Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Extra Life 2014


Sweet baby Jesus. Look at the time. Its almost time for Extra Life 2014! I had a blast last year, and hopefully I can do a little better this year. I got a few games I'm going to be giving away on my donation page. Should be a lot of fun again.



Head on over to our Extra Life page for details on the Holynub Games Give Away or HGGA. Maybe HNGGA? Maybe that's the sound you make when you see some of the games. Because they're really good... Right?

Completionist 2014: Pre-Extra Life Update


Ho boy. I have been out of the loop. Been busy with various things and playing random games. Also buying lots of stupid bundles and games. Mainly buying stupid bundles... Cuz I'm stupid. Well. Lets survey the damage.

Bundles


Humble Extra Life Bundle

  • Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut
  • You Don't Know Jack Classic Pack
  • SpeedRunners
  • King Arthur's Gold
  • Nom Nom Galaxy


Humble Mozilla Bundle

  • AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
  • Dustforce DX
  • Super Hexagon
  • Zenbound 2
  • Democracy 3
  • Jack Lumber


Humble Weekly Bundle: IndieCade 2

  • Lyne
  • Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love
  • Proteus
  • ibb & obb - Best Friends Forever
  • Mini Metro
  • Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator

Single Purchases



Weeeeeeeeellll.... Looks like I kinda dug myself in pretty deep. I dunno... Maybe I enjoy digging?

SCORE = SCORE -20;
>SCORE = -96

Monday, September 15, 2014

Completionist 2014: Electronic Super Joy


Trying to make up for some seriously lost ground here. I was finally able to nail down Electronic Super Joy.


First saw this game played by Steam Train when it was still in early release. It looked really fun and the music was very catchy. The game is a platformer with an extra mechanic inserted here and there. The thing is, this game makes up for those simple mechanics by requiring precision platforming. Something along the same lines as No Time To Explain or Super Meatboy. And I am terrible at that. I was somehow able to shlog my way through it and finally beat it. But I did have some pretty rage moments that had me checking youtube videos to see if there was some sort of trick that I was oblivious of. Most of the time it boiled down to "STOP BEING BAD AND PLAY THE GAME." This game seriously put my ego in check.

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -76

Completionist 2014: Humble Smackdowns


I haven't posted in a while. Because of my shame. WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME HUMBLE BUNDLE!? WHYYYY!?!?!?!!?!?

Humble Weekly Bundle: Presented by Extra Credits

  • Enemy Mind
  • Two Brothers
  • Master Reboot
  • Stick it To The Man!
  • Hand of Fate
  • Ether One Deluxe Edition
  • One Finger Death Punch (Owned)
Humble Jumbo Bundle 2
  • Deadlight
  • The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Complete Pack
  • Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
  • King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition
  • Age of Empires Legacy BUndle
  • Legend of Grimrock
  • PixelJunk Eden
  • Crusader Kings II (Owned)
  • Terraria (Owned)
  • Orcs Must Die! 2: Complete Pack (Owned)
Humble Flash Bundle: Modern Retro
  • Super Amazing Wagon Adventure
  • Full Bore
  • Tiny Barbarian DX
  • NEStalgia
  • AVGN Adventures
Humble Flash Bundle: Rhythm
  • Probability 0
  • Electronic Super Joy: Groove City
  • Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2
  • KickBeat
  • Electronic Super Joy(Owned)
Humble Freebies
  • Receiver 
  • Warlock: Master of Arcane


SCORE = SCORE - 24;
> SCORE = -77


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Completionist 2014: Shooter Trio (Metal Slug 3, Broforce, Expendabros)


Awwwwwwwwww yis. Soo many 2D sidescrolling shooters! And I'm just nailing them all down. Such reflexes. Very asian. I'm glad to get this ball rolling on hammering down my backlog and finally getting on with... Buying more games. BUT WHO CARES!?


Metal Slug is a classic 2D side scroller that has probably eaten more quarters from me than any other game. There's something timeless about the gameplay. You move right, and shoot things. There's a good variety of weapons for you to pickup by rescuing captured POWs. They really haven't strayed from that formula since forever. The artstyle is always a constant, with brilliantly animated sprites that really make the game look good. Even though they've been making Metal Slugs for almost a two decades, I still feel like you can pick any of them up and really enjoy yourself.


Broforce is TECHNICALLY still in early release. However, I did complete both the arcade campaign as well as the mission campaign. Though, I don't think they have fully finished the last part of the mission campaign, I feel like I've sufficiently done enough to call myself a BRO. Broforce brings together the greatest action heroes of our time into one insane shooter. I really get a kick out of seeing all the memorable characters they've thrown in the game. I've had the game since it first went on sale and I am so happy to see how the roster has grown over time. They started with the classics like RamBRO, B.A. Broacus, and the Brommando. Since then they've expanded the roster to over 21 characters and growing. It is an awesome homage to old school action movies as well as a very fun 2D shooter. My only complaint would be sometimes there's too many explosions, and it makes it hard to figure out where your character is. I know rite? My only complaint is there's TOO MANY FUCKING EXPLOSIONS. Granted they are always glorious, the problem is you sometimes lose your little character sprite in the midst of all the glorious carnage. Still. Awesome game bros.


