Games I Played in 2017
Keeping track in the new year
List items
-
GREAT FEEL. GROSS ASS LOOK.
-
-
A bit like Hotline Miami with some differences. Not top down, side scrolling. Some magic powers.
-
-
-
this game is so cool, I think this is the best song in video games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46RY4PU8a8
-
-
dropped because this is terrible
-
so fun and challenging
-
just 'laxin
-
-
-
YOU KNOW HOW IT IS. 100% DONE
Finished in one sitting, 1/2/17
-
Sun, continuing from my late start.
-
:)
-
-
-
Finished 1/14/16
What a great game, technical problems aside. Probably could've used with less button prompts and dialogue though.
-
s a v e m e
-
-
a bit different but I'm getting the hang of it.
-
Finished 1/16/17
Great game, The Last Guardian was an evolution of this and an improvement.
-
Finished co-op on 2/19 with my brother before moving up to SFSU.
-
Played a couple levels on the original Xbox version and more on the Master Chief Collection. Didn't get to finish playing with my brother before moving out.
-
On hold until I'm home from school. The gameplay is different in some good ways, but I feel that because the game is designed around co-op the difficulty is a little weird now because other characters are meant to revive you. Story got interesting once Master Chief got in a big alien robot.
8/14/17
Back at it again. Started from the beginning because even when I played it earlier this year I had no idea what was going on. Halo 5 is a really good shooter that feels great and has improved yet familiar Halo gameplay. My biggest and maybe only problem with the game is the shift to a clearly co-op intended campaign. You are always with three other playable characters (if playing co op) which definitely changes the difficulty a bit because the game seems to be designed with 4 players (AI or real) in mind. So instead of dying when you die you go to a downed state where you have to wait to get revived by one of your dumb AI squadmates. Sometimes they will straight up run up to you and not revive you, or they've ended up so far away from you that they don't have enough time. Or they just don't know how to get to you.
-
Years ago I played ~20 hours on PS2. Was skeptical about the 3DS version because screenshots pre-release made it look a lot worse than the PS2 version looked. However, now that I am playing it on 3DS it looks much better then the screenshots made it look.
-
Started: Release Date
Finished: 3/31/17
Holy shit! This was amazing. The story is very entertaining, AND well written. The cutscenes are well acted and animated (especially the fights). What amounted to a 40-hour journey for me was a little slow at first, but once Majima is introduced the plot really got going. This game could stand without Kazuma, don't get me wrong, I do love Kazuma, but Majima and his side of the story stand out. Majima's is especially intriguing when you are aware of how he usually acts in the rest of the series. So when he is introduced there is a bit of subversion going on in his (HIGHLY ENTERTAINING) 17-minute intro cutscene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U76chEyJjKw). Throughout the game you get to see how and why he becomes the way he is later in the series, and the way this is done is surprisingly unexpected.
One thing I do want to say about the game that I didn't particularly like is how often it will shift from the really well animated cutscenes to the more video game like ones with textboxes. The more cinematic ones are much more interesting to watch, so when it fades to black to change to the textbox littered ones, it's fairly disappointing. Also, because of the multiple types of cutscenes, tit was always crystal clear when something more important was going to happen because all the important moments are shown in the higher budget style.
Story aside, the combat takes some getting used to. While it is the best the combat has been in any Yakuza game outside of Japan (won't get to play Yakuza 6 until next year, which looks to be the best Yakuza game yet) it's still a little bit clunky and only begins to really shine once you're fully in tune with it. You may feel unsure about the combat at the start but further on you'll have unlocked more combat styles/moves and become accustomed to the feel, which will enable you to be more comfortable and more in-control. That is at least my experience.
There is an unbelievable amount of side content in this game. Tons of substories, which are short side missions that aren't as serious as the main story but can be cute and hilarious at times. They really serve to make you like the main characters more. You can play Space Harrier, Outrun, and try the claw machines at the Sega arcades. You can go drinking, play billiards, bowling, mahjong, darts. You can even do karaoke, with some songs featuring totally badass music videos starring the main characters. Later on there's a casino based in a homeless village. There's a women's fighting league that you can gamble at. You also collect telephone cards with pictures of Japanese models on them? This game is weird.
