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TonicBH

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My conquered games list of 2013.

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 and whether I agreed with the consensus or decided to be the outlier.

Included is the date I completed it, a small blurb on what I thought about it, along with any additional notes.

Note this only includes games with story campaigns, there's a fair share of games that are online only that I played a bunch, like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Payday 2 that are not on this list. Let's look back, shall we?

List items

  • (Beaten on January 24, 2013)

    Ah yes, this old classic. This game has what I dub "The Deus Ex Effect": The moment anyone ever talks about the original Deus Ex fondly, someone is bound to reinstall the game and dick around Liberty Island. Only because that game has a really strong first level.

    This is one I tend to play every year or so. It can be frustrating, but how you can adjust it by being gung-ho or going super-stealthy is a nice twist.

    Out of the three main endings, I decided to be a dick and go for the New Dark Age ending. Not like it matters as Invisible War combined all the endings anyway.

  • (Beaten on February 10, 2013, Genkibowl VII and Trouble with Clones DLC beaten on July 25. I also beat Gangstas in Space, but I don't remember when. Probably some time after the other two.)

    Ridiculous, crazy, over-the-top, rife with in-jokes and goofy pop culture references. It's the opposite of GTA, where craziness reigns supreme.

    I went through about 80% of the game with a friend, and it was fun as hell. It's too bad I had to play through this with a really shitty computer with everything on low settings.

    As for the DLC, Gangstas in Space was funny because of the parodies of movies, Genkibowl was just more of the base Professor Genki missions with a pinch more "WACKY!!" and Trouble with Clones felt like bad fanfiction with subtle hints towards Saints Row IV's superpowers. They're not amazing, but worth giving a shot once you've beaten the main campaign.

  • (TNT Evilution completed on February 25, 2013)

    The unofficial Doom sequel. A bunch of Doom modders make a 32-level level pack for Doom 2, intending to release it for free, then John Romero saw dollar signs and turned Evilution into half of this.

    It's Doom. It's new levels, which loses impact nowadays since 32-level "megawads" are being put out at a ridiculous rate, thus negating the reason to really own this unless you play it in co-op with someone.

    I didn't finish the other half of Final Doom, The Plutonia Experiment, because it's super-hard even in lower difficulties. Recommended for people who think Doom 2 is too easy. (Alternatively: Download Hell Revealed, which is like Plutonia in terms of difficulty.)

  • (Beaten on March 4, 2013)

    Uncharted was a good game, albeit flawed. Uncharted 2 fixed those problems. Uncharted 3 is like Uncharted 2, but more polished. Story reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

    Prior to this game, I always played through games on Hard difficulty the first time through. NEVER AGAIN! Two major sections in the late stages of the game just kicked my ass so much that I had to finish it on Normal. I feel better as a result.

  • (All the DLC completed. Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot on March 5, Zombie Island of Dr. Ned on March 7, Claptrap's New Robot Revolution on March 15, and Secret Armory of General Knoxx on March 22.)

    Borderlands was an interesting game with interesting ideas. There were many things that could've been improved, like trading among other things. All of these were fixed in Borderlands 2, so it's pointless to even play this game or its DLC.

    But anyway, what I thought about the DLC:

    - Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot: Wave-based survival stuff that I found boring and unfun. If you love "horde mode" style game modes, this is the one for you.

    - Zombie Island of Dr. Ned: The zombies were a pain in the ass from beginning to end. All it takes is two acid spits to have you fighting for your life. Story's a little goofy.

    - Claptrap's New Robot Revolution: Don't remember much except Claptraps dressed like chickens. I guess you could say this is great for those who hate that robot bastard.

    - Secret Armory of General Knoxx: Barely remember anything from it. I think it had more powerful enemies and such.

  • (Episode One completed on 360 on March 9, 2013.)

    An interesting way to do adventure games. Felt sympathy for Clementine and a few other characters, while wishing some of them would die to zombies.

    Alas, I never continued past Episode One. I have it on PC, might be time to give it a second shot.

  • (Beaten on March 12, 2013)

    A fun action-packed sequel that barely had anything to do with the first game. Gunplay was fun, and there were a few parts that were pretty spooky, but I don't think it was as memorable as the first game.

    Also, this game SCREAMS "console port." Quite a shame, really.

  • (Beaten on March 13, 2013)

    A DLC campaign that can be beaten in a single sitting. I think this is meant to bridge the gap between the first and second games, but this might be as much canon as F.E.A.R. Extraction Point was.

    Glad this already came with my F.E.A.R. complete bundle, otherwise I would've been pissed if I bought this separate.

