Dead Rising 3 (XB1) 10/07/18
13. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (XB1) 10/15/18
14. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1) 10/29/18
15. Dead Rising 4 (XB1) 11/09/18
16. Commandos Strike Force (PS2) 11/23/18
17. The Sopranos: Road To Respect (PS2) 11/28/18

[WulfeLuer]

A twofer!

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
4. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
5. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS3)
6. Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
7. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
8. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

Technically a threefer; I did another full run of SoTN while I was at it. Trigger was actually harder than I remember. I'm still not sure if I was just rusty; I can't claim it was super-challenging at any point but I got TPK'd at some spots and kept getting knocked on the defensive. Maybe my old habit of farting around meant I had a few more levels and items back then. FF7...well its still one of my favorites, but what can I say about it that isn't regurgitating a bazillion fanboy spazlord "reviews?" The final dungeon is still fun to look at but annoying to slog through, but it was almost hilariously anticlimactic that I got up to the final boss run after I nabbed the shiny doom orb reward of racing chickens and using it once out of spite halfway through. When I wasn't using some nominally lesser death move of flashy damage, a Limit Break was triggered anyway. Little evil bishie bits everywhere.

[mkenyon2]

Okay, so I'm going to start over with some games, since I'm getting back into some retro stuff. I've only started since November, but I got through these:

Goonies II (NES)
Rygar (NES)

I'm working on Sonic 1 right now, and found out that Rygar was re-made for PS2 (and Wii), so I'm gonna try the PS2 version of that.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) 03/04/18
2. Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3) 03/08/18
3. Prototype (PS3) 03/25/18
4. Terminator Salvation (PS3) 04/08/18
5. Heavenly Sword (PS3) 05/03/18
6. Sleeping Dogs (PS3) 05/11/18
7. Prototype 2 (PS3) 05/14/18
8. Resistance 2 (PS3) 05/23/18
9. Killzone:Shadow Fall (PS4) 07/23/18
10. The Shadow Complex (XBLA) 09/21/18
11. Sunset Overdrive (XB1) 09/29/18
12. Dead Rising 3 (XB1) 10/07/18
13. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (XB1) 10/15/18
14. Rise of the Tomb Raider (XB1) 10/29/18
15. Dead Rising 4 (XB1) 11/09/18
16. Commandos Strike Force (PS2) 11/23/18
17. The Sopranos: Road To Respect (PS2) 11/28/18
18. The Suffering (PS2) 12/24/18

[TheHammerGod]

Played a ton of "unbeatable" games like Pinball FX 3 and Pinball Arcade.

Finally finished Phantasy Star thanks to the Sega Ages release on the Switch. I had gotten 90% through back in the SMS days before my friend borrowed it and "lost" it. Boo.

[eskobar]

On Dec 25th I finished Yakuza 3. Impressive game, a real work of art and one of the best experiences I had with a Video game since the Mass Effect trilogy madness X_x

[SeverThe7th]

Finished Little Big Adventure (Steam) sometime after Xmas. I played the enhanced version and the mouse controls are quite annoying, playable but not great. Should have played through the original version. It is a decent game, I like the unique world filled with interesting characters and nice items. I also like the isometric type view, if its considered isometric. This is a game ive played before, but i dont think i finished. I remember getting the secret passage in the muesum before, but couldn't get it this time round.