Payday: The Heist(10+ hours): Four person bank robbing/gun for hire game. Strangely there is very little mic chatter in this game when I would think there would be more than L4D and when I was playing that heavily you called EVERYTHING. The game is a lot of fun, I really want to make a run through all the heist with some IC members in one night back to back. Crime Spree! There is a L4D map in the game, No Mercy . The shooting mechanics are really darn good in the game. As you attempt to replay each of these levels, as the game is designed to, there are small variations that take place and some times they can throw you for a loop if you don't catch on quick enough but simple experience with all them seems to resolve that pretty quickly. But some times there isn't much you can do when a tank spawns in your face unloading his shotgun in your chest. Really darn good game. The leveling system I have no idea what is going on and that is the one sour note for me since I don't know what I am doing with the "skill" tree. Still have more time to spend with this one.
Journey (PS3)(2 hours): I have been wanting to play this game for a while. Girlfriend played the first half and I finished the second half while she was cooking. Watching someone else play the first that was just doing things is frustrating to me because the game is fairly linear in most areas and seemed rather straight forward if you were going to complete the objectives. I have no idea what the purpose of the scarfs have in regards to your health or even if you can really die. Got pretty cute when I decided to start talking to the other player with my "bell". Overall I enjoyed it some and would like to replay it at least one more time to see if I had figured out a few of things the game was telling me. Eh nice if you have 2 hours to kill and want to goof around for a bit.
Payday 2(83 hours): I have been holding off on writing this until I reached at least level 75 because then I should be about half way through the levels, max currently is 100. This is a game that I really want to love, I want to love it soo soo much but it keeps stopping me from doing it. Payday 2 feels like the game they wanted to make with payday 1. You lean when you pick up loot, the graphics are fantastic, the game creates an idea of you being in a real outlaw gang. They made the pieces really fall into place with this.
But there are issues. There are serious QA issues when they release patches and almost every patch so far has had some obvious bug that simply playing through all of the heist 1 time would of found. The company has tried to be more proactive about this now by apparently taking time to do some QA testing and releasing beta patches, this is after some parts of the community racking them over the coals after each screw up.
I wanted this to be my new L4D. Aquaman could have been reborn! This is something that if you are looking for a 20+ online game is a must have, overkill says they will roll out a lot of content and things they said would be there in the final game(read that how you want). Watching this game change and evolve while you play can be interesting while extremely frustrating. Also since they have hinted at bringing back overkill player levels, 147 level, it gives a chance to expand if you cap out. But capping out in this game can still play a lot like in WoW......the real game has finally begun.
Medal of Honor(3.9 hours): Single player feels super political. As a single person you kill hundreds of Chechnyans. Not super clear on the plot or how it is actually developed since it seemed pretty much as though "there are bad guys we need to go kill them". So many invisible gates so you progress only after all of the AI. Infinite pistol ammo means I don't need any other weapon.
BIT.TRIP BEAT(111 minutes): YES I AM DONE! Whomever made this game I hate you, I honestly do...and you should feel really bad as well. It took me forever to figure out why this game was so hard for me. Two reasons: there was a lot of here everything is the same color AND look this moving train in the background lets make that the same color TOO!!!!!!!!, also there is a blur trail on everything it was screwing me up because I kept looking at the tail instead of the head of the movement and would miss things by a pixel or two. For those people who are good at this game I salute you because everything except for the final boss battle took me maybe 45 minutes. I am not good at pong. If you own it play it because it is just crazy how you are suppose to be able to play this game on any real level, IMHO, or if you don't and see it on sale with BIT.TRIP RUNNER buy it because runner is loads of fun and BEAT just makes you wonder why the hell they made it if they were going to a RUNNER type game.
Antichamber(3.4 hours): Another learning puzzle shooter thing. I don't get it if there is something to get. Some much of the game screams portal rip with lets be abstract to the meaning of life. After reading how the game was received and all the awards it received I have been told my impression of the game is wrong. Having to circle around yourself several times because space changes after you view it just seems silly and a gimmick to check off some boxes for being edgy. The messages in the game that are to direct you are suppose to be meaningful and bring insight to your life but it feels like a fortune cookie. Seems silly and played out after the first 30 minutes.
