Because you can never have too many lists!
I wanted to make this so that I actually have some sort of record of what I have played through, come the years end. That way I won't have to scramble through my game lists via XBL & PSN again, like when it comes to compiling a GOTY list for example. To this end I will be providing (myself) with a brief summary of my thoughts, if only to aid my ailing memory.
Bought to you by the word, Acronym!
I was promised interesting locales, along with a twisted assortment characters, and that's exactly what I got. The combat was fairly interesting, and even had a puzzle element to it, once more enemies where gradually thrown into the mix, it started to shows it depth. The platforming was solid, so along with the aforementioned combat it should have been a solid game, right? Well it was, but the game drags a little by the end, due in no small part to the length of the whole thing. It's a good thing that the story compelled me to see this through. Speaking of which,
it was genuinely dark, more so than I was actually expecting, with some genuinely unsettling moments.
This encounters an all too familiar problem, in that the gameplay feels as though it is in service of the story, and not the other way round. The game goes a little overboard in trying to deliver once more on the perfect popcorn moment, many scenarios descending into trial and error until you realize what the game expects of you. For every frustration however, there was usually a genuinely impressive set-piece or sight to balance the whole thing out. Its technical merits leave me feeling a little torn, for as much as they should be lauded, its failings are all the more apparent, and only drag the whole experience down.
This was a Steam sale get! I never got round to playing it until very recently. I didn't think I'd find it much fun once I realized the company this game keeps, that's to say it belongs with one of those masochistic lot. But to my surprise I had completed more or less all the levels in a couple of sittings. The game expects precise timing, but I felt like it got easier as the stages progressed, which I'm not entirely sure whether that's down to my improving skill, or the game itself. I often like everything that goes along with a retro aesthetic, but the music just grated on me, which is a shame as it tends to make the stages easier when you learn to play by the rhythm. The bosses are an exercise in evil!
Who would have thought it? a Suda game that suffers from playing it too safe! I was expecting Shinji Mikami's involvement to compliment the aformentiond lunacy, but what you're left with, is a game which never really kicks into high-gear. It never really capitalizes on its concept, having some funny moments, which are sadly all too brief. As always, there is certainly some style to the proceedings, this being a very unique take on hell and its inhabitants."EVERYONE knows that goats are a natural source of light." The game itself is pretty much a pushover, even on the hardest difficulty. The boss battles are the weakest part of this equation, being uneventful and formulaic, and far too long. As much I love No More Heroes, it was an acquired taste, and I thought SOTD had the oppurtunity to make that formula more palatable for a wider audience. It makes a great first impression, but it sadly plateaus after the first couple of hours. With that said though, its solid, it just gets a little repetitive when everything becomes all too familiar. I can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity, which is why this reads negatively. All the elements are there, they just don't come together the way they should, at least for me.
Vanquish is a quintessentially Japanese attempt at creating a game that appeals to Western audiences; But as a pastiche of these well worn tropes, it inherits a few of its bad habits along the way. It feels like it should be an outright parody, but other than the dialogue being unbelievably cheesy, it rarely steps out and makes use of this platform. That aside, I wanted to get that brief complaint out of the way, because the rest is golden. For someone who is tired of cover based shooters, the fact that I finished this game over the course of a weekend speaks volumes. Its an amazing polished gameplay experience (as one might expect from Platinum games), and injects a familiar formula with a breakneck pace that never lets up. Its a spectacle that actually takes you along with it, an outright game that doesn't hide its nuances away behind padding. It's a brief experience, but when it is of such high quality it doesn't really matter. For as hectic as this game is, it still manages to look great, the animation specifically has a real weight to it. All things considered, its not quite at the level of Bayonetta (but what is), although it is definitely amongst my favourite games of this generation.
This game is something of a contradiction, in so much that it has a steep learning curve that is punctuated by an easy difficulty. When you've finished wrapping your head around that nonsense, you'll realize that in a roundabout way I'm trying to explain that the game has flaws. At its core the mechanics are great, except that you are rarely put into a scenario where strategy is necessary. Any difficulty that the game manages to throw up often feels forced, the random element feeling anything but in boss encounters. It manages to live up to the Metal Gear moniker, if only through the sheer fan-service it provides, the card collecting element kept my interested just long enough so that I could finish the story. Narratively speaking its status as a spin-off game is plain to see, the story being the weakest part of the package. Say what you will about Kojima's abilities as a storyteller, but his absence is keenly felt here.
Finally, an induction to this list that was actually released in this calendar year! As one of the few who actually liked XIII, and appreciated that it actually tried to do something differently, I was eager to see what happened with the sequel. The time travel aspect is interesting, and In fairness the game does a relatively solid job of keeping the whole thing cohesive. In fact I think it plays it almost too straight, they could have done some wacky things with it, but Flans aside (YES!) there isn't too much out of the ordinary. Most will no doubt prefer this over its predecessor, it more or less includes most of what was missing from XIII, and the additional monster taming compliments the already sharp battle system. The presentation is still second to none, and the localization is fantastic, even if I personally disagree with how they chose to interpret Mog. And truth be told, the ending didn't bother me, in fact I appreciated just how dark it went, especially when you consider its Final Fantasy that we're talking about here. The game is relatively brief by RPG standards, the main storyline took me around 30 hours to get through. That said, you can easily double that if you want to gather all the fragments for the 'true' ending. If you're still on the Franchise train at this point, I will have no doubt that you will be satisfied with whats on offer.
