Games I Beat: Hyrule Warriors

Hyrule Warriors
Musou (Kill 'Em All Simulator)
1-2 Players (Local only)
System: Wii U
Developer: Omega Force/Ninja Theory
Year of Release: 2014
Beat Legends Mode: September 29th, 2014

So immediately following losing a month to DCUO I decided to really give Dragon's Dogma a serious go and it was splendid. Sadly Hyrule Warriors decided to come out and I ended up devoting all my time to that. Hopefully I'll write about Dragon's Dogma sometime (splendid game and all), but going simply off the title of this entry I don't think that's what I'm here to talk about today.

Games I Beat: DC Universe Online

DC Universe Online
MMORPG
Massive amounts of players
System: PSN
Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Year of Release: 2011
Reached End Game: September 1st, 2014

I don't want to get bogged down in this, but I do want to apologize for not writing more. I don't even know if I have an audience, but if I do, I love you. Honestly though I just haven't really been playing too many games lately. I did play through the Dark Souls II DLC but I'm not sure whether I'll write about it. With the final bit of DLC coming out soon maybe I'll whip something up about them or Dark Souls II in general, but no promises.

Unrelated anecdote's aside, for no real reason I decided to get into an MMO which ate up most of my time to play games. I've never seriously attempted to play an MMO before, I've tried some free to play ones on PC in the past, but I don't believe spending a couple months in Runescape really counts as experiencing an MMO. DCUO immediately caught my interest because I love comics, more specifically I love DC comics, and that single aspect is what's kept me interested in making progress. Oh and it's free!

Walking I Simulated: Proteus

Proteus
Walking Simulation
1 Player
System: PSN
Developer: Curve Studios
Year of Release: 2013
Hiked: August 8th, 2014

Apologies, I was hoping to stay on top of this blog, yet I allowed myself to slip. Truth is I haven't really beaten many games recently. I've been stuck jumping back and forth between RPG's lately. I'm sure at least someone will understand my current (admittedly self-inflicted) problem. I did manage to walk through Proteus though!

Games I (Regretfully) Played: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Platformer
1 Player, with a local multiplayer mode
 System: Wii U
Developer: Monkey Bar Games
Year of Release: 2013
Played: July 29th, 2014

There's something you need to know about me, and more specifically my friend. We really really love Black Manta. You know. The Aquaman villain? And you can fuck right off if you're one of those unfairly judgmental bastards you laugh Aquaman off because all you ever bothered to watch was Superfriends and let that campy show cloud your vision. Anyway, Black Manta is a creature who thrives off hatred. In all of his incarnations you can depend on one thing to remain true, his absolute hatred of Aquaman. He gladly murdered Aquaman's family, got killed himself and was briefly brought back to life, and what did he do? He visited Aquaman just to ask how his wife and kid were doing. Right bastard sort of person we're talking about here. Most of his actions are derived strictly out of spite for someone (usually Aquaman).

Games I Beat: Lego Marvel Super Heroes

Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Comic Book Action! KAPOW!
1-2 Players
System: PSN
Developer: TT Games
Year of Release: 2013
Beaten: July 27th, 2014

There are several factors that detracted from my overall enjoyment of this game. Though it is a good game and I easily recommend picking it up on the cheap to any Marvel comics fan. Though I'd also warn them to not bother trying to get 100%. For reasons unbeknownst to me I'm pressing forward with that goal and boy do these flaws just get more glaringly obvious the further in you delve. Or maybe they're just harder to forgive the further you subject yourself to them?

Games I Beat: Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8
Kart Racing
1-2 Players (Local) 1-12 (Online)
 System: Wii U
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Year of Release: 2014
Beaten: July 20th, 2014

You can probably tell by the difference in the beaten date and the posted date that I've been sitting on this one a while. I found myself struggling to talk about Mario Kart 8. It's a really good game, typical of the series. Though Nintendo would like you to believe otherwise nothing really new was added in this game. Sure there's the anti-gravitational thing that I liked, but it doesn't change anything in a really big way. It plays exactly the same as being on the normal race track, but with a lot more boosting opportunity. Which is great. I really really love Mario Kart 8, I just also happen to simultaneously hate it. There's one major issue (at least in my eyes) that has a really simple solution, but I'm going to go over why I enjoy it so much first.

DLC I Beat: Crown of the Sunken King

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Sunken King
Suicide Simulation
1 Player
 System: PS3
Developer: From Software
Year of Release: 2014
Beaten: July 24th, 2014

I want to preface this a bit. While I'm a huge fan of the Souls series overall Dark Souls II is probably my least favorite entry. Ironically it's my most played by a HUGE margin. I don't want to get wrapped up in talking about the main game itself right now, needless to say I was underwhelmed overall. They streamlined a lot of things, some for the better but in my opinion they went overboard in a lot of key areas. Considering I only beat Demon's and Dark Souls once each while I've managed to claim the Throne of Want at least six times by now. That should show how much I really do love the game despite all of its faults.

Games I Beat: Fighting Force

Fighting Force
Beat 'Em Up
1-2 Players
System: Playstation
Developer: Core Design
Year of Release: 1997 (North America), 1998 (Japan)
Beaten: July 19th, 2014

Fighting Force is the first game my buddy recommended we play through that was a co-op beat 'em up on Playstation. We did play it first, but after dying once and having to go back to the last save (a common feature in older games that I don't hold against this) I decided to move on to another game. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but just as a break. We popped in Crisis Beat, and we didn't stop playing. Only because we didn't die, well the plot was pretty funny in a "what the fuck" sort of way, but the entire time we were bored. We went back to finish up Fighting Force and it is definitely the superior PS1 beat 'em up. It still isn't phenomenal though.

Games I Beat: Crisis Beat

Crisis Beat
Beat 'Em Up
1-2 Players
System: Playstation
Developer: Soft Machine
Year of Release: 1998 (Japan), 2000 (Europe)
Beaten: July 17th, 2014

Crisis Beat has to be one of the slowest, most tedious co-op beat 'em up games I've yet to force upon myself and a friend, this is just not anything worth wasting your time with. It's insultingly simple, with two attack buttons, a special attack button that drains health, a run and a jump button it takes next to no time to familiarize yourself with the controls. You can pick up items, though they either are simply thrown, or break almost immediately anyway and lacks a notable increase to damage output. Combos do exist, though I'm not sure how I executed them, I would just switch between the attack buttons at random. You can even throw your opponents, but again this seemed to happen at random. Don't worry though, precision and talent aren't necessary in this game.

Halloween Challenge 2012 Part 2

Halfway through this and this time with a lot less zombie based games! One still managed to get through however. Again, I've got to reiterate that overall this challenge was a bit of a let down. Most of these games ended up disappointing me, in Part 2 of my thoughts on these games I kind of knew I wouldn't really like these titles quite as much, with one big exception. I don't know what else to say to preface this, so I suppose I'll dive right in.