You know, when you really think about it. The Expendables is basically everything Broforce was trying to be in the first place. It makes total sense that they'd mash the two. And they also get proper licensing. Holy shit. This is an actual movie tied in game that doesn't suck horribly. By god, its like a fucking unicorn from the gaming world. Would be cool if they'd import the Expendabros into Broforce because they actually gave them some really cool moves.

SCORE = SCORE +3;
>SCORE = -57

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Completionist 2014: Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae


Another one bites the dust. This time I took on Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae. Yayyyy Humble Japan Bundle. Your games are all so fucking short. I mean really, it took me less than an hour to beat it. Thank god I got it in a bundle. I mean, I like having these short games to bump up my score. But, this one felt almost the most hollow out of them all(so far).


Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae (Fuck it I'm not spelling that out again. I'm doing the 'Murican abbreviation to MKH), appears on the surface to be a third person sword action swing killing slash slash fest of the likes of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. And you know, the more I think about it, it KINDA is. If you boiled down the game flow down to its most basic elements, MKH is almost identical to those AAA games. Your character fights against waves of enemies that spawn out of thin air. Killing them without taking a hit increases a combo meter which rewards more Special Points(SP) which is used to upgrade your character's skills, health, or Magic(Katana in MKH's case). You repeat this X amount of times until you face a boss. Then you repeat this process until you get to a last boss which may have multiple forms.



I have to give MKH a lot of credit in the combat system. It starts out pretty clunky and limits you to only a few attacks. Honestly, I felt that it was a bit too clunky and limited. But once you complete the first level, you gain access to upgrade your abilities and learn new attacks. This let you add a bunch of attacks that greatly improve the system. There was a good variety of attacks that all seemed pretty cool, but you really had no idea how well they will perform in combat until you spend the points to get them. I fell back on my tried and true, GET ONE SKILL AND SPAM THE SHIT OUT OF IT TILL YOU WIN strategy. Granted, it is usually not the best strategy in this type of game, but I found one that works. Holynub protip: Get the dashing slash thing and upgrade the fuck out of it. When its maxed out (which really doesn't take a lot) you will just out maneuver all enemies and sidestep majority of all their attacks. Dodging attacks appears to be the best way to avoid any incoming damage in MKH. There is a block/counter feature, however I rarely found myself in a position where it would work. I think I've countered an attack once in my whole play-through. Your SP resources(called your Katana Gauge) is regenerated by performing unarmed attacks. This SP is used for all attacks that require your sword, including the all encompassing dash slash win move.



MKH also has a few "Cool looking" combat mechanics built in. Enemies that are damaged beyond a certain threshold will begin to blink red and start to bleed. Bleeding enemies are susceptible to an arena wide attack(Zanshin) that deals massive damage to them while also regenerating health and restoring MP. There is no cool down on this ability, so you can spam it if you want. However, you are not invincible when performing the technique and it does leave you vulnerable while casting it (about .5 seconds). To make best use of your Zanshin, you should damage all enemies until they're in a bleeding state, then spam Zanshin to clear the board. However, you can also forgo the Zanshin and continue to dash slash your way to a ridiculously high combo, leaving the Zanshin for only when you need to heal or regenerate your SP. There's a charge attacks called Holy Trinity. These require you to hold an attack for a few seconds and usually has multiple levels of charge. You can forgo the charge by pressing a button which burns a big chunk of your SP in place of time. These attacks are basically frontal ranged slashes that deal a lot of damage. I could never get the hang of them, and quite frankly, I never really felt the need to use them.



AAA games will progress the level by making you traverse through a map and deal with different combinations of enemies in different types of terrain. Maybe you'll be running on a rooftop, BAM! You're now falling and running around a village dealing with horses and shit. Wow that's awesome! What does MKH do? MKH forgoes the terrain changes and puts you in a static arena. On every level, the setting of the arena changes but there are no obstacles. You're basically fighting in a big open circle every time. The outer wall of the arenas don't even provide any type of environmental interaction of knocking enemies off the ledges or anything. Just a big invisible wall.


The plot is super generic and paper thin. Somehow, this schoolgirl is an heir to the Mitsurugi demon killing clan. Her best friend SOMEHOW gets a hold of a demon sword which makes her evil. So these demons pop up out of nowhere and its up to her to kill them in these big circle arena places that are randomly placed in Japan. That's it. Two characters. The demons don't even get a personality or anything. They're just, "Blah I'm a demon. Let me try to slash at you." At least in AAA games they throw some absurdly convoluted story line at you. Something to keep you interested in progressing the story. But not MKH. This game makes a complete zip-line from beginning to fighting the main boss in under 5 stages. Anything interesting happen in the in-between stages? Nope. Nothing. Just more "Oh hay there's demons here. Kill them." They couldn't even throw us a goddamn bone in trying to give a crap about these characters. Which kinda sets my feeling about this game in general.


