Beaten in 2006

[roushimsx]

#55: Star Trek: Judgment Rites CD-ROM (PC)

Excellent writing with a decreased/eliminated focus on ship combat, but the puzzle design was fairly difficult overall (much more so than the first game). While the graphics have been improved in general (backgrounds now occupy the entire size of the screen instead of just portions of it, animations are more varied and smoother, and there's generally more detail throughout), it does get kind of annoying when they try to shift the perspective of the background to an isometric viewpoint while using the same sprites as normal. There's a few instances of this in the game and gives a brief impression of being a bit...amateur.

Tons of spoken dialog (which actually inflated the size of the game to twice that of 25th Anniversary), though the audio quality is a bit lacking once again. The game just came out a few years before MP3 made its presence known, sadly Actually, the game itself is fairly text-heavy (especially in comparison to 25th Anniversary), so the episodic design is for the best as you can cap off an episode, take a break for a day or so, and come back and hammer away at another one.

In addition to the increased amount of spoken text, there's some prerendered video in there, too. It's not all over the place, but it is prevalent early on when the ship explodes and whenever you enter/exit orbit with another planet. While it cleans things up a bit, I do prefer the previous graphical style in most cases (except in the beginning when the ship exploded...that shit was awesome).

You get to use more than just Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock on the away team, too! While you won't get any red shirts to kill, you'll get to play around with Chekov, Uhura, and Scotty on various away team missions. Additionally, Dr. McCoy's role has been increased significantly, so expect to be using that medical tricorder a hell of a lot more often

Overall, I'd probably give it the nod over 25th Anniversary. The improvements in the game design outweigh the increased adventure difficulty and at times wonky art design.

[roushimsx]

#56 - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

I mainly forced myself to play through this because I wanted it the fuck out of my backlog, where it's been sitting pretty much since release. Over the years I've tried to play through it multiple times, each time giving up because I couldn't deal with the glaring flaws mixed with the insane overrating of the game. Since picking up Twilight Princess for Gamecube though, I felt it was time to give it one final chance.

While the camera, controls, ocarina gimmick, and early portion of the game suck as much today as they did back when the game came out, it really does pick up once you hit the Forest Temple, though it's not until the Fire Temple that it really hits its stride. Trudging though the early portion, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it (equating the game with Eternal Darkness' overrated reception and nostalgic appeal), but I'll be damned if i didn't have a heck of a fun time going through that last half of the game. Shame it takes so much effort to actually get to where the game is fun.

I still think the game is brutally overrated and the rose tinted memories that most people have of it from playing it when they were younger (or just plain young) obscure the blatant flaws in the game, but it's not remotely as bad as I wrote it off as being so long ago. Doubt I'll ever even think of starting it up again or anything, but hey, at least I finally played through it.

Now I think I'm pretty much burnt out on beating games for the year, so I doubt there'll be a #57

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

Shadow of the colossus

Well great atmospheric game but i wanted to rip my hair out at times and the ending well i wasnt expecting it

[mlambert890]

Half Life 2
Half Life 2 Ep 1
FEAR
FEAR EP
Neverwinter Nights 2
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Gears of War
Resistance: Fall of Man

Probably some other stuff I forgot...

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

just polished my last 2 games of 06

Vagrant Story and Torneko

[Slate]

Amped 3 (360)
Condemned: Criminal Origins (360)
Dead Rising (360, Beat it 5 times so far)
Destroy All Humans! (Xbox)
Doom 3 (Xbox)
Doom 3: Ressurection Of Evil (Xbox)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Xbox, Beat it 4 times)
Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone (GBA)
Max Payne (Xbox)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gamecube)
Poy Poy (PS1) (Didn't 100% it, Only beat the master class)
Pursuit Force (PSP)
Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)
Saint's Row (360)
Sly Cooper and the Thevious Raccoonus (PS2)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Xbox)
Stubbs The Zombie (Xbox)
Theme Hospital (PS1)
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Xbox)
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PS2)

Beat Max Payne. 20 games beat this year, And it doesn't look like i'll beat any more.

[Red Hedgehog]

Just this month, I have beaten:

Astro Boy: Omega Factor (GBA)
Soul Blazer (SNES)
Cybernator (SNES)
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix (PS)

which I enjoyed in that order.

I know there were plenty of other games I beat this year that I probably haven't posted.

I've recently started a journal for the video games I play, which I find helps me stick with games and certainly helps me remember when I've beaten one.

[incubus421]

Well, it was all about my Ps2 this year. Here's what I've ripped apart this year:

- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
- Star Ocean: Til the End of Time
- Kingdom Hearts II
- Silent Hill 2
- Silent Hill 3
- Suikoden V

Real close on a couple other games, but don't think I'll get them done in the next couple days:
- Final Fantasy XII
- Silent Hill 4: The Room

Other than that...I'm sure I've beat a few short, silly NES and SNES games this year, but who hasn't?