Beat Hazard(10.3 hours): The best music based rhythmic game that I have played on PC. Take your old style space shooter that is wave based and has bosses now add lots of flashing lights and music. As much as I really like this game I can barely play it for more than 30 minutes at a time simply because it gets boring and I would rather sit and listen to music. The different game types provide a bit of a distraction and the leveling concept makes replay a little bit more fun but not extremely. Normally all enemies and their projectiles are easy to see and keep track of on screen but there are some times where I miss a missile and die because of it. Biggest complaint is just the lack of variety in the actual game play and for some reason I can't focus on the music and enjoy the game play as a side effect, audio surf has a much better grasp on that concept I believe.
Guns Of Icarus Online(10.1 hours): This will be played much more. I am still really impressed on how well done this game is, really impressed. Going in I had watched trailers and a little bit of game footage that people had posted kind of as a silly play along for their review site but did not expect it to be as polished and as crisp as I would of liked...I was wrong. The character movements, animations, sounds, overall animations are really clean and feel snappy. Gun movements are slow at times so I use a combination of mouse and arrow keys to make sure I am getting all shes got for me. This game is really dependent on having a good captain that doesn't destroy the engines all the time and can swing guns into firing position easily. The co-op aspect of this is pretty incredible because when you are facing someone decent everyone is always talking about enemy movements, requested coarse corrections, guns to be manned, flames to be put out, and parts that need to be rebuilt. HINT: Buff during all cool downs. In 10 hours I have 33 of the 464 achievements, and you use most of them to level certain classes(captain, engineer, gunner). You need friends to play with and use something besides in game voip, though executed well there are to many channel options.
The Swapper(9.2 hours): I checked howlongtobeat before I finished this game, apparently I am really bad at this game. You are a miner/scavenger that shows up on a space station where they are refining rocks. There is a device you collect that allows you to make clones of yourself and swap which one you inhabit. Colored lights block certain aspects and you have to go around the station collection orbs to power things to allow you into different sections of the ship or do certain actions. Pretty straight forward puzzle game with a fairly griping story because it has some rather heavy moral and ethical questions that they pose in the game. Another game everyone should at least try.
The Wonderful End of The World(78 minutes): simply a knock off game, though they have been making video games for 75 years. The edge detection is pretty bad and the game isn't too long. Overall fairly easy if you have been rolling katamari for a while. Fun enough if it is a dollar or $1.50 but not worth any more. You will get frustrated because you stop fitting places and there isn't anything really left to pick up except those 3 pieces that you can not get to
FEZ(4.7 hours): I had wanted to play this game since I saw it in Indie Game: The Movie but I refused to buy it through a console marketplace since I feel those are wack...because. The concept for the game was extremely interesting to me because I had never played a game like that and I try to expand my gaming horizons a few times a year. As a platformer the game didn't seem hard at all in that respect. Some quick turning around in the environment and normally you can have the jumping puzzles solved extremely quickly. I never solved the alphabet which is my major gripe for this game since it never really told you "HEY M*^&%((^F(*&*&^ WRITE THIS JUNK DOWN AND LEARN IT YOU LAZY BUM". Playing through the game I got to about 26 blocks total before I simply hit a wall and couldn't get any farther without looking stuff up and that is when I felt a little cheated since there is a lot of hidden stuff that requires input codes. The game is FULL of references to so much gaming history but this over reliance on input codes really irked me. I feel like it could have been achieved better if you kept seeing text in a foreign language then about half way through you have to solve a puzzle that allows the character to learn it and then everything was translated for you; otherwise, a bunch of your time is going to be spent with pen and paper. Despite that I really liked the game and enjoyed most of the mechanics. This one spoiler(not really): It is full of cubezzzzz........ROCK OUT!
