Games Beaten - April 2018

593. Far Cry 5 (APR29,2018)

Just one game this month for me, as I've been continuing my trend of focusing on multiplayer games. Far Cry 5 was a good game, but for reasons I can't quite place, I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous Far Cry games, so that was kind of disappointing.

Only completed two games this month, both in the first week. They were both barely played this month, I was just finishing them up.

4/1 - Pokemon Ruby (GBA) This one barely counts as I finished it at 1am lol
4/6 - The Legend of Zelda (NES)

I enjoyed both of these. Pokemon Ruby I actually mostly played back in the day as it was my first Pokemon game and I somehow managed to make it to the elite 4, but could never beat it back in the day. I decided to finally try and finish it, and ended up accidentally beating it while grinding against the elite 4. The original Zelda was fun, although I didn't like it as much as the rest of them I've played since this game has aged quite a bit. It was neat to see the roots of the series and how the games have evolved since.

Red Faction (PS4)
Agents of Mayhem (PS4, 100%)
Blackwood Crossing (PS4, 100%)
Organ Trail Complete Edition (PS4, 100%)

I wanted to play at least 10, but I spent over 80 hours with the surprisingly enjoyable Agents of Mayhem, so I'm more than content with what I completed.

04-07
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)
04-08
Ben 10: Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks (360)
04-14
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (NDS)
04-15
Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six (GBC)
04-17
Among the Sleep (PS4)
04-26
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (Xbox)

Replays:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Mother 3
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition
Half-Life 2
BioShock Infinite

Best: Easily 999. Just a wonderful ride from start to finish, with a few bumps in the road. I'm happy that pokepaw suggested we play it

Worst: Among the Sleep. It was really boring. I was scared twice in m first playtrough and they were very small. Granted, I was scared alot more in my second playtrough, but that was because I was playing with the commentary on and not paying attention to the game. Speaking of, I feel really bad that I don't like the story, because the developers are realllly passionate about everything in the game. I'd still recommend it if you want a quick one and done experience, but you could also do better.

I finally tore my attention away from FF14 and back to other games, so this time I actually beat more than three games. Also gave up on TESO as well, so at the moment I'm not playing any MMOs, although I'm thinking of giving LOTRO another try some day. Maybe.

April:
03 - Turrican 3 (AMIGA)
07 - Strider (NES)
07 - Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
07 - Deja Vu (NES)
08 - Mafia III (PC)
17 - Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (PC)
22 - Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
25 - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PC)
27 - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
29 - Arx Fatalis (PC)

Lots of good games this time around. I was pleasantly surprised about Vermintide, although it's not something I'd ever play alone or with people I don't know. Uncharted 4 is another worth mentioning, been wanting to play it for the longest time. It's been too long since I've played the first three, but at least the pirate theme is the best of all four games.

Banger of a month for me. Grinding completions before my first child comes. :)

In order of completion:
Cars 2
Clustertruck
Kingdom: New Lands
The Witness
BioShock Infinite
Dead Space 2: Severed DLC
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1 DLC
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 2 DLC
Mirror's Edge
God of War (2018)
BioShock
BioShock 2
BioShock 2: Minerva's Den DLC
Gears of War 2: Road to Ruin DLC
Late Shift

A large chunk of the month was spent going through the Bioshock Collection which I enjoyed once again and holds up well.

Other highlights for me were God of War and Cluster Truck.

I'm kind of amazed I manage to get through all these titles while keeping up with HLTB and working a full time job. A sleepy, pregnant wife gives you a surprising amount of free time.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - PC - Apr 04
Dark Souls III - PC - Apr 09
Watch Dogs - PC - Apr 10
Oxenfree - PC - Apr 10
JYDGE - PC - Apr 15
Zombie Vikings - PC - Apr 15
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC - Apr 19
Of Orcs and Men - PC - Apr 25
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf HD Remastered - PC - Apr 28

Replay:

Resident Evil 4 - Wii - Apr 30

Highs: Dark Souls III and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Dark Souls III is really good even though I'm still really bad at it. I quite liked the more aggressive and faster bosses, it was also cool having people to summon. Mankind Divided is a big improvement in terms of gameplay compared to Human Revolution, even if the story is not that good.

Lows: Watch Dogs and Joe Dever's Lone Wolf HD Remastered. Neither of which were bad games just not as good as the rest of what I played.

Good month for me, beat two major games that had been in my interest for a while.

