Beaten in 2008

[Sparkster]

Jan 4 - NES Bionic Commando. Finished it a bunch of times already, but not recently. The TV I was using cut off the bottom, so I ended up losing all my extra lives on Area 10 when you have to hop on the moving platform or die.

Today's TV showed the bottom, but since I wasn't used to Areas 11 or 12 anymore, they were slightly harder than I remembered.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Just beat Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (XBOX) for the 2nd time in as many weeks. This time I beat it on extreme (vs. the previous "Hard") and unlocked the 2nd character. It's a good game and all- but 2 plays through with the same character is exactly the same- and there's not a whole lot to that game. It also won't let me get past a level 40 Barbarian.

[roushimsx]

#2 - Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (PC)

Holy shit is the lightsaber combat annoying as hell in the game. Wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the forced lightsaber fight sequences with the dark jedi...ugh. Damn near gave up on the final fight until i saw a strategy online that involved exploiting AI bugs.

Other than that, the game is pretty amazing. Massive, vertigo inducting levels (some with multiple paths through them). Graphics haven't aged too well, but the movement is really slick...nice head/weapon bob (running actually feels like running). If you're prone to motion sickness, skip on this one.

Just beat Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (XBOX)

I've always been put off by how I couldn't import my characters from the first game :\ One of these days my friend and I will co op on through it, I guess.

Did you make it through without resorting to exploiting the duplication bug? Because I sure as hell couldn't (in the first game).

[Dreamcast]

Daxter for PSP

[marcus12024]

#1 - Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3) - what a fun game. Sure, it does feel exactly like the others in the series, but there is enough new weaponry and ideas that it feels "fresh". And there isn't exactly a lot of choices for platformers these days!

#2 - January 20, 2008 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - sweet game, took me way too long to finish. Even did the final case that you get after the end credits...what a long-ass case!! Just now starting on the second game in the series.

[roushimsx]

#3 - Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (PS2)

Surprisingly short, but pretty damn entertaining. I love the mostly arcadey approach that the game takes and the storyline / narration was pretty damn well done. Definitely looking forward to tackling Ace Combat 5 and, when it finally drops below $30, Ace Combat Zero.

[Sparkster]

Jan 5 - NES Super Mario Bros. I did it straight through (no warps). I also didn't bother with unnecessary pipes or the vines up to the clouds. Not my first time doing it straight through.

[Xexyz]

I'm actually keeping a log of what games I've beaten this year via Note Pad. I'm going to wait until we're at the end of the year before I post the list of games I've beaten in 2008.

However, seeing as I'm posting now, I mine as well list the first 2 games I've beaten so far:

1) Draglade (DS) - completed all four character quests, very tedious...

2) The Ignition Factor (SNES) - cool fire fighting game with a very odd script localization, but overall too short at only 8 stages...

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Did you make it through without resorting to exploiting the duplication bug? Because I sure as hell couldn't (in the first game).

I had no idea there was a duplication bug in the game. I haven't been using the internet for cheats as much since I've had to revert back to dial-up. And Hard (or was it medium?) mode was really really easy, so I never really got stuck. Extreme mode was a lot harder, and I had to change up the way I'd play. Instead of running in and just killing everyone, I had to take it a bit slower, and do a lot of running around stronger opponents. In extreme mode there are quite a few regular enemies that can kill you in 2 or 3 hits (its not exactly fair) so you have to run circles around them and hit them when they're not facing you. Another hint is to find a good crossbow (provided you don't use magic) to enemies out from a distance. Anyway today I just picked up Baldur's Gate: dark Alliance (1st one)- so I'll see how I like that one. It would be nice if you could go between part 1 and 2 with the characters. I do like the fact that you can import powerful characters into easy or hard games and just build up armor, money, and weapons. But there isn't a lot of point if you just have to play the same shit over again. Hey, sorry for the book I've written- I'm done now.

[Nirvana]

I beat Rock Band's Solo Tour (Drums) on Easy and Medium. 2 more songs to complete for Hard.