  • (Beaten on March 26, 2013)

    It's Duke Nukem 3D with a southern redneck vibe. It was the only game of the Build Engine era that I never played, and decided to give this a whirl. It's fun, but there's a lot of item/key hunting and hidden switches that you'll be forced to look at a YouTube walkthrough to find it.

    Fun fact: Greg Goodrich (of the modern Medal of Honor games) and Viktor Antonov (of Half-Life 2 and Dishonored fame) worked on these games. Small world!

  • (Beaten on April 11, 2013)

    This is the closest we're getting to Total Recall: The Video Game. It's got a dose of euro jank and can be frustrating in the later stages of the game, but it's got a pretty lengthy single player campaign, which is saying something.

    I wrote about this game on my own blog shortly after I beat it, if you wanna hear a more detailed description of it: http://youfoundasecret.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/conquered-chaser/

  • (Beaten on April 14, 2013)

    Blendo Games games are not known for being lengthy affairs. From this game and Gravity Bone (see below) to even their early Half-Life mod roots like The Puppy Years and Bugstompers are short 30-60 minute affairs. It's the same case here, but even the short length made it interesting just by its artstyle. Having a Chris Remo soundtrack helped as well.

  • (Beaten on April 14, 2013)

    See what I said above about Thirty Flights. This one has more interactivity than the above, and is a spiritual predecessor to this. Not much else to say about this one.

    Both Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights are good short games, they're worth plowing through in an afternoon.

  • (Beaten on April 16, 2013)

    Yeah, putting a Guitar Hero game on the list is silly, but I did complete this game's career mode. My first Guitar Hero game was GH: Aerosmith, so I never got the chance to play the earlier Harmonix-era Guitar Heros. I'm glad I did, because it showed how much changed over the several years of the "plastic instrument fad." Back then, we were fine with covers all the time and not supporting other instruments.

    It's hard to play this after being so used to the later games (as well as Rock Band), but it's still a fun romp despite its age. Free Bird is a pain in the ass, even as a cover.

  • (Beaten on May 2, 2013)

    I'm glad this came out and didn't end up on the chopping block. Activision's probably kicking themselves for canceling this, it's a great free-roaming action game that blends melee, shooting and driving perfectly. Being set in a place that didn't resemble New York or Los Angeles also worked in its favor.

    Seriously, this is one of the better free-roam action games of this generation, definitely worth playing.

  • (Beaten on May 28, 2013)

    I missed out on this back when it was new. It's got ideas that were interesting for their time. The option of taking the pacifist approach and not killing anybody, or just wasting everybody in your wake while pissing on people and setting them on fire is an interesting approach to a game like this. Probably a bit ahead of its time, really.

    Running With Scissors may not be the best game company, but at least these guys made a game that can be as banal or depraved as you want it to be. It's also good they're still supporting this game with Steam updates and achievements over ten years later. It's something, alright.

  • (Beaten on May 30, 2013)

    It's more Redneck Rampage. It's made by the same people that made expansion packs for Blood, Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. Even if it doesn't add a lot of new stuff, it's worth playing because the levels not as maze-like.

  • (Beaten on June 4, 2013)

    What happens when you take out the free-roaming choices of Postal 2 and make it more of a straightforward action game? You get this. Playing AW made me realize that Postal 2's combat is not that fun. Sometimes I died a lot for bullshit reasons.

    I loved the original, but this expansion sucks ass.

  • (Beaten on July 11, 2013)

    I was hesitant about this since it didn't have Warren Spector or Harvey Smith or anyone on the original Deus Ex working on it. Human Revolution could've turned out to be good, or just be bad if not worse than Invisible War.

    Thank god it's actually pretty good. Things are simplified from the original DX in a good way. Jensen has the personality of Solid Snake but without the throaty voice. Not as amazing as J.C. "what a shame" Denton but honestly it's hard to top that.

    The best part is that you don't need to play prior Deus Ex games to understand what's going on. Yet it's great when they throw in references to the previous games even if it's passively mentioning a major character in that game. Would've been nice to interact with the original game's cast.

  • (Beaten on July 11, 2013)

    I don't know why DICE decided to ape Call of Duty's "riveting storytelling" for their campaign mode. I loved Bad Company's campaign mode because it was a bunch of rag-tag goofballs trying to smuggle gold. Here it's ripping off COD tropes so much that you could make a game of "Find out what COD game they're ripping off here." People tend to remember the games that created ideas, not the ones who copied it wholesale.

    Despite the shitty single player, multiplayer's great as always. I played this when I briefly had PlayStation Plus, so I didn't mind paying the low low price of free for this.

