Requit's Running Rant

Requit

I see no reason not to play with this. I recently purchased my first Windows computer in years and can finally play all the games I've added to my Steam library over that time, most of them from the Humble Bundle. Now instead of jumping around and playing all the random games I have, I now have a purpose! They are, as follows:
Amnesia
The Basement Collection
Bastion
-The Binding of Issac
-Braid
-Cave Story+
-Closure
-Company of Heros and expansions
-Company of Heros 2
-Darksiders
-Darksiders 2
-Dungeon Defenders
-FTL
-Legend of Grimrock
-Limbo
-Lone Survivor
-Metro 2033
-Offspring Fling
-Portal 2
-Psychonaughts
-Red Faction
-Saints Row 2
-Saints Row 3
-Shank 2
-Snapshot
-Super Meat Boy
-Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery
-Team Fortress 2
-Titan Quest
-Tribes Ascend
-Warhammer 40,000.

primesuspect

Good show!

Requit

While Amnesia's built on a great engine, the game itself is not that great.


You see better here than you ever do in the game.

I keep waiting to get scared, but the camera shaking randomly and an echoy roar every now and then simply isn't cutting it. Any moster you do see is just waddles away. It's like being a banana in a shark tank. And no matter what you do, you can't catch up with the buggers. You sprint after them and by the time your slow ass gets there they've hobbled away. And those water monsters I keep hearing about? You can't see them. In my mind, being hit by something you can't see isn't scary, it's irritating.

The audio's annoying too. Whenever you get to a dark place (and there's a ton of those) the only thing you can hear is the sound of someone sliding jello through their dentures. If I wanted to have that sound molest my eardrum, I'd visit my grandparents more.



This is what I've had to listen to for the past hour.

In fact, the only reason to use any of the lamp oil or tinderboxes is to avoid hearing that sound. When your sanity gets too low, you pass out. Only to get up a second later, mentally healed and ready to go. Hopefully it gets better.

Requit

Alright. So after screwing around for a bit yesterday, I found out the best way to sneak past the monsters in that game is to run up and hug them. After they maul you 2-3 times and you restart, they vanish from the area. I also tried playing without sound. It actually made the game scarier, because I didn't have those auditory cues that something's following me. I'm currently at the part where I wreck the elevator and climb from its rubble.

Requit

And thusly armed, I begin my assault upon Alexander.

It's time to eat Falafel and kick ass.

Requit

I close the game with the following image:


Amnesia. My first game of this challenge.

Pros: The engine was great. Excellent physics, and throwing stuff around was a blast.
The graphics were great. They really worked with the story, the lighting worked like a charm.
The story, while incredibly slow and boring at first, picked up at the end (around Agrippa's introduction) and actually became pretty interesting.

Cons: The background music was dull and listless. The atmospheric sounds weren't any better. The music also had an annoying habit of announcing whenever a monster was near, making it far too easy to avoid them.
The monsters were very slow and easy to outrun, except for Beast Monster, or BM for short. Their vision was incredibly limited. And if you carried a dresser drawer around with you, they wouldn't even give chase to you. I literally beat one of them over the head with the drawer and it just hobbled away. The moment I dropped the drawer, though, it gave chase. That leads me to believe it was a debugging thing they forgot to take out in the final release.

Overall, I wouldn't recommended the game. I would, however, be very interested in another game built on the same engine, just not by the same people. Apparently, that's what the sequel is supposedly promising, judging from the 10 minutes of research I did on the topic.

On to my second item, The Basement Collection.

Requit

It took far longer to beat this than it should have.



And we have The Basement Collection completed.

See, I have no idea what constitutes as "beating" this game, so I settled for unlocking everything.

I can remember playing most of these when they hit newgrounds years ago. Meatboy sucked just as much as it did then, Aether was just as simple. Time Fcuk was fun, even if it tried far too hard to be deep. Spewer was entertaining, and Triachnid wasn't. Grey Matter and AVGN (?) were a good time killer. The comics and extra images ranged from being funny to downright creepy.