The character models on the main character and her friend are pretty well done. Almost... A bit... Too well done... You can kinda see what they were really trying to focus on. DEMOGRAPHICS. Look at how short dat skirt is. Yup. The fan service is strong with this one. Granted, its nowhere near the levels of something like Vanguard Princess or DOA: Xetreme. But for a game that is as bare bones as it is, you can clearly tell what they were trying to focus on more. Although the models do look good, and the combat animations are pretty well done, the cut scene animations are pretty pathetic.



I really can't hate on this game too much though. It is a Doujin game made by indie developers for the Comic Market (Komike). The Japanese doujin game scene is very different from the western indie game scene. I felt like there was some thought that was put into this game, and it was executed fairly well. If this was put out about 10 years ago, it would rival that of some AAA titles of that time. But when it all comes down to it, I wouldn't pay $10 for it. You MAY get about an hour of entertainment from it. Part of a bundle, yeah that works well. $10 straight up, no thanks. Maybe sub $5 I could go for it.

... WHY ARE MY SHORT REVIEWS GETTING LONGER!?

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -60

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Completionist 2014: Skullgirls


Yes! Another game down. After surviving the hurricane, Weir and I decided to try out some of these fighting games we picked up on steam. I have seen things around about Skullgirls before, and it looked kinda... Interesting... I like the art, but it does seem a little fan-service-y. The sprites are fantastically drawn. They've added lots of details to both the characters and the backgrounds.


The plot varies from character to character. Unlike Vanguard Princess, I was compelled to complete the game with every character. This includes the two unlockable characters, Valentine and Double, as well as the hidden Fukua character. Basic premise is there is a thing called a Skullgirl, and that person is generally giving the world a bad time. And its up to the characters to get to the Skullgirl for one reason or another. Many of the stories tend to be on the darker side. I find the various plots to kinda fall in line with most fighting games. Not a lot of exposition, and lots of common themes. I'd have to say the general feel reminded me a lot of Guilty Gear.


The game mechanics is what really kept me interested and hopeful to beat the game with all the characters. Unlike Vanguard Princess, the game mechanics felt very... In frame. For lack of better words. When I was trying to perform moves, even though I was button mashing most of the time, I felt like I was in control. I could tell when and where I could attack and hit boxes were easily defined.

Playing against Weir was really fun. We setup the matches with him hosting the games and I connect to him. Skullgirls has a fantastic system for dealing with latency and I never felt like my network ever got in the way of our matches. Even during a goddamn hurricane. Whoever figured out the netcode for Skullgirls really did a good job. Whoever you are, go buy yourself a beer/soda/beverage of choice.  You've earned it.


My previous experience hearing about Skullgirls was always something on the negative side. I remember reading articles about how their publisher dropped them and they had to re-release under a self published indie sorta title. I mean, that had nothing to do with how the game played, but it did sorta make me think twice about purchasing the game. Which is unfortunate, because this is really a great game. I will chalk this up to "play it for the game, not the news around it." Really glad I played it.

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -61;

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Completionist 2014: Astebreed


Wow. That didn't take long. I finished one game from the Humble Weekly Bundle Japan Edition. I was a little afraid to tackle this one, because it was a SHMUP. I am just... Just aweful at SHMUPS. But this was was pretty fun. Its a little on the short side, but most SHMUPs are. Astebreed does show what kind of quality you can find in the Japanese doujin(indie) game scene. Well, this and visual novels. But I feel this is better.



First off, the plot just kinda drops you in there. Who is this guy? Are those voices his daughters? Why are his daughters big fucking robots? Many questions will be asked. And its your job as the outside party to kinda piece together what the fuck is going on. So basically, aliens invade earth and are being big jerks about it. They kidnap a town, turn some bad ass pilot's daughters into mech suits, and he tries to get him back with his team, team dies, he dies, one daughter robot suit thing rescues him, the other stays behind for some reason, guy goes back to earth, gives suit to some kid who can somehow pilot said suit, blah blah blah world saved. The story really isn't anything spectacular. If you watch anime, all of the elements in the story are horrendously predictable. That's not to say its bad, but they do a really bad job of giving backstory. I guess a SHMUP isn't exactly the best story telling game medium around.



So, like all modern Bullet-hell SHMUPs, Astebreed comes with some tools to make the bullet hell less... Hell-ly? You don't die instantly when you take a hit, you instead take shield damage. This shield recharges over time and can take a few hits depending on the strength of the shot being fired at you. You have a sword that can destroy most bullet types. You also have a homing shot that can acquire targets in two fashions. You know what, they are actually more like fin funnels from gundam than actual shots but they look like glowing balls that shoot more glowing balls. Fuck it, I'm calling them funnels. You can either target all enemies around you in a circle, or you can pick a cone of fire. The cone allows multiple funnels to lock onto a specific target very quickly, causing them to swarm around and maximize damage on a single target. You also have a special gauge that recharges over time, but can be boosted by using your sword to destroy projectiles. The special attack has two variations. The default is when you have no targets locked on by the funnels. This one causes an AOE blast followed by a temporary invulnerability shield around you. The other mode occurs when you have an enemy locked on with a funnel. Depending on how many funnels, your mech will do a blitz dash towards the enemy and generally give them a bad time. The special gauge recharge mechanic works well in combination with the bullet hell to always provide you with a way of dealing with a billion objects on the screen at one time.