Side notes. Apparently the creator got some massive bad rep for a falling out in his company and talking trash to parts of the online community thus resulting in some people boycotting him. I never saw any of that until it was done. Bought the game because it was very interesting to me and finally on PC. Enjoyed it and I think most people would too.
Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood(90 Minutes): Fun little game, worth a couple of bucks. Wave based 3rd person shooter. You are out in the desert doing soldier of fortune things, like shooting people and keeping people from blowing things up. There is a leveling system that unlocks different weapons and of course when you complete the game the first time it unlocks new modes to play around with. The controls aren't that tight but if you are horrible at shooters or simply just like running circles firing weapons the game fits that pretty well. When in doubt shoot the chickens, but it will haunt you later.
I Am Alive(5.3 Hours): The game only took me about 4 hours but I lost my original save with an hour on it. This was n interesting survival game because the world itself is your serious enemy. The story places you in some kind of post "event" world that causes earthquakes regularly and the air is full of dust. Earthquakes give slight distractions throughout the game but the main point in having them is that they are the vehicle for destroying the ground you walk on and the infrastructure in the city the game takes place. You are always trying to not spend to much time in the dust because it slowly kills you, along with hostile people, which means climbing on everything. Essentially the game has to elements. Climbing/Jumping puzzles and enemy combat puzzles(yes they are puzzles). The game ends quickly and simply throws things at you to finish up the story but this is in part due to the production house and the standard issues time and money. It didn't leave me with a super fantastic feeling at the end but enough to make the standard 5 hour play through time feel worth it.
Spec Ops: The Line(4.7 Hours): People kept saying you should play this game, OMG. By the end I was completely enthralled wit the man character and his development I did not want it to end. The game could have been much longer and explored much more what happens to him. Sadly just about the time things start getting crazy and really interesting the game is done and if you question things enough you figure out the endings about half way through the game. Nicely they throw out a few video game jokes. War crimes take place in this game and apparently your character is indestructible. If you own it and haven't finished it do it. Almost did this game in one day but I broke it up into three chunks and every time I launched it there was a strong sense of anticipation for what the game was going to offer me next.
EDIT: Fantastic soundtrack to this game, really pulled everything together.
Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year(10.8 Hours): I think I have started this game and not finished playing at least 3 times. Normally I get bored after a few levels because it gets boring. This game doesn't fill me with much excite except ooohhh I am almost done. You just click around on the screen and build a basic defense a few rows deep then simply worry about upkeep until the end of the wave. Though I have played this for a few levels on a surface tablet and it makes it more entertaining with all of the touching and hotness that is a tablet. You can play the game much faster if you have your fingers since you can multitask with your hands in a way that is not possible with standard I/O devices on a computer. I think most people have played this game that play games in any sense because it is amusing and casual.
Dead Space 3(12.49 Hours): I had no intention of buying this game but it ended up on a humble bundle. Dead Space 1 was fantastic, Dead Space 2 was ok but I really enjoyed the story. Dead Space 3 was a good end to the set. The game has changed to a much faster paced shooter that forces you to use all of your abilities not just a really decked out gun, they changed weapon modding so much and it really bugs me because they effectively nerfed all of the guns. At no point in the game did I feel like I was buffed to the max and everything except boss fights were going to be easy. I died a lot because the enemy spawns were all around you and waves lasted a long time, the standard be slow and make perfect shots when they are close doesn't work in the dead space world any more you have to be aggressive. The puzzles were simple but provided some fun and interesting presentations. Being stuck in a space environment kind of blew for the first segment because they already did that but once you get to the surface it becomes fresh and puts forth a new environment you haven't seen yet......hahahah haven't seen yet, they reused A LOT of their rooms to the point where I am running missions in the same "areas" but monsters are spawning differently or the puzzle has changed and that is it. I started an optional mission and got pissed because I had been through that same area twice already and quit, luckly when I started the game back up it loaded before I began the optional mission! Favorite part of this game was the climbing segments because they were completely new and I had never done anything like them before. If you have played the Dead Space series through 2 and you can find 3 at a decent price it is worth it.
