Year in Finished Games: 2013
What little time I had in 2013, here is how I spent it.
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Finished Jan 2013. The campaign took 20 hours, much longer than I thought. I had fun, but I'm Warhammer'd out for now. I'll get to the other two campaigns at some future date.
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Finished Jan 2013. Continuing the THQ sadness train, I played 40 hours of Saints Row 3 in under a week. Wow, this game really got its hooks into me. From beginning to end this is an incredible good time. I hope Volition gets to continue the good work under new management.
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Finished Feb 2013. Fuck you Brian Basco and your fucking douchey soul patch. To maintain my video game hipsterism cred, I am trying to find this series charming, but I hate it so much. Like the first Runaway, it's an adventure game where you try to find tiny things hidden in the background matte paintings, some of which don't show up unless you progress dialog with VERY talkative characters. You then have to combine these things in nonsensical ways. Also the game is filled with a bunch of sexist, racist, homophobic humor which I assume translated better in Europe (Spain?). Pendulo must have gotten better by their newer games like Yesterday, right? God I hope so.
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Finished Feb 2013. S'okay. It's like that had the broad outlines of an 80 hour RPG and condensed it to fit their 8 hour indie action game and expected it to have the same emotional resonance. Kind of a let down.
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Finished Mar 2013. A rare occasion to play a game in the year it was released. In a lot of ways a step back from the first Bioshock. The open environments, while pretty, didn't have the same tension as Rapture. Infinite stripped out the hacking minigame forcing the player to search ever nook and cranny for lock picks. The story is very good but the world feels a lot less realized with fewer auxiliary characters like Diane McClintock or Sander Cohen. Even the trickiest enemies were all boring compared to the Spider Slicers in Bioshock. Having Elizabeth around was kind of annoying. She said the same few things over and over and didn't really add anything to combat. That said, a strong finish. I am hoping they put out DCL with more of the world, but with less combat and more puzzles.
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Finished May 2013. Beaten over a few lunch breaks. Pretty neat atmospheric puzzle adventure game. I was not expecting a few of the jump scares, but I guess that's the point, right? The companion app plays a role in the new game+, so worth downloading.
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Finished Jun 2013. Wow. It only took 120 hours over 3 years but I got to the end of Tactics Ogre. This was the game I brought with me on business trips and vacations. I would play in short intense bursts over a few days and then put down for months. Towards the last act (hour 90) I finally understood the mechanics and breezed through to the end completely over leveled. Fun game. I didn't even touch the side quests (include the 100 floor dungeon) and never went back to the other endings. The ability to rewind moves has ruined this genre for me. I want that mechanic in every strategy RPG.
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Finished Jun 2013. I had a productive weekend. I finished this the day after I beat Tactics Ogre. They have bizarrely the same story loosely based on the Yugoslavian Wars. A political power vacuum leads to small squabbling countries entering a period of chaos and the looming threat of a larger border empire taking everything over. Also mages up to no good. I really like this series but the whole "your choices completely lock out content" is overblown. You're basically given half the story and need to play a second time to understand what's going on. The map design is a pain the in ass. I ran around the same city for hours looking for an exit.
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Finished Jun 2013. A fun little distraction. It wouldn't have been nearly as fun if the enemy AI wasn't so exploitable. I didn't bother with the puzzle pieces so I hope there isn't a super secret epilogue locked away.
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Finished Jul 2013. Seeing as Botanicula was my game of 2012, I thought I ought to play the earlier Amanita Design adventure game. Adventure games with only a few screens per section are my jam. I hate it when I have to travel through 5 screens and carry a dozen items to solve puzzles.
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Finished Jul 2013. Yep, Shogo you nailed it! Anime was cool in 1997 and 15 year old me is right there with you. A lot of things are broken in this game: writing, story delivery, pacing, enemy AI, kanji written backwards, etc., but the heart was there and the sound effects were ripped right out of Akira and Gundam so the faults can be forgiven.
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Finished Aug 2013. Played through in one sitting. I dunno what to say about this one. It was a moving experience and a gimmick. If nothing else I hope it teaches a few autistic internet man-babies some empathy.
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Finished Aug 2013. Weirdly I got caught up in the short-lived TCG fever on Giant Bomb and wanted to try Magic: The Gathering. I played a little of the physical game when I was a teenager, but never took to it. I never understood all the rules and I never wanted to find nerds to play with. Having a game with pre-built decks that all play a little different is quite fun.
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Finished Aug 2013. Pretty but hollow. You play a mamma badger leading her cubs around finding food and avoiding dangers. A little game with nothing but timed escort missions.
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Finished Nov 2013. I almost didn't include this one. I got most of the endings. Clever game is clever.
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Finished Nov 2013. Holy cow, 130 hours later I finished Disgaea. The mechanics were off-putting at first, but then became second nature. Perfect game to grind levels while doing chores or watching tv. I kind of want to do a new game plus, but I need to move on to something else. Fun game.
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Finished Dec 2013. God help me, I love LotR and I'd even play bad games with the license. Fortunately, Lego games are always good for mindless entertainment. Funny sight gags, enough puzzle solving to break up the busting-anything-and-everything mechanics.
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