The game is split into seven chapters. The first chapter, technically its chapter zero, is a prologue that introduces you to the game and gives a VERY brief tutorial. After that, each chapter is a pretty standard, swarm of unrelenting waves of bullet shits then a boss. There is quite a bit of banter from the characters, and its voice acted in Japanese. I enjoy this, but if you don't speak Japanese, you won't have the time to really take your eyes off the action to read the subtitles in the bottom corner. Chapters are fairly short in length. I'd say each one runs around five to six minutes, and you can spend a bit of time on the boss if you decide to play it more defensive.

Hmmm. This is getting a bit long. Didn't intend to write a goddamn review for this thing. All in all, I enjoyed the game. I still don't really like bullet-hell SHMUPs, so if you don't like that, this game isn't going to really change your mind there. Mechanics were pretty solid. Story could have been told a little better, but I get that the gameplay really doesn't lend itself to evolving plot. Still, was a nice fun story. Glad I finished it. Another game down.

SCORE ++;
>SCORE = -62

Completionist 2014: Humble Weekly Bundle Japan Edition


Why I do this to myself? Why? Goddamnit I'm stupid. I saw this bundle and at first was like, "meh." But after seeing some of the games, I got that itch. That stupid fucking itch to buy more stupid games. Le sigh. Maybe it was the will of the emperor. BANZAI!!!!


  • Unholy Heights
  • One Way Heroics
  • GIGANTIC ARMY
  • Ys Origin
  • Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
  • PixelJunk Shooter
  • Astebreed
BANZAI BANZAI BANZAI!!


SCORE = SCORE -7;
>SCORE = -63

Friday, August 1, 2014

Completionist 2014: Spec Ops: The Line


Wow. This game was everything I had hoped it would be. I heard rumors about how traumatic the plot was, but the rumors couldn't prepare me for what this game had to throw at me. It was a crazy descent into madness, and I'm glad I was able to beat this one.

At first glance, Spec Ops: The Line appears to be a standard military 3rd person shooter with chest high walls. But the reality is that the game mechanics only serve as a vessel to push the story along. You won't find any innovation with the combat in this game. It is very generic 3rd person, cover based combat. However, that is not what makes Spec Ops: The Line unique.

You start off your mission with the greatest intent. Dubai has suffered a massive climate shift leaving it to be barraged with massive sandstorms. Your job is to investigate what happened to an army battalion that was supposed to have evacuated the city, but has since gone silent. But things are terribly wrong in this desolated Dubai landscape. Bodies lay about, some executed, others tortured. There's a deranged radio DJ broadcasting propaganda and pointing wave after wave of enemy troops your way. You need to fight to survive and try and evacuate the city. But somewhere along the way, things got... bad.

"I had no choice. I had to do what I did. It was them or me. They forced my hand." This is the type of justification you give for your actions. You go into battles with two squad-mates who slowly crumble under the weight of what they've seen and what their actions have wrought. Infighting, loss of trust, grudges, resentment. As the atrocities pile up, you and your squad slowly begin to lose track of what is right and wrong. Should your survive, are you really the same person you were coming into Dubai? Or are you just a broken shell of what you used to be. Haunted by your actions, trying to justify every order. You had no choice. You had to do what you had to do. It was either them or you. They forced your hand.

Spec Ops took the military shooter story in a dark direction. One that many games would prefer to avoid. There is no fanfare. No glory in what you've done. Just guilt, regret, and death. God I need to play something cheerful now.

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -56

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Completionist 2014: One Finger Death Punch


THANK GOD. Finally got a win under my belt. One Finger Death Punch was the main reason I bought that Indie Gala bundle. I have seen gameplay for it from a while back, and it looked insane. And you know what, it is insane. Its fucking insane. This game has TWO GODDAMN BUTTONS. And its probably one of the most challenging things I've played in a long while. I believe most of the frustration that builds stems from the fact that the game's controls are so simple. There is this inherent feeling of "There's only two fucking buttons. If you can't do this, you must be functionally retarded." But that notion could not be further from the truth. For a game with only two buttons, there is a surprising amount of strategy.

One Finger Death Punch tests your twitch reflexes as much as it does your ability to plan out a chaotic situation. At the start the game appears to be a button mashing, quick twitch, almost Quick Time Event sorta game. But as you begin to progress to harder and more advanced levels, I had begun to realize something. You can't just wail away at your enemies. Environmental factors such as weapons and skills will sometimes make the situation unpredictable. Near the end of the game, I found myself needing to focus more on strategy for clearing the board rather than reacting to what was coming at me. Strangely enough, it did put me in a slight moments of Zen.