Mount and Blade, Warband, With Fire and Sword(11.9 hours): I am counting these three as a single game since each one past mount and blade is a mod. Run around in the year 1200 and something hacking at horses and dudes faces. This is really good. The game install is under a gigabyte and the game play was so enthralling that I had to keep reminding myself to eat and eventually go to bed after just one more battle. Single player turns into a bit of a grind especially with the really large battles, 100+ unit armies. There was a bunch of disappointment in my first multi-army skirmish because not everyone is on the field at once. Reinforcements show up at certain intervals and basically you need to weather the storm and never loose because then, in my case, the Khans talk smack about you for running away to keep from becoming a prisoner for a few weeks or save your host. Besieging the first castle is a rush because it is a slow climb up the ladder or across the bridge from the tower and it is a massive push of shields waiting for a spot to swing and hope you don't die as your shield drops. Other than that the road skirmishes drag on at points if it is a cavalry battle since catching enemies on horse back is horrible given that all of the horses run at the same speed. Even though this with a smaller army you can still win because your character can destroy an army with only a few archers if you are on horse back....it is crazy. I ended my single player experience sieging and fighting to the end when I was captured then the Khans mobile armies rescued me. The multi-player is a mass of attempting to edge people with timed swings and can leave you frustrated from keeping ganked the entire match from players with faster load outs or never getting killing blows.
Brutal Legend(5.8 hours): The game needed more work. I spent a bunch of time walking around for no reason besides walking around. For this game I simply did the main story only because it kept telling me there were side missions but I didn't realize until after 3 hours how to activate them, you have to find the person holding it and they are usually not in my primary view. There is a customization system to this game so you can upgrade your junk and stuff. I was rather shocked when I found out there is a RTS system involved with most of the battles because I figured it was a simple hack and slash. So there is a big mix of objective based missions, RTS battles where you can melee with the group, and weapon/vehicle management system. There was a continual reminder of model bugs as people's hair clipped through things or a random vector stretching across the screen. TIM CURRY IS A VOICE IN THIS GAME! It was kind of fun but I am really glad I got it in a humble bundle with other games that I wanted because I feel it is really only worth $3 max, felt sort of like the Recall remake that consisted of running and shooting and then you are done.
Dwarfs!?(10.2 hours): This is a basic sandbox game where you are a dwarf master that must control your subjects because they are half drunk and just dig where ever all the time. Thus as a by product of drunk mining they will hit pockets of water and lava that simply run a muck of your town and kill everyone. It is your job to seal off those bad elements and push your miners towards important minerals and how to explore correctly. Fun for up to an hour at a time but there isn't very much to the game and even the higher difficulties are only harder because they make things spawn at a higher rate and everything cost more, all the mechanics are the same you are simply forced to work with less. It is ok, provides a good distraction some days.
Zeno Clash 2(5.0 hours): The story of this game carries it pretty well from the first to the second which was rather worrisome. The fighting system is a little more in depth but I did was shoot people, then bash them with the gun, and double punch the left overs off a cliff. There is a party system but you don't always have access to all of them to join you in a fight which was a bit of a let down. The game also employed a new system for stats so you can earn skill points to spend to enable you to recruit stronger people, increase health, more stamina, and increase your overall power. Given that you have Golem items now it made for an interesting change to the way the combat plays out, once the enemies group dropping half of them in two attacks becomes easy. Favorite part of the game was knocking people off upper levels and cliffs during massive battles and they simply die. Nothing like double punching the strongest opponent and watch them back step off a cliff and the battle is pretty much done, lulz. Interesting character introduced....foot collector??????????? If you dug the fighting from the first and the crazy wild world that you played through Zeno Clash is for sure worth it though the new items introduction can nerf that aspect if you use them and some battles you must. The first game took me 3 hours and the second clocking in at 5 with a non-completionist run shows you can spend some time enjoying everything in the game. Teft!
The thing that drew me in with Zeno Clash was the incredible writing. Totally alien-feeling world with very little "common human character" tropes. I thought it was deeply interesting.
Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 Multiplayer(10.2 hours): I did not realize that this game was only multiplayer. Loaded the game and craving that sweet old school WW2 FPS I remember from MOHAA. Though I was disappointed by that the online game is pretty darn great. You run around a bunch and just die from being shot through small openings 80 meters across the map, rinse and repeat. Most of the servers seem to be not team death match and 100% dmg + Realism. This can make learning rather hard but you generally spend time playing with a server that is about half bots, 25 players 25 bots....it can get crazy. The maps are massive and in some points turn simply into grind fest for CPs and trying not to burn too many tickets in the charge for the cap. The weapon accuracy felt great in this game considering I have used at least two of the files and watched skilled people I know use some of the others, the did seem to overstate the carbines accuracy. Biggest complaints are that to raise your sights the gun drops lower in the screen and you have to bring it up when really the rear sight is suppose to raise and the distance in the game is WAY off. 100 meters is about the maximum range for accuracy with all non-sniper weapons when guns like the K31, Nagat, Garand, and 1903 are platforms that normally can hold a 5 inch pattern at 200 yards; not all of these are in the game but they were used in that period and represent approx. some of the other rifles. Yet the carbine can shoot fairly well over 50 meters when that thing being effective at 100 yards RL, it is a pistol with a long barrel and stock. Short of that this is a fantastic game and I give much credit to the high level people because in 10 hours I am only level 15, felt like the curve I experienced in BC2 where it takes a few hours to start learning how to play the game and then you can become really effective. Given that though in several games right off the bat I was in the team top 5 by simply playing it slow and working on slowly expanding my control on shooting alleys in maps.
Total War: Shogun 2(10.5): I am horrible at this game, absolutely horrible. It might be different if I played long campaigns or total domination but i don't move fast enough for short stuff. Tried playing this the same way I play risk where I take a big region and use it to slowly funnel guys to the front and steam roll my way to victory except here the map allows you to be flanked so easily and waiting on building repairs prohibits unit production. I just am not good at adapting to this style. The historical battles are pretty fun since they are normally multi-part and fairly quick to do, played them all on easy and still couldn't win....I am ashamed. The game is dated at this point but the graphics are still really good for a strategy game plus the fact the zoom in to ground level doesn't jump and gives you a nice view as your units slug it out. Really enjoyed how normally when several units class there is a hard line between the armies since that is how battles were really fought, none of this charge in and a massive mixed melee. Focused on trying to be good at this game but guess I have to slink back to my memories of Red Alert 2.
Greed Corp(7.4 hours): Did this all in one day which was strange to me because some of the matches would last a long time but once I got half way I really wanted to finish because the matches started to get easier as I understand how to play the maps and deal with the AI better. The AI would normally just sit there if you had maxed soldiers on your occupied squares. The game itself is a simply conquer to win but you can destroy sections of the battle field as you move along. Basics 101 amount to destroy all of the playing field until you only occupy a few hexs then figure out how to attack later, turtle turtle. The campaign gives enough story but not anything to amazing, the game would had some value if you weren't sure to buy a humble bundle. Some how the single music track used in this game never made me want to play something over top of it or simply finish the game with no music, very impressive.