My first foray into the series, and to be blunt, it was a baptism by fire! here was no tutorial and I was confused from the start, and to think this was supposed to be aimed at a new audience! I usually consider myself to be competitive at rhythm games, but I'm not ashamed to say that I really struggled here. The button mapping was my first issue, the default setup just didn't feel comfortable to me and I messed around with the configuration for a while, but to no avail. I can make progress but I do want to feel at least halfway competent whilst doing so! I will continue to push forward on my trips to University, but the highest difficulties might just be a step too far.
These two games came as part of a set, so I at least felt like I had to get my money's worth here. To my surprise I found this much more accommodating. The tutorial was a welcome addition, and even with the garbled English struggling to fully explain certain aspects, it still did a more effective job than the manual for Fever. Its certainly a more forgiving game, but I'm starting to see its teeth now that I've made a decent amount of progress. I find myself liking a lot about these games, not least the music, but they just don't seem to like me!
Was the ending disappointing? And Was it bad as everyone (the internet) likes to make out? Well, yes and no, and I'll let you decide which order those go in. But all things considered, its a little sad that this series goes out with something of a whimper. Bioware had a predicament on their hands the moment they put their weight behind the main concept of player agency. While its not a total triumph, the core of what ME achieves is an engrossing, fabulously put together piece of work, in spite of the dumbfounding ending.
They made the switch to a shooter layout smoother than I was anticipating, although lets not get carried away, it does control very much like a shooter contained within the Yakuza engine. If I have any complaints they would be very similar to those that I have with the rest of the series, there is great content to be found, but its all wrapped up in a slightly scruffy shell. For an engine that was showing its age with 3 its getting really long in the tooth at this point. As ever, the animated cut-scenes are pretty amazing, which is at odds with the PS2 era animation of the main game. It still gets points for the attention to detail, but I think even the developers realize that its time for a change after this. Strictly one for the fans.
All round it was a great little suprise, gameplay was really solid (especially after coming off the back of Yakuza Dead Souls) and the story has a real charm to it. It also has a level of presentation that they will hopefully take into future Yakuza installments. As a solid shooter with an injection of personality, this deserves peoples attention. Although with its opening Month sale numbers barely scraping 20k (ouch!), it looks as though its unfortunately going to get swept by the wayside. Nagoshi and the rest of the Yakuza team have proved they are capable of delivering an enjoyable game which doesn't feel like its straddling the previous generation. I really hope the Sega hammer-blow doesn't have an adverse affect on their future output.
The allure of Arkham City didn't become fully apparent to me until about a quarter of the way through my playthough. Even after having played (and loved) Arkham Asylum, this appeared to be an all too familiar retread. But (similarly like AA) it wasn't until I started to tackle all the side-content, that the game started to flourish. Its games such as this, that I feel make a good case for the "dumbing down" of game difficulty having a negative effect, with most of the nuance behind it's mechanics not becoming apparent until the game really tests you, which it rarely does (if ever) were you just to play through the story. It's such a well-crafted experience, it'd be a shame if others wrote it off before giving it a fair chance, ironically something which I almost did too.
I always intend to finish a game that I've started, particularly one such as this, especially having held fairly high-expectations for quite some time. There is nothing wrong with ambition, but I feel that this game is a good example of when it goes too far. In what turned out to be an infinitely frustrating experience, this game has a lot of forward-thinking ideas, but it's just a shame that its buried under such an intrusive, and ugly shell. The game looks pretty, looks being the operative word. Screenshots are one thing, but to see it in motion is something else, in that it's an abomination. The attractive art-style and charming characters are rendered almost redundant amongst the graphical issues that blight this title. I really tried to persevere with this game, which deserved to be held up as an example of a interesting twist on the tired conventions of typical JRPG's (cover base combat for example), where it not for the game seriously over-stretching it's reach. It masquerades as a 360/PS3, all the while forgetting it's the creaking hardware of the Wii that is holding it all together. A squandered opportunity.
Crazy game, crazy presentation, crazy experience. At it's core, its arcade roots are all too apparent, in so much that you'll rarely pass any of the challenges at the first time of asking, but that's perfectly fine. The rough edges oddly work in its favour, with it's cobbled together aesthetic ageing much more gracefully than the majority of its PlayStation brethren. It still entertains me after all these years.
Hm, does this really warrant nomination on the list? Who knows, but what I do know is that I have sank a lot of time into this. It's even more surprising when I usually don't dedicate any sort of time to such passive experiences. There is definitely something to be said about a game like this, especially when I have legitimately spent hours constructing nothing but a roof for my cathedral. For once, this is a breakout casual-hit that I can relate to; whereas in the past I have often been left scratching my head. I'm looking at you Angry Birds...
I want the Vita to succeed, I really do, but when you have a fantastic new IP like this, and then neglect to promote it to any significant degree, I begin to wonder if Sony share that sentiment. Gravity Rush doesn't feel like a launch title (that's because it got delayed, ha!) because its presentation is through the roof. It is something which comes through at every level, whether that be the music (yes!), the gameplay (yes!), or the overall world that has been created (yes!), this is a game that draws you in with the sheer craft on show. Its solid in almost every respect, and deserves the plaudits it gets, my only real gripe being the combat, which comes off feeling shallow next to the high benchmark set in every other category. In a generation where Sony seems to be forgetting the wealth of it's old IP's (of which there are many), they have a fantastic new one staring them in the face. I just hope this one is allowed to stick around. This is one of the few games that I can honestly deem a system-seller on it's own, so go buy a Vita, maybe.
...it's a game!