Overgrowth - If you like ninja, parkour and rabbits. This game is for you. A shame though that the game felt like an early access demo. It's very short (there are two different campaings) and the game is basically levels where you beat up a few guys and move on. There is story but its lacklustre and not satisfying at all. The cool thing is the wacky physics and cool stuff you can do in combat. I felt like there was so much potential for more but sadly this is just average at best.

Final Fantasy XV Ah finally I got the chance to play this. Bought it but it went to the backlog pretty fast. I think most people know about this for now. It's an amazingly ambitious game that falls short in some areas. I did like it though, but my expectations weren't high. I just wished the pacing was better and that they removed most of the fetch quests. There are very few worth while side quests in the game. In the end though, this is the best "road trip movie" that is a game. Great chemistry between the party.

I haven't played any of the DLC yet. I think I will buy the Windows version for all of that eventually.

Overcooked Great fun and chaotic game! I do highly recommend not playing this alone though, its obvious its made for two or more players. Only negative is that you have to replay stages to get enough stars to move on. Make more levels instead of doing this devs.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin - Continuing playing Dark Souls in the wrong order (started with number 3). Can't recommend that, but I can recommend the game! I know it's the black sheep of the series but I really liked it. There is tons of content in this and while the base game was a bit easier then I thought it was still the rewarding feeling that From Software does so good. Had a bit of trouble getting my online working but when I figured it out (set cross region to allow) I tried a bit of summoning and stuff. Good fun.

One minor drawback is there are too many enemies sometimes and you heal quite slow.

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Ivory King DLC - Snowy and moody, just to my liking. The final boss of this is the coolest one in DS II. One optional area is a bitch though.

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King DLC - First DLC I played and boy was this a difficulty spike. Brutal compared to some of the main game areas. The bosses of this DLC were by far the hardest ones (don't know if it was my build or something though).

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Sunken King DLC - Contraptions and traps this time I felt. You feel like a burglar going through a hidden city with a majestic dragon in it. Moody and cool.

Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover Bougth KH 2.8 and started watching this. This is not a game but more a recollection of a mobile online game from KH. It's basically the prequel of the story with weird guys in animal masks. It was a bit too slow for my taste and even though I'm a fan of KH it wasn't anything breath taking. I guess it sets up some stuff for KH III.

Been a very busy month outside of gaming so I'm happy to at least complete 2 games in April.

Apr 17, 2018 - Chrono Trigger - 22h 29m
Apr 26, 2018 - Yakuza 6 - 17h 04m

Conan [2004] - 13h50m / 100%
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic - 24h / 100% - BEST
DUSK-12 - 5h20m / 100% - WORST
Get a Life [HL2MOD] - 9h10m / 100%
Hellforces - 15h / 100%
The Stalin Subway - 2h - REPLAY
True Crime: New York City - 16h15m / 100%
True Crime: Streets of LA - 8h45m / 100%

40. Risen
41. Spec Ops: The Line

Only 2 in april

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop (PC)
Yakuza 4 (PS3)
Hidden & Dangerous 2 (PC)
Mars: War Logs (PS3)
Hard Reset (PC)
Not Dying Today (PC)

09/04 - DmC: Devil May Cry
29/04 - Borderlands 2 [REPLAY]

I haven't played any of the Devil May Cry games before and I've had the intention of playing this game for a while now. I thought it was great I don't know how it stacks up against the 'original' games but since I never played those all I can say is I had a good time with this one. The game was pretty short but in this case I don't mind because I have had a busy April.

Final Fantasy XV took almost the whole month, but totally worth it.

I also got time to play some casual games or very short ones. Here is the list:

Final Fantasy XV (including all DLCs): Great game! Even with the plot holes I wasn't expecting something that good.
Telltale Texas Hold'em: First game made by Telltale. Really bad interface but still enjoyable.
Point Perfect: A game for when you have some minutes. Really difficult.
Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride: I'm one of those who likes hidden object games. This one is pretty good, not as much as Nightmares from the Deep though.
Legendary Gary: Got this game from the developer for reviewing purposes and, well, I enjoyed it for most of the time but the ending was lame.
Tiny and Big: Granpa's Leftovers: Interesting concept but very good game.
Lost Civilization: Another hidden object game. This time, a remake of Nibiru: Age of Secrets. Go for the original if you can.

- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (3DS) - 20h 10m - April 04, 2018
Excellent Ace Attorney game. Kinda miss playing as Phoenix, but Apollo makes a great protagonist too! Also, loved all the new characters and cases, and the final portion of the game was phenomenal!