Grid 2(13.8 hours): uh......Uh.......UUHHHH. If you haven't played Grid 1 single and multiplayer you shall NOT PASS! Now I don't even want to write this because my dreams have been crushed in such a way. After I finished I tried to look up some development and reviews and maybe find out that Codemasters farmed out half of the game but they didn't. Spoilers, but it is a racing game so get over it. You help some dude build a world racing series thingy by winning races and collecting fans to fuel the corporate machine....there is an end to this game. There is an introduction of a new type of racing called LiveRoute which "builds" the race circuit as you go thus no course map and no laps it is simply drive farther then the other guy before time is up. These races are fairly easy considering the AI doesn't seem to know how to deal with these to well and brakes early and has a lower top speed overall. But they also did something else with the racing types and cut out almost all of the drifting now instead you are suppose to drift your car around turns while singing Electro Euro Trance Take Back the Night in your head. The game seemed to really want me to drift all of the turns like that is how you go faster then everyone else all the time so occasionally I would scream out DRIFTOOOO! as I did, no gutter running was used in my wins. The strangest part was that I found myself racing against cars I apparently couldn't own or maybe just skipped over some place, yes I skipped 1 series because it was eleminator. The first half of the game is still fun and provides a great deal of enjoyment but once the WRS seasons start and the cars keep changing things get wonky and it feels like someone else made the game. They have SportsCenter IRL blurps talking about the game as you build the WRS but that goes away never to return. Some times you can't use certain cars for some reason and then all of a sudden you are racing against them??? The championships are all raced with a single car and thus drift events are just gone when GRID 1 had a fantastically interesting sud-genere of drifting. Despite having access to a bunch of cars I mainly ever raced a few, the small quick and grip cars because everything else in their class was massive and sliding around requiring an extra hundred meters of braking compared to the McClaren F1 GT. There is not 24 hour racing. You spend the end running around in a limited GT3 field wondering why nothing like a limited F1 or even a LMP1/2 series. Granted the car fielding could be because they wanted to make a different game with less track selection. I didn't even bother attempting to play online despite putting a huge amount of time into GRID 1 online, I used to give up some time on my lunch break to play GRID 1 at work in Frys because I enjoyed the game so much. Even you like Dirt 3 or 2 then this is a racing game for you. Other people go find an old working XBOX and Collin McRae Rally anything and live the dream. Ninja edits become steroids and station tubes.
Comments
Games completed: 22
Hours: 166.43
Games completed: 23
Time: 1 week .43 hours
But there are issues. There are serious QA issues when they release patches and almost every patch so far has had some obvious bug that simply playing through all of the heist 1 time would of found. The company has tried to be more proactive about this now by apparently taking time to do some QA testing and releasing beta patches, this is after some parts of the community racking them over the coals after each screw up.
I wanted this to be my new L4D. Aquaman could have been reborn! This is something that if you are looking for a 20+ online game is a must have, overkill says they will roll out a lot of content and things they said would be there in the final game(read that how you want). Watching this game change and evolve while you play can be interesting while extremely frustrating. Also since they have hinted at bringing back overkill player levels, 147 level, it gives a chance to expand if you cap out. But capping out in this game can still play a lot like in WoW......the real game has finally begun.
Games completed: 24
Time: 1 week 83.43 hours
Games completed: 25
Time: 1 week 87.33 hours
Games completed: 26
Time: 1 week 89.33 hours
Games completed: 27
Time: 1 week 92.73 hours
Games completed: 28
Time: 1 week 103.03 hours
Games completed: 29
Time: 1 week 113.13 hours
Games completed: 30
Time: 1 week 122.33 hours
Games completed: 31
Time: 1 week 123.48 hours
Side notes. Apparently the creator got some massive bad rep for a falling out in his company and talking trash to parts of the online community thus resulting in some people boycotting him. I never saw any of that until it was done. Bought the game because it was very interesting to me and finally on PC. Enjoyed it and I think most people would too.
Games completed: 32
Time: 1 week 128.18 hours
Games completed: 33
Time: 1 week 129.68 hours
Games completed: 34
Time: 1 week 134.98 hours
EDIT: Fantastic soundtrack to this game, really pulled everything together.
Games completed: 35
Time: 1 week 139.68 hours
Games completed: 36
Time: 1 week 150.48 hours
Games completed: 37
Time: 1 week 162.97 hours
Games completed: 38
Time: 2 weeks 6.87 hours
Games completed: 39
Time: 2 weeks 12.67 hours
Games completed: 40
Time: 2 weeks 22.87 hours
Games completed: 41
Time: 2 weeks 27.87 hours
Games completed: 42
Time: 2 weeks 38.07 hours
Games completed: 43
Time: 2 weeks 48.57 hours
Games completed: 44
Time: 2 weeks 53.77 hours
Games completed: 45
Time: 2 weeks 61.17 hours
Ninja edits become steroids and station tubes.
Games completed: 46
Time: 2 weeks 74.97 hours