I did rage a bunch while playing One Finger Death Punch. Sometimes, its kinda hard not to. But trying to figure out WHY you're raging and then going into a deep self introspective state of Zen is enlightening. It feels like... I know Kung Fu. NOPE WAIT. FUCK THIS DAGGER STAGE.

SCORE ++;
>SCORE = -57;

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Completionist 2014: Strider (Bought)


Alright. So, today's daily deal on steam was Strider. It is a 2014 remake of the classic Strider franchise, bringing the game back to its 2D platforming roots. Now that I think about it. I don't think it ever went full 3D platforming. I've never owned a Strider game. I've seen it. I've been fascinated by it. I always thought the style was cool. Never pulled the trigger. But for 40% off, hell yeah I'm going to buy it. I was really looking forward to it getting a massive sale during Steam Summer Sale 2014. Alas, the community decided it wanted a bunch of stupid shit that's been on sale a billion times before. That's just the way the ninja cookie crumbles. But I'm not sad. I now got it at a very good deal. Hell, even at $15 it is a pretty good deal. But sub $10 is my threshold. I'll take the hit and be happy about it. Boy. I'm only 2 away from hitting -60. Goddamnit.

SCORE = SCORE - 1;
>SCORE = -58

Monday, July 14, 2014

Completionist 2014: Indie Gala Monday Bundle 16


Son... Of.... A... Bitch. I did it. I caved. Couldn't help myself, because I have issues. The Monday bundle from Indie Gala has been having some really good deals. Today's main purchase from the bundle is the inclusion of ONE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. God this game looks amazing. I love the animation and its throw-back feeling of those stick figure flash animations. Well, time to hammer it down more.


  • One Finger Death Punch
  • Galactic Arms Race
  • Ichi
  • Rhythm Destruction
  • Dysan the Shapeshifter
  • Millie
SCORE = SCORE - 6;
>SCORE = -57

Friday, July 11, 2014

Completionist 2014: Humble 2K Bundle


Sigh. I picked this up. But I only picked up the base pack for $1.25. This is a good bundle if you don't have XCOM or Bioshock Infinite. I have also heard great things about Spec Ops: The Line. I already have those 3, so I just grabbed what I didn't have. The only game I sorta want to play is XCOM: The Breau. Even though it has received pretty low ratings, I still enjoy XCOM. Really wish it was coop. That would've been pretty awesome. Meh, for the price, I'll add it to my inventory.


  • Bioshock
  • XCOM: The Bureau
  • Darkness II
SCORE = SCORE - 3;
>SCORE = -51

Monday, July 7, 2014

Completionist 2014: Indie Gala Monday Bundle B15


Soooo. I did a bad thing. Stupid bundle. I mainly got it for Blade Symphony, which was way cheaper than what it was on sale for during the Steam Summer Sale. Goddamnit. Still not helping my cause.


  • Bardbarian
  • Coldfire Keep
  • Blade Symphony
  • Indo The Dark: Ultimate Trash Edition
  • Toki Tori 2+
  • Micy Roll
SCORE = SCORE - 6;
>SCORE = -48

Monday, June 30, 2014

Completionist 2014: STEAM SUMMER SALE APOCALYPSE


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... But also, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Its the most wonderful/financially painful time of the year. Well, outside Christmas. Well. Here's the damage.

  • Metal Gear Rising: REVENGENCE
  • Prison Architect
  • Sniper Elite V3 (Pre-order. What? I fucking love this series.)
  • Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
  • Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Gift from Wier)
  • Marlow Briggs
  • Banished
  • Battleblock Theater
  • Planetary Annihilation
  • Spelunky
  • Spec Ops The Line
  • Rising Storm
  • Insurgency
  • Goat Simulator
  • Transistor
  • Skullgirls (Another Gift from Wier)
  • Mercenary Kings
  • Space Engineers
Oh... Oh god. What have I done?


SCORE - 18;
>SCORE = -42

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Completionist 2014: E3 Digital Ticket Humble Bundle

Little late on this one. Soooo I bought the Humble bundle's E3 Digital Ticket. My reasoning? Uhhh.. It was the Company of Heroes 2 DLC Pack.... Yeah... But it was really cheap for Mortal Kombat so what the hell. Why not?

  • Anomaly 2
  • Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete
  • MX vs ATV Reflex
  • Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Boy. There's a few things in there that I'm not gonna be playing. *Cough cough MX vs ATV* Ahh well. Whatcha gonna do?

SCORE - 4;
>SCORE = -24

Well. There went all that goddamn progress.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Completionist 2014: Nation Red


Another one for the books. Gonna try to keep this brief, I'm kinda noticing I'm going into full review mode sometimes.

Nation Red was a game I got from a friend many Steam Sales ago. Speaking of which, SUMMER SALE! YEAHHHH!! Erhm. Anyway, I finally beat the campaign missions for this game. It was pretty short, but the true power of this game is to play it with a bunch of friends. But meh, a wins a win.