I've written all this up pretty quickly, so I haven't said all I want to. But what I really want everyone to know is that this game is fascinating. I've been a fan of Yakuza for a while but I've only played most of Yakuza 1, and around 10-hours of Yakuza 3. Yakuza 0 is the best one I've played. I defintely want to go through the entire series, and am even more excited for Yakuza 6.
4/5
-
Finished 1/31/17
G o o d g a m e
update 11/19
As much as I know I enjoyed this game when it came out (the long and distant time of earlier this year), it has already faded in this year's amazing lineup. Also the more I look back the more I realize the first few hours are so much better than the rest of it...
-
-
BACK AT IT AGAIN AT CALDRADIA
-
I'm an Orochi main, I'm so sorry.
-
I got over this in a few days and just switched to playing Fire Emblem (GBA) and the fan translation of Binding Blade.
-
-
wat
-
Continuing from last year
-
This is the best Zelda game ever made.
Started: 2/27/17
Finished: 3/21/17
5/5
The best Zelda game ever made. Have much to say about it.
-
Bought on release but quickly dropped, returned to it June 29th and am now on the third playthrough. I have a lot of issues with this but some good things to say about it.
FINISHED JULY 8TH, 2017
Wow, the last 10 hours of this game are great. It's a serious shame it takes around 20-30 to get to the best parts of this game. The best moments are few and far between and then the game suddenly gets really good in the 3rd "playthrough." I have a lot to say about this game but need a lot of time to gather those thoughts.
-
Bought on release, finished 5/28/2017.
Overall, a great game. Palaces (dungeons) became tedious fast as they are drawn out longer than they should be by boring puzzle design. I think the game could have done with shorter and/or fewer dungeons. The palaces are intriguing at first because of how mechanically and visually unique they are compared to Persona 3 and 4. But I found myself feeling fatigued whenever I had to do another one. They are undoubtedly an improvement but not significant enough. Every hiatus I took from the game was due to a dungeon.
Pacing is another issue. The game starts strong with a good setup for the themes and characters. But I felt several long periods where I really felt like nothing was happening in the main story. The middle section of the game especially suffers from this. The game takes too long to get into the meat of the story and spends too much time establishing rules that I feel aren't explained properly and possibly aren't even adhered to. There are some absolutely series defining moments in this game but I feel that the overall story falls behind Persona 4's.
Persona 5 is without a doubt the best in the series when it comes to actual gameplay, quality of life, and of course the visuals. This is the most stylish game ever made. No pixel on the screen lacks expression. No element of the interface goes unnoticed. This style oozes into the battle system mechanics and controls. With the UI extending from the outline of the characters and the ease of control. Persona 5 reworks the turn-based battle system in a way that I've never seen before, and yet it's so simple. Instead of pressing the attack option in the menu and then choosing a target, the player is always choosing a target and each of the face buttons is a shortcut to the usual JRPG battle actions. This minimizes the amount of clicking required during battle and feels much more intuitive.
This was the first Persona game where I used the fusing system to its fullest. Because Persona 4 was my first Shin Megami Tensei game, this is the first new Persona I have played since becoming a Megaten fan. Meaning this was the first Persona where I fully understood the importance and fun you can have just fusing new Personas. In both 3 and 4 I fused until I got Black Frost and used him as much as possible. In 5 I fused new Personas all the time and fully equipped myself to make up for any elements and abilities party members lacked. This is the optimal way to play them the game. Also, Persona 5 drops the enemy variety that 3 and 4 established. Instead of fighting a series of generic enemies that simply get recolored throughout the game, the player actually encounters, fights, and negotiates with the Personas themselves. This is exactly like the mainline Megaten games. And like Pokemon, the Megaten games incentivize you to acquire as many Demons/Personas as possible in order to use them or fuse them to your liking. I found that it was best to get one of each Persona encountered because the majority of Personas can only be acquired by fusing. I spent a good 10 hours right outside the final boss just grinding and fusing some of the best Personas in the game because I had spent so much time populating my compendium. Which by the end of the game was 80% complete, the highest completion I've ever gotten in a Persona game.
-
:)
-
New PC release!!!
-
The Unending, MURDER ISLAND. Really happy I bit the bullet on this early access purchase. Glitchy but worth it.
-
Fusing demons is really fun.
FINISHED BETRAYAL ENDING 7/21:
What a great game. Fusing demons is very rewarding and fun. I still have to go back 5 hours and do the good ending.