  • (Beaten on July 28, 2013)

    Dead Space 2 took the existing formula of the first game and improved on it. Hell, giving Issac Clarke a voice and having him not be a Gordon Freeman-like was the best thing they could do to this series. I enjoyed the first Dead Space, and the second one only had one or two annoying parts, including a section where you were being chased by a Nemesis-like monster while fighting off other Necromorphs. That section was quite bullshit.

    The multiplayer was not too great, it reminded me of Natural Selection with a pinch of Left 4 Dead. Not memorable, not terrible. Even EA didn't care for it, as they never added any multiplayer DLC and replace it with co-op in Dead Space 3. So, not a major loss.

  • (Beaten on August 20, 2013)

    You may have noticed a lot of the games beaten this year came out in 2011. You're not the only one who noticed. So expect me to talk about all of 2013's games in 2015.

    I've never played the Driver games, but I heard the more recent ones crept into "C-grade GTA clone" territory. But then they introduced the mechanic of shifting between cars. It resolved that problem of "Tanner getting out of the car" and made it so it played more like a real time strategy game where you were managing units to complete objectives. Except you could control a single unit at any time. It makes for a unique driving game, surely.

    I did love the references to movies and TV shows in some of the special missions, and the overall feel reminded me of a late 70s cop show. Definitely worth checking out.

  • (Beaten on October 24, 2013)

    Batmanbatmanbatmanbatmanbatman. The Batmins. The Man Bat. Don't need to say much more.

    It's like Arkham Asylum except combat feels more smooth. More funky gadgets to use, more dumb riddles to solve, and the continued Metroid-like design shines through here. I preferred Asylum's more close-quartered levels over the big sprawling world of Arkham City, but City wasn't too obnoxious. I also liked the side-missions and Catwoman side-story, it felt like a TV show, whereas the main story is like a season long story arc.

    Funny enough, I was never into comic book superheroes, including Batman. Despite that, I still enjoyed it, and hope that Arkham Origins isn't COMPLETELY awful.

  • (Beaten on Halloween, October 31, 2013)

    I was super into Red Dead Redemption a few years ago. Despite the control issues (prevalent even in other Rockstar games like GTA4), the story was interesting, and like Sleeping Dogs, it's nice to play a free-roaming game in a different environment.

    Undead Nightmare just added a story that felt like an alternate history but with ZOMBIES! It was good to go back to RDR one last time, though I think the DLC campaign was weaker than the base game. Wouldn't recommend it unless you're super into zombie stuff in video games.

  • (Beaten on November 9, 2013)

    Holy shit, a game that ACTUALLY CAME OUT THIS YEAR on this list?! Bless me bagpipes.

    I loved the cartoon when I was a kid, and naturally loved the NES game like lots of kids my age did. As for the remake, I like this game for different reasons than others might. It's a competent platformer and has most of the base mechanics of DuckTales down, but it's the presentation that got me. Knowing that they treated every stage like it's an episode of the cartoon, complete with most of the original voice cast, made me nostalgic for the old cartoon.

    That along with the unique levels they did for this made me think WayForward should make a DuckTales sequel that's a unique story with new levels. I bet they could make something amazing if this game is any indication.

  • (Beaten on November 10, 2013)

    Now this is a sequel. While it has vehicles that are unwieldy and only adds a few new things here and there, it's more Redneck Rampage and I'm okay with that.

    Having a new soundtrack with more Mojo Nixon helped too.

  • (Beaten on November 16, 2013)

    This game is frustrating as fuck. Many times I died in ways I couldn't tell. Sometimes enemies that I could easily wreck shit in one run suddenly had spider senses and killed me instantly the next. Sometimes I was nailed by some dude with a shotgun I couldn't see. Weapons and doors would phase through enemies. Don't even get me started on the boss fights.

    Yet, despite all the frustrating bullshit, it has a great art style and one of the best damn soundtracks for a game in 2012. I'd still recommend it despite they could've refined the gameplay considerably.

    It makes sense why this game became such an underground hit, you don't see many games like this anymore. Here's hoping Hotline Miami 2 fixes and refines the formula and isn't just a level pack.

  • (Beaten on Christmas Day, December 25, 2013)

    I never owned a Katamari game. A friend of mine gave me her copy this year. I'm glad she did, because I was missing out.

    Katamari Damacy is unabashedly Japanese. It doesn't hide it either, it prides itself on how god damn ridiculous it is. From the story, to the character design, to the soundtrack. It's so wacky that it could only come from the minds of the Japanese. It's a glorious and fun game and you should play it if you haven't already.

    Now, I wonder if I should get the other games. I heard We Love Katamari is even better, but everything else was not as good. This still true, bombers?
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