Nation Red is a top down Smash TV style shooter. You can definitely tell that this game was riding the Zombie Wave thing. Is that done yet? Is it? I think I saw dinosaurs or some shit was the next hotness. ANYWHO, you kill zombies. They drop power ups and weapons. Power ups can range from match long passives to temporary buffs. There's a good number of weapons that can also drop. They let you take your pick by letting you keep one ranged and one melee weapon. Melee has a lot more risk, but the damage difference is significant. Personally, I liked using the melee weapons on non-melee bosses like the Minigun zombie or the Grenade zombie.

There is also a level up system for killing zombies and Boss zombies. The levels do not transfer and they are restricted per match. Leveling up allows you to pick from 7(? I think it was 7) different passive abilities (Perks). In single player, you can press "Space Bar" and it will pause time so you can take a look at what each perk does. I can't remember, but I believe you don't get the chance to stop time in the multiplayer versions. I could be wrong, I haven't actually played the COOP since 2012. The perks listed per levelup are randomly generated, and they do have some interesting effects. It feels like you could actually combo certain perks to create a particular play-style for yourself. Personally, I just had a priority system that went something like this.

  1. Auto-kill perks (Hand of God, Seekers, Pulse Wave, etc.)
  2. Auto-EXP buff (Only if its early in the round)
  3. Reload buffs
  4. Damage buffs
  5. Health Regen
  6. Grenade generator
  7. If it gets this far, I got a shit set of perks. Pick whatever looks fun
All-in-all, I really liked their level up system. It made for some interesting combinations and there were occasions where the right fun perk showed up at the right time. I enjoyed Nation Red a lot. Campaign was a little short, but that's really not what the game was meant for. OH WELL!

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -20

God. Steam sale is on. Guessing this score will be going down a lot.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Completionist 2014: Breach & Clear


This was a fun game. I picked it up as part of the Humble Android Bundle 10. Brach & Clear originally was released as a mobile title that was ported over to the PC. It was more fun than I had bargained for.

Breach & Clear's gameplay is a turn-based tactical RPG. You command a squad of 4 special force soldiers. At the start, you are able to pick from one of the many different Special Forces units from around the world. Each with their own different specialties and boosts to stats. If anything, it only provides a temporary boost, because leveling up allows you to quickly make up for whatever stats you are lacking. Each unit in your force is assigned a special role that provides them with abilities or passive attributes.

The game plays out with a planning phase and an action phase. As the name implies, the planning phase, you assign the actions your troops will perform during the action phase. You are given control of the direction and their facing in every step of the action phase. This can lead to some very interesting and complex movements. However after doing it 10+ times per soldier per map, you get a little tired of planning and simplify the movements for speed. Once the planning phase is completed, the action phase executes the movements of both your and the computers planned movements. I enjoy this style of execution of planned tactics a little more than the turn by turn actions of other tactical RPG's. The executions felt organic and my troops were, for the most part, competent.

Probably my biggest gripe with Breach & Clear is the weapon balancing. It felt like there was no real reason to use anything other than an Assault Rifle. Shotguns required you to be prohibitively close, and I felt like you soldier didn't fire nearly as many rounds as they should have with the shotgun. LMG's were abysmally under-powered. LMGs would fire more rounds, inaccurately, and do less damage. The idea was for them to have a "suppression effect" which didn't really do anything. Sniper rifles do a fair bit of damage from a greater distance. However, it appeared as though my snipers would only fire once every other turn. Assault rifles would put down multiple rounds, accurately, and do a good amount of damage.

ANYWAY. Game beat. Score goes down. Yay!

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -21;

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Completionist 2014: Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy


Time to write out how I beat this game in Half a minute. And I'm typing as fast as I can, but I really shouldn't be wasting my precious seconds trying to type all this out. Goddamnit why can't I stop doing that. Forget punctuation *BOOM*

So I beat this game. THE WHOLE GAME. That includes all of the DLC portions and the ridiculously hard Hero 3 mode. It was so stupid hard, I had to make a video for it. Enjoy!


SCORE++;
>SCORE = -22

Monday, June 2, 2014

Completionist 2014: Risk of Rain


Awww yis! Another game in the books. Risk of Rain was a very fun title. I picked it up when it came out and I never really got into it. It is an awesome coop game with some very interesting level progression. For every game session, the longer you take, the more difficult the game becomes. But at the same time, you can't just power through the levels, because you need to look around for items to help you power up so you can handle tougher and more plentiful enemies.

Every map has a portal you need to find and activate. Enemies randomly spawn around you and at increasing intervals. The general strategy is to fight through them, but don't waste your time trying to kill every last one of them before you find the portal. They'll keep spawning infinitely till you do. When you find the portal, it usually spawns a boss type monster. You will then have to survive for 90 seconds. During this time, the boss will most likely try to kill you and more enemies will be spawning all around you. After you survive the ordeal, you then have to kill all remaining enemies on the map to progress to the next level. Usually during this time, it would be best to purchase any power-ups that you can find on the map.