- 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS) - 20h - April 09, 2018
I'm glad this won the Video Game Book Club poll, since it's been sitting on my shelf for nearly TWO years, and I had no idea that I was missing on a great game. I'll probably play Virtue Last Reward pretty soon.

- Code: Realize - Future Blessings (Vita) - 23h 24m - April 14, 2018
Being a Code: Realize fan, I'm pretty happy on how they handled the first fandisk. First we have the mafia story line, that takes place during Guardian of Rebirth, then there's each bachelor's respective sequel, and two new routes that follow up from the split-up from the first game (Finis and Sholmes, the latter one I feel that was intended to be on Guardian of Rebirth, but was scratched during the development). If you liked Guardian of Rebirth, Future Blessings deserves a try. My only complain is the lack of decisions to take during the sequel routes.

- Portal (PC) - 3h 40m - April 15, 2018
I finally finished this!! Sadly I took way too long because I get motion sickness from playing first person games :'(

- Final Fantasy (PSP) - 21h 47m - April 28, 2018
Great RPG, and where "let's collect/awake all four treasure of the elements" started. I heard this is the recommended way to play the first FF, and I agree, since it is not as grindy as the older versions (NES FF, I'm looking at you). I had a great time until the last grind fest, but it wasn't so bad as to ruin the game for me. Finally defeating the final boss felt SO rewarding I shouted and earned me some weird looks from an acquaintance of mine though xD

This month was GREAT, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Keep to my trend. Just one game this Month:

25th April 2018: Bloodborne: Game of the Year Edition: 73h 10m 21s

So I absolutely loved Bloodborne it was as always From delivers. I loved it's faster pace in gameplay and the fact it forced you to play more aggressively then in the more defensive Dark souls series really made the game stand away from the other souls games. I would though recommend people either to skip or leave the chalice dungeons to last. They have some interesting bosses in them but it really proves that the lack of design in the levels will hurt the Souls series as most of the chalice dungeons were a slouch they also helped me over level fro the end game and the areas which should've been difficulty were almost a cake walk.

Mainlining (PC)
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (Vita)
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (DS)
All Our Asias (PC)
Wario Land II (GBC)
Deus Ex GO (Android)
League of Evil (Vita)
Grow Home (PC)
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (PSP)

Best: Odin Sphere without a shadow of a doubt.

Worst: Prinny. An awful platformer with humour which only marginally redeems the overall package. All Our Asias was not great either.

April 2018

4/13/18. Goat Simulator (PS3). 6/10.
4/18/18. Corvette (PS2). 3'5/10.
4/21/18. Toybox Turbos (PS3). 8/10.
4/21/18. 1942 Joint Strike (PS3). REPLAY. 3'5/10.
4/21/18. Knights of the Round (PS2, from Capcom Classics Collection vol.2). 7/10.
4/21/18. Last Duel (PS2, from Capcom Classics Collection vol.2). 3/10.
4/27/18. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (PS2, from Sonic Mega Collection Plus). REPLAY x3. 8'5/10.

Hitman: Absolution (2012) WORST
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (2013)
Unreal (1998) BEST
Unreal: Return to Na Pali (1999)

Unreal was quite surprising cause I had retired that game twice. Like in every other attempt to play it I wasn't into it at start, but about playing 1/3 of game got quite immersed. Some levels can be confusing, but no doubt great oldschool level design is much better than levels in most modern games. Liked visuals, nice shooting, great final part and liked whole concept which was made really well especially for 1998 game even though I didn't care about story (which is completely fine caue atmosphere/immersion > story). Visiting unkown planet and wondering where it will bring You. Moving through ancient locations, seeing local fauna. Just lonely journey with guns. Game's pretty long which in this case worked very well and made game better.
Expansion was so expansiony. Basically not needed at all and I don't even know why the heck they added voice acting, but whatever...
Starcraft was quite hard on hard haha, but I got used to it and simply changed the way how I play and what things I try to do first. Started using hotkeys, too. This month I replayed Wings of Liberty on normal difficulty (cause I didn't want to spend a lot of time replaying game). Even though I played it for first time like 7 years ago I still remembered missions well so was kinda bored. Enjoyed Heart of the Swarm much more cause playing for first time and playing with zergs is simply more fun. Zergs are my favorite by the way...
Hitman: Absolution was complete trash of game. Can easily add to "worst games completed" collection.