Off I go to Bastion!

Requit

Holy freaking crap. 15 minutes in and I'm loving every second. Beautiful animation, the music's brilliant, and that guy doing the voiceover sounds better than I could ever hope to be. It sounds like he crawled out of his mother's womb coated in ash with a cigar sticking out of his tiny babyfist and he hasn't stopped smoking since. I'm going to enjoy this.


Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has nothing on the hues in this game.

Requit

Another game down. Before my rating, I'd like to show my journey through images. Spoilers inbound!


That is a lot of empty map.


Can I just take a moment to say that this is a great game mechanic? It dynamically allows the user to change difficulty at will, and rewards them for doing so!


Tell me your secrets, dirt.


Another survivor!


One big, happy and somewhat dysfunctional family.


This is the best loadout in the game, bar none.




Wow. Just wow. This game is amazing, is what it is. It sucked me into the story, the gameplay was fluid, the colors were vibrant... There were so many little things that were added to just make this game great. The weapons customization was perfect. The constant narration made it feel like you were playing a book, and the guy's voice... I could listen to it all day. The levels were different enough that the constant "go get this so you can go get more of this" didn't become monotamous. The difficulty scaled well, and you could increase the challenge (and rewards) whenever you wanted. The music and narration sent chills down my spine on three separate occasions. And that ending actually caused my hardened heart to stir, if only for a moment. This game, man. 10/10. I'm playing it again, and soon.

Off to The Binding of Issac. I played the demo a while ago and didn't quite care for it, so I'm approaching this one with apprehension.

Requit

Alright. The Binding of Issac is harder than I thought it'd be. I've been playing for about an hour a day, and I only just got to the depths. Hopefully I'll get good enough to even get to the final boss soon, the game's getting boring.

midga

All you people playing Bastion is making me want to play it again.

When you get to SR2, if you need a co-op partner, let me know. I freaking love that game, but my characters are all on the 360.

Canti

Requit said:

Hopefully I'll get good enough to even get to the final boss soon.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Requit

midga said:

All you people playing Bastion is making me want to play it again.

When you get to SR2, if you need a co-op partner, let me know. I freaking love that game, but my characters are all on the 360.

Can do.

Still nowhere near beating The Binding of Issac, and it's really grating on me. I love games of skill, and I have no problem with games including a chance element.

But when you're completely dependent on luck to get to the new area, all the fun gets sucked out.

Pacifisto

That's one of the neat things about Binding of Isaac. I watched someone play it a while back, which helped, but it's a game where you can feel yourself getting better. It reminds me of Super Meat Boy in that sense because you start out barely making it anywhere, then sometimes you can make it a little ways with luck, then you're consistently getting there and with some luck get to the next area, and so on. I'm consistently getting well into the depths these days, no problem - it just took a bunch of runs. Don't give up

Granted, there will always be an element of luck. But the better your skill, the less that will matter.

Requit

Alright. Screw Binding of Issac. I'm jaded enough that I can rewrite the meaning of victory without batting an eye.

Got to the Depths 2 and started looking for Mom's dungeon. Found the treasure room, unlocked it. Inside was a teleporter. Picked it up and used it, and it took me to a room with a guy saying "I AM ERROR" and a bunch of pills on the floor. I pop them all and go to make use of the ladder, and it takes me to an entirely new floor.

All I could think of was




My review of the game? These guys have some serious mother issues.

Technically, I got past mom so I'm counting it as a victory. Off to the next game, Braid.

Canti

Mom isn't anywhere close to the final boss. Good job giving up on the easy part.

Requit

Curse you, @Canti. Why can't you let me take the easy way out in peace?

Anyway, did some research. Apparently Mom isn't the final boss like I thought, but only the fifth boss. Who knew?
Guess it's back to Issac.

Canti

Come back when you've beaten

YOURSELF.

Then we'll talk

about how there's still one more level.