The portal prior to the final level provides you with an awesome decision. You can either progress to the final level, with what you have. Or you can teleport back to the beginning and grind up more levels and gear to better prepare you for the final level. This allows you to grind up levels and gear to better prepare you for the final boss. During this time, the games difficulty level will still be increasing. Ideally, you'd like to have so much gear and so many items that even at the game's peak difficulty, you're able to slog your way through any obstacle. Or you can try to blitz your way past with what you got while the difficulty is not nearly as hard.

I was lucky enough to have the company of Fij's friend Stookie(Stukey? Steucie?) to guide me along. I had not unlocked anything in the game prior to playing a round with him. But with the default character and some good spawns, we were both able to make it to the end of the game. Risk of Rain was a part of the Humble Coop bundle, and it really does shine with others. I loved it and would definitely recommend playing with someone, either local or online. And a controller does make the experience much more enjoyable.

SCORE ++;
>SCORE = -23

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Completionist 2014: Vanguard Princesses


Uhhh... I bought this... In a bundle... Ummm... I don't know how I feel. Part shame. Part tingly in my pants. But mostly shame. Wellllll. Tingly parts. Lets go 50/50 on those.

So I knew this was going to be a fighting game. But I did not realize how... Fan service-y this was going to be. Boy oh boy. Fan service. I actually have to give these guys some credit at how thorough they were with the fan service. You got a "thing" you like? They put it in there. We got Loli's and boobies, tsudere's, yandere's, Maids, skimpy outfits. They got it all! Alright alright. Lets get beyond the "graphics".

As a combat game, the game speed felt different. My background in fighting game is more breadth rather than depth. Playing Vanguard Princess felt more of a simplified Guilty Gear sort of engine. I felt that the fights lacked a bit of *snap* or maybe even speed that you'd find in other 2D fighters, like MVC3 or SFxT. Kinda think they may have focused a bit more on the animations rather than the gameplay. Hey, that's just me. Sayin that. And havin an opinion. Maybe its just me staring at the animations more than I should have. Who knows. The controls have been boiled down 5 buttons: Light, Medium, Heavy, Support, and Parry. Technically parry can be triggered by pressing two attack buttons simultaneously, but I like that its bound to a single button by default.

I had to play the game through on Easy. Why? Because I suck at this game. No really. I'm terrible. There's a reason why I don't pickup too many fighting games. I end up button-mashing till I find a combination that works, then cheese the fuck out of it till I win. Vanguard Princess really doesn't let you do that. Characters have a style of play that you kind of need to stick to in order to be successful. And the AI is very unforgiving during the campaign. There were definitely moments of great frustration, especially if you can't get in the groove of a particular character. Again, this is coming from a fighting noob.

Overall, I will probably never play this game EVAR AGAIN. I just can't do it. Playing the game provided little enjoyment. The fighting engine just isn't my type. The characters are fun to look at, but I can feel society judging me while I do so. The lack of proper game options also majorly killed it for me. I forgot to mention you can't control simple things like, Game sound or resolution. The game runs on a set resolution, but you can played in a windowed mode that has no presets outside of "tiny". Kind of a big thing. Especially when the game starts blasting music at you when it boots. Yeah nope. Glad I was able to beat it with two characters, but that's my limit.

SCORE ++;
>SCORE = -24

*EDIT* Bonus footage!

Completionist 2014: OH GOD MORE BUNDLES



Goddamn you Humble Bundle. After a week of crappy daily bundles, they put out a good one. Son of a bitch.

Humble Daily Bundle: PC & Android bundle 10

  • Symphony
  • Draw a Stickman: Epic
  • Galcon Legends
  • Skulls of the Shogun
  • Metal Slug 3
  • Fieldrunners 2
  • Breach & Clear
  • ... AND MORE!!! (Fuck if I know what it will be)
Not gonna lie. I mainly bought it for Metal Slug 3. God... I kinda feel like this:



SCORE = SCORE - 7;
>SCORE = -25

Monday, May 19, 2014

Completionist 2014: Beware the Bundles of May

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU... These goddamn bundles are messing with my goal. But... Such good. Goddamnit.


Humble Bundle has a special spring sale going on. They are re-bundling a number of past bundles and putting them up as a daily bundle. So far, the selection has been so-so. But I did pickup the Bundle from Outerspace. It came with the following steam keys:

  • Kinetic Void
  • X3: Reuinion
  • Universe Simulator (Owned)
Granted these aren't the best titles around. But X3 looked very interesting as a space simulator. I've been looking for something to kinda help scratch the itch as I idle around for Star Citizen. Kinetic Void was something I wasn't expecting to pickup, but that was until I saw some gameplay from the Developer. It reminds me of Kerbal Space Program or Space Engineers, with a greater focus on combat ships. I was impressed enough to give it a go. I already had a copy of Universe Simulator. I wouldn't really call it a game. I feel its more of a sandbox for playing with planets and stars etc.