04/10
Super Mario Bros 2 (Emulated) - 8/10
04/11
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Emulated) - 7/10
04/30
Mega Man (Emulated) - 7/10

I'm glad I managed to beat some NES classics this month, as well as getting into the Mega Man franchise for the first time. I finally get now why people hate that Zelda game too.

Work was crazy busy, so hopefully this single completion month will be my low point for the year :)
I was able to make good progress on a few other games though.

April:
09 - Late Shift (XB1) - 04h 08m - First time playing a FMV game, and really enjoyed this. Ended up replaying chapters so that I could watch every ending.

Apr 7 Deception 3 (PSX/PSP) 9H 44M
Apr 18 Ninja Five-0 (GBA/PSP) N/A Normal
Apr 23 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS/Emulation) N/A

Deception 3 Apparently the series is a niche but I'll happily be part of that niche. In terms of positives I don't know what to say really apart from that I like it. Issues: Hellknights are a stupidly tough enemy, and the camera could be better since it faces the direction you are which makes it difficult when you're trying to run from an enemy and spring a trap on them.

Ninja Five-0 I didn't enjoy the late game stages and I dislike that when you die you begin that stage again. I don't recall having any major issues about any of the bosses, not even the final boss. I enjoyed the early game so I might pick it up again at a later date for that if nothing else.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Check out the Game of the Month thread, I figure there's no point repeating myself.

Yikes, really short month for me. Usually I'm in the 20s with games I complete, but life took over really hard this month. As always everything is PC unless marked otherwise (E= emulated. I have physical copies, my systems just don't work anymore and I prefer PC/Xbox controller better anyway).

4/02 CUPID
4/05 Spyro the Dragon - E
4/05 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
4/08 Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! - E
4/08 Her Lie I Tried to Believe
4/11 Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak - E

Worst: Her Lie I Tried to Believe - This VN was written like a Fifty Shades of Gray knockoff (And as someone who openly lives in the BDSM lifestyle, might I just say that entire series is disgusting). The entire thing was full of abuse in both the verbal and physical sense, ending in what boiled down to be a competitive suicide if you could even call it that. I see where they were trying to go with it, but it was just glorified in such a shameful way that it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Best: Literally everything else. I hit the nostalgia train pretty hard this month with Hamtaro and the two Spyro tiltes. My favorite by far was revisiting the original Spyro the Dragon, because I played so many hours of that as a child and looking back now I don't see how I even managed to play it the nearly 50 times I probably did. The second one I didn't play nearly as much, to the point I honestly didn't even remember having played it at all, but it was still nice to revisit.

Heileen 04/16/18
G-Senjou no Maou 04/23/18
Tropical Liquor 04/30/18

Best: G-Senjou without a doubt. But it's a replay, so I knew it would be good. I love Usami Haru as a character. She might honestly be my favorite female vn character. She's just this perfect, realistic blend of bad-ass and vulnerable.

Worst: Heileen. Tropical Liquor was terrible too, but Heileen took awful to new levels. At least the art in Trop Liquor is good to look at and had well-polished CGs. Heileen had none of that. It didn't even really have a story to speak of either.

VVVVVV - 04/01
Evoland - 04/08
Orwell - 04/10
Battleship (2012) - 04/14
Virtue's Last Reward - 04/15
Knuckles Chaotix - 04/17
Braid - 04/22
Sonic 3D Blast - 04/24
Sonic Blast - 04/26
Zero Time Dilemma - 04/30

Best : Virtue's Last Reward
It became one of my favorite game of all time despite it having boring characters (other than Phi, K and Luna), the story was very good and it got me hyped for the sequel.

Worst : Zero Time Dilemma
It's more disappointing than bad. After Virtue's Last Reward, I was really hyped to play the sequel but no. Sure the game is better looking than VLR, but due to the lack of budget, I felt like there could be more work arround. The Dilemmas are interesting but not fully fleshed out, the story is hard to follow, sure there is a lot of plot twist, but none of them feels as major as the ones from VLR, most of the characters are boring (other than D-Team) and the ending... oh god. The ending is just unsatisfaying, there isn't any epilogue and it could have more work arround, like instead of finishing when Carlos is giving the choice to kill Delta or not, why not leave the choice to the player as a final decision and resulting in two separate endings ?


Honorable mention :
Braid - The puzzles and level design were amazing, I feel like these aspects have been shadowed by the story and are not much talked nowadays.