Requit

So a friend of mine, upon hearing of this challenge, just gifted me The Witcher 1 and 2, Terraria, Gary's Mod, and RUSE.

He's a jerk.

As for TBOI, I've managed to get into Mom's room twice and each time have been thoroughly trounced. So that's progress, at least.

RahnalH102

He gifted those to you solely because of the challenge? I'm pretty sure that counts for the "troll gifts" rule, and they don't have to count. Heck I got Mass Effect 1 & 2 for my birthday as true gifts from a friend via Steam and Prime said they didn't have to count.

Tushon

I mean, you can treat them either way, but none of those (besides Gary's mod maybe) are "trolly" in terms of terrible games. Witcher 1/2 are ace!

Requit

I'll throw them in the rotation. I'll have to play them at some point, might as well make that some point now.

Requit

40 hours.

200 deaths.

4 characters unlocked.

Still haven't killed mom.

I need a drink.

Requit

The Five Stages of Isaac:
1: Denial
"Yeah, I can play this game. Shouldn't take long. Few hours at most, right?"
2: Anger
"Bullshit. BULLSHIT. That shot was like six feet above my head! I hate you, Duke of Flies! Go die in a pit of feces, Gurdy!"
3:Bargaining
"Hey, uh... Due to a technicality, I got passed Mom. Can I be let out of this nightmare? Please?"
4: Depression
"This... This is the only game I'll ever be able to play for the rest of my life. There's no way through it. There's no way around it. This is the end."
5: Acceptance
"Yeah, this game actually isn't bad. Losing is fun, right? Check out this crossover fanart I drew!"



In all seriousness, screw this freaking game.

Requit

So because I'm a glutton for punishment, but just not repetitive punishment (because that's worse or something), I've bought some games. I can neither confirm nor deny that the sole reason I bought some of them was because they started with A or not, and I really really hate Issac. Oh, oh so much. My new list, edited to reflect the games I now have left, is as follows:



Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed Revelations
Bastion
Beat Hazard
The Binding of Isaac
Braid
Cave Story+
Closure
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Darksiders
Darksiders II
Dear Esther
Dungeon Defenders
Dynamite Jack
FTL: Faster Than Light
Garry's Mod
Legend of Grimrock
LIMBO
Lone Survivor
Metro 2033
Natural Selection 2
NightSky
Offspring Fling!
Portal 2
Psychonauts
R.U.S.E
Red Faction: Armageddon
Saints Row 2
Saints Row: The Third
Shank 2
Snapshot
Solar 2
Splice
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Super Hexagon
Super Meat Boy
Team Fortress 2
Terraria
The Basement Collection
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Titan Quest
Tribes: Ascend
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Game of the Year Edition

8/53 completed.

Anyway, due to me still exploiting loopholes, I've got games I can actually make visible progress on.

Off to start Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Canti

I don't honestly know how you can be so bad at Isaac. It's hard but not as hard as you're making it out to be. I think part of your problem is probably not having a great idea of what items do and what works well together and what doesn't. Always try to find the secret room on each floor and look up how to unlock items so that you have more weapons available to you. It gets easier as you unlock more things so find some of the easier things to unlock and try for them. Also I think that beating Mom's Heart is an acceptable end goal. There's a lot more after that but you have to beat that boss something like 10 times before you can unlock Sheol and fight Satan. Then you have to beat Satan a bunch of times to unlock the Cathedral and then there's still The Chest after that. The Chest is basically 2 super bosses in every single room and it's damn hard.

I've beaten in with every character, no big deal.

Point is, I'm pretty sure I'm the number one authority on The Binding of Isaac around here and beating Mom's Heart once is sufficient. It might seem hard but trust me, the amount of pain I'm sparing you from by calling it good at that point is immeasurable and I can promise you that moment comes when you're down to one heart and dodging shit like mad while bombs are flying all around you and enemies are spawning in your face while you finally chip away the last bit of health that boss has it's going to feel damn good.

