List of games I played in 2013. Games I played will be listed regardless of when they came out so long as I played through them for the first time this year. Expect a lot of big 2012 games to be on here as I had a unusually strong back catalogue this time.
2012. A chapter in Kingdom hearts that manages to tie a bunch of things together, a bit grindy and frustrating in some aspects, especially when compared to earlier games. I wasn't completely sold on the Dream Eater pet training part of the game either. In the end it still left me willing to see where the series would go from here on.
2012. Just simple and complex enough to have some fun playing with a friend. As MOBA's go, maybe I could get into another one sometime.
2010. An ok game, but not my favorite type, was kind of a chore to play. The combat could get irritating and there were even some parts that were clearly filler and would have perhaps been better left out. Story got a little confusing and none of the characters were anything more than, at best, charming. Still the plot did its job and held things together. I'll be interested to see how different Darksiders 2 is.
Really enjoy the systems in this, they're unique, and smaqrt. Hopefully I'll get back to it one of these days.
2012. Only ok so far. Swinging and collectingt things in the city is braindead and not very fun, the missions are a bit better but combat isn't engaging and neither has the level design been.
What a game! Crazy set pieces, cyborg ninjas, cyborg dogs, cyborg kids and other messed up shit and best of all, not a lot of filler. See a neat thing? Do it exactly once and don't get tired of it. There's something to be said for a game that's dense and these types of action games definetly need it. Visiting the Metal Gear world a bit into the future was also facinating. All the new characters were cool and I couldn't get enough of listening to them, not even George. Only part that stood out as annoying design wise were those hostage situations, don't want to do those ever again. Also having to spin the left stick is super annoying. Everything else? Golden! Zandatsu is so damn satisfying (even if the game makes me fee guilty for enjoying it)! Also the lengths the game goes to throw science and real life facts (even parts of it that it makes up) at me really helps sell its believability to me, in some weird way. Now I'm kinda bummed that the next Metal Gear won''t be set in this time.
2011. Janky as crap and a little bit ugly but it all adds to its charm. In the end it didn't make sense, and that was ok. Videogames!
2012. Pretty great. Movement is sometimes annoying to figure out around many interactive objects, but the stealth is fun and kind of puzzly. The artstyle and atmosphere of some levels is fantastic, though I'm not too fond of the character design which seem a little one note. Not a fan of how the characters animate in cutscenes either. There's not a lot to the story itself but it's neatly presented with voiceovers and stuff so that's funky. In the end it's mostly excellent at making you feel like a badass ninja, I only wish the game would aknowledge sticking to no kills more in the story, that would have been nice.
Even on hard it was a little too easy at first and the way the story and cutscenes(and tutorials)are integrated can ruin some of the flow on subsequent playthroughs, but as a one time experience it was great, truly enjoyable. The story is a bit silly but fun and the characters all look great and were decent enough. I'd definetly play another one set in the same universe, in fact I'm already looking forward to the DLC.
2011. Neat art, Neat world, I doubt I'll finish it. At a point it kinda lost its charm after you seemed to have to do a bunch of stuff, that were kinda dull.
2012. Did not finish, might not finish, feels a lot smoother than the first in the beginning but also more fiddle-y. Too much going on in the systems with not enough going on with the gameplay.
Decent, kinda different, co-op tower defense shooter game. Weapons don't feel great and it's a bit buggy but otherwise a-ok.
Not very interesting. It was a decent time killer but most puzzles are ridiculously easy or feel more like trivia questions with little room to be creative. Might be better for school age kids as a teaching tool than as a game.
Boy what a great game. While the jokes about the different traits you characters have are chuckle worthy at best, the gameplay really holds up throughout, even if I had to resort to brute forcing myself through the last couple of bosses. Well worth the time I spent on it. The simple framing story deserves a shoutout as well for being decently written, I did oh so enjoy how they worked the game's title into that final diary entry.
2011. Neat, short satirical game. Well worth the single Euro I spent on it, though not terribly special beyond its novelty.
2012. Good presentation with weird controls. They feel different in a way I appreciate though I'm not entirely sold on the dedication to keeping the inputs down to two buttons. Some things I'd rather just have a additional button for. The long levels and the way checkpoints are set up, can lead to more frustration than I felt the game was worth. Far from without its charms, but also not a game I'll be drawn to ever replay.
2012. Space flight combat with a mech combat twist. Initially kind of tough to get into due to the complicated controls, but I do really enjoy the setting and style of it. Will have to get back into at some point.
A decent distraction. Very fast paced and easy to get into. I don't love it but I like it enough that I can see myself putting quite a few more hours into it.
2012. Adventure game with a cool setting. Overall it has been a pretty cool experience so far with only a few frustrations caused by the game's design. The decent hint system certainly eliviated that somewhat though. Not finished.
2012. Platform game with some unique mechanics and solid control, also heavy on the design and atmosphere. It was cool, I liked it. Got a little frustrating due to annoying checkpointing, but I still think it deserves more cred than it's gotten.
2012. Finished the first game. It was terrible in story, mostly, decent in presentation yet overall pretty enjoyable. Really liked how it set up events for the later game in the end without making it feel like a cliffhanger.