Indie Gala came out with a pretty killer weekly bundle. The entire bundle was a $1 minimum for all the unlocks. It was especially crazy considering one of the games was a Humble Bundle Daily that had a $5 buyout. Here's the list:

  • Vanguard Princess
  • 99 Spirits
  • Human Tanks
  • Ether Vapor Remaster
  • Duplicity ~Beyond The Lies~ (Desura)
  • Heileen (Desura but on Greenlight)
  • Bionic Heart (Desura but on Greenlight)
  • Eve Burst Error (Desura)
I'm up in the air if I should even count the Desura games towards my goal. I don't really use it, but I do have a few things from it. Part of me doesn't want to add them, because it will hurt my score. But the MAN in me says to add it and take my lumps. FUCK IT. I'm adding them.



Vanguard Princess was on today's Humble Daily Melee Bundle. It was a $4.97 to unlock, so this bundle KINDA saved me $4. I was also reading that someone played the game, sold the Steam Trading cards for Vanguard Princess and basically made money from the bundle. Not bad... Not bad.

Most of the games here are kinda eccentric looking Anime games... Which is what I like. Soooo that really kinda pushed me to getting the bundle even more. Le sigh. My score... It hurts.

SCORE = SCORE - 10;
>SCORE = -18

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Completionist 2014: Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action!



Picked this one up as part of the Humble Coop Bundle. It looked fairly interesting and I liked the cartoony anime style it had. It is a floaty crazy mid-air combo side scrolling beat-em-up. Huh... Did I really string those words together? Mehhhhh that sounds about right. I had a lot of fun, it was very easy to get into but near the end the game seriously ramps up the difficulty. Its a ton of fun comboing and getting groups of enemies caught up in your combos. I only had a few qualms about the game though.

The coop mode of this game is local coop only. I can understand that though, as later on you'll need almost frame by frame like precision for dodging enemy attacks. The character selection is limited, there's only 3 playable characters. The main character, Ace, is the only one with a unique sprite. One of them is a ninja that looks identical to the hundreds of other ninjas that'll come and attack you. So that character tends to get lost in the hoards of enemies. The last character is an identical sprite as the 6th stage boss. This guy uses a sword and is much slower and doesn't dodge nearly as well as Ace or the ninja guy. My biggest gripe would have to be the 6th stage. It has a series of cheap deaths and the final boss of that stage has a difficulty that seems out of place with the rest of the game. It was constant guerrilla hit and run in a combo action brawler. It took me nearly most of my playtime to beat just that one boss. The rest of the game, I kinda blew past and had a lot of fun. But that 6th stage is in my book as the biggest frustration of the game.

SCORE++;
>SCORE = -8

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Completionist 2014: Humble Co-op bundle



God... Damnit. Another good bundle. What really drew me to this bundle was that all of these games are Co-op! I'm never as good by myself. I always do better and have more fun when I'm playing with FWIENDS. Alright alright. We're going down!

Humble Co-op Bundle

  • Awesomenauts
  • Sanctum 2 (Already owned)
  • Wanderlust: Rebirth
  • Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
  • Orcs Must Die! 2: Complete Pack (Already owned)
  • Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action
  • Risk of Rain (Already owned)

SCORE = SCORE - 4;
>SCORE = -9

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Completionist 2014: April Additions


I... I couldn't help myself. The bundle... Looked good. My will crumbled and I purchased the Reboot 3.0 Bundle from Bundle Stars. And I must say, my free time is horribly paying for it.

They had a discount going that dropped the price from $3 to $2. TWO DALLAHS! I could almost buy a bottle of soda with that $1 savings! I did have a few doubles so not all of the bundle will count against me. Yesssssssssssssssss.

Bundle Stars Reboot Bundle 3.0

  • Rune Classic
  • X Blades (Already owned)
  • Hoard
  • Ion Assault (Already owned)
  • Knights and Merchants
  • Planets Under Attack
I primarily picked up the bundle for Knights and Merchants. Ching had only good things to say about the game and he also picked up the bundle specifically for it. For a game that's almost 20 years old, there is a very active community and a crazy good mod called KAMRemake that helps to modernize the game. If you decide to start playing, I would suggest checking out at http://www.kamremake.com/ .

So Ching and myself have been playing a lot of Knights & Merchants Remake COOP missions and wasting a ton of time. And I it is really starting to drive my INFRASTRUCTURE bug. Games like Anno 2070, Tropico, and Banished. Actually... I don't have banished. NOOOOOO.. I'll probably wait a bit till it goes on sale... But its definitely on the list. I did cave in and pickup another INFRASTRUCTURE sim game called Craft the World


Craft the world plays like a cross between Terraria/Starbound/Minecraft and Knights & Merchants/Banished/Gnomoria/Dwarf Fortress. So rather than you build your entire house and dig for stuff, you assign NPC's to do all the work for you. The crafting uses a craft grid, just like Minecraft. There is a foreground and background tiles, like Terraria/Starbound. Your workers need to eat/sleep/be happy just like KaM/Banished. Lots of similarities. I'm enjoying it, and hopefully I can "Beat" it. 

Well... This put a dent into my plans. Goddamnit.

SCORE - 5;
>SCORE = -5