FINISHED BONDS ENDING 7/25:
Again, what a great game. Excellent writing towards the end when dealing with the final bosses. The colliding viewpoints of all factions are very understandable. I really enjoyed watching the main characters argue with demons, angels, and YHVH, about their role in the universe. Stephen's dialogue was the moust profound to me, as he explains what it is about mankind that has placed them in the situation they are in. As he puts it: "Humans have the power to assign an answer to phenomena without an answer. The power of observation has the ability to make certain and stable what is uncertain and without form. The Axiom did not give gods the power of observation... Only humans have that power." Angels and demons fight over mankind to control their understanding of the world. Although humans are not all powerful gods or demons, their ability of observation creates meaning. Angels and demons want to canonize their ideology as the meaning of life.
What I imagine (and have seen a little online) to be a divising thing about this game is the clear and overt Persona-fication of it. The previous game, Shin Megami Tensei IV, has a few assist members (like party members but you have no control over them directly) each representing the Chaos, Law, and Neutral routes. This game has around seven and unlike IV they all stick around for the majority of the game. There aren't any social links in IV:A, but there are dialogue options within bosses and main story events that will "increase your bond" with characters. I saw no real indication or menu of what your bonds actually do outside of increasing the assist gauge. Which when filled allows all your partners to use a few skills and deal a good amount of damage. The bonds and assist gauge feature feel like a sort of jerry-rigged social link and all out attack system. Outside of combat, the dialogue scenes and character development all very much feel like Persona as well. Comedic scenes and fan service moments with your party are spread throughout the game. It really feels like the development of this game was affected by the popularity of the Persona subseries. The previous game, Shin Megami Tensei IV does not contain this Persona-fied tone. While I am a huge fan of the Persona series, I wonder what the future of Shin Megami Tensei mainline series' tone is. Either way, I am very excited for Shin Megami Tensei NEXT (Switch), or whatever they end up calling it.
-
no
-
Replaying my favorite game of 2014
Finished 6/28, played through the Wyatt timeline on Uber.
-
i gave up on this game again because i just don't care
-
KING IS KING
-
hell ye
-
Very fun procedurally generated Metroidvania. Fans of Rogue Legacy should check this out, it looks and feels a lot better.
-
-
-
-
-
-
I tried this game for the umpteenth time on impulse and it's finally clicked with me.
-
Replayed Halo 3 in two sittings with my brother. Definitely the shortest of the original trilogy. When I come back from school we will play through ODST, Reach, and 4. I'm currently playing through 5 because it isn't splitscreen co-op.
-
Sat down to play through this in one sitting with my Dad but he fell asleep 20 minutes in! I'll go back soon and play it myself.
-
-
JUST FAST GOOD CARS
-
-
-
FINISHED: 10/15
Overall a faithful remake with some good added scenes that add to the story. However, the faithfulness of this remake really shines a bright spotlight on how dated this game is now.
A lot of the frustrations I have with the original release are still present in this title. Lots of running back and forth between locations to do one thing. Strangely enough, there seems to be an incredibly tedious sequence added in to the beginning of the game where Kiryu has to buy a present for another character and it requires you to go to a store, then leave the store to meet someone, and then go back to the store. This process repeated two or three times and I kept thinking "I have no memory of this in the original game, but it definitely feels exactly like something from it." It hasn't been that long since I've played the original PS2 title, and I am near certain that this sequence is not found there. (Just skimmed a let's play to be sure) Throughout the game there are numerous examples of this tedium that can be found in the both the original release and this HD remake. One I clearly remember because of how much I loathe it is when you have to buy food for a dog. Not only do you have to figure out where to buy the food, once you do so and bring it back to the dog you are then told the dog needs a plate to eat off of... The plate is found in the same store, so if you didn't foresee this you have to go all the way back to the store and come back, only to then be told the dog is thirsty and needs water. Three whole objectives spread out in this ridiculous and scummy way that have no purpose other than to stretch the content.
Tedium aside - a substantial portion - the story rarely reaches any highs and is basic and melodramatic. The story is very predictable and features few exciting moments. A lot of my disappointment stems from recently playing Yakuza 0, which is an amazing game, and with the series' recent rise in popularity in the West, has set quite a precedent. Yakuza 0 is an expertly crafted series of setups that gets you excited to take down every mobster who stands in your way. Yakuza Kiwami is a series of melodramatic scenes that lead to frustrating fights with huge groups of enemies that are at times too large to manage. And if any of these enemies have guns or knives they will knock Kiryu down during most combos/animations and ruin any flow you had.