Send me a message sometime when you're playing it if I'm around. I can probably give you some advice about what items to go for or pass on and some other stuff.

Requit

So... Assassin's Creed is... Assassony.

First, you kill some people.


Then you kill some people.


Then you kill that person's friends.


And then you can push people into the water and kill them.


Or climb on the rooftop and kill the crossbow snipers who reload way faster than they should be physically able to.

Requit

My play time has been cut down for the past few weeks because I've been spending most of my free time working on a side hustle, and as a result it's taken me a lot longer to beat these games. The good news is that I have beaten Assassin's Creed II and its expansions, otherwise known as Brotherhood and Revelations. They were entertaining, but the story went off on a really awkward tangent for a while. The attempts they made at adding new mechanics to the game helped, but it still got pretty repetitive. I'll probably pick up the third one when it's on sale, but I'm not in a hurry to grab it.

The time I've got for games is going to be slimming down even more for the next few months, so it's probably going to take me even longer to beat my next in line, Beat Hazard, a game which will require 10 hours before I can call it complete. Guess I'm going to have to start getting some decent Rock Operas so I can beat the game with 8 songs instead of 400.

Requit

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I are free at last!

At the cost of 50 hours, countless tears, and at least two complete emotional breakdowns, I managed to beat Mom. Sweet merciful Zeus. Maggie + Habit + Battery = Unbeatable combo, literally. Each hit I took made it possible to heal an entire heart in one go. And Mom? She crumbled under the might of my mighty Bible. Though tears obscured my vision, I had enough of my wits about me to take a screencap of the victory so I could more fully appreciate it later. Imagine my surprise when I cleared my eyes and opened up the file to see this:


You win this round, @Canti...

Anyway, Mom's dead and I never have to open Isaac again. It's been a good day.

Pacifisto

Wrath of the Lamb? I think that means you're, like, a quarter of the way to the final final FINAL boss.

(Nice work. Be proud, move on.)

Requit

I look back on this thread in shame. "30-someodd games," I remember thinking. "That's a weekend's worth of entertainment right there. I'll be done by the end of the month at the latest." Since then, I've watched my list of completed games grow like a loving father dotting over his offspring. There have been trials and tribulations with raising my backlog to be a contributing member of society, true, but with enough complaining and alcohol I managed to make progress (That's how you raise kids, right?). I looked at my list of purchased games today. It's over 200. The list of completed? 14. Fourteen games completed.

It's caused me to rethink my approach here. Should I stop buying games? Probably. Will I stop buying games? Sure, until the next steam sale. Or indie bundle. Or new release. Or old release that looks cool. Or friend that says "hey get this game and let's play it together."

So instead of viewing overcoming my backlog as an obtainable goal, like getting my degree or learning how to tie my shoes, I'm going to view it as an abstract goal, like becoming a better person or finding love.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to open every game on my list and give it a solid hour of uninterrupted and undivided attention. I will notate what I think, and put it into one of 3 groups. The first group will contain games that caught my interest and entertained me. The second list will contain games that are OK, but lacking any particular hooks. The third shall be known as the Games of the Damned. They're games that I will never open again for whatever reason, regardless of whether it's glitches, bad controls, bad story, bad gameplay, whatever.

Personally, I play games because I love stories and I love fun. If a game isn't fun and it has a bad story, I won't play it. There's no point in doing something you hate. Life's too short. So I will be making active use of the "Games of the Damned" list. However, in order to keep me from abusing it, for every game I label as unplayable I will donate $10 to Child's Play so that my my poor purchasing habits will help bored kids in hospitals.

Once I have the games sorted, I'll start playing the games that were OK, but didn't really draw me in. I will play them until I reach the point of completion, be it beating the game or deciding to dump it into the Damned pile. Every time I complete two OK games, I'll open up a game that really interested me and play it until I'm done with it. Hopefully this way I'll be able to make some headway. (Yes, I realized I just implemented a "pay to win" strategy for beating my own backlog)