Fun game that's kinda like a fighting game. Would be more fun if more people would play with me, though playing online can be ok I guess.
A very brief game of limited mechanics and gameplay that was still full of interesting ambition. Didn't quite hit the mark for me as I felt the majority of my failures in the game came not from failing the challenges the game itself put forth, but from suddenly having to deal with an unwieldy ai mechanic.
A beatiful if linear and limitedly interactive experience, consisting allmost entirely of set pieces. The mechanics it presents during its few hours of gametime are simple but pretty well utilized, especially in the ending. Speaking of; I did really like the ending too, even if the emotional impact it felt like it was going for wasn't quite there. I also thought the use of a "made-up language" had its moments of being detrimental to the experience, at least in its execution.
Quite a sight when it comes to style and production on menus and characters, sadly as a fighter it is poor at best with seemingly little to no depth. A Bummer.
2010. Enjoyable. Same style as the rest of the "Sands of Time triology" which I prefer to the 2008 reboot anyway. Mostly smooth controls with a bunch of fun mechanics that are layered together at a good pace as you play. The combat was also decently fun for the half of the game. Wasn't really anything special about the story but it was fine for the game it was.
Old school game similar to Ghost n Goblins, though apparently draws inspiration from another game I'm not familiar with. Hell of good, I'll probably slowly make my way through it.
X version. Have put something close to 200+ hours into it so far. It's a lot like many of the older games but it just looks so much better, almost every part of the presentation is super polished. For how much is still the same the online stuff devinetly deserves some props for its execution. It's really well integrated. Coming from Black 2 though it does feel like the game is missing a few of that game's neat features however. Features like the achievements and a phone that let you get more detailed Ability info. The one part I didn't enjoy was the story, it wasn't interesting or engaging and the way some characters spoke for the player was annoying.
Pretty fun co-op game. Has that special simple yet very animated artstyle and color scheme that seems to be getting popular lately. Similar to The Binding of Isaac in some ways, but has its own weird twist where it starts out survival focused but if you live long enough you'll se yourself become a god of death and destruction. Gets very crazy for sure.
A high quality Mario game, fun and only occasionally aggravating. The biggest issue I had was lining up jumps as angles can be hard to judge at a distance. Rarely exciting, but generally good solid fun, with a lot to do. Double Cherry was fun whenever it popped up.
Chelsea and the 7 Devils. Japanese indie metroidvania game. It has some cool ideas but is pretty unpolished and can also be annoyingly inconsistent with some of its rules. I got stuck after a bit and am not all that motivated to continue, so whatever. What little story there is is goofy and dumb in a kind of fun way.
2012. A cool, really well made game. The combat is a little simple and gets a bit tedious towards the end but otherwise feels pretty good. The visuals, music and even some of the writing was really excellent. Standouts are completely unnecessary yet awesome weather effects that really enhance the game's atmosphere, as well as the charming voiceacting that's often good, only occasionally akward, and compliment the wide variety of characters well. Most impressive of all was how "large" the game felt. I did not expect this scale and modern game design polish out of an indie game.
For as much of the old aesthetic it uses this game is surprisingly fresh and modern. I did everything in it, and enjoyed doing most of it, so that's probably fair enough praise already. The way this game...just is, is enough to give me hope that the next Zelda legend will be one I'd actually be willing to see. That's pretty cool.
Fun, but brainless, co-op game. It's very mashy and takes a good while to dole out some upgrades that actually change how you play. Still, was fun enough in co-op to explore some levels and blow things up.
This game feels expensive, and like a lot of time and effort went in into making it. It pays off too, because it's pretty and it's fun, mostly. Climbing around feels good and loose and I appreciated how the game would let me have some enjoyable third persony shootery combat without having a button that stuck me to waist-high walls. It made the combat feel less mechanical and a bit more elegant. That said, it is still your standard TPS combat at the end of the day, so it dragged on in spots. The story was ok, and the characters were too, a few beats and twists were too predictable and the adventure movie tone was a bit at odds with the grim visuals from time to time though. My suspension of disbelief was also regularly tested with how much of a beating Lara took without barely needing to rest. Something which I guess could also be attributed to said clash of the seemingly grim and realistic tone the game seems to be going, at least in spots, and the actual tone of the game, which is more bombastic action-adventure blockbuster.. thing. With all that said, I still thought it was a very fun and worthwile game.
2012. I was in need of something to kill some time and this seemed like a good choice. I had already seen a bunch of it being played so there weren't a lot of surprises. Still, it's a good time waster or Podcast game so I won't complain.
Tough to know where to start on this. It was hard to get into, at first, but once I did it was interesting to uncover the different stories of the family members. I really enjoyed the main story, the parts that were read by Sam, as well as the weirdly detailed items you could examine. Some of them even added to the narrative nicely. It was also pretty cool how it emulated the era it was supposed to take place in, though it's not like I would really know how accurate it was. It felt a bit plodding in spots, though that might as well have been me taking my time, and the genre in general is not one I often gravitate toward. I just find the reading and searching very draining. It's also often rewarding, sure, and that's ultimately why I still seek this kind of experience out, even if it's just once in a while.