-
-
-
Replayed on Vita (9/14/17)
Want to play Transistor (never played) and Pyre next.
-
-
-
It's finally here.
Finished on 10/13:
WOW. What an absolute ride. The ending is really something and I'll be thinking about this one for a looong time. This entry has some real good tricks up its sleeve but they are spread few and far between. I know for a fact this game is going to be a divisive one amongst fans. I think I loved the ending but not so much the journey that led up to it. I didn't enjoy the trials other than the first and last two.
Also, the minigames are absolute trash this time around. Other than the usual Non-stop Debates (the most common minigame) and Rebuttal Showdown (second most common), the minigames are just obstacles to get past because they know you've figured it out already but don't want to make it as simple as selecting what you already know is correct. Minigames like Hangman's Gambit and Psyche Taxi are clearly designed to stretch the gameplay more than needed. Hangman's Gambit is also terrible because even if you know what the answer is, you have to figure out how they are wording it. And at times the wording just defied any thought process I would have. Meaning that the word they want me to type is never the way I would've described the answer. So most of the time I resorted to just selecting letters at random until their wording became clear. Truly bullshit. As for Psyche Taxi, it's only purpose is to guide you down a logic line you've already figured out and forces you to play a shitty driving minigame that is meant to slow you down. Hated these minigames. Even in the Non-stop Debates there are clear moments where I felt the evidence I presented made the same point as the one they want you to present.
Thinking about writing a spoiler review for it, as most of what is worth discussing about this game comes from the last 5 hours. (Of 42 total I had on my save)
-
-
-
Played through this and was quite surprised. Story was good, writing was strong. Combat interesting, especially when fighting large machines.
Finished 9/24
-
WHAT A WHOLESOME GAME
Finished 10/21/17
-
Finished 10/30
LOVED most of this game, the end was really anticlimactic and overtly rushed. Very sad to see... The rest of it is an amazing game though.
-
FINISHED: 11/22
Wow, I really enjoyed the gameplay and systems of this game. I think it's my favorite System Shock/Bioshock type of game. But the story didn't culminate into anything particularly special. It seems that the game has a story for the sake of having a structure and choices, but what it all amounts to in the end is something nearly meaningless and overall confusing. Spoilers: you were reliving the events of the game via memories of the main character who you actually aren't, as scientists were just testing your empathy to see if they will work with you to save humanity. Okay. And then then you are given a button prompt to help them or kill them, either way, the 2nd and final ending of the game is abrupt and inconclusive. As lame as this all is, I wasn't playing the game for the story, rather, I was playing it all for the really cool looking world, gameplay, systems, and freedom of choice. This is one of the few games where I've felt really free to progress in my own ways. most of the time I felt as if I was doing something that the developers never intended, although I'm sure they did. A few times I bypassed passwords by stacking boxes and/or shooting gloo to climb over my obstacle. There's also the fact that I leveled my Leverage (carrying) ability a lot and was able to just throw large and heavy objects at enemies to kill them. Throwing objects costs nothing so this was an optimal way to kill aliens. Also really funny.
-
FINISHED: 11/19
What a delight. I was taking my time with this game (got it on launch) but learned late that the game really opens up when you beat it. So I stopped taking my time with each area, because I knew I'd have to come back to them for new Moons, and just beat the game in a big chunk (Seaside Kingdom to the End).
The movement in this game is the best Mario has ever felt. Cappy adds so much to the jumping that I worry about any sequels to come.
The structure of the game is the ultimate realization of the Mario 64 format. Instead of going into a world for one star at a time, the world persists as an open area with tons of moons to find. This is more of a streamlined take on Mario, and truly just feels like the natural progression of what 3D Mario games are. Much like what Zelda:BotW did to Zelda, Odyssey refreshes the series while holding onto what we love. Odyssey stands out as an amazing celebration for the Mario series as a whole.
-
played through all of this with my brother on Thanksgiving. Such a good game. Amazing how fast it is to beat when you just know what to do. When I was young playing through it I'd get stuck for hours. Somehow today I still remember almost everything you need to know.
Load Comments