by tonicbh
Since 2008, I've been keeping a record of all the video games I've beaten over the year. Mainly because I like lists. But also because I can figure out what I played as the year passed. Most importantly, whether or not I agreed with the consensus, or felt I was the outlier who actually (dis)liked a certain game. But also because I like opinions as well as lists.
"Conquered" in this case means beat the game and saw the credits. This mostly applies to single player games. This doesn't apply to multiplayer games don't have a fixed campaign mode, like Warframe or Payday 2. Sometimes I beat a game more than once. Other times I beat it with a mod, or co-oped the game with friends. This list also includes any DLC.
Also, don't expect to see many 2014 games in this list. I have a large backlog of stuff dated back to several years ago, so you'll probably see more older games here.
PREVIOUS LISTS: Conquered Games of 2013
Showing 1-10 of 29 items
(Beaten on PC, January 3, 2014) So for Christmas I got a new PC. Naturally, I had to benchmark it with this old relic. Still looks gorgeous, still kind of fun to play. Feels good to actually play this on a capable machine. Despite the pretty graphics, it's a fairly standard first-person shooter. It's mostly linear but with choices on how you approach the objectives, much like the original Far Cry. The suit powers makes things interesting, but not quite enough to carry it.
(Beaten on PC, January 7, 2014) I replayed this with the newly-released "Payne Evolution" mod, which adds some of the game mechanics of Max Payne 3 into the ten-year-old Remedy classic. All it does is limit your weapon selection and add things like last man standing, but otherwise the base campaign is similar to Max Payne 2's. I still recommend this game, even though it's a little more serious than the first one. I think this is where Rockstar Games started being a bit more "serious" and less comical.
(Beaten on PC twice: Once on January 15, again on March 20. The second time was through Hard difficulty.) There's a lot of people that seem conflicted with Max Payne 3. Some just don't like that slick Rockstar feel that's been in their games since GTA4, others think it's the best in the series. Max is a little more depressed and mopey, and it does get in the way of everything. Despite that, it's probably the best slow-mo third person action game out there. It's got that Rockstar feel to it, and if that doesn't really appeal to you, then you might wanna stick to the first two games instead.
(Beaten on PC, January 28, 2014. The expansion, Exile, beaten on January 29.) I remember when everybody was going ga-ga for this. "IT'S A THROWBACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL FPS DAYS!" It really isn't, unless you consider Serious Sam and Painkiller to be "old school." It's probably gonna be a long while before we get the true successor of the Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake formula... This game does look pretty, but is very frustrating with loads of bullet-sponge enemies and ones that'll drain your health like mad. Exile just adds more levels in a dystopian Mad Max-like landscape, and looks less interesting compared to the cyberpunk levels of the base game. If anything, this game needed a co-op mode.
(Beaten on 360, February 8, 2014.) I know Call of Duty games get a bum rap, but I have to give Treyarch points for TRYING to make an interesting single player campaign. The future stuff is kind of boring and jumping on the political bandwagon ("HEY, LET'S MAKE OCCUPY WALL STREET BE A PART OF OUR STORY, GUYS!"), but the 80s flashback levels reminded me of that "80s action movie" vibe the first Black Ops had. It's too bad it didn't entirely focus on that, because anything that's not "present day" or "near future" is a breath of god damn fresh air for military FPSes. (Almost makes me pine for World War II games again...) The best part is that they gave the ability to affect the story by saving or killing certain people, which really didn't amount to a whole lot, but at least added some replay value when most COD SP campaigns were worth playing through once at most. Makes me sad I'll have to wait 'til 2015 for Treyarch's next COD outing, because I can put faith in them for trying to make some cool ideas with the series, compared to Infinity Ward's half-assed efforts post-Modern Warfare 2.
(Beaten on 360, February 24, 2014. Completed the Cop career.) This game was praised by the high heavens for being one of the best Need for Speed games in recent memory. I disagree. For those who loved it, go back and actually try to progress through the campaign without getting bored or frustrated. There are some good ideas here, merging your ranking system between online and offline campaigns. But the ranking system is a god damn grind. Sometimes you'll have to repeat races multiple times to unlock the next set of races, and some of those cop challenges are a real bitch towards the end. Since there's no story, I just lost interest in playing it after I beat the Cop career mode. Judging by what I had left in the Racer career, the last race would've been one long-ass cop chase that would've taken 30 minutes. No thanks. Maybe this would've been better if it had a story mode and some sort of progression. Get Razor Callahan back in the next Need for Speed and you got my pre-order, EA.
(Beaten on PC, March 16, 2014.) Let me explain Saints Row IV for you: There's missions where you're set in a 50s utopian suburbia, complete with a courthouse that seems lifted straight from Back to the Future. There's a dubstep gun. You have ridiculous super powers. There's parodies of pop culture, and jokes to video games and recent movies. Basically, Saints Row IV is fucking ridiculous. This game defined the ridiculous over-the-top shit that Saints Row the Third started. Though I do think it goes a bit too over the top, funny as that sounds. Lord knows what Volition has in store for Saints Row V.
(Beaten on 360, March 28, 2014.) Music games, specifically plastic instrument ones, are sadly dead. It had a fucking good run, though. Had Activision not shat out 6 Guitar Hero games in 2009, it probably could've lasted a year or two longer. Despite that, LEGO Rock Band is a competent side-entry. Has some of the songs you'll recognize like Final Countdown and Ghostbusters, but has WAY too many 2000s-era pop by artists I've never heard of. It's sad when you realize Band Hero had a better set list of songs that people might recognize. It's also got that feel that Lego games have, with light comedy. It's at least worth playing through once. After that, just export the songs to Rock Band 3 for $10 and shelve the game permanently unless you're dying to get all the achievements. I've conceded I'll never 100% the solo on The Final Countdown in this century, so I'm happy with finishing it and not coming back to it.
(Played on PC, May 2, 2014. Played the "A Week in Paradise" version, which combines the base game and Apocalypse Weekend together. Finished on Aggressive difficulty.) I only played this again because it got a mega Steam update around this time. Achievements, Steam Workshop support (for an 11 year old game!), all that good stuff. I'll repeat what I said before: Postal 2 is great because you're given the option to be a pacifist or a masochist, and it's great to have the choice to play it safe or just burn everything while pissing on corpses. Apocalypse Weekend did get some tweaks, but there's no way they can fix how fucking garbage it is. It takes away the concept of choice and slaps the Postal Dude into a (mostly) linear FPS, and it exacerbates the issues in Postal 2 that you'd probably not notice as much. There's honestly no way to make this fun except starting all over and pretending it's all a dream, Bobby Ewing-style. Basically if you buy this, play the main Postal 2 and avoid Apocalypse Weekend altogether. You'll feel better because of it.
(Beaten on PC, May 3, 2014.) I don't know if we really needed a reboot of Rise of the Triad. At least if they were gonna do it, they could've at least got Tom Hall's blessing, since ROTT was basically his baby. Funny enough, with some games saying they're a throwback to the old days of FPS, ROTT 2013 is probably the closest to getting it right. There's bullshit jumping puzzles and dumb death traps, but you're killing dudes in maze-like areas and finding keys to activate the next area. It's got that euro jank feel to it, but it's a competent and fun "retro" shooter.