[Nate Nanjo]

1. Star Ocean 3, none of the extra's have been done. May do that another time though.

[roushimsx]

#4 - Duke Nukem Zero Hour (N64)

Zero Hour suffers from three crippling flaws:
1) Generally low framerate
2) Crummy controls
3) No mid mission saving (which becomes an issue due to intentionally cheap designs at points that are geared towards ramming it down your god damn throat that you don't own the game, the fucking game owns you)

Thanks to the magic of emulation, all three of these problems can be cured and the game transforms from a subaverage exercise in pure frustration into a fairly entertaining third person action game.

1) In Project64 the game runs at 30fps...most of the time. Even with the high res turned on (!)
2) With the NRage input plugin, you can fairly easily configure the game to control with the mouse and keyboard. It feels fairly natural, with the right mouse button to jump, scroll wheel to select weapons, left mouse to fire, middle mouse for item use, and mouse 4 and 5 for item selection. WASD moves like normal, and spacebar is use. Navigating the menus with the mouse was a bit iffy, but the actual gameplay was pretty choice.
3) Save states do fucking wonders.

With a mouse and keyboard, the boss fights (other than the third boss, anyway) were trivial and my only real complaint remaining with the control was the lack of a hang/shimmy/mantle action.

If anyone else wants to give this a shot, it's pretty easy to set up (install PJ64, either NRage 1.83 or 2.0b, and the latest PJ64 RDB, configure your resolution and controls, everything else works peachy), but I could also send you my prebuilt configuration as well. I'll probably be doing a similar runthrough of Duke Nukem 64 in the future as well... perhaps after I give the Saturn version another couple of plays so I can more fairly compare the Saturn / PC / N64 differences (some of those level design differences between the three are pretty staggering).

too long; didn't read summary - Zero Hour can be pretty fun thanks to emulation.

[jcalder8]

1. Keith Courage
A friend at work had this growing up and she was never able to get very far in it so I had to sit down and beat it. Pretty enjoyable overall. Too bad they never made another.

2. TimeShift: 360
I really enjoyed this game for the most part. It did drag a bit near the end but it's still a fun play through. I'll definitely be going through it at least a couple more times.

[kainemaxwell]

Beat Willow (NES) last night.

[Sparkster]

Ended the goal last night, but this week would have stopped me for sure if I hadn't stopped myself, but I finished Super Dodge Ball (normal), Chip N Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Actraiser before that.

Also kind of pissed that my Final Fantasy II save vanished... close to 11 hours.

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

#3 Legend of Heroes 3

Great finish to a good series of rpgs

next up finishing Lunar Knights

[roushimsx]

#5 - Super Mario Sunshine (GC)

Beat this one a few days ago (on the 8th) but forgot to post about it. Camera (and as a direct result, the control) was pretty shitty throughout the game, though there were a few instances of extremely clever and interesting mission / level designs. All of that shit went out the window in the final series of missions during a stage created for the sole purpose of exploiting every problem in the camera.

Final level was decently interesting and the end boss sequence was pretty much the creepiest sequence in a Mario game yet. Come on, bad guy with his son and the kidnapped princess chilling in a hot tub together? Sounds like a precursor to an homoerotic rape sandwich. Thank god Mario got in in time to stop 'em!

[DigitalSpace]

And the first game I beat this year would be BreakThru on the NES. Did that earlier today.

[Ryaan1234]

I have a boring Webmastering class, and all the students get their own file on the school's server. So, I keep a NES emulator ready to play at all times. I was inspired by DeceasedCrab's Let's Play, so I beat Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (NES) in about 3 one hour school periods, and I did other stuff too so I'd say it took about an hour and a half. It's a good, solid game. It has nice controls and pretty good graphics. I like the action/platforming combo it has as well as the spontaneous mini game thrown in every once in a while. I'd give it 7/10

This puts me at 2 games beaten at shool, the other game was Ninja Crusaders (NES). I've also gotten pretty far in Fine N' Ice.

[JSoup]

#1 - Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana
Finally got around to polishing it off. Great game, but requires a surprising amount of patience, especially if you want some of